Nintendo Wii Console, Mii Characters and Wii Channels.

If you still don’t know what a Wii (pronounced 'we') is, it is a games console from Nintendo. But as you will understand if you read on, the Wii is more than just a games machine.

What makes the Wii different and why perhaps it is currently better than many other games machines is that you don’t have to spend your time sitting in front of a computer screen playing the games.

The Wii comes with clever hand held controllers called the Wii Remotes that detect movement. So now you can stand in front of your TV and act as though you are playing the game i.e. you move your arms to bat the ball in a tennis game or swing your arm in golf or ten pin bowling games. The Wii Remote seems very sensitive to how you move it, so for example your ten pin bowling ball can even curve as it goes down the lane as it might in the real game. Be prepared to have a lot of fun and a good workout playing Wii games.

The Wii console connects to your television via the Wii AV Cable and the console can also communicate with the Internet via wireless or a Wii LAN adaptor. Also the Wii can connect wirelessly with the Nintendo DS handheld games console.

The Wii is backward-compatible to all Nintendo GameCube games and includes four ports for controllers and two slots for memory cards. A single self-loading media bay plays single- or double-layered 12-cm optical discs for the Wii console, as well as 8-cm Nintendo GameCube discs.

Wii Remotes

Four Wii Remotes can communicate with Wii console. There are also other Wii Controllers other than the Wii Remote such as the Wii Nunchuk  (see picture to the right) which plugs into the Wii Remote and contains the same motion-sensing technology enabled in the Wii Remote but also includes an analogue stick to assist in character movement. In several games, players can use the analogue stick of the Nunchuk to move their characters and the Wii Remote to perform a specific action, such as throwing a pass in American football or aiming a ranged weapon in an action game.

There is also the Wii Classic Controller (see below) which allows you to play the normal classic games.

 
There are a lot of different games you can play on the Wii but the Wii Sports package included with the Wii in most countries contains the five games of tennis, baseball, bowling, golf and boxing. All these games are designed to demonstrate the motion-sensing capabilities of the Wii Remote.

Mario Kart Wii comes with the Wii Wheel, a steering wheel housing for the Wii Remote that brings new controls and challenges for veteran gamers, while making getting into a race easy and intuitive for newcomers.

The active-play phenomenon started by Wii Sports now spreads to your whole body thanks to the pressure-sensitive Wii Balance Board, which comes packed with Wii Fit. The board is used for an extensive array of fun and dynamic activities, including aerobics, yoga, muscle stretches and games.

Mii Channel characters

You can also use your own customised Mii Channel characters in compatible games to give the game that personal touch by making your own play characters. Mii characters are fun 3D caricature portraits of you, your friends or family that are simple and easy to create. Once you create a Mii, you can watch it come to life in certain Wii games. In addition to storing Mii characters on the Wii, up to ten characters can be stored in your Wii Remote and taken to a friend's house to play on another Wii console.

The Wii is also more than just a games console, because with the built-in Wii Channels you can surf the Internet, edit your digital photos, check the news and weather, and much more.

For example if you have some photos or videos on an SD memory card or cell phone, then the Wii Photo Channel lets you display your digital images and movies on your television screen using the SD memory card bay in the Wii Console. You can zoom in or out on the photos, or watch them in a slideshow. You can even put your favourite songs on an SD memory card to play as the background music in the slideshow.

Wii Photo Channel

The Photo Channel can display or play files in the following formats and sizes:

                Image Files:
                Format: JPEG, baseline only. Size: Up to 8192x8192

                Video Files:
                File format:  Quicktime (motion JPEG) format (MOV) AVI (Motion JPEG) format (AVI)

Audio Files:
on Photo Channel 1.0  MP3 format
on Photo Channel 1.1  AAC format (extension .MP4, .m4a audio files)

Wii Internet Channel

With the Wii Internet Channel, you can surf the web on your TV, in the comfort of your own living room. Using Opera's full internet browser, the Internet Channel supports Adobe Flash and JavaScript, so you can even watch videos available on many of the popular websites.

The unique Wii Remote gives parents and grandparents a chance to play games with their children and puts the player in the middle of the action. Forget about pushing a button to start a golf backswing the Wii Remote lets you swing the club. Don't push a button to swing a sword, actually swing the sword.

All in all the Wii looks like a new generation of games machine and is likely to be used by a much wider audience of games player. For example, it would not be surprising to see its use in retirement homes to encourage physical activity in the elderly. There is fun for all ages in playing with this games machine.

You can purchase the Wii Console and related items from our UK Shop and US Shop.

More Wii Games

If you want to download more Wii games take a look at Wii Media.

For more Wii accessories take a look at DDR Game