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Nintendo Wii Console,
Mii Characters and Wii Channels.
You can purchase the Wii Console and related items from our UK Shop and
US Shop and for more Wii
games take a look at Wii
Media. 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.
 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.
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.
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)
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.
If you want to download more Wii
games take a look at Wii
Media.
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