"Nintendo revolutionizes things again, with less power."

-The Nintendo Wii is Nintendo's fifth console, and for the last four generations, they've made "standard" consoles. Controllers, buttons, etc. But for this generation, Nintendo seems to be making a dramatic turn, with easily one of the most innovative setups ever in a console, plus it's the cheapest one out there right now, so you can't lose, right?

-The controller. It's way different from what someone might consider normal. It's a remote. And it works surprisingly well. The controller carries Bluetooth technology which allows it to track where it is in space. It recognizes a heck of a lot of different actions from swinging to drumming and moving it back and forth. The buttons. There aren't that many buttons, Nintendo probably thought all the motions could cover the buttons, and that worked quite well. There is the A, B,1,2,+,-, and home button on the Wii Remote. There is an accessory call a "Nunchuk" that is required in most games, so Nintendo is nice enough to include on right in the box. There is an analog stick, a Z button, and a C button, and the Nunchuk can also detect motion, although not to the extent of the Wii Remote. They connect via a wire that connects to the bottom of the Wii Remote. The wire is pretty long, so it's comfortable. Every controller after this should be in two pieces like the Wii Remote, because that has to be the best idea ever, it's so comfortable. You may think hand movements are tiring, but they aren't, although I have heard of some fighting games with the potential to be tiring, but they support use of the GC Controller. Nintendo also includes a wrist strap to go on the controller so that your sweaty hands don't break your precious Wii. You shouldn't worry about breaking wrist straps anymore, the ones that Nintendo are sending out are much improved.

-The System Exterior. The system currently comes in white, and that's it, but Nintendo will most likely release other colors, like most of their other consoles. The system is *small*. It's the width of three DVD cases and a little taller. It's a slanted rectangular prism, thats about the best I can describe the shape. The system is obviously meant to be sat up vertically, even though there is the option to have it set vertically. On the from face, there is a disc slot , a rectangular Power button, Reset button, and Eject button. On the left of the disc slot, there is a small hatch that you can open to see a slot to put in your SD cards, and a red button, that says SYNC on it. You can use this to fix the connection on your current Wii Remote, if it messes up, or you can add extra Wii Remotes. On the back face of the Console, there is 2 USB ports, a small vent, a port for the power brick, a port for A/V cables, and a small red-orange port for the Sensor bar. On the top face, there are two hatches, under one is four ports for Gamecube controllers, and under the next one is room for two Gamecube memory cards.

-What's in the box? The box itself is completely white and has a picture on it of the Wii, with the disc slot flashing, but that's not really important. When you get the box fresh from the store, you'll open it and see that there are two boxes (they're actually numbered). In the first box, you get your Wii Remote as explained, a Nunchuk, A wrist strap, and the instructions manuals. There should be the start-up guide (use when setting up for the first time) the operations guide, and another one, (KEEP THESE HANDY). You also get Wii Sports, the showcase title for the Wii Remote, along with instructions. You get the sensor bar, the A/V cables (Not component sadly), and the power cord/brick, it's identical to the Gamcubes, except gray. In box number two, you'll find the Wii, the stand, and a little clear thing you can put under your Wii. Right out of the box, you can set everything up, and be mostly functional (not including the updates). You can connect the Wii right to WiiConnect24 from a WiFi point.

-Wii Channels. When you have your Wii all hooked up, you can turn it on and the Wii will ask you a series of questions, like date and time, then you can name your Wii. After that you will be shown the Main Menu, which will show you an over view of the channels, there are four pages of these, most empty, but right now, you probably need to update your Wii so that you can have the most recent channels. After you've done that look at the channels. Some of the channels include the disc channel, the Mii Channel, and the Wii Shop channel. The Mii channel is a channel where you can make characters and send them around to your friends. You can buy old games from the Wii's Virtual Console from five different consoles, or you can download other new things like the Web Browser from the Wii Ware section. There is the Forecast channel, where you can check the current temperature, the high, tomorrow's high, and the five day forecast, you can look at a globe, that is fully turnable and twistable, and you can look at any place in the word, and look at all the conditions. Although the update times are pretty slow, its still useful. Anyways, there is almost always new channels to download and look at and it's really convenient.

-The Wii's Power and Graphics. All this time we've been talking about how the Wii plays and works, but now it's time to talk about where it fails, power and graphics. Nintendo believes that graphics can only go so far, and eventually, we'll have to stop making better ones, because future graphics will be near photo-realism, well that doesn't mean they need to make it look last gen. There isn't a single game out that looks better than an X-Box game and even the best looking titles for the Wii only match an average game. The Wii supports up to 480p, not even HD. While it's competition supports up to 1080p, the highest resolution available. Not only that but the Wii doesn't have the component cables in the box. If your going to support only bare bones definition, you can at least not hit us with an other $30 just to get it.

Final Score- 8/10

Reviewer's Score: 8/10, Originally Posted: 01/03/07