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The Nintendo Wii was released shortly after the PS3 to strong sales and a continued demand that has continued well into its second year of availability. Though the Wii lacks many of the hardware components and multimedia capabilities that its chief competitors Xbox 360 and PS3 offer, its focus on interactive game play and game title development has helped it maintain its strong popularity.
The WiiSports package helped solidify the Wii’s reputation for interactive gameplay, while proving to be its best-selling game, with more than 29 million units sold as of March 2008. The Wiimote controllers enable users to move and mime the motions of different activities, making for a livelier video game experience. With expanded controller options, including nunchucks and boxing gloves, the Wii has carved a niche for itself that seems well-insulated against the advances of either Microsoft or Sony.
Though the Nintendo Wii has yet to truly develop multimedia capabilities and advanced web browsing, the differences between the Wii and the Game Cube are substantial.
| Console | GameCube | Wii |
| CPU | PowerPC Gekko, 485 MHz | 729 MHz IBM PowerPC “Broadway” |
| GPU | ATI Technologies, 162 MHz | 243 MHz ATI “Hollywood” |
| Cache Memory | 256KB | 32KB |
| Stamdard Storage | 24KB | 512MB |
| Memory | Nintendo GameCube Drive 1.5 GB Top-Load | 512MB Internal Flash Memory |
Standout Features:
Energy Conservation and Performance:
Though the PS3 and Xbox 360 have an edge video and graphic wise, the Nintendo Wii has set a new standard for energy efficiency and performance.
| Console | Wii | Xbox 360 | PS3 |
| During Gameplay | 17.8 W | 185 W | 194 W |
| Idle | 13.5 W | 158 W | 177 W |
| Standby | 1.3 W | 2.5 W | 1.9 W |
With both the Xbox 360 and PS3 consoles seeking energy improvements that will likely involve decreasing CPU and GPU performance, Wii maintains a comfortable position, knowing that further hardware upgrades and improvements can be made with limited impact on energy.
Interactive, Movement-Oriented Gameplay:
The Nintendo Wii dispells the myth of the sedentary video gamer with its fun, engaging, interactive video gameplay. With hundreds of titles that are designed to get you off the couch and onto your feet, the Nintendo Wii takes its community offline and into the living room. However, there are still dozens of titles that can be played with players in living rooms across the world, on your feet or otherwise.
Though there are dozens of Wii games that have exceeded the million-mark in sales, the ten best-selling games for the video game console (as of early 2008) are:
1. Wii Sports (26.295 million approximately)
2. Wii Play (11.51 million)
3. Mario Kart Wii (6.42 million)
4. Super Mario Galaxy (6.1 million)
5. Super Smash Bros. Brawl (5.633 million)
6. Wii Fit (5.27 million)
7. Mario Party 8 (4.86 million)[81]
8. The Legend of Zelda: Twilight Princess (4.52 million)
9. Mario & Sonic at the Olympic Games (3.4 million)
10. Super Paper Mario (2.28 million)
With most titles retaining economic prices, the number of game title sales, as well as the list of million-mark game titles, is likely to continue to grow.
WiiConnect24 is part of the Wii’s online service that offers several unique Wii Channels, including a Wii Shop Channel, while providing online gameplay for users. The matchmaking process for organizing users can be made according to skill level, age, language, region and other custom needs. With unique user IDs friends can locate one another with relative ease. However, despite offering some well-designed online community features, the Wii lacks many of the user communication tools like video and voice chat that both Xbox 360 and PS3 offer.
The Wii utilizes IEEE 802.11 wireless technology to provide users with limited web browsing and online game play. Though the Wii might not be ideal for users looking to integrate their game play with computer and multimedia functions, its remote access capabilities are a strike in its favor, enabling users to access their Wii from a remote location with the help of a Nintendo DS console.
Wii lags far behind its competitors in the way of multimedia, offering little compatibility for most audio and video file format discs. However, with some remote access features and a seamless integration feature for use with the Nintendo DS handheld console, the Wii does leave several inroads for additional uses.
Handheld Compatibility:
The Wii is fully compatible with all versions of Nintendo’s handheld video game console, the Nintendo DS. The Nintendo DS can be used as an additional controller for the Wii, and also view download from the Wii, either directly or remotely.
Available Accessories:
Despite lacking video and voice accessories, Nintendo does offer dozens of controller options ranging from specialized, game-specific controllers like boxing gloves to all-around controllers like the popular nunchucks design, all of which operate wirelessly.
Nintendo offers full telephone and email support for assistance with technical problems, as well as online repair chat services and detailed FAQ sections. Nintendo also offers a 12-month warranty for its Nintendo Wii, with an additional 90 extended warranty available thereafter. This warranty is one of the longest available in the video game industry.
While the PS3 and Xbox 360 consoles do provide better options for multimedia and online gameplay, the Nintendo Wii continues to place an emphasis on game development, going beyond both the PS3 and Xbox 360 to make use of the potential that interactive game play offers. Though many video gamers place a large premium on online gameplay, the interactive, movement-based nature of Wii games does make a strong argument for itself, and could even prove a future measuring stick for video games and video game consoles in general.
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