Rival Systems

The Wii took an entirely different route when compared to the PS3 and 360. They chose to go for High Definition games with a minimum of 720p support, which required immensely powerful machines. The Wii is nowhere near as powerful and has a maximum output for games of 480p, it doesn’t even play DVDs! The Wii has no built in or add-on hard-drive, it relies on only 512MB of built in flash memory and SD cards. These are limited to only 2GB cards, save data and games stored on the card cannot be directly accessed. You need to copy the data from the SD card to the built in flash.

The Wii (pronounced we) is the fifth home video game console released by Nintendo. The console is the direct successor to the Nintendo GameCube. Although it is targeting a different gaming audience the Nintendo Wii has been outselling the 360 and PS3 in large numbers. In fact even after 18 months in stores the Wii is managing to maintain high Hardware sales. The 360s price has dropped twice and the PS3s price has dropped by over £100, however the Wii is still selling at the same price 18 months on. Nintendo reportedly had optimized production costs to obtain a significant profit margin with each Wii unit sold whereas Sony and Microsoft were selling their systems at a loss.

The Wii’s innovation is the controller or remote; it adds a whole new level to gaming. Its motion sensitive and has an infrared sensor. So in games instead of pressing a button you can swing the controller like a sword, or hit a tennis ball like you would with a racket. In shooting games when you would generally move around an analogue stick to aim, with the Wii remote you just point where you want the character to fire.

The Wii was originally called the Nintendo Revolution, a fitting name for such and innovative system. To the shock of the gaming world Nintendo changed the name to Wii, the gaming press reacted negatively as they thought this may put off older gamers with a childish name. The internet circulated puerile jokes based on the name for a while, but after 18 months and over 24 million units sold they are long forgotten. After the release of Wii Fit this year Nintendo have shown they are continuing to innovate and the gaming world awaits their next exciting game.

The Wii is completely backwards compatible with a GameCube games, although most games require the use of a GameCube or Classic controller. Also through its online service, games from Nintendo’s previous systems and even a Sega system (they used to be rival hardware and game manufacturers) are available for download for up to 1000 points (approximately £7.50).