Wii Hardware Review

Open up the Wii packaging and the 'Nintendo difference' hits you like a brick being hurled at your crotch. Not because this is so different from the rest of the technology and gaming industry, but because it is so different from anything Nintendo have ever done before. The packaging is stylish, it doesn’t have the word ‘Nintendo’ all over it, there isn’t a plumber in sight and it genuinely does look stylish. Shocking. Inside you have two numbered draws, 1 and 2, open these up and put everything together in order and you'll have your lovely new Wii up and running in little under five minutes. Or, in our case, about two. Such was our eagerness to start enjoying Wii as soon as possible that we forgot one crucial aspect, to plug it in. So, with power flowing through the shiny little white box, it whirred almost silently into life and just like that all was well with the world.

The console itself is absolutely tiny and very well designed indeed. The finish is excellent and everything about it really emphasises just what a labour of love it is. Whilst the GameCube was ‘cute’ and a bit like a handbag, the Wii is sleek, sophisticated and sexier than Jessica Alba sucking on an ice cube. The shiny white coating that covers nearly every inch of the console is complemented perfectly by the glowing blue disk-drive and the dynamic stand that the console neatly nestles in. There are three little flaps or magical doors adorning the Wii console, the one on the front if for SD cards and also has a button for synchronising new Wii controllers. On top is all the GameCube stuff, with one area for four GameCube controllers to be inserted and another separate place that can hold two memory cards. Needless to say, the Wii looks utterly ludicrious when used to play GameCube games, but you can shove a bag over it to spare the embarrassment if you like.

Aside from this rather heinous fashion faux-pas, the Wii is one nice piece of kit. Switch it on and the disk drive glows blue, fades out and within seconds you are presented with the thrilling world of the Health and Safety screen, which never goes away. Hit A to get past this and the Wii Channel screen comes into view, the very hub and epicentre of all things Wii. It is from here that your every Wii adventure will start. From left to right you have: Wii Disk Channel, Mii Channel, Photo Channel, Shop Channel, Forecast Channel and the News Channel. We’ve only been able to use the first three thus far as the Wii isn’t online in Europe just yet, but there is more than enough to keep you amused here alone.