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Review: Wii - Nintendo's new videogame console

by Steven Williamson on 8 December 2006, 08:47

Tags: Nintendo Wii, Nintendo (TYO:7974), Wii

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It's Wii day everybody!



The Wii has finally arrived in the UK!

We’ve opened up the box of delights to find everything you need to set up the console. The unit itself, the Wii-mote and Nunchuck controller, two AA batteries, the sensor bar with a mount, AV cables ,the power adaptor and a boxed copy of Wii Sports. We un-wrapped the console and carefully took it out of its box like a new born baby in a cradle. We’ve seen Wii in the flesh before, but when you actually hold it in your hands it’s even tinier than we remembered, measuring 44mm high x 159mm wide x 216mm; so that’s why they call it Wii, it all makes sense now.

The unit itself has an elegant, sleek design with a shiny white exterior that sports a Nintendo and an ATI logo (way to go!). On the front of the console is the slot-loading disk drive, which emits an ambient blue glow when you turn the console and there is also an SD memory card slot for loading up those holiday snaps, as well as a power, reset and eject button. On the back of the console there are five ports, one for each of the following: the sensor bar, the power adaptor, the AV cable and two USB slots. The uncomplicated design meant that it took us virtually minutes to get the console up and running to explore the wealth of menus on offer.



Upon loading we had the first opportunity to use to the Wii-mote, which acts as a pointer to guide you through the set-up (more on that shortly). There’s a standard set of instructions that guide you through the process, including setting the time, language and username. The instructions are well presented and easy to understand, so even technophobes shouldn’t have a problem getting started up. During the set-up we were able to connect wirelessly to our Belkin Wireless G-Router by following the on-screen prompts in system settings menu, which now means that we are always connected to the WiiConnect 24 service even when the power is turned off. The WiiConnect24 service plans to deliver surprises, game updates and 24 hour news, which will mean that even powering up our new console will be an exciting venture.

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