Overall Rating: 4.5/5

The Nintendo Entertainment System has never been afraid to innovate and take risks. In some cases, as with the explosively popular Game Boy, this creative endeavors prominently pay off. In other examples, such as the ill-fated Virtual Boy, their ideas do not take flight and are even widely ridiculed.

Ergo, it was with much anticipatory interest that Nintendo took another risky move in developing its seventh-generation console, the Wii. While its primary competitors, Microsoft and Sony, were focusing on enhancing their online offerings and specialized fan bases for established franchises, Nintendo was going to aim at more casual gamers and families, rather than hardcore veteran button-smashers.

Would this line of thinking prove enjoyable to home consoler users and first-time gamers? Was the Wii competitive with the Playstation 3 and XBox 360? How well, exactly, did the system perform? Nintendo would find out when its four-market release completed in the winter of 2006.

Graphics

This is a glaring shortcoming of the Wii system. Even its interface, although its layout is sharp and clean-cut, focuses on players using customizable Mii characters, which look cartoony and simple, despite their spherical polygons. Whereas competitors were pumping processing power and three-dimensional wonders into their new systems, Nintendo had other priorities, and it shows: The Wii is a less noticeable step up from the previous generation system, the GameCube, than the improvement shown by other companies' offerings.

Innovation

And this is where the Wii blew the competition away, landing a massively popular surprise for long-time and new players alike, and re-establishing Nintendo's competence in the home console market.

The key to the Wii was the controller: Wireless and lightly tethered to the wrist, it could be used as a pointer, but could also track movement precisely in three dimensions. This opened up unprecedented gameplay possibilities, as this development essentially allowed any movement to the controller to be represented on-screen. Even if video gaming is not yet a fully immersive, virtual reality scene, the Wii controller was seen was being one step closer.

Result

As a result of the utter originality of the control scheme, along with both Nintendo and third-party developers offering dozens of quality games, and the capacity to easily accept new players into a fun environment, the Wii became the best-selling seventh-generation console within two years, selling over six million units.

The Nintendo Wii may not have the buffest specifications, but it undoubtedly provides a very fun framework for home gaming. With its innovative controls, massively enjoyable game library, and a lower initial asking price, the Wii firmly earned four and a half stars out of five.

Learn more about this author, Eric Bailey.
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