With the holidays just around the corner, many families are trying to stretch their budget this year and purchase gifts that can thrill the kids, entertain the adults and bring the family closer together. As the economy continues in its decline, a family gift this Christmas that all can enjoy will keep everyone happy on those pizza nights together that will take the place of dinner and a movie. Drumroll please, enter the Nintendo Wii Console ! This gaming console is so incredibly versatile, that everyone from the youngest player to your grandmother will find something about it that they enjoy. In my house, the non-gamers have a ball just watching the gamers play, and the gamers… well, they are just hooked !
The Nintendo Wii Console hit the marketplace in 2006, just before Christmastime, and held a whopping price tag at around $450. Fortunately, the pricing has now come down, and you can buy a Nintendo Wii Console for around $250 which will include a Wii Console, one Wii remote, a nunchuk attachment, standard composite cables, a power adapter, a stand and a copy of Wii Sports.
The system, complete with four ports for controllers and two slots for memory cards, is backward-compatible to all Nintendo GameCube games, therefore providing even more versatility.
Regarding Internet Connection Capability: the system communicates wirelessly with the Internet via IEEE 802.11 or a Wii LAN Adapter. Wii can also connect wirelessly with Nintendo DS.
Not content to continue on the path of standard console video gaming systems, Nintendo has produced new styles of play, complete with specialized controller, for certain activities on the Wii Console. For example, jamming with Guitar Hero includes a small-ish scale guitar that the standard controller will plug in to. The Wii Fit exercise system comes with a Balancing Board, which is a rubber ball set in the middle of a flatboard which you stand, and balance, on to operate the “game”. Mario Kart – my personal favorite – comes with a steering wheel, into which the standard controller plugs, for more realistic gameplay.
Of course, if all of the specialized controllers seem a bit out of price range for this holiday season, all of the Nintendo Wii Console games can be played using the standard controller. The specialized controllers are simply an accessory, made to continue the fascination the gaming public has with Nintendo, who never seems to run out of innovative ideas to take gaming up a notch.