Learn about the newest edition to the Wii family that’s only for Canadians.
The word “mini” seems to be in vogue lately. Apple branded its latest “Shrinky Dink” version of the iPad with the same moniker last month, and now Nintendo has decided to run with this naming convention with its budget-conscious Wii Mini, available only in Canada starting December 7.
Judging the few pictures given to the press, it’s hard to tell just how reduced in size this matte-textured, black-and-red bordered revision of the Wii is compared to its predecessors; mind you though, the console was already small in stature long before this redesign. Perhaps then the “Mini” part actually refers to the value potential customers will be getting with their $99 Canadian moose-bucks.
Trimmed from the Wii Mini weight loss is both GameCube backwards compatibility – which isn’t a shocking trend, really; we’ve seen other Wii models for the European market lose this attribute – and, oddly enough, internet access. No online for you, Canada. No Netflix, no WiiWare or Virtual Console, and definitely no online patch for that game-breaking bug in The Legend of Zelda: Skyward Sword.
It sounds like a stinker of a gaming machine, but then, considering how Nintendo is pushing it as a casual gamers’ “if you only want to play Wii Sports and nothing else” system, I highly doubt those extras would be of much concern to them or missed. And that’s probably the main reason why this particular model is bound to our friends in the North only.
I kind of dig the look to the Wii Mini. It captures an faint memory of a videogame console made in the early days of the industry. Very Famicom-esque, which even makes it more of a proper callback. Will the U.S. ever get a chance to purchase this revision? Nintendo didn’t rule it out; by that I mean, a question was submitted to them, but with no return reply, so we’ll see.
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