Wii - small is good
One thing that E3 2006 has shown us is that there’s a quick way to do things and a smart way to do things… and it’s not often that the two mix. So as we stood there in the queue for the opening on the first day of E3 2006, we knew that everyone would be rushing to Nintendo’s stand to get their hands on the Wii.
Whilst some are happy to be in the scrum rushing for Nintendo’s booth in a wild flurry of laptop bags and Apple notebooks, the smart money just sorts an appointment with Nintendo and takes a leisurely stroll along for that.
Sure, we didn’t get to see the Wii until day two of E3 2006, but what we did get was to avoid the two hour queue and then as much hands on time with the Wii as we wanted… with any game that we wanted. In fact, we spent nearly two hours going through damn near every new game in the Wii’s already extensive list and never even touched upon the legacy stuff!
So let’s take a look at the Wii itself before we move on to the games. Of course, our thoughts are based purely on our time spent with the Wii today, but we hope to be able to bring you more in-depth views soon.
First off, let’s look at the size of the Wii. In comparison to the not-particularly-small Xbox 360 and Sony’s Betamax VCR sized PS3, the Wii is downright diminutive. It comes in at a shade larger on all sides that three DVD boxes. Now I know you already know that, but it really is a good idea to grab three boxes and stack them together. It comes up surprisingly small, eh?
Click for larger imageWe think this is a shrewd move by Nintendo and clearly flags exactly where they’re aiming the Wii. This is designed to be as unobtrusive and easy to position as possible. The Wii’s small size is meant to make it easy to site it next to your telly without having to clear too much space to make room for it.
The sleek design, though nothing ground breaking, has a modern look to it that reminds us of a P90 box… The cool blue glow around the slot loading DVD drawer adds to the coolness of the unit. But the Wii’s biggest advantage is its size. Something the same size as three DVD cases is something that’s easily portable. You can just grab it and go, dropping it in even a small rucksack to take to a mate’s house for a gaming session.
So now let’s have a look at what the Wii has to offer.
