We’ve just opened our Wii Mini forums!
It turns out the rumor was true: Nintendo has just announced the Wii Mini, a complete redesign of the Wii console. The new console was first leaked by Best Buy, and later Nintendo caved in and confirmed it. The new Wii carries a new price: $99.
After Nintendo sold 400,000 Wii U consoles and 300,000 Wiis last week, it was clear that the old Wii was still a strong seller, especially with the casual crowd who have yet to try out the original console. While the Wii U is on everyone’s mind these days, Nintendo reminded everyone that the Wii is still the best selling current-gen console, and they intend for it to stay that way with the Wii Mini.
However, there are some interesting aspects with the Wii redesign. For one, so far it’s announced only for Canada, where it will launch on December 7. Secondly, it lacks many features found in the original Wii. One is that it cannot play GameCube games, which isn’t a big surprise, but what is a big surprise is that the Wii Mini doesn’t have any online connectivity.
As revealed in a press release, Nintendo clearly intends the Wii Mini for casual gamers and first time Wii owners, not those looking to replace their existing Wii with the Mini. The new design is radically different from the old, it even appears to look like an external hard drive or DVD drive. Check out some images of the new console below:
Nintendo has opened a new web page for the brand new console. You can find it here. Of course, those who have the new Wii U won’t really need the Wii Mini — the Wii U is fully backwards compatible with all Wii games (but not GameCube games).
