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Members of Nintendo's huge, vocal fan base have been salivating in anticipation of the Wii for some time. But the curious and appreciative onlookers that I've noticed during my recent testing of a retail unit suggest that the Wii's appeal may well extend beyond the Nintendo faithful. The Wii seems poised to make console gaming more social, immersive, and--most importantly--fun than it has ever been.

Nintendo has announced that more than 1 million units of the $250 Wii will be available when the model makes its official U.S. debut on Sunday. So your odds of getting your hands on a Wii in the near future are better than your odds of snagging a PS3. Cryogenically freezing yourself to avoid the wait, as one of the characters in South Park did recently, won't be necessary.

Below is a video of the Nintendo Wii in action. To view it, you'll need to have the Adobe Flash Player plug-in installed.


Out of the Box

The Wii is the most compact of the next-generation consoles. It weighs just 2.7 pounds and measures 8.5 inches long by 6 inches wide by less than 2 inches thick. It has clean, sharp lines and an Apple-like glossy white finish, though we'll undoubtedly see units in black and possibly other colors at some point.

Like the PlayStation 3 and the Xbox 360, The Wii can be oriented horizontally or vertically, thanks to its angled plastic stand. Once you've positioned it, your next step is to plug in the power supply (which is about the size a laptop brick), and connect the bundled composite audio/video cables to your television. To output content at the Wii's maximum 480p resolution in 16:9 wide-screen format, you'll have to purchase the optional component cable separately.

Next you must set up the included controllers: a Wii Remote and a Nunchuk--a joystick-style controller that connects to the remote for additional game control. I first hooked up the supplied sensor bar to the console and placed it just under the display of my TV. The sensor bar allows the console to communicate wirelessly (via Bluetooth) with up to four Wii Remotes at a time. The Wii Remote works for games within a radius of about 30 feet and functions as a cursor-type pointing device within about 15 feet. In my testing, the on-screen pointer jittered slightly when I tried to use it from farther away.



The final setup steps are to place two AA batteries into the Wii Remote, rearrange your furniture as necessary to clear plenty of space in front of the TV (to avoid any "Wiinjury"), and fire up the console.

Our colleagues over at GamePro have scanned in the Wii's manual, and it's worth a look to get an even more complete idea of the Wii's setup routine and overall features.

PC World also has a detailed account of a test drive of the PlayStation 3; and a review comparing the PS3 and the Wii.
The Wii Menu and Online Features

The first time I powered up the Wii, I had to create a gamer ID, which the system uses to save your games and also to identify you online. After creating my log-in and entering the date and time, I was presented with the Wii Menu. This interface, which uses a television/channel metaphor, is where you access the Wii's mostly free online features.

The first thing I wanted to do was jump online. I was particularly interested in the "sleepless" WiiConnect24 service that lets the console automatically download information, even when it's on standby.

The Wii includes a built-in 802.11b/g wireless network adapter, but you can also go online by using extra-cost options such as a LAN adaptor or a Wi-Fi USB adaptor that shares a PC's Internet connection. I tested the integrated Wi-Fi, and setup was a snap. The Wii scanned for and found my wireless ADSL router, and it let me type in the network's WEP key via an on-screen keyboard. I found that I could select letters and move around the Wii Menu using the Wii remote in the same way that I'd use a computer mouse. The remote even vibrated subtly in my hand as I hovered over menu options. Tactile feedback: great!

Unfortunately, since Nintendo's servers won't be up and running until the Wii launches, my online experience was limited. But the Wii will link to a lot of online elements after launch:

Wii Shop Channel (and Virtual Game Console): Nintendo's online store will eventually offer various extras to download, but the most notable one at launch is the Virtual Console, which will allow gamers to download and play games from past consoles such as the Nintendo 64, NES, Super NES, Sega Genesis, and TurboGrafx16. Nintendo will offer 12 classic console games at launch, including Donkey Kong (NES), SimCity (SNES), Super Mario 64, Sonic the Hedgehog (Genesis), and Bomberman '93 (TurboGrafx16). Some 30 virtual console games should be ...