Wii Mini coming to the US

It also has a pack in game, sadly, that game is Mario Kart Wii. A game with a broken single player, (blue shell) and a non functioning multiplayer because the Wii Mini lacks Wi-Fi. Link.

The Wii Mini is coming to the U.S. this holiday season, Nintendo announced today. The redesigned system will be bundled with Mario Kart Wii for $100, and is expected to arrive by mid-November. Nintendo announced the Wii Mini in November 2012 before launching it as a Canada-exclusive that December.

The micro-console doesn't include Internet connectivity, limiting players to single and local multiplayer games. Nintendo sold 35,700 units in Canada across its first two months on store shelves before bringing the system to the UK in March. Though the Wii has been discontinued in Japan, Nintendo announced in Octoberthat the traditional Wi-Fi-enabled Wii system will remain on store shelves in America.

It does get the system down to $100, finally, but really underlines how absurd the pricing has been on game systems this generation. The Wi-Fi enabled traditional Wii should have been $99 two years ago, this stripped down model should be selling for no more than $50 to $75.

I don't see the point of this system at all, honestly. Wii has been a dead console for a few years now, and the Wii U is also backwards compatible with Wii games. Practically everyone who wanted a Wii at this point probably has one by now. It's like the Game Boy Micro all over again.

Indeed, and the Wii U's BC offers you a way to lessen the ugliness of Wii games on a HDTV. Not by much, but it does help. On a regular Wii, on a HDTV, they just look like puke.

I have no interest in this at all. If it had the full capabilities of the Nintendo Wii in a smaller form, I might have some. My first impression is that this is a waste of resources for Nintendo and consumers. My impression is influenced by its sales and lack of wi-fi.

I think it'll sell just a smidge, like the Gameboy Micro did, mostly to collectors who will just promptly sit it on a shelf and forget they even have it.

@Randolph:

Does it? I thought there wasn't any upscaling involved with Wii games on Wii U. Is it because Wii U uses an HDMI cable? You could get component/HDMI for Wii as well, and that helped a bit, too.

HDMI was not available on Wii, to my knowledge, at any point. Component wasn't enough, the games just looked terribad. They still look bad on Wii U, just less so. I assume it's just as a result of the fact that it's being transmitted to the TV through HDMI.

I am new to collecting. My opinion remains so. It is a collectable item, but since I have a choice, I will get the more capable version.

Wait for someone to buy a Wii mini & a Wii U game. :p Bad move by Nintendo..Wii U plays Wii games anyway.

What's the point? Are they selling well in Canada, where they were originally introduced? Are Wii U sales so bad they have to rehash the Wii? Is anyone here planning to buy one? Inquiring minds want to know!

It reminds me of the PSP E1000.

I look at Nintendo and see a company with no real sense of focus or vision as to what they're doing or what they want to do.

"Here's th 3DS! But we also have a 2DS! But it plays 3DS games! And DS games! Here's a mini Wii! But don't forget our Wii U, which is whole new system from the Wii!"

This is not a company that gives off the impression that they have a strong plan and vision and are striving towards it, it feels much more like a company treading water throwing out whatever they can throw together as lifelines to simply to try to keep their head above water.

Interestingly enough, the Wii sales are still nearly where the Wii U sales are (abysmal, but considering one is dead and the other is... not so dead, well), so that's probably why Nintendo is releasing it here.

I suppose there must be a market for Wii Minis - that's the only reason Nintendo would release them anywhere else. Perhaps they were aiming for thrifty families who don't want to spend too much on a WiiU?

Are you new to the Mario Kart series?

They're party games, first and foremost. The lack of wi-fi and arguably problematic singleplayer aren't a huge concern for the game's main audience.

I'll ask the obvious question: WHY???

@Planeforger: No, I was a young child myself when the first Mario Kart game arrived on the SNES. The flying Blue Shell single handedly ruined my interest in the series. It is broken. I don't even consider this debatable anymore. Can you find a way around it? Sure, it's tough, but you can find some ways to get around it. If the knob on my front door is broken, I can get around that by going in and out of my back door, but that doesn't mean that just because I still have a way in and out of my apartment that the front door knob isn't broken.

The flying Blue Shell doesn't even serve it's stated purpose. The director of the series states that it is designed to give the people in the back of the pack a fighting chance to still win, and a reason to hang around in a race even in the last lap. But that simply doesn't work. I have never seen anyone use a flying Blue Shell and go from last/near last to first, or even second or third. All it allows the people at the tail end of the race to do is be a spoiler for vastly superior players who are infinitely better than them at the game.

The AI in single player uses it too, and more often. I was on the final lap of the second series of races in a cup at 100cc in MK Wii, and was hit by not one, not two, but three flying Blue Shells in a row. (I was able to replicate this experience in a 100cc cup set of races in Mario Kart 7 for 3DS) Went from first to fifth through no fault of my own, I was simply being punished for being good at the game, just as I was when I tried to play online. Even in a party game, the best player at the game should always win. Nintendo needs to quit coddling losers and abandon the "everybody can win" mentality.

Accepting loss and learning from it is vitally important. People need to grow up and get over it, either you can deal with a loss and learn from it to improve yourself, or you can piss off and go find another game to play. This crap is why so many of the kids we hire at the store end up quitting if they get wrote up or corrected for even one little thing, it's rage quitting, in real life.

Oh but dammit that ended up being a rant, my apologies. #seriousbusiness