Wii (2006)
Released November 19th 2006, the Wii was nintendo’s seventh generation console. Competing against the Xbox 360 and Playstation 3, WII has lead the “console wars” selling more than 101 million units in the first quarter of 2012. With the Wii, Nintendo revolutionized the way we played video games, focusing on innovation and gameplay over fancy graphics and multimedia; And with the Wii came the Wii remote, a handheld controller that made us play games using movement. The Wii focused on a broad target demographic, with an array of first party and third-party games for everyone. Wii offered classic mainstays of Mario, Zelda and Metroid titles, (most notably Super Mario Galaxy), but it also introduced us to grittier and darker games like Madworld, No More Heroes, Silent Hills: Shattered Memory and Manhunt 2. The Wii was excellent as well for being fully backwards compatible, with the ability to still play your Gamecube games and use the old controller as well. The Wii virtual console had an extensive library of classic titles. You were able to purchase games from the NES, Sega Genesis, N64 and even the Neo-Geo. The Wii maintained its dominance for several years, but slowly started to fade out as most customers started to transfer into high-definition televisions, and the Wii graphics started to pale next to the 360 and the PS3. The Wii still stands as one the great consoles today despite it’s lack of technological advancements in the console races. Innovative gameplay and design is what really made this model shine. (Aaron Santos)
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