Mokong Posted March 2, 2013 Posted March 2, 2013 (edited) For this months N-Europe Roundtable I thought it would be nice to get the good feel for what people think of the recently announced as coming to Europe Wii Mini. The stripped down Wii console was initialy launched exclusive to Canada but will now be making its way to Europe at the end of March. While Sony seemed to have some success with their own "PSone" revision of the original PlayStation which launched several months after the launch of the PlayStation 2, Nintendo are taking an even bolder move and releasing the Wii Mini just 3 months after the Wii U. A console which would seem to be struggling at the moment. -Could Nintendo be doing themselves a disservice by potentially confusing the market with two different "new Wii" devices? - Should they be pushing any money spent on the manufacture and marketing of teh Wii Mini onto marketing of the Wii U instead? - What do you think of the device in general? - Is it worth the 90euro/£80 price tag considering its missing features? (lack of Wifi, no Gamecube compatability, only displays via Scart and not component cables) Note: Above questions are for guideline and article purposes, you do not have to structure your answers as direct answers to the above questions. I'll leave this thread open for one week and hopefully have it turned into a main site article next weekend. Edited March 2, 2013 by Mokong
Debug Mode Posted March 2, 2013 Posted March 2, 2013 (edited) Quoting my original views from the Wii general thread regarding the Wii Mini Personally though, I think it's absolutely pointless and wont exactly help the state of confusion in some of the areas where the Wii U isn't taking off. "Wii U is the new Wii! Can do things the regular Wii can't do, whole new games that can't be played on Wii!" yet a couple of months later "Yeah, here's a new Wii!" Although it's not new for Nintendo to release a revision of previous generation hardware, with the Gameboy Micro being released just under a year after the DS launch, I think it's a possibly ill-advised choice. People mainly knew the score with the DS, it dropped the 'Gameboy' slogan and had an extra screen, though I think I have heard instances of confusion. The Wii Mini might have been a good idea if they waited a little longer and the Wii U was looking to be on track to meet Nintendo's projections, which it's looking to miss by a large margin unless Monster Hunter in the west pulls nothing short of a miracle. -The following may appear off-topic, but it does tie it all together eventually- All of us here on the forum have battled over what on earth is causing all of this confusion all of a sudden. Some people have harshly called out casuals as being retarded, which I think is unfair considering we all buy stuff we don't know too much about. Others blame marketing, some people blame the name/similar form factor etc The one thing which sticks out in my mind now after thinking about it on and off is that the Wii's nature of being very peripheral based may have been an unforeseen weakness. Nintendo and third parties have pushed a wide variety of peripherals, some of which were exclusive to one game and some of which could have been made for a game but worked with others. So when you had the likes of uPad for the Wii and end up seeing this Wii U pad, I can see why people have come to the conclusion that this new pad with a screen on it is a Wii accessory. So now, with Nintendo now knowing that the pad is being confused as an add-on for the old console, the European wigs who are dealing with the worst market in regards to Wii U reception, think its a good idea to take on this revision of older hardware rather than using the distribution costs to push some more advertising or even better, invest more in localisation to ensure games for the Wii U get released here ASAP? I think it's a very bad idea. -End of seemingly offtopic rant- Continuing on with the base questions What do I think of the device in general? It's nice and small and I initially kind of liked the look until I watched an unboxing video of it, to find it's a pretty ugly little piece of kit. If I ever got one just to have around in another room of the house (one of the only uses I can think of for it aside from a collectable), I'd try and give the thing a paint job. Is it worth the price? Needs a much lower price point to compete with the incredibly cheap pre-owned Wii stock. Summer 2011, I finally got a Wii again for the sake of Xenoblade and Gamestation had a deal on. Limited Edition Xenoblade Set + Pre-owned Wii for £80. It's been nearly 2 years from then, the Wii was technically £30 in that deal, so god knows what prices they're available at now. Game retailers also push their pre-owned console stock pretty hard as well. So saying that, who's going to stock it? Online retailers only? Edited March 2, 2013 by Debug Mode
Guy Posted March 3, 2013 Posted March 3, 2013 Does this thing even have USB/SD ports? Only thing I can see it being good for is a homebrew emulation kingdom. But then again I can already do that on my original Wii, which also outputs 480p, goes online and has GameCube game/controller support.
Jonnas Posted March 3, 2013 Posted March 3, 2013 I say, cool. Make that shit cheaper, tailor it better for casual customers. The previous option still exists, after all. Regarding the marketing confusion with the Wii U... I agree that the Wii U should've been marketed better, and that the Wii Mini is only loosely related to the problem. That's all I'll say about it.
lostmario Posted March 3, 2013 Posted March 3, 2013 Its a strange one, I don't see what they'll gain from releasing it. 2 years ago, yeah but not now. You can pick up a pre-owned Wii for £30-40 now. Is it worth £80, no. Will it sell, yes, as I'd imagine there will be quite a few collectors who will pick this up as I doubt they'll be shipping that many.
Rummy Posted March 4, 2013 Posted March 4, 2013 It's really rather easy to buy a preowned wii, not to mention new ones at close enough to that price. £90 on ShopTo in fact. Wii Mini is a waste at the moment, they need to focus on the Wii U imo. Don't know what they think they're doing.
Cube Posted March 4, 2013 Posted March 4, 2013 The PSOne was released shortly after the PS2 for £79 - similar to the Wii Mini. While this also lacked networking (which was a very minor point back then, unlike the Wii Mini), it was actually smaller than the original console, and by a significant amount. The PSOne was small enough to be used in car journeys, made possible by the official LCD Screen. The PSone console itself also looked better and of a higher quality build than the original console. There was also the Game Boy Micro, a very small and snazzy device (which was £69 at launch). Back to the Wii Mini - the size is barely different or the original Wii and is much more restricting. Not only does it lack the ability to play GameCube games and use GameCube controllers in games like Super Smash Bros. Brawl (although it's worth pointing out that the current Wii models also lack this), but the removal of all network functions is a massive blow. The removal of WiFi from a cheap console is understandable, but this should have been remedied by the Wii LAN Adapter (the Wii Mini does have a USB port). However, due to the removal of the Network Settings page, this adapter will do nothing. Which means no WiiWare and no Virtual Console. Unless Nintendo is planning on shutting down the Wii Shopping Channel soon, this seems like a very strange omission. Not to mention the lack of online gaming for the games that support it. And then there is the display options - did you know that some new TVs don't have composite or SCART sockets? That's how old the technology is.
MoogleViper Posted March 4, 2013 Posted March 4, 2013 I thought the GameBoy Micro was stupid, but plenty of people (on here) bought that.
Rummy Posted March 5, 2013 Posted March 5, 2013 I thought the GameBoy Micro was stupid, but plenty of people (on here) bought that. But how much did they pay? I bought one for like £17 a while down the line, never would have paid original RRP for it.
Debug Mode Posted March 5, 2013 Posted March 5, 2013 Same price I paid. The full retail price was way too expensive.
Mokong Posted March 15, 2013 Author Posted March 15, 2013 Sorry for the delay, this should have been on the main site last week. But just got it up now. http://www.n-europe.com/features/roundtable-the-wii-mini--what-are-your-thoughts Cheers to everyone for taking part : peace: If anyone has any suggestions for a topic for next months Roundtable please feel free to post them here
Rowan Posted March 17, 2013 Posted March 17, 2013 Good roundtable I didn't even realise the Mini doesn't have an SD slot either so you couldn't even transfer saves. There would be next to no point having the channels user interface. It might be better off just having 2 big buttons on the main screen - Launch Disc and Settings.
Jonnas Posted March 19, 2013 Posted March 19, 2013 I know this is not what you asked, @Mokong X\-C... ...but I suggest turning particularly good gaming debates here in the forum into a "Roundtable-styled" article. Like that "Do we have too much Mario?" thread, which actually saw good points being made from both sides.
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