Everyone agreed: Nintendo's new console had a really good name. They were calling it Revolution - which promised a) A revolution, and b) No lavatory jokes. Oh, how silly we felt when we learned that was just a code-name, and that the real name for the follow-up to the GameCube was going to be a piddle-based invitation to a laughter party.
We really did have a good old chuckle when Nintendo announced that its new machine was going to be called the Wii, didn't "Wii" (we)? Remember that? Remember all the jokes we made?
"Are they taking the piss?"
"Oh, Nintendo - urine for it now!"
"What's next - the Nintendo Poo?"
"Please, what is Shigeru Miyamoto's favourite nut? A pee-nut!!!!!"
"Where does Nintendo keep its most secret consoles? Urea 51."
"What did Nintendo name its new console after? Super Mario's dirty drips."
Suffice to say, the jokers practically had a meltdown when it was announced that the Wii would arrive with a game called Wii Sports...
The funnies gripped the Internet to such a degree (for a day or so) that the BBC news website even published a story on the Wii pun phenomenon. One radio station in California also ran a competition to win a Wii, for which contestants had to drink as much water as possible without visiting the toilet. Sadly, it ended in tragedy when a female contestant died from water intoxication after downing seven litres.
Of course, all this hilarity lasted about 24 hours before we all got sick of the jokes, and then started to realise that Wii was actually quite a clever name. It summed up the new machine's philosophy of social gaming ("We" play together, see?), while the double-i portion of the logo looked like two players side-by-side - as well as two of the versatile Wii Remotes.
All those people who claimed that the console would fail, based on its name alone, suddenly felt very stupid, and spent the remainder of their sad, lonely, lives, scrawling wee-based puns on their bedsit walls.
We really did have a good old chuckle when Nintendo announced that its new machine was going to be called the Wii, didn't "Wii" (we)? Remember that? Remember all the jokes we made?
"Are they taking the piss?"
"Oh, Nintendo - urine for it now!"
"What's next - the Nintendo Poo?"
"Please, what is Shigeru Miyamoto's favourite nut? A pee-nut!!!!!"
"Where does Nintendo keep its most secret consoles? Urea 51."
"What did Nintendo name its new console after? Super Mario's dirty drips."
Suffice to say, the jokers practically had a meltdown when it was announced that the Wii would arrive with a game called Wii Sports...
The funnies gripped the Internet to such a degree (for a day or so) that the BBC news website even published a story on the Wii pun phenomenon. One radio station in California also ran a competition to win a Wii, for which contestants had to drink as much water as possible without visiting the toilet. Sadly, it ended in tragedy when a female contestant died from water intoxication after downing seven litres.
Of course, all this hilarity lasted about 24 hours before we all got sick of the jokes, and then started to realise that Wii was actually quite a clever name. It summed up the new machine's philosophy of social gaming ("We" play together, see?), while the double-i portion of the logo looked like two players side-by-side - as well as two of the versatile Wii Remotes.
All those people who claimed that the console would fail, based on its name alone, suddenly felt very stupid, and spent the remainder of their sad, lonely, lives, scrawling wee-based puns on their bedsit walls.
WII-NIS
Hitting the UK just in time for Christmas, in early December 2006, the Wii pretty much defines that Christmas for me, as it did, I suspect, for many.
In much the same way that our ancestors gathered around the piano for a traditional singalong of festive favourites such as "Let's Get A Small Boy To Clean Our Chimney For Christmas", "(Don't) Give The Maid A Day Off (On December 25th)", and "The Poor! The Poor! Let's Spend Our Christmas Day Pointing And Laughing At The Poor Ha Ha!", so my family congregated around the Wii.
Seeing my parents, siblings, nephews and nieces playing one another side-by-side at bowling, or boxing, or tennis.,.. it was difficult to think of a more effective way that I could've united my family, short of murdering one of them.
Once again learning its lesson from earlier tepid launch line-ups (remember: a mistake Nintendo swore that it would never again repeat... ahahahahahaahahah!), Nintendo had ensured that there would be plenty of games to play on the Wii from day one.
Although, Call of Duty 3 was pretty much the only recognisable third-party franchise - a limp sop to potential Xbox 360 and PlayStation 3 owners - the remainder of the launch day line-up was made up of games based upon animated movies, games which looked like they were based on animated movies, and a couple of semi-successful attempts to utilise the Wii Remotes in clever ways (Red Steel).
Whether by chance or design - Nintendo only ever needed one game to sell the Wii; Wii Sports - and it came bundled with the machine. Pity Wii Play.
Hitting the UK just in time for Christmas, in early December 2006, the Wii pretty much defines that Christmas for me, as it did, I suspect, for many.
In much the same way that our ancestors gathered around the piano for a traditional singalong of festive favourites such as "Let's Get A Small Boy To Clean Our Chimney For Christmas", "(Don't) Give The Maid A Day Off (On December 25th)", and "The Poor! The Poor! Let's Spend Our Christmas Day Pointing And Laughing At The Poor Ha Ha!", so my family congregated around the Wii.
Seeing my parents, siblings, nephews and nieces playing one another side-by-side at bowling, or boxing, or tennis.,.. it was difficult to think of a more effective way that I could've united my family, short of murdering one of them.
Once again learning its lesson from earlier tepid launch line-ups (remember: a mistake Nintendo swore that it would never again repeat... ahahahahahaahahah!), Nintendo had ensured that there would be plenty of games to play on the Wii from day one.
Although, Call of Duty 3 was pretty much the only recognisable third-party franchise - a limp sop to potential Xbox 360 and PlayStation 3 owners - the remainder of the launch day line-up was made up of games based upon animated movies, games which looked like they were based on animated movies, and a couple of semi-successful attempts to utilise the Wii Remotes in clever ways (Red Steel).
Whether by chance or design - Nintendo only ever needed one game to sell the Wii; Wii Sports - and it came bundled with the machine. Pity Wii Play.
GO ON
Indeed, that first play on Wii Sports was startling.
It's like the first time I had a go with an iPhone, or squirted Vick's Sinex up my nose, or used the Philips Air Fryer that we got this past Christmas; technology that feels like a step into the future, which you know there and then is genuinely going to change your life for the better.
I understood the appeal of the Wii in how my mother played it. As far back as the Atari 2600, any time I thrust a game controller into my mother's hands she would lurch her entire body back and forth, trying to use the controller to bat Space Invaders out of the air, or turning it in her hands as if it were a steering wheel.
Whether by design or accident - and it's my gut feeling that Nintendo caught lightning in a bottle here - Nintendo had created a video game control system that even idiots could understand.
The different ways in which the Wii Remotes simulated doing real-world stuff was the key to unlocking gaming for the masses. I hadn't seen my mother so excited by a technology since the Game Boy. Oh, these days she can't live without her iPad, but judging from the random nonsense she posts as her Facebook status updates, even that is more complicated than she can entirely handle.
Although, she has come to grips with sharing photographs of dogs, coupled with passive aggressive threats...
"SHARE THIS IF YOU DON'T WANT TO THROW DARTS AT AN ALSATIAN."
"ONLY ONE PERCENT OF PEOPLE WILL CARE ENOUGH TO SHARE THIS PICTURE OF A BEAGLE IN A MICROWAVE - DO YOU EVEN HAVE A CONSCIENCE?"
"THIS IS A PICTURE OF A GREYHOUND WITH ITS HEAD STUCK IN A CHIMNEY - IF YOU DON'T SHARE IT IN THE NEXT FIVE MINUTES A HOODED FIGURE IS GOING TO KICK IT REALLY HARD UP THE ARSE."
And so on.
Point is: almost everyone can play the Wii.
Indeed, that first play on Wii Sports was startling.
It's like the first time I had a go with an iPhone, or squirted Vick's Sinex up my nose, or used the Philips Air Fryer that we got this past Christmas; technology that feels like a step into the future, which you know there and then is genuinely going to change your life for the better.
I understood the appeal of the Wii in how my mother played it. As far back as the Atari 2600, any time I thrust a game controller into my mother's hands she would lurch her entire body back and forth, trying to use the controller to bat Space Invaders out of the air, or turning it in her hands as if it were a steering wheel.
Whether by design or accident - and it's my gut feeling that Nintendo caught lightning in a bottle here - Nintendo had created a video game control system that even idiots could understand.
The different ways in which the Wii Remotes simulated doing real-world stuff was the key to unlocking gaming for the masses. I hadn't seen my mother so excited by a technology since the Game Boy. Oh, these days she can't live without her iPad, but judging from the random nonsense she posts as her Facebook status updates, even that is more complicated than she can entirely handle.
Although, she has come to grips with sharing photographs of dogs, coupled with passive aggressive threats...
"SHARE THIS IF YOU DON'T WANT TO THROW DARTS AT AN ALSATIAN."
"ONLY ONE PERCENT OF PEOPLE WILL CARE ENOUGH TO SHARE THIS PICTURE OF A BEAGLE IN A MICROWAVE - DO YOU EVEN HAVE A CONSCIENCE?"
"THIS IS A PICTURE OF A GREYHOUND WITH ITS HEAD STUCK IN A CHIMNEY - IF YOU DON'T SHARE IT IN THE NEXT FIVE MINUTES A HOODED FIGURE IS GOING TO KICK IT REALLY HARD UP THE ARSE."
And so on.
Point is: almost everyone can play the Wii.
FAST LOVE
Despite having just a fraction of the power of its rivals, the Wii became the fastest-selling console in the UK ever - and it was a similar story in the rest of the world.
Over the course of its life, over 100 million Wiis were sold around the world - making it Nintendo's biggest hit since the Super NES.
The company's stated aim of reaching beyond the traditional gamer base was a success - with the social aspect offered by the Wii proving to reap bounteous rewards.
The list of all-time classics on the Wii might be shorter than on some other Nintendo consoles, but it certainly saw Nintendo's first-party development in rude health.
Among others, it played host to probably the best Mario games ever in the form of Super Mario Galaxy and its sequel, New Super Mario Bros., which made a decent fist of proving that side-scrolling platforms were far from dead, Wario Ware: Smooth Moves and Wii Sports Resort which once again justifying the Wii Remote, as well as the obviously splendid Skyward Sword. And that's before you get into Nintendo's canny recycling of the past, with the Virtual Console store.
We never did get quite the first-person Wii light sabre game we all wanted, but we did get Wii Fit - a game which came bundled with a balance board, and tried to mix the best bits of Wii Sports with a nagging spouse telling you how fat and unfit you are.
The Wii was - briefly - influential, in that Sony and Microsoft both tried to copy its success. Sony's Move controllers were under-utilised, only recently becoming semi-useful with the PlayStation VR, while Microsoft had a long and tragic history of attempting to force its dubious, hands-free Kinect device onto players. Somehow none of Sony or Microsoft's efforts came close to justifying their existence in the way that Nintendo did - further underlining that whatever the Wii had it was magical, and hard to define.
Alas, even Nintendo tried to copy itself, without really understanding what made the Wii great... but that's another story. One which can best be summarised with the words "Oh well".
Despite having just a fraction of the power of its rivals, the Wii became the fastest-selling console in the UK ever - and it was a similar story in the rest of the world.
Over the course of its life, over 100 million Wiis were sold around the world - making it Nintendo's biggest hit since the Super NES.
The company's stated aim of reaching beyond the traditional gamer base was a success - with the social aspect offered by the Wii proving to reap bounteous rewards.
The list of all-time classics on the Wii might be shorter than on some other Nintendo consoles, but it certainly saw Nintendo's first-party development in rude health.
Among others, it played host to probably the best Mario games ever in the form of Super Mario Galaxy and its sequel, New Super Mario Bros., which made a decent fist of proving that side-scrolling platforms were far from dead, Wario Ware: Smooth Moves and Wii Sports Resort which once again justifying the Wii Remote, as well as the obviously splendid Skyward Sword. And that's before you get into Nintendo's canny recycling of the past, with the Virtual Console store.
We never did get quite the first-person Wii light sabre game we all wanted, but we did get Wii Fit - a game which came bundled with a balance board, and tried to mix the best bits of Wii Sports with a nagging spouse telling you how fat and unfit you are.
The Wii was - briefly - influential, in that Sony and Microsoft both tried to copy its success. Sony's Move controllers were under-utilised, only recently becoming semi-useful with the PlayStation VR, while Microsoft had a long and tragic history of attempting to force its dubious, hands-free Kinect device onto players. Somehow none of Sony or Microsoft's efforts came close to justifying their existence in the way that Nintendo did - further underlining that whatever the Wii had it was magical, and hard to define.
Alas, even Nintendo tried to copy itself, without really understanding what made the Wii great... but that's another story. One which can best be summarised with the words "Oh well".
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