Nintendo's Wii video game system
(pronounced "we") brings people of all ages and video game experience
together to play. This simple yet ground breaking idea is expressed not only
though the system's evocative name, which is easily pronounced in a variety
of languages, and suggests two players side by side, but also through its
innovative list of features and extensive list of playable titles.
A Little Box With Plenty of Power
As with every console, much of the buzz surrounds the specs. The Wii boasts
512 MB of internal flash memory, two USB 2.0 ports, and a slot for SD memory
expansion. The system’s technological heart -- a processing chip developed
with IBM and code-named "Broadway" and a graphics chipset from ATI
code-named "Hollywood" -- deliver stunning performance. And instead of a
tray, Wii uses a single, self-loading media bay that plays both
12-centimeter optical discs used for the new system, as well as Nintendo
GameCube discs.
Revolutionary Control
No bigger than a small traditional remote control, the wireless Wii Remote
is a truly multi functional device. The magic of the Wii Remote's design
lies within; acellerometers inside the controller measure movement in all
directions and at all speeds. In a tennis game, it serves as your racket as
you swing away. In driving games it serves as a steering wheel, allowing you
to swerve to avoid obstacles or pickup power-ups. In first-person shooters,
it acts as a firearm that you can point directly at an on-screen enemy. The
controller also has a force feedback "Rumble" feature and an expansion port
for use with accessories, such as the Nunchuck, which adds an analog
thumbstick and trigger buttons. The system allows for up to four controllers
to be linked at a time and utilizes standard Bluetooth wireless technology.
For those who prefer the feel of a traditional controller an adapter is
available that fits over the Wii's remote.
-
-
A Channel for Everyone More than just a game machine, Wii also provides information and
entertainment suitable for every member of the family. Some of the channels
available include:
Mii Channel - Miis are cute little
caricatures you create to use as characters in a variety of Wii software.
Store Miis on your Wii or load them onto your Wii Remote and take them over
to a friend’s house to use on their Wii.
Everybody Votes Channel * - The Everybody
Votes Channel is packed with national and worldwide polls. Answer
interesting questions and have your say. Up to six members of your family
can vote. Just choose an answer and check in later to see the results.
News Channel * - Wii might be great for
games, but you can also use it to get updates on the latest news from across
the Internet organized into easy-to-browse categories.
Forecast Channel * - Your Wii can
automatically update you on the weather from around the globe.
Wii Shop Channel * - Download the Opera
web browser and access games from classic consoles from the past. All you
need is a Wii Points account.
Virtual Console - Every Virtual Console
game you download from the Wii Shop Channel appears in the
Wii Menu as a separate Channel ready to
select and play any time you like.
Wii Message Board - Leave or receive
messages for other family members on the calendar-based message board or use
WiiConnect24 to send messages to people outside your home.
Internet Channel * - Just download the
Opera browser for 500 Wii Points and within minutes, you’ll be a
professional sofa surfer, pointing-and-clicking your way around the web with
your Wii Remote.
Photo Channel - Show off all your digital
photos on your TV. Just insert an SD memory card into your Wii and away you
go.
Disc Channel - The Disc Channel is
backwards compatible with Nintendo GameCube, so you can play all your new
Wii discs, along with all your classic Nintendo GameCube discs too!
-
-
Amazon.com
The active-play phenomenon started by Wii Sports now
spreads to your whole body thanks to Wii Fit and the
pressure-sensitive Wii Balance Board, which comes bundled with
it. Used together players will experience an extensive array of
fun, dynamic and surprisingly challenging activities, including
aerobics, yoga, muscle stretches and balance oriented games. The
focus of these activities is towards providing a "core" workout,
a popular exercise method that emphasizes slower, controlled
motions, but it's the fun approach to fitness of Wii Fit
that will keep players hooked on fitness for years to come.
The Wii Fit Balance
Board
The primary tenet of Wii Fit is balance. Your center of
balance, the point between your left and right sides when you
stand upright, has a lot to do with your health. Those without
an even center of balance will be unnaturally compensating for
this imbalance, which causes their posture to become misaligned,
increasing the possibility of putting unnecessary strain on
their bodies. This is where the Wii Balance Board comes in.
Similar in appearance to a step
aerobics board, the Wii Balance Board is much, much more. Easily
capable of supporting weights up to a maximum of 300 pounds, it
is sturdy and precise, able to measure weight and register
pressure accurately when placed on a variety of flat surfaces.
This advanced level of sensitivity allows for both the wide
range of activities found in the Wii Fit software as well
as the board's amazing ability recognize individual players by
their weight alone.
Getting Started: Create a
Profile
Before you jump into doing exercises and activities, you’ll
start by creating a profile. This is done easily and intuitively
by simply choosing a Mii, entering your height and age
information, and doing a few quick tests that will serve as a
baseline for your new Wii fitness regimen. These tests are:
BMI Check: BMI, or Body
Mass Index, is a measure of body fat based on height and
weight that is the standard used by agencies such as the
World Health Organization and the National Institute of
Health. To check your BMI, you’ll enter your height then
stand on the Wii Balance Board and let it read your weight.
Wii Fit Age: After
you’ve checked your BMI, you’ll do a basic balance test and
find out your current Wii Fit Age. This basic balance
test measures how well you can control your left and right
balance. Based on the results, you’ll be assigned a Wii Fit
Age.
Four Categories of Fun
Once you have created your profile it's time to have some fun.
Wii Fit features four main categories of exercises to
choose from: Strength Training, Aerobics, Yoga and Balance
Games. Wii Fit will guide you through the first three
with the help of your own virtual personal trainer, while the
balance games offer variety and fun to help keep you engaged and
excited about your fitness goals. In addition, as you spend time
exercising, you’ll earn Fit Credits that unlock
additional exercises and activities within your favorite
categories that will allow you to continue to push yourself. See
more detail on the four categories below:
Strength Training: Put
your strength to the test with muscle-toning exercises like
Single Leg Extension, Sideways Leg Lift, Arm and Leg Lift,
Single-Arm Stand, Torso Twists, Rowing Squat, Single Leg
Twist, Lunge, Push-Up and Side Plank, Jackknife, Plank and
Tricep Extension. Challenges include Push-Up Challenge,
Plank Challenge and Jackknife Challenge.
Aerobics: Get your
heart pumping with fun, interactive Aerobic exercises like
Hula Hoop, Basic Step, Basic Run, Super Hula Hoop, Advanced
Step, 2-P Run, Rhythm Boxing, Free Step and Free Run.
Yoga: Work on your
balance and flexibility with Yoga poses and activities like
Deep Breathing, Half-Moon, Dance, Cobra, Bridge, Spinal
Twist, Shoulder Stand, Warrior, Tree, Sun Salutation,
Standing Knee, Palm Tree, Chair, Triangle and
Downward-Facing Dog.
Balance Games: Get into
the action with fun, balanced-based games like Soccer
Heading, Ski Slalom, Ski Jump, Table Tilt, Tightrope Walk,
Balance Bubble, Penguin Slide, Snowboard Slalom and Lotus
Focus.
Keep Track of Your Progress
Because keeping fit is an ongoing process, Wii Fit also
tracks the activities you do the most and puts them into your
Favorites category. With this information players can note
exercises and activities that they are strong in, as well as
others that may need to improve at. Some of the ways players can
use this information for are to:
Keep tabs on your daily
progress with easy-to-understand graphs and charts. Using
your personal profile, you can set goals, view a graph of
your BMI results over time, see how many Fit Credits you’ve
earned, check your Wii Fit Age and even enter
exercise time you’ve done outside of Wii Fit. It’s
all about coming back and exercising a little every day, and
the personal profile makes tracking your daily progress
simple and easy.
Quickly check your Wii Fit
Age and BMI without even putting the game in the console
by going directly to the Wii Fit Channel.
Allow up to eight family
members can create their own profiles in Wii Fit. On
the profile-selection screen, everyone in the family can see
each other’s recent BMI progress and Fit Credit total. This
will allow families to have a friendly competition to
exercise and get fit.
Variety, fun and progress
tracking; Wii Fit has it all. So, Wii owners if you ready
to reclaim your balance and get fit all you need is Wii Fit,
a few minutes a day to play and the urge to have fun. Get on
board today.
One Click Easy - amazon
best-selling games titles.
Includes one controller, manuals, and
cables to connect to the TV
4 game controller ports built in
Compact design
Plays a wide variety of games for all
ages
Amazon.com Review
Though it looks like a toy, don't
be fooled: the Nintendo GameCube is a powerful video game console that
rightly deserves its place among the other next-generation game systems.
In fact, its playful, appealing design and small size (the unit is a not-quite-cubed
6 inches) aren't the only features that set it apart from the others.
For starters, Nintendo has quite
clearly made this a game-only machine. It doesn't try to play your CD collection,
run your movies, read your e-mail, or store your MP3 files. The company
has concentrated its efforts on games. All the prelaunch titles we've seen
play smoothly, with bright, fast graphics and great sound. Nintendo says
its engineers have removed traditional bottlenecks that have, in the past,
slowed down processing. New components designed by IBM and MoSys, as well
as a large-capacity secondary memory cache, keep instructions moving through
the system's microprocessor (MPU) at peak levels. In English: the GameCube
is optimized to push speed up while pushing costs down; hence its position
at the lower end of the price spectrum.
The GameCube is the first Nintendo
video game system to use a disc-based medium rather than cartridges for
its games. Moving the software to disc media generally means lower development
costs for the publishers, which, in turn, trickles down to the consumer
not only in price, but also in availability and quality, as it's then easier
to try out untested game ideas (Pikmin, anyone?). While most other systems
likewise have their games stored on discs, the GameCube's 3-inch format
is smaller than everyone else's, and is so designed to fit in a shirt pocket
as much as to deter would-be software pirates.
Of course, the main advantage of
the GameCube is that it's the home field of one of the world's premier
game designers: Nintendo. While powerhouses Electronic Arts and Sega make
games for all systems (including this one), you can play Nintendo games
only on a Nintendo system. And Nintendo, you might recall, has been hitting
them out of the park since it started with Donkey Kong. In fact, here's
a roll call of characters and series you won't find on the other consoles:
Mario, Legend of Zelda, Perfect Dark, Metroid, Kirby, and, of course, Pokémon.
A few names that the GameCube will share with the other guys: Madden, Tony
Hawk, Sonic, Batman, and Star Wars.
The system also comes with four built-in
controller ports, so you can easily plug in extra controllers and let friends
join in for the multiplayer games--it's even got a built-in handle so you
can easily move it to a friend's house. It comes with two memory card slots
for saving your progress through games, and there's the capacity for future
expansion into the world of online gaming.
In short, the GameCube isn't an all-in-one
entertainment system, and neither is it the most powerful of the modern
video game consoles. But for video game enthusiasts who want to stick with
their favorite characters, its value cannot be beat. --Porter B. Hall
One Click Easy - amazon
best-selling subject and genre-related titles.
Includes one controller, manuals, and
cables to connect to the TV
4 game controller ports built in
Compact design
Plays a wide variety of games for all
ages
Amazon.com Review Though it looks like a toy, don't
be fooled: the Nintendo GameCube is a powerful video game console that
rightly deserves its place among the other next-generation game systems.
In fact, its playful, appealing design and small size (the unit is a not-quite-cubed
6 inches) aren't the only features that set it apart from the others.
For starters, Nintendo has quite
clearly made this a game-only machine. It doesn't try to play your CD collection,
run your movies, read your e-mail, or store your MP3 files. The company
has concentrated its efforts on games. All the prelaunch titles we've seen
play smoothly, with bright, fast graphics and great sound. Nintendo says
its engineers have removed traditional bottlenecks that have, in the past,
slowed down processing. New components designed by IBM and MoSys, as well
as a large-capacity secondary memory cache, keep instructions moving through
the system's microprocessor (MPU) at peak levels. In English: the GameCube
is optimized to push speed up while pushing costs down; hence its position
at the lower end of the price spectrum.
The GameCube is the first Nintendo
video game system to use a disc-based medium rather than cartridges for
its games. Moving the software to disc media generally means lower development
costs for the publishers, which, in turn, trickles down to the consumer
not only in price, but also in availability and quality, as it's then easier
to try out untested game ideas (Pikmin, anyone?). While most other systems
likewise have their games stored on discs, the GameCube's 3-inch format
is smaller than everyone else's, and is so designed to fit in a shirt pocket
as much as to deter would-be software pirates.
Of course, the main advantage of
the GameCube is that it's the home field of one of the world's premier
game designers: Nintendo. While powerhouses Electronic Arts and Sega make
games for all systems (including this one), you can play Nintendo games
only on a Nintendo system. And Nintendo, you might recall, has been hitting
them out of the park since it started with Donkey Kong. In fact, here's
a roll call of characters and series you won't find on the other consoles:
Mario, Legend of Zelda, Perfect Dark, Metroid, Kirby, and, of course, Pokémon.
A few names that the GameCube will share with the other guys: Madden, Tony
Hawk, Sonic, Batman, and Star Wars.
The system also comes with four built-in
controller ports, so you can easily plug in extra controllers and let friends
join in for the multiplayer games--it's even got a built-in handle so you
can easily move it to a friend's house. It comes with two memory card slots
for saving your progress through games, and there's the capacity for future
expansion into the world of online gaming.
In short, the GameCube isn't an all-in-one
entertainment system, and neither is it the most powerful of the modern
video game consoles. But for video game enthusiasts who want to stick with
their favorite characters, its value cannot be beat. --Porter B. Hall
One Click Easy - amazon
best-selling subject and genre-related titles.
Limited-edition bundle featuring green
Xbox game system along with all-time Xbox best-seller Halo
Translucent emerald green Xbox and controller
Full version of classic Xbox game Halo
Limited production run of only 200,000
Coolest Xbox on the block
Product Description
This limited-edition bundle features
the Xbox video game system along with all-time Xbox best-seller Halo at
a special price. The coveted combo features a special Halo-branded, translucent
green Xbox console and Halo jeweled controller with a copy of the game.
Just 200,000 of the boxed sets are available.
"This special offer lets video gamers
with Halo envy easily and affordably adopt Xbox," said Bill Nielsen, director
of U.S. marketing for Xbox at Microsoft. "We expect collectors, as well
as those who have been waiting for the right time to purchase their Xbox
system, to jump at this unique opportunity."
-
--
--
When you signup for PayPal, you can start
accepting credit card payments instantly. As the world's number one online
payment service, PayPal is the fastest way to open your doors to over 150
million member accounts worldwide.
Best of all, it's completely free to sign up! To
sign up or learn more, click here:
