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00:00A new Game Boy, and new games to play on them.
00:05And now you say, you want a revolution?
00:10Welcome to Mojo Plays, and today we're taking a look at 25 things you may not have known about the
00:16Nintendo Wii.
00:17A number of retailers have struggled to supply the Wii to people who'd ordered it.
00:21They're blaming Nintendo, but is it all just a ploy to whip up more interest?
00:26Before we begin, we publish new videos all week long.
00:28So be sure to subscribe to Mojo Plays, and ring the bell to be notified about our latest videos.
00:35Nintendo DS, Big Boy Edition.
00:38The goal of the Wii was to create a console that would entice customers in buying a unit for themselves,
00:43whether they were a gamer or not.
00:46Whatever Nintendo's next console was going to be, it had to be revolutionary, innovative,
00:50something that had never been done before.
00:52Not an easy task, of course.
00:54As expected, the Wii went through a handful of prototypes before Nintendo figured out the path forward.
01:00One prototype aimed to utilize two screens the same way the DS did.
01:04However, that was soon thrown out of the window, due to the idea seeming a tad redundant.
01:10GameCube 2, Electric Cubaloo.
01:13We've got one.
01:18Those that have a general understanding may already know that the Wii was once referred to as Nintendo Revolution.
01:25Even Satoru Iwata called it that when he first revealed the console on stage at E3 2005.
01:31But there was another codename for the box before Nintendo Revolution.
01:35Early in development, the Wii was being called GameCube Next, or GC Next for short.
01:41This likely could be referencing the fact that the Wii's graphical and audio capabilities
01:45were roughly the same as the GameCube's, albeit just a little more detailed and refined.
01:51Clearly, Revolution is by far the smallest console we've ever manufactured.
01:57All hail the DDR gods.
02:01Everybody's cheering!
02:03Now I don't mean to make you cry.
02:08Amigo!
02:08If there was one thing Nintendo knew it wanted for its next console, it was motion controls.
02:14Technology that was to be provided by a company called Gyration Inc.
02:18Famed Nintendo veteran Shigeru Miyamoto was put in charge of designing the new console's controller
02:23and how it would utilize Gyration's technology.
02:26For inspiration, Miyamoto looked to a game that probably wouldn't cross people's radars.
02:31That game being Dance Dance Revolution.
02:34Within six months, a prototype for the console was designed,
02:38but there was one thing that seemed odd when Iwata was ready to show the world Nintendo's next box.
02:43Come on, everybody!
02:46Catch you on the fire!
02:50Missing Buttons!
02:51Nintendo Revolution is technically capable of playing virtually every Nintendo console game ever created.
02:59The reveal of Nintendo Revolution was perhaps the biggest event that occurred at E3 2005.
03:05Audiences were amazed at how Iwata managed to pull the console right from beneath his jacket,
03:10but one thing that stumped some folks was that there was the box, but with no controller in sight?
03:16Seems a bit odd, right?
03:19Well, that was because the controller's design was not finalized just yet,
03:23a rare sight compared to previous console reveals from both Nintendo and its competitors.
03:29It's all about backcompat.
03:31But we are redefining the term backward compatibility.
03:36Iwata went over quite a handful of key talking points to sell the press on Nintendo Wii,
03:41er, Nintendo Revolution.
03:42What was one of the most surprising and well-received talking points was the focus on backwards compatibility.
03:49About a quarter of Iwata's presentation was spent talking about how Nintendo Revolution would be capable of playing all Nintendo
03:57games from previous generations.
03:59The company had never achieved this level of compatibility between libraries before,
04:03the Game Boy Advance being the only exception.
04:06So one could understand why this was such a huge deal at the time.
04:09The idea of a single device transporting us back to the first Excitebike, Earthbound, or Punch Out
04:19should make us all feel young again.
04:23The obvious joke.
04:25Hey, want to come over and play my Wii?
04:27We should connect.
04:29And thanks to the Sony move, here, hold my joy wand.
04:32The next time Nintendo demonstrated their next console,
04:36it was no longer Nintendo Revolution.
04:38Now, it was Nintendo Wii, and the press hated it.
04:44What followed was years of gaming pundits and journalists making the same joke about the Wii
04:49sounding like a good term for genitalia.
04:52Clever connection, fellas.
04:53Round of applause for the originality.
04:55Despite the mockery, Nintendo had a reason for calling the system that.
04:59In fact, the reasoning behind the name can be understood by simply watching commercials for the console.
05:05Wii would like to play.
05:07Wii would like to play.
05:09Get it?
05:10It was to sell the console to everyone.
05:12Not just gamers.
05:14Everyone.
05:15Yeah.
05:16Now it all started with the Wii, and now with the Kinect and Move, you might say it's multiplying like
05:21rabbits.
05:22Award-winning marketing.
05:28While we're on the subject, those Wii commercials became iconic the second they started airing.
05:33Anyone who grew up around this time will remember the constant commercials
05:37where two Japanese men show up to a family home and utter those famous words.
05:42Wii would like to play.
05:44Nintendo even shelled out quite a bit of money to get a notable filmmaker to direct these commercials.
05:49He may not be as recognizable as Spielberg, Kubrick, or Coppola,
05:53but you've likely seen Steven Gaggin's work before the Wii commercials.
05:58Gaggin was known for writing Rules of Engagement, Traffic, and Siriana,
06:03although some audiences today may unfortunately know him as the director and writer of 2020's Doolittle.
06:10We would never have found it without her.
06:13Wow.
06:14I just got the chills.
06:15I'm not even cold.
06:17The big debacle over sports.
06:29You're out!
06:30In 2022, former Nintendo of America president Reggie Fils-Aimé wrote a book about his life called
06:36Disrupting the Game, From the Bronx to the Top of Nintendo.
06:39A portion of Chapter 12 is spent recalling some troubles behind closed doors with Miyamoto
06:45over marketing the Wii to American audiences.
06:48Fils-Aimé was insistent on bundling Wii Sports with the Wii for no additional cost
06:52in order to demonstrate the console to players the second they bought the box.
06:56Miyamoto was against the idea of what was perceived as giving away work for free.
07:01Ultimately, Iwata placed his trust in Fils-Aimé's vision,
07:04while Japanese and South Korean audiences were made to buy the box and Wii Sports separately.
07:15Total Wii fever.
07:16But right now, this is the only place you'll find a Nintendo Wii console.
07:21They're going on eBay for up to three times the recommended price.
07:24When the Wii launched, no one was anticipating the madness that would ensue.
07:28To invite folks to the world of video games, Nintendo set up kiosks around the world
07:33and even traveled to other towns to try to get more people to see what the fuss was about.
07:38The fervor for the Wii was so insane that it actually created problems in malls
07:43as foot traffic began being impeded by large crowds surrounding the kiosks.
07:48Nintendo's Wii console release comes just two days after Sony's PlayStation 3 hit store shelves
07:54amid a frenzy in some places.
07:56I actually experienced this firsthand, several times.
08:00From then on, it was nearly impossible to buy a Wii anywhere,
08:04and the scarcity was like that for several long months after launch.
08:09One more putt for my par, let's have a quick go at that.
08:13Oh dear, pretty useless in golf, in the virtual world as well as in the real world.
08:17Launching with greatness?
08:28For almost every new Wii owner, Wii Sports was the very first game they booted up
08:33when their new console was hooked up.
08:35But what other games were up for grabs at launch?
08:37Well, there was the maddening micro-game collection called WarioWare Smooth Moves,
08:43the newest entry in the Legend of Zelda franchise titled The Legend of Zelda Twilight Princess,
08:48Sega's own Super Monkey Ball Banana Blitz,
08:51and of course, Wii Play.
08:58There were also a handful of games from third-party partners like Ubisoft's Red Steel,
09:03but for the most part, these were the titles people were after
09:07to see what the new box could do.
09:18A corrupted and smashed-up deadline.
09:29Now, some folks may look at that first-party lineup and dismiss the Wii's launch as somewhat lacking.
09:35Well, to each their own.
09:36And the launch was initially supposed to be way, way bigger.
09:40Two huge games were originally planned to be a part of the Wii's launch,
09:44those being Metroid Prime 3 Corruption and Super Smash Bros. Brawl.
09:49Corruption wouldn't launch until 2007, roughly a month before the Wii launched in South Africa.
09:54As for Brawl, the world didn't get to experience tripping just yet,
09:58because, according to Masahiro Sakurai,
10:01developing the game for the Wii's controls was a tricky process.
10:05R.I.P. in peace, TV.
10:07All I do is throw that ball up in the air, and when I...
10:10Oh!
10:10Jeez!
10:11And there goes the tennis racket!
10:13While fighting games are briefly on the mind,
10:16it is, in hindsight, a really good thing that there weren't too many fighting games at the Wii's launch.
10:22With all the swinging going on in Red Steel and Wii Sports,
10:25the world experienced a different kind of casualty.
10:28Several news stations around the globe began reporting and sharing videos of people playing Wii Sports
10:34a little too close to their TVs.
10:36Sure enough, controllers slipped out, screens were smashed, TVs were falling down,
10:41it was total chaos.
10:43And that is why every Wii game you play reminds you to use the safety strap before playing.
10:50Try it again.
10:52Whoa.
10:54Whoa.
10:54We would like some money.
10:57Oh.
11:06Would you like to know what the best-selling Wii game was for the console's entire lifespan?
11:11Well, obviously it was Wii Sports.
11:13Alright, we'll exclude a game that was sold with every single console.
11:17What would you say it was then?
11:18Super Smash Bros. Brawl?
11:20Decent guess.
11:21Super Mario Galaxy?
11:23One would easily think that, right?
11:25Perhaps Wii Fit took advantage of all those New Year resolutions every single year.
11:29Nope, the best-selling Wii game besides Wii Sports was Mario Kart Wii.
11:35Not all that surprising now, was it?
11:44Channels Galore.
11:53When folks first booted up the Wii, you'd be greeted with a small handful of channels to click on.
11:58Game Disc Channel, the Mii Channel, the Photo Channel, the Wii Shop Channel, the News Channel, and the Weather Channel.
12:06Not that one.
12:06However, as the years went by, Nintendo added more channels that you could download from the Wii Shop Channel.
12:12Everybody Votes allowed you to participate in a wealth of surveys, ranging from pop culture questions to goofy topics and
12:19see what other Wii users chose.
12:21The Check Me Out Channel lets you share the different Mii's you've created, enter them in fun contests, and allow
12:27others to download them to their own Mii channels.
12:30There was even a Mario Kart channel where you could look at time trials and leaderboards for various activities involving
12:37Mario Kart Wii.
12:38And yes, there were many more channels you could install than just the ones we've mentioned here.
12:43Nintendo DS, the Perfect Companion.
12:57Over the years, Nintendo and various other developers would learn and implement different features that allowed the DS to be
13:04brought into the mix.
13:05For instance, the Wii Shop Channel eventually introduced demos for DS games that you could experience through DS download play,
13:12so you could try other DS games before you went out to buy them.
13:16Some Wii games, like Pokemon Battle Revolution, supported DS connectivity and let players use the DS as a controller while
13:24the Wii continued running the game.
13:25Rollback restored its health and feels the relief.
13:34A BEAUTIFUL ATTACK!
13:37WiiWare's Quiet Existence.
13:44In case you weren't super into the Wii or you didn't find purchasing Wii points to be super appealing, most
13:50of us didn't, there was a section of the Wii Shop channel you might have missed out on.
13:54In addition to extra channels and virtual console titles, the Wii Shop channel featured a section called WiiWare.
14:01This was essentially Nintendo's answer to Xbox Live Arcade, where smaller games could be sold at $5, $10, $15 a
14:08pop.
14:08Unfortunately, the servings here weren't always the greatest compared to XBLA.
14:13There were a few gems here and there, but overall, a lot of titles were kind of mid and went
14:19under the radar.
14:30The Imaginary Rainbow
14:31One of the most peculiar aspects of the Wii's lifespan was during the first year or two of the console's
14:38marketing.
14:38Some trailers and commercials showed the Wii in a wealth of different colors, except we never got to purchase many
14:45of those colors.
14:45Over the course of its run, the Wii was primarily sold in white, later introduced in black, and then there
14:52were a few red ones bundled in with Mario games.
14:55Outside of that, there was only a gold-plated Wii that was a part of a marketing stunt for THQ's
15:01big family games.
15:02So what happened to all those other colors?
15:04Think of the third party!
15:13The Wii had scared away quite a number of third-party game companies from putting games on the console.
15:19Some big companies, like Activision, EA, and Ubisoft, still threw games on there, but overall, support came from much smaller
15:26entities.
15:27The reason for this is because some of these companies noticed their sales were vastly lower than expected compared to
15:34sales on Xbox 360 and PlayStation 3.
15:37One belief these companies shared was that their games were essentially competing with Nintendo's own games on Nintendo's own hardware.
15:45On top of that, these companies viewed multi-platform releases to be more valuable than console-exclusive ones, especially when
15:52considering the Wii as an exclusive platform.
15:57I need support!
16:01Shovelware City
16:10While the bigger companies were cautiously putting out titles here and there, there were a lot, and I mean a
16:17lot, of smaller companies flooding the Wii market.
16:20Some of you may recall an era where the Wii's library was getting more and more bloated with shovelware.
16:26More than even the PS2 saw.
16:28Part of the reason for this was that many developers found it way easier to create games on Wii hardware.
16:34As a result, you had companies like Data Design Interactive belting out tons of titles that were made with minimal
16:41effort.
16:50Big Things in a Small Box
16:55During the 2012 holiday season, folks had eyes on the Wii U and were ready to move on to Nintendo's
17:01next console, even if it wasn't everything we had hoped it would be.
17:05But, one month after the new toy was released, the Wii did get one last iteration that received virtually no
17:12marketing whatsoever.
17:13The Wii Mini launched in Japan in December 2012, with other regions getting the console months later.
17:21This iteration of the Wii came with HDMI support at the expense of having no online functionality of any kind.
17:27There was also, no GameCube controller port, no LAN adapter, and no ports for a memory card.
17:34Worth the hundred bucks?
17:35Mmm, probably not.
17:36But, enjoy your 480i resolution in 2012.
17:39The Wii's Last Stand.
17:50Usually, when consoles get phased out, they only see a couple of years of games as the new generation takes
17:56over.
17:57The Wii wound up getting games until 2020.
18:01Releases became very few and far between, but ultimately, the final two Wii games ever released came from a developer
18:08called
18:08V-Blank Entertainment.
18:10On July 9th, 2019, the studio released Shakedown Hawaii in Europe, and exactly one year later,
18:17they released Retro City Rampage DX Plus for the Wii.
18:21It was a massive shock, considering most players had already migrated to the Switch, a whole two console generations later.
18:35Legendary Service.
18:37Considering those last two releases were 2019 and 2020, many were surprised to hear that anything was happening on the
18:44Wii U at all.
18:45Indeed, many Wii services were still online during the Switch's first couple of years before their plugs were pulled.
18:51Netflix, Amazon, and Hulu ran their services on Wii until 2019.
18:57YouTube ended its support for the Wii channel in 2017, as did Crunchyroll.
19:02As for the Wii Shop channel, all services ceased in January 2019.
19:07Outside of software, Nintendo gave the Wii one last year of menial support, as repair services ended in 2020, due
19:15to parts becoming increasingly scarce.
19:18The dreaded Wii-itis.
19:30If you have ever played the Wii and played a somewhat physically intensive game for longer than 15 to 20
19:35minutes, you'll likely recall that painful feeling you got after playing.
19:39You know, that sore feeling like you overworked your muscles?
19:43Chances are, you experienced a bit of Wii-itis.
19:46There was a phenomenon where doctors discovered patients experiencing musculoskeletal injuries from playing Wii Sports, Wii Fit, and other games
19:55for too long.
19:56Thus leading to strained muscles, bones, joints, and tendons.
20:00Thankfully, most of these cases were mild.
20:04Practicing every day will help tone your body.
20:07The Science of Weed
20:12The left team wins!
20:14Though Wii-itis was a common case, this was not the only time the Wii was involved in medical practice.
20:20As time went on, studies were conducted to see if the Wii could assist in other medical needs.
20:26Gaming for good, perhaps?
20:27Many studies have found the Wii to be a handy device in assisting physical rehabilitation,
20:32particularly in helping patients suffering from cerebral palsy, Parkinson's, and even those who suffered from strokes.
20:39Some retirement centers have even used the Wii to keep their elderly guests active.
20:50And lastly, sounds of Wii.
21:01With the boxes and parts becoming increasingly scarcer by the day, it's become harder to be able to boot up
21:07a Wii and relive the glorious sounds we had become familiar with growing up.
21:11Well, there is a way to experience that all over again.
21:15In October 2024, Nintendo launched a new music streaming service that was included with every Switch Online membership.
21:22Simply titled, Nintendo Music, users can access a wealth of tracks from their favorite video games.
21:28Among these albums is one entirely dedicated to the ambiance of the Wii.
21:32From the Wii's dashboard to the catchy Wii Shop channel theme, you can now relive the sounds of the console
21:38and even extend the tracks to play longer than their default runtime.
21:47Did any of these facts surprise you?
21:49Let us know down in the comments, and be sure to subscribe to MojoPlays.
21:53Go to MojoPlays.
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