Nintendo's rumoured Wii 2: it'd better not be the Wiiii.

Alex Zaharov-Reutt
Monday, 18 April 2011 20:36

Your IT - Entertainment

The Wii 2, Wii2, Wii II, Wii HD, Wiiii or something else entirelii, the world has waited impatiently for a successor to Nintendo's ground-breaking motion-sensing sensation, especially now its two major competitors have finally joined the motion sensing bandwagon.

With price cuts for Nintendo's Wii console in the US and great sales of the recently released handheld and 3D capable Nintendo 3DS console,  all eyes have turned towards the Project Café rumours and suggestions that the E3 Games Expo will finally see a Wii upgrade.

While Nintendo has naturally said nothing as yet, the online buzz puts the Wii successor at a three to four times performance advantage of the current Xbox 360 and PS3 consoles, promises backwards compatibility with Wii games, has 1080P HD output and a new two-handed controller with a 6-inch touch screen embedded in it.

This rather large sounding controller supposedly also has a six-axis motion sensing capability and is said to represent Nintendo's desire to appeal not only to the casual gaming market it has owned with the Wii but also the more 'hardcore' gaming market who want their platformers and first person shooters without jumping around the whole damn loungeroom.

Much better online gaming capabilities are also expected, while some imagine the Wii 2 will also have at last a hard drive built-in as standard.

Whether any of the supposed leaks and undoubted speculation is true or is naturally yet to be seen, although Nintendo of America's top dog, Reggie Fils-Amie, has reported stated that the next-gen Wii successor won't have 3D capabilities.

Of course, that might simply be a Steve Jobsian-style bit of industrial and corporate misdirection to throw competitors off the scent, but if the graphics card can handle 3D and the HDMI output can also, it's an option that could at the very least be switched on in the future if 3D-capable games aren't available on day one.

There's also the possibility that this new two-handed controller, which some have already concept drawn as a regular handheld controller with a giant screen whacked into the middle of it, could be a 3D display too, delivering 3D elements, cut scenes and other information there, although this seems much more unlikely as it would likely add a lot to the cost of each controller.

Game on, on page two, please read on!