Nintendo's Wii is the underdog in the new generation of console wars. It's not nearly as powerful as Microsoft's Xbox 360 or Sony's PlayStation3, nor is it packed with as many multimedia features, but it does have some awfully strong selling points, including: a price tag half that of the competition; a unique, motion-sensitive, one-handed controller; and the ability to deliver many of the greatest games of yesteryear over the Internet at a relatively low cost. Plus, it's an undeniably pretty piece of consumer gadgetry, which never hurts when it comes to impulse buying.

The soft white hardware

The main components found in the box include, the Wii console, a vertical stand, a Wii remote and detachable thumbstick peripheral, a long flat sensor bar that picks up the wireless signal from the remote, a power cord, and composite video and stereo audio cables.

The console is an impressive achievement in both design and technology. The glossy white unit is not much bigger than a hardcover book. The majority of access ports, including those for wired controllers and memory cards, are discreetly hidden behind hinged panels. Instead of the disc drawers sported by competing consoles the Wii has an elegant slot into which discs slide, the surrounding edges of which briefly glow a bright blue when discs are inserted or removed. It can be laid flat or rest on one narrow end in the vertical stand. The fans remain whisper quiet, regardless of the position in which it's stored, and the outer surface never heats up much past normal skin temperature, even during long gaming sessions.

But as pretty as the system is, we spent more time admiring the Wii's unique and beautifully designed remote and thumbstick controllers which, when combined (optionally), resemble the nunchucks for which they've been nicknamed. The white motion-sensitive remote is the same shape and size as a smallish television remote, though slightly heavier. It has an array of buttons lining the top, many of which sport unfamiliar labels, such as '-', '+', '1', and '2'. There are also a few more recognizable inputs, including a Wii power button, a Home button used to exit games and return to the Wii's main menu, a direction-pad, and a big, clear 'A' button. A thumbnail-sized speaker, used to play back audio effects in some games, sits amid the central buttons on the top of the remote. The only interface on the underside is a trigger, while a wrist strap (meant to keep players from accidentally flinging the remote across the room in games requiring a greater degree of movement) trails from the small end closest the player.

I tried the remote with several games, including The Legend of Zelda: Twilight Princess, Excite Truck, Wii Sports, and Red Steel, and found it to be a remarkably sensitive and accurate device. Whether using it to move an onscreen pointer, holding it sideways and tilting it back and forth to steer a truck, or swinging it round like a baseball bat, it almost always registered the exact control commands intended.

And it functions well in tandem with the nunchuk peripheral, which connects to the remote just above the wrist strap via a short white cord. The Nunchuk is essentially one half of a standard console control, featuring a thumbstick on top and a pair of shoulder buttons on the end. It too has a gyroscopic sensor that can register movement.

Settin' it up

Setup was satisfyingly simple, though, unlike Nintendo's previous game systems, there's more to getting the Wii up and running than just plugging it into a wall outlet and the back of your TV. Nothing difficult, just a little more to do.

Setting up the wireless remotes turned out to be a piece of cake. The remote that shipped with the Wii was already geared to work with it, and connecting a second remote involved simply pressing a button on the controller and a button on the console until a link was established.

Positioning the sensor bar that receives the signal generated by the Wii's wireless remote proved a little trickier. We originally set it up on the top of our set, which is shown as an option in the setup manual, but later found that in most games we had to hold the remote higher than was naturally comfortable. We tried moving the sensor bar below the screen and it made all the difference, keeping our arms from being constantly suspended and growing weary.

The final part of the setup process involved creating a wireless network connection. All we had to do was choose from a list of available networks and enter our access key. The Wii conducted a painless one-minute system upgrade and was then live and ready to rock.

Next up, Wii: The Performance