Release Date: November 19th

For a look at some upcoming Nintendo Wii games, check out the gallery

Nintendo is bringing today’s gamers one of the most innovative ideas in gaming with Wii. Can the Wii’s ingenuity beat Microsoft and Sony to be the new powerhouse of the gaming world? I don’t know. I am not here to make that call, but to just give the average gamer a breakdown of the technical mumbo jumbo so he or she can decide what is best. So with the launch of the Wii just around the corner, here we go with the TECHNICAL and the BREAKDOWN.

SIZE

The Technical: 8.5 inches long, 6 inches wide and less than two inches thick (157mm x 215.4mm x 44mm.)

The Breakdown: Just over three game cases thick and able to be stacked vertically and horizontally.

CPU

The Technical: 729 MHz IBM PowerPC (codenamed “Broadway”)

The Breakdown: The “Broadway” places the Wii’s power at around twice that of the Gamecube. Despite the fact, the Wii will not come close to the Xbox360 or PS3 in this regard.

Graphics

The Technical: 243 MHz ATI (code named “Hollywood”)

The Breakdown: Expect to see graphics in the range above the PS2 but falling short of the PS3 and Xbox360.

AV OUTPUT

The Technical: AV Multi-output port for component, composite, or S-video

The Breakdown: The graphics will follow along the lines of the GameCube with the addition of allowing widescreen (720X480) and 480p resolutions.

Media Format

The Technical: Plays 12cm optical discs (single / double layered) and 8cm discs

The Breakdown: This allows the Wii to be backward compatible with the Gamecube, while playing Nintendo’s new format.