The Bizarre Nintendo Wii Mini

[@xxnike0629xx]

To be fair, the lack of a slot loading disc drive means less moving parts. Less moving parts means more reliable and less likely to fail. The lack of Wi Fi isn't that big of a deal since most people play Wii games offline. What's weird is that there's no SD card slot. From what I understand the Wii Mini has 512 MB internal storage for game saves. Is that enough? Either way this is not a bad choice for strictly playing Wii games offline.

[@waverazor]

True but at the time, comparing it vs the then cheaper wii.. Wii washes the wii mini

[@valkemier]

FIRE IN THE HOLE

[@halogeak12]

naaa ps1 had same thing, the thing moving the disc is still gonna fall apart from long use

[@MERCENARYTAO1]

The complaint of lack of WiFi was for streaming. Most wiis turned into a Netflix box as the years went on.

[@luckyboi5938]

Scott the woz made a great point, they could have gave it wifi support and advertised it as a streaming box it could have tapped into a really big market because the wii does have streaming applications

[@averagejoe77_]

I like the opening disc drive more. It’s fun to press the button and it would be easier to repair the disk drive. I also feel like more people would appreciate the disk art.

[@thebasketballhistorian3291]

The pop up disc drive cover gives me nostalgic memories of the PS1, Gamecube, and Dreamcast. 😍

[@averagejoe77_]

@@thebasketballhistorian3291 yes!

[@aarliann]

I still have my original Wii and the original disc slot works and reads still after slotting in god knows what after my childhood years.

[@averagejoe77_]

@@aarliann that’s impressive! My old Wii’s disk drive broke about a year ago. But I got a great deal on a fairly good condition red Wii

[@ClouceVanHaven]

NOW THIS ONE GETS IT! 🔥😈😎

[@platimation]

Funny story, my family had a Wii, soon a storm came through and because we had no surge protector, the Wii sadly would never turn on again. My grandma heard about what happened and bought us a Wii mini for Christmas, we still have it to this day and it’s in mint condition. (Keep in mind the Wii mini had just come out, it wasn’t rare then.)

[@aidangoble3055]

Omg this happened to me once like 8 years ago, there was a storm and our Wii wouldn't turn on after. Like 4 months later I plugged the thing back in to see and it worked, it still works to this day :)

[@platimation]

@@aidangoble3055 Now I wish we wouldn’t have got rid of it.

[@LeandroConrado14]

Same happened to me 9 years ago! RIP my Wii

[@noxcure]

Its still not rare, on average 50 bucks 😂

[@kennaruth3068]

EXACT same thing happened to me omg 😭

[@Plainapple287]

this console would’ve made so much more sense to get if they stripped certain parts of it and kept the sd card slot and the Wi-Fi.

[@codyholley]

Agreed

[@Everything-Wii]

Exactly. The look of the console plus the top loading functionality would be AMAZING with an SD card and wifi. It would reach a large audience, even without gamecube. (Which if people wanted they would likely already have a gamecube or original wii) It probably wouldn't increase the price by too much either

[@milfschnitteausdemkuhlrega7015]

Owner of this thing here: Me and my sister got one at christmas when we were like 9 and 6 years old. None of use cared about Wifi or anything, we just wanted to have fun with our friends or parents, and the console did this job well enough. Plus, the low price allowed our parents to buy us some extra games as well. P.S.: The red controller is one of the most beautiful ones i've eve

[@alessandrorossi1294]

That makes sense now in 2024 but when the Wii mini came out in 2012 digital games distribution was fairly limited on Wii , mainly just retro stuff, and Wii WiFi service would end 2 years later anyway. They had already killed off the news and weather channels. And the SD card slot was less useful than in the past. Before cellphone cameras were actually decent it was more popular to use digital cameras with sd cards, that made sense when the Wii came out but by the time the Wii mini came out the direction was clearly going towards phone cameras and digital cameras were going away

[@babayaga7434]

That's what the Wii itself was for. This was meant to be a budget option for those who just wanted the Wii without the extras, hence the $100 price tag including a copy of Mario Kart.

[@DicePunk]

Not calling it the Pii Wii is a missed opportunity.

[@pharaoh6977]

Although spelled differently, I think that name is already taken, probably also copy written😂😂

[@danielbutler8103]

Only if they could get the Actor that played Pee-wee Herman (Paul Reubens ) to do an add for it

[@pharaoh6977]

@@danielbutler8103 didn't he die?

[@IceBlueLugia]

@@pharaoh6977No bro, didn’t you play Super Mario Galaxy 2? Peewee Piranha is the first boss fight.

[@lennywright5655]

@@pharaoh6977 Yes but, that was recent (R.I.P.). He was alive when the Wii was still relevant.

[@TFGA_tFoMS]

My grandparents actually have one of these, and it works better than a normal WII, it has less moving parts, the power button and eject button are pretty well placed, and there really is no need for wifi on it. It works really well.

[@devilmikey00]

At least in Canada these things dropped to $50 bucks after about 6 months. I bought one because it was 10 bucks cheaper to buy a wii mini, which came with wiimotes, than it was to buy wiimotes alone. I then went and sold the wii mini for 20 bucks without wii motes. Kind of wish I'd kept it now but oh well.

[@AnthonyELombardi]

You're a liar

[@Rabolisk]

Fun fact. Canada was the only country it was released in (hence the red color). It was meant to be a test market before releasing it elsewhere but it failed.

[@TwiliPaladin]

​@@RaboliskAs someone living in the US, I can confirm it was not exclusive to Canada. Walmart had it in multiple states.

[@fernanr8377]

@@Rabolisk It was also sold in a few European countries

[@MrPoeTrolling]

@@Raboliskit was released in the UK too. I didn’t have a Wii at the time and it was slashed to £50 WITH a new copy of Mario kart Wii. Sadly, my dad didn’t want me to get the console.

[@crazycomet2926]

“Have you ever heard of the Wii Mini?” No I haven’t. And probably for good reason. “It’s not backwards compatible.” That’s why I haven’t heard it.

[@gagecampbell4023]

I had the Wii mini and I think its perfectly fine

[@gamer64exe73]

Same here I want to play with it again but I used the controller too much and now the buttons won't really work as well as they use to

[@epzo]

it sucks e

[@philwarren6346]

​@@epzoLike your mum does 😊

[@godz2928]

I bought this brand new and still have it now. I like how straight forward it is

[@brutal2417]

Did you know that since amd aquired ati before the wii mini came out, that the wii mini has amd branding instead of the ati branding seen on other wiis.

[@adamgreenhill110]

That's cool. It always feels like a neat legacy seeing the ATI logo on my old Wii

[@Jimbob_Offical]

I remember watching Austin’s original video on the Wii mini, it’s actually the first video I watch by him.

[@Deseko]

Me too! I think it was around 2015 I watched his video, i ended up buying that Wii Mini, I still have it, been playing Metroid Prime Echoes and Corruption on it lately lol

[@Nabhan82]

I love this version, very retro looking and simple. I'm glad I bought one when it was released.

[@bread7D]

I actually have one of these. It was the first console I ever got and I loved playing it with my little brother. Years later I was able to mod it despite the lack of sd card slot, (and wifi). The modding community figured out you can hack it through the Bluetooth feature and the singular USB slot on the back. It's definitely worse than the original but it gets the job done.

[@cajunag]

I always thought they should have called this this “Wee Wii”.

[@mylespl]

I modded one for my kids to play on with bluebomb and had a huge library of retro games plus game cube and wii games. Great little system.

[@ThePlushShowOfficial]

I had my Wii mini I think in like 2015 I still have that Wii today

[@crasheffort]

The real reason they stripped out features like the SD and WIFI is to prevent hacking vectors. It took many years to eventually hack it, and it was complicated enough to make hacking it not worthwhile.

[@averytucker790]

The irony of it was that you could get a used Wii for the same price. And it was twice as good even when it was heavily used.

[@babayaga7434]

A used Wii without the Wiimote would set you back around the launch price of this, which came with all your peripherals and a copy of Mario Kart. This was the best deal on the market for people who didn't want the extra bullshit, or wanted a console to stick in their RV/Cabin.

[@Nodeathnolife]

There have been mods that have restored the cut features, mainly the sd card slot and Wi-Fi

[@Voy_a_borrar_la_cuenta]

The GameCube ports were restored too

[@krbraveofficial]

to be fair the gamecube support was only on early wii models anyway later models of the regular wii did drop gamecube support

[@Co0ldude3685]

It’s cool to finally see someone who acknowledges the Wii mini’s existence, mainly because I got one for my ninth birthday 9 years ago

[@hiimapenguin]

I have a Wii Mini. It was before I really got into gaming, so I didn't even know the regular Wii even existed and thought that that was the regular Wii. Even after years you opened my eyes to the features of the regular Wii. I never even thought about WiFi.

[@MellamoLukas82910]

Now I understand why some people hate or don't like the Wii Mini.

[@jhoncarrasco6905]

I still remember getting this when i was 5 years old and i always thought this was some kind of special edition wii :')

[@FoxyAnimater]

If you mod it hardware and software wise using blue bomb and soldering on a MicroSD card slot, reset button, and Wi-Fi module, also adding a HDMI mod because the motherboard is identical, you can also mod in the GameCube ports as well considering all into no whis no matter if it's strictly shows that are not are backwards compatible with gamecube, then it would be a pretty intriguing Tower of wii, in fact I want to do a project like that where I add a USB hub internally and give it ethernet in addition to a few additional USB ports.

[@4amv]

i'd click on that video

[@EricNewnes]

As a guy who owns this console this is heavily underrated

[@mannis]

i will never understand companies getting rid of backwards compatibility with slim versions of their consoles

[@arthurgomes8214]

This is the sort of thing you come out with at the beginning of the console’s lifecycle if it were available for $100 back in the day it just may have been a beloved and iconic piece of Nintendo history

[@formulafables]

Back when I was 5-7 I got one of these for Christmas. I had played my grandparents Wii all the time and they thought it would be good to get one for mii. I was so happy, because, I didn’t know that my parents just got the cheapest one. Even if I had, however, I still wouldn’t have cared, after all, it played Mario kart and that’s all I needed.

[@charlieg6913]

Exactly. I love the way the mini looks. I want one.

[@formulafables]

@@charlieg6913 if I still had mine I would sell it to you lol

[@jasminappleby779]

I love how you spelt me as mii

[@LH97-racing]

W pfp goatlonso

[@KBXband]

Weird how there are no channels really and yet the menu is still the first thing we see rather than just booting up the game. I think mods are in order!

[@known_54]

I honestly love the red and black design of the Wii Mini, it looks so sleek

[@DarkDezhel]

Amazing thing, the scene made its way for modding the console trough the Bluetooth for the Wiimotes 😨

[@SuperCrazyfin]

Most people didnt have a gamecube, and back in the day getting wifi to work was such a hassle many people didnt use it. SD cards are the ONLY real issue with it

[@Brib8888]

I listened through the entire album yesterday, it's genuinely psychological horror by the end. You have no idea the anxiety I felt after being jumpscared after 4'11" ended, and waiting for it to start after the intro to Bohemian Rhapsody. What a masterpiece.

[@nickbaghead250]

I actually have one of those, and every time I’ve shown someone it they always think it’s some sort of bootleg thing until we actually start playing on it. It do be weird.

[@its_judge.b]

💡 Video Idea 💡 "The Ultimate Wii Mini"

[@thefunny8034]

Loved my Wii Mini growing up. I was just so glad I even got A Wii because the Wii back then was THE thing to have, it was so awesome.

[@MrJellyton]

I was tempted to get this back in the day. It was probably the removal of backwards compatibility that steered me away.

[@lilpichu172]

I remember my parents buying this when I was younger. My family didn’t have a lot of money at the time and only made little amounts of it each day, but they were determined to get at least one thing I’ve always wanted, a Wii for myself since my cousin was tired of me always playing on hers. Had it for about a decade and it still works. I remember this came with Mario Kart Wii, I think?

[@kirbykiwi]

I owned a Wii from release to two years ago and had no idea they had backward compatibility.

[@kylebaine2901]

But it has GameCube controller inputs and memory card slots, how'd you not know 💀

[@UnderwaterAlexJones]

CAP, nobody is that blind

[@HarmonicWave]

If you had it at release you never heard anyone talk about being able to play Gamecube games on it? We actually got a later model that's not backwards compatible and the writing on the front is horizontal (right side up when the Wii is horizontal).

[@kirbykiwi]

For people saying I’m lying, I was a 3 year old kid when it came out. It was my first gaming system. I never once played it after becoming a teen, then sold it a couple years ago. I straight up didn’t know it was backwards compatible. Had I known, I would’ve kept it.

[@rozasupreme]

They're also almost exactly the same size as a regular Wii, so more of a Wii Lite than a Wii Mini

[@acronym.4328]

The amount of modding you can do on the Mini makes it worth getting to some.

[@KHmaster523]

I only saw this once when I worked at GameStop in the late 2010s. I had no idea it existed and it sat in the back until I left a few years later. Some say it’s still there to this day…

[@Rayossan]

Yes I saw it. Saw when it was announced, saw the spec sheet and immediately dismissed it as the Wii U was on the horizon, promising nintendo games in HD. The checked Nintendo news outlets daily for information regarding it.

[@juanfra1997]

You can add wifi using a esp board and solrdering into the Main board because is the same as the wifi but just with out the wifi module

[@Mrbball.]

I still play my Wii mini for hours

[@nova3752]

Sucks to suck lol

[@Das_GLI]

Cool bro

[@Voy_a_borrar_la_cuenta]

Nice

[@xeneize285]

Not true

[@susanamartineznana1331]

Honestly man, I grew up with one cause I was on the lower end of income, I made memory's with this

[@scifriskyxy]

I actually saw this when i went to a mental hospital, probably donated

[@darrinself]

This is genuinely the first time I've ever heard of this thing and after seeing this I can understand why I never heard of it until now.

[@FenraiTheFurry]

Funny enough, this is the Wii I have. I used it a lot many years back, but I don’t any use for it nowadays. I plan on getting it back into action sometime to play some good ol’ Wii games

[@Polska35]

i got one of them, if im right, it got 3 games Mario Kart, Wii Sports and Wii sports resort, i still got the Wii remote the nunchuck (i think thats the way to type it), the power thingy and everything to play on it. im still astonished that it works.

[@epsilon6516]

It’ll work with any Wii game

[@Amir_7266]

When I was younger, I thought that was the Wii. As I grew and my friends showed me their consoles, I said “that ain’t a Wii.”

[@Potato_boi03]

I had a wii mini for many years, served me well and was well worth the money I spent. I also loved the look

[@Gombagamingg]

If it wasn't missing backwards compatibility completely I would buy one. It looks sleek af

[@greatvegetables]

I remember that. My grandma got me one on my birthday when I was about 6 or 7 because my older brothers would never let me play MarioKart with them on our original Wii. Good times

[@Steel-Saleos]

I got one of these back in the day since my OG wii couldn't run Disney Infinity. Came with a red Wiimote with built in MotionPlus, which is still one of my favorite controllers today. I think the novelty of it is nice, especially since my old wii can't read discs anymore

[@stephenpalomino9092]

Honestly, as a guy who’s first console was the Wii Mini, I loved it and I was content with it, my family didn’t have to worry about SD cards or Wi-Fi and I could still play all the games I wanted plus I was partial to the red color mine had lol

[@squeebosh8525]

I knew a couple of kids back in highschool who modded their Wii Mini so we could play Project M. They did it outta spite because of what the Wii Mini was.

[@Wazaaap]

I prefer that first Wii, it's like two consoles in one, the red one is nothing mini-like, it takes up more space and has less stuff.

[@ghostface7545]

It was also a canadian exclusive console. Its because back then internet was pretty rare, lots of people, including myself didnt live in the city where internet was. Also because lots of people have cabins in canada.

[@jimbob5725]

I have one of these and i really like it actually, plays games just like the regular wii and its a conversation piece too Plus i like the color scheme more than the plain white

[@Audiorevue]

Yes I do remember them of course who doesn't, but what I remember more is that they didn't sell. I remember at one point going into Walmart and this was probably in 2016 or maybe even 2017, and I remember seeing these on the shelf for probably like 60 bucks. I can't remember exactly because the memories kind of fuzzy and I was also drinking a lot back then too, but I'm pretty sure they were about 60 bucks and they were blowing them out and even then nobody bought them. Truly the regular Wii was the way to go. I mean obviously you could play Wii games but you could also go back and play GameCube games which was fantastic. It's the reason I still have a Wii, not because I play Wii games but because I love playing GameCube games

[@DukeNukem2020]

I still remember seeing the Wii Mini about 11 years ago at a Best Buy.

[@sfu0]

When he said, "Mostly because they suck", I felt that.

[@sleeprene]

I remember seeing Wii Mini at Target YEARS ago. I was wondering what the target audience was since everyone I knew had a Wii

[@pabloandthebucketeers698]

I just saw this at a second hand game store last week for the first time and I can't believe that's what it was

[@Altf4man]

Funny thing, when i was a kid (i'm speaking of around 2012) me and my sister really wanted a wii, but as a low class mexican family my parents weren't really interested in buying it. But one day they told us they were going to finally buy it for us. So we got to the store and bought a Wii Mini bundle with Mario Kart So the point is, i've never played a regular Wii, i've been playing in a Wii Mini since that day UNTIL TODAY. (I still challenge my gf or brother in MK or replay Zelda Twilight Princess, which is my favourite game ever) So, everybody is always saying wii mini sucks, and maybe it does. But i have so many good memories with my old loved Wii Mini :')

[@thedaniell91]

I still have my original Wii ❤. Got it for my bday in 2006 and still works perfectly!

[@Virtual_Vinsanity]

House of the dead was so fun with gun controllers. They really should have capitalized in that genre. The wii could've been the best gunshooter home arcade port.

[@dylancouture4698]

There is also "bluetooth" and jailbreaks for it, but it is substantially harder it only has bluetooth because of the control

[@allanau]

I like how the US found it rare but in Canada it's common. Probably rarely now because of the age of the Wii in general.

[@EL_Hotdog]

I was today years old when I realized the WII has a side door for GameCube controllers and memory cards

[@josiasnds]

Wii Mini is a cute console, but is sad to see Nintendo losing the oportunity to turn the Wii into a stream box in its time, besides if the gamecube adapter was compatible with it it could have been a nice option in this times.

[@buddyterd1]

Fun fact: even with adapters, the Wii minis software is not supported on normal tvs and despite having adapters the new update to software, it literally can not run

[@MoyanoJerald]

The Lack of Wi-Fi also closes the path to WiiWare (Although the Wii Shop Channel is already gone), Virtual Console and Homebrew It's like the Opposite of the Xbox One S All-Digital Edition

[@kianborg2818]

I still have my wii mini, which I thought was a better version of the wii, back when i received it as a gift in like 2014, I still own it to this day. I'm a very unlucky person with consoles as I also have the PSP Street, which also has no wifi 😕

[@L3Gecko]

I have the mini. This video gave me back so many memories from when I was younger.

[@LunarDoor]

the modding story on this thing was sick

[@SO-ug5ns]

They’re rare because not many were designed and it was at the end of the original Wii production life when they were well over and ready into the the making of the Wii U

[@Drwhomust]

I grew up with a Wii mini before I got a Wii U. The Wii mini brings back soo many memories!

[@calebyost9228]

No joke, I owned the Wii for a solid year before I learned the top flipped up for game cube controllers and memory cards.

[@Wipplez]

I have a wii mini! Can confirm, its aight.

[@keaganholman4863]

One this was released just in Canada and the theory is it was targeted towards people with cottages and places up north where you don't have Wi-Fi back when this came out

[@fivejedis]

I almost got this model back in the day, my original Wii got stolen so when I saw it was 100 dollars I almost jumped at it but once I did more research and saw it had no wi-fi or backwards compatibility I skipped it. I still played my GameCube games on the Wii during that time so i wouldve lost out on that if I went for it.

[@milkandgrapes3933]

I have two and grew up with them , they both work perfectly fine

[@Sprousey97]

I got one at my local used game store, I like it. And I don’t really mind the missing features since I already have a gamecube and you can’t play online anymore anyway

[@InedibleSpam]

I have a Wii mini, my parents never wanted us to play video games but I really wanted a Wii so I bought it myself, and as a like 8-10 year old that $100 price was good for me at the time

[@RL_235]

my school has one of those, i remember playing mario kart everyday on it

[@ChimpJr09]

I actually own a Wii Mini, it was my First own Console, and i got it when the Internet forthe Wii was already shut down,so it had litterally no difference for me to the normal Wii, because I never would have used the other things beside Games and the Mii Channel

[@airporthobo4044]

Fun fact, I had a friend who worked in a prison and they allow the wii minis in there because they're plastic and you can't hide anything in them

[@ArtsyBoi_15]

One day, my dad came home from work and he got me and my siblings a Wii mini with Mario kart Wii.

[@diogoalmeida9200]

The funniest thing: I almost bought this model before knowing the retrocompatibility of the old ones with GC…

[@outcast5732]

I had to get one of these because my house got robbed while I was sleep and they took my real wii. Still got Will mini stashed in my closet 😢

[@10191927]

😢 That locked 480i resolution tho….

[@anthonyrosique7965]

The Wii Mini is the Wii I had back in the days. Did the job!

[@boredstudent]

I still have an original Wii model. There were some models that had to be returned and exchanged by Nintendo because they didn't read dual layer DVDs. I remember it was a problem when Super Smash Bros. Brawl came out.

[@Hikuro2pnt0]

I actually just came across one at a game shop. It was right next to an original famicon in the box.

[@Hypr12]

You're telling me this whole time, I've been using the mini version?

[@Nega-Tim]

Bro the first ever video of yours I watched was on the Wii mini. That video was pretty good

[@hiddenone8004]

I never knew you could open the top of a Wii like that even through the years I’ve used it😭