It's the bastard child of the HD twins and Apple. That's right, the HD twins conceived. In a threesome. Gross!

I've always heard that the HD Twins moniker came from the idea that the two consoles had nearly the same game lineups because of their similar third party support. From that perspective I think Ninty fans would love if the Wii U could get enough third party support to be equal with the PS360 and be called an HD triplet. That said, I don't see the Wii U getting nearly equal support like the PS3 and 360 did and I don't think it would ever have enough support that Nintendo fans would be happy calling them the HD triplets because they'll always argue that Nintendo's first party will forever differentiate the Wii U, while ignoring Sony's first party.

This thing will be the hot little 18 year old cousin who makes the 26 year old twins green with envy.

HD twins was born to make a clear graphical distinction between PS360 and Wii.
With the next generation the term HD twins/triplets or whatever will cease to exist because they will all be matched in that department.

Nothing hard to understand about it really. It's a competition. Advantages will be pointed out, as well as drawbacks.

Quoted (& bolded) for truth!

No I think the fact the ps360 have been in almost dead heat the whole race is one of the main reasons for the name, Maybe I'm wrong. However I also agree with others that Wiiu is on a different play skeem. So no it doesn't have the same attractions that both of the HD twins have. Basically the twins are going for the same peps that made the ps2 so successful.

Lol. So many people trying to both declare the Wii U as being for the outgoing gen and at the same time put it down as incapable.

The Wii U is no relation. It is the daddy of the next gen.

It was created as a way to exclude the Wii - if anyone remembers the atmosphere before PS3 and Wii launched, it was very different. Everyone thought PS3 would dominate so there were a lot of "Wii60" sentiments with Microsoft even jumping in on the act, as a way to combat big bad Sony.

But now that all 3 major consoles can output in HD, using that as an identifying feature of any of them seems pretty moot. If the Wii U takes off I fully expect the trolls to come up with a new term to exclude Nintendo, unless Sony or Microsoft drop the ball in some way that garners everyone's scorn instead. Of course, there's always the small possibility that none of them get grouped together and are judged on their own merits instead.

I think they call them the HD twins cause they are practically swappable. They have the about the same power, graphics and games that the other. There are a few exclusives, but that's about it. Sure Sony has better storage (blu-ray - but what like 3 games us it?) and Xbox has a better online service (that you pay for), but those are the differences.

But even the CPU's were designed at the same time, by the same company (IBM).

So if you got and X360 or a PS3 you would open yourself up to many of the same games. But if you had a Wii you could have a completely different gaming experience (with motion/movement.)

Having owned a 'Le Stick' in the 1980's I'm was amazing Nintendo was able to pull it off and make it fun.

More like the HD twins are middle-aged men now and the Wii U is a strapping young lad with cybernetic implants.