Nintendo Wii
When you fire up the Wii, this is what you get yourself into:
*note* The Wii Menu can be arranged in any order. Here's mine-
-Games Channel: Launch your Nintendo Wii or Gamecube disc based game from here.
-Wii Shop Channel: This is were you download from a rather large selection of Wii Ware, Neo-Geo, Nintendo Entertainment System, Super Nintendo, Sega Genesis, Turbo Grafx 16, Neo Geo, Arcade, etc. games. They are pretty much available as they were originally, glitches and all. Still, it's an old school gamer's paradise. My Wii says that an update is available and I don't feel like updating right now, so. Yeah. Also, the Wii is the only one of the big three that offers absolutely no background downloading at all. Mario runs across the screen grabbing coins as the game downloads. I've seen Mario grab 11 billion dollars worth of coins. I wonder what he does with it all.
-Internet Channel: Strangely, when you fire this channel up, it says "Internet Channel internet". A little redundant, isn't it? Anyway, this is where you find your Wii browser. It's a little limited, but it's fast as lightening. Faster than my PC, sometimes. It does suffer from limited memory, though. It also can't copy and paste, as far as I know. Still, it plays video from a lot of sites, and it does about what you'd expect. Some video and pics won't show up on it, though.
-Mii Channel: Here's where your avatar hangs out with other avatars. When you're not looking, they conspire to kill you and escape. Cute little guys! Here's where you make your little guy, or receive Miis from your friends. They often run around endlessly in the Mii Parade, too. It's a cute distraction.
-Forecast Channel: I actually use this thing a lot. It's a pretty bare bones weather forecast. Still, if you want to play your week, it's always available in a heart beat. I hear that there are games that actually use the weather to effect gameplay. Weather this is an idea that was never used or not, I don't know. None of my games feature this, though.
-Pokemon Puzzle League: Great game. You should buy it. I think I'll leave my downloaded games channels out of this, from now on.......
-News Channel: Instant access to the news that effects your world. It's broken down into different sections: National News, International News, Sports, Arts/Entertainment, Business, Science, and Technology. I actually use it more than Yahoo! News.
-Check Mii Out Channel: A nice little diversion and a good way to get some cool Miis. All you do is vote on which user created Mii matches a particular theme. If you're so inclined, you can enter your own shitty Mii and lose to some guy who can make a Mii look like Optimus Prime. I quit competing a long time ago. You get ratings based on how well you vote with the population. Go ahead. Conform to popular opinion!!
-Everybody Votes Channel: It's simple. Your Mii is trying to get home to his family and get some sleep. Unfortunately, the guy from "Saw" wants you to play a little game. He's going to ask you a series of questions like "Which tastes better? Apples or Hamburgers". Of course, this is an opinion and there is no wrong answer. Except for the fact that THERE IS A WRONG ANSWER. And anytime you choose what the majority of the voters choose, you get on step closer to going home. Anytime you choose the "wrong" answer, your Mii gets pushed farther back. I used to play this game every couple of days.......then, my Mii died from exhaustion.
-Photo Channel: Hidden way in the back of my Wii Menu is the Photo Channel. There are photos stored there that will get me killed. I can't copy them because the Wii won't support that option. I can't delete them because of the memories! Damn, I wish I hadn't lost that SD card with the originals. Anyway, the Wii lets you draw on and save your artwork. It's more fun than you'd think. You can also have the Wii cut the photo up, and try to put it back together while you race against the clock. Like the PS3, various filters and background music is available and can be selected during your slide show.
-Wii Message Board: All of your recieved messages, photos posted, and what you played/did on a particular day is posted here.
-Nintendo Channel: A recent addition, this allows you to view videos of new Nintendo console releases, lets you download demos to your Nintendo DS, lets you critique games, tells you which games you've been playing and for how long, and is pretty much your one stop shop for all things Nintendo. It's my favorite part of the Wii interface experience.
If you have music on an SD card, you can play it on the Wii on this channel, too. Some video format is supported but I have yet to watch a video on the Photo Channel.
Also of note:
-The Wii has various options for internet access (Wii Connect 24, Wireless Wi-Fi), parental controls, System Naming (Mine is called N7!) and it supports SD cards for memory expansion.
-The Wii lets you gift a games to your friends.
Odd man out because: No built in Ethernet Cable support, no hard drive, no CD support, no DVD support, 100% backwards compatible with prior generation, not HD.
