As I'm sure many of you know, before Nintendo called one of it's most successful home consoles "Wii", it was codenamed Revolution.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=69vFDd6PRpc&t=4m14s

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=r5vnKmc3CUo (Wii/Revolution portion ends at around 2:55)

I have no idea how to make these into videos

At the time, Nintendo made various claims about the 'Revolution' in that it was to be able to play 20 years of Nintendo content (Virtual Console), its graphics would make you say "wow", expand gaming, provide games with big ideas rather than big budgets, and be a console for everyone. With all of these promises and more, Nintendo really had their hands full when they first revealed the console way back at E3 2005.

Now that it's 2012, and you have spent a lot of time with Wii, did Wii live up to it's codename?

Technically I think that only the motion control on Wii was actually a success and a real revolution, thanks to that we have seen unique titles like Fragile, Another Code, Sky Crawlers, Silent Hill: Shattered Memories and much more. But the graphics capability, virtual console and even those channels wasn't so great. When I saw special Metroid Prime 3 channel I hoped for more because Nintendo said they will bring more similiar channels for new games, but in the end they didn't.
Of course I'm not saying that Wii was horrible, from Nintendo perspective Wii was the most powerful console they released but even their prototype version used to have CPU with 2.1/2.5/3.0 GHz (or so I heard). not just 762MHz so it's really low even when they release it. From the other side thanks to low power processing, old genres like Platforming and Point & Click was revived and in the end only on Wii was released most unique and great two jRPG that showed "that power processing isn't a problem but the way of thinking and lack of imagination is"

I Think motion control was only real difference maker. Nothing else about it was amazing.

No. Motion controls existed long before the console. Revolutionizing something isn't the same as making it mainstream.

In the same way Halo did not revolutionize the FPS genre.

I guess some but motion controls before then were just awful.

I think the question we should be asking is, did the Gamecube live up to it's codename?

It was the revolution we deserved, but not the one we needed.

Edit: @Happy_Mask Lol. I suppose Isle Delfino was enough.

What? There were 1:1 motion controls on the PC long before the Wii.

And the Wii didn't even launch 1:1 motion controls with the system. It took them a couple years. So how is it a revolution to take something from another platform, present it less efficiently in a different way, and make it mainstream?

Again, making something popular is not the same as a revolution. In your view, Kinect would be a revolution as well, and I highly doubt this site is going to speak in favor of the 360 being a revolutionary console.

Definitely. Nintendo introduced the world to a different type of gaming. Motion gaming. It was definitely a revolution.

Motion control in games has existed since the 80's.

How is it a revolution just because it's on the Wii?

Yes

I do agree with this.

The Wii didn't introduce motion gaming. There have been many before. There was even a motion control device on the market when the Wii was announced, the PS2 EyeToy:

But I guess only Nintendo is allowed to be innovative...

Are you being sarcastic with that post or are you really going that route?

Better motion controls existed before the Wii. Motion controls existed on consoles before the Wii. Motion controls have been around for over 30 years. What did the Wii 'revolutionize'?

So the Wii is revolutionary because it sold x number of units? That's absurd. There's a difference between popularity and revolutionary.

Other than Skyward Sword that required an add on can't say I found motion controls really added a whole lot, pointer controls where very nice especially in FPS games, but for the most part motion controls felt unnecessary to me and merely did what a button press would.

If I could come up with a better analogy I would, but I agree with you 100% .

In a funny sort of way I think the Wii did live up to its "revolution" codename, but not necessarily because of the motion controls (which I really don't like), but in its general philosophy of simplicity and accessibility. The Wii's desire to strip overly complicated and pretentious modern video games back to their bare essentials is something that has hopefully had some influence and reset the industry's thinking. I would hope that the world of video game developers looked at the ridiculous popularity and money making power of Wii Sports and realized that somewhere along the line they lost their way and lost the casual gamer. That simple fun is what video games should be all about, and will also make you lots of money.

So everyone that contributed to motion gaming has revolutionized the industry. Just like 'paper'.

Awesome, so Sony and Microsoft have also revolutionized motion gaming. Woo!

I think what I'd say is that Wii 's use of motion control (basically forcing developers to use it as it was the standard controller for Wii development) revolutionized the industry. It made developers think differently about how to approach making their games in the future (it seemed like a lot had/have a hard time with it still). Until Wii came out, mindsets and strategies of big named developers and an entire industry weren't changed much (if at all) when making video games even though things like Eye Toy and Power Glove existed (at least to my knowledge ). I also think @Haywired makes a good point in that it was also due in part to the Blue Ocean strategy held by Nintendo. I'm terrible at explaining things.

@alex your thinking to hard about it, it like how the iPad revolutionized touch screen gaming