The Wii Mini was an odd little system. Released in Canada in 2012 before making its way to other regions in 2013, it was perhaps the most nerfed console we've ever seen. Nintendo pitched it as a cheaper option for customers who had either yet to buy a Wii or wanted an extra one in another location, but in order to reach the lower price, the company removed a whole bunch of features. These included component output support, GameCube support, Wi-Fi, and the SD card slot. In short, it played Wii games... Which, to be fair, is probably what most folks are after.
YouTube channel Macho Nacho Productions, however, has gone the extra mile to showcase exactly what the humble Wii Mini can do with the right mods applied. Essentially, the Wii Mini's motherboard came with all the necessary connections required to add Wi-Fi and SD card support, but Nintendo simply chose not to include these in the machine. This video takes you through how to apply these yourself.
The end result brings the Wii Mini more or less in line with the OG Wii, albeit without the GameCube or component support. It means, of course, that you can start to dive into the world of Homebrew right on your Wii Mini; something that simply wouldn't be possible on the console as it stands.
It's a neat little trick and something you might want to try out if you've got a Wii Mini lying around the house. Let us know in the comments if you plan on giving it a shot!
[source youtube.com]
Comments 19
Still looks like a Fisher Price CD player.
Love Macho Nacho Productions
Useful for when the world runs out of regular Wii's I guess?
I really like Wii Mini's look and colors. But at the same time, I wish it had all of the features regular Wii had.
I have seen a few Wii Minis in shops 10 or so years ago. I really wonder if many people bothered with buying this junk instead of a regular Wii, which was pretty common in every tech shop
Still only outputs Composite...
The only thing I like about the Wii Mini is the color and the lid (opens like the GameCube).
Weird. I was googling this last night and didn’t find much.
I'll wait for the general release on this one.
@JohnnyC It was my first console so your not wrong.
@Skunkfish I still have 3 of them, I don't think they will run out anytime soon 😂
Silly, just buy a Wii, they are cheaper the. Wii Mini’s where I live.
@JohnnyC I can remember playing with a Fisher Price "record player" as a toddler.
I don't think it played any actual music. We just had to use our imagination.
We were not high-tech enough to have a babyproof device that could play actual sound. (though I can be a grumpy old man by arguing about parents these days giving their babies device that play sound, that are the exact opposite of babyproof )
Well... I guess that why phones are now sold with insurance plans. It's like the makers figured out a way they can make more money while cheapening out on build quality (the days of things built as seemingly unbreakable as the Game Boy are gone).
Wii Mini is proof that Nintendo can release any console at any time defying all logic. I mean sure the tablet 2DS took out the 3DS defining feature of 3D and turned the ubiquitous clamshell design to a tablet but the Wii Mini was first, and it did this:
Painted the Wii Mini "Netflix red", which made sense as for a time the Wii was THE MOST USED CONSOLE FOR STREAMING NETFLIX, only it couldn't b/c no internet.😝
https://www.google.com/amp/s/www.destructoid.com/wii-is-the-most-popular-console-for-netflix-streaming/amp/
And the Wii Mini was bundled with Mario Kart Wii, 1 of Nintendo's best online Wii games, but again, no online. 😂
Cool- but it still has output that isn't even as good as the Gamecube- so It's not very useful- Even if they found a way to hardwire HDMI out, it still wouldn't be as good as the Gamecube because of the digital out port on the Gamecube. Granted this doesn't natively play Gamecube games, the only reason I compare them is that Gamecube is nearly a decade older and has better tech.
One Wii related mod that I would be very interested in would be putting a higher resolution display in the Wii U gamepad- I'm guessing that isn't possible because the video being wirelessly transmitted out of the Wii U is only about 480p- I do wonder if at the very least what it would look like with a better 480p display-
When they unveiled this back then I immediately loved the look. Too bad it came with so many drawbacks.
The one thing I liked about the Wii Mini was that it was a top loader. As cost-cutting measures go, that one made a lot of sense. It's a very simple setup and works well. The problem was they cut so much else that it made little sense as a product. Giving it internet access would make sense to me since it came out so late when new releases were drying up.
Shame the picture quality is still absolute trash and the console itself looks like a cheap kindergarten lunch box (which it pretty much almost is to be fair). I love the Wii, and top loading revisions are usually very cool, but this one was ...rubbish.
@RadioShadow I suppose it does still output RGB through SCART cable if you live in Europe or for those in the US that have a TV with a SCART connector.
@PtM what?? Ahahaha OMG... That's really bad.
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