It's fair to say that the late Queen Elizabeth II had her fair share of bling during her 70-year reign; you know, the Imperial State Crown, the Sovereign's Orb, the Kokoshnik Tiara... rather expensive stuff, a few notches above the kind of tat you might have found at the bottom of a box of Coco Pops.
Given her status, however, we imagine many folks also attempted to send her a number of luxurious gifts. One such example came courtesy of publisher THQ to celebrate the Wii release of the long-forgotten Big Family Games (Neighborhood Games). Rather than send just the game itself, THQ commissioned a 24K gold-plated Wii console to be carted off to Buckingham Palace. If nothing else, Lilibet could have sold it on for a few extra quid, but unfortunately, the console never made it to her.
Since the Royal Family doesn't accept 'unsolicited gifts', the console landed in the hands of a collector before eventually finding a home with the ultimate console database @ConsoleVariations. Now, the group is bringing the golden Wii to Gamescom in Cologne, Germany to be showcased for the first time in public.
Unfortunately, the golden nunchuck included with the original set is long gone, but the console and the Wii remote are still fully intact and look absolutely fabulous. It's nice that fans get to finally cast their eyes on this thing, if only for its unique history and significance.
Meanwhile, we imagine the rest of the Royal Family are eagerly awaiting the release of games like The Legend of Zelda: Echoes of Wisdom and Metroid Prime 4: Beyond. They all play Switch and read Nintendo Life, right? Maybe we should check...
Will you be heading to Gamescom this year? What do you make of the fabled golden Wii? Leave a comment with your thoughts down below.
Comments 26
Personally, I'm fine with a reguar Wii and would be even if I had the money for such a thing - I'd rather use it to buy more games, merchandise etc. - but still, interesting that it's a thing and happy that it will be shown at Gamescom!
I never thought this looked very well implemented... the Chrome plating N64s that you could get back in the day looked better. This looks a bit rough round the edges - especially as the buttons are untouched plastic stick out like sore thumb!
Yeah, it's not hard to see how THQ the first went under
Now this was a bad idea, dont know much about the queen but im sure she would have appreciated a chocolate bar more than this. Or maybe a tennisball.
I thought all Wii was golden.
@ChHa : Or several more corgis.
Even a gilded Wii could not have changed my disrelish of that console.
@Zeebor15
Hoho!
Though to be fair, the guilty party in taking down THQ was quite specifically the uDraw tablet. Quite an expensive hardware venture, that ended up flopping fairly hard.
I loved it. Crap console, crap controller, a lot to dislike. Most games have badly aged and are barely playable today... but still, 15 years ago I used to love it for the simple fun it gave
Still playing and loving my launch Wii. So many great timeless games.
Also thinking that in some bargain bin or car boot sale there's a real gold nunchuk waiting to be noticed.
Queen Elisabeth?
They been watching Frozen lately?
@fabiop The Wii had a crap controller? Honestly nunchuck combo was probably my favorite controller up to now. Especially after motion plus. Just wish the motion controls had been better at the time.
@roboshort only few games supported the motion plus. Came out too late.
Yes it was crap, not accurate at all… to the point that many games were barely playable. Awesome for shooters (which suffered the poor Wii performance though) and not much else
William had a Wii, and he and his grandmother were known to play Wii Sports on it. Rumour has it the William's Wii is currently residing somewhere in his private Rose garden.
Out of all the games to include with it, Big Family Games.
The game choice is inspired.
@BLAZINOAH I hear he often asks Kate to use her Wii with him too
Hey Beavis.. this guys talking about Queen Elizabeth's golden wii
He he he he
Hehe hehe
He he he he
Poor Queen Elizabeth she never had the chance to play Wii Sports with her grandchildren on that lovely golden Wii cause of that "unsolicited gifts" policy.
If nothing else, Andrew could have used it as kiddy bait.
Anybody else notice that they spelled their own @website incorrectly?
"@Consolevaritions.com" < LOL
@dark_potato - you nailed that one. LMAO
The Royal We
Or rather.. Wii
No wonder ol' Louis is always so moody. He never got his hands on this.
Ahhh, the royal Wii, fit enough for a Queen. Kinda tempted to play with my own Wii... which is in another state, 3 & a half hours away... in another house.
Out of all the titles available they give her a THQ-game…The budget for the console itself was clearly prioritised, lol.
"Unfortunately, the golden nunchuck included with the original set is long gone,"
Seriously, how do you lose this, or separate the set? 🙄
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