dtm666

Digital Foundry did a pretty comprehensive review of the recent Canada-exclusive Wii Mini console release and can be read here for anyone interested. After reading this review, it pretty much confirmed my original thought process on the console; stripped down to the bare minimum and not worth the money for a budget gaming system, especially since for an additional fifty bucks you can get an original Wii model with pack-in game.

So another set of details has surfaced regarding the upcoming Wii Mini that’s up for sale in Canada and another bit of information has come up that might kill some potential sales. As if the lack of Gamecube support and Internet access might be rage-inducing to some people, it’s also been revealed that the Wii Mini lacks an SD card slot. So, in other words, if you’re looking to back-up your save data or carry over your save data from another Wii console over to the Mini, you’re out of luck.

This is disheartening to hear. While I’m not going to be shedding any tears over the lack of Gamecube and Internet access (meaning no WiiWare and Virtual Console), I would’ve thought they kept the SD slot for the sake of backing up saves or that sort of thing. I know some saves couldn’t be transferred, but I figured they would work around that at the very least. Considering that there is NO SD slot to be found on the system, my thoughts on whether this would be a worthwhile purchase – even as a budget system – seems to be waning even further towards the negative.

Mind you, I had no real intention of picking up a Wii Mini, especially since my 2008 Wii model – the one with Gamecube support, Internet access, and an SD card slot – is still working fine and might be subjected to a good softmodding if I can find a safe means of doing so… but there was the thought of picking this up as a novelty item. And if I could transfer my saves from Big Wii to Mini Wii, then at the very least, I’d have a back-up Wii. But the lack of a very common component in the SD card slot means that Nintendo will most certainly not be getting my money when it comes to this venture.

Really, I’m still not seeing the value of this thing as anything other than something for the collectors to buy and preserve for the eventual boost in resale value in five to ten years. I mean, if you were really looking for a decent budget system, there are dozens and dozens of better alternatives. I recommend picking up a Super Nintendo instead.

A local trip to the local flea market yielded interesting observations. Aside from a couple quick pick-ups for myself, I noticed one of the vendors had a working Vectrex console on sale for three-hundred bucks. Unfortunately, it’s out of my price range and probably not a worthwhile investment at this point, but man, talk about bad luck. I’d love to get my hands on one of those babies… oh well.

(2024 Update: Oh, 2012 Dave. Just wait another decade and your dream will come true.)