Canadians Get Exclusive Tiny Wii

Nintendo has a long tradition of releasing weird, shrunken versions of their systems after 99% of the world has already moved onto the next thing. It’s one of the company’s odder habits, but hey, I guess somebody must buy these things?

Well, now the Wii Mini joins the likes of the top-loading NES-101, the SNES Jr. and the Gameboy Micro.

Hit the jump for some pics and details…

As you can see, this model trades in the slot loading of the Wii and Wii U for a top-loading, pop-up hatch design. Apparently Nintendo has also stripped every last bit of non-essential functionality out of this thing. No Gamecube support, no Internet connectivity, and likely the barest amount of internal storage possible for saving games. The trade off for this lack of features is a super-low $99 price point.

No word on the machine’s exact dimensions, but if we assume this picture is more or less to scale, the machine is narrower, and just slightly longer than a Wiimote.

Right now the Wii Mini is exclusive to Canada — likely because we don’t really have a “Black Friday” up here. Nintendo doesn’t want everyone who snapped up cheap Wiis over the weekend getting upset when they immediately release an even cheaper alternative. It’s almost certain this thing will come to the U.S. sometime in 2013, and if it doesn’t, well, I guess us Canadians have a weird little collector’s item.

via Ars Technica & Future Shop