two gamecubes duct-taped together
One frustrated developer once stated that the Wii was "Just two Gamecubes duct-taped together." Technically, it's three Gamecubes, as the Wii can play Gamecube games with what is essentially a smaller Gamecube inside of the Wii. It also managed to have less processing power than the original Xbox, and yet sold more units than the Xbox 360 and PS3 combined.
The Wii was released in 2006, Once again in North America before Japan, with a plethora of launch titles, those being Avatar: The Last Airbender, Call of Duty 3, Cars, Dragon Ball Z: Budokai Tenkaichi 2, Exite Truck, The Grim Adventures of Billy and Mandy, GT Pro Series, Happy Feet, The Legend of Zelda; Twilight Princess (Which was actually released in the Wii before it was on the Gamecube), Madden NFL 07, Marvel: Ultimate Alliance, Monster 4x4: World Circuit, Need for Speed: Carbon, Rampage: Total Destruction, Rayman Raving Rabbids, Red Steel, SpongeBob Squarepants: Creature from the Krusty Krab, Super Monkey Ball: Banana Blitz, Tony Hawk Downhill Jam, Trauma Center: Second Option, and the pack-in game Wii Sports. Again, the closest thing to a Mario launch game is Super Monkey Ball: Banana Blitz (SMB:BB) (Yes, I know I already used that joke, I couldn't resist doing it again.)
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The Wii was considerably cheaper than the Xbox 360 and PS3, as well as being so energy-efficient that it didn't need a cooling fan within it. Back in 2012, Nintendo released the "Family Version" of the Wii, which was oriented sideways and didn't have the Gamecube controller ports (which I learned the hard way), yet keeping its ability to play Gamecube games for some odd reason, which replaced all non-white Wii consoles. They simultaneously released the Mini Wii, which lost its ability to play Gamecube games entirely and was considerably smaller. They would then jump back to the handheld scene with a console just as successful, the 3DS.