The "Wow Wireless Gaming", a Wii clone with controller.
A Wii clone is a type of console that is designed to resemble the Nintendo Wii. They are typically not clone consoles, despite the name, as they usually run on generic 16 or 32-bit hardware, although a few Famiclone-based versions do exist. Wii clones are supplied with games either built in or on cartridges - ranging from about 5 to 100+ depending on the model - almost invariably including sports games such as tennis, baseball or golf.
One of the earliest Wii clones was the Sport Vii by JungleTac, which came with 2.4g wireless controllers duplicating many features of the real Wii's, including accelerometers and a built in speaker. However very few subsequent clones have such features, and the controllers supplied with vast majority of Wii clones sold today are infrared Famiclone-style controllers with a simple motion sensor mapping any sharp movement to the A button. These are essentially an evolution of the single-game plug-and-play consoles (usually Famiclones) released prior to the Wii, which used similar technology to play ping-pong, tennis, boxing etc, usually with only one game per unit.
Features of a typical Wii clone
Wii clones are usually white in color and can be placed horizontally or vertically, as with the original Wii; they are almost always supplied with two controllers closely resembling the Wii remote but with a Famiclone style button layout, and often come with a number of sports themed attachments for the controllers similar to those often sold as accessories for the Wii.
Examples
Note that Wii clones are often rebranded by distributors so these consoles may have been released under different names in some regions. For example the "Wow" shown above is a rebranded version of a Xin An Vii for the UK market.
- Sport Vii by JungleTac / KenSingTon.
- Q3 by Conny (one of the few other than the Sport Vii to use actual accelerometers).
- MiWi series by Micro Winners (games by Waixing & Cube Technology).
- Ninety6, sold on Italian Market.
- Emperator, sold on Iranian Market (Reference).
- WiWi & Wiii3 series by Qi Sheng Long (games by unknown developers & Nice Code Software). Versions include:
- WiWi Simple - 18 16-bit games.
- WiWi (87 in 1) & Wiii3 (87 in 1) - different case design but identical games. includes the same 18 games from the WiWi Simple with 69 additional Nice Code 8-bit games.
- WiWi (198 in 1), Super WiWi & Sports Resort - again different case designs but identical games. These include "198" 16-bit games with repeats; actually closer to 40 unique games.
- Wiii3 (205 in 1)/WiWi Cricket - same "198" games from the above console plus an additional cartridge containing 7 Nice Code 16-bit games. Supplied with a cricket bat attachment for the controller.
- WiWi 32 - 48 32-bit games.
- iSports series by Subor (games by Waixing). Some versions can play Famicom games, and NES games with an 72 to 60 pin adapter [1] but others can't. In the UK, one version is sold on Amazon as an 'iTek' and is identical but with less games.
- iSports Pro, 32 bit with the ability to play downloaded games from an SD card.
- Vii & X-wei series by Sinango (games vary, may include 8-bit Waixing/Nice Code games, standard Famicom games, 16-bit games possibly by Nanjing, etc.).
- Zone series by Ultimate Products ltd. Actually rebranded versions of consoles by various manufacturers, eg. the original Zone is by Macro Winners, the Zone 40 is by Subor, the Zone 60 is by Jungletac.
- Ultimotion series,a line of systems manufactered by Jakks pacific that look just like Zone consoles. They seem to actually be 32 bit with similar hardware to the original PlayStation.
- Wivision,a famiclone with a name similar to "Wii" but comes with a standard gamepad similar to that found with the InterAct.
