The "Wow Wireless Gaming", a Wii clone with its 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 '2.4gHz' 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 Wireless Gaming" 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 Macro Winners (games by Waixing & Cube Technology).
- Ninety6, sold on Italian markets.
- Emperator, sold on Iranian markets (Reference).
- WiWi & Wiii3 series by Qi Sheng Long (games by Shenzhen Niutai Technology Development Co., Ltd. & Nice Code Software). Versions include:
- WiWi Simple - 18 16-bit games by Shenzhen Niutai.
- 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 16-bit Nice Code games. Both consoles superficially resemble a PlayStation 3 and come supplied with a cricket bat attachment for the controller.[1]
- WiWi 32 - 48 32-bit games by Shenzhen Niutai. Uses Sunplus SPG293 hardware according to Chinese copyright filings for the 48 in 1 software by Shenzhen Niutai. Released in different territories by different companies, some of which retain the WiWi 32 branding.
- Expert Digital WiWi32, sold in Romanian markets.
- Milleniu Consola de Juegos 48 en 1, likely sold in Spain.
- MGT GP-480.fit, sold in German markets.
- "Drahtlose Spielekonsole" / "Wireless game console", sold in German markets.
- WiWi 65 - Advertised on Qi Sheng Long's website (original, simple pack), but appears to be very uncommon, with the only known time it was sold being on a now-defunct auction site in Crimea.[2] Comes with 65 32-bit games, some of which are believed to have been developed by Nice Code (at least one, Crisis of Nuke, is confirmed to have been developed by them).
- 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 do so. 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. Games made by Waixing. Uses the Sunplus SPG293 chipset. This hardware would be sold in various territories, sometimes reshelled and/or rebranded. The most infamous variants of this hardware are the JG742x consoles released in the Lexibook TV Game Console line that would be sold in European and (to a limited extent) American territories.
- iSports Game XA-810 - 48 32-bit games - 11 sports games and 37 arcade games. Going by the pictures on the back of the box, the games are likely the same as the 32-bit games by Shenzhen Niutai that would be included on consoles by Qi Sheng Long and other companies. It's not confirmed if this console is related to the Subor consoles.
- TV Sport Game by an unknown company (released under the Virtual Interactive/Vi brand). Also known as Extreme Version Sport Game 54 in 1 on the console's shell. 32-bit system. Comes with 54 games built in and uses a menu interface that is near identical to the 48 in 1 menu on the WiWi 32. Despite coming with controllers that resemble Wiimotes, the console itself does not resemble the Wii and uses a generic shell.
- 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 manufactured by Jakks Pacific that look just like Zone consoles. They seem to actually be 32-bit, with similar hardware to the original PlayStation. The games were developed by Western companies, all the ones featuring copyrighted characters are officially licensed by the rights holders, and the software provided is overall of noticeably higher quality than that found on all the other Wii clones listed in this section.
- Wivision, a Famiclone with a name similar to "Wii" but comes with a standard game controller similar to that found with the InterAct.