Nintendo announces Olympic blue Wii bundle for UK

by Steven Mostyn - Oct 11 2011, 11:53

With all the recent fuss surrounding Nintendo’s upcoming Wii U console, chances are you may have forgotten about the existing first-generation Wii. Well, it’s time to remember—for a fleeting second.

Namely because Japanese videogame specialist Nintendo has this week unveiled a fresh-faced variant of its market-leading console, which comes attached to character-specific aesthetics.

Aimed at UK users, the new hardware bundle is being released ahead of next year’s Olympic Games and includes a blue Wii console, a blue Wii Remote Plus controller, a blue Nunchuk, a promotional sticker set, and a copy of Mario & Sonic at the London 2012 Olympic Games.

Although prospective buyers who’ve not yet invested in a Wii may be thrilled at the prospect of nabbing Nintendo’s swanky blue box, they should bear the following in mind before splashing their cash:

The Mario & Sonic bundle will arrive as the first of the ‘tweaked’ consoles Nintendo announced during the summer Gamescom expo in Germany.

This essentially means the new, slightly smaller Wii has been completely stripped of GameCube support in terms of both disc compatibility and control port access.

The blue bundle will be released on November 18. There’s currently no word from Nintendo as to whether the package will arrive in North America or any other market other than the UK.

Nintendo has not yet said how much it will be charging for the blue bundle. The retail tag will need to be competitive if the Wii is to staunch the flow of consumer disinterest that has been eating into its market lead for several months.

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