Nintendo Wii Mini Coming to the US Later This Month

The Xbox One and PlayStation 4 may be launching this month, but there’s another console that looks to invade store shelves in the US this month as well. Nintendo has announced that the Wii Mini will be making its way to the US at some point this month. The console will be bundled with Mario Kart Wii and will cost only $99 for the set.

The Wii Mini is a unique little machine, offering no ability to connect to the internet and only plays Wii discs, but what sets the console apart from the rest of the crowd is its extremely low price point. At only $99, the Wii Mini makes for a great casual gaming console for those who are looking for a cheap gaming experience this holiday season, and the console’s release in the US this month is a huge hint from Nintendo that the Wii Mini is poised to be a hot holiday item.

But will it? The Wii is a classic, but it’s a seven-year-old gaming console that is vastly outdated. However, it was the first console to incorporate motion control that caught on quick, and it serves as the basis for where motion controll is headed into the future, with the Xbox Kinect sensor that allows gamers to control characters using only the motion of their body.

Nintendo’s Wii Mini is currently only available in Canada and Europe, where it launched last fall in Canada and earlier this year in Europe. We weren’t sure if the console would ever hit US shores, but indeed it has. It seems Nintendo wants to aim its last-generation product towards folks who are on a budget this holiday season, but still want to get their kids something that they’ll enjoy in the living room.

As for a specific release date for the Wii Mini, Nintendo hasn’t settled on a day yet, but we wouldn’t be surprised if they tried to shake things up by messing with the PS4’s launch date of November 15 and the Xbox One’s launch date of November 22. We doubt the Wii Mini will make much noise compared to these two consoles, but it’s always worth a shot to try to aggravate Microsoft and Sony a little.