As Nintendo begins winding down the Wii and pivoting towards Wii U, the company has at least one more major holiday push.

To help capitalize as the holidays approach, Nintendo will be releasing a tweaked Wii console on October 23 that’s colored black, bundled with some goodies and...without support for GameCube.

Those “goodies” include a copy of New Super Mario Bros. Wii, a black Motion Plus remote and accompanying nunchuck, and a Super Mario Galaxy soundtrack CD that won’t be sold separately.

The standard Wii price was dropped to $149.99 with a copy of Mario Kart Wii back in May, but Nintendo’s also releasing this bundle for $149.99, making this an awfully nice deal, even as Wii is on its way out.

Also, this version of the hardware is meant to sit horizontally, not vertically, for unspecified reasons.

Wii’s last gaming hurrah will come this year with Kirby: Return to Dreamland, The Legend of Zelda: Skyward Sword and the still undated Rhythm Heaven.

As Nintendo begins winding down the Wii and pivoting towards Wii U, the company has at least one more major holiday push.

To help capitalize as the holidays approach, Nintendo will be releasing a tweaked Wii console on October 23 that’s colored black, bundled with some goodies and...without support for GameCube.

Those “goodies” include a copy of New Super Mario Bros. Wii, a black Motion Plus remote and accompanying nunchuck, and a Super Mario Galaxy soundtrack CD that won’t be sold separately.

The standard Wii price was dropped to $149.99 with a copy of Mario Kart Wii back in May, but Nintendo’s also releasing this bundle for $149.99, making this an awfully nice deal, even as Wii is on its way out.

Also, this version of the hardware is meant to sit horizontally, not vertically, for unspecified reasons.

Wii’s last gaming hurrah will come this year with Kirby: Return to Dreamland, The Legend of Zelda: Skyward Sword and the still undated Rhythm Heaven.

Really considering picking one up now. Yeah, I'm late to the party.

Why on god's grey earth would they rip out GC support?

Man, I pity people who won't be able to play Paper Mario: The Thousand Year Old Door on their Wii. It's probably be the best game one can play on a Wii.

GC support was the reason I got a Wii. I also still have more games for the GC than I do for the Wii. I also tend to play more GC games than Wii games...

I wonder how much it saved them doing that. Kinda takes away the purpose of having a Wii though hahah.

No Gamecube support? Then what's the point?

:( but, i want that sound track (legally)

Losing the GC support makes this a no sale to me. I gotta have my Pac-Man Vs.

Why can't they give gamecube support? WHY?!?

Eh, whatever. Compared to the PS3 losing PS2 BC, this is not nearly as big a deal. 

I can't imagine its saving them that much money, but they probably should have just released two version of the Wii with and without initially. I doubt many family Wii users know it plays gamecube games let alone care at all.

Well, the Wii U won't have GC support either...

This was announced a while ago. Well, for Japan at least.

I doubt the Wii's last great game will be Skyward Sword, from what I can gather there are more in the works. Also, North America has a Xenoblade Chronicles announcement to look forward to next year...

Standing up your console vertically never seemed like a good idea - wouldn't it mess up the internal parts? And knowing Nintendo, this means they will probably port out their GC titles to WiiU or their next next generation console.

Well I guess we can look forward to buying Wind Waker, Mario Kart: Double Dash, etc. again on virtual console.

@WJist said:

Standing up your console vertically never seemed like a good idea

The only mechanical thing is the disc reader and Nintendo have had a stable reader with some shock proof, not like that one for 360.. which will completely screw up your disc if you flip it while it is spinning.

With that said, such a shock proof reader cost's more, they probably swapped that one out for a less flexible reader. You can probably use the Wii standing, but the risk of flipping it over is big, since it is so light. So now the "new" Wii will totally screw up your disc if you flip it over... why Nintendo is reputing that responsibility.

*deleted*

Wait, so the package includes the soundtrack to Super Mario Galaxy...but not the game itself?
 
Nintendo continue to be crazy.

I kind of wanna buy a Wii just for the GC support.

Cool! I love it when you remove functionality from your products! Thanks Nintendo!

The only Mario soundtrack I EVER need.

Deja mothereffin vu.

@Groundings: They've had GC support for almost 5 years now. They took out the GC components on this version to make it cheaper to produce. There are still tons of Wii's out there to buy that have the GC parts in them.

Glad I got mine before this madness.

Shouldn't the purpose of removing features from hardware be to sell that hardware at a lower price? Why is this still $150?

Target sells the Wii for $134 and they still can't sell them.

Releasing a Wii with no GC support, Id be more worried that in a couple months (if not pretty much already) that they are releasing a new Wii with no Wii support.

You know what? When Sony decided to take out PS2 support from their PS3's I was pretty pissed. Now that the Wii is doing it, it seems right. I'm saying this because their's way more than enough Wii's out their with Gamecube support anyways.

I mean, really... the Gamecube support is the best thing the Wii has going for it, but if this will sell more Wiis for the launch of Skyward Sword, then more power to them!

A pretty good deal, especially for anyone still holding out. Taking out Gamecube support makes sense, odds are if you wanted that, you'd already own a Wii. I just winder if Nintendo is expectong this to spike sales.

Huh? Why? It doesn't sound like they've added a lot by getting rid of GameCube compatibility.

No Gamecube support? Then what's the point?

Wow... Hearing this will be the Wii's last holiday is crazy. I mean, sure, it'll still be here when the WiiU comes... But man. It really hit me just now that this console generation is likely soon coming to a close. Man has it been a long console generation.

Lets just hope that next gen the genres are a little more balanced. I mean the shooter dominance has really gotten to me these last few years with out the music games to at least almost sorta balance things out.

I look forward to the cheaper prices of these consoles and their games once next gen starts rolling. I have a lot of games catch up on.

But yeah, real cheap of Nintendo to take out gamecube support... I mean, the Wii has always been sold at the greatest profit of any console.

@ajamafalous said:

@Landon said:

No Gamecube support? Then what's the point?

@Afroman269 said:

@ajamafalous said:

@Landon said:

No Gamecube support? Then what's the point?

So...You can go to walmart RIGHT NOW and buy a wii for 135$, with new super mario brothers and gamecube support. Download the soundtrack free or on itunes someday for 10$. OR you could buy this POS bundle for 150$, with mario and the soundtrack, with no gamecube support. Seriously nintendo? the system costs less than 50$ today to make. And you're cutting costs? If my wii breaks down, I refuse to buy another.

Who..in the world with ANY sort of brain buy this? I want to go to them, and slap them across the face. Sony started this bullshit cutting ps2 games from the ps3. Thing is, even though the ps3 plays ps2 games better, sony still today makes the ps2. Nintendo doesn't make the gamecube. Which component cables for the gamecube are next to impossible to find for a half way decent price. So if one found a gamecube, it wouldn't play as good as it would on the wii likely.

Don't the wii and the gamecube still contain the same basic IBM powerpc structure? So I'm doubting they're cutting support to save on money. They're doing it to sell you gamecube discs on the wii U. I'm almost betting on it.

Nintendo! Don't you know only Sony can get away with stripping out features from their system?

Man, everybody bitching about this reminds me of all the similar comments about the DSi that missed the point.

If you have a huge collection of GBA games, you probably already own a GBA or DS Lite to play them on. The DSi dropped GBA support, but whatever, you still have a device that plays GBA games if you really feel the need to play one. You are not the type of person the DSi is trying to appeal to.

If you have a huge collection of Gamecube games, you probably already own a Gamecube or earlier Wii to play them on. The newer Wii is dropping Gamecube support, but whatever, you still have a device that plays Gamecube games if you really feel the need to play one. You are not the type of person the newer Wii is trying to appeal to.

There are more Wii's out there that can play gamecube games than gamecubes.

To be honest I had toyed with the idea of getting a Nintendo Wii someday.  Much of the reason behind that idea was the ability to play GameCube titles in 480p.  The stupid GameCube component cable is hard to find and freaking expensive due to price gouging, so I gave up on a non-Wii solution a long time ago.  If I buy a Wii now, it will be a used, backwards compatible model, and Nintendo will end up not seeing that money.  I like Nintendo a lot, and I certainly don't hate them for this, but that's how this business decision affects me.

.......who exactly is this for? Same price, less features? Also, I want to go on record again in saying as an avid Mario fan, New Super Mario Bros. Wii SUCKS. Thanks. If this means you can't use GC controllers for, say, Brawl, then that's terrible.

Also, I already illicitly have the SMG 1 & 2 soundtracks. Amazing music. I'd buy them if I could, but whatever.

Wait, they can't be serious? This would be like Sony removing backwards compatibility from...

Oh, wait...

To be honest, I have a Wii and a Gamecube and I use the 'Cube when I want to play 'Cube games. I do not like having to hold those remotes...

...and the Wii was a gift which is why I have it. Not that it didn't get played, it just didn't get played much.

SSBM?!?!?! waaaah!

If you've been waiting 5 years to buy a Wii just to play your Gamecube games, maybe you should've just bought a Gamecube 5 years ago.

I don't see the big deal since most people who want a Wii already have one and they all support the Gamecube.

I love this outrage over the lack of GC support... Are you people fucking crazy? They took out un necessary components so that they could manufacture these cheaper? You guys would get outraged over anything...

In other news Marino is the top Wiki contributor for the Nintendo wiki page at 666 points.....

I only really wanted a wii for BC with Gamecube, and the ability to play Brawl (and other games) with a Gamecube controller.

I have literally know idea why they'd cut it. And people saying "they'll manufacture these cheaper!"...then why doesn't the price reflect that? They are cutting their own costs for themselves and not the consumer. Stupid.