I just bought a black, horizontal form factor Wii. According to this Wikipedia article, this model is called the Family Edition. According to this FAQ at Nintendo, the only functional difference between this model and the previous (vertical standing) one is the GameCube backward compatibility, and as a result, some Wii games/accessories are not compatible.
Are there more functional differences, other than the GameCube compatibility I should be aware of? If I don't have legacy games, should I be concerned by this limitation (i.e., how much does the Wii ecosystem rely on that GameCube support in general)?
2 Answers
To my knowledge there's nothing for the Wii that requires the Gamecube subsystems. There are a few games that will take advantage of it (for instance, Sonic Colors will let you play using Gamecube controllers if they are present), but they all work fine without - often by allowing you to use the Classic Controller.
Remember that Nintendo keeps a pretty tight reign on the games released for their platforms, and they don't allow developers to get too strange with the system, as that tends to annoy the users.
3The most important difference, besides the Gamecube Games and Accessories support, is that it doesn't support using Gamecube controllers for the over 50 Wii Games that implement this function.
One notable example of such a game is Bomberman Blast, which can be played with 8 players at the time (4 on wiimotes + 4 on Gamecube controllers), but is limited to four players on the family edition.
Another thing is that people like to play some games with the GameCube controller, for example in Super Smash Bros. Brawl and Mario Kart Wii, due to the position of the Left Analog stick as primary input (versus the d-pad on the classic controller), which allows for analog control of your character.
A full list of games that use the GameCube controller can be found on Wikipedia
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