When it was first released some years ago, the Nintendo Wii was a full-fledged pop culture phenomenon.  For years after its release, it was the hottest thing on the market; now, undoubtedly, it still has a lot of cultural cachet as both PlayStation and XBox have moved more into Wii’s territory than Wii has moved into their world (thanks to adopting motion gaming controls).  Still, while the Wii was the big winner of last generation, its limited gaming power has left it lagging behind the competition a bit.  However, it was such a huge money-maker and had such a great gimmick that Nintendo has decided to build on its strengths (and much of its technology with the Nintendo Wii U.

Curious about the Wii U?  DVice has a tour of the Wii U and its many awesome features.

The Wii was all about motion controlling games.  The Wii U is all about taking motion control to the next level thanks to a little technology called ARG, or augmented reality gaming.  Think of it as motion control crossed with limited virtual reality.  Much like the Nintendo 3DS turns the DS into a mini-virtual reality simulator, the Wii U will build on that idea, melding it with the Wii’s motion controls, to turn the Wii U controller into something less a controller and more a miniature gaming system, with the Wii U’s main unit pushing video and information to the controllers and back again.

Do I really understand it completely?  No, not right now anyway.  Still, I want one.  I want one badly.