Written by John Scalzo  on April 27, 2006

Specials: Let a new series of puns commence.

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When Nintendo started calling their next-generation console the Revolution, it lead to an avalanche of bad puns relating to communism, Beatles' songs and other consoles being first against the wall. It got a little irritating after awhile and no one had even played it yet!

But today Nintendo revealed the official name of the Revolution. The Wii (pronounced "we"). We knew this day was coming. Nintendo has said all along that the Revolution moniker was just a code name and that it would be changed. Of course they said the same thing about the DS, but in that case they knew they had a winner on their hands. I almost think the worst part of the Wii era will be a new set of horrible puns based around the Queen, Frenchmen, the "Wiimote" and childhood euphemisms for urine and private parts.

I understand the angle Nintendo wants to use with the name. Wii is supposed to symbolize connectedness and people playing together. Gamers coming together all over the world to "change everything". That makes sense, Nintendo has always been at the forefront of multiplayer gaming and maybe, just maybe, their push for the community of Wii is a foreshadowing that they're going to jump really into the online play waters.

Reaction around the Internet has been decidedly harsh, yet optimistic. After the announcement, Michael Pachter of Wedbush Morgan Securities was quoted as saying, "My initial reaction, of course, is that the name is dumb. However, upon reflection, I thought that the name Game Boy was dumb, REALLY thought that the name Xbox was dumb, and can't even recall my reaction to PlayStation. Let's face it, devices with cool names like Dreamcast and Gizmondo fail, and the lame names seem to do well."

That's an interesting way to put it, but I'll be honest, when I first heard the name, my heart sank. I've been ridiculously excited about the Revolution ever since Nintendo revealed the controller. But on some subconscious level, the Wii has made me less excited about the system than I was just two days ago. It's a silly thing and I can't even rationally defend it, but it's there, nagging at the back of my mind. I miss the Revolution and I'm sure I'm not alone.

A spin around the Gaming Target staff produced similar reactions. Xbox writer Troy Matsumiya said: "Personally, I hate it: it sounds ridiculous, like something a little kid would say. Despite Nintendo's explanation of how it supposed to represent people playing together and the new controllers, it's way too abstract. As a result, it doesn't really mean anything; it can also be mispronounced as 'Why?' I think it's a big marketing blunder."

Mispronunciation and other mistakes formed a common theme in the complaints. I've seen more than a few forum posts mocking similarity between Wii and WWII (the abbreviation for World War II). I have to say, I didn't instantly think of that, but now that it's out there I've thought of the system as the WWII machine more than once. My first reaction to the name was much closer to Nintendo writer Vadim Leonov: "Well, when I first saw some threads pop up about Wii, I thought someone made a typo and were referring to WiFi. But Wii is a ridiculous name, and I have a feeling that another name change is imminent."

Sadly, I don't think that's the case as I'm sure Nintendo has invested quite a bit of time, money and effort into making gamers everywhere sing "Wii Are The World". And then there the people that have already embraced the name. They're few, and not as vocal as the "He-man Wii-man Hater's Club", but they're out there.

Maybe Wii will grow on us. In fact, I'm sure it will. I thought "PlayStation 2" was a particularly dumb name for a console when it debuted. Why would you want to make people think it's just a slightly upgraded version of your previous console? But it grew on me and that's the naming direction everyone is going in now. Naturally, Nintendo has to be different.

Or was Revolution just too different? Troy piped in again with his explanation of the Revolution concept, "Revolution, on the other hand, sums up the system perfectly. It truly is a revolution in terms of the controller and interaction with the game. The name also has big consumer recognition since it's been out there for some time. It also sounds cool; what would you rather say: "I got a Revolution!" or "I got a Wii!"? The latter sounds like you have to go to the bathroom."

Executive Editor Matt Swider added, "I liked Revolution, but was the name too cool for its own good? Hah, it's a theory."

There was always a hope that it stay the Revolution. After all, the DS was originally going to be renamed the Nitro before Nintendo realized that the DS code name was better than something as generic as Nitro.

Of course, in the end, it doesn't matter what it's called. What it can do (and whether it really is a Revolution) is all that matters.

Wii is just Nitendo being Nintendo. The actual system is all anybody will be able to talk about soon enough.