The Wii has a certain simplistic beauty to it's stark whiteness. Ask any Mac fan and they will tell you that plain white is an awesome color for technology products. Even the Wii-Remotes and nunchuks are white. So why would I want to cover up their natural beauty?
I did it for you people! Yep, I did it for my readers.
I purchased the skin from a web company based in Canada called Game Face Graphics. They offer a service where they will turn any graphic into a skin. Because I could not decide on an image to have done up in custom fashion I went for one of their stock skins.
I ordered a Wii skin and one set of controller skins (Wii-remote and nunchuk). The skins came in a big envelope with a short set of instructions.
- Instructions:
- 1. Clean surfaces with a soft cloth and rubbing alcohol.
- 2. Align and reposition skin as needed.
- 3. Pres on skin and rub out air bubbles toward edges.
The only tough part I encountered was getting the skin on the nunchuk. Because of the curvature of the controller the front part of the skin was cut at an angle and you have to align those cut edges together. It was a pain but I did get them aligned.
Click images for larger image
 | This is the sheet with the controller skins on it. Notice the cut at the top of the nunchuk skin? It was a bit of a pain getting that skin on! |
 | Here we have a shot of the controller skins all in place. If you look closely at the Wii-Remote skin you will notice that the holes are just a little bit off center. Not enough to be a problem, but they are off a little bit. |
 | This is a view of the right side of the Wii. Notice the cut-out for the Nintendo logo? How about the way the skin on the Wii matches up with the skin on the base? Yeah, that's what I call attention to detail! |
 | Even the left side matches up with the base unit. Yes I know I got some flash on this shot but hey, I'm a writer not a photographer. |
 | Here we have the Wii from the front. Because the side to the right of the disc slot was so thin it was hard to line up properly. You can't tell from the picture but the pattern on the base does match up with that on the front of the Wii. |
 | There is no skin for the bottom. There is for the top though I did not take a picture of that part. I figure they expect most people to put their Wii in the stand and not set it on its side. I would have liked to have seen a piece for the bottom just so buyers could have the option of not using the base unit. |
 | Here is the Wii in its natural habitat. I hung the Wii-Remotes by thumb tacks pushed into the inside wall of the wooden cabinet. The nunchuks are out of site in a drawer. If only the Wii could play DVDs I'd be able to ditch my broken DVD player! |
Before you decide to buy a skin for your Wii I'd like to point out a few good and bad things about these particular skins.
- Good
- The skin is more rubber than plastic and is printed on 3M Controltac Graphic Marking System paper.
- The material is very forgiving if you need to reposition it.
- They can make a skin out of any image you send them.
- The skin covers most of the Wii.
- Bad
- The skin on the front does not allow the SD Card door to open properly.
- No coverage for the bottom of the Wii.
- The die cutter is not as sharp as it should be and some edges became jagged or torn upon removal from the sheet.
- I don't know what the thermal effects of this 3M paper are. Most skins add an extra barrier to heat dispersal.
- Wii-Remote skin did not line up perfectly.
In a few weeks time I will remove this skin and see how well that goes.
Overall I was impressed with the quality of the skin. The price is also within my limits of being a "good deal". I could have gotten three more sets of controller skins but I wanted to see how these worked out first.
If you decide to buy one of these skins make sure you tell the guys at Game Face Graphics that you heard about them here!