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)?
Best Answer
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.