Meet the Wii Mini: but only if you're Canadian

While Australians are counting down to Friday's Wii U launch, Nintendo revealed a surprise console for the Canadians.

Nintendo is a bit famous for offering up different versions of its consoles — especially handheld versions — but we were honestly surprised by the Wii Mini.

It's somehow smaller than the Wii, comes in black and red and has limited functions — Wii games only; in other words, no internet and no GameCube games. But on the plus side, it's just CA$99.99, or about AU$96.

Why Canada only? Your guess is as good as ours. The console was only discovered by Engadget when Best Buy accidentally leaked it (and quickly removed it), but our CNET colleagues in the US managed to track down the Nintendo website listing after some clever searching.

Given that the Wii still sells well — 300,000 units were sold in the US during the same week that the Wii U launched — a new sub-$100 design might give the old hardware some legs yet.