After over a year of anxious anticipation, gamers can finally count on one hand the number of days left until the release of the long awaited Nintendo Wii. The gaming giant’s newest console is scheduled to make its debut at the stroke of midnight Sunday morning. The Wii will take a leap of faith from gaming standards with the introduction of unique new features that pose exciting potential.

At 8.5 inches long, 6 inches wide, and less than 2 inches thick (about the size of three dvd cases), the Wii fits comfortably most anywhere, either vertically or horizontally. It uses a single self-loading media bay, which plays single- or double-layered 12cm Wii discs and is backward compatible with all Gamecube discs. The Wii is WiFi capable and is also able to connect wirelessly to the Nintendo DS.

The Wii will also have internet capabilities with integrated weather and news support. With “Wii points,” purchased by credit card or in stores via Wii points cards much like iTunes cards, you can purchase any game in Nintendo’s history. Also exciting, you can uses your Wii points to get a Wii version of the Opera Web browser that will be Flash and AJAX compatible.

Now for the important stuff: launch titles. At launch there will be 32 titles including some big names like “The Legend of Zelda: Twilight Princess,” “Super Mario Galaxy” and “Metroid Prime 3: Corruption.” Zelda fan boys have been waiting quite a while for this latest installment. Nintendo has really been pushing for 3rd party support as this is an area where they have faltered in the past. Surprisingly, the most exciting game of all may be “Wii Sports,” which comes bundled with the hardware. Its innovative use of the controller coupled with innovative, original gameplay.

Perhaps the most exciting feature of the Wii is its new, and radically different controller. It looks something like a television remote control, it is wireless and admittedly pretty cool. Game previews have shown the motion sensitive controller being used as a sword in one game and as a flash light in another.

Nintendo’s Wii is generating a lot of buzz, and not just from Miyamoto fan boys this time. Nintendo’s latest console should prove, like all of it products, to be very innovative and most importantly, fun.