Joystiq

When you hear about the Wii Party Station by Nyko for the first time there's a moment where you think how ridiculous it is, but when you see it, you realize it could serve some purpose. An utterly ridiculous purpose, but a purpose nonetheless. Is it designed for "family fun" Wii play -- no. It is clearly designed for a bunch of guys sitting around and having a party.

The unit has four removable can holders which have liquid built inside of them so it can be refrigerated or frozen to keep drinks cold, a storage unit underneath, and a removable chip holder. All of this makes for super easy cleaning. There is a fan for hand drying -- like a bowling alley. And four displays for keeping score if you're tracking who won which games (assuming you're playing various games). The non-corporate line would be to use those displays to keep track if you're playing the Mario Party drinking game so that nobody goes overboard -- but that's a story for another time.

The unit runs off AA batteries and holds 4 Wiimotes (a hybrid unit with the Nyko Wiicharge Station built into this would be sweet in the future). The unit looks like it would sit in a dorm room coffee table or a house shared by a bunch of guys. Is it a little ridiculous? Sure. But it doesn't take a stretch of the imagination to see it being useful to certain demographics -- and the Wii is all about the demographic spread.