You don't need to spend this kind of money to get the word out and have an effective "campaign". You're a gamer...get in contact with other gamers and game website owners. Get involved in the gamespress.com and vgamin.com forums. They both have places where you can post about your site and promotions. They both are populated by webmasters of video gaming websites. You can also ask them if they want to post a press release on their site linking to you. Vgamin is where you may find cheap banner ad space for sale. Heck, sometimes you can exchange banner ads or links. Get involved in other gaming forums and put the contest link in your signature (if allowed). Use the avatar ad space that has been so popular on digitalpoint. Keep writing quality articles and get one on Digg or other social bookmarking sites. Quality being the operative work. Gamers hate spammers. The increased traffic brings more viewing of the contest. I've run gaming sites and I have been a gamer for a long time. These are some good ideas to get you started. Yes, it takes more time. But in my eyes it is much more effective. Not just to promote a contest but to make those who enter the contest or visit the site regular readers who make the site grow. You don't need $1,000. You can do it with $20 and getting involved in some gamer and webmaster communities as a valued member.
The Wii is a great offer. I would stick with what everyone else is saying and go talk to some of the bigger forums and sites for gaming and see about having them do some promo for it. With the right crowd it could be a big hit. Good Luck!