Gaming Signal: Me And My Wii

Me And My Wii

So last Sunday, on my way home from picking up donuts and coffee, I noticed there was a line in front of our local Target. This was just before 8am and I knew what that line meant, Wiis were in stock. So I stopped and got in line. I was number 9. Mind you, the #2 person in line had been there since 6:45 am. Crazy. Anyway, after consulting with the wife, I decided to go ahead and get a Wii. The Target guy was reluctant to tell me exactly how many Wiis he had in stock, but that I would definitely get one. So I did. (The potential for using this as a tax write off is an appealing, and giggle inducing, bonus).

First, the setup was very easy. Not having component outputs kept me from having to make a tough choice as to where to put it. The Wii will output 480p at 16:9, and, for what it is, it looks nice. Another interesting thing which I didn't know, is that the Wii has a sensor bar that you must place either above or below the TV to allow the Wii to sense the Wiimote. Not a big deal, just unexpected. One big plus for the Wii, it has wireless networking built in. Sweet! Two clicks and it was connected to my network and downloading stuff off the net. Are you listening Microsoft?

The Wiimote itself is kinda cool. You get the Wiimote and a nunchuk with the Wii as well as Wii Sports. I didn't buy any other games yet, so we've only played the Sports titles. As far as gaming goes, the Sports disc is mediocre at best. It's like Nintendo threw together a few tech demos and released them. Tennis and Baseball are incomplete games. Bowling is quite fun, as is Boxing. Golf is hard. Even though the games aren't stellar, using the Wiimote is a blast, and I can see the appeal Nintendo is talking about. It's just plain fun to get up and move around while playing. Although my right shoulder hurts still from all that boxing.

So, all in all, with the new games coming out (Wii Play, Mario Party), I'd say the Wii is a decent buy, especially if you have kids and want something with more appeal beyond shooters or adventure games. But realize that the Wii catalog of games is still rather limited.

I am highly interested in getting one, however I'm not interested in dealing with the difficulty in getting one or the games and peripherals. I decided to wait until there was availability before getting one (who knows, there might even be a discount eventually.) I'm looking forward to some of the games that take advantage of the controller like Rabid Rabbits.

I just saw there was availability at Sears.com, however because my son and I are having so much fun plaing Lego Star Wars we haven't been starved for something cool to play.

Posted by Scott on Thursday February 15, 2007 at 9:18 AM

OK, I got my Wii and I played it!

Pretty fun unit. The production quality is very high, although I would expect that since this is almost the same HW as the Gamecube. However, Nintendo does the little things better than all. Just the packaging of the unit was far above any CE device I have purchased in years. An example of that would be the medical tape used to wrap up all the items for shipping. Its sticky enough to hold things together but does not require SERIOUS FITS OF STRENGTH to separate the tape and the part from each other.

For games, I only have Wii Sports, Wii Play (sports expansion), and Zelda.

Wii sports/play rocks. Yes they are simple games, but when played with someone else, things turn in to a voracious party real fast with your friends or family almost fighting to play. I'm sure this novelty will wear off, but I think if you added Wii Sports and ALCOHOL to any party it would be one to remember!

Zelda... only if all games could be this well thought out. I was prepared to be "Meh"-ed but I wasn't. Even with the inferior graphics, this is a superior game to most. The only thing it truly lacks is character voice overs. I realize they are not there because this game needs to work in Japan and Europe and the US and that typed dialog resolves that issue. But it is still something I would like to eventually see in a Zelda game.

OK, lunch time, I'll write more later.

Posted by Trent on Tuesday February 20, 2007 at 12:01 PM

More on Zelda. The controls using the Wii-mote and the Nunchuck are completely seamless. Kevin if you are reading... FISHING!!! Fishing is amazing in the Zelda game, I was surprised that you could actually tell which direction the fish are biting at the lure so you could tell when and if you need to try and hook the fish.

The only thing I have really been irritated about are the multiple uses of the same A button. Admittedly there rarely is a time where you would need two different buttons for any given function but it would have been nice to allow some personal button configuration.

I'm not that far in to the game yet, in fact, I think I'm still in that part of the game where they blend the tutorial and the game together. Apparently when the city finally sends me off on this big quest they keep yammering on about I will be past the tutorial. It just doesn't feel like a tutorial though since I am about 3 hours in to the game already, it just feels like I'm learning the in's and out's of a new city.

The most impressive thing I have experienced with Zelda so far is that I actually had to use my brain to figure out some of the puzzles. Normally in an adventure game you know the drill, bring item a to item b to combine to make item c to get through door X. Not so in the Wii Zelda. The early tutorial game has you doing the typical collect quests in a way that forced you the think about how you will use the Wii controls to achieve the goal. There were times I was truly stumped until I really sat down and though about the controls available too me. The jury is still out on if I find this gimmicky or not, but so far it has been fun and surprising because I can't just immediately think of the solution being that the controls are still unfamiliar.

If I think of more to say I'll add on to this again.....

Posted by Trent on Tuesday February 20, 2007 at 1:34 PM