Nintendo Wii Impressions
By now you’ve heard and read much about the Nintendo Wii and probably tried to buy one without much luck. I was lucky (nerdy) enough to pre-order one of 33 that were coming to my local GameStop and got it on launch day. So I’ve lived through Thanksgiving, Christmas and another family get together with the Wii playing a very big part.
This system reminds me of when I was very young and my father brought home a TeleGames video pong/hockey/skeet unit with a rifle light gun. Everyone was excited and wanted to play pong like we did at the “Two Guys from Italy” restaurant in Buena Park. It was amazing to be playing this on our TV at home! Everyone waited for their turn to play the winner of each round. Kids and parents, men and women alike all excited to play. You can’t really say that about your Genesis or even your PS2.
Nintendo Wii gets everyone interested and very (scary sometimes) excited. Hooting and hollering when a home run is hit in Wii Sports Baseball. Embarrassing facial expressions and gyrations when going head-to-head in Wii Sports Boxing. Kids and parents, men and women alike all excited to play. Flashback. Fun!
The hardware is stylish and non-intrusive to your entertainment center. I was particularly worried that the sensor bar I heard about would be some ridiculous space-age set of rabbit ears with tin foil on them. But as it turned out… well let’s just say that last week my wife came to me to ask what that “thing” on top of the TV was. It took her that long to notice it.
The Wii-mote controller fits comfortably in your hand and despite reports does not seem to get away easily. The cable that connects to the nun chuck controller is just the right length. Any longer I’d be annoyed. Any shorter and I’d curse. What evil scientist conducted the experiments to perfect this cable length? This must be what took so long to reveal the controller. I picked up a classic controller as well which is nice but I honestly find myself using the Wii-mote held sideways when playing Virtual Console games. I haven’t downloaded any N64 games yet – perhaps it will get more use then.
The UI is clean and straightforward. Navigation is smooth and intuitive. The only time I had any trouble was the first night I had the unit home and could not consistently connect to the Nintendo Wii store. Speaking of which, the built-in WiFi is very easy to setup and get going. I had no problems at all configuring first time. But the greatest thing about the UI is the perfectly suited background elevator music in each channel. Perfect – more evil scientists at work.
Mii Channel – You’ll spend hours (seriously) creating and modifying representatons of your family and friends. This is awesome!
Wii Weather – another nice touch and you can see constellations in space if you zoom out far enough. Very cool feature.
Opera Browser – At first I was not all that impressed but after using it a bit I have concluded that there is no better way to browse on a console. Good enough but not spectacular. Kind of cool feature late at night when you want to check a certain site.
The games: Zelda is great (read reviews elsewhere), Wii Sports will be an instant hit with anyone within earshot of the cheering, Rayman is another good party game but the nun chuck freaks some casual players out and they will pass, Trauma Center is fun to watch others play, Excite Truck kicks ass and sadly, Red Steel sucks ass.
Want to rekindle the family spirit in your house? Get a Wii!
This system reminds me of when I was very young and my father brought home a TeleGames video pong/hockey/skeet unit with a rifle light gun. Everyone was excited and wanted to play pong like we did at the “Two Guys from Italy” restaurant in Buena Park. It was amazing to be playing this on our TV at home! Everyone waited for their turn to play the winner of each round. Kids and parents, men and women alike all excited to play. You can’t really say that about your Genesis or even your PS2.
Nintendo Wii gets everyone interested and very (scary sometimes) excited. Hooting and hollering when a home run is hit in Wii Sports Baseball. Embarrassing facial expressions and gyrations when going head-to-head in Wii Sports Boxing. Kids and parents, men and women alike all excited to play. Flashback. Fun!
The hardware is stylish and non-intrusive to your entertainment center. I was particularly worried that the sensor bar I heard about would be some ridiculous space-age set of rabbit ears with tin foil on them. But as it turned out… well let’s just say that last week my wife came to me to ask what that “thing” on top of the TV was. It took her that long to notice it.
The Wii-mote controller fits comfortably in your hand and despite reports does not seem to get away easily. The cable that connects to the nun chuck controller is just the right length. Any longer I’d be annoyed. Any shorter and I’d curse. What evil scientist conducted the experiments to perfect this cable length? This must be what took so long to reveal the controller. I picked up a classic controller as well which is nice but I honestly find myself using the Wii-mote held sideways when playing Virtual Console games. I haven’t downloaded any N64 games yet – perhaps it will get more use then.
The UI is clean and straightforward. Navigation is smooth and intuitive. The only time I had any trouble was the first night I had the unit home and could not consistently connect to the Nintendo Wii store. Speaking of which, the built-in WiFi is very easy to setup and get going. I had no problems at all configuring first time. But the greatest thing about the UI is the perfectly suited background elevator music in each channel. Perfect – more evil scientists at work.
Mii Channel – You’ll spend hours (seriously) creating and modifying representatons of your family and friends. This is awesome!
Wii Weather – another nice touch and you can see constellations in space if you zoom out far enough. Very cool feature.
Opera Browser – At first I was not all that impressed but after using it a bit I have concluded that there is no better way to browse on a console. Good enough but not spectacular. Kind of cool feature late at night when you want to check a certain site.
The games: Zelda is great (read reviews elsewhere), Wii Sports will be an instant hit with anyone within earshot of the cheering, Rayman is another good party game but the nun chuck freaks some casual players out and they will pass, Trauma Center is fun to watch others play, Excite Truck kicks ass and sadly, Red Steel sucks ass.
Want to rekindle the family spirit in your house? Get a Wii!
posted by tacohead at
5:43 PM
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