It’s Nintendo Wii launch day here in Australia, and despite never having owned a gaming console since the Atari 2600, I bought the Kool Aid and headed down to Target at lunch time, Visa in hand to buy one.
Presentation
It presents well, at least in the box. It’s hard for me to say that the look of the thing is a good or bad thing, because I don’t really have anything to compare it to. What I can say though is that in opening it, I literally felt like a child again who had just scored a big present. The Wii box itself is surprisingly small, like Mac Mini small, and it’s white as well. My only negative thoughts are that the console looks a little plasticy, if you know what I mean.
Setup
Warning to anyone buying the Wii, you need an extra set of inputs on your TV set (analogue audio L, R + the yellow Video). Thankfully I recently purchased a 58cm LCD TV, so I could plug the thing in, neither of the remaining two TV sets in the house had spare inputs, indeed, any TV bought more than 5-6 years ago will face the same issue.
Turning it on was a synch. You do have to sync the remote though. The menu is easy enough to follow. I purposely chose an internet required feature, which took me straight to an internet setup mode. Once you get use to using the Wii remote as a mouse (it’s really weird at first, but after that it’s a sinch…indeed you’ll ask why all game consoles don’t work that way) the internet setup was really easy. Scan for the Wifi point, select, in my case it picked up straight away that I was using WPA protection, and prompted me for the password. Typing it out using the remote is nearly as easy as typing itself. Point and click the letters…indeed for me it was easier than using a mobile to type a message. Then it connected, downloaded some updates, and done. No hassles what so ever.
Play
I’ll share some more on this at a later date, literally because so far I’ve gone as far as Tennis on Wii Sports, after all, its the game the console is famous for. First thoughts: it’s every single bit what they say it is, and more. To quote Cartman: Kick Ass. Sure, they aren’t the most brilliant graphics you’ll ever see (mind you, they are totally crystal clear and clean on an LCD TV), but it was fun. Way fun, and it literally is like playing the game itself. At first I didn’t get the whole do as you would in the real world bit, and I lost the first set. Second set was different, I was raising my arm for the serve, and smashing the ball in the same action as I would playing tennis for real. I know that there are plenty of critics of the Wii, but for me it’s probably our first step on the road to immersive VR.
Score: 9.5/10
The 0.5 is knocked off for the lack of HD or atleast a HDMI connector. Brilliant. Can’t wait for my 4 year old son to get home in an hour and play with me. Indeed, I think theres half a chance that she who must be obeyed might like it as well…and that’s saying something 🙂
