We have a Wii! Great Fun for my Kids (and their Parents and Grandparents)!

When I first started hearing talk of the new Nintendo gaming console (back when it was called the "Revolution"), I knew that I would ultimately end up getting it for my kids. As lovers of computer and video games my husband and I had quite a collection already and my kids loved playing them, but we set strict limits on how long they could play, not wanting them to spend their days sitting down gaming with their eyes glued to the television. The Revolution, which was eventually renamed the Wii, was going to change the way games were played. Instead of sitting down with controller in-hand, you stood up and moved! The console could sense your actions and moved your on-screen character accordingly. What a fabulous idea!

We were finally able to get our Wii the first week of January 2007 (thanks to a friend on the "inside"). The console works as promised, and it is such a joy to see my friends and family members up and actively participating in the on-screen games. We've attended Wii-parties that have always been a blast, and have gotten family members who have never been interested in gaming before up and playing the Wii games.

Technical Specs:

What comes in the box:
The Wii console
Wireless remote/Wiimote controller (for your dominant hand)
Nunchuk controller (for your non-dominant hand)
Sensor bar (sits on top of your television and "senses" the motion of the wireless controllers)
A console stand (for when you want your console positioned vertically)
The Wii power adaptor
Composite AV cables (for hooking the Wii to your television)
Wii Sports Game
2 "AA" batteries (for the Wiimote)
Various instruction manuals

Additional specs:

Has 512MB storage built in (for storing saved games as well as storing downloadable games from the Wii Shopping mall).

Has a Secure Digital slot for additional storage.

Also includes 2 USB ports for future add-ons.

Can play GameCube discs and is compatible with old GameCube controllers. There are 4 ports for the GameCube controllers and 2 slots for the old GameCube memory cards.

WiFi ready

If you take advantage of the WiFi, you can get automatic firmware upgrades from Nintendo's WiiConnect24 service, as well as additional add-ons (more on those below).

BlueTooth controller connectivity

The Remote/Wiimote:

The coolest, most innovative thing about the Nintendo Wii is the wireless controller, affectionately nicknamed the Wiimote. Sensors inside the remote can tell how it is being held and how fast it is moving in any direction. The remote even includes an embedded speaker and force-feedback, for really making you feel like the bat is connecting with the ball, for example. Aside from swinging the Wiimote, it can be tilted for balance (tilting the floor in games like Super Monkey Ball) or used horizontally like a steering wheel. You also you the Wiimote as a pointer to navigate the menus, and it can be "aimed" in shooting type games.

With all of its innovative motion sensing, the Wiimote isn't without buttons. The "A" button is positioned where your thumb would normally be, and the "B" button is a trigger underneath the wii-mote. There's also a directional pad, "plus", "minus", and "home" buttons, as well as "1" and "2" buttons. A light bar across the bottom of the Wiimote shows when the controller is on, and lights up to tell you whether your controller is player 1, player 2, etc (which is very useful if you have more than one Wiimote). Depending upon the game, up to 4 players (with 4 different Wiimotes) can play at once.

The Wiimote also sports a wrist strap, used to keep a player from accidentally hurling the Wiimote through their television screen during a particularly active part of the game. It is highly recommended that you wear the wrist strap whenever you play the Wii.

The nunchuk connects to the Wiimote via a fairly short cord. It has a directional joystick (controlled by your thumb) and two buttons at the very front (controlled by your index finger). The nunchuk is not used in every game.

Main Menu:

The Wii is capable of being more than just a gaming console (particularly if you are taking advantage of the WiFi connection). From the main menu, the following are available:

* Disc Channel - the first slot on the menu is for whatever Wii or Nintendo Game Cube game disc is currently loaded into the console. The graphic displayed will change to match the game.

* Mii Channel - A "Mii" is a fairly simplistic character you can use to represent yourself in some of the Wii games (an "avatar", if you will). You can create a number of Miis using the Wii's graphical interface, and while the characters are simplistic there is enough control and variety for you to get a pretty good likeness. At first we made a Mii for each member of the family that generally looked like ourselves, but then we had fun going nuts and creating some crazy characters as well as characters from movies and television (my favorite is our Storm Trooper, my son loves one that looks like a giant ant). If you use the WiFi connection you can connect with friends via your Wii, and sometimes your friends' Miis will appear in your "Mii parade" (it is fun to see what Miis might pop up in our Wii on any given day). You can even load Miis onto your wireless controller, so if you take your controller to a friends' house to play on their Wii you can take your characters along with you.

* Picture Channel - you can use your Wii to edit and display photos, and if you are connected with other friends' consoles you can even share your photos. You can upload your photos via the console's SD slot (handy since our camera uses an SD card anyway). The editor is more of a "let's play and have fun with the photos" editor than a serious, photo-correction/cropping editor, which is fun for our kids. You can also make slide shows and puzzles with this feature. The picture channel also supports movies in .mov or .avi format as well as .mp3 music files.

* Shop Channel - Here you can shop for games/software to download to your Wii. There are currently tons of old Nintendo (NES/SNES/N64), TurboGrafx, and Sega titles out there, such as Super Mario Brothers and Sonic the Hedgehog, with more titles added every week. New titles built specifically for the Wii can be found in the "Wii Ware" section. Some items are free (or are free for a limited time), but most items must be purchased with "points". You can purchase points online with a credit card or buy cards containing points at retail stores. We used the Shop Channel to download the Opera browser, which is free until July 2007 (after which time it will cost 500 points). Downloaded games will show up as new "channels" on the main menu.

* Forecast Channel - Shows weather reports and forecasts in your area and across the world. You can zoom out to view the entire globe, then zoom in to particular areas to see the forecasts in that region. You can access the current weather conditions, the UV index, today's total forecast, tomorrow's forecast, and a 5-day forecast.

* News Channel - this feature just became available last weekend (Jan 26th, 2007). It displays the day's top stories grouped by genre (provided by the Associated Press). Thus far I have only seen text news items, but online reports say that photographs are currently supported and that audio and video news may be supported in the future.

* Additional slots - there are quite a few additional spots for future "channels" to be added as more content becomes available. We have downloaded the Wii's free Opera web browser (which is only free for a limited time, by the way), so we now have an "Internet Channel" on our main menu.

* Message system - if you've set up "friends", you can send messages directly to their Wii consoles. We also get messages from certain games (like medals won and fitness results in Wii Sports) as well as a message documenting how long we spent in the various games on the console that day.

Wii Sports:

Wii Sports is the game that comes with the Wii Console, and it is simply a blast to play. It features 5 sports games (Boxing, Tennis, Golf, Bowling, and Baseball) as well as 15 "training" minigames (each of which is a variant on the 5 sports listed above).

You can choose from the "Miis" that you created on the Mii Channel to represent your character in the game (or you can choose to use one of the pre-set Miis as well).

We enjoy all of the games, however you could argue that the game play on some of main games is perhaps a bit simplistic. For example, in doubles Tennis your character moves automatically, your only job is to hit the ball. However, you can choose to play both characters on one side of the net (or all 4 characters if you want) and the game does get difficult as your opponents' skill level increases. In baseball your only jobs are hitting and pitching (the Wii controls the players in the outfield). That being said, the games are very fun to play! If you have additional controllers, you can compete against your friends and family at the various games as well (I enjoy playing tennis and baseball with my husband). The screen splits in two (or three or four, depending upon which sport and how many people are playing) so everyone can see the action from the correct perspective.

The character rendering is rather simplistic too. It is funny to see your outfielders in baseball performing without legs. Still, it is cool that your outfielders are other Mii characters from your Mii channel, which helps make up for their simplistic rendering. I love having a team of my husband, two sons, and other additional characters I've created. You can also spot your additional Miis in the seating area during bowling and in the stands during tennis.

Out of the 5 sports included, only the boxing game (and related boxing training games) utilize the nunchuk (so you can punch with both your right and left hands). The other games only require the Wii-mote.

Your Mii character gets scored at the end of each game you play, and you can achieve "Pro" status in the various games.

Some of the "training" games are particularly fun. My favorite is the bowling game where they add an additional row of pins to the back of the set after each roll. You start with 10 pins, but by the final frame you have a whopping 91 pins! For some reason it is so satisfying to watch your ball roll through that sea of pins, knocking them over with wild abandon. I also like the boxing training game where the trainer throws balls at you as you attempt to dodge them, and I like the tennis game where you try to break a glass target positioned on a crumbling brick wall.

Additionally there is a daily fitness challenge that you can take (once a day for a given Mii). It will pick 3 training games at random and calculate your fitness age (from 20 to 80) based on how you perform at those games (ranking your speed, balance, and stamina). It will chart your daily fitness progress across a month, 2 months, or 3 months. I really enjoy doing the fitness challenge every night.

As much as I've said that the game play and graphics are somewhat simplistic, it is just so innovative and different and fun to play on the Wii that the game has won multiple awards, including as the E3 Game Critics award for Best Sports Game, Time Magazine's #1 2006 Game of the Year, and The New York Times 2006 Game of the Year!

Our Thoughts and Experiences:

Yes, we're a game console kind of family. My husband and I were both into games long before we had kids. Now that we have kids the struggle to make sure they don't sit and play video games all day has begun. One of the reasons I like the Wii so much is because my 5 year old is completely active the whole time he plays. He puts his entire body into it -- when he "boxes" he dances around the floor and even kicks (my husband keeps informing him that kicking does him no good, score-wise, but my son keeps doing it anyway). Even I've gotten into the act -- most nights after the kids go to bed I take the day's Physical Fitness test and play a few rounds of tennis. I've managed to work up a sweat at times, and it is a nice way to get a bit of a physical workout at home.

Thus far we only have 2 games - Wii Sports and Super Monkey Ball. Both are very age-appropriate for my 5 year old -- nothing offensive or violent. It took a while, but we were finally able to find a 2nd Wii-mote and Nunchuk, which opened a whole new world of family gaming fun for us. Now we can play baseball with our son even when it is raining cats and dogs outside. We took our Wii to a family gathering and had a blast watching various grandparents and other relatives bowling, golfing, and generally having a great time with the active, physical play. Even people who had never played a videogame wanted to give this one a try.

I'm a long time videogame player. My favorite series is the lush & richly graphical Final Fantasy games. By comparison, the graphics on the Wii are quite simplistic. That being said, I'm not bothered at all! The graphics are still good enough (the swirling & swooping down view as you start a new level in Monkey Ball is still quite impressive, in my opinion), and the game play is so unique I'm willing to overlook the simplistic rendering of my characters in Wii Sports.

The console itself is quite small and is actually attractive. I don't mind allowing it to sit out beside our television (aligned vertically) all the time, as it is much more unobtrusive and attractive than our other components and gaming systems. The console measures just 1¾ inches wide, 6¼ inches tall, and 8½ inches deep (when positioned vertically). The senor bar is very thin and practically invisible on top of our television. It comes with small adhesive strips in case you want to attach it to a flat-panel television.

Right out of the box, setup was beyond easy. Each of the plugs that are inserted into the back of the Wii have different shapes, so you won't get confused and plug the wrong thing into the wrong place. To get started, you put the sensor bar on top (or below) your television and plug its cord into the back of the Wii. Use the AV cables to connect the Wii to your television. Then plug the Wii in using the power adaptor. It is so simple and easy to hook up that we often take our Wii with us when we go to visit friends and family.

We also take advantage of the Wii's WiFi connection. Because we keep our router fairly well locked down, we were unable to use the Wii's very easy-to-use method for automatically scanning for existing routers. Instead we had to manually enter our router's address, which was also quite easy to do and left our router nice and secure. Because 2 of my friends also have Wii consoles, it is fun to check and see who shows up in my Mii parade, and it is fun to share interesting Miis that we have created with each other. We also send the occasional message back and forth (but since we see each other every day at work we don't message each other too terribly often).

There are also parental controls you can turn off & on. You can set the highest game rating allowed -- and if anyone tries to play a game with a higher rating they will need to enter the 4-digit PIN number first (note: this feature doesn't work on GameCube games). In the parental controls menu you can also place limits on other things such as the web browser, news channel, messaging, and the ability to spend Wii points.

Please note that some features require an internet connection (Shop Channel, Messaging, Forecast Channel, News Channel), but others do not (Disc Channel, Mii Channel, Photo Channel).

I am pleased that Nintendo included a standard SD slot for additional storage. Our other game systems use proprietary (hence more expensive) memory add-on schemes. One of our digital cameras uses SD cards, so we have a few extra cards around the house anyway, and additional cards are not very expensive (and are getting cheaper all the time).

The game play can take a bit of getting used to, and some games are more sensitive to the controller than others, but overall we've had a real blast. My husband and I sucked at the Wii Sports boxing game, but then my 5 year old son came along and knocked every player out in record time! We had to study him to see how he was doing it (more short little jabs as opposed to our long, full-arm punches). It's fun to see how different people approach the same kind of "action" in a given game.

I should mention that you can injure your property, yourself, or others while playing these games. There are sites on the web devoted to injuries and accidents caused by people playing their Wii a bit too vigorously. The Wiimote comes with a wrist-strap, and I highly recommend using it at all times (the original strap has been voluntarily recalled due to some reports of the strap breaking during play -- if you have the pre-recall strap and contact Nintendo you'll get a free replacement strap). You can find photographs online of people's Wiimotes sticking through their television screens or windows (because they let go of them during play), as well as injuries caused by hands going into ceiling fans or punching other players. There's a game on Super Monkey Ball that involves spinning, and while the game instructions show spinning only the Wiimote, my son thinks he should spin his entire body (like the character on the screen). While it is amusing for us to watch him, we do worry that he might hurt himself (and have told him on more than one occasion not to play it that way). We also put up a barrier that he cannot cross during play, lest he get too close to the television (as he is prone to do during the "fencing" mini-game on Super Monkey Ball) and put the Wiimote through the screen.

Final Thoughts:

There's so much more I could say about the Wii and the games, but I don't want to write a novel. The graphics aren't up to PlayStation 3 or XBox 360 quality, but I don't really care because the games are so much fun to play. It's a different kind of videogaming than what I'm used to, but I'm extremely pleased with this change! Yes, I still restrict my sons' videogame time, but at least with the Wii they can get their exercise while having lots of fun.