UsefulConcept

A couple days ago I had the chance to play with a Nintendo Wii with a few friends. I thought I would write about the good and bad of my experience for others.

TO set the stage, I have not followed the Wii at all. I have no idea what the insides look like, how it is powered or how it compares to the xbox360 or ps3.

The System:

Very small. The size of an external cd player. There is a device you connect below your tv to sense your movement. The controllers are completely different from anything you have used before and are wireless. The controllers themselves have motion sensors in them and can determine quite a bit of movement. There are two parts to the controller, connected by a thin wire. This way you can have a small controller in each hand and both independently detect how they are moved.

The controllers give the games a completely different experience. To start we played the demo sports cd. The graphics were not good, it looked like little thimble people. The game play was basic. It was still fun. To play tennis you swing the controller like it was a racket. And presto you are playing tennis. Want to box? Just hold your hands up and guard your face and presto you are guarding your face, then jab jab jab. The group of us took turns and it was probably a good thing since we were all getting a little sweaty boxing around and swinging the tennis racket. My wife complained of being a bit sore the next day in fact. Apparently she was very serious about tennis.

In the sports games the sensitivity was a little off. It could be that we had set it up incorrectly, as we were working with a projector, big table in the way and some beer.

Next came the racing game. I have no idea what it was called, but you chose a truck, jeep, or buggy and went off down dirt trails. You only use one controller and you hold it sideways. Imagine it like a remote control you hold end to end (two handed) and then when you turn left you simply tilt the controller to the left. To go faster you press 2. Very simple and very fun. We found ourselves really enjoying this game. We flew off cliffs, into walls and into each other. Crashing wasn't very putative and you could really spend time trying to do crazy things, or make it a real race.

Zelda came next. The graphics were nice. The game is similar to past games in that you pick up rocks and find rupees (or walk through grass). There were simple quests right away like herding animals, and finding a cat. To be honest this was just too slow of a game for a group of people. It was interesting, but for me it would be the game I play when I don't have company. Maybe if we got a slingshot or knife or something right away so we can just run around and go crazy and show off the technology immediately? At any rate we decided it was one to look at again when we had settled down. By then, it was time to end.

Would I buy a Wii? I don't know. It really depends on the game lineup. I would say the controller experience really had an impact on me. It made the system a LOT more interesting, and interactive. I suspect there will be some crazy fun games coming out purely because of the way the controllers work.

My only concern is that the response of the controllers to the sports game was laggy. I don't know if it was our setup, the game or indicative of the system overall. We didn't have that same issue with the race game or with Zelda, though the precision was not as needed I would say.

Hope this helps. Feel free to ask any questions.

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