This holiday season, millions of Nintendo fans and non-gamers too will be enjoying their brand new Nintendo Wii's. This is my opinion on the new console, its shortcomings and pluses.
The Games
Nintendo really outdid itself in this department. This is the single greatest console lauch ever when it comes to launch games. Gamecube had Luigi's Mansion and Waverace. Wii launched with a new Zelda game, plus Call of Duty, Metal Slug, Rayman, and a million other unique properties. The virtual console titles are nothing to shake a stick at either.
Forecast Channel
The interface is very smooth. It is easy to check the weather wherever you live. It works a little bit like google earth. You can see the current weather, tommorws weather, or a weekly forecast.
Virtual Console
With you Wii points card you are able to buy all of the classic and not so classic titles from Nintendo, Sega, Turbografx, and others soon to follow. I purchased Gunstar Heroes from the Virtual Console. My only gripe is that the games take too long to load onto the console. The Wii is supposed to be online 24/7, so I'm not sure I understand why this is a problem. The buying process is very simple, my 6 year old brother could do it.
Wii Console
Its not as sleek and rounded as it may appear from a distance, its actually pretty blocky. All of the extra ports and stuff are covered with a flap so you dont have to look at them. Disk are automatically fed into the console, no more trays to fumble with. It constantly eminates a blue glow from the disk slot, telling you that its there. The channels interface for the menu is very intuitive. No more searching and sifting through lines of text to find what you're looking for. The large icons are clearly labled and easy to select with the Wii mote. There are tons of ways to customize your experience. You can organize your channels, tweak Wii-mote sensitivity, and numerous others. You can even select whether the sensor bar is above or below the TV.
Sensor Bar
This piece confuses me. The Wii is all sleek, white, and shiny. The sensor bar takes on the appearance of a dark gray slab of plastic. Its not entirely noticeable, after all you'll be looking at the television, not around it. It just dosen't fit in with the rest of the console. If you check out www.ign.com you can read an article about the sensor bars shortcomings. Apparently you can replace it with two candles and it will work just the same. Not the best piece of hardware to come with the Wii.
Mii Channel
This is the first channel a lot of people will check out the first time they power up the console. It is a nice addition by Nintendo that you can create little versions of yourself to play in select games. I named my Mii Silence, and I should have a picture of him up soon. There are plenty of things you can tweak to change your Mii's appearance, but there dosen't seem to be enough. There are a lot of things to change, but none of them are that significant. You cant even change the color of your pants.
Photo Channel
This is very similar to any of your computer photo editing programs. You can draw on the picture, make a puzzel out of the picture, and create a slideshow of pictures set to you own music. I'm not that into photography, but others who are should be pleased with the basic offereing of this channel.
Backwards Compatibility
This is one of my favorite features as I have a lot of GameCube games, but my GameCube was destroyed by my little brother and sister. All of my GC games worked perfectly.The problem is that when you pop in a GC disk, the Wii-mote ceases to work. That means you cant remotely turn off the console, or select other channels without restarting the system.
The Nunchuck
The little add on that hooks up to the Wii-mote. It houses the joystick, two extra buttons, and motion sensing. In my opinion the motion sensitivity is less precise than the Wii-mote's. The nunchuck also feels too light.
Wii-Mote
The thing that would make or break the Wii console. Its motion sensing and pointer capabilities are very precise. The buttons are in all the right places, and the Wii-mote is perfectly weighted (probrably because of the batteries inside). The lights on the bottom tell how much battery is left, or what player you are when doing multiplayer. The only problem is that the speaker is really muddy sounding. The sounds are not high quality. The rumble is a little weak too.
My Rating 9.5 out of 10
Try this console, I promise you will enjoy it. Nintendo took a gamble on the new control scheme, and their gamble paid off.
Other People
I have shown the Wii to others as well. All of them reacted positively toward the console. My family enjoys Wii sports golfing, boxing, and bowling. My friends loved Rayman Raving Rabbids and Red Steel's sword fights. My dad stated that he liked how you didn't have to learn the buttons. You just perform simple motions, which is a lot easier. Even my 2 year old sister could punch out an opponent at wii sports boxing. Non-gamers and gamer alike love this console.
Thanks so much to the productwiki team for sending me this Nintendo Wii. I love it. Glad I could help out the site. I would write a lengthy thank you, but pictures are better than words. So...
