It's been a couple of weeks now since the Wii was released, and while they've been difficult to find, Nintendo is making sure they get into gamers hands. I had my first hands-on experience with a Wii last night, and it definitely met many of my expectations, and in a few cases actually exceeded them.
I'd like to start off with the awesome before I get into any complaints I have.
Wii Boxing is amazing
This is the game that really surprised me and opened up my eyes to what the Wii is capable of. While the motions are not entirely 100% accurate, they're pretty darn close. You might be able to trick the Wiimote by turning it in certain ways instead of performing the actual motions, but when you perform the motions properly they work a lot better. And this is just in a simple demo. It all really hit home when I lifted my arms up in celebration and my Mii did the same thing. It was awesome!
I'm a boxer, so for me this is definitely a killer app. Not Wii boxing though. That'll get old very soon, I know that. The killer app comes in the form of a full-fledged tricked out boxing game, possibly in the same vein as Fight Night. Meaning, if EA puts the resources into it, Fight Night for the Wii could be an amazing accomplishment. The motions of boxing just translate so well, and if they did the right research and made it follow your hands in an accurate way, that would be incredible. Combine that with a way to compare and compete online, hopefully with multiplayer online, but even high-scores would be ok.
My one issue is that I don't want to get ahead of myself here. I have hopes that an advanced boxing game that's in my mind will be released, but I'm still unsure if the Wii's technology is that precise. It's entirely possible that Wii boxing is the limit in terms of precise control. Time will tell, but I just know that if/when a boxing game comes out, that's when I'll be picking up my own console.
The other Wii sports games I didn't really care for.
Zelda is the other game that I played, and again, I didn't really care for it. However, I completely understand that this is a matter of personal taste, and I just don't really enjoy Zelda-like games. I'll be writing more stuff about that in the near future.
As for the system itself, it was nice, but not as nice as the 360. It's definitely more refined and polished than Gamecube's offerings, and that's one of the great things about next-gen is that all the systems have been released with a full-fledged operating system such that there's lots of things to do even without a disc loaded. From that perspective the Wii is definitely a step-up. But again, compared to the 360 the interface and features just don't compare.
The other thing that surprised me was the hardware itself. The Wii looks super cool in pictures, just so sleek and sexy, but in person it's a lot boxier and more toy-like than I imagined. The plastic looks and feels pretty cheap and it just looks fragile like one of the flaps will break off if I don't treat it properly.
Overall, I was more impressed with the Wii than I thought it would be, but I'm still holding onto my initial predictions. Right now it's an arcade and party machine, which means it's a lot of fun in the right context. But we all know what happened to arcades, and even arcade games.
Oh, and before I forget, I really like the speaker inside the Wiimote. You'd think it's a small thing, but it actually adds a lot to the the experience. Because the sounds are coming from multiple places, and from the designs of the games, it just creates are more immersive experience. The rumbling and sounds when playing boxing are awesome, and the sounds in Zelda are a joy to hear as well.
