 An Low-priced Gaming Console for the Whole Family |
| Review Date: November 19, 2006 |
| Reviewer: Lisa Shea, |
The Nintendo Wii is the most low-priced of the contemporary generation of gaming consoles. It provides motion sensing controllers and 480p graphics. We tested the Wii before its launch day (I'm a game reviewer), and we had our own unit in our home the morning of launch day. Here are our findings.
The Wii is designed around a menu of "channels". There is of course the game-before a live audience direct, where the Wii will play any Wii or GameCube game. Simply load the disc in and go. There is a Mii direct where you set up a profile and avatar to join to all your game before a live audience. The Photos direct lets you look at photos on your TV. Other channels for news, weather, and online shopping require an interent connection; the news and weather were not really effective at launch time.
The system does NOT have a fixed network cable port, which both the PS3 and XBox 360 have. Instead, it works with built in wireless or with a USB network adapter. I am a firm proponent of wireless - less mess! So I am tickled that they offer wireless automatically. With the PS3, you have to pay extra for the 60 gig unit to get this built in. The XBox 360 requires extra hardware as well.
It's hard to take a broad view gameplay on any console - it really depends on what games you buy. That being said, the comes-with-it software of Sports is really quite fun and is about as basic as you can get. You swing at baseballs, lob tennis balls, bowl, box and play golf. A "fitness" mode puts you through a variety of tasks and then calculates your fitness age, sort of like how Brain Age keeps track of your mental age. If you did both every day, you could aim to be as fit mentally and physically as doable!
In a world where video games = couch potato, it really is quite incredible to have a game where it natively expects you to go and be active. You don't lounge back and gain pounds here while before a live audience games. Boxing can be quite dogged, jabbing, blocking and weaving in real life. Tennis involves quick reflexes and strong arm schedule. Bowling might be the most relaxed of the sports, but even there you are standing, moving, swinging. You get your heart going at least a small, and get some exercise. My boyfriend had a sore arm after before a live audience for a number of hours, in a excellent way, as he would from exercising.
The 480p pledge is surely not high def 1080p like the other two systems. It's something you accept when you're paying such a low price for the console. But really, it's not that huge a deal. I still play the ancient Zeldas and like them for their gameplay, even though you can't see the pores in Link's face. If they are going for the cartooney characters and environments, 480p is DVD quality and is quite excellent. If you really, really crave high definition super realism in your games, then the Wii might not be the best choice for you. But, if you're fine with before a live audience games with a more imitator / cartooney look to them, the 480p can show that quite nicely. For example, there aren't fans in the stands for baseball - there are painted blocks.
Nintendo has always been known as a "Kid's Console" - but I really do reckon with the Wii that they have become a "Family Console". It's not just kids who will delight in this. Seniors can have fun bowling without knowing anything "Tough" about how to use a video game unit. It's very intuitive. Moms can easily play with their kids, each with their own Wii profile. Adults having parties can have fun quick the controllers around. Family groups can share slideshows on the huge screen while hanging out and drinking wine. Every person who has come over - from 8 to adult - has instantly unwritten and loved the Wii, without much explanation at all.
With the price tag being so low, a gaming household that "needs" a higher end system can easily save up their money to get that XBox 360 or PS3 - and still be able to justify to get a Wii for the fun, casual gaming stuff to share with their non-gaming friends.
Well recommended! Since I own all three systems, and am before a live audience all three wirelessly, feel free to friend me if you have any additional questions.
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Update: One year later, and the Wii is still going strong! It's really amusing how many people said the Wii would bomb since it wasn't as excellent as the PS3 or 360 - and here we are a year later and the Wii is still the system that people are really wanting to get. Hospitals are getting Wiis for their patients to play with. Senior centers are getting Wiis for their residents to play games together with. I was just on a cruise ship and they had Wii tournaments going on every day! This is a enormously fun system that we really delight in before a live audience with and that factually the whole family can have fun with. There are fantastic games for kids, fantastic games for teenagers, fantastic games for adults. I am really very satisfied with how the Wii has held up and the game set available for it.
Update 2: 2 years later! Our Wii is still adored in our household, used just as much as the PS3 and XBox 360. I was just at a bar and they had two Wiis set up for people to play with, and everybody loved them. This really is an "every person's gaming system".
I'm running out of space here, but my nintendo.bellaonline.com site has full articles on just so what you get in this box, and what else you should buy so you have a full system to play with. |
The Wii Remote (Not a Kid)
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| Review Date: November 24, 2006 |
| Reviewer: , |
Since the console has been covered in other reviews, this one will be a small more in-depth about the controller, and only the controller. I hope it can convince you, since it surely enhanced my gaming encounter.
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Wow. That's all I had to say after plugging the Wii in at my home on November 19th. After months of waiting, it is finally here, and for once, this game system really met and possibly exceeded my expectations. Know before continuing that I'm not a Nintendo fanboy, I despised the Gamecube, own a PS2 and will be buying an Xbox 360. Well, after buying this, I don't know if i will be needing that 360.
The largest thing about the Wii is it's new controller. Instead of the traditional two-handed gamepad with 2-4 buttons and some analog sticks, the Wii's input system is shaped like a TV remote control. It has a couple of buttons on it, but not nearly as many as the average controller. How can you play intricate games with such a simple controller? The answer is motion control.
The Wii's controller has accelerometers inside of it, allowing it to sense when you wave, swing, punch, stab, or shake. It can also cooperate with a sensor bar placed on top of the television to make a pointer for the TV. For example, to select a menu option, you just point at the option with the remote and click the A button. This makes a whole new gaming encounter. It's like one of those arcade games at the local mall, but it works better, and no more 25 cents per turn!
The remote is also very comfortable. For games that would need two analog sticks, such as shooters, there is a connectable perephial with an analog stick and two shoulder buttons, which is called the Nunchuk. In a shooting game, this would handle passage and the remote would handle the aiming. It takes a very small amount of time to get used to, but once you do, it is much more comfortable than the normal controller. You can spread your hands out instead of hooked up, land your hands together.
The Wii Remote is functional, well-organized, comfortable, and smart. It is so much better than controllers of the past, and I hope this is a sign of things to come from Nintendo. |
Wii Puts "We" Back Into Family Gaming
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| Review Date: June 8, 2007 |
| Reviewer: Mel Odom, Moore, OK USA |
The right battle of the gaming consoles started months before last Christmas. Beginning about October, and certainly by Black Thursday - the Friday shopping day after Thanksgiving, television, newspapers, and every advertising medium were filled with articles and advertisements for the new gaming consoles coming out just in time to place under the Christmas tree.
The gaming console picked to attract the most attention immediately was the PlayStation 3. It touted the Blu-ray player that was part of the ordinary equipment, and that Blu-ray player was supposed to be the figure that crushed all other game consoles. Unfortunately, the PlayStation 3 - like its predecessor and the original Xbox and Xbox 360 - was underproduced. By all accounts the problem was in the blue diode chip that enabled the Blu-ray player to work. As a result, there were simply not enough PlayStation 3 units bent to fill every Christmas stocking.
The Xbox 360 came out the Christmas before. It, too, was underproduced and finished up inspiring a whole new generation of campers that took up the sport outside Walmart, Costco's, and other electronic outlet stores around the United States. The price tag of the PlayStation 3 was very pricey, as was that of the 360 when it first broke.
But the same time Nintendo released its new game system called simply Wii. At $250.00 per unit, buying a Wii seemed like a no-brainer, except that people were getting wooed in by the wowser graphics offered by the PlayStation 3. But the lack of PlayStation 3 units caused a run on the Wii at Christmas that has taken months to level off.
I had been looking for a Wii since before Christmas and finally scored one at a Best Buy in May. My eighteen-year-ancient and I had been diligently mission the local retail stores trying to nail one down. We even called in favors from some of his friends who worked at those places to find out about incoming shipments. The problem was, those incoming units commonly departed as soon as they hit the floor. No one would hold one back. And you couldn't buy one over the Internet. Not even from Amazon.
We got up bright and early on a Sunday morning and hauled butt down to the local Best Buy to grab a unit seconds after it was place out. My wife plotting we were crazy. My son and I plotting we were mission to rescue the Holy Grail. My nine-year-ancient came with us. It was his first time for such foolishness and he had a blast. After we got the unit, we hit the game shelves. Everybody got something.
Of course, Dad got the bill.
At home, we hooked the unit up to the 42-inch television in the living room and proceeded to play. The games were broken out and passed around. Then we chose up lots to see who got to play first. Everybody got to play for a small while. Even when we weren't before a live audience our games, we all sat around watching all else play their game. Of course, we made comments on the player's form. Unfriendly comments that beggared yucky reckoning when our own time came to play.
Admittedly, I felt like an idiot waving the controller around. If someone had been looking through the window, I feel certain that the onlooker would have believed he was tuned into Discovery Direct and was watching a presentation relating tribal rituals and the sacrifice of small animals. There's just no way to look cool while before a live audience a Wii.
The controller is incredibly simple to use. All the new games made for the Wii are already coded to answer to the wireless controller's motions. Button use is even at a nominal so you don't get the sore thumbs you naturally get with console systems. Whatever the programming is that allows the motion sensitivity to work with the games is incredible. In addition to the primary wireless controller, there's also another wireless controller that plugs into it called the nunchuk. Using uncommon configurations of these two devices allows for many permutations of schedule.
Since we got the Wii right at the end of school, we had time to play on the weekends and often used it as a stress reliever in the evenings. For the first time a long time, we were all gathered around the television and a gaming console. Over the years we've played board games and card games, but there is not anything like before a live audience video games together or providing moral help during a hard-fought campaign. Every victory is celebrated together, and every defeat is never alone.
The Wii package we got came with a pool of sports games. The pool includes boxing, golf, bowling, tennis, and baseball. We had more fun, and more laughs, before a live audience those games together than we did before a live audience our individual games with help.
I fault the Xbox 360 and the PlayStation 3 for not making more family-oriented games. They just don't bring families together the way Nintendo games always have. Of course, I have to give it up to the graphics that are available on those two games systems. Not anything small of a PC matches up to them.
But the bottom line is while the 360 and the PlayStation 3 look wonderful, they just don't place families together the way the Wii does. Not only is the price tag significantly cheaper, but if you're a family that likes to play games together, the Wii is the best way to go since there are more multi-player games that are age-forthcoming from parent to child.
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Living up to the Hype
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| Review Date: November 29, 2006 |
| Reviewer: P. Metz, Kent, WA America |
By the time I was able to locate and hold a Wii, I had read various reviews of the new console. Needless to say, the consumer reaction had my expectations set pretty high. I quickly found that the Remote and Wii combo fully lives up to everythig that I have read.
I bought the Wii at a retail place with Zelda: Twilight Princess. I opened the box and 4 simple steps later, was up and running. Even on my ancient 27 inch CRT with the factory full RCA cables, the Wii menu was crisp and impressive. My Wii remote instantly and accurately showed a pointer that seemed a small insightful at first, but quickly became simple to control with only abstractedly less vital, and slower schedule. I made a Mii: a fun small extra with lots of customization available. In seven minutes or so I had made Miis for me and my girlfriend that were really pretty decent comic strips of ourselves. Torturing myself, I left Zelda in the package and popped in the game that comes with the console, Wii Sports.
The Wii Sports games are very basic. Tennis requires no button critical at all, and you don't go your Mii character to the ball, the computer does that for you. Despite the limitations, you can control the hardness and directionality of your shot by simply changing your stroke hardness and timing with the Remote. Baseball is also rather simple. It is more like a homerun derby mixed with one-on-one baseball you might play in the backyard with ghost runners and ghost fielders (based on your hit, the batter is confirmed out or is given a single, double, triple, or homerun, depending on how long it took for the ball to be fielded by the AI controlled fielders). Human players only control pitching and hitting, but the Wii Remote operates flawlessly. I was even able to place my hit like real baseball, hitting it down either line or up the middle. After a few innings I hit my first couple homeruns and went on to the next game. Bowling is as simple as real-life bowling. You can line up your Mii and place as much or as small hook on the ball as you want by simply twisting the Remote in the corresponding management. I bowled the best ten frames of my life on my very first round. Golf is a small more hard. If you swing too hard, you will shank the ball pretty terribly, and not in a predictable manner. It doesn't help matters that if a ball lands in the rough, your max shot power is cut-rate by half and there is no chance of reaching the green in two shots on a par 4. The Mii on-screen does not always match your back stroke accurately. Luckily, the on-screen crawl doesn't seem to affect how well you hit the ball when you swing forward. Putting and chipping are all touch. If you have shot at least four or five rounds of golf in your life, you can just look at how far away the hole is on the TV and swing in view of that. You can read the greens just by looking at them and adjust your aim to correspond to the slope. The ball responds pretty right-to-life and it is very simple to find physically overshooting the green or putting way past the hole. This is not a fault with the Wii, but, it is a reflection of the problem of the real game of golf. The final game on the Wii Sports disc is boxing. Not quite Fight Night, but still rather fun; Wii sports boxing will warm you up. You can float like a butterfly, though your feet don't control anything on the screen. Your gloves on screen mimic where your hands, equipped with the remote and nunchuck, are in real-life. You can bring your hands to your face and block and then dodge left and right. If you are trying to do a punch other than a jab, it requires a pretty specific motion of either the remote or the nunchuck (just uppercutting the air will not necessarily go an uppercut on-screen; you have to exagerrate the motion quite a bit to see results), and don't expect to be able to carry out lightning-quick combos, at least not until fight night or a new rocky game is released. Overall, the sports games are more teasers than anything else. They show the right potential of the wii remote and nunchuck, especially for sports game applications. I can't wait to see some of the ancient sports favorites adapted to the new control scheme. The potential is there and Wii Sports hilights this potential while offering replayable games that are still fun and intuitive. My girlfriend, who will only play zelda games, was up jumping around, boxing and nearly falling over returning tennis serves within ten minutes of background up the console.
Zelda is wonderful so far, but I haven't really bought enough items to make any firm determinations. I did, but immediately go out and buy Red Steel, which I have to say is fantastic as well. It took a few levels to truly get the aim down and adjust to the sensitivity, even though I am still irregularly forgetting that the remote controls looking and let the pointer wander off of the screen. The graphics are fantastic and the control is fantastic after a small practice.
Considering the high price tag and exceptionally restricted availability of the other next-generation consoles, I certainly prefer the Wii. Graphics will take up again to get better and better until reaching a level of near actuality, but what then? Nintendo has taken the first huge step in radically changing the way that users cooperate with the digital world and I glady forfeit some minute fine points and succulence in the graphics for the groundbreaking new control scheme. So long controllers with 15 buttons and counterintuitive, "press this button to do this," memorization-vital control schemes and hello pick-it-up and play, get-off-the-couch controls of the future. |
Incredible
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| Review Date: November 19, 2006 |
| Reviewer: H. Vargas, APO, AP United States |
Just picked this up during the midnight launch at Wal-mart, so far it's 3:45AM PST and I have to say that I'm perfectly impressed by Nintendo's latest effort though at first the new control may feel foreign after not more than just a few minutes it feels untreated incredibly fun and after a small bit you'll never feel like going back to a fixed controller again. I questioned my cousin who was w/ me during the launch if he'd get a Wii and he said "no", but that all altered as we hooked it up and started before a live audience Wii sports. All of a sudden it went from "no" to "what games are there" etc. Try this and I guarauntee(*sp) that you will be impressed by this revolutionary new system that places gameplay above nice shiny eye candy which unless you've been living under a rock should know by now that that's not what the Wii's all about. I just also wanted to add that I'm not just some Nintendo fanboy trying to butter this system up as I also own a 360 and also plot on owning a PS3 when the right games come out for it, pure and simple I am a gamer and don't care for one particular system over another as long as it has the games to back it up. For those that are skeptical stop unbelieving this is the real deal and at a price ($250) that can't be beat by any of Nintendo's competitors this is something that will entertain the entire family in any case of age, gender etc. For about $350 I picked up an extra controller set(wii remote and nunchaku)and a copy of Zelda (try getting anywhere near that much w/ any other system). I'll admit that when Nintendo had finally shared its strategy to the world a while back I was skeptical as well until I saw the videos for it and knew from than on that Nintendo was truly onto something fantastic. Another cool note is that if you have a Gamecube controller lying around you can really use that for before a live audience the library of ancient school games that come from the Wii shop (which can be bought w/ Wii points)instead having to go out and buy the new Wii retro controller (nice touch) some ancient school games can also simply be played w/ the remote. Also unlike the almighty Microsoft point the Wii points are on equal terms w/ the dollar so 100 Wii points equals $1 etc. You can hold those online in the Wii shop by 1000 point increments(I judge) up to 5000 points. Prices for NES games are 500 points 800 points for Sega Genesis and Super Nintendo games and 1000 points for N64 games. Right now though the library is honestly restricted offering no more than a few titles (no more than 5)for each console. The bottomline though is don't miss out on this revolutionary product it is definately worth at least a try before you dismiss it as a clever attention-grabber and is truly one of the best systems to come out in years(IMO) and a breath of fresh air to the staleness which are controllers.
Bonus facial appearance contain Wi-fi for wireless connection, 4 Gamecube control ports, 2 USB ports, 2 Gamecube memory card slots and extra slots for SD flash cards (doesn't accept anything else like Memorysticks) so you can view your pictures on the Wii for occasion. |
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