These past few months, since Nintendo announced the details about their new system, I’ve been excited. I’ve been researching this new “revolution” in gaming. I liked what I heard. I was skeptical, however. The vision of Wii was so wildly different from anything before it, that I assumed it was either going to be incredible or it would just be another GameCube. I am very pleased to say Nintendo has fixed all their mistakes from the past, and this will mean big things for the next generation.
The setup
Wii’s packaging wins big on style points. The box is a stark white, sporting the logo and photos of the console and remote on either side. Very little information about the innards are on the outside, which makes the box easy on the eyes. Major eco points lost for the packaging on the inside, however. Every component is wrapped in plastic which will leave a mountain of trash when all is said and done. The setup of Wii itself is pretty effortless. Aside from a mildly irritating and slow firmware update, Nintendo makes the process pretty painless by providing preconfigured settings for your Wiimote, the most complex piece of the console. These settings will most likely work for most, but I found that a little tweaking can’t hurt.
Nintendo faithfuls will be pleased to see the familiar DS internet setup when configuring their Wi-Fi settings.
The console is SMALL. Surprisingly small. Wii keeps with the iPod-inspired decor of baby brother DS lite by giving everything a white lacquer sheen. Even the Wiimote and accessories are impressive in their looks, all sporting simplistic yet functional design. The front of Wii has a CD slot that occasionally glows blue, an SD card slot, and three function buttons.
On the side/top (depending on orientation), there are GameCube controller and card slots that hide away nicely when not in use. On the back, you’ll see two USB ports that, for now, do absolutely nothing, an AV port, the sensor bar port, and the power supply port. Every piece of the unit, minus the controllers, shares the same shape of an SD card, which is novel, but a little strange too. A gray metallic stand is also included to hold the unit upright, though it can also be laid on its side and still look just as nice.
The Channels
The Disc Channels is pretty straightforward in the sense that it plays the games you insert. The Mii Channel is where you should probably head first after the initial setup. Creating a Mii is a fun way to get oriented with the controls and to personalize your system. Though any real creative or off the wall options are lacking, the Mii Channel has enough choices to make a pretty convincing caricature of almost anyone.
The Mii you create can be store directly onto the Wii remote and taken to other Wiis and used to play games like Wii Sports after you build up your stats and scores at home. The Photo Channel allows you to load JPEG and MOV files off of your SD card and use them in a variety of ways including games, slide shows, and doodling. Slide shows also support MP3 files for background music.
The most frustrating part of this channel is the seemingly random support or non-support of certain files. Only about half of my photos, ZERO of my MOVs, and most of my MP3s will load.
Right now the Internet, Weather, and News channels are not operational, but you can shop for Virtual Console games with the Wii Shop Channel. The shopping center has a clean and easy to use layout, making purchasing add-ons a breeze. I bought some Virtual Console games with my credit card and found that to also be pretty simple and secure.
The currency for the shop is a points system with each point worth a penny (1c). Downloads for the NES games I bought were pretty fast, each running about 30 seconds or so. The games themselves are faithful to the originals and the Wiimote translates in to an NES control pad pretty well too.
You have options as far as what you can use to control the throwbacks. A Classic Controller, sold separately, is recommended. If you own a GameCube controller, however, that can also be used for most games.
I am very pleased with the Wii Remote. Its button setup is perfect and allows for easy transition from application to application without much thought. It has a healthy weight to it that doesn’t make it feel cheap.
Conversely, it’s not so beefy that you become easily tired. I found using it in Wii Sports, Zelda, and Red Steel to be very engaging and I never found myself fumbling for a button or needing to awkwardly handle it. The included nunchuk attachment proves very useful in many titles and adds a nice layer of extra control to most games.
It also includes motion control and has great button and analog stick feedback.The only qualm I have is with the weight of the nunchuk, which feels far too light and cheap. This causes a stark contrast between it and the Wiimote, especially when both are in use (i.e. Wii Boxing).
The sensor bar, used for all your pointer applications, is very forgiving about where you set it in the room as long as you don’t have anything in front of it. The only time the controls got crazy was when I had the sensor bar set below my TV, putting it at the same height as my coffee table. Everything sitting on top of the table would sporadically interfere, causing the pointer to shudder and shake across the screen.
Wii Sports
Wii Sports comes packaged with the system, so I’ll give you the basics on it. Here is a very stylized compilation of today’s more popular sports. With it you can enjoy motion controlled action by playing tennis, baseball, boxing, golf, and bowling.
Each of them is quite fun, though each have their flaws. Tennis is a crowd favorite, but feels pretty rigid compared to the rest. Golf is a pretty accurate and fun version of the sport, though it can get pretty frustrating if you don’t know how to make a proper golf swing.
Baseball’s strong point is hitting. The rules are made to make the game go by very fast, but the still seems to drag sometimes. Pitching can easily be done by just sitting down and wiggling the remote. Bowling is my personal favorite. It’s fun, accurate, and easy to find your niche style of play. This game had the least learning curve and was easily the most random as far as who won.
On the flip side, boxing is the worst sport on the disc. It’s frenetic, hard to pick up, and tiring. The wild difference in weight between nunchuk and Wiimote is frustrating and causes a lot of missed punches. Overall, this titles is a keeper and a killer pack-in that shows the potential of the Wiimote.
All in all, I am very pleased with the Wii. It combines style, function, and fun it an incredible and affordable package. Minor annoyances be damned (smartly done firmware updates can get everything running in top form)!
This system more than makes up for it by giving us great gameplay, intuitive and engaging menus and channels, and the ultimate in backwards compatibility. With much more planned for the Wii in the near future, any owner should be continually delighted as this product continues to live up to its monumental potential as the console that saved Nintendo.