The Wii

My arms are sore. Why are they sore you ask? In a word, I have Wii arms. Highly interactive gaming systems have a price and not just the money you spend on it. Plus playing until 2am is really a bad idea. But this system is unlike any other. It reminds me of my first video game system. Remember the Atari 2600? It was my first. I bugged my parents, OK truth be told I targeted my Dad, because he would usually cave into my persistence. So I asked if we could go to Kiddie City to "look" at them. So we went, I then switched from "looking" to "hey this could be my Christmas, birthday, and allowance for a year" gift. My Dad did the thing where he said, "Hmmmmm." This was a good sign mind you. It mean he was considering it. But I think he saw that look in my eyes and before you knew it I was playing Atari at home! It was the best. I would spend hours figuring out all the patterns and I wore out 4 joysticks and 2 power packs. As a matter of fact I think my Atari is still at my Mom's house in NJ. But I took that tangent to illustrate what the Wii is like to me. It's that excitement all over again. It's like gaming is "new" again. I have an original Playstation and I bought a Nintendo Gamecube when they came out, but neither of them compare to the Wii. It's the motion sensitive controllers. They are the absolute BOMB!!! Nintendo put out a real winner with this one.

So here it is. The Wii. The box is very similar to Apple designed products. The design is not flashy and very minimalist:



I actually think Nintendo took a page from the Apple playbook with their packaging. When you open the box, there are two separate trays in the box:



The first tray contains the manual, sensor, and controllers. The main controller of the Wii is called a Wiimote. The second controller is the Nunchuk. Both are motion sensitive. They also snap together to form what really does remind you of a martial arts weapon. The second tray contains the main console, power pack, and cables:



The entire unit is about the size of an external DVD drive. The console can be vertically mounted in the included tray or you could put it horizontal.



The game it comes with is Wii Sports. It is extremely addictive. It has baseball, golf, bowling, boxing, and tennis. All of the games except for boxing only use the Wiimote. For the boxing game you hook the nunchuk in and go at it against a computerized opponent. The Wii controllers have built in speakers and are not only motion sensitive, but also give feedback in the form of vibration. For example, when you play golf, tennis, or baseball you can feel it when you strike the ball. It is UNREAL!! And in order to play the games, your posture is the same as if you were playing the real sport. Batting position for baseball. Pivoting to the left and right for tennis. Bending over posture for golf. The first game you play will make your senses just jump because you are not expecting the game to be so interactive. Boxing is wild. You can duck your opponent and you use both the nunchuk and Wiimote. So you can do combos and you use both hands to box.

It is definitely worth the $249 price tag, provided you can get one for that price. Oh did I mention it is WiFi enabled? Oh and the controllers are BlueTooth. And... it takes SD cards if you want to display pictures with the Wii. But the game play is the real strength. Playing this thing makes me feel like a kid again. Ever since I unpacked it, I've played it every day. Even when I first had the Playstation and Gamecube it wasn't like that. I know, being a kid is really not a big reach for me. But get this...I get home tonight and guess who is playing tennis on the Wii? None other than Sharkey! Wii on BABY!! Wii ON!!!!!!!!!