My brother happened to be standing under the Nintendo Wii faucet when its slow drip-drip leaked out a console while he was at Wal-Mart. Knowing that I had been on the hunt, he made the $250 purchase and Wii’ed me.
The Wii is surprisingly small with a slick, Apple-esque form factor. The “power brick” is separate from the device and you are only given a composite A/V cable. I am tempted to buy a component cable, but I don’t think we’ll be seeing much in the way of HD from the Wii.
In addition to power and A/V, you also need to connect the Wiimote sensor: a slim bar that you stick above or below your TV. Nintendo provides you with little sticky squares to afix the sensor, and a very long cable that provides plenty of reach. Once the sensor is set up with a clear line of sight to your Wiimotes, you are ready to go.
Wii Sports, the game packaged with the Wii, was disappointing to me. Whereas Super Mario Bros., packaged with the original NES, was a flagship title and instant classic, Wii Sports feels more like a demo. Although the sports (tennis, baseball, bowling, golf, boxing) lack depth, they have you use the Wiimote in different ways, doing an effective job of showcasing the technology.
And the technology is pretty good. Not great, but pretty good. I find baseball to be the most engaging; there is something very satisfying about taking a monster swing, hearing the Wiimote sound a crack of the bat, and watching your shot land in the upper deck. Tennis and bowling are okay, though the Wiimote motions are only a vague approximation of the real-life movements. Golf seemed decent, seeming to require a good deal of patience and control. I have yet to put on the gloves and try out the boxing game.
Speaking of boxing, I wound up dropping $5.00 to download Punch-Out off the online Wii store. The old NES game runs flawlessly on the Wii’s “virtual console”, though apparently they have removed all association with Mike Tyson. I desperately want Super Tecmo Bowl, but I don’t know if Nintendo will be restricted by licensing issues with the NFL. Even back when the game came out, the names of certain players could not be used (e.g. “QB Eages” instead of Randall Cunningham).
One of the cool things about the virtual console is that the Wii saves the game state, meaning that you can pause the game, play Wii Sports or whatever, and come back right where you left off.
Overall, this looks to be a fun, well-put-together console on which I look forward to logging some quality gaming hours.