Welcome to Gaia! :: View User's Journal | Gaia Journals

I missed out on the launch; I seemed to miss out on every shipment since; but today, I finally got my hands on a Wii, and I didn't have to pay an inflated price to get one via eBay either. Setting up the machine was simple, though I was surprised to see its power cord includes one of those enormous bricks-- not as gargantuan as the Xbox 360's, actually a little smaller than the GameCube's, but still kind of a shock for a system this small. But there were no glitches getting the system running, and the remote functioned exactly as it should from the start; obviously, Nintendo's people know wireless better than Microsoft (the Xbox 360 wireless pad was one of the least cooperative pieces of hardware I've ever encountered).

I didn't actually buy any games for the system yet. I figured I'd spend some time with Wii Sports and get a feel for the remote. Of the five minigames in the package, boxing is by far the most entertaining and intuitive, and it's great fun dodging from side to side and using the remote and the Nunchuck to whack your opponent senseless. Tennis also works well-- once you've played it a while, you start to get a sense for timing your swing and angling your shots, though I did hit a lot of balls out while trying to reach that level.

I wasn't that crazy about the other three sports-- I've never been a fan of baseball, and the simplistic game included here does nothing to change my mind, though the batting and pitching moves lend themselves well to Wiimote control; and the control method for bowling felt counterintuitive. I did the worst at golf, even though the game itself isn't bad; the main flaw is the difficulty of judging swing strength-- I'd either end up underpowering my shots and falling way short of the green, or overpowering them so much I ended up in bunkers, in the water, or anywhere but the fairway. It actually took me 9 shots to finish a par 3 hole.

Now, I need a couple of actual games for the system, though I'm strangely reluctant to spend much money on them-- maybe I'll hunt around for used copies to get some extra savings. I'll probably get Zelda and WarioWare; the latter was my main reason for wanting the system to begin with, and while reviews have been mixed, I'm addicted to that series, so I'll have to play it.