Purchasing Nintendo’s latest console has been a goal of mine since the holiday season of 2006 and it finally became a reality last Sunday. A full month before we purchased our Wii, I was so excited I ordered some accessories to go with it. I am pretty sure you can’t use the console until all your controllers have cute skins on them (I went with these colorful 2-Tone Silicone Skin Cases in pink, orange, green, and blue). You’ll never guess what color controller is mine. Don’t even try.
We started off with these as our basics :
- the console
- four controllers (with four different color skins of course)
- Wii Play
- sports gadgets attachments
- Wii Sports (which came with the console)
- Mario Party 8
I have played these games for the last four days so my opinion is pretty solid at this point although I am still kinda a n00b. Just kinda though. And that is unrelated to the Wii unfortunately.
Wii Sports was the first game I popped in. Included in this title are tennis, baseball, golf, bowling and boxing (the only one I haven’t tried yet is the last one). All of them have simple controls that are easy to pick up. My favorite is tennis, probably because I play it in real life. I just can’t get enough of that game. Bowling is second on my list which is amazing considering just how bad I am. I believe my record right now is a pitiful 140 something, damn splits. Golf is ok, it moves a bit slow for me though. I didn’t try baseball until the second night and pitching killed my already sore right arm. I worked through the pain though and squeaked out some pretty awesome fastballs. Cause that’s the way I roll.
The next game we tried was Mario Party 8. It is an awesome family game. It’s friendly for all ages and felt the same as playing a board game. The games lasted a bit longer than I would have liked; the lowest turn number you can set it to is 10 (the max is 50, I don’t even want to think about playing the game that long!). I think eight would have been the sweet spot. The thing I appreciate most about this game is the real life interactions it provides. Playing a game like Halo requires everybody to be extremely focused and interactions outside of the game are very low. With a game like Mario Party 8 though, everybody was laughing, talking, and interacting both in the game and out. It felt like playing a board game at the table, the only difference being everybody was a bit more physically active (which was a plus anyways).
Wii Play was next up and I will be completely honest. I never plan on playing this game again. The first minigame you play is a shooting gallery reminiscent of Duck Hunt. I am fond of my shooters, in fact I think I am too fond of my shooters. I did not like the lack of control you had over the reticle. If I want to shoot something, I am going to go play Halo where I can control everything with a certain level of accuracy. Other included games are Mii-matching, billiards, air hockey, tank battles, table tennis rally, Mii poses, and cow-riding. The Mii-matching and Mii poses games closely resemble torture. I find it hard to believe that anybody finds those enjoyable in the least bit. The only remotely fun game on Wii Play is the cow riding race. That one freakin’ rocks! I could ride that cow all day.
So those are my specific thoughts, here are my general thoughts.
My Xbox 360 is a console I can play on a daily basis. My Wii is not. The Wii strikes me as a special activity a couple of times a week with the family. The Wii is also something to play when you have friends over. The Wii is not a console you sit down (or stand up) and play every day. At least not for me. It is an absolute blast to play and I am so glad I finally made this purchase. However, I am a fairly competitive person and the Nintendo Wii doesn’t satisfy that side of me.
The biggest thing I have found with playing the Wii is that it makes me want to do all of these things in real life. I have played tennis since I was a wii little one (see what I did there?) but these days finding time to hit the courts is a rarity. Since playing on the Wii, my desire to play actual tennis has skyrocketed. Playing pool on the Wii only made me want to find a dive bar to go hang out at and waste away the evening in a haze of smoke and balls. (Balls of the pool table variety. Ahem.) Playing the cow-riding game did nothing but intensify my desire to … nevermind.
Oooh, well please purchase Super Smash Bros. when it comes out for the Wii on November 3!! Im soooo anxious to see how that game turns out… I dont have a wii but I love Super Smash Bros!!
Im mainly a 360 gamer too! (cuz i love xbox live) ^_^
Congrats on your purchase. I can’t believe you bought the accessories before the actual console. (Although it sounds like something I would do. LOL)
If you’re into minigames I recommend Wario Ware it’s loads of fun to play. Although it’s more of a single player game before you unlock multiplayer by beating all the levels.
I too purchased a Wii recently, and I’m loving it. I like it probably a bit more than you seem to do, but you are definitely right on one thing: this is meant for large groups of people. Sure. Twilight Princess is amazing, but if you’re going to play any game that has multiplayer included, make sure you have a ton of controllers and some friends.
When I get set up, we need to get each other’s Wii friend codes and exchange Mii’s.
I can send you a Stu if you send me an angel.
LOL! I love your comments at the end. Excellent review bs thank you! I can gather from your comments that i would probably feel the same way about the wii-it wouldn’t satisfy my competitive nature either. I don’t want a wii neccesarily but I do want to play it at least once or twice.
I know exactly how you feel angel. From all the times I’ve played it at friends/family member’s houses I’m already kinda bored with it (well, Wii Sports anyway… since that’s the game we end up playing most of the time). Though I still want to play Trauma Center again. Until I get bored of that… or complete it on expert? lol.
Actually, the only reason why I still sorta kinda want to get a Wii is the forthcoming NiGHTS sequel (yup, continuing the best Sega Saturn game EVER). I forget the release date (holidays ‘07 - early ‘08 ish i think?) but I’ll wait for the reviews of that to come in…
I was a huge NiGHTS fan. There was something about a flying jester in purple spandex that got me going.
I do enjoy it, very much in fact. It’s just different. When people refer to the “console war”, it doesn’t make sense to me, especially when comparing a 360 and a Wii. Their experiences are opposite ends of the spectrum and it is like comparing apples with oranges in my opinion. I am very pleased with the purchase and it is an excellent complement to my gaming collection.
For me, it’s like the Arcade on XBox Live, just relaxing fun. I need both the highly competitive games and the just for fun games to keep that happy balance, and now I have it.
Thanks for the game recommendations also!
Give Mario Strikers a try sometime - it’s fast paced, seriously competitive online and the controls have little nuances they don’t teach you in the manual.
I don’t like soccer much but this game is fun
I’ll check it out. Thanks for the recommendation!