Wii are DU--The Wii Gaming Thread

[NewHampshireDem]

Alright all you ...

Wiiple?
Wiinies?
Wiibbles?
Wiinises?

Well, we can work on the name later. But now, post your thoughts about the Wii! I'll start:

This is the first console I've bought since my Sega Genesis in '95 and the first I ever bought at launch. In addition to the Genesis, I owned an original Nintendo, played a lot of SNES, and had the old faux-wood Atari 2600. This is the first console I've ever gotten excited about.

I've logged about a dozen hours on the system playing Wii Sports, Zelda, and Cars. Each uses the controller in an interesting and engaging way. I love bowling, swinging the sword in Zelda, and leaning into the turns in Cars.

It's quite a change from my usual PC gaming in that I spend most of my playing time standing up and moving, rather than just plunked in my seat. I played the other night after putting the boys to bed, thinking I'd just bowl a string then call it a night; but after getting up and moving, I was actually more energized than when I started, and played Wii Sports for about 2 hours before finally calling it a night.

My son (who is 4) loves playing Cars. He gets a kick out of driving through town crashing Lightning McQueen into everything. I have yet been able to entice him into playing any of the sports games, though. (And, yes, I do limit his playing time!)

[Hong Kong Cavalier]

1. Amazing. Simply amazing.

I brought my console home for Christmas and hooked it up at my sisters' house. Within an hour, my mother and father came downstairs and tried the bowling.
Any game console that my parents want to try is a winner in my book.

[NewHampshireDem]

2. Exactly!

My in-laws are here ... I haven't been able to tempt them yet, but I think they're going to crack soon. :)

[NewHampshireDem]

3. One gripe .... only one wii-mote!

For a system built around the social aspect of gaming, shipping it with one controller makes very little sense--especially in light of the fact that *NO ONE* has them! :grr: In fact, during my so-far-unsuccessful hunting for a second controller I ran across more systems (8) than controllers (-0-).

On the up side, Circuit City has the Wii Play with controller for $49 and the listing says it ships on January 15th! I put in a pre-order for one and I'll keep my fingers crossed that it arrives before the end of February, though I fear CC just never updated their website to reflect NoA's lastest release date.

[Mayberry Machiavelli]

4. We got this. The Sports game justifies the purchase all by itself IMO.

We had a PS2 but never played it, PC games being so far superior to it...

I do think that if a game is not specifically designed around the unique 3D control system, there's little point in playing it.

Bowling is really cool and mellow.

Blasting homers in baseball batting practice is the most gratifying thing for me, though.

Boxing just wears me out, LOL.

I did get the thing set up on my wireless network, but is there some way to actually play people online? Otherwise I don't see the benefit of doing this poorly online (shopping, web browsing etc.) through the Wii that I could do well on my PC. The online software updating is slow, but maybe that's my WEP encryption...

[NewHampshireDem]

5. I really love Wii Sports too

My wife and I have a pretty heated rivalry going with bowling. ;) I like the baseball training, but find that tennis is actually more gratifying when I want to really whack something.

If you have a BlockBuster in your area (or some other place that rents games) you should check out Rayman Raving Rabbits. It is a story-based (roughly story-based anyway) collection of minigames that make good use of the controller. I don't think I'd shell out the $50 for it, though.

[Bjorn Against]

6. Online play will be here in the spring

Right now Nintendo does not have their network totally up and running yet so there is no way to play games online yet, although I believe the first online games will hit sometime around March.

[MonkeyFunk]

7. Just got ours today!

Man, is it fun!

[NewHampshireDem]

8. Rental Reviews

Hey, since you're only gonna spend $8 to rent the game, I'm only going to give a brief review! ;)

Super Monkey Ball:Banana Blitz: Thumbs Down--I found the controls for the minigames very, very unresponsive and so it was frustrating to play.

Sonic and the Secret Rings: Thumbs Up--Great game, great minigames. Very similar to SMB:BB, but it worked. Graphics were good, though the music totally sucks (unless you like Winger, but unless you are Kip Winger, you probably don't).

Elebits: Thumbs WAY Up--A non-violent FPS with lots of replay value and a fun multiplayer mode.

I've also been playing a lot of Super Mario World and Mario 64. I got myself a Wavebird for $30 at Target and use it to groove on a couple of fun games I missed their first time around... I'm really looking forward to future VC releases.

[MonkeyFunk]

9. Yes!

just rented Elebits yesterday, and it's great! Reminds me of Katamari Damacy in its game-play and weirdness.

Also bought WarioWare and it's great, too - very innovative.

[Pithlet]

10. We got ours earlier this month. I love it.

So far I've played the sports game that came with it, the Zelda game, Marble Mania and Monkeyball. I loved the sports games and Marblemania. My only complaint with Marble Mania is there aren't enough levels. I finished it only two days, though I had a blast with it. I loved the Zelda game until I got stuck. I'm kind of meh on the Monkeyball. I think the version for the Gamecube was much better. I can't wait to get more games for it. The wireless motion sensitive remote is just brilliant. Boxing and tennis are a workout.

We'll probably get the Cars game next, because my 6 year old son is a big fan. Right now he loves the bowling and Marble Mania.

[NewHampshireDem]

12. Have you tried SSX?

It's a boarding/skiing game. We played it for a couple of hours last night and it's pretty good. My only gripe is that it needs a sandbox mode. (I wish they'd do a remake of the old-school 720 skateboard game ... that would be super cool for the Wii!)

[Broken_Hero]

11. I've heard nothing but good/positive things, for the Wii

I'm thinking of getting my wife one, for her Bday, or for Xmas...she is a HUGE Donkey Kong fan...if they put out a DK game for the Wii...she might buy it before I get it for her!....