gamersunited ~ View topic

I got the Wii for Christmas. When I opened it up, the first things out of my mouth were "Where, When, and How?" relating to how my mother bought it as supplies of the coveted toy are scarce. I hooked it up, downloaded the updates, and played a round of Tennis on the Wii Sports software bundled with the system. Here is my review of the Nintendo Wii, The Good, The Bad, and the Ugly.

The Good:

Dude, it's the Wii, Nintendo's long awaited successor to the Nintendo Gamecube! It's considerably smaller than the Playstation 3 and the Xbox 360 in terms of both weight and physical size. For the environmentally conscious, of the three new systems, it uses up less power, so fans of "An Inconvenient Truth" can play almost guilt free. The controller/wand/remote/wiimote concept is simple. Move the controller to interact. The concept works well as the controller is very responsive, thanks to the sensor bar. The system is backwards compatible with the entire Gamecube library and most Gamecube Accessories (the Game Boy Player and Network Adapters are NOT compatible...and YES, Wavebird DOES work). The user interface is simple and easy to use. The player sees a series of "channels" for the different applications that can be used with the Wii and many blank channels for later additions and add-ons (Internet Channel, Virtual Console Games). With the photo channel, one can upload photos from an SD Memory Card and edit them using basic tools (It's more or less MSPaint. If you're expecting Adobe Photoshop, you'll be disappointed). You can take your photos and make a slideshow (if you have an MP3 file on your SD Card, you can play music in the show). The Virtual Console library is impressive where it stands and it's going to get better as Nintendo promises new games available every Monday. The systems available are NES, Super NES, Nintendo 64, Sega Genesis, and TurboGraphx-16. Currently, the Internet Channel is in "Trial" Period (more like "Beta" period, actually), but for what you get, it's really nice. It's a full browser, supporting flash, sound, and photos (yes, myspace works). It loads on speeds on par with my laptop (sometimes faster). Best of all, the Internet Browser is FREE! The full version is coming March '07 and will be free until June '07. It runs on the Opera Browser. It's different from Firefox, but it's okay. With the news channel still down (coming sometime in January '07), the Internet Channel makes a nice alternative. The system supports up to four players. There was talk that the controller's straps were snapping due to over-eccentric players, leading to injuries or broken appliances. Nintendo is offering to replace the weak straps for free. Also, the new shipments of systems have the stronger strap already packaged in. The idea to bundle a game with the system was a great idea, allowing the player to jump right in and enjoy their new system. The software line-up is impressive and worth taking a look into.

The Bad:

I've read that setting up the system was easy, but for me, it was a trial by fire. The system worked great, but getting the sensor bar to pick up the Wii-Mote Cursor on the screen was a pain in the butt. It's working now, but the experience left me feeling stupid. The Forecast Channel is slow, as in I turned it on last night near 11pm and it gave me the weather as of 8pm (Clear Skies for Cumberland, Maryland). A few minutes later, it updated to weather as of 10pm (Hazy in Cumberland, Maryland). The Virtual Console is a good idea, but a lot of people are complaining that it needs more of the "classics" like Mario Kart, more Zelda, and others (me personally, I'm hoping for GoldenEye). Also, one thing that concerns me is the pricing of some of the games. Some of the games are bargains, but others are burdens. It works out a hundred points is equal to one US Dollar. Five hundred points for an NES game isn't bad...depending on the game (for Zelda, it's a steal, but for Balloon Fight, it's kind of a jiff). I don't know if it'll convince people to stop pirating games (I'm keeping my Dreamcast). Considering a Sega Genesis game is eight hundren points each, it's worth me keeping my Playstation 2 and my "Genesis Collection" game which was only twenty bucks for a TON of Genesis games. I don't mean to gripe, but I would trade in Gamecube compatibility for DVD compatibility. Even before Wii was released anywhere, Nintendo of Japan announced that a Wii is coming in mid-to-late '07 that will play DVD's. I would have waited the extra time, but then it was announced that it'd be Japan only, despite Nintendo's contract with Sonic (the DVD people) stated "WORLDWIDE RIGHTS." It just made me kind of upset that they announced a better Wii coming out even before the first ones were released to the public. Methinks Nintendo is either teasing the market or cannibalizing it.A system patch may be able to upgrade the Wii to play DVD's, but one source said both a software AND hardware update is required. In a way, I feel Nintendo cheated us. I know the browser is in the beta period, but it could handle passwords a bit more secretively. Imagine sitting in your living room with your friends and you go to check your email. You want to type in your password, but the system doesn't use the asterisks to block out the letters or numbers, revealing your password being typed on screen (or in general, actually, as parental control passwords are handled the same way offline). The onscreen keyboard isn't bad, but a wireless keyboard would be nice (first party or third party). Eh, it's still in Beta, so we'll see in March what happens.

The Ugly:

Nintendo is going in the right direction with it's intuitive hardware. Nintendo announced that they weren't going to run in the speedy, powerful CPU race, but more into innovative and intuitive products. Microsoft and $ony are going after the living roommore whereas it feels like Nintendo is going after the lifestyle and practicality of the consumer (the Nintendo DS with Brain Age making people sharper and the Nintendo Wii making people move around, forecast channel, news channel). The hardware is easy to use and the software compliments the system very well. I still only own Wii Sports, but for now, it's all I need (although, I woudn't mind having Trauma Center: Second Opinion). I loved my Christmas present this year. I was raised on Nintendo growing up and was a $ony gamer in the last generation of systems. I'm glad to see one of my favorite companies growing up has produced something as intuitive as the Wii to bring back the magic it represented to a 6-year-old boy growing up in Capon Bridge, WV. I don't feel quite like a kid again, but it feels good to know Nintendo is back on the wagon. I don't consider myself a fanboy and I resent the notion of being called one. I respect Microsoft and $ony as companies, but I'm going with Nintendo this generation.