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Wheeee! We? Oui.


Nathan Strum

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I had the chance to play with a Wii at a friend's house this weekend. We played Wii Sports and Wii Play, and I was blown away by how fun some of the mini-games were. Sure, not all of them were to my liking, but there were enough keepers in there that the Wii has moved onto my "must have" list.

 

The interactivity of the games is completely addictive. For example, Wii bowling really "feels" like bowling, except without having to put on the smelly rental shoes or trying to find a ball that fits your fingers. All of my bad bowling habits translate exactly into the game (I still hook the ball). It's a lot more fun that real bowling too - especially with multiple players standing in front of a TV, acting completely goofy.

 

Wii tennis is another winner, although unlike bowling, I'm much better at Wii tennis than I ever was in real life (not that I played very much). I teamed up with my friend's son who's about six, and he did great! (No real surprise though - he's a natural at Lego Star Wars.) The games are instantly accessible, and people of all ages can play, and more importantly - play together. What made arcades great for me back-in-the-day weren't so much the games, but hanging out with my friends. The Wii recaptures that sense of fun and camaraderie in video games in a way that I haven't really felt, except on rare occasion, in nearly 25 years.

 

I also played Wii golf, which was pretty cool, although the Wii remote is so sensitive, it seems it would take a lot of practice to be able to control the distance. Wii pool is nothing short of amazing. It's really just like playing pool, except my faulty cue technique doesn't get in the way of having fun.

 

We played some of the other mini-games as well, and what struck me is the potential for really innovative gameplay. Also surprising is just how fine the tracking of the Wii remote actually is. There's a nice piece of technology at work there.

 

It's no wonder Nintendo is cleaning Sony and Microsoft's clock. Once you play with the Wii awhile, it's completely addictive. It really does put you in the game. Plus, you can actually get some (gasp!) exercise! It seems the time has come to put down the gamepad and get up off the couch.

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Yeah i dig the Wii its pretty cool.My friends Dalum and Goat both own one and i go over a play it every chance i get.

 

Wii sports is a blast and i just got to play Metal Slug on it and i thought it was very cool as well. :)

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I've played the Wii over at friends. Enjoyed it, but I'm still planning on a PS3 for the next Ratchet & Clank game. Also looking forward to bluray movies. Only issues I have is my HDTV is an older model w/out HDMI, and it only supports 1080i, 480p & 480i. It won't display 720p, which a lot of PS3 games are written for(R&C included).

 

I exercise with my PS2 using Kinetic.

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I'll get a PS3 when the price drops to $150 or so.

 

Obviously, I'm in no rush. :)

 

I'm more likely to buy a stand-alone Blu-Ray player in the interim. Again, when the price drops to $150 or so, and there are actually some movies for it that I'd want to buy. Right now, there's not a single "must-have" title available on any high-def media.

 

I picked up an upconverting DVD player a few weeks ago for my HDTV, and the picture (on well-mastered DVDs) looks fantastic. Even without upconversion, my PS2 looks really good too, once I got a component cable for it.

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I spent this afternoon playing Wii with my brother and yes, I'm gonna buy one myself too, probably still this month. Wii Sports Tennis must be the first sports game I liked since ~30 years :)

 

I must say that I wasn't at all impressed with the stuff on Wii Play though - if it wouldn't come "for free", I sure wouldn't pay anything extra to get it :) :)

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I spent this afternoon playing Wii with my brother and yes, I'm gonna buy one myself too, probably still this month. Wii Sports Tennis must be the first sports game I liked since ~30 years :)

My arm did hurt after playing Wii Tennis. How about you? :)

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My arm did hurt after playing Wii Tennis. How about you? :)

 

Yes, it definitely felt like real sport :)

 

It's the only way to ever make me do something for my health/fitness, so I guess it's a good investment. I should ask my health insurance company wether they want to sponsor it :)

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I have a feeling the Wii is becoming something like a Pop-Phenomenon.

 

Just yesterday these German sales figures where published:

 

Overall units sold:

 

1. - Nintendo Wii - 291.000

2. - Xbox 360 - 281.000

3. - Sony Playstation 3 - 99.500

 

Just Juli 2007:

 

1. - Wii - 26.000

2. - Sony Playstation 3 - 8.000

3. - Microsoft Xbox 360 - 5.000

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I have a feeling the Wii is becoming something like a Pop-Phenomenon.

 

Just yesterday these German sales figures where published:

...

Looks like Nintendo got it right. Again!

 

Maybe after 25 years I should finally buy myself a new video game console. :)

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Maybe after 25 years I should finally buy myself a new video game console. :)

 

The best part of the deal seems to be that you're getting all legacy Nintendo consoles built-in with it as well, so you can then enjoy all NES/SNES/N64/Cube titles you missed before. I think even PC-Engine stuff which was never officially released here. Not sure about Sega, maybe the SMS and Genesis also?

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I never owned any Nintendo console (just a GBA SP). I held a deep-seeded resentment towards them for years for coming out with the NES, because I felt it hurt the Atari 7800's chances of becoming successful.

 

Of course, at the time, I didn't realize that the 7800's problems were entirely attributable to the idiots running/ruining Atari. :)

 

Anyway, I'm over it now. I'm definitely on Nintendo's side, because of the big three, they're the only one that I consider to be a real game company. The others are more interested in how many pixels they can push, than how to make videogames fun.

 

What I'd really like to see, although I think it's a long shot at best, is for Nintendo to buy out Atari, and leave the dead, bloated carcass of Infogrames to be picked apart by vultures. I think that of anyone, Nintendo is most likely to do something with the classic Atari games - even if it's just making them available as downloads for the Wii.

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