Yes, it's true. Saturday at midnight I pitched a tent in WalMart's parking lot with 20 other people in the hopes of buying Nintendo's latest game system, the Wii. 35 degrees and rain pouring down on the tent didn't make for a very enjoyable evening, but it was worth it in the end. At 6:30 AM, WalMart asked all of the campers (21 of us) to come into their foyer. I was number 10 in line and was able to purchase a Wii. WalMart sold all 20 Wii's that they were alloted in less than 5 minutes.
Why was it worth it? In my opinion the Nintendo Wii is the biggest breakthrough in game design in the past 10 years. The single biggest complaint that I had about gaming is that you used to sit on your backside and use only your fingers and thumbs. Not any more.
The Wii uses wireless remote controls that work inside of a 3D space. For instance:
Let's say that you are going to play the boxing game. You hold the Wiimote (isn't that cute!) in your right hand, and the Nunchuk controller in your left hand while assuming the fighting position. If you raise both of your hands up, your Mii (a representation of you as the boxer) raises up its hands as well. If you lower your hands, your Mii lowers its hands also. If you punch with the Wiimote, you throw a punch on the screen. The faster you punch with the Wiimote and Nunchuk, the more punches you throw. Let's get physical!
To summarize, my kindergartener knocked out an opponent in two rounds while dad went all three rounds and never could knock out the opponent. At the end of my match, I was completely exhausted. NOW THIS IS GAMING!
I'm glad to see that Nintendo is revolutionizing gaming once again. Wireless controllers moving in a 3D virtual space are enough of an innovation to get me to buy, but knowing that my children will be exercising as well as playing a game, was the easiest sell for this dad ever.
CH
UPDATE:
This blog was originally written on 11/21/06. For the past 3 days, my inlaws have been visiting us for Thanksgiving. I have NEVER seen my mother-in-law play a video game in the past 14 years. Not only is she playing tennis and bowling on the Wii regularly, but EVERYONE has been playing games on the Wii non-stop. This is a game system that the ENTIRE family will use, love, and enjoy.
TECHNICAL TIPS AND TRICKS:
When updating your Wii's firmware via the internet (using the Wii's built-in Wi-fi), make sure that your home wireless router is set to broadcast on either channel 1 or 11. I kept getting errors until I did that. You may also want to temporarily put your Wii in the router's DMZ.
Currently Nintendo only recommends one brand of SD card for the Wii. This "licensed" card costs nearly 60 dollars for 1 GB of storage. My wife picked me up a generic 1 GB SD card from a "Black Friday" sale at a discount store for $14.95. I plugged it in today and used it to back up my "Legend of Zelda" saved games. It works flawlessly.
