Initial Wii Impressions

Unfortunately, I’m too broke to buy a Wii this Christmas. Try as I might to convince my wife, she seems to think buying clothes for the kids is more important than buying a Wii. Go figure…

My brother, however, is single and therefore not too broke to buy one. And this week, I got to play with my brothers Wii (I tried not to make that joke, but it’s just too darned hard). After all the hype and build up I wasn’t sure if it would be able to live up to my expectations. But after spending more than an hour with his shiny white box of wonderment, I think I’m sold. I got to try Wii Sports, Excite Truck and Zelda: Twilight Princess and I was pretty impressed with all three.

First up was Wii Sports. I realize this title is more of a tech demo than a game, but it was easily able to hold my attention for a good 30 minutes (and I only quit because I was limited on time and wanted to try the other two games). Of the five mini-games, boxing was easily the least enjoyable. I’m sure it was partly due to the fact that I didn’t take the time to read the instructions on how to play and it seems that this one requires the most instruction, but I tired of it rather quickly. It was just a lot of flailing around and not really “playing”. Next up was golf and I quickly decided that the Wii was truly all it was hyped up to be. The game was simple enough that anyone could play, but I REALLY enjoyed it. Tennis was next up and I enjoyed it almost as much as golf. It was quite difficult not to get into this one and I ended up jumping all over the room trying to power serve and return at the net. The controls were responsive and precise enough to be awesome-tastic. Next was baseball. I don’t deny that I utterly hate baseball in real life, but Wii baseball was a blast. We quickly figured out that the power placed behind the swing determined the virtual speed of the pitch. As we tried to pitch faster and faster, we discovered that a quick flick of the wrist produced speeds much faster than we could otherwise achieve. Hitting was much simpler, but it took some time to get the timing and power just right to hit home runs. Lastly we bowled for a bit. I was again amazed at the accuracy of the Wiimote. A slight twist of the wrist during the forward swing gave the ball a healthy spin. Overall, Wii Sports was a winner in my book, even if it was a bit limited on gameplay.

Next up was Zelda. I didn’t get much time to play this one and I had to play from where my brother happened to be at the moment, but I was immediately impressed at how the control scheme was set up. The “aim-lock” battle mode, fluid movement and rich (even if less detailed) graphics prove that Nintendo, unlike other games producers, strive to release quality hardware and games above all else. I was worried that the use of the Wiimote would hinder a game like Zelda, but I was pleasantly surprised at how the game was molded around the new control scheme to make it a vital part of the gameplay. Frankly, after playing the Wii version, I’m curious at how the Gamecube version would stack up.

Lastly was Excite Truck. Again, the graphics were quite tame even compared to the original Project Gotham for the XBox, but the gameplay was inventive and fun. The biggest issue I found as I tried to maneuver my beefed up off-road vehicle around the imaginative tracks, was that I kept forgetting that I was playing on a Wii. When playing Excite Truck, the d-pad serves as the turbo button, but too many years of using d-pads for movement kept forcing me off cliffs as I tried to steer by pressing left and right. It was only after flying off the side of a cliff or head-on into a tree that I would remember that I needed to tilt the Wiimote in order to turn my truck. It was actually pretty laughter inducing as I kept trying to fight off decades of learned behavior in a effort to break free and become one with my Wiiness.

I only got to play for a total of about an hour, but overall, I was impressed. My only minor gripe was the slight lag between Wiimote movement and the virtual interpretation on screen. This causes some fear that third party games may have a hard time keeping the control tight enough to be enjoyable. The flip-side of that fear is the hope that many third party developers will bring additional imagination to this already entertaining little machine as they gain experience with the dev tools. I honestly have nothing but hope for this amazingly fun console and I can’t wait until I’m able to convince my wife that owning a Wii is indeed imperative to my survival. Maybe next Christmas I guess. Until then, I guess I’ll have to keep myself entertained by playing with my brothers Wii (sorry again).