Console Review: The Nintendo Wii System

Okay where to start. Me, like every other 12 year old in the world wanted a Nintendo Wii console for Christmas. Me, like 500,000 other people were sadly disappointed on Christmas morning. However, since my sad reality of never receiving one, I decided to just lay low, and chill out on the whole “I NEED IT” attitude.
I dropped by gamestop every now and then, and constantly got told, “Sorry, sold out.” “Maybe next week/month”

4 days ago however my luck changed, and I got my greedy needy hands on the last one in the store. This is why I’m here; I want to brag about my Wii. I love my Wii!!!!

Before getting my hands on the system, I thought it was too good to be true. I doubted the Nintendo Wiis promise. Besides, how could a game literately put me inside of it? I don’t buy it, especially for such a small price tag.
Well my thoughts were wrong, and doubts erased. You will feel just that. You are in the game. You are what makes it go, what makes it tick.

Before I get into all of the technical things, let me tell you the system is awesome. I wouldn’t, and couldn’t ask for more from this system. Not only am I having fun, but my big butt is also getting in a daily dose of exercise. In which I barely did before. –Recent study showed that if a person played the Nintendo Wii for one hour everyday, they could lose up to 5 pounds a month. I read that on some Internet article. Unfortunately I don’t have the link. But if and when I find it, I will add it in this review.

SET UP

The Wii was boxed nicely. No foam pieces to get thrown around. Everything was packed nicely in sturdy cardboard inside of the initial box. Of course there were instructions. I, like many others, don’t necessarily like reading the instructions to anything. I’m the type of person who wants to just plug things in, and get things going immediately. WARNING: You will need to refer to the instruction manual. So don’t think about throwing it away the second you open the box. For one, you’re going to need to read the section about how to set up the Wii sensor bar to the top or bottom of your TV. Easy enough, you may think. Yes I thought so too. But you got to be careful where you place the bar. It is a very slim flimsy piece of plastic. The bar itself has double sided sticky tape. So wherever, you place it, try and make sure your not going to have to move it around too often. It can, and will break easily if not handled properly.

- You’re also going to want to refer to the instruction manual on how to get the Wii to register you Wii sensor controller, or controllers. It’s a pretty easy basic step, and asks for some button pushing. But without reading the manual, you could be lost, and think your remote controller is broken. It’s not; it just has to be registered. Once that step is done you won’t have to repeat the process, which is a great time saver.

These 2 things are pretty much the only need you will have for the manual. The rest of the plugs just go into the proper sized slot. There’s no rocket science to figuring out which plug goes into which hole in the back of the console.

THE NINTENDO WII REMOTE CONTROLS

At first I thought this was going to be impossible. I have never in my entire 18-year gaming history, seen, or held a game controller quite like this one. It’s shaped just like a standard TV remote control, only smaller. At first glance one may think it’s going to be hopeless gaming. However, once you have the system on, and controllers registered, you will immediately get the feel of the remote. You will also see that it’s way easier than you thought at first. This remote is the remote that you will use for most of your Wii gaming.

NUNCHUCK-

this is the attachment remote. It gets snapped right into the bottom of the other remote. WARNING: Do not rip it out from the other remote when you are done using it. There are two small buttons at the bottom that need to be held to release the nun chuck from the other controller. My nephew was the genius who decided to do this and it cost me another 20$ for a new one. So definitely stress this to smaller impatient children who may be playing with YOUR toy.

This remote is a small banana shaped remote you hold in your other hand. The remote itself doesn’t have much use to the Wii Sports that will come with the Nintendo Wii, if you happen to get this bundle. It has an analog stick similar to older game cube remotes in the middle of it. It also has a button on the bottom, which can be pressed for different results; depending on what games you may be playing. The only time this controller was used in Wii Sports was the boxing game. As you flail this remote out in any direction, the character on the TV will do the same.

WARNING:

Always, I repeat, ALWAYS, wear the remote controllers safety strap. It slides over your hand. This is to make sure no one flings the remote at the television or at someone else. –There have been plenty of accidents I have read about this system because of this. It’s a simple direction. WEAR THE STRAP! Don’t risk losing an eye, or TV set. Or heck, don’t risk breaking the remote. They are just as rare to get your hands on as the Nintendo Wii itself. If you don’t believe me, go check out the overpriced remotes they’ve got up for grabs at www.ebay.com

THE NINTENDO WII

When you first turn your system on your going to be asked to put in a few basic details. Here you can give your system a nickname. Add the time, and the date, and you’re ready to go.

After this quick initial set up you are then going to be taken to a screen with 4 different mini blocks. Some will be blank. These blank boxes will be filled up with games you happen to buy, or purchase at the Wii store.

What’s the Wii Store/Wii Shoppe?

Hehehe. This is the best feature in my opinion. In order for the Wii store to be activated you have to set up the system to the Internet. After this you may purchase old games from older systems to download onto your Nintendo Wii. Games from consoles such as, Sega, Nintendo, Super Nintendo, and more are available on the Wii Shop Channel. Neat old school classical games us 80’s children may of grown up with. You can only buy Wii stuff with Wii points. An annoying process I thought at first.
I thought I was going to have to go out to best buy or Wal-Mart and purchase a Wii Card. Nope. You can easily purchase points with a credit card. 2000 points will buy you about 2 good games and one ok game. Grand total $20. Nintendo 64 games will run you 800 points. So you could grab 2 great N64 games for 1600 points, and an old Nintendo game.

WII MAIL

That’s right, regardless of whether or not you have the system set up to the Internet, you can still and will still get wii mail. You won’t be able to send mail to other Internet users, but you can send mail to other Mii’s on your system. Say, your brother, boyfriend, or girlfriend uses the same Nintendo wii. You can post them messages. I found this to be a cute feature for parents who want to leave their kids a quick note that they KNOW they will get.

The Nintendo Wii will also send you a daily TODAY message. If you click on it, it will show how long you played for the day, or if you beat any records for the day. You will be surprised at how fast 3 hours goes by when you play the Wii.
Good exercise! I don’t know anyone who would exercise for 3 hours straight. You won’t even realize your getting a workout, but you are. Your body will feel it in the morning.

PICTURE STATION- (picture channel)

This is one sweet feature. You can place any SD Digital camera card into a small slot located in the front of your Nintendo Wii, and you can view your photos on you TV. Not only that but any picture you choose you can play with it. Either choose to draw on a photo, or play with the photo, by converting it into a puzzle, then try to put it back together again. You can also view all of the photos in a slide show if you want. I like this feature a lot. It’s neat if you want to show your family vacation photos without having to rush down and get them all printed up immediately.

NINTENDO MII’S

This is another feature on your start up page. You click on the Mii logo box, (also known as, the Mii Channel) and you are taken to a new window where you can create a character to look like you to play in the game. This is a fun spot to start. It gives you not only a chance to get used to the Wii’s remotes, but you can create pretty much anyone, of course with limitations. Clothing colors are limited to only about 16, which sort of stunk. Hair color red seems to be missing. You can choose a box that looks red, but your result is not red. It’s more of a darkish brown color. You can make your character short or tall, thin or fat. You’re Nintendo Wii, will store up to 100 Mii’s in the system. What’s neat about the Mii Channel is that you can store a favorite Mii into your remote controller and take your Mii to go. (A friend’s house)

I’ve heard of people being able to make a Mii look just like them, however I have not mastered this yet. My character looks nothing like me. The limitations are probably why. You’re limited to only a small amount of different eyes, noses, hairstyles and mouths. However with the color schemes your possibilities are pretty much endless.

After you have created your Mii, you can now start playing the Nintendo Wiis Sports game that may or may not of come with your system. –I know the this game is the game that came with the system. However there is a new release either out now, or coming soon, where the Wii console will be coming with Zelda.

The sports game has 5 different sports to play. Tennis, baseball, golf, bowling, and boxing.

All of them are just as fun as the next. My personal favorite is golf. So I’m going to cover that one first:

GOLF: You have 3 choices of play on the main game. Beginner, intermediate, and advanced. To play you just hold the Wii remote like a golf club, hold button A, and let her swing. There are also 3 more mini golf games to play in the training section. On a scale from 1 to10. I give golf a 10.

BOXING: This is very fun. You will need both remotes for this game. You can verse the computer or a friend. It’s very tiresome, and this game provides the best workout for you as well. Your arms will be very tired from this game.

TENNIS: I don’t like this one particular game. The controls act funny when you take a swing at the ball. It’s probably my least favorite. But I was never good at it in real life either. My rating on this one is a 6.

BOWLING- you hold the control and flip forward, the ball rolls, and wham. You either get a strike, or you don’t. This game gets a 10. I enjoy it very much, and you will have a lot of fun playing against your friends and family.

BASEBALL- this is also an extremely fun game. You hold the remote just like you would a bat. When the ball is heading for you, you swing away! It’s awesome. I give this one a 10 as well.

- All of these games have 3 mini games to play in the training section. So really your getting a total of 5 sports games, plus 24 mini games. Totaling 29 games in all. If this game didn’t come with the Wii, I highly recommend spending the money on it.

--Nintendo Wii may not have the greatest graphics out there, but for the small price tag compared to its Sony competition they’re sweet. The graphics may not be as great at PS3’s, but it’s my opinion to like the Wiis graphics more. I’ve always liked Nintendo’s cartoon like game worlds. Some may disagree, but it’s just my take on the whole graphics/realism topic. I don’t have the playstation 3, but from reviews I’ve already read, the price tag is absurd, and it’s not even that great.

Nintendo Wiis $249.99 price tag is well worth it, and beyond. I feel like the price tag on the system is an absolute steal.

There is also already a large collection of games readily available to buy. Some titles I know of are Zelda, Elebits, Warioware smooth moves, Rayman, Cars, Shrek, Spongebob, Red Steel, Wii Play, and many more.

I would, and I have already recommended this system to friends. I would buy another just to have it for the downstairs TV, that’s if I could get my hands on another one. It’s great fun for seriously anyone, of any age. I dub thee, Nintendo Wii, the greatest console ever made. A awesome, unique, fun, and energetic approach at the video gaming world. I predict Nintendo only getting greater and greater with time.