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 WiiReview by muddasheep, December 20th 2006, 00:26:11 | |||||
| Wii will rock you.
A few months ago when the word 'wee' was mentioned most people thought it refers to a childish way to describe a specific part of the male body. Now that Nintendo has actually named their new console Wii (pronounced like "we") and released it with sell-outs worldwide within the first days there aren't a lot of people left who chuckle childishly when for example a man's telling everyone he's been playing with his Wii. There is a lot of hype around this console and usually where there is a bright light there must be a huge shadow as well, right? Let's find out. Setup. Right out of the box the Wii comes bundled with one wii remote (wiimote), one nunchuk attachment, batteries for the wiimote, the console itself, the sensor bar, a bunch of cables (no component cables - sold seperately) and the game Wii Sports. The sensor bar is used to let the Wiimote calculate its location in a three-dimensional space and it can be placed on top or below your TV. Some complaints are heard that the cable of the sensor bar isn't long enough and if you are one of those you can either use two candles instead (since the wiimote just searches for two heat points) or wait for a wireless sensor bar. The console itself can be placed horizontally or vertically on a stand. After booting up the system for the first time it is required to set up the internet connection (either wireless or with an ethernet adapter) and update your console, which takes around ten to twenty minutes. After updating you see the channel overview of the Wii. Those channels are basically - from left to the right - Disc Channel (the game you have inserted - plays both Wii and Gamecube discs), Mii Channel, Photo Channel, Shopping Channel, Forecast Channel and News Channel (wasn't available at the time of reviewing). The whole interface is easily navigated with your wiimote which controls a cursor on the screen (even turning the cursor around is possible be tilting the wiimote). Before you do anything else it is recommended that you adjust the system settings, especially the sensor bar sensitivity, which is best set to the highest value. Mii Channel. Before playing games like Wii Sports it would be a good idea to create your own Mii. It's pronounced like 'me' and is exactly that - a virtual reflection of yourself. A Mii can be customized with a variety of options, such as the type and color of hair, eyes, nose and mouth. You can change your face and body size and add things like glasses and beards. When you're done the Mii gets a name, a favourite color (which changes its upper body part color) and a few additional options and gets sent to your Mii Plaza where all the Miis of your console gather. Those Miis can be used as characters in games like Wii Sports, or to send it to a friend, so that it populates the plaza or Wii Sport audiences of his or her Wii. A few Miis can also be stored on one wiimote, so you can take your Mii and take it to your friend. Photo Channel. The Wii features an SD slot at the front of the console which can be used to view images and videos in this channel. The image overview can be zoomed in and zoomed out and the console quickly rearranges the photos. Clicking on an image/video naturally opens it. There is a little "Fun" button at the bottom of the screen which lets you either draw around on the image with different colors (Doodle), or slice the image into a sliding puzzle to play with (including time records), or throw the image through different effects like grayscale, brightness et cetera. Another feature is the slideshow which shows image after image, slowly zooms in and out, creates effects when changing images and even lets you play MP3 files off your SD card in the background. Shopping Channel. The Wii's Virtual Console is capable of playing games that can be downloaded in the Shopping Channel. Every VC game is displayed as a seperate channel right at the startup screen. To purchase stuff in the Shopping Channel you need Wii Points (100 Wii Points = 1 US Dollar). NES games cost 500 Wii Points, for SNES games you have to pay 800 Wii Points and N64 tops it all with 1000 Wii Points. Additionally there are games available from Sega Genesis and TurboGrafx (mostly around 500-800 Wii Points). Also available at the Shopping Channel are Wii Downloads, like the Opera Browser that will soon be available. Forecast Channel. Obviously it's a weather forecast channel which lets you check the local or global weather. You can set the location that is closest to where you live and the current temperature and weather will be displayed simply when you click on the Forecast Channel. If you start the channel you can even zoom out in the global view, spin the globe and check the weather of any location on the planet. Wii would like to play. The wiimote, powered by two AA batteries, is used for all of the Wii games and is the main reason why the Wii is surrounded by such an amount of hype. It can be tilted in all axis, telling your character for example to hold the gun sideways. Through the two points the sensor bar provides, the wiimote calculates the location of itself, meaning it can be used to calculate what distances are traveled and what gestures have been made, like swinging a sword or throwing a fishing rod. The built in rumble feature lets you know when, for example, you take damage or hit the tennis ball with your racket or move your cursor over buttons on the interface. Through the little low-quality speaker developers have the option, like, to let you know when it's your turn, or play the reloading sound of your gun in your hand. There are eight buttons in total on the wiimote and an additional digital direction pad. At the bottom of the wiimote there's an opening for extensions like the nunchuk, which features an analogue stick and two shoulder buttons. Less power, more fun? The Wii is called a Gamecube 1.5 by some people because with Wii Nintendo didn't merely focus on graphics, but rather on gameplay. ATI developed the "Hollywood" GPU and IBM jumped in with the "Broadway" CPU. The games do not live up to Xbox360 or PS3 titles, but they should get a tad bit better with the Wii's lifespan. According to press conferences Nintendo's goal was to reduce production costs by lowering the amount of work a game needs in order to sell games for less money, reaching out for a broader audience, and generally make the big idea count more than the big budget. What else? WiiConnect24 lets your Wii connect to the internet even in standby mode. The disc bay gets a flashy blue border when you receive new messages. There is a built in calendar which lets you see all messages received per day. You can receive new messages by Nintendo themselves (for updates), by friends or by the games you have played (for example if you got a new high score in Wii Sports). The console loads up pretty fast and isn't noisy for the most part (you won't hear anything when playing anyway). Personal opinion. Tennis and bowling of Wii Sports are truly addicting. The first time you swing at the ball in tennis you will be like "this really works". Bowling is very accurate, but the most accurate experience I had was while fishing in Zelda. The rod is held exactly like you hold the wiimote and to drag in the fish you have to make circling gestures with the nunchuk attachment. Sometimes it's quite straining to play, especially Wii Sports, but in case of Zelda I found it to be more convenient to be able to hold the nunchuk and the wiimote while resting my arms on my knees than with traditional controllers which you have to embrace with your hands and always hold your arms together (it will make a difference once you have tried). Red Steel is a bit of a mess, but I suppose the rumored Red Steel 2 will be better and more accurate. The developers need some time to get used to the Wii, so give them another year and we have perfect accuracy. The Virtual Console games are a bit too expensive for my taste, but I sincerely hope Nintendo will drop the prices at least by 200 Wii Points each. All in all a truly fun gadget. If you're a gamer in your heart it certainly is a requirement to get a Wii (also since it only costs 250 bucks, including wiimote, nunchuk and Wii Sports). |     Links:
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| How readers rate this Review: 9.27/10 (11 votes) | |||||
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