I Got The Nintendo Wii For My Birthday

Posted on June 01, 2008 in Video Games | 3 comments

Chrissy got me a “Nintendo Wii” for my birthday, because she’s the best wife in the world. She actually bought it about a month ago, but it’s been in hiding until yesterday. I’ve been keeping busy with “Titan Quest”, so I wasn’t in a hurry to play new games. I should have been, since it turns out that the Wii is terribly cool (I had never tried one before). She got me “Mario Kart” and “Super Mario Galaxy” as well, so we’re set for Wii games for a while.

The Wii has wireless connectivity, so now we can play games with people on the internet. We thought that we would need to get the LAN adapter to plug into our network, but we hooked it up into our home wireless network instead. Out of the box, it taps into news and weather reports online. However, you have to use the “Wiimote” to read the news, which is kind of awkward. At least we don’t have to go through dial-up to get to the Nintendo services. But let’s talk about the games!

Mario Kart is a lot of fun. It’s hard to hold that wheel out in front of you for too long. I could feel it in my quadreceps and chest after about an hour of playing it last night. That didn’t stop me from playing though. We have it installed on our 57″ projection screen television, and the audio goes through the surround sound speakers, so we get the whole experience. I didn’t expect it to be this much fun, but here I am yelling and cheering while I play. Chrissy and I raced against each other for a few circuits, and I foresee a lot of friendly competition between us in the future.

I dug into the “Wii Sports” games that came with the system today. I was surprised to find myself wearing down physically after about a half an hour. I’ve been riding the bike lately (with a little boy tethered behind me), so I’m not completely out of shape, but the tennis and boxing games are using muscles that the bike doesn’t excercise at all. I was a sweaty, worn out mess after an hour, but I plan to go back and play some more “Wii Boxing” later. Put down the game and hit the showers, mister.

Later on, Chrissy and I took turns playing Super Mario Galaxy. The controls are a little strange, in that you move Mario with the little controller in your left hand while you point at the screen with the Wiimote in your right. While Mario explores little planets (“Bonjour, Petit Prince!”), vertigo sets in as you try to point him in the right direction despite the fact that he’s upside down. And my wrist is going to have to acclimate to the “spin attack”, which you execute by shaking the Wiimote back and forth in your hand. Yes, the controls take some getting used to, but that’s part of the fun.

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