Ted On Flash: 48 hours with Wii

48 hours with Wii

DIGG IT! 5 Comments Published Sunday, December 03, 2006 at 6:45 PM .

Justin loaned me his Wii this weekend and I have been playing it non-stop, well less going on a date and a round of golf today, I know, pathetic. The Nintendo Wii, simply put, is the best game system I have ever played, including Atari and Intellivision back in the day. I walked into this weekend thinking one thing about the Wii but walked away very impressed.

First off the Wii is small ( 3 DVD's stacked ) and the entire system fits easily in a medium size Timbuk2 bag including all cables, console, controllers, and 3 games. When you first hit the power button, the DVD slot lights up like a spark went off with audio, it hints that thing are different. The background audio on the system and menus are impressive. I was playing on a big screen TV and the visuals were stunning. Contrary to what I expected the graphics are impressive and the game play is very fast paced. I guess I expected something slower but the graphics are on par with any modern game system, it does lack some hi-def graphic details but Wii makes it up in fluid game play. If you want to see great 3D, go to the movies, the Wii is 100% focused on playing games.

Wii Controller
This is 80% of Wii, the controller makes this system unique and great. At first it is awkward but you get accurate very quickly. On a larger TV, I found that the system was easy to control accurately. For example on XBox360 using the onscreen keyboard is slow, but on Wii you can type fast with the controller in one hand, just point and click. The remote vibrates when you roll over buttons and it makes you conscious of what is clickable in the ui. Additionally the controller has a speaker so it makes noise in context with the ui and during game play.

Wii Sports
Wii Sports is fun and I especially like golf and boxing. The controller is intuitive and the game play light, fun, fast, and classic Nintendo. Each sport makes you use the controller differently. In golf you can slice or hook the ball depending on the accuracy of your swing. Also you play all sports in a caricature you create.

Zelda
Wow. If you have anything urgent to do in the next 4 days, DO NOT START PLAYING THIS GAME!!! Zelda starts out slow as usual and builds into a very fast paced strategy/action adventure game. The initial portion teaches you to use the controller as a slingshot, fishing rod, sword, and shield. There is no button to draw the sword, you simply move your hand. The intensity of the game also builds and starts to rival a 1st person shooter sans gore. The first time something jumps out at you and you must draw your sword and fight, you will understand what I mean when I say, Zelda gets intense. The combination of motion controller and immersive game play puts Wii in a new category, Zelda is unlike anything I have played. It is like someone merged Myst + Doom + epic + motion controller into a single game.

So here is the bottom line, sorry Microsoft, it is out with the old and in with the new. I am selling my XBOX 360 on Ebay starting tonight and getting a Wii. It was a good system but to be honest the Wii is better, a lot better.

A bit of a disclosure, I bought Nintendo shares after E3 when I saw videos of people playing the Wii. It looked promising then, but it is much better in person. I wanted to evaluate the system as to my investment with Nintendo and it looks like they have hit a home run. I am actually inclined to purchase some more shares as a result. Combined with the DS, it looks like Nintendo is back to full stride again as a company.

Cheers,

Ted

5 Responses to “48 hours with Wii”

# polyGeek December 3, 2006 10:12 PM

Don't sell your 360 just yet. At least not until you play the very best game on the console: Burger Kings Big Bumpin!

I kid you not. This is the most popular game at work - Xbox.com no less. Between this game and the snow storm last week we didn't get much work done at all. We look for excuses to play whenever we can. The girl who sits next to the console is about ready to kill us because she can't get any work done when we're yelling and screaming right next to her.

So do yourself a favor. Get a group of people - 4 or more - together and play this game. It's a console seller!

Dan - the Flash developer for Xbox.com/Zune.net
# polyGeek December 3, 2006 10:14 PM

By the way, we had the Wii in the "art pit" last week for a day to play around with. I thought it was okay. I can see that it's fun with a group of people. Mostly me and a few others just wanted to hook the 360 back up so that we could get back to our Big Bumpin tournament.
# Chris Charlton December 13, 2006 1:40 PM

I love my freakin' Wii! Tonight is LA Flash's Iron Flasher event, and the Wii is my guest of honor, haha.

Sports, perfect. Every one loves Boxing and Blowing off the bat. Zelda, such a thrill. Call Of Duty 3, sensitive controls but definitely intense. Rayman, one of my best purchases for Wii! Marvel Ultimate Alliance, pretty cool, best with friends - but so are all the 4-player Wii titles.

Totally waiting for more Virtal Console titles; more each month I heard. Mario. Warioware. Pikmen. Metroid. They all are getting my money.

There's an iCal for Wii titles being released on iCalShare.com .
# Andrew Muller December 14, 2006 10:13 PM

Ted, the Wii was released Down Under Thursday last week. One of the developers at work bought one at lunch time that day and it was hooked up to work's data projector almost straight away...

We were all excited, some folk more than others - the following day every one at work was given an early Xmas present, 14 more Wii walked in the door and the company directors played Santa handing them out to all the staff!

I'm not much of a game player, this is my first console but I'm hooked.
# Andrew Spaulding December 17, 2006 10:35 PM

I'm with you Ted, the Wii totally rocks. I pre-ordered mine here in Australia and picked it up on December 7. The combination of Wii Sports and one of my all time fav games, Zelda, has really kick started my Wii experience. This truly is a "winner", and one that I'm glad I purchased over the Xbox 360, if only for the interactive (and engaging) gaming experience.

Stuff I am building:

Ted Patrick - Events & Community @ Adobe Systems

Note: This is the personal blog of Ted Patrick. The opinions and statements voiced here are my own.

48 hours with Wii

5 Responses to “48 hours with Wii”

Where to find me:

Latest

Lists

Links

Jobs

Archives