Unique Console Experience (Nintendo Wii)

Member Name: sifair

Product:	Nintendo Wii
Date:	28/05/07 (201 review reads)
Rating:

Advantages: Small, innovative, unique, fun

Disadvantages: average graphics, can be difficult to control

he console itself is brilliant, very stylish, and absolutely tiny! If you put 3 DVD boxes together, that's the size of the Wii, and unlike the XBox 360 it is also very quiet and very reasonable with loading times. The actual finish on the console is great, it's glossy but doesn't show up fingerprints extensively (ala PSP) and everything about it feels expensive and new, which is always a plus. It is really easy to set up, the only thing you'll need to think about is the sensor bar, a small black rod that needs to be placed on or below your TV, theoretically anyway, I've found you only need to place it where you want to actually want to point, but of course that makes the TV the ideal spot.

You also get the stand with the console, and if you're going to place it vertically it's a good idea to use it, it comes with an extra small disc-shaped plate to put the stand on for extra stability.

But of course you want to know about the remote, you first power up your Wii and you have to set the system settings first, and Sync the remote. This works the same as on the 360, you press the sync button on the Wii (under the flap on the front) then the one on the remote (under the battery panel) and viola! You see a little hand appear an screen when you point at it, it's a really weird feeling at first, but the system setup is a great way to get a feel for the controller, so setting it up is actually fun! The remote in a way makes it feel more similar to a PC's Mouse style control and the cursor even spins around if you twist your wrist. The remote also has a Nintendo DS style wrist strap, and when you're bowling balls as hard as you can in Wii Sports bowling or going full whack in baseball, you'll be very grateful it's there.
Once you've set up you get to the Wii menu, and it's really easy to get around, all the 'channels' are arranged across the screen in boxes and are used to access games, the Mii channel, photo channel, weather, news, Virtual console and the online shop, and more can be downloaded as they become available. (All virtual console games also appear here)

The first thing you'll want to do is visit the Mii channel, in which you create a little persona who sort of acts as your avatar, and it's surprisingly deep, it seems simple enough but if you play around you should be able to get something that really does resemble yourself. All the Mii's you (and friends and family) create are added to the plaza, and wonder around randomly, as you fill it up it becomes quite fun to watch, and a brilliant feature is to save your Mii to your actual remote, and if you take it to another friend's Wii your Mii can mingle with theirs! So you can take your Mii with you wherever you go.
And of course that brings us to what else you can do with your Mii, Wii Sports. It's the game you get bundled with the console and is the perfect way to really get to grips with the remote, and you can use your Mii as your player! Wii tennis is probably going to be the most played out of the bundle, and is perfect for 4-player silliness, it's kind of surreal actually playing tennis in your living room with friends or family and seeing Mii versions of them all on screen, but the main thing is just how much fun it is! I had been a bit worried about exactly how I would find playing games on the Wii but Wii Sports is just fantastic. The games are fairly simplistic but they are deeper than it would first seem, and actually physically playing makes such a difference, Wii Sports would be incredibly basic on any other console but it's the perfect showcase for what the Wii is all about.
You also get bundled with the console the Nunchuck, this is a small attachment to the remote and is the main method of movement in games such as Zelda and Red Steel as it has the analogue stick. It is also motion sensing to a degree, it can't point like the remote but it does know if you tilt it or shake it.

Another neat feature on the hardware is the disc-loading, it works just like a car CD Player as it just sucks up the discs, it's especially great seeing it take the tiny Gamecube discs, I have no idea how it manages it but it does. And on that the Gamecube compatibility works perfectly, the controllers and memory cards slot in the top (covered with a flap) and I noticed no problems at all, although the Wii remote then has no effect on the console, so you can't return to the wii menu, you have to reset the console itself. Also Gamecube games no longer have that small screen with the intro bit (from the Gamecube menu screen) it would have been nice to see that back but it's a minor thing.

I haven't had a chance to go online as I don't have a compatible broadband service so I can't comment on how the online features work but the last channel I can mention is the photo channel. If you plug an SD card in, or connect your digital camera into a USB port on the back you can view your photos on the TV, and edit them, (you can even paste your Mii head onto yourself, and the image effects are amusing) and even create a slide-show with your own custom MP3 soundtrack.
The last thing about the hardware is the built in Flash drive. It only has 512mb of storage data which sounds painfully small when compared to the 360's 20gb and PS3's 60gb hard-drives but it really isn't much of an issue. It's more than enough to hold whatever game saves you'll have and it'll hold a stack of NES, SNES and Mega Drive era games and still a good number of N64 games, and if need be you can always use an SD card, they're fairly cheap at £25 for the 1gb and £35 for the 2gb, however although I haven't tested this if you copy a virtual console game to an SD card you can't play it straight from the card, if you erase it from the Wii's Flash drive you will need to copy it back on to play it, and annoyingly you can't use it on any other Wii either. That's probably the only real problem with the Wii, instead of using Sign-in names or player profiles all your online activity is done using your Wii's identification, so you can't use a friends Wii and sign-in, like you can on the 360, also the virtual console is region specific, Europe, American and Japan have their own Virtual Console. But these are really the only faults that come to mind and don't hamper you in any major way.

The console is being backed with a very strong launch line-up. Zelda Twilight Princess being the obvious one, Red Steel is also a great introduction to first person shooter games on the Wii, and Rayman and Super Monkey Ball are great party game choices. And with Warioware and Excite Truck due out in the new year the Wii has some great choice games very early.

So overall it's a sleek and stylish console, easy to navigate and packed full of features, the graphics aren't going to wow anyone but the remote certainly will, plus it's bundled free with Wii Sports as a perfect tech demo if you will and you've got biggest change to gaming since the move from 2D to 3D, it's like nothing you've played before, and it'll amaze you.

Summary: Like no other console and it's fun