There is good reason for the hype (Nintendo Wii)

Member Name: Dajack3

Product:	Nintendo Wii
Date:	12/02/08 (34 review reads)
Rating:

Advantages: Cool controls, great multiplayer and online mode, great looks

Disadvantages: Small memory, not the greatest single playing mode

The nintendo wii has been out for over a year now and has created much hype. I have owned one since the month it came out and in this review I will tell you about my user experience with it.

I will start with the controls as they seem to be the main feature of the console that have created all the hype. The wii remote and nunchuk make gaming much more fun to do but may not be the best for more hardcore gamers. There are only a small section of wii games suitable for hardcore gamers, the best probably being zelda. Fifa and some other sport games aren't the best with the remote but if your a fan of american football then you will be pleased to learn that madden is excellent on the wii.

I'll move onto the games then. The best selling game so far seems to be zelda, which is great for anyone who enjoys adventure games. Wii sports obviously comes bundled with the wii and is brilliant. It provides the most realistic experience yet for any sports game on a games console and is fun for anyone. The best sports game is easily madden with players making throwing actions with their wii remote to throw the ball. Fifa is much trickier to play though, there is only one analogue stick meaning that it is very tricky to do skills.

I'm going to go to the multimedia side of things now. You wouldn't really expect the wii to be the best multimedia machine when compared to the likes of the xbox 360 and the sony ps3. The wifi and wii remote makes the web browser the best out of the three consoles. Being able to point at pages to select links with the wii remote is great, giving it a mouse feel. The wii also has a photo channel that can handle jpegs and play slideshows, the console can also put music along in the slideshows. Unfortunately the wii does not have the option to play movies. There are programs downloadable online now that can allow the wii to play movies, they allow users to stream content from their pcs or macs to their wiis, this would definately be a good option to take.

The wii's main menu is very simple to use with the wii channel system. When the main menu is displayed there is a gridlike pattern displayed on the screen. The channels are photo, settings, games, internet and online. Users can also download more channels. I don't think that this menu system is as good as the other two consoles, but it's easily the simplest.

The wii in my opinion is the coolest looking console. It is also the lightest console which makes it easily portable. There are also supposedly more colours available sometime this year.

Unfortunately the wii doesn't have a hard drive. The only available memory is a 512mb flash drive, which is big enough for game saves but not really for much else. Thankfully there is also a sd card slot on the wii. The maximum capacity is 4gb which is more than enough for any other stuff.

There is backwards compability on the wii that gives it the option to play gamecube games. On the top of the wii there are 4 gamecube controller ports and 2 memory card slots, I don't see why these are necassary though as you could just use the wii's flash memory. The wii has an online store that allows it to download virtual console games. These are games that were originally on the nintendo 64 and other nintendo gaming consoles. As these do not take up much system memory they are saved on the wii. It's great fun to be able to play classic nintendo games.

Unlike the xbox 360 the wii has the option to play free online games. These are great fun to play but there are not many yet, with only 3 or 4 games having this function. The multiplayer mode is one of the highlights of the wii, it really provides fun with many party and multiplayer games like rayman raving rabbids, wii sports and mario party 8. The single player mode isn't the best on the wii though.

At £179 the wii is an absolute steal. It's great for anyone who doesn't take gaming to seriously, but enjoys casual gaming once or twice a week. I hear they're in short supply so happy hunting trying to find one.

Summary: A steal at £179