Wii will, Wii will, rob you! (Nintendo Wii)

Member Name: edinburgher

Product:	Nintendo Wii
Date:	16/06/09 (53 review reads)
Rating:

Advantages: Innovative and entertaining games, easy to set up

Disadvantages: A wide range of expensive peripherals are required to play even the most basic of games

After saving for several months, my girlfriend and I cashed in our loose change jar and decided to join the Wii generation. Sick of feeling left out of the legions of British folks jumping, dancing and boxing their way around their living rooms, it seemed about time that Wii saw what all the fuss was about. Having had the console for about a month now, it seems appropriate to point out some of the positives about this innovative console and also to highlight some of the reasons why you may be better spending your hard earned elsewhere.

*A new business model*

The launch of the Nintendo Wii saw a conscious shift away from the traditional console business model, where the initial console was a high one off cost to the purchaser and subsequent games helped to bolster the profits of companies who weren't making a lot of money from the console unit itself. Consoles such as the Playstation II were essentially loss leaders, as widespread perception was that they cost Sony more money than they sold for, due to the high development costs associated with more advanced consoles.

Wii games seem to be more affordable for the most part, but revenues are boosted dramatically by the requirement of a multitude of additional peripherals and accessories that complement the gaming experience (and in some cases make the games impossible to play without them). The idea of adding value through additional peripherals is hardly new and I have fond memories of light guns etc. from back in the days when I played on my Sega Megadrive.

The console is typically sold as a solus unit (one Wii remote, a simple game and the console itself) and the costs mount dramatically. While there are various third party controllers and accessories available (manufactured by companies other than Nintendo), the official versions seem to perform consistently higher than their generic equivalents in both reviews and anecdotal experience.

Let's consider the following example. I've used Amazon pricing for convenience, shopping around can make it cheaper:

A family of four wishes to play Mario Kart (a bestselling game) of an evening and decides to buy a Nintendo Wii. Dad picks up the Wii, Mario Kart and an additional three steering wheel controllers:

£169.99 + £29.99 + £6.99*3(£20.97) = £220.95

The package arrived and upon setting it all up, the kids are gutted to discover that Wii remotes aren't included and are required to use the steering wheel controllers. A somewhat annoyed dad goes back to the Amazon website to order the requisite controllers and is mortified to discover that he will have to splash out another:

£29.29*3(£87.87)

Just to play a game with his family. By this point he is £308.82 out of pocket to play one game.

While the additional steering wheel shells for the controllers aren't essential to play the game, they make it a lot more enjoyable and hey! - in for £290, why not £308?

The Wii is sold very cleverly as a party gaming console, but Nintendo aren't nearly as quick tp point out how quickly the costs mount when you buy all the required extras to facilitate this.

*Wii like games, but Nintendo don't seem keen to provide any new ones*

The gaming experience on the Wii is very enjoyable. Most of the titles we've tried to date (Wii Sports, Mario Kart, Nights, Final Fantasy) have been well developed, with a varied range of content that works well with the motion sensing controllers.

What I have noticed is that a lot of the content provided for the Wii (including the aforementioned Nights and Final Fantasy) consists of slightly tired re-hashes of existing intellectual property from the Nintendo Gamecube and older consoles, various titles that started life on the Sega Dreamcast and even a few that seem to be more complicated versions of existing Nintendo DS titles.

There are a few fascinating and fairly original titles, but in a lot of respects the Wii is without a decent selection of 'killer apps' that will make it a contender for the affections of any hardcore gamers out there. It appears to be bracketed at a new family and casual gaming demographic and for those who aren't expecting too much, it will deliver in spades.

Costs for the games themselves seem to range from roughly £12-£30 and in that respect I don't have any complaints. There is also a healthy range of older titles available for download (more on that later).

*Wii appreciated the easy setup and motion sensing controllers (insert lightsabre noise here)*

The Wii is a dream to set up.

Once it's been assembled from the twenty or so small cardboard boxes and sleeves that come in the main box, the Wii is incredibly easy to set up. All that was required past the wiring up of the console to your television was a few button presses and putting the batteries in the Wii remotes. The Wii connects to your broadband internet and allows you to download extra content, games and more prosaic functions such as viewing news content or listening to music online.

The motion sensing controllers can be a little bit sensitive at times (awww), but they're fairly intuitive and work well once you get used to the occasionally random correlation between the movements you think you're moving versus the movements the Wii thinks you're making!

*Wii love the internet*

Nintendo have finally cottoned on to the fact that additional online content is a very easy way to make money and to this end, the Wii features a lot of connectivity that means you will probably want to connect it to your home broadband. This was an easy process for us and essentially consisted of typing in the password for our wireless router and letting the console do the rest. A lengthy update was required after we got online, but this is only to be expected (the Wii has been around for three years now).

Additional content is purchased through the use of 'Wii channels', which are essentially virtual add ons for your games that allow you to unlock extra content, characters, or to download the occasional freebie. It's also possible to use the Wii to browse the internet, although this seems a little counter productive for people who almost definitely own a computer already... You can also do a few day to day things online for free, such as looking up the weather or a selection of headline news articles.

It is also possible to download titles for older consoles through the 'Shop channel' that can be played on the Wii and I have a selection of favourites such as Galaga and Light Crusader waiting to be downloaded when I have a spare moment. The games range comes from Very old Sega and Nintendo consoles, more recent consoles such as the N64 and even a few arcade conversions thrown in for good measure.

These are purchased with points that can be purchased separately (or awarded with the product registration certificates for Nintendo software). The 'free' points for downloads provided by Nintendo are a nice little extra and we've got enough to download 2-3 good older games already. Once downloaded, these games are stored onto the Wii's internal memory, or can be stored onto one of the memory cards that the Wii accepts (cheap and widely available). It's also possible to buy these games as a gift, which could be a very cheap, pleasant surprise for a friend who is a fan of classic games.

*Other interesting points and observations about the Wii*

I'll put these as bullets as I've already gone way overboard with the descriptions! The Wii offers:

1. A range of multiplayer, teamplay and online co-operative or competitive gaming choices, depending upon which games you're playing.
2. Access to good games that you may have missed when they first came out (ok, so I moaned about this earlier, but some old games were great).
3. A healthy dose of fun and a far more interactive gaming experience than other consoles offer.
4. Good quality components and rugged, sturdy controllers. I mention this as some of the more technologically advanced consoles such as the Xbox 360 are famed for breaking down!
5. The Wii is backwardly compatible with Nintendo Gamecube games and can also use the Gamecube controllers (these are slotted in to the side of the Wii). I'm not 100% certain as to whether or not you can use Wireless gamecube controllers.
6. An easy to use online offering. Try clicking on the black cat who appears when you're accessing the internet for an amusing surprise :-)

*Wii're somewhat undecided*

While I don't regret purchasing the Wii, I certainly would have thought twice if I'd known the large amounts of additional expense that would be incurred just to make the games we're purchasing playable. It's a very enjoyable console, but if you're the sort of person/family who tends to buy these sorts of gadgets and then ends up with them tucked away in a cupboard I'd seriously consider whether this is the console for you. After all, £300+ is a lot to spend on what will be, for many people, an innovative catchpenny.

Summary: Undoubtedly entertaining, the high setup costs and lacklustre games offered for the Wii are issues