It's a Wii for Mii (Nintendo Wii)

Member Name: x-cupcake-x

Product:	Nintendo Wii
Date:	01/10/09 (140 review reads)
Rating:

Advantages: Great fun, it gets you moving

Disadvantages: Don't expect spectacular graphics

A few months after the Nintendo Wii was released my boyfriend decided that he wanted one. I'm not really a huge gamer so I wasn't too keen, it just seemed like almost £200 that would be better off in our bank account than being spent on another console.

Then one of our friends got one and this only seemed to fuel his fire more, so one evening we'd popped round for a few beverages and t a game of tennis on the Wii was suggested. Well I played and lost a couple of games and much to my boyfriend's delight I had a lot of fun.

The next week we sent each other a couple of emails at work about how much we'd enjoyed playing on it and decided we would get one. We had a look at a few bundles online, but I can be quite impatient and wanted one there and then. After work we took a drive to Morrisons and luckily they had some in stock, we parted with our cash which I think was about £179.

When we got home we set about unpacking our new toy, I can't remember exactly what was in the box but there was definitely a Wii (YAY) a Wii remote, a nunchuck, sensor bar, stand and all the leads required to get it working oh and of course Wii Sports. Good times.

One of the things I like about the Wii is the size, it is quite tiny in comparison with some consoles measuring around 38 x 25 x 11 cm. Even in the smallest of rooms it's not going to take up too much space - although space might be an issue when you come to play some of the games.

On the Wii you create characters to represent players which are called Miis, it's quite interesting seeing how people represent themselves with these. The Miis are used in a lot of the games such as Wii Sports, Wii Fit and Big Brain Academy.

Wii Sports as I mentioned is a free game which is included when you buy the console, it only comes in a cardboard sleeve which is quite easily lost so if you've got a spare CD or DVD case it's worth keeping it in that. The game consists of five games which are Bowling, Boxing, Tennis, Baseball and Golf. These games are great fun (apart from Golf, I'm rubbish at it therefore I hate it) the graphics won't wow you but it's not about that, it's about fun!! You can play with up to 4 players, so it's great if you've got friends round - you really get to find out who's the most competitive in the room.

You do need a bit of space to play this game though, I've hit my hand on the light fitting when I've got a bit over enthusiastic playing bowling and if you're playing 4 player tennis you're bound to knock into each other if you don't spread out enough. Oh and there's the TV to be careful of, my boss' son put his wii remote through theirs because he didn't secure it tightly enough... Oops.
If you buy one now they come with rubber "gloves" to put round the remotes to make them a bit more bouncy.

You can also do fitness tests with Wii Sports to find out what your Wii Fit age is, this is aimed at adults and the youngest possible age is 20. Kids can do this too but the results won't be as accurate.
We didn't actually buy another game for ours for a while as we were having enough fun with this one.


What I find enjoyable about the Wii is that a lot of the games you're not just sat on your bum while you play, you need to get up and move around. Although it's not going to be the same being out playing footy or going to a bike ride it's got to be a hell of a lot better than just staring at the screen.

One of the first games we bought was Mario & Sonic at the Olympics which is one of those that does need you to move to play the game. Some of the movements can look a little strange to passers by and we do get some funny looks especially living next to a church, they must wonder what on Earth we're up to!!

There also doesn't seem to be an age limit with this console either, I don't think there's any other console out there that my 3 year old nephew would enjoying as well as his 60 something grandparents - who in all the time I've known them I have never seen go near a console other than the Wii.

We bought the Wii Play games mainly for the reason that it came with a free remote, and although the games were fun we got bored quickly. So we kept the remote and gave our niece the game as she's only 9 and loves it.

The Wii has built in WiFi access which is great as you can download different channels for some of the games such as Wii Fit or Mario Kart. This means you can play some parts of the game without needing to put the disc in. You can also race people from all over the globe on Mario Kart or arrange to play your friends if they have the game & WiFi too.
You can also download an internet channel for free from the Wii Shop Channel so you can browse the internet on your Wii.
There is a photo channel, so you can view your photos (the Wii has an SD card slot) on your TV if you like, I haven't actually tried this though as our memory card isn't SD. You can download a few other channels for free from the Wii Shop as well such as weather forecast and news channels.
You can buy Wii points which cost £14.99 for 2000 points, these can then be used to download classic Nintendo games to play on your Wii. Some games for the Wii come with a code to redeem stars which can be converted to points.

As I have said the graphics on the Wii are not fantastic but I'm not bothered about that in the slightest and it's not the sort of console you buy for the visual effects. Don't get me wrong they're not terrible but you can't compare them to the PS3 for example.

For the young ones using the remote accurately can be a little difficult aiming it at the right point on the screen, but they can still join in.
The batteries can also drain quickly in the remotes so we bought some rechargeable batteries for ours. You can also buy rechargeable battery packs for them.

Many of the games for this console can be picked for great prices, one of the games I've got my eye on at the minute is available for the brilliant price of just under £8 some are more expensive such as Wii Fit which has an RRP of £70 but I've found quite a few seem to be around the £20-25 mark which is pretty reasonable.


Just before Christmas 2007 when they were in short supply we did toy with the idea of selling it, but we knew that we would regret it and I'm so glad that we didn't because we still use it regularly 2 ½ years later.

Last Christmas we were spending Christmas day at my Aunt's house and as we traditionally play games at Christmas time we had said we would take the Wii with us. Unfortunately her TV needed a scart adaptor which we hadn't taken with us. Everyone was really disappointed that they couldn't play on it even my Nan who is nearly 80!! We've promised this year we'll have to find the adaptor, I think I'll be in everyone's bad books if I forget it this year.

Almost all of our friends have Wiis so if we're having a night in we'll take our remotes with us so we can play multi player games, one of the great things is that you can save your Mii data to the remote so even though you're playing on someone else's console you can still use your own character - which is great if you've reached pro level on Wii Sports you don't have to start at the bottom level again.

I would definitely recommend a Wii to anyone that wants a console that they can enjoy with all of their friends and family no matter what age group they are in.

Summary: Fun for everyone