A couple of weeks ago Lisa "surprised" me with a Wii. My coworker, and friend, Ed had bought two of the three Toys-R-Us had (one for him, one for his sister) but it turns out his sister got one the same day in D.C. So Lisa bought the extra one and let me tell you, it is really fun. It comes with five basic sports games; bowling, golf, boxing, tennis, and baseball. I'm not too fond of boxing or baseball (in fact I don't like the baseball game at all) but I really enjoy the golf, bowling, and tennis games. I would probably like the boxing a bit more if more of my swings actually registered (read: if I didn't suck).
I haven't owned a new to market console since the Sega Genesis even though I have eyed the PS2, XBox, XBox 360, and the PS3. Lisa isn't much of a gamer and the girls aren't either so it was hard to justify the spending of hundreds of dollars on a game machine if I was the only one going to play it. While the Wii hasn't suddenly turned the family into avid gamers it has managed to draw Lisa in to play some games and Shannon really enjoys it (though Emily hasn't even tried it and won't for another year or so).
We have bought a few extra games for it; Sonic and the Secret Rings, Tiger Woods 2007, Madden 2007, and Wii Play (a set of nine mini-games). I haven't tried Sonic yet but Lisa, Shannon and Joe all played it. Lisa and Shannon seemed to like it somewhat but Joe didn't care for it. The Wii Play games are mostly lame but they can be kind of fun - particularly an old Atari 2600 rebirth of Combat! (the tank game). I am no good at Madden 2007 which is no different than my skill level at any other Madden game however the controls are a lot different so I kind of like it - even though it can be very, very frustrating. Tiger Woods golf is cool but the graphics are rendered a bit darkly on our TV so it is hard to see the hole on the green plus the Wii remote doesn't always register my swings when I'm putting so it can be very difficult to have good "touch" for distance.
The Wii has definitely taken up a lot of our time - we have reduced our overall TV watching substantially because we are playing Wii games (mostly Wii Sports - the five games that came with the Wii). The only real gripes I have with the Wii so far are that there is no online play, the graphics, and the controls. I really wish there was online play because I would really like playing some of these games against my friends without having to have them come over. While the graphics are "ok" they just aren't very good - particularly in Tiger Woods golf. The people all look "weird" and the animations of them are really awkward plus everything is too dark. If I squat and have the TV at exact eye level it is better but the point of the golf mechanics are that you stand up and swing the remote like a real golf club. Finally, the controller. Sometimes it is overly sensitive and other times it doesn't register my moving of it at all. While I love the concept of the controller and have a blast playing the games with it it just doesn't work well enough for sensitive movements. It's perfect for abrupt moves (baseball, golf driving, tennis smashes) but sucks for putting or tennis drop shots - you just can't be delicate and that really gets aggravating.
I have hope that the mechanics and online play stuff will be resolved eventually. I'm resigned to the awkward graphics and think the sports games designers should as well and not try so hard to be photo realistic with the people (Tiger) because they just look odd. My overall impression of the system is a positive one though. My arms have actually been a touch sore after playing a lot of boxing or tennis the next day and, at least with boxing, it is easy to break a sweat so I figure I'm doing myself some minor good by playing some of these games. The price still seems kind of high - and the $50 a game sucks - but that is only because I am cheap. I have gotten my monies worth in hours of entertainment already (as compared to going to movies, amusement parks, etc) so it really isn't all that bad.
As soon as I manage to get my "Mii" off the "Wii" I will get a screen grab of him and put him on the blog for you too see.