Well this year it was hands down one of the best I can remember in a long time. Food, friends and family marked this special holiday season and one little white box was there to help the festivities….the Nintendo Wii. The Wii had everyone involved, cheering and yelling as we bowled, boxed, played tennis and shredded on the guitar. My parents, who are seniors, thought it was to coolest thing they’ve ever seen. The shocker was that my mom, who hates video gaming, showed up with a killer virtual bowling game and sparked a bowling/gaming competition the likes to which my family has never seen. She loves the Wii. She was calling her friends from my house and inviting them over to play. Also my wife, who has no interest in video games, is also in the hunt for posting the highest score in virtual bowling. It was an awesome experience and the Nintendo Wii is an incredible system. It’s a must have for families.  The experience is in the same vein as when you played board games with your family as kids but this system gets you off the couch and on your feet.  This morning everyone is complaining of strained muscles and sore body parts from playing tennis and bowling.
The Wii sports game, that came packaged with the Wii,  is a great game and I hope they develop more.  Bowling and tennis are the 2 best games of the bunch, followed by golf and boxing.  The boxing is so/so and the baseball sim isn’t very good.  The 2nd place game for the Wii is Guitar Hero III and kept my 12 year old glued to the tv shredding tunes that I grew up with.  The game even got grandpa excited to hear some of the tunes he enjoyed from the 60’s and 70’s.  I thought it was cool that you can choose between guitar and bass riffs.   Sadly, I need some practice to get my skills up.  Right now I am the funny one to watch though some of that is from my dumb gyrations and antics while the other is from my sorry GH skills.  The game also got my dad wanting to play guitar again.  I’ve never seen a game or system that translated a virtual experience into real desires to play.

The Wii isn’t a system for everyone.  I can see how a traditional console gamer would not be happy with the Wii as his/her standalone system.  The Wiimote is a fun controller but not suited to all types of games.  If you are a traditional console gamer I suggest getting a 360/pc and a Wii to cover all your  gaming needs.

The best aspect of the Wii is that it is a great social gaming system and the most fun when playing with friends and family.  Also I’d suggest having a med-large screen (high 30’s plus) tv to boot as playing interactive games on a small screen would ruin the experience.  The Wii was a huge hit to everyone this season and a get medium for social interactivity.

-Wes

This entry was posted on Wednesday, December 26th, 2007 at 10:25 am and is filed under Console, Gaming, Sections. You can follow any responses to this entry through the RSS 2.0 feed. You can leave a response, or trackback from your own site.