(Originally posted Monday, January 29th, 2007)
Now that my fam is about one month into the Wii experience (well, we’ve actually had it about two months, but for the first month it sat in our closet taunting me) I thought I would blog a bit on how the experience (or Wiisperience if you prefer) has been.
It’s easy to see that Nintendo has hit a marketing home run with this thing. They still don’t stay on store shelves past opening, while the PS3 lingers there like a puppy at the local shelter begging to be taken home. In fact, word is that Wiis will be scarce until June, even with a million a month or so hitting stores worldwide. Why are people clamoring for this simple little white box? I don’t know, maybe because it looks like crazy fun and something you could pull out at any party and young and old alike would enjoy it? The real question though, one month in, is does it continue to live up to that promise or is it a brilliant marketing gimmick that starts to wear thin?
I’d have to say for my family that question is answered easily and vehemently that the promise has been kept. My only regret with the Wii is that I don’t have nearly enough time to play it. We’ve got Monkey Ball, Zelda, Wario Ware, and of course Wii Sports, and I’ve got so much more to explore in all of them. My wife is now a PRO bowler in Wii bowling (she’s got the sparkley ball to prove it) and we might even start working out together everyday with Wii Boxing. My boys love Wario Ware the most, but also dig the original Super Mario Bros (downloaded from the Virtual Console) and popping in old gamecube games as well. I’ve taken the Wii to our staff Christmas Party, where it was a hit, pulled it out at mom and dad’s, who loved it, showed it off to some “non gamer” friends, who played so much that they were sore for a couple days, and I am looking forward to throwing a few Wii parties in the next month.
The point is the Wii has completely blown away my expectations and continues to do so, and I haven’t even mentioned the amazing weather and news channels, the Miis, or even the innovative control system.
I still feel like I’ve got plenty more to dive into on the system (last night I popped in an SD card and messed around with the picture channel for the first time, there’s even a fun puzzle game in there.) and maybe a month is too short of a time to really see if the Wii holds up. But I have to say, I couldn’t be more pleased with our family Christmas gift this year.
One thing I still want to explore more is the online community aspect, but I don’t know of any friends who have a Wii yet. If you have a Wii and are willing to “be friends” just post your Wii info below or email it too me at pastordice@gmail.com. I think all you need is the Wii code (mine is 7654 7233 2786 4327) and then you can check out my Miis and send notes and be updated when I finally beat Twilight Princess 4 years from now.