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Wii
Manufacturer: Nintendo
Price: with Wii Sports game packed in - $249
Release Date:
North America - November 19, 2006
Japan - December 2, 2006
Europe - December 8, 2006
Pros: Intuitive, motion-sensing controller, cheap, small
Cons: Lower-quality graphics, no HD, possible difficulty with motion-sensing
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Best Console (2006)
The Wii, Nintendo's new generation motion sensing console, is in the house!
It is hooked up and ready for reviewing.
The first thing you notice when taking the console out of the box is its size.
If you haven't kept up with the times, you will be instantly surprised by it's tiny size and weight.
If you have payed attention, however, it will definitely come as a shock how much larger Wii is than it was claimed to be.
It is about 1/3 of an inch wider than the supposed 3 DVD cases, and an inch longer and taller.
The console's aesthetics, however, are very nice looking indeed.
It's small, sleek, white, and will fit into almost any entertainment space.
Of course, I do have a small complaint about the Gamecube controllers, since when you put the console on its side, they pop out of the side.
If your Wii is in a cabinet under your TV, that can become a problem.
One thing that struck me was that when it was placed right next to my (non-slim) PS2, it seemed dwarfed by the size of the other console.
The controller (both Wii remote and nunchuck) are small and fit your hand very well.
(with similar ergonomics to the GC controller)
The Wii remote, however, can get pretty heavy sometimes with the batteries inside.
In addition, the nunchuck is surprisingly light and small, giving it a kind of flimsy and cheap feeling.
As for the controls, the pointer can be confusing sometimes, but is definitely much more intuitive for menus than an analog stick.
Sometimes you will notice that when you move the pointer off of the screen, it simply disappears.
This can become very confusing, since it would have been much better for it to at least show where the pointer was last seen.
Miis are simple and fun to create, and there are a lot of options.
After digging up and old SD card, I tried out the Photo Channel, which is fun, but not extremely useful.
You can zoom into pictures, rotate them, draw on them, give them some basic effects, the whole works.
It's nothing overly complex, but it gets the job done.
In general, the menus are clean and easy to navigate, and the most you will ever see of load times between sections is about 3 seconds.
Just yesterday, I got a chance to play Wii at my local Gamestop's demo kiosk. They required that I give them a driver's liscence, credit card, or other ID, to assure that I did not steal their precious Wiimotes... The first thing I have to say about it is that the controller is surprisingly small. It fit my hand extremely comforably, and I have absolutely no problems with it's industrial design. I noted, however, that there was a small ridge on the side, presumably for the Zapper or other attachments.
I turned on Exite Truck, and played two games with my younger brother and sister. The controls were a mixed bag. I found them oversensitive and difficult at first, but quickly warmed up to them. You really need to use small, subtle wrist movements, not full arm and body motions like many people are complaining about. My brother, on the other hand, did not like the controls very much, and my sister could barely control her vehicle at all. The graphics were not spectacular. There were fairly well-detailed objects, and the physics and terrain were fine. The actual textures, details, and lighting, however, did not impress me very much. It may have been because the HDTV or the Wii was not formatted correctly, but the resolution looked worse than the resolution on many current generation standard definition games.
Either way, I personally had a lot of fun playing Exite Truck, since it gives you the adreneline feeling of playing an arcade racer. After trying out the game, we moved on to checking out the menu and Mii creator. The menu, I must say, was a very enjoyable experience. It is, similarly to the DS menu, very streamlined and easy to use. Within about 30 seconds, I was blazing through the Photo channel, Wii Message Board, Options and Mii Channel. The pointer, however, was a tad sensitive, so I had to toggle around with that aspect in the options. One major fact to note is that you cannot stand very close to the TV screen when using the Wii. Though, hypothetically, one could change the settings to fit that position, the controller gets much too jittery when the player stands too close.
Finally, we created some Mii charicatures. I had to use a different hairstyle than I had previously used in the online flash version, since that one is not totally accurate. Though I have heard many a complaint about the Mii and Wii Sports "kiddy" look, I have to say that it was pretty enjoyable making the little dudes and watching them mingle. (I was especially fun when seeing the little "Mean PS3 Man" one, showing a guy in all black with black hair, a goatee, and square glasses) The options are fairly large for Miis, and you can hold up to 100 of them on one console! Overall, my experience with the Wii was a good one. Nevertheless, problems with lower-quality graphics and difficulty in adapting to the new control scheme could be a turn-off for some.
More:
Wii News (Blog)
Wii Megathread (Forums)
Find Wii Threads (Forums)
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