Friday, September 3rd, 2010

Nintendo Wii Review

I have a confession. Despite being one who said he wouldn’t buy a game system for the kids I broke down and got a Nintendo Wii and I haven’t regretted it once. My main problem with video games is that they can be addictive time sinks and I’d rather have the kids doing other things. With Xbox and Playstation prices so high this was an easy vice to avoid. Then the Wii came out with its $250 price point and I became interested. The more I read the more intrigued I was by the motion sensitive controls and the sports games. I finally broke down and got it, but we actually hid its existence from the kids for the whole summer. A couple months ago I finally decided it was time to introduce the kids to Wii Sports and I’m glad I did.

Here’s what I like about having a Wii in our house

The Sports games are active. We get up, move around, and have a blast. Its not a thumb race like traditional games, but full body involvement.
We can all play. Whether its taking turns in golf and playing tennis against each other we are all involved.
The kids get it. The controls are intuitive. Swing the controller like a tennis racket to hit the ball.
Because of the Wii Tennis, Ethan really wants to play tennis next summer.
New rule…Messy floor = no Wii. The boys are pretty gungho to pickup the family room now.

The only downside is that the controllers are pretty hazardous. We’ve had a couple minor bruises from tennis backhands. Nintendo is now including a new cushioned sleeve to go over the controllers. We’re gotten ours and I like them. Better grip and the extra cushion should really help protect the kids and the equipment.

We’ve been making Miis (game characters) for everyone we know that we have familiar faces during our matches. I have to admit that I like how mine turned out.

One other problem we’ve encountered as early adopters is that there hasn’t been many good games available. I’ve been looking for a good racing game, but found only mediocre ones. The next few months should change all that though with a load of games coming out for the holidays and the latest Mario Kart being released soon after.

In summary, the Wii is a game system that is what you make of it. Sure, there are plenty of old school solo games you could rot your brain on, but what makes it so much fun in our house are the active games where we can all participate. Now that the days are getting short and the weather cold I expect we will really appreciate being able to play our sports inside for half an hour a night. We’ll get a little exercise and have a lot of fun.

To get an idea of what Wii is all about, here’s a great video of Ben playing tennis. Listen for Ethan’s reaction in the background.