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My Wii Experiance So Far

I got to use my first voucher straight away to get $20 off the Wii Play + Wii Remote bundle.  Although the vouchers don't actually have "Target" written on them, so at first the checkout chick asked me where they were from.  Unfortunately, Target Country didn't have any Wii Nunchuks so I can only play multiplayer games that only use the Wii remote.

So after all that I got it home.  Set up was pretty standard.  At first I put the sensor bar below the TV but I think the coffee table was obstructing the IR signal at times so I attached the supplied stand and moved it to the top of TV.  I should point out that the Wii console stand also comes with a round clear plate that attaches to it's base to offer the Wii more stability when in the upright position.  I really appreciated this.

Connecting to the internet was pretty standard and will be familiar to those who have done it with a Nintendo DS.  But don't connect your Wii to your network if you want to play games immediately.  The Wii requires an update as soon as you connect. There were two parts to this update that took about 45 minutes to download.

Unfortunately it's not all good news though.  It took me a while to notice, but I have no illumination around disc slot.  I know under normal circumstances it doesn't remain on, but it never turns on with my Wii.  I've checked the Wii settings to make sure it's not disabled.  Fortunately this is just a cosmetic bug and if Target Country don't have anymore in stock I'm happy to wait for a replacement.  But replacing your Wii does introduce one major issue…

DRM

Nintendo have chosen to identify you, as a purchaser of Wii Software or Virtual Console games, by your console.  At no point do you register or login with a password.  The way I understand it, if I buy a Virtual Console game on my Wii now, I will lose that game when I return it for a replacement.  I will also loose unspent Wii Points ($credit).

This is particularly annoying because Australian law says that consumers can choose not to have their faulty product (that are under warranty) repaired and instead request an immediate replacement.  But with the Nintendo Wii you will have not choice but to send your Wii away and do without if you want to keep the games you bought.

Nintendo really should have adopted a system like with Microsoft's DRM where you can authorise and de-authorise your console so you can move games to a different Wii.  It seems to me that there will certainly be some households that have more than one Wii and I think when you buy a Virtual Console game you should be entitled to play it on both the Wii in your Living Room and the Wii in your Den without having to buy it twice.

The Magical Controller –  Wii Remote

It no secret that the Sensor Bar is not actually a 'sensor' but rather a house for a couple  of IR transmitters that the Wii Remote can see.  But I haven't seen any commentary on how this effects the original assumption that the Wii Remote orientation can be detected within 3D space.  I would suggest that the absolute orientation of the Wii Remote can only be detected so long as it's pointing towards the Sensor Bar.

My point is, with driving games that require you to hold the remote on it's side (like a NES controller) is the technology used to track movement any different to what Sony was criticised for including in their [crappily-titled] SIXAXIS controller?  That is, the orientation and movement is only tracked using accelerometers and is relative to it's original position, not absolute.

Of course, in this use the Wii Remote it has the advantage over the SIXAXIS in that any inaccuracies in the accelerometers that might cause the original orientation of the controller to be mis-calculated over a course of gaming should be able to be instantly corrected as soon as the Wii Remote sees the Sensor Bar.

Something else about the Wii Remote is that it knows nothing about the size of your TV.  So it's very different to how the light-guns of past consoles work.  The Wii Remote is used to stear a reticule on the screen where as with light-gun games you literally aim the gun at the object on the screen without the aid of a reticule.  I don't believe the Wii Remote can be used without an on-screen reticule the same way a light-gun can.

I haven't played anything that required the use of the Wii Nunchuk yet.  But to hold, it was comfortable but a little light which gave it a kind of cheap feel.

Is that Mii?

The creation of Mii's is pretty kewl.  I think I got my likeness pretty much spot on.  It's it's kewl to play Wii Sports and Wii Play and see something that looks so much like yourself on the screen.  I think a few more options for customising your Mii would be nice - like sideburns.  I look forward to creating some Mii's of my family and friends so I can see their faces in Wii Sports.

Wii Sports

One of biggest reasons I wanted a Wii was because of the reports I read of peoples family and friends picking up and enjoying the games when they would otherwise never touch a console game.  I was hoping this would be true for my partner, who does play games but never with me.  She loves Pikmin but refuses to play the co-operative mode in Pikmin 2.

So Wii Sports Tennis was our first test.  As I expected her stubborness was not going to make it easy to get the Wii Remote into her hand.  And the first round of Tennis she refused to stand to play the game.  But I eventually coached her out of the lounge and from that point she was hooked.  I expect you can play Wii Sports Tennis sitting, but it's just no fun.  It also took her a bit to realise that she needed to swing the remote over head when playing on the net and the ball was passing over her Mii's head.  Within no time she was owning the court and I wanted to tell her to let some balls come past for me to hit.

I think there is a lot of technique involved in Tennis that I'm yet to fully realise.  I've almost got a grasp of doing power serves.  And whilst I can apply top-spin I tend to send the ball a little high in the air.  I think it really helps to move your position in front of the TV for each shot.  If your Mii is on the left side of the court and you are on the right side of the TV and you swing your forehand towards the TV you'll probably hit the ball out.  You need to make sure your swing direction is based on where your Mii is on the court so it can help a bit if you position yourself relatively in front of the TV. 

Bowling was also a lot of fun due to the ability to so accurately control the spin on the ball.  I had the ball really hooking.  But this game reveals that the Wii doesn't know everything about your position in 3D space.  If it did you would simple move yourself to the left or right side of the TV to move your Mii to the left or right side of the bowling lane.  Instead you have to use the directional pad to move your Mii and change the direction you will send the ball.

We also played Baseball, but it was rather challenging.  A lot of foul balls occured but I will improve and when I do I expect to have a lot of fun.  It doesn't help that I was sending two 150 Km/h balls to my partner then following it up with a 100 km/h pitch.  I thought it was a little funny that whilst Tennis provide so much control over your racket by twisting the Wii Remote that pitching a curveball in Baseball involves holding a button as you toss the ball instead of twisting your wrist.

I haven't played the other games yet, but one thing to note, make sure you were the wrist-strap.  My hands got quite sweaty during some intense Tennis action I could see the Wii-mote slipping if your not careful.

Wii Play

For an extra $10 on top of the price of a Wii Remote you can get a Wii Remote and Wii Play.  It's definitely worth it.  It's basically a collection of mini-games designed to introduce you to the power of the Wii Remote.  We played through all the games and some of them are pretty crap (billards) and others won't offer any replay value (cow racing).  The the air-hocky game is very kewl. 

But the most fun was the first game which is a shooting game like Point Blank.  I nailed those targets and it reveals how accurate the Wii Remote really is.  It's going to be sweet for aiming the slingshot and such in Zelda: Twilight Princess.  But note my comment above that the Wii Remote is not a light-gun.

Wii Channels

Neither the News or the Weather channels are active as of last night.  It's very disappointing that Nintendo don't have these service active for launch day.  Not that I was really that interested in them.

Virtual Console

There's not too many games on offer yet but they are almost all classics. I haven't bought any yet but once I get my replacement Wii I will definitely be buying Mario 64 and Donkey Kong Country.  And maybe Altered Beast.  It's nice to know that most of the Virtual Console games can be played with the GameCube controller so you don't really need to go out a buy a Classic Controller.

Conclusion

Overall, if you enjoy games you need a Nintendo Wii.  If you don't enjoy games, you will enjoy the Nintendo Wii anyway.  I'm keen to get my Mum around to play Wii Sports Tennis :) I'm disappointed mine is faulty, but I would guess that 80% of electronics I buy these days are normally faulty.  It's just my luck and I've learnt to accept it. And fortunately the fault hasn't prevented me from playing any games.

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