Yesterday, late in the afternoon, I finally got my Wii. A week and a day later than planned, but that was only because I was late on pre-ordering mine.
After emptying the surprisingly heavy box and just oggling everything, it was time to hook it up.
Three cables was all it took; the power cord (with a brick in the middle, though smaller than the Xbox 360′s brick), the VGA cable with optional SCART attachment, and the sensor bar.
Once that was done, the batteries (two normal AA batteries were included) were put in the Wii-mote and it was time to fire it up.
Getting through the setup was easy, though there was no information on screen on how to use the buttons (point and click A on the Wii-mote) so for stupid folks who bought a Wii without looking at information online or reading the manual it might be a bit tricky at first.
Finally it was all set up, especially since I currently don’t have wireless internet at home, and it was time to give the games a go. But before I did that, I created a Mii.
A Mii is a character that will represent you in certain Wii games. You pick the look by picking a head, eyes, nose, eyebrows, hairstyle, mouth and glasses, all with several color variations of course, then giving it a name, preferred color and optional birthday. This way every family member can have his/her own Mii to save game data to.
Then yes, it was time to pop in Wii Sports. In short, it’s a hell of a lot of fun, and with the various sports in there, there’s bound to be something for everyone. Personally, I prefer Baseball and Golf, though Bowling is fun once you get the hang of it. Tennis isn’t my sport, never has been, and probably never will be, but it was still fun to play.
After my arms had gotten tired from swinging the Wii using force as if it was a real baseball bat (amazing how so-called crap graphics and the Wii-mote can fool you) I gave the Legend of Zelda : Twilight Princess (Z:TP) a go.
Having never owned a Nintendo console before, I’d only tried Zelda’s Ocarina of Time once, but never did get much of the franchise’s backstory. Therefore, playing Z:TP without reading up seems to me like getting thrown in the deep end of the pool on your second day of swimming lessons.
Although there are quite a lot of on-screen tips and hints, it’s still a lot to grasp, especially with Link having so many moves available. Luckily they come to you fast and the only problems I’m having with this title are 1) there’s no second analog stick to free look, and 2) there’s no voice acting making the game less entertaining and engaging that expected.
Z:TP’s strengths lie in the Wii-mote and nunchuck’s abilities. For example swinging your sword is easy as pie because all you have to do is swing the Wii-mote a little. Rock the nunchuck and Link will do a spin attack with the sword. Or use the Wii-mote to go fishing (early on in the game), then to use your slingshot, or to aim a hawk you can call to you by whistling on grass. Gosh, Link is so talented….
After some three to four hours of playing with the Wii, my first impressions are great. The Wii-mote delivers as promised, although at times a bit less responsive than I’d like when putting the ball in a game of Golf. Pointing on screen works very well, even when you’re sitting only 4 feet from the screen, though it’ll probably be even better when sitting a bit more back.
The graphics, while nowhere near the quality of those shown on the 360 and PS3, are really nice. It’s a whole different style and the gameplay, with the Wii-mote and nuncuck, is emersive enough to make you forget about the low-res textures and low-poly models.
Sound is generally good, at least as far as Wii-Sports and Z:TP go, although the default volume of the Wii-mote’s speaker is a bit loud.
250 Euros for the Wii, another 55 Euros for Z:TP… yes, so far it’s been worth the investment, and I can’t wait to see what Nintendo and the third party publishers have in store for the Wii.
