Wii

Customer Reviews

If you have kids you better buy this product.
This console it's great for kids and for the old. It promotes active playing not just sitting and present buttons. I have nephews who play the wii sports game and they actually sweat playing it, specially the boxing games. It's also fun to play against older people. I say buy it.

Try It First
Personal admission - I at least aspire to be some form of video game reviewer, and the Wii was the last console this generation that I've purchased by a long margin, largely because I suspected from the beginning that I would hate it forever. Turns out I was right. Most of my commentary following will at least aspire to neutrality, but just so the dedicated Nintendo fans can dismiss me now, I'm not among those who welcome any stupid idea from the company with open arms.

I hate this thing. I hate it with every fiber of my being. When the next console comes out I will take this thing out to a big field and smash it to pieces with a whiffle ball bat. I hate it for being the only repository for modern Nintendo console games and I hate that so many other people like it and I just don't understand what they're seeing.

But what, you might ask yourself, is my deal? Well, for one thing, I don't like the controls. At all. When I play a video game, I like being able to immerse myself in the game and not think about what I'm doing with my hands and body. The Wii takes that away from me and puts me back in the same position I was when I was eight years old and trying to figure out what the different between A and B were on my NES. This is an individual response, but as far as I'm concerned, waving my arms around like I'm hitting a baseball doesn't make me feel like I'm playing baseball - it makes it very obvious to me that I'm not interacting with my on-screen avatar in an easy or efficient way.

The upside of this is that if you're a casual gamer or a newcomer to the field of computer games, you'll probably have an easier time warming up to the controls that I did. The irony is delicious, really. I certainly get what the charm would be for a person who doesn't play many games, but truly "hardcore" players who have spent years upon years learning how to work a DualShock might want to try the system out extensively before purchase.

The second reason I hate the system has to do with the fact that it doesn't support HD, and this is something that everybody needs to think about. The Wii can output a 480p widescreen signal, which is fine for a regular SD televisions, but you definitely need to check the performance for standard definition on an HD set before you invest. Most low-end high definition sets don't come with Feroudja upscalers, and that can lead to some really, really awful looking SD, including whatever comes out of your Wii. It's definitely a good idea to track down the proper settings for your particular set if this sort of thing is important to you.

I am, of course, being quite harsh. My mileage with the system has been and will continue to be terrible because of my reaction to the controls, but anybody not subject to my own strange prejudices will probably have a reasonable time. While there's a shortage of monumentally great games (at least, as a percentage of total game output), there are plenty of wonderful titles that you can find for the system, and it's likely that your children will have a fun time with it. The best thing you can do in this case is to do some research on your own television's performance and play with the thing in a store before you buy, just to be sure that you'll like it once you get it home. For my part, I know that I'm not enjoying my purchase at all, but it's entirely likely that you might.

The ultimate party game
The Wii is a social game, unlike PS3 or Xbox360 playing the Wii on your own is not really much fun. It really comes into its own when you have a friend or friends over and everyone takes turns on the sports and other games.

I think we paid for the Wii in the number of bowling games we've had out of it alone.

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