I got my free Wii Remote Jackets yesterday, and guess what, they are actually quite good. They are light and add some much needed grip to the Wiimote. The only downside I can see is if you need to insert your Wiimote into a peripheral (Guitar, steering wheel, etc) then you’ll have to remove the jacket, but still. I never thought I’d be in danger of smashing anything (TV’s, babys) but with my 3 year old playing SkeeBall on Carnival games, the extra insurance is definitely welcome. Thanks Nintendo!

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And little Jimmy, what are you thankful for this year? Nintendo, for bringing my whole family together! Awwww….

Ok, so my day wasn’t that corny, but once my cousins (and their kids) showed up, it was Wii day all day. Everyone has a 90 second learning curve on the Wii, hold it like this, there’s a button on bottom, one on top. Now hold on to it, cause I’m going to kick your ass. Baseball is my favorite starter game, but that didn’t last long because it’s only 2 players. My cousin is an active bowler, and when I described how it works and how you can throw hooks as naturally as you normally would, he demanded we play that next. Thankfully this was a 4 player game. But keep in mind, it’s very much like real bowling, so 4 people to go through ten frames takes time! We ended up bailing on the first game because dinner was called. But bowling is now easily my favorite Wii Sport. Very easy to learn and real life bowling skills do translate well. The better bowlers ended up winning over the better gamers.

Next we tried Excite Truck to play some 4 player split screen. Imagine my surprise when it only had a 2 player race mode! Lemme see that box! Oh, 2 player, that’s so lame. OK, let’s play Rayman, that’s supposed to be a party game (so I thought). It isn’t. It’s fun, but you have to start off in Story mode to unlock anything, so that didn’t last long.

Eventually DDR and GHII won out the rest of the night, but Wii was a hit with everyone. How does it work? What else can I do with it? How much does it cost? Can I get one? I think Nintendo is in a great spot right now. Let’s just get those component cables out, get more titles in the Virtual Console and we’re going to be cruising!

Edit:
My cousin did end up throwing the bowling ball behind him one time, and we all had a good laugh. For a list of other tips and tricks you can do with your new Wii, check out GoNintendo!.

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I got my Wii this weekend and although I’ve only had an hour or so to play it, Nintendo’s vision has become quite clear. During this hour of Wii Sports play, I had my 3 year old son and 60 year old father all playing together. My dad actually beat me in Tennis repeatedly. This was what I was saying in an earlier post. The Wii has torn down the barriers that used to prevent people from playing. You don’t need any buttons in Tennis or Baseball, just natural hand movements.
So, the system itself only took about 5-10 minutes to hook up. I was forced to use the included composite cables (Not even S-Vidio Nintendo!?) as the component cables were no where to be found on launch day. You only need to plug in power, A/V and the sensor bar. I was kind of surprised by the lack of an RJ45 network port though. Luckily my Wii picked up my WiFi in my house just fine.
After powering up, and authenticating to the network, it began a series of updates, which took less than 5 minutes. I haven’t yet created a custom Mii though. We just played wit the guest Mii’s included on the game or system. Mii is a personal avatar you can create for each family member.

I picked up 6 games:
Legend of Zelda: Twilght Princess
Excite Truck
Rayman Raving Rabbids
Red Steel
Monkey Ball
Marvel: Ultimate Alliance

Purchasing at Target gave me 10% off (as a CC holder) and $40 cash back on the games, not bad. I also got 3 extra “WiiMotes” for multiplayer games. It looks like the supply of consoles should be enough to satisfy demand. The Target I was at had 81 consoles and not many people were turned away, but all stores claim to be getting additional deliveries by Friday.

Anyway, I have barely begun to play the system and am looking forward to a fun thanksgiving holiday.

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