Nintendo Wii

[JRD]

A few days ago me and some friends from w@&k got together at someone's house for a saturday night of eating, drinking and playing Nintendo Wii...

It may seem old news for many of you guys, but it was a first timer for me and I tell you what... what a great night we had!!!v 8) :-X

I had seen videos or adds with people playing Wii and it never occurred to me the excellent fun that lies in it... I was really impressed with how the controls respond to your body movement... ok, you don't have to stand up to play boxe, but if you do it is way more funny.

Boxe, Ping Pong, Sword fight, Frisbee, Golf-Frisbee... the list goes on and on and one game is better than the other, what a great laugh we had this night. Of course I've spent countless nights playing with colleagues before, but PS3 or PC and never so dynamically!

And girls love it!!! girlfriends and girl friends were all playing with us for the first time.... I don't have to explain what I like about all that shooting and gore and stand the looks of "Oh, so childish"  :-*

[PZ]

So true - my wife has a Wii and she loves playing guitar hero with her friends, but she won't touch my games!  :-X

[spaceboy]

Our Wii gets little use, but it can be a blast in the right situation.  Wii Fit is it's main thing now lol.   But my daughter played Just Dance at her cousins house and we'll have to get it - she had such a fun time.  Good "party" games are what makes the console - but the controllers make moving a typical character based game around very difficult in my opinion.

[Art Blade]

girlfriends and girl friends

That, JRD, was an excellent play of words  ;D :-X

[JRD]

Thanks Art  ;)

@space
You are absolutely right, if you have to move a character it just sucks. And right also when you say it can be a blast in the right situation. In a party, people play against each other and players change a lot. Meanwhile, others just drink, eat and chat waiting for their turn. Its like a mini championship within a party.





By the way... do you know the Nintendo She?  ::)

[Art Blade]

By the way... do you know the Nintendo She?  ::)

MUAHAHAhahaahhahaha!!!  :-X :-X :-X :-X ;D ;D ;D ;D

[deadman1]

By the way... do you know the Nintendo She?  ::)

MUAHAHAhahaahhahaha!!!  :-X :-X :-X :-X ;D ;D ;D ;D

LOL that one is priceless

[GPFontaine]

I have had my Wii since they initially came out.  I was a huge fan of it when I first got it and for about the first year.  The lack of quality game releases for the system has been the primary reason that it sits collecting dust now.

When I first got the system my wife and I played several games with each other and with friends.  Mario Kart Wii came out and that extended the fun by about half a year.  Unfortunately that was back in April 2008, nearly two years ago.  Since then, I have only been excited about picking up the Tiger Woods 2010 game because of WiMotion Plus.  The Wii Fit is gimicky, but I workout 6 days a week with Tony Horton, so it hardly seems worth the money.

When I have a little more time I'll get into some of the better games that I have bought.  I will say that the Wii feels a bit like an end of life system.  If you haven't played it yet, it will be fresh and fun, but don't expect to get much more out of it.  There are 3-4 major title releases from Nintendo that will be coming soon, but my guess is that after that we will start to hear about a new console.

[RedRaven]

We've had a Wii for a little over a year now, got it xmas '08.
Both my son and myself play mostly on the PC (he also has a Nintendo DS, and PS2), but I've never really been a console gamer. The games we both play on the PC tend to be single player and any multi-player is usually one against the other. The thing that caught my attention for the Wii is the ever expanding range of LEGO games available, the best by far being LEGO STARWARS complete saga.

The thing I enjoy most about it is the way you actually play together instead of against each other, more of a co-op style play. Its a great deal of fun and an ideal way of spending time together on cold & rainy days (regular occurrence here in the UK).

I think a lot of people were put of it on its initial release after seeing the graphical style of Wii sports and thinking it would all be along the same simplified and stylised fashion. But this is not the case, the LEGO games at least have the same graphics as the versions released for the other main platforms. For sure the big block-buster games that come out for PC/PS3/Xbox360 do not get released for the Wii, but the Wii is not made for or marketed at the same target audiences as the bigger consoles.With some games released on the Wii the graphics are no worse than those found with games for the PS2/Xbox. For example 'Call of Duty - World at War' has surprisingly good graphics, sure its not as lush as Modern Warfare 2 or Operation Flashpoint 2 but its not like playing an old Retro game either. Likewise the Prince of Persia games out for the Wii look good too.

Nintendo seem to have realised that trying to compete with PS3/Xbox360 is a dead end, so instead have created a more 'family' orientated product with a wider range of applications beyond just games, such as the Wii Fit products.

And although I cannot comment on what it is like in the rest of the world, here in the UK the Wii has found its way into Pubs as a form of entertainment in a similar way to Karaoke and Quiz nights. Personally I think thats a fantastic idea, specially in pubs and bars aimed at family's. Hopefully the trend will continue and it will find its way into more and more pubs (including my local!).

Although I don't turn it on very often its nice to know its there sat neatly under the TV for when I do want it.

[GPFontaine]

Likewise the Prince of Persia games out for the Wii look good too.

Just a quick note about Prince of Persia: Rival Swords.  I have played through this game twice now on the easy and normal difficulties.  I have been able to get to the final boss in both scenarios, however I cannot beat him.

It isn't because he is too hard.  I have beaten other Prince of Persia games for the PC.  Rather the difficulty is the wrist motion required to complete a timed attack move.  This mechanism is only required for boss style battles and on other consoles it is initiated by a button press.  Since the window of opportunity is very small, perhaps only one second, a button press is doable, but a quick wrist motion requires that your hand be in the right position to start to make the gesture.

I loved the game and really enjoyed playing all the way through until that last battle.

[PZ]

Interesting reads, gentlemen - our city officials do not let children into our local pubs and it is fascinating to read that there is an entirely different perspective in other parts of the world (I just love that fact of OWG postings).

While I personally do not play the Wii, my wife and our friends dearly love to play Guitar Hero (while I play FC2 or something else on my PC  ;D ), so I have to admit that I LOVE the Wii because it allows me to play the games that I like while my wife and our friends play on the Wii  ;D

[Art Blade]

hehehe  ;D I can see the advantage now  ;D

[JRD]

...here in the UK the Wii has found its way into Pubs as a form of entertainment in a similar way to Karaoke and Quiz nights. Personally I think thats a fantastic idea, specially in pubs and bars aimed at family's. Hopefully the trend will continue and it will find its way into more and more pubs (including my local!).

That's quite a good comparison Red, and that's precisely my point: its plain fun to spend some quality time with family and friends, and that's all.

For all members I know that've been posting at OWG regularly (and some more recently), it just won't w@&k as a gaming option, period.

Most of us take gaming as a single player experience, with occasional MP incursions, but that requires a very personal way to experience the game... we need time to analyse, measure and get into games in a way that makes every session a pretty much individual moment, and these are not moments to share with other people in a socializing way. So, the Wii would be the nemesis of our philosophy.

Anyway, what drew my attention was the fact that I could see life on another planet of the gaming universe, if it makes sense at all to you guys. For the first time I wasn't deep into a game (since my Enduro years playing Atari) and yet having fun and sharing that moment with some girls around from my working environment...  ::)

It's like a shot of gaming to my addiction... it will satisfy me for just so long, but can't replace my gaming needs at all...  ;D ;D

[PZ]

Very well said, JRD  :-X

[Art Blade]

indeed  :) It is quite difficult to share with a bunch of people what's on one's mind when enjoying a fight, a combat, a battle, a war... or those individual headshots. Things like that need silence around, music at best, but no chatter and "ooh, why did you do that?" along with "you're so mean!" especially when girls are around. Even if not in battle but in a racing car, it requires some kind of concentration you can't exactly "share" with a group of people. Unless you don't mind defeat, death and car crashs. Also hard to share are those moments when you examine something, find something out for yourself, experimenting, or an exploration trip... not the same if there are people around. With people around, you may play anything but computer games, and that's what the Wii is trying: A balancing act between game and people.

[RedRaven]

Saw a program the other day that went on about the differences in the 3 console's, PS3, Xbox360 and the Wii.  I have not been able to find the sales figures they quoted anywhere, but they said in the UK alone the PS3 had sold 3 million units, Xbox360 sold 4 million units and the Wii 6 million units. So Nintendo must be doing something right. I don't think cost is that big a factor either as there is not much difference between Xbox and Wii retail cost (approx £150 - £200 depending on package), where as the PS3 250gb slim version is around £280.

[GPFontaine]

Console Sales info dating back to  1989:
http://vgchartz.com/hwtable.php

[Art Blade]

Wow, that is a cool data base  ;D Nice find, mate  :-X

[PZ]

Saw a program the other day that went on about the differences in the 3 console's, PS3, Xbox360 and the Wii.  I have not been able to find the sales figures they quoted anywhere, but they said in the UK alone the PS3 had sold 3 million units, Xbox360 sold 4 million units and the Wii 6 million units. So Nintendo must be doing something right. I don't think cost is that big a factor either as there is not much difference between Xbox and Wii retail cost (approx £150 - £200 depending on package), where as the PS3 250gb slim version is around £280.

Wii sales are probably so high because the girls really like it - while our wives/girlfriends may balk at us purchasing a console for ourselves, they won't say "NO" to a Wii - and, what guy is going to say "NO" to an electronic purchase of any kind if the girls propose it.  ;D

[spaceboy]

Our Wii gets sporadic use, I've heard a lot of instances where families buy them, but they just don't get continual use after awhile.  Nice to have though.  We use it for Wii Fit a bit, and recently purchased Just Dance which is actually probably a better workout than Wii Fit and the whole family can enjoy.

I'm really interested in the new Playstation Move controllers,  Wii like controllers but with much better precision.  In conjunction with the Eye camera it will give much better accuracy and ought to have both casual and hardcore functionality (and all with better graphics than the Wii obviously).  Comes out this fall.

[JRD]

Our Wii gets sporadic use, I've heard a lot of instances where families buy them, but they just don't get continual use after awhile.  Nice to have though.  We use it for Wii Fit a bit, and recently purchased Just Dance which is actually probably a better workout than Wii Fit and the whole family can enjoy.

I'm really interested in the new Playstation Move controllers,  Wii like controllers but with much better precision.  In conjunction with the Eye camera it will give much better accuracy and ought to have both casual and hardcore functionality (and all with better graphics than the Wii obviously).  Comes out this fall.

spacekid will have a hell of a console during his teenage... lucky boy!!!  8)

[Art Blade]

yeah, when I was a kid all I had was a bicycle.  ;D

[spaceboy]

haha true JRD...it's good to have a dad that likes games I guess.  But given the fact that he also loves to read, I figure we're doing something right!

[PZ]

You're a lucky guy spaceboy - go dad  :-X