ArmchairGM, Meet the Nintendo Wii
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by user I am a cpcp
The Nintendo Wii has been on the market for four or five months now and I just realized that it's never been mentioned here at the 'chair. I thought it was due time that the Wii gets mentioned -- for those out of the loop -- and I will review the sports game that have hit the market so far as well.
I myself purchased a Wii at the beginning of December and I've been continually amazed at how this small, relatively cheap system is changing the world of video games.
The Wii's new motion-sensing controllers have revolutionized the way all games are played, but they've really done a number one sports games. Baseball and golf games where you swing the bat or club. Racing games where you steer the wheel. Bowling games where you roll the ball controlling all the angles and spin. The possibilities are endless.
As you probably know, it's unheard of for a gaming system to actually come with a game making the system playable out of the box (especially for only $250). The Wii not only comes with with a game, it comes with the best game on the market for the system.
Wii Sports is a 5-pack of games that to this date give the player the best feel for the many things the Wii is capable of. The combination of bowling, boxing, tennis, baseball and golf will entertain any sports fan. It also makes the games simple enough that everyone loves to play.
I recently hosted my first "Wii Party" where a group of 20 or so of my friends got together. I hooked the Wii up to a projector and we took turns playing. Husbands and wives, ages ranging from early 20s to mid-30s, it was a good time for all. I've had 60 year old relatives play and love the Wii. They gave it the goofy name for a reason, it's all-inclusive as to who will enjoy playing it.
Enough about the system itself. Now I'll review some of the sports games I've played so far.
WiiSports
As I said before, this is still the best game on the Wii. Some would argue Zelda, but for using the Wii to it's full potential, WiiSports is it. I play bowling and tennis constantly. Baseball is ok, but is a lot more time consuming. I rarely touch boxing simply because I'm not a fan of the sport. The controls of golf seem too inconsistant to me, but I had a friend say they have a father-in-law that's a big golfer and he was able to tear it up, so maybe the Wii's just good at translating my true crappiness at the sport.
Super Swing Golf
The controls of this golf attempt were worse than the WiiSports golf. The menu didn't even work well in this game. I think they rushed it out too fast and should have spend more time in development. Although with WiiSports and Tiger Woods on the market, I not sure this was that important of a game for them to make anyways.
Madden 2007
Madden's a very interesting game on the Wii. It's quite a new experience to not because to play Madden slumped on the couch. This is one of (many many) Wii games were you have to be standing up. You move your arm in a passing motion to pass, you move both hands to the side to juke, you throw your arms up in the air to catch, you throw your arms out to tackle. It's intense stuff. I decided in the end that Madden is my game to relax so I stuck with the PS2 version, especially since the Wii version didn't hit the market until the end of this year's NFL season.
WiiPlay
WiiPlay is another package of smaller games released for the Wii. It's sold for $50 and comes with a controller that normally costs $40, so you basically get the game for $10. It's worth much more than that. On the sports side, there's an excellent billiards game (turn the Wii Remote into a pool stick), laser hockey (basically air hockey) and a shooting game (can we say Duck Hunt-esque?). This is another great multi-player game, but unfortunatly it only plays up to two people.
Tiger Woods PGA Tour
This is one of the games I was most anticipating for the Wii and ended up being one my biggest letdowns. Like the other two golf games, there are some issues with the controls. For some reason every now and then as you're in your backstroke it will suddenly do this little piddly swing (yeah, I said piddly swing) that knocks the ball a few inches. This usually happened right around the time I was on my way to a good hole, so I grew annoyed with the game pretty quick.
Overall the Wii shows a ton of promise both in the general and sports gaming worlds. The amazing this is, it's just getting started. If you haven't tried it yet, you really are missing out. I've had about 50 people play mine and I've yet to have someone not enjoy it. Just about all of them have said, "I'm going to get one." Most people that have one are thrilled to let other people try it, so go out and find one to play. You won't regret it.
