I triumphantly returned home from Gamestop Sunday morning, carrying my wonderful new Nintendo Wii. Yes, after waiting in line for 10 minutes and hearing the giant dork in front of me fail miserably at making small talk with the people in front of him, the Gamestop girl, and just about everyone there, I received my system, “Wii Sports,” and “The Legend of Zelda: Twilight Princess.” The latter will have to wait, however, as I haven’t had nearly enough time to get into that. “Wii Sports” and the system, however, are fair game.
Normally, a game console would not necessitate an entire review, or even half of one, but the Wii has a fair amount of functionality built into its hardware beyond simply memory card management. Various functionalities are organized into channels like the Disc Channel, for playing games, and the Photo Channel, used to view and edit photos on SD memory cards. Other minor channels are the Message Board, where you can post things locally and send messages online, and the address book, which manages your contacts in the Wii’s network, WiiConnect24.
The big feature is the Mii Channel. This allows Wii owners and their friends to create digital alter egos called Miis. Miis are hyper-cartoony super-simplistic polygon people that can be made to look like you, or anyone else. What this boils down to is a free, system-level create a character editor. Creating silly digital avatars of your friends is a blast, and a great way for people to get used to using the Wii remote. You can also send them to your friends over the Wii’s network.
Another big feature is the Wii Shop, where you can buy classic games from the NES, SNES, N64, and Sega Genesis. Eight-bit games are $5, 16-bit games are $8, and N64 titles are $10. You buy a set number of Wii points ($10 = 1000 points) and head off to the store. The selection right now is pretty limited, with “Super Mario 64” and the original “Legend of Zelda” being the really big names, but Nintendo says they plan to add new games every Monday. The emulation used to play the games seems to work well, and it autosaves your place when you exit the game, even if you aren’t at a save point in the game itself.
The unique feature of the Wii’s network is that it’s always online and checking for new messages or other items of interest. It seems to connect every few minutes, whether the system is on or off, and see if there are new messages. If the system is on, a tone plays, and if it is off, the disc drive becomes lit by blue LEDs to call attention to itself.
I do have a few problems with the Wii’s whole online experience right now. I don’t know if they are the fault of my router, Nintendo’s servers being hammered, or buggy software, but the experience has thusfar been very hit-and-miss. Sometimes I can connect, sometimes it doesn’t work. Sometimes I get messages from people I exchange system codes with immediately, sometimes they just don’t come. Sometimes the Wii Shop is fast, sometimes it’s really slow, and sometimes it freezes up while loading. These problems are exacerbated by the fact that it is not possible to tell whether or not the Wii is online aside from attempting to log into the Shop Channel. I hope these problems get resolved sooner rather than later through whatever firmware updates and server-side changes needed, but right now, things feel a bit unfinished.
However, the real question of any Wii review is “How does the controller work?” The answer: Pretty damn well. “Wii Sports” makes for an excellent demo game to, well, just about anyone.
Bowling is probably the best “Wii Sports” game. It feels very much like you’re actually bowling. You grab the remote, and pretty much pantomime bowling with it. (Just don’t let go.) It feels remarkably similar to the actual game. The way you twist your hand while you release the B button to release the ball actually puts spin on it.
Tennis is a close second. I really can’t say much about how you control it. Your character moves near the ball automatically, and you swing. Coming up from below results in a lob, head on is a straight shot, and you can do a sort of “spike” by coming from below.
Golf is also fantastic, though it is much more daunting than the rest of the Wii Sports fare. It simplifies the game of golf as far down as it can go, but it is still difficult to pick up and play easily. Obviously, it involves miming a golf swing, but you can’t just swing it as fast as possible, you have to learn how to control yourself and hit it just so. Wind and terrain must also be taken into account. Unfortunately, there’s only nine holes and four clubs. It’s hard, but the potential is fantastic, and it makes me want a real, full-featured golf game to come out.
Baseball is a mild disappointment. For the sake of simplicity, the game is reduced to pitching and batting. Controls here are obvious. Batting involves swinging the remote, and pitching acting like you’re tossing it. You can throw special pitches like curveballs by holding down a button as you pitch. The rest is automatic, including catching the ball and running bases. It’s still fun to trade off pitching and catching with a buddy, but this is definitely the “Wii Sports” title farthest away from being an entire game.
Boxing is the only truly bad part of “Wii Sports.” It is also the only title that uses the nunchuck attachment. Grab a remote in one hand and the nunchuck in the other and act like you’re beating the crap out of your friend next to you. Unfortunately, the remote fails here. It’s really hard to tell what’s going on, and to dodge blows by darting out of the way. These pretty much devolve into whatever the motion-sensing equivalent of button-mashing is called.
Overall, though, the Wii shows great promise. I haven’t cracked open “Zelda” yet, but “Wii Sports” is a pretty good single-player title and a fantastic multiplayer game. I can see many hours being wasted on it with my friends, and I look forward to getting normally game-phobic people to try it out.