My OperaOn the Wii, Part 1
Saturday, November 18, 2006 5:37:28 AM
“Playing is believing” was Nintendo’s mantra when describing the Wii to people who had not yet played it. To me they could not have been more right, after playing the Wii today, I think that Nintendo is on to something, first with the DS and now this. The reason why the Wii is so great is not because of the flashy graphics that the PS3 or Xbox360 has, it is because it is just plain fun to pick up and play, and does it with so much charm and charisma, you can’t help but have a smile on your face.
The first this that you will notice the first time you pick up a Wii controller is how different it is from the traditional controllers the videogames have used for a long time. The main controller has no analog stick, you hold it just like a tv remote and it has a motion sensor that detects where you point it. There is an attachment called the nunchaku, which is hard to describe the look, the picture below can help. The amazing thing about the controller is how well it detect the motions you make, they are mimicked with surprising precision. The controller is also quite lite, which helps since you have to have it in the air most of the time, but it doesn’t feel cheap like most controllers that feel lite tend to. Overall I really like the controller, it fits the hand well, is lite and looks really sleek–it has a white polish/glossy finish after all.
The next thing to look at is the Wii itself, which is very small compared to the Playstation 3. It is about the size of a couple of DVD cases and while I would have like to, the representative at Gamestop would not let me open the glass cover and pick up the Wii. The Wii also looks very nice, very sleek and very Apple like, it has a i[insert noun] look to it, which lend itself well in Nintendo’s attempt to make the machine marketable to the masses. The Wii has no sliding out DVD holder, instead it is like a car, in that it just sucks in the DVD, very nice, very simple and very elegant–on a side note the place where you insert the DVD is light a nice neonish blue, also very sleek, elegant ad infinitum. Overall the Wii is a very beautiful looking system, it puts to shame any of the current-generation systems and in a way to the Xbox360 and PS3 also. Nintendo did an excellent job when designing this system, though for some people it might look so beautiful that the other devices in the living room may look outdated next to it.
Next is the Wii interface, the main menu of sorts that lets you access a multitude of things, from viewing photos to browsing the web. The interesting thing about the menu is that Nintendo decided to call each of the menus “channels”, so the menu to look at Pictures is called the Picture Channel. The first part of the menu is the Disc Channel, which basically leads you to whatever disk you have inserted into the Wii, whether it be a Wii or Gamecube game. The next menu is what is called the Mii Channel, which essentially lets you create a character with exaggerated looks but is nonetheless very fun to play with. After that is the Picture Channel, which if you have a SD card, from your camera or PC or Mac. This is a very cool feature because you can do many things while in this mode, you can even view video. The great thing about this is the fact that you can basically extend the memory of your Wii by putting in different SD cards and since SD cards are getting very cheap, it makes it a smart move by Nintendo. The next couple of menus, the weather channel, news channel, internet channel and the Wii Shop I could not use since the store did not have the Wii hooked up to the internet. Overall I was very impressed with what I saw with the overall interface of the Wii, it is very modern, very sleek and easy to pick up.
The games, they are what make or break a system, but in this case I cannot judge that until about a year from now, but I will describe the fun I had with a game called Excite Truck. Excite Truck is a fairly standard racing game, you have the acceleration, the boost and some other things. You control the trucks in the game with the Wiimote–I will call the Wii’s remote as such for now and in later post–which by turning it sideways causes the game to be controlled like you are driving a car, which is pretty cool. The Wiimote picks up the movements of your had really well, I was quite impressed with how accurately my movements were pick up. One of the coolest features in Excite truck is the way in which the boosting is initiated, when you go off of a jump you start to see a blue streak coming off of the back of your tires, anytime the car is in the air you can control not only its left and right but also its tilt relative to the ground, by tipping th Wiimote forward or backwards. This is useful because if you land a jump level to the ground, you get a boost and once you get a hang of the system it becomes really fun to do. The game looks okay, the water looks great, but overall it has a very Gamecube looks, albeit a AAA Gamecube title but nonetheless a Gamecube look. This might put off graphics whores, but it never really takes away from the experience and overall I felt like they are clean and crisp, if not great. In the end I really had a lot of fun playing Excite Truck, the Wiimote really brought what would have been an average game to new levels, which really shows the potential in the Wii.
In the end, the Wii will be a success this holiday season not because of it high end graphics but because it is a ton of fun to play. Also while I was playing many people had already heard news about it and thought it was cool how it worked and how easy it was to pick up. Nintendo has hit a jackpot with this console, I really think that if the Wii doesn’t succeed, then the gaming industry would have made a big mistake in its race toward photo and video realism, sometimes its just about having fun.
The first this that you will notice the first time you pick up a Wii controller is how different it is from the traditional controllers the videogames have used for a long time. The main controller has no analog stick, you hold it just like a tv remote and it has a motion sensor that detects where you point it. There is an attachment called the nunchaku, which is hard to describe the look, the picture below can help. The amazing thing about the controller is how well it detect the motions you make, they are mimicked with surprising precision. The controller is also quite lite, which helps since you have to have it in the air most of the time, but it doesn’t feel cheap like most controllers that feel lite tend to. Overall I really like the controller, it fits the hand well, is lite and looks really sleek–it has a white polish/glossy finish after all.
The next thing to look at is the Wii itself, which is very small compared to the Playstation 3. It is about the size of a couple of DVD cases and while I would have like to, the representative at Gamestop would not let me open the glass cover and pick up the Wii. The Wii also looks very nice, very sleek and very Apple like, it has a i[insert noun] look to it, which lend itself well in Nintendo’s attempt to make the machine marketable to the masses. The Wii has no sliding out DVD holder, instead it is like a car, in that it just sucks in the DVD, very nice, very simple and very elegant–on a side note the place where you insert the DVD is light a nice neonish blue, also very sleek, elegant ad infinitum. Overall the Wii is a very beautiful looking system, it puts to shame any of the current-generation systems and in a way to the Xbox360 and PS3 also. Nintendo did an excellent job when designing this system, though for some people it might look so beautiful that the other devices in the living room may look outdated next to it.
Next is the Wii interface, the main menu of sorts that lets you access a multitude of things, from viewing photos to browsing the web. The interesting thing about the menu is that Nintendo decided to call each of the menus “channels”, so the menu to look at Pictures is called the Picture Channel. The first part of the menu is the Disc Channel, which basically leads you to whatever disk you have inserted into the Wii, whether it be a Wii or Gamecube game. The next menu is what is called the Mii Channel, which essentially lets you create a character with exaggerated looks but is nonetheless very fun to play with. After that is the Picture Channel, which if you have a SD card, from your camera or PC or Mac. This is a very cool feature because you can do many things while in this mode, you can even view video. The great thing about this is the fact that you can basically extend the memory of your Wii by putting in different SD cards and since SD cards are getting very cheap, it makes it a smart move by Nintendo. The next couple of menus, the weather channel, news channel, internet channel and the Wii Shop I could not use since the store did not have the Wii hooked up to the internet. Overall I was very impressed with what I saw with the overall interface of the Wii, it is very modern, very sleek and easy to pick up.
The games, they are what make or break a system, but in this case I cannot judge that until about a year from now, but I will describe the fun I had with a game called Excite Truck. Excite Truck is a fairly standard racing game, you have the acceleration, the boost and some other things. You control the trucks in the game with the Wiimote–I will call the Wii’s remote as such for now and in later post–which by turning it sideways causes the game to be controlled like you are driving a car, which is pretty cool. The Wiimote picks up the movements of your had really well, I was quite impressed with how accurately my movements were pick up. One of the coolest features in Excite truck is the way in which the boosting is initiated, when you go off of a jump you start to see a blue streak coming off of the back of your tires, anytime the car is in the air you can control not only its left and right but also its tilt relative to the ground, by tipping th Wiimote forward or backwards. This is useful because if you land a jump level to the ground, you get a boost and once you get a hang of the system it becomes really fun to do. The game looks okay, the water looks great, but overall it has a very Gamecube looks, albeit a AAA Gamecube title but nonetheless a Gamecube look. This might put off graphics whores, but it never really takes away from the experience and overall I felt like they are clean and crisp, if not great. In the end I really had a lot of fun playing Excite Truck, the Wiimote really brought what would have been an average game to new levels, which really shows the potential in the Wii.
In the end, the Wii will be a success this holiday season not because of it high end graphics but because it is a ton of fun to play. Also while I was playing many people had already heard news about it and thought it was cool how it worked and how easy it was to pick up. Nintendo has hit a jackpot with this console, I really think that if the Wii doesn’t succeed, then the gaming industry would have made a big mistake in its race toward photo and video realism, sometimes its just about having fun.
