Pre-Order

When the Wii went on pre-order, my wife bustled the kids down to our local gaming store and pre-ordered the Wii, three extra controllers with the nunchaku, 2 SD memory cards, a 2000 pt card for the Wii store, a classic controller, and the game The Legenda of Zelda: Twilight Princess. The boys were told this was an early Christmas present. Before we decided to go down this route, we had to seriously consider whether we would even try for a PS3 pre-order. Having been burned once on the XBOX 360 with respect to its lack of non-sports games for under 10, we looked at the launch titles. This was a no-brainer. Nintendo it was, especially after the reports came out about PS3 only having 400,000 units for all of North America.

Pick-Up

On Friday night we received a voice mail from our game store indicating we could pick up the Wii at midnight as Saturday turned to Sunday. We passed on that. With three small children in the house, we adults needed our sleep. We knew there would likely be enough units so we went and picked up our pre-order at a leisurely 2 PM. No hassles getting the console, 1 extra controller with nunchaku, and the Zelda game. We even picked up Marvel Ultimate Alliance since it was supposed to be similar to X-Men: Legends II, which the boys enjoyed.

If you've been reading carefully you may have caught that I only said 1 extra controller. The place where we pre-ordered had limited supplies and was only selling 1 extra controller per console. That should be remedied later in the week. Same, too, with the classic controller and the SD memory cards. I'm a little disappointed that me and the two boys can't go to town together on Marvel Ultimate Alliance, but a few days is a small price. Also, I hear one of the local discount merchants (who doesn't take pre-orders) has the controllers in stock and I happen to have a gift card for said merchant. If it becomes a big deal, there are alternatives.

Setup

The initial out of the box setup was a breeze. Since the Wii plays GameCube games I was able to take the GameCube out of the entertainment center. The Wii takes up far less space and I'm able to lay it flat rather than upright in its platform. Based on where the cooling vents are, that gives more room, anyway, and having learned hard lessons about cooling requirements with the XBox 360, flat it sat. I really like how it handles the GameCube accessory interface. There are four controller slots on the side and two memory card slots right behind them, also on the side. Given the small size of the Wii that means my boys won't have any trouble changing out the memory cards. And since we have Wavebird wireless controllers, we don't have to worry about swapping out controllers except when they play Donkey Kong: Jungle Beat or Mario DDR. Not a biggie, since those controller slots are up near the front.

Network Connectivity and Online Upgrade

Here is where I ran into problems. Trying to get the Wii on the wireless was a hassle. At first I thought it was an issue between the Wii and the wireless router, but in hindsight I don't think that was it. I think it was due to all the traffic that Nintendo was getting from all the other owners trying to do online updates. I didn't sniff the traffic coming off the Wii, but it wouldn't suprise me if it checks a connection with Nintendo before declaring the network link up. Later attempts at using the Wii store seemed to confirm this behavior where we'd get the network wasn't up (even though my router logs showed successful connection and authentication from the Wii) and then a few minutes later we were able to connect.

Once the network link was established I started the online upgrades. The first one was okay, but a bit slow. The second one (after you choose your country) froze about 2/3rds of the way through. And it didn't time out. A quick check to support.nintendo.com showed a Server Error, 500 response code or a Server Reset Connection error. Looks like the Nintendo servers were slammed. I finally ended up doing what it says not to do: I turned off the Wii.

Restarting the Wii, it prompted me again for the country, but then came back just fine. I was able to initiate another Online Upgrade and this one went much smoother. That enabled parental controls (which we won't use, because we control what games come into the house). One more update enabled the Wii store, where we could use that 2000 pt card.

Another gamer I work with went and got the Wii at midnight, didn't have any issues, so by the time you may be reading this, everything may be ok. My issues are probably due to the amount of traffic from the new Wii purchases popping on-line.

Beating Up on Family (Verifying GameCube compatibility)

My wife and I wanted to verify the GameCube games and controllers would work, so we popped in Super Smash Brothers Melee. The wireless controllers worked fine and there were no glitches or issues in the limited testing we did. The Wii read the memory card just fine and the controls were as they had been with the GameCube. Since we were well satisfied (and since the boys had come into the living room), we finished up our GameCube compatibility testing.

Beating Up on Family II (Wii Sports)

Spousal abuse is a serious subject and I'm not trying to make light of it. But smacking around each other on Wii Sports: Boxing was a blast. Uppercuts, jab/cross combinations, hooks, and body shots all made for an interesting game. Then the boys got into it and loved it. After the boxing game we let the boys play a 3 hole beginner game of Golf. The youngest, who has had golf lessons, finished with par after the three holes. The oldest, who has never held a real golf club and has never really paid attention to the game, had a nine over. Oh boy. Like we needed anything else to spur on the youngest son's golf habit (which can be expensive in real life when you see green fees).

Wii are Family (Mii Channel)

Wii Sports allows you to play with the caricatures you've created in the Mii channel. We hadn't created any so we used the default ones. This led my wife and I to explore in more detail this Mii channel. A few minutes later we were able to create caricatures of the whole family, right down to the baby. The options are humorous and you can get a somewhat close looking caricature with just a little bit of effort. Now we'll see how these different caricatures stand up in Wii Sports the next time we play.

Beating Up on Rocks (The Legend of Zelda: Twilight Princess)

I only briefly played this one... more to verify everything worked than anything else. I threw around rocks to get rupees and got to the point where I got the horse and took it to the ranch. Herded the goats into the barn (yes, you read that right), and then took some passes jumping over fences. The boys went nuts as the horse cleared the fence each time. Graphics aren't the greatest, but the game play is nice and I think it'll be long and enjoyable for my oldest, who has fancied himself a Zelda player (having beat The Legend of Zelda: The Wind Waker).

Beating Up on Eggman (Wii Store Purchase/Download: Sonic the Hedgehog)

With 2000 points and the Sonic the Hedgehog game costing 800 (which corresponds to the equivalent of US$8.00), we decided to download that (we being the two boys begging and pleading and me giving in... because I hated that Sonic game with a passion). The purchase and download were smooth and the Sonic game appeared as one of the channel windows.

I started up the game and played it. Yup, the same Sonic game I hated every time I played it at the PX on Parris Island when I was a kid. Me and Sonic just don't get along. This even goes for the newer games like Sonic Riders. And it's not about speed, either, as I was always able to pull off Akuma's Raging Demon combo with little trouble. Me and the hedgehog have a relationship that's always been on the rocks even though I appreciate the games. For instance, playing the Sonic game reminded me of how fast it was back in the day, and is now, even compared to some of today's button mashers.

Beating Up on Bad Guys (Marvel Ultimate Alliance)

Later in the evening, as the boys were sleeping away and the Broncos were getting shocked in another Chargers comeback, I put in Marvel Ultimate Alliance and began my play. It's very, very similar to X-Men: Legends II, so the reviews were right on the money. I didn't have a choice on my initial team but eventually settled on Wolverine, Spiderman, Iron Man, and Elektra. As I unlock more choices, I'm sure I'll switch out (I unlocked Silver Surfer with the code in the game but I'm undecided about whether to use him or not). I'm disappointed that my favorite from Legends II isn't available in this one: Rogue. Rogue was the flying, super strength, can do anything character and maybe that's why she isn't in Ultimate Alliance. Oh well, I'll live.

As far as the gameplay is concerned, it took a bit to get use to the fact that rotating the nunchaku rotated the camera. As I was juking the controller stick, I would sometimes twist the nunchaku. But after a little bit, no biggie. The motions for the Wii remote can be used to trip, smash up, and smash down. Intuitive, but by no means something you think about pulling off as the general way this game is played is a bunch of button mashing (as was the case with Legends II).

Final Impressions

All in all I think the Wii was well worth the price. Certainly it is a game system my whole family will enjoy. Starting with the pre-order and pickup experience, it was reminiscent of the older days when there wasn't a mad dash just to get one. That was nice. Setup was simple, except for the online update (which you don't have to do). The Wii Sports game that came with the console is excellent. The controller lives up to billing. And being able to play classic games again without having to run an emulator on a PC is a welcome change. This is definitely a good system and it looks Nintendo is committed to getting out a large library of games (thereby not repeating the mistake of the N64). The only negative I'd have to say is that the News and Forecast channels aren't available and the Internet channel (Wii as an Opera web browser) is not ready yet, either. The first two will be available in the next couple of months... not sure about the Internet channel. But all in all, a good product.

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