Wii
By now, you may be wondering why I have yet to write a review of the Wii. The answer to that is unfortunate, but simple. I’ve been playing it way too much to write a stinkin’ review.
I was the very first person to receive mine at the store where I pre-ordered, which seemed extremely unfair seeing as I was the last one to have paid that evening. They were smart about it though, when we paid, they actually put a bag together with our paid-for items and place our names on it. Then when midnight hit, they just called names and handed out bags. A little insecure, but hey, it seemed to work. There was a strange commoradory amongst everyone there though, since we had all stayed in line since the wii hours (ooh, bad pun) of the morning to attain our pre-orders. So it was not as if we were all stangers to each other. At the end of the morning when we got our pre-orders, everyone leaving was like the eleven leaving the fountain in front of the Bellagio in Vegas at the end of Ocean’s Eleven.
Setup
I got mine home in, I’m sure, record time. I had it connected within five to ten minutes (allowing time to clean a cat box - awe, the necessities of life…). Everything was pretty normal until I got to the sensor bar. Of course, I’ve seen it, but geesh! This thing was much smaller than I had pictured it before. It was less than a foot wide. One can place it above or below the television. During the system setup though, you have to state where you ended up placing it (above or below). My suggestion? If you think you’ll be standing to play it for the majority of the time, put it on top. On the other hand, if your television is raised up high or you have a really low couch, put it below. One ends up aiming the remote (unconsciously) at the sensor bar. To clarify, despite the fact that the player really does not notice a difference as the old eye-hand coordination kicks in, the remote is actually being monitored relative to the sensor bar and not the television.
Starting the console for th first time was like walking into Willy Wonka’s candy room. You know, the one where everything is edible? This was so because the first time I got to use the cursor on the screen, being controlled by the remote like a laser pointer, I immediately felt how much power was available for developing games in the future. So, I had the Wii on my wireless network with VERY little effort. Despite my MAC filtering, WEP encryption and lack of a broadcasted SSID, it was smooth as butta’.
The first thing I did was … update the system. Yep, updates… I thought that’s why I got a freaking console versus my computer! Just kidding, actually, I’m quite grateful for this ability. I’ve already found a few bugs which make me happy about the update feature, but we’ll get there soon enough. After about ten minutes of updating and a restart, we updated some more. That was fun. Luckily, that was all.
The Interface
I was then taken to the main OS screen. This is where the user selects from one of many channels. One also has access to the system settings area as well as mail. The channels are very limited at this time. They so far consist of 1) the game which is currently in the system’s disc drive 2) Mii (character creation) 3) Pictures (a very nice looking and functional picture and video viewer) 4) Shopping (virtual console games as well as software like the Opera browser)
5) Weather (not yet available) and finally 6) News (will be CNN, but is also not yet available).
The Mii channel is actually quite fun. Despite it’s limited style of character features, it is pretty easy to make a Mii which resembles your victim subject. Freckles, receding hair line, glasses, it has a lot available. Once you create a Mii, you can then use it in Wii sports at least. I though Wario Ware also made use of it, but I’m far from certain.
Wii Sports
The Legend of Zelda: The Twilight Princess
So I created a Mii for myself and my wife also put one together. At this point, I just could not help myself. While Wii sports was the intended first game to play, Zelda has been beckoning to me for too long to not experience it when it’s finally right in front of me. So, I placed the sacred relic into it’s rightful home and selected the game’s channel from the main menu.
I was immedaitely greeted with some very familiar-sounding music which got me excited right away (I hate being human sometimes, with the already-known reactions that allow marketers to do whatever they want to me when it comes to a product I am already in love with). Watching the intro scenes were incredible. Mind you, I am a PC and Mac gamer. My newest console aside from the Wii was a Gamecube. Before that was my Playstation … One. So these graphics already have me. Personally, I do appreciate good graphics, but a good story, good game play and a good controller scheme is MUCH more important. I’ll play a game with atari graphics as long as it has the latter three over one with great graphics and terrible everything else. If I wanted something with great graphics with next to no controllability, I’ll watch a DVD.
Starting the game was very interesting. We Zelda fans are used to a semi-dramatic or at least intriguing introduction, but this was pretty laid back. Just you and another guy sitting on the beach talking. He says “come see me later,” and like the N64 Zelda, you start in your house. I will not go into the details, but I will say that you don’t start with your sword rigth away. I will say though, when you get the sword, it is a lot of fun as the controls change drastically from the part of the game in which you had no sword. There are a few new mechanisms at your disposal. Slashing with the remote causes a slashing motion in game, shaking the nunchuck causes a spin attack (limited area of effect). With your sword put away, doing either causes you to draw your sword with no further action taken. Aiming the slingshot, boomerang and bow is a delight! Having watched some of the people at E3 play, I remember thinking “Strafe, ya moron! Don’t just stand there and get hit while you line up your shot!” But now I understand. You can’t when you’re in “aiming” mode, so you have to be fast about it! One really nice thing is the Z-targeting, which those from the N64 era will undoubtably remember. If your target is close enough, you can simply hold the Z button to maintain a targetting mode on your target (one of the two triggers on the nunchuck) followed by the B button (trigger on the remote) which performs the selected ranged weapon’s attack without having to aim. This may seem like cheating, but it is not always available depending on your enemy’s distance from you.
Another wonderful new feature is the ability to fight while mounted on Epona (Link’s horse). I just got to the first of many situations (I’m sure) where this is necessary). I nearly defeated one guy on a warthog mount while not only having to chase him around but also being chanced by his minions. After this, I found myself chasing him onto a bridge which, as soon as we were both on it, had both ends made unavailable by a wall of fire. We had to joust, me using my sword. But it was free form, not like a “mini game.” Just awesome. Daunting, but doable. Really made me question my abilities as a jouster, not as a player of this game. That was an unexpected thought.
Overall, the game just felt right. In every way, it was as if the other Zelda games were just practice for this one. Quite honestly, this is easily now my favorite Zelda game. The dungeon to world balance is done exactly like the NES game seemed to have been designed, but this has more “art” to it. That is to mean, every joining of the dungeons to the world (meaning the over world) is obviously intentional, but might be found in this world if it were real. I.e.: an old castle, abandoned, turned into a lair. Instead of the bad guys just happening to have a castle sitting around. I mean really, who built the castle? This “bad guy” is relatively new on the scene. Will the game designers chalk it up to “oh, he used his evil power to build it.” No, the designers of this game made it feel realistic, as much as I think it can feel at this point in the gaming arena.
Problems
As promised, here are some bugs I have found. I will add new posts as I find more. I hope I won’t find more.
Internet connectivity
Upon going into the store or attempting to preform a manual update (just to see if there was one), I would on occasion receive an error message stating that there was no connection to the Internet. Resetting my router has done the trick every time, unfailingly. My laptop, on the other hand, which was downstairs with myself and the Wii was still as online as it has ever been, using the exact same security stuff as the Wii has to.
Controller
I’m positive this is due to my position while using the Wii, but every now and again, when I’m sitting down, I will experience problems while moving the cursor across the screen. It will move where it is supposed to, but along the way, it will jump repetitively to one side or another (the same side depending on where I move it to). This does not seem right and frankly causes much frustration. I would have reset my system except when I went into Zelda to try it out there (since it uses the cursor for menu navigation), I had ZERO problems. So it is most certainly the software of the Wii’s OS.
Conclusion
I would buy this console again three times over if I had the chance to redo it. It is an incredible amount of innovation for the price. I must say I am disappointed by the price of the controllers ($60 per set), but whatever… at least the console was cheap. That is just the Nintendo way. Get the cheapest console in the prospective customer’s door, then require them to purchase more for some of the features. Yes, it is frustrating, but really, it’s just another business tactic. The other consoles are choosing to put all functionality in the initial package. But in the end, you know that they will be charging for things like this as well to an extent.