Review: Nintendo Wii
Author: Daniel Brooks
January 17th, 2007
After the relative debacle that was the Gamecube — it had its moments, but was easily the most disappointing, banal Nintendo system ever — fans wondered what direction the gaming giant would take. After turning the industry on its head with the NES, developing probably the best system of all time in the SNES, and giving the world two of the best games ever — Super Mario 64 and The Legend of Zelda: Ocarina of Time — with the N64, Nintendo suddenly found themselves in 3rd place, uncool, and irrelevant to the mainstream. Enter the Nintendo Wii.
With Sony and Microsoft developing super-expensive Trojan Horse systems that can do anything you (or they) want, Nintendo went a completely different route. Their system plays videogames and only videogames, is pretty inexpensive ($250, plus free online gaming and a pack-in game!), and is also more non-gamer friendly than any console ever. By now, you know about the controller: a remote that detects your movements in 3-D space. But the questions remain: is it any fun, and does it actually work?
The answer is a resounding “hell yes” to both. The controller is so intuitive — play Tennis in Wii Sports and you’ll be jumping around your living room, serving aces and delivering backhand shots in no time — that it’s amazing no one has thought of this before. The Wiimote (as it’s affectionately called by fans) even has a speaker, so when you smash a homerun in Wii Sports‘ Baseball, you’ll hear a satisfying crack of the bat from the controller as you swing it.
As an added bonus, the Wii’s Virtual Console feature offers classic game downloads (for a price) from the NES, SNES, N64, Genesis, and TurboGraphix16. The classic downloads — I’ve tried Ice Hockey and Super Mario Bros., so far — are spot on ports of the originals, and it’s great to have them back in the world of gaming. The Virtual Console has done for these lost treasures what DVD has done for TV shows: it’s given them new life.
As Nintendo has always said, the Wii can’t compete with the Xbox 360 and the PS3 on the level of graphics. And they weren’t lying. Zelda is quite beautiful, but not Gears of War jaw-dropping beautiful. Still, Excite Truck (review coming soon), with its steer-with-the-Wiimote controls, is way, way more fun than the graphically superior PS3 racing games currently available.
Definitely fun, and wondrously innovative, the Nintendo Wii is the Big N’s best console since the SNES. If it can get some serious 3rd party support — including the Star Wars lightsaber game that everyone on the planet would buy — than the PS3 and Xbox 360 might be in for a shock. And even with all their bells and whistles, Sony’s and Microsoft’s machines lack one thing that can lure in non-gamers: the Wiimote. If you love videogames, this is a no-brainer.
KFR Rating: A-
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13 Responses to “Review: Nintendo Wii”
January 17th, 2007 at 12:31 pm
I toally agree. I’ve had more fun with your Wii (that doesn’t sound dirty…) than any game I’ve played in the past year. I may even include Guitar Hero II in there, but it’s a pretty close race.
Anyway, serious question that is not bait: how do you think the Wii would look on HD? I know it supports widescreen, and the games look pretty great on your regular TV — even better than PS2 games, I think.
January 17th, 2007 at 12:34 pm
That’s a good question — I’m not really sure. I hear if you buy component cables for it, Zelda looks really amazing. But it only outputs in 480, which is very low HD.
January 17th, 2007 at 12:45 pm
I agree with the both of you. I was one of the lucky ones to get the Wii from the Amazon lottery and lemme tell ya, it\’s so intuitive that even my 3 year old can play it (at least for bowling). Like Daniel, I downloaded Ice Hockey and Super Mario Bros as well as Xevious (classic shooter) and they port over just like the olden days on SNES. And for $5 American a piece, those games offer great value.
As far as the graphics, I agree that they maybe sub par compared to the 360 and PIII. But when you can move the Wiimote around to perform certain moves (like on Marvel Ultimate Alliance), I\’ll take the hit on the graphics for that kind of interactive play. Bring on the lightsaber, Lucas Interactive.
January 17th, 2007 at 12:53 pm
Britt, you bring up a good point about your daughter being able to play. My girlfriend and my sister both played and loved Tennis — and neither of them ever, ever play videogames.
And let’s not forget the Miis. There’s something very, very fun about creating them and using them in games.
January 17th, 2007 at 1:03 pm
Actually my son is the 3 year old (my daughter is 1). But yeah, when the family was creating the Miis, they loved being able to make their own “character” that they could see in the game. And the Wii has brought my wife back to playing games since the old Atari days. she’s actually looking forward to buying Warioware.
January 17th, 2007 at 1:17 pm
I think we should start calling the PS3 the Piii.
January 17th, 2007 at 1:21 pm
haha I like that.
Speaking of Miis, Andrew’s breaks the record for holy-crap-accurate-likeness.
January 17th, 2007 at 2:30 pm
Wait - Dan’s dating a 3 year old? New York’s gotten crazy since I was there last!!!
Seriously, though, a friend of mine who hasn’t enjoyed console gaming since the Genesis is actually thinking about getting a Wii. The wii may have sold “only” 100K more than the PS3, but I’m betting a lot of that had to do with availablity than actual popularity.
January 17th, 2007 at 2:52 pm
The Wii certainly had the better publicity. Who in their right mind wouldn’t want to at least try the thing?
January 17th, 2007 at 3:38 pm
Steve, so true. Trying to find a place that has a seperate controller/nunchuck to buy is insane. Piii and their related stuff is are everywhere comparably.
BTW, anyone else gonna get the Wii Play? Man, I can’t wait for that one.
And Dan, I’m thinking about getting Excite Truck. Without spilling the beans too much, is it worth it?
January 17th, 2007 at 5:13 pm
Excite Truck is definitely worth it. It’s not the deepest game in the world, but it controls like a dream, the graphics are good (not mind blowing, though), and it’s really fun. No online play though, which would be awesome for it.
January 18th, 2007 at 5:14 am
As long as they’re talking to Lucas… dontcha think a whip wielding Indy Jones game would be cool with that controller? I can hear the “CRACK!” now…
January 18th, 2007 at 8:47 am
That would be awesome…they are making a new indie game for Piii and 360.