Nintendo's Wii brought me back to serious gaming. The Wii wasn't a system aimed at the serious gamer but at the time it acted as a gateway for me to the PS3 and then later back to the PC. I look at the Wii fondly and still have it under my TV and don't imagine it will be displaced for quite some time. I was thinking about my history with the Wii and have been thinking about how it has impacted gaming.
The upcoming months to the Wii's release were interesting as many people I knew that were lapsed gamers were interested in gaming again. At the time the only games I played were those I could get to run in Wine or had a native Linux port. Because of this I wasn't a serious gamer as playing games this way was difficult. The Wii seemed interesting to me as I hadn't played a new Mario or Zelda game in years and the motion controls were something pretty unique. Wii Sports looked really interesting and it was a console my wife seemed interested in. To that point Nintendo interested me in ways Sony or Microsoft couldn't with the PS2 and Xbox. Those systems were popular with many, but I wasn't terribly interested in them at the time.
After the Wii was released it was immediately being sold on EBay and Craigslist for crazily marked up prices. I skipped the initial Wii craze and bought one when it was reasonably easy to get from a store. When my wife and I decided we wanted to buy one we would call local stores in the morning to see if they had it in stock. One morning on a Sunday I found a store that had it in stock and I immediately headed over to buy it. I took pictures of the whole event and unboxing of the system. This was well before unboxing videos were popular on YouTube and I still have the pictures in my digital collection. It was a really exciting day and we were very happy to finally play it.
We bought the Wii and Wii Play. At the time Wii Play came with the game and an extra controller. Combined with Wii Sports and Wii Play we were pretty enveloped in the Wii for quite a few months. When friends came over, we would play the games and it was a great system to have at a party.
One the reasons I got the Wii was its backwards compatibility with the Game Cube, a system I wanted but never had. I nabbed The Sonic Mega Collection, Wind Waker, The Metal Slug Anthology and Metroid Prime.
The main games I played the most on my Wii were Super Mario Galaxy, Mario Kart Wii and Twilight Princess. All good games and I was happy with them all.
When Netflix came to the Wii via the Netflix DVD the Wii became more popular than our DVD player. Being able to stream movies and shows to the Wii was incredible and when the Wii app was launched it changed how we watched TV and Movies. To this day using Netflix is the thing we do on our consoles more than playing games. Netflix has given them a much longer lease on life than they otherwise would as well and I imagine for many this is true.
The games that we have played on the Wii in the last few years have been Just Dance 2, 3 and 4. While they are far from hardcore they are fun at parties where there is beer involved. In fact, for a few years, they were a staple for many of the parties I attended with friends. If you haven't tried them, I recommend you give them a shot. I don't listen to pop radio so many of the songs I heard for the first time in Just Dance.
I recently picked up Tetris Party Deluxe which is a fantastic 4 player Tetris game that gave the Wii a new lease on gaming life. Currently the Wii serves as a backup Netflix device for when the PS3 isn't able to connect. Its a great system and still has a spot under the TV for the foreseeable future. Some gamers look back at the Wii with a bit of hostility due to its non-hardcore nature but as I wanted gaming experiences it couldn't provide I looked elsewhere happily. For that the Wii came to do it did it well and for that I think it was a great system.
The upcoming months to the Wii's release were interesting as many people I knew that were lapsed gamers were interested in gaming again. At the time the only games I played were those I could get to run in Wine or had a native Linux port. Because of this I wasn't a serious gamer as playing games this way was difficult. The Wii seemed interesting to me as I hadn't played a new Mario or Zelda game in years and the motion controls were something pretty unique. Wii Sports looked really interesting and it was a console my wife seemed interested in. To that point Nintendo interested me in ways Sony or Microsoft couldn't with the PS2 and Xbox. Those systems were popular with many, but I wasn't terribly interested in them at the time.
After the Wii was released it was immediately being sold on EBay and Craigslist for crazily marked up prices. I skipped the initial Wii craze and bought one when it was reasonably easy to get from a store. When my wife and I decided we wanted to buy one we would call local stores in the morning to see if they had it in stock. One morning on a Sunday I found a store that had it in stock and I immediately headed over to buy it. I took pictures of the whole event and unboxing of the system. This was well before unboxing videos were popular on YouTube and I still have the pictures in my digital collection. It was a really exciting day and we were very happy to finally play it.
We bought the Wii and Wii Play. At the time Wii Play came with the game and an extra controller. Combined with Wii Sports and Wii Play we were pretty enveloped in the Wii for quite a few months. When friends came over, we would play the games and it was a great system to have at a party.
One the reasons I got the Wii was its backwards compatibility with the Game Cube, a system I wanted but never had. I nabbed The Sonic Mega Collection, Wind Waker, The Metal Slug Anthology and Metroid Prime.
The main games I played the most on my Wii were Super Mario Galaxy, Mario Kart Wii and Twilight Princess. All good games and I was happy with them all.
When Netflix came to the Wii via the Netflix DVD the Wii became more popular than our DVD player. Being able to stream movies and shows to the Wii was incredible and when the Wii app was launched it changed how we watched TV and Movies. To this day using Netflix is the thing we do on our consoles more than playing games. Netflix has given them a much longer lease on life than they otherwise would as well and I imagine for many this is true.
The games that we have played on the Wii in the last few years have been Just Dance 2, 3 and 4. While they are far from hardcore they are fun at parties where there is beer involved. In fact, for a few years, they were a staple for many of the parties I attended with friends. If you haven't tried them, I recommend you give them a shot. I don't listen to pop radio so many of the songs I heard for the first time in Just Dance.
I recently picked up Tetris Party Deluxe which is a fantastic 4 player Tetris game that gave the Wii a new lease on gaming life. Currently the Wii serves as a backup Netflix device for when the PS3 isn't able to connect. Its a great system and still has a spot under the TV for the foreseeable future. Some gamers look back at the Wii with a bit of hostility due to its non-hardcore nature but as I wanted gaming experiences it couldn't provide I looked elsewhere happily. For that the Wii came to do it did it well and for that I think it was a great system.
If you want to join this conversation you need to sign in.
Sign Up / Log In
The Wii is probably the only system I got at launch. I enjoyed it! Sadly, it probably hasn't seen enough gameplay. I did get some of the Mario games, and definitely the Zelda games. I enjoyed that it was backwards compatible in various ways. I do have the SNES-like controller accessory. Actually, it was using this that I first played Final Fantasy IV: The After Years. I later bought the After Years for the PSP, but I know I spent more time playing that game on my Wii. I loved the Zelda games created for the Wii, although in hindsight, I felt like the graphics for Twilight Princess were disappointing, but I still enjoyed the game. I did get Skyward Sword and am glad that it came with a Wii MotionPlus controller, which I still use as my primary controller. I have since "hacked" my Wii and have Homebrew on it, but I haven't spent much time with that application.