Wiimpressed

I love my Wii. I managed to score one through my contacts within a secret society with strong ties to retail sales (my mother works for BJ’s Wholesale Club and snagged me a Wii the second one came through the door). I must say, my worries about the system being gimmicky were removed the second I booted up Wii Sports. It was fun to play, a lot of fun to play, and this the game that comes with the system and is advertised more as a tech demo than a full-featured game. At the risk of sounding like a Nintendo ad, the control system makes playing what would otherwise be a crappy simulation of six sport games into a great deal of fun. I admit that the controls aren’t perfect (disclaimer: they may be perfect, I could just suck) and gamers will find that they take getting used to. But it is just cool that you swing your arm to control a miniature version of yourself (you can make an Wii-based avatar called a Mii) missing shot after shot in tennis. The true test of the console, however, is to see if this fascination with motion and light sensing will wear thin. I am quite sure that it will not, because even now I can bowl or box for hours and still have fun.

I can understand how hardcore gamers may be turned off by the Wii. The target market, as stated by Nintendo, is not hardcore gamers. Nintendo wants to attract people who do not usually play games. If the success of the DS has taught us anything, Nintendo will most likely meet this goal. But it must be kept in mind that while expanding into new markets is great, there is already a rather large market of gamers. Losing this market to gain another may not be the best decision. I believe that gamers of all types will still flock to the Wii. The reason that some hardcore gamers have written the Wii off as a party-only device has more to do with the launch lineup of games than the system itself. The Wii has no online functionality, meaning that people who want 16-man fragfests are left out, at least for the time being. Nintendo is promising online gaming for the Wii by 2007. Graphics is the other problem with the Wii. The other next-gen systems support HD (the PS3 supports 1080p); the best the Wii can do is 480p. Because many hardcore gamers are also hardcore videophiles, they are disappointed by this. I was of the camp that graphics don’t matter if the game is fun until I recently got a 37″ Sharp Aquos as a wedding gift. HD doesn’t just look good, it looks very good. I still believe that fun trumps graphics for ultimate gameplay experience, but many gamers will disagree with me, and I understand their point.

In short, my experience with the Wii have made me a believer in the capability of the system for fun. There is a lot that can still be done with the control scheme: I look forward to a variety of first-person shooters and sports games, and while some of them won’t be great (Red Steel hasn’t received the best of reviews), many will. Metroid Prime 3 is bound to be amazing, as are the rest of Nintendo’s franchises. There is a lot the Wii can do, and we’ll see lots of great games for everyone in the future.