There was Christmas, then. Now I am done picking the shot out of my teeth (the bits that were left in the pheasant), I shall expound on something else. The suprise present we bought, for the family. The Wii. (I won’t talk about Twilight Princess, as I haven’t yet played it.)
I know I have skipped the current generation of consoles, but boy, is this thing small. And sleek. And easily installed. Even the wireless set up was simple. Here, I amn’t going to be saying anything anyone who has read about the new machine hasn’t heard before. But you haven’t heard it from me.
First up, thon controller. Using it to navigate the menus is intuitive. Point, click. Just works. I like things that Just Worktm. That is why I have a PowerBook. It Just Workstm. And the Wii Just Workstm. So before I talk about the games, there is enough to explore in these ‘Channel’ things. I connected, downloaded the browser, and tried that out. While I can’t see myself browsing using the Wii, it has a nice interface, is fast, works on everything I tried. It *is* nice on the bigger screen, all the same. Using the shopping channel was easy. More on that in a bit, too.
The games then. Or Wii Sports, as I have only watched Zelda. But Wii Sports demonstrates this new, unique, leap-around-the-room controller thing. And you know what? Again? It Just Works(tm). You don’t really need the on-screen instructions to help you. Bowling works the way it should. The golf feels right. The boxing is a fine laugh, ducking and weaving, punching and guarding. (And to see my second child leap around is fun in itself.) All great stuff. A fine disc to get with the machine.
More on the games then. Having got some Wii points, I decided, well, I had decided beforehand, to download some ‘classics’. What did I get? ToeJam and Earl, Bomberman ‘93 and Columns. (R-Type is next on the list, though that doesn’t come out until next week, I think.) It is depressing that games I bought for what? forty quid? fifteen years ago can be downloaded in less than a minute. It took longer to download the browser. And playing them? It is great we can use the GameCube controllers, so instant multiplayer action ensued. Simple to get, play and enjoy. Absolutely fantastic.
From what I have seen of Zelda, it is awesome. The sword play looks great, but hey, it is another Zelda game, I doubt as long as Ninetendo makes them, they will never suck.
Then Alexander put the memory card from his new digital camera in, and got a slideshow going, doodled on the pictures, played music to them and showed how cool this feature is. I know most digital cameras can connect to the TV, but this is far better.
The Forecast Channel does what it says. You get the weather. Normally, using satellite maps, for anywhere on the globe. Grabbing the world and sending it spinning is quite fun, too.
I am not sure Nintendo want this to be one of those media-hub-centre-disasterous-idea things, but it must be close. I don’t want one of those media-hub-centre-disasterous-idea things. But the Wii has made me see things differently. Nintendo have done it again, they have redefined what a games console is. Whether it catches on or not I can’t say, but we love our Wii.
