Oh gosh, I just couldn’t resist! I am still trying to figure out what Nintendo was thinking when they named the Wii the Wii, as it just lends itself to every corny joke imaginable…but I digress.
Dave from Mobility Today says, “Last year I made a decision to purchase an Xbox 360 which at the time was well ahead of the gaming world. Unfortunately for me this has been nothing but problems such as overheating issues, scratched discs and no titles for younger children. Lucky for us, Nintendo sent us a new Wii for us to test drive which we will go cover the out of the box experience along with the experience for my family which consists of ages 2-37 years old.”
If you are interested in the Wii and perhaps have been wondering what all of the hullabaloo has been about, then you should take a look at Dave’s unboxing. He seems really impressed with it thus far.
Mere mortals must wait until November 19th to purchase theirs.
I started Gear Diary on September 30, 2006, and my goal was that this not be an easily labeled site. We all have gear that we use daily – some of it electronic and some of it organic. I think it is fascinating to explore the equipment that makes our lives easier, more entertaining, more productive, and more manageable. My hope is that Gear Diary visitors will find this site to be a comfortable and friendly place to discuss interesting topics – and not only those that are tech related, as well as a location to discover various types of gear – whatever that term may end up implying – that they never knew existed. My specialty is in-depth reviews written in a layman’s terms, because everyone can understand technology, sometimes it just takes a little translating. +Judie Stanford
Very nice, this console is very minimalistic and futuristic looking.
Kismet
I’m planning on camping out for one…
http://www.geardiary.com Judie
Kismet, pleeeease take pictures when you camp out, as well as once you actually have yours! I would love to post them.
Allen Hong
Well, Amazon.com promised that the Wii would be up for ordering @ 12 am PST on the 19th. Based on all the review entries, it looks like it never happened.
Allen Hong
Just went past by my local GameStop, They have no Wii for anyone without a pre-order. Funny thing this limited quantity of systems for Wii and PS3 is… when I worked for Software ETC (which became GameStop), the launch of the PlayStation 1, Nintendo-64, and Sega Saturn we had enough consoles to fill the pre-orders and everyone else running around looking for a system. The manufacturers are at fault here to limt the ship quantities. There was fights, muggings and a shooting at the PS3 lines. According to online Wii coverage there was no problems and Nintendo fanboys played nice together with Gameboy and DS while waiting on line last night. One website noted that the Wii crowd is “”less gangsta” than those who camped out for the PS3″. Which in retrospec… is very true, in the New York City area… pictures of the PS3 lines was a bit thug-like and scary. All the online pics of the Wii crowd showed representation of all happy friendly people. What was way cool, Nintendo had a Segway tricked out with a Wii and flatpanel and ran it around the line to let people try out the Wii, nice! (Engadget covered the New York CIty Wii launch last night, check it out here http://www.engadget.com/2006/11/18/live-from-nintendos-wii-launch-in-new-york )
Allen Hong
Anybody who lives in New York City and wants a Wii and didnt get one… you have a chance at it tomorrow morning at the Nintendo World store in Manhattan. Nintendo is throwing a launch party between 6-9 am. They say that there will be complementary Starbucks coffee and holiday pastries and chances at winning DS lite systems and DS games. The location of the Nintendo World store is 10 Rockefeller Plaza, 48th Street between 5th and 6th Ave. Maybe Nintendo fans should turn it into a be late to work or ditch work altogether day??? Hmmmm… maybe?
Allen Hong
Oh the horror… some people out there are just so cruel. Its hard enough for some to get a next gen console and those lucky few who got one went and dissected it. :O
That poor poor poor Wii. Will it ever be the same again???
http://www.geardiary.com Judie
I’ll bet that they knew just what they were doing. Well, I hope so anyway!
Allen Hong
Sigh, I decided at the last minute this morning to be a good fanboy and report for work instead of ditching to attend Nintendo’s early party at the Nintendo World Store. I hope whoever decided to stop by had a good time and won some cool goodies.
Kismet
Wow Saturday night was COLD! I was 12th in line at the local Best Buy. Arrived there at close to 10pm with 2 other friends. The store had 100 total systems but very limited accessories/games. By 7am there were 85 people in line and by the time they opened the doors there were easily over 100. They passed out tickets at 8am and let everyone stand around inside in a line to get us out of the cold. Five people waited in case someone from the first 100 weren’t able to buy one. I ended up buying the Wii, an extra controller and nunchuk, a classic controller, a 2000 point card, and the new Zelda. Total came to 402.99 and of course as always in Delaware, no sales tax. =D
Came home and set up the Wii, everything was standard for gaming consoles except the sensor bar which was in no way obstrusive at all. Loaded up Wii Sports and my friend and I got to boxing. He came out with me the night before and bought a system in case he liked it. First words out of his mouth “OK, this is actually kinda fun.” Tried all the different sports games which include tennis, bowling, baseball, golf, and the aforementioned boxing.
After sorting those out, popped in Zelda and passed the controller to my friend to play. Probably about 5 minutes into playing we both passed out. z_z
Later in the day, my girlfriend came over and we couldn’t wait to try it out. One of the main reasons I bought the system was to introduce her to videogames. Having been deprived of some decent gaming this was definitely priority number one. How did she like it? We tried out tennis, bowling, and boxing; she beat me on two of the three. And yes, I was really trying. Bowling an entire game, she racked up 163 while I managed a measely 85. Boxing she completely thrashed me. Imagine a 5′ 3″ 110 lb girl flailing her arms with nunchuk and wiimote in hand; I didn’t stand a chance. Tennis, she put up a decent fight but my real world skill in it gave me an edge.
Tennis- good, fun, intuitive, and has some nice details. When swinging the Wiimote (should be the official name) you can twist it like you would a racket and do topspins or slices. I had fun lobbing the ball back, causing my friend to completely miss several times.
Bowling- lets you select your starting position and the angle in which you want to bowl. Then you can swing the ball as you like, releasing it when you want, and all the meanwhile twisting it like a real ball.
Baseball- I find it boring in real life and the Wii-ized version is also rather staid. Swinging the bat and pitching versus your friends is great, but once the pitch is thrown or once to ball is hit, there’s no other interaction. I found this one to be the most “demo-like” of the games.
Golf- Surprisingly fun. Only played it once but the wiimote offers a level of interaction never before possible with other consoles. Since you hold the wiimote and swing it like a golf club, it really feels like you’re playing golf! I will have to play it some more but I have a feeling I’ll love it.
Boxing- The only sports game that requires a nunchuk, boxing very physical. When my friend and I played, we were both standing and punching and swaying (dodging) wildly. The accuracy between what you do in real life and what occurs on screen isn’t exactly there, but if you perform the actions correctly, the punches are executed and you’ll land a very satisfying blow on your opponent. Boxing, I think, is more fun because instead of playing the ball or pins, you’re playing directly against your friends.
Zelda- graphics are great and fit the game nicely but I’ve only played maybe 5 minutes of the game so I can’t say anything else about it yet.
Overall initial impressions of the system itself are very positive. The interactive physical style of input really opens the system up to those not familiar with coordinating the multitude of button presses with on screen actions. I was able to coax my father into playing a quick game of tennis with me and after getting the timing right, he was able to get some very good shots on me.
I didn’t get around connecting the Wii to my home wireless network but initial attempts did not work. I use MAC filtering at home with SSID broadcast turned off. After adding the address and entering the SSID manually into the Wii, it couldn’t find the network.
Well, that’s it. Only been a day so can’t say much more.
http://www.geardiary.com Judie
Kismet, if you could add a few pictures, then I think you just wrote a front page article. Email me.
Allen Hong
Hey Kismet, thats weird that you would have a problem getting the Wii onto your wireless network with those settings. I have my wireless network setup the same way and had no problem connecting my DS to it. However, your wireless problem could save your Wii from having to be replaced by Nintendo. Check out this article over at Engadget… about the fatal error problem which maybe related to corrupt firmware update download. http://www.engadget.com/2006/11/20/wii-being-hit-by-fatal-error-110213-could-be-funky-firmware/
Kismet
Hey Allen. Yeah I saw that article and breathed a sigh of relief when I realized that, I too, could have had my Wii “bricked.”
