Spice Mines of Kessel

I originally posted this article in a separate blog on: June 26, 2007 at 4:25:17 pm

Ever since the launch of the Nintendo Wii, I have had a definite want for it. It was very appealing to me because it is a system that is geared towards gameplay and fun. The other big plus was that the Wii was appealing to nearly all age groups. With a Wii, gamers are young and old…. and girls like it too.

My search for a Wii became serious a few weeks ago. This will sound a bit corny, but I assure you, it is true. I had a dream about shopping for a Wii. I went to all sorts of places in this dream and ended up at one particular retail store in a small town in Western Oklahoma. There on a shelf near the floor was a shiny new Wii.

Not too long after that dream I just happened to be in that small town and I just happened to stop by that small retail store. I had been to this retail store before, but like every other store nearly in the world, they were sold out of Wiis. However, as I walked down the aisle of electronics, I looked at that shelf near the floor. Lo and behold, there were two Wiis waiting for a good home. I didn’t want to pass this golden opportunity, but I had to.

A couple of weeks later, I had that same wanting-a-Wii feeling. So, I number crunched my budget, paid a few of my big bills, and ventured off to that particular small retail store. I approached the same shelf near the floor and now only one Wii was nested upon it. You better believe I was asking for assistance to open the locked display case. I tucked that Wii under my arm and snatched up the last Wii Play game, which featured an additional Wiimote.

My total just exceeded $320.00 for the Wii system and the Wii Play game package. In my humble opinion, that was a fair price for a console, all necessary cables, two Wiimotes, and two game discs.

It was like Christmas. I don’t own any other gaming console, so this is quite exciting. The box was packed with everything that was needed to open it up and start playing. I really like that about the Wii. It is the only console that you can buy, take home, hook it up, and start playing without having to buy more accessories or games. It even came with a pair of AA batteries for the Wiimote. Impressive.

Putting the Wii together is very easy. There are only three cables that are connected to the back of the unit, which include the audio/video cable, sensor bar cable, and the power cable. There’s not much to it. Then, just place the sensor bar on top or below the TV and you’re ready to go.

Initial setup includes the basics. You set the date and time and choose your locale. Then, you inform the Wii as to where the sensor bar is located. Somewhere in there you tell it to enable or disable parental controls. Finally, you name your Wii and you are ready to go.

The next thing to do is get this extra Wiimote to work. When you buy extra Wiimotes, they don’t just turn on and work. You have to sync them with your Wii. Synchronization is fairly easy and takes about 15-20 seconds. Removing the battery cover on the Wiimote reveals a small, round, red button. That is the sync button. On the front of the Wii, there is a small door. Opening that door reveals a small, rectangular, red button. That is also a sync button. All you do is press the sync button on the Wiimote and then the blue LEDs will start flashing. Then, while the LEDs are flashing, you press the sync button on the Wii console. After a very short period of time, the LEDs will stop flashing and your Wiimote is clear for gameplay.

Wii Sports is the game you get when you buy the Wii. This game is pure fun. In fact, this is the game that was played for hours the same day I purchased my Wii. The range of ages that were playing that day was wide. The youngest gamer was 7 years old and the oldest gamer was 60+ years old. Everyone that played had an enjoyable time. The Wii is the perfect console to get the whole family playing games together.

I was also able to connect my Wii to my home wireless network. The network is run on 802.11g and secured with WPA. The Wii was able to detect my network and make an attempt to connect. After entering my WPA key, the Wii made a connection test. It was successful and I was connected to my network.

The first thing I did when I was connected was to perform a system update. It took a long time, but once it updated, I was able to access the weather and news channels. To get the weather, you go to that channel and you will be asked to locate where you would like to view the weather. You get current conditions, overall weather for the current day, the weather for the next day, and a 5-day forecast. The news channel works a lot like an RSS news reader. Once connected, you basically choose the category of news you want (i.e. sports, national, international, business, technology, etc.) and then browse the headlines. The headlines will take you to the full article.

The next thing I wanted to try on the Wii was browsing the Internet. To do that, you have to download the Opera powered web browser for the Wii. The download is found in the Market Channel on the Wii Menu. It is a free download and depending on your Internet connection speed, it takes a few minutes. I wasn’t able to time it because I went to the local department store and bought a Wii Classic Controller. When I got back, the download was finished and I was browsing the web. After the download, a new channel is on your Wii Menu for browsing the Internet. At first, I thought things were too small to see. I blamed it on my TV, but soon discovered that the + and – buttons on the Wiimote zoom in and out. That made a huge difference. So to give it a test, I went to MySpace and logged in to my profile. From there, I was able to browse my page, go to friends’ pages, and even post comments on their pages. It was pretty much the same experience you would get on a PC except you are browsing with a Wiimote and not a keyboard and mouse. It was pretty easy to adapt.

My next experience with the Wii involves purchasing games on the Virtual Console. In order to purchase games, you must have Wii Points. Whenever you get to the Market Channel, you will have an option to add Wii Points to your account. You may obtain Wii Points in one of two ways. The first is by purchasing Wii Point cards in retail stores. The other option is to buy Wii Points using a Visa or MasterCard directly from your Wii. That is the option I chose. Wii Points are roughly 1 cent per point, so 1000 Wii Points will be $10.00 or a little less depending on where you buy the points. I just happened to purchase 1000 points. So, what game did I purchase? None other than one of my all-time favorite video games… The Legend of Zelda: Ocarina of Time. The download took a long time, so I used that waiting period to go pick up my laundry that had just finished. When I returned, the game was done downloading and it was available as a channel on the Wii Menu. The experience was very easy and I feel I will be browsing the virtual console a bit more in the future.

If you wish to save your scores or your custom Mii, you will need to purchase an SD memory card. The expense is minimal and it is worth it. You can purchase SD cards sold under Nintendo if you wish. They will run you about $20.00 for a 1GB card. However, it is not necessary to purchase a Nintendo SD card. You are free to purchase any brand you wish. I purchased a 1GB SanDisk SD card for just under $17.00, which is a little cheaper than the Nintendo card.

So, what’s the downside to the Wii? Well, I figured I would see what happens when I insert an audio CD. I got a disc read error. It would be kinda cool to play audio CDs on my Wii. Perhaps that might be an option in the future, but it is no big deal. After all, I have an iBook, so playing CDs is no big deal. It would also be a neat thing to watch a DVD on the Wii. Yet again, there is a really nice iBook or even my Windows Vista PC nearby to take care of that. I’m sure batteries will be an issue because the Wiimote is wireless and therefore, requires batteries. Investing in some rechargeable batteries will solve that problem or I can purchase the Nintendo Wii Charge Station by NYKO Technologies.

So, what’s the final verdict? There are a couple of limitations. However, the Wii was designed to be a gaming platform and not a digital media experience. So, it is completely understandable for multimedia features to not be available. As far as accomplishing its purpose, the Wii does exactly that. Finding games is not a big deal either. You may purchase the Wii games or you may even play the GameCube games as well. Both will work. Just make sure you have a GameCube controller if you decide to play those games.

On a scale of 1 to 10, the Nintendo Wii gets…………… 9.5