Wheee

I picked up a Wii yesterday (or more specifically, my girlfriend picked up a Wii and I am owing half of the cost). Figured I'd give it a shot, it looks pretty cool. Ours came with a Nunchuck controller and Wii Sports, and we picked up a second Wii-mote so that I could kick people's asses at tennis. Also grabbed one of those recharger packs, hopefully it will be better than getting batteries all the time.

It is pretty cool. It is a great example of innovation. How many games have you played that made you sweat? With the exception of DDR. Other than on your hands where you hold the controller, not many. Doing the boxing and to a lesser extend tennis, you really start to work up a sweat. It's cool.

So I've come up with a list as to why the Wii is so much more awesome than the other consoles:

• Cost - This is a big one. Now in the long run the overall cost if you buy everything yourself is not that much cheaper. The Wii itself runs at $100-$200 less than a PS3 or the 360, depending on which model of PS3 or 360 you get. The games are about the same price, same with the add-ons. So if you plan on just buying the thing yourself, then you're probably not going to save that much in the long run.
  This is where target audience comes in. Your non-gamer roommate (or in my case, girlfriend) is much more likely to pitch in to buy a Wii than the other consoles. That could potentially half the price or more of the console. Furthermore, since there are more Wii owners than owners of the other consoles, it's more likely that if you want to borrow a game from a friend you're going to be able to borrow it. So you don't have to shell out the cash to buy it. A lot of the people at my office have been doing this.


• Exercise - With Wii Sports (I haven't played any other games yet) I got a good workout. My arm was sore after playing too much baseball, and from all the ducking and punching from boxing got me right tired. Much better than sitting on your butt mashing buttons and wiggling a joystick.

Then there are the problems I can think of:

• Lack of games - most of the "cool" games aren't for Wii. They're on PS3 or 360. You know what? I don't really care. Most of the "cool" games are also on PC, and obviously I already have one of those. Plus I can do all sorts of other things on my PC, like program things or look at porn.


• Pain - For once, there is more at risk to your body than getting carpal tunnel syndrome or blisters from joystick-rotating. You can actually pull muscles waving things around. Or you can whack a friend in the head (accidentally this time) while you're trying to hit their serve back. Or you can fall over. Etc. Watch out!

I'm really impressed with the Wii so far. Definitely thinking I went with the right console.