From my previous post, you can see that I got to spend a lot of family time with the Wii. In fact my brother-in-law, also known as the Urban Docent, posted an entry on his blog about it. He brings up some very interesting remarks, and I started to leave a comment, but soon realized that I had too much to say, so I will opt to comment with a blog entry of my own.

First, check out his original post here. He initially likes the idea of motion controls, but wonders if it can be sustainable. I think these are very important questions to the potential success of the Wii. Some folks have even labeled the motion controls as a “gimmick”. Ironically, this is what everyone (including me, at the time) labeled the DS’s dual screen and touch screen capability as. The DS went on to become a huge success, and is destroying the PSP (mostly in Japan). Now, was it exclusively touch screen games that made the DS a success? I don’t think so. I think what makes it so great is that it can house both traditional D-pad + 4 button games, and innovative touch screen games. It opens up innovation with a new input mechanism, while preserving the tried and true existing input mechanism. It is the combination of familiarity and innovation that ultimately makes it work. For the Wii to really thrive, we need to start looking at combining motion controls with the existing traditional controls. I think this is where those Gamecube ports will come in handy, and we can expect to see some games that will use Gamecube controllers. In fact Smash Bros. director, Masahiro Sakurai, has already alluded to the possibility of using the Gamecube controller for Smash Bros. Brawl, an providing no motion sensing alternative. There may be some initial backlash at having to buy another controller for the folks that never owned a Gamecube, but I think if enough games use it, it can be justified. And anyone that owns a Wii and never plans to play a Gamecube game on it, is really missing out on a lot of great games. Also, Nintendo once said it would make “controller shells” to use for traditional gaming controls (pictured), but we haven’t heard anything else about it in a long time. Presumably, the classic controller has replaced this, which could also be a candidate for using to play traditional controls for new games.

Now, with all of that said, I would like to summarize. Motion controls are fun, but I do not think that they can exist as the only way to play games on a system for its entire lifespan. I do not think they are a gimmick, but I think they are only a piece of the puzzle to make a great system. By allowing both controls to exist on the Wii, it will allow third party developers to preserve multiplatform titles on the Wii, and will not presumptuously force motion controls when they are not the best way to control. Really though, given the Gamecube ports, any developer should be able to make games that use the Gamecube controllers. It’s only a matter of time, but Nintendo and/or third party developers will have to discover this crucial balance if they want the Wiis presence to linger.

As I’m sure most of you did, last Thursday I went over to my parent’s house for some turkey goodness. This year played out like most years: lots of food, football, and just relaxing. What was different this year however was that I brought my new Wii along to try out on some decidedly non-gamers. A week before the Wii came out, I was talking to my parents about all its features and abilities. For the first time, they actually sounded interested on what it could do, and they specifically asked me to bring it on Thanksgiving when they found out I got one. Nintendo’s big plan with the Wii is to get a lot of non-gamers interested in what it can do, and judging from my family’s first reaction to it, I think Nintendo is headed in the right direction.

After letting the turkey digest a bit, I hooked up the Wii. There were some minor sunlight issues, but we got it worked out. I selected the Mii Channel and handed over the remote. Mom and Dad really enjoyed making their own Miis. Then we played some Wii Sports. It took a few minutes to get used to the controls, but no longer then it took me to get it. In no time my parents were having a good time, and even beating me at video games. In fact, my Mom turned out to be quite the bowler, despite seeing me play video games all my life and never once being interested to try them. I didn’t even beat her once! I even got to play Boxing with my Mom. It was a very strange feeling punching your Mother’s digital doppelganger in that face. After we had played sports for a while, I showed them the new Zelda. My Dad has actually been a fan of the Zelda series for a while. He even played through Ocarina of Time when I got a Nintendo 64 years ago.

The next morning I slept in, and my Dad told me that he had played Zelda a bit and some Wii Sports without me. It’s one thing when people play games when you ask them to, but when non-gamers want to play the games unprompted, it’s a pretty good indication that they truly enjoy the games. Later, my sister and my brother-in-law came over, and they too enjoyed some Wii Sports. I even tried some Red Steel with my brother-in-law, and showed him the VC games and Gamecube backwards compatability. Unfortuneatly Red Steel did not have the same effect as Wii Sports. It really takes a while to get used to the controls, and they are definitely not as intuitive as Wii Sports. Overall, I think it was a really enjoyable time. After playing for a while family members where asking details like price, availability, etc. I really think Nintendo is making some good progress in winning over some non-gamers. The next step, and arguably more difficult, is to sustain that interest. Having non-gamers interests piqued, and keeping them coming back for more are two very different things. I think games like Wario Ware, Cooking Mama, and Wii Play could fill this gap, but I guess we’ll just have to see.

A few weeks ago, I visited my parent’s house to enjoy some dinner and see how they were settling in their new place in the swanky part of Alpharetta, Georgia. I had a good time and I suggest all you reader(s) of BHM to cherish the time you spend with your family.

Anyways, on my way out the door, I was saying my goodbye and I noticed on the ground a very peculiar mushroom. Interestingly, I had a desire to eat it until I realized the gravity of the situation that I present to you in a professional, bulleted-point fashion:

1) It would be gross.
2) It may be poisonous.
3) 2 decades of Nintendo indoctrination has affected my subconcious in ways that I wasn’t aware of.

After I fought off the impulse to eat it and grow to gigantor-size, I luckily had my camera there to document my find.

On my way back home sitting in traffic, I daydreamed “What If…” scenarios on eating the mushroom and jumping my way back home on the tops of the vehicles that sat before me on I-85.

So about 4 months ago, I heard about The Lord of the Rings Online: Shadows of Angmar. Since I am a huge fan of “try before you buy” and that I am a big fan of LOTR, I quickly signed up hoping to get into the beta program. And then I waited…..and waited. Since then, I had as much hope of getting into the program as The Fellowship had of ever seeing Gandalf again after the Balrog knocked him off the cliff.

Well, today Turbine Entertainment sent me my beta invitation and instructions on when I can get in and destroy some Orcs, Wargs, Men, Elves…I’ll try not to be a griefer too much in beta. I do hope they give you the ability to play for either Sauron or on the Fellowship’s side. Congratulations if you got in, if not, I will post pics and discuss my adventures here in BHM.

More information can be found on Turbine’s website.

It’s been a long time since I was able to post an entry, but I’ve been having fun with my new console, the Nintendo Wii. Because of my over-zealousness, I was able to pick one up at a Toys R Us with my pre-order. I was so excited! I had been waiting since May of 2005 for this thing, and for the most part, I am still thrilled about it. Here are some of my first impressions with all the different features and games:

Mii Channel
Albert and Robbie were over to see the unveiling of the Wii, and one of the first things we did was create Miis for all of us. It was pretty fun, and Albert even created some extra fictitious ones of funny looking people. One of my favorites was named Mr. Chong, an Asian fashion designer with an extremely large head. Sounds weird, I know, but we had a fun time just making Miis.

Photo Channel
This is pretty basic. You can display pictures on your SD card, and even display them in slide shows. What’s cool is you can play around with pics, kind of like Mario Paint, and even turn your pics into puzzles. One small annoyance is that the only way to play MP3s on the Wii is to put on a slideshow. There should be a dedicated MP3 channel (in time I guess). Also, only the MP3 filename is displayed, no ID3 information. I can see this being neat for when people get back from vacation. They can just stick an SD card into the Wii and show off their pictures.

Wii Shop Channel
Some people had some serious update woes, but I got my downloads just fine. After a couple of updates, I was able to hop on the Wii Shop Channel and download some VC titles. It was easy enough; I bought some Wii points and downloaded the original Legend of Zelda, and F-Zero. Yesterday, some Turbo Graphx 16 games showed up, and I downloaded Bonk’s Adventure.

Virtual Console Games
From what I can tell, all the games I downloaded play exactly like their real life counterparts. This is a plus and a minus. On one hand the classics are perfectly preserved, but on the other hand there are no added features like online playability, etc. Each game you download becomes its own channel. I had no multiple games of the same console, so I couldn’t tell if they are grouped by console within a channel. The interface is pretty sleek though. Whenever you are done playing, you can just hit the home button and go back to the main menu of the Wii. When you exit the game, your ROM state is saved, so you can effectively save your game anywhere.

Message Board
Basically email for the Wii. One thing that is neat is that your playtime log is posted here. So you can see exactly how much time you play what. Whenever I register someone’s email to send them a message, Nintendo has to send them an email to see if that’s OK. What’s annoying is that when Nintendo sends them that email, it looks like this:

An owner of a Wii Console is asking permission
to register you as a Wii Friend to exchange
e-mail with you. This individual’s Wii e-mail address is
w5523873316449966@wii.com ….

As if anyone knows who w5523873316449966 is. Hopefully I can change this with some setting or option I have overlooked, or Nintendo will change it.

Weather/ News Channel/Internet Browser
These channels are not yet available, but should be coming shortly according to Nintendo. I think the Weather is coming sometime in December, and News sometime in January. No word on when the Opera browser is coming though.

Wii Sports
Wii Sports was a lot of fun, especially with lots of people. Some games I really enjoyed were Tennis, Bowling, and Golf. I couldn’t quite get the hang of Baseball or Boxing, but I was getting better at it. The motion controls aren’t as easy as Nintendo pretends they are with their funny promotional spots, but they aren’t hard either. It takes a few minutes to get a grasp on what works and what doesn’t. I really thought this game would be a throw-away. I’d play it for an hour and that would be that, but it’s got more replay-ability than I expected. There are extra challenges and fitness modes, and being able to play with and see all the Miis you create is really fun.

Red Steel
So far I haven’t played this one much. I put it in just to show Albert and Robbie what it looked like. I played a little bit of the 1 player mode, and found the controls to be very difficult. The verdict is still out on this one. Maybe after a lot of time, I could get it down. The graphics and style do look good though. I’m really hoping I can tame the controls.

The Legend of Zelda: Twilight Princess
I saved the big one for last. This really is the reason to own a Wii. So far this game has been great. I have played it for about 6 hours, and I feel like I have only scratched the surface. The graphics look good (not great), and the motion controls are really fun, but right now what looks the strongest is the story. I really like the concept of two different worlds, and although it’s been done countless times by Nintendo, it just feels like it is true to the story. It seems like in previous games of light and dark worlds (Zelda: Link to the Past, Metroid Prime 2: Echoes), these worlds were created as an artificial gameplay mechanic. Like a way to double the play field while keeping maps. In other words, this gameplay mechanic dictated the story. However it just seems more organic and true to the story in Twilight Princess. There have been some reviews about how Twilight Princess is just the latest exhibit of a tired game mechanic, but I like the game mechanic, and I don’t think it’s tired (yet). I agree that not much has changed from Ocarina of Time (dungeon syles, Power-ups, abilities, etc) , but considering how great that game was, and the added motion controls and great story, this is one of the best launch titles I have ever seen.

So there you have it, my extended wiikend with the Wii. This is actually my first console to get on launch day, and I’m loving it. If you have any questions about the Wii, feel free to post them in the comments section and I will answer them.

Yesterday when I posted my Tetris DS glitch, I remembered that I had an earlier problem when playing Elite Beat Agents. After completing a song and returning to the world map, a weird screen showed up. I’m beginning to think my Nintendo DS is going to break soon…

I’m beginning to think that my Nintendo DS likes messing with me…anyways, I was playing Tetris DS online last night and after connecting to a match, I tried to dominate the other players. I quickly realized that something was not right. I easily defeated one player but the other two proved to be trickier than I imagined. I had my wife record our first home video(!) with a camera and here is the evidence to prove my online glitch.

Nintendo knows how hard it is waiting those last few hours for the Wii, so they are sending a gift to anyone who logs onto Animal Crossing: Wild World over the next week. If you are not familiar with it, Animal Crossing is a pretty fun, highly addictive community based collection type game. You spend your time in the town you create chatting with NPCs, fishing, collecting fossils, buying furniture, designing T-shirts, and getting into random things. It doesn’t sound very fun, but it really hooks you in, especially if you have another friend playing so you can trade and hang out over WiFi. Anyway, back to the point. Today I received my very own Master Sword to put in my home. Here’s a pic of it:

Remember to get yours before Friday. Speaking of Animal Crossing, I was buying some games from Toys R Us, and the guy ringing me up accidentally threw in a copy of it for the Gamecube, so if you are in the market for a copy, check out my eBay listing.

Here’s a pretty cool gameplay video of Mario’s next adventure: Super Mario Galaxy. It’s looks pretty fun, but seems a little disorienting to me. Even though the Wii is not launching with a Mario title, we should see Mario Galaxy sometime next spring.

Well, after work today, I ran over to Circuit City and CompUSA to *hopefully* score some Wii action. Well, I sweet talked some employees, but they didn’t give up anything. At the Dunwoody Circuit City previously famous of it’s campers, all I found was Super Monkey Ball…boring! I want something cool, say, Red Steel? Nope, nothing.

So I drove over to the CompUSA across the street and starting browsing around trying to find some Wii. The manager walked up to me asking if I needed help. I shyly told him my infatuation with finding anything Wii related before Sunday and he motioned for me to follow him in the back. There, he showed me PS3 games (-_-) but then he showed me the 4 Wii games I could purchase right then and there. He had: Rayman Raving Rabbids, Super Monkey Ball, Madden 07, and Red Steel!

I ripped Red Steel from his claws and asked if there were anything else Wii related I could purchase. Sadly, there was none. I quickly paid and relished in the fact that 2 days to go, and one less purchase to make. Stay tuned, Walmart’s beckoning me to sweet talk some CSR tomorrow into having some Wiimotes early.

Today I also received my component cables from Nintendo Headquarters. I am relishing in sweet 480p glory come Sunday!