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.