During his annual visit, Mike brought his Wii over and I got my first taste of the new console. My observations, after a full evening of Wii Sports, Zelda Whateveritscalled, and Trauma Center: Second Opinion are as follows:
1) Mike should never have purchased Trauma Center: Second Opinion. What were you thinking? The anime cutscenes are so out-of-place. I feel like the next operation is always going to involve surgically removing some sort of... tentacle. And whenever you are about to go to surgery, it looks like Dr. Stiles is casting some sort of voodoo curse on the patient. Lightning bolt!
2) The Wii controller is revolutionary, if you will. I am really impressed with the IR imaging sensor in the remote as evidenced by the IR sensitivity calibration screen. Between the absolute orientation information derived from this sensor and the relative movement information from the accelerometers inside, there is a tremendous amount of data available to the game developer. I was particularly impressed with my ability to "aim" my shots in Wii tennis without thinking about how to do so; it was very natural, which I gather is the point.
2b) The controller, when used to play downloaded and emulated classic console games, blows. We played some Sonic the Hedgehog and determined, conclusively, that the remote is really uncomfortable when held sideways. Sonic is infinitely more enjoyable on my arcade cab. Plus, the relative sparsity of buttons on the controller means that it can only fully emulate the oldest of consoles. To be fair, Sonic is a Genesis game and the Genesis had six buttons. Sonic only uses two of them, so it works out OK for the Wii; but the number of games that can be emulated is somewhat limited by the minimalist controller.
2c) We didn't break anything in the house or injure each other in any way. However, when boxing, if you bring both hands up really fast to guard your head, you can smack yourself in the face with the cord. Nice work, me.
3) I still don't like 3D games very much. I recognize that the nature of the Wii controller lends itself to 3D gaming very nicely, I just don't care.
4) The existing games for the Wii don't justify its cost to me. I expect this will change, as the price is reasonably low and developers are just starting to wrap their heads around the possibilities the Wii remote makes available. It is notable that my lack of immediate need for this console has nothing to do with its "shortcomings" in the graphics department. I applaud Nintendo on their choice to pursue an innovative interface, rather than just cranking out more polygons.
5) The composite video input on the back of my TV seems to be bortinated. Mike and I spent a long time figuring this out before I discovered that I have conveniently-placed RCA inputs on the front of my TV... that was embarrassing.
