NINTENDO WII: FIRST IMPRESSIONS

Wii here at technobabble have just received a Nintendo Wii (well bought because we were in the right place at the right time) and would like to share some thoughts on this new innovative system.

The Nintendo Wii is the least powerful, smallest, and wierdest designed thing for this generation of gaming. That said Nintendo still has a winner.

The Wii is about a 1/3 the size of the XBOX 360 and a quarter the size of the monstrous PS3. The Wii-mote (as it has been deemed) is a great interface to the system and Nintendo takes great advantage of more tactile feel with t a built in speaker and rumble feature.

The Wii doesn't have a built-in hard drive but it does have built-in memory. That memory will last you for a while and even if it doesn't the Wii has a SD card port.

The Wii also sports 4 GameCube controller ports and 2 memory card ports. This is great for backward compatibility and Nintendo has done a great job in integrating this into their console.

The slot loading drive is quick thus making load times much quicker than in the past (quite opposite to the GameCube).

No the Wii doesn't support DVD playback (although reportedly it is enabled in Japan so look for it here in the near future) and it doesn't play CD's but that's OK since you still have a PS2 or something around somewhere :).

The Wii Shop is great, when it works. I seem to have the hardest time connecting with the Wii to the store and I'm apparently not alone. One quick search on Google showed me that.

The Virtual Console emulated games really work fantastic. I haven't found a single glitch in anything that I have but others have posted a problem with saving ghosts on Mario Kart 64. The only thing I'd have to say about the Virtual Console that could be improved is the need to have more games and Nintendo is slowly working them out there.

There is no online play available for the Wii yet. Nintendo has been always weary about online play for some reason and promised it on the GameCube for years (which ended up being a bunch of crappy Phantasy Star games).

If you can find one, BUY IT. That's all I can say. The console is well worth the price. Only thing I'd say about it is get a couple extra Wii-motes and nunchuck addons so you can play with friends. Well then you might need a bigger TV.........