The Nintendo hype machine promised to deliver an awesome gaming experience for everyone, and from what I can tell, they are positioned to do just that.
I got my hands on a delicious new Wii (thanks, Danny!) over the holiday wii-kend, and in one word: AWESOME. Even though I have been to multiple gaming conventions over the past year, I never actually got to play the Wii until Thanksgiving Day. Needless to say, it is everything that you have already read in countless blogs and magazines: intuitive, fun, revolutionary, simple, amazing. And don't just take my word for it; my in-laws had a blast playing Wii Tennis and Wii Bowling, and they wouldn't know the difference between an Octorok and a Goomba! Even my mom bowled a strike in Wii Bowling on her first try.
This goes a long way towards proving that an unthreatening interface, combined with elegant desgin, can bring new people into the gaming fold. Isn't this precisely what Nintendo has been talking about? I was skeptical at first, but now that I've played it, I'm a beliiver.
Here are some thoughts about the games I've tried:
Zelda: You just can't improve on the perfect formula, and this is both a good and bad thing. Twilight Princess does justice to its esteemed pedigree, making it a must-buy. If I were to quibble with anything here, it's that the game doesn't really take much advantage of the new controller. This is probably explained by the fact that the title was originally developed for the Gamecube, and is in fact coming out for that platform early next year. So I can't imagine the headaches if Nintendo really went full tilt with the Wiimote interface. But that aside, this game is just superb. Perfect controls (the aiming works great), awesome story (despite the familiar light/dark world hokum), lush graphics (enough bloom lighting already!) and that quintessential Nintendo magic -- Zelda has it all and then some.
Wii Sports: The best launch title ever? Not only is this game a great showcase for the Wii controller, but it does an amazing job of bringing new gamers to the proverbial table. Sure, baseball is way too simple, but does my mother-in-law want to worry about complicated fielding maneuvers? (The game performs these automatically.) Even boxing, which has been getting some lukewarm response, is really fun despite the unreliable controls. The true standouts are bowling and tennis, the latter of which is so much fun, you could probably play it for hours with your friends. I can't even imagine simultaneous four-player matches! You could OD on the Wii madness.
Red Steel: I've only played a little bit of Red Steel, but I enjoyed it. Yes, the controls are a bit goofy. But I look at it as a good start. Frankly, FPS games have become so cookie-cutter that I'm just pleased to try something different. The real challenge is preventing arm fatigue, something I've also heard about in response to Call of Duty. Even though your character in Red Steel probably looks like a total nutjob as he flails his gun hand around all over the damn place, the game is still a good time experience. Ubisoft, as usual, delivers top-notch production value and some really great (if only half-realized) ideas. I look forward to seeing this genre evolve on the Wii in the next six months or so.
That's it for now!
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