Games consoles have been a part of my life for a long time. Starting with a ‘Pong’ machine from Woolworths back in the late 1970s, through a Sinclair ZX81, Commodore 64, various Sega and Nintendo machines (including the Sega Saturn which remains my all time favourite), and more recently the Playstation 1 and 2, a gaming PC and an Xbox 360. I’ve also had various handhelds. Bearing that in mind, getting hold of a Wii was really only a matter of time. And now I have one, thanks to my wife’s thoughtfulness and a birthday.
There’s plenty out there on the web about the Wii and how it differs from other games machines. Plenty about how it is re-defining the gaming experience. And it is. It’s the first machine that has really appealed to a broad market - kids and adults alike. To the extent that I’ve heard of plans to make them available in retirement homes as exercise for the residents. It seems the only market segment it doesn’t appeal to is the (mostly male) late teenage group, who often seem to prefer photo-realistic graphics.
My first impressions of the Wii? It’s different. It’s fun. Everybody wants to play it. And it’s harder to master than you’d expect. Don’t let the childish, primitive graphics of some games fool you. Success requires skill, dexterity and perseverance. So far I’ve tried Wii Sport and Wii Play, Super Mario Karts, Emergency Hero, Super Mario Galaxy, and NiGHTS. The two Mario games are excellent and will be getting further attention. NiGHTS will as well simply because I remember playing the earlier version on the Saturn. And the others I’ll probably dip into now and then. On the way from Play.com and eBay are Tomb Raider and The Bigs (baseball). And having spent 10 minutes playing a table tennis game I shall be bidding for that too.
So, it seems I’m hooked.
