I Finally Got a Damn Wii
Sunday, March 4th, 2007
Yup, I finally did it! I got myself (primarily my family, actually) a Nintendo Wii. I’ve been on the fence about it since launch and had decided I’d wait until Metroid Prime 3 and/or Super Mario Galaxy were released. Then I guess weeks on end of hearing people raving about it and seeing just about everyone around me (online, anyway) getting one finally got to me and I just caved. Once I decided I wanted to get one, I had to figure out how. Because of course, they’re still impossible to get in stores. In fact, to this day, I’ve never seen a Wii console for sale in a retail store. That’s not to say there haven’t been any in said stores…
I started looking around online since I knew there was no way I’d be getting one from a store any time soon. The BNIB consoles selling on eBay are ridiculous – upwards of $500-$600 for something that retails for $279. Clearly, I’m wasn’t going to pay that much – not for the console alone, anyway. So I took my search elsewhere and literally started Googling for consoles available in Canada. I ended up on Kijiji and craigslist pretty quickly where I found way (way, WAY!) better deals than eBay. After browsing numerous listings, I found an awesome bundle that included pretty much everything I would buy right off the bat, which the exception of an extra Wiimote. Here’s what I ended up getting…
The Bundle
- Nintendo Wii Console w/Wii Sports
- 1 Wii Remote
- 1 Nunchuk
- 1 Classic Controller
- HD Component Cable
- USB WIFI Adapter
- 3 Wii games: The Legend of Zelda: Twilight Princess, SSX Blur, Sonic and the Secret Rings
- 12 Virtual Console games: Super Mario World, Super Mario 64, The Legend of Zelda: A Link to the Past, The Legend of Zelda: Ocarina of Time, Donkey Kong Country, Sim City, F-Zero, Solomon’s Key, Bonk’s Adventure, Kid Icarus, Sonic the Hedgehog, Kirby’s Adventure
- 1 GameCube game: Super Mario Sunshine
- 1 Wireless Wavebird controller (GameCube)
- 1 16mb GameCube Memory Unit
The entire bundle ran me $675 CDN and I can sleep knowing I didn’t contribute to the massive retail scam that’s plagued the entire planet. What “scam” you ask? I’ve always assumed employees at most major retail outlets to be fucking crooked bastards, and I received my confirmation last night. How is it possible that shipments are being made once or twice a week to every retail outlet selling Nintendo Wii and not one of them has a single console on their shelves? At the same time, try and figure out why there’s people on eBay stating they’ve sold over 60 of them or check the quantity of some of the auctions. It’s not uncommon to see people with 6 or 7 of them. So again, how is that even possible? It’s possible because employees are buying the consoles themselves and turning around and selling them online for $200-$300 above the retail price, that’s how. In most cases, they’re not even making it onto the shelves. I had always figured this kind of dirty shit went down, and now I have second hand proof.
Why No One Can Get a Wii
The dude I bought the bundle from went into a tirade when I mentioned that I’ve never seen one in stores. It just so happens that he works for a large company that does movie/video game rentals. The dude that delivers games to them also makes a stop at the EB Games just down the street. One day when the delivery guy was making his rounds, dude asks him if he knows what the Wii boxes look like – which he did and agreed to give dude a heads up next time he sees some in the truck. A couple weeks later he got the nod and tailed the delivery truck over to EB. Not half an hour after the delivery had been made, dude went in and asked for a Wii – to which he was told they didn’t have any. Knowing full well they just received and shipment, dude started grilling the employee – all of the sudden, the EB jerk puts up his index finger and heads to the back of the store. He returns with a brand new Wii and states that he was “holding it for a friend”. Fucking, jerk.
First Impressions
It’s small, it’s sleek, it’s quiet, it’s ugly. Wait, what? The console itself is a nice little piece of hardware. But the graphics are balls. Especially on an HDTV, even with the component cable. It looks terrible. I’ve got it hooked up in our bedroom to the 27″ Sony Trinitron CRT – still using the component cable, mind you. It actually looks a heck of a lot better.
The dashboard, or as they call it “Wii Menu” is very nice, simple and easy to navigate. It actually does a few things better than the Xbox 360 and they’ve really done a great job of making it the hub of the system.
The controller and nunchuk are a mean combo. They both feel great in your hands and work extremely well. I’m surprised to see how much the nunchuk’s motion sensing capability is used.
What I’m Playing
I traded in SSX Blur and Sonic today for Rayman: Raving Rabbids. Couldn’t care less about either of those games and Hannah had no interest either. Raving Rabbids on the other hand, has always appealed to Hannah and I’ve heard some great things about it. Sure enough, it’s one fun and extremely goofy little game. It’s basically a compilation of mini-games with a simple story to fill the gaps. But the games and the use of the Wii’s control scheme is just brilliant. Crazy fun!
I hung onto Twilight Princess as I figured Deanna might play it. On Saturday night I put about an hour into it myself, which I spent blowing on grass, trying to catch a stupid cat, fly fishing and herding goats. “Kill me now” crossed my mind several times during that hour. Funny how none of that shit is mentioned in the raving reviews. I wasn’t ready to give up yet, though. I asked Deanna if she’d be into playing it through with me. I figured it might help to have someone to trade off the sucky parts with and we actually play quite a few games together. We put another hour into it, during which time we scored a wooden sword and finally starting killing shit. Things have definitely gotten better, although I just had to herd the damn goats again, but tomorrow (in the game) we’re supposed to be setting off on the main quest. So hopefully it gets good again, and stays that way.
So, that’s my experience so far in a nutshell. Hannah’s pretty sick today and in turn spent most of the day in her bed and not playing the Wii, which is unfortunate. But she’s on March Break for 2 full weeks now, so I’m sure she’ll get some decent time in. I’m planning to do some reviews and am going to have Hannah’s input and impressions as well since so many of the games are oriented to the younger generation. I’m stoked to have another new Nintendo console and a whole new way of playing games. Now, bring on the games already!
Im happy for you
I bought a Wii a couple of months ago and I agree with you, the graphics is really shitty. Isn’t Wii supposed to be at least 3 times stronger than Xbox? Well I haven’t seen it at all.
But all the real Nintendo games looks just the way the used to, and I guess that’s ok. I believe that other companies beside Nintendo are having a hard time developing games for the Wii. But it will get there.
Btw, I got hold of a copy of Red Steel, just to try it out, looks terrible it looks like Playstation.
Don’t buy it. Don’t even try it.
Other games that I recommend for Wii is,
Wario Smooth Moves – Really great party game, I don’t remember the last time I laughed that hard.
and Madden NFL 07, great experience with the Wii controller. Play it with your friends! Great game.
I’m still waiting for a great single player game besides Zelda. Where is Mario anyway?
Thanks for the great review, as always, Matt. I had been considering buying a Wii for a little while now, but I think I’ll hold off a little longer.
It’s about time you joined us cool kids and got a Wii. Now you can come to understand the addiction. In fact, I have a bunch of games, but I seem to only play Wii Sports a significant amount of time. Nintendo did well in that regard.
I dig Zelda, Rayman and Wii Play too.
Damn! Another one having a Wii, and I still got none.
You think this shit with the employee’s and the delivery guys is for real? No wonder I can’t get a Wii over here in Holland.
Wii is definitely great purchase, though it primarily a multi-player console.
Trust me mate, stick with Zelda, it’s gets to a stage where, in my opinion, it’s as good as OoT, if not better, pretty quickly. But expect to put at least 40 hours in by the end, even without sidequests, since this game is magnificently HUGE!
Wii rocks! But I wonder why you haven’t brought a shooter…?
I also wanted to wait for Metroid Prime, but after shooting some Rabbids I decided to buy Red Steel. I hope it arrives today, I cannot await
I’m addicted to Wii Tennis more than anything else – I haven’t got further than the cat/fish/goats stage of Zelda.
Given that all the release hype acknowledged that the graphics are nothing special (at least compared to the 360) you can’t really claim ignorance there – it’s Nintendo, what did you expect?!
Maybe one day you can score a perfect 300 game in Wii Sports like me http://flickr.com/photos/chrismcelligott/411225860/
@Alexander: Thanks for the heads up on those games. I had already planned to rent Wario Smooth Moves and have been told by many to stay away from Red Steel. Looks too much like a shooting gallery arcade game to me anyway.
@Patrick: I’m not sure that I’m the type to get hooked on something like this. I mean, at this point, there isn’t even a single game on the market for Wii that I’m stoked on. We’ll see though, Tennis is a lot of fun and when I finally got a sword in Zelda, it was a blast.
@Dominik: Haven’t got a shooter because there aren’t any good ones. I have COD3 for Xbox 360 and I would much rather play any multi-platform game on it over Wii. Medal of Honor Vanguard is coming out at the end of this month, so I’ll probably check that out – at least rent it.
@Matthew: You know, I knew the graphics weren’t anything to write home about, but I thought they would be better than they are. There’s like no anti-aliasing what-so-ever and all the textures are blocky as shit. I couldn’t stand it on my HDTV, which IMO isn’t right at all.
@Chris: Dude, that’s sick! I’m along way from bowling a 300. Hannah will probably get there before me! On her first play, she had a 3 strike streak and was freaking out. Hilarious!
Hey Matt,
Welcome to the Wii club. After hearing about your experiences, makes me feel a little less goofy waiting for hours to pick up a couple on release day.
I don’t know if you ever played it for the DS, but either way, Trauma Center for the Wii is definitely worth checking out. It may seem counterintuitive to go from “touching” the patient with the stylus to using the wiimote, but it’s super natural and appropriately forgiving.
Other than that, my advice is pretty simple: if it exists for other consoles, don’t get it for the Wii. The controls are fantastic for games that were designed to use them, but they make a poor replacement for keyboard/mouse or a regular gamepad for games designed with those in mind.
Hey Matt! Glad to hear you got a Wii! Thought Id actually comment, read the blog for a while. I got mine on release (8th Dec over here in the UK), I’ve got 2 sets of controllers, Wii Sports and Play, Zelda, Red Steel and Monkey Ball. All are good but maybe miss out Monkey Ball.
Definitely stick with Twilight Princess, best game on Wii so far.
I see you got some Gamecube stuff so if you’re new to that I’d make sure you ty Resident Evil 4, Smash Bros, Metroid Prime, Metal Gear Solid… well there’s loads lol.
Happy gaming
LOL Thanks for the realtime updates via SMS. consumer feaver at its worst:P
I’ve had my Wii for a week now (thanks Patrick!). Got Zelda a few days ago, but mostly we play Wii Sports. My 6yo daughter loves it; it’s fun to watch her boxing.
Congrats on your Wii. I haven’t gotten one yet but I might in the next few months or so. But yeah, definatly check out Warioware: Smooth Moves. I tried it at a friends house and it was surprisingly fun; just be sure to play it with an open mind.
Wooot, a Wii, good buy, I’m addicted to mine…
So now that you’re deeply in love with the Wii, are you going to change your favicon to reflect the Wii controller?
I would totally be on a Wii if the TV in my room wasn’t 14 inches and if the largest TV between my roommates wasn’t 20 inches.
WARIOWARE!
And man, I cannot wait for Super Smash Bros.
And Paul, that’s a pathetic excuse, my TV is 15 inches and the Wii is so much fun!
Red Steel sucks so bad.
We bought a Wii at my work. Now we sometimes just drop our work and play some Wii Sports. It’s pretty fun, especcially since we all made our own Mii-characters…
But imho the Wii and his controllers are just some gimmick. It’s fun for a while, but at the long run it will get bored.
I just bought myself a Xbox360 and that fcking things pwnes so much! I really can’t stop talking about how great it all is, the Xbox Live, the online gameplay, the singleplayer etc.
But ok. Enough offtopic. Great review, Matt… as usual
Hi. Nice article! I just got a Wii too – great isn’t it? I really like the Sonic game, and I’m surprised you didn’t care for it. But never mind, I thank you for the info on Raving Rabbids – I’ll seek out a copy of my own soon. All the best, Pete.
@Jonathan: Hmmm, I’ll give that Trauma Center game some thought. Not sure if it’s my thing, but I might give it a rent if there’s nothing else of interest some day.
@Matt: Yeah, I’ve had a GameCube for years. Resident Evil 4 is still one of my favourite games on any platform. Incredible.
@Paul: Hah, you know – I never meant to keep this favicon for as long as I have. I wanted something other than my face and that’s the best I could come up with.
@Skar: There are definitely some gimmicky games out there, and there always will be. I recently heard of a Zoro game being developed for Wii *yawn*. But I believe we haven’t really seen any games that make great use of the controls. Just wait for Metroid Prime 3.
@Peter: Honestly regarding Sonic, I never liked Sega growing up and I think that’s mostly why I ditched the game. That and the fact that most Sonic games since the originals have (supposedly) been garbage. Although, I read a review stating the Wii game is the best Sonic game in years.
I haven’t used the Wii for anything other than multiplayer fun. I really haven’t been very impressed with it at all :/ Happy for you though. Hope you enjoy it more than I have.
gehh, I can’t stand Twilight Princess. I sold it while I was at Arbiters Grounds.
Have fun with the Wii!
Sweet man. I’m actually surprised you got a Wii because the graphics aren’t the greatest.
Although, I do appreciate a game that has a great art style and while Sonic isn’t anything to write home about, it does look pretty slick in that regard.
Wii Sports is fun. I’m more inclined to play tennis because the controls feel more responsive and intuitive. Boxing is okay, but the response time is pretty bad.
I’ve got to admit, creating Mii’s is pretty fun. When I first read about it however I wasn’t that impressed.
The control scheme is by far it’s greatest asset, but that shouldn’t come as a surprise. You either get it or you don’t and it most cases people are just naturally adapting.
Next, you need to post your Wii friend code.
Nice buy!
I’ve had my Wii for a while now, with Zelda, Red Steel, Wii Play, Wii Sports, Excite Truck, Super Monkey Ball and Warioware
All of them are good fun, especially Zelda, Warioware, Excite Truck and yes, Red Steel. I really enjoyed Red Steel after I got passed the 2 hour learning curve. As for the people above me saying it has Playstation 1 graphics… huh? It looks like a high end Xbox 1 game.
Make sure you stick with Zelda, it’s one of the best games I’ve ever played
.
Oh man, apologies for the grammar and spelling of that last comment. It’s pretty late here in Australia.
Red Steel arrived – and it really sucks
The graphics are extremely buggy and the game is stroggling everywhere… I think it’s about 20 fps or so… not enough to play at all 
I really like Excite Truck, it’s fun
Today I’m gonna test Wario Wario Smooth Moves (rented). Many people say it’s even much better than Rayman… and I do LOVE Rayman, so I’m very excited. Cannot wait until this evening .. 
Last time, I saw a Wii in a store here in the Philippines and It’s smaller than I thought. Because when you look at it on images in the computer, it’s like a big, tilted console. I was surprised when I actually saw it in person, so cute and small. However, I have NO PLANS in buting it because it’s too expensive. I’ll stick to my primitive PS1 and play Tekken. LEI RULZ!
By the way, congratulations Matt! Have fun with your Wii!