Wa-Wa-WII-Wa!
A hands-on Preview of the Nintendo Wii
By Le Chupacabra
Despite having shamelessly nicked Borat’s famous catchphrase (does it even count as a phrase?), I think it’s a lot better than say, “Wii will rock you!”, “Playing with my Wii”, “Can I see your Wii?” or something cheesier. Trust me, I’ve seen really bad ones here…
Navel fluff aside, let’s get down to the nitty-gritty that is Nintendo’s new console. Long story short: it’s the successor to the GameCube. It was called the Revolution and now it’s called the Wii (pronounced, you guessed it, “wee”). End of story. Oh, and its take on next generation gaming is via intuitive and semi-revolutionary user interactivity than through unbelievable graphics or mind-boggling physics. It’s a fancy way of saying that the Wii Remote is awesome enough to make you ignore the unimpressive visuals showcased by the Wii.
Natty, the sub-warden in my corridor was nice enough to let me mess around with his Wii (damn, that sounds plain wrong) for a few hours. Thus I return with my hands-on impressions of the much-desired yet short-supplied next generation console, the Nintendo Wii.
Firstly, it’s quite small. GameCube small you ask? Smaller. The Wii is comparable to the PSOne (the remodelled, mini-PlayStation) surprisingly. Despite its Napoleonic stature it boasts quite a few nifty features. For starters, it has a smooth slot-loading disc drive that takes in the new Wii DVDs. The top can be flipped open to reveal all four controller ports for the original GameCube as well as the two prerequisite memory card slots for said console. And there’s a smaller panel above the disc slot that houses an SD memory card reader. Details aside, the Wii looks quite slick. I haven’t seen a PS3 upfront, yet between the Xbox 360 and Wii – the Spartan design of the Wii combined with a sleek, glossy white finish gives the Wii an air of sophistication and simplicity that I find more appealing. Nintendo makes some robust hardware as well and I expect (no, I didn’t dare try to test this) the Wii to withstand quite a few batterings and hurled controllers of which there shall be many.
Following the same theme as the aesthetic design, the user interface is clean, simple and quite user-friendly. You interact by aiming with the Wii Remote and a mouse cursor-esque hand follows your motions. It felt slightly wonky for me, but you can set your own level of sensitivity. The Wii has a neat picture viewer that you can use to browse through your shots from an SD memory card. The picture viewer offers the ability to apply special effects; particularly fun is the doodle tool. You can run a slideshow of your album as well and watch video files stored on the card. The Wii supports wireless internet which is routed to it via any general Wi-Fi dongle. With that you can browse the Internet, purchase legacy games from the online store and send/receive e-mail. My favourite part was the Mii (pronounced “me”), however. This is the Wii’s proprietary user profile management system and its use couldn’t be simpler or more fun! First you have go through all the basics of adding details such as your name, desired user name, date of birth, favourite colour, et al. The fun part comes in when it’s time to actually create your personal Mii avatar. While some will obviously go for the larger than life look, it’s quite enjoyable trying to get your likeness correct. After a few tweaks here and there by my sub-warden, I was pretty impressed with the almost-accurate version of me prancing on the screen. Speaking of which, I think I need to buy a new glasses to match those of the Wii Mii… erm me…
Now what makes the Wii unique is not the games you play, but how you play them. Enter the Nunchuks… and Wii Remote. Splitting a conventional controller into essentially two parts just didn’t seem right to me at first. After a few hours flicking, slamming, punching and flailing with the controllers – I can safely say that they officially rock! The remote is built surprisingly solidly and feels rather natural. After all, we are the TV generation and holding onto a remote for hours on end is part of the circle of life now. The buttons are perfectly set apart, although having the ‘B’ as a trigger (under the Remote) is initially confusing. The Nunchuk is where the analog stick rests. It looks like someone cut a DualShock in half, remoulded a half with one of the analog sticks and made it really ergonomic! The Nunchuk fits into your hand perfectly and follows the contours of your grip extremely well. A clearly obvious benefit of separating the controllers is that you can decide your own comfort level; whether you hold them right next to each other or lazily droop your arms over the sides of the chair is completely up to you. The controllers are connected to each other by means of a cable but other than that they are wireless courtesy of Bluetooth technology. A small, elongated receiver sits (preferably) on top of your TV and helps triangulate the direction the controllers face; this is what makes the motion sensing magic work.
So we know how the Wii looks and some portion of what it does. The question that you’re probably salivating over is how it plays. In short, it’s freakin’ awesome. True, the games I played would be mediocre under any normal controller scheme but the Wii is not your average console after all. Because of the controllers, it becomes something a lot more special.
First up was Wii Sports. The game comes bundled with the Wii itself and serves as an addictive distraction while you get accustomed to the new method of play. We played bowling, tennis, baseball and boxing. Bowling wasn’t too bad; first you have to aim the path you intend to bowl on and then you lift the Wii Remote as you would an actual bowling ball. Once you’re ready, swing away and press the button to release. There are subtleties in the motion you can take advantage of to add spin. Tennis was fantastic, however. I loved 4-player Top Spin on the PS2 but it faces pretty stiff competition from the Wii iteration of the sport. Holding the Wii Remote like a racquet you actually have to swing away at the ball as it threatens your side of the court. Similar to bowling, you can make use of deft sideway flicks or smooth slices to change the way you hit the ball. It was exhilarating to say the least and with four players, this has the potential of being the ultimate party game. Boxing and baseball were pretty damn entertaining as well. While you’re not required to actually move around your character in boxing, you can perform cheeky dodges left, right and backwards by moving both controllers in the opposite directions. Here you actually have to punch out to hit your opponent’s smug face and defence is equally ingenious – you cover your face with your hands to block blows aimed at your precious visage. I foresee this being the future way of ‘settling the score’ between two testosterone-charged ‘gentlemen’. Baseball required you hold the Wii Remote like a bat and swing away once the pitched ball seemed at the appropriate distance from your player. Getting the timing right was fun and significantly more intuitive than simply pressing a button. The pitching was similar to the Bowling game except that you had to swing over-arm.
I played a few games that made up the Wii Play compilation but they weren’t anything too special. Spin-offs of Duck Hunt and Battle Tanks were quite entertaining, though.
However, after that I played one game that tempted me like no other to forget the PS3 and order a Wii – Rayman Raving Rabbids. It was one of the most hilarious and outrageously fun games I’ve played in a while. Every aspect of it effuses humour and the design is simply brilliant. Raving Rabbids comprises of a series of mini-games where you take the titular character and attempt to thwart world domination by a bunch of - you guessed it - raving, rabid rabbits (say that ten times, fast). This game fully integrates the Wii Remote and Nunchuk into the very core of its being and as a result, has effectively brought about a tangible manifestation of the word ‘fun’. Whether it’s the rhythmic disco game where you have to flick the corresponding controller in tune with the beats to parodied songs like “Rabbits just wanna have fun” or the juice bar portion where you have to fill up the advancing rabbits with carrot juice by literally pumping it into them, the game maintains a distinct air of energetic, in-your-face humour that draws you in for more. The beauty of the games (and the Wii in general) is that it physically and mentally involves you, the player, in the game itself. That avant-garde level of interactivity takes the concept to new levels and it’s really hard to go back afterwards. Oh, and multiplayer is just overkill in terms of sheer enjoyment.
There you have it regarding the Wii. If you’re in doubt concerning a next generation console purchase, then consider the Wii as a very, very able contender. It’s cheap, it’s outrageously fun and it’s also the ultimate party machine. However with that said, you should always consider what games you want before you go straight ahead and end up buying a console you really didn’t want in the first place. Oh, and the Wii works best (and sometimes only) as a multiplayer console as opposed to something to sit down with and get lost in; the games aren’t quite substantial enough to satiate solitary gaming sessions, mind you. Other than that, wii salute you, Nintendo, for such a fantastic console.
