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Nintendo Wii First Impressions November 22, 2006 John JCal Callaham |
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Summary: How is the Wii? JCal gives you his first impressions of Nintendo's revolutionary new console (pun intended).
 Introduction | Page:: ( 1 / 3 ) |
For those of you who have not yet picked up a Wii you will most likely be surprised at the amount of sheer stuff that is in the console’s box. In addition to the white colored console itself you get a plastic grey stand to place the Wii in from a vertical position. You also get the Wii’s power cord which has a power brick that’s similar in looks to the Xbox 360’s brick but of course far smaller. You also get a set of AV TV connection cables. There are component TV cables for the Wii but they are in short supply for the moment. Of course you get the shining star of the Wii’s plan for console game uniqueness, the white colored Wiimote controller and the nunchuk attachment. The Wiimote we received comes with two AA batteries, which put it ahead of the non-replaceable PS3 controller batteries. Finally there’s the sensor bar, a flat grey addition with an extra long cord that attaches to the back of the Wii. The sensor bar is, of course, the key to the Wii’s motion sensing features and is designed to be placed either above or just below a TV set. There’s a small clear stand included to help steady the motion sensing bar onto a flat surface.
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As you can see from the included photos, the Wii is tiny compared to the PS3 and Xbox 360; it’s clear that Nintendo intended to have the console designed so it can be easily transported to pretty much anywhere. The “front” of the console contains the slot-loading disk drive a la the PS3 (and you can see a blue glow coming out of it when you turn on the console). We are all for slot loading disk drives by the way; kudos to Nintendo and Sony for eliminating that annoying tray moving out of the console. Also on the front is the SD memory card slot; this is basically the Wii memory unit since you can use to not just hold Wii save games but also your Virtual Console games you download as well (more on that later). Depending on how you position your Wii, the GameCube compatible controller and memory unit slots are either on top or to the side of the Wii; they are normally covered up via a plastic door like covering. On the back is the power connection, TV cable connection; two USB slots and most importantly the sensor bar connection. While the console has a power switch it basically goes into stand by mode when the power turns off; there is no switch in the back to turn the Wii completely off like the PS3 does. By the way, the Wii does have an ATI logo on the console’s surface in addition to the Nintendo logo.
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| Wiimote | Page:: ( 2 / 3 ) |
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Using the controller to do more mundane tasks like setting up the Wii for its first launch is actually kind of a game in itself as you point the controller at the screen and the cursor on the TV reactions to, say, the virtual keyboard that you can use to type quick “Post-it” like notes on screen. Overall, however, the UI and features of the Wii’s menu is, well, too cute for us. It’s stuff like he overall white themed UI to things like the typeface and even the perky but elevator music –like sounds on the menu screen. The Wii presents itself to the user as something that a kid, and a kid only, would use and enjoy and not the whole family. There’s nothing wrong with marketing a game console for kids; we just thought the idea was that Nintendo was going for a much broader marketplace. The Wii’s overall presentation just seems to be going for a much younger mindset. Of course, it could be trying to maintain the family image by making sure it’s aimed at the lowest common denominator.
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This is certainly true of the feature that gives people a chance to create cute 3D cartoon avatars for themselves that can be incorporated into things Wii Sports and other upcoming games. The options are relatively few and the end result is a process that you can use to create an avatar that only sort of looks like you if you squint at it. Nintendo has added a feature that sounds a little like what Will Wright wants to do for their upcoming game Spore; namely use the Wii’s Internet features to have your avatar travel to other people’s Wii if you allow it as well as other folks’s avatars to come show up on your console. (you have to register your friend’s Wii console in your address book in order to do this). The Wiimote can also store an avatar you create so you can take it to a friend’s house and add it to his or her console. Another feature adds the ability to add photos and movies to the Wii via the SD card slot and do some simple manipulations on them like dooles or make simple puzzles out of them (you can’t save these changes on the original SD card, though).
| Connectivity | Page:: ( 3 / 3 ) |
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Internet connectivity is handled via the Wii’s included WiFi connection (again kudos to Nintendo and Sony for putting WiFi in their new consoles; we are still not sure why Microsoft didn’t offer imbedded WiFi in the Xbox 360). Most people who have a WiFi connection will likely go for the auto-assign feature but people who want to get down and dirty will be able to configure their WiFi connection manually with a number of options. In the few hours since we got the Wii we have had a little more trouble establishing an Internet connection than we have had when we first got our Xbox 360 and the PS3. We have had trouble maintaining a connection with several drop-offs. Furthermore, Nintendo made us download two updates before we could even go to the Virtual Console store; they took a long time to download and install (the better part of an hour in both cases). Hopefully Nintendo will be able to speed things up and improve their Internet service as time goes on.
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The two biggest flaws in the Wii in terms of hardware are the lack of HDTV resolution (component cables will only get you up to 480p) and the lack of Internet multiplayer features out of the box for the launch. Nintendo has said they intend to have Internet multiplayer games for sometime in 2007 (and although not officially confirmed it’s nearly certain that one of them will be Metroid Prime 3) but launching multiplayer features late when Microsoft and Sony have these features ready to go now is a serious misstep. Nintendo likes to pride itself on its rabid fans but I bet these fans would appreciate the opportunity for better communication and better playing with online multiplayer. Hopefully Nintendo fans won’t have to wait too long but if Nintend can’t even offer a web browser for its launch we think we might have to wait up to a year before Nintendo brings on the multiplayer online games for the Wii in the states.
So far we have played around with the menu and played a bunch of Wii Sports, but will the big games help the Wii overcome some of its flaws? We will have our full review of the Wii (as well as the PS3) in the near future.