Wii Like It - First Impressions Of The Nintendo Wii

The only way Nintendo can compete with Sony and Microsoft this season was to ensure two things from their new console, the Wii: it needed to be fun, and it needed to actually work. Is the revolutionary control scheme just that, or nothing more than a gimmick? Playing the Wii for the first time, it is apparent the answer is the former. The fun is there, and, for the most part, it does work.

The Wii-Mote

Nintendo's new controller is smaller than it looks in most pictures you may have seen. About the size of a standard knife, it has a power switch, a D-pad, and a big A button at the top. In the middle are the minus (-), home, and (+) buttons, which mostly controls in-game and system menus. At the bottom of it's face, you have buttons labeled 1 and 2 as well as four boxes that light up corresponding to which player you are. The B trigger on the flip side of the controller, along with the A button, will be the most commonly used as they are the most finger-accessible of the lot. The Apple-esque milk white design feels comfortable in your hands, albeit a tad light with the batteries in. A hand-strap attachment is packed in to prevent any catastrophic flying Wii-Motes if you manage to lose your grip. Underneath the Wii-Mote, there is a port for attachments. The pack-in attachment, the Nunchuk, is a joystick-like handle that has two trigger buttons in front with an analog stick at the top to allow for even more complex control set-ups. And the kicker: both controllers are motion-sensitive.

The Wii-Mote, basically is the Wii. This groundbreaking control scheme allows the player to swing, poke, and pull to dictate what happens on the screen. To play golf, point the controller down and let rip a drive. Flip the controller sideways turning it left and right steers a car. It rumbles and chimes to bring an unparalleled level of immersion. The controller truly changes the way you think about playing games. There are some gripes, however. The further you get away from your screen, say around seven or eight feet, the control gets a little choppy. Also, it feels overly sensitive at times during game play and system navigation. You'll find yourself using the D-pad to move in menus, and wishing the control was a tad tighter in games. It isn't perfect, but the potential is clearly there.

Next Page