Thursday, April 19, 2007

Wiidiculous Fun


Thank You Nintendo for you lifetime service to me.

If you made it past my corny title then hear me out: It’s been almost a month now since I received a Nintento Wii for my birthday (You can still wish me a happy late birthday). I’ve only been able to play a few times due to the rigors of schoolwork (also known as procrastination). However, even in the little time I’ve played, I feel safe saying this: The Nintendo Wii is the greatest invention in the video game world since the 360-degree world!

What do I mean by the 360-degree world? Well who can forget when video games changed from a side to side, or top to bottom world (think original Mario Brothers) to an all around, go-wherever-you-wish world (think Mario 64). The creation of this world was a breakthrough in the video game industry. It enabled me to spend countless hours exploring the deep worlds of Zelda and Mario. What geeky fun. I’ve said it before, but Mario 64 (I would suggest mainly due to this breakthrough) was the first game where I saw people just stand around utterly content to watch the game being played by other individuals.

What I appreciate about the Wii, is the people of Nintendo went out on a limb and tried something entirely new. Microsoft and Sony simply kept revving up improvements on the same system. Graphics were improved, game-play tweaked, and geeky new features continually added. However, at the end of they day, it’s the same system. One takes the controller in his hands and moves the character with a joystick. The Wii, however, took a chance and it’s unbelievably fun. To take a controller and actually make it into a golf club adds a whole new dimension.

Games that simply employ right timing on button pushing and joystick control can be mastered fairly easy. However, it’s a little harder to master something that involves an individual’s motion. For example, I still have trouble not slicing my shot in Tiger Woods golf. Why? Because my golf swing is horrific. Instead of simply mashing the A-Button at the correct time, I now have to swing with good tempo and avoid rolling my wrists too much. Granted, I’ve only played a few times, but it always annoyed me how easily sports games were mastered by frequency of play. Who didn’t with enough practice begin shooting 18 under on the first Tiger Woods golf? Now, the motion sensitive controller adds a whole new dimension.

Secondly, the Wii adds a whole new dimension of fun for groups of people. My wife actually enjoys playing the Wii and ashamedly beat me in bowling the first time we played (I promptly announced the game was rigged and we would never play bowling again). There is something beautiful about looking at a room with 4 individuals swinging their controller like a tennis racket.

Thirdly, other than my eyes getting sore from 5 straight hours of staring at a Zelda screen, I’ve never been tired from video games. A friend of mine told me his forearm was sore following the first day he played a Wii. Nintendo is fighting America’s obesity.

Finally, the possibilities for the Wii have now easily surpassed Microsoft and Sony. The potential of a good baseball game (if it’s a curve ball you actually have to swing down in the strikezone to catch it), or Super Smash Brothers is exciting. Nintendo has done it again, if you haven’t played a Wii yet, it’s worth a try. It’s a whole new dimension to actually swing your controller, hear the sound of a golf ball being hit, and then take in the roar of the crowd screaming “YOU DA MAN” as you follow through. For geeks like me who fantasize about playing professional sports, it’s as close as we’ll ever get.

I hope this blog has been a reminder of how you can always count on Sweet Emotion to cover the most important news in the world. Wiidiculous

7 Comments:

At 12:44 PM, Blogger Daniel said...

Having never played Wii until I was in Mississippi a while ago, I used actual boxing knowledge to make it to something like th 12th opponent before my shoulders and arms were tired from not having been that excessively used. It's pretty incredible to throw a few jabs and then follow up with a right-handed body hook to see the character go limp as you feel a massive vibration from the controller. If I need to kill time in Austin and can't do it by hearing great bands play, I'll just buy a Wii.

 
At 2:22 PM, Blogger Alex said...

I would just like to affirm a stance that sweet emotion takes. Video games and super-hero movies are not just mere fantasies and pathetic corners for lifeless people. If millions of dollars are spent making these things - you can spend $10 and enjoy it. Life options are produced. I don't know how many flag-football plays i adopted from NCAA 2002--Think of these things as "lifting weights" for life--you have to do it to get better--they are training exercises.

 
At 3:59 PM, Blogger Daniel said...

To back up what Alex said, after playing Counter-Strike for a couple of months I would walk into rooms and exam every corner of the room, as if there might be a hostile there. To this day, if someone is at a party, I know it.

 
At 12:40 PM, Anonymous Anonymous said...

I just wanted everyone to know that all this video game talk has caused me to convince myself to go buy a system to replace my XBOX that was stolen last spring. How I lasted a year without one is beyond me.

 
At 5:44 PM, Blogger Alex said...

you redeemed yourself..

 
At 8:06 PM, Anonymous Anonymous said...

I remember when I got my Wii at launch... that was a good week writing about Red Steel (so-so game) and Super Monkey Ball: Banana Blitz (kick ass story mode). The money for writing did not hurt either.

 
At 9:41 PM, Anonymous Anonymous said...

My wife and I got our wii about a month ago. We got the call at 8:00 on a Sunday morning from one of my wife's friends who works at Walmart... 5 wii's left from that morning's shipment of 20 wii's. at 8:30 we had purchased the wii and games. We still made it to church that day.. but i don't know how. Did we break the Sabbath? In hind sight.. yes. But we got a wii.

 

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