Anyway, with all the madness leading up to Wii launch, I couldn't find the time to collect my thoughts about the system and its games. I have some observations, some good and some bad. Here they are in quick sentence buckshots:
1. I officially love the controller. Navigating menus with the Wii remote is top notch. Going back to a traditional controller feels archaic and somehow wrong. Also loving the Wii remote for games like Zelda, Monkey Ball, Rayman and Trauma Center.
2. Loving the Mii system. I was afraid this would be gimmicky and pointless, but I have spent hours upon hours creating dozens of friends and family. Seeing recognizable faces in Wii Sports is just cool.
3. Barely used the Photo Channel, but it has potential. As a side note, I wish I could hook up a printer to Wii so that I could actually do something more with the Channel.
4. I've downloaded six games from the Virtual Console service. That being said, I am utterly disappointed with the Wii Shop Channel and WiiConnect24 as a whole. With the exception of sending Miis to friends, I believe that Nintendo has so far created a totally claustrophobic online network -- one that dismisses community and encourages singularity.
I imagine rabid fans will argue against me, but honestly, I fired off some messages to Peer over the Wii message board the other night and they took five to 10 minutes to arrive on his system. I've added some Wii friends to my system, but they remain totally inactive anyway until they add me back. Even the process of browsing the Wii Shop Channel seems rushed. Why aren't these game lists cached using WiiConnect24? Why do I have to 'connect' to the Shop Channel at all? When I'm on Xbox Live, I can browse everything instantly.
5. Wii Sports Bowling continues to be awesome.
6. I wish I could save Virtual Console games to SD Card. It turns out, you can only store game save files and Wii Channels -- like the Opera browser, apparently -- to SD Card.
7. I hope the second USB 2.0 slot will support a USB hard drive in the future.
8. None of my friends' Mii characters have appeared in Mii Parade yet.
9. The classic controller is cool.
10. One thing that really bugged me early on is that my Wii remote seemed to glitch out when playing on my plasma at home. I evrentually figured out that this was happening because I was playing from about 10 feet away. This pissed me off very, very much and I was about ready to rant about the limitations of the technology, but first I went into Wii Settings and upped the sensitivity of the sensor bar to the max. That fixed everything. If you've had similar problems then follow my lead and you'll be happy.
11. I really wish at least one "Wii Ware" was avaiable at system launch.
12. Nintendo really dropped the ball on Wii component cables. In this day and age, I can't believe it again forgot that users might really want to play its software in 480p. The fact that these cables sold out immediately -- everywhere -- should be a big wake up call.
13. Every person I have introduced to Wii is very impressed, if not blown away by the system.
14. Every kid I know who has seen Rayman Raving Rabbids totally loves the bunnies and the game.
15. I really wish Nintendo would make Excitebike 64 available on the Virtual Console. For some reason, I really want to play it, but can't find my old copy.
16. The load times between Wii Channels are stupid. I hope Nintendo can figure out a way to make them speedier.
17. I don't like the way I can hear my system re-checking the disc drive every time I exit a Wii Channel.
18. I enjoy using the A and B trigger buttons to pick things up -- whether they be Mii characters or actual Wii Channels.
19. Zelda rocks in just about every way.
20. Strangely, you can drag your Wii Channels over to the next page simply by picking them up and "mousing" over the arrow. However, you can't drag Wii Message Board posts over to the next day in the same fashion. Neither can you edit your Message Board posts. I hope future firmware updates address these incredibly minor issues.
There you have it. Right off the top of my head and into the blog. All things said and done, I am very impresed with what Nintendo has achieved with Wii so far and I'm really looking forward to next year's lineup. I think the console is going to go over big for hardcore and casual gamers alike.
