First time hands-on with Wii
Being a journalist it’s important to remain objective and not to become too over excited when we first get to play a brand new console. The hype and positive praise surrounding Wii make it difficult not to get caught up in the bubble and for the first few hours of spending the day with Nintendo, playing on some of the upcoming launch titles, I must have had a glow around me like the Ready-Brek man as I beamed, laughed and giggled, having more fun than should ever be allowed on a business trip. On my return from London back to the Midlands, physically exhausted from the intense Wii sports competition between myself and gaming editor, Nick, I slipped into a dream-like state where the magical memories of travelling around the land in Zelda: Twilight Princess came flooding back as I took Epona, the horse, for a ride round a quaint rural village, over brooks and through enchanting forest pathways until I was awoken by a conductor’s voice ringing in my ears, “Tickets please!”. Unfortunately, until December 8th, I’ll just have to keep dreaming about Wii.
Click for larger imageWe’ll have more details on the individual games that we played at Nintendo yesterday in due course, but for now I’m going to give an overview of my initial impressions of Wii, the controller and its games.
This is the first time I’ve spent any time hands-on with Wii and from the initial testing of Ubisoft’s Rayman Raving Rabbids, where I almost felt slightly guilty for being paid for having so much fun, to dripping with sweat after some heavy bouts of boxing and tennis on Wii sports, it was clear to see that the console has a lot to offer in terms of pure, unadulterated entertainment.
Click for larger imageTime flew by as Nick and I spent the day giggling like teenagers at the variety of fun games on offer in the rather swanky house of Wii. After initially playing Rayman and spending far too much time on Wii sports we moved on to Trauma Centre, Zelda: Twilight Princess, Red Steel, Call of Duty 3, Excite Truck and Need for Speed. It was after becoming exhausted playing Wii sports that we had time to reflect on the euphoria of playing Wii and from this point forth we debated whether it was the novelty factor of playing Wii for the first time or the games themselves that were causing me to laugh at the most inappropriate times. The competitiveness of Wii sports and playing against another person was an absolute scream, there’s no doubt about it, but would it be so much fun playing alone against the CPU or do Wii’s strength lie in the social aspect of some of these interactive games and the sharing of the experience with others?
