Nintendo Wii Review

Nintendo’s Wii has taken the world by storm. Even though it has been out for a good couple of years now, it still catches the imagination and dreams of children, parents and teenagers alike! The Wii can best be described as an interactive game console which offers motion sensitive game play. This will require a lot more than just sitting on your sofa or laying on your bed and letting your fingers do all the work. You will be swinging your arms! Shouting laughing and having fun!

The Wii is said to be Nintendo's smallest home console.

The main Wii console measures in at: 44 mm (about1.73 inch) wide;

-215.4 mm (8.48 inch) deep in its vertical orientation; and

-157 mm (6.18 in) tall.

If you want to get an idea of how big it is, Nintendo has stated that it is slightly larger than three DVD cases stacked together.

Included in the box is a stand for the console. This stand measures:

-55.4 mm (2.18 in) wide;

-44 mm (1.73 in) tall; and

-225.6 mm (8.88 in) deep.

The system weighs 1.2 Kilograms (for those non-metric that’s 2.7 lb) The console can be placed either horizontally or vertically. On the front of the console there is an illuminated slot-loading optical media drive that accepts both 12 cm Wii Optical Discs and Nintendo GameCube Game Discs. The blue light in the disc slot illuminates briefly when the console is turned on and pulsates when new data is received through WiiConnect24. After the update that includes System Menu 3.0, the disc slot light activates whenever a Wii disc is inserted or ejected. When there is no WiiConnect24 information, the light stays off. The disc slot light remains off during game play or when using other features.

There are two USB ports. They are located at the rear of the console. An SD card slot can be found behind the cover on the front of the console.

- Wii Sports

- Wii Sports Resort

- One Wii Remote™ controller

- One Wii Motion Plus™ accessory

- One Nunchuk™ controller 

- Sensor Bar

-Standard composite cable

-Power cord

The Wii brings to your home motion-sensitive game play. It is a unique experience. Playing tennis where instead of pressing left or right or ‘A’ or ‘B’, you actually swing for the ball. When you play golf, there is no holding onto a key to build the force with which you wish to hit the ball, rather, with the Wii, you stand in your golf stance and actually swing and hit the ball! It truly is something amazing, making the old fashioned ‘TV games’ into something completely different and fun!

The Wii is different from its Playstation and Xbox competitors. With the Wii you will not find yourself or your child just sitting on the sofa or laying in the bed, control in hand and letting your thumbs do all the work. With the Wii you will be swinging your arms, sometimes wildly, trying to hit the ball or run away from a monster.

-Wii MotionPlus

-Wii Balance Board

-Wii Wheel

-Wii Zapper

-Wii Speak

-The Wii offers a unique and interactive experience with motion-sensitive game play.

-The entire family will use it.

-The Wii offers the opportunity to create a Wii person, this allows you to save your progress each time you play on the Wii or use Wii fit. This means that you have information about your progress in exercise and skill.

-It requires effort and so it is a form of physical exercise

-It is really unique and fun to play

-If your friends have a Wii they can bring their controls over and they will work with your Wii allowing you to play multi-player games without having to purchase many Wii remotes.

-Well if you are lazy and do not like working out, then this really is not for you because you need to be doing a lot more than just using your fingers to play the Wii.

-The console only comes with one Wii remote. You will need to purchase extra should you wish to play the multi-player games (unless your friends have their own Wii’s and can bring their Wii remotes)

-The Wii remotes use regular batteries and they chew the battery life.

-The Wii lacks HD graphics and surround sound which is found on its Playstation 3 and Xbox rivals.

-The disc reader of the Wii does not play DVD-Video or DVD-Audio discs.

-I find that, unless you are using the Wii Balance Board for a workout. The Wii is a lot more fun and exciting to use when you have someone else who can play against you.

The Wii offers exceptional motion-sensitive game play which is nothing like you have experienced before! It allows your child or you to have fun while doing a little exercise at the same time. You will most likely find yourself also having a turn because it is just so much fun! The Wii Balance Board also allows you to go for a run and do some yoga, it is not however a substitute for a real work out I find. Actually going outside and playing a game of tennis is always going to be more fun than playing on a game console.

Overall the system offers something completely different from its competitors and is really fun to play!