"Chalk one up for Nintendo"

As the title stated, chalk one up for Nintendo. Nintendo has certainly brought innovation to gaming, and I must say, I am truly satisfied with the Wii. Although I gave the Wii a 10/10, that does not mean the system is flawless. All systems have their ups and downs, and I based this review off what Nintendo told us we would get with the Wii. Without further ado, heres the review..

Design - 10/10

The design of the Wii is very basic, but cool. The Wii is a smooth white box, that looks ordinary. Although simple, the Wii isn't a basic white box. On top of the box is two compartments to fliop open that is the Gamecube port. It consists of 4 places for Gamecube remotes, and 2 places for Gamecube memory cards (If it's in its vertical position, that is.) Then there is a little compartment door you flip open by disc drive in the front (In a vertical position) where you can put your SD card. The Wii can be put in a vertical and horizontal position, although the vertical position is the standard position. The Wii is placed on a grey stand, and the grey stand is placed on a clear plastic peice that keeps it from being pushed over (To a degree). Overall, I think the Wii design is neat, but simple.

Setting up the console - 10/10

Setting up your console is a easy process, and the manual for setting it up is very to the point. There isn't much of a problem setting up the console, but there never really is much a problem setting a system up for any console. On your first startup, it asks a series of questions for information, and settings. Through this process, it seemed to help me get used to the pointer, so I beleive it helped. The setup is fairly simple, and doesn't take to long.

Menu - 10/10

The Wii's menu consists of several channels. The channels you start with are News Channel (Not activated yet), Forecast Channel (Not activated yet), Disc Channel (Where you go to start a game), Shopping Channel (Where you go to buy Wii Ware and Virtual Console games.) Photo Channel (You can transport photos you to your Wii via email, digital camera, and SD card. Here you can make puzzles with your pictures, although I havn't used this channel yet, so I'm not to up-to-date with it.), and the Mii channel (Here you can create Miis, and have Mii parades!) Any Virtual Console games downloaded are also added as a channel. The menu is very simple and easy to use (And organize).

Graphics 9/10

Ok, this is a big topic for everyone. Let me start by saying, the Wiis graphics do not own up to PS3 or Xbox 360 graphics. That being said, I took 1 point away (Yes, only 1). I didn't base this section of the review off of competitive systems' graphics. Nintendo told use the graphics wouldn't be as good, so it well prepared us. Nintendo gave us what they told us they would, and that's what, I for one, expected. Nintendo is more about gameplay, than about graphics. Overall, the Wii's graphics aren't that bad. It's not really blurry (Unless on a HDTV without component cables, sometimes), and you can see some details, that's what matters IMO. The Wii has more power than last generation systems. I really enjoy the Wii, although it's not up to PS3 and Xbox 360 standards, graphics wise. Graphics are important, and Nintendo gave us what they said they would.

Controller - 10/10

Ok, this is the center of attention for the Wii. The controller is a remote, that a lot of us call a "Wiimote." The is motion sensoring, and is pretty unique and accurate. You can turn the remote upside down, and even the cursor goes upside down! Now sense the control is motion sensoring, most/all the games have to be too. (Excluding Virtual console games). The remote is very accurate, and whatever you do, it does. It puts a new twist to playing games, and to me, made games more exciting. The buttons are a little spread out, but you get used to it after a while. The control might feel a little awkward at first, but you get used to it pretty fast. Also I want to mention, you don't have to make huge motions for the motion sensoring to work. All it takes is a flick of the wrist for it to work. Big motions can lead to accidents, and accidents are never good.

Sound - 9/10

The sound is close to excellent. In the Wiimote is a speaker built it, and also it appears to be a speaker, as Reggie stated in a interview. With the built it speaker, it suaully makes sounds when there's something that needs your attention. The sound away from the controller is pretty good, and gives off good sound. Most of Nintendos games, and the channels, have good music to listen to in the background (Although this is a matter of opinion). On the Disc Channel, it plays a tune that has to do with the game inserted, which is a neat feature. The sound is great, but could be better.

Online Support - 9/10

Online from launch seems pretty straight forward. Although there isn't any launch games at launch, there is some online capabilities. At the moment, you can make Miis and mingle with others' Miis, you can go online to the shopping channel and buying Virtual Console games, and soon Wii Ware (Channels and other things.) Later on, rumored to be December 8th (The final launch date for Wii to be Worldwide) there will be web browsing with the Opera Browser. Although there isn't much to say about online support at the moment, it's doing good at the moment. Total score was a 9/10, due to lack of a online game in America until 2007. Although we have Friendcodes, it really isn't much different than adding friends to a Friendlist. Online play has a lot of room for improvement, and can be petty grand.

Other - 10/10

There seems to be a lot of posibilities for the Wii. A few of features already known are the Lightshell Gun, the blue light at startup, and WiiConnect24. The Lightshell Gun sounds to be released around when Duckhunt is, but there is no official release date. This cool accessory was featured at E3, and has a analog stick at the top, and a trigger for shooting. The slits in the side of Wiimote seem to be for the Lightshell Gun to slide into. Now.. the blue light at startup. This seems to be a favorite feature to everyone. This cool little neon blue light only comes on at startup, and under certain circumstances. If you are using WiiConnect 24, it lights up if you have a new message, or update. It stays on until you go to the message board, or until you update. Also, it flashes! Last but not least, WiiConnect24. WiiConnect24 is a unique feature, that keeps you online, even when your offline! When you turn off your console, it goes to a yellow light, which means standby. On standby, the Wii seems to heat up to an extent, but that is normal. WiiConnect24 allows you to receive messages, and updates while you are offline. This feature is pretty great, when your not playing you console.

Final Comments -

The Wii is a great system, with some great gameplay. Although previous consoles were considered "kiddish" by many, Nintendo sounds like they are going to change that image.With Parental Control, it can restrict younger kids from playing games that aren't for them, for one. Also, as stated by Reggie himself, I qoute "We're reaching out to every publisher, frankly every day. I'll be spending some time later today with the folks over at Take Two to see what type of support they can give our console ... the fact is there will be M-rated content on the Wii console. EA has already announced that they're bringing The Godfather to our console. And we want every single best-selling game to be available on Wii. Whatever that content is." Take it for what it's worth, and use it as hope for mote M rated games, for the one that love violence (No offense intended.)

If you are ok with graphics not top notch, but want some great gameplay, and a new way to play games, go with the Wii. If your a major fan for graphics, the Wii isn't exactly for you.

Reviewer's Score: 10/10, Originally Posted: 11/30/06