Wii system update
Feb. 8th, 2007 12:38 pm![[personal profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/silk/identity/user.png){kind=small}
amethyst73So now that we've had the box for a few days, what do we think? Stil totally awesome. (Anyone who happens to be in the area *must* come visit and play.)
Plan A (going to Fry's and claiming someone had given us the games we didn't want) failed, because a senior manager recognized the games as having been sold as part of a bundle, and therefore required the receipt and whole system to return. "Gosh, my friend didn't tell me that..." But Plan B (going to Target sans receipt) worked! I picked up copies of Zelda (which I knew we wanted) and Rayman (which I vaguely remembered as not having abysmal reviews), and we've looked at both.
And before I get to actual content, go watch this. It's a Mac-vs-Windows-like mock advertisement comparing the Wii and the PS3. WARNING: Do be careful of your environment when you watch; there is much rubbing and jiggling of (clothed) female body parts.
Mii channel: The Mii channel is the area where you can design your own avatar for Mii-compatible games, and see your friends' Miis if you've exchanged console numbers. The variety of eye shapes, hair shapes, etc that you can stick on your Mii's face is fairly impressive, and there's some ability to resize and move the various facial features. For example, you can change the spacing between the eyes, for example, but for reasons unknown you cannot change the spacing between the lenses of a pair of glasses. And at the moment, the features are drawn onto a simple ovoid, rather like a Fisher-Price person's face. Also, one can have underbrow-shadow OR blushing cheeks OR freckles OR age lines, but not any combination of them. Which makes no sense - there's no reason for these not to be transparent GIFs being mapped on.
But even with those limitations, it was huge fun going through the options and attempting to build a Mii that resembled the real-world me. The userpic here is what I settled on. I think the huz's Mii is better in the resemblance area than mine though.
There's so much possibility for expansion here. In the future, I predict that users will be able to:
- download photos and map them onto the head
- physically mold the head so that the eyes are withdrawn (or popped out, if you like) and the nose poking out
- download other human (or animal/robot/whatever) models as Miis. I had an amusing image of playing tennis with a dolphin model.
- eventually, Miis will be used in true multiplayer fashion for real-time chatting, competing with distant friends, etc
Wii Sports: This set of sports minigames included with the Wii console has been nominated for Game of the Year, and with good reason. The five sports (golf, tennis, bowling, boxing, and baseball) all use the Wii controller to really very good effect, demonstrating its intuitively easy use. All five sports can be played as single-player against the computer or as multiplayer games, and there are shouts (or hoots) from the virtual audience at appropriate points, which surprisingly adds a lot to the experience. In addition to the 'regular' games, there's also a training area for each sport, with a few different types of training in each. In each training minigame, if you do well enough, you can acquire Olympic medals - I've got a bronze in the tennis Ball Return exercise, and a silver in the golf Putting Green exercise so far. Finally, there's a fitness test where you'll be presented at random with three sports or training exercises, and your outcomes in each will be used to determine your Mii Age (20 being the best - low is good, rather like the Brain Exercise game on the DS).
One kind of neat thing about these games is that we've stumbled upon three different 'secret' motions that aren't discussed in the game booklet (one in tennis, two in boxing). How many more might there be? I think it's kind of neat for the game developer to have hidden them and left them for the player to discover.
- Golf: My favorite of the set. Very pretty courses, and a very straightforward interface. There are no timing issues; if you hold down the A button and swing enough for the controller to register the swing, you hit the ball. The putter interface could use a little work; it's much more difficult to give the ball a gentle tap here than in the real world, because either your swing is not registered or it ends up being stronger than you want.
- Tennis: Very good. I've discovered how to deliver an almost unhittable serve - which is admittedly not the point if you want to play (and if you want to play, you want to volley), but does make a nice secret weapon if you need it.. and if you're serving. We've noticed in the two-player mode that whoever serves pretty much always ends up winning - is this what happens in the real world?
- Bowling: Pretty good, though you need to 'throw' the ball pretty darn hard if you want it to roll straight and not curve off to the right at the last minute. It is, in fact, possible to get your ball into an adjoining lane, though it invariably ends up in the gutter. Random extra entertainment: Watching the reactions of the people in adjacent lanes to their own results.
- Boxing: There appears to be a bit of a time delay between the strike you make with the controller, and the strike appearing on the screen. But I've only tried it once so far.
- Baseball: Demonstrated to me that, as in the real world, I am pathetic at bat games. Timing appears to be verrrrry precise for hitting; I've gotten a couple of fouls, but no real hits. Pitching is much more straightforward.
Super Monkey Balls Banana Blitz: Marble Madness with monkeys! Ack, the monkeys... Control in the main game is pretty straightforward: hold the controller horizontally, and tilt it to tilt the floor and roll your monkey. I started the first world, and successfully completed, oh, stage 5 or so (has a narrow rail-less bridge with the jump at the end of it) and decided I was tired and wanted to let the huz try. BAD THING: Monkey Balls does NOT have a 'New Game' option; we had to go into the Wii Data Management area and delete my save data (like I care!) to be able to start at the first stage of World One again. Serious fault!
Rayman Raving Rabbids: It was the huz's turn to do single-player stuff for a bit when we put this game in for the first time. We've only seen the first level of minigames so far, but it is the biggest hoot! It's a collection of minigames that makes (so far) truly excellent use of the controller and nunchuck. The graphics (insane rabbits! with bug-out eyes!) are delightfully goofy, and.. what other game lets you spin a cow over your head, or shoot toilet plungers at insane bunnies?
Heh heh... bunnies... <insane grin>
Zelda: Ohhhhh pretty. And the kitty in town that I'm supposed to catch.. somehow.. is the swimmingest cat I've ever seen.
But.. but why does this game only have 3 #&?%#! save slots???? Dangit, they didn't HAVE to limit themselves thusly in this day and age!!! There's an ugly workaround using a SIM card - copy savefiles to the SIM card and back again. Messy messy messy. They didn't have to make us do this..
And why, when you save in a town/dungeon, will it then stick you, not in the place that you saved IN the town/dungeon, but back at the ENTRANCE? There's a workaround for that too. But dang, it's stupid that you NEED a workaround.
Edit 2/9: Having looked at the manual and thought about it, I think he 'workaround' that I mentioned for the dungeon non-save-problem is a good thing. It's certainly deliberate - the manual itself mentions it. You can warp out of dungeons back to the surface world if you possess a certain item, and then warp back when you want. Really useful if you're running low on supplies!
Overall though, we are enchanted. The console is getting much use. And my right shoulder and wrist are kind of sore. Think we'll watch a movie tonight instead...
But even with those limitations, it was huge fun going through the options and attempting to build a Mii that resembled the real-world me. The userpic here is what I settled on. I think the huz's Mii is better in the resemblance area than mine though.
There's so much possibility for expansion here. In the future, I predict that users will be able to:
- download photos and map them onto the head
- physically mold the head so that the eyes are withdrawn (or popped out, if you like) and the nose poking out
- download other human (or animal/robot/whatever) models as Miis. I had an amusing image of playing tennis with a dolphin model.
- eventually, Miis will be used in true multiplayer fashion for real-time chatting, competing with distant friends, etc
Wii Sports: This set of sports minigames included with the Wii console has been nominated for Game of the Year, and with good reason. The five sports (golf, tennis, bowling, boxing, and baseball) all use the Wii controller to really very good effect, demonstrating its intuitively easy use. All five sports can be played as single-player against the computer or as multiplayer games, and there are shouts (or hoots) from the virtual audience at appropriate points, which surprisingly adds a lot to the experience. In addition to the 'regular' games, there's also a training area for each sport, with a few different types of training in each. In each training minigame, if you do well enough, you can acquire Olympic medals - I've got a bronze in the tennis Ball Return exercise, and a silver in the golf Putting Green exercise so far. Finally, there's a fitness test where you'll be presented at random with three sports or training exercises, and your outcomes in each will be used to determine your Mii Age (20 being the best - low is good, rather like the Brain Exercise game on the DS).
One kind of neat thing about these games is that we've stumbled upon three different 'secret' motions that aren't discussed in the game booklet (one in tennis, two in boxing). How many more might there be? I think it's kind of neat for the game developer to have hidden them and left them for the player to discover.
- Golf: My favorite of the set. Very pretty courses, and a very straightforward interface. There are no timing issues; if you hold down the A button and swing enough for the controller to register the swing, you hit the ball. The putter interface could use a little work; it's much more difficult to give the ball a gentle tap here than in the real world, because either your swing is not registered or it ends up being stronger than you want.
- Tennis: Very good. I've discovered how to deliver an almost unhittable serve - which is admittedly not the point if you want to play (and if you want to play, you want to volley), but does make a nice secret weapon if you need it.. and if you're serving. We've noticed in the two-player mode that whoever serves pretty much always ends up winning - is this what happens in the real world?
- Bowling: Pretty good, though you need to 'throw' the ball pretty darn hard if you want it to roll straight and not curve off to the right at the last minute. It is, in fact, possible to get your ball into an adjoining lane, though it invariably ends up in the gutter. Random extra entertainment: Watching the reactions of the people in adjacent lanes to their own results.
- Boxing: There appears to be a bit of a time delay between the strike you make with the controller, and the strike appearing on the screen. But I've only tried it once so far.
- Baseball: Demonstrated to me that, as in the real world, I am pathetic at bat games. Timing appears to be verrrrry precise for hitting; I've gotten a couple of fouls, but no real hits. Pitching is much more straightforward.
Super Monkey Balls Banana Blitz: Marble Madness with monkeys! Ack, the monkeys... Control in the main game is pretty straightforward: hold the controller horizontally, and tilt it to tilt the floor and roll your monkey. I started the first world, and successfully completed, oh, stage 5 or so (has a narrow rail-less bridge with the jump at the end of it) and decided I was tired and wanted to let the huz try. BAD THING: Monkey Balls does NOT have a 'New Game' option; we had to go into the Wii Data Management area and delete my save data (like I care!) to be able to start at the first stage of World One again. Serious fault!
Rayman Raving Rabbids: It was the huz's turn to do single-player stuff for a bit when we put this game in for the first time. We've only seen the first level of minigames so far, but it is the biggest hoot! It's a collection of minigames that makes (so far) truly excellent use of the controller and nunchuck. The graphics (insane rabbits! with bug-out eyes!) are delightfully goofy, and.. what other game lets you spin a cow over your head, or shoot toilet plungers at insane bunnies?
Heh heh... bunnies... <insane grin>
Zelda: Ohhhhh pretty. And the kitty in town that I'm supposed to catch.. somehow.. is the swimmingest cat I've ever seen.
But.. but why does this game only have 3 #&?%#! save slots???? Dangit, they didn't HAVE to limit themselves thusly in this day and age!!! There's an ugly workaround using a SIM card - copy savefiles to the SIM card and back again. Messy messy messy. They didn't have to make us do this..
And why, when you save in a town/dungeon, will it then stick you, not in the place that you saved IN the town/dungeon, but back at the ENTRANCE? There's a workaround for that too. But dang, it's stupid that you NEED a workaround.
Edit 2/9: Having looked at the manual and thought about it, I think he 'workaround' that I mentioned for the dungeon non-save-problem is a good thing. It's certainly deliberate - the manual itself mentions it. You can warp out of dungeons back to the surface world if you possess a certain item, and then warp back when you want. Really useful if you're running low on supplies!
Overall though, we are enchanted. The console is getting much use. And my right shoulder and wrist are kind of sore. Think we'll watch a movie tonight instead...
