Questions about the Wii

[Widescreen]

1. When bugs are found in games, do the publishers provide patches or do they just say "buy our version next year. The bugs may be fixed."?

2. What are some of the best games?

3. Besides additional controllers, what extras do I need to get (memory cards, etc)?

[crawfish]

2. One word: lightsabers (http://kotaku.com/gaming/wiimote-lightsaber/lucasarts-unleashes-the-force-on-the-wii-301065.php). Next year.

I got many hours out of the "Wii Sports" that came with the game. Ragin' Ribbids is fun and hilarious. The kids all played Zelda: Twilight Princess a few times through.

[Mongo]

2. One word: lightsabers (http://kotaku.com/gaming/wiimote-lightsaber/lucasarts-unleashes-the-force-on-the-wii-301065.php). Next year.


Would it be nerdy of me to buy a Wii just for that game?

[GottaHavePride]

Hell no. I'm considering a Wii. Of course, I want a 360 too. I gots to have me some Oblivion, Gears of War, and Halo 3.

[frankensooner]

Acutally the wii will update itself if you have a wireless hookup. Pretty sweet.

Rabbids is a lot of fun. Zelda of course. I like the new Harry Potter game since you use the wiimote as a wand.

I didn't much care for prince of persia or wii play. You can download a lot of cool old games too.

[Sooner in Tampa]

Hell no. I'm considering a Wii. Of course, I want a 360 too. I gots to have me some Oblivion, Gears of War, and Halo 3.I am lucky enough to have Wii and XBox 360...they both rock, of course, they are just two different systems for two different types of games.

Wii is more family oriented and we have gotten TONS of use from Super Mario 8 and the new Mario Super Strykers soccer game.

360 is just for hard core gaming...IMHO.

[dolemitesooner]

ps3

[GottaHavePride]

ps3=lam3rz

fixed.

[crawfish]

I'm intrigued about Wii Fit. Interesting to see how that works out - it could open up a completely new market for the Wii - the aerobics market.

[rufnek05]

Would it be nerdy of me to buy a Wii just for that game?


no, because I might be doing the same thing.

[Beef]

Do not get Tiger Woods golf.

[dolemitesooner]

fixed.
Really how is that Ghp.

Have you played one? Do you have one?

Resistance fall of man is just as good as HALO.

X-box is great it has halo and bioshock.

Wii has games taht are fun for groups of people

Ps3 has the best technology and it comes with a blue ray player. They are comign out with Ps3 home soon and Call of duty four online demo wise is better tahn either of the halo games I have played.

[GottaHavePride]

Heh. I really don't care tha much either way, but I have no plans to get a ps3, while I DO have plans to get the 360.

[Pricetag]

3. Besides additional controllers, what extras do I need to get (memory cards, etc)?
Some of the Wii games will require the nunchuck controller attachment to get full functionality.

Some of the Virtual Console (with wireless connection, you can purchase and download classic games for the NES, SNES, N64, Genesis, Turbo Grafx, and more) games might need the classic controller attachment for more buttons and stuff, although I think you can use a Gamecube controller plugged into the port to play many of them.

There's a port on the system for a memory card, but I have yet to need it. I have Zelda and Madden, both memory-heavy games, but have been able to play both with just the on-board console storage thus far.

[Oldnslo]

wii's boxing game/sim is teh awexome. You WILL break a sweat, but the controller wasn't up to my flurries of uppercuts and hooks, nor did it catch all my feints and dodges. But straight punches for a few rounds gets the ol' heart rate up.

We played all the systems before embarking on our quest to purchase a wii. The PS3 has the best graphics, but the games ain't there yet. Essentially, your sucky game will look wonderful as you're bored playing it. Was going to get a 360, but when Ben picked up the wii remote, it was all over. The kid just dived into the games. It's all about the controller.

We like all the sports games, especially baseball.

[SoonerBorn]

Rechargeable batteries. There are some docks for the remotes that will recharge them, and I think they are only $20 or so some places. I use batteries and a wall charger.

Zelda was alot of fun - and I'm not that young anymore. I also have "Rampage," but it's mostly for therapeutic purposes.

[Pricetag]

wii's boxing game/sim is teh awexome. You WILL break a sweat, but the controller wasn't up to my flurries of uppercuts and hooks, nor did it catch all my feints and dodges. But straight punches for a few rounds gets the ol' heart rate up.
If they don't make a Punch Out!! game for this system, it will be a crying shame.

[frankensooner]

[Da Ali G]Wiispek[/Da Ali G]

[soonerx]

1. When bugs are found in games, do the publishers provide patches or do they just say "buy our version next year. The bugs may be fixed."?

The built in Wi-Fi (or additional ethernet/lan adapter ~$30 if you don't have a wireless router) let you update the Wii hardware via the internet, but to my knowledge there are no updates for the actual games for the Wii. Historically console games are generally much tighter at release than PC games in the area of bugs, since they HAD to be, because there was no way to fix them after the fact. They spit PC games out and provide patches ad-nauseum because they're much easier to update on a PC. It is possible now to update console games as well w/ the advent of internet enabled consoles (I've heard it done with Xbox), but I haven't heard of them doing this yet for the Wii. Fortunately it's not really necessary for the aforementioned reason.



2. What are some of the best games?


It just depends on your taste. Here are a few of the best games out there right now IMHO -

Single-Player

Super Paper Mario - Combines rpg elements + old-school 2D side scrolling + the ability to switch to 3d anytime = really slick and innovative game
Zelda: Twilight Princess - Typical Zelda adventure but they still manage to make it new and entertaining + you can turn into a wolf!
Metroid Prime: Corruption - Similar to the previous two Metroid Prime games for the Gamecube, but now you use the remote control to aim.
Resident Evil 4: Wii edition - Same awesome game as the Gamecube version, except the've included the updates added in the PS2 version, and now you aim with the remote control like a gun. This is the absolute best game for the Wii at just $30, and will be even better when they release the Wii zapper in November!


Multi-Player

Wii Sports - Several sports games in one package (golf, tennis, bowling, boxing, baseball) and it's bundled w/ the Wii
Wario-Ware - I thought it would be lame at first, but my wife wanted it. It's actually a great 2+ player game (can be played alone as well), mostly because you can sit and laugh at each other with all the different hilarious poses you have to make with the Wii controller.

For multiplayer I've also heard good things about the Rayman's Raving Rabbids game and the Mario Strikers soccer game (only current Wii game that can be played online) but haven't gotten a chance to play them yet. Also Super Smash Brothers is being released in Nov and will be a sweet fighting game with all the classic Nintendo characters and will have internet support, and the new Super Mario game will be released in Dec. The Wii Mario Kart is scheduled for release early next year (and I'm guessing it will have internet support as well).

I'd stay away from Super Monkey Ball. We'd heard good things about it so went ahead and bought it. It has a ton of multiplayer mini-games, but we only found half of them really playable. The controls are just awful.



3. Besides additional controllers, what extras do I need to get (memory cards, etc)?

Like someone else said, I've done fine w/o an additional memory. The onboard memory seems to be enough to meet my needs so far.

If you're planning on doing multiplayer games you'll obviously need an additional remote controller ($40) and probably another nunchuck ($20) as well. I highly recommend a charging station for your remote(s). The original batteries died in under two weeks after we bought the Wii. I bought the Nyko one from Wal-Mart ($20) it comes w/ 2 rechargable batteries and can charge two remotes at the same time.

[badger]

Really how is that Ghp.

Have you played one? Do you have one?

Resistance fall of man is just as good as HALO.

X-box is great it has halo and bioshock.

Wii has games taht are fun for groups of people

Ps3 has the best technology and it comes with a blue ray player. They are comign out with Ps3 home soon and Call of duty four online demo wise is better tahn either of the halo games I have played.
You sound like someone who spent a lot of time in line last year at Christmas to get one, only to find dozens of boxes of PS3's stacked in stores everywhere this past year ;)

I have played PS3, and it has awesome graphics... but then again, so does a HD TV, which doesn't require you to do anything at all, except press remote buttons, so really, why bother pressing more buttons? :D

[NormanPride]

lol $599

[soonerx]

I forgot to mention, if you have an HDTV you may want to pick up the component cables for Wii as well (~$20). Most of the Wii games have progressive scan capability, which requires them. The graphics are still nowhere near XBox 360 or PS3 even with progressive scan, but it does make a difference.

[Widescreen]

I forgot to mention, if you have an HDTV you may want to pick up the component cables for Wii as well (~$20). Most of the Wii games have progressive scan capability, which requires them. The graphics are still nowhere near XBox 360 or PS3 even with progressive scan, but it does make a difference.
Yeah, I'm still trying to figure out how I'm going to hook it up. My theater setup is somewhat more complicated than most because my DVD player and VCR connect to my projector through a 480P scaler. I also have a device that converts the HD output from my sat receiver to RGB before going to the projector. So I'm trying to decide which of the 2 to connect to. Still have some thinking to do about it.

[frankensooner]

Since you are going through a projector, where will you place your sensor bar?

[badger]

Since you are going through a projector, where will you place your sensor bar?
You know, that's a very good question. Anyone ever deal with this? Can you even use a projector with Wii?

I have been monitoring the video game market during the past several months, and it seems like the moment 360 makes substantial changes to ensure less rings of death, a lot of people are going to drop the $280-$450 for it. There's too many good games for it to not make the plunge, but most reasonable people won't drop hundreds on a system that has a 33 percent chance of breaking.

Wii, on the other hand, disguises itself as a fun and cheap system at $250. NP and I spent more than that, of course, even initially ($50 Zelda game + $20 virtual console controller + $20 extra nunchuk + $250 system = $340).

If I had any advice for any new system buyer, it would be to only buy games that you've tried and want to play more, especially for the 360 and Wii.

Why? Because with Wii, there's the chance that you'll get a gimmick game that the fun lasts a few minutes (Wii Play, Cooking Mama) or that is glitchy (Red Steel, Tiger Woods). With 360, your system might scratch and destroy your $60 disks.

How? Well, I'm so happy that you asked :D:D:D

Gamefly will give me a free DS if I can get six people to sign up for it. It's only $9.95 for the first month, unlimited rental-through-mail one game at a time! You also get a 14 day trial free. Here in Oklahoma it, usually takes two days for games to arrive. Here is their shpeeeeal:

I wanted to take a moment to invite you to my personal GameFly network. It is a great service where you can rent from thousands of games for one low monthly fee. Please take a moment to view my personal invitation by clicking below: http://friends.GameFly.com/r/7698ccf8b9b5102a919d (don't forget, you need to click my personal invite link above so I can get credit for inviting you)

Oh I feel like such a tool :(:(:(

But seriously, NP and I probably would have spent $$$ for games we've disliked (but sounded cool) if we didn't try them first, so give it a shot.

[soonerx]

Yeah, I'm still trying to figure out how I'm going to hook it up. My theater setup is somewhat more complicated than most because my DVD player and VCR connect to my projector through a 480P scaler. I also have a device that converts the HD output from my sat receiver to RGB before going to the projector. So I'm trying to decide which of the 2 to connect to. Still have some thinking to do about it.

Max resolution for Wii games in progressive scan is 480P so you should be fine w/ either.

[frankensooner]

Hey X, he is either going to need some really long component cables or a really long cable on his sensor bar, dontcha think?

[soonerx]

You know, that's a very good question. Anyone ever deal with this? Can you even use a projector with Wii?

Although I've never dealt w/ it, I would assume it's still possible. Unless the screen takes up the entire wall, then that could be a problem. The sensor could be mounted above or below the screen if there's room.

That still leaves the possible issue of where to place the Wii. With a lot of projector setups, the a/v equipment is kept in the back, so since the sensor cable is somewhere around 8/10ft in length, the Wii may have to be kept in the front. If that's not acceptable, they make extension cables, and I've also seen a wireless sensor bar available (~$20 I think), but then that's even more batteries to deal with.

[soonerx]

Hey X, he is either going to need some really long component cables or a really long cable on his sensor bar, dontcha think?

Yep, exactly. Or the wireless sensor bar I mentioned (that would probably be the simplest solution, albeit more expensive).

Another potential issue I thought of with a projector is depending on how you have it positioned (mounted to wall, or sitting on a table) you may run into problems with interfering with the projected display since a lot of Wii games require you to stand up. Distance plays a factor in that too, because the further you move away from the sensor the less accurate it becomes. And obviously the closer you move to the screen the more likely you'll interfere w/ the projection. I have my couch about 12ft away from my plasma and still have to stand up for some games (ahem Metroid) that I could normally sit down for just because the sensor doesn't pick up my motions well enough from that distance.

[SoonerJack]

Tell me about this "Metroid" of which you speak.

[badger]

Tell me about this "Metroid" of which you speak.
here you go:
http://img1.livegen.fr/00/00/01/68/0000016878.jpg

oh, and they officially announed Solid Snake for Smashy (http://www.smashbros.com/en_us/index.html) today. Check out screenshots and music and junk. I know it was in a few trailers before, but now they have specifics.

[crawfish]

Since you are going through a projector, where will you place your sensor bar?

It needs to sit right above the projection's top limit.

[Widescreen]

You can get wireless sensor bars for under $20. And I have taps to my projector behind my AV rack so I can just put the Wii there. I won't have to put the Wii anywhere near the projector. Actually, you can just use a couple of candles next to the screen and that will work just as well as the sensor bar although that doesn't seem like a practical solution with kids running around.

[Pricetag]

I checked the Wii Shop Channel over the weekend, and it appears that all of the Virtual Console games can be played with the Gamecube controller if you don't want to buy the Classic Controller. For those of you who use the Classic Controller, how does that work for you? It looks a little awkward with it having to be plugged into the Wiimote like the Nunchuck.

I downloaded my first Virtual Console game this weekend, NES Play Action Football. It's still fun. The names they put in for the players are pretty funny, though, since the NFLPA license ran out. I'm glad they at least put fake names in there instead of leaving them blank like they did with Tecmo Bowl.

[frankensooner]

I really like the classic since you can sit across the room and play wirelessly. Works great.

[Widescreen]

http://www.foxnews.com/story/0,2933,297867,00.html

http://img391.imageshack.us/img391/8826/021starwarsunleashed1tq5.jpg

Oh, yeah!

[badger]

For those of you who use the Classic Controller, how does that work for you?
It's not bad. The Gamecube Wavebird doubles as another wireless controller (no rumble, though :( )

Since the class controller looks sort of like a SNES controller, its fun on those games.