What is a Wii Anyway?
I admit it. For a nerd, or even just a part-nerd which I believe I am, I am pretty “out-of-it.” Like, I have no idea, really, what a “Wii” is, other than one more thing my kids want to have and I see no reason for, or to spend money on. Well, this is my chance to explore the world of the Wii, and get some mature perspective on what all the noise is about.
First of all, you need a console. It looks a bit like a computer and the start-up package comes with a remote controller, a “Nunchuk” controller, a sports gaming package, and a sensor bar, which I assume is how the thing knows when you are moving. What I didn’t know before is that if you have wireless broadband internet access you can play on-line games, too and stream TV and movies via Netflix. OK, so what else?
Well, I just looked at the accessories which can be purchased in addition to the basic Wii thingy. Let’s just say it is possible to spend oodles of money having fun with this thing. So what kind of fun is actually possible? Well according to their own web page, there are 1,010 different games to choose from. Luckily they have a cool way of helping you find exactly the game you would love. (Otherwise uncool people like me would probably get frustrated from all the choices and end up buying nothing, woe is me.)
There are 8 “favorite game types” you can pick from, not including “other,” ranging from role playing, sports and music and rhythm. (Even I have heard of ‘Rock Band.’) I took a look at ‘other’ and to my surprise saw a selection of regular type games, like chess, jungle speed and Texas poker. Not 100% sure why you need a motion detector for these games, but I guess it just comes with the territory.
The next choice to make is the preferred ESRB rating, in case there are some parents out there trying to protect their kids from the bad values so easily exposed to our kids. I was happy to see that (at least) in the “other” category there are no ‘M’ (Mature, 17+) titles. The highest rating in this category was ‘T’ for Teen, 13+. The vast majority of games in this category fell into the E10+ which means “Everyone 10 years old and above.
OK, I admit again that the “other” category is not really what the Wii is all about. So let’s just take a look for one minute at one of the categories that the developers of the Wii really had in mind when they spent all their time and creativity thinking up this nifty toy, I mean device.
In the Music and Rhythm category, in the Teen 13+ rating are a large selection of different versions of “Guitar Hero” and “Rock Band.” Not too sure what the differences are between them, but maybe I should stop writing and start playing, I mean interacting. I’ll let you know how it goes, and whether I have been convinced this is a real boon to civilization, or not.