First of all, a Happy New Year to all! Now get back to work! :)
Well, we are all back from a well deserved holiday break and I must say that 2006 has been a good year. Meeting new friends, spending time with families and friends and lots and lots of cool new toys. I think 2007 will be even better.
So did I do in the New Year? Well, on New Year's eve, we spent the night at a friends house for dinner. Surprisingly, he got the new Nintendo Wii the night before. I must say, I am amazed by that game console. I've never had that much fun with a game console since the Family Computer came out.
Sure, I've tried the PS3 and the Xbox 360 in the stores. The graphics is amazing in those machines, which is not the case in the Nintendo Wii. We have PS2 and Xbox at home too and the graphics there is comparable or beats the Nintendo Wii. But what the Wii has that those other consoles don't have is the Wiimote and nunchuck.
These innovative controllers lets you move your whole body naturally instead of just controlling a thumbstick and pushing a couple of buttons. So if you are playing baseball, you actually swing the controller like a bat. If you're playing tennis, you swing the whole controller like a tennis racket. That control alone takes you out of the couch and actually makes you move your whole body. That makes the game control intuitive instead of trying to learn which button to press.
We played the Wii sports and Zelda on my friend's Wii and frankly, I'm inclined to buy that console for my son. Who has been playing PS2 lately and all he does is sit around moving his thumb. Seeing my four year old son play boxing and actually beating 5 computer characters in a row made me appreciate how playing the game can give him some exercise as well. He even beat my wife at bowling!
I played all the games as well, bowling, tennis, golf, baseball, boxing. And I really got a good aerobic workout. I'm actually still sore from all the exercise...er I mean playing. :)
Zelda was good as well, though it will take a lot of time to finish that game. It was already 1 am when I started playing Zelda and I'm not about to spend the night at my friend's house. :)
Nintendo Wii outsold the PS3 this holiday season for a couple of reasons.
- The Wii is half the price of the PS3.
- The games are easy and fun.
- Your parents can play the Wii easily.
- Your grandparents can play the Wii.
- It's just fun! Plain and simple.
It's always sold out in the stores here in Canada. Best Buy had 20 of them online before Christmas and it was sold out in six minutes.
My friend who works at a computer retail shop told me that he had a client who bought the Wii and their parents started playing it and their parents never played video games before. Their Mom and Dad played boxing and the mom beat everyone, even the kids! The kids ended up saying they're going back to their Xbox.
Here's a five minute video of the Wii commercial.
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