My friend Tony recommended that I check out the Nintendo Wii. After reading some positive reviews, I thought it might be good to get one for my kids (yes, and maybe for me ). Luckily my wife managed to pick one up at the local Target!

They go for ludicrous markups on eBay (about the only place that has it in stock). Which leads me to believe that people are buying 10 at a time, so that they can resell on eBay. If everyone just bought one, I’m sure there’d be enough to go around…

Unless you’ve been living under a rock, you’ll know that the Wii is the latest “3rd generation” console (along with the Microsoft Xbox 360 and Sony Playstation 3).

Anyway, setting it up was pretty straight forward.

• Install the Sensor Bar (this is a thin plastic strip, around 1 foot). The instructions say to put it centered, either above or below your TV. It has sticky pads that you can use to attach to the TV, but I just rested it on top of mine.
• Attach the audio/video cable. It’s a standard Red, White, Yellow AV cable. Apparently the High Definition cable is an available accessory, but it’s got plenty good resolution on my 53″ TV.
• Plug in the power adapter, and then turn the unit on.
• Sync the remote controller with the base unit.
• Insert the included game disk (Wii Sports) and start playing

Now that I’ve set it up and played with it for abit, here are some random thoughts…

• Wii Sports (the included “game”, which lets you play Tennis, Baseball, Bowling, Golf and Boxing) is pretty good and will give you a good feel of what the system and remote motion-sensing controller is all about.
• The system comes with one controller. It’s actually comprised of two parts - the “remote controller” and the “nunchuck” attachment. For Wii Sports, the “nunchuck” attachment is only used in boxing game (and you have to detach it for the other games).
• I would definitely recommend that you buy an extra “remote controller” at the same time as you buy the system. You can skip the extra “nunchuck” for now, because that accessory is readily available (unlike the game system and the “remote controller”, which seem to be always out of stock and overpriced on eBay). The extra “remote controller” will let two people play tennis together (I think the tennis game is the most fun).
• Once you get the system running, you might be tempted to dive right into the games. I would recommend you setup the Mii (your “avatar”) so that it remembers your scores and settings.

Things that I haven’t done yet…

• Setup the Internet connection. The Wii comes with built-in wifi, so you can connect to a wireless router (if you have access to one).
• Checked out or bought any other games.

I’ll admit I’m not a big video games fan. I have an (original) Xbox with 15 games, 10 of which are unopened. I just prefer to play games on a PC. But I have to say that the Wii, with it’s motion-driven control system, is fun to play. I’d like to say that it’s more than a gimmick, and that I’ll become a hardcore Wii’r (if there’s such a word), but only time will tell!

Today would have been my dad’s 72nd birthday…

I dedicate Jerry B Jenkins’ Sweet Sorrows in his memory.