My mother promised my children she would get them a Wii for their birthday. When their birthday came around in March, she went out looking for one. When she couldnt find one, she gave me the mission to find one not on Ebay for an outrageous price. After being very patient (and I was proud of my kids for their patience), I found one around the first of May.
My kids were so excited when we got it to my mom and dads house and got it plugged up. They played it for 2-3 hours the first Sunday afternoon we had it. Even though they only had the game that came with it, Wii Sports, it still kept them occupied and entertained.
In just the few times Ive played a Wii or watched others play a Wii, Ive come up with a list of positives and negatives for the system.
First, the positives:
Its different The Wii is definitely different than any other video game in the world. With the new type of controller and active game play, Ive never played anything like it before. Im sure other game companies will have something similar in the near future, but Nintendo was the first and will probably stand the test of time.
Family friendly One of the best things Ive found about the Wii is how family-friendly it is. The Wii Sports game that came with the console is a very positive atmosphere for children. They can play games like baseball, bowling, tennis, and boxing without any hint of violence (boxing without graphic violence of course). The characters on the game are almost non-gender as opposed to the muscled-up players of many of the games on other systems. There is nothing with this game that will require parents to sit down and have a talk with their children about.
Great for all ages Even though probably 80% of the main Wii players are children, its a great game system for children and adults of all ages. I have friends in their 30s who get together and have Wii tournaments just for fun. Plus, with new games like WiiFit coming out, the older generations will have reasons to buy the system.
Exercise Another great thing about the Wii is that the kids play it and get exercise without even realizing it. For most kids who like video games, its probably much easier to get them to get off the couch to play a Wii that to get them to go outside and get some real exercise. My kids were out of breath after playing a few games the first time they played. Thats a good thing. Plus, Nintendo is now marketing a game called Wii Fit that is targeted to adults (mostly women it seems by the commercials I have seen recently) as a way to work out from home using the Wii game console.
A couple of negatives I found are:
Dangerous Why do I say this game is dangerous? Well, it wont be long before one of my kids will be hit by a flying controller or a controller hits the ceiling fan, the TV, or knocks a hole in the ceiling. Ive read about many injuries already from flying controllers. Its just too hard to stay calm while playing a Wii.
Graphics arent the best In the games Ive seen, the graphics are less than desirable. Ill give Nintendo the benefit of the doubt since this is the first release of the Wii system, but I thought they would have put a little more into the graphics. I guess they spent too much time and money perfecting the controllers.
Even though Ive found a couple of negatives with the Nintendo Wii, I still highly recommend this game system to children in the age range of 2-99. It is fun for the whole family and could have a positive impact on the family system in America because families will spend more time together playing games like this.
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