Our traveling Christmas parade comes to an end tomorrow. We finished our fourth Christmas yesterday and we’ve traveled through seven states. I won’t bother counting how many relatives we’ve visited because it won’t sound that impressive, but it feels impressive to me. We’ve also opened more presents than I care to admit. Most of them were for Lexi, but still. Wow.
Speaking of presents, I’m having my typical post-birthday dilemma of how to spend gift cash, thanks to a wad of cash I received for Christmas. Usually I only get cash for my birthday, so it’s a little different to get it for Christmas. Not that I’m complaining.
One of my potential purchases is the latest game system, the Nintendo Wii. I’ve heard glowing reviews from friends and strangers, and it sounds like fun. I’m not a huge gamer. I do have a GameCube that gets minimal use (though little to none lately). I’m not sure if I’m just being tempted by the latest toy or if it really would be fun.
But whether or not I want one is a moot point right now. They’re not exactly readily available. I don’t know how you’d go about getting one with their limited availability. I imagine by mid-January or so you could find them, so I probably don’t have to wait long. But it really kills instant gratification. Where’s all the cool web toys that can show me where the Wiis are.
My compromise with the Wii is to let a friend get it. I have found that games systems are only helpful to me when I limit myself to social games. If go have to go to a Wii friends house to play we will have to play multi-person games. I would love to get one myself and devote a few weeks to Twilight Princess but, as sad as it is, school must take priority. Besides, I heard from a friend of a friend who knows a guy that they will continue to be sold out into March.
You want one. I even play it. Me… Steph… plays it. I didn’t enjoy ANY game consoles EVER. We brought it over to a friends house and played with them and their kids (it’s so intuitive that their 6 year old daughter creamed us all in bowling). We brought it over to another friends house for the New Years party. We brought it… wait. I think people have potentially been inviting our Wii over to play and having us along because they feel obligated. Hmmm…
Regardless, I love it and I play it even when Josh isn’t around. I’m waiting for a volleyball game though…
I have just a few things to add to Steph’s incredibly compelling sales pitch. (And no, I didn’t tell her to write that.) It seems to me that the question is really “Is the purchase of a Wii ‘worth it?'”
I hadn’t played my GameCube for months (a year?) before buying the Wii. I think that’s just natural for video game systems. People only really want to play games in three situations:
1) It (or some aspect of it, e.g. unexplored levels, desire to hit new high score) is new to them
2) They want to play with friends
3) They haven’t played in a long time and they’re feeling nostalgic
I don’t think there’s anything wrong with plunking down $250 on a system that you may not be using much five years from now. Plus, it’s the cheapest of the main three systems, so the price-to-fun ratio is the best if all other things are equal.
I should also mention that I still have my Intellivision from 1980, and I do occasionally pull it out and play it. So even a five-year lifespan isn’t a totally fair estimate.
Do it!
Between Thanksgiving and Christmas, I’ve now exposed my Wii to people from 7 to 67 years of age, and everyone that’s played with it has raved about the experience.
Bonus: I sold my GameCube and a few games I was no longer interested in and that paid for half the cost of the Wii. The GameCube games that I kept play perfectly on the Wii and all the GameCube controllers (including the wireless Wavebird controller) work with the Wii.
In 2007, Nintendo is promising new Metroid, Mario, Smash Bros., Wario and Animal Crossing games, in addition to Zelda and Wii Sports that are available now (and, imho, are the only standout launch games). Lots of gaming goodness in that list.
There were all sorts of online locators around the launch. I don’t know if any of them are up anymore. If you’re serious about finding one, Toys R Us has had the most quantity during the launch period (which is now technically over), so you might want to start by finding out when your closest Toys R Us gets their shipments. The latest thing I’ve read online is that, based on consumer demand, supplies will be tight for a couple more months and it may be March before you can walk in to Target and see one sitting in the display case. Not sure if those projections will hold true or not.
As for the social aspect of gaming, don’t forget that Nintendo is launching an online network and is promising free online play for future titles that take advantage of net play. And you can always download retro games. If they were multiplayer then, they’re still multiplayer now. Most of the old games can also be played with the GameCube controller, or you could pick up the slick Wii Classic controller for an extra $20.