Some of the feedback I got on my review ‘My Experience with Nintendo Wii‘ was that it was VERY long, which is correct, I got kind of carried away and I didn’t even cover all the subjects I wanted to. Other feedback was that it was missing a conclusion.

The shortest version would be: Super

I will now do a quick summary and finish up with a pro / con for the Nintendo Wii. Will try to keep it short this time:

Setup: The whole system was very easy to setup, including sensor bar, wireless connection.

Controls: Got to love them. The combination of the Wiimote and the Nunchuck is awesome. Young kids might have to spend some time to learn how to point correctly at the screen, but as we all know; Kids do learn very fast. The Nunchuck can be tricky for kids to use but not all games require it. The classic controller works very well with all the Virtual Console games I have tired, a must have if you plan to buy Virtual Console games.

Getting connected with friends: Takes a bit time to get used to the way it all works with Wii codes, but then it works well. Just don’t expect messages to be sent instantly. Sending and receiving Mii’s is a whole experience for itself.

Expansions: The system supports up to 4 sets of Wiimote and Nunchuck (Not all games uses Nunchuck), SD card for extending storage and for photo viewing, 4 Gamecube controllers for playing the old GC games, 2 Gamecube memory cards. The system got 2 USB ports which so far aren’t used.

Games: I will go into details with the games in a later review but one thing is for sure, the quality of the games varies. Do not expect to find only top quality but also to find a few disappointments. Games I can recommend right now is: Zelda, Wii Sports (Bundled for us in Europe) and Rayman 4. I’m sure my son would recommend Monster 4×4 a lot. Different people = different games.
It is also possible to play all the Gamecube games so if you have some of these games already then no need to get rid of them.

Build-in software: Very short overview, more to follow at a later stage.

• Photo Channel: I only tried very quickly but it seems to be great for slide shows.
• Forecast Channel: See the weather forecast locally/global. Got a nice globe to turn around and zoom in/out to see various areas. Works well but some countries have few locations.
• Internet Channel: Still in beta but works remarkable well. Wonder what the final price will be.
• Shopping Channel: Here you buy your Virtual Console games and other software (Internet channel!). Would have liked to see some full screen shots of the games. Can feel a bit slow when browsing the games. Also here you add Wii points for shopping, I tried with Wii points bought in a store and with a master card, works as it should.
• Mii Channel: Here you create/modify your Mii. These are virtual people / avatars that can be customized in many ways. They are used in some games (Wii Play and Wii Sports). Creating these can be rather enjoyable; can say that my daughter loves it.
• News Channel: Not available yet. So why show it?

User interface: Simple and very useful. One comment I got from a friend was that he found it very childish (big comic hand) and wished that you could change the theme. I will get back to this at another time but I got to say that I’m happy about how the user interface is. Cursor, name entry, menu selection all works well with very readable text.

Virtual Console: This for the retro games from NES (Famicom), SNES (Super Famicom), Megadrive (Genesis), Turbo Gfx and Nintendo 64. The quality of the games varies a lot of course as they are from different time period. I tried several of them and will write about them later but the system does what it promises: Deliver a lot of old games, some classics, some less know (depends on who you are). Some people will not enjoy this as much as others, depends on if you loved the old games and if you can live with simple graphics from the past.

Pro / Con: Starting with the Con as I find the Pro to be more interesting and I want you to leave with a good feeling.

Con: Had a few problems with my SD card but seems to be fine now. Controllers sometimes looses the sync with the Wii but can often be solved by pressing the sync buttons. I had to change battery once for both controller sets (Not really a bad point). Visuals and audio are not on pair with XBox 360 and PS3 (Only a bad point if you expect it to be). No online multiplayer games but that will change this year.

Pro: Low price compared to XBox 360 (not by much really) and PS3. The unique controller system will result in new innovative games in the future (and already now). Small :) Noiseless (almost). Large library of games as it runs Gamecube games. Good collection of Virtual Console games already with MANY more coming this year. Zelda & Mario…

Conclusion: If you like game-play then I will suggest you buy this system. If you require that games to look as XBox 360 and PS3 then don’t buy it (too bad, loosing all the fun). I can say for myself that I’m happy I got it right away and that I’m sure I will be spending many hours playing Wii games but I will return to Xbox 360 from time to time. I will recommend the system to anyone with young kids but do check the age rating on the games as some are from 12, 16 and 18 years. If you like to play with your friends (party games) then you should also consider it; Rayman and Wii Sports are ready for party gaming The year 2007 will be an interesting year for gamers that wants new innovative and games with great game-play.

In case you have some comments or if you agree/disagree then please leave a comment, always interesting to hear what other people think.