Wii-view

My sister's boyfriend had recently acquired a Nintendo Wii, so I finally had a chance to try out the motion-sensing controller and sampling some of the games.

I'm quite impressed with the controllers. They are more accurate than I would have thought possible, and even knows the way you are holding the controller when you are not waving it around. The games are okay: the five WiiSports games that came with the console made well use of the new controller -- you control the movements as if you are playing the actual sport.

On the other hand, I can't help but feel that Nintendo games are not my cup of tea, at least the games that I have played so far. My first complaint is that all the games are way too cute. The characters in WiiSports don't even have arms and sometimes legs! Another game that I have played, Cooking Mama, suffers from the same problem. Check out their website and you will see what I mean.

The second problem is that the gameplay is so linear. Cooking Mama is about repeating the same cooking steps over and over again, albeit a different combination for each dish. The games in WiiSports are a little simple so there is not much strategy required. All that is needed is mastering the waving of the controller so you execute the precise movement at the right time. In other words, something a robot can do very well.

A third game that I have seen but not played is WarioWare: Smooth Moves. Until that game came along I thought Mario Brothers Party and its mini-games are the worst. Apparently my 3 minute attention span is too long to find 5 second mini-games interesting.

Maybe I am just mad that the Wii gave me sore arms for two days. After all, I did tell myself that I would prefer the Wii over the PS3 and Xbox 360. That statement probably still holds (I haven't played the other two), but my money is definitely going towards a new computer than any of the consoles.