Review Blog - Reviews on everything

I’m not much of a gamer myself but I am partial to a bit of Guitar Hero on the Xbox 360 and own a Nintendo DS. I was quite happy with leaving my gaming at this.

I heard about the Nintendo Wii and was curious to see it in action. The other night I pooped round a friends house and saw someone playing bowling. It looked like a great novelty so after very little persuasion I decided I simply must have one to play on myself.

Here is the first negative. I started at my local blockbuster video store where I knew they sold it. I was told that there was no stock and there was no expected date. I thought this was fair enough as they are only a small store. Off I went to PC world - I hate this store. You can never get anyone to help you in there. After standing around for a while I decided to queue at the checkout and ask the operator there. No stock and no due date. I then headed off to Currys, Comet and Toys R Us. Exactly the same story. This was becoming a joke. It would appear that Nintendo had not supplied nearly enough consoles for the demand.

So I went onto eBay and saw that second hand Wii consoles were going for the same price as new. This was obviously a nationwide issue. I checked for people listing the Wii in my area and got someone to agree to a quick sale. Very pleased with myself, off i went to collect my Wii.

I was surprised how small the Wii was at first. it looked no bigger than a CD- ROM drive that a normal PC would have! Technology these days! In the box came the Console, one remote, one nunchuk controller along with the sensor bar that goes on top of the TV. Of course, also included was the Wii sports game.

Once plugged in it seemed easy to navigate through the menus. just pointing the remote (or Wiimote as it is called) at the TV you get a hand that you can point at the options - similar to a PC mouse pointer.

The Wii sports package consists of 5 games, designed to show the capabilities of the Wii. Tennis, baseball, bowling, golf and boxing. The game I had previously seen which inspired this random impulse purchase was the bowling. This is where I headed first.

It feels very strange to begin with as you actually really have to imitate bowling to throw the ball. In fact if you are not on your won you feel like you quite possibly look like a bit of an idiot as you chuck the ball down the ally. It’s a little tricky to get right away. My ball kept veering off to the left. I found that if you let the ball bounce slightly down the ally it actually goes more on target. Soon I was hitting the occasional strike and getting reasonable scores.

The next day I couldn’t work out what this pain was in my right arm. It was only in the evening when I decided to play the Wii again that I realised. I had strained one of my minimal muscles in what can only be described a virtual sporting injury! How crazy is that! Funnily I was not the only one to get a wii sports injury. A friend who got so into his throwing badly pulled a muscle in his leg and someone else had a very achy arm! Something tells me I am not in very good shape for this to happen!

The other great thing I love about this is the fact you can design your own person call a Wiimii (wee me) which holds your scores so if you get a record or beat your best score it will hold this to your name. It will also monitor your players fitness levels and progress. Obviously being so new to this I have not really progressed here.

So the verdict? Well after the first evening I was tempted to put it back on eBay as it was a novelty and an impulse purchase that I couldn’t really afford. Plus the fact I would get more money back as you simply cannot get these consoles anywhere at the moment but after day 2 I developed love for it and I simply cannot get rid of it right yet.

If you are looking for something new and unique you will love the Wii. The only negative is it is a little annoying having to stand up to play a computer game but after a few drinks it really is incredible fun.