12:11 AM - Zelda and Paper Mario on the Wii
Caryn and I have been enjoying our Wii. As we cannot afford more games, we've resorted to renting titles at the local Blockbuster.
Last weekend, we rented Paper Mario. The game was quite fun. The game includes elements from previous mario games. The first level looks like Super Mario Bros. from the NES. In the game, you shift between 2D and 3D realities. There is a timer running when Mario enters 3D. When the timer runs out, Mario loses life energy. There is a great deal of dialog. Starting the game can take quite a long time. Bowser and Princess Peach are kidnapped and forced to marry.
The second title we rented was the new Zelda game. The game was released on the GameCube and Wii with control enhancements on the latter. I haven't ventured very far into the game yet. So far, I've ridden a horse around, gone fishing, sent a hawk flying into a bees nest and a jumping monkey with a baby crip. I have a wood sword which must be used with the wii remote. You swing the remote around to move your sword. In fishing, you have to pull back on the remote to reel in the fish. It is quite fun. Zelda is the first title to impress me graphically. It looks like an improvement over the GameCube.
Still, I find the lack of Wii sports-like titles disappointing. I would love to get more titles like Wii sports. I hope to get a Wii Play in the next few months. That includes a controller and a game with billiards, fishing, table tennis?, and some weird little games. Mario Party might help with exercise too. I'll have to rent it.
The most disappointing feature on the Wii is the lack of online play. It is capable of online multiplayer, but it does not deliver. Pokemon will be the first title to support online play. I'm not a big fan of Pokemon. I have a few online friends with Wiis. One is in the UK and we've successfully "friended" each other on the Wii. I can send him text messages over the Internet on the Wii message board. In order to do that, we had to exchange a unique code found in the console menu. This friend code was similar to a credit card number. Once we both added each other, within a few hours we could exchange messages. It seems to be slower than e-mail.
The Wii weather and news channels are great. We can see the current weather quicker than going to weather.com or watching the weather channel. The news feed includes AP stories and the text is very easy to read. There are no ads or other distractions. You can control the size of the text.
Everybody votes channel allows you to vote on questions submitted to Nintendo by other Wii users. There are national and international polls. The polls last several days and often are simple questions like "Do you prefer to be a passenger or driver?" or "Would you rather solve poverty or hunger?" It isn't that interesting, but I am sometimes surprised by Caryn's responses. A tally of the votes is computed by Nintendo and you see them within a day of the end of the poll.
The Opera powered web browser is nice. Nintendo will start charging for that "Wii Ware" soon. It includes Flash 7 support. It is much better than the browser included with the Dreamcast. I had always wished my xbox had a browser like a webtv. Now with the Wii, I can do casual surfing online. I actually prefer doing that over using my laptop since I don't have to dig it out.
The Wii online has wireless capabilities. There is a third party lan adapter. The "Wii Connect 24" feature which means that in standby it keeps an active Internet connection is required for the weather and news channels to work. It causes the unit to stay very warm while on standby. There are reports of Wiis overheating on the Internet. I do worry about that as the fan does not kick in on standby mode.
Finally, i did have one problem with my Wii. The remote stopped working. It blinked as if it had battery power, but could not find the console. I tried swapping out batteries, resyncing and even shaking the remote. Eventually, I pulled the plug on the Wii and then plugged the power back in. The remote worked after fresh registration. There are two buttons that must be pressed. One is on the remote under the battery cover and the other is in the front of the wii under a door.
The Wii's GameCube support is pretty good. SpyHunter worked with my saved games using a GameCube remote. You have to power cycle the Wii after it enters GCN mode.
There are rumors that Nintendo will launch a revised Wii with DVD support later. I'm still glad I bought mine now. Registering the unit extends the warrenty an additional 90 days.
Last weekend, we rented Paper Mario. The game was quite fun. The game includes elements from previous mario games. The first level looks like Super Mario Bros. from the NES. In the game, you shift between 2D and 3D realities. There is a timer running when Mario enters 3D. When the timer runs out, Mario loses life energy. There is a great deal of dialog. Starting the game can take quite a long time. Bowser and Princess Peach are kidnapped and forced to marry.
The second title we rented was the new Zelda game. The game was released on the GameCube and Wii with control enhancements on the latter. I haven't ventured very far into the game yet. So far, I've ridden a horse around, gone fishing, sent a hawk flying into a bees nest and a jumping monkey with a baby crip. I have a wood sword which must be used with the wii remote. You swing the remote around to move your sword. In fishing, you have to pull back on the remote to reel in the fish. It is quite fun. Zelda is the first title to impress me graphically. It looks like an improvement over the GameCube.
Still, I find the lack of Wii sports-like titles disappointing. I would love to get more titles like Wii sports. I hope to get a Wii Play in the next few months. That includes a controller and a game with billiards, fishing, table tennis?, and some weird little games. Mario Party might help with exercise too. I'll have to rent it.
The most disappointing feature on the Wii is the lack of online play. It is capable of online multiplayer, but it does not deliver. Pokemon will be the first title to support online play. I'm not a big fan of Pokemon. I have a few online friends with Wiis. One is in the UK and we've successfully "friended" each other on the Wii. I can send him text messages over the Internet on the Wii message board. In order to do that, we had to exchange a unique code found in the console menu. This friend code was similar to a credit card number. Once we both added each other, within a few hours we could exchange messages. It seems to be slower than e-mail.
The Wii weather and news channels are great. We can see the current weather quicker than going to weather.com or watching the weather channel. The news feed includes AP stories and the text is very easy to read. There are no ads or other distractions. You can control the size of the text.
Everybody votes channel allows you to vote on questions submitted to Nintendo by other Wii users. There are national and international polls. The polls last several days and often are simple questions like "Do you prefer to be a passenger or driver?" or "Would you rather solve poverty or hunger?" It isn't that interesting, but I am sometimes surprised by Caryn's responses. A tally of the votes is computed by Nintendo and you see them within a day of the end of the poll.
The Opera powered web browser is nice. Nintendo will start charging for that "Wii Ware" soon. It includes Flash 7 support. It is much better than the browser included with the Dreamcast. I had always wished my xbox had a browser like a webtv. Now with the Wii, I can do casual surfing online. I actually prefer doing that over using my laptop since I don't have to dig it out.
The Wii online has wireless capabilities. There is a third party lan adapter. The "Wii Connect 24" feature which means that in standby it keeps an active Internet connection is required for the weather and news channels to work. It causes the unit to stay very warm while on standby. There are reports of Wiis overheating on the Internet. I do worry about that as the fan does not kick in on standby mode.
Finally, i did have one problem with my Wii. The remote stopped working. It blinked as if it had battery power, but could not find the console. I tried swapping out batteries, resyncing and even shaking the remote. Eventually, I pulled the plug on the Wii and then plugged the power back in. The remote worked after fresh registration. There are two buttons that must be pressed. One is on the remote under the battery cover and the other is in the front of the wii under a door.
The Wii's GameCube support is pretty good. SpyHunter worked with my saved games using a GameCube remote. You have to power cycle the Wii after it enters GCN mode.
There are rumors that Nintendo will launch a revised Wii with DVD support later. I'm still glad I bought mine now. Registering the unit extends the warrenty an additional 90 days.