Wiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiii!

[Illuminatiprimus]

Well I've finally taken the plunge and ordered my Wii which should arrive either tomorrow or the day after. Looking forward to some psychadelic time chasing stars as Mario and searching (for the umpteenth fucking time) for the princess in Zelda. Can anyone recommend any good games to me to try out? Ones I already have on my list are the Trauma Centre games, Zelda and Metroid and probably the Simpsons game as well.

Grateful for some reflections that don't come from the pens of professional computer game reviewers for a change.

[Jeep's Phoenix]

Are you planning to go online with your Wii? Post your console code; I've gotten lots of neat Mii's from the people on this board.

I highly recommend Zelda (it starts out a bit slow, but there's a nice spin on the "find the princess" bit). How about Super Mario Galaxy? Oh, and don't forget about the Virtual Console for classic games.

[hekk]

Avoid the Simpsons game at all costs, it's like seasons 13-Now all over again,in game form.

WarioWare is essential! Funny and fun to play, with innovative uses of the Wiimote and nunchuck.

The Wii Zapper and Link's Crossbow training is a blast.

All the games you listed are good choices.

[Justin_Bailey]

You might choose to ignore my advice based on my sig, but here goes...

Excite Truck is awesome. "Driving" a truck with the Wiimote is so cool. I can't wait to try it in Mario Kart.

Everyone tells me Super Mario Galaxy is great and I've got it at home, but I haven't tried it yet.

I'm a big fan of the Wii Zapper and at $20 for the Zapper itself and Link's Crossbow Training, it's a steal.

Finally, be prepared to spend a lot of time on Wii Sports. It will take over your life for the first few days.

[Shoeless]

"Rayman's Raving Rabbids" is goofy fun.

For Christmas I got a game called "Mercury Meltdown", which is kind of like one of those marble-maze games except you are navigating a blob of mercury instead of a solid ball.

I was telling my wife a few weeks ago that somebody should do a "Star Wars" type of game for the Wii where you can have light-saber duels. Just a couple days later I was reading an article about a game being developed for the Wii called "No More Heroes", where you are an assassin with a laser katana. It's coming out today, I believe. I may have to check that one out.

[Mosier]

I haven't had as much fun playing a game as I have with Super Mario Galaxy in a long time.

Also, Wii Sports is the best game ever that has come packaged with a console. I'm not kidding. It's better than Super Mario Brothers, and even better than Super Mario World. Once you get the hang of tennis and bowling, you might not feel the need to buy another game for a few weeks. You made a great decision to buy this system!

[Justin_Bailey]

I was telling my wife a few weeks ago that somebody should do a "Star Wars" type of game for the Wii where you can have light-saber duels.

Star Wars: The Force Unleashed is coming over the summer and will have Lightsaber duels.

[Spatial Rift 47]

I was telling my wife a few weeks ago that somebody should do a "Star Wars" type of game for the Wii where you can have light-saber duels. Just a couple days later I was reading an article about a game being developed for the Wii called "No More Heroes", where you are an assassin with a laser katana. It's coming out today, I believe. I may have to check that one out.

There's also an actual Star Wars game in development called Force Unleashed, which will presumably have some lightsaber dueling action.

[Gangster Octopus]

Buy Guitar Hero III, it's a good game you can pick up and play for just 15-20 minutes and it is fun. Zelda, Metroid are more games you would play if you have at least an hour block of time. So when mjy wife says she will be ready in about 5 minutes, I know that means 30 minutes and I can play some GHIII.

[Drain Bead]

The most annoying thing about the 3-letter-word search limit is trying to find the threads from before where people were sharing their Miis. I added pretty much everyone from both threads I could find, but haven't gotten much of a response. Feel free to post yours, though--I'll keep an eye on this thread.

My console is 8694 4375 0173 0781, for what it's worth.

[Illuminatiprimus]

The most annoying thing about the 3-letter-word search limit is trying to find the threads from before where people were sharing their Miis. I added pretty much everyone from both threads I could find, but haven't gotten much of a response. Feel free to post yours, though--I'll keep an eye on this thread.

My console is 8694 4375 0173 0781, for what it's worth.

You'll have to enlighten me - what is this Mii thing you speak of? I have wireless at home so will indeed be potentially up for online gaming. The virtual console, am I right in thinking that's the Nintendo back catalogue of games from previous systems that you can access/download?

[Drain Bead]

The Miis are your virtual avatars. If you enter the console number of your friends, and they enter yours, the Miis will end up wandering around and mingling with one another. It's very cute. They also have a Check Mii Out channel, where you create themed Miis for contests or upload Miis you've created. It's fun to create celebrity Miis.

The Virtual Console is exactly what you think it is, and it's addictive. You may need a "Classic controller" to run some of the games, though.

[Bambi Hassenpfeffer]

You must buy Super Mario Galaxy and Super Paper Mario. I also like the Simpsons game and Wii Play.

I'm looking forward to getting Lego Star Wars, WarioWare, and Zelda: Twilight Princess.


Also, in case anyone is interested, my Wii number is 3527 0289 0185 8083.

[Bambi Hassenpfeffer]

And I found the Mii-sharing thread (http://boards.straightdope.com/sdmb/showthread.php?t=401850).

[VanillaGorilla]

Though I haven't actually played it myslf, I say buy Mario Party 8.
The previous ones where wicked fun if you played them with some mates.

[Amp]

Don't forget, in order to receive Miis from another person you both have to have each other in your respective systems.

[Autumn Almanac]

Just another note, I don't know if you already had a GameCube before getting your Wii, but if not, the whole GameCube library is now open to you as well. Soul Calibur II (including Link as a bonus character!) was worth the price of the GC all by itself, and there are a bunch of other great games you might want to check out: The Wind Waker, Skies of Arcadia, etc.

[Slypork]

You'll have to enlighten me - what is this Mii thing you speak of? I have wireless at home so will indeed be potentially up for online gaming. The virtual console, am I right in thinking that's the Nintendo back catalogue of games from previous systems that you can access/download?Our whole family have set up individual Miis so we can keep track of how we are doing in the Sports games. For New Years Eve we had a Wii bowling party with our friends and their kids and had a blast.

The Virtual Console let us download the classic Nintendo games we loved including Starfox, Zelda: Ocarina of Time and Yoshi’s World (my wife always thought it was cute :rolleyes: ).

Seconded (thirded? Seventh? Whatever) for Galaxy, Zelda, Metroid and Wario. If you have kids the Cooking Mama is cute and funny (my 7 YO loves it). Stay away from Nights. Horrible controls and frustrating.

Word of warning: Keep the wrist straps tight! We have two holes in the wall from over excited tennis players.

[Justin_Bailey]

The Virtual Console is exactly what you think it is, and it's addictive. You may need a "Classic controller" to run some of the games, though.

I've found that trying to play Virtual Console games with a GameCube controller is ridiculously hard because the controls are mapped to buttons that make no sense intuitively.

But the Classic Controller will map all of the controls to their "correct" buttons from the SNES or N64 days.

NES games can just be played with a Wiimote held sideways. Instant NES controller!

[shy guy]

Stay away from Nights. Horrible controls and frustrating.


Lies! I think NiGHTS is fantastic and highly recommend it.

Also - Resident Evil: Umbrella Chronicles.

[Terraplane]

Zack and Wiki is a really neat adventure/puzzle game that's often overlooked, but it's definitely worthwhile if you like that type of game. If you enjoy on-rail shooter games Resident Evil Umbrella Chronicles is really well done. And I think Elebits is worth a rental at least.

Mario Party is a fun game in groups, but make sure you don't play with people who are going to get upset when their commanding lead disappears due to a random event in the game. It's very much luck based and that seems to frustrate some people I've played with, but most of us play just to have fun and not to win and we always have a blast.

And though it's been mentioned, I want to say it again, use the wrist straps for any games that require flailing around. It's better than a hole in the wall or a busted tv.

[aktep]

Though I haven't actually played it myslf, I say buy Mario Party 8.
The previous ones where wicked fun if you played them with some mates.

The previous ones were wicked fun but MP8 pales in comparison to them. It's not bad, and if you've never played MP before you'll still enjoy it. It just feels hastily converted to Wii. And it's letterboxed from 16:9 to 4:3 - there's plaid bars on the sides of the widescreen picture during gameplay that makes you feel like they cheaped out.

[duality72]

A more recent (http://boards.straightdope.com/sdmb/showthread.php?t=447053) Mii sharing thread.

In addition to what others have said, I also recommend Resident Evil 4: Wii Edition. Playing it on Wii versus the PS2 really highlighted the superiority of the Wii controls for shooting games.

And I know everyone else loves it, but I didn't really care for Super Mario Galaxy. It's an interesting evolution of platformers, but I don't much care for platformers and it was too kiddy for my tastes.

[control-z]

Anybody know where to get one for close to MSRP ($250)?

[Justin_Bailey]

Anybody know where to get one for close to MSRP ($250)?

Stop in at any of the big retail stores (Best Buy, Target, Circuit City, Toys R Us) on a Sunday morning right when they open. You'll be assured to get a Wii for $250 with no crazy bundles.

[aktep]

Anybody know where to get one for close to MSRP ($250)?

I found one at Best Buy (they had a bunch that day), and have seen them at Target and Wal-Mart. Rumor has it the best time to check is early Sunday.

A co-worker of mine was able to order one at GameStop. They gave her a rain check, then called her a few hours later when the shipment came in.

[control-z]

Thanks, I will try that after I recover from Christmas bills.

[Charlie Tan]

Lego Star Wars is really fun, re-packaged and some stuff re-written. It fits the wiimote perfectly and if you haven't played any of those before, you're gonna have a lot of fun a realize that some Lego guys act better than humans. Han shoots first, btw.

Resident Evil 4 is great, essentially thesame type of gameplay as Zelda, but with zombie gore. I'm just rounding up Zack and Wiki, after reading the guys over at IGN raving about it. It's a bit cutesy, but the gameplay is great.

One would think that a classic title like Prince of Persia would be great for the Wiimote. One would be wrong. It's actually terrible.

I'm of course agreeing on the big titles: Zelda, SMG, Metroid.

Does Nintendo have a title planned for Donkey Kong? So far, he seems to be the only classic missing from the line-up. Maybe for next christmas. And then a Wii-HD?

[MissMossie]

The previous ones were wicked fun but MP8 pales in comparison to them. It's not bad, and if you've never played MP before you'll still enjoy it. It just feels hastily converted to Wii. And it's letterboxed from 16:9 to 4:3 - there's plaid bars on the sides of the widescreen picture during gameplay that makes you feel like they cheaped out.I like MP8 even more than the previous ones. With them, I quickly got bored if I felt like playing when nobody else did. I've been known to waste an entire Saturday playing MP8 by myself.

It was only once and there were other people around hanging out, they just didn't feel like playing. I'm not a total dork. Really, I'm not.