Can someone break down the whole Wii thing for me?

The Game Room
1

So after playing my sister’s Wii this weekend, I am hooked. My daughter has been asking for one for a year but I kept resisting. I have changed my stance on this but Santa will probably bring it.

My questions are:

1 - What will I need to buy? The console obviously. Does it come with the controllers or will I need to buy them separately? Any other "must-have’ accessories?
2 - What about the balanace board thing? Does the game come with it or will I need to buy it separately?
3 - What are some good games for a soon-to-be 7-year-old?
4 - Is it going to be hard to hook up? I am pretty much an eletronics moron.

2

The console comes with one wiimote (and nunchuck combo). To play certain games in a multiplayer fashion (such as boxing or tennis from the WiiSports package) one needs two wiimotes. Having two wiimotes makes other games–like bowling–more fun as well, because player A can hand off the wiimote to player C while player B is bowling.

Balance board for WiiFit does not come with the Wii.

I don’t think it’s hard to hook up, but the Wii I’ve played with does not belong to me, and I have no first hand experience with that bit.

I have experience with only two games, the WiiSports which is fun for my nieces (3 1/2 and 5 1/2), and Bloom Blox (may not be the proper name) which my brother thought would be easier for his girls, but has proved not fun for them because their hands/bodies are not steady enough. (It has Jenga type games and other stuff I’ve not yet really seen). Brother says the next game he’ll get for it is MarioKart, but since he hasn’t gotten there yet, I can’t say how enjoyable for a child it is.

The younger niece sometimes plays Wii when the TV is off–that’s what she calls it when she sets up kitchen toys which vaguely resemble bowling pins and knocks them down with a mini-soccer ball.

3

The console package includes the system itself (including the sensor bar and video cables), 1 controller, 1 nunchuck (the joystick thing that plugs into the controller for 2-handed stuff), and Wii Sports.

If you’re going to be doing 2-player stuff, a second controller is a must-have. Also, the controller doesn’t come with another nunchuck – you’ll have to buy that separately.

Also, don’t bother buying a memory card. You can save your progress to the Wii itself, so it’s not a crucial accessory like it was for the Gamecube.

Other than that, the must haves are mainly just various games.

The balance board is sold with Wii Fit, which is the game you were probably playing with it. That’s the one that has all the health and exercise stuff. There are some other games that support the balance board (such as We Ski), but you’ll have to buy those separately.

Super Smash Bros. Brawl is easy to learn and pretty fun. It’s essentially a fighting game (like Street Fighter or Mortal Kombat), but the violence is cartoony in nature and opponents are defeated by knocking them off the board rather than anything more violent.

Mario Kart Wii is another fun one. It’s a cartoony version of a racing game. Instead of cars, it’s go-karts, and the drivers are all classic Nintendo characters.

Zelda: Twilight Princess is a beautiful game with a lot to do and explore, but that might be a bit too in-depth and complicated.

Lego Star Wars: The Complete Saga seems to be pretty popular. I’ve only played an earlier Lego Star Wars game (for the Gamecube and only covering Ep1-3), so I’m not able to vouch for how the Wii version plays (especially with regard to the Wii’s unique control scheme). However, the earlier one I played was pretty light-hearted and fun, and the game was very forgiving – unlimited lives and such.

It’s pretty straight-forward. There’s 3 things that plug into the back of the Wii: The power cord, the sensor bar, and the video cables, and each has a different shaped connector. Once you’ve plugged those in, the sensor bar goes on the TV, the other end of the power cord goes in an outlet, and the video cables plug into the back of your TV the same way that a DVD player would.

The default cables that come with the Wii require an available component input on your TV. That’s the one with the three holes, one (usually yellow) will be labeled video, and you’ll have a red and white pair for the audio.

4

The console will come with one remote - most people like having a second since the Wii games are fairly social.

The balance board comes seperately - and is harder to find than the Wii currently (which isn’t necessarily available on your first run through the store - or your second - but isn’t the “wow, are you lucky”! of last Christmas).

Both the Wii and the Balance board come with games - and a sufficient selection of games to keep a seven year old happy for at least a while.

Its darn easy to set up.

5

  1. The console comes with one controller and nunchuk add on. Basically this means one person can play at a time. You are going to want at least one more controller. The usual solution to this is to purchase the game WiiPlay, which comes with another controller. The controller by itself is around $40 retail, and WiiPlay is usually $50. You will also want to get one of the recharging station things for the controllers. The controllers usually run on 2 AA batteries, but the cost of replacing them can get up there.

  2. The balance board is part of the WiiFit game. Other games do use it. Good luck on finding the WiiFit. Normal cost is $90, but usually is sold in a bundle with another game for at least $150.

  3. Games I can’t tell you. WiiSports comes with the console, and my 4 year old likes to play them. Of course he is not very good at it, but he has fun. You might look into Mario Party 8. It is full of little games, and is entertaining for everybody.

  4. Not hard to hook up at all. Power cable, cable to TV and a sensor bar that you put on top of or in front of the TV. But should be no problems. You should connect it to the internet and if you have wireless in your home, it takes only a few moments to setup on the Wii. Plus I am sure you can find people on the internet somewhere who are willing to give advice.

6

Sorry–one last question. Where is the best place to buy? Target? WalMart? Best Buy? <insert your choice here>?

7

Um… whichever place is cheapest, and doesn’t impringe on your personal shopping morality? I’m not really sure what you’re asking - a Wii is going to be the same no matter where you find it. That is - if you find it. It’s notoriously hard to find both the console and the WiiFit accessories and as the holidays loom this isn’t likely to get any better.

I’d start looking around now to get an idea of what the costs are like, but the prices are unlikely to drop anytime soon as demand remains very high.

8

Whichever one actually has it in stock. They aren’t always on the shelves, or so I understand, although I’ve not shopped for one myself.

9

wiitracker.com is what I used. If you watch you will find patterns of when retailers have them available online. Of course, I just happened to catch one on Bestbuy.com by accident.

10

I have yet to see a Wii discounted anywhere so right now where you buy is going to be based on where they can be found. To make things worse for you I expect Nintendo to have a retaliatory price drop now that the XBox 360 is finally cheaper than them. That’ll keep demand high and supplies impossible.

Up to four players can play on some Wii games so that means you may want four Wiimotes. The use of the nunchuck accessory is less common in the four player party games so I wouldn’t get more than an extra one (for a total of two including the one in box) at first.

I’ll definitely second the person who said invest in rechargeables. I spent about fifteen dollars on a really good set of four AA batteries that I rotate in and out of my controllers rather than using the docking station but you’ll want some kind of solution. The Wiimotes will eat cheap batteries like they aren’t there and you’ll get about twenty hours of play out of good ones. With even moderate use you’ll be looking to swap batteries once a week or so.

11

Looks like other dopers have pretty well answered your questions, but I’ve got a couple more suggestions.

Get Wii Play. It’s going for $50-60 and comes with an extra controller which cost 40 by itself, which is a pretty sweet deal. Wii Play isn’t as much fun as Wii Sports, but it’s easy to play and can get addictive. Plus it’s more of a game where you sit on your butt, as opposed to Wii Sports where you stand up and move around a lot.

As far as batteries for the Wiimote, I got this charge station and love it. Basically, when you’re done playing you drop it on the charge station and it freshens the batteries up.

I’d hold off on getting another nunchuk. Whenever other people have played my Wii they only play games that require the Wiimote; I’m the only person I know who’s played Wii Sports boxing. I’ve had a brand new nunchuk in it’s package for almost a year now.

12

Ok, I pretty much agree with what everyone else said about what to buy, games, etc. As for ease of set up…I had never set up or connected anything electronic to my TV on my own before getting the Wii. It was so easy, I did it w/o having to call anyone for help.

13

Ease of setup is pretty easy.

  1. Plug in Wii power cord
  2. Plug in sensor bar and put it on your TV (or under, as the case might be)
  3. Find the color-coded component cable plugs on the TV (usually in the back unless there’s a set on the front), and then plug in the cables.

The manual explains how to get the Wii console to “find” the wiimotes after you’ve got the above steps down. Once you’re done, you can just stick in the game CD and go.

The rechargeables are worth their money in gold.

Are you planning to hook the Wii into your wireless network at home (if you have one)? If so, be careful and put on parental safeguards so that your kid can’t borrow Mommy’s credit card and buy the store using the WiiWare channel. :slight_smile:

Game discussions:

Lego Star Wars: The Complete Saga is pretty forgiving when it comes to game mechanics, and your 7 year old will like it if she likes SW. It’s also amazingly extensive and has a lot of things to keep you coming back again and again to the various levels. It’s family friendly too – enemies just fall apart into lego pieces when you’ve defeated them. You get to pretend you’re waving a lightsaber and using the Force, which is fun.

Zelda: TWP and Super Mario Brawl are probably a bit advanced for people who aren’t regular gamers, but YMMV.

I’ve heard good stuff about Boom Blox, it’s like Jenga for the Wii a bit, and is kid and non-gamer friendly. (Non-gamer in the sense that people who don’t normally play video games would be able to pick it up pretty quickly). That said, I haven’t played it myself, but it’s on my list of games to try out.

I really don’t recommend Raving Rabbids. The sloppy game mechanics and visual discrepancies (in-level and out-of-level) made me give up on it very quickly even if the rabbids are awesome concepts. I’m really glad I borrowed it from a friend rather than buying it. :stuck_out_tongue:

Gamespot.com and ign.com are places that I go to read game reviews to see what’s out there to play and what would be appropriate.

14

I disagree withlizardling about Raving Rabbids in general, but 7 is a bit young. But otherwise, what everyone else said.

One good thing about the Lego games is they have co-op mode. The second player can drop in and drop out. That can be really good if your kid gets stuck, because you can drop in and help get past the hard part (podracing in Lego Star Wars is the one I remember).

15

I think the connector you describe is actually a composite input. Component input has 3 seperate red, green, and blue channels instead of the one yellow video connector and is of better quality.

16

Oops, yup. I got sidetracked thinking about the component input being the only other option for the Wii (no s-video, DVI, or HDMI) and only 480p at that, and I wound up mixing up the c-names.

And since the subject’s come up, if you’re using the default Wii cables, you’ll have composite output (as I described but misnamed). And if you’ve got a TV with a component input, then you can buy a separate, special Wii video cable that’ll do component output.

17

Woohoo! Free posting! Cheap lurkers unite! Sorry, had to get that out of my system. As for the Wii …

I’d also recommend getting WiiPlay for the second remote. It’s got nine minigames on it, and the shooting one is a blast. I ended up getting it for my third wiimote, and have no regrets. While some games are good about sharing remotes, others aren’t (like Mario Party) so having as many wiimotes as you have players is handy.

I also got a second nunchuck, not for boxing but for Mario Kart. The kids love the steering wheel, but it drives me and the wife nuts. The joystick on the nunchuck is easier for anyone who’s played a racing game or two in their time.

No idea about the balance board stuff, all I know is I’m not allowed to buy one until after Christmas. :slight_smile:

My kids are a bit younger than yours, but they really like Mario Kart, Mario Party, and Wii Sports, though they do need help with the first two. I found a game called Cosmic Family in the discount bin that they also really like, and the oldest one (5) can play it by herself. I’ve also heard that Boom Blox and Lego Star wars are both a blast from my hardcore gamer friend, but I haven’t played either of them yet. I got hooked pretty hard on Mario Galaxy (which I haven’t seen recommended yet), which I think would be about right for a 7-year old.

18

Buy one now if you can find it. Right now they are hit or miss - in two months they will be like finding four leaf clovers. If you have to leave it under the bed for the next four months, fine.