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Pulling my Wii out of the box and fiddling with it was easy enough (as described in Hands on my Wii: The Hardware), but the hardware's software and firmware is where its real appeal resides.
Channels and firmware
So, setup complete, I got into the fun stuff. The Wii's main interface is a white background with several TV screen shaped thumbnail blocks called channels. The first block is the primary game channel; selecting it launches whichever game happens to be in the disc drive (it's blank if none). Another channel exists for viewing photos stored on a memory card inserted in the Wii's SD card slot. There's one for shopping at the Wii's online store, one for managing your Miis (the "me" part of the "we" experience, but more on that in a minute), and two others for weather forecasts and news - though the neither of these latter two were operational to press time.
The other 42 channels accessible from the Wii's main screen are empty, waiting to be filled by forthcoming functionality, including the Wii's forthcoming Web browser and DVD player, as well as content downloaded from the Wii store (and maybe a couple dozen other features, too... maybe not, but there are empty channels at the ready).
Speaking of which, the Shop channel is where I headed first. Navigating through the store to conduct activities such as redeeming Wii points (from an actual points card, which you can purchase like a gift card in-store), buying Wii points online, and purchasing new channels was relatively simple using the Wii remote, which calls up a pointer icon on screen to aim and activate your desired selection. During my stop at the Wii's much-talked about virtual console - located within the Shop channel - I downloaded Super Mario 64, which took up 162 blocks of the Wii's onboard memory, which is 512 Megs, divvied up into some 2300 blocks strong.
It's a little worrisome. If all virtual console titles are roughly the same size as Super Mario 64, the Wii will only hold about 14 or 15 games (assuming minimal space used for saved game files, which seem to take between 1 and 5 blocks each). While onboard memory of any kind is a step up from the GameCube's glaring lack of it, many gamers are likely to outgrow the drive space provided by the Wii fairly quickly, leaving them to rely on removable memory cards, which might get annoying. Still, generic SD memory cards holding another 512 Megs or up to 2 Gigabytes - ranging from $30 to $100 each - could keep the hassles at bay for a long while.
Next I went to the Mii channel. It turns out that a Mii is a virtual representation of you; your own personal virtual character more commonly referred to as your "avatar" representing you in games and in online communities. Highly stylized but simple, blocky, cartoon-like characters, you can customize them somewhat - favorite color, facial features, etc.- to reflect your online persona. Each Wii user can have a Mii avatar, so Sally, Junior and Mom don't all look like Dad.
Once created, your Mii will walk around in a local plaza, occasionally traveling to- or joined by Miis from other consoles. If you choose to set your console to WiiConnect24 (which keeps the Wii on and connected to the Internet 24 hours a day, even when powered down, which is actually a standby mode), Miis can freely move to and from your console at any time. It's too early to tell just what the upshot of the Mii channel will be. For now it's just a vaguely weird virtual gaming community, but it will be interesting to see how the Mii channel evolves with time.
Nintendo is also fostering its first ever online console gaming community by helping facilitate communication between players. The Wii Message Board, for example, accessed from the bottom right corner of the main screen, is a simple messaging application that allows users of the household Wii to post memos for each other, plus send messages, email-style, to remote players around the world - you can create and maintain an address book full of other Wii players. It's an elegantly designed tool that should prove useful for community-spirited gamers (or just plain gawkers, for that matter).
The last bit of firmware accessible from the main menu is Wii Options. This self explanatory module holds few surprises: parental controls, memory management tools, and screen setting options, among other basic setup controls.
Performance
At this point most people are aware that the Wii is simply not as powerful as other new systems on the market. Its graphics aren't as shiny and it doesn't support Dolby Digital 5.1 audio.
The best way to describe the Wii's graphics - or at least those of the games I've tested - is just a slightly crisper, slightly more detailed step up from the very best-looking GameCube games; think Resident Evil 4 or The Legend of Zelda: Wind Waker after a day at the spa. That's about it - for now. There's still the component cable question. We didn't have the opportunity to test the Wii's forthcoming component cables (set to be released in mid-December), which will upgrade the system's visual output from standard definition to 480p.
But people shouldn't put too much faith in 480p. The Wii's success hinges not on graphical capabilities but rather on developers exploiting the system's potential for unique game design made possible by its innovative controls, and, to a lesser degree, the popularity of the Wii's virtual console and other online features.
But one last note about graphics worth considering before making any purchasing decisions: The Wii is very much at home on a relatively smallish screen, say 37-inches and under - as opposed to larger, home theater-type widescreen plasmas and HDTV. Nintendo is banking on the fact that most everyone has an old CRT TV and whether that's the primary TV set in the house or the one recently releagetd to the basement to make room for some new flatpanel monstrosity, Wii is optimized for it.
Oui, we think
All said and done (for now), I absolutely recommend the Wii.
When you get right down to it, the Wii delivers incredible bang for your gaming dollar. At just US$250 / C$280, it's hundreds of dollars cheaper than competing systems, and it comes with a game (Wii Sports) to boot (albeit a frivolous one). Its graphics might not be on par with those of the PlayStation3 or Xbox 360, but its unique controls - which, in addition to being motion sensitive, have the flexibility to be used much like a standard controller - provide new possibilities in game design.
Just hoping third-party developers will capitalize on the technology Nintendo has given them. Its potential is huge and ready to go kinetic.
- (Back to Wii: The Hardware)
Reviewed: Nov. 21, 2006
Type: Hardware
From: Nintendo
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Review: Wii: The Hardware
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