I grabed my Wii!!

[Neophyte]

This morning, I woke up after a restless night, dreaming that I was in line at the store. And that I was close enough in that line to get a Nintendo Wii. I sprung out of bed at 5:15 and rushed down to the Walmart. Just to find that I was the 18th person with this notion. I asked the people ahead of me how long they had been there. And they were only ahead of me by a few minutes. And the person in front of him, the same... This Walmart was to open at 7:00 AM. Some suspicions about Walmart's stock on hand was stimilated by knowledge of the surrounding Walmart's selling their stock at a minute after midnight un-announced.

At 6:45 AM, the manager for Walmart would start to hand out tickets to each person in line. Starting with #1... He got to #4, said one ticket per person. Then he came to #12 and said, "You're together? OK." and skipped past the next person. I could see that this tickets were running out and I started to worry. The 16th person joked, "I'm the last one!" Thankfully, they had 20 Wii's to hand out and I was 18th. Sadly, about 9 people had to be turned away.

At 6:59 AM the manager came back to remind us all that they reserve the right to refuse to sell a console to anyone who pushes, shoves, runs, or other. And reminded us that we will get a console, we have a ticket for every system that they will sell. Hey, we're not PS3 idiots in line here! Everyone was in great spirits and there was no problems. Another 8 people would try to make the 7:00 AM opening only to find that all the console systems had been spoke for. At 7:00 AM, the door opened and we all walked upstairs to the back of the store to buy our consoles.

A bit of bad news... Nintendo somehow had messed up the accessories shipment. The store had 20 game systems and plenty of games, but no spare controllers. This was a problem as I wanted 4 controllers in total for my family. I would find them at another store. But happily left Walmart with a Nintendo Wii, Happy Feet, and GT Pro Series. (I'll save purchasing the good games for X-mas!)

I got home at about 7:45, the kids were all out of bed bouncing up an down. They knew that I was getting something good - mom dropped the clue. But they had no idea - I could have come home with a dozen of donuts for all they knew! "Close your eyes" I told them! They obediently did and I un-bagged the console and games behind them. "Ok, look!" I was lucky that I have vaulted ceiling in my living room, these kids were jumping for joy.

Hooking up the Wii was a cinch. But the system required some configuration when it first detected power. Date, time, screen aspect all had to be set. I then connected it to my Wireless Network - time to download a system update all ready? (A process that would several seconds, but was longer than to eager kids could stand!)

We played Happy Feet for 2 hours and got about half-way into the game before it was time for the other stores to open so that I can attack stock somewhere else and find some extra controllers! I headed to Target... They had plenty of spare "Wii-motes" but no Nunchuc's (An accessory needed only for the Wii Sports - Boxing option.) I tried a few more stores in my area, and all of them were sold out of accessories. Oh well, I had enough for all 4 of us to play Tennis any way...

Returning home, we ejected the Happy Feet game and checked out some of the downloadable games. Didn't see any worth downloading there. Then checked the Wii News - nothing. And finally checked the Wii Weather channel. Nothing. We each them made a "Mii" (pronounced Me) Which is an in-game character persona / avatar for you to use. And we started up the Tennis option of Wii Sports. This game was in instant hit! We played it for 7 hours before we all realized that we were starving! We had a Pizza Party for my daughter's Soccer Team at 5:30 PM, and then rushed back home for more play.

Was the Wii worth it? Heck yeah! I just needed the console and the 3 extra Wiimotes and we had a great time. Wii Sports is a Killer App for Nintendo. It's another hit title in their long list, and it comes with the system.

[Baron[CotC]]

I'm really tempted to pick a Wii up... its so cheap and looks like a much better "party" system than the 360 is. I love the single player 360 games, but theres nothing for it that lets you have a bunch of people over just to have some drunken console gamin fun.

[Kibeth[CotC]]

Just reading that story I was smiling the whole time. Sounds like a great system, and you had a good time w/ the family!

[D.A.R.K.[CotC]]

I had quite a night trying to get a Wii myself. About 3:30 am a friend and I went out to go wait in line to get a Wii. I did my research on all the stores around: Local Best buy had 56, Target had 60, Toy's R Us had 96 minus pre-orders. We made our runs as such: Went to best buy, saw the huge amount of tents and campers outside the door, and promptly left for the next location. Target was hopeful for a bit, knowing that they had 60 and the line was relatively short. Me and my friend hopped into line for about 2 hours, then we started talking with the people in line and we found out that we were numbers 63 and 64, which meant we were not going to get a Wii at this Target. I wasn't too keen on going to Toys R Us since I didn't know where it was, but a guy in line with us at Target gave us an interesting idea. We learned that there was another Target about an hour outside of town that was getting 210 Wii's, and from what he said, there was no line yet. Hop on the bandwaggon we did, and drove onto the highway towards Troy, Michigan.

Things got complicated on that trip to Troy... seems the directions the guy at the other Target gave us were somewhat... flawed, so before we knew it we were almost all the way north to Saginaw, which is in the completely wrong direction from Troy... we had driven for an hour north already, so back south we went and a little east to hit Troy. We knew that Target was doing the following for launch day: 7 am they hand out tickets to those in line to guarantee their system, at 9 the store opens for business. We arrived at that Target at 7:40 am, 1 hour and a half late from our ETA. Nevertheless, hop in line we did, and tickets we got, numbered 195 and 196. We cut it close, but we walked out with what we wanted... except my friend got a free t-shirt and I didn't... We bought the essentials, the system and Zelda. The drive back was straightforward, although we were both exhausted from 2 straight days of no sleep...

Your purchase Neo was.... around $500? Hefty ammount, and no good games either! I found the extra wiimotes and nunchucs were way too expensive (40 and 20 respectively), and I only needed one set anyway, since all my gamecube controllers work on the Wii anyway. Word of notice too. Wiisports isn't exactly a game that was made to launch with the Wii. It is a straight port of Nintendo's beta testers for the Wiimotes, and pre-models of all the Mario sports games (Mario Tennis, golf, baseball, and future titles). As such, they have some issues and bugs in them, especially the boxing part of it. The tennis was kind of boring since you had no control over your character, all you could do is swing your racket. Baseball was... dull. Home runs were very easy to hit, and thus you could easily mercy the other team after the first inning and win every time. Our favorite is the bowling game, which is a very well done bowling sim, and the 4 of us here can play it with 1 Wiimote, since we have to take turns doing it anyway. The golf game was also extremely difficult since it's motion detector was defective and missed a lot. I'm interested in seeing these sports games produced individually on a higher level of gaming quality.

Zelda on the other hand... awesome, flawless, nothing less than what I had hoped for, and a lot more.

[Neophyte]

About $500? Hmmm, like $600. The system and 2 year warranty ran me $280. Two games, $110. And the three controllers, an orgainizer, plus some rechargeable batteries $180. I have two kids, ages 8 & 10 who are gamers, plus myself. This price is about what I expected to pay, but it certainly doesn't leave a lot of room for big budget items for the holidays.

I'm shocked that you made it in time! All that driving must have made you worry for a while. And then standing in a line so deep - you're lucky your stores carried more systems. I also did some phone calling of my local stores, the largest stock was BestBuy with 85 systems - all of them were pre-orders.

Wii Sports - while it is what you said - is still fun. Cheap, cheesy, and simple. the game is what you make out of it. By turning off the sitcom's and bringing the family together for a lot of laughs, it is a worthy addition. My wife is a non-gamer. The word "casual" would suggest more play-time that she is willing to put forth. It was fun to see that change last night. She got up like a kid for once, swinging a virtual tennis racket and smacking both dogs accidentally in the face! Good times!

The other 2 games that I got were just exploratory, I wouldn't recommend to any one. They were acceptable titles in case Wii Sports sucked bad. And I didn't want to get Zelda just yet - at least, not until my daughter finished her other 2 Zelda games! And, I would rather purchase the big titles for Xmas. The system wasn't for myself, but more for the whole family.

[Ender[CotC]]

DAMN CONSOLS AND THEIR HIGH PRICES!!!

but...

DAMN CONSOLS FOR THEIR BEAUTY AND STATE OF THE ART GRAPHICS THAT MAKES ME WANT TO BUY THEM!!!

I have been waffleing (who knew it was a verb as well as a tasty breakfast) between a 360 and a wii since i heard about them. So many cool games on each system but not enough cash to get them all. I know some of you have wiis (at least im sure the male population of campquake does) but who among you has a 360? I'd like to hear your thoughts on each to aid (hopefully) me in coming to a decision about which consol to get.

Maybe i'll just sell a few organs, have an estate sale for all my belongings, and possibly sell my soul, for both a 360 and a wii.

But, from the cool games, great graphics, and killer new controllers, it might even be worth it...

[Neophyte]

I never got the 360 (or wanted a PS3) because of it's start of the art High Definition graphics. I know that sounds dumb, but to me it's like having a 12 inch boinker and a 2 inch hole to poke it in. To me, it just doesn't make good reason to buy it before I get the HD television set to accommodate it. And I'm waiting for the prices on sets to drop, significantly, before I do that.

[Rico]

... it's like having a 12 inch boinker and a 2 inch hole to poke it in.

Uhhh, welll, damn.

What *do* you say to that?



AW? Paging Woop...

[Serpent]

I'm w/ Neo... except a little more extreme. Personally, I don't see a point to having *ANY* gaming console.. I am a PC gamer, although, I used to play Atari, Nintendo, and SNES games.. the graphics are a large part of it, and also the price... I think they (the gaming console companies) are trying to grab a huge chunk of the PC market, as they are adding extra functionality into these things than just games anymore... if you are going to do something, do it good... don't do something and then try and add in extra stuff just so you can try and make yourself look better...

...at least that is the way I see it...

[Executioner [CotC]]

You have got to give sony props though the PS3 IS a killer system spare the price and the fact you have to buy a cable and use a HD tv for the best graphics utilization. ZOMG THE BLUE RAYZ!!!!

[Ender[CotC]]

heard it crashes a lot though...

the one thing that makes me want to get a 360 is the x-box live feature.

lots of trash talking!

[Neophyte]

Serp - that's the wise consumer in you. Making sure that the console has it's interests in check. Sony and MS wanted to move in the Media Center direction by offering more than you need console systems. Nintendo is offering a web browser - same thing. You have a right to be suspicious when these aren't simply enrichment offerings but features that you have to pay for.

Ex - honestly, I've never seen a PS3 - so I cannot give it props at all.

Ender - I had Xbox Live on my Xbox 1 system. It was flawless, I was very happy with the service. And that was when during it's first year! I've sure it's even better now. But I let my service expire because I just wasn't getting enough time to play online.

[Executioner [CotC]]

for all those who have the Wii
http://thatvideosite.com/video/3633

[Neophyte]

It works! I've done that trick 2x now. (Out of like 12 attempts).

Been having a blast with the Wii. My neighbors and in-laws now want one. I've been searching for stock on the system for them, but it seems that every store is taking Wii's in drop shipped from Nintendo, and don't have a tracking number to determine when the shipment will be in. Shipment are coming in, but when they arrive, their sold out instantly. I just needed a Nunchuc controller so I can play some 1 on 1 boxing. And that's been impossible to find.

[BD]

... it's like having a 12 inch boinker and a 2 inch hole to poke it in.

Uhhh, welll, damn.

What *do* you say to that?



AW? Paging Woop...

It all depends if it's depth or girth. If we're talking depth than you'll hit the back wall and that's never any fun. If it's girth, well.. that's why God made leather cheerios stretchy!