Game: Wii Sports

This pack in game for the Wii is all we had to play with this morning. Still, despite it's reputation as being a mere technical demo, I'm pretty sure all of us fell in love with the Wii a bit because of it. We only played Tennis and Bowling, but that's all we really needed to.

There's been some fierce criticism about some of these games, and how as they move to imitate real sport they'll disappoint more. I have to strongly disagree though. For example, although I may not have believed that I was playing Tennis, I immediately and more importantly, intuitively figured out how to put top on the ball, how to slice and lob and all sorts of other things. I guess, for me, it felt more like playing Table Tennis than the court version, but I was having fun all the same.

Bowling was the same. I can't spin balls in real life but here I was getting angles and shots I could never in reality. It's pretty amazing and immersive stuff.

While I'm here, I'll talk about the console itself too. The first thing that strikes you as how small everything is. Even having seen the remote before, it seems much more minute when you hold it. Firmware seems solid, and I connected to the Internet fine (and downloaded two updates to prove that). Technically, I seem to be having more problems pointing with the remote than twisting and shaking, but that may have more to do with my quick set up than anything else. I've yet to explore the messaging functionality.

But yes. This little box seems to be full of some kind of pixie dust. I definitely urge everyone to at least give it a go, since it really is a magical experience to play one even for for a bit. I can't wait to get home!