Wii-modelling

Thursday 01 Mar 2007

Getting a Wii is much like buying a new puppy, there are many things that you need to think about in advance and many preparations that need to be made. I am taking the time to point these things out to you because first time Wii buyers may not already have thought of these few simple steps that are essential before setting up your Wii and which will appear glaringly obvious once you have completed the set up. I hope that these tips will help you.

Household insurance

Check that your household insurance premiums are up to date. This is not only important in light of the fact that various household items such as lamps and coffee mugs may be broken in the course of playing your Wii, but more importantly that your actual television set be insured because it may very well have a Wii Remote thrown through its screen. Now I know what you are thinking, that only girls need to wear the Wii Remote wrist strap. After all, it was just added to cover Nintendo right? Wrong. I too was a believer that the wrist strap was unnecessary, until I played Wii Sports. As soon as you step up to the lane in Bowling or go for that elusive backhand in Tennis, you will realise just how much force you are putting into each action and just how easy it would be for the Wii Remote to fly off your wrist straight through your television tube. It does not help that you start to build up quite a sweat during the games and pretty soon your wrists will become sweaty and your palms moist, making it even easier for the Wii Remote to go flying to rendezvous with Goldie in the fishbowl.

As the competition heats up, you will discover that you will become more and competitive, especially in Wii Sports. And the more competitive you become, the more effort you will put into each swing, the more sweat will roll off your brow and the more determined you will become to win, at all costs. But I am getting ahead of myself, let’s go back to that first glorious day when the Wii arrived on our sunny South African shores.

Power converters

We had been eagerly awaiting the arrival of the Wii for many weeks. With anticipation building, we finally got the call that it had arrived at last. After much tears and frustration we finally managed to work out how to convert the US connection to work with our SA plugs. It was a close call and tempers were flaring, but just cradling the Wii Remote in my hand made all the bad thoughts about throwing ill-prepared people off balconies go away. Please remember that the US Wii’s use 110V, and if you are in South Africa you will need to purchase a power converter to reduce the voltage from the local 220V to the required 110V. If you don’t organise this beforehand, you will be stuck staring at a very pretty white console all evening while your friends kick you repeatedly.

There had been so much hype leading up to the Wii launch, so many articles read and so many pictures looked at that it was hard to believe that I was finally holding a Wii Remote in my hand and was about to put the Wii through its paces. Let me say this about the Wii Remote, firstly it just fits so comfortably into your hand, and secondly it is a damn nice looking remote. End of discussion. The Nunchuck is equally as attractive in white and also settles happily into the palm of your hand.

We hooked the Wii up and stared lovingly into the blue light which we had all been dreaming about for so long. We started with the essentials: a Wii, a Wii Remote, Wii Sports and The Legend of Zelda: Twilight Princess. Needless to say there was much competition to be the one with the Wii Remote. Try four people, one Wii Remote. It is a disaster waiting to happen. Friendship goes out the window and is replaced by red hot rivalry. More about that later.

Creating Miis

It started simply enough, with each of us creating our own Miis. Sounds simple enough right, but the level of detail that you can add to your Mii is phenomenal. From choosing your face type, eyes, mouth, eyebrows, hair, beauty spots, beards and moustaches to your favourite colour, weight and height, you really have the opportunity to make your Mii look just like you. Of course, some of us are more artistic than others so some Miis resemble their owners more than others do. Of course this could just be because some people really don’t care what their Miis look like. The one thing which I noticed is the surprising lack of choice of ears. Do you think Nintendo forgot to add an ears selection or did they just decide that they did not want to cater for big ones and small ones? Either way, someone should let them know and the person in charge of ears should get fired. Anyway, moving on.

After each creating a Mii and scouring the Wii menu thoroughly, which is very easy to navigate and comes complete with very chilled music by the way, we decided to give Wii Sports a go. Now is the time for me to return to the one Wii Remote part. This could be problematic, so just try and be adult about it and take turns. We started out just testing each Sports game: Tennis, Bowling, Boxing, Baseball and Golf. I preferred the Bowling and Tennis right away, mostly because I seemed to be inexplicably good at the Bowling and was kicking butt and the Tennis is just fun, especially when you see your Mii jumping around like Yoda on drugs. After being very diplomatic and giving everyone a chance to try out each sport, we decided to take it to the next level. Yes, I mean multiplayer. Did you forget already that we only had one Wii Remote? Indeed we did. But we did it anyway.