I was just remembering yesterday how over the holidays I took my Wii home for my relatives to play. It really amazed me how easily they all, from my 5 year old cousin to my 60 year old aunt, picked it up.
Most of the time, when I brought my game systems with me, I’d get a lot of “Hey, can you turn that off.” Or when I’d ask if anyone wanted to play, I’d get “No thanks, it looks too complicated for me.” The only exception to this, before the Wii, was Guitar Hero.
So it really was a joy to see everyone together playing Wii Bowling — or to make Miis of the whole family.
One of the “rules” that my Wii lives by is this: If you’re in the room, and the Wii is on — you must have a Mii. It’s ironclad. No exceptions.
The main reason I do that is because the Mii creation process is so great with a group of people. You give the controller to the person and they start making themselves. Without prompting, people start chipping in with suggestions (usually very good natured) and before long everyone is involved. It’s a very social aspect to gaming that I haven’t really seen with my family before.
It’s very cool to be on the crest of this new phenomenon. I know that several members of my family will be buying the Wii, once it becomes available. It’ll be interesting to see if Nintendo can deliver on the system’s promise, or if their Wii will just sit there covered in dust once they’re done with Wii bowling. Only time will tell.
Your 5-year-old cousin hit my same high score in bowling in her first evening! Yipes! I need to play more Wii Bowling. It was awfully cute when her parents were playing and she’d run up to each of them on their turns and say, “Good luck!” and give them hugs.
Interesting. I would buy a Wii if it didn’t mean i couldn’t get a PS3. One thing that worries me about Wii though is they don’t seem to be getting any 3rd party support. Also it isn’t HD 🙁