the 941

Writer Rick got a Nintendo Wii yesterday with a minimum of effort - got in line at 7:30am on Sunday, got a number at 8 (50th in line) went for breakfast, then bought said Wii, with an extra controller and 5 extra games, by 9am.

Forget the extra games, though. In my admittedly limited experience, many of them are retooled ideas for other, less innovative machines. We spent the most time playing the stupid free sports game that came with the thing.

When you bowl, you really bowl. Swing your arm back, then forward, maybe with a little twist at the end to put enough english on the ball to hit the sweet spot in the pocket just right. Tennis? You’ve got backhand and forehand, otherwise it’s all in the timing. Boxing? Three rounds of punching the air can get a little tiring.

90% of the time we were playing the Wii, Rick and I were standing in the middle of his living room, moving our bodies and swinging our arms like two spastics learning to dance. God, it was fun.

Yes, I do thing the Wii is innovative and cool and wildly entertaining. I would gladly pay the $250 for new game play over $600 for P3’s stunning graphics, since those stunning graphics are still tacked on to the same damn games we’ve been playing for years.

After a couple of hours, you do start to realize that most of the elaborate bat-swinging, punching, and overhead smashing can be done with a well-timed flick of the wrist, from the comfort of a cushy chair. It still beats mashing buttons.

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