The Nintendo Wii was finally launched in Singapore last week and I finally managed to buy one after months of waiting since its US launch last December. Unfortunately, this is only the soft launch and these official sets from the Singapore distributor are essentially US sets which they imported and repackaged with a 220v power adaptor. Word is, South East Asia will only get an official launch and a true localized set in Oct of this year.
I, however, decided enough waiting for me as I'd put aside enough money to get the Wii since its launch late last year. So although this soft launch Wii is probably more expensive than the Wii that will be launched late this year and although this is a bundled set, I still got it it in the end. Anyway, I'm on good terms with my heartland game shop guy and he let me trade in Sonic and the Secret Rings for Zelda and I just paid the difference.
I have no regrets as the Wii is a truly fantastic gaming machine and it has provided me and my family hours of fun. My mum LOVES the Wii and plays it almost every single day. I, myself, play it almost everyday unless work gets in the way. A friend and I also threw a joint Wii party on Saturday and the 7-8 of us were at this party for about ten hours.
The Wii is like no other gaming machine on the market right now. It revolutionizes game play by taking it back to the basics. There are no dizzying graphics and complicated stories. It's like the first time one plays pong, you pick up a controller and simply have fun.
It is extremely easy for non-gamers to begin playing as the Wii uses motion control for many of their key and most fun games. The best way to experience the Wii is to play Wii Sports which is a game they very cleverly included as part of the Wii package when one buys the Wii in all regions except Japan right now. Take tennis for example. In order to execute a forehand, one just swings the arm grasping the Wii-mote, which acts as your tennis racket of sorts, like one would swing one's arm when one is playing tennis in real life. Similarly for games like boxing, baseball, golf and bowling, the Wii-mote is grasp and the motion one needs to execute is similar to the action needed in real life. Compare the simpleness of the controls to the complex multi-button, two analog joysticks controllers of the xBoxes and Sony Playstations. It is really THAT easy to play the Wii.
Wii Sports gets my vote as Wii game of the year as it really is the game that illustrates how much potential the Wii has. I have my 60+ year-old mum, my 4+ year-old niece and my non-gaming friends all happy playing the Wii and it is simply amazing to watch them play and to play with them.
And if you ask me what is the biggest thing that has distracted me from blogging these days, it isn't work, it's not my continued recovery from a serious bout of flu, it isn't a tv series I'm hooked on. Instead, it is the Wii and I've not been this hooked on video games since I got obsessed with conquering Soul Calibur on the Sega Dreamcast years and years ago.
So much as I would like to continue with my Guizhou photos, reply to YTSL's request for her meme on films, write up reviews of two rather good Mainland Chinese series that I just saw and talk a bit about Sembawang etc, it is the Wii that has me completely in its spell right now. So I bid adieu as I'm off to play Zelda for now and I will get back to blogging, I promise, but after I get my does of Wii. :)
