The Nintendo Wii was officially launched in Australia yesterday and my friend/workmate brought it in to work today for us to have a play with it. :D To be honest, I don’t really have a keen interest in consoles usually, but I am really impressed with the Wii after playing with it earlier in the afternoon. It was really, pure and simple fun. Their new controllers allow you to be immersed in the game where traditional controllers will fall short of.

Wii Tennis allowed just controls on hitting the ball such as spin, velocity and direction without having to worry about the positioning of the player which is done automatically. It was extremely easy to pick up and it was pretty fun playing against each other. Wii Boxing on the other hand gave quite a workout having to move about and flexing your arms to dodge and punch. If you think console gaming is something where you slouch on the sofa and twiddle with your thumbs, think again. ;)

I’ve only 1 gripe about the Wii which is the Wii-mote controller. It gets quite slippery if your palms get sweaty. It’s lacking grooves or some form of grip on the underside which would’ve helped greatly. The wrist strap needs to be tightened appropriately to prevent the controller to fly off your hand and into walls or expensive LCD TVs. There’s a Japanese safety manual out at the moment which you can have a look at here (and a parody version here ;)).

I’m quite sure this controller issues will be fixed pretty soon as companies such as Logitech would have Wii compatible controllers in the pipeline.

To anyone thinking of getting an Xbox 360 now or continue waiting on the overpriced PS3, you might want to consider the Wii instead. It may have inferior 3D graphics rendering compared to the other beefier consoles, but if you’re looking for entertainment, you can do no wrong by getting a Wii.

If only I didn’t have other gadgets which I want to get hold of.. :(