Doh! I'm so tempted to buy a Wii!

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Well, I cracked it open last night. Here's my random thoughts so far:

-The controller is actually surprisingly neat in the menu system. I'd actually like to try it out in a real (full) Wii game to see how it handles. It's a lot more accurate than I was expecting, and doesn't seem to jump around or anything. I also like the tactile feedback that it makes when "clicking" over an onscreen button. It's a little thing, but it adds a lot.

-I'm still worried about the IR emitter. I know it's probably low power, but it still concerns me. IR causes damage to eyes, and part of the problem is your eyes don't realize they're being hit by light, and don't react to protect themselves. I guess theoretically the Wii's lights are so low power it dosen't matter, but still...

I honestly felt weird pressure in my eyes after using the Wii for a half hour or so. I'm particularly sensitive to various types of radiation (I can "feel" many types of electromagnetic radiation, and radioactivity-my high school science teacher said that was impossible, and tested me...and I could instantly and easily pick out the container with a radioactive substance in it...he said Andrew...that's just weird, it shouldn't be possible")
So, yeah, I'm worried about it, even if I'm the only person on Earth that's concerned. I tried using it without the emitter, and sure enough, it didn't work at all.

-Wii Sports is lame. Super lame. Not my thing at all, and doesn't work well for me. It also doesn't seem to work when sitting down, which isn't my thing.

-I also don't like the design of the system. Like the 360, it has a HUGE external power supply. At least this one dosen't have a fan on it, but the cord is too short to actually reach my floor, which means like the 360, I have to have a weird setup.

-I also don't like it's kind of lame implementation of backwards compatibility. It's as lame as the DS Lite's compatibility. It works, but it basically just switches it to being a Gamecube. You can't use Wii controllers or memory cards, you basically have to power cycle the thing to get back to the menu, etc. Right now I've got the Wii on the floor since my Gamecube pad has such a short cable.

Weirdly, the so-called "sensor bar" has a super long cord, but the power cable is super short. Apperently people are using their Wii's on the floor?

Also the system's size really isn't that impressive. It's not much different from a Gamecube IMO (though quieter), and it's larger than my Playstation 2. It takes up more room in my setup than a Playstation 3 will because of that huge external power supply. So not too impressive. I kind of like it's looks the best of the three though, I guess, and the included stand is surprisingly nifty.

Overall, I'm very nervous about the health risks, but I do think Metroid Prime 3 may end up very interesting. I like the idea of physically manipulating things in the game world. It's been done before on PC games, but this might work better. The control pad also feels better in the hand that I expected it to-but judging by Wii Sports I'm not sure how well it actually works.

Another thing I like about the controller is how you can use it in either hand. It's sort of like the left and right halves of the controller have been split up.

I’d recommend that anyone getting an HD TV make sure it has a good scaler in it! Sony’s TVs do, and it handles the Wii’s SD resolution very well. It ends up full screen, and doesn’t look scaled. (A lot of cheaper TVs skimp on the scaler, and look terrible at anything but their full resolution.)

The Wii handles progressive scan better than the Playstation 2 or Gamecube, where you had to enable it for each individual game each time you started them. (Gamecube games still require that though.)

Other random thoughts-the Wii's IR emitter has a super duper skinny cord. Seems easy to break, though it's just a $10 part.

You're supposed to stick the emitter on your TV, but there's no way I'm gluing that thing to me TV! Just setting it on top seems to work fine though.

I can't try out most of the channels yet since it doesn't have an Ethernet adapter. I haven't decided yet if I'm going to buy one (since I haven't decided if I'm keeping it yet).

At the least I'll finish my Gamecube games (loving Fire Emblem so far!), and maybe rent Super Paper Mario.

Here's a picture of the Wii's "sensor" bar in action. I'm parinoid about it, and my mom is even more so. The IR radiation you can't see:



I mean it's probably safe I guess, but still a TV remote is just a split second flash, aimed away from you, and this is a bunch of them on for hours as you play, all aimed right at you.

It's too bad, because I think the control scheme has potential for real games-like Metroid Prime 3 I think is going to be interesting. (I think that's going to be the true test for it-if it doesn't handle it well, then it's a mini-game gimick, but if the preview impressions are right, then it actually can be used for real games).

It does turn off when you're playing a Gamecube game, so I'll at least use it to finish off my last 'Cube games. I'm having a blast with Fire Emblem, and I'm looking forward to Chibi Robo even more.

What's so bad about IR light?

Causes damage to your eyes, and strong enough it can cause skin cancer too. I mean I'd assume the Wii's no where near strong enough for that, but still I'm a bit nervous about it.

what model do you have? the thinlines i've seen are all bigger...skinnier but still overall cover a larger area of space.


and as far as the IR goes....calm down and take your sanity pills...your imagination is making you paranoid.

My current Playstation 2 is the new model (sold my old one because I thought I could wait for the Playstation 3, only then that got delayed a year). Quite a bit smaller overall, so kind of wrecks the "shock" of the Wii's size

I like that the Wii is also super quiet! The 360 is louder than the Playstation 2, 3, and Wii put together, 10 times over.

My eyes feel like there's preasure on them after I've used the Wii (in "Wii mode") for a long time, so I can't write off that it may be bad.

And if it is, it wouldn't be Nintendo's first system that's dangerous to your eyes...

No way man... the Virtual Boy is great.

Not really... but it is an amusing novelty.

For me it takes up hardly any space at all, plug it in to the TV, power and sensor bar and your done. Our PS2 took up at least triple that space.

How could it take up triple the space? The original Playstation 2 has an internal power supply and take up roughly the same space when on end, and less space depending on where you have to put the power supply. The new Playstation 2 is smaller in all but one dimension, and has a smaller PSU.

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I was toying with getting Super Paper Mario, as Amazon had it for $10 off. I thought that was a regular price for it, but I guess it was just a sale as it's back to full price again.