What the wii has done for our family

Submitted by Patrick Grote on Fri, 06/01/2007 - 8:20am.

We finally got a Wii a few months back and it's been quit an experience. As I've related before, my best gaming days are behind me. I do enjoy playing games on the PC, but I haven't owned a console since the Sega Genesis. This is the main reason I wanted to buy a Wii. It looked easy and fun.

The wife surprised the family with a Wii back in March. We got the basic Wii system and we bought an extra wiimote and a nunchuk.

It took all of ten minutes to setup, which is amazing considering the non-standard wireless network we run at home. Everything worked out of the box and we were off playing.

Tennis became our family favorite, but it was fun to watch each of us become good at one specific sport. My wife is a great bowler, my daughter an awesome golfer and myself a fantastic baseball player.

The love for Wii Sports eventually fades as you become a pro in all the sports. This was interesting to experience, as you finally make it to that level and it seems the Wii gives up on you.

We moved our focus to the training part of Wii Sports. We try to achieve better records than each other, and we also try to get our wii fitness levels down to 20. It's kept our attention.

Here are the three things we've enjoyed about the Wii:

More family time. We all gravitate to the Wii, so we spend more time together. We watch with rapt attention the play of the other players, and we commonly tease each other if things don't go well.

More activity. All the Wii Sports games get you up and moving. Yes, you can do most of the actions required without moving your whole body, but you still move. It leads to funny displays of awkward coordination and gets the heart running.

Easy to use: From the initial install to the ability to buy older games online, everything is simple. I have yet to run into a part of the Wii I cannot understand or doesn't make sense.

Nintendo hit a homerun with the Wii by appealing to people like my family. Casual gamers looking to spend time together.