Son of Wiicentric

I'm home from school, and I've got a working computer while I'm here! In any case, let me recount what has occupied me as of late.

Like many a fool before me, I camped out last Sunday for a Wii. Rather, it would be better to say I camped out almost all of Saturday until the early hours of Sunday. This wasn't actually my idea, but someone else's on campus, and since I figured having company from school to pass the time would be a good thing, I carpooled with three other guys. We had no idea how many people would be there, or when they would get in line, so we went ridiculously early. It would turn out that camping out was a good idea, though we really didn't need to get to this Target as early as we did. Nonetheless, we got our Wiis, and when I got home, I was way too tired to play. So, I napped, and set that bad boy up. My roommate was in, so we concocted some Miis and fired up WiiSports, which turned out to be an insane amount of fun. We progressed through all of the sports, and by then it was time to get back to working on finals. In case anyone missed the memo, I am a college student, and the Wii's launch date coincided with the last weekend before Final Exams/Projects.

Later that day, I did manage to get some Red Steel action in. Let's get something straight. WiiSports is a terrific introduction to the Wii control scheme, and the decision to add it to the Wii bundle was a smart one. However, Red Steel is not as easy to pick up. Now, maybe this was because my sensor bar was not well-fastened and thus kept slipping on the top of my TV, but maintaining control in the game was damn difficult. Of course, I did eventually get the hang of things, and don't get me wrong, the game is fun. I just really understand what reviewers were talking about when they said the controls just didn't work so well. As long as the cursor remains in plain view, aiming isn't so bad, especially with the zoom function when targeting. Without the targeting feature, though, the game would be broken shit, and I can't see anyone wanting to play it. I still haven't tried the multiplayer, so hopefully that convinces me to keep the game, but so far I'm running out of reasons to like the game. It is fun, but is it fun enough? Time will tell.

Now that I'm home on vacation, there are two Wii consoles in my home: My brother's and mine. I only bought Red Steel, as I am a poor, poor college student. My brother, while not exactly rich himself, bought more than I did. We also invited a bunch of people over tonight for a gaming party, featuring the Wii. A couple of our friends have their own, so we all pooled our games together. We started the evening off with WiiSports, obviously, for those unaccustomed to the Wiimote. Then there was some Super Monkey Ball: Banana Blitz. Well, it's pretty much the same thing as before, but there are a ton of minigames now, many of which are pretty cool.

Later on, we popped in Rayman: Raving Rabbids, another minigame collection. This game, however, is a complete blast. The art direction is about as solid as granite, and that's pretty damn solid. The game is chock full of imagination and creative uses for the wiimote and nunchuck, not to mention I can't get enough of those little Rabbid bastards. Crazy little buggers. Interestingly enough, even though this is a relatively loose collection of minigames, there is a semblance of plot, however subtle. Rayman actually starts accruing some esteem amongst his captors, and when he gets farther along, his gladiatorial prison room gets decked out with nicer equipment. Completing all the games from a day allows you to unlock s special extra, such as a new costume for Rayman or a new song. Overall, this is actually the game I'd recommend the most to someone looking to get a Wii. This is, of course, since I haven't played the new Zelda game yet, and won't be able to for quite a while. And what gaming party is complete without Guitar Hero? We played quite a lot of the second game in this awesome series, mostly in Coop mode which is a welcome addition to face-off mode in multiplayer.

That's enough Wii-raving for now. I'll see what I can do next time. If there is a next time!