If you ever complained about your kids being vegetables in front of the TV…

Posted by dkidwell on November 21st, 2006 — Posted in Wii, Wii Sports, console games, daughters, parenting, sons

The Wii may be your solution. We have not had a single minute of Cartoon Network or the Disney Channel since we got the Wii up and running on Sunday. Not one minute. No Hanna Montana, no Foster’s Home for Imaginary Friends. We had to negotiate for Monday Night Football.

The Wii is a guarantee that couch potatoes never take root in your living room!

Wii Sports – Tennis

Posted by dkidwell on November 20th, 2006 — Posted in Wii, console games, parenting

The Wii Sports tennis game is really well done, a few tips…

• Each of the kids takes a different section of the living room with plenty of room, and volley the ball back and forth. You won’t want to stand too close – even though you aren’t hitting the ball at the same time, the opportunities for collisions are pretty high. Space out and let your kids really move around.
• It seems to be harder to cross the court, and we haven’t mastered that.
• The Wii remote makes a very nice sound as the rack swings and hits the ball. Watching a game is much like watching Wimbledon games in the late 1970s and early 1980s. So far, I don’t seem to have a John McEnroe in the family. Thank goodness.

Wii remote review

Posted by dkidwell on November 19th, 2006 — Posted in Christmas, Wii, interface design, parenting, reviews

The whole family (even Grandma) gives initial thoughts from the family about the Wii remote:

Harry (age 13)-

• “It’s really light and like a small DVD remote – it’s great!”
• “It’s small, and fits in your hand.”
• “It’s really simple to use the buttons.”

Epiphany (age 10) -

• “At first it’s a little hard to control, but in less than 5 minutes you can really get good with it.”
• “This is probably the coolest Nintendo thing ever.”
• “Straps are required. If you don’t wear the wrist strap, it could fly off and hit the TV or the wall”
• “It’s cool how it makes noises when you do stuff.”
• “I really like having the B button on the botton, instead of on the top.”

George (age 7) -

• “It’s really cool. It’s really easy. You barely notice that it’s wrapped around your wrist. You can move it really fast”

Mom (age 36) -

• The sleeves will be a good idea – no fighting over who’s remote is who and if one is lost we’ll know who lost it.
• Definitely – wear your wrist strap.
• Make sure you have room to move around in the living room. It’s hard not to really move and get into the sports games.

Dad (age 36) -

• It’s really good in the right or left hand.
• It’s good for any size of hand.
• I was expecting more weight out of it, but it’s really light. The batteries add weight on the bottom and I myself would like a little more balance in the weight.
• In the Bowling game, you can get alot of precision with the spin and speed of the ball of the remote.

Grandma (age 66) -

• With one hand, it was fairly easy to use. (Grandma had a stroke a while back and can only use her left hand.)
• “I really liked how easy it was to use and type, especially when you personalize your Mii.”

These impressions do not include the nunchuck, since we have been Bowling and playing Tennis all day. [And for those that are keeping track, the kitten is sleeping in the other room and is quite content.]

Me and my Mii….

Posted by dkidwell on November 19th, 2006 — Posted in Wii, console games, parenting

First off, I should say that the music on the Wii is incredibly pleasant. This is important if you have it on for a couple of hours while you are debating which router setting is holding up the show. Seems we assign too few IP addresses. Jack and the kids are off to pick up Grandma, so I’m straightening the house, created a few Mii-folk, and pondering a jaunt at Zelda while I wait.

or maybe Red Steel……I’ll let you know….

Cables, components, manuals and surge protectors….

Posted by dkidwell on November 19th, 2006 — Posted in Christmas, Wii, console games, parenting

So…we are nearly the Wii hour…but not quite yet…

Turns out that before we could do any Wii Sports, we needed to spend a few hours doing the Cable Dance. Jack seems to think that I have held up the show – I apparently have pretty serious ‘cable issues.’ “All this would have been done a while ago, except she has this issue with seeing wires….”

Hmmm….I’m still seeing wires, so I’m not sure about just how dire my ‘cable issues’ are. I certainly don’t want to be tripping over wires, or unable to close the cabinet doors because of them. Apparently a trip to Fry’s will make all this much easier. Fry’s is the purveyor of a very particular magic box (High-def component switchbox). Jack’s TV is somehow lacking – it has a mere 2 imputs. This is the same TV that we waited for patiently and is the only TV worth watching certain football games.

…

We finally have Wii!

We nicknamed our Wii, Zakalwe, a mercenary for hire from the Ian Bank’s Culture books. We don’t know how’s we’ll end up using the nickname, but once we do I’ll let you know so you can name yours approrpriately.

Now, we pick up Grandma, and make up our Miis. (What is the plural form of Wii and Mii, anyway?) While we are waiting, you can make your own Mii here.

Again soon!

[The kitten has been sleeping all day on the sofa. She is content, as are we. ]