Wii would like to play

We bought a Wii last night. The concept of position and motion sensitive controls is truly revolutionary. Nothing that has come before has been as immersive. Our Wii came with the Wii Sports title, which includes Tennis, Baseball, Golf, Bowling and Boxing.

The baseball game is sort of one dimensional and boring. All you do is pitch and bat. It's a lot more like Over The Line than Baseball. I don't like it so much. Tennis is a bit more challenging. Tennis is played as doubles, and in addition to swinging the controller at the right time, you need to pick whether to swing forehand or backhand correctly depending on where the ball is. Golf is kind of fun. You can't swing too hard or it will just accentuate any hook or slice you've imparted on the ball, so controlling your swing is what it's all about. Boxing is played with the numchuck, which is a second controller wired to the first one (the primary controllers are wireless). The numchuck also has a position sensor in it, so with the controller in one hand and the numchuck in the other, you throw your fists around like real boxing.

But the pièce de résistance is Bowling. You swing the controller just like it was a bowling ball, and let go of the trigger button to let go of the ball. The english you put on your swing gets imparted to the ball. It has to be the single most accurate sporting simulation since the treadmill.

Scarlet and I really got some exercise last night. We bought a Wii because we decided to see if it really was true that you could get into playing the games as an exercise program. Well, the hype is true. I think this is going to be very good for us.

The only issue now is that I'm not sure what other games we'll want to buy. I'm sure we'll get tired of Bowling some day, but I can't really see that day from here.