It has now been 6 months since the Wii arrived (early Dec. in Australia). I can't actually believe that long has passed... but it has. Has the hype been worth it? (was there enough hype?) Has the Wii changed my gaming habits? My friends gaming habits? Our lives? (for the better or worse?)

...

Since the Wii arrived in our household, things have definitely been different. My partner has started playing games - notable Wii Sports (bowling & golf). Her sister has come around a few times just to play Wii (sometimes when we are not even home), and her mother and various friends have also chipped in.

I would say I have used the Wii 9 out of every 10 nights (maybe higher) that I have been home. The news & voting channels get used pretty much every night - the weather & Internet channels rarely and the photo channel almost never.

About 10 VC titles have been purchased, with my favourite (by a VERY large margin) being the original Zelda title (I have actually put a ridiculous amount of time into this game - its close to my fav game ever - but that's a story for another thread). VC purchases have definitely slowed down recently, as I have started to become more conscious of spending.

The same has applied to the actual full-priced titles purchased. I find myself wishing I had held off on a couple of them (namely WarioWare, Pinball & DragonBallZ) - not for quality reasons, but just for spending reasons. I can see a ridiculous number of potential purchases in the couple months (and that makes me nervous...). I should note that I end up doing this *every* launch period (i.e. for every console).

Of the actual games - Wii Sports easily gets the most playtime (even from myself). Many a night, just this game is played - with various people drifting in or out of multiplayer games. Currently playing some Boxing as a form of self-enforced exercise (that may sound sad... :P).

Zelda & Rayman have both been completed - and enjoyed immensely. The dancing game in Rayman was a big hit with some of the casual gamers that have used the system, which means DDR, Boogie or other dancing/singing games will invariably be purchased. The lure fishing in Zelda was also an unexpected hit with my partner (who played it for close to 10 nights straight!).

ExciteTruck & Red Steel have both been enjoyed, but need more gaming time put into them (from my behalf).

The sole disappointment IMO was "Sonic: The Secret Rings". Not going to cover it here, but the game was definitely a big let down - I just can't play it. I shudder to think what the Sonic titles are like on the PS3/360, if people generally consider this the best of the bunch.

I think the controller has been an outstanding success. I still remember seeing how the "pointer" worked for the first time, and feeling a huge grin on my face. Its completely intuitive, and I regularly pass the controller to a non-gamer to let them navigate. Its not perfect, but it more than does its job.

Both the battery life & speaker issues have become non-existant to me. Both are (minor) issues, but neither actually detract from the overall experience.

I love being able to turn the console on/off from the controller (awesome!), launch VC games, check the news, etc... all from the couch (where I can be as lazy as I like). But the opposite applies to Gamecube games. Although I would like to play more GC titles on the Wii (and I have a good library of 30+ titles to pick from), it breaks the immersive feel of the console (have to manually reset, need to use another controller, etc...). If only Nintendo could create a software solution for GC games that would improve this. Still, its a fairly minor (and lazy) gripe.

Apart from Wii Sports, the biggest success/surprise of the Wii IMO is the "Mii" channel. We have spent a ridiculous amount of time creating Miis, and it seems to be the perfect way to get a casual user initially involved and using the Wii (i.e. you create them in front of them, and watch their expressions!).

The Mii design is actually quite clever. A completely realistic Mii solution would in effect break a lot of the fun. Its not about recreating someone (people can see, and its not hard to see when someone looks the same on TV as they do in real life) - its about creating an accurate caricature of a person. There are several different ways to design a Mii/person - and this is extremely subjective. This is where the human element comes into play, and a lot of fun results from the situation.

...

My first 6 months of Wii-time have been excellent. That said - it feels like the system is just starting to warm up. Our (Australias) first online title launches in a week (Mario Strikers), and I think that will change the face of Nintendo gaming forever (we have been waiting a LONG time for Nintendo to embrace online console gaming!).

The next 6 months will show whether the system really has long-term potential, or is just a convenient controller designed for Wii Sports type games. I have little doubt that Nintendo will continue to take the Wii to new heights - especially when you look at the list of exclusive games coming this year:

 - Super Mario Galaxy, Smash Brothers Brawl, Metroid Prime: Corruption, Resident Evil: Umbrella Chronicles, Mario & Sonic: Olympics, Wii Health, Wii Music, My Sims, FF:Crystal Chronicles, Treasure Island Z, Opoona, Pokemon Battle Revolution, Mario Strikers, Batallion Wars II, Boogie, EA Playground, Rayman Raving Rabbits II, Soul Calibre Legends, NiGHTS, Fire Emblem, Ghost Squad (*)

(* - tried to pick only exclusive titles, but I may have missed some...).

Bring on the next 6 Wii-months! 

good read! Could be fun to read others expressions that is owning a Wii. It could also be fun to read those of you that own a PS3 or a xbox360 but please create another thread.

I got my Wii for last Yule, and I've been very happy with the console itself. It works like a marvel, fits perfectly next to my tv, and plays all my Gamecube games without a hitch.

I am, however, a bit annoyed by the total lack of interesting games that have made it to Europe. I was initially very interested in Trauma Center and Elebits, but those get bumped to July and April respectively. The delay pretty much killed my interest in those two. Then I was very keen on getting Super Paper Mario, but it doesn't even have an official launch date in Europe yet. I'll probably get it regardless, as long as it'll arrive in 2007. Nintendo has been saying they'll relese all three of their big first party games this year, but I'll be happy if even one of them makes it to Europe before 2008...

I'm convinced the Wii will end up selling the most consoles this gen, and definitely have the best games eventually after most developers jump ship to the most successful machine, but right now I haven't played any Wii games in ages. I actually bought a used Xbox a few months ago, and have lately been playing all the exclusives I missed, plus some Gamecube games I never got around to playing earlier.

Of course the only money I've actually spent on my Wii so far is the 60€ I had to pay for Twilight Princess (81$ and that's the cheapest I could find in my city), so I consider it money well spent. If I'd paid for it myself, then I'd probably be a bit annoyed at getting it too early, but I've no reason to complain as is.

I'm thoroughly enjoying the Wii -- had to send it in for warranty replacement due to a GPU glitch, but I put off sending it in for longer than I meant to. Finally did it as the May software releases have been light, and when it came back 10 days later the first thing I did was play a few rounds of Wii Sports Tennis and Wario Ware. I honestly missed that little white box! I also realized that I depend on the Wii's Forecast and News channel more than I would have guessed. Absence apparently makes the heart grow fonder. I finished Super Paper Mario over the holiday weekend, and am currently putting time into Zelda: Ocarina of Time on the Virtual Console. And there are 4 new Wii games coming out this week here in the US. I was interested in Mario Party 8, but the reviews have been dismal; Surf's Up and Tamagotchi: Party On! aren't interesting to me either. But Mortal Kombat: Armageddon may do the trick, reviews have been good and I haven't seriously played an MK game in over a decade. So six months in (bought mine a week late on 11/26/07) I'm very much enjoying this platform. Looking forward to some great games in June and through the end of the year.

One note about Sonic: The Secret Rings, it does get a little better as some of the skills get unlocked, but still it's better for the mini-games then the main game. Of course you have to unlock most of the minigames in the full game... My daughter and her friends, or our family play it as a party game far more then the main game.

(Someone should do this for the PS3 and/or 360 too...)

Huh?

http://www.gamerankings.com/htmlpages2/935598.asp

Seen nothing but positive reviews and scores so far? Please point me towards bad reviews if you come across any. I think the game looks great... 

I find it hard to describe. If the menus would be 5x quicker to get through, I think the game would be twice as good. Its just over-complex, and I don't feel like Im having a lot of fun playing it. The in-game graphics are great - and a lot of the in-game is pretty good (generally), but I strongly dislike everything else about the game...

SHAMS, ole buddy ole pal, I pretty much agree, One aspect i like is the nostalgia value, all th eold 16 bit era games, to download. I am hoping eventually the Wii might(just a cry in the dark)get VC downloads in the 32 bit era/62, like Dreamcast games??Saturn? Even rare ones like FM towns Marty? The only downfall I have is the lack of games, but I am purchasing Godfather when I arrive in my new home!!! PS Downloaded Actraiser yesterday, Love that game, havent played it in a while, It actually downoaded pretty fast I was surprised.

I got my Wii right at launch and a 5 day long Wii sports marathon was held in my apartment living room with various people coming and going for those 5 days straight. That is the most people i've had over to play games at one time since my like 10th birthday when my mom rented me a SNES with Street Fighter II. Also picked up Zelda and Excite Truck at launch.

After Wii sports slowed down we had a couple days of Excite Truck wich turned out to be quite a bit less fulfillng. Only two player multiplayer?? It left to many people sitting around watching (and not nearly as much fun to watch someone as Wii Sports was). The novelty quickly wore off of Excite Truck and i had to wait until everyone was gone to play it single player (also a bit unfulfilling).

Now that everyone had come over and tried the Wii and either decided it was not for them or purchased one of their own so that they could stop bugging me i could sink into Zelda. I found that the first 3 hours or so really dragged on and i didnt really enjoy it but once i started getting some items from various dungeons i got back into the Zelda spirit. Got stuck on the water temple for a day or two until my fiance pointed out my stupidity while walking by the TV to help me solve a puzzle. I did enjoy it, but unlike a lot of other people i've seen posting on here i had almost no replay value. Got all the heart peices but one before finishing, almost all the golden bugs, a majority of the ghosts and most of the weapons upgrades. I still have not felt like putting Zelda back in to play.

Anyway those 3 games were finished so it was time to grab a couple more. Purchased Rayman and Tony Hawk's DJ(i know it got some bad reviews but i love all that is tony hawk) and a Wii points card. My fiance and myself took turns on playing Rayman and had a lot of fun spending time together and laughing at the randomness of a lot of the games. There were a few that we didnt laugh at or enjoy and unfortunately throughout the game some of them had 2 or 3 versions.

Started playing Tony Hawk and i actually enjoyed it a lot more then Excite Truck as a racing game. The only thing i didnt like is that it didnt have any gaps like the previous Tony Hawk titles (my favorite part of the game is searching for all the random gaps). After getting about 70% through the main game my cat chewed my sensor bar chord. No sensor bars were sold at store level (and to my knowledge still aren't in Canada at least).

Both of us had racked up our credit cards during christmas so online was not an option until April (when we paid them off). We couldnt play our Wii from February 5 - April 15. We tried Candles which worked, but caused a lot of accuracy problems and ended up just going back to NES while we waited for a new sensor bar.

Finally got it and were able to finish off Rayman and Tony Hawk. I have yet to use my points card because almost every VC title i still own the original cartridge for. I'm waiting for some more obscure titles that i have trouble finding like Bionic Commando, Blaster Master, Little Samson, and Dragon Quest 3 or 4. now all our Wii is doing is playing Gamecube games (which is definately not a bad thing) until we have some extra cash to grab Mario Party 8.

All in all i think we wish we held back on Excite Truck and Zelda and grabbed either Super Paper Mario, Wario Ware (rented and loved it), Sonic, Wii Play, or now Mario Party 8. While we wait for our funds to build up we are actively playing DS and awaiting a game with Wii/DS funiontality besides Pokemon (i'll love it but my fiance wont) that we can both enjoy.

Also should point out that we have absolutley no interest in any of the different channels. With maybe the exception of the Mii Channel. Stayed up late one night and made Mii's of every famous person we could think of and some old friends and teachers and stuff. Havnt had any interest in Vote channel, photo channel, weather channel, internet channel, shop channel, or news channel. Shop channel eventually will be of interest hopefully but i dont think the other ones really appeal to us.