I've been thinking about it for a while, but I finally went and bought the Wii this weekend, and I'm really glad I did.  My thoughts on the console:

Positives: 

My wife loves Wii sports, this was a big factor in why I bought it, she doesn't play video games, but she has really enjoyed Wii sports, this is obviously why N is doing so well with this console IMO.

The graphics look much better than I expected.  The 360 is my other system so I thought I would have a hard time adjusting to lesser graphics on my HDTV, this was not the case though.  Although the style of the 2 Wii games I have (sports and play) are simple, they look great for what they are, and are very easy on the eyes.

The Wii has built in Wireless!!  I did not know this, and was pleasantly surprised.

Mii's are fun and easy to create, I've got pretty good likenesses me, my wife, and a lot of our friends.

The Wii is really small, compared to the 360, and quiet.

Excellent Backwards compatability, this is the other big reason I bought the Wii.  I never owned a GC, so I wanted to go back and play all the games I missed, in fact, I have only bought GC games so far.  I plan to DL Zelda OOT (my all time fav. game) and Paper Mario (never played b4) off VC, and I bought Mario Sunshine, Zelda Windwaker, Metroid Prime, and Paper Mario: 1000 year door.  Hopefully this will fill the Nintendo void in my life from the last decade, but at least I have a lot of new (to me) games for real cheap.

Negatives:

Virtual Console games are too expensive in my opinion, but this seems to be a problem with DLC on all systems right now, I really hope they see the light and lower prices in the future.

BWC is a little expensive and kind of a hassle, although this is partly my fault.  I bought the classic controller b/c I thought I needed it for GC games, turns out I need a GC controller, so then I went and bought a GC contoller, this worked, but turns out I couldn't save my games, I thought this was kind of BS, the console has memory, but there doesn't seem to be a way to save a GC game without a memory card, so I had to go buy one.  As I type this, I have a feeling someone is going to tell me a way I could've done it without the memory card....

Online seems to be lacking so far, but I have a 360 for that stuff, so it's not a big deal to me at the moment.

This one isn't about the Wii, but about Best Buy, Target, and Gamestop.  I'm sick of these stores trying to sell me extra crap I don't need/want.  I had to tell the checkout girl at Best Buy 4 times I didn't want their warranty, she kept telling me things like "these things break so you need this warranty" which I was appalled at, I know this is how BB and CC make a lot of their money, but it's borderline scam in my opinion.  Target wanted me to apply for their credit card to get 10% off like they do everytime I buy something.  Gamestop tried to sell me their gamercard thing and a magazine.  I'm seriously sick of this crap, I just want to buy whatever I'm purchasing and not tried to be upsold, I'm usually a pretty nice guy, but I think if more stores continue this crap I'm going to end up being a rude consumer, which I don't want to do, but they're leaving me little choice.  <end rant>

That's pretty much it, all in all, I'm happy with the console so far, and think I'll have a good time playing catchup on some Mario, Zelda, and Metroid games.

Be a rude customer. Unfortunately it's their job to try and sell you this crap, it's your job to tell them to PISS OFF. Once they learn that's how you respond, they'll quit asking. :D

I have one of those best buy cards. Last time I was in I handed the guy the card so he could scan it, which he did. Then he asked me if I wanted to sign up for the card. I just stared at him for something like 15 seconds. It was too much fun. He was such a drone that he couldn't remember what had happened in the last three seconds. Here's a shout out to all the drones. We feel your pain having to sell your soul and shill for the corporate man. Watch out....it could turn you into something you don't recognize. Lol. Like a moron.

Yeah, I was annoyed that you can't play GC games without a GC memory card. Especially since those things have a horrible dollar per megabyte ratio. You'd think it wouldn't be that tough to tap into the Wii's built-in memory. It was well worth it to get at some of the great (Metroid) GC (Metroid) games (Metroid) out there, though.

You'll love Paper Mario, I think. It's gotten more play than any of the other VC games I've downloaded. Holds up very well for a legacy game. The story is fun, and the game mechanics hold your attention far better than the mindless grind of your typical FF game.

I agree about backwards compatibility costs, but in the end i really enjoyed the gamecube games and i still havent gotten all of the games that i wanted to get yet.

Just a suggestion, if OOT is your all time fav I'd look into getting the Master Quest Limited editon that came out on the Gamecube instead of buying the VC version. Not only do you get the original but you also get the Master Quest version that was only released in Japan. The only negative is that it will run you 30-40 depending on how well you bid on e-bay. The reason for this is the MQ version was a special disc given for pre-ordering Windwaker. (you should also check out Windwaker BTW. :))

I am in the same situation as you are. No GC and got a Wii. I was a bit angry in the beginning because the game I wanted to play the most was the Wind Waker. So I get home, put the game in and that annoying message tells me that I can't save my game. Then I have to wait until the next day and go to the store again so that I can finally play it.

By the way, you got many games at once. Probably going to take a while...

I remember getting my first GC games for the Wii, threw in Sunshine, no memory card
:(:(:(, definitely the biggest flaw with the backwards compatability

The WII is not the only bad guy in this. The WII has even got a Memory Card slot for Gamecube Memory Cards. For the PS3 for instance, which doesn't save PS2 / PS games on the hard drive either, you'll even need to buy a Memory Card Adapter for PS / PS2 memory cards, before you even can take the first step of saving. Though as far as I know, on the PS3 you don't need seperate controllers, to play older games. Classic controller is not really needed as N64 and SNES games you can play with the Cube Controller and the other games with your WII remote. Though the Classic controllers feels better in hand with most of the VC games.

The PS3 does save PS1/PS2 games to the HDD.