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There was a time when the Nintendo Wii was virtually impossible to find unless you actually worked at the store. (I should know. I was one such worker, and I managed to secure a Wii relatively early.) Even now that the fad has passed a bit and the units are more readily available it's still pretty tough to track one down.

The question is, is all that effort really worth it?

The Wii's an enterprising little gadget. It uses motion-sensing technology to partially simulate the actions you're carrying out on the screen. Swing the Wiimote in your living room and your character in the game will follow suit. Hopefully, anyway, and that's part of the Wii's downfall.

The sensor bar is tricky. If you're playing a slower-paced game, like, say, Wii Sports' Bowling, the motion sensing works beautifully; there are few snags, making for an enjoyable experience overall. But some of the faster games don't react so well, especially if the developers squelched on their programming department. The result is a hit-and-miss system that sometimes works beautifully and sometimes doesn't work so hot, which can be very, very frustrating.

Of course this motion sensing technology opens up a whole new range of possibilities, and depending on the company who designed the game you might be open to some truly innovative experiences. Games the likes of Warioware and Mario Party make exceptional use of the Wiimotes to put their players into embarrassing and hilarious positions, thus cementing the Wii as yet another awesome party system for Nintendo. And, in general, I've found that Wii games are best played with others than solo.

But the Wii isn't a one-trick pony, and has plenty else besides the sensor as a source of fun. One of the straight-out-of-the-box options that tons of gamers obsess over is the Mii Channel, a program that allows you to create basic digital representations of yourself and others. It's amazing what some enterprising gamers have come up with given the program's limited capabilities, and I can only imagine how far these designers will go if given an expanded range of options. These Miis can often be exported into the games themselves, as well, which is a nice touch.

The Wii can also connect to the internet, with an Opera browser that's decent enough but a bit limited in its range of displayable websites. Most videos beyond those found on YouTube won't work over your Wii. An upgradeable version of Opera would be nice.

And, while online, you can purchase old Nintendo, Sega and TurboGraphx-16 games for a fairly paltry sum. Each game is buyable via Wii points purchased in gaming stores and bigger outlets like Wal-Mart and Zellars. This touch is especially welcome, considering you can get games for every Nintendo console save the Game Cube (whose games you can also play on the Wii), though the Wii's limited memory prevents too much downloading before an SD card is necessary.

Hosting so many options and ringing in as the cheapest current generation system, the Wii is a good purchase for just about anybody, especially those looking to have fun while getting fit. Don't expect state-of-the-art graphics or an incredibly immersive experience on this system, however, as you'll probably be grasping at straws - the Wii is best used by less-than-hardcore gamers.

Learn more about this author, Matt Bird.
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