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I was lucky enough to snag a delightfully inexpensive Wii console after trading in some old DVDs and games, and man am I glad I did.

Video games in general have been trending in one solid direction: prettier graphics, worse gameplay. Every generation, new consoles come out, and we are dazzled by the insanely gorgeous graphics. Well, it seems we've reached a tipping point with that. The breathtaking graphics and insane capabilities of the PS3 may be great, but at $500+, it's just too much money.

Enter the Wii, priced significantly lower than the PS3 and even the XBox 360. Nintendo chose to keep the price down by not investing in ultra-realistic new graphics technology (which makes those other two consoles more expensive, and also far more prone to errors and breakdowns), and instead chose to innovate gameplay with a simplified motion-sensing controller. They had already done this before with the DS, opting for innovative touch-screen play rather than the expensive, ultra-slow-loading graphics on the PSP, and they had a hit on their hands. Now the Wii is outselling the PS3, at some reports, 6 to 1... and to put that even further into perspective, every electronics/gaming store I go to has stacks and stacks of PS3 consoles but are usually sold out of Wii consoles, making it harder to buy in the first place... and still it's drastically triumphing.

But enough of this, what about the actual review? The Wii comes with one complete controller (the remote and the nunchuck), the console, and the required wires and plugs and other miscellaneous items necessary to plug it in and get going, and it also comes with the brilliant Wii Sports game disc. Wii Sports was the perfect choice, too, as a pack-in game. Why? It gets some great use out of the motion-sensing remote (swing it like a baseball bat, tennis racket, golf club, boxing glove, bowling ball), shows parents that video games can make for good exercise (I played it for fifteen minutes and the next day my shoulders and arms were completely sore!), and gives you a chance to make some Mii characters and use them in-game. Oh yeah, and it's just a lot of fun.

In addition to the console I picked up Resident Evil 4, which I had previously owned on GameCube. How did it change for Wii? The control scheme is far more effective. The remote is used to aim your weapon (or waved about to use the knife). The graphics aren't substantially different but are far crisper and cleaner, and the game is presented in a true widescreen format

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