SPOnG’s UK Wii First Impressions

This morning has been filled with the sounds of screaming in equal measures of glee and frustration as SPOnG received its Wii from Nintendo.

The delivery arrived at the SPOnG offices at 10:00am and, had we not stopped to take the photographs you can see at the bottom of the page, it would have been opened by 10:02am.

As it was, we took our time shooting our Wii unpacking. We then cleared the newsroom of the horde of passers-by who had filled it having heard cries of, “Wiiiiiiii! Wiiiiiii!” from the street. And we got on with creating our Mii and heading into a game of Wii Sports Tennis.

Call of Duty III by the way is currently loading in preparation for a damned good reviewing.

Initial reactions from those SPOnG staffers who had experienced Wii at E3 were strong and assured, “Get out of my way!”, “Give it to me!”. Those with no previous hands-on experience, while less aggressive in their approach, were nevertheless eager to see the device cabled up via its composite lead and displayed on the 50-inch, plasma, screen.

Once running, Mii image designed and in motion, console named, controllers primed with batteries, we – like our Jury in the US – had problems getting internet connectivity.

Wii is unlike any other console. How many times have you plugged in a new console and played with it for a full 20 minutes before even trying to play a game. The whole control panel and channels model is novel, intuitive and involving.

The first disc in was Wii Sports, and we can't see why we'll be needing another game for weeks, months maybe. And here’s why, according to the one SPOnG-staffer able to tear himself away long enough to comment coherently:

”The graphics, in Wii Sports at least, are laughable... but I honestly didn't notice until I'd been playing for over an hour - and anyway, I've always maintained that this endless chasing of visual realism is needless for very many games.

“What really should be noted by anybody thinking of buying a Wii next week is that, early on, the controllers started to show some weaknesses. The back flap does not hold the batteries in place well enough, and they can become loose, losing their connection, causing the controller to lose power. This happened very frequently and very frustratingly while we were playing Boxing. A hastily folded up Post-it note stuffed in under the battery flap solved it admirably, but it is something testing should have shown up, and Nintendo should have fixed before release.”

Once we'd sorted out Post-it fix out, however, we got down to some serious game-play...

18:00hrs... that same day...

Is it 'Wii-phoria' or is it 'For Wii-eel?" we asked ourselves as, despite random strangers rolling in and out of the news room on the off-chance that some SPOnG staffer was not playing Wii Sports Golf, we continued to flailing our wiimote.

During five and half-hours of Wii-play the controller issue whereby the battery would become unseated especially during a hefty service game; it also became abundantly clear that the putting in Golf was either to be finessed or forgotten about.

To be fair and even-handed (even-back-handed, in some cases – and we refer to tennis here), the fact is that at no time was the Wii left lying dormant in the corner. Sure, Wii Play is nominally a freebie, sure the graphics – once you notice them – are weak, uninspiring and more than worthy of a freebie-ness; and sure, after a while Marcus’ Mii more than resembled George Michael, with Tim’s doing a grand impression of fat Mr Spock. All this is true.

Yet still we played.

The question that kept re-occurring related directly to the robustness of the Wiimote. Every time somebody new came in, witnessed the actual physical effort put into a serve, or the near-disaster that nearly (but not quite) befell the controller following a missed birdie putt at the fifth hole, the question sounded: “Is it possible that Nintendo can make more money from replacement controllers than it can from actual software?”

“Do not be naïve and gauche”, the hardcore gamers here responded.

“OK. Anyway, I’m just off out to invest in a Chinese third-party controller manufacturer,” came the distant reply from the passers-by.

Seriously though, the sheer exuberant fun we’ve had does suggest that while the life of Wii Sports will be short, there is every chance that the life of the Wiimote could be shorter.

More on this report tomorrow…