Still no word on the Child`s Play contest.
This will bring an end to this story line. Having had the Wii for almost a week, I`d like to say a few things. The motion-sensing is great, the pointer is well-executed in some games (Twilight Princess) and not in others (it`s so-so in the menu as well), and the channel system is underwhelming. The forecast and news channels are not working, and there`s no indication of when they will come online.
Perhaps a disturbing sign is the Wii Shop channel, where you can buy Virtual Console titles: It`s almost always glacially slow. This is quite surprising, considering how lackluster the launch selections are. It`s not that the games are bad so much as they`re not, in general, what I think of when I think Nintendo or Sega (With the exceptions of Zelda and Sonic). Mario 64? Mario Brothers? What about Super Mario Brothers? What about Link to the Past? Super Mario World was great, too. Sega is better represented with Sonic and Golden Axe, but what about Phantasy Star? Shinobi? No, we get Ecco the Dolphin.
It`s not that these games are bad, but they`re just not the all-star lineup I had expected. And, the really disturbing thing is the speed. Updates can take forever as well, as there have already been two, and depending on when you run them they can take anywhere from 5 minutes to 30 minutes, where they promptly stall halfway through the process. Is the Nintendo network this much over capacity, or is this a symptom of the security-enabled wireless network troubles we`ve been hearing about? Either way, it would be quite disappointing if the news and forecast channels were delayed because of network scale issues. I`m wondering if the Virtual Console launch choices weren`t picked for those reasons as well.
The console is great, truly, though it does have its limits. I`m afraid that the popularity of the product may have outpaced even Nintendo`s dreams, and as a result they`re going to have to play catch-up with their online component, whether through updates and/or server upgrades and acquisitions. The online component feels like it wasn`t even planned to be active at launch, and it still needs a lot of work.
As an aside, is this 1984, Twilight Princess? What`s up with the only three save slots? This would have been a great application for Miis: Give each Mii a 3 save slot log, so everyone in the family can play and guests can take a swing at it, so to speak. This is pretty much inexcusable, and there is no simple solution. SD cards can work, if you have at least two and you are careful about your saving and deleting. One forum member, of which forum I don`t recall, gave the simple answer to a five-member household: Buy more Wiis. Yes, that`s my solution to the save slot problem. Just throw $250 at it. You know, because I am flush with spare cash and Wiis are as easy to come by as peanuts at your local grocer.
This is probably one of those guys who put his remote through his TV. Moron.