Wii question - help an ignorant old boomer......

[old mark]

My wife wants a Wii for christmas, or slightly after (cheaper). and I have no idea what that is or what to look for. Any very basic help is appreciated.
She wants it do help her do exercise stuff, dance movement, etc.
mark

[Heddi]

1. well, the Wii itself

will come with a sports game that has tennis, golf, boxing, and something else.

If she wants to do exercises, you'll have to get her the Wii Fit, which is a separate pacakge.

I don't think that the price will go down significantly after Christmas---the basic setup is about $200-$250, I think most are around $250. You can get a cheaper version that doesn't come with the game, but I like the one with the game because you can play against people.

The Wii Fit is about $130 or so, and that allows you to do exercises. I don't know about dance moves. I've not personally worked with the fit, but friends have it and they say it's great. I'm getting one for Christmas :)

I was able to get my Wii at Target about 5 months ago for $220 or $240---can't remember.

[mwooldri]

2. Wiis are still like golddust around here. None in the shops.

We ended up going the f@$#!ing ebay route (ebay i got issues with right now - no not the sellers, ebay itself) and ended up getting a deal - we got it for the same cost you could get it in the store (wii and wii fit together, new, in box, with store receipt). Right now there seems to be a whole bunch of people buying up wiis and then turning around and flogging them on ebay. I truly hate to recommend a place that's done me a personal disservice and one that totally acts like a badly run monopoly (well ebay virtually is a monopoly for c2c auctions) but if you can't get a wii in the store then ebay may be your only route.

For the exercise stuff you will need the wii and the wii fit systems together. Expect to part with $360 retail (systems run $249 retail at wallyworld last time i checked, and wii fit can be anywhere from $89 to $129 retail). If cost is your concern and you don't mind waiting a month or two after Christmas, then I would expect used wiis may pop up on ebay because there will be someone somewhere who will get fed up of it and will want to sell their used one to you.

Regards, Mark.

[old mark]

3. Thanks. My wife's doctor uses the exercise package,

and she is very happy with it.
I want to investigate this a little more - Google has thousands of enrties on it, but I appreciate opinions from users/enthusiasts.

Thanks again.

mark

[fight4my3sons]

4. Do you have a Game Stop around you?

It's a store that sells video games and systems. My mom and uncle both ended up liking the Wii so much after we visited (my kids have one and we took it to my mom's house to keep them busy) that they went out in search of one after we left. They could not find one at any of the retail stores, but did find them at the Game Stop. My mom even found a used system for way cheaper and it works fine. She also found the Wii Fit for half off there and has had no problems with it at all. We buy our kids games at Game Stop because the used games are cheaper. If you have one around you I would try there.

[Symarip]

5. I have the wii and wii fit

I'll give you a quick run down of what I like/dislike about the wii. And then I'll tell you about wii fit.

Will Pros:
The Wii is ridiculously easy to operate. Most games you can pick up and be playing like a pro within minutes.

The remote/jostick/controller is wireless. There is a 'nunchuk' you sometimes have to plug into the main remote but other than that, the operations are completely cord free. This allows you to immerse yourself in the motion schemes of the game. When you 'hit' a tennis ball it really feels like you hit something.

The Wii has decent online capabilites and you can create characters that you can pass around to your friends.

The bundled game, Wii Sports, will keep you decently occupied. Tennis and boxing are sweat inducing.

Most great games are usually easy in design and make good use out of the motion scheme of the controller.

The Wii is COMPLETELY backwards compatible with the gamecube. Gamecube games can usually be bought between 1 to 10 dollars used in stores.

Wii Cons:
I hope you like games that are kid friendly. Most Wii games are very childish in nature. That's not to say that a kid friendly game can't have depth. But most of the themes of the popular games are PG in nature.

There are alot of Wii games, and most of them suck. Wii games are either fantastic (Legend of Zelda comes to mind) with intuitive controls and gameplay or completely lame and unplayable. Very few games are just mediocre.

Playing on the themes I stated above, I hope you like Nintendo characters. It would appear Nintendo seems to be the only company that can consistently put out great Wii games.

The graphics leave alot to be desired. At first, this didn't bother me because where the Wii shines is not in it's ability to produce more pixels than the other two consoles. But in the world of HD, 480p is a rather paltry.

The Wii is only a game console. No dvd, hd dvd, or blu ray playback. If you're looking for a system with multiple capabilites, look somewhere else. The Wii is a dedicated gaming system. No more, No less.

----

Alot of emphasis has been put on the users physical involvement when playing the Wii, like with Wii Fit. First, I will tell you that playing a physical Wii game will get you in shape like playing air guitar will make you a better strummer. The games are designed to be fun and the sweat you produce is really more of a byproduct of the end result. Wii Fit, with all it's charm, is no match for going to the gym. It will make you sore if you haven't been physically active but you'll find that prolonged use will only yield minumum results: minor weight loss, some muscle definition, some improved stamina. That being said, I completely endorse people buying the Wii Fit for a couple of reasons. First, it motivated me to start going to the gym again and it was a lot easier to run a half hour straight after using the Wii Fit for a solid month prior. Secondly, even if you don't branch out from using the Wii Fit, some excercise is better than none at all. Plus, it's fun, which is why you bought it to begin with.