Wii will rock you (if you can find one, that is)

By Donna Tapellini

Warning: Playing the boxing game bundled with Nintendo’s new Wii gaming system could result in soreness among those not used to throwing punches at TVs.

Unfortunately, for now at least, it’s hard to get hold of a Wii or a Sony Playstation 3, also recently introduced. Sony says it’s shipping 100,000 units weekly from now until the end of the year. Nintendo says it’s replenishing supplies constantly (it sold 600,000 the first eight days it was on sale). Even so, they seem to be selling out as soon as they hit store shelves. If you really want one of these systems, you’ve got to be vigilant and ready to run out to your local electronics store at a moment’s notice, or be prepared to wait on line for several hours. At one Best Buy, a group of shoppers stood outside on the off chance that a shipment of PS3s would come in. It did—and all 30 sold out immediately.

Of course, you can always pick either system up for hundreds (or even thousands, if some Ebay listings are to be believed) of dollars above the retail price on Ebay, or buy Microsoft’s Xbox 360 now without any fuss.

We’re testing the PS3 and Wii systems right now (hey, it's a tough job, but somebody's gotta do it), and in the process comparing them to the Xbox 360. We plan to have a video report up next week. Meantime, here are some of our preliminary findings.

You can watch high-def movies on the PS3 and the Xbox. One of the PS3’s biggest attractions is the built-in Blu-Ray player for watching high-def movies. We tried it out and found that playback is as smooth as and the player more responsive than others we’ve tested. But you have to work your way through several menus to get the movie started, since there’s no autoplay. You also can’t use a universal remote because Sony didn’t build in infrared controls. And be prepared to spend at least $15 for the HD cable you’ll need, which is not included.

The Xbox 360 also lets you watch high-definition movies, but via an external HD-DVD drive that costs about $200.

You’ll find lots of innovations in the controllers. The Wii uses motion-sensitive controllers instead of the usual thumb controls. That means you can swing a tennis racket, parry with a sword, even pitch baseballs, with a natural hand movement instead of pressing buttons and combinations of buttons. Like many other controllers, they vibrate when you make contact with balls, other players, and in other appropriate situations.

Nintendo includes a golf, baseball, and tennis game as well as the boxing game, all designed to take advantage of the new controllers—and possibly to appeal to a different demographic of gamers who find the old controllers hard to, well, control. While it’s not exactly aerobic exercise, the Wii games do get players moving, and that’s one of the most appealing qualities of the system. (Make sure you use the straps provided with the controllers; there have been several reports of errant controllers flying out of hands and into TV sets.)

The PS3’s controllers are more familiar, but they’re lighter than they used to be and, like the Xbox and Wii controllers, are now wireless. They use rechargeable batteries, which gives them an advantage over the Xbox and Wii controllers, which use regular AAs. Sony’s engineers added motion sensors to its controllers, but unfortunately, they also removed the vibration capabilities. If you get slammed by an opponent in Madden 2007, you’ll no longer feel it.

Think about the games. These are, after all, gaming systems. Only 21 new games are ready for the PS3; the Xbox has about 160; the Wii, more than 60. Sony says the PS3 is backward-compatible with older games, and we tried a couple out ourselves. They worked fine, although the graphics weren’t as good as those on the newer ones. The Wii is backward-compatible with GameCube games, which require extra controllers.

You can also play games online, against other players, with both the XBox and the PS3. Unlike with the XBox, which charges for the games (Xbox Live Gold membership costs $5 to $8 a month), you can play online free with the PS3.

Graphics on the PS3 and Xbox are high-definition. You can watch movies and play games in high-definition on both systems. The result is crisper graphics and more realistic gameplay.

The Wii places less emphasis on graphics. It’s only capable of 480p. The graphics on the built-in sports games are not high-end—the players look more like Weebles than real people, giving the games a childish feel (but they’re still fun!). Graphics on the more traditional Nintendo games like Zelda are more what you’re used to.

Sony and Microsoft want to take over your living room; Nintendo’s focus remains on games. While the Wii has a few extra features like photo-viewing and messaging, it remains focused on games. For better or worse, Sony and Microsoft have built-in a wide range of other entertainment capabilities. On the PS3, you can play music, rip CDs, download movie trailers, set up slide shows, transfer music to and from your PSP, grab photos from memory cards or USB drives, and more. The Xbox can do all that as well, minus the PSP and memory-card support. All those extras can distract you from your gameplay, but if you want a complete entertainment system, you’ll get one with the PS3 or Xbox 360.

Sony and Microsoft are redefining gaming systems, adding high-def graphics to the games and also turning the systems into general entertainment centers. If you can hold off until after Christmas and don’t mind waiting for the games to catch up to the technology, the PS3 has the greater future potential for hard-core gamers. But the Xbox 360 is more satisfying now.

The PS3 costs $500 for a 20GB version. A 60GB PS3 costs $600 and adds a memory-card reader and WiFi. The Xbox 360 costs $300 for a stripped-down system and $400 for a complete version. (The HD-DVD player is sold separately.)

If you want a different gaming experience with innovative control devices, and don’t mind a simpler system without high-def graphics--or if you’re buying for kids--the Wii is worth considering for $250 (it too includes WiFi).

Comments

[michelle]

i dont have a wii but i have played it and it truely is awsome! Anyone who is considering buying one just do it! and its fun for the whole family because everyone can get involed and making the miis are expecially fun!

[shae]

i want to play this game so bad i wonder what it is like and if it hard to learn how to play the game and i love the commurchile it is so funny.

[PIpapupkin]

Something from the European rumor mill: Nintendo is going to set a conversion rate of 4:1 for Star points to Wii points according to German mag:
http://nintendowii.za.pl

[Robert]

Wii sounds like the best thing for my kids because they have to get up and participate besides sitting there like a zombie