Wiimote (cont’d) and Online

Depending on the game we found the Wiimote to be fairly responsive to our hand and arm movements. There were some exceptions; for example we could never get the melee attack to work as instructed in Activision’s Wii port of Call of Duty 3. However it’s clear that if a game is designed to truly work well with the Wiimote, it makes the entire game experience far more immersive. You immediately begin using the Wiimote while you set up the console itself, as you identify yourself and set up the day and time by gliding the Wii’s icon around the screen on a virtual keyboard.

Once the initial set up is done you encounter the Wii main menu where you see the various “channels” that the Wii has.

The Mii Channel has gotten a lot of attention for allowing people to create cartoony style avatars that can be altered to make halfway decent approximations of yourself or anyone else. The mainstream media has been hyping this feature a lot but most hardcore gamers know that character avatars have been a part of many games for years, from the THQ wrestling titles to MMO games like City of Heroes, and most offer far more customization than the Mii channel. However, I have to admit its hard to tear yourself away from making fun visualizations of yourself, family members and celebrities.

The avatars also have the ability to move to other people’s Wii console via the WiFi connection (at least those on your friends list) and even inside the Wiimote's storage. The avatars are used in Wii Sports as playable characters. Rumors are that the avatars will be used for other upcoming Wii games.

Getting online

The Wii’s online support is still a work in progress. It's only recently that the Wii's Forecast Channel was turned on which gives people weather info from anywhere in the world. Nintendo has also provided access to the Wii version of the Opera web browser, which was turned on just before Christmas.

As with the Wii interface you can use the Wiimote to type in a URL via a virtual keyboard to bring up web sites. You also use the Wiimote to move the on-screen cursor to click on links and you can even zoom in and out of web pages. Overall the web browser is much easier to use that the PS3's version. The Wii's version of the Opera web browser is free to use for now but Nintendo has already announced that it will cost 500 Wii points to continue to use it past June of 2007. The console also offers a way to download new content while you sleep called WiiConnect 24. Using this feature you can send and receive messages from other Wii owners and even have your Mii avatars travel to other people’s consoles and vice versa. Setting up your friend’s code is awkward at the moment. Instead of clear names or even funny nicknames you send impersonal 16 number codes. It’s a far cry from Xbox 360’s Gamertag which also offers up other info to other console owners.