Nintendo Wii

Wednesday, October 8th, 2008 by Nick Maunders

The last time I wrote a review on the wii was about half a year ago so I think it’s time for an update. Now late 2008 the 3 main consoles that people are fighting over are the Nintendo Wii, the Playstation 3 and the Xbox 360. Really each console has the up on the other two in a different way. The Xbox 360 has the better online playing with friends experience to it (at the moment), the Playstation 3 has the blue ray player as well as (in my opinion) slightly better graphics than the Xbox 360, while the Nintendo Wii has the unique style to it.

So yea the Nintendo Wii has the worst graphics of the bunch. But not everything is about graphics. Is someone comes up to me and tells me “I’m not buying a Nintendo Wii because it’s a family console”; well if you believe that you couldn’t be more wrong! Okay the Nintendo Wii probably does have the most family-based games on it, but it still has a lot of hardcore games such as Resident Evil 4 etc.

In my opinion if I was given the choice of which console to buy I would still buy the Nintendo Wii because it is better than the other two consoles. Now I won’t go on about the Nintendo Wii is miles above the other two consoles because its not (well maybe the Xbox). But it still is better whether you be a family based gamer or a hardcore gamer. The controls are unique and really make you think you are in control of the game a lot better. I mean come on; waving a wii remote like a lightsaber is a whole lot better than tapping a button.

The Nintendo Wii has even more features now then it did ½ a year ago. The virtual console has improved significantly. For everyone who isn’t sure what that is I’ll explain it for you. Nintendo is trying to put all of the best games from as the NES, Super NES all the way up to the Gamecube onto the virtual console. Why? So you can download them and play them on the Wii. A must buy and legend games such as the game that started it all “Super Mario Bros.”, you’d be a fool not to buy it. Oops did I say buy? Yes there is a price but you don’t necessarily have to pay it.

The games on the virtual console are priced in points. 500 points being the lowest and then anything up to … about 1500 points for the more expensive games. Most games on the NES (Nintendo Entertainment System) and SNES (Super Nintendo Entertainment System) are 500 points such as Super Mario Bros. 2 and 3 as well as the classic Mario Bros. While Nintendo 64 (the 2nd best console in Nintendo history … the first being the Wii) games such as Mario Kart 64 are 1000 points. The channel also has WiiWare which also features games but these are exclusive and new to the Wii, so you won’t have seen them anywhere else. They are generally more expensive with most being 1000 points.

Okay 500 points cost £3.50 so 1000 cost £7.00 etc. How can you get it free you ask? Well in every Wii or DS game made by Nintendo you should see a little scratch card thingy which has the Club Nintendo Logo on it (yea now you’re wishing you didn’t chuck it away). Anyway the code on that card gives you star points for Club Nintendo. Then guess what? You can exchange 2000 star points for 500 wii points. So technically you can get brilliant games for free!

There are loads more to say about how great the Wii is. One thing would be the brilliant games it has: Mario Kart Wii, Wii Fit and Super Smash Bros. Brawl just to name a few. One good thing about it that tops the Xbox 360 is that it doesn’t have a 1 in 5 chance of breaking down! The Wii simply is the best unique overall console out of the three with the PS3 trailing in second and the Xbox 360 in last.

I would seriously recommend getting a Nintendo Wii if you don’t already have one. After all at only £179.99 it is one of the cheapest consoles out there!

Posted in Console Reviews