The UK's First Long Wii Play Session - Report

October 14th, 2006, 12:35 Posted By: wraggster

Heres an excerpt:

Everyone else has played a Wii for around ten minutes in the UK, if at all. A handful of lucky journalists have got ten mins per title. Today, we can tell you what it's like after more than two hours of raw playing time, and that's what gamers everywhere need to know.

Hailed as the largest innovation in gaming history by some and as the biggest gimmick ever to strike the realm of console gaming by others, the Nintendo Wii is sure to top many gamers Christmas lists. The sexy, minimalist white box with its soft, blue glow around the disc port deserves a spot on any lounge TV unit, surely?

What we’ve been lacking up until now though has been lengthy play times on the Wii itself. Ten minutes at E3 2006 just doesn’t cut it. Will you get tired too quickly? Do you have to stand around or is it feasible to sit? Is waving the remote a fine art or is it just like waving a stick in a goldfish bowl and hoping to strike lucky? Finally Entertainmentwise's Kim Kaze is able to answer these and other pressing, REAL questions; after an extended, lengthy play test of four Wii launch titles at the UK offices of Nintendo themselves. No interruptions, no queue, no noise and advice from one of the QA Team to assist with game play questions. Also, this time there were controllers without wires of any kind. Who could ask for more?

We also got to hold a Wii unit in our hands and gain real perspective of how it’s going to feel to handle the unit itself and the literal size as it will be when we slot it into our lounge TV units at home.

First of all, it’s important to remind you that the Wii is selling on two very important and unique points:

1) It’s for everyone; the hardcore gaming nut through to grannies, girls and irregular gamers.

2) The remote which acts as the primary control device is utterly wireless and more than just a tilt sensor; every movement of the remote is detected in any fashion and relates to game play.

No other console either out now or set to launch this side of 2010 offers this. Coming close, Nintendo’s DS handheld has been used as inspiration for many of the Wii features relating to the casual gamer, but that’s where the similarities end.

Some gamers have shown concern that the activity level required to play Wii games, especially the sporty titles, may be too high. There are concerns that you have to stand for long periods of time and use body actions such as swinging your arm above your head or at the side of your body. After playing non stop for two hours, did this happen to me?

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