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Entries in "Wii"

Wii tennis

Tennis is my favorite of the 5 Wii Sports and that is even without having a second wiimote.

You start off just getting the timing right and playing with just the back court player. Soon you realize a few things:

• You can play with the net player if you swing your wiimote (racquet) just as the ball is passing him/her.
  
• Hit the ball early for cross court shots and late for down the line shots
  
• Hit the ball at the apex to get a fast serve
  
• Use a chopping action (like a Karate chop) to hit a low fast shot and with a top spin action to hit a lob. This is movement at the wrist rather than at the shoulder which is not like real tennis.
  
• As you (and your opponents) get better the only way to win will be to create sharp angles to drive the opponent (specially the back court player) into the corner and then hitting the return to the opposite side. Use either the net or back court player to set up and use the net player to hit the winner.
  
• Be prepared for superfast serves when receiving and also for fast returns of your superfast serves as you and your opponents get better.
  
• Beyond a 1000 points, the opposing net player starts coming more into play - be prepared for a reflex volleying battle with your net player or hit a lob using your back court player.
  
• It is possible to spin the ball but apparently this is does not confuse the computer player - have not figured out how to do this consistently. Read here for a description.
  
• Takes some courage to hit the sharp angled shots as there is increased risk of hitting outside the court. Keep practicing so you get comfortable. Also be patient, take your time to set up the winner.
  

Am looking forward to getting a second Wiimote so I can play with a human.

Wii Sports

Wii Sports is more fun than you can imagine. The whole family can get involved and watching some one play on a large screen TV can be more fun than most reality shows on TV!

My personal impressions after playing Wii Sports for the past 10 days.

• Tennis is the best game.
  
• Bowling is the easiest to get started and the least demanding - even a 80 year old can play this easily
  
• Baseball batting gets very difficult after reaching near the Pro level (1000 points) but pitching generally saves the day.
  
• Golf is the least satisfying - this may be because I play golf the most in real life and keep comparing.
  
• Boxing is the most confusing as far as relationship of the Wiimote and nanchuck to the onscreen character movements.

Will write about individual game tips/tricks in future blogs

Getting Started with the Wii

Setting up the Wii was a piece of cake. Few questions/thoughts/impressions that I had:

• The sensor bar - Can it be placed below the TV? The answer is yes. In the Wii settings screen, you can specify whethere the bar is above or below the TV
  
• What do I need to set up the Internet Connection? If you already have a WiFi network set up, you just need the WEP key for the SSID.
  
• Can you surf the Internet? Yes but first you need to download the Opera for the Wii. You do this from the Wii Shopping Channel (right now this is a free download and is called a trial version). There are rumors that there will be a charge for this starting sometime this summer. The browser lets you for example go to YouTube.com and view the videos on your TV.
  
• Registering the Wii: The Serial number is on the back of the Wii and starts with LU. Register at the Nintendo Wii website and get an extra 90-day warranty.
  
• What does the sensor bar do? It appears that it tells the Wiimote where the TV screen is. All the other motion sensing is done by the wii console. You can see videos on youtube where the sensor bar has been replaced by 2 candles, and it still works fine.
  
• The forecast channel works well giving the current weather and forecast for up to 5 days. The globe view is great for educational purposes (a little bit like Google Maps) allowing one to view the weather on Mount Everest or the South Pole.
  
• The news channel is also great though takes a few seconds to download all the information. A neat concept is to view the news in the globe view and then you can find all the news for Florida for example. There is no control over the depth of news, source of news etc unfortunately.
  
• The Photo channel is terrific. Just stick a SD card into the slot in the front and it reads all the images (JPEGs) and Videos (AVI) very quickly and presents them as thumbnails. You can scroll through them, view them individually or as a slide show. Handles the video (640 X 480) very easily without any jerkiness. The photos in the slide show are panned, zoomed etc which adds some liveliness to the show like Windows Photo Story 3.
  
• The Mii channel is terrific for kids. My daughter had a great time creating caricatures resembling friends and family (Wii lets you create up to 10). These Mii's can be seen when playing games as players and audience. When playing Baseball all the Mii's become one team adding to the fun. By entering friends console numbers (both friends have to do it), the Mii's can mingle! Have not tried it as none of the friends appear to have gotten a Mii yet.

Will write more about each of the Wii Sports games in a future blog.

Whee Wii

When I could not get hold of a wii at regular price before X-mas I promised my 8-year-old "I will get it for you soon" and she replied "Just get it before next christmas daddy".

I had been watching the wii seeker web site and read rumors of a big shipment coming in to Best Buy and Target. I had resolved that no video game was going to make me get up early on a Sunday morning to stand in a line in freezing weather - after all I had a whole year to get it, right!. So around 8.30 AM on 1/21/07 decided to take a chance.

Drove out to Target which is 5 minutes away. Did not see anyone outside, no madding crowd! Almost decide not to go in assuming there were no wii's. Still went in and walked over the the electronics area. Still no one around except the store clerk. Almost felt foolish asking him but hey I had made all the effort to come there, might as well ask, right? "You wouldn't have any wii's would you?" I asked almost starting to turn away. "Do you want one?" he responded. Wow! Could not believe my ears. He had a whole stack of them. I presented him my credit card and bought it before I woke up from the dream.

I walked out proudly swinging my bag - making sure every one could see the wii box through the translucent plastic bag... but there was no one around to see :-( Could not believe this. But still felt vindicated that I had not spent a premium to buy this on eBay.

Just as I was nearing my car I saw a white SUV racing into the parking lot. It screeched to a halt next to me while I stood transfixed, hoping it would not skid on the ice into my car. A young lady jumped out with a kid still in PJs. She spotted my Wii in the bag and asked "How long did you have to stand in line? How early did you get here?" I reassured her that there were plenty of wii's to go around and she had no need to hurry. Before I could even finish speaking, she was racing off, slipping and sliding on the ice with the youngster in tow.

I turned around smiling, thinking of what my 8-year-old's face would look like when she woke up. I drove home sipping my chai, what a happy day!