A Wii for me! Merry Christmas!

A year long quest finally came to an end this past weekend. I finally got a Wii. In actuality it wasn’t truly a year long quest for it. More like “I would consider buying it if I saw one available”. However that perspective changed when I had the opportunity to demo one at the San Francisco shopping mall on Saturday. (And my perspective changed to “I want one now”) (The power of marketing)

I always knew, of the 3 next generation gaming systems, the Wii is the one I wanted to get. I’m a Nintendo loyalist. I love the Mario franchise and the entertainment value that comes with it. I appreciate the Xbox 360 and the power of the PS3, but not enough to fork over the dough. The Wii is a different story.

1)The physical interaction with the game is revolutionary. Tennis feels like tennis, baseball feels like baseball, and boxing feels like boxing, you get the idea.

2)You can start to enjoy the basic games immediately, without a huge learning curve. The universal appeal for fun is extraordinary.

3)It’s the new boardgame for 30 somethings.

4)The Mario franchise is familiar, and it’s like hanging out with an old friend.

It’s funny how I reverted back to those childhood feelings of wanting to rip open the box right away and start playing. It brought me back to that excited feeling when I received my first Atari 2600 system. I can still remember my parents bringing it out from behind the couch, and the anticipation that rushed through my system to play.

A new feeling I had, was exaggerated paranoia. After hearing in the news of people getting robbed at gunpoint for their PS3’s, thoughts ran through my head of “I hope nobody steals my precious?”. How I got the Wii is whole story in itself. It was definitely luck, a little bit of intention, and a belief in peoples hearsay on how to get one. But with this year being the 2nd Christmas where it’s been difficult to get, I think my paranoia was justified.

What I am looking forward to the most is playing with my friends, cousins, nephews and nieces, brother in laws, and all my other relatives. Im sure it will be lots of fun.