Wii Console History

Nintendo begins to make the next console right after the other one is finished, so for those who follow Nintendo, right after the gamecube was done the Wii went under way.  according to the wii website the developers have a range of ideas that are always under way and they pick and choose to make there next creation possible.  the Wii sold more consoles in a single month then any other console before it, the wii is a current competitor with the 360 and the ps3. The Wii is Nintendo's 7th generation game system. The only three countries that had cheaper prices than the US for the system were Japan, South Korea, and Hong Kong. Argentina was the most expensive place to purchase one coming in equivalent to $760. The revenue of the system exceeds $190 Million US Dollars. 105 thousand systems were sold on the launch weekend shattering the previous record of 70 thousand systems sold by the xbox 360.

Wii fitness

with in the wii sports game is a fitness test, the test takes three random trainings, but you can say you have not nunchuck, therefore eliminating boxing all together.  The fitness then has you play the three trainings, some they put a timer where there normally ws not, some they give you a set number of balls, like the tennis ones, and they see how you do, you can do one test a day, and it will track you, they give you a age that you are in the computer and it is based on speed, stamina and balance.  i played it for the first time in a while and got a 27 yr old, then my buddy did it and he was 55 years old....hahaha, not quite on par.

Wii Golf Part Two

This post details some of the overall aspects of golf. First, there are 4 levels of a swing and each one is displayed on the lower right map to show how far the ball can go depending on swing and club. You can take this information and combine with the information on the speed and angle of the wind to determine what shot you want to make. The levels of swings can be limited by the terrain. The rough limits you to only two levels of swinging while a bunker limits you to one. Also the clubs you use are Driver, Iron, Wedge, Putter. In comparison the Wii Sports Resort is slightly more upgraded with other clubs but the original 9 holes remain on it. This is probably one of the most realistic games available because of the amount of factors you have to take into account to play it and the difficulty of it uses only varies per purpose providing lots of options for different level people to play together.  over all very fun, but not as hard, and great for large groups of people

hole 3 on beginner

Wii Golf Part One

first in wii gold you must make a choice between beginner, intermediate, expert or 9-hole game.  the 9-hole game is the first three put together as each level is only three holes.

beginner: (first three of 9-hole game)
hole one is a straight shot, takes two to get to the green and they give you two tries to make the put, so i got a birdie but if you need both puts it is a par 4

hole two is a short little pain in my ass but if you can hit the tiger woods shot over the water just right with the iron to the green then its a easy one or two put to victory, but if you cant hit that tiger woods shot over the water on the green just right with the iron then it might be hard when making this review i got par

hole three is a hard angle long hole, take three just to get to the green it is a par 5, and it is straight forward, but to mess with you there is a small patch of grass in the out of bounds area, it take two money shots one to get there and the other to get out of there other wise it is an automatic out of bounds, but they put it there to mess with people i think.  this round i hit the bunker but then chipped in for a birdie so i was happy

Intermediate: (second three of 9-hole game)
hole one is a short par 3. Its a tee off spot and a green. An 8mph wind directly against you is present. You have to get a perfect drive other wise it will go out of bands. I got a bogey on this hole. If you don't hit it out of bounds this is an easy hole.

hole two is a hard angled long hole. It is shaped as an L with the part to the right being a lake. It is a par 5. This hole is fairly difficult and annoying with the angle and wind. There is a decent amount of rough, trees, and water that makes it annoying to get good angles and shots to the green.

hole three is has a river that you need to hop twice to get the ball to the green. The tee spot, fairway, and green are all on different land masses adjacent to the river . The wind is very tough since its coming at a difficult angle and is 20mph. The green is angled very uphill facing it making it difficult to put on.

Expert: (last three of a 9-hole game)
hole one has a long fairway with a sharp angle turn to the right that you can not cut over from driving though depending on where your ball lands after tee off you may need to try to cut over the out of bounds area. There are bunkers to the front and back of the hole as well as a strong  18mph wind that is angled down and against the player to the right. The green is angled low to high from left to right which is the direction you tend to put since you land to the left easier than the right. I got a birdy on this whole.

hole two is a long, windy, narrow fairway with water on both sides. The green is all the way at the end and is surrounded by water on 3 sides. The wind is low at 6mph but is angled to blow your ball off the narrow fairway. The left side of the green is very low and and the right is high.  I got a par.

hole three is a par 5 with a 12 mph coming from right to left angled down. 5 islands make up the map with water everywhere as well as out of bound spots on 3 of the islands. A very difficult hole since you have multiple options on which islands to send the ball to from tee off but each option has varying difficulty on shots. Some are easy others are not forgiving at all if you mess up even a tiny bit. It is incredibly easy to get out of bounds or a water hazard. I got a bogey.

Wii Boxing

Boxing is skill level based on your ranking. You use the nunchuck controller addon to play this. It takes place in a full ring with a crowd around you. First time there is a tutorial to teach you how to do it with helpful advice and tips. After the tutorial warm up you go into the actual fight. I downed my first guy in about 4 seconds. A total of 6 punches. There is a replay to watch each time. You get a you win display. There is a referee in the ring with you. You tend to fight opponents around double your ranking. There is a 10 second countdown for knockouts. The health of both players is displayed as a pie chart like in hitting the bag - the first boxing training. The first 4 games so far the countdown has taken longer than the actual playing. I've gone up by 75 points each time for the first 4 games. There is another non essiental addon that is basically badass.

The difficulty increases quite a bit with oppenents starting to get back up mid count with a moderate amount of health left. The starting amount is about 10 slices of the pie chart. There is blocking, and 3 rounds as a possible total with 2 minutes per.

In 9 minutes I've gone from 0 rank to 689.

Wii Bowling

Standard 10 frame bowling like in real life, the motion is very realistic and the ball spin has even been integrated as you turn your wrist to spin the wii controller.  in terms of what you control and what the computer controls, you have the ability to change the origin and degree of the angle from where you throw your bowling ball.  when moving your player you can press up on the d pad to zoom in to better align your shot, this comes in handy when trying to pick up a spare.  on the actual lane there are the arrows as in real life.  you do not play against the computer in terms of another player, but depending on how good or bad you do your skill points will go up or down, again 1000 is pro level.  you can also play vs. people and when doing so your skill points will not change.  after throwing your ball you can then watch the replay but you can skip it if you want.  when you get a strike it will say so on the screen, also it is the same of double strike and turkey.  My friend jamie played on my brothers account and got 184 points and knocked my brothers level up 29 points to 906. While playing its like being in a real bowling alley, there are people all around being animated and people playing in the lanes to the left and right of you.

Wii Baseball

Baseball is very simple. It's only hitting and pitching. If you pitch you may choose various types of balls to throw like splitters, fast balls, curve balls, and screwballs. The speed of the pitch is displayed. I just nailed a home run whilst writing this while pausing. Hitting is simple also you simply hit the ball and everything else is automatic but animated. When you change positions with the computer a change sign is displayed. Every time you score the score is instantly changed in a big display. Foul balls are displayed as status changes. Difficulty level again varies on ranking. There is a scoreboard on the top right that displays balls, strikes, and outs. The one on the left displays the inning, whether its top or bottom of the inning, and the score. It displays a That's the game followed by you lose. The score is displayed at the end. You can even go up points by losing if its a good game.

Wii Tennis

So the first thing to point out you have multiple choices on how you want to play in single player. You can play one game, best of three, or best of five. There is only a doubles format game no singles so in single player you control two people. There is no running, you only control the swing. The computer AI does the rest. Opponents are based on ranking. Ranking depends on how well you do in games over time. You can get a you win banner if you win. Each time you go up it shows if you went up in rank or down in rank. The "Pro" level is 1000 points and I am already pro. The skill level of the AI is shown at the beginning of the game. I currently play opponents ranked 1900 when I am around 1280. You do not have to play the computer and can in fact play other people.

Wii Boxing Training 3 of 3

Boxing Training 3 is "Throwing Punches". The purpose is to hit pads on a trainers hands. You get points if you hit the pads and lose points if you hit the trainer. Again just mentioning that the training is black throughout these trainings, just a point to ponder. You have 60 seconds. It is easier to avoid hitting the trainer if you lean to the side of the punch you have to throw. I set a record of 35 and got a bronze for it.

Wii Boxing Training 2 of 3

Training # 2 is called dodging. You are on a 60 second timer and you get points for succesfully dodging balls and lose points for getting hit. The speed of the balls being thrown at you varies on how well your doing, slower if your not doing well, faster if you are.

Wii Boxing Training 1 of 3

The first one is called working the bag. The purpose of this exercise is to hit the bag a certain amount of times based on strength of throw and then throw a finishing punch to "destroy" the bag like a knock out punch. Each of these punches is worth a point. You have 60 seconds to get as many points as possible. There is a coach in background which happens to be a bald black guy who just nods his head, possibly an example of subtle racism in video games, especially funny because it is an asian produced game.

baseball Training 3 of 3

batting practice is very fun, basically you have 30 balls, you try to get as many hits as you can, my best was 28 out of 30, that was good for gold, but i really want to try to get that 30 one of these days.  in terms of relating to the rest of the training's, it is like the home run derby but not as challenging and not as rewarding.

Baseball Training 2 of 3

This training is called swing control. The purpose of the training is to hit the ball into a designated area on screen similar to various target practice training. Different areas are worth different points. It gets harder per round as the area you must hit changes.  I find this one irrelevant for the actual game of baseball. I have a record of 62 which is a gold medal.

Baseball Training 1 of 3

The first training is a home run derby. You have 10 balls and you must make as many of them home runs as possible. The levels get progressively harder with speed of ball. This is my favorite one and I've already hit a 10 out of 10 with a gold. Playing it again now I got 9 out of 10. Definitely a fun and fast one.

Wii golf Training 3 of 3

target practice is just what it sounds like, you are just driving with choice of driver, iron, wedge, or putter; the wind charges, get harder as the ten rounds go further on, and you try to get as many points as you can, there are two targets, one at about 50% power and one at 100% power, they're further one has bigger points markers on it going as high as 100 and the closer target only has a high of only 75. My record is 575 and that is a silver medal.

Wii Golf Training 2 of 3

Hitting the green is the second golf training, the entire point is to get the ball in the hole or as close as possible in one chip shot with the wedge.  there are ten levels and each one is harder then the last, your core is the feet between your ball and the hole added up after all ten holes and the lowest number wins.  i found that it really helped to play this before playing a gold match as chipping was the hardest part for me.  this training moves rather quickly as there is a set number of holes, basically you line up your best ten shots and hope you get them close to the hole.  If you miss the green however it is a automatic 100 feet added to your score even if you are closer.

i got a silver with 238 feet

Wii Golf Training 1 of 3

In this one you are putting on a green. You have two map views - the main one then a smaller map on the right showing the length the ball can go with a particular club and how far away the ball is from the hole. You also have an additional main map view by pressing the 1 button. This view is topographical. You have 5 misses in this exercise with the idea being to put in as many balls as possible. The terrain and starting position become increasingly more difficult. Silver medal with 8 points my first time.

Wii Bowling training 3 of 3

Spin Control is the last and the most difficult of the 3 training's. This one has obstacles placed on the lane in order to force you to maneuver the ball around via spin control. Each round gets progressively harder with how and where the objects are played. You get 5 balls again like Picking Up Spares.

Wii bowling training 2 of 3

Power Throw is about knocking over as many pins in 10 rounds as possible. Each round increases the amount of pins.

round 1: 10 (normal bowling)
round 2: 15
round 3: 21
round 4: 28
round 5: 36
round 6: 45
round 7: 55
round 8: 66
round 9: 78
round 10: 91

this means that unlike a lot of Wii sport training there is a max score that can be gotten of 890, and here is a video of it being done.

Wii bowling training 1 of 3

The first challenge is picking up spares. You have a progressively harder unlimited number of rounds and 5 balls. You must hit all the pins, if you miss you lose a ball. The difficulty is increased via how the pins are placed and the number of pins. As it gets harder you must begin to have some spin control. I cleared 8 stages my first time and got a bronze medal.  then my second time i got 16 and that was a silver.

tennis training 3 of 3

the third and final Wii sports tennis training is very hard.  there is a grey brick wall that breaks away as you hit it, on the wall are targets when you hit the target it breaks and another one appears in a different spot, it makes you have to keep the ball going but be able to time you swing to move the ball in different directions all knowing that the wall will eventually break and then the ball win not return.  the first time i played it i got 16 targets and that was good enough for a silver medal.  The challenge i thought was great fun and i would say it is the most fun training out of the three tennis options.

Second time I played I got 23 points and a gold

tennis training 2 of 3

the second training under the tennis category now has a orange wall in the back that moves and gets smaller.  the object is the return the ball into the netting, it is trying to teach you about timing your swing to control the direction of the tennis ball off of your tennis racquet.  It gets smaller by a  proportional amount every 4 to 6 points. First time I got 27 points and a silver medal.

tennis training 1 of 3

The first training is simply retuning tennis balls, till you miss or hit one out.  you can go as long as you can keep getting the ball in.  in 5 tries i got to 38 and that got me a silver medal.  My friend Jamie managed to get to 4 in one try that got 3 in the next so he isn't that good at this. Pretty simple game overall.

death in video games

My game is Wii sports.  Simply put there is no death in this game. there is barely losing.  Mostly you get a star or something when you get in first place.  This game leans towards the having a task and doing it when in the raining parts and when playing the actually sports there is simply a winner or loser and a point system to eventually cross over the "pro" lone at a 1000 points.

Wii sports in pop culture part 2

Now that we have got the first commercial out of the way we can talk more directly about the sports game. Wii sports comes with every Wii console.  When the Wii came out it really pushed moving and being active.  One of the first Wii commercials shows a very nice looking family all playing together.  the Wii was obviously first intended as a all ages family oriented gaming system.

here is said commercial

Wii sports in pop culture part 1

The Wii came out in 2006.  The Wii console has really revolutionized video games in terms of stretching the ages of gamers.  Also the type of people that play video games is widening.  The Wii now has tons of games for all kinds of age groups.  Now the Wii has fitness programs and even yoga.  Here is one of the first Wii commercials.

The original wii sports in its entirety

The wii sports game was the first game developed for the wii, it came with every wii sold,  It is at the top of the list for most copies sold for a game on one gaming platform.  The wii is the newest system by Nintendo a very important company in the video game world and has been around since 1889.  the game was the first video game to use motion sensor technology.  both the rivals companies sony (ps3) and Microsoft (xbox360) are only now coming out with there movement based gaming platforms.  even though they both seem to be better the wii did produce this type of gaming almost three years before either sony or Microsoft.