Many months ago I blogged about my impressions about what was then called the Nintendo Revolution, now known as the Wii. I expressed same grave doubt about the platform. In fact, I said:

If anyone had any doubts that Nintendo had finally lost their minds, this should settle it.

Ok - I admit it. I was wrong. Really wrong. On Sunday my nephew (who I'm hoping to turn into a ColdFusion programmer) came by and brought over his Wii. I had already read glowing reports of how fun the Wii was, and had other friends tell me about it, but this was the first I actually got to try it.

The first thing I noticed was how small the sensor bar was. That was something I was a bit worried about. Right now I'm sitting maybe 7 feet from my TV and I can barely see the bar. (Of course, my eyesight isn't very good nowadays.)

He plugged it in and I got my first try with bowling in Wii Sports. (Which by the way is a free game included in the console. How long has it been since you got a free game??) It took me about two or three tries to get it - but once I did, I was knocking down spares left and right. It is hard to explain unless you try it - but this thing just feels right. It is a completely different feeling than other game system I've ever tried. All of the sports games feel like, well, sports.

In fact, I'm sitting down now and my arm is a bit sore. Now - I'm very much out of shape, I'll admit that. But playing the Wii is a much more involved, physical experience then anything I've ever done before, and I've been around since the old days mind you. (Atari 2600 was my first system.)

Now graphically - the system is not even close to the XBox 360. In fact, my nephew brought over his copy of Call of Duty 3, which I have for the 360, and the graphical changes were very evident. However, the experience of playing it with Wii was completely different. I'm not quite sure I liked it to be honest. I kept spinning around. But I think I would have gotten used to it eventually. (And to be honest, I am not pleased with the COD3 game on the 360, so the Wii version would have potentially been more interesting.)

I played Zelda only for a few minutes as I didn't want to ruin the plot. But approaching a monster and swinging my arms like crazy to attack was pure joy.

Lastly - the web browser (built on Opera) works very well, at least on my large screen. My home page loaded up and I was able to read it - kinda. The Weather feature for the Wii is also pretty neat.

Anyway - after seeing how fun this all was - I picked one up today and honestly see myself playing it at least as much as I do the XBox. Good job, Nintendo, and I'm very happy to have been so wrong.