I have a Wii!

And, a Mii! A smirky one, even.



I got it Sunday night as an early birthday/Valentine's day gift. I stunk at tennis, and very nearly hurled my numchuck at the new TV at one point as I attempted a forehand; thank gods for the wrist strap, else I would have found an early demise. I question the physics of the bowling, as I bowled a 202, and had several double strikes. I have a lot of trouble keeping the ball going straight in RL, as I tend to curve left.

I spent Sunday playing Call of Duty 3, (Activision/TreyArch) an M-rated first person shooter, and Lego Star Wars II: The Original Trilogy (Eidos/Lucas Arts), an E-rated action-adventure. I found Call of Duty challenging. I played in a player vs. player mode with my much more adept husband, who kept sneaking up behind me and shooting me in the head while I was still trying to line up my target or just plain FIND his Allied troops character. The World War II setting means no representation of women or minorities, and this particular mode of play did not show my damage or my target, making for an uncluttered screen, but a feeling of cluelessness. There is a lack of blood - the screen has a red wash when you are fatally wounded but no blown away body parts or anything. After he had 24 kills than my one, and was in hysterics (you call yourself a gamer?!) I called it quits. The camera control was hair trigger sensitive. I kept getting stuck in the trench because I forgot to pan down to see where my feet where. Ocassionally, vector lines were visible in the stone walls - a small design flaw.

I am finding Lego Star Wars II to be unputdownable. The story playthrough is so compelling, because you just want to see what they did with the cut scenes, and blowing Lego characters into their component bits is hellaciously funny. The building is a lot of fun, too; the pieces even make a satisfying "snick snick snick" sound. Music, but not dialogue, from the trilogy is featured.
I found I didn't need the manual; the game prompted me when I needed a command. It's great to find something with such a low learning curve. In two player mode, the characters can only go a certain number of pixels apart, so actions had to be team-coordinated. Jumping was sometimes clumsy and out-of-control, but the game allows a second player to jump in or out at any point in the game. I am really looking forward to going back to play in story mode, where you can choose to be any character, instead of pre-set choices.