A guide to unleashing the wii

Dodge

Recently got a wii, and so far have played only the party type games (Sports, Big Brain Academt etc) but the missus bought me FIFA 08 for it (as the League of Ireland is in it) and think its pretty good fun so far. Main reason we bought the wii was for games that both of us could play (or with friends) rather than be stuck playing Pro-Evo (me) or Resident Evil (her) for hours on our own

As we only used it for the Sports type games I haven't really looked into what the wii can do.

I've no idea what type of interactivity there is or even how to set it up etc. I think I heard something about a media player for the wii but not sure about it.

So basically I'm asking anyone with a bit of experience, what do I need to do/buy to get the best out of my wii?

animaX

Man, your girlfriend likes Resident Evil and you dont?!! Whats that about?!

As for unlocking the wii, here are a few ideas:

Set up the internet connection and get the browser. From there you can find sites on the web that have flash based games to be played on the wii, they're pretty good. (Wiicade for example.) Also, use the internet connection to download some virtual console games. Use an SD card to transfer and play videos and photos on the wii

K.O.Kiki

If you have wireless internet, you can try out the WiiConnect24 wi-fi features.
News & Weather channels are cute, and you can buy old videogames through the Virtual Console -- most NES (old Nintendo) & Sega MegaDrive games can be played with just a Wii remote AFAIK. For Super Nintendo & N64 you need a Classic Controller, or and old-school Gamecube pad.

*edit* damn, beaten to the punch

Dodge

animaX wrote:

Man, your girlfriend likes Resident Evil and you dont?!! Whats that about?!

I didn't say I didn't like it. I'm just more of a sports game kind of guy

Thanks for replies so far...

11redder

As pro evo isn't out until 2008 on wii, to get the best out of it in the interim get the following games:

Legend of Zelda: Twilight Princess (single player fantasy adventure)
Resident Evil 4: Wii Edition (a big departure from previous RE's; realtime 3d as opposed to static prerenders of the majority of other RE's. Edge magazine recently voted it the 2nd best game of all time, definetly one for your girlfriend to check out & should convert you as well)
Metroid Prime: Corruption (single player spaced based first person adventure; hits Europe shortly - I've a US console)
Super Mario Galaxy (out November)
Excitetruck (adrenaline fueled multiplayer racing)
Paper Mario (single player 2d/3d quirky rpg set in the mario universe)
Forever Blue (Gorgeously atmospheric deep sea diving game)
Kororinpa (brilliant marble maze game)

If you've got a broadband connection check out the following retro classics on the virtual console:

Super Mario World (best 2d platformer)
Legend of Zelda: A Link to the Past (best 2d action rpg)
Super Metroid (best 2d action adventure)
(all 3 are SNES games)

Wave Race (multiplayer jetski racer with still brilliant water physics)
Laylat Wars (onrails space based shooter with fun multiplayer)
Mario Kart 64 (frantic multiplayer karting)
F-Zero X (futuristic multiplayer racer)
Super Mario 64 (singleplayer; 1st & still best 3d platformer)
Legend of Zelda: Ocarina of Time (sumptous single-player adventure considered by many to be the greatest game ever)
Sin & Punishment (anime influenced on rail shooter akin to lylat wars; with limited multiplayer mode)
(all 7 are n64 games & 3D)

Gunstar Heroes (Megadrive - frantically brillant 2 player 2D shooter)

Not sure if that's the kind of advice you were looking for, but I hope it helps.

Enjoy!

11redder

Some more info you may find useful:

You can burn mp3 music tracks to an sd card & listen to them ingame on Excitetruck & Forever Blue (which might be called Endless Ocean when it's released here). These are the only games to take advantage of the feature thus far but expect more in the future.

You can also view digital camera images from an sd card (sd card slot is hidden behind the little flap at the front of the wii) or direct from your digital camera (plugged into the usb port on the rear).

Additionally the usb port will accept a regular usb keyboard for use in the wii messageboard (But not for online browsing as yet).

If you have broadband access, but it's not wireless, & you want to use your wii online you'll need EITHER a lan port which plugs into the wii usb slot OR the nintendo wii access point which plugs into your pc's usb slot.

At the moment the number of online enabled wii games is pretty limited. Mario Sttikers Charged is a frantic arcade based football game, but being a pro evo fan like yourself I'd definetly urge caution & say tty before you buy.

The biggest forthcoming online games are Medal of Honour Heroes 2, a 32 player online enabled first person shooter, which is shaping up to be surprisingly good & is due out pre-xmas.
The real gem to look out for though is Mario Kart Wii which is set to handle at least 12 player online races, but won't be out until early 2008.

If you or your girlfriend think the sensor bar ruins the look of your living room replace it with 2 candles (this really works - but if your house burns down don't come looking for me)

Finally, while the wii is fine for general internet browsing, videos will only play if they're flash based (like those on youtube).

Both these messages were typed using the wii-remote so I really do hope they were in some way helpful orelse I've induced rsi, arthritis & god knows whatelse for nowt.

Dodge

Wow, thanks very much 11redder!!

sweetie

11redder wrote:

If you have broadband access, but it's not wireless, & you want to use your wii online you'll need EITHER a lan port which plugs into the wii usb slot OR the nintendo wii access point which plugs into your pc's usb slot.

so I can't just plug my ethernet cable like with my xbox 360?
are either of these expensive.

I also recently got a wii and picked up two gamecube controllers, memory card and about ten gamecube classics to keep me going as I have the games like play and sport for multiplayer parties.

aaf

11redder wrote:

If you or your girlfriend think the sensor bar ruins the look of your living room replace it with 2 candles (this really works - but if your house burns down don't come looking for me)

WTF?

Dodge

Thanks for the advice people

PLayed around with it today and have set up the internet browser and downloaded a couple of old SNES games to mess with

KdjaCL

Dodge wrote:

Thanks for the advice people

PLayed around with it today and have set up the internet browser and downloaded a couple of old SNES games to mess with

Get any classic controllers?

Handy for the Virtual Console or Gamecube controllers but they use wires ...ugh


kdjac

Dodge

No. Thats next weeks thing.

Bring down resident evil on friday. Usual fee of large bottle?

KdjaCL

Dodge wrote:

No. Thats next weeks thing.

Bring down resident evil on friday. Usual fee of large bottle?

Yup

Scratch and die etc :


kdjac

Dodge

of course...

11redder

aaf wrote:

WTF?

The candles replacing the sensor bar absolutely works. Just unplug the sensor bar & place the candles where the sensor bar was, spaced the same distance apart as the length of the sensor bar.
The only problem you'll have is if you're seating position is a huge distance from your tv, but in most cases this can be overcome by the switching sensor bar sensitivity up to 5 in the wii settings/options.

11redder

sweetie wrote:

so I can't just plug my ethernet cable like with my xbox 360?
are either of these expensive.

I also recently got a wii and picked up two gamecube controllers, memory card and about ten gamecube classics to keep me going as I have the games like play and sport for multiplayer parties.

There's no ethernet port on the wii so it's either of those two options I'm afraid.
The ethernet adaptor can be picked up for around €19.99, while the wii access point dongles retails around €29.99

daedalus2097

Yeah, the "sensor" bar is just a couple of infrared LEDs at each end, powered from the Wii. Candles, or any other constant IR source will work fine, though I'd imagine the flicker of some candles would lead to inaccuracy in your aim...