15 Minutes With The Wii

[Moozik: Siouxsie & The Banshees - Clockface]

I was in my local EBgames at the weekend and happened to spy Super Mario Galaxy on their demo Wii. I was quite pleased for two reasons, I've been a fan of pretty much every Mario game since Donkey Kong and have been itching to try the Wii out. So here was my chance.

To be honest, when I first heard about the Wii I was completely skeptical about the Wii controllers. The nunchuck and Wii remote appeared to be a monumental pain in the arse. This is probably the main reason why the Wii is the first Nintendo console that I haven't snapped up since my SNES days.

I was pleasantly surprised by how easy it was to get used to the controllers. Sure there was about 20 seconds of confusion while I figured out which piece did what but after that, it just felt natural. The only thing I had difficulty with was aiming with the remote. I suppose a quick 15 minute play wasn't enough to teach myself how to aim and to be honest I sucked at it. 15 minutes also wasn't anywhere near enough time to form a decent opinion of the new Mario game. It felt very familiar but I must admit I wasn't overly blown away with the supposed "next gen" graphics. I know the Wii is nothing more than a suped-up Gamecube but even so, I suppose I expected a little better.

So, is a Wii purchase in my future? Hard to say. I'm also a huge Ratchet and Clank fan and the review of the new game has me itching to buy a PS3. So owning a 360, PS3, and a Wii seems a little extreme ;-) Time will ultimately tell I suppose.