Wii sound off and impressions.

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So last saturday I got to hit up the local Nintendo represenatives home to play a launch Wii. He had both Wii Sports and Monkey ball. Cant comment on monkie ball except that it looked fun. Wii Sports however was friggin amazing. I got to play tennis and it was so silky smooth with the controls its not even funny. The controllers are solid, and the pointer system is so stream lined. I am so getting a Wii on sunday its not even funny.

I'm not laughing!

Koning_Floris wrote:

I'm not laughing!

I really need to work on that punch line...

GameTrailers has their positive impressions of Zelda up now.

Quicktimes
WMV

I hate to nitpick but there is something that bugs me about Zelda, the way the game kinda freezes when you strike an enemy. Like it is reinforcing that you made contact, looks like the game is lagging (I know it really isn't but still). Bleh.

Flux wrote:

I hate to nitpick but there is something that bugs me about Zelda, the way the game kinda freezes when you strike an enemy. Like it is reinforcing that you made contact, looks like the game is lagging (I know it really isn't but still). Bleh.

Agreed. They introduced this "feature" in Wind Waker, and it was one of the few things about that game that bugged me. Hopefully it will be slightly less pronounced this time around, eh?

Well, hmm. I played and beat all of Wind Waker and it didn't bother me. I guess I forgot about it. Maybe it won't be an issue for me then.

I'll be at my Best Buy on Sunday at 8am to get a Wii, component cables, second controller, Zelda and Trauma Center. I'm hoping they have them available and that there isn't a camping army there.

I just watched the GT Zelda preview. A wolf? Okami anyone ?
That being said, ill probably be trying to pick it up this weekend, but might not be too easy up here in the great white north.

Parallax Abstraction wrote:

I'll be at my Best Buy on Sunday at 8am to get a Wii, component cables, second controller, Zelda and Trauma Center. I'm hoping they have them available and that there isn't a camping army there.

Based on the lines I saw at Gamestop and EBGames during the pre-orders I'd probably expect a good number of campers. It's how many that's the key. I think there'll be a ton of units available, and since it's a weekend the initial demand will probably take care of inventory pretty quickly.

I'd like to get a Wii for the kids this Christmas, but I'm not one of those parents who is willing to camp overnight for it in the rain and cold. Maybe I just don't love them enough, damn it.

I think the hype is getting to me. Well, maybe that and a grown up Zelda game. Trying to convince the wife to give me 300 bones for a Wii and Zelda. There is a big group of guys lining up late Saturday night at the local BB.

BiggerBoat, your avatar rocks.

I need to get one for my daughter. One problem that I have is that I have no more available component inputs on my home theater.

I picked up my controllers and Red Steel last night. Zelda wasn't available yet. If I fail on Sunday then it looks it will be an Imagination Launch Day. Yay! Imagination Launch Day!

I'm starting to get excited about the Wii and thinking of adding it to my Holiday Wish List. I've always been a Nintendo fan anyways.

More and more I like the idea that it might drag me off my sofa or office chair and have me actually moving around while I enjoy my hobby. This is especially true because my job has me sitting in front of a laptop screen all day, and I've gotta get pro-active about bringing my metabolism a bit back on-line.

Parallax Abstraction wrote:

I'll be at my Best Buy on Sunday at 8am to get a Wii, component cables, second controller, Zelda and Trauma Center. I'm hoping they have them available and that there isn't a camping army there.

Good luck with that pal. IMAGE(http://www.drunkendonkey.net/eng/html/emoticons/giggle.gif)

Mr.Green wrote:
Parallax Abstraction wrote:

I'll be at my Best Buy on Sunday at 8am to get a Wii, component cables, second controller, Zelda and Trauma Center. I'm hoping they have them available and that there isn't a camping army there.

Good luck with that pal. IMAGE(http://www.drunkendonkey.net/eng/html/emoticons/giggle.gif)

I ordered a component cable from Nintendo's store on Wednesday, and it looks like it'll be delivered today! Hooray!

SwampYankee wrote:

One problem that I have is that I have no more available component inputs on my home theater.

Likewise. I suppose the PS2 is going to be getting the boot. It was a nice run old fellow, but you're just going to have to do with a lower quality video signal from now on.

As for the supposed shortage of component cables: I think that this is just a case of Joystiq blowing sh*t out of proportion to generate page views. Of course the Nintendo online store sold out; most of their units went out to retailers where they expect people will want to buy them. Yeah, yeah, EB/GameStop seems to indicate they won't have them. Well, I'm not too concerned. My money says that between Walmarts, Targets, Best Buys and Circuit Cities it shouldn't be too hard to find one. And if not? Well, I think I can stand waiting a week.

SwampYankee wrote:
One problem that I have is that I have no more available component inputs on my home theater.
Likewise. I suppose the PS2 is going to be getting the boot. It was a nice run old fellow, but you're just going to have to do with a lower quality video signal from now on.

You could always buy a system selector with component input support. I saw a few for $30 at Walmart a couple months ago.

zeroKFE wrote:
SwampYankee wrote:

One problem that I have is that I have no more available component inputs on my home theater.

Likewise. I suppose the PS2 is going to be getting the boot. It was a nice run old fellow, but you're just going to have to do with a lower quality video signal from now on.

As for the supposed shortage of component cables: I think that this is just a case of Joystiq blowing sh*t out of proportion to generate page views. Of course the Nintendo online store sold out; most of their units went out to retailers where they expect people will want to buy them. Yeah, yeah, EB/GameStop seems to indicate they won't have them. Well, I'm not too concerned. My money says that between Walmarts, Targets, Best Buys and Circuit Cities it shouldn't be too hard to find one. And if not? Well, I think I can stand waiting a week.

Based on what toastyfrog said about zelda the things are freaking required.

Jeremy Parish of 1up at his toastyfrog blog wrote:

Not only do you lose the widescreen functionality, but there's all kinds of smeariness and ghosting and general unpleasantness. Not just in the snooty HD snob sense, but in the "this looks so bad and details are so hard to make out that I now have a screaming headache." The "p" in all those different HD resolutions (480p/720p/1080p) makes more of a difference than the numbers, I've learned.

Oh. Poop.

Well, let's just hope I'm right about the Walmart/Target/Best Buy thing, eh?

One question though:

Why the hell would you need component cables to do widescreen? My PS2 does widescreen over composite, as does my Xbox. I use component cables for both of them anyway, but there is nothing that says widescreen can't be done over a 480i signal. If the cables are really as rare as Joystiq is claiming they will be, let's just hope Parish was wrong about that detail.

You could always buy a system selector with component input support. I saw a few for $30 at Walmart a couple months ago.

Your video signal is only going to be as good as the worst link in your video chain. Something tells me that a $30 switcher won't deliver the way I would want it to... although, perhaps I'll pick one up just in case.

Quote:
You could always buy a system selector with component input support. I saw a few for $30 at Walmart a couple months ago.
Your video signal is only going to be as good as the worst link in your video chain. Something tells me that a $30 switcher won't deliver the way I would want it to... although, perhaps I'll pick one up just in case.

I'd suggest the higher quality auto switcher route. It works wonders for my PS2, GC, 360, HD TiVo Setup, albeit a tad spendy.
http://www.smarthome.com/7772.html
I just like the fact that once I turn a system on, it automatically switches to that sound and video input; very wife friendly.

Regarding the component video cables:

One Best Buy says they'll have it on Sunday. One doesn't know. And one says that it won't arrive until December, but he seemed to be talking about some kind of third party thing (Monster or Cyclone or something).

None of the Walmarts or Targets I called knew either way, and the phone number for the closest Circuit City that I got from their website seems to be disconnected.

So yeah, at this point it is a bit of a crapshoot.

One Best Buy says they'll have it on Sunday. One doesn't know. And one says that it won't arrive until December, but he seemed to be talking about some kind of third party thing (Monster or Cyclone or something).

Probably the MadCatz one? I heard it was gonna run nearly $60!

I might go for one of those someday, JV. Right now I have one from Pelican that gets the job done. I'm totally not an audio/video snob, though.

Or go really ghetto cheap and buy three $4 RCA signal Y-splitters at Radio Shack and share the single component cable between your new Wii and whatever piece of gear is already using that cable.

Cons:
1. if both of them are powered at the same time, you won't see anything on your TV at all except occasional and snow-crashy garble.
2. obviously this solution doesn't scale well if you're adding 2nd (3rd, 4th) piece of gear to your setup.

But if you need a simple tactical solution that would squeak in below the radar of SO's fiscal scrutiny, this is it.

Tyrian wrote:
Mr.Green wrote:
Parallax Abstraction wrote:

I'll be at my Best Buy on Sunday at 8am to get a Wii, component cables, second controller, Zelda and Trauma Center. I'm hoping they have them available and that there isn't a camping army there.

Good luck with that pal. IMAGE(http://www.drunkendonkey.net/eng/html/emoticons/giggle.gif)

I ordered a component cable from Nintendo's store on Wednesday, and it looks like it'll be delivered today! Hooray!

I did that as well as I'm pretty sure they'll be nowhere to be found come Sunday. I hope it gets here in the freakin Tundra in time, though.

HantaXP wrote:

I just watched the GT Zelda preview. A wolf? Okami anyone ?
That being said, ill probably be trying to pick it up this weekend, but might not be too easy up here in the great white north.

Not to nitpick but Zelda was shown what...3 years ago? Before Okami entered production....

Well, a few pieces of very crappy news:

I called the Nintendo service line (1-800-255-3700) and got a recording with a bunch of information. First, they won't begin shipping the cables again until November 28th. Second, they pointed me towards a broken website to actually place an order ( http://store.nintendo.com/componentv... ). Third, they confirmed that the cables most likely won't be a retail until early to mid December.

Finally, I posted a comment over at Jeremy Parish's blog asking if he was sure that Zelda didn't support widescreen in 480i (ie, not over component video) and he said he was positive. I am still having a very, very hard time believing this. My DVD player, PS2, and Xbox all do widescreen in 480i over composite video. Why wouldn't the Wii? Or maybe it is just Zelda? In any case, if that is true it is just plain stupid. So yeah, here's hoping that Jeremy Parish is wrong.

That sucks Zero. I'm pretty sure it's software dependent, so hopefully other games will support widescreen. It seems strange to me, too - I'm sure why it wouldn't, unless it was specifically disabled to prevent people having problems such as unreadable text or somesuch.

It boggles my mind. I honestly can't think of a single valid reason to have a widescreen mode in 480p and not in 480i.

Well this sucks. In a bad way.

My other concern is that since I game on a projector and my AV receiver and consoles are on the side, behind me, I doubt the sensor bar cord is long enough. Given how Nintendo is handling the component cables fiasco, I better start making an extension myself.

Yeah I totally said fiasco. I feel very dramatic today. IMAGE(http://home.no/cptsmiley/drama.gif)

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