Hands-on with Nintendo Wii

Nintendo of America recently unveiled the essential details on its goofily named next-generation Wii (pronounced "we").The console will be available November 19 in the U.S., with a price tag of $249. This includes two controllers (the wireless Wii remote and the wired Nunchuck), and the five-in-one Wii Sports title. The company also unveiled Wii Channels (essentially, the system's interface, which also incorporates some cool entertainment features) and two other first-party titles available at launch (The Legend of Zelda: Twilight Princess and Excite Truck). At the launch in New York last week, I was able to get a few hours of hands-on time with previously unseen game levels, new titles, and, of course, the hardware.

What I liked

Innovative controllers: What seemed goofy at first turns out to be pretty ingenious. In the Wii Sports Boxing game, for example, you use the Nunchuk and the Wireless Controller (one in each hand) to punch at the screen, making the whole experience more realistic. It's also nifty in a game like Zelda, where the Nunchuk in the left hand moves the character around, while the Controller in the right serves as a sword controller.

Pick up and play: Many of the Wii titles on display were of the no-previous-experience-necessary puzzle (Wario Ware:Smooth Moves, Big Brain Academy) variety. And the motions you make using the controllers on Wii Sports so mimic the actual sports (you literally swing the controller like a tennis racket) that even "uncoordinated" types who have grade-school-gym-class-enforced familiarity with, say, baseball, would be able to pick up and play. Even well-established franchises such as Madden NFL 07 offer user-friendly tutorials for the uninitiated. Lapsed gamers intimidated by complicated Xbox 360 controllers may flock to the Wii.

Cool interface: I liked the Wii Channels, particularly the appropriately named Mii Channel that lets you create a cartoonish avatar of yourself. Like a version of you if you were a Gorillaz band member, this character can then be inserted into any number of games, including Wii Sports and Wario Ware. With more than six pages of facial hair (two alone for eyebrows) and other physical attributes, this feature is a personalization freak's dream.

What I didn't like

HD or not HD: I couldn't find anyone at Nintendo to give me a straight answer on whether games would be in 480p (same quality as DVDs) or 720p (HD-quality). The component video output—there's no state-of-the-art HDMI—indicates it could go either way. 480p would be nice to view pictures and videos stored on an SD card (which is what is offered on the Wii Photo Channel). And though games might look nice on a TV up to, say, 50 inches, Wii titles might suffer if projected onto a wall in 100 inches or on a fat 65-inch rear-projection set.

Thin launch lineup: Nintendo announced more than 40 first- and third-party titles due out by March 31, but it was not specific about exactly how many titles would be out at launch. If it's games you want, you're better off with an Xbox 360.

Boy, do my arms hurt: Whether "casting" a fishing rod to catch virtual bass in Zelda or tossing a bowling ball in Wii Sports, I nearly dislocated my shoulder using the wireless controller. Shoulder pain may be the gamers' new carpal tunnel syndrome as far as Wii's motion-based gameplay is concerned.

Bottom Line (for now)

At $250, the Wii isn't cheap, but it's still a bargain compared to the $599 PlayStation 3 and the $399 Xbox 360 Premium system. And unlike Sony, which is only making 400,000 PS3s available at launch, Nintendo says it will ship 4 million Wii units by December 31. So it's likely you'll actually be able to get one. But it's also likely that you'll be just as able to get an Xbox 360 with its more than 100 available titles by year's end. For now, only one thing's for sure: Until Sony gives us a compelling reason to buy the PS3 beyond it being an incredibly affordable Blu-ray disc player, either of these other choices is a winner.