Well, my friend Cutter just (as in, yesterday) got a Wii, so I got to play it for real. For real meaning no pressure from surrounding con crowd, and correctly set-up sensor bar. The experience was much better.
It could be that I was playing a different game each time, Wii Sports at the con and Warioware at Cutter’s house, but I had way more fun with Warioware. For those of you who haven’t experienced the…(how shall I put this)…unique experience that is Warioware, the game consists of extremely quick minigames (really quick, you have 5-10 seconds to finish each one). The games are very strange, everything from using the wiimote as a fly swatter to squish flies on the screen to a pump handle you have to move up and down to pop a balloon, to a finger you have to use to pick a virtual nose. It’s a very odd-sounding game, but trust me, you have to play it to understand.
There are different “forms” you are taught throughout the game, starting with the remote control form (which is just like holding a TV remote), then gaining umbrella form (holding the wiimote vertically, like an umbrella handle), to many more, such as handlebars, janitor (a broomstick), and the most outlandish being mohawk (where you hold it flat on your head, like a mohawk hairdo). As you learn these forms, more and more minigames involving these forms are unlocked, such as the hula hoop game (where you hold the wiimote at your side in ‘big cheese’ form, and pretend to hula hoop. This cannot be done correctly with any other form, or the guy on-screen doesn’t move. You have to be willing to embarrass yourself to play) or the balloon pumping game (which only works in ‘handlebar’ form, where you hold it like bike handlebars).
All in all, the game is extremely fun, whether you’re playing it yourself or watching others play (since you can laugh at them, despite the fact that you’ll be doing the exact same thing in a few minutes). The wiimote can be a bit unresponsive at times, but its usually just because we don’t have it pointing enough at the sensor bar. Cutter said he’ll figure out the best positioning for the bar, but I think some of it is just an inherent weakness in the Wii, since you’ll always be compelled to point it directly at the TV, or swing it away from the TV all together.
I can easily see the Wii becoming the king of the current generation of consoles.