Posts Tagged ‘Wii’

I have been a fan of the Brain Age and Big Brain Academy games on the Nintendo DS.  So I wasn’t surprised when someone in my family gave us the Wii version of Big Brain as a Christmas gift.

If you are looking for a more mentally stimulating game than the average first-person shooter, you will probably like Big Brain.

The whole idea behind these games is to exercise your brain by showing you simple puzzles and measuring how long it takes you to solve them.  The answers are things even an elementary student knows, so the challenge is the go through them as quickly as possible. 

Here’s an example.  You are given four numbers: 4, 1, 2, 3

Eliminate one or more of the numbers so the sum equals six.  There are a couple of ways to do it, but the quickest response gets the most points.

In between family matches of tennis, we are now adding some brain exercises.  Anyone for an online challenge?

Yes, we got one.  I waited until the Christmas/Valentines/St Patrick’s/Memorial Day/Fourth of July rush was over.  And then I still couldn’t find one.

Finally, the stars aligned and my local GameStop had one.  They had a dozen.  I was there a few hours after they were delivered.  I got the last one.

If you haven’t seen the latest console from Nintendo, it is a technological marvel.  It’s not much bigger than an external DVD burner.  The remote is wireless so you can play from anywhere in the room.  It comes with Wii Sports which includes: Bowling, Tennis, Baseball, Golf and Boxing.  Best of all, at $250 it is about half the price of a PS3 or XBox 360.

The Wii Remote (Wiimote) creates the additive play.  You literally have to stand up to use it.  This is because the Wiimote has sensors that detect how you move it.  It can tell if you are swinging, twisting or poking.  This means Wii Bowling is pretty much like real bowling.  You want to hook it?  Do a little wrist snap when you release.  If you want to throw the ball harder then speed up your delivery.  Just don’t release the ball too late or you’ll loft it.  A wrist strap prevents you from launching the Wiimote into your TV.

I have never seen a console that is this natural to understand.  All the games play just as you think they would play.

The Wii comes with a wireless NIC that handles WPA.  I connected it to my network and started up the Weather program.  I typed in my zip code and got the local time and temperature with a five day forecast. I can easily do the same on my computer, but then I zoomed out a little so I could see the whole Earth. The pointer looks like a hand. I grabbed the Earth and gave it a spin. As it went around I could see the weather reports from every continent. It was fun to see the weather like this.

There is a web browser (Opera) for the Wii.  I haven’t downloaded it yet, but I’m sure I will.  This might be the easiest way to get YouTube videos onto my TV.