Nintendo Wii

Monday, July 16, 2007 at 12:00 AM

Jeremy has been pining for a Nintendo Wii for more than a year before the console system was released, as soon as there were rumors about a Nintendo “Revolution”—before the name Wii was even announced. Aidan managed to snag one of the elusive Wiis for his dad for fathers day. The Wiimote is a lot more active than most typical controllers and is by far the most interesting and fun controller with which I have played—it makes Wii Sports a blast! Jeremy has already lost several pounds from Wii fitness activities.

My favorite feature of the Wii has probably been the ability to create and play with Mii avatars in games. I have gone a little (okay probably a LOT) overboard with creating Miis. I have created a legion of Miis with practically my whole family tree and a good portion of Jeremy’s family too. (Perhaps I will assemble my Miis into a family tree and post it.)

Jeremy downloaded a few classical games from the Nintendo store also. I have been able to replay Super Mario Bros. 2 and to catch Super Mario World and Legend of Zelda: A Link to the Past, both classic Super Nintendo games that I never played the first time around. A $20 Wii point card will buy 2-4 classical games, which seems like a pretty good deal considering the prices of new video games. On the other hand when I have seen cartridges of old games marked at $5-$10 I haven’t jumped at them as a super deal. Perhaps the system makes it too easy to spend Wii “points” without thinking about spending real dollars. We’ll have to watch that. It is convenient, however, to not have to drag out and set up old systems and cartridges to play the games and to have the games directly playable on the console.

Games Nights

Monday, July 16, 2007 at 12:00 AM

I am a big fan of games, riddles and puzzles, (which is part of why I chose the puzzle theme for my site.) I come from a family that loves to play card games and board games. Game nights with our family can get pretty fierce sometimes, perhaps a bit scarily so!

My favorite classic board game was Monopoly. I was pretty ruthless, which is probably why no one ever wants to play Monopoly with me anymore.

Jeremy and I have had fun inviting friends and family over for games nights. Our “games closet” is overpacked with games that I look forward to playing with Aidan as he grows up. We have many of the classics, but some of my more favorite are a little lesser known (at least in the United States), such as Fluxx, Settlers of Catan, Carcassonne, and Munchkin. We haven’t had a games night, though, in a long time. Between Wasabi and Aidan trying to scatter and or eat cards and game tokens the logistics have become much harder. I miss games nights. Video games are fun in their own right, but nothing beats a good old fashion games night with cards and board games.

Games Album

Tuesday, May 1, 2007 at 12:00 AM

Games Album