I Must’ve Been a Really Good Girl This Year

Know why? Cuz I got the best Christmas gift one could possibly get this year: the Nintendo Wii.

Wiiiiiiii!

Yep. There was a large package under the tree, wrapped in gold and tied up with a ribbon of my favorite color, red. I knew this was a special package. I had high hopes for it, but I tried not to get too excited, cuz, well, I knew the Wiis were hard to get. But finally, Christmas morning came, and it was time to open gifts.

There was a delay in getting to that particular one … I think the gift giver was holding off on purpose, making me wait. And then it came time to open it. I lifted the golden lid…

And there was a smaller box inside! Wrapped in green paper! Someone thought they were being cute. Unable to wait, I uncharacteristically ripped the green paper off and there it was, in all its white, shiny, sleek glory.

I managed to get through the rest of the gifts, one of which contained a couple of games for the Wii, Super Monkeyball: Banana Blitz and Trauma Center: Second Opinion. After a very easy set-up process, the Wii was up and running, and I was swinging away at the yellow and red tennis ball in Wii Sports. And pitching a baseball. And throwing punches in boxing. And changing into shorts and putting my hair into a pony tail to ward off the sweat I was working up.

I finally decided to take a break from being a sports all-star to check out the other features of the neat little box (little indeed, the Wii is only slightly larger than a PC game box). This pause was not at all because of my tired and vaguely sore arm. No, really. …

I configured the Wii to connect to the internet. After telling my Miis (avatars representing me) they were allowed to go off to other Wiis to play (Nintendo’s answer to social networking) and checking out the weather for my city tomorrow (Wii Weather channel), I decided to download the Wii browser. I popped over to check out WarCry, our sister site, and read the new threads on The Escapist Forums from my couch, in my living room, on my television.

I wondered if I could check out videos on my television, so I wandered over to YouTube. The videos play. And they look just fine, if a tad grainy, on my non-HD TV. And it was halfway through watching this video (which is a little unduly harsh to other parties), I realized: Nintendo has not only made a console that is responsible for the most fun I’ve had playing videogames in a decade, but they’ve made it possible to surf the internet without a PC. And while the interface is clunky (for now), they’ve managed to do it for $250.

I wanted a Wii before Christmas. I got one. I am more impressed than I hoped to be by this little bit of technology. Even today, the day after the golfing/tennis/boxing/bowling/baseball extravaganza, after I might have awoken this morning with a stiff and sore right arm *ahem*, I find myself unable to stop playing. I have been resting my sore muscles, working my way through some harrowing, near-loss-of-patient surgeries today in Second Opinion.

And now, if you’ll excuse me, I have an important surgery to attend.