Well, I’ve been playing a bit, although not as much as I’d like.

I’ve done all the practice stuff, learned how to use two different controllers, with motion sensitivity and millions of buttons to achieve some cool moves.

I’ve won the Fire Cup (a stage + knockout competition) on the third attempt. I’m playing as Donkey Kong, but his slow speed makes it hard work.

No online play yet…

The game is kind of like a cross between Super Mario Kart and Blood Bowl and Street Fighter…. lots of familiar characters, combo moves, and a bit of football.

The music is funky too.

I like it a lot and think this is going to be a big time waster for me

I have just taken delivery of Mario Strikers Charged Football, as has my brother, so I suspect there will be much Wii-based online battle going on in the near future… but first, a weekend of practice

Finishing Zelda: Twilight Princess left a bit of a hole in my life. It was the main reason for wanting a Wii and when it was complete I didn’t know what to do.

I consoled (pun unintended) my self with creating many Miis, although I’ve so far failed to get any of them to mingle with other Wiis. I also tried some old favourites in the Virtual Console, including: Zelda: Ocarina of Time, Space Harrier, Mario Kart 64 and Gradius II.

Ocarina of Time is excellent, but I’d played it before on the N64 so had less enthusiasm. Space Harrier and Gradius II are OK, but not as good as the MAME versions on the Mac/PC. Mario Kart 64 is just as much fun as I remember, but ultra-low resolution – quite something on a Wii

So, I dusted off the credit card and bought two new proper Wii games: Excite Truck and Eledees (or Elebits in US/Japan).

The latter is just plain weird, but can only really be done on the Wii as it uses the Wiimote and Nunchuck’s features extensively. I’ve only done the first room, but quite a giggle. Picking up objects, twisting them, throwing them around etc, and scaring the little Eledees is very therapeutic

Excite truck is more your traditional fantasy racing game in the style of Mario Kart and Wipeout, with the exception that you steer by tilting the Wiimote…. takes a bit of getting used to, but lots of fun, and quite hard to master the harder races.

So when will the next Zelda game come out? Who knows, possibly not until the successor to the Wii is launched. There is Phantom Hourglass on the DS, so maybe I’ll have to get that.

This all assumes my new job doesn’t eat too much into my game time

I finished Zelda:Twilight Princess!

Excellent game, but I didn’t manage to find all the insects for wossname’s ball, only found 23 Poe souls, and I think there was a final sword skill that I should have mastered.

Unfortunately, when you defeat Ganondorf, you get treated to a lengthy end-sequence and credits, but no opportunity to go and clean up.

Also, we never find out if Link gets off with Ilia, Zelda or Midna (who looked quite foxy in her normal form). Or Colin for that matter.

Or a goat.

One of my favourite pastimes at the moment, and one that is highly therapeutic, is transforming into a Wolf and running around Castle Town during the day.

OK, so you need to have a Wii and be playing Zelda: Twilight Princess, and have the Master Sword (sometime after completing the lake-bed temple, IIRC).

So, yes, you run about a busy market town as a large wolf and growl at people. They all scream and run away or cower. The screams are hilarious, and there is one chap who I find particularly therapeutic. He sounds like he’s trying real hard to not laugh.

Which brings me to a top-ten dream job: being a voice talent for a video game. Sounds like a good gig to me.

Hmm, looks like the set of Panasonic AA cells that came with the Wii only last about 20 hours of Zelda + miscellaneous other Wii use.

Must get new batteries

[Update: 12 March
Am up to 40 hours in Zelda now and my new batteries are still going strong.
Not surprising really that Nintendo–supplied batteries would be rubbish]

This is my Wii number:

Feel free to add it to your Wii … I’m quite curious to see what kind of Miis might mingle with mine

Very happy with my Wii.

Setup was a breeze. The sensor bar was not as fiddly as I expected. Connecting it to my wireless network was easy and all was generally intuitive without the need to read the manual. Updating the firmware over the wire took a while, but that’s ok.

Display with supplied composite video cables is a little fuzzy, but I have the component cables now and all looks very good. Definitely not HD, but that doesn’t matter.

I set up a Mii – it sort of looks like me

The Wii remote works really well. Not much lag. Certainly responsive enough for D-pad and button-type operations.

I love all the Wii Sports games… except rounders baseball. I think bowling is my fave.

Zelda is amazing… brings back memories from playing the top-down scrollers on the 8-bit Nintendos of yore. Definitely going to take up a lot of my time. I particularly like combination of Wii Remote and Nunchuk controllers for fighting.

Virtual Console is funky. Much nostalgia with MegaDrive Space Harrier II and Mario Kart 64.

News and Weather channels are very nice. I like the Google Earth-esque method of grabbing and spinning the world, to find the regional bits you want.

I was quite impressed with the ‘Internet Channel’ – basically, a custom version of Opera 9. Even has Flash support.

All in all, a top piece of kit.

My Wii has arrived! Finally! Hurrah!

Unfortunately, I don’t have time to play right now, so will have to wait a few more hours.

Got a phone call from Pissy PC World this morning about my Wii. Very nice lady explained that DHL could not deliver my Wii and returned it due to “security” reasons, and that this usually means that there is some confusion of the address.

Most likely, the DHL drone was confused by the entry panel on my apartment building or was scared away by Tommy the security cat.

Anyways, she confirmed that my address was indeed correct and said she’d send it out again using a competent different courier.

I trully believe that I’ll be the last person on earth to receive my Wii.