Styleswitcher-

What is the Wii?

For those who don't know, Wii is Nintendo's newest system and probably their best yet! The Wii's controller can sense movement and use it in games. What does this mean? For example, when playing baseball in Wii Sports, instead of pressing a button to swing the bat, you actually swing the controller like a bat! In this guide, I will cover channels, Wii games, and Virtual Console games (see Wii Shop Channel).

Channels

The Wii's menu is made up of different channels. Each channel has something different, incuding games and other things. Here are the current Wii channels, and what they do.

Disc Channel
The idea of this channel is very simple: whatever Wii or Gamecube game is in your disc slot goes here.

Mii Channel

In this channel, you can make a Mii, which is a Wii version of yourself. This Mii serves a number of purposes. You can use a Mii in games such as Wii Sports or Warioware: Smooth Moves, or they can show up in Mii Parades on other Wiis. You can host your own Mii Parades, too. Here's a fun tip: try making Miis of celebrities or TV show characters!

Photo Channel

If you open the flap in the front of the Wii, you'll see a slot for SD cards. That gets put to use here. The card in your digital camera can be placed in that slot to see your pictures on this channel. Movies too! Then you can put those pictures in a slide show, doodle on them (or just put sunglasses on everybody), or make them into a puzzle. Need to humiliate someone by putting lips on their mouth or sparkles in their eyes? This is the channel for you.

Wii Shop Channel
This channel is like online shopping on Wii. If you buy a Wii Points Card ($20=2,000 points), you can buy Virtual Console games, which are classic games from the NES, Super Nintendo, Nintendo 64, Sega Genesis, or Turbografx-16. Also available are new Wii Channels which can be obtained in Wii Ware.

Wii Message Board

While not really a Wii Channel, the message board can be accessed at the bottom-right corner of the Wii menu and acts a lot like a channel. Here you can view your Wii friend code, view messages, send messages, and post memos to remind yourself in the future. Wii users can be registered by typing in their Wii friend code, while PC users can be registered by typing in an e-mail address. When sending messages to a Wii user, you can use photos from the Photo Channel in your messages, but sadly, e-mail messages are limited to text only.

Forecast Channel
Release Date: December 20th

With this channel you can check forecasts for cities around the world. You can check current weather, today's weather, tomorrow's weather, the UV index, and a 5-day forecast (UV index and 5-day forecast not available everywhere). The weather for your area is shown when you start the channel, or you can view the weather in other places by rotating the globe. Did you know the globe uses real star charts?

Internet Channel

With this channel, you can surf the internet-on your tv! You can bookmark pages when using the Internet Channel. It supports some flash, but not all. It was originally free, but now you have to pay.

News Channel
Release Date: January 29th

You can check news headlines from around the world with this channel! You can view national or international news, or get more specific with categorizations such as sports, business, or technology. Like the Forecast Channel, you can view the globe and select articles with a specific location.

Everybody Votes Channel (New!)
Release Date: February 14th

This channel has a variety of polls to choose from and vote on. Besides voting, you can also predict the popular answer in each poll, and your wins and losses will be counted. Also you can submit ideas to Nintendo for new polls.

Check Mii Out Channel

In this channel, showcasing Miis from around the world, you can do two things. The first is the Posting Plaza. Here, you can submit Miis for the world to see or look at Miis other people created or even download them! In the Contest Plaza, you can enter and judge Mii contests. The contests give a certain Mii you are supposed to create, like "Mario without his cap" or "The ultimate reggae star." Then, you can judge contests by picking 3 Miis that you like.

Games

Short summaries of every Wii game I buy will be posted here.

Wii Sports
Release Date: November 19th, 2006

Wii Sports is included free with every Wii, so you might as well try it, right? It makes good use of the Wiimote in every game, whether you're swinging it or jabbing it. In Tennis, your Mii will automatically move to the ball, so you only have to worry about swinging. In Bowling, you hold the B button while you swing your arm, and then let it go to let the ball go (There is a glitch in bowling that curves your ball to the left of right whether you want it to or not, but you can just make the ball go in the air to stop the curve). In Baseball, you are in charge of only pitching and batting, and the other Miis do everything else. In golf, there are 9 holes, all based on Golf for the NES, also including four clubs, a map, and a wind meter. Boxing is the most exhausting of the sports in my opinion, as you'll be jabbing your arms frantically to try and knock out your opponent.

Wii Play
Release Date: February 14th

Wii Play is a game combined of nine minigames for $50 and bundled with a Wii Remote. For a $10 game (minus the remote price), it is a really good deal. Since this game is composed of nine minigames, I'll go over each of them seperately:
Shooting Range-You're not just shooting ducks anymore! Shooting Range has 5 levels, with a different target in each one. In level 1, you are shooting balloons, which start at the bottom of the screen and fly up. In level 2, you are shooting targets. Be careful not to shoot your Mii's target, or you'll lose points. In level 3, flying disks will go by and it is your job to shoot them. In level 4, your new object to shoot is soda cans which will fly upward and come back down when you shoot them. In the final level UFOs will try to abduct your Miis (there's 6 of them), and it's your job to stop them. Also, you will have the chance to shoot ducks as they randomly fly across the screen. In a 2-player game, whoever has the most points at the end wins.
Find Mii-This game is basically Where's Waldo-with Miis! You will be asked to complete a specific challenge in each level, whether it is finding look-alike Miis, finding a specific Mii, or finding the odd Miis out. There are also a variety of backrounds, like a street, an ocean, or an escalator. You get 10 more seconds on the clock for each level you complete, and the game is over when time runs out.
Table Tennis-In this game, you don't have to concentrate on hitting the ball, but moving the Wii Remote back and forth. You'll find that it's very addictive once you start. The opponent is impossible to beat, so don't concentrate on trying to win, but keeping the ball on the table for as long as possible. In a 2-player game, the first to 11 points wins.
Pose Mii-Try to make your Mii fit in the bubble with the right pose and position. In the first few levels, you don't have to worry about changing poses, but in the later levels, you'll be frantically changing poses to make your Mii fit in the bubble. If a bubble makes it to the bottom, you'll lose a life, and if you lose all your lives, you lose the game.
Laser Hockey-This is a Wii air hockey game, complete with laser lights on the table. You can twist and move the Wii Remote to hit the puck. The game is over when time runs out, and in 2-player mode it is over when someone gets 8 points. Press A and B during the countdown to switch to a circular paddle.
Billiards-In this game, you try to sink as many balls as possible and avoid fouls, which are caused by sinking the cue ball and not hitting the target ball first. To hit the cue ball, you hold B and pull the Wii Remote back, then release B and thrust it forward. At the end you score is totaled up, and fouls are subtracted from your score.
Fishing-Paper fish will swim around a pond, and it is your job to catch them! Every fish you catch adds to your points, except a Small Fry (gray fish), which takes away 50 points. If you land a fish that is currently in the bonus box, you'll get a double score for that fish. The game is over when time runs out.
Charge!-You Mii rides a cow in this game, and you have to knock down as many scarecrows as you can. You hold the Wii Remote sideways with the buttons facing up, and the control pad on the left. Tilting it forward speeds your cow up, and tilting it back slows your cow down. Tilt the remote sideways to steer. The game is over when your time runs out or you reach the finish.
Tanks-In my opinion, this is one of the best games on Wii Play. I reccomend using the Nunchuk for easier control. Basically, the controls are control pad or stick to move, A to drop a mine, B to fire, and Wii Remote to aim. The objective is to destroy all the enemy tanks without being hit. You lose when all your lives are lost.

Sonic and the Secret Rings

Sonic returns to his super-fast roots in this fast-paced game! Sonic goes forward automatically and you steer him by turning the Wii Remote (on its side) left or right. 2 is jump, 1 is brakes, and moving the Wii Remote forward quickly while in the air will result in a homing attack or dash jump. In each world, the first mission is to simply reach the goal, then you will be able to do other missions, such as collecting a certain amount of rings or defeating a boss. Sonic gains new abilities with every level gained, and those abilities can be customized on up to four rings. The adventure mode is 1-player with Sonic-only, but there is also a multiplayer party mode with a bunch of party games and more playable characters. However, the controls are a little bit quirky in some of the games (I can't get the sword to move in Spike! Fruit Catch at all). Although it might not be good for a non-gamer, Sonic and the Secret Rings is a great game nonetheless.

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