Nintendo Wii

Even if you aren't interested in gaming, chances are you've heard of Nintendo's new innovative and intuitive gaming console, the Nintendo Wii. It's even got a few commercial spots on television showcasing not just kids playing games on the console as is the typical stereotype among many people, but people from all age brackets, including kids, but also 20-something university students, 30 to 40 something full time workers with kids, and even a few people in their golden years were shown having a blast with the console. This is all pointing to how the Nintendo Wii has a lot more of an intuitive interface in many cases than past gaming consoles and should thus be accessible to a population outside of "hardcore gamers".

Along with Nintendo's portable DS system, the Nintendo Wii has been fostering a relatively new genre of gaming, "casual gaming". Casual games focus less on fantasy (like Final Fantasy), science fiction (like Halo), or gritty urban warfare (like GTA), and focus more on every day, seemingly mundane, very low stress activities. Feel like mini-gaming your way to Iron Chef-dom? Pick up Cooking Mama: Cook Off. Want to sharpen your math, logic, and reasoning skills? Big Brain Academy: Wii Degree may be up your alley. Low-intensity sports activities, light party games, sudoku - gaming has changed quite a lot since the day of saving the world and getting the girl.

That in itself is what is appealing about the Wii to many gamers, it's potentially a big change in gaming.

While casual games have been one of the system's main selling points, there are still options that appeal to hard core gamers as well. Resident Evil 4: Wii Edition is a port of the gamecube original admittedly, but gains a lot of freshness with the features of the PS2 port and the new control scheme. Twilight Princess has been hailed by many as their favorite Zelda game to date. There's even the upcoming game from the makers of the niche PS2 classic Killer7 that somehow manages to appear even more stylish, No More Heroes. Not to mention the just-released Metroid Prime 3: Corruption.

Overall, however, the Wii's game selection is still pretty limited, and there hasn't been anything too revolutionary. Third party Wii exlusive games especially have been abysmal. This may change in the future, however.

The Wii's graphics aren't anything revolutionary. Expect Xbox-level graphics at best on the Wii. If you want stunning realism, pick up a 360 (has an excellent library of games but tends to break a lot) or a PS3(has a very limited library of good games but doesn't break half as much as the 360).

The Wii does have the lowest price tag, though.Spending $250 on the console may seem tame compared to the alternatives, costing between $400 and $500. It's also about as big as a a stack of 3 DVD cases, so the price on room real estate is cheap too.

As far as controllers and peripherals go, the motion sensing wireless Wii remote is pretty fun and a nice change of pace from past controllers. The Wii already has many varied peripherals, the analog stick "nunchuck" attachment, a classic controller for playing downloadable games that will include pretty much all of Nintendo's games from the NES to the N64 and much more, compatibility with the Gamecube controller for playing Gamecube games, a balance board for an exercising game (believe it!), and even a light gun adapter, and more beyond that.

The Nintendo Wii may be right for you. While it seems to only have a handful of notable games so far, that may change. Many gamers are seeking a new experience, and the Wii may be providing the most novel experience yet.