As you may know, Nintendo released their new console, the Wii, in late November. We planned to get one as a family Christmas present, but they’ve been in short supply and we hadn’t managed to get our hands on one yet, though I did buy a copy of the new Legend of Zelda game for Wii, just in case we did manage to get one by Christmas :)
I found out yesterday that Toys’r’Us was probably getting a shipment of Wiis this morning, so I set my alarm for 5am and got to the store at 5:08. There were already seven people in line ahead of me, and we were quickly joined by another handful. Around 6am, an employee popped out and said they had ten Wiis, so that was a relief. The two fellows behind me were happy, and the rest of the people left, though later a lot more joined us, just hoping that by some freakish chance there’d be more than ten units, I guess. So we all sat there in the cold and the rain, chatting and stamping our feet to try to stay warm. There was an overhang so we didn’t actually get rained on, though we had visitors come over from the Best Buy, where there was no overhang, who said people had spent the night there in the rain under tarps. Gack, not me, thanks. In our line, Numbers One and Two were a middle-aged couple who got there at 4:30am. Three and Four were a couple of dudes, Five and Six were a 20-ish couple, Seven was a 20-ish dude, Eight was me, Number Nine in line was a Marine with a wife, a one-year-old, and another on the way. He was friendly and chatty and let me sit in his folding chair for a while (I was just sitting on a folded blanket on the cement,) and Ten was a 30-ish DJ who’d been up all night DJing a party.
So, we waited and waited. I was fairly comfortable, ’cause I was wearing my gray wool sweater, Dan’s big winter coat, Henry’s wool scarf, my wool hat, my gloves, and my cloak over all of that. My lower legs and feet were cold but the rest of me was fine.
At 8am another employee popped out and handed out slips of paper to the first ten of us in line, that said we had the right to go in and buy the “Wii Bundle”. We were all a bit alarmed, ’cause there was a rumor going around that Fry’s was forcing people to buy a bundle of FIVE $50 games if they wanted a Wii. But it turned out that we were only forced to buy one game, um, Marvel Ultimate Alliance, some lame-looking super-hero thing. Whatever. (Henry will get to be Spiderman, so he’ll be happy.) They let us in, we all zoomed speedy-quick to the video game section, and… ta-da! I bought a Wii! I didn’t really believe it until it was in my hands. I bought an extra pair of controllers, too.
Got home by 8:20am and collapsed on the couch until Dan woke up about 9:30. He was soooooooo happy that I succeeded! Neither one of us had much hope of getting one by Christmas. We’ve been telling Henry that we’ll probably get a Wii in spring when they are easy to find and probably cheaper, so he’s going to be one surprised boy!
We wanted to test it out before Henry got home, of course, so we unboxed it and set it up — quick and easy, no hitches. It’s a sturdy-feeling little thing, white and sleek and Appley. Nice packaging, too. Nintendo includes a sports game with the Wii, which is a nice touch — right away you get to play a game that takes full advantage of the wireless, motion-sensitive controller. When I first heard about the sports game, I thought, whoop-dee-do, sports. But it’s Nintendo-style sports! Cute, colorful, happy, and fun. There’s baseball, tennis, bowling, boxing, and golf. Dan and I played baseball for a long time. I suck at batting :) We both got kind of worn out from playing. You really do want to stand up and swing that remote around! Dan tried out the boxing game and loved it, and got tired and sweaty again heheh. I tried tennis and it was fun too! Then we packed it all back up and hid it away until Christmas.
I am really looking forward to making my “Mii” when we get to play again. A “Mii” is a little avatar person that represents you in the sports games and other future games too, I imagine. We played as guests today but when we get to make our own, we’ll get to choose from all kinds of features, hairstyles, body types, etc. It’ll be fun :)
(Note: My right arm and shoulder were sore as heck for three days after we tested our Wii. Exersize!)
