At the Risk of Further Giving All of the Hockey Bloggers Who Link To Me Fits...

...no Random Musings and Observations for last night's Canes game vs. the Panthers 'cause FSN South AND FSN Florida/Sunshine Sports did not have said game in their broadcasting contract, bless their wittle hearts. And on top of that, as much as I love Chuck and the Letter K AND respect all he has done in the NHL/hockey radio broadcasting universe, there's something about when I listen to him that disrupts the Canes' mojo. And we just can't have that, especially right now, can we?

But, I was never bored...thanks to the big gift somewhat mentioned in the previous post: My Nintendo Revolu...er, Wii. AND my brother's Wii too...which will be covered in une momento, por favor.

In what has to be the most time I have spent with a video game system since, well, my playing Tales of Symphonia (GREAT GAME!!) on the Gamecube during the very end of last year/very beginning of this year, I am already very much in love with the Wii, its capabilities, AND ESPECIALLY the workout you can get from playing with it.

Like almost everybody else in Wii-Land, I have been getting my first Wii kicks from the Sports Package that accompanies the system. And it's been one sport that has been dominant over the others whenever I take on the Wii-mote...bowling. As someone who used to be in a Youth Bowling League, and was pretty danged good too, before a gawdawful slump hit me and made me quit after putting up with it for a couple of seasons; bowling was the obvious first pick out of the sports to try.

Well, I LOVE the bowling game...and as someone obviously very well familiar with the sport, I can safely say that it is a very well crafted game AND quite possibly the best sport in the Package. But, that's not to say that the rest of the Sports Package is chopped liver. The Package as a whole is a FANTASTIC idea on Nintendo's part, especially with all of the message board and blog posts I've read about how the Sports Package has brought families together, even the members who usually don't care for video games. I've read about even grandparents trying the bowling, golf, AND EVEN boxing games!! Now, PlayStation/Sony fanatics, PLEASE tell me how the PS3 could surpass the Wii in the regard of what I just mentioned, in addition to the price AND EVEN gameplay. PLEASE?!

Speaking of the PS3 vs. Wii wars...when watching my brother play Legend of Zelda: Twilight Princess on his Wii last night, in addition to ogling the *very impressive* graphics, we kept talking about how the critics have to be smoking or drinking something good(bad?) to say that the Wii's graphics are "ok, but they just don't compare to the (insert PS3 or X-Box 360 here)". Such talk makes the Wii's currently outselling the PS3 two to one all the more hilarious AND great...the better system is winning, whether some like it or not.

But, back to the Sports Package...my only real complaint about it is that Nintendo left off two sports that could have worked quite well: Hockey and Fencing. Hockey could have been handled rather simply...just do a suped up version of that "Rapid Shot" game that was on Mickey D's Canadian site during 2002-03. Afterall, the controls would have been no different from those for Golf. And, as for Fencing, if you can control Link's sword in Zelda, then why not Fencing? That would have been awesome practice/warm-up for the sword handling in Zelda.

Another thing worth mentioning before I finally wrap up here is that the "Miis" are way more fun than I initially thought they'd be. Simply put, "Miis" are Nintendo's equivalent of Fisher-Price's Little People. When I was doing plenty of reading about the Wii, especially upon knowing I was getting one for Christmas, I wrote off the "Miis" as being something cute to attract kids and teenyboppers into Wii-Land. BIG MISTAKE. "Miis" are wonderful for showing off your fandoms on your system, in addition to the name you give your system in its own type-in box. (Guess what I named my Wii? Ten guesses... ;D) Already in the last couple of days, I've made Miis of the following people and characters...

Rod Brind'Amour
Mike Commodore (Complete with red afro!!)
Dr. Frasier Crane
Martin Crane
Dr. Niles Crane
Roz Doyle
Alphonse Elric (Pre-"Bringing Back Mother" Accident)
Edward Elric
Ron Francis
Dr. Gregory House
Inuyasha (New Moon/Human Form)
Kagome
Howie Mandel
Miroku
Daphne Moon
Hiro Nakamura
Jeff O'Neill
Penn and Teller
Sango
Shippou (Without his fox ears and tail, of course.)
Eric Staal

And THOSE are just the tip of the iceberg...I have plans to create:

More past and present Canes players.
Past and present Pittsburgh Penguins players.
Hartford Whalers players.
John Forslund
Tripp Tracy
Chuck Kaiton
Don Cherry (if only one of the "favorite colors" you could choose was plaid...)
Dr. House's "Ducklings"
The Fantastic Four (Instead of The Thing, I'll create his human form.)
The Mythbusters
Jerry Seinfeld and Friends
Larry David
Ron Burgundy and His Newsteam
Street Fighter characters
Link and Zelda

I'll go ahead and beat you to the hunch: Yes, I have absolutely no life, what-so-ever.

But seriously, it's awesome AND frightening at the same time how endless the possibilities are with the Miis. If we're not careful, they could take over the world... o_O

;)

And the only reason I've gotten into creating so many of the little things? I get a hoot out of seeing the motley crews pulling for me from the seating area of my bowling lane. Only on the Wii will you see Frasier, Brindy, and Inuyasha pulling for you one game, and then Commie, Dr. House, and the host of Deal Or No Deal the next game.

Again, I'll beat you to the hunch: Yes, I have absolutely no life, what-so-ever. But, that shouldn't stop you from getting what is quite the technological wonder when you can.

Current Music: "Yellow Pearl" by Phil Lynott (Featuring Midge Ure)