After being less than thrilled with Nintendo's past Nintendo 64 and Nintendo Gamecube, I had sworn off ever owning another Nintendo system again. Even heading into this year's E3, I was still pretty sure I wasn't going to own the Wii. Of course, then came the Nintendo press conference and actually being taken on a tour of the Wii both, and suddenly I found myself once again flocking to my childhood love of Nintendo. So after one day of non-stop Wii playing, is the system everything one would hope for?

THE PACKAGE
The console is ugly. I'm sorry, but the monotone white and monotone white only simply doesn't get the job done for me. If you own both the Wii and the DS Lite (which I do) then the two match up perfectly and look great side by side. However, while the DS Lite has a sleek brilliance to it, much like the plain old white iPods, the formula seems to be that the bigger the object, the less amazing the white aesthetic looks like.

Besides the orange standby power light, the only other color is a beautiful bright blue that comes on when you place a disc in the drive. I was actually a bit wary of a drive that sucked the discs in, as I'm a stickler for preen conditions when it comes to my videogames, CDs, and DVDs, but the Wii takes the disc in so smoothly (and ejects it as well) that instantly those fears will never be present in my mind again, and I love the process of the Wii taking in a disc.

Due to reports of Xbox 360s screwing up when positioning the console straight up and down, I've never once been tempted to play my system in this way. So, given that, my Wii sits flat in a well-ventilated area right next to my 360, and jeez is it tiny (and weighs hardly nothing).

When you get the system, there are a bunch of cords and parts to unwrap, but the system plugs in really easily; three quick plugs and that is it.

THE CONTROLLER
One of the first things you'll have to install is your sensor bar, which you can put on top of your television or on the bottom in front of it. Nintendo thankfully included a sticky substance underneath the base of the sensor bar, but sadly the sticky stuff only worked on the right hand side of the bar; sucks, I know, but it holds it well enough that the bar stays in place and is stabilized from the beginning of play to end.

As for the controller itself, it is a thing of beauty and brilliance. Think of all the times you've crashed on the couch, and found yourself in such a couch potato zone the remote actually melded to your hand and you actually forgot you were even holding it – same thing with the Wii controller. The nunchuk is equally pleasing, because as soon as I slipped it into my hand, it actually felt like Nintendo had took a personalized cast of my hand; it fit that well.

And when at E3, I had worries that you'd be unable to play the system for any long length of time, because with all the arm movements it felt as if you'd get tired (because I found myself getting just that, but maybe it was because I'd been cruising the showroom floor for however many hours), but it turns out that not all games require a lot of exaggerated movements, and so marathon gaming sessions shouldn't be a problem. For that matter, while playing The Legend of Zelda: Twilight Princess, I found myself chilling on the bed, one leg propped up, and I was easily and comfortably controlling Link.

YOUNG AND OLD
Every weekend, for at least one day usually, I'm helping watch my young nephews, including a rambunctious runt who loves asking questions. He also likes playing games, or should I say, watching me play games because many games are still too difficult control wise. My little nephew was so enamored with the console that I had no problem putting the controller down and letting him play, and let me tell you he had a blast. The only thing he played was Wii Sports (really nothing more than a glorified tech demo, but still fun nonetheless) and though it took him a few tries, he got really good at many of the games. He failed to learn how to serve properly until a few games in, but he loved knocking balls back and forth in Wii Tennis. Baseball he equally loved, as he actually had perfect timing with that game and loved swinging away. He was pretty good at them all, actually, but the mechanics of bowling still proved too much for him.

However, he rocked at boxing and he loved wildly punching at the nothingness in air, and though I worried about a controller flying across the room, he held on perfectly and the wrist strap worked wonders. He also felt so accomplished knocking out the computer, he always had the biggest smile on his face. And then hours later, after he was home and back with his parents, he couldn't help but confess the joy he had at playing the game. I also saw a woman who hadn't picked up a game controller since Duck Hunt for the NES, and managed to handle her own at boxing as well. It turns out those commercials showing people from every walk of life weren't far off from the truth.

Head On Over To Page Two For Early First Impressions Of Games And Some Screens