Nintendo Fusion Tour and Nintendo Wii impressions

October 7, 2006 on 5:29 pm | In excite truck, fusion tour, impressions, nintendo, review, wii, wii sports | 4 Comments

On Friday night we went to the Nintendo Fusion Tour at the Starland Ballroom in Sayreville NJ.

We got there about 5:40PM and the event was starting at 6:30. It was cold out. One of the staff members walking around had a DS download station attached to her. We were able to download a few demos and play them while we waited. They offered a demo level of the upcoming Elite Beat Agents, some dart game, and Mario vs. Donkey Kong 2: March of the Minis.

March of the Minis was the most complete demo with quite a few levels open to play. Elite Beat Agents was a tease at best – a single part of one level! The dart game, well… you throw a dart, then the computer does. Then you throw a dart, then the computer does. You get the idea.

Once we made our way inside It became obvious very quickly that the venue was way too small to hold the Fusion Tour. The stage for the bands was straight ahead, and the Wii and DS stations were setup in the fairly small corner to the left.

We were one of the first people to get to the Wii demo stations. Unfortunately the very firs thing I noticed was that they only had room to setup 5 units. The games were Wii Play, WarioWare, Excite Truck, Wii Bowling and Wii Tennis. No Metroid. I was pissed. The place was too small to setup a Metroid station which would draw in the largest crowd.

First game was Excite Truck. I only had to wait about 15 minutes before getting my turn to play. The guy manning that particular station placed the strap around my hand, handed me the Wii-Remote and explained the controls.

Let me just say that holding the Wii-Remote(or WiiMote if you will), it just feels like it’s made by Nintendo. It’s solid, lightweight, compact, and very comfortable. You just know that it’s something that come out of Nintendo’s camp.

Excite Truck
This game was my very first impression of the Wii. Controls are basic. To steer left or right you simply turn the Wii-Remote at the direction which you want to turn, tilt back or forward to land your jumps, A for gas, and the D-Pad for turbo. People say that the turning controls are too sensitive. I didn’t find that to be the case. While you only had to turn the Wii-Remote a few degrees in either direction to steer, it definitely was not as sensitive as the impression that I’ve gotten from other people’s reviews. It probably took about 40 seconds to get the turning controls down. Once you understand how much to turn, it’s cake. I finished first in my race, and it ended up being a great first experience. Graphics wise it was at least on par with Game Cube games, if not a little better.

Wii Bowling
Immediately after Excite Truck I get on the Wii Bowling line. Wait time was around 10 minutes or so, and I met a few cool people while waiting on line. One of them had attended E3 and was telling me about the completely insane 5 hour line to get to play the Wii at E3. The controls for bowling are fairly simple as well. Hit A, and you can set where to place your character. Hit A again and you set in which direction to send the ball. Now you are ready. You hold the B button (the trigger), and make a bowling-like-motion, and release the trigger to let go of the ball. The faster you snap your wrist at the end, the more power the ball will have. You can also add a spin to the ball by twisting your wrist at the end right before you release. If you happen to release the trigger too early before your swing, you drop and send the ball rolling backwards. Each person got to play 5 frames. I got 2 strikes – Yeah, that’s right!

Wii Tennis
This game had the longest line at the event. If Metroid was there I am sure that it would had been at least 4-5 times as long. Wait time was about 25-30 minutes. The controls once again are super simple. Use the Wii-Remote like a tennis racquet. There are no buttons to press, just swing at the ball. Easy to play, lots of fun. I got to play against someone else, which made it more fun.

Wii-Remote
The Wii-Remote was spot on for the most part with all the games. Some of the tennis swings didn’t translate exactly. For example if you tried to lob the ball, it might do a normal swing. Other than that, it was perfect, sensitive to movements, and comfortable to hold. Unfortunately, the nunchuk was MIA as none of the games used it.

Unfortunately that is all that we got to play. By the time we got to the Wii Tennis line the bands started to play. This would have been fine if the place was bigger – and the music didn’t suck. It was extremely crowded, and way too loud, for such a small place, which made it very uncomfortable. Some people were walking around with ear plugs, which seemed like an excellent idea.

While a lot of the younger crowd was there for the bands, the crowd for the Wii demos was more mixed. I would say ages ranged from 15 to 45, easily. One surprising thing was the amount of girls waiting to play, which I would estimate 20-25%.

As far as the whole event, I’d have to say it was just “OK”, at best. A larger venue would have made to so much better. They definitely needed more room for additional Wii stations, and Metroid.

If the Nintendo Fusion Tour is coming around you, make sure it’s in a place which can accommodate large crowds and enough room to have more than 4-5 Wii stations setup. The price of admission was worth being able to try out the Wii.

Lastly, we were told that recording equipment and digital cameras were not allowed. A few people brought them in, and I could have used my cell phone, but I figured there’s no point in crappy pictures, especially since theres tons of great images everywhere. There was nothing new to take a picture of.

If you’ve had hands-on time with the Wii, feel free to tell us about it.