PixlBit

The PixlBit staff shares their Wii launch day memories.

Patrick Kijek:

Out cold in the middle of nowhere. Temperatures somewhere around the lower 20's. Too many classes to play any video games after launch night.

These were the moments that stood out during the night when the Wii launched. That night was filled with too much hot cocoa, too many hours of waiting inside cars or in an outdoor line, too much fun standing in the corn fields of Iowa and too much eager anticipation.

In my freshman year of college, the Wii dropped. I had just built my own computer the previous year to take to college, had been gaming exclusively on the PC for quite some time, and hadn’t used any console for at least a year and had been longing for Zelda ever since I had collected everything in Wind Waker. With such a pleasant surprise from a cel-shaded Zelda, I realized that Nintendo could never go wrong with their design choices. But seriously, I did feel that they would put enough effort into any Zelda title to warrant my immediate purchase of the system.

So I got in line and waited. My friends and I had plenty of homework to bring along for the night, yet three of us held strong and finished everything in the process. Even though we waited for the Wii in a small town called Grinnell, with seven hours or so before the launch, all 15 copies had been spoken for. Our store would not even give out numbers until midnight, so everyone was forced to play by the honor system.

During the wait, we all talked ourselves silly for Twilight Princess while playing Metroid’s local multiplayer on the DS. What a time consumer! Even though there was not much in the way of multiplayer content, I can assure you that we exhausted its value and lost track of time in the process. Switching off with friends who did not own a DS and wanted to have a go at taking down the experienced bounty hunters, it became a decent way of escaping our real world problem: just give us the system already.

People in tents erected mini-shrines of Nintendo during the wait. They were crazy from the cold. It happens to the best of us. It happened to all of us. We became lightheaded and anxious laughter arose more frequently with each passing minute. The most excruciating wait of our lives, mostly due to the fact that we have never had to wait for anything and everyone has always handed us everything that we have ever wanted immediately. (First world problems, am I right?) We lost battery power on our portables and did not have enough games to play anyway. We were stuck talking to each other, face to face -- a rare sight for gamers.

Finally, we were unleashed into the store at ten to midnight. As we entered, each of the first fifteen people received a number -- our reservations for the Wii. Three unlucky stragglers came a little too late, although at midnight our sense of pity was completely drained. We buckled toward the gaming section of the store. There were no games; the salesman had expertly placed the hardware and software on the counters, ready for checkout. They had thought of us after all.

Twilight Princess and Rayman Ravin’ Rabbids were eminently worth the price of waiting for hours. Both of these titles ended up making me feel like one of the first witnesses to some sort of revolution. Motion gaming had arrived to pick us up off the couch, and I could dance with furry bunnies or stab Gorons in their throats in a much more interactive way. 

Sure, most of the launch titles were devoid of many features that we had hoped for. Some, like Elebits, left something to be desired from the start of the revolution. We wanted it all at once, and thought that we were going to get it. Even though it left plenty to be desired, I would not have it any other way. If we received everything that we had wanted for the launch of the Wii, what else would there be to hope for in the world of gaming?