It sure seems like some of you had to brave through for a Nintendo Wii. I woke up at 5AM, got ready, and then walked to the nearest running bus route. Once I got near a BestBuy and when I saw the line up I was like "ok, this ain't gonna be the one". Took that same bus route going south to a Walmart, saw the line and thought this might be it. It was. Just had to wait until 9AM (or was it 8AM... ah who knows) until it opened. Got a bunch of games, and a variety of controllers, the system, and zipped right back to the comfort of my home.
Farewell to the Wii: Memories of the Launch
The PixlBit staff shares their Wii launch day memories.
I had been missing out on all of the launch day craziness for generations. When “launch day” became an actual thing – when companies had a specific announced date that new hardware would be available – I was ensconced in PC gaming or college courses and spending hours out in the cold was the farthest thing from my mind. Buying a GameCube on launch day was far from eventful as I just strolled into Best Buy and took one from the pile hours after they had opened. The Wii was going to be different, though -- I could tell. Something about this tiny white box and its wacky controllers made me pretty excited to get one and I figured others might be feeling the same way – despite what internet forums were saying. Regardless, there was a new Zelda game to be had and so I crafted a plan to wait in line at my local Target and hope for the best.
In the midst of surprisingly cold weather for North Texas in November, I headed up to the store at 4:00 a.m. (five hours before they were set to open) and got worried when I saw that the line was already pretty healthy. I was actually able to get in line in a pretty good spot, about two-thirds through the store’s allotment of Wiis. I took my place in the queue and sat on the cold cement next to some guy. I figured that going to an event like this I would get serendipitously placed next to the usual type of person I stand in line next to – a real freakshow. Turns out, this guy was pretty normal and we had probably the best five-hour conversation between strangers you could hope for.
We talked Dragon Quest, careers, Odama, family, MacBooks, and who knows what else anymore. This was one of the very few normal conversations that also involved video games I had probably had in ten years. This was pretty significant to me at the time – spending time away from my family to do something pretty silly had left me feeling a little guilty, but I was encouraged by my line-partner conversation. This guy had a couple of kids who were older than mine and they had been delving deep into the Dragon Quest backlog together among other things. Perhaps investing a bit more time and money into video gaming wasn’t as ridiculous as I had started to think it was after having a kid.
These feelings were reinforced when I did make it home with our family’s Wii and knew that even at three, my son would be able to swing a remote around and play tennis with dad. It worked out even better than I could have imagined. After spending the morning making Miis on the “Batendo,” we played several games of bowling and tennis before most of the world even knew what a Wii was. We spent so much time as a family with our new Wii that I had no feelings of selfishness as I powered the Wii back on after bedtime and finally got to try the newest Zelda game.
And so it went for months as I would be happy to play Wii Sports, Cars, and other child-appropriate stuff during the day and then transition to T-rated Twilight Princess at night. Sure, those nighttime sessions made a mockery of the whole motion control concept as I would lay completely inert on the couch, arms at my sides thanks to the nunchuck/remote connection enabling exceptionally lazy behavior, but I was in 24-hour videogame heaven. Those first few weeks set the pattern that would generally hold for the Wii in my house for its entire lifespan: fun family experiences by day and adventures through darkened dungeons by night.
I have nothing but gratitude for the good times the Wii brought to our house even if its use dwindled significantly over the years. I’m also glad that I headed out early that launch morning to get one since it became even harder to come by in the following months and years. If I hadn’t made the somewhat foolish decision to get in that chilly morning line, my family would have missed out on hours and hours of memorable moments with our Batendo Wii.
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