PixlBit

The PixlBit staff shares their Wii launch day memories.

Jon Lewis:

Of all of the console launches that I have been aware of, the Wii’s was by far the most memorable for me. It may not beat out the sheer surprise that I had from receiving both my Nintendo 64 and Nintendo Gamecube, but everything that led up to the Wii’s launch made it all the more special once I finally was holding the console in my hands. It all started around E3 2005 when the Wii, or otherwise known as “Revolution” was first shown.

In late 2004, I was exposed to channels like Tech TV for the first time when my parents finally upgraded to IO digital cable. The following year was the first time I began watching events like E3 on television. I had read about the event previously, but never had I seen the event broadcasted. This was the year of the unveiling of both the Playstation 3 and its boomerang controller and of course the Nintendo Revolution. At the time in my gaming history, I was a Nintendo loyalist. My parents were the type to limit my gaming to one console so I had to make a choice early on. Things like Pokemon cemented my affinity for Nintendo, so it was a no-brainer as I was growing up.

When I saw the Nintendo “Revolution” for the first time I was amazed. I was under the impression (due to comments made by Reggie and Nintendo) that it was about the same power as an Xbox 360 but still retained its small, sleek look. That impressed me easily, and I was on board. Making matters more interesting was the fact that Nintendo still hadn’t revealed its next controller which was building up a considerable amount of intrigue. Many speculated that the success of the DS would lead Nintendo to intergrate a touch screen into the controller, and copious amounts of mock-ups and fakes hit the internet. It was fun to speculate, but even more fun(ny) once we found out the truth behind Nintendo’s plans.

I clearly remember sitting on the computer with a friend of mine the day Nintendo revealed that the “Revolution” was to be known as the Nintendo Wii. When I first saw that, I burst into tears of laughter with my buddy. At first we literally thought it was pronounced like “why” but ended up learning it was “WE” but still, it made no difference. We thought it was a bad joke, and it was silly but even more surprising was the controller. It looked pretty cool to me, but I had no idea how traditional games would work on the system. With details scarce, I eagerly waited to find out just what Nintendo was up to with this unusual controller and name.

As the weeks and months of coverage continued, I learned that motion control was the central theme for Nintendo’s newest console. E3 2006 followed and games like Red Steel and The Legend of Zelda: Twilight Princess sold me on the premise of motion controlled gaming. I remember being enthralled with the Zelda demo in particular. It seemed awesome to be able to use motion to swing a sword, or a pointer to shoot a bow. On top of that, the graphics looked great and Reggie was clinging to comments like “If you put a Wii game and an Xbox 360 game on the same kind of television, you will barely see a difference,” so I was optimistic about the power of the system. Soon after, they revealed the pricing and bundles and release date of November 19^th for the system. I began to save my money in hopes of getting one at launch.

Leading up to that day, I was obsessed. I constantly read over coverage of the system and its games, and drew pictures in my notebook in school. It was an exciting time. Close to launch, when stores started getting demo units, I made it an event and met up with a friend of mine to try out the Wii and Excite Truck for the first time. I was so excited to the point where I wrote up my impressions in a notebook, as if someone else would be reading it. Eventually, it was almost time for the system to come out. Games like Zelda, Red Steel, Excite Truck, Marvel: Ultimate Alliance and Dragonball Z: Budokai Tenkaichi 2 were all on my radar. The only problem then was how I was actually going to obtain my system.

The day before the Wii launch, my Mom dragged my siblings and I out to Walmart to buy groceries and supplies. When we got there, I saw a few friends of mine waiting in front of the store. I spoke to them, and they said they had been camping out for about a day already, and wanted to be the first in line for a Wii. I thought it was cool, but I didn’t think too much of it. We went home and my Mom of all people, convinced me that I should go live a little and stay on line with my friends. After giving it some thought and realizing it would probably be a lot of fun, I brought a few DS games and a lawn chair, and began to camp out with my friends. It was the afternoon, and we were the only ones there for about three hours. They had a PSone set up and we played Power Stone for a good amount of time, but eventually I got too comfortable. I figured that we would be fine. I asked the Walmart employees how many Wii’s they would be getting and they told me 25 and seeing that there were only about seven of us there, and the fact that it was freezing, I went back home.

About an hour later, one of my buddies on the line gave me a call, saying the line was beginning to pick up. I rushed back out to the line, where about 10 people had got on while I was home.

The night was only beginning.

At this time it was about 11:30 pm and Walmart wasn’t opening until 8:00 am. It was even colder than before, but adrenaline kept us going. I didn’t get a wink of sleep that night, but those who were awake were friendly and made it a little bit more bearable. Those with laptops were watching archived anime, others who were with their parents brought donuts and hot chocolate. There was a huge sense of unity and excitement between us waiting in line. All of the speculation, and excitement for future titles like the next Metroid Prime and the next Super Smash Brothers made the excitement peak like no time before.

As the sun rose, people started to wake up, and more people started to form in line behind us. Those of us who were there over the long wait overnight cleaned up our mess and put out the fires we made to keep warm. Between about 6:00 and 7:00 a.m., there was a dramatic increase of people waiting on line for a Wii. The line, now boasting about 100 people was becoming pretty hectic. People were worried about getting systems, and some kind people on line were even selling their spots in line to others who seemed like they needed it more. It was crazy.

8:00 am hit, and when we thought Walmart was going to open, irony struck. One of my friends thought it was a good idea to throw out embers into a dumpster full of cardboard boxes. This started a mini fire, which delayed the opening of the store by at least an hour, and I must say that hour wait was excruciating. After that was finally under control, Walmart opened. A half an hour later, I walk out with my brand new Nintendo Wii, but it still wasn’t over. I had Zelda preordered at Gamestop so I rushed over to pick up my copy and afterwards headed home. I carefully set up the system, and spent  a bit of time with Wii Sports. After spending some time with that, I popped in the long-awaited Zelda, which was extremely satisfying. I played an hour, but then finally succumbed to having been awake longer than I had ever been.

In retrospect, I have only fond memories of the launch of the Wii. Sure, in the end, it was by far the least powerful console, and in many cases was disappointing. But I absolutely enjoyed the time I had with it. I’ve played some fantastic games on the system, and that’s all that matters to me. Ultimately, I feel like the experience was worth what I got.