I'm picking the best way. My brother-in-law is going to camp at one store, I'm camping the other, and my sister is going to drive as a go-between giving us snacks and sweets while we wait. :D

Haha, some New Zealand news show 'Nightline' did a segment on Wii, getting three people to play it, a kid, some late 20's guy and a 78 year old woman who'd never played a video game before. You'd think they'd get her to play something simple like Wii Sports but nup, Zelda. None of them really seemed that excited about the system in the end. =)

Linky

Also more erotic cake shop;

http://img165.imageshack.us/img165/4...orinpajgf1.jpg
Kororinpa

http://img155.imageshack.us/img155/6...onesiajto5.jpg

http://img180.imageshack.us/img180/9...ovebashyg1.jpg
BAM box art just continues to smell like poo.

Haha, the old lady seemed most excited about it by the end. The 6 year-old was totally ripped off though. Everyone else gets to go hack and slash Stalfos while he just sits there fishing? Poor kid.

He probably has a 24 hour Wal-Mart.

Honestly, I might program Wal-Mart into my phone and call them the night of the release, and drive there if they have it.

BTW, I live in Florida, so I won't be that cold if I camp out. In fact, unless the weather gets much worse in the next week, it won't be cold much at all.

Miles told me about this but if any of you are here you should defitely tune in to this. Right now gamespot is demoing off the Wii live. It's awesome b/c they're showing themselves play as well as gameplay.

http://www.gamespot.com/pages/featur...spot/index.php

Has anyone seen the Wii startup logo thingy?

I've yet to see it, unless the recent walkthrough that Matt did on IGN is it (which indicates there is none).

Just watched the first quarter of Gamespot aquiring a Wii and playing it, I'm up to the part where they're trying Super Monkey Ball's different multiplayer options.

I can't see myself using the Mii very much, because I probably won't be all that interested in Wii Sports in general. But yeah, I'm going to continue to watch until they get up to Twilight Princess, which is last like they said.

Though I haven't seen it, I read that the Zelda portion of the Gamespot video is too embarassing to watch. They take nearly an hour just on the first tutorial mini-quest, and they refer to Link as "Zelda". What the hell, that's a mistake you make when you're 7, not as a gaming "professional".

Also, I'm actually a bit more worried about the Wii being faulty out of the box over PS3. One of their remotes broke as soon as they started using it. :(

This Zelda segment is pretty slow. The graphics look great on the other hand, but they aren't really doing anything.

In fact, all they're doing is getting Link to do different chores around the town. I haven't seen any real story yet.

You can already tell that they were thrown into the village part of zelda too and given 5 minutes to wander aimlessly.

I must have missed this. There was a Wii at the Armageddon Expo in Auckland (which is basically a mini-E3 for consoles, music, gadgets and stuff.) where you could play different games.

I went there in 2002 (or 03, I can't remember) when the Gamecube was being released. There was an entire room called "The Cube Room" with SSBM and Gamecubes comin' up the hell right now. Of course I didn't get a turn, because nobody was sharing.

I don't think I'll get a Wii on December 7th. After watching the Gamespot Wii parade, it looks fun, but there just isn't enough launch titles to keep me satisfied. The true test of the console will be the games released in '07.

Eh, I wouldn't worry about it being faulty. Did you see the way they brought the extra wiimotes in? For all we know those were the demo motes or something. They even made a comment about stepping on the ones in the back. So it does not seem like they took very good care of the wii-motes. The one that came with the Wii and the one we saw opened on screen worked fine.

Why would they receive demonstration Wii remotes and mix them up with retail ones? Or, for that matter, why would there be demonstration Wii remotes so close to the launch? They switched players often so I doubt they were.

This just strengthens my point of waiting and not rushing in at launch.

This is from IGN's hands on with Excite Truck...

"Excite Truck is the first Nintendo Wii game to support custom soundtracks. If you stick an SD card filled with MP3s, you can pull up the list of songs by pressing the "plus" key on the Wii Remote. The list can be 100 songs big; any more and the list will be cut off at a hundred. You can enable and disable the song tracks for the playlist."

..NICE! Now I have to go get a damn SD card! I was going to get star Fox DS to play while waiting in line..but looks like the 50 bucks will go to SD. You think it will use an IPOD the same way?(ala 360)

EDIT- Yeah Custom sounds has it's own news area on IGN...here is the article..

http://wii.ign.com/articles/745/745360p1.html

not to get off track now, but is there some external USB thingy for SD cards? it would make sense seeings how there's external everything.

What, to connect SD cards to your computer? Yes. Very yes.

Takahashi, excellent point! I didn't stop to think about it before you said something. If I got the card.. how the hell am I going to put anything on it? I don't have a SD port. Ah well I'll wait later this week i'm sure they will test the USB ports on the back of the Wii. Hopefully it supports an external Harddrive. I have one waiting..

I just got back from my local Gamestop, and managed to have some hands-on with the Wii.

The store apparently had a broken AC, evidiced by the circling fans and MASSIVE FREAKING HEAT. Still, I was determined to try out the Wii. Sure enough, there was a kiosk near the entrance, to the right of a Gamecube kiosk. Funny enough, no one was playing it, or paying any real attention to it. Perhaps they weren't aware that the clerk has to hand you the remote. I turned in my keys and was handed the remote.

The first thing I was curious about ever since I saw pics was how big the actuall remote was, especially when held by my giant gorilla hands. I had an idea, but it turns out it was much smaller than I had anticipated.

(following pics were taken on my motorolla razr. crappy quality ahead. no, my arm isn't that brown)

http://i79.photobucket.com/albums/j1...11-06_1627.jpg

It's pretty small; I could fit the whole thing between my middle finger and thumb. The material is about the same as previous Nintendo controllers, although the battery lid on the back might get a bit annoying after extended plays.

As with other kiosks, Excitetruck was on display. I first asked if there were other choices available (Wii Sports, Zelda), but no go. It took me a couple of minutes to figure out the button placement ("Why isn't it responding? Oh wait, that's a '2', not a 'Z'). Having read previous reports, I held the remote correctly while controlling the trucks. The truck controls well enough, steering left and right as you turn the remote, but it wasn't quite precise enough for me. I tried adjusting with different tactics, but I could only improve things a little. I physically moved my shoulders left to right, which helped a little, but I actually found the controls a bit better when steering with just one hand (balancing the remote with my hand in the middle).

Basically, I did the best I could, but it wasn't anything special. I tried the 3 different modes; the first one required me to go through rings in a set time, but I always ran out of time after the 2nd or 3rd ring. The next mode had me try to collect symbols in the air, but no matter how steady I kept the truck, I always ended up under the symbol. The third mode was the best, where I had to search for other trucks and crash into them.

Visually, the draw distance was very nice, along with the terrain, but ultimately the claims of "Gamecube 1.5" hold true. In the end, while I know people like Infernal are real excited for this game, I'd rather wait until they make a racer with more precise wiimote controls.

I had more fun messing around with the Wii Menu.

http://i79.photobucket.com/albums/j1...11-06_1629.jpg

I liked how the remote gave a small rumble with every movement I made. While navigating the icons isn't as precise as pointing your finger, it wasn't hard to keep the laser steady while I made my choices. The photo browser, weather channel and other features required an online connection, which of course wasn't available yet, so I messed around with the Mii channel, creating a character close to my likeness.

http://i79.photobucket.com/albums/j1...11-06_1648.jpg

The end result was a bit too emo looking though. There was also a "Mii Parade" option, but I wasn't sure what that did. One feature I thought was cool though was a message that tells you how much time you put into your games each day.

So in the end, Excitetruck didn't wow me, but using the remote itself was fun, and I hope developers make full use of its potential. On a whim I asked if it was too late to reserve the system, and I was given a yes. It's tempting to nab it on launch, but I think it's best if I put it off until Christmas or shortly after.

On the time per day thing, there was an article (can't find it now) about Xfire considering adding support for Wii games.

Might be a signal.

I'm really getting excited. I just got my 4gb sd card today and I have a space ready in my room right next to my CD-i and my PS2. All I have to do now is wait until next Sunday.

By the way, does anyone know if there's going to be a midnight release on Saturday next weekend. Hopefully this is the case b/c I have to work on Sunday and by the time I get out the mall will be closed. So, will there be a midnight release?

Ask the store that you're purchasing it at. My EB claims that they haven't heard from Mall Security about whether or not they'll be allowed to do it.

http://www.tv3.co.nz/ShowsAZ/Newsand...7/Default.aspx

Nightline Wii clip.

So what's everyone's virtual console wish list?

For me, these are the essentials:

SNES: Chrono Trigger, Illusion of Gaia, Megaman (just about any of them (Although i know this won't happen cause of the aniversary collection)

N64: Castlevania (Legacy of Darkness), Army Men: Sarge's Heros, Army Men: Air Assault (I think that's what it was called), Donkey Kong 64, Starcraft 64.

Those are the games that i remember most vividly from my younger days. I could live without any of those, with the exception of Illusion and Chrono Trigger. I absolutley need those games to be on there. It'd be awesome if the early Final Fantasy games could make an apperance too, but i'm sure that's just wishful thinking.

Wow, I'm surprised they did the test with the old lady with Zelda of all games. And what's great is that she didn't do too badly and she really enjoyed herself. Good for her. =)

I was surprised too. It seems that it doesn't take much to actually register any motion. That's pretty good, especially from a person who has never touched a console ever. Nintendo's achieved it's target audience.