I've got Wii on my hands!

Seriously, did Nintendo not realize the outflow of naming their unit a "Wii" would be the stick to beat for bloggers everywhere?

(OK, that line is comedy gold, kids.)

Anyway, regular reader and new Xbox 360 convert Headcrab brought his Nintendo Wii into the office this week, and with 3 extra remotes (yeah, he's an addict, too), we had a four-way Wii-fest.

Tennis, that is. A la the Wii Sports pack-in title. There was also some boxing.

I gotta say, the Wii is a pretty compelling little console. Seeing it in person (and it's immensely portable), made me realize it's small, slick, easy to set up, the avatar function is really cool (I jope a ton of games and chatting utilize it), and the sensor bar is much smaller than I thought it would be.

It still won't work with my projector set up, but I'm hearing some people are in my same boat, and working on workarounds. Should be a no brainer, since the motion sensing is relative (not absolute), and only has infrared LEDs (and sends no signal between the Wii and the bar). And, at least according to IGN.com:

If you'd rather not make due with a homemade solution, though, you won't have to wait long for something more official. Now that the cat is out of the bag, third party hardware makers will soon have what for many is the sensor bar equivalent of the holy grail: a wireless, battery-powered device that emits larger IR fields than Nintendo's bar.

The "larger IR fields" is important, because currently the range gets dodgy after 9 feet -- way to short of a distance. But Nintendo needs to step up and pack-in their own wireless sensor bar. I don't need to pay $250 for a secondary console, and not have 100% of it usable.

I'm not rushing out to get a Wii, but I've gone from mildly interested (and grateful for Nintendo's innovative boldness) to mildly considerate.

But that depends on the Wii-exclusive games in the next few months. Right now, Zelda is the only interesting title for me, with Wii Sports being a good diversion. And I need to see more traction on the Virtual Console front. And that classic controller needs to be wireless. I am so done with wires.

And Nintendo should be acknowledged for releasing a portable console that's so family accessible. One guy told me he took it while traveling for Thanksgiving, and had a "somewhat unsettling" boxing match with his mom. That'd be a poster video for the new console.

(Oh, and I'm not going to apologize for any Wii puns; they're all on Nintendo's head, as far as I'm concerned.)