define: Jared Barden

This past weekend we travelled to Sunbury, PA to visit some friends of ours. One of the highlights of the night was going to be everyone getting a chance to play the Wii - or so I thought.

Whenever we leave on these Friday trips, their is usually a sense of urgency to get things packed up and loaded as soon as possible, so we can get to wherever we’re going sooner rather than later. Why I don’t just pack things up on Thursday night instead is beyond me.
So I packed everything up, including the Wii, and we drove off. After we arrived, we spent some time chatting, and then went to set up the Wii. To my horror and embarassment, everything was there - the remotes, the sensor bar, the games, etc. - except for the power cord!

I felt so bad, since our friends’ kids were excited to play the Wii. If we hadn’t been so far away, I would have turned back around to get the cord.

In the end, we had a great time just visiting, watching some TV, and just generally hanging out. Plus, now we have an excuse to visit again sooner rather than later.

So, as the saying goes, “Don’t leave home with out it.”

To quote from The Incredibles, “there’s no school like the old school.” That’s especially true when it comes to video games.

I knew before I bought the Wii from my friend Dave that you would be able to download classic games from Nintendo for a small fee. This was one of the first things I looked into after we bought the Wii. I think it was actually the selling point for Danielle, because it allows her to play her favorite game of all time - Toe Jam and Earl (which, by the way, I think is incredibly boring, but that’s just me).

Right away I saw that I could download Super Mario Brothers from the original Nintendo Entertainment System. This game was released in 1985, which just amazes me. We have come so far in terms of video games in the last 22 years. It really boggles the mind sometimes.

But I digress. Saturday I was showing our friends’ son, Kurt, how to play this classic game. The highlight, of course, was when we finished the game. It brought back the feeling of being 7 or 8 again and experiencing the magic of playing the game. The way your heart skips a beat when you think you’re going to fall off a ledge, or the way you almost fall out of a chair when you throw your whole body into the game. When your biggest problem in life was getting a little pixelated character through a series of scrolling levels to save a princess.

The second highlight came in level 3-1, where you can earn unlimited free men by hopping repeatedly on one of the turtles coming down the steps at you. This was always a challenge for us when we were growing up. It took a couple of tries, but I got it soon enough.

It was just great to feel that same excitement I experienced as a kid again. It made all my “grown up” problems and life issues seem to disappear, if only for an afternoon.

I had been hoping to play the new Nintendo Wii ever since it was released in November. This weekend I finally got my chance, and the Wii did not disappoint.

My friend, Dave, had bought two Wiis when they first came out - one for a friend, and one to sell eventually. He brought the system over on Friday night for us to give it a try, and it was awesome.

Now the Wii will never match the processing power of the XBOX 360 or the Playstation 3, but Nintendo has never tried to market it that way. In fact it seems they have gone out of their way to make sure people know that is not the focus of the console. The focus is most definitely the revolutionary style of gameplay.

Within minutes of hooking the machine up, I was working on my forehand in tennis on Wii Sports (the free collection of games that comes with the Wii). Wii Sports is definitely addicting, and it was definitely a smart move on Nintendo’s part to include such a fun collection of games with the machine. We also spent time bowling, golfing, playing baseball and boxing.

I guess I should point out that with the Wii you actually swing the remote. It has an accelerometer and is motion sensitive. When you bowl, you actually making a bowling motion. When you golf, you do your best Tiger Woods impersonation and hope you hit that little ball straight down the fairway.

Boxing is probably the most vigorous game I’ve played so far. Some people will say that it’s not true to life, and it’s not completely, but you definitely get some exercise throwing jabs and hooks.

The selling point for Danielle was the fact that you can download games for older systems (NES, Super Nintendo, Nintendo 64, Sega Genesis, etc.). Her favorite game of all time - Toe Jam and Earl, was just recently added for download, so we purchased it last night and were playing it late into the night.

More fun Wii stories to come, I’m sure, and hopefully I’ll get some video up here.