Wiiiiiik

Through a series of flips, stealthy rolls and business cards tossed like shuriken, I made it inside Nintendo's inner sanctum, bypassing the wall of wonder entirely.

Ironically, that was the best part. While the Wii was certainly wiierd, it didn't provide the instant gratification and enjoyment I was hoping for. In that regard, its function fits its titular change; it's not a revolution, but rather a confusing and quirky scheme that isn't particularly fun or liberating in the first five minutes of play.

The first game I saw was Madden 07. I hiked the ball by pulling back on the remote, which I kept cocked. From there, I moved in the pocket with the analog stick on the "Nunchuk" (the weird little thing that doesn't look like a remote), while selecting a receiver with the D-pad on the remote. Once he was open, I cast the remote forward, as though fishing, and my quarterback threw the ball. From there, I could have allegedly juked by twitching the Nunchuk, but I never got that working.

This was easily the best use of the Wii technology (technolowii?) I saw. It was easy to execute, hard to screw up, and just made sense.

The Legend of Zelda: Twilight Princess was just the opposite. Some of the moves required weird stirring motions, and others (shooting arrows and throwing boomerangs) relied on button presses when they seemed like obvious candidates for some kinetic action. Using the bow and arrows was especially awkward, because everytime I pressed the fire button I would also press down on the controller itself somewhat, throwing off my aim.

With some practice, I'm sure today's awkwardness could become tomorrow's second nature, but until then Wii will have to wait.