[andrew markworthy]

I've just changed mobile phone and have got a 'free' gift of a Wii (before anyone asks for the name of the store, I live in the UK; and if you live in the UK - Carphone Warehouse online store and they're selling fast).

The Wii will be a nice extra present for the kids (aged 12 and 14) for Christmas. Now, here's the question. I understand that for some Wii games you have to stand up and move around. Question - how much moving of the feet do you have to do?

The reason for this rather odd question is that we live in a townhouse and whilst noise going horizontally usually isn't a problem, noise going vertically can be quite bad, so someone constantly moving/jumping will drive anyone in a room below nuts (and ironically the one place we can't have the Wii is the ground floor). And as luck would have it, the kids' bedrooms are on the third floor...


Any advice greatly appreciated.

Also, any games you'd recommend? I'd prefer games that play to the Wii's distinctive features. To give you an idea of our tastes, our all-time family favourites are:

Abe's Odyssey and Exxodus
Sonic the Hedgehog (in all his many incarnations)
Castlevania

Nobody in the family likes war games, and nobody is particularly keen on racing games. I'd personally quite like to try a golf game.

And while I'm being really cheeky and asking for things ... I imagine that the Wii we get will simply be the console and a single controller. What are the 'must have' extras? I'm assuming at least a second controller for 2 player games, but what sort of controllers? I see 'nunchuck' (or something) mentioned on ebay. What sort of thing do I need to get please? And will cheaper stuff off ebay be okay or is it a case of buy the official produce or regret it?

Any information gratefully received.

[Rhoq]

How much moving around you do, really depends on you. You don't have to get-up and move around (unless it's something like DDR or the upcoming WiiFit), but with some games, moving around does help to make the experience much more immersive.

The Wii comes with WiiSports - a collection of sports titles (baseball, bowling, boxing, golf and tennis) intuitive and simple enough that just about anyone from any age group can pick-up and play. Also included is the Wii remote and a Nunchuck (which is an analog stick attachment). you will want to at least purchase an additional Wii-Mote and Nunchuck. If you own a GameCube, the Wii is 100% backwards compatible will all GameCube games and the GameCube controller can be used for the Wii Virtual Console. If not, you will want to also buy a "Classic Controller" for the Virtual Console. Based on the list of games your family enjoys, it looks like you will absolutely love downloading the classics from the NES, SNES, N64, Genesis (Mega Drive), TurboGrafx-16 and coming very soon: NeoGeo & TurboCD.

HERE is a list of games currently available for download in Europe for the Wii Virtual Console.

[andrew markworthy]

Many thanks - that solves a lot of questions.

[Bob_L]

Hey Andrew:

How'd you like to move to Los Angeles and live over me? I wish my current neighbor had even a fraction of your concern about his kid making noise over my head.

However, IMO, when kids (or adults) start playing the Wii, they're going to have a physical experience, just out of the excitement of gameplay, so there is inevitably going to be some jumping up and down. But since it's in a townhouse, it's just over YOUR head, so I shouldn't think there will be any noise that won't be manageable, unless you get Dance Dance Revolution which WILL involve foot stomping.

For add-ons, definitely buy a second Wiimote controller AND a nunchuk, as Rhoq indicated.

[Michael_K_Sr]

When I first got my Wii, I got a helluva workout with Wii Sports. Sure you can play some of the games while sitting on a couch, but as has been previously mentioned, it's much more immersive playing tennis while standing up and moving from side to side.