Grab Bag

Photo-A-Day #681 02/18/07

Today Allison and I were still up in New Hampshire. We got to sleep a little late and then we played some Nintendo Wii and had breakfast. We are really enjoying playing the Wii. Allison is fiercely competitive and gets mad at me because I pick up on these games very quickly. That is because I spent years in front of my Nintendo playing game after game. Now we can download many of those old games and play them on the Wii’s virtual console. Pretty sweet, except those games are now worth the equivalent of $5.00 and I remember paying $40 or $50 for them back when they came out. And a quick search of eBay tells me that they are now worth practically nothing. But I am saving them for some reason, a reason I do not know. I will probably use them to punish my kids when they complain and want something expensive or something or if they have been naughty.

Me: “Here see how tough Dad had it!”

Son: “But it doesn’t work”

Me: “You have to blow in it first and then jiggle the cartridge around.

Son: “Why are they so boxy”

Me: “Those are pixels son, pixels in my day were much larger.”

Son: “This sucks!”

Me: “Well you are going to have to play this till you can learn not to pull your sister’s hair. And you get another week for saying ‘sucks’.”

So I guess I will hang onto that system for now. And the black and white TV I used to play it on… MWAHHHAHHAHHAHH!

Later on in the day we went over to Kohls to pick up a few things and then we went to Bed Bath and Beyond to pick up some things for the quest bathroom. We are going to go with a beach theme in that room. We got some very nice accent pieces. Then as we were checking out Marcia gave us a 20% off one item coupon for Linen’s and Things. Did you know that Bed Bath and Beyond honors the Linen’s and Things coupons and they even take them when they have expired. Good tip to know. Well as we were heading to the car Marcia wanted to know how much we saved, we told her $7.00 and she was puzzled. Wasn’t it 20% off the whole purchase? No we said it was 20% of one item. Marcia had a 20% off the entire purchase coupon so when we got home I headed back to Bed Bath and Beyond to use the right coupon. I thought it would be a hassle but they were great about it and we saved an additional $26.00 so the ride back was worth it.

We had Alley Cat pizza for dinner and that was a treat. Alley cat makes the biggest slices of pizza ever. I’m always glad when we get pizza from there.

The photo today is of Bonnie. She was sitting in the sink when I went to use the bathroom, I quickly got out and grabbed my camera to capture her resting space.

I played some of the practice games for Nintendo Wii Sports and they were great. I love the boxing ones where you have to knock off the bags then doge the balls and then hit the right mitts. I did pretty well. Allison sent me a story a while back about a guy who does Wii boxing 30 minutes a day and lost 8 pounds. That is pretty cool. I can see how extended play when you are really getting physical with the games can give you a workout. I will have to start the Wii Workout. I need to find more games that use the Wiimotes in a very physical way.

Review, Video Game

Wii Play: Game Review

Wii Play is a great value because it comes with 9 games and a free Wii Remote. The Wii Remote is $39.99 and Wii Play is a $49.99 game that comes with a Wii Remote. So getting a game and Wii Remote together was a good deal. This is a two player game where the contestants play 9 mini games. You have Shooting Range, Table Tennis, Fishing, Pose Mii, Billiards, Charge, Find Mii, Laser Hockey and Tanks.

Shooting Range: Fans of the original NES probably had the light gun and Duck Hunt, well shooting range gives a nod to Duck Hunt. Shooting Range brings the player through many stages of targets. I won’t ruin anything but the final stage is hilarious.

Table Tennis: Your basic Ping Pong game where you can also smash the ball back to the opponent if it is lobbed to you. You switch sides during play so each player gets to experience each side.

Pose Mii: With the Wii Remote you must turn your Mii left or right or upside down and place them in bubbles that match the position and the pose. You chance poses (3 of them) by pressing the A or B buttons. You can also freeze your opponent so they cannot get any bubbles for a few seconds.

Fishing: You use the Wii Remote to snag fish in a pond, sometimes there are bonus fish and sometimes you snag the small fry and lose points. My least favorite game here.

Laser Hockey: Like air hockey but faster and with more colors.

Find Mii: You have to use your memory and be quick. You must pick out a specific Miis from a group, your custom made Miis show up as well.

Charge: You saddle up and ride a cow and try to knock over scarecrows. This makes use of the Wii Remote in many ways, by titling it forward the cow leaps ahead and speeds down the track. If you pick the Wii Remote up the cow jumps. So you tear along the tracks and have great fun chasing down scarecrows while racing your friend.

Tanks: You move little tanks around the board and fire at other enemy tanks. You work together to complete the levels but the winner is the one who destroys the most tanks.

Billiards: You play nine ball and the action is pretty good. You use the Wii Remote like a pool cue and the actions are pretty intuitive.

Well, those are the 9 games of Wii Play. They are very good and it is fun to play a round of each game with two players and keep score as to how many games each person has won. I would have liked to have seen more players be able to play these games however. Two is just not enough people for a Wii party.

One Family's Adventures in the World