Here Wii Go Again

I will admit to not being a massive gamer, but I have messed around with various platforms over the years. My family had a basic console that played variations on Pong before consoles became a big thing. I had a BBC Micro that I played various games on as well as learning programming. Then it was some years before I had several variants of Amiga before my first PC. I did not have another console until about 2007. That was around when the Nintendo Wii came out. At the time they were really hard to get hold of, but I won ours in a silent charity auction at work in time to surprise the kids at Christmas.

We had a lot of fun with it. It was a revolution in gaming as you could to a lot without pressing buttons just by waving the controller around. That was great for young kids. We amassed a fair few games and would play them together.

For some years now the Wii has been dormant. Our daughter lives elsewhere and our son has more modern devices like a PS5 and Switch. I recently got it out and set it up. Luckily it can still work with our modern TV that does not have SCART sockets. It can sit behind the TV as you only need to get at it to swap discs.

I was motivated by wanting to mix up my exercise routine. Like many others we bought Wii Fit that added the balance board. Someone had suggested that I try some yoga to develop some different muscles and it has various exercises around that.

I had to buy some more batteries and soon had it working. Apparently it has been about 11 years since I last did a workout. Somewhere it says I am on my 1999th day and I wonder if that is some limit in the system.

It seems I do need to work on my balance as I did not do so well on some tests. I am getting on a bit, but am reasonably fit thanks to my running. I just find I get some muscles issues that may be helped by more stretching and balancing. I was trying some of the other activities on there that include skiing, football (headers) and puzzle games. I am nowhere near some of my old scores, but that may improve with practice.

As with any exercise I need to make it a habit that fits around other activities, but it is fun. Hearing some of the old audio prompts ("step on me!....Ouch!") made me smile.

I actually have a Sony PS2 as well. That is mainly used for playing DVDs on our second TV. I am working through Game on Thrones with that.

I cannot see myself getting into hours of gaming every night, but I may revisit some of the old favourites. Modern consoles are much more powerful, but once they could provide an immersive 3d world it was good enough for a lot of games.

What are you playing?