I got some good news from my friends at Nintendo: There will be 50% more Wii units on the market this Christmas, so (hopefully!) shortages should be a thing of the past.
The company has been putting out so many creative, interesting, cool games I'm having a tough time keeping up with them all.
The Wii Fit remains a must-have for adults and kids alike who could use a little nudge when it comes to exercise. My whole family's taste in games runs from the riotous Mario Kart for the Wii to the peaceful sea exploration of Endless Ocean.
I personally love playing with my Nintendo DS, because it's so portable. I enjoy it while I'm parked in the car waiting for school to get out, or when I'm sitting in the gym waiting for my daughter's workout to end, or when I'm sitting in the doctor's office, waiting for her pediatrician appointment. (Do you get the idea that I spend a lot of time waiting for my kid?)
The DS has games that the whole family will love, some of which are turning into gaming classics (like the two Brain Age titles and Cooking Mama). Some of the games make use of the DS's built-in wi-fi, so everyone with one of the handheld devices can play together.
But a lot of people don't know that Nintendo and its partners offer a full range of titles that are targeted to adults, too.
There's a whole series of Personal Coach games for self improvement: There's My Weight Loss Coach and Let's Yoga (which I will review in a future post on my new Weight Loss blog) ... You can also use the DS to study for the SAT (a game I will be reviewing over at the Career Kids blog.)
That brings us to Personal Trainer Cooking, which hits the stores November 24. It's a step by step cooking game that talks you through over 240 recipes from around the world.
Whereas Cooking Mama is made for entertainment, this allows you to make real food. It's a great way to pull your kids into it, because it's interactive and a lot of fun.
You search for recipes by country or keyword, and it shows you how long it takes to prep, how many calories there are per serving and how easy it is to make. My favorite part are the tips that tell you how to choose produce (I'm always questioning myself on that!); plus information on the dish itself and the utensils you will need.
If you're looking at different ingredients for the recipe and you don't have something, you can tap on the screen and it will pull up a shopping list of all the items you need - and you can take your DS right into the store.
Then you can set it down and it will TELL you what to do - kind of like watching a cooking show on TV.
There's a facility to add your own notes to make the recipe your own, and the program will save it. You can also check some recipes as favorites.
I love that there is an education component for cooking with your kids: A world map and cultural background of a country's foods.
Of course, there are lots of cool new games for the Wii. I got a preview of the new Wii version of one of my daughter's favorite DS games, Animal Crossing. The Wii version is subtitled "City Folk" and it's kind of a kid-appropriate SimCity: You create your very own village for your animal characters.
Your village displays in real time: it follows the calendar. You see that the leaves are starting to change because it's autumn and if you play at night, it will be dark. You can make money by collecting fruits and shells and fish. You can write letters to other townspeople in the village - or over the Internet to your friends with Wii (the capability for Internet interactivity is one of the coolest features of the Wii). You can have up to three other friends in time.
This game comes with the Wii Speak microphone that sits on top of the TV and picks up everyone in the room, which can come in handy for other kinds of communication with Wii-owning friends and family in other households.
This is a game that is played by one person at a time per console. But up to four family members can have their own saved character files.
But if you're looking for something the entire family can play at once, you'll LOVE Wii Music, which allows up to four people at the same time. This one is a fun, creative collaborative music experience.
It's different from a lot of the other music games on the market (like Rock Band and Guitar Hero) because it's not competitive. You're not mimicking a song back to get a high score. - it's more like playing an actual instrument (with the use of the Wii remote and nunchuk - and if you have a Wii Fit, you can use it for adding rhythm!)
But it does take a little skill to get it to sound good - which is the ultimate goal here.
I like it for kids because there is an educational component to it, as the game gives you a history of the piece of music you're playing. You can have different parts or you can play with up to four people.
When you first put it in and play it walks you through a demo. You can create a video and rate it and create a virtual jacket for it. And if you have friends in other locations who have Wii music, you can send them your video - or they can add to it and send it back to you.
I think it will be especially fun in a party setting. In fact, I think I'll get one for my sister, so we can all play it together when we visit over Thanksgiving weekend.
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