As parents, my wife and I want to keep our son and ourselves active as much as we can. Florida temperatures allow us to play outside for most of the year. However, Florida also has rain all year long, so we often must stay inside and entertain ourselves in other ways. We can keep ourselves busy and get some good exercise by playing one of the latest video game consoles available. Because the Nintendo Wii lets us have fun and exercise as we stay inside on those rainy days, it quickly became our favorite game console that we have ever played.
Sports games
When we bought our Wii, the console came with the famous Wii Sports game disc. Wii Sports revolutionized the way we play the games. We do not have only to push buttons and move joysticks. The wireless controller lets us get off the couch and actually perform the actions of swinging the baseball bat, golf club, and tennis racket. Playing the tennis game requires running back and forth to reach the ball much like the real game does. The bowling game requires the stepping and throwing action including spinning the ball to make it curve. The boxing game gives a great workout as it requires full punching, jabbing, footwork, and ducking action with a lot of necessary movement.
The latest version, Wii Sports Resort, includes more golf and adds basketball, skiing, sword play, and other live action games that let the users move in ways similar to the real sports. We love that we get to exercise while playing these games, and we really will compete against each other. We also have The Bigs, an extreme version of Major League Baseball. My son and I fight to scores of 45-44.
Wii Fit
During our summer and Christmas vacations, my wife and I will play the Wii Fit exercise games. These games test and improve our balance and fitness as we exercise in fun ways. We enjoy the step aerobics and the ball drop balancing game the most. I also recently started the yoga training to improve leg strength.
Wii Fit helps us keep track of our weight and lets us set short-term goals for losing and maintaining weight levels. No other system that we have tried has these features. Some may, but we have not tried them yet.
Mario Series
Our son absolutely loves the Mario series games. He plays the Mario Sports Mix and Supersmash Brothers Melee the most. He and I will challenge each other in Mario Super Sluggers Baseball and Mario Tennis. Again, we can perform many of the motions needed in playing these games. My wife and I love the Mario Party games, and Mario Party 8 for Wii has some terrific scenery and graphics that rival those of any game system.
Mii characters
Finally, we enjoy making our own characters to look like us and our family and friends. We can create them and then use them in many of the games, especially the Wii Sports series and a few of the Mario games. My son has entered contests that have him create Mii characters that fit certain descriptions and submit entries through the Wi-Fi connection. He won the Benjamin Franklin contest against people of all ages from all over the world.
We have played a number of video game systems from the time they first began in the 80s. So far, the Nintendo Wii has suited us the best and continues as our favorite system of all time.
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