Last friday as most of you have heard, the Nintendo Wii was released in Europe.
The event was a big success apparently since every major gaming news site is reporting Wii selling like hot pancakes (if you like pancakes, mmmhmm!) everywhere.
Around here things have been crazy as well, despite few efforts in advertising (read: none), the Wii is soldout in every store I visited this weekend.
I’ve only managed to spot a few copy’s of Excite Truck going around (I’m guessing it’s the least wanted game right now) and Zelda seems to be the big hit this launch. Wii Play is nowhere to be seen too.

Some stores told me they will have a few units by friday but most are pre-ordered so no luck for a few people.
I’ve managed to catch a friend of mine with a new console so I’ve decided to help him unwrap the Wii and get a few first impressions.
The console is small, sleak and beautiful, it looks something from the likes of an Apple product, the attention given to the packaging is superb. The console is also well thought, most entries are tucked away (like the 4 controller ports for the Gamecube) and the design is flawless, you can put your console on a vertical or horizontal stand.
Configuring everything took just a few minutes, the wireless setup was also simple, connecting to a secure network was fast so we downloaded one of the updates for the console which enabled SD card support for saving and reading stuff like pictures, videos and game saves.
Wii Connect 24 looks pretty lonely right now, there’s not much to do and only the Shopping Channel was available (and each page took AGES to load).
We’ve bought Super Mario 64 and Sonic, there are a bunch of other classic games available for download but some of them are somewhat questionable and there’s no option to download a demo first. I’ve also miss an online version of these, why can’t I play FZero or Bomberman with my friends over the net? That would bring more value to these games.
Having tried Wii Sports I’ve felt gameplay is really good on the mini-games, they’re fun to play and guaranteed to give you a laugh with a friend or too, although finding additional wii remotes is nearly impossible. Controls are responsive and accurate as long as you position the Wii sensor bar correctly.
Meanwhile it seems like other people are enjoying the Wii as well. So, did you manage to get a Wii this friday? Or are you waiting a bit longer to see how it fares?

[update]

Look! Even Dr. Phil is playing the Wii and he’s loving it!