Nintendo's Wii console is the next big thing in living room gaming. If you don't know what the Wii is, I suggest you get out of your cave.

It all started Saturday night when a friend and I went to camp out at the local Best Buy. The store was opening at 8AM. They were only getting 54 units. We figured getting there at midnight (8 hours early) would suffice.

When we arrived at Best Buy, there were already at least over 50 people camped out in tents, and some had been there for most of Saturday. Chances of getting a console in the morning had significantly decreased. But we decided to stick it out anyway, and set up our trusty lawn chairs. Lining up for geeky stuff like this wasn't anything new to me. I've waited outside for several MacWorld keynotes, though never for 8 hours.

The camp out itself was pretty bland. Apparently the very first guy in line had set up his chair and told the people behind him that he was leaving. He said that if his chair was moved he would spray everybody with bear mace. Tough guy. Nobody knew how long he was going for, but after about 3 hours, the people behind him got fed up and tossed his chair out into the parking lot. We never saw him come back, but the chair was later missing. Strange.

6 hours later, a huge amount of people showed up behind us. People were lining up even though we told them they had no chance. And then the Best Buy employees showed up.

They basically walked up to the line, and told everyone that customers who were behind the guy in front of me (yes this was painful) were guaranteed to not get a unit. We told him we'd already been around to everyone in line to get a good count of the number of units. And if someone had cut in line, that'd be bullshit. The employee did not seem to care much and told us that he goes by what he sees. They were about to hand out tickets.

After another painful hour of people boasting about their tickets, the Best Buy guys were finally coming to our small little group of people. We asked how many tickets he had left, because honestly we were all pretty worried. He said five. Amazingly, we cheered. There were just five of us and it worked out perfectly for everyone.

Finally, around 8:30, I got the Wii. With extra controller and Zelda in hand, I was stoked to simply get home and try it out.

Here are my thoughts on the original games so far:

Wii Sports
Bundled with the Wii. Although more of a tech demo than a full featured game, it is still very fun and gets you introduced to the intuitiveness of the Wii. With Tennis, Baseball, Bowling, Golf, and Boxing modes, there are sports for everyone. Nintendo did a great job making this game very friendly and easy to understand. There are few situations in which you need to actually press buttons on the controller.

Red Steel
I didn't initially get Red Steel, due to mixed reviews and not being sure if it was going to be a good game or not. But I picked it up today at EB and I'm not disappointed one bit. Although the main menu UI is a disaster, the game itself is really fun. The graphics are great, and gameplay is always action-packed. Swordplay works out better than you'd imagine, even though its not technically "real time". Those with a guilty pleasure for Asian gangster flicks will love this one.

The Legend of Zelda: Twilight Princess
Ah, the biggest game of the year. With near perfect reviews on nearly every game site, some wondered if the new game would live up to its expectations.

As a Zelda fan, I can safely say that Twilight Princess is way beyond my expectations after 6 hours of playing. The amount of detail and polish is simply amazing for a game this size. This game also brings a number of new Zelda innovations, as well as classic Zelda gameplay. Many areas from past Zelda games return. The music is great too, as usual. It simply all adds up to an unmatched game experience. I can't wait to play more.

That's about it. The Wii is definitely going to deprive me of a week or two of productivity. Here is my Wii code if you want to add me. Post your code in the comments if you want to.