My First Wii Challenge - feedback thread (open to non testers too - you could win 2 Wii games)

[AnnMumsnet]

This is the feedback thread for the MNers taking part in the "My First Wii Challenge" with Nintendo and Mumsnet. You may recall we asked for willing volunteers to try a Wii for 4 weeks and to add their feedback to a thread on Mumsnet. They've been adding lots of feedback already but this is now the 'official' feedback thread.

The families have been playing the following games: uDraw GameTablet with uDraw Studio, Pictionary and Spongbob, Mario Kart, and Kirby's Epic Yarn. They have also just got Wii Play Motion and Just Dance Jnrs.

We have some challenges and feedback questions for you - do let us know how you got on with set up of the Wii and also try the challenges and see what you think and let us know. Do state the ages and genders of your LO's when posting your reply.

General - please let us know how you got on with the following:

1. Getting the Wii set up for the first time

1. Connecting the Wii to the Internet (using wifi, if you could)

1. Creating a Wii Mii for each family member

1. Setting up iPlayer (if on wifi)

1. Adding additional Wii Remotes

Kirby's Epic Yarn - Challenges - let us know your overall views on the game as well as trying these challenges:

~ Create a beautifully furnished room as a family, using the soft furnishings picked up throughout the game

~ Mum and Dad (or another adult) play together (as Kirby and Prince Fluff) followed by the children - the pair with the best score wins

Just Dance Jnrs - Challenges - let us know your overall views on the game as well as trying these challenges:

~ Each family member to assign a dance to another member of the family. The family must then hold a dance off. The family member with the highest score wins

~ Family forms two teams of two. Each team must perform a perfectly synchronised routine and the other team must score them secretly. After each team has performed their routine the scores can be opened. Each family should decide on some things to award extra points for, such as enthusiasm, the best faces pulled while dancing etc.

~ Each family member teaches a routine to a non-family member. Points don?t matter here - it's the taking part that counts!

Mario Kart - Challenges - let us know your overall views on the game as well as trying these challenges:

~ An adult (eg Dad, Grandma) and and child race 3 times and record the best of 3

~ Race a match blindfold: families divide into pairs, and one must race blindfold while the other directs them

Wii Play Motion - Challenges - let us know your overall views on the game as well as trying these challenges:

~ Crown each member of the family king or queen of one mini game. The challenge is to find one game that each family member excels at

~ One sibling teaches the other how to play a new mini-game (if possible)

uDraw - Challenges - let us know your overall views on the game as well as trying these challenges:

~ Create a drawing of a designated family member in under one minute

~ Create a drawing made entirely from the stamps provided in uDraw Studio

~ Play Pictionary in teams - adults vs children, mixed teams..who wins?

~ Create teams and each team creates a Dood - the team whose Dood gets the highest score wins

If you already have a Wii, please do let Nintendo know what you think of these games and of your use as a family of the Wii - add your views here or try some of the challenges and you'll be entered into a prize draw where one lucky winner will receive two Wii games!

Thanks and good luck

MNHQ

Oh fab! Will do general and do games after the challenges.

General

1. Getting the Wii set up for the first time

It was very easy to do, very easy to read on the manual and didn't take any tuning in. My sort of setting up! The only thing missing was the hunky tech bloke to do it for me.

2. Connecting the Wii to the Internet (using wifi, if you could)

Again, very easy, just followed the instructions on screen.

3. Creating a Wii Mii for each family member

The DC loved this, it was quite a giggle giving themselves a moustache and funny eyes.

4. Setting up iPlayer (if on wifi)

Very easy, followed on screen instructions.

5. Adding additional Wii Remotes

Very easy, once I figured it out, as I was holding the buttons rather than just pressing them

1..Setting wii up for first time was very straightforward. Had to have a dust round back of the tv tho!!

2...connecting to wifi, again, no problem

3...creating a mii. This is a popular activity with my children! takes them hours, it's almost like a game in itself

4...Setting up iplayer very straightforward, and a lovely extra too.don't know why, but picture quality isn't great but suspect I need to fiddle with settings or something.

5...adding contollers straightforward. Dc do it themselves without prompting usually.
Dc are dd1 17 dd2 15
Ds1 12,ds2 8 and ds3 is 3.

General:

1. I found the Wii easy to set up, although I have set one up before at an after school club so I did have some idea of how to do it.

1. I haven't done this as we don't have wi-fi

1. I created Wii-Miis for everyone as the children weren't actually that interested in doing it. They like the fact that they have their own ones now that I have done it though. It was easy to do.

1. N/A (see question 2)

1. Very easy to do, in fact my 7 year old did it for me when they arrived.

I have 3 DC: DS1 is almost 9, DS2 is 7 and DD is 5.

General

1. Getting the Wii set up for the first time


The set up instructions are easy and clear to follow. The only problem I encountered was inserting the AV cable behind the television because it's attached to the wall. Our TV has more HDMI than component inputs (and the component inputs are very tricky to reach), so an AV to HDMI convertor supplied with the console would be very useful, although I understand that the Wii doesn't support HD, it would still work but no increase in picture quality.

2. Connecting the Wii to the Internet (using wifi, if you could)

No problems here. Easy and straightforward. I set up parental controls, to prevent my 9-year old DS1 
accessing the internet.

3. Creating a Wii Mii for each family member

All 3 DCs loved this! We all spent ages changing our Miis to get them just right! My youngest DC get so excited when they see their Mii in a game


4. Setting up iPlayer (if on wifi)

I downloaded the iPlayer channel easily. I've used it a few times, but tbh it's not something that I think I'll use regularly.


5. Adding additional Wii Remotes

Easy to do.

DS1 (9), DD (4), DS2 (2)

General - please let us know how you got on with the following:

1. Getting the Wii set up for the first time - Initially we had some issues with it, mainly because we couldn't find the right AV setting on the television and ended up with it in black and white until we finally chanced upon the right setting. Other than that, it was fairly straight forward.

1. Connecting the Wii to the Internet (using wifi, if you could) - we didn't set this up, as we didn't want DS2 constantly trying to access the internet through the Wii.

1. Creating a Wii Mii for each family member - everyone seemed to love this, and the shenanigans gone through to get it to match the player exactly were rather hilarious - especially when everyone else was making suggestions and comments! I rather think the younger ones would be quite happy spending half their time just making different Mii's.

1. Setting up iPlayer (if on wifi) - we have iPlayer on our cable television, so this isn't a feature that we would use. (also not one we'd want the kids accessing through the Wii)

1. Adding additional Wii Remotes - we've had some issues with the red/pink controller losing connection/communication with the game while we're playing it, but we're going to watch over the next day or so and see if there's anything in particular leading to it and go from there. Other than that, adding the remotes isn't too much of a problem, however, it can be frustrating to have to redo ALL of them just because ONE has gone wonky.

1. Getting the Wii set up for the first time

No problems at all. I expected it to be complicated and difficult, involving acrobatics around the back of the tv, plugging in wires etc, but it was very easy indeed.

1. Connecting the Wii to the Internet (using wifi, if you could)

I shall have to do this later - probably in the next couple of days as I've avoided it so far (not sure why).

1. Creating a Wii Mii for each family member

Easy peasy lemon squeezy. Have also set up miis for several of dd's friends.

1. Setting up iPlayer (if on wifi)

Again, have avoided it, so will do it in hte next couple of days.

1. Adding additional Wii Remotes

Didn't read the instructions and was helplessly waving the red one (our second) around while dd laughed at me, wondering why it wasn't working. Eventually read the instructions! Very easy, no problem at all. Interestingly (or not!) when we got the blue remote, instead of falling in with the existing hierarchy, it took over the top slot and the others moved down.

Will look at the other thread and c&p whatever feedback I've put on.

Thank you Nintendo and MN! (Teacher's pet emoticon)

Marvellous - a feedback thread to officially add our ponderings to!

We've got a bit stuck on 2 of the games (Mariokart and u-draw) so we'll have to pull our socks up a bit and get going with the others before doing the challenges, but here's my first bit of fedback on the 5 opening questions above:

1. Getting the Wii set up for the first time
This was amazingly straightforward - we used the quick set-up card. I managed to do it with only the odd grunt from DH. Getting the hoover out to remedy the dust problem behind the TV unit probably took longer than setting up the Wii . I did move the sensor strip after a day or two. I had it on top of the TV initially, but it wasn't picking up the controllers when our ds's were using them very well, it's much better underneath the TV.

2. Connecting the Wii to the Internet (using wifi, if you could)
DH did this, it took 3 attemps because the download of some software seemed to keep getting interrupted.

3. Creating a Wii Mii for each family member

This was very easy, and great fun for all of us. Our ds's loved making DH look a bit shorter and more overweight than he really is and ds1 thinks that he's really cool with his spikey haired mii (his hair is too thick to stay spikey for more than about 15 mins in RL!)

4. Setting up iPlayer (if on wifi)
We've not done this

5. Adding additional Wii Remotes
This is actually very easy, but took me a little while because I didn't read the instructions properly . I was holding both buttons down rather than pressing and letting go - when you do it right, it's a very quick and straightforward process

1. Getting the Wii set up for the first time

'Dead easy', says DP. Just read another tester's idea about putting the sensor strip lower down and this seems sensible. Not sure how much sticky it would lose with regular repositioning though? The range of it is not as far as I would have thought - one end of the sofa is distinctly patchy.

1. Connecting the Wii to the Internet (using wifi, if you could)

'Also dead easy, as long as you know your password', says DP. 'Thank heavens for my IT tech DP', say I.

1. Creating a Wii Mii for each family member

Much, much fun. My DCs are very little but got the hang of this very quickly. I also love another tester's idea of adding a huge moustache, etc, to her DH's Mii.

1. Setting up iPlayer (if on wifi)

So, so easy and such a surprise that this is possible. Wii-less friends and family have expressed surprise that the Wii can't be used as a DVD player, but its use as an iPlayer player is a very good idea.

1. Adding additional Wii Remotes

Once I RTFM it was, again, dead easy.

General

1. Getting the Wii set up for the first time

We found this quite easy , thankfully as it was xmas day and we were all desperate to get on it.

1. Connecting the Wii to the Internet (using wifi, if you could)

Again simple as you just follow guidance when in settings

1. Creating a Wii Mii for each family member

Our favourite part initially , especially over time the expanding sizes of our mii. I think this is a great and easy introduction to the wii especially for younger ones who may find the games quite hard

1. Setting up iPlayer (if on wifi)

We found it fairly easy to set up , but rarely use it as the connection to the internet seems sporadic.

1. Adding additional Wii Remotes

This is very easy and is often done by ds 9 when he has friends over.

Our sensor is actually blu tacked to top of tv as stick doesn't really cut it after period of time

We have just dance the adult version and dd 6 loves it , would like to see how others found the jnr version

MNHQ - please could this thread have a sticky so that it's always at the top of active convos?

Marking my place!

Re: the Dood game - we can't play this as the Wii says we do not have enough memory - anyone else got round this?

General - please let us know how you got on with the following:

1. Getting the Wii set up for the first time

Really easy which was a result because it was 7am & I had 3 small children bouncing off the walls.

1. Connecting the Wii to the Internet (using wifi, if you could)

Again nice & straight forward all though it did take a while & because I connected to the internet & iplayer it didn't leave any room for saving games.

1. Creating a Wii Mii for each family member

We have loads of Mii's, great way to passs a few hours trying out different nose's etc

1. Setting up iPlayer (if on wifi)

Again very straight forward.

1. Adding additional Wii Remotes

I'm ready to throw the fucking wii out of the window. We received a second controller today & after 40 minutes of making my fingers numb through pushing buttons & wonky eyes from all the flashing I have officially given up & currently have no controllers working & a guarenteed temper tantrum from a 3y old when it still doesn't work tomorrow.
I'm not doing it wrong, how hard can it be to push two buttons.
I had borrowed an extra controller & managed to do it first time but the new pink one just won't sync & is stopping the black one doing it

I'm very sorry for swearing at Nintendo I have just read 5inthebeds post & I too was holding buttons rather than pushing briefly

I'm SURE I read somewhere that you needed to push them at the same time!

Will add a proper post later, but until then...

We felt the need to all dress in white, just like the family on the box...

Then we all Wiied much more fulfillingly...

Oh - and when we created out Miis, we felt the need to incorporate lots of random "i"s in our names - i.e Billy became billii.

Have I done well, Nintendo?

Oh - and I can make a virtual dog catch a frisbee. Tis quite sweet, but not as much fun as being outside on a (v v) sunny day.

Jules This happened to us on Kirby. It gave me an option to say no to not saving & then took me to another screen where I deleted some of our saved & down loaded things (internet being one of them because I couldn't MN on it so it went)

Still very over sync'ing, especially as I have now read that 7y olds are doing it

Set it up this morning while dd and dh went to collect dd's friend, 'twas very easy to do. Immediately, and very strangely, I started on the Sports Resort - we are the most unsporty family you could hope to find - and really got into fencing: they're LIGHT SABRES!!!! Love the action replays. It's all so utterly silly.

All in all, kept dd and I highly amused for rather a long time.

DD is enjoying the Resort Sports so much that I can't get her to do anything else. I am going to try them all today and tomorrow, as have been really busy over the last couple of days (dh's birthday).

The music is ghastly and drives us all insane.

Got onto uDraw with the tablet while dd was at school yesterday. Found it pretty boring and not a patch on drawing programmes available on the pc. DD was totally uninterested, once she got home. I asked her to try all the options, but she got fed up with it within 20 minutes and actually went off to tidy her room instead grin (note to self, must remember that!).

I don't find the tablet/pen particularly easy to use, or very responsive. Sometimes I have to use the remote to make a choice but it doesn't seem to work when it's inserted inside the tablet so I have to push it out in order to make it work. I'm sitting within 5ft of the tv and sensor.

Played Pictionary today with friend. She CHEATED!!!!!!!!!! by not covering her eyes. I had to draw 'mother in law' which was quite a difficult thing, but my friend got it. Amidst massive protestations of innocence she then continued to cheat massively and won. It was very silly and we had great fun.

I'm getting used to the tablet now, and the pen is getting easier to use. It seems to be more responsive but that probably is just me. Funnily enough, today, I didn't have to keep poking the remote out of the tablet to get it to register, though there was no difference in the set-up or where I was sitting.

We also played a bit of Spongebob. The games are silly and fun and go quite fast so we played with much hilarity as we were just dumb and slow.

Very good afternoon of ridiculousness. Thank you MN and Nintendo.

We played Pictionary yesterday with a friend of dd's. It was fun, and drawing was much easier than in the uDraw studio. The pen is fiddly, and the constant going in and out of the picture to change size, colour etc is irritating and slow. You don't have to do that in Pictionary.

Yesterday was a 'poking the controller out of the tablet' day. No rhyme or reason. Perhaps it's the weather

We put off trying MarioKart until the controllers came, but finally tried it yesterday. It was fun. I WAS RUBBISH!!!! I am a menace on the roads. Actually managed to get dh to try too (he has been disdainful of the whole thing, despite promising to join in). I think he thinks games are foolish things, best left to women and children (he's a miserable old git!). Anyway, he got all competitive, and was mighty disgruntled until he had bested dd's score.

DD and I played again today. To our surprise, we had both improved immeasurably since yesterday. I even came first on a couple of races. I had been consistently 12th yesterday. Does this thing develop an affinity to its' hosts and artificially skew results (doo doo do do, doo doo do do) in their favour? Or is it nanobots in the machinery whispering to each other? (shut up Jux ).

We've all tried Kirby's epic yarn, and we all hate it. I don't hold up much hope that anyone will try it again, I won't be doing so unless I absolutely have to. I suppose it might improve if you've got more than one player, but none of us have enjoyed it enough to worry much. You can't win 'em all.

Meanwhile, dd and I have been hAVING a ridiculous amount of fun playing the cone game in Wii motion, which is an utterly silly game!!!! Brilliant!

Dood's big adventure. Another of those games, like Kirby's, which I loathe, but I persevered (dd was out) and got to about level 3 before I got too ineffably bored and stopped. DD had a go on it today; I had only tried the first one, where you draw trampolines to enhance jumping. DD had a go at all the others, which seemed rather more fun. I tried one of them where you tilt the tablet. Found that much easier than controlling DD with the pen.

Every time I tried to hit a baddy with a blob of ink, there was lots of blood but the yellow arrow got completely in the way so you couldn't really see him staggering around. Is it just me who wanted a decent view of the violence I am inflicting on the poor unfortunates?

It's been too hot to worry about dancing so we haven't.

Above post is most of my reviews from other thread. Hope that's OK.

OK, here is our feedback, from DP who spent much more time doing it all with the dds than me, he is a geek by trade so you get the geek-view.... that's probably it from us til after our holidays when we might manage the rest of the challenges.

1. Getting the Wii set up for the first time pretty easy

2. Connecting the Wii to the Internet (using wifi, if you could) yes that worked.

3. Creating a Wii Mii for each family member I thought this was surprisingly good. We created characters that are quite recognisable as each of us and it was very obvious during the games that we were being ourselves, especially in wii sports resort. I haven't noticed it in other games. It is nice as well when one person is playing eg wakeboarding - to see the other members of the family riding in the boat and watchng. Nice touch.

4. Setting up iPlayer (if on wifi) I was keen to use IPlayer which seems a really nice feature (though we haven't used it much in fact as we have a HD recorder) to do that I had to enable network services which involved a click through license agreement.

I really hate click-through license agreements. I believe the world
would be a better place if they were classed as agreements made under
duress - which they are - and therefore not legally binding.
unfortunately I don't know that there is any such precedent so we have
to either click without reading them which is SOOO tempting and so
dangerous, or we read them, don't understand what they say, and then
click anyway. Every Nintendo customer has wasted half an hour of the
their life that they will never see again and what have we achieved?

Well - your customers have a niggly suspicion that they might have
agreed to something unpleasant, and feel like they just might have
been conned but don't really know.

You have obtained an agreement that mostly says ...
a. we won't attempt to reverse engineer your network protocols -
surely only a tiny minority of your customers even know what that
means!
b. That we won't break copyright law. well, actually that is illegal
already, so your agreement hasn't changed anything.

when I go into a shop and buy a loaf of bread The shop keeper doesn't
ask me to sign an agreement that i won't try and analyse his bread so
I can steal other loaves of bread or make my own cheaper, or promise i
will not use the bread to club innocent people to death, Those crimes
are combatted in other ways. So why do i have to go through this crap
before I am allowed to use something that you offer as a free service?

if you absolutely must have a click through license agreement - why
not something short and in plain english so people actually know what
they are signing up to?

5. Adding additional Wii Remotes the kids just did it, they just tried clicking a few buttons and it was no problem.

Kirby's Epic Yarn - Challenges - let us know your overall views on the game as well as trying these challenges:

The girls liked this game the best and spent quite a lot of time on it. They like the characters Kirby and Prince Fluff, and especially the way you can pop your sister on your head. They also liked the way that if one player was better at a particular bit of the game, the other could just become a bubble for a bit while the better person did that challenge.

Mario Kart - Challenges - let us know your overall views on the game as well as trying these challenges:
Quite fun. I like driving games, though usually something more of a
simulator. This is fun.
perhaps more explanation of the controls ? I am sure there is more to
it than left right while always holding the go faster key. Though this
is probably just because the kids skipped through the training level
when I wasn't looking.

~ Race a match blindfold: families divide into pairs, and one must race blindfold while the other directs them

We tried this. interesting experience. it might be interesting to do that more and see if we could actually get any good at it (which we aren't at the
moment)

Wii Play Motion - Challenges - let us know your overall views on the game as well as trying these challenges:

~ Create a drawing of a designated family member in under one minute
I find it very difficult to draw anything good.
the wii drawing board is very crude in comparison to more professional
instruments like for example a pencil and paper.
You can't really see where you are going to draw until it is too late
and the precision/consistency of the tablet isn't great (or at least
thats the feeling I have) Plus you are trying to draw in one place
while looking at soemting else for feedback.
You would need a good reason to try and draw like that.

So are the games a good enough reason?

pictionary was quite fun, and it was good to have the gameplay done
for you - things like remembering whose turn it is - figuring out what
all-play means, retrieving the dice from under the sofa - I won't miss
hose aspects of the original game. But the actual drawing is hard.
Game is well written and pretty - I liked the previous pictures being
shown on the posters round the board.

spongebob squigglepants was not very satisfying - the purpose of the
game seems to be to confront me with repetitive and simple tasks made
difficult by forcing them to be done in an insanely short time. The
end result isn't challenging so much as stressy. The repeating
interlude was pretty irritating too. Sorry, don't like it.

~ Create a drawing made entirely from the stamps provided in uDraw Studio
Why would i want to create someting so ugly when I can create
something beautiful using paint?
also having created something, what do you do with it? Perhaps we can
save it - I didn't figure out how but can't print it can we?
perhaps could save to jpg somewhere and print it ona proper computer.

~ Play Pictionary in teams - adults vs children, mixed teams..who wins?
yeah that was fun. See above.

~ Create teams and each team creates a Dood - the team whose Dood gets the highest score wins
sorry what is a dood? I must have missed that bit.

Ooh - interesting about the licence agreement. Get you, Fennel.

Well, as I said, that is DP getting irate, not me. I provided some views on Kirby. My role has mostly been to preen around saying "aren't I a nice Mummy for winning you all a lovely Wii?"

1. Getting the Wii set up for the first time

DH and DS(Age 6y) both say this was very easy

1. Connecting the Wii to the Internet (using wifi, if you could)

Again, very easy

1. Creating a Wii Mii for each family member

We all loved creating our own characters and when my dsis came to stay she invented her own Mii too. Twas fun!

1. Setting up iPlayer (if on wifi)

No problems at all. Just followed on screen instructions.

1. Adding additional Wii Remotes

A little at first but then we read the instructions and ds2 (6y) worked it out!

Boys are 9 and 6.

Will do some challenges and filming tomorrow evening.

Sorry to bombard the thread but I'm working the next 2 days & then away so I want to C&P from the starter thread:

Udraw:

The pen would work better as a rollerball. It doesn't work very well when held as a pen would be held, you have to hold it vertically for it to work properly.

The children enjoy using it & sponge bob is a firm favourite. We did try pictionary but one adult & the small children didn't work well & children got cross because mummy kept laughing at their drawings & shouting "tree" "lampost" when they were trying to draw a fireman

Although I am cautious to let my 3 & 7y old use the tablet with out my supervision as I'm worried they will pull the lead clear off & they can't click the controller in properly which causing frustration. It feels quiet flimsey for £50 +.
DD3 is 3 & does quite well on sbsp, she can scrub things out, feed the jelyfish, draw the line between spongebob & the snail & open the vault before the time runs out but she can't complete the other tasks.

She is left handed so using the colour change etc on the drawing game is hard as she has to use her right hand over the top of her drawing hand which is complicated. An option to turn the tablet round so the controller is on the right hand side would be good.

MarioKart:

DH isn't keen on the steering wheel, he said it's to light, that was his excuse for me beating him 5 times in a row.

Kirby:

Fennel DD3 (3y) loves picking me up & putting me on her head, I spend most of our time on Kirby asking DD to put me down. It's so funny when I have coaxed her up a ladder pushed her along with my kirby body weight & she then picks me up & lobs me off the ledge back to the bottom

Long post, sorry. We will do challanges tomorrow as I am on a half day holiday & we will all be at home on the afternon.