Come and tell me about Wiis!

[FlamingoBingo]

We want to buy a Wii for our family for Christmas - it will be the only present we get (apart from stockings of course) so we want to do it right.

We have a 6yo, a nearly 5yo, a 2yo and a 1yo (who I don't imagine will be getting involved just yet!).

What games should we get with it? What things have your family found enhances the play? Extra hand-thingies?

My birthday's in January so, unless you all think the Wii-fit would be enjoyed by everyone, I'll probably ask for that for my birthday.

I thought everyone had wiis? Am I mistaken?

Come on, Wii owners!

I have a Wii and Wii Fit and love them. I don't have any experience of children using them though so am probably of little help to you (other than being able to bump this ).

Thanks frogs!

Really I might be the only MNetter family with a Wii!!!! Am I missing someone?

Or maybe everyone hates me and doesn't want to help!

We've got one, but don't have small children, so I can't really suggest what games they'd enjoy!

The Wii Fit is good fun, it has balance games as well as the "fitness" stuff, so you can pretend to ski etc. But maybe more for yourself than the others if you fancy the fitness stuff particularly?

Beyond what always comes with it, you should make sure you get a second controller so 2 of you can play against each other, and probably a second nunchuck though you don't need them for all games.

We got the Wii Sports game which I think came with the second controller.

Thanks AMIS.

20% off in Sainsbury's at the moment. £130-ish instead of £170-ish.

You can use the Wii fit board with other games, like one where you "snowboard" down a hill by shifting your weight.

Wii Play is the one with the free extra controller. The console comes with Wii Sports, which has bowling on and other fun things. I wouldn't bother with the accessory packs (tennis racquet etc you clip onto the controller).

Sorry, haven't played it with kids, but the games based on films are usually quite fun for them.

My girls love mario cart & mario olympics. DD2 is just 4 and she loves Happy feet because it is soo easy to control. Have ordered her Peppa Pig game for xmas, and mario winter olympics for older DD.
DH has PS3, but the Wii comes out on quiet Sunday afternoons and we all play. Really great to have a game we all enjoy playing, rather than the hungry caterpillar board game which bores us all to tears, except DD2

Didn't like it and we sold ours. The boys (7,4,4) did like mario kart but that was about it. They prefered the xbox, so we sold the wii and bought a ps3.

I have a 3 year old ds and a 6 year old dd and they like mario kart, mario party 8 and wii sports. DS joins in with them but needs help when he has to point the remote at the screen to click on something. We have 4 remotes so we can all play some of the games together, a couple of nunchucks and 2 steering wheels to play mario kart.

We don't have one, but have been told that you should definitely get:

Extra hand thingies

Charger so you don't go broke buying batteries

DS is 3 and likes mario kart have one of the steering wheels which i and ds always use. Have a wii fit too quite enjoy that as it tracks weight BMI.

I recently bought one for my dh birthday, but really for the whole family to use. I have 3ds of 8, 5 and 1. The one year old doesn't use it obviously. I researched it quite a lot before buying and here is what I got:

main console which came with one controller and one nunchuck

Extra controller

Extra nunchuck

Wii Fit

Mario kart game which came with one steering wheel

Extra steering wheel

Rechargable battery pack for the wii fit

docking station for the console which holds 4 controllers and recharges them (it comes with battery packs to go in the controllers

What gets used the most? The boys play the mariokart game most - they really like it. I am not sure a 2 year old could do it though. I doubt your 2 year old will be able to do the Wii at all. My boys also like using the Wii fit for the balance games.

I have bought a Diego game for them for xmas which got very good reviews. I always google for reviews before buying - some have terrible reviews.

I was very anti any game console for a very long time, but I don't regret buying this as we really do use it as a family and there is no fighting games or anything that I associate with the PS.

I agree extra controller , nunchuck and controller charger.

We have wii fit which was used a lot to start with but now used sparingly. We keeping it in hope board can be used for other games.

The ds (7 , 4 and 2) have mario kart , good and comes with wheel. DS plays the football games , pes and fifa and likes them. Also the lego games go down well. Star wars , indiana jones , batman etc

DD will occasionally play cooking mama.

It is quite hard for lo's to master tbh.
I will play wii play which comes free with it occasionally as that has some good games on it.

It has been a good well used gift in thsi house tbh

We're going to buy one as a family present this Xmas too (DCs will be 10 and 5) so I'll be watching this thread.

Would also be interested if anyone knows of any good wii deals around at the moment.

we have mariokart and find it easier without the steering wheel, but it is by far the favourite game for all the family

wii fit can be very bossy so ignore that side of it!

Don't let your 2 year old load 4 dvds into it. Wii doesn't like it at all.

Thank you all! Really helpful advice

We just got a new game called World of Zoo - it's great, you build a little zoo with cute monkeys etc. Agree on the battery front - those controllers seem to eat them. Some good games recommendations for groups of kids here

Boom blox is a fab game which myself, DH, DS (4.11yo) and DD (3.6yo) all play together.

DC's do enjoy bplaying on the wii fit too.

I'd reccomend getting as many extra controllers and numchucks as you can afford to get, and defo aggree on the rechargable battery front. We have them, and a docking charger station.

We bought our wii early this year, and i dont think it's ever gone longer than about 2 days without being played!!

we have ds 7

he loves,

mario karts

mario sonic winter olympics

super monkey balls banana blitz

monkey mischief

rayman raving rabbids 2

planet rescue-wildlife vet

winter sports 2009

sonic and the black knight

The sonic game is a 12+ but he really wanted it and we did lots of research in that rating and it is only because sonic carries a sword, he is usually friendly. It is not voilent and my ds loves it. He also knows how lucky he is to have it.

He also loves the wii fit as do i.