It all started Saturday night as the launch of the Wii drew near. At 9:30 pm we drove by Best Buy and Target, both of which revealed a precarious situation. People were camping out for the precious Wii (which I failed to pre-order) and my hopes for a Wii were endangered!

After failing to convince Stacie that camping out might be necessary to get a Wii, we decided that an early morning would be all that we needed. We woke up today at 5 am sharp and made it to the local Target by 6 am. I hopped into the line (which had grown since the night before) and Stacie made a Starbucks run.

Someone one the internet got their hands on how many Wiis each Target would be receiving on launch day, and according to that data, this Target would get 81. The guys in front of me were saying they’d counted about 70 people in front of us, and I wasn’t too worried because there were some adults with young children. The plan was for them to pass out tickets at 7 am, and if you received one, you could buy a Wii when they started selling them at 8 am. Well 7 am rolled around and they began to pass out tickets. As the moment of truth drew near, I started to get worried. The guys in front of me were already into the late 70s. Would I get a ticket?!

Turns out I did get a ticket, and it wasn’t just any ticket…it was the LAST ticket! Number 81 baby! I would take a picture for you, but they took it back and destroyed it after I bought a system. There was a guy taking pictures of the line and my very exciting #81…you just have to find his website. They let us in at 8 am, but being the last in line, we didn’t get to the counter to purchase until almost 9:30 am. I picked up the system, an extra remote and nunchuck, Zelda, and Monkey Ball.

I should post pictures, but I’m currently too tired. Most of the afternoon has been spent playing Wii Sports, which is really awesome. It’s much better than I expected, and some of the sports are really spot on. I put an hour and a half into Monkey Ball, and I gave it a chance…but it’s pretty terrible. In fact I’m putting it on Ebay to try and cut my losses. I haven’t even had a chance to try Zelda, but I have very high hopes for that one.

Overall I am a Wii Believer, but Monkey Ball has shown me that developers will certainly have a learning curve. They need to master the programming of the motion technology first so that it behaves properly, and then they need to find unique gameplay experiences where it works well.

Despite the lack of time available to me for playing videogames, I can still get excited about them. This week is the annual Electronics Entertainment Expo (E3). All the big videogame makers get together and put on a show for the media and let them try out new games and all that stuff. Mike and I snuck in one year.

This year is a big deal because both Sony and Nintendo have new consoles on the horizon. Sony has PS3 and Nintendo has Wii (pronounced "we"). If you’re interested you can visit IGN and check out their E3 coverage.

Now for my 2 cents on everything. PS3 is from $500-600 depending on your model, which is an insane price for a videogame system. If there are any redeeming qualities I would have to look to the Blu-Ray drive inside. I’m really excited to see what people think of Wii once they get their hands on the controller. The Nintendo conference looked really cool, but I wasn’t overwhelmed. Because Wii isn’t a huge graphical jump over Gamecube (and it’s not supposed to be), I think simply watching a game isn’t that impressive. I’m hoping that once you hold the controller in your hand and get used to the brand new controls it will be a truly unique experience. Sony added a "tilt" sensor to their controller at the cost of a rumble device. I think it’s an attempt to take some of the wind out of Nintendo’s sail, but it’s too little, too late. It will work for flying games, monkey ball, and marble madness…but that’s it. They’re trying to tell people that a rumble feature is "so last year," but I think they’re wrong.

Nintendo has an amazing marketing team. The positioning that they’ve come up with for their new system is hands-down the best of the three. They’ve been able to distance themselves from the competition in a sector that was drowing in copycats. They aren’t competing with Microsoft or Sony in terms of graphics or ports anymore. Now they’re competing based on the fun factor. Nintendo is also insisting that this will be the system to bring videogaming to the masses. Your Mom, Grandpa, and red-headed stepchild will all be playing this system, flailing about like a bunch of idiots in front of the TV, and oh will it rock. The marketing guy in me is very impressed with Nintendo.