I walked past my local Good Guys (Taylors Lakes, Vic) this morning and found they had a "one week only" sale of Wii consoles for $299 (white only). I grabbed one for a friend, and while I was in there, I also noticed they have 360 Arcade consoles for $199…
The usual disclaimer applies - I have no idea if it's just the Taylors Lakes store, or if other stores have the same prices too.
So far, the only current generation home systems I have are my PC and a Wii, and the Wii gets plenty of play. BTW, I'm 31, with no kids in the house.
Just off the top of my head, there's Silent Hill, Cursed Mountain, Little King's Story, Metroid, No More Heroes, Fragile Dreams, Ghost Squad, House of the Dead, MadWorld, and Red Steel. And of those, I would probably only allow a child under 10 to play Little King's Story and MAYBE Metroid or Ghost Squad, but they would probably find those games too difficult anyway. Plus, some of the "family friendly" games are actually really good.
IMHO, the Wii is a great alternative platform, but if think of yourself as a serious gamer, and you can only have one system, you probably shouldn't make it a Wii. Then again, what sort of "serious gamer" only has one system, right? ;D
I also have a PC and Wii as a regular but casual gamer. I've got a few of those games (No More Heroes recharge action is crazy) and enjoyed the novelty value of using the controller. I just find it not very precise at all (esp for aim/shooting games) and also the good adult games releases seem to have really dried up. Am using my PC much more as I find the games are more complex (duration/features), have more replay/online value, better value/more releases and are more accurate in using the controls. My Wii is pretty much gathering dust or turned on if relatives kids want to play. Mind you with the reduced prices these days the console(s) are cheap compared to the money that will be spent on the games…
dust gatherer, unless you have kids under 10
Agreed. Good for kids and for parties (that might otherwise be boring). Kids can play virtual frisbee, virtual soccer and virtual baseball - Mind you you can also buy $30 worth of kids sporting gear and show them the backyard. Play in real 3D! ;-)
Wii is a great party toy.
Personally… For a gaming console, I find the 360 to be far superior. I use my wii for wii fit plus and active sports - other than that I don't touch it. My daughter loves it though!
I went into the Ballarat store and they had neither for the price. Maybe just Taylors Lakes
The Xbox price here is good, the wii is not a bargain.
the wii is, its $388 most places
most places? lol where the hell do you live? nearly everywhere i've seen has them for $349 + 1 free game or $399 + multiple free games
Wii Console $299
This deal is hardly a bargain!!!
Oh its just the console, I never knew they sold a console only pack, its the sport pack that is at most stores isn't it? Not such a deal then and yeah I only ever seem to see them at nearly $400 with a game (that is usually a bargain basement one) Where can I find one with a decent game for $349? I'm thinking of picking one up for my 3yr old, I'm sick of him hogging my consoles
Just to be clear, the $299 pack at Good Guys is the console + Wii Sports (all consoles include that). I've seen those other packs at Target (etc) for $388, and I don't think those extra included games are worth the money. :(
Well I haven't seen the Wii console anywhere cheaper…. apart from that older Spotlight sale for $260…. and yes, this pack includes the "sports" game, all consoles include that.
In the target catalogue, for example, it's $380 something which includes some el-cheapo games. I'd rather get the console itself (again, including the sports game) for $299, and buy the games separately (JB had that awesome sale recently, and then HN had an awesome sale…)
If it's not a bargain, then were the heck are you guys finding them cheaper than this?
Found one! The K-Mart bundle, for $388 - includes the wii console (inc Sports), plus Sports Resort plus two other games (which are still crap, but ah well). For myself though, all I wanted was the console, and $299 was the best I could find :)
So can powerevolutiion or the other guy show us where to find the bargain Wii's please?
Just as one final comment - sadly, the week after I posted this, Nintendo announced a price drop from $399 to $299, so pretty much everyone dropped their price to $299 including a few games, or even less for just the console.
Good Guys have a 30-day price guarantee and offered a $40 refund, so the price ended up being $260 for the console.
not bad, I gave $260 for mine from eb after trading back games
Is Wii worth it or just a dust gatherer?