During one of the Christmas specials we taped this year we saw a commercial for Shrek the Halls. Being Shrek fans, my family was disappointed when we found out we had missed it. My husband suggested that maybe someone had put the show up on YouTube and that we could watch it on the computer. We talked about how cool it was that you could watch missed TV shows online.
My oldest son had an even better idea. He turned on the Wii and went to the Wii internet channel. A few minutes later he found Shrek the Halls divided into three parts and available for free viewing on YouTube. He clicked play and we were able to watch the TV special on our large TV from the comfort of our sofa.
I had no idea that the Wii did more than play cool games so I had my teenager give me a tour. When you turn on the Wii you have a selection of channels including the game channel and the internet one. The Photo channel allows you to paint over your own photos from an SD card which is how digital cameras store photos. The Wii shopping channel allows you to buy older Nintendo games from systems like Sega Genesis. My son says in the future we will be able to buy games from independent game developers. The Wii weather channel lets you spin a three dimensional globe and view the weather in different places around the world. A Wii news channel provides basic news.
You can also send messages to other Wii owners. In the lower right hand corner of main screen there is a button allows you to register your friends, you need their Wii friends code.
The Mii (pronounced “me”)channel allows you to create an unlimited number of avatars. Most games will allow you to use these as the playing characters. You can also send your Miis to your friends. A Mii channel holds contests for creating Miis. Two recent contests included a Mario without a hat, and Cleopatra. You can create and judge Miis.
I knew the Wii was a fun game system. I had no idea it did more than that. It’s a good thing we have a teenager around to explain these things to us!
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