I Played With the Wii 

Not *my* Wii. The Wii.

We headed over to lunch at the mall, where I'd thought the EB Games had set up a demo Wii. Sure enough, they had. No one was using it because you had to give them an ID in exchange to get the remote (so that you couldn't walk off with the remote), so we waited for someone to check out, then gave them my license and got the Wiimote.

It was small, very solid, and felt very durable. We walked over, started up ExciteTruck, and started racing. And that was it. Just drove it like the remote was a steering wheel, and it just worked. I wasn't very good at it, but it was easy to pick up and play, felt fun to control, and most of all, sucked in the people among us who weren't gamers.

The graphics weren't too bad, even though they were just composite and not component. I think component cables will be a must when I pick up my Wii on Sunday morning, but it wasn't so bad as to make me cringe.

The sensor bar was much smaller than I'd expected. So was the Wii, for that matter.

I probably shouldn't have played with it. Now I'm just anticipating it more, and will probably drop $50 to get ExciteTruck.