Wii Game console

Nintendo of America, 4820 150th Ave. NE, Redmond, WA, 98052, (425) 882-2040, www.nintendo.com. $249.99.

Today, I played a little baseball and some tennis (a little late in my swing on both counts). Then I fit in a golf lesson, went three rounds in a boxing ring, and took my wife bowling. My heart is beating out of my chest and my back aches from all that swinging. Having never left my living room, I've just endured a session with the Wii.

A next-generation game console competing with Microsoft's Xbox 360 and the Sony Playstation 3, the Wii by Nintendo is about as different as they come. Unlike traditional controllers, with their manually operated buttons and control sticks, the Wii Remote works according to the motion of your hand, measuring your movement and velocity with great accuracy. I demoed Wii Sports, the game included with the Wii console. After clearing out a wide circle in my living room, I was smashing serves on a tennis court, and hitting a baseball with all my might. You can also pitch—my record, a 93 mph fastball. The boxing match was so realistic that it had our cat running for cover.

The Wii has everything a contemporary console should have in 2007: brilliant graphics, dazzling sound, and quality games. With a standard USB port, the game looks ready for networked play. Setup was a snap, even on an older TV.

A big proponent of using games to promote learning (see “All Play and No Work,” Sept. 2006, pp. 47–48), I see a place for the Wii in classrooms and media centers. The console provides a stable technical platform for a small investment and is compatible with a standard television. Games for the Wii are designed to be completed within brief sessions. So unlike the epic-long, role-playing games one might find on a Playstation, they are ideal for the classroom and team play.

Even in a school of highly motivated and gifted high school students, the energy and enthusiasm generated by the Wii is startling. I previewed the console with one group of kids, who jostled for a clear view of the screen, completely focused on the particular gaming task at hand. It was a reminder of why I became interested in games in the first place—their powerful ability to draw students into the experience.

With games like The Sims, Sudoku, Trauma Center, Downhill Jam, Need for Speed, and a host of other titles to come—including Spore, the much-anticipated game from designer Will Wright—the educational potential of the Wii is enormous. Just make sure to keep a tight grip on that remote.