So a funny and amazing thing happened on the way to the weekend last Friday. I sent out this Tweet:
And about two minutes later I got this reply:
And after a few more tweets, a DM and a phone call, we were all set. A new friend Michael Pearson ("@michaelpearsun on Twitter) was gonna head over and show my family the amazing wii. I had seen wii tennis played at a previous clients offices but never played myself. And learning that Blockbuster is no longer renting the consoles, I made what I thought would be a silly plea on Twitter.
The serendipity of meeting and actually doing something with a friend on Twitter is something both Michael and I discussed as a direction we wanted to take the networking options. He is a professed "gamer" and I had a desire and a family who had thus far been deprived of wii-love.
Sure enough a few hours later Micheal showed my family how to play wii tennis, wii bowling and Mario Kart. (My daughter had gotten some wii-love at a friend's house, so she was already set for Mario Kart!) A 12-pack of craft beers and many hours later we sent Michael back on his way home and he left the wii with us for the weekend.
My plan, was to rent Grand Slam Tennis from blockbuster on Saturday. And see how the fun of wii tennis translated into the more advanced system by EA Sports. But that night and most of Saturday afternoon Mario Kart races ruled the house. Even after I came home with Grand Slam Tennis I did not have any immediate challengers. "It's too hard," my wii-ready daughter said.
I didn't really crack it out again until Monday (yesterday) afternoon. And after some coaxing, I was able to convince my daughter to give Grand Slam a try. The irony was I was actually leaving to play tennis by 6:45 and we started playing at 6:15. I was Pete Sampras and my daughter was Ana Ivanovic. After a few false starts, more "it's too hard" withdrawals, and she was IN.
I showed her that by holding the "A" or "B" button while swinging she should hit lobs and drop shots accordingly. We agreed that we would not use the buttons at first, to make it less difficult. But before the first set was over she was winning most points.
"Are you using the buttons?"
She was hitting high looping lobs into my backhand and winning points. When I left for real tennis she was leading 3-1.
On the real court I chatting with my doubles opponents, a married couple about wii-tennis. She also said her daughter was much better at the computer version but didn't play actual tennis.
As the game progressed, the wife of the other team would shout "Wee!" when she would make an unforced error. Of course she might have been shouting "Wii!"
Next up for the wii-love test. Grand Slam Tennis with an added "wii motion plus" upgrade. I will write a more thorough review at that time. But what I can tell you is this. We laughed and talked about wii tennis almost the entire match. My partner, who had never seen wii tennis was at first flabbergasted that we would keep talking about this silly game. But after the match she said, "Well, now I feel like I have to try it."
I'm gonna go wrestle the Kart remote out of my daughter's hand in a minute and demand a rematch.
@jmacofearth
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Note: And a friend who saw my wife's FB post about watching us play wii, sold us her wii last night. So we're the proud owners… And the two Les Paul guitars and guitar hero II will keep me busy after the kids go to bed, I'm sure.
