A few months ago, I may have written a post on this site about how I wanted a Nintendo Wii. About how I wanted the Wii so much that it made my belly hurt. In retrospect, maybe the post came off a little whiny.

If you're expecting a retraction, you'll have to wait a little longer. Because I got one.

"But Matty, was it really worth all of your molly-coddling, lilly-livered whinery in that other blog entry?"

Oh, yeah.

First off, I want to note in the interest of full disclosure that I actually got the Wii in late December. I'd also like to say that the reason that I haven't posted about it before now is that I've been too busy playing Wii games. But in reality, I don't have a good reason other than a full-blown time-consuming procrastination hobby.

So let me bring you up to speed, gentle reader. The Wii was released in November. Due to demand, they were selling out everywhere as soon as they were released. Actually, several months (and six million units) later, this is still the case.

While I should have been resting on my Christmas laurels, I stalked my prey on the internet like a crazy ex-girlfriend. I received up to-the-minute status updates from a variety of fanboy forums and info sites.

Late one Friday night, rumors starting wafting down the e-pike that a small shipment of Wiis was going to be delivered to many Target stores. A quick call to beleaguered switchboard operators at several Target stores confirmed that several stores in our area would be receiving between 10-20 of the elusive gaming systems each. My long-suffering wife and I hatched a plan.

Our plan was... that we would get up really early and wait in a line. I realize that this wasn't the most complex plan ever conceived, but the genius was in the simplicity.

It was right before Christmas, and we knew that we would have to compete against parents looking to buy a Wii as a gift for their kids. Our simple plan was maybe a little too simple. I didn't really want to camp out overnight in a Target parking lot just to get a video game system. Doing stuff like that when you're thirty-something is hard to justify.

That's when we came up with the other part of the plan. You see, instead of just going to the Target a few blocks away, we would travel far away from Suburbia with its greedy, Wii-grabbing brats kids. Instead we would go to a Target that was nestled in an area that was mostly office buildings and restaurants.

We woke up at 4 the next morning, and pulled into the Target parking lot at 4:30. As we walked to the door a chipper Target employee (chipper at 4:30 a.m.?) asked us how many Wiis we wanted, and gave us the golden ticket. Well, not so much a golden ticket, as a little piece of paper with the number 17 on it. This little piece of paper guaranteed us the next to last Wii that the store had. And, in just four short hours, they would sell it to us.

We joined the line and had some interesting conversations with some of the other folks waiting in the Wii line. Not suprisingly, most were parents that were trying to get that special Christmas gift. Common topics of discussion included: the best Wii-stalking sites on the internet, what games we hoped would be fun to play, and other video game systems. We also talked about many other topics, but the Wii would always come up.

Most everyone there seemed to be buying the Wiis for themselves or as gifts. At least no one admitted that they were going home to sell the Wii on eBay for three times the price.

At the predetermined time, we all got in a single file line, and were led through the store. I had elementary school field trip flashbacks. Within 30 minutes, I was holding my Wii. I wish I could say that the first thing that I did when I got home was to hook it up and play for hours. The mind was willing but the body was weak. We had to sleep. After a short nap, we spent the rest of the wiikend playing games. It was wiidiculously fun.

For more on the fun-ness, check out the Wii-diculous amount of pix on the right. I have more info in there on the gameplay n such. Wiiiii!!!!!!

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