The Princess Has Been Waiting Long Enough

The Nintendo Wii launched across Europe this morning, and I’m not getting one—not yet, not with the state of my finances. Fine. I can watch from the sidelines and pretend I’m making a principled decision.

Wii Sports will be the first disc anyone puts in. It’s not much to look at, but you apparently need at least a second Wiimote to get any real use out of it, which is Nintendo’s way of telling you the actual price is higher than the sticker. The one I actually care about is The Legend of Zelda: Twilight Princess—a game that’s been delayed so many times I’d genuinely stopped expecting it to arrive. Every major home-console Zelda is an event, something I track from announcement to release like a slow-moving comet, and this one feels properly earned after all the waiting.

What my friends and I are really holding out for, though, is Super Smash Bros. Brawl. The N64 original was beautiful chaos; Melee on GameCube turned it into something you could embarrass people with if you put the hours in. Having Mario, Link, and a very well-rendered Samus Aran to hurl at each other across the screen, cold beers on the table—there’s no more honest description of a good Friday night. The Japanese-American ads for the Wii, the ones with the two cheerful Nintendo guys going door to door, are genuinely charming. Whatever Germany got instead can stay wherever it is. PS3 and Xbox can wait outside.