Boing Boing's Mark Frauenfelder has a sweet review of the Nintendo Wii:

Nintendo sent me a Wii last week. I'm not a big gamer, but I like playing the Gamecube and DS with my nine-year-old daughter, even though she always beats me. (I don't own a Playstation or XBox, and haven't really used either).

Nintendo games are marvelous — Super Mario Sunshine is my favorite. I love the world of Mario and his friends. My only problem with the games is the controller — I just can't make my fingers and thumbs move the right way, or fast enough, to be very good at most of the games, especially the competitive ones. My daughter beats the pants off me in Monkeyball. One time, after a particularly humiliating loss to her in MonkeyBall, she said, "I feel bad winning; it's like playing against a baby."

I've been scratching my head over the excitement over the Nintendo Wii, feeling like one of my own elderly relatives when confronted by the Internet in 1994. I just don't get it. I mean, it's a video game platform, right? What's the big deal?

I don't play games. I haven't played games since 1982, since I dropped about a million quarters in Ms. Pac Man and never got any good at it. Mark's short review explains the appeal of the Wii in small words that even a middle-aged bit-head like me can understand. It makes me almost want to go out and buy one. Almost. I might be more inclined if it came with a precocious 9-year-old daughter as an accessory.