Some Common Questions and Answers about the Nintendo Wii

Do I Need an HDTV to play Wii?

Absolutely not. Wii will work on any relatively recent TV model (you need the red, white, yellow A/V holes, which all fairly recent TVs have.) You can use a Wii with an HDTV (I do), but it is not necessary. You can easily configure the settings of the Wii to be widescreen or a more square aspect ratio. The Wii does not have the higher resolution graphics of systems like the PS3 or XBox 360, so you will not be losing out if you hook it up to a regular TV.

Here is my Wii set-up if you’re curious:

Close Up of the Sensor Bar

Wii and TV

Note that I have the Wii plugged into the A/V jacks on the front of the TV. There are usually at least one set in front and one in back of the TV, so you can hide the cables more easily than I did by plugging it into the back of the TV (provided this spot isn't already taken up by a DVD player or some other component).

Make sure that the Wii is set up with plenty of space in front of the TV if you intend to play games like Wii Sports (which you should – it comes with the console and is lots of fun). You will need adequate space to swing your arms around, especially if you’re playing multi-player. The Wii is not well-suited to a cramped bedroom set-up for that reason. If you have very little room in front of your TV, you might want to reconsider buying the Wii until you have adequate room to play and get the full Wii experience.

Is There Risk of Injury or Breaking Things with the Wii?

You’ve probably heard or seen online about people getting very enthusiastic while playing Wii and losing the grip on their controller, thereby accidentally flinging it and breaking things around the room. In light of these problems, Nintendo has taken a lot of steps to make playing the Wii a safer experience. The newer models now have a thicker wrist strap and come with a cool clear rubber “jacket” that let’s you get a much better grip on the Wii remote. As long as you tighten the strap (which the Wii dutifully reminds you to do as you start each game), it is unlikely that the remote will fly out of your hand.

However, as I mentioned above, make sure that there is enough space around you when you are playing games like Wii sports. Since games like tennis involve moving and swinging your arms around, you need enough space so you don’t hit anyone or anything else. If you follow all precautions, the risks are low.

Do I Need Wireless Internet Access to Play Wii?

It is not absolutely necessary, but if you want the full Wii experience, it is nice to have a wireless network. If you do have a wireless network in your home, it only takes a few simple steps to connect your Wii to it. After being prompted to do so, the Wii detects the network and can be connected to it. Consult your manual or onscreen menu prompts to do this; it only takes a minute. If you don’t have a wireless network, you can still play tons of Wii games; however, you will miss perks like online play, downloadable content (forthcoming in certain Wii titles), and, most significantly, the Wii Shop channel and other Internet based channels, which are lots of fun. I will go into more detail about the Wii Shop channel and the Virtual Console (games from older Nintendo Systems you can pay to download directly to your Wii) in another post.