Okay, folks, I need advice!

[etakyma]

So, for a holiday bonus, my company gave me amazon.com gift certificates. And I live in the northeast where if it is not snowing in the winter it is generally unpleasant outside in many other ways - cold, rain, ice, etc. So I can't get out and walk around as much as I'd like - and there is only so many times one can do the mall-walking thing before the whole thing drives you a little crazy.

So I've used the gift certificates to get a wii gaming system and the balance board to do some fun workouts in my own house. It cost me basically nothing - the holiday bonus certificates paid for the whole thing. So, way cheaper than a gym membership or the yoga classes I was contemplating, since I don't like how I've lost some flexibility as I've gotten older (hello middle age! We've not been introduced yet, but I am not looking forward to you!). And I can take a half hour to forty minutes out of my day to work out, as I work from home already. And this is something I could do at any time - first thing in the morning, or as a mid-afternoon stress relief, or in the evening just for fun.

Here's where I need advice. Having never owned a gaming system before (not even an atari back-in-the-day - although I have used one, but not for a really long time) I have no idea about actual, y'know, GAMES.

Hit me with your favorites! Are the Lego games good? Good for a beginner? What about other games? Are used games the way to go - they cost about a third of the price of a new game? What are MUST HAVES - games that catch your attention and hold it? What games suck - ones you wouldn't get again in a million years?

This is completely new experience for me, and since it comes with wii resort, I'm going to be learning the system with that. Hopefully, it will be a good introduction on how to use the controllers. I've stood in Best Buy trying out the system - and the demo game loaded was Epic Mickey - which was frustrating since I had no idea what I was doing and coordination seemed to be difficult - the changing camera angles were disorienting for me. And my left hand is definitely going to be an issue, but I can work around the awkwardness of the damage there. So... Anyone who games with a system! Talk to me!

Comments

[ksl2025.livejournal.com]

My nieces and nephews all have WII systems---Mostly I get to watch them play rather than play myself so most of my input with regards to this is a bit second hand.

The lego games are decidedly fun to play, put I woudlnt' say they are the sort to actually increase your heart rate.

For any sort of genuine physical activity your best bet would be one of the sports packages that actually requires you to move a bit. They've got tennis, bowling, golf, target shooting, skiing. Some require additional equipment---boxing for example needs a second controller so you've got one for each hand. Or the yoga that requires a mat so the game can sense your movement.

[etakyma.livejournal.com]

Yeah, the balance board comes with Wii Fit Plus (which includes yoga), so I'll have that. And the Wii itself comes with Wii Resort as well as Wii Sport, so I think I am well started with the fitness games. I'm basically looking for game-games recommendations.

Lego games... there are lots of them to choose from! I'll add them to the list of possibilities.