Ahh, the first year of the Wii's lifespan passes by; and what a fine year it was! With great starting games like Wii Sports and The Legend of Zelda: Twilight Princess to recent masterpieces like Metroid Prime 3: Corruption and Super Mario Galaxy, the Wii had a solid first 12 months of gaming. As of this day my current Wii collection is (in the order that I bought them:

Wii Sports

The Legend of Zelda: Twilight Princess

Metal Slug Anthology

SSX Blur

Metroid Prime 3: Corruption

Wii Play (my brother bought this one)

Fire Emblem: Radiant Dawn

Super Mario Galaxy

A fine list if I do say so myself! This, of course, doesn't include my VC collection, which has games like Super Metroid, F-Zero, Contra III and more. I think I have 18 total or something like that. The point I'm making here is that the games in the Wii's first year were quite impressive, and 2008 already looks incredible (Smash Bros. Brawl, Mario Kart Wii) and beyond that, who knows what might happen!

Raise your Mountain Dew, Miller Light, orange juice, or whatever you've got, and here's to another awesome year of Wii!

Anyway, now that that's over with, I'd like to share my story of the day I got my Wii. Twas a good day I tell you. I woke up at about 10 or 11 AM on Saturday, November 18. It was my birthday and I knew EXACTLY what I wanted to get myself! A WII!!! Now, I knew that it would be a good idea to go to Wal Mart quick and see if there was anyone there. To my surprise, there was already a few people waiting in the layaway section. This is surprising because I live in a South Dakota town, about 17,000 people is all, so I wasn't expecting anyone to be there, at least not that early! I asked the guy working there how many Wii's they would have at midnight, he said 20. I thought to myself "oh crap, I better hurry!". I drove home and got a check from my mother. I arrived at Wal Mart at about 2:30 and went to the layaway section, THERE WERE MORE PEOPLE!

I asked what I was supposed to do. There were 20 chairs, each one with a number of 1-20. I was number 16. Alright, I was for sure going to get a Wii. The only downside... I HAD TO SIT AND WAIT FOR 9 AND A HALF HOURS!!!! Whew, this kind of sucks. Anyway, while I'm sitting in chair number 16, I called my friend up on my cell phone. He was in another town about 60 miles away with his dad. Our original plan was to go to Wal Mart at 11 or so that night and wait for our Wii's. Luckily I made the decision to go early and see if anyone was there. My friend didn't believe that anyone would be there, but I had a hunch. Anyway, I call him up and tell him that there's only 4 spots left. He immediately hung up the phone and drove his butt 60 miles back to town.

I called him frequently to see how close he was. By the time he was just a couple of miles away, all 20 spots were taken. I told him this and he was bummed, but he still decided to come because I was bored and he wanted to come just for the experience. Ihad him stop by my house and grab my DS and he brought his along with some pizza-flavored goldfish.

So we sat around for hours and hours, which actually felt like days and days. Me and my friend played DS, ate goldfish, and waited for midnight. I was also frequently calling my friend from across the state as well. He gave $250 to a friend of his who was going to a store to get a Wii at midnight . His friend's friend was not getting a Wii, but decided to go anyway and since it's only one Wii per system, perfect setup for my friend to get a Wii. Haha, confusing? Anyway, me and my friend called each other often just to talk about how excited we were, we were practically pissing our pants.

So let's fast forward to about 11 PM. We're one hour away and all 20 of us people are bored out of our minds. Me, my friend, and a few other guys came up with an idea to walk around the store without losing our spots: carry the chairs with us! So here's about five or six guys walking around Wal Mart at near-midnight carrying blue chairs over their heads. After joking around in the entertainment section for a while, we decided to go back since there was about 20 minutes left. Those 20 minutes went by so slow I can't even explain it. But at about 11:58 PM, a couple of guys rolled out exactly 20 Wii's on a cart. What a sight it was, everyone was taking pictures.

At approximately 12:15 AM, I was holding my newly purchased Wii. Me and my friend walked out of the store almsot silently. He went to his car and I went to my now frost-covered truck and placed the Wii next to me. I simply smiled and drove off into the cold, November night. We went to my friends house and unpacked everything. I'll never forget what it felt like holding that remote for the first time: awesome! We had just unpacked everything when the phone rang. It was my friends parents, calling because they were out drinking that night and needed a ride home. My friend was pretty peeved and left to pick them up. I continued to figure out how to plug everything in a what not. After my friend got back, we plugged it all into his room and started up the Wii, making a 40 minute video documentary. We turned the system on and, to our surprise, we had to name the console! We ended up naming it Stuii (get it, Stuii! Like "Stewie" but spelled with two i's! Haha, I crack myself up). We had a blast playing Wii Sports and eventually went to bed at 4 AM or so. I went home the next day and played Twilight Princess and more Wii Sports. Twas an awesome day.

Anyway, that's my story. I'll never forget it, what an experience.