In general, my wife hates video games. She loves Wii Sports, but she loves DDR even more. She's obsessed. Yes, I think it's a worthwhile purchase.

Glad to hear it! We just bought a Wii, which will be The Big Present to the family from Santa Claus on Christmas morning. His elves delivered it early from Amazon this week and it's sitting in our bedroom closet. My husband and I are exercising a LOT of restraint not to mess around with it after the kids are in bed each night!

On the personal finance angle--My husband got a $100 gift certif from Amazon as some credit card reward or somesuch and we put it toward the Wii purchase, so it was much less out of pocket for the system. We are also a little afraid that all the stomping around once we get it set up will alienate our (otherwise very mellow and tolerant) tenant in our basement apartment, and we'll be out of the rental income...

Ok, in the I'm a Dork category. I used to like Super Mario Brothers and then Crash Bandicoot for PS1. What would be a similar level-conquering (but not too difficult) game for the Wii?

OK, so two seconds later an update: It looks like the answer is Super Mario Galaxy. I'm watching a review of it now. Any thoughts on it?

Update 2: OK, it isn't out yet. So, unless you have a review copy, you don't have it.

Daria, Super Mario Galaxy comes out next Tuesday, I think. The reviews I've read have been glowing. (GLOWING!) Also, you can actually play the old Super Mario games on the Wii. You can pay a few bucks to download them, and then they live on the machine's hard drive.

Thanks. I haven't figured out the download thing yet. It's on the list for tonight (as well as other more important projects, but this one will probably win), so I will have to check out the options.

I can not wait to play super mario galaxy, and thanks to this thread I'm tempted to try out DDR

I feel guilty for encouraging people to buy things in this thread. I try not to do that. But sometimes I can't help it.

Like a lot of people like to say around here "the point of personal finance is to be able to enjoy your money." While I'm not out of debt yet I do feel I have my finances under far better control than I could ever have dreamed of 8 months ago so spending $50 on an item that will brings many hours of entertainment is a good "investment"

JD, dude, if you're willing to risk your reputation over a Wii, I know it's gotta be good.

Actually, what you've mostly risked your reputation over is comic books....but I still trust your assessment of the Wii anyway.

I'll risk JD's reputation. The Wii is AWESOME! Oh, okay. I'll risk mine. Also it's not a bajillion dollars like the PS3.

Well, if we plan to buy a game, it's better to hear reviews of which will be the better value/most fun.

Btw, you can buy the Wii Super Mario Galaxy at ToysRUs on Tuesday 11/13 for $49.99 , and you'll get a free $25 gift card.

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My kids play computer games, but we've never had an actual game console. I had been thinking about trying to get a Wii for them for Christmas this year. One of my kids really wants Dance Dance Revolution but I didn't realize at first that it was a game that needed to be played with a game system. Once I realized that, and realized that it comes in a format for the Wii, my mind was made up.

I checked a few places online and found out that the Best Buy not too far away had some in stock, although they were showing out of stock of DDR. When I went yesterday I was able to get the Wii and they even had one DDR in the back. So now the biggest part of Christmas is out of the way. This will be for all 4 girls together so the cost wasn't too bad when split that way.

Anyway, now it's all hidded away, but after reading this thread I'm having to restrain myself not to dig it out.

OMG, what a hit this has been!! We usually travel boxing day to visit family for up to a week so we gave the kids this present a few days early so they could play with it before we had to go. They were so excited and so surprised, I guess they hadn't snooped after all. Anyway, they all went wild when they opened it and we got huge hugs and thanks from all of them. The 15 year old who hasn't shown gratitude for anything in about 2 years even came back up to me the next day to say thank you again. It's been going almost non-stop for 3 days now and they are working up a sweat playing DDR.

Heh. I'm sitting here at the computer sweating myself from DDR. Kris and I have finally reached a place where it's difficult to get an A grade on certain songs on certain levels. It makes it more challenging. And I still can't beat "Super Samurai" in Groove Circuit mode.

We have other Wii games that we like, but DDR hasn't come out of the machine in months. (Well, that's not exactly true. I did play some Super Mario Galaxy, but DDR won out in the end.)

So any tips on how to find a Wii? We've decided that'll be our Christmas present this year, but didn't want to fight crowds and such to get one before Christmas.