Nintendo Wii

Bowling, tennis, and family competitions brought video games off the couch and into the living room, one Wii Remote at a time.

You didn’t have to be good at video games to enjoy the Nintendo Wii. Pick up the Wii Remote, make a bowling motion or swing at a tennis ball, and see what happened on the television.

Nintendo introduced the Wii in 2006, and Wii Sports showed what its motion-sensing controller could do. Bowling, tennis, golf, baseball, and boxing. There were still some controls to learn, and getting good at the games did take some practice, but the familiar sports and movements and control gestures made it pretty easy to learn.

The Wii made it easy for the whole family to participate. I remember the first Christmas the Wii was available that they were sold out everywhere - eBay was your best bet for being able to get one (and hope that it shipped in time!). The first year that we had one the whole family played endless games of Wii Bowling and Mario Kart racing. And being the family’s best gamer didn’t necessarily mean you were going to be the best bowler. The Miis (avatars) were also fun - you could choose a face, hairstyle, glasses, and other features to make a miniature cartoon version of yourself.

Nintendo no longer makes the original Wii, but used and refurbished Wii consoles and Wii Sports discs are still available online if you want the original experience - but make sure that whatever you buy includes the discs, cables, Wii Remote, or sensor bar you need to actually be able to play the game you want. I was looking into getting a Wii a couple of years ago just to be able to play Mario Kart and ended up just buying a Nintendo Switch - it has Mario Kart and a Sports game (not identical to the Wii version, but it does have bowling and tennis). And, the Switch allows me to just download games, no more messing with those optical discs!