I can't believe this...

I played Nintendo Wii for the first time last night. Yeah I know...I'm a little late to the party...the rest of the world has been playing for a while now, but I just got invited!

I've never been a big gamer...maybe it's because as a kid I never went to the arcade like most kids. I'll guarantee you as a teenager I went to the arcade maybe...maybe...5 times.

I never really played any sort of video games until my parents bought me an Atari one Christmas. Remember Atari...Space Invaders, Pacman, Pong, and all of those other silly little games?

Then in 1998 my wife bought me a Playstation with Madden Football. Between 1980 and 2008...I rarely ever played a video game...and when I did...I SUCKED!

Despite the onslaught by advertisers of the latest greatest gaming systems...X-Box, Game Cube, Playstation 3, etc...my wife and I have held them all at bay and protected our children from the video wars. There are NO gaming systems in our house (except for the Playstation I mentioned earlier...but it sits on the top shelf of the closet in our office...way in the back)...no DS, no Gameboy...nada!

We're proud that our boys love to play outside, use their imaginations, create, color, build, ride bikes...anything productive besides sit in front of the TV. We promote a healthy, active lifestyle by being active and healthy ourselves.

So...imagine the battle that's raging inside of me this morning. Last night, after a great dinner with some good friends...we went back to their house and fired up the Wii. I had heard all about it...read about it...but here it was right in front of me.

Being a bit of a skeptic by nature, I had told myself on the way over that I wouldn't like it. It would just be another boring gaming system that I wouldn't be good at...and would really have no interest in. Man was I wrong!

Now I won't say I was good at the tennis game, or bowling...but IT WAS FUN! My wife loved it...and was actually pretty good. Of course, unlike me, she spent a lot of her parents money inside arcades as a youth!


After tennis and bowling I flew a couple of sorties over a European town trying to blow enemy aircraft out of the sky. I think I shot down two before crashing into a building...TWICE!

Never mind...I had a blast. So this morning, after telling my kids all about our experience, there is new found joy in the house. I've actually opened up to the idea of buying a Wii! I e-mailed a friend and told him the exciting news (well, exciting to me...he just kinda scoffed and welcomed me to the 21st century. Needless to say he spent enough quarters over the years to bail out a failing S&L)...anyway, he told me to buy the MLB Baseball game, and recommended a few others for the kids.

So as I contemplate buying a Wii...if you have suggestions about games you love or hate, or ones to absolutely get...or stay away from...I'd love to hear from you. So leave a comment and let me know what you think.