Awesome squee.

I haven't played Nintendo religiously since NES, but I have found a new reason to willingly reunite with the pains of "Nintendo thumb," and it's called Wii.

My brother has a problem, and it's called, "Buying every video game and console ever made." If he was old enough, I'm sure he would have been an early proponent of Atari. Through him, I've managed to sort of stay in touch with the latest video game nonsense, and sometimes* be cool enough to play a game or two.

Call it the hospitality of Thanksgiving, call it a momentary lack of sanity, but he recently purchased Wii and let me play.

Can I just tell you now that it is THE singlemost amazing thing of 2006, other than Timberlake locating and returning "sexy?" (Okay, fine. And Britney dumping K-Fed.)

Incase you've been living under a rock, or actually have a life, Wii oozes uber-coolness because of its wireless controller (that kinda, sorta looks like a sleek TV remote) that detects motions of the player.

Remember the old track games on NES? You had to run and jump on that ghetto version of a Dance Dance Revolution Pad? This smacks that in the face.

When you're playing a game like Wii Sports, you're actually going through the motions of playing the game in real life. You're throwing punches to get the TKO. You're swinging a baseball bat or the tennis racket to hit the ball. You're reaching out your arm to get that turkey in bowling.

Call me pathetic, dumb, or seriously challenged in the upper-body strength department, but I somehow managed to feel as if I went through sports bootcamp after a few hours of playing. ...For two days.

It made me wonder if Nintendo thought they were actually trying to motivate gamers to be active, and perhaps I'm not too far off considering there's a fitness test to monitor one's activities over time.

Yeah, I tried the fitness test. Yeah, it said I had the athleticism of a 58-year-old man, but I was robbed! How is not getting a strike and not being allowed to pick up the spare in bowling a sign of physical weakness? I protest.

And when I say I played, I really mean "I" did. Mii. On the "Mii Channel," every Wii user gets to create their own player to be designed in his or her very own likeness. These "characters" can interact on message boards and private messaging through Wii's wireless Internet capabilities.

I don't think I can handle the awesomeness.

What I really won't be able to deal with is the ability to play Sega Genesis games like Toe Jam & Earl.

Funkotron, here I come!

*Every five years.