I was able to snag my Wii at about 2am on Sunday morning, thanks to a Toys R Us preorder. Since then I have been playing every free moment I could. I’ve played Twilight Princess, Wii Sports, Excite Truck, Bonk’s Adventure, F-Zero, a few Gamecube games and generally toyed around on the system for over three days now and I wanted to share my impressions.

After the cut I’ll talk about everything I’ve experience so far, good and bad, and then let you guys submit any questions you have. Grab a drink, cuz this is going to be a bit lengthy.

First let me cover the basics of the system and the controllers. The system itself is gorgeous, as you all know. I was really pulling for the black Wii, but now that I have the white I doubt I will ever trade it in. It has a beautiful glossy finish that doesn’t pick up fingerprints. The construction of the system is awesome too. The disc slot works like a charm for both Wii and Gamecube disks. The flaps that cover the Gamecube slots are nice and thick and close with a satisfying click. They can also be removed for easier access (especially if you lay the Wii on it’s side).

The plugs in the back are nicely arranged and all the cords are basically long enough. You will run into problems if you have a projector, as the sensor bar wire may not be long enough. Still, it’s only a matter of time before a wireless one comes along or an extension cable is released. The other cable that you might have to jimmy-rig a bit is the component cables. I ordered mine from the Nintendo online store and got them the day before I got my Wii. I then realized that there was no way the audio portion of the cables were going to reach my stereo, so I had to go purchase an adapter at Radio Shack and plug in some longer wires.

I also tested the difference between the composite cables that come in the box and the component cables. Yes, there is a difference, but no, it is not worth spending $150 on Ebay. I played Zelda and switched the cables out and while I definitely saw an improvement with the component cables, it wasn’t so drastic that my eyes exploded. Save your money and wait until they are restocked.

Now onto the controllers. First, let me say that I absolutely love having the Wiimote and the Nunchuck split. Especially for games that only use the Wiimote. Countless times over the last few days I’ve needed to pause the game and go get the phone or grab a bite to eat and I simply stuck the Wiimote in my pocket and off I went. Another benefit that I have seen mentioned on other sites is that your hands can rest more naturally with the controller split. It is true. I can now lay on my side, resting on one elbow and have my other hand on my side. It’s not something I thought of before the systems launch, but now that I have it it makes a world of difference.

And speaking of putting the Wiimote in my pocket, I just want to take this bad boy everywhere. With the batteries in (and by the way, the battery connectors on the Wiimote are excellent… well constructed wound metal springs) the Wiimote is the perfect weight. It’s got enough heft to it that you know you are holding something, yet it’s not so heavy that you get tired after a few rounds of Wii Tennis. Furthermore, all of the buttons are amazing. The D-Pad is excellent and all of the buttons, while small at first glance, are great. The B button and the Z and C on the Nunchuck also have a great, slightly textured, feel to them. Oh, and the analog stick on the Nunchuck is perfect… even better than the Gamecubes.

The speaker on the Wiimote leaves a little to be desired though. More subtle sound effects come out well, but louder, sharper sounds have a tendency to pop or sound distorted. It’s just going to have to be something developers are conscious of. Oh, and you can plug or unplug the Nunchuck from the Wiimote at anytime and nothing bad will happen. Same with the VController.

This is already getting long, eh? Well, I still have a lot more to blab about, so bear with me. Next I want to talk about the fantastic Wii Channels and the Miis. You’ve probably all seen pictures of the interface by now, but even if you haven’t, rest assured that it is great. Clean, easy to navigate and way more fun than it should be. Everything is easy to find and almost everything you want to do, you can (here is a little tip, holding A + B allows you to grab channels and reorder them).

The Channels are great and the fact that Nintendo can update the firmware is going to be a huge bonus. They have already added some functionality (screen burn-in protection and better SD capabilities) with the first firmware upgrades. That is, if it doesn’t brick your system. It is both awesome and a little scary that the Wii isn’t a closed system.

Leaning way over on the awesome side are the Miis and the entire message board functionality. The Miis are as cute as you would expect and seeing them show up in Wii Sports is a delight. Even better though, is sharing your Miis with your buddies. I’m actually surprised at just how easy this was. Since every system has a single Wii Code (thank god) all you have to do is enter your friends code in and once they do the same you can share Miis and send each other messages. You can even send messages to peoples’ regular email addresses and talk that way (after they reply once and validate the address). All very cool. And there’s nothing quite like going out into the living room for a late night snack and seeing that awesome blue light pulsating from the disc slot, letting you know you have a new message.

And connecting to your wireless network is fairly simple. The Wii supports all kinds of wireless settings and jibber-jabber, so everyone with a wireless modem/router should be able to get on. I did have to upgrade my firmware and mess with some settings, but after that I haven’t had a single problem.

Where I (and many others, from what I hear) have had problems is with the Wii Store. My first few attempts to connect to the store were unsuccessful. I don’t know if it was my Wii, the Wii network or the store itself, but it was a little annoying. And speaking of annoying… that beautiful simplicity of the Wii Channels menu is lost when you get to the Wii Store. The store feels very cluttered and hard to navigate. At this point it is easy enough because there aren’t many Virtual Console games to sort through, but I imagine it could get messy.

Still, ordering Wii Points (which will be an awesome gift for parents and friends to give) and buying games is a snap. I was able to buy Wii Points, select and download Bonk’s Adventure and F-Zero very easily. I did have to reenter my data when I bought points the second time, which is a bit of a pain. You link your “My Nintendo” account to the Wii store, so hopefully in the future you can store your data (address and credit card info) on there and not have to retype everything. And let me quickly say that typing is pretty easy. Would a wireless keyboard be nice? Sure. Can I do without one? Yup. Especially since the place where you will be typing the most, the Message Board, allows for adaptive text and two kinds of keyboard layouts (qwerty and cell phone style) it works very well.

Now to wrap this up I’ll chat just a bit about Virtual Console games and Gamecube functionality. Virtual Console games work exactly as they should. They are not enhanced in anyway, just straight emulations of the games we all love. Some people have made a big deal about the fact that the VC games default to a stretched mode if you have your Wii setup for 16:9. I don’t see what the problem is. Will you notice it? Probably, but it really isn’t bad. Text is a little stretched, but I haven’t been bothered.

One awesome thing about VC games on the Wii is that you can pause them at any time and go back to the menu and the Wii creates a restore point. You can do this with as many games as you want. I was in the middle of a level of Bonk’s Adventure and decided to play some Zelda. No prob. Just hit “Home” and do your business. Then when you are ready to play Bonk again, just select it and it will drop you right back to the spot you were playing. This temporary save state will only go away if you completely power off your system. You can only have one of these restore points per VC game (it’s not like a save file on a PC emulator), but just think of it more like an indefinite pause feature. Incredibly useful… especially on those old games that don’t have continues.

Finally, the Gamecube functionality. It’s a little weird. I was hoping to be able to use the VController, which works great for VC games, for Cube games, but no dice. So I pulled out the ol Wavebird. Works like a charm. If all you have are corded Cube controllers, do yourself a favor and buy a Wavebird. Especially if you are playing on a HDTV and need to sit back a few feet.

So, the VController doesn’t work… I can live with that. I’m also happy that using the Gamecube memory cards is a snap. What I’m not so happy about is that there seems to be no easy way to get back to the Wii menu once you are done playing a Gamecube game. Instead of just being able to hit the Home button and go back, you have to jump through some hoops. I tried hitting the reset button, but all that did was reset the Cube game. The best thing I’ve found is to eject the disc and then hit the rest button. I certainly hope they fix this in the future.

Oh, one final note… playing in the sun will affect your Wiimote pointer functionality. I was playing with some light streaming in and it definitely made my onscreen hand go crazy. Not sure if it was the beam from the Wiimote going through the sunlight, or the sunlight on the Sensor Bar, but either way, close those blinds. [Update: Check this video for the full scoop on the Sensor Bar.]

Anyway, that is about it. So far the Wii has lived up to my expectations. In fact, it has exceeded them on so many levels that I have to say this is the best console launch I have ever experienced. Please feel free to ask me any questions and I’ll answer everything I can. Eventually, I’ll report back with my thoughts on Zelda (magnificent) and Excite Truck (fun, but a bit underwhelming) and whatever else I happen to buy impulsively in the next few weeks.