Wii turns heads, revives dormant gamers

November has been a pox upon my free time, my wallet and my self-esteem; as such, I didn't expect my girlfriend to be too hyped on this recent splurge of games. She's got gaming in her blood, though, having grown up with two fiercely geeky older brothers. Despite her terribly sexy nigh-encyclopedic knowledge of gaming, she doesn't really game all that much. She was always afraid to be geeky growing up.

Since we got a place together I've been making small moves to get her back into console gaming. I hadn't experienced much success until last night, when she finally sat down with Wii Sports. Surprise: she's crazy good at bowling. We both suck at real bowling, mind -- hell, I even suck at Wii Sports bowling, my real life suckery having carried over seamlessly to my new Wii-based digital lifestyle. But my girlfriend is amazing. She went on to dominate golf and tennis and is beginning to really enjoy the console. With reports from early adopters pouring in from all over, it seems that the Wii is every bit as viral in its appeal as Nintendo promised.

Nintendo, please consider this my salute to your product. I've spent a little over a day and a half with the Wii and I've never seen anything turn heads quite like it. For Thanksgiving I'm heading home to Spokane, WA -- birthplace of Penny Arcade, the 1974 World's Fair Expo, and meth busts -- where I plan to expose as much of my family as I can to this wonderful little device. With a family as awkward and malformed as mine, we'll need all the distraction we can get.

So, Dtoid readership: how's your Wii experience been so far? Who are you planning to wow this week of grubbing with your shiny new consoles? Throw us some comments.