Waluigi is a captialist running dog.

The kids have been seriously bogarting the Wii, thus preventing me from writing the authoritative post I had hoped to write. But I will say this, based on my limited play thus far: Holy crap is this thing fun. Way, way funner than other consoles. Dangerously fun.

Those wacky folks at Nintendo--geniuses or idiots? On the genius side, they dropped out of the graphics arms race and instead focused on revolutionizing game play. Good call! Do you really care if you can see the beads of sweat on Eli Manning's forehead whilst playing Madden? Which you probably can't even do if you don't have an HDTV, which most people don't. So that part is genius.

Possibly idiotic are the chronic shortages. I was able to get my hands on one only by sprinting to the Nintendo store during the final half-hour of an 8-hour sojourn in New York and nearly missing my train home. People in stores in Boston literally laugh at you when you ask if they have a Wii in stock. It's been long enough since the thing came out that they really should have them available for purchase. I think they would sell a lot more if people could actually buy them. Then again, they got my sorry butt sprinting to the store, so maybe they're geniuses after all.

But what of the games? Well, I've enjoyed the Wii sports and Wii play titles, and the little bit of Soul Caliber: Legends I've played has been really cool. Sort of. I mean, it's not really a fighting game, (Vs mode is split screen! What the hell?) but more of an adventure game. I feel kind of sorry for the folks who make up the stories for the fighting games, because really, nobody cares at all. But here they've build an entire game around the action between the first two Soul Caliber games. Or something. The story is boring and lame, but you get to use the controller as a sword, and it makes swooshy sword noises as you thrust and parry around your living room! How incredibly cool is that? (answer: very.)

Also cool is Mario and Sonic at the 2008 Olympic games. I haven't had too much opportunity to play this one yet, but the boy has beaten a bunch of events and gotten to the real prize--the unlockables! See Sonic sprint through a crowd of angry protestors, holding the Olympic torch aloft! My favorite part is when Toad runs on to the field holding a "Free Tibet" sign, and Chinese security forces, led by Wario in a Mao cap, detain him and send him to a re-education camp! Then you can use the Wii remote to make Toad write self-criticism! Oh, okay, not really. But that would be cool.