Nintendo Wii? Seeking Advice from Parents Who've Been There/Done That

Argh, I'm a pc gamer. I have had the xbox 360 since release. I got it because at the time, it totally demolished my gaming rig in graphics quality, and some of the exclusives are worth it.

My 6 yr old daughter wants a Wii for Christmas. We've gamed together on the PC and xbox, with titles like Street Fighter IV, but those get old fast. The mother and I aren't together, and she spends about equal time between the two homes. Her mother bought her a DSi awhile ago, and she's totally addicted to the Mario games. That's at her mom's house. She doesn't bring the DSi here. When she's here, she rarely watches tv. She spends most of the time drawing pictures and doing arts & crafts type stuff. She also plays with her dolls, but her colored markers and pencils get the most attention.

She just wrote her letter to Santa, and she really wants a Wii. Do you all think this is a good idea? Do I want to go down this road with her possibly being absorbed by Mario, and falling behind in her artwork, and possibly becoming less social? The fact that I have a 46" Samsung would probably make it worse. On the other hand, there's a lot of extra activity involved in playing some Wii games, so the trade-off might be her gaming but not actually sitting on her butt like a vegetable. Obviously, I'll be in control of the situation and monitoring her time spent doing this or that. If she already has a tendency to favor the DSi over other activities at her mom's that she has available, again I ask, do I want to travel down this road or just stay away from it?

Honestly though, I do have fond memories of playing Mario games on my old NES / S-NES / and N64, so I might actually jump in once in awhile too. So there's also that fun bonding time there to look forward to as well.

What do all of you think? How about those out there with children, young and older... How is it, and/or how has it turned out for you?

get her the wii

as you said you control the amount of time she spends on it--make time on the wii a reward for doing her artwork and other stuff

make sure to get 2 controllers so you can join in

as another avid pc gamer i reluctantly have to admit she will get more excersise playing wii games than pc ones

As a teenager ill advice you to do what my parents did for me when i asked santa the gameboy color they did buy me but they made it sort of reward like you have to do this so you can play x hours which really worked out i didnt become an addict and i became more responsible. And its even better with wii since theres a lot of exercices while playing wii (tennis etc.)
As for the brands I always like to buy the manufacturers defaults but thats just my opinion

I'm sold on the Wii at this point. I had a discussion with her without giving too much away. She agreed on a reward system as far as time with "toys"... yeah I was slick. It's cute because that's the system already in place, it just didn't have a name. I reminded her that asking 30x for something, in rapid succession will go nowhere. Again, its cute, because they know that at 6, but the remote possibility of a payoff at the end, gets to be too tempting. We don't have to get too deep into roles and who's in charge.

At this moment, I'm ready to get the Wii, and my focus is now on the accessories. None of the Nintendo brand stuff seems available right now, so I'm looking at 3rd party stuff as the only option.

Also, I'm seeing the mini versions of the remote and nunchuck. Are the regular ones so large its necessary to consider the mini versions?

When my nieces come over (ages 4 - 7), they don't have a problem holding the standard controllers. You will however want to make sure the wrist straps are tightened securely as kids tend to flail around wildly when playing.

Yes, but what's also great about this is, this could one of the best bonding time with the family and become great memories for the kids when they grow up.

I bought it. Picked up Mario Galaxy 1/2, Just Dance 3, and Game Party 2. She loved it all and kept screaming "Wiiiiiiiiiiiiii... Wiiiiiiiiiiiiii... Wiiiiiiiiiii", jumped up and did some air guitar and screamed into my microphone lol... It went well. She's been sick though and can't hang very long on Just Dance. The free new Mario Bros. Wii is actually kinda hard so that frustrated her. Haven't loaded up either Galaxy or Game Party one yet.

good decision, i would try to dissuade you from it if she was a boy, however, for most boys prefer 1st person shooters to mario once they grow up a little. for a girl it is great, where wii specializes in games like dance and such, but action games are limited.