Home Video Game Systems, Need some reviews Options

[jgreening]

Help me decide which video game system to buy for the family. My kids are ages 4-11. We have never had a video game system. The older two are girls and have never really expressed any interest. My son wants one and the girls both say they would play it too. I would appreciate if you all would weigh in on what system to buy and why.

Playstation (version)
X-box (version)
Wii
Wii fit
Other?

Keep in mind that my knowledge of video game systems was current when Atari was around.

Thanks.

Jay

[forkee]

if your family has survived so long without a video game system, and most of them dont even have any interest, then i suggest not buying any. although having most video game systems myself when i was young, i think i can say now that although it was a lot of fun, it hardly was productive. The Wii does have the highest interactivity when it comes to games, but you're stuck with a small amount of them compared to 20x more games on the other platforms, which lends itself to just sitting around, especially if you're too tired to get up and pretend to bowl, tennis, run, row, etc. and then you just play it like any other system and become a zombie staring at the screen while time flies by so fast you forget to do the important stuff in life.

[jgreening]

if your family has survived so long without a video game system, and most of them dont even have any interest, then i suggest not buying any. although having most video game systems myself when i was young, i think i can say now that although it was a lot of fun, it hardly was productive. The Wii does have the highest interactivity when it comes to games, but you're stuck with a small amount of them compared to 20x more games on the other platforms, which lends itself to just sitting around, especially if you're too tired to get up and pretend to bowl, tennis, run, row, etc. and then you just play it like any other system and become a zombie staring at the screen while time flies by so fast you forget to do the important stuff in life.

Its funny, thats the way I have always felt. However, we are the type of family that loves to have all the other kids over to our house. While our kids were young, that just happened because we took the initiative. What we are beginning to notice is that sometimes the presence of a video game makes the kids want to go elsewhere. So, I have loosened up about the whole thing in the name of keeping the tribe at our house (we enjoy having everyone over and keeping a closer eye on ours). I am confident that we can have rules with the wii just like we do with the TV and the computer so I am not really worried about my kids becoming vegetables.

Ok. You guys have convinced me to buy the wii. Now, convince me what games I should get. Here are some things to keep in mind:

Girls, 11 and 8
Boy 4
Mom and Dad

Boy is a racing nut so I need a racing game. Which one?
I will be buying wii fit.
I need some type of music type game. Which one?
What other wii games are worth considering and why?

Thanks for the input everyone!

This post has been edited by jgreening: Dec 18, 2008 - 2:19 PM