Nintendo Wii

Niranda Chantavy, a student in Honolulu, talks about why she can't live without her Wii.

I’m so hooked on the Wii that I’ve had to ice my elbow after countless hours of playing Wii tennis. I bought the Wii as consolation for bombing the med school exam. (I’m now studying to take the exam again, so I can’t play as often.)

The first time I played, I became so animated that I hit the television. Maybe it was the game, or maybe it was the thrill of the pursuit involved in buying the Wii. I finally hunted down the console at a local game shop after making many phone calls to Wal-Mart, Best Buy and other stores. To this day, they’re hard to come by in Hawaii.

Super Mario Galaxy is my favorite game at the moment, because I have yet to beat it. I also play Dance Dance Revolution and Guitar Hero on the Wii, which is most famous for attracting casual gamers to video games. But way before the Wii became popular with nongamers, my younger brothers and I bopped and boogied in regular Dance Dance Revolution sessions using the PlayStation 2. So it was only natural that I would find the Wii so utterly addictive. It makes me much more active!