For almost three whole months, all I ever heard was "can we get a Wii, please?" You see I have a family of three kids and the oldest even had the little one begging for it. I hesitated for a long time as I didn't want them simply laying around a TV all day with a little controller in there hand when they could be outstide having real fun instead. Before long, Christmas rolled around and that's when we decided to go ahead and get a Wii console for the kids as it would still let them be somewhat active as it seemed more interactive than simply pushing a few buttons and besides, we would make it a family game instead of someones personal entertainment console.

The first game we had actually came with the Wii console itself and was the sports package. This game turned out to be a real blast at family time as we could make some hot dogs and pop some popcorn and have our own little bowling tournaments and such. My middle child that has an age difference of about 5 years to her older brother actually got so good at it, that she started beating him. It was really exciting to see how they interacted and was relating to each other. It actually started bringing them closer together with the friendly and sometimes not so friendly competition.

We soon found out though, that as with most sports (real or virtual) you either like it and it sticks with you or it becomes old and boring and soon forgotten and never to be played again. Thus, Wii Sports went by the wayside into that unplayed bin of games that never fails to accumulate. I still like it though so it does see some action these days. We started looking around some more for different games that we might all still enjoy together and that's when we stumbled onto Guitar Hero.

This game has truly revolutionized our Friday nights as we now know it. It took a little getting used to but soon my son and I were playing on the more difficult levels and actually trading secrets on how to hit those notes that seem to be flying at you. Now, instead of taking the family to the movies or heading out to dinner and spending close to a hundred dollars every Friday, we hold our own little mini-concerts in the comfort of our own home and only end up denting the budget for about twenty dollars with a much needed and aligned Friday night together and some simple fast food. Besides, who has time to cook when you can be heating up the guitar instead.