We set out to stream Wii games for 24 hours. What unfolded was not how it was planned.
As many of us know, November 19th was the 10th anniversary of the Nintendo Wii. A console beloved by all, Simeon and I hold a particular set of fond memories very near and dear to our hearts. We celebrate Wii day, an annual event that takes place on the date which the console originally premiered, and the festivities include a) waiting in line and b) playing Wii. A lot of Wii.
Simeon and I have done this for the last nine years, but this year being the tenth was meant to be extremely special. We arranged our schedules in a way such that we were cleared of all responsibilities for a 24 hour period, and we could do a Wii-exclusive livestream for 24 hours! We had never done something so ambitious with Two Button Crew or played video games for as long.
We set it all up. We scheduled the games out minute-for-minute. We got extra sleep leading up to the stream We bought energy drinks and frozen pizzas. We designed thumbnail images for 24 different stream segments. We were ready to go!
Well, the event started right on time with Wii Party. Our good friend (and Simeon-clone) Joel came over for a visit and joined us. The next game on the schedule was Just Dance 3 which was only there to please our wives and include them in the fun, but they were otherwise engaged so we just had to put up with the humiliation for 30 minutes.
If you watch the Just Dance footage, you can see a segment where I pick up my cat and dance with her.
We also watched the Metroid Other M movie complete with funny banter and commentary. Joel was still around for 3 hours of Super Smash Bros. Brawl goodness, where we constantly complained about the Wii Remote connection issue.
11:00pm was my cue to hit the sack for a few hours while Simeon tried to beat Skyward Sword. He got pretty close, and had the most viewers of the whole stream! As soon as I came back from my nap to play some Boom Blox and Tatsunoko Vs. Capcom, the stream viewers went to sleep. I can’t blame them though! It was getting super late at night.
Good buddy brother-in-law Ryan came over and we got a few more games in… Then…
That was when disaster struck.
Simeon and I were getting further than we EVER had in Wii Play Tanks and that’s when our power went out. Everything electronic in our house blinked out in the same moment, then we heard this huge CRASH outside like a gunshot. Our stream abruptly ended (you can see it in the Wii Play video) and our event was unexpectedly shut down. Simeon and I sat there, Wii remotes and nunchucks in hand, blinking at the black TV screen in front of us. What were we supposed to do?
We couldn’t go to sleep because the power could come back on at any time and the stream would have to continue. We were only 12 hours into our 24 hour allotted time. We checked the news to see what was going on.
Here’s WHY the power shut down:
Some drunk (or high) bozo was driving his car, smashed into 3 other vehicles and then careened off the road into an electrical box. His terrible decision to get behind the wheel could have killed someone, but instead it turned the power off for 750 Avista customers in the vicinity. Right in the middle of our stream. The news kept approximating the time for repairs to be done, but the estimate just kept getting pushed out further and further as Simeon and I waited up to see what happened.
Here’s what we ended up doing:
Pokemon. Lots and lots of Pokemon cards.
There were a million things we could have done to work on Two Button Crew with our downtime, but it was all inaccessible on the internet so we resorted to multiple rounds of Pokemon cards and also a few games of Boss Monster.
To be fair, we had a great time. It’s been years since we just got to hang out for half a day with no agenda and just have fun. It’s just completely insane that this whole debacle happened on the Wii’s 10th anniversary!
We tried our best to communicate with our audience via Twitter and YouTube comments, but surely some of you were left wondering what happened to us. Now you know! We hope you all found your own special ways to celebrate Wii Day!
Scott
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