When Animal Crossing: City Folk shipped, the optional bundle included the Wii Speak microphone. If you didn't get the bundle or don't care about Animal Crossing, though, you can purchase the Wii Speak Microphone separately, but should you?

The Wii Speak is Nintendo's answer to the Xbox 360 headset but differs greatly, given the different emphasis of the two consoles. The Xbox 360 primarily focuses on hardcore gamers playing by themselves online with groups of people in other places. The Wii has always been a family console, focused on gathering people in one place to play together. So unlike the Xbox 360's headset, which is designed for a single user, the Wii Speak gets placed by your Wii/TV so the whole family can interact with another whole family.

Besides its use in Animal Crossing: City Folk, which adds a great new dimension to the Wii, the Wii Speak also includes a download code for the Wii Speak Channel, which creates a chat room to allow talk with another Wii Speak-using friend. Besides talking via a floating head of your Miis (you can include more than one to show who's talking), which move their mouths when you talk, the channel offers a handful of other options, including photo sharing, voice changing (make your voice sound metallic), and causing one head to suddenly pop out (for emphasis or to show who's talking).

Once connected (Note: the large box connected to the cord may cause difficulty threading the cord/mic through the cable hole in some entertainment centers), use the included coupon code in the Wii Shop channel to download the free Wii Speak channel. Find it in Settings: Code, not "Channels." Once downloaded, you'll need to set up your mic, mainly to eliminate echo. (If you don't, you'll sound like you're in a cave when you talk to someone.) Don't wait for the kids to go to bed before configuring, as we found that we needed to turn the TV up rather loud to get the config to work. (Also, turn off Surround Sound on your TV if your TV has that--follow the "precautions" closely.) Having to turn off surround sound is a bit of a drawback.

Once entering a chat, we found the audio quality to be acceptable, even with multiple people in the room, although there's a lot of "talking over" each other, but hardly any delay, even with our slow DSL. Obviously, this can't compare to Skype or other personal internet telephony, but it's decent for large group talking.

Should you get a Wii Speak? If you have Animal Crossing: City Folk and friends who have the same with Wii Speak, yes. If none of your friends have Wii Speak, no. If you're looking for a Skype replacement, no, since Skype is clearer and can do video--you can get a webcam for the same price. But if you want to talk on your Wii to friends, especially including the whole family, it's worth considering, but not a must-have.