So, some more impressions after playing it for a while:
The wiimote. It's fantastic. It's not perfect, but its great. There IS a very slight lag with the "pointer". It feels like you're using a wireless mouse, which isnt surprising, cause its basically, a wireless mouse? You get used to it in a second, and it doesnt really take much away in the end.
And another thing to note: the wiimote has absolutely zero idea as to where you're actually pointing on screen. It is determining the pointer based solely upon the sensor bar. This is both a good thing and a bad thing.
The good - you can adjust the sensitivity. If it pointed directly at the screen, the sensitivity would be impossible to change. Besides, when you have the wiimote resting on your lap, its not as if you can accurately point it anyway.
The bad - you cant just point your arm out and aim directly at the screen, and expect it to be exactly where you're pointing, especially when you've got high sensitivity. Also, since its directly determined by the sensor bar, to get the most accurate pointing, you want to have the bar as close as possible to the screen. I had mine resting on top of my center channel, and there was an obvious gap due to that distance.
I havent figured out if theres an automatic way to compensate for that. But as far as I can tell, if you spent a little time tweaking it, you COULD get it to point directly.
Other than the pointer, the wiimote/nunchuk just works. Brilliantly. Rarely does it do something you didnt intend it to do. This has a lot to do with the game, but so far in wii sports and rayman, it has felt 100% natural. The wiimote seems to be aware of its absolute orientation at all times - when you hold the bat in baseball, or tilt stuff etc, it is always exactly as if you were holding it. I thought it might be that it can only detect changes in orientation, but it definitely knows - which is very cool.
Speaking of rayman, its an absolute blast. I underestimated the sensitivity of these controllers, you can really shake the living hell out of them, and then shake it even harder, and it can tell the difference. It knows the difference between a flick, whip, pull, smash etc...I'd be lying if I didn't say I'm having a great time here. But man, some of those minigames are exhausting. The one shooting the carrot juice, you really, REALLY have to shake the hell out of the nunchuk, all while trying to aim. I lasted only a minute because my arm was about to fall off.
But I checked 5 stores, and no component cables anywhere. 480i over composite cables makes me weep.