Nintendo Wii

Today there are three new releases on the Wii Shop Channel.  Two are WiiWare releases and one is a virtual console release.

Magnetica Twist:  This WiiWare title is the classic puzzle game Magnetica with a twist.  It costs 1,000 Wii points.  In the game you get to choose a Mii character to pilot the marble launcher.  You shoot marbles at the marbles already moving down the track to try and match up like colors and get them to disappear before reaching the end of the track.  It has five different play modes and sounds like it has a good amount of depth to it.

Fatal Fury 2:   This Virtual Console release is originally a NeoGeo game.  It costs 900 Wii points.  It is another fighting game.  Maybe others like fighting games, but I do find them boringly repetitive, especially when two weeks in a row the Virtual Console releases include a fighting game.

Final Fantasy Crystal Chronicles: My Life As a King:  This is not a new release exactly, as this WiiWare game has already been out for a while.  Rather the new release is five new pieces of add-on content.

Tuesday, July 1, 2008

Final Fantasy Fables: Chocobo’s Dungeon - This is the latest in the Final Fantasy series of games and is the debut of the popular series on the Wii.  Play as Chocobo learning the familiar Final Fantasy jobs and progressing to be able to switch jobs and unlock new jobs as you play through the dungeons, which includes some secret unlockable ones.  The plot line involves people losing their memories every time the clocktower bell rings and Chocobo retrieving the memories in the dungeons.

Purr Pals - To me this sounds like a pretty stupid game, but mainly because I do not like cats.  It does seem like it could be a good game for kids, especially those that want a real cat, but cannot have their own due to allergies in the family or just are not responsible enough to have a pet, yet.  From the description it does at least appear that it will take advantage of the unique Wii controls for playing with the cat.

Big Beach Sports is an interesting beach multiplayer game. It features six different sports played in a beach environment. The graphics are not all that great, but the gameplay is at least decent and to me that is more important than amazing graphics. The game does a pretty good job of making use of the Wii remote’s motion sensors allowing you to feel kind of like you are actually playing the games.

Volleyball - You can play quickplay best of 1, 3 or 5 or do a tournament. Controls are Press A and swing your arm with Wii remote forward over your head like doing a real overhead serve, move Wii remote up to do a bump, and swing arm like serving to do a spike. Overall this is pretty straighforward like real volleyball. It is a little frustrating, though, with getting your timing to hit the ball right and I frequently ended up with my players getting hit in the head, but with some practice the timing becomes natural. Against the computer it gets a little dull, but if you got some friends to play with I imagine this could be a fun party game.

Bocce - This game can be done as quickplay, tournament, or party play. Throw order can be done either traditionally (player farthest from jack goes next) or simple (players go in order). Use the arrow keys to aim your shot and to position your player. Press A to toggle between the controls. To throw the ball you do an underarm swing similar to bowling. Overall this is easy to do control wise, although it does take some skill to consistently end up with the one whose ball is closest to the jack.

Football - This is another quickplay or tournament mode game. To start you press A to snap the ball. To throw the ball you swing your arm over your head and down similar to throwing a real football. To knock down a pass you move the Wii remote up. You can intercept the pass if you hold B and do the same movement. To tackle you shake the Wii remote. This game is one of the easiest to play, but it is not all that realistic feeling to play.

Soccer - This can be done as quickplay or tournament. The main controls in this game are to press A to pass to the nearest teammate and press B to pass to the farthest teammate. To shoot a goal you swing the Wii remote side to side. When on defense you can switch the player you are controlling by pressing A. To have your player stay on the ball you hold B and you swing the Wii remote side to side to do a slide tackle. This can be fun if you are into soccer games, but as for realistic feeling this is definitely the worst because you are using your hand to play and you are never the goalie.

Disc Golf - This one has quickplay, tournament, and Party Play modes. In the game you try to get your metal disc/frisbee to the metal basket in as few throws as you can. You aim your throw using the arrow buttons. To throw you position your body with your right shoulder (left if you are set up as lefty) towards the screen and move your arm across your body while holding A from your farthest shoulder to in front of you. Basically you do the motion of throwing a frisbee.

Cricket - This one has quickplay and tournament modes. Personally I did not play enough to understand the game of cricket, but I did at least figure out the controls. When batting you swing like in baseball accept you hold the bat down instead of up. For bowling (i.e. pitching) you press the A button with the Wii remote at your side and then you swing your arm around and down like a windmill to throw the ball. Kind of interesting, but a little confusing for someone who does not know the game like me.

Overall this game is a worthwhile game to play. I like the realistic movements in most of the games. It is also a nice change of pace from playing the Wii Sports games and is not too hard to figure out. It does get kind of boring playing by yourself against the computer players, but if you can get some friends or family to play with you it could be a lot of fun. Lastly, I really love that you can customize your character’s face using the Nintendo DS download play mode and drawing with your stylus on the DS. Not as cool as if you could just use your already created Mii character, but a good alternative.

The latest result is for the U.S. National Poll question Which do you think there are more of in the world?  I voted for cats and predicted it would be the majority.  The majority ended up being dogs with 50.6% of the votes.  The breakdown by gender on this poll is quite different.  53.4% of the male voters voted for dogs with 46.6% voting for cats.  In contrast only 45.4% of female voters voted for dogs and 54.6% voted for cats.  The National Prediction Accuracy was 54.6%.

Did you vote with the majority? Was your prediction correct?

The newest poll is In an elevator, do you stare at the floor numbers or at others?  I voted for At Others because I do not usually stare at the numbers, but rather pay attention to how many times it beeps and thus know what floor I am on.  I also do not actually stare at others, but it is a little more accurate, I guess.  I predicted Display of Floor Numbers would be the majority.

What is your answer to this poll and what do you predict will be the most popular answer?

I am a big fan of the LEGO games even though the only ones I have played are LEGO Star Wars and LEGO Indiana Jones. It was because of how much I enjoyed the Star Wars ones that I for the first time ever bought a game on the day it came out. I usually like to rent a game and try it before buying, but thankfully buying LEGO Indiana Jones for the Wii turned out to be worth buying right away instead of waiting for it to be shipped from my Game Queue.

The first level of the Wii version is pretty straightforward until you get near the end at which point it gets kind of confusing. It did take me almost an hour to figure out what I was supposed to do, but then again I would not want the game to be too easy, as what would be the fun in beating it too fast. I do not really like that it got hard so fast, but I much prefer it to be challenging compared to the first LEGO Star Wars, which was too easy to beat. LEGO Indiana Jones may not have any more depth than LEGO Star Wars, but at least it has more challenge and still has the funnest aspect of being able to play cooperatively with someone else. Oh, and no matter how challenging the game gets I at least never feel like too much of failure because it is impossible to get a game over as you always have unlimited respawns.

Overall the game uses the Wii controls decently, but it is not among the best Wii capability games. Really the only interesting Wii specific control is using Indiana Jones whip. It is decently realistically controlled, but as a Wii release it is kind of disappointing that there is not more Wii-movement controls. At least the controls remain easy and straightforward, though.

LEGO Indiana Jones is a much try for all LEGO and Indiana Jones fans, but if you are not much into either or adventure style games then skip this on the Wii, as it does not give any Wii specific fun. I am not saying it is a bad game, as personally it is one of my favorites, but it is just as good as a Playstation game as a Wii one because the added Wii controls are not enough to make it stand apart like my other favorite Wii games. The humorous LEGO cutscenes on any version are also part of the fun, such as Indiana Jones pulling out a duck instead of the artifact near the end of the first level.

The latest result is for the U.S. National Poll question Do you feel we’re living in… The Best of Times of The Worst of Times.  I voted for The Best of Times and predicted The Worst of Times would be the majority.  I feel we are living in good times with the technology, but I thought more people would save the worst because of the recent financial warnings.  The majority, though, was Best of Times with 51.4%.  Interestingly the breakdown by gender is exactly the same with both 51.4% of males and females voting thinking we are living in the Best of Times.  As for the National Prediction Accuracy, 49.4% predicted the majority correctly.

Did you vote with the majority? Was your prediction correct?

The newest poll is If it’s a warm, sunny day outside, would you view this with… Optimism or Pessimism?  Personally it would depend, but I think overall I would view it with Optimism, although not with as much Optimism as on a rainy day.  I think most will say Optimism, too.

What is your answer to this poll and what do you predict will be the most popular answer?

The latest results are in for the Are political debates… U.S. national poll.  The choices to vote for were Intriguing or Boring.  I personally voted for Boring and predicted that it would be the majority voted for.  The results are that 31.8% think political debates are Intriguing and 68.2% think they are Boring.  The break down by gender is that 33% of males find them Intriguing and 67% of males that find them Boring versus 29.5% of females find them Intriguing and 70.5% find them Boring.  Of those that predicted what the majority would be 79.5% predicted correctly.

Did you vote with the majority?  Was your prediction correct?

The newest poll is Are you ambidextrous?  For those who do not know what that big word is referring to, it means you can use both your right and left hands to do things with similar quality, especially in relation to being able to write with either hand.  Personally I can do pretty well with both hands, but I am not quite skilled enough to consider myself truly ambidextrous, especially when it comes to writing or real life bowling.

What is your answer to this poll and what do you predict will be the most popular answer?

For June 23, 2008, there were three new releases made available in the Wii Shop.  One was a WiiWare title and two were Virtual Console titles.

The WiiWare title is Gyrostarr.  It costs 700 points.  This like a potentially interesting multiplayer game involving you piloting ships through obstacles as you battle aliens.  It has a total of 50 levels, so unless they are totally easy this game has a good amount of depth to it.  I would love to hear your personal experience if you have played this WiiWare game.  Is it as fun as it sounds?

One of the Virtual Console releases is Alex Kidd in Miracle World.  This game originally came out in 1986 for the Sega Master System.  It is a platform style game with 16 levels.  It costs 500 points.

The other Virtual Console release for June 23 is  Burning Fight, which was originally a Neo Geo game.  This is a hand to hand street fighting game.  It costs 900 points.

Back in May I played Rock Band for the first time at someone’s house. I fell in love with the drums part and really wanted to get it for myself. I, however, only own a Wii and the Wii version did not come out until yesterday. I considered waiting for the Wii release, but instead split the cost of it and bought the PS2 version with my brother, who owns a PS2. Having first played on the XBOX 360 I was kind of disappointed at the more limited features on the PS2 version. In the end, though, I am glad I did not wait another month and a half to buy the same limited Rock Band for the Wii.

Though I have not personally played the Rock Band for the Wii, I have played the PS2 version and both are not as good as the XBOX 360 and PS3 versions. They gave the excuse for the Wii one that they focused on the hardware and gameplay experience being up to quality, as if that is an excuse for not allowing you to make custom characters or having any online capabilities.

Now for the PS2 one being limited I can understand because the PS2 is not the current Playstation console, but for the Wii version there is no excuse for them limiting the gameplay. Not to mention the fact that they took so much longer to come out with this limited version for the Wii. If I had heard it was not a limited version like the PS2, then I would have been willing to wait at least until November for Rock Band as a real Wii version. As is, though, it is ridiculous.

So, is Rock Band for the Wii really worth buying? Well, I will say I have enjoyed many hours of playing the limited PS2 version and that proved worth the money. On the other hand, though, if you are just into playing guitar or singing, then go with one of the Wii games that are specifically that. In the end it is only worth it if you want to do the drums or have a multiplayer band experience, which is a good enough reason to purchase it and a lot of fun can be had. The thing is, though, that it seems a major rip off to cost $170 and not even be the full version of the game. If you own a PS3 or XBOX 360, then you should definitely get it for one of those systems, however, if you own a Wii I suggest at least holding out until the price comes down. Heck, it may even be cheaper to go out and buy a PS2 used and Rock Band, which just came down to $99 for PS2.

Monday, June 23, 2008

Alone in the Dark - This game is an M rated game categorized by Gamespot as Horror, Action, and Adventure. It is a one player game set in New York City.

Tuesday, June 24, 2008

Big Beach Sports - This games contains several different sports games to play in a beach setting. Some seem pretty normal to be set on the beach like volleyball, but others seem a little odd to be set on the beach in my opinion, such as soccer. Other sports include football, disc golf, cricket, and bocce.

Top Spin 3 - This is probably the best tennis video game series out there and worth at least trying if you love the Wii Sports tennis. It sounds kind of interesting with the online play capability, but from what I was looking at it is not lefty friendly.

WALL-E - This game is based on the Disney Pixar movie. Personally I think the movie looks pretty stupid, so this game could be just as boring being based on the movie, but maybe it will be a surprise.