Nintendo Wii

Billy the Wizard: Rocket Broomstick Racing is an interesting concept of a game.  It is very Harry Potter like with Billy looking a little bit like Harry Potter and the castle part you race around on your broomstick looking a lot like Hogwarts.  The problem is that the controls are pretty complex to get used to, as they do involve both the Wii remote and nunchuck and are not very natural feeling.

As I said I like the concept of the game because it is pretty unique, but overall I found it pretty frustrating to try and play it.  I never even got anywhere near beating the first race and actually barely even got through the tutorial.

Overall it is a cool idea to be racing on a broom, but I think we need a better game developer and possibly an actual Harry Potter broom racing game to make the concept into a good Wii game.  Unless you have a lot of patience this game is one to pass up.

Donkey Kong Barrel Blast is a racing style game, but it is not an annoying one that poorly uses the Wii remote like a steering wheel. Instead you use the Wii remote and nunchuck by alternately shaking them up and down like you do to run in games like Mario & Sonic at the Olympic Games. The point is that it is supposedly to be a movement like playing the bongos. It is an extension of the Donkey Kong Gamecube games that used the bongos and was originally planned as a Gamecube game.

The controls can be kind of hard to get used to, but the tutorial is pretty well done. I know a lot of people have bashed the game, but I actually love it. One thing I can agree about, though, is that it would have been a much better game if they had made it so you could use the bongos through the Gamecube ports.

The graphics are Gamecube quality, but they are at least interesting in terms of the way the scenery looks as you fly through the levels in your little flying race vehicle. The sound is not too bad because it changes depending on how you play the bongos to move your vehicle and is thus does not seem like a repetitive soundtrack.

Overall this is a good racing game to check out if you are into racing games and do not like the way the Wii remote ones work, however, it is still not the same as a racing game with a joystick, so it does take some getting used to the controls.

I have noticed that Wii Play seems to stay on the list of top selling Wii games and I really wonder if it comes down to it just being a way to get a Wii Remote. A Wii remote costs $40 and the game retails at some places still for $50, but I have seen it end up on sale for $30 at least a few times including early on when it came out and I bought it because it was the only way to buy an extra Wii remote. That was most definitely the reason it sold so well at first, but I really wonder with Wii remotes now being not too hard to buy in stores if people actually ever think of the games when they buy it.

Wii Play has nine mini games for one or two players to play. To me it is a little disappointing that at least some of the games were not made into 4 player games because they easily work well for more than 2 players, such as Shooting and Find Mii. The mini games at least in my case entertained me for a few hours the first week or so I had the game, but since then (at least a year ago) I can only remember pulling it out once and even then we only played for less than an hour. Bottom line is I really would think of it as a dud purchase if it had not come with a Wii remote.

Note the nine games are Shooting, Find Mii, Table Tennis, Pose Mii, Laser Hockey (really hard and frustrating with crap graphics in my opinion), Fishing, Billiards, Charge!, and Tanks!

One new WiiWare and two new Virtual Console games we released on the Wii Shop Channel today.

Pong Toss Frat Party Games - This Wii Ware title costs 800 Wii Points.  Not so sure how I feel about such an inapporiate game on the Wii console, but I guess it is better than real beer pong.

Chase H.Q. - This Virtual Console game costs 600 Wii points.  It is a racing style game.

Art of Fighting 2 - This Virtual Console game costs 900 Wii points.  It is another fighting virtual console game and if you ask me there have been to many of this type released for the Wii.

Wednesday, July 30, 2008

MLB Power Pros 2008 - Another baseball game for the Wii.  Likely to be at least decent for those who like the more complex play of actually controlling fielding and not the very simplisticness of the Wii Sports baseball.

Thursday, August 1, 2008

Summer Athletics - Not an official Olympic game, but it does bring the Olympic type sports to the Wii platform in a less cartoonish way than Mario & Sonic at the Olympic Games does.   Sounds like it will have decent realistic graphics and will allow you to create your own character, although not via using a Mii.

I am kind of disappointed to see that Beijing 2008 the Game was only released for PC, Xbox 360, and PS3, but at least there is Mario & Sonic at the Olympic Games available for the Wii and I have been able to enjoy it for months already.  My brother and I fell in love with the game the first time we tried it and soon purchased the rental game.  It has turned out to be a fun multiplayer game that we continue to still play occasionally.  The only other game we have so far found better in amount of multiplayer game time is Wii Sports.

The game has a decent variety of events, although having played the DS version I find this version is a little lacking in Dream events, but hey it did come out first.   The different events mostly use just the Wii remote while some have the option of more easy controls with the nunchuck.  Several of them get you moving in similar actions as if really playing the events, such as the swimming strokes being relatively close to really swimming.  Other events are not exactly realistic controls, such as the trampoline, but not bad considering the Wiis capabilities not even including the Wii balance board at that time.

Overall this game only shines as a multiplayer game.  While I personally rate it as a top Wii game for having good graphics and game depth, I will admit that it is not much fun if you always are just playing by yourself against the computer characters.  Get at least one other person to play with or even better a group of friends and/or family and this can be a lot of fun.  With the 2008 Olympics coming soon this is a great time to try it out if you have not already.

I am a big fan of the LEGO Star Wars and Indiana Jones video games, so I have known about the Batman release for awhile.  I am not really interested in Batman, however, considering it has the LEGO gameplay aspect it may be fun.  The main thing is it sounds like it will be a kind of unique plot line, as it seems it is not going to follow a specific Batman movie or movies or at least that is the impression I have gotten from the articles I have read about it.  Sounds like graphic wise this game is really going to be one of the better ones, although, that might not be realized in the Wii version like in the PS3 and Xbox 360 versions.  The Wii version will be more interesting gameplay, though, with its use of the Wii motion controls, which may even include through the Batarang.

LEGO Batman is expected to be released September 23, 2008 for major consoles and handheld systems.   You can already pre-order it and at least if you do so at Game Stop you will get one of four LEGO Batman character keychains when you pick it up.

The latest results are in for the poll How well do you know the candidates running for president?  The majority was Not Very Well with 53.3% voting for it.  The breakdown by gender was 50.9% of males and 57.8% of females voting for Not Very Well.  The National Prediction Accuracy was 58.1%.

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

The newest poll is Which application would be more useful on a cell phone? GPS functions or Broadcast TV.  Personally I think I would end up using more Broadcast TV, as I have very little use for GPS functions.  I am going to predict it will be the majority answer, but would not be too surprised if GPS functions is.

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

If you are into Elvis and/or Rock & Roll music this is at least an interesting game to check out, but be warned it does kind of stink. To start with let me say I think it had some great potential and at first I was actually impressed with it. First off the idea is kind of unique with you being an Elvis like character in a music land scenery using a guitar as a weapon. Basically I thought the graphic part of the game was original and appealing. While the graphics were top quality it was not what made it a bad game. Even the sound is pretty good with different rockish tunes in the levels.

It was the gameplay experience that made this into a horrible game, which is what it usually comes down to for me anyways. The tutorial is pretty easy and actually one of the better tutorials for a Wii game. The problem is that it is does not seem to end up really preparing you for the real levels. The real issue, though, is the controls are horribly done. You jump by lifting the nunchuck and executing a double jump takes way more skill than any casual gamer who might even think of picking this game up probably has. The worst part is the camera angle is never set up right and you have to do an aim with the Wii remote changing of view type thing as you move through the game with the joystick on the nunchuck. Now if you have ever played computer games were you move with the arrows and change the camera angle with the mouse, then that is kind of what you end up doing with the slight issue of it not being anywhere near as precise.

Bottom line is this game is just plain frustrating, but if you can manage to somehow get a hang of the controls with little frustration it can be kind of a fun or at least unique adventure game.

The latest results are in for the poll on if you have ever had braces on your teeth.  The majority was No with 66.8% voting for it.  The breakdown by gender was 69.1% if males saying No and 62.8% of females saying No.  The National Prediction Accuracy was 49.5%.

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

The newest poll is How do your friends address you?  By a nickname or By your given name.  For me it is always be my given name, as I only let my little bro call me nicknames.  I am going to predict that more people will say by a nickname.

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