Wii Rally

Next week is a big week for Nintendo as they are getting ready to launch the new Nintendo DSi. Do you have yours pre-ordered? Neither do we. Who needs another DS when we have a Wii? There are two new games at the Wii Shop. One is a simulation game while the other is a classic fighting game.

WiiWare

Bonsai Barber (Nintendo, 1-4 players, Rated E for Everyone-Comic Mischief, 1,000 Wii Points) - The villages want the latest styles in foliage. Each day you have five customers arrive and it’s up to you to cut, trim, and style their unique do. Customers have different temperaments so keeping everyone happy could be a challenge within itself.

Virtual Console

Super Punch-Out!! (Super NES™, 1 player, Rated E for Everyone, 800 Wii Points) - This sequel to the NES game brings back the beloved and comical fighter Little Mac. As he returns to the ring to face opponents like Super Macho Man and Bear Hugger, Little Mac is vying for the World Video Boxing Association belt. See if you can spot the fighting patterns to exploit them and help Little Mac become victorious in his quest.

New games are released each Monday to the Wii Shop. Beginning next week, there will also be released Nintendo games for the DSi available through the new Nintendo DSi shop. The DSi is an updated version of Nintendo’s DS with enhanced features like digital cameras and audio playback.

Wii points can either be bought at a local gaming store or online through the Wii Shop. 100 points equals $1. Most games range from 500 Wii points to 1500 Wii points.

Nintendo President Satoru Iwata announces an expansion of the Virtual Console. Now Wii gamers will have new choices when it comes to classic games.

Virtual Console Arcade will feature arcade games that aren’t released for other console systems. Games that have been released so far are:

STARFORCE
Mappy
Gaplus
Tower of Druaga

More titles are forth coming. That extra storage from high capacity SD cards will come in handy for those who download these arcade games. These classic arcade games give those nostalgic gamers just another option when it comes to playing video games on the Wii.

If you are like me and are collecting quite a few WiiWare/Virtual Console games, then you probably have some on your SD card. But you might be running out of room on the 1G or 2G card. This week Nintendo announced at the GDC that now Wii owners can download content directly to high capacity SD cards in addition to SD memory cards.

Wii owners can also launch games directly from the SD card. There will need to be an equivalent amount of internal memory to run the program. This new feature will be available in the latest Wii updates. You will be able to use them once you have downloaded the updates.

This is a step in the right direction to give Wii owners more storage options. Now if Nintendo would only release a Wii hard drive.

My Wii Fit is probably wondering where I’ve been lately. I know I have missed it but just have a problem getting back on track once I’ve fallen off of it.

Wii Mommies is a community for those who love the Wii and are using it to get in shape. They have Twitter parties and other fun stuff to help keep members on track. I’m afraid I may be hopeless. Not unless drive to your house and physically get in your face until you exercise. Now that type of support is what I really need.

Anyway I’m looking forward to exploring the website/forums to get motivated again.

The first official MotoGP licensed game for the Wii has been released for sale. MotoGP turns the WiiMote into handlebars, giving players an experience in two wheel racing.

Players can join and compete with their racing heroes in three classes - 125cc, 250cc and MotoGP. Players can play in tutorial mode to get acquainted with the game. Then they can take part in career mode where their goal is to become the MotoGP champion. There is also quick race mode where players can choose their favorite track to just have fun without the worry of advancing their career.

MotoGP will also feature a head-to-head option with the addition of AI controlled bikes to add more of a challenge to the game.

MotoGP retails for $39.99 and is rated E for Everyone.

An exclusive for the Wii based on the Toy Story franchise will be available this fall. Toy Story Mania is the first game to place the characters from the beloved Disney/Pixar movie into a carnival setting.

Wii gamers are probably familiar with these carnival games that are a set of mini games. In Toy Story Mania, the games will be inspired by the Toy Story attraction at Disney World and Disney Land.

The game will also consist of mini-games that are original and not based on the attraction. All games will be hosted by Toy Story characters.

Toy Story Mania will be released this fall as well as 3D versions of the movie followed by Toy Story 2 in 3D next February. All this is leading up to the release of Toy Story 3 in 3D in the summer of 2010.

A very huge gauntlet was thrown down today in San Francisco at the Game Developers Conference. Touting it as ‘the most powerful gaming system in the world,’ the OnLive gaming service has a very high bar to reach this winter when this new way to play games is released.

This new service gamers can use on their PC or TV with an HDMI connection. They only need to download a small file on their PC. Games are run on the server farms of OnLive - meaning no lag in gaming and games start up in mere seconds. It will be a subscription service and players will have to buy games and/or rent to play them on a daily basis.

Steve Pearlman and the rest of the 100 team that has spent the last 7 years developing OnLive believe it to be a competitor and even superior to next gen consoles like the Wii. That is a very bold claim especially for a game service that will cost you money but won’t give you any tangible in return. The good thing about console games is that there is a used market for unwanted games. At least you can recoup some of your money. With OnLive, that option will not be available.

I find it incredibly hard to believe that a game service that uses a keyboard/mouse/generic USB game controller can compete with the Wiimote/Nunchuk. Wii gamers prefer Wii games for a reason. I don’t think a PC-like game service is going to be able to dethrone the Nintendo Wii.

One new Wiiware and two new Virtual Console games are now available at the Wii Shop.

WiiWare

Pop’Em Drop’Em SAMEGAME (Hudson Entertainment, 1-4 players, Rated E for Everyone, 500 Wii Points) SAMEGAME is a simple puzzle game where the goal is to clear all the blocks off the grid. Clear larger clusters of blocks for more points. Increase the difficulty of the game by working on a larger grid. Up to 4 players can play at one time.

Virtual Console

Bomberman®’94 (TurboGrafx16, 1-5 players, Rated E for Everyone—Comic Mischief, 700 Wii Points) Bomberman has arrived on the planet to return peace to it after it has been split into five pieces. All nine members of the Bomberman family are available for play and Rooi even shows up with special abilities to lend a helping hand.

DETANA TWIN BEE (TurboGrafx16, 1-2 players, Rated E for Everyone—Mild Cartoon Violence, 700 Wii Points) Twinbee and Winbee are on a mission to save the world from evil alien invaders. They will have to do battle through six stages featuring goofy enemies. Stock up your arsenal with powerful attacks like Big Shot, Twin Attack, and Burst Attack to save the day.

Each Monday, Nintendo releases new games to the Wii Shop. WiiWare are games that are original for the Wii. Virtual Console games are classic games previously released for other systems.

Wii Play - which is a nine mini games - reaches an impressive milestone. The game has sold 10 million units in the United States. Wii Play was released in February 2007. Wii Play is now the top selling software game for consoles and portable systems in the United States.

One of the reasons that so many Wii owners buy Wii Play is because the game comes with a Wiimote. So it’s a good way to get a game and another Wiimote for around $50. Wii Play is a fun game and is a wonderful introduction into playing games on the Wii. Each Wii Play game teaches you a different technique using the Wiimote. Players can use their Miis in each game.

The nine games include billiards, shooting range, and my personal favorite, Charge! Wii Play is for 1-2 players and is rated E for Everyone.

Ever since we bought Rock Band 2 for the Wii, we have been meaning to buy a USB hub since each controller uses a USB port instead of a Wiimote.

This weekend we are having guests, so we really want to be able to play all parts to the game at one time. With computers having plenty of USB drives, there seems to be less selection with USB hubs. But I was able to find one in the laptop accessory section for $15.

I haven’t tried it yet but am sure it will work fine. It will be a lot easier to plug in the controllers to the hub instead of trying to plug it into the back of the Wii.

I am looking forward to playing Rock Band 2 using all of the controllers. It should make for a rockin’ good time.

After having my Nintendo Wii for over a year, I finally bought a rechargeable docking station. Since we now have four Wiimotes, I spent more and bought a four docking station. It’s from React. Each charge is suppose to last about 12 hours playing time. The base is lit up blue and is red when a pack is charging. When it’s done, the base is once again fully blue. It’s a small docking station and won’t take up much room. The blue lights do make it interesting.

I immediately notice how much lighter the Wiimote is with the battery pack in it instead of two AA batteries. Amazing. I was hesitant to spend $50 on this but knew it was something we needed. We are having guests later this week and have four fully charged Wiimotes will be a must. To buy good batteries would be around $10. We play enough of the Wii to get our money’s worth from rechargeable packs.

The battery packs are suppose to be good for thousands of charges and last on average 7 years. The way consoles hit the market, it might outlast the vitality of the Wii.

This is the only four rechargeable dock I’ve seen locally and thought that it would save us money. Time will tell if we made the right buying choice but for now we are very pleased with the Reacto charging dock.

While many gamers are looking forward to Friday the 13th for the release of Resident Evil 5, Wii owners do have two games. Sadly Resident Evil 5 is not on the short list of new games for the Wii.

There’s Wii Ski Snowboard that is the latest game in the Wii Ski franchise. This game will have you doing trick skiing, daffy ducks, helicopters, and other cool named moves. Wii Ski uses the balance board and features beautiful scenery and a replay mode to relive those awesome tricks.

Sonic has a new adventure for the Wii. It’s called Sonic and the Black Knight. This is another installment of the Sonic storybook series that was kicked off with Sonic and the Secret Rings. Sonic and the Black Knight introduce swords play to the franchise that makes use of the Wiimote and Nunchuk.

It’s no Resident Evil 5 but at least they look like two fun games for the Wii.

After looking through the upcoming Wii releases, I was struck by the phrase “New Play Control.” It looked to be in front of several familiar titles. And after a little research it makes sense why that’s the case.

New Play Control is a program that brings GameCube games to the Nintendo Wii. These games now support 16:9 widescreen. They will also be retooled to use the Wii controllers like the Wiimote and Nunchuk. Upcoming releases include:

Pikmin
Mario Power Tennis
Pokemon Platinum version
Punch Out

The Nintendo Wii does play older GameCube games so there doesn’t seem to be much incentive to buy a repackaged version of games. Maybe some will like the format for newer televisions. But the game would have to have a lot of replay value to buy it again.

Some games will have updated content but for the most part with be the classic GameCube version.

There are a few games that I would be interested in getting like Pikmin. I never played the GameCube version but have heard that it is a fun game.

The good news about these games is that the pricing will be reasonable. Pikmin for the Wii will retail for $29.99. So for those who are interested in playing these games with Wii controls, at least the pricing will be in line with what the GameCube version would set you back.

Nintendo of America is working on several upcoming titles for the Wii. There have also been several third party games announced with tentative release dates for the Wii.

Wii

Excitebots™: Trick Racing - April 20

Donkey Kong® Jungle Beat™ - May 4

Punch-Out!!™- May 18

(more…)

Lately I’ve been doing a lot of the Wii Fit yoga. I must admit that it’s becoming my favorite part of Wii Fit.

When I first bought Wii Fit, I stayed away from yoga and stuck mainly to the balance games. Then I branched out into the aerobics. But now I’ve been doing some of the yoga poses and actually enjoying it a lot. I feel better after doing yoga and like that I can get exposure to doing some poses in the comfort of my living room.

Another advantage to Wii Fit yoga is knowing that I’m doing the poses right. Now only does the trainer show you exactly what to do but by using the Wii balance board, you will keep in check your balance and weight distribution. It’s been a really good way to get acquainted with yoga without embarrassing myself.

So far I’m down almost half a pound this week. Wii Fit yoga is definitely helping with weightloss and with feeling better throughout the day.