Wii Rally

It’s Video Thursday once again in rally land and today I have some gameplay videos for you. The game featured this week is Mario Strikers: Charged, the Wii edition of the GameCube title of the same name; well minus the “Charged” part. Mario Strikers: Charged will be the first non-Pokémon Wii game to feature online multi-player. Also available in Europe, the downside is that folks from North America will not be able to play against their European counterparts. Still the game looks like but-load of fun. Enjoy!

(more…)

Would a Mortal Kombat game be the same without Fatalities? Kind of but not really.

Midway’s goal upon porting Mortal Kombat: Armageddon to the Wii was to give any type of gamer a chance to be able to produce special moves and fatalities. When Mortal Kombat debuted in arcades back in 1993 fatalities and special moves were a sign of skill but with the Wii edition of Armageddon a 5 year old can do anything a seasoned veteran can do. So the playing field has been effectively leveled.

Armageddon accomplishes this by allowing a player to produce special moves and fatalities simply by making one of eight possible motions with the Wii Remote. 4 of which are either up/down, down/up, forward/back and back/forward; the rest are quarter circles with the Wii Remote. The downside is that by simplifying the controls they’ve really dumbed down the challenge that made the gameplay exciting. Also in simplyfying the controls they’ve ditched the characters unique fatalities and replaced them with a generic one that can be escalated by the player but they pretty much all end up the same.
(more…)

Finally some new software to talk about and I use the term “new” loosely. There are two titles available for the Wii this week. The first is Escape from Bug Island which was released in Japan under the title Necro-Nesia. Why they changed the title I’ll never understand. To me “Necro-Nesia” sounds a lot cooler than “Escape from Bug Island”. Why do the Japanese have to dumb everything down for the rest of the world I mean come on I didn’t think that Super Mario Bros. 2 (Japanese version) was too tough for us North Americans but apparently the powers that be at Nintendo think that us poor folks in the Western hemisphere are too dimwitted to wrap our heads around most games from the land of the rising sun. However I digress, I’ll take what I can get.

The other new release this week is another re-make of a classic game that has been redesigned for the Wii, Alien Syndrome. Back in the late 80’s and early 90’s Alien Syndrome appeared on almost every console under the sun, and a few computers. There was a DOS version (Anyone remember DOS?) and a Commodore 64 version. Well now over 10 years later the game a been redone for the Wii and I must say that the gameplay looks solid I’m just really itching for some more unique and new software for my Wii.

New Releases:
Escape From Bug Island
Horror/Action Adventure
1 Player
Rated M for Mature

Alien Syndrome
Action/RPG
1-4 Players
Rated T for Teen

Parents, don’t forget to check the ESRB ratings on these games if you plan on buying or renting any of the above titles for little Johnny . For more infromation on the ESRB and video game ratings please visit the ESRB website

Hello once again to all of you out there in rally land. Sorry I didn’t post the new Virtual Console titles yesterday but I had a lengthy interview for a day job I’m trying to acquire. Regardless not much was missed; this weeks VC titles are far from stellar but the bunch does have some promise.

Kirby’s Dream Course (Super NES, Rated E, 800 Wii Points)
I have a soft spot for golf games especially those that have a different and often more amusing take on the game. Which is what can be found in playing Kirby’s Dream Course. Starring that cuddly yet voracious carnivore Kirby, and some of his friends. Your mission is to get the little pink puff ball [Kirby] from the tee blocks into the hole. Set on a course high in the sky. Kirby’s Dream Course may have some very unique gameplay in store for those who give this alternative golf game a whirl.

Devil’s Crush (TG-16, Rated E, 600 Wii Points)
The sequel to Alien Crush which was released on the North American VC sometime ago. The “Crush” games are an interesting take on the grandfather of modern video games…Pinball! Use flippers and a table bump to keep your ball on the table all while avoiding enemies and trying not to get distracted by all the 8/16 bit special effects that may come your way.

Shining Force (Genesis, Rated E, 800 Wii Points)
I’m not too familiar with Shining Force, having never owned a Genesis but from the description it sounds an awful lot like a Final Fantasy rip-off. I could be wrong though.

That wraps up the North American Virtual Console releases for this week and don’t forget that if you live in Europe or any other of the PAL regions I’ll have an all new Euro VC Update for you guys on Friday.

The Euro VC plays a little bit of catch up this week along with jumping ahead in the “finally available” category. By catch up I mean the addition of Street Fighter II: Turbo and Silent Debuggers which have become available within the last week or two.

The real gem is the late Gumpei Yokoi’s Metroid. I recently played some original Metroid on my GBA after completing Metriod: Zero Mission and I must say that I definitely though the SNES version (Super Metroid) was a superior game. Though the reveal at the end of Metroid (NES) was much more culturally significant. If you’re looking for something to sink a couple of hours into for 5 bucks you really can’t go wrong with this classic. Those of you who like me who downloaded Street Fighter II: The World Warrior last Christmas are probably kicking themselves now that Street Fighter II: Turbo is available, mais c’est la vie.

Metroid (NES,E for Everyone, 500 Wii Points)
Street Fighter II: Turbo (SNES, T for Teen, 8 Wii Points)
Silent Debuggers (TG-16, 600 Wii Points)

No I’m not talking about Sub-Machine Guns I’m of course speaking about Super Mario Galaxy. Nintendo revealed some nice juicy footage at last week’s e3 including this all new trailer which shows us that Mario will need to don several of Aunt Harriet’s magic hats to complete his outer space adventure.

Super Mario Galaxy e3 ‘07 trailer.

Now to get a little more in depth with a play through of one of the levels that was demonstrated at this years e3.

Alright Super Mario you’ve made it onto my Christmas list again this year. Are you happy now can I have my pet turtle back?

SMG will be released on November 12th 2007

Anyone remember that engine test game that Rockstar released around May last year. If not you may remember it being called something along the lines of Rockstar presents, Table Tennis. Table Tennis was never really meant to turn heads but critics praised it for it’s fun factor, realistic ball control and physics.

Now according to a post on Kotaku Table Tennis is headed to the Nintendo Wii and yes you will be able to use the Wii Remote to control your ping pong table tennis experience. Will there be anything else unique to the Wii version, only time will tell. After playing some of the more graphically intense games that the Wii has to offer I can say that the Wii version of Table Tennis should look pretty close to the 360 version. Now remember that the difference in processing power between the 360 and Wii is significant so the game will take some sort of a hit in the graphics department. Now depending how well Rockstar works with the Wii SDK (Software Development Kit) The difference may be negligible or significant. We’ll have to wait and see.

Hooray!! It’s virtual console Monday and I didn’t have to wait very long to get my hands on Paper Mario. It’s only been 1 weekend since the game dropped onto the Wii Shop channel across the pond in Europe and PAL regions.

Now you guys read what I had to say about Paper Mario on Friday so I won’t bother to reiterate it here today. Anyway I’d rather talk about another game that hits the North American Virtual Console today, Balloon Fight.

Balloon Fight is is an oldy but a goodie and seriously who can resist popping balloons I know I sure can’t.

Paper Mario (N64, E for Everyone, 1000 Wii Points)
Balloon Fight (NES, E for Everyone, 500 Wii Points)
Silent Debuggers (TG-16, E for Everyone, 600 Wii Points)

Only two new titles are hitting the Euro VC this week but they’re are strong none the less. I talked about Air “Zonk” on Monday when it hit the Wii Shop Channel here in North America. The big deal this week in Europe however is the addition on Paper Mario to the Virtual Console. This predecessor to Super Paper Mario and Paper Mario: The Thousand Year Door was originally released on the N64. Many believe that Nintendo went in this “RPG-ish” direction with Mario becuse there seemed little hope that the guys at SquareEnix would ever do a sequel to the tremendously popular Super Mario RPG for the SNES. 3 games later Paper Mario has endeared itself to gamers with it’s simplified RPG style gameplay, sharp humor, and cartoony aesthetic.

If you have the 1000 Wii points I suggest you download this title. It’s a good bang for your buck like the Zelda series there is lots of gameplay to be had here for a somewhat meager price. Also once you try out Paper Mario you may understand why I was so hard on Super Paper Mario for its incredibly dumbed down platforming gameplay.

Paper Mario and Air “Zonk” would make a great addition to any one’s Virtual Console.

Air “Zonk” (PC Engine, Rated E, 600 Wii Points)
Paper Mario (N64, Rated E, 1000 Wii Points)

Can’t be at E3? Well neither can I, So I’ve got the next best thing Internet video.

OK here Wii go.

First up for the Nintendo media briefing is a 2 minute video of some news stories and user videos which have used the Wii as a focal point. Nintendo begins by tooting their own horn….obviously.

After the short video a gigantic man in a beige suit [Reggie Fils-Aime, NoA President] walks to the middle of the stage and says “Hi I’m Reggie and I am Happy!”

The first segment of Reggie’s speech is about all the stuff that only venture capitalists and investors care about. You know stuff like expanding demographics, sales figures, and market share info….BORING!

Now some interesting stuff. Reggie states that by the holiday shopping season there should be over 160 Wii titles available in North America and over 430 DS titles for the same territory.

After a second video similar to the first Reggie introduces to the world the first offspring of the Wii Remote and nunchuck. The Wii Zapper a housing for your Wii Remote and nunchuck making it look like a small SMG. Reggie goes on to talk about 3 new games that are being designed around the new housing, Resident Evil: Umbrella Chronicles, Sega’s Ghost Squad a popular arcade light gun game, and the newest addition to the Medal of Honour series will also be centered around the Wii Zapper which will retail for about 19.99 USD. Reggie also mentions plans for a 1st party title that will come packed with a zapper later this year.

(more…)

Alright, in the interest of full disclosure I must tell you that I’ve been a fan of the Mario Party games for quite some time. One of the main reasons being that my girlfriend Jen particularly enjoys them as well. More often than not Jen just watches me play games but the first time I brought a copy of Mario Party, I think it was 5 over to her house she jumped right on board and wrestled the controller away from me. She waited with great anticipation for the next game in the series which happened to be the finest to date. Mario Party 6 was incredibly fun with a nice selection of compelling mini games. Mario Party 7 was all wrong it seemed that the series had lost it’s momentum. Enter the Wii and an entire new control scheme, which bring us to the topic of today’s lesson Mario Party 8.

Mario Party 8 is the series’ Wii debut. Many gamers were excited to see how the new controls would be implemented and what surprises Hudson (Who developed the game) and Nintendo (Publisher) had in store for this latest party game-a-palooza. Especially since the game was originally slated for a March ‘07 release which was delayed until June of the same year. Why the delay? I doubt anyone outside of Hudson or Nintendo knows.

A key mistake was made with this title. Mario Party 8 should have really showcased what the Wii Remote’s motion controls could do. The problem was they forgot to implement them. OK that’s unfair yes some very few motion controls are used but they are limited to tilting the Wii Remote to fly a plane and shaking one up and down like a can of soda pop. Most of the mini-games throughout Mario Party 8 are controlled with the Wii Remote’s D-pad. I know that these are mini-games we are talking about here but come on how about knocking the complexity up a little especially for those long time fans like myself who already know how to play the game. Which brings me to my next point.

No matter how well versed you are in the Mario Party universe, Mario Party 8 seems to treat you like a moron. Explaining every little detail like you’re 100% grade A “nub cake”. A way to tell the game “hey I’ve played this game before I know how it works” would have been nice but an old English teacher once told me “Always assume the members of your audience are ignorant to what you are talking about.” I’ve never used this rule myself I like to give my audience a good amount of credit I mean they can obviously read at least.

The stages or “game boards” in Mario Party 8 are seriously lacking in some decent creativity with the exception of Boo’s castle I felt as though I’ve played these game boards many times before. I did however enjoy the new Star Battle mode but felt it was too short.

With Mario Party 7 being a disappointment I began to suspect that the series may have lost it’s momentum and fun factor. I believe that Mario Party 8 confirms this suspicion. It maybe time to call the cops on this party and have it shut down. Ever go to a house party and by about 2 or 3 in the morning almost everybody has left except for a few obnoxious party people and you just want them to leave? Well that’s how I feel about Mario Party 8. I really do think that 8 is enough.

There wasn’t much to say last week about new releases seeing as how there was only one. This week is totally different, there are 7 new Wii games out this week. Sure 3 of them are multiplatform movie tie-ins but still, waving your Wii Remote around like Harry Potter’s wand may prove quite interesting.

Pokemon Battle Revolution
(E for everyone)
Finally online play comes to North America. Now if we can just get rid of those pesky friend codes.

The BIGS (E for Everyone)
I’m having trouble deciding which is more boring; watching Baseball or playing Baseball.

Harry Potter and the Order of the Phoenix
(E10+ Everyone 10 and up)
“It’s not Levioohsa, it’s Leviosa!”

Transformers: The Game (T for Teen)
Could this game be more than meets the eye? I doubt it.

Driver: Parallel Lines (M for Mature)
Every ones least favorite crime sim comes to the Wii

Chicken Shoot (E10+ Everyone 10 and up)
Shooting chickens, yeah that’s topical.

Ratatouille (E for Everyone)
I ear ze movie iz good but ow iz de game. Iz amusant joost come Jerry Lewis.

The Virtual Console gets some nice updates this morning. Today marks the release of the “good” souped-up version of Street Fighter 2, too bad I’ve already downloaded the original. The N64 version of F-Zero is also available today along with something called China Warrior. Funny thing about China Warrior is that according to MobyGames.comit doesn’t exist. Hrrrm interesting a game that either doesn’t exist or nobody has played in a long time. On another note the wait for Mega Man here in North America continues.

F-Zero X (N64, 1000 Wii Points)
Street Fighter II Turbo Edition: Hyper Fighting (SNES, 800 Wii Points)
China Warrior (TurboGrafx-16, 600 Wii Points)

I know it’s a little late but Wordpress seemed to be having server issues on Friday. Anyway 2 new titles hit the Euro VC this week.

Mega Man (NES, 500 Wii Points)
China Warrior (PC Engine, 600 Wii Points)

Mega Man has been long awaited well Mega Man 2 to be more specific but you have to walk before you run nes pas?

When Manhunt 2 comes out this July it maybe harder to get your hands on a copy than originally thought. So far the ESRB has given the game a “temporary” rating of “AO” meaning “Adults Only”. No surprise there the game is hella violent and really really graphic definitely not for kids or teen for that matter. The reason it may be difficult to find is that massive game retailers like EB Games/GameStop, Wal-Mart and Blockbuster Video will not carry a title with an AO rating.

When the first Manhunt game came out here in Ontario, Canada the Ontario Film Ratings Board (They rate games too) gave it an “R” (Restricted to adults) but since places like Blockbuster carry “R” rated films they couldn’t discriminate against the game for having the same rating.

For those of you who fancy a bit of the ultra violence and are over the age of 18 pick it up a copy of Manhunt 2. It looks like it maybe one of the better 3rd party titles this summer.