Wii Rally

When online play was first brought to the Wii in the form of Pokémon: Battle Revolution, players didn’t respond. Yes the kids go ape poop over those little Pokémon but the “stadium” games have never been the bread and butter of the series. Just recently we were shown again how online play can be done on the Wii with Mario Strikers: Charged. This week we get to see how a third party handles the online option.

EA’s Madden ‘08 should be at your local game store as you read this. Sure it’s the only licensed football fair on the market but more importantly it’s the first third party Wii game to feature online multiplayer. So if you love football, the Wii, and playing online? You should definitely check this baby out. Don’t forget to laugh at those PS3 and 360 guys as they compare pixel by pixel trying to see who’s version runs better. Laugh heartily, for if you cared about graphics you wouldn’t have bought a Wii.

Hahahahah “I can see the interlacing” HAHAHAHA!

Title: Madden NFL ‘08
Developer: EA Tiburon
Publisher EA Sports
Platforms: All of them including Wii.
Rating: E for Everyone

Madden, Wii, New Releases, Games, EA, NFL

Only one new release this week but it is strong nontheless and it is surly significant in ones Wii world view. This week Wii Rally honours the release of the first non-Pokémon Wii title to feature online play, Mario Strikers: Charged.

Mario Strikers: Charged is the sequel to the GameCube title featuring 9 new arenas and a butt-load of new characters each with their own special moves. More importantly Strikers: Charged will allow you to take the battle for the Cup online as you and other soccer enthusiasts wage war on the pitch of battle to get that coveted number 1 spot in the rankings. Now any victory will be short lived if you do not defend the title. Nintendo plans on resetting the rankings once a week to keep the competition new and fresh.

I have a soft spot in my heart for Mario sports games; I’ve spent many hours with Mario Golf: Toadstool Tour and Mario Power Tennis both for the GameCube. Although I am still waiting for a Wii version of Mario Tennis. I’d recommend picking this one up if not for the Soccer than to see what Nintendo has done with the Wi-Fi Connection. If things go well with Strikers: Charged hopefully we will see a slew of other Wii titles featuring online play.

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!

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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.

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Face it your Wii spends a lot of time on the internet. With traveling Miis, inter-console messages and WiiConnect 24 your Wii sends and receives a lot of info across the intertubes. So it comes as no surprise that the Wii is starting to see its first vulnerabilities.

I was reading the Tanooki today and was pointed to a post from the McAfee Avert Labs Blog where the writer David Rayhawk warns that those using the 1st or “trial” version of the Wii Opera browser may have a system venerability. Don’t worry too much though there isn’t much that can be done to your Wii from an outside source. I’m guessing that “worst case scenario” here would be a wiped hard drive and missing game saves. I think a couple of reports may have surfaced about manipulated images but that has not been confirmed.

The good news is that in the latest edition of the Wii Opera browser the problem has been patched. So once you upgrade to the “full” version you should be safe and secure. If you don’t have the “trail” version of the browser or your Wii is not connected to the internet you’re already sitting pretty. Don’t forget that come June the Wii Internet Channel will cost you 400 points so act now before this limited time offer is gone…gone…..GONE!

Bashcraft over at Kotaku is reporting that Nintendo will have a full blown booth at this years TGS (Tokyo Game Show). Nintendo has always had a presence at the show but this will be the first time where they will have booth space set up. Nintendo normally saves it’s budget for the other industry trade shows like CES, E3, or Nintendo’s own exposition Space World but since E3 has been scaled down this year I guess Nintendo had some extra money and no where to spend it so they decided to up the ante at TGS.

Well as always I like to play the speculation game here at Wii Rally. So what big announcement(s) do you think Nintendo will make as the summers trade show season gets underway next month. New Zelda? Online play? How about a new and exciting 1st party IP? Who knows? All I know is that with the warm weather comes the summer game drought which according to Reggie shouldn’t happen. Maybe that’s why the latest virtual console release have been less than drool worthy. Nintendo could be saving the big dogs for when they have no new games coming. Any thoughts?

For the Second Time

Nintendo and Gamespy have announced a new addition to their ongoing partnership today. According to a press release Nintendo will be working closely with Gamespy to provide a more enriched online experience for the Nintendo Wii. Which doesn’t surprise me anyway due to the fact that the Wii seems to be light years behind the online capabilities of it’s current console brethren. This could mean an end to the annoying friend codes Nintendo seems to like so much.

As previously reported the first game to use this new functionality will be Pokémon: Battle Revolution which launches here in North America on June 25th. Pokémon: BR will also be first game to support some type of Wii-DS connectivity.

Aside from the fact that GameSpy is owned by the evil media empire known as NewsCorp. (Damn you Murdoc!) This is reletivly good news for Wii gamers the world over who will soon be able to play with each other with ease. Wait! That doesn’t sound right.