Wii Rally

Mario Kart and Wii Fit both sold well during the month of May. Mario Kart finished in the number 2 spot while Wii Fit came in at number 3. The sales figures are from the NPD Group, which tracks sales of video game products in the United States.

The Nintendo Wii also had a good May in the United States. 675,089 units were sold. Taking the May numbers into account, the Wii lifetime sales has passed 10.2 million. May wasn’t a bad month for Wii Play. The Wii game made up of mini-games that comes with an extra Wiimote sold 295,000. Since it’s released, Wii Play has sold over 5.8 million units.

Of the top 30 selling games for May, 19 are for the Nintendo Wii including We Ski, Game Party, and Guitar Hero III. Pokemon is still a strong franchise for Nintendo as the combined sales of Pokémon® Mystery Dungeon: Explorers of Time and Pokémon® Mystery Dungeon: Explorers of Darkness were more than 208,000 units.

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.
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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.

In early 2007 a list made its way on to the Internet, a list that actually drew my first bit of animosity from the gaming community. I’m talking of course about Wii Rally’s 1st Virtual Console Most Wanted list. Some people criticized the list due to a lack of a certain hipster cult followed SNES RPG, I won’t say it’s name but it sounds like BirthMound. Other than that the reception of the Most Wanted list was pretty positive. So now that 100 Virtual Console games have been released I think it’s time we revisited the Most Wanted list. So I present to you the readers of Wii Rally the VC Top 5 Most Wanted 2nd edition.

NUMBER 5
Legend of Zelda: Majora’s Mask

Every single Zelda game from the NES to the N64 has been released in the first 100 games, well except for one, Majora’s Mask. I recently replayed the GameCube port of my favorite Zelda and found it as fun as ever. I didn’t really have the same feelings as when I replayed Ocarina of Time but I’ve played through that like 9 times. Still with it’s tricky time system and challenging puzzles I’m still on pins and needles waiting for this one to be released. While I was replaying Majora’s Mask I felt something I hadn’t felt in a long time; the desire to play with an N64 controller. Using the “C-stick” rather than the “C-buttons” felt awkward, plus while playing a GameCube game on your Wii the only way to exit the software is to reset your console. So now more than ever I want to play through this adventure Virtual Console-style.
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Still going strong with Virtual Console Week here on the Rally today I’m doing some mini-reviews of the classic and not-so classic.

Donky Kong
NES, 1 Player, Wii Remote, 500 points

Nintendo’s Donkey Kong was originally released as a coin-op arcade game and as such it makes sense to have only 3 stages where the overall goal is to beat the high score. However shelling out 500 points for a game with only 3 stages doesn’t really seem right in today’s day and age. Bottom Line: Skip this one, trust me you’ve played it at some point in your life.

Punch Out!!
NES, 1 Player, Wii Remote, 500 points

A great classic with tones of replay value. I was once asked why I never wrote down any of the passwords for this game. My answer, “I find it more fun to try and finish all the bouts in one shot. I wouldn’t want to fight the thoughest guy over and over that’s just boring”
Bottom Line: Grab this one for endless hours of fun.
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Any of you regular Rally readers may have noticed that I’ve had a little bit of hate on for Ubisoft lately and it would appear that I have been completely justified in my feelings.

IGN has picked up on a story from German news magazine Spiegel who recently interviewed Ubisoft CEO Yves Guillemot and European head Alain Corre. In the interview the pair admit that they wanted to capitalise on the Wiis popularity and therefore rushed the development of several titles. They also admitted “We made some mistakes”, How big of them.

This doesn’t surprise me in the least. Ubisoft Wii games average about a 57% on gamerankings.com . Having played most of Ubi’s Wii offerings myself I tend to agree, yes mistakes were made. Let’s hope that the lesson learned is that people want unique games and not just shoveled ports with wiggle controls.

Ubisoft I accept your apology on the condition that you smarten up and release something worthwhile. I wouldn’t hold my breath however, remember these are the same guys that effectively ruined FarCry as a game and then sold the rights for a film to Uwe Boll. Mistakes indeed.

Source: Spiegel via Kotaku and IGN

I’m hearing that it’s still not that easy to procure one of the little white consoles. A source of mine from Wal-Mart tells me that his store got some 18 Wiis last Friday and to no ones surprise (including my own) they were all gone by lunch on Saturday.

Reggie says that Wii console production is up, so why are there still so many out there who are Wii-less? Just like the number of licks it takes to get to the center of a Tootsie-Pop, we may never know. Those of you out there in Rally-land who still find themselves using a remote to simply switch TV channels can take to heart that you aren’t missing much.

With Mario Party 8 launching this week the only game really worth getting excited about is RE4: Wii Edition which drops on June 19th. You can’t even really get that excited for it seeing as how the game was released back in 2005. Nope not much to look forward to at all, unless you’re in to cartoony soccer.

Things will get better though, Metroid Prime 3: Corruption hits store shelves on August 20th. Just sit tight and it will all be worth the wait.

“Twip, twip, twip”

OK I’m going to say this right off the bat. Vicarious Vision’s “Alchemy” engine is normally used for less detailed environments most commonly found on handheld platforms like the PSP and NDS. That being said why VV decided to use it for this game is really beyond me. Everything that is done “in-engine” looks absolutely retched. Models have incorrect geometry and textures look like they were done by a High School student instead of a reputable developer. I will say that the pre-rendered CG cut scenes look really good.

Now that I have that off my chest I can talk about how this game is fun. This is the first (movie-based) Spider-man game for the Nintendo Wii. The controls are implemented well and the combat is reminiscent of Twilight Princess. Once you get the hang of the combo system you should be able to take out large groups of baddies in no time with or without the use of a certain black suit. Web-slinging is done by pressing the left or right triggers (Z and B respectively) and flicking your wrist in the direction you would like to shoot your web. It’s all very intuitive and is very fun since you actually feel and look like you’re web-slinging around the city.

Enough about the controls lets talk story. For a game based on a movie with almost no story I was surprised to find even less here. They throw a couple of extra villains like the Lizard and Morbius in there but with a complete lack of any reason whatsoever. The villains are present just for the sake of being present. Even the scenes right from the movie were altered for no reason. No Harry or Venom death here folks they simply disappear and are never mentioned again.

Even with the extra villains this game tops out at about 6 hours to complete the main story, I was even playing on “Super-Hero” difficulty and came in under the 6 hour mark with 51% completion. Sure I can go back and defeat all the gangs that populate NYC but since they all have the same 3 enemies I think the cops can handel it.

If you love Spider-man give this one a rent. If you hate Spider-man you’re just not very nice. If you bought this title than you obviously didn’t learn anything from shelling out 11.75$ for that movie ticket opening day.

P.S.
Thanks to Brad who bought this game and was kind enough to lend it to me so I could save all of you the trouble of making the same mistake.

Hey remember that drought we’re not supposed to be having?

Remember when NoA president Reggie Fils-Amie said that there would be no shortage of quality games for Wii owners to enjoy?

But hey, lets not live in the past. Let’s concentrate on the here and now.

Last week I walked into my local Blockbuster to find a new Wii game to play, having had enough of scrolling through the copious amounts of text found in Super Paper Mario. Still, I looked at the shelf and couldn’t find a single game I wanted to take home. I don’t think I’m being picky, but both the Wii and the PS3 seem to be suffering from the same disease: lack of quality content.

I can’t explain why this seems be occurring. All I can do is bite my cheek and hope for the best. Things do look like they’re going to pick up around the last week in May, but don’t be surprised if that drops off again around June. I noticed that there are a couple barren weeks between now and September where no games are slated for release. However, if you are a fan of games based on movies things should be great for you as all the publishers cash in on all the summer blockbuster licences.

That’s right kiddies Super Mario is back! No Super Mario Galaxy is still a long way off but Mario fans recently got their beaks wet with a new addition to the Paper Mario series which debuted way back during the N64’s heyday.

I can’t talk about Super Paper Mario without first mentioning that the game was originally supposed to show up on the GameCube much like Zelda: Twilight Princess. I blame this on Nintendo’s commitment to quality which often results in long development times. This time around the GameCube was six feet under even before the Wii was picked from Nintendo’s secret underground console farm. Seeing as how both titles were given extra functionality and 0 to -10 load times I’m hardly complaining here.

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Last week details started to emerge about two new games currently in development by Capcom for the Wii. I use the term “new” loosely here because both of them seem to be following a common trend in Wii game development know as the “Wii-make”. A “Wii-make” is when a developer takes an existing game and re-tunes the controls to make use of the motion sensing controls of the Wii Remote. Often what you get is a game with shoe-horned wiggle controls that doesn’t really add any depth to the gameplay and can often detract from what was originally a pretty solid game.

So far one of the worst offenders is Prince of Persia: Rival Swords (Don’t let the name throw you it’s PoP: Two Thrones with wiggle controls) This game adds little depth to a series that peaked with it’s first game. I think the only reason why they didn’t do the other PoP games is because it would have blatantly been seen as a cash grab.

No I’m not going to say that all “Wii-makes” are bad. EA’s Godfather: Blackhand Edition is amazingly fun and probably the most violent Wii game so far. It’s also the only Wii game I have considered giving a 10 which is a moot point since I think that rating a game with numbers is stupid. The two Capcom games I mentioned earlier are Resident Evil: Umbrella Chronicles and RE:4 Biohazard Edition. Both look very promising.
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Last week Wii Rally took a look at Thrustmaster’s Wii Remote cover the T-Protect (link) This week we take a look at the T-Care and the T-Charge also from Thrustmaster, first up the T-Care.

I must say that the T-Care doesn’t really do much besides Hold your Wii Remote and nunchuck while looking good but then again that is its purpose. Coming in stylish “Wii white” and sporting a nice large compartment for your Nunchuck you can place it right on your coffee table without worrying about troublesome wires.

I did find that the Wii Remote didn’t fit perfectly into place while it was sporting a T-Protect but that seems to be the only flaw. What do you do if you have two Wii Remotes unfortunately the T-Care only come in the single model so you will have to buy a second one or you can pick up a T-Charge

Bottom Line

Pros:
Large Nunchuck compartment
Colour matches the Wii
Nice design.

Cons:
Doesn’t work well with the T-Protect
Only holds one Wii Remote and nunchuck

I wouldn’t say that Wii Remotes gobble batteries but they do like to snack on them. Since I heard that the Wii Remote would be devoid of any DS/GBA SP like charging mechanism I have been on the hunt for a decent battery solution. The T-Charge is an adequate solution to this problem.

The T-Charge looks exactly like the T-Care only sporting a sexy black paint job instead of the white found on the T-Care. Built into the stand is a battery charger which connects via USB to the back of your Wii console. No putting this one on your coffee table unless you have really smart children or pets. If you happen to trip of this wire not only will you pull the T-Charge from it’s resting place but there’s a good chance your Wii will come crashing to the floor as well. I find that the best place for the T-Charge is right next to the Wii itself.

I was surprised that you can only power the charge unit via USB instead of your standard AC plug meaning that the T-Charge must be kept in close proximity to the Wii. The charge time is decent however it takes about 5 to 6 hours to fully charge batteries. When batteries are placed in the charger located at the back of the holder a blue LED located on the front of the unit lights up letting you know that the batteries are charging. Once the batteries are charged the blue LED begins to flash notifying you to remove the batteries.

The best thing about the T-Charge is that it comes with four yes FOUR Thrustmaster rechargeable batteries. Thrustmaster’s reason behind this is that you never have to stop playing to wait for batteries. You can play while you other batteries are charging. Again this functionality kind of takes a hit when you own more that one Wii Remote.

Bottom Line

Pros:
Batteries included
Quick charge time
Sleek look

Cons:
Powered by USB only
Not available in white
Doesn’t work well with the T-Protect

Both these entries are extremely solid with only a few drawbacks. If you are looking for something to hold several Wii Remotes or a battery pack solution then keep looking but if you just want to save money on batteries then the T-Charge is an ideal solution. If space is problem for you the T-Charge and T-Care may fit well into your gaming environment. Oh and did I mention that they look stylish? I did? OK then well I’ll say it again they really do look cool and match the Wii nicely. You can also buy a combo package containing a T-Charge and a T-Care aptly named the T-Charge+.

I would also like to take this opportunity to thank Thrustmaster’s Marketing Manager Winn Keaten for providing these items to Wii Rally so that I can review them for all of you out there. For more information on Thrustmaster visit their website at www.thrustmaster.com If you missed it don’t forget to check out Wii Rally’s review of the T-Protect available here

Anybody who has read Wii Rally long enough or happens to know me in person knows that there is one thing in this world that I hate more than clowns, spiders, those costumed guys at theme parks and waiting in line all rolled into one. That one thing is Final Fantasy.

Now in all honesty I have no gripe with any particular game in the series or one of it’s many many many spin offs. My problem is with Final Fantasy itself. Pretty much anything with the name Final Fantasy on it draws my loathsome ire despite what positive points any sort of product bearing the name would have. I’ll tell you why, to put it simply Final Fantasy is indicative of exactly what is wrong with the video game industry. Reports have started to surface about Square-Enix’s list of titles to be published in 2007 among this list are ten yes I said TEN games bearing the Final Fantasy name . I’m sorry but to me this does not project an image of the innovation and progress that has made this industry great. All I see is a bunch of SquEnix COs literally beating a dead horse till brains leak about the sides and it looks more like a deformed llama than the epic tale of the Heroes of Light that saved this once great company from a terrible end.

Just because a game is a success doesn’t mean that there is a reason to create a sequel, spin off or remake. Not since the cheesy slasher flicks of the eighties has series numeration risen to such absurd levels. In this age of Tony Hawk 8 Final Fantasy 13s Dynasty Warriors 8 and Test Drive Unlimited (the one that got so high they lost count). I lament that even new ideas and IPs are being subjected to what I call the “trilogy treatment” this can be seen with the Halo series and even though nothing has been officially announced Gears of War.

Now games that have dropped the enumeration are no better. Sure you’ve got your Madden’s and your NHL/MLB/FIFA/NBA/NCAA/MLS/XYJ ‘0whatever but those are sports titles and it’s part of the simulation to have the most up to date rosters even though any real fan would tell you that the games are always a season behind. But do we really need 6 Burnout titles and over 15 entries in the Need for Speed series?

What has happened to the innovation and the desire to create new and fantastic worlds, monsters and characters the likes of which nobody has ever seen. I know that it is unfair to take out my frustration on a particular series like I often do with Final Fantasy but the name in itself inspires great rage due to a childhood incident involving the Never Ending Story. In my humble yet serious opinion this needs to stop and soon or games will lose much of their magic and credibility as a medium.

I’m sorry for writing an entire post without mentioning the Nintendo Wii but what good is soapbox like this if you can’t use it shout from the rooftops every once in awhile.

Guillemot owned peripheral maker Thrustmaster has some accessories on the market to pimp out your Wii, today Wii Rally focuses on the T-Protect.

The T-Protect is a silicon sleeve for your Wii Remote and nunchuck combo. It is designed to give you more of a grip on the Wii Remote and accent it with style. What sets the T-Protect apart from similar products on the market is that the T-Protect is designed to absorb shock it’s actually a couple millimeters thicker than the basic colour sleeves you can buy anywhere. So if you’re a butter fingers that is constantly dropping the Wii Remote or you like to live dangerously and forgo the suggested wrist strap then the T-Protect may help you get a little more mileage out of your Wii Remote, until you send it through your nice new TV because you’re too manly to listen to warnings.

The T-Protect comes in too colours black and white it’s surprising that Thrustmaster didn’t go with any other colours considering the success of sites like Decal Girl or the simple joy people get out of customizing their Wii Remote. I got my girlfriend a pink sleeve for her Wii Remote and she’s never been happier. I was a bit skeptical about the white T-Protect considering how the Wii Remote on it’s own seems to gather a greasy form of filth during particularly sweaty sessions of Zelda:TP. The T-Protect did not stop this occurrence but the sleeve itself remained clean while the gunk stayed on Wii Remote.

The T-Protect does fit comfortably in your hand and doesn’t add much weight to the Wii Remote but when you’ve been playing video games as long as I have sometimes something wrapping around your controller just feels “wrong”. I prefer the smooth texture of the original Wii Remote casing but if your worried about one day dropping your controller and having it smash in into pieces on your nice hard wood floor. You can spend thousands of dollars installing carpet in your game domain or dish out 9.99$ for a T-Protect.

I’m not a big fan of Wii Remote sleeves but if you are really looking to buy one for protection’s sake than the T-protect is probably is the strongest and best value for your money.

Bottom Line

Pros:
Comfortable
Protects your controller
Doesn’t get dirty.

Cons:
Only comes in two colours
Can feel “wrong” for seasoned gamers
Won’t protect loved ones from injury.

The first question that comes to mind is “Why does this even exist?”.

Nintendo surprised Wii owners on Wednesday by releasing a new piece of software via the Wii Shop channel. The Everybody Votes channel is the first piece of stand alone software that has been issued for the Wii. Talk about tripping right out of the gate. Sure the concept seems intriguing, vote in national and world wide polls and my favorite part see the results. Sorry I’m about to pee in my pants I’m so excited about looking at statistics and the prospect of finding out how many Wii owners prefer chocolate over flowers. The Everybody Votes channel seems like a sad attempt at one of those “The whole family can play things” just excecuted very poorly. I mean they could have at least made it fun to use. Trust me it’s about as exciting as browsing the Wii Shop Channel.

As dull as it may be the Everybody Votes channel is totally free. Nintendo makes you go jump through a few hoops in the form of a system update and a trip to the Wii Shop channel to download the actual application. It is nice to see that Nintendo is at least playing with the idea of linking consoles by a means other tha the friend codes we all love to input.