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Wii Reviews
Dead Space: Extraction
Dead Space was a nice click of the refresh button for video game horror. It may have shared the year with Resident Evil 5 and Alone in the Dark, but Dead Space was the only game that scared the crap out of me. They also managed to create a unique combat system that increased the strategy from the usual run, shoot, repeat. The story wasn’t bad either, combining Aliens, Resident Evil, and an undercurrent of ...Spongebob’s Truth or Square (Game)
Spongebob Squarepants has become something of a pop culture phenomenon, and as a result a marketing cash cow. Nickelodeon and THQ have been pumping out games based on the television series and characters for a while now, and the market might be reaching a saturation point. The latest game, Songebob’s Truth or Square, takes its inspiration from the latest television special. Both involve memories, both involve the Krusty Krab’s EleventySeventh birthday, but that’s where the ...
The Price is Right (2010 Edition)
The Wii has an expanded demographic, a focus on mini-game collections, and an audience with reduced expectations. Ubisoft has crafted a series of classic game shows into Wii games. The first in the series is the Price is Right. On one hand they perfectly mimicked the concept of being a contestant on the Price is Right, but on the other the experience lacks any of the character or charm of the original series.
When I say ...
Muramasa: The Demon Blade
Development studio Vanillaware doesn’t make many games, but the ones they do are always great. Odin Sphere and GrimGrimoire were the highlights of the PS2’s twilight years, ensuring that I dragged that console out for a few more sessions. The studio teamed with Marvelous Entertainment, home of radical designer Suda 51, to make a game for the Wii - Muramasa: The Demon Blade.
Considering the amount of retro chic that was used to sell the Wii, ...
Groovin’ Blocks (Retail Version)
I like puzzle games. I’ve never been shy about this particular bias I have. I was looking forward to playing Groovin’ Blocks on the Wii as I wasn’t able to catch it when it debuted as a downloadable title. Everybody I know that downloaded the game seemed to enjoy it, so I was more than happy to place he disc version in my Wii.
After some price checking, I noticed the boxed copy is twice as ...
Where’s Waldo: The Fantastic Journey
My 6 year old son and I played through Where’s Waldo: The Fantastic Journey in an afternoon. We found it to be a fun game that provided enough challenge for the younger player but still enabling success. Basically, the game features a simple “hidden picture” style of play, much like the books. Actually, this game is based on the third main Waldo book of the same name. The pictures that players are asked to find ...
The Conduit
In the rush to bring us the motion control revolution, Nintendo figured core gamers were already served by the PS3 and 360 quite well, and in turn served up very few games outside their usual franchises for this demographic. Sega and High Voltage take a stab at serving hardcore gamers a dose of FPS action on the Wii. Something that more mature developers at Ubisoft and EA failed miserably at. Although age has little to ...
Final Fantasy: Crystal Chronicles: Echoes of Time
I like SquareSoft (now SquareEnix). Apart from the multitude of games that stole hours of a dull Midwestern childhood, they have managed to steal many hours of a dull Midwestern adulthood. I also have been quite keen on Nintendo's new console, but I have to draw the line somewhere. Final Fantasy: Crystal Chronicles: Echoes of Time on the Wii and DS, deserves some flack.
Much of the time SquareEnix churns out quality product like none other, ...
Tenchu: Shadow Assassins
While ninja games are a dime a dozen, the Tenchu series has long stood out from other games featuring the iconic sword-swinging, mask and pajama-wearing, star-throwing types by highlighting what they are best known for - stealth. Along with Metal Gear Solid and Thief: The Dark Project, the original Tenchu on the Playstation helped to kick-start the idea of stealth as a genre and central game concept, something that has attracted many imitators (for better ...
Ready to Rumble: Revolution
Ready to Rumble: Revolution is an example of a developer just not getting the Wii. There is a shameless march of ports and remakes the system recieves, and this is yet another. Let's face it - the Wii is two years past launch and enough time has passed that we should be past these silly gaffes where games don't work.
It continues to surprise me that major league publishers are signing off on titles where the ...
Coraline
Since Coraline is a licensed title promoting what I think is easily one of the best films released this year, and like the movie, based in a novella by one of my favorite writers, Neil Gaiman, I really wanted to at least say that this was a decent title for a promotional product. However, this game is a total chore to play, and I can't even say it's passable for a licensed title.
One of the ...
Mushroom Men: The Spore Wars
Trying to invent a new franchise is difficult in any medium. Ambition can be a terrible bedfellow, and drag your work down. In video games that thought has led to more abortive endings, and halfhearted installments all in the name of telling us a story. We all know there is only one game worth of story, and that by the next everything that distinguished the game will be watered down and reused like a pot ...
Animal Crossing: City Folk
You need a special kind of patience to be a long-time Nintendo fan. Even looking beyond the casual versus hardcore debate Nintendo has ignited with the Wii, they do quite a lot to make things tough for their fans. If you need an example, just look at the rabid fanbase at Starmen.net, who have been eagerly awaiting the release of a new Earthbound game stateside for years, despite Nintendo passing up multiple opportunities to do ...
All Star Cheer Squad
I was willing to give this game the benefit of the doubt. I really was. I mean, especially after Ouendan and Elite Beat Agents, I know that a videogame about cheerleading can actually be good, and the idea seems a perfect fit for the Wii – like a full-body Dance Dance Revolution, I guess (you know, like the Wii version of Dance Dance Revolution). However, anyone who plays this game will quickly come to the ...
Written on January 26, 2009 | Posted in Wii Reviews | No Comment
De Blob
It’s a pity that some of the most original and ambitious games to grace the Wii have been original properties largely ignored by consumers. Boom Blox, No More Heroes, Zak and Wiki. While the Wii’s lineup has been largely disappointing, and yet these few shining stars amidst the junkpile that have actually made use of the Wii’s unique control scheme to provide gamers with something new and different have been shunned by the Wii’s ...
Brothers in Arms: Double Time
Nintendo's Wii may sell like hotcakes, but even Darth Sid-, I mean Reggie Fils-Aime admits that developers don’t get the Wii. While Ubisoft has been one of the few to enjoy almost as much success as Nintendo with their Wii—centric Raving Rabbids series seems to have missed a beat with their port of the first two Brothers in Arms games. Billed as Double Time, this is essentially a port of a PS2/Xbox release that ...
Bratz Girlz Really Rock
For longer than I can remember, I’ve been the resident girl game reviewer around here, which basically means I’ve taken a hit for the team, as there is no genre as consistently terrible as girl games. I say this not because I have a problem with games that emphasize fashion and the color pink, nor do I have a problem with games intended for people two decades younger than I am. Rather, it is because ...Line Rider 2: Unbound
The Line Rider series started out on the PC as an interesting little physics experiment – drop a sledder from the top of a hill, and task the player with creating a safe path for him to follow to reach the bottom of the hill, drawing in the missing pieces in the layout of the level for the falling sled to slide on and bounce off of. As Gary’s Mod taught us, playing with ...
MLB: Power Pros 2008
One of biggest issues I have with Wii games is when no effort is made to give the console an experience that is actually designed for it. This year’s installment of MLB Power Pros is just such a game. If you picked up last year’s baseball cum chibi animation, you know what to expect. Newer players will likely be drawn in by what seems to be a perfect marriage of Nintendo’s overly cute world, ...
We Love Golf
The Wii has managed to create a stunning series of game clichés that have become as tiresome as any WWII shooter. In the case of We Love Golf, there is another forgettable Anime golf game. What is so bad about the title is that it really is a missed opportunity. Wii games that try and push the simulation elements to eleven end up being needlessly frustrating, and forgetting the possibilities of motion control means ...
Top Spin 3 (Wii)
If you read my review of the Xbox 360 version of Top Spin 3, you know I wasn’t happy with it at all. Even after putting aside my general dislike for the series’ tendency to aim for more of a “simulation” than my preferred series, Virtua Tennis, the latest installment on the consoles was just terrible – overly-complex controls, underwhelming graphics, and various other problems actually made the game worse than its predecessors. So imagine ...
Final Fantasy Fables: Chocobo’s Dungeon
The new mystery dungeon craze has been going through most of the RPG franchises, and now the grand daddy of RPG's gets its own installment with Final Fantasy Fables: Chocobo's Dungeon. The game brings us the two reoccurring characters of the Final Fantasy series, Cid and Chocobo. Cid is pursuing a gem with timeless power so he can build an airship. His arch rival Irma beat his to the gem, but both treasure ...
Death Jr: Root of Evil (Wii)
Platform games are almost entirely dependent on the likeability of their characters. It is all that separates a solid title from something bound for the bargain bin. Death Jr. has great characters. A cast of Tim Burton-esque characters led by the son of Death, and Pandora, these macabre middle-school kids are some of the best characters I’ve seen in awhile. However, the PSP and DS titles were missing solid gameplay. The great characters have warranted ...
Wacky Races: Crash & Dash
While never as popular as its Hannah-Barbara cousins like The Flintstones and Scooby-Doo, Wacky Races still manages to be one of the animation studio’s licenses that has proven memorable enough to be enduring, if only in a “Yeah, I kinda’ remember that… I think” sort of way. Apparently, publisher Eidos believes that even now, this increasingly nebulous cloud of nostalgia surrounding the cartoon makes it a marketable entity.
I don’t know just how true this ...
We Ski
Every gaming console needs a skiing/snowboarding game – there’s a bylaw somewhere that specifically states this – so it made sense that We Ski would show up for the Wii. It makes even more sense when a person thinks about how a Wiimote and nunchuck could equal ski poles. And adding the balance board in to control movement? You just blew my mind, Namco Bandai.
At its heart, ...
