Only once in a while, the Wii seems to get a truly interesting title that fits its quirky bizarre nature. Other titles in this category include Zack & Wiki, No More Heroes, and WarioWare: Smooth Moves. Well, add de Blob to the list. It’s bizarre, quirky, funny, and a hell of a lot of fun.
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Naturally, Wii-owners have been clamoring for a lightsaber game since we first saw the Wii remote. While we are going to have to wait until next year for Wii Motion Plus before we see a truly 1:1 experience, Star Wars: The Force Unleashed does what it can in the meantime to make you feel like a truly powerful Dark Jedi. But is Krome Studio’s translation of the Xbox 360/PS3’s tech powerhouse strong with the Force or has Star Wars gaming fallen to the Dark Side?
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Upon first seeing Mario Kart Wii, I remained questionable. Part of me wondered if this would crash and burn before the standards set by the gold-encrusted gem known as Mario Kart DS, or if it would greatly surpass it and make us forget about the disappointing Mario Kart: Double Dash! which very well could’ve started the brand new franchise of slow, trudging races entitled Mario Tractor. But since getting the latest iteration of this franchise, my wavering opinion on the game has failed to reach a point of resolute. It has both exceeded my expectations and failed to meet them at the same time. But one area where the game certainly earns its name is that it is so damn fun! So enough jibber-jabbering. Let me get you up to speed… OH I just HAD to do it!
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When Nintendo unveiled the WiiWare service our minds were sent reeling at the possibility of quality short titles and independant developers finally getting a chance at mainstream exposure. We hoped for titles that would understand and embrace the Wii’s control scheme, and bring us new and engaging experiences that we haven’t been getting from a lot of full-cost releases from third-party developers.
One of the more hyped games for the WiiWare service has been LostWinds, the latest title from British-based Frontier Developments, created exclusively for the WiiWare service. The game was getting a lot of positive press before its release. Does it live up to the hype? Or should this title just get ‘lost’?
Since the possibilities of the Wii slowly began being discussed, the PS2-exclusive Okami was in the back of many-a-Nintendo fan’s mind as a game that almost seemed PERFECTLY designed for the platform. However, after Clover Studios, the team that designed the game, left Capcom, that chance seemed lost. 2 years later, Ready at Dawn revives our hopes, and beyond all belief, they have brought the masterful adventure that is Okami to the Nintendo Wii. Does this port fulfill our dreams, or should we have let sleeping dogs lie?
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I can imagine the meeting before the first Smash Bros. game was made. “How can we make the best game ever?” “Well, we’ll make a fighting game, but with all the most famous Nintendo characters, and make it absolutely insane”. And Super Smash Bros. — now Nintendo’s highest selling series — was born.
It’s been six and a half long years since Smash Bros. Melee was released in 2001, and the hype for the series’ third installment, Super Smash Bros. Brawl, has been incredible. From the first announcement at E3 2006, to the daily updates on the Dojo, right up to the line-ups at the midnight launch, Brawl has been the most anticipated Nintendo game of all time. Does it deliver?
Okay, first thing’s first. No More Heroes is weird. You play as Travis Touchdown. An anime-loving, porn-collecting, wrestling fan. Not your normal hero. It gets stranger. Having won a lightsab… I mean… a ‘beam katana’ in an online auction, Travis takes on the task of killing the top ten assassins in order to become number one. And his motivation really just ends there. He just wants to be the best. No More Heroes is the latest creation from director Suda 51 and his team at Grasshopper Manufacture. Weird games are really their forte, as seen with the Gamecube’s Killer 7. But No More Heroes isn’t just a super-violent action title. It’s a big deal actually. Can developers really take a chance not creating mini-game collections on the Wii? Especially with an original, M-rated title clearly geared towards the hardcore audience? Grasshopper jumped in head-first with this one, going where really no other game has gone on the system. Now was this a mistake, or is No More Heroes a hero for the hardcore gamer on the Wii?
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The Wii doesn’t have much in terms of first-person shooters, and the ones that exist are certainly of poor quality in terms of effort from the developers and what the system itself is capable of. The EA-published Medal of Honor Heroes 2 has hit the Wii in hopes of changing that. The title is set in the WWII era, not only making this the third WWII FPS the system has seen, but the second under the Medal of Honor license that we’ve seen in this year. The previous installment, Medal of Honor: Vanguard, really suffered from muddy visuals, inconsistent AI, and somewhat passable control. Does this leap into the fray result in a heroic victory, or does Heroes 2 suffer the same wounds as before?
Back at E3 ‘06 when the Wii was revealed in all its glowing glory, Nintendo showed us a light-gun shell that had our imaginations running wild as to how awesome a new (or classic) version of Duck Hunt would be on the Wii. Pixel-perfect accuracy, wireless controls, the same annoying dog that you kept trying to shoot but nothing would happen… We heard nothing about it for a while, until recently, when Nintendo finally remembered the “Zapper” and decided to finally give it to us, albeit more stylishly designed and forgetting the 80’s look. It’s alright Nintendo, I forgive you. They also decided to bundle it with a short game, Link’s Crossbow Training, to demonstrate its abilities.
On September 26th, 1996, the Nintendo 64 released in North America, and with it came one of the finest games ever made: Super Mario 64. The amazing graphics, perfect controls, and wicked level design revolutionized gaming as we know it. Mario 64 left us all saying “What can Mario do next to top THAT?†It’s been a long eleven years for Nintendo fans since then. We’ve seen our company fall from grace and rise back to the top. We’ve seen them try tons of new ideas, some of them failing, others being wild successes. Mario took place in sporting events, racing, partying, and a sunshine vacation which left us wanting more. Now, finally, in 2007, with Nintendo’s Wii console only a year old, Nintendo has brought us what we’ve all been wishing for. What can Mario do to top Mario 64? Super Mario Galaxy.
