Published at 20 June, 2007
in Wii and Games.
The Legend of Zelda series has been a good franchise through the years - and now we have one for the Wii.
I’ve never been much of a fan of the shoot-n-run-n-solve-puzzles genre - preferring to either just run and shoot, or take my time with puzzle games that don’t involve shooting. This iteration of Zelda has me entranced by the quality of the graphics (normally noticeably inferior to those on the XBox 360 and PSIII) and the sheer playability. Sure, it has some tricky puzzles, but these don’t usually get in the way (and if they do, there are always the “hints” sites!).
See the wikipedia article for more information.
Published at 18 June, 2007
in Wii and Games.
Red Steel is the best first-person shoot-em-up that I’ve played on the Wii.
I used to love shoot-em-up games like this - loved DooM and Quake all to bits in my mis-begotten youth. Red Steel allows me to feel like I am young again - the playing experience is what I’ve been missing every time I’ve tried to play one of the successors to Quake.
It is probably the hardest game I’ve enjoyed playing on the Wii - it is sooo easy to die, but that is OK, because if I am silly enough to run into a room surrounded by men with machine pistols on all sides, I deserve it.
See the wikipedia article for more information.
Published at 16 June, 2007
in Wii and Games.
Marvel Ultimate Alliance is not brilliant, but it is the best third-person shoot-em-up that I’ve played on the Wii.
I’m looking for a pure experience of battle from this kind of game, and while this is the closest thing to it that I have found, there is still something missing - I feel a little lost every time I have to stop and think about the puzzles. Fight, fight, fight, yay, but now you have to stop fighting and find some kind of key, aarrgh! Where did the fighting go?
Because this game is cross-platform in a big way, the wikipedia article is quite extensive.
Published at 14 June, 2007
in Wii and Games.
I love Kororinpa. 
What’s not to love? It is playable, it is fun, and it is a low-impact way to test your skill against the Wii without killing anything.
For more information, see the wikipedia article. It is interesting to note that a lot of the larger game review sites gave it a low score for playability - it probably didn’t appeal to their hair-trigger reflexes.
Published at 12 June, 2007
in Wii and Games.
I’ve always liked pinball games.
Gottlieb Pinball Classics for the Wii is extraordinary - it faithfully reproduces the classic tables of the 1960s through to the 1990s - and reproduces the game playing experience (if you use the nunchuk controller you have a button in each hand). It meets all my Wii criteria - it is fun, it is intuitive, and it has an easy progression from the starter tables up through to the harder ones.
For more details, check out the wikipedia article.
Published at 21 May, 2007
in Games.
What can I say about Ice Age 2, I love it. I’ve played a few games on the Wii, and they’ve been too complicated for me. Let me explain - I have a fairly intense job, and between being a my hobby time is fairly limited. I need some mindless stimulation every now and then - that’s why I love Wii Sports boxing.
Today I played Ice Age 2 for the first time, and it was a joy - none of this hold a button down on the nunchuck while waving the controller madly side to side, no, that is not side to side, it is up and down because the $%^&* is tilted, aargh, dead again BS. You run around, and if you want to jump, press A. If you want to wriggle into a hole, or dive, press C. If you want to hit something, shake the heck out of the controller. Sweet.
I still maintain that Nintendo should embrace the chaos, and accept that a lot of people who haven’t played games since DooM was new are now turning on to the wireless splendour of Wii.
Published at 10 May, 2007
in Games.
Chris Leigh from PalGN writes in Wii Resi Evil 4 aimed at more casual gamers:
They’re making it “more accessible.”
Good news if you struggled to finish the GameCube’s Resident Evil 4: the Wii version of Capcom’s landmark survival horror title is to be made a tad easier. Bad news: you’re not terribly good at games, are you?
Admittedly, awesome as it is, we’re struggling to understand why people would find the 10-out-of-10 gem especially taxing, but Capcom reckons it’s all about targeting the new gamers that the Wii has attracted. “Our concept is ‘easier’,” explained Resident Evil 4: Wii Edition producer Masachika Kawata to Famitsu. “The number of hardcore gamers [who own a Wii] is relatively small. A lower difficulty can attract Wii gamers but excessive easiness can reduce excitement. Our goal is to make it easier and exciting.”
Righto. But exactly how will this be achieved? Well, there’ll be Easy and Amateur modes with specially designed player aids, such as a gun laser sight which allows infinite range, as well as a more straightforward enemy lock-on feature. And stabbing mad villagers will also be made far less fiddly, with knifework carried out simply by airily waving the Wii Remote towards your foes - on the GameCube, players would have to aim the knife using the analogue stick.
Did I miss something? Are Wii games meant to be hard work? If I wanted to solve complex problems and perform harsh physically challenging activity then I’d be doing more work work during my Wii time. 
The last Resident Evil experience I had was the Playstation 1 version of RE2 on a Playstation 2, and as an experience it lacked a lot - waiting for several minutes for the thing to load, only to die within thirty seconds seemed unbelievably tedious.
If Nintendo is to keep the casual gamers and convert them into longterm valuable customers then they need to keep this in mind - that there is this trust relationship there (”I as relative newcomer to gaming trust you as provider of fun platform to keep it fun”), and people react badly to a perceived loss of that trust. I know that there has to be a balance there, and perhaps Resident Evil 4 will have it in the easy mode.