Below is the Wii review I did for WiiChat (www.wiichat.com), it came with an accompanying video report which can be viewed with the article at its original location on the interweb. If you'd like this article in PDF format feel free to drop me a line using the email link on the side. Enjoy the article and I look forward to hearing from you soon if you get in touch!
This is Wii. The simple words of Nintendo in their recent Wii promotional onslaught. Well, now Wii is here and we’ve been playing it like crazy to bring you our full verdict on the system. What Nintendo hope will be the future of the video games industry is now here and from what we’ve played so far it is going to take the industry by storm. Sleek, well designed, innovative and most of all fantastic fun, playing Wii is a gaming experience unlike any other. Read on...
From the second you open the Wii box things are different. The word ‘Nintendo’ isn’t emblazoned all over everything, there is a sense of sophistication about everything and there isn’t a plumber in sight. This is a new dawn for Nintendo and they are doing it properly. Open up the box and you are presented with two compartments; 1 and 2. Open them up and go through them in order and within three minutes you’ll have your Wii up and running on your TV. Nothing complicated, nothing confusing and nothing infuriatingly obscure, the Wii really is an ‘out the box’ piece of technology.
The first thing that strikes you about the system is how small it is, but also how heavy and solid it feels. The Wii is a very well made console. It doesn’t rattle, all the buttons on the console are satisfying to touch, the finish is exquisite and the whole thing just reeks ‘class’. And at £179.99, class is coming at you for a bargain price. With everything plugged in and turned on, it is time to boot up your Wii for the first time. You’ll be asked to enter time, date, console nickname and a few other things before you can get through to the main menu, but with all these simple tasks done and out the way the Wii is all ready to be enjoyed.
The Wii Channel menu is where you’ll start every single Wii experience, be it checking the Message Board, playing a game, downloading something from the Wii Shop, playing about with the Photo Channel, the Mii Channel or even looking over the News or Forecast Channels. Nintendo see it as a great way to get people who don’t like gaming into gaming, and we think it’s brilliant! The design is excellent, everything looks clean and crisp and the way that the Wii controller vibrates just a tiny bit as you roll over the Wii Channels is a lovely little touch. The sound effects and music that accompany it are excellent too, making the Wii feel like a genuinely mature but also fun experience. This is a trick Nintendo continue to pull. It looks smart and gadgety, it screams iPod, yet it has a fun, cute and dare we saw ‘kiddy’ side that is so damn appealing you’ll soon fall in love.
A good example of this is in the Photo Channel. On the front of the Wii is a small ‘door’, which when opened reveals the synch button for adding new controllers and a slot to insert an SD card. Pop in the SD card from your camera or phone, go to the Photo Channel and before you know it you’ll be viewing all your pictures on your Wii! You can rotate them, view them as a slideshow, turn them into jigsaw puzzles, doodle all over them and send them to friends and family; the choice is yours. Everything seems to be accompanied by a funny sound effect, for instance when you rub out your doodles on pictures you get a funny squeaking sound and when you move between pictures in a slideshow you get the noise of a camera shutter, the little things make a big difference. Also, if you have MP3 files on your SD card you can use them as the background music for your slideshows. This is a great way to share your pictures with people in a fun and simple to understand way. Picture quality is good and even better all this playing about doesn’t change anything on your SD card, so your precious pics will remain untouched. Clever stuff.
The Mii Channel is perhaps the best place to start when you first boot up your Wii. Simply hit start and you can start creating your very first Mii. Pick a gender and then you can play about with all sorts of attributes to make a strange looking virtual version of yourself. Get all that done and then your Mii character is plonked down in a big empty space all alone. If your friends or family are also going to use your Wii, then they can create some Mii characters to keep your one company, and when you take your Wii online you can ‘socialise’ with friends all over the world.
The Disk Channel is probably where you will be spending a lot of your time, and just like the rest of the channel it is very well put together. When you select it with no disk in you see two pictures of Wii and GameCube disks, pop in a Wii disk, both disks start spinning, after a while the GC image stops spinning and the Wii one carries on before dropping down off the screen as the start-up screen for the game fades into view. It might be pointless and unnecessary but we love it all the same. Loading times are minimal or non-existent and titles like Wii Play and Wii Sports almost ‘merge’ into the main Wii interface, which is quite a nice touch. Once again this is an example of the Wii being hassle free, user friendly and simple to use.
The Message Board is another area that Nintendo hope will conquer the non-gaming world. You can leave messages for friends and family and beam messages and images all over the world to people on your friends list from here and it is also the place where Nintendo can communicate with you by sending you messages and perhaps even special gifts. Everyday a ‘Game History’ file is created where you can view how long you’ve spent playing and what you have been playing during that day on your Wii. Again, a nice little feature that just makes the whole Wii experience all the more fun. Wii settings is packed full of things to change and fiddle about with and is also home to much publicised Parental Controls system. Not the most interesting aspect of the hardware, but certainly nice and comprehensive.
We can’t really say enough about how sexy the Wii looks. The finish on the console isn’t iPod like at all, it shines with a brilliant reflective quality that is really quite different to the Apple style. The system itself is totally minimalist, apart from the little hatches for adding in GameCube controllers and memory cards on the top and the hatch for the SD card and synchronisation button on the front it it pretty much pure white plastic all the way round. Even the Nintendo logo is hidden away as a very small little addition on one side of the console. But not only does the Wii innovate in terms of looks, but it also packs a punch from another aspect...
The controller. Hold it in your hand and it instantly feels at home, the shape, size and design of it means it works in small and big hands and never feels awkard. All the buttons are well placed and feel good and sturdy when you press them and everything is responsive and ergonomically designed. The technology that makes the Wii remote such a clever piece of kit has also been tweaked and perfected to make it very responsive and accurate. In Wii Sports all movements are faithfully acted on on screen just as you have done them in real life and even the slightest change in angle or flick of the wrist can make a huge difference. Any worries that the controller technology would be patchy and unreliable can safely be laid to rest. So long as you stand far enough away from the TV (just over a meter) all your movements will be picked up just fine.
Nintendo have said that you can have your Wii stored horizontally or vertically, but for us there is only one option. Using the Wii Stand makes the console look very dynamic and even sexier than normal, but lying it on its side makes the system look a bit messy and in all honesty a tad rubbish. To an extent it’ll make the console look better when you start running GameCube controller wires and Wavebird receivers out the top of it, but the whole unit just looks ‘wrong’ when placed horizontally. Perhaps one of the coolest aspects of the unit itself is the disk drive. To load up a disk all you have to do is offer it up to the hole in the front of the Wii and it’ll slide in as the drive sucks it in. The same works for GameCube disks, it really is very clever indeed. Did we mention the blue light at the front? Yes, the tech-geek inside us is having a field day...
The Wii is noise free, loading time free, hassle free and from what we’ve played about with so far bug free. Nothing has gone wrong, confused us or not worked so far and fingers crossed it won’t in the future. The Wii Channel system is a lovely way to start your playing experience everyday and everything about the Wii is perfected, tweaked and fine-tuned until it purrs like a little white pussycat. When you consider that for £180 and perhaps a little bit more on a copy of Wii Play for the extra controller you can enjoy an unrivalled gameplay experience that anyone can pick up and enjoy.
So far the Wii has been with us for just a couple of days and already it has got more attention and excitement from non-gamers than the GameCube did during a whole lifetime. It is just so much fun to play that everyone wants a go and everyone instantly falls in love. Even those who say it looks stupid want a go just to see what it is like and even though they won’t admit it, they too love the Wii.
So, how have Nintendo done with the Wii? Well, apart from it looking stupid when you shove in all your GameCube kit this really is a rather perfect little system. It looks brilliant, it plays brilliant and every ruddy aspect of it is for lack of a better or different word, brilliant. If this superlative ridden review hasn’t been enough to convince you that the Wii is the future of gaming, pick up the controller and have a play about yourself. Once you play it, you’ll never look back. Nintendo have finally cracked the home console market again, expect Wii to take the industry by storm...
Wednesday, December 6, 2006
Monday, December 4, 2006
Wii Play Review (C3)
The Wii Play review I did for C3. Published on 4/12/2006, a few days prior to the UK launch of the system on December 8th. If you'd like this review in PDF format or to discuss content for your publication, feel free to contact me by using the email link to the right, I'd be delighted to hear from you.
Nintendo have made the bold choice of launching the Wii with just one major first party title. Wii Play and Wii Sports are the other two, with the latter coming boxed with the console itself. So that leaves Wii Play as the second biggest first party launch title for the Wii and with a very important role to do. Simple in premise, simple in looks and simple in execution, Wii Play has about as much depth as a puddle, but at £34.99 with a free controller chucked in for good measure this game really is a bargain.
In a way, this is Nintendo’s answer to the EyeToy. Not to be nasty, but it looks like someone threw up ‘cute’ all over it and then squashed it into two-dimensions; which strangely is a good thing. Wii Play, much like Wii Sports, is an example of how the Wii is a sociable console, accessible to anyone and instantly enjoyable. The simplicity of this game is most definitely its charm. To get the most enjoyment out of it be sure to create Mii characters for you and anyone who plays on it, not because this adds anything to the gameplay, but it keeps track of high scores and generally makes things quite amusing.
Wii Play is a two-player multiplayer experience, so don’t go out and buy it if you have no friends as that would be ruddy pointless (hence the extra controller bundled with the game). Admittedly you can play it on your own to try and beat your record score over and over again, but this is about as boring as watching paint dry blindfolded. You start off having to unlock each of the nine mini-games in the package, playing through them in order.
The first one is a homage to Duck Hunt under the monicker of Shooting Range. This is perhaps one of the finest titles in the Wii Play package. First up it looks really nice with some vibrant and oh so cute visuals that really work excellently. It is made up of a number of levels that get progressively harder, with each one asking you to simply hit as much stuff as possible. Point the Wii remote at the screen at hit A or B to shoot at the targets. You have to hit balloons, flying disks, ducks (for bonus points, these appear at random times during the game, so keep an eye out), round targets and UFOs, all of which fly about the screen and move around just to make things difficult. But what about the rest of the games, well in order here they are...
Find Mii. A bit of a brain tester this one. Over a number of levels you have to be the first one to find certain Mii characters who are hiding in the crowd. You might have to find two look-a-likes, the fastest Mii, the odd Mii out, all in different settings and scenarios. It really is as simple as that. The challenges get harder and harder and it will take you longer and longer to find the desired Miis and before you know it, the clock will have run out. A really challenging game this one...
Table Tennis: Does exactly what it says on the tin. Pick up the bat by moving ‘your hand’ towards it and then push the bat into the ball to hit it. A bit confusing at first, but certainly good fun when you get the hang of it, which might take a while.
Pose Me: Quite an obscure one, in which you have ‘pose’ your Mii character in a number of bubbles. You do this by rotating the Wii remote to the required angle and then hitting A or B depending on which pose you need to move into. The bubbles come thick and fast and you have to get all the ones that correspond to your colour or it is game over. You get extra points for getting to your opponents bubbles first and the action if fast and furious. Also, for some obscure reason the background picture changes about and at one point is a close up photograph of a small bird...strange.
Laser Hockey: It looks fun, but it isn’t really. You move about the Wii remote to control your little laser blocker in this neon pong-a-like. Hit the laser ball into your opponents goal to score points and that’s about it. Problem is, it takes the smallest of movements and for some reason if you move your hand too much you get ‘stuck’ to the side of the arena, sometimes totally unable to escape for some time.
Billiards: Another fine title in the Wii Play package. Slow, considered and very enjoyable, just like the real thing. Sure, it might be impossible to hit a safety shot, but nobody likes a bore so that can only be a good thing. You use the D-Pad to change the angle of the shot, place the cue impact point with the ball by moving around the Wii remote and pressing B when you get it where you want it and then hit the ball by moving back the Wii remote and sliding it forward with the desired force. The slower you move, the weaker the shot. Quite a bit of skill involved and a great example of how the Wii controller can be used in an innovative way to make old videogame formulas great.
Fishing: Grab the rod, shove it in the pond and catch some fish! There are bonus fishes throughout the game that get you bonus points, so keep an eye out for them, but also some ugly looking fishes that get you minus points. A nice relaxing mini-game that can get remarkably competitive, but for the ultimate fishing experience we’ll stick to The Legend of Zelda: Twilight Princess...
Charge!: Ride on a big woolen cow as you hit scarecrows, jump fences and bosh your opponent off the course in what could easily be a game in its own right with a bit of work. By holding the Wii remote on its side (a lot like in Excitetruck), you have to rotate it to accelerate and tilt it left and right to turn, to jump hurdles you simply flick it upwards. Brilliant fun, brilliantly envisaged and the sort of game that all your mates will want ‘just one more go’ on.
Tanks!: A bit of violence to conclude the Wii Play package. You take control of a tank in the only mini-game that requires the nun-chuck attachment should you so wish to use it, if not you get lumped with the D-Pad rather than the lovely analogue stick. Basically, you are shoved in a number of very simplistic looking arenas and have to blow the hell out of each other. It all looks a bit like it is made up of Battenberg Cake (trust us, we lie not), but that doesn’t stop it being oh so much fun. I gets progressively harder throughout the levels as tougher tanks and tougher arenas really start to test you. Top stuff.
Graphics: 4
We’re not being cruel, trust us. Sure, the colours are nice and it all looks lovely and clean and fun, but this is just a bit naff if we’re dead honest. Still, it fits the style, so kudos to Nintendo for that.
Sound: 6
The Wii remote emits some amusing noises throughout all the games, which is great fun, but there isn’t really anything worth any mention or merit. It plinks and plonks along in a similar fashion to the graphics.
Gameplay: 8
Simple, excellently thought out title that you’ll come back to time and time again if you’re a sociable type of gamer. It really shows off how the Wii remote can be used and each game is instantly accessible and enjoyable. A very nice example of how the Wii controller might be used the in future.
Value: 8
Worth a fiver? Yeah just about. If you don’t pick up this game you don’t have a bargain-hunting bone in your body. A clever move by Nintendo for sure.
Overall: 6
So, is Wii Play worth the money? Well, when you factor in that the game only actually costs you £5, yes, yes it is. Simple it may be, but simplicity does not a bad game maketh. Everything about it is great fun and it is a really good way to introduce people to the Wii or for you and some mates to have a quick play around on loads of very competitive and amusing games. An excellent title for parties and one that everyone can enjoy. Were we rating this game just on value, it’d get an 8, but we’re not, we’re rating it as a full game and due to its length (short) depth (non-existent) and looks (awful), it’ll only ever score average. Yes, we are telling you to buy a game that we’re scoring 6/10, so go and do it...
Nintendo have made the bold choice of launching the Wii with just one major first party title. Wii Play and Wii Sports are the other two, with the latter coming boxed with the console itself. So that leaves Wii Play as the second biggest first party launch title for the Wii and with a very important role to do. Simple in premise, simple in looks and simple in execution, Wii Play has about as much depth as a puddle, but at £34.99 with a free controller chucked in for good measure this game really is a bargain.In a way, this is Nintendo’s answer to the EyeToy. Not to be nasty, but it looks like someone threw up ‘cute’ all over it and then squashed it into two-dimensions; which strangely is a good thing. Wii Play, much like Wii Sports, is an example of how the Wii is a sociable console, accessible to anyone and instantly enjoyable. The simplicity of this game is most definitely its charm. To get the most enjoyment out of it be sure to create Mii characters for you and anyone who plays on it, not because this adds anything to the gameplay, but it keeps track of high scores and generally makes things quite amusing.
Wii Play is a two-player multiplayer experience, so don’t go out and buy it if you have no friends as that would be ruddy pointless (hence the extra controller bundled with the game). Admittedly you can play it on your own to try and beat your record score over and over again, but this is about as boring as watching paint dry blindfolded. You start off having to unlock each of the nine mini-games in the package, playing through them in order.
The first one is a homage to Duck Hunt under the monicker of Shooting Range. This is perhaps one of the finest titles in the Wii Play package. First up it looks really nice with some vibrant and oh so cute visuals that really work excellently. It is made up of a number of levels that get progressively harder, with each one asking you to simply hit as much stuff as possible. Point the Wii remote at the screen at hit A or B to shoot at the targets. You have to hit balloons, flying disks, ducks (for bonus points, these appear at random times during the game, so keep an eye out), round targets and UFOs, all of which fly about the screen and move around just to make things difficult. But what about the rest of the games, well in order here they are...
Find Mii. A bit of a brain tester this one. Over a number of levels you have to be the first one to find certain Mii characters who are hiding in the crowd. You might have to find two look-a-likes, the fastest Mii, the odd Mii out, all in different settings and scenarios. It really is as simple as that. The challenges get harder and harder and it will take you longer and longer to find the desired Miis and before you know it, the clock will have run out. A really challenging game this one...
Table Tennis: Does exactly what it says on the tin. Pick up the bat by moving ‘your hand’ towards it and then push the bat into the ball to hit it. A bit confusing at first, but certainly good fun when you get the hang of it, which might take a while.
Pose Me: Quite an obscure one, in which you have ‘pose’ your Mii character in a number of bubbles. You do this by rotating the Wii remote to the required angle and then hitting A or B depending on which pose you need to move into. The bubbles come thick and fast and you have to get all the ones that correspond to your colour or it is game over. You get extra points for getting to your opponents bubbles first and the action if fast and furious. Also, for some obscure reason the background picture changes about and at one point is a close up photograph of a small bird...strange.
Laser Hockey: It looks fun, but it isn’t really. You move about the Wii remote to control your little laser blocker in this neon pong-a-like. Hit the laser ball into your opponents goal to score points and that’s about it. Problem is, it takes the smallest of movements and for some reason if you move your hand too much you get ‘stuck’ to the side of the arena, sometimes totally unable to escape for some time.
Billiards: Another fine title in the Wii Play package. Slow, considered and very enjoyable, just like the real thing. Sure, it might be impossible to hit a safety shot, but nobody likes a bore so that can only be a good thing. You use the D-Pad to change the angle of the shot, place the cue impact point with the ball by moving around the Wii remote and pressing B when you get it where you want it and then hit the ball by moving back the Wii remote and sliding it forward with the desired force. The slower you move, the weaker the shot. Quite a bit of skill involved and a great example of how the Wii controller can be used in an innovative way to make old videogame formulas great.
Fishing: Grab the rod, shove it in the pond and catch some fish! There are bonus fishes throughout the game that get you bonus points, so keep an eye out for them, but also some ugly looking fishes that get you minus points. A nice relaxing mini-game that can get remarkably competitive, but for the ultimate fishing experience we’ll stick to The Legend of Zelda: Twilight Princess...
Charge!: Ride on a big woolen cow as you hit scarecrows, jump fences and bosh your opponent off the course in what could easily be a game in its own right with a bit of work. By holding the Wii remote on its side (a lot like in Excitetruck), you have to rotate it to accelerate and tilt it left and right to turn, to jump hurdles you simply flick it upwards. Brilliant fun, brilliantly envisaged and the sort of game that all your mates will want ‘just one more go’ on.
Tanks!: A bit of violence to conclude the Wii Play package. You take control of a tank in the only mini-game that requires the nun-chuck attachment should you so wish to use it, if not you get lumped with the D-Pad rather than the lovely analogue stick. Basically, you are shoved in a number of very simplistic looking arenas and have to blow the hell out of each other. It all looks a bit like it is made up of Battenberg Cake (trust us, we lie not), but that doesn’t stop it being oh so much fun. I gets progressively harder throughout the levels as tougher tanks and tougher arenas really start to test you. Top stuff.
Graphics: 4
We’re not being cruel, trust us. Sure, the colours are nice and it all looks lovely and clean and fun, but this is just a bit naff if we’re dead honest. Still, it fits the style, so kudos to Nintendo for that.
Sound: 6
The Wii remote emits some amusing noises throughout all the games, which is great fun, but there isn’t really anything worth any mention or merit. It plinks and plonks along in a similar fashion to the graphics.
Gameplay: 8
Simple, excellently thought out title that you’ll come back to time and time again if you’re a sociable type of gamer. It really shows off how the Wii remote can be used and each game is instantly accessible and enjoyable. A very nice example of how the Wii controller might be used the in future.
Value: 8
Worth a fiver? Yeah just about. If you don’t pick up this game you don’t have a bargain-hunting bone in your body. A clever move by Nintendo for sure.
Overall: 6
So, is Wii Play worth the money? Well, when you factor in that the game only actually costs you £5, yes, yes it is. Simple it may be, but simplicity does not a bad game maketh. Everything about it is great fun and it is a really good way to introduce people to the Wii or for you and some mates to have a quick play around on loads of very competitive and amusing games. An excellent title for parties and one that everyone can enjoy. Were we rating this game just on value, it’d get an 8, but we’re not, we’re rating it as a full game and due to its length (short) depth (non-existent) and looks (awful), it’ll only ever score average. Yes, we are telling you to buy a game that we’re scoring 6/10, so go and do it...
Wii Sports Review (C3)
The Wii Sports review for C3, which you can view in its original form here. For a PDF copy, drop me an email by using the link to the right. I'm available for all sorts of Wii content, so feel free to discuss any proposals with me.
A game coming bundled with the console and not being available for retail might somewhat remove the point of it needing a review, but that hasn’t stopped anyone else so far. Wii Sports, a lot like Wii Play, is a game that Nintendo think encompasses the Wii philosophy. It isn’t conventional, it adds a great new spin on conventional gameplay experiences and it is remarkably easy to pick up. Unlike Wii Play, this game has depth, it will last you longer than five minutes and it doesn’t cost you a bleeding penny! Need we say more? Well, yes, because we’ve got to fill up this review, so read on as we justify our positive gushiness..
Wii Sports is made up of: tennis, boxing, bowling, golf and baseball, a delightfully international mix of favourite sports, all of which have one thing in common: arms. Every single game involves you hitting something with an attachment placed on your arm, or in the case of boxing a glove on your hand. Ergo, all you have to do is swing the Wii remote about a bit and you’ll do fine. Right?
Wrong. Wii Play has a remarkable amount of depth for something that looks like it is made up from characters out of Playmobil. In tennis the slightest change of angle of shot or flick of the wrist will make a huge difference to what shot is played on the screen and your movements are recreated in the virtual world with remarkable accuracy. In blowing, if you bowl with a slight spin or angle, that will happen in the game and the complexities of golf will have you tearing your eyebrows clean off your face.
The best place to start is probably tennis, which in our view is the finest of all the Wii Sports games. Select up to four players to take part, pick whether you are left or right handed and then get ready to start. Serving is pretty damn simple, throw up the ball by raising the Wii remote and hit it by slamming down. You can do it with flicks of the wrist or do it like ‘them off-telly’ and wave your arms about like an idiot. In all honesty, it doesn’t actually make any difference, but for us smaller movements result in more powerful, more accurate and better shots. Everything is really easy to execute and if you think about what you are doing you can play some excellent shots and get some very cool rallies going.
Our second favourite title in the Wii Sports range is golf, simply because we are determined to beat it. This game is uncompromisingly difficult. You have to be so precise, so accurate and really think about what you are doing otherwise your shot will go out of bounds, into a bunker or go flying miles away from anything that even looks like a fairway. Simply put, this game is hardcore. But at the same time it is such brilliant fun and so rewarding when you do get it right that it is a bit of a stroke of genius. Get it? Stroke...
Moving swiftly on and we have boxing to contend with. Everyone wants a bit of the punching action, and this has proven to be one of the most popular games on our Wii so far. It must be that violent streak inside us. Shove the nun-chuck attachment into the end of your Wii controller, imagine you are now a crazed boxer and lay into your opponent like a punch bag. You can dodge and lean away from oncoming punches by leaning yourself and unleash various different types of punches by simply doing the punch in real life. Its fast, its frantic and it is hugely violent and competitive. However, it is hugely flawed. You’ll do an upper-cut, try to slam a punch into your opponents torso or try to swing in a punch right into their temple and your Mii character on the screen will just punch straight forward. It doesn’t pick up your motions properly.
We could go on about baseball and bowling, but we won’t. They really do work on the same premise as everything else in this game, you do the action as you would imagine it in real life, there is nothing else to it. Whilst bowling is excellent fun and has loads of replay value, we do have some major gripes about baseball though, easily the worst game in the package. First problem, if you sit down and waft your hand forward whilst pitching it will register at 80mph, put everything behind it and nearly dislocate your shoulder in the process and it will register at 82mph. Also, why when you have a very expensive piece of motion sensing technology in your hand do you do curveballs and splitters by pressing A and B? It’s totally nonsensical. Batting is a bit of a lottery too, you either hit it or you miss it. If you hit it, how well you hit it or in what direction is pretty much down to pure luck. One time it might go out the ground, next time it might fly straight to the man in the deep or a short fielder. It doesn’t make any sense, it isn’t a whole hog of fun. All in all, baseball is fun for about ten minutes, by which time you will have decided you hate it.
Two nice little features worth a mention are Fitness and Training. Fitness acts a bit like Brain Training and gives you an ‘age’ for each day of training you complete. Tasks are pretty simple and you will notice a big improvement the more you play. We went from 45 on day one to 33 on day two, which is a pretty big improvement we think! It is great fun to play and you’ll come back every day to try and get better and better. Training gives you various tasks for each sport, from punching bags to hitting targets and bowling over certain pins. All in all, a great addition to the title.
Graphics: 6
As we said before, it looks like Playmobil. Still, there is something very charming about the look of Wii Sports. The menus are all nicely laid out, the golf courses look pretty nice and everything just looks ‘nice’, which we can’t complain about too much.
Sound: 7
Very cool menu music which is classic Nintendo with a clever twist, which is accompanied by some superb in-game effects. The noises coming out of the controller really make you feel as if you are playing. It really gets you into the game!
Gameplay: 8
Apart from baseball being a bit boring and not using the Wii controller brilliantly and boxing failing to recognise your movements, the gameplay is Wii Sports is pretty damn excellent. All the games are simple to pick up and play but more importantly a real challenge to master. A surprising amount of depth makes this a really excellent title that makes good use of the Wii controller in a variety of ways.
Value: 9
Awesome fun in multiplayer and Training and Fitness will keep you coming back again and again. It comes with the Wii for free (sort of, as you know, nothing in life is free) and it is the sort of game that everyone will enjoy.
Overall: 8
We love it. We love Wii. A cracking game that will have you smiling from ear to ear for hours on end as you, your friends, your family and confused bystanders enjoy what is one of the best multiplayer titles in recent years. A canny move by Nintendo to bundle this in with the system and one that will no doubt pay dividends as more and more people are won over by the Wii experience. Make sure it is the first thing you play when you turn on your Wii this Friday.
A game coming bundled with the console and not being available for retail might somewhat remove the point of it needing a review, but that hasn’t stopped anyone else so far. Wii Sports, a lot like Wii Play, is a game that Nintendo think encompasses the Wii philosophy. It isn’t conventional, it adds a great new spin on conventional gameplay experiences and it is remarkably easy to pick up. Unlike Wii Play, this game has depth, it will last you longer than five minutes and it doesn’t cost you a bleeding penny! Need we say more? Well, yes, because we’ve got to fill up this review, so read on as we justify our positive gushiness..Wii Sports is made up of: tennis, boxing, bowling, golf and baseball, a delightfully international mix of favourite sports, all of which have one thing in common: arms. Every single game involves you hitting something with an attachment placed on your arm, or in the case of boxing a glove on your hand. Ergo, all you have to do is swing the Wii remote about a bit and you’ll do fine. Right?
Wrong. Wii Play has a remarkable amount of depth for something that looks like it is made up from characters out of Playmobil. In tennis the slightest change of angle of shot or flick of the wrist will make a huge difference to what shot is played on the screen and your movements are recreated in the virtual world with remarkable accuracy. In blowing, if you bowl with a slight spin or angle, that will happen in the game and the complexities of golf will have you tearing your eyebrows clean off your face.
The best place to start is probably tennis, which in our view is the finest of all the Wii Sports games. Select up to four players to take part, pick whether you are left or right handed and then get ready to start. Serving is pretty damn simple, throw up the ball by raising the Wii remote and hit it by slamming down. You can do it with flicks of the wrist or do it like ‘them off-telly’ and wave your arms about like an idiot. In all honesty, it doesn’t actually make any difference, but for us smaller movements result in more powerful, more accurate and better shots. Everything is really easy to execute and if you think about what you are doing you can play some excellent shots and get some very cool rallies going.
Our second favourite title in the Wii Sports range is golf, simply because we are determined to beat it. This game is uncompromisingly difficult. You have to be so precise, so accurate and really think about what you are doing otherwise your shot will go out of bounds, into a bunker or go flying miles away from anything that even looks like a fairway. Simply put, this game is hardcore. But at the same time it is such brilliant fun and so rewarding when you do get it right that it is a bit of a stroke of genius. Get it? Stroke...
Moving swiftly on and we have boxing to contend with. Everyone wants a bit of the punching action, and this has proven to be one of the most popular games on our Wii so far. It must be that violent streak inside us. Shove the nun-chuck attachment into the end of your Wii controller, imagine you are now a crazed boxer and lay into your opponent like a punch bag. You can dodge and lean away from oncoming punches by leaning yourself and unleash various different types of punches by simply doing the punch in real life. Its fast, its frantic and it is hugely violent and competitive. However, it is hugely flawed. You’ll do an upper-cut, try to slam a punch into your opponents torso or try to swing in a punch right into their temple and your Mii character on the screen will just punch straight forward. It doesn’t pick up your motions properly.
We could go on about baseball and bowling, but we won’t. They really do work on the same premise as everything else in this game, you do the action as you would imagine it in real life, there is nothing else to it. Whilst bowling is excellent fun and has loads of replay value, we do have some major gripes about baseball though, easily the worst game in the package. First problem, if you sit down and waft your hand forward whilst pitching it will register at 80mph, put everything behind it and nearly dislocate your shoulder in the process and it will register at 82mph. Also, why when you have a very expensive piece of motion sensing technology in your hand do you do curveballs and splitters by pressing A and B? It’s totally nonsensical. Batting is a bit of a lottery too, you either hit it or you miss it. If you hit it, how well you hit it or in what direction is pretty much down to pure luck. One time it might go out the ground, next time it might fly straight to the man in the deep or a short fielder. It doesn’t make any sense, it isn’t a whole hog of fun. All in all, baseball is fun for about ten minutes, by which time you will have decided you hate it.
Two nice little features worth a mention are Fitness and Training. Fitness acts a bit like Brain Training and gives you an ‘age’ for each day of training you complete. Tasks are pretty simple and you will notice a big improvement the more you play. We went from 45 on day one to 33 on day two, which is a pretty big improvement we think! It is great fun to play and you’ll come back every day to try and get better and better. Training gives you various tasks for each sport, from punching bags to hitting targets and bowling over certain pins. All in all, a great addition to the title.
Graphics: 6
As we said before, it looks like Playmobil. Still, there is something very charming about the look of Wii Sports. The menus are all nicely laid out, the golf courses look pretty nice and everything just looks ‘nice’, which we can’t complain about too much.
Sound: 7
Very cool menu music which is classic Nintendo with a clever twist, which is accompanied by some superb in-game effects. The noises coming out of the controller really make you feel as if you are playing. It really gets you into the game!
Gameplay: 8
Apart from baseball being a bit boring and not using the Wii controller brilliantly and boxing failing to recognise your movements, the gameplay is Wii Sports is pretty damn excellent. All the games are simple to pick up and play but more importantly a real challenge to master. A surprising amount of depth makes this a really excellent title that makes good use of the Wii controller in a variety of ways.
Value: 9
Awesome fun in multiplayer and Training and Fitness will keep you coming back again and again. It comes with the Wii for free (sort of, as you know, nothing in life is free) and it is the sort of game that everyone will enjoy.
Overall: 8
We love it. We love Wii. A cracking game that will have you smiling from ear to ear for hours on end as you, your friends, your family and confused bystanders enjoy what is one of the best multiplayer titles in recent years. A canny move by Nintendo to bundle this in with the system and one that will no doubt pay dividends as more and more people are won over by the Wii experience. Make sure it is the first thing you play when you turn on your Wii this Friday.
Wii Hardware Review (C3)
This is the review I wrote for C3 on the Wii review unit I received from Nintendo recently. It appears in its original form here. I also did a video report for the site which you can see by viewing the embedded video below:
The Wii is Nintendo’s vision for the future of gaming, and having played it extensively for the last couple of days we have to agree with them. This console is simply stunning. From the design of the hardware to the layout of the Wii Channel Menu, everything about this system screams excellence. Be sure to check out our video report of the Wii Hardware by clicking the link at the bottom of this report, but for now, read on for our full verdict.
Even when unpacking the Wii you are already getting a hugely different experience from anything before. The box doesn’t have ‘Nintendo’ all over it, in fact it doesn’t really have anything on it at all. Open it up and you have two compartments ‘1’ and ‘2’ which you open up and start working through in order. After about 3 minutes we had our Wii hooked up to our TV and audio system and we were ready to rock. Hit the power button on the console or the ready-synched Wii remote that comes with the system and the unit buzzes into life. The hardware itself hardly makes any noise at all, the disk drive makes a bit of a hum when it spins the disk as it is inserted and there are a few clicks and whirs as the Wii carries out its little tasks, but other than that it just sits there, eerily quiet.
A quick health and safety warning out the way and the Wii Channel menu opens up before you. From here you’ve got the Disk Channel, Mii Channel, Photo Channel, Shopping Channel, Forecast Channel and News Channel. To open one up simply move the Wii Remote pointer over it and hit ‘A’, you can scroll through the channels by hitting ‘A’ again on the arrows on each side of the screen so navigation is simple and smooth.
What we love the most about this console are the little things. The way the Wii Remote lights flash when you turn it on, the blue light in the disk drive, the little vibrations that the controller emits when you scroll over options on menus, it really is fantastic. Our first stop when you booted up the Wii was the Mii Channel, a great way to get used to pointing the Wii Remote and also to have some fun creating a deformed looking virtual version of yourself. After about five minutes playing about with the plethora of features in the creation section our Mii was complete, so we saved that and went to check out the Photo Channel. Those of you that have ever enjoyed playing about with an Apple Mac and iPhoto will instantly see the appeal of this section of the Wii. Shove an SD card in the front of the console (there is a little door next to the disk drive) and the Photo Channel will search for the photos and music on it. Once everyting has been located it says ‘Found 123 Photos’, simply proceed to the album screen to view them. The Wii splits them up by date for you and shows you exactly when they were taken. You can rotate your images, start a slideshow with music of your choice, make puzzles from the pictures and even draw on them in an area called ‘Doodle’, if you want to save your mauled image for later you can post it on the Wii Message Board for other people to enjoy and or laugh at.
Getting the Wii online is a pretty simple task, we created a wireless network for it to connect to and within second it was found, sorted and set up, this bodes well for Nintendo if they are to attract people who are put off by technology, it really couldn’t be simpler! Outside the online system there is the Wii Message Board, located in the bottom right hand corner of the screen. It always displays how many messages you have, so just click through to view them. Each day your playtime is displayed for each game, so you can keep track of how much you play on your Wii and what you are playing. Settings for everything can be accessed from the Wii logo sign in the bottom left hand corner, and as far as settings menus go, they are more than adequate. But we won’t bore you by reviewing the settings screen...
The Disk Channel is where everything happens and it is probably here that you’ll be spending most of your time. To insert a disk into the Wii console you simply offer it up to the disk drive and it’ll get smoothly sucked in, be it a GameCube or a Wii disk. After a few seconds the disk will spin in the drive and the Disk Channel on the screen will display a little picture for what game it is, click on the picture and then hit ‘Start’ on the screen and you can start playing the game. What we particularly like is the total lack of loading times here. With a game like Wii Sports you simply shove in the disk, open up the Disk Channel, go to the game and start playing. If you want to go back to the Wii Channel Menu all you have to do is hit the ‘Home’ icon on the controller, select the right option and you’re back at the main channel menu, no loading times, no waiting around, instant transition and no fuss involved. Very user friendly indeed. A very cool little thing that we also like is what happens if you select the Wii Disk Channel when no disk is inserted. Then it shows a picture of a Wii disk and a GameCube disk, pop in a copy of Wii Sports and both disks start frantically spinning as if they are being loaded, then the Wii works out it is a Wii disk, stops the picture of the GamCube disk from spinning, the Wii disk keeps on spinning and then ‘drops’ into a little hole that opens up and before you know it the Wii Sports title screen is before your eyes. Like we said, it is the little things that make the difference here!
A quick mention has to go to the sound effects on the Wii Channels menu, not only do they look very slick and very cool, but they also sound great. Nintendo have really put a lot of thought into making the Wii a complete piece of kit, so each section of the Wii Channel has a different piece of music or sound effect to enjoy. The music in the Mii Channel is particularly brilliant, as is the intro music to the Photo Channel.
Aesthetically speaking the Wii is a top piece of kit. The finish on the hardware is brilliant, very clean, very tidy and very Apple Mac. Sadly, like Apple products if you touch the Wii you tend to leave a greasy paw print. The buttons are solid, the flaps are well made and the hinges are tight and everything is nice and easy to use. It looks best stood up, in fact it looks a bit stupid on its side if we’re honest, and the Wii console stand really gives it a dynamic aspect. The console itself is absolutely tiny, but at the same time reassuringly heavy and sturdy, this is certainly a well made piece of kit. On one side you will find the ATi and Nintendo logo, but other than that the Wii is just plain white. As with all Nintendo home consoles of late, the Wii comes with a power pack the size of a small house, we had quite a hard time trying to hide it behind our TV with our plethora of cables and plugs. The sensor bar comes with some little sticky pads on the bottom that you can use to securely position it above or below your TV. The sensor bar itself doesn’t actually weigh anything, which is a tad worrying...
But what about the controller? Well, the most innovative aspect of the Wii also happens to be a damn fine piece of design. It is sturdy, it hurts when someone else hits you with it when playing Wii Sports tennis and it doesn’t get dented when you accidentally hit it into a very solid cupboard, so well done to Nintendo for that. The sensor set-up works absolutely fine, although we had a lot more success locating the sensor bar directly below our TV as this picked up a full range of movements with almost 100% reliability. The look of both the main Wii controller and the nun-chuck is just as good as the console itself. The finish, once again, is superb and they fit nicely, comfortably and intuitively into your palm. The B button is even better than the N64’s famed Z trigger, and that really is huge praise for the system. All the buttons are solid and satisfying to use, making the Wii controller a joy to play with. Everything about it is well laid out and well made.
Swinging about your arms in Wii Sports in the various games highlights what this controller is all about, it picks up your movements excellently and even the slightly change in angle or rotation of the wrist will have an impact on what happens. The technology is brilliantly conceived here. Synchronising new Wii controllers to the system is simple, you just open up the hatch on the front of the Wii, hit the ‘Synch’ button, do the same on the controller you want to use and within seconds it’ll start working. Genius, and once again another example of Nintendo making things simple for the user.
But what about when you start playing GameCube titles on the Wii? Everything GameCube related plugs into the top of the Wii console, so all your Wavebird receivers, controller leads and everything stick out the top of your lovely new Wii. In rather unsurprising news it looks awful. But it works, which is all that matters really. Memory cards are read fine, there is nothing complicated to do, all you need to play GameCube on Wii is a game and some controllers. Hit the Wii Channel menu, up pops the GameCube logo and you’re away. You’ll need to use the Wii controller to boot up the game, but then simply swap to your GameCube pad and enjoy some ‘retro’ gaming. We tried out a number of titles and they all looked fine, if not a bit better than they did on the GameCube. Not in terms of graphics, but using the cables that come boxed with the Wii you get a noticeably sharper picture with GameCube titles, which was a nice surprise.
We knew we’d be impressed by the Wii. We’ve played the games before, seen the console before, used the controller before so to an extent we knew what to expect. Amazingly though, all our expectations were met and surpassed. The look, the style, the feel, the experience, they are all simply brilliant. Graphically, games look sharp and in the case of Zelda, ruddy superb. The whole Wii package is a bargain at £179 and now we’ve had some time to enjoy our very own Wii unit, we are well and truly won over. This is the future of gaming and it will take the industry by storm. Nintendo might have just done something remarkable here...
The Wii is Nintendo’s vision for the future of gaming, and having played it extensively for the last couple of days we have to agree with them. This console is simply stunning. From the design of the hardware to the layout of the Wii Channel Menu, everything about this system screams excellence. Be sure to check out our video report of the Wii Hardware by clicking the link at the bottom of this report, but for now, read on for our full verdict.
Even when unpacking the Wii you are already getting a hugely different experience from anything before. The box doesn’t have ‘Nintendo’ all over it, in fact it doesn’t really have anything on it at all. Open it up and you have two compartments ‘1’ and ‘2’ which you open up and start working through in order. After about 3 minutes we had our Wii hooked up to our TV and audio system and we were ready to rock. Hit the power button on the console or the ready-synched Wii remote that comes with the system and the unit buzzes into life. The hardware itself hardly makes any noise at all, the disk drive makes a bit of a hum when it spins the disk as it is inserted and there are a few clicks and whirs as the Wii carries out its little tasks, but other than that it just sits there, eerily quiet.
A quick health and safety warning out the way and the Wii Channel menu opens up before you. From here you’ve got the Disk Channel, Mii Channel, Photo Channel, Shopping Channel, Forecast Channel and News Channel. To open one up simply move the Wii Remote pointer over it and hit ‘A’, you can scroll through the channels by hitting ‘A’ again on the arrows on each side of the screen so navigation is simple and smooth.
What we love the most about this console are the little things. The way the Wii Remote lights flash when you turn it on, the blue light in the disk drive, the little vibrations that the controller emits when you scroll over options on menus, it really is fantastic. Our first stop when you booted up the Wii was the Mii Channel, a great way to get used to pointing the Wii Remote and also to have some fun creating a deformed looking virtual version of yourself. After about five minutes playing about with the plethora of features in the creation section our Mii was complete, so we saved that and went to check out the Photo Channel. Those of you that have ever enjoyed playing about with an Apple Mac and iPhoto will instantly see the appeal of this section of the Wii. Shove an SD card in the front of the console (there is a little door next to the disk drive) and the Photo Channel will search for the photos and music on it. Once everyting has been located it says ‘Found 123 Photos’, simply proceed to the album screen to view them. The Wii splits them up by date for you and shows you exactly when they were taken. You can rotate your images, start a slideshow with music of your choice, make puzzles from the pictures and even draw on them in an area called ‘Doodle’, if you want to save your mauled image for later you can post it on the Wii Message Board for other people to enjoy and or laugh at.
Getting the Wii online is a pretty simple task, we created a wireless network for it to connect to and within second it was found, sorted and set up, this bodes well for Nintendo if they are to attract people who are put off by technology, it really couldn’t be simpler! Outside the online system there is the Wii Message Board, located in the bottom right hand corner of the screen. It always displays how many messages you have, so just click through to view them. Each day your playtime is displayed for each game, so you can keep track of how much you play on your Wii and what you are playing. Settings for everything can be accessed from the Wii logo sign in the bottom left hand corner, and as far as settings menus go, they are more than adequate. But we won’t bore you by reviewing the settings screen...
The Disk Channel is where everything happens and it is probably here that you’ll be spending most of your time. To insert a disk into the Wii console you simply offer it up to the disk drive and it’ll get smoothly sucked in, be it a GameCube or a Wii disk. After a few seconds the disk will spin in the drive and the Disk Channel on the screen will display a little picture for what game it is, click on the picture and then hit ‘Start’ on the screen and you can start playing the game. What we particularly like is the total lack of loading times here. With a game like Wii Sports you simply shove in the disk, open up the Disk Channel, go to the game and start playing. If you want to go back to the Wii Channel Menu all you have to do is hit the ‘Home’ icon on the controller, select the right option and you’re back at the main channel menu, no loading times, no waiting around, instant transition and no fuss involved. Very user friendly indeed. A very cool little thing that we also like is what happens if you select the Wii Disk Channel when no disk is inserted. Then it shows a picture of a Wii disk and a GameCube disk, pop in a copy of Wii Sports and both disks start frantically spinning as if they are being loaded, then the Wii works out it is a Wii disk, stops the picture of the GamCube disk from spinning, the Wii disk keeps on spinning and then ‘drops’ into a little hole that opens up and before you know it the Wii Sports title screen is before your eyes. Like we said, it is the little things that make the difference here!
A quick mention has to go to the sound effects on the Wii Channels menu, not only do they look very slick and very cool, but they also sound great. Nintendo have really put a lot of thought into making the Wii a complete piece of kit, so each section of the Wii Channel has a different piece of music or sound effect to enjoy. The music in the Mii Channel is particularly brilliant, as is the intro music to the Photo Channel.
Aesthetically speaking the Wii is a top piece of kit. The finish on the hardware is brilliant, very clean, very tidy and very Apple Mac. Sadly, like Apple products if you touch the Wii you tend to leave a greasy paw print. The buttons are solid, the flaps are well made and the hinges are tight and everything is nice and easy to use. It looks best stood up, in fact it looks a bit stupid on its side if we’re honest, and the Wii console stand really gives it a dynamic aspect. The console itself is absolutely tiny, but at the same time reassuringly heavy and sturdy, this is certainly a well made piece of kit. On one side you will find the ATi and Nintendo logo, but other than that the Wii is just plain white. As with all Nintendo home consoles of late, the Wii comes with a power pack the size of a small house, we had quite a hard time trying to hide it behind our TV with our plethora of cables and plugs. The sensor bar comes with some little sticky pads on the bottom that you can use to securely position it above or below your TV. The sensor bar itself doesn’t actually weigh anything, which is a tad worrying...
But what about the controller? Well, the most innovative aspect of the Wii also happens to be a damn fine piece of design. It is sturdy, it hurts when someone else hits you with it when playing Wii Sports tennis and it doesn’t get dented when you accidentally hit it into a very solid cupboard, so well done to Nintendo for that. The sensor set-up works absolutely fine, although we had a lot more success locating the sensor bar directly below our TV as this picked up a full range of movements with almost 100% reliability. The look of both the main Wii controller and the nun-chuck is just as good as the console itself. The finish, once again, is superb and they fit nicely, comfortably and intuitively into your palm. The B button is even better than the N64’s famed Z trigger, and that really is huge praise for the system. All the buttons are solid and satisfying to use, making the Wii controller a joy to play with. Everything about it is well laid out and well made.
Swinging about your arms in Wii Sports in the various games highlights what this controller is all about, it picks up your movements excellently and even the slightly change in angle or rotation of the wrist will have an impact on what happens. The technology is brilliantly conceived here. Synchronising new Wii controllers to the system is simple, you just open up the hatch on the front of the Wii, hit the ‘Synch’ button, do the same on the controller you want to use and within seconds it’ll start working. Genius, and once again another example of Nintendo making things simple for the user.
But what about when you start playing GameCube titles on the Wii? Everything GameCube related plugs into the top of the Wii console, so all your Wavebird receivers, controller leads and everything stick out the top of your lovely new Wii. In rather unsurprising news it looks awful. But it works, which is all that matters really. Memory cards are read fine, there is nothing complicated to do, all you need to play GameCube on Wii is a game and some controllers. Hit the Wii Channel menu, up pops the GameCube logo and you’re away. You’ll need to use the Wii controller to boot up the game, but then simply swap to your GameCube pad and enjoy some ‘retro’ gaming. We tried out a number of titles and they all looked fine, if not a bit better than they did on the GameCube. Not in terms of graphics, but using the cables that come boxed with the Wii you get a noticeably sharper picture with GameCube titles, which was a nice surprise.
We knew we’d be impressed by the Wii. We’ve played the games before, seen the console before, used the controller before so to an extent we knew what to expect. Amazingly though, all our expectations were met and surpassed. The look, the style, the feel, the experience, they are all simply brilliant. Graphically, games look sharp and in the case of Zelda, ruddy superb. The whole Wii package is a bargain at £179 and now we’ve had some time to enjoy our very own Wii unit, we are well and truly won over. This is the future of gaming and it will take the industry by storm. Nintendo might have just done something remarkable here...
Tuesday, November 28, 2006
Wii 2007 Preview
This is an article I have written for WiiChat. Basically, it is a run-down of all the (thus far) announced Wii titles for 2007. Each game has a little synopsis to give people some information about the games and leave them wanting more. Some good lead in content to get hype going in the run-up to the new year and also when Wii hype it at a high thanks to the worldwide launch. Should be a good one for Google searches too, lots of excellent keywords. Check out the article below, the WiiChat link is right at the bottom if you want to see it in fully published form. Once again, if you'd like it in PDF format for reference email me.Wii 2007 Preview
All the big titles that have so far been announced for the Wii’s first full year in the gaming world. Start saving up those coppers...
Battalion Wars 2
Shown off for the first time at the GC in Leipzig, this is the sequel to the GameCube title developed by UK outfit Kuju Entertainment. Commander Pierce and Colonel Windsor of the Anglo Isles launch a pre-emptive strike on the Coral Atolls after being tricked into believing that the Solar Empire is developing a devastating super-weapon. Predictably, worldwide war ensues and you are in the thick of it.
You get to drive tanks, command ships, pilot plans and move about hundreds of troops as you are plonked right into the crux of the action. Fully equipped with an online mode, the game comes equipped with three multiplayer modes for play over the Internet. Assault allows you instant combat access, skirmish adds some tactical depth and co-op lets you go to war with the help of a friend. Once again there is the combination of combat on land, sea and in the air and there are loads of new landscapes and units to be enjoyed. The game promises 20+ single player and 15+ (different) multiplayer missions along with ‘increased replay value’. Nintendo keep trying to call it BWii, this is stupid. End.
Project H.A.M.M.E.R.
Announced at E3 2006, the premise and mission in this game appears simple. Killer robots are attacking major cities across the US of A and the military is powerless to stop them. You take control of a Project H.A.M.M.E.R. prototype cyborg: half man, half machine and with a ruddy great hammer to, well...hammer things with. Yes, its a great excuse for a bloody good whack...
Pick up the Wii remote and start a-swinging to unleash your amazing hammer on anything that gets in the way. You use the nunchuck controller in one hand to move about the environments and then the main controller to whack about your tremendously large hammer. It doesn’t appear to be a game of any fantastical subtlety, with the A button being used for (we quote) “quick hammer flurries”. Basically, this is an excuse to smash things and not get in trouble for it. What would be better? Warning: attach Wii-mote to hand securely before playing.
Disaster: Day of Crisis
Another title that was shown off at E3 2006 and then ran away and hid in the shadows. With a nod and a wink to ‘The Day After Tomorrow’, you are shoved right into the middle of a series of rather unprecedented natural disasters that (you guessed it) have hit the USA. Obviously, nothing ever happens on those other insignificant continents...
On top of all this nasty natural disaster tomfoolery you have to put up with a rogue special forces unit who take advantage of the chaos and the carnage and steal some nuclear weapons. In true cliche style only a man called Ray, a former member of an elite rescue task force, can stop them. It sounds like a very large scale cyniamtic experience that is sure to be great fun and will hopefully make innovative use of the Wii controller to deliver a unique playing experience. Definitely done to keep an eye on.
Mario Strikers Charged
The sequel to the GameCube original as Mario is shameless use to sell another title. Having played this one at a recent Wii press event in London we can confirm that it looks great and the visuals have a really vivid colour scheme with some very cool visual effects thrown in for good measure. Use of the Wii controller is minimal, as most things are done with the control stick and buttons. Tackling is done by shaking the controller and you can also do the standard fare of Mega Strikes and stupidly aggressive tackles along with firing off weapons and all the stuff from the GameCube title. Certainly good fun but lacking a bit in the innovation department. This game is also set to take full advantage of the Wi-Fi Connection for loads of multiplayer fun and games.
WarioWare: Smooth Moves
Apparently knocked out of the UK launch list to give Rayman a bit of breathing space, WarioWario is as wacky and zany as ever. More than 200 super-fast ‘microgames’ which all make fantastically good use of the Wii controller. It may look basic, but the gameplay and fun factor alone are enough reason to pick this one up. Amazingly enough the game also has a story line...which is strange, but aside from that you basically ‘say what you see’. Pointlessly wonderfully good fun. Buy it, this is what the Wii is all about.
Excite Truck
Not out in Europe at launch for some maddening reason, Excite Truck has been getting some mixed reviews in the USA, but the general consensus is that it is pretty good fun. Big trucks, big jumps, big tracks, large on the air-time and very bouncy too, this is a really fun game that makes good use of the Wii controller.
Contrary to popular belief, you don’t have to wave around your arms like a madman (if you do you’ll fail), but instead use small, acute and accurate movements to maneuver your ceeerazzzy track from start to finish. You can upload your own MP3 tracks to play during the game, which is pretty damn cool. Alas, the game only supports two player split screen in multiplayer which is a bit of a letdown, but don’t let that put you of this manic title.
Super Mario Galaxy
Need we say more? The ultimate Nintendo character in the ultimate Nintendo franchise. Mario is back, and potentially better than ever. A conventional game that really incorporates the Wii controller into its style and it is on this basis that Mario Galaxy is brilliant. Set in space, you can use the remote to spin Mario from planetoid to planetoid, guide him through space and spin away fire balls as you navigate your way through this unique platform title. Peach has been kidnapped by some evil creature and once again you have to don your dungarees and fly off into the void to save her. Believe us, flying through space for the first time in this game is very special experience.
Metroid Prime 3: Corruption
Originally slated in as a launch title, Metroid was batted back into 2007 to make room for Zelda. Once again you take control of Samus, which is done by moving about the nunchuck controller and aiming with the pointer, allowing for a truly immersive experience. If you think you knew what it felt like to be the bounty hunter behind the visor, think again. Take aim at evil with Nintendo's revolutionary controller. All the favourites are back from the Grapple Beam to the Morph Ball, as well as a whole lot of new stuff to keep things fresh and interesting. The control system can be a bit daunting to start with and is a little tricky to pick up, but when you master if you’ll be firing off shots as you fly through the air and sprint around the gorgeously detailed environments. Expect a fanatically cinematic and truly epic experience.
Big Brain Academy
Nintendo head for the older gamer as the DS smash hit sets its sights on the Wii. Not much is known about this one yet, other than it will have a multiplayer versus and co-op play and make unique and exciting use of the Wii controller. Nintendo are promising it will also be a ‘raucous party game’. We’ll reserve judgement on that. Expect more information during early 2007...
Super Smash Bros Brawl
It looks fantastic, it has Solid Snake in it and it has online play. We’re sold already. It won’t make use of the unique Wii controller, favouring a more conventional control scheme. A huge character roster packed full of all sorts of great Nintendo characters and what promises to be a totally epic multiplayer experience. Back from the GameCube version come Mario, Luigi, Pikachi, Peach, Samus, Link and many others. Also confirmed as being playable characters so far we have Pit, Solid Snake, Zero Suit Samus, Meta Knight, Fox and Wario. One of the best titles on the N64 and the GameCube, this is a title that is still a bit of a mystery to anyone outside the development team. With music provided in party by the legendary Nobuo Uematsu, it couldn’t really sound much better. Super Smash Bros Brawl promises an unrivalled online fighting experience that is sure to make it a must have. We can’t wait...
WiiEurope - Back Catalogue
Once again, a little archive of content for the website WiiEurope. Future articles will have their own entries so they are easier to keep a track of. For now though, below are links to the four articles I have done so far for WiiEurope. If you would like the articles in PDF format, please contact me by email (link on the right) and I'll be more than happy to provide them to you for reference. More soon...
Hands On: Wii Sports
Hands On: WarioWare: Smooth Moves
Hands On: Super Mario Galaxy
The History of Nintendo
Hands On: Wii Sports
Hands On: WarioWare: Smooth Moves
Hands On: Super Mario Galaxy
The History of Nintendo
Wii Chat - Back Catalogue
Rather than post up everything I've ever done for WiiChat (which is a fair bit by now), I'm shoving everything from my back catalogue for the site in this one post, just to make things easier for you. If you want individual PDF files of each and every article, they can be emailed to you on request. Simply drop me an email (link is on the right) and I'll send you down the PDF for reference. From now on, all future articles will all get their own dedicated post.
Welcome
Someone suggested to me that I start up a portfolio so people can keep track of my work in the industry. 'Makes sense', thought I, so here it is. This little piece of the Internet will keep a record of all my major work related goings on along with a full portfolio of my freelance work. I might also put up potential freelance packages that I'm offering or ideas/pitches for content that if you like the look of, you can buy into for your publication.
I aim to provide an easy to use and easy to access guide to my work and myself that will help you to get the content you need.
I aim to provide an easy to use and easy to access guide to my work and myself that will help you to get the content you need.
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