World 1-1

World 1-1 Review Archive

2008-05-24T09:00:00.000-07:00

Below is a compilation of every review published on World 1-1. They're sorted alphabetically and categorized by whichever platform they were released. The World 1-1 Review Archive will be updated every time a review is posted.

Wii

Boom Blox - 9/10 (published on April 3, 2008)
Deadly Creatures - 7/10 (published on March 11, 2009)
The House of the Dead: Overkill - 9/10 (published on March 19, 2009)
MadWorld - 9/10 (published on March 23, 2009)
Mario Kart Wii - 8/10 (published on May 28, 2008)
New Play Control! Pikmin - 8/10 (published on March 30, 2009)
No More Heroes - 8/10 (published on December 10, 2008)
Order Up! - 8/10 (published on September 15, 2008)
Wario Land: Shake It! - 8/10 (published on November 2, 2009)

Guitar Hero: On Tour - 8/10 (published on July 23, 2008)
N+ - 8/10 (published on March 3, 2009)

WiiWare

Art Style: ORBIENT - 8/10 (published on October 23, 2008)
Bit.Trip Beat - 9/10 (published on April 21, 2009)
Defend Your Castle - 7/10 (published on June 11, 2008)
Dr. Mario Online Rx - 8/10 (published on June 14, 2008)
Gyrostarr - 7/10 (published on July 2, 2008)
LostWinds - 9/10 (published on June 9, 2008)
Mega Man 9 - 9/10 (published on October 20, 2009)
Tetris Party - 8/10 (published on November 12, 2008)
World of Goo - 10/10 (published on October 26, 2008)

Virtual Console

Punch-Out!! Featuring Mr. Dream (NES) - 9/10 (published on May 19, 2009)
Mega Man (NES) - 8/10 (published on September 23, 2008)
Mega Man 2 (NES) - 9/10 (published on September 27, 2008)

Punch-Out!! (Virtual Console) review

2009-05-18T11:30:00.000-07:00

About the Virtual Console reviews: I'm not rating these games necessarily by today's standards, otherwise my evaluation of graphics and lasting value might not do too well. But I'm also not reviewing these games by their original system's standards. Think of it as a combination of the two, and overall just if it's worth a download or not.

Punch-Out!! Featuring Mr. Dream (Virtual Console)

Developer: Nintendo IRD
Publisher: Nintendo
Date Released: VC: April 16, 2007 (USA)
ESRB Rating: E (Everyone)

The latest Punch-Out!! for the Wii releases today into North American stores. To celebrate this we have my review of Punch-Out!! Featuring Mr. Dream on the Virtual Console. The original NES Punch-Out!! frequents Top 10 NES lists and generally is the most popular and remembered of the games in the series. And for good reason: the gameplay's excellent, the puzzles are difficult, and the stereotypical humor is hilarious.

Punch-Out!! may be all about boxing, but it varies considerably from other regular boxing games. It'd be more suitable to call it a puzzle-action game than a boxing title. You play as Little Mac and are rooted in the middle of the rink. You have a decent amount of punches and dodges in your arsenal. Where the challenge and strategy comes in is with the various boxers of different speeds and skills. Learning exactly when to dodge and then deliver uppercuts and jabs becomes crucial when the boxers begin to only give you split second warnings. It'll take a lot of pattern memorization and multiple playthroughs of each stage.

Little Mac vs. Great Tiger

Additional elements to the Punch-Out!! formula are hearts and stars. You'll have a set number of hearts at the beginning of each round. You'll lose one each time you're punched and if you lose all of these your fighter becomes exhausted and unable to fight back. To gain back hearts, you will have to dodge a certain number of punches. Stars on the other hand are obtained by delivering blows to your opponents at certain times, usually when they're about to attack you. When you have a star you can unleash a devastating Star Punch on your foes for some big damage with the Start button (+ on a Wii remote held sideways).

The rest of the controls in Punch-Out!! are intuitive and mapped wonderfully. Left, right, and down on the d-pad are for dodges and blocks while B (1 on the Wii remote) and A (2) combined with pressing up on the directional pad make up your offense. It all controls great, and you'll be surprised with all that you can pull off with just a d-pad and two face buttons.

Punch-Out!! is all about Little Mac and his rise to overcome the odds and become the champ. He'll face foes like the weakling Glass Joe, the humongous King Hippo, and the insanely difficult Mr. Dream (Mike Tyson in the original version) along the way. The story's nothing to get excited over, but at least the character each have distinct personalities that's brought to life via animations and in between round verbal taunts. A drink (is it soda or alcohol?) swigging Russian named Soda Popinski? A Japanese fighter named Piston Honda that'll deliver a "TKO from Tokyo"? Yep, someone's bound to get offended.

In between rounds you'll get Doc Louis's advice and opponent's taunts

The game's definitely a NES game as the graphics show. Even with the two frame animations and basic colors, the game has a whole lot of style. Each of the characters has a wide range of expressions when getting punched, winding up for a punch, or delivering a KO inducing uppercut. The various animations when fighting and getting knocked out are done really well, even with the limited capabilities of the NES hardware. As far as audio goes, the various sound effects are fitting and add to the experience, but the Punch-Out!! theme is where it's all at. There's a reason the song's known to Nintendo fans and revered as a classic: it's good.

Overall Thoughts

Punch-Out!! is a fantastic game and really holds up in this day and age. The pattern memorization and timing mechanics are just as entertaining and brutal as the were 20 years ago. A definite download for Nintendo fans and is a great buy for those interested in the Wii version.

9/10

Poll #19 results

2009-05-17T21:32:00.000-07:00

The results for the nineteenth World 1-1 poll are as follows:

Are you excited for the Pokemon Gold/Silver remakes? (16 total votes)

I'm super excited for the games! - 43% (7 votes)
I'm interested in them - 13% (2 votes)
I'm indifferent - 6% (1 vote)
Meh... don't really want - 13% (2 votes)
What?! More Pokemon games? More remakes? Pass. - 25% (4 votes)

More than half of the voters were either excited for the Gold/Silver remakes or at least interested in them. I'm actually really looking forward to SoulSilver (the one I'm getting). Having skipped out on the fourth generation of Pokemon games (Diamond/Pearl/Platinum), I'd forgotten how much I loved the games. I picked back up Pokemon Sapphire for the GBA a few days ago and it's been pretty much all I've been playing (along with a few matches of NES Punch-Out!! to prepare for the Wii game and to hopefully get a review up tomorrow). The games usually start off a bit slow, but then it's on to none stop addictiveness.

Disappointing news stories going around various Nintendo news sites like GoNintendo are on the sales of certain games. Many hardcore titles on Nintendo platforms, such as MadWorld and GTA: Chinatown Wars haven't sold what people would consider successful. According to GoNintendo and NPD, Nintendo's latest first-party title Excitebots only sold a paltry 13,000 in April. The advertising, or lack there of, on Nintendo's part or people seeming to have enough of Wii racing with Mario Kart and Excite Truck could be sources of the problem. Nintendo's next big game, Punch-Out!! for the Wii launches tomorrow, May 18th, and one can wonder how good that one'll sell. Which is my next poll question, "How well do you think Punch-Out!! will sell on the Wii?"

Punch-Out!! (Wii) trailer

2009-05-11T16:22:00.000-07:00

My thoughts: This was one of the best Nintendo commercials I'd seen in a long time. I loved it. They really need to do more of these. It was cheesy, well-made, and hilarious altogether. "I'll sleep when I'm dead." Great stuff.

Poll #18 results

2009-05-10T20:00:00.000-07:00

Poll 18 has concluded. We're almost at the twentieth poll! The results of the latest World 1-1 poll are as follows:

Which Nintendo franchise would you love to appear on the Wii the most? (21 total votes)

Donkey Kong - 4% (1 vote)
Kirby - 23% (5 votes)
Pikmin - 19% (4 votes)
Starfox - 23% (5 votes)
Other - 28% (6 votes)

When your "Other" option is the most voted, you know you should've included more/different choices. As was the case here. A few days after putting up the poll I realized I'd forgotten some big name Nintendo franchises. Namely stuff like F-Zero and Pilotwings. On the other side of the scale was Donkey Kong with a single vote. I voted for Pikmin myself. I loved the "New Play Control" version of Pikmin and am looking forward to playing some Pikmin built from the ground up for the Wii.

Just recently remakes of the second generation of Pokemon games were announced, titled Pokemon Heart Gold and Soul Silver. This gives Pokefreaks and retired veterans of the series (like me) something to be excited for. But are YOU excited for the game? That's why this weeks poll is: "Are you excited for the Pokemon Gold/Silver remakes?"

Wii: Best games of 2008

2008-12-27T08:39:00.000-08:00

The Nintendo Wii had an interesting year in terms of games. Nintendo's first-party lineup was pretty lacking, but WiiWare and third parties definitely helped supply quality. The way this article is going to work is that I'll be going through the biggest games of 2008 chronologically, starting with No More Heroes in January and ending with the last big game of the year. I'll be leaving out two games, Runner-up Game of the Year and Game of the Year to be listed at the very end.

All in all, these games aren't ones I'm recommending you borrow or rent. These eleven games are what I think you should go out and purchase, no doubt about it. Since the economy isn't doing too great, some people may not have the resources to do this. That's what the last two games are for. These couple of titles are the two best games of the year and what I recommend over all else. And with a combined price of $65, it shouldn't put you back too much. So without further ado, the first game of my "Wii: Best games of 2008" feature is the ultra-violent and super-stylized...

No More Heroes
Wii
Ubisoft
January 22, 2008
My Score: 8/10

No More Heroes for the Wii is probably the most mature and badass title on this list. The game is chock full of style and personality. HUDs and menus are made up of pixels and in game graphics are cel-shaded. Killing an enemy results in an almost comical explosion of blood that's in no way realistic. The combat is equally awesome as it's a mixture of button mashing, motion controls, and combos. You play as Travis Touchdown, a typical otaku, who gets a laser sword over an internet auction and sets off to become the number one assassin by killing the top ten assassins. The boss battles are very memorable and will challenge you like none other.

Excerpt from review: "No More Heroes is pretty long game with a whole lot of personality and graphical style. The high points of the game, the awesome boss battles and entertaining combat, more than make up for the game's low points, most notably the lack of graphical polish and poor open world. I'd recommend a buy to almost anyone who loves action, are "allowed" to play M-rated games, and wants a solid twelve to fifteen hour experience." Full review here.

Okami
Wii
Capcom
April 15, 2008

My score: TBD

There have been a number of ports onto the Wii. Generally, they're not all that great. But Capcom breaks the mold by porting over the PS2 game Okami, developed by the now disbanded Clover Studios (who were behind other games such as Vietiful Joe). In short, there's only one way to describe Capcom's Okami: a work of art. The entire game's visuals are vibrant and stunning Japanese watercolor. Graphical impressions aside, what you have in Okami is Capcom's very own Legend of Zelda game. The influences are obvious as you'll traverse huge worlds, explore dangerous dungeons, and solve ingenious puzzles. The biggest innovation is the Celestial Brush, now controlled via the Wii remote IR rather than the PS2's analog stick. Many different moves come with it. Some offensive, like drawing slashes through enemies or creating bombs, while others are more for interacting with the environment, such as creating lily pads to cross deep rivers and blooming trees that were otherwise dead. It's a beautiful game and a huge one at that.

Excerpt from review: Review is coming. Haven't played enough of the game. I will edit this post once my official review is up. -Kyle

Mario Kart Wii
Wii
Nintendo
April 27, 2008
My Score: 8/10

The Mario Kart series is a staple for any Nintendo console. This time around the Wii's unique motion controls make the game even more fun with the plastic Wii Wheel. You'll race all of your favorite Nintendo characters, from Mario and Bowser to Koopa and Birdo, around awesomely fun and unique tracks with crazy items like turtle shells and bananas at your disposal. The online's some of the best on the Wii (because of the connectivity speed, it's lag-free play, and it's addicting nature). Plus the game's accessible to pretty much all ages. Control picky people needn't worry either; a plethora of control options await, including GameCube controller support.

Excerpt from review: "Mario Kart Wii is a great game. And it'll last you a while, especially in the online areas. But it's not for everyone. If you didn't like the other Mario Karts or like more realistic, less random racing like F-Zero, then this isn't for you. But I liked it and what it brought to the Mario Kart table, such as bikes, tricks, Miis, and a great online." Full review here.

Boom Blox
Wii
Electronic Arts
May 6, 2008
My score: 9/10

At a first glance, Boom Blox looks like a kids game. And I don't blame you. But after sinking many hours of gameplay into it like I did, I think you'll say differently. Sure the game's great for kids, at least the early levels. But on the Hard and Master levels, the game really challenges you. But what differs the game from so many others are the excellent controls and great use of the Wii remote. The level of force you put into your throw is accurately represented in the game. The game's great in both the single and multiplayer options. Plus it comes with an awesome and deep "Create" mode that utilizes the remote's IR well.

Excerpt from review: "Boom Blox is a great game. The great single- and multiplayer puzzles are the high points of the game and more than makes up for the average visuals and music. Plus, it's going to last you a long time. Maybe not just trying to beat every puzzles, but also trying to get gold, that's going to take a while." Full review here.

LostWinds
WiiWare
Frontier
May 12, 2008
My score: 9/10

Nintendo WiiWare service launched May 12, 2008. At launch there were six titles, including Defend Your Castle, Final Fantasy Crystal Chronicles: My Life as a King, and LostWinds. It may have been a launch title, but LostWinds kicked off Nintendo's new service with a bang. The title showed what downloadable games are: smaller, innovative titles that can be priced lower. All in all the game's around four or so hours. So it's not all that long. But the gameplay's is unlike anything seen on the Wii. Your cursor controls the wind as you move a little boy Teku along. Draw lines to summon gusts of wind. With the controls come some innovative puzzles such as blowing fire into a barrier or carrying water to a plant. LostWinds' presentation is also really great. Even if it was a launch title, LostWinds is still one of the best WiiWare games in my opinion.

Excerpt from review: "I think LostWinds is the best you can get from Nintendo's WiiWare service. It's entertaining and keep you hooked until the credits. It's short, but the graphics and audio really keep the game moving." Full review here.

Wario Land: Shake It!
Wii
Nintendo
September 22, 2008
My score: 8/10

Most of the time, visuals are what you experience first with a game. And Wario Land: Shake It!'s are fluid and look like an excellent hand drawn cartoon. Aside from the beautiful style, the gameplay is much like the great 2D platformers of old. The controls are precise, what humor there is is "laugh-out-loudable," and the level design is top notch. The shaking (as the sub-title implies) is a bit annoying, but other uses for the motion controls, such as balancing or aiming by tilting is great.

Excerpt from review: "While Wario Land: Shake It! doesn't do much for the genre and its core game isn't all that long, you'd be hard pressed to find someone who doesn't have some fun with the game. The motion controls are used nicely, albeit the shaking in some parts. The hidden depth of game, and the flat out amazing visual style make this one heck of a game and definitely worth your purchase." Full review here.

Mega Man 9
WiiWare
Capcom
September 22, 2008
My score: 9/10

After years filled with countless Mega Man spin-offs (most of them sub-par), Capcom has opted to go back to Mega Man's roots with Mega Man 9. With it's 8-bit graphics, 8-bit music (which, by the way, is excellent), and 8-bit difficulty, fans of the original NES titles are sure to be pleased by this one. In some areas, the game may feel unforgiving, but it's just goes to show how lax your reflexes have come in this day and age. The game plays almost identical to the original Mega Man and Mega Man 2 for the Nintendo Entertainment System. It's your job to take down Dr. Wily's eight robots in any order you like. But there's strategy in the order you choose, each Robot Master is vulnerable to another one's weapon, which you obtain after beating said boss.

Excerpt from review: "A truly challenging game. It's fun and goes back to those golden days of gaming. But expect to throw the controller down more than once." Full review here.

de Blob
Wii
THQ
September 22, 2008
My score: TBD

The Wii is home to some really unique titles. Boom Blox, Wii Sports, and Zack & Wiki are a few of the innovative titles on the Wii. These kinds of games are both a whole lot of fun and a refreshing take on their genres and video games as a whole. de Blob is another of these games. It a new kind of platforming game. The premise is that the city has been drained of color by a the sinister I.N.K.T. corporation. It's your job to color the city. You join up with a band of colorful, painting revolutionaries and the rest is history. The presentation is one of the many high points of the game, as the graphics are some of the more impressive on the Wii. The upbeat music is awesome and changes with every color you obtain. It's one of the few third-party games on Wii that really pushes the system.

Excerpt from review: Once again the review is coming and I'll edit this feature once I've written my full review. -Kyle

Art Style: ORBIENT
WiiWare
Nintendo
September 29, 2008
My score: 8/10

There have been three Art Style games, ORBIENT, CUBELLO, and ROTOHEX, released on Nintendo's WiiWare service. Two were remakes of GBA bit Generations, while the other was a completely new game . Art Style: ORBIENT was the only one I downloaded, therefore it's the only one on this list. But I've read that it's the best of the three, so if there's anywhere to start, it's this one. ORBIENT's a remake of the Japan-only GBA game Orbital. The premise is simple but gets tough later on. You control a little planetoid with the power of controlling the gravity and anti-gravity. You orbit stars trying to absorb certain ones until you meet a certain goal. It's a very addictive and super unique little title.

Excerpt from review: "Art Style: ORBIENT is a simple title that uses it's core concept, gravity, and really expands on it. It's a unique little game overall. The graphics may not break any records, but the strangely enjoyable music and lasting value will make this a definite must to most. Plus with the $6.00 price tag, I'd recommend ORBIENT to almost anyone." Full review here.

Runner-up Wii 2008 Game of the Year

Super Smash Bros. Brawl
Wii
Nintendo
March 9, 2008
My score: TBD

Super Smash Bros. Brawl is the most hyped game for the Wii and possibly this generation of consoles. It's the ultimate Nintendo fan-service game. And if you're a fan of Nintendo and you have yet to pick up this game, you're either short on money or have your priorities way out of whack. The game is one of the best multiplayer games I've played in a long time. While the online may be seriously lacking and the single player portions average, Brawl more than makes up for these complaints with super entertaining local multiplayer. It's so hectic, so random (yet strategic), and so damn fun that you'll almost never tire of the party aspects. Plus, it's got layers and layers of fan-service with collectibles such as trophies, stickers, and music and unlockables such as stages, characters, and assistants called Assist Trophies. With all the content SSBB has, it'll last you hundreds of hours.

Excerpt from review: My third game on this list still in need of a review. Don't worry, this'll be the one I put out first. Until then, let me just say this: the game rocks. Buy it. -Kyle

Wii 2008 Game of the Year

World of Goo
WiiWare
2D Boy
October 13, 2008
My Score: 10/10

Even with the monumental game that is Super Smash Bros. Brawl, I felt one other game topped the rest of the Wii's 2008 lineup. That game is World of Goo. It may not have an epic, 30+ hours main game. It may not have awesome 32-player online. Yet World of Goo is one of the most fun, innovative, and memorable experiences of 2008. The game is ridden with charm and style. Every level is unique, and the game as a whole is very entertaining. Each level generally has you picking up and attaching goo balls together to build your way up to a pipe. There's so much variation in level design, objectives, and the types of goo balls that no two levels feel the same. If you must download one WiiWare game this year, make it World of Goo. If you must play only one Wii game this year, make it World of Goo. It's that good.

Excerpt from review: "World of Goo is one of the best games I've played this year and a great WiiWare title overall. With enough content and fun to be priced as a full retail (or slightly lower), World of Goo is a must-have. It tops downloadable favorites of mine in both style and presentation. Though it has very minor flaws, the $15 game is well worth the Wii Points." Full review here.

Other notable games:
These are the games I either didn't get to play, or I didn't feel quite good enough for the main part of this article, but you might want to give a try if you're a fan of the series or genre. (I grouped similar games together to save space.)

Animal Crossing: City Folk
Rock Band 2 and Guitar Hero: World Tour
Wii Fit and Wii Music
The other two Art Style games: CUBELLO and ROTOHEX
Bully: Scholarship Edition
Toki Tori
Dr. Mario Online Rx and Tetris Party
Blast Works
Strong Bad's Cool Game For Attractive People Episodes 1-5

And thus concludes my "Wii: Best games of 2008" article. I hope everyone's having a good holiday, and I hope everyone (who celebrates it) had a Merry Christmas!

Comments or questions? Drop an email to kylehogg@gmail.com or leave a comment below...

Red Steel 2 (Wii) trailer

2009-05-08T08:30:00.000-07:00

Welcome to a new type of post on World 1-1: trailers. Whenever a new trailer of a hot looking game is released onto the web, and I like it, I'll be sure to post it here. So, without further ado, my first trailer is of Red Steel 2. Sure it's a little late and most have already seen it, but the trailer is just too badass not to post.

While I'm pretty sure that's not in game footage and the guy (who was getting a little too into it) wasn't actually controlling the on screen movements, it still was a really badass trailer. I love the art as well. It captures the whole western feel and looks very nice altogether.

Pokemon Gold/Silver remakes? Yes, please!

2009-05-07T08:30:00.000-07:00

Another short article. Was planning on doing this earlier but didn't have the time. Oh, and just thought I should mention, there's going to be a few changes around here at World 1-1, some minor, others major. Look out for those.

Pokemon Gold and Silver are no doubt my favorite of the core Pokemon RPG's. So when I heard the rumors of a G/S remake on the DS, I was all for it. Supposedly in Japan there's a popular TV show called Pokemon Sunday, and last Sunday's episode said there'd be big news in the next episode. Two confetti balls, one gold, the other silver, hung above the stage during the show pointing to a Gold and Silver remake announcement.

These supposedly "leaked" boxarts found at vgboxart.com may be closer to reality than you think

I really hope that's what this is. Gold and Silver were damn good games and my favorite Pokemon games. You have to give credit where credit's due, since Red and Blue were great games that started the franchise. But we got FireRed and LeafGreen, now it's time for a DS Gold/Silver remake. The classic duo were the perfect Pokemon sequel. They added tons of new features such as a day/night system, 100 new Pokemon, an actually interesting and dynamic story (at least for a Pokemon game), and a Pokeball growing scenario with strategic "seeds" and new creative Pokeball types.

The remakes would be a great idea in my eyes. Update the graphics, include features of Diamond/Pearl/Platinum, such as online play and touch screen support, change up minor things in the original, and add new areas to explore. LeafGreen/FireRed were good fun just playing through the original games with updated visuals and battle systems, but it was equally fun to explore the new Sevii islands with Pokemon from later games and a new side quest. Only time will tell if Gold and Silver really are being remade. But I really hope the games get remade, and I'm willing to bet they will sometime in the not too distant future.

EDIT: It seems the rumors are true: Pokemon Heart Gold and Soul Silver were announced today. This is fantastic news, as I've explained in this post. My main wishes are that they beef up the Kanto portions of the game, as in the original G/S/C they were pretty half assed. And I also hope they add some new areas to explore (Orange Islands anyone?) This has now become one of my most anticipated games, even with the little we know.

Poll #17 results

2009-05-03T17:19:00.000-07:00

I'm really liking doing these weekly polls. I might not get as many votes as when I did it twice a month (usually about half), but it's nice to have a solid schedule of doing it every Sunday. The results of my 17th poll are below.

How many hours a week would you say you spend playing video games? (23 total votes)

Less than 5 hours - 26% (6 votes)
5 to 9 hours - 30% (7 votes)
10 to 19 hours - 34% (8 votes)
20 to 29 hours - 4% (2 votes)
30+ hours - 0% (0 votes)

The popular choice here was anywhere from 10 to 19 hours a week of playtime. Following that was , 5 to 9, with 30% of votes. It seems nobody voted for 30 hours or more. Guess most people don't have that much time. I voted for "10 to 19 hours." I play a decent amount of games, even staying up late a lot of the time. But I don't play a lot during the week, saving most of my playtime for weekends when I have a lot more free time.

As usual there is another poll up. The Wii's already seen a large number of Nintendo's franchises. We've had both a Super Mario game and a Legend of Zelda game. We've had Mario Kart, Wario (Land and -Ware), Super Smash Bros., the Excite franchise, Paper Mario, Metroid, and Fire Emblem all on Nintendo's latest console. Punch-Out!! coming this may marks another favorite franchise appearing on the Wii. But not all of Nintendo's hit series have had a Wii iteration. What about Starfox? Or Kirby? This week's poll question is, "Which Nintendo franchise would you love to appear on the Wii the most?"

Poll #15 results

2009-04-19T21:12:00.000-07:00

First let me apologize for my absence from World 1-1 for the past two weeks and for the lateness of this post. Due to some things to deal with in the "real world" and a mild case of writer's block for your's truly, I just didn't have the enthusiasm to post. Let's hope all that's over and I can get back to my regular two, three, four, or more posts a week (OK, so not that regular) schedule.

First I'd like to announce bit of a change in the polls: now they're going to be weekly, rather than bimonthly. This gives me the chance to have a lot more polls and free up a day each week to post results. Speaking of which, there will be a "poll results" post and a new poll alway up on Saturday (except for this one), usually somewhere around 4:00 Pacific Time. And now to your regularly scheduled poll results...

Poll number fifteen has concluded with a fairly small total vote count (as probably due to lack of posting lately). Here's the results to said poll:

Do you read gaming magazines? (17 total votes)

Yes, I subscribe to one or more - 58% (10 votes)
Yes, I buy issues occasionally - 29% (5 votes)
No, I don't read them - 11% (2 votes)

Without a lot of votes it's not entirely accurate to say which choice was the most popular. But I think it's pretty safe to say the first, the subscription choice, is the most popular as it garnered almost 60% of the votes. Coming in second was 29% for buying issues occasionally. And finally, last (and least) was two votes from people who don't read gaming magazines at all.

I voted for the first choice as I subscribe to two magazines, Game Informer and Nintendo Power. As I've said before, I really am loving my subscription to Nintendo Power and each month I'm treated with great previews and lots of nice screens and reviews. As for GI, I really like the magazine too, albeit the sometimes lack of Nintendo content. It has a lot of great gaming articles to read and always scores on big exclusive cover stories.

Once again, there's a brand spankin' new poll up. Sports are one of the popular genres of video games. Whether it's realistic sports simulations like Madden and Tiger Woods or arcadey and hectic games like Punch-Out!! and the Mario sports games, sports titles cater to a large audience. But it's my question to you, "How do you like your sports games?" Arcadey? Or realistic?

Comments or questions? Drop an email to kylehogg@gmail.com or leave a comment below...

Gaming Forecast - May 2009

2009-05-01T23:00:00.000-07:00

The first of May is here and with it comes another monthly dose of the Gaming Forecast feature.

Gaming Forecast May 2009

X-Men Origins: Wolverine (Wii and DS, May 1st)
New Play Control! Donkey Kong Jungle Beat (Wii, May 4th)
Klonoa (Wii, May 5th)
Puzzle Kingdoms (DS, May 5th and Wii, May 12th)
Guilty Gear XX Accent Core Plus (Wii, May 12th)
Black Sigil: Blade of the Exiled (DS, May 12th)
C.O.R.E. (DS, May 12th)
Punch-Out!! (Wii, May 18th)
Boom Blox Bash Party (Wii, May 19th)
EA Sports Active (Wii, May 19th)
Rock Band Track Pack: Classic Rock (Wii, May 19th)
Steal Princess (DS, May 19th)
Personal Trainer: Walking (DS, May 25th)

The Wii had a pretty good month this month, with big games like Punch-Out!!, Klonoa, and the almost guaranteed to sell EA Sports Active. The DS was a bit light this month, though Nintendo's Personal Trainer: Walking could be a popular choice among the "expanded audience."

Of the games I want, there's my highly anticipated Punch-Out!! and the beautiful remake Klonoa, which are must buys for me. And later on down the road, maybe when my wallet's not hurting so much, I'll have to check out Boom Blox Bash Party (loved the original) and New Play Control! Donkey Kong Jungle Beat (never played the original).

What about you my dear reader? Are you going to relive some nolstagic Punch-Out!! fun? Or are you saving your money for a month with more worthwhile handheld games?

Six shooters + samurai swords = kickass

2009-04-29T08:30:00.000-07:00

Another short article. I think I may start posting a lot more of these with a larger feature or review here and there, rather than empty, post-less weeks.

Just today we got the first details of Red Steel 2. The original was a fairly huge game in terms of hype, as it took advantage both of the Wii's major innovations: IR pointer controls and motion controls. Unfortunately it failed to live up to these standards with clunky controls and overall unenjoyable gameplay. While it (mostly) bombed with critics, it went on to sell over a million copies. But now that the Wii's been out for over two years... enter Red Steel 2!

Katana-wielding cowboys and a cel-shaded art style? Count me in!

While we haven't gained much information about it from the two preview pictures of the next issue of Nintendo Power, there's been enough to have me fairly excited. For one, the pictures show a dude with a cowboy hat, a revolver, and a samurai sword. Wild-west meets oriental east is a combination not seen in a lot of things, whether it's movies, video games, or anything else. It's a very unique concept that is appealing much like ninjas vs. pirates.

The issue also reconfirms MotionPlus, which fits perfect with this game and its precision based sword combat. Also you may notice the cel-shaded art style seen on the cover; whether this is just concept art and not in game graphics is yet to be seen, but I hope these are the actual graphics, for it has the potential of looking very great stylistically!

All in all, I hope that the added benefits of Wii MotionPlus and not having to be rushed out for a launch title, Red Steel 2 can end up being a great game and everything its prequel should have been. But I also hope that Ubisoft doesn't hurry to get it out as one of the first Wii MotionPlus titles, dooming it like they did with the first. I'm remaining optimistic at this point, but only time will tell how the game really turns out.

So many games, so little money

2009-04-28T08:30:00.000-07:00

Extremely short article this time around. Don't worry though, I have several larger post ideas that hopefully can all be made into reality.

I've become to realize something over the past few days: there are a lot of great Wii games coming out. Maybe a couple aren't up the the caliber of "hardcore" as MadWorld and The House of the Dead: Overkill, but there are some quality games releasing in the coming months.

Socking King Hippo in the stomach, just one of many great experiences to be had this May!

I haven't even picked up the surprisingly awesome looking Excitebots: Trick Racing. Then there's Punch-Out!!, the Boom Blox sequel, and Klonoa coming out this May. That's not even mentioning New Play Control! versions of Donkey Kong: Jungle Beat (due out in May as well) and Pikmin 2 (no solid release date for North America, but it'll most likely be here sooner than later since Europe's already gotten it). Some of the listed Wii games may not be everyone's cup of tea, but there's no denying May is hope to quality releases. But even in the months following May we'll see the releases of huge titles like The Conduit and Wii Sports Resort, not to mention Little King's Story.

That's a total of nine games I'm really looking forward to. And that's nine reasons I'm very happy to be a Wii owner. But what I'm not happy about is having to spend money on all nine of these games! With this school year nearing it's end (it can't come soon enough!) I'll have to start looking for a summer job to pay for all these. Because I certainly don't want to miss out on some great Wii fun. How about you? Are you loving the support the Wii's getting? Is your wallet hurting as well?

Bit.Trip Beat (WiiWare) review

2009-04-21T08:30:00.000-07:00

Bit.Trip Beat (WiiWare)

Developer: Gaijin Games
Publisher: Aksys Games
Date Released: March 16, 2009 (USA)
ESRB Rating: E (Everyone)

Retro gaming has definitely become more prominent in the last few years, with remakes of classic games like Bionic Commando Rearmed and whole new games with a retro styles such as Mega Man 9 or Retro Game Challenge paying off for developers by appealing to the old school gamers with their nostalgic gameplay and/or visuals and audio. While Space Invaders has been remade in Space Invaders Extreme, it's a bit surprising the granddaddy of all gaming, Pong has yet to see a remake with such a caliber of flashy visuals and nostalgic fun. But the first game of the Bit.Trip series is here, titled Bit.Trip Beat and while not exactly a sequel or remake of Pong, you can sure tell it's been heavily influenced by the game.

Much like Space Invaders Extreme is a lot like the original game on drugs with it's flashy graphics and hectic shooting fun, Bit.Trip Beat is a lot like Pong knocked up with a whole lot of illegal substances doing some crazy things (gameplay-wise). But this doesn't describe the game well enough, seeing as there's actually a lot more to it than the basic game of Pong.

The basics of Bit.Trip Beat involve you controlling a paddle on the left of the screen, and instead of another player on the right, a constant stream of different colored and different choreographed pixels known as beats that you must repel back. All of this is done with some of the simplest controls in gaming. Holding the Wii remote on its side and tilting forward and back controls your paddled seamlessly. It might take a little while to adjust, but once you get a hang of it, you'll be deflecting beats easily. While this may turn some people off, without D-pad control and all, I can say that this way works brilliantly, mimics the old-school paddle, and in the end is much faster than digital input. No other buttons are used other than 2 for menu selection. Though in game all the buttons on the Wii remote respond with different chiptune bleeps and bloops that are purely for fun and in no way affect the main game.

Deflecting little bouncing/flying pixels may not seem hard, but after playing this game I'm sure you'll be thinking exactly the opposite. Where the game really ramps up in difficulty is in the different types of beats (Pong balls) that fly across the screen at you. At first just basic yellow blocks that fly towards you are all you have to deflect, which is relatively easy. But from then on more and more beats are thrown at you with increasingly difficult patterns and speeds that certainly doesn't add up to a cake walk. There's such a variety of beats that even when nearing the end of the game newer ones are still blasting towards your paddle; there's fast beats, hesitating beats, beats linked together, beats that bounce off the walls: the list goes on and on.

Other than normal (relatively speaking of course) beats that all you have to deflect, there's certain power-up beats that can grow, shrink, freeze, or duplicate your paddle. Some are good while others are bad so you have the option of skipping them by merely not hitting them, but as all other beats it will still count against you. Count against you how? In the game, while playing, you'll notice two meters, the Mega and Nether, located on the top and bottom respectively. Fill the Mega meter by continually hitting beats back and you'll be transported to Mega mode with flashier graphics, more dynamic music, and the chance to get even higher scores by racking up the combos (think of it somewhat like Star Power in Guitar Hero). Miss too many in this and your back to the normal mode. In this one, miss too many and you're sent to Nether mode which is black and white, totally devoid of music and rhythm (other than the single monotonous sound that comes out of the Wii remote speaker replacing the normal beeps and boops), and very reminiscent of the original 70's Pong game. As you might have guessed missing too many beats in Nether mode and its game over for you.

At the end of each stage you face off with a boss that are one of the more memorable experiences of each level. Each stage's end level boss is different from the last, and I don't want to ruin anything, but they're very much inspired by Pong and Pong-like titles such as Breakout. Also included in the overall package is 4-player co-op which is a lot of fun to play with a friend. It does get harder the more players you add, as paddles become increasingly smaller with each new player. However, it's not all well: the different paddles differentiate in color but aren't staggered position-wise, so there's a lot of confusing overlapping to be had that makes co-op a whole lot less fun than it should have been.

But deflecting beats and facing off against pixelated bosses is only half of Bit.Trip Beat, the other 50% is the presentation, namely the style of graphics and engaging music. The music and sounds of the game are quite the showpiece, as the game relies heavily on the musical rhythm. There's always a background beat that holds the game together in a musical sense. Each beat that you repel adds a sound to the ever growing soundtrack. It's a really impressive thing to see, hear and play. Along with the audio are the fantastically abstract backgrounds and very Atari 2600-esque pixel style. Everything from the in game objects to text that's barely legible with such big pixels screams mid- to late-70's gaming.

Probably the major complaint of Bit.Trip Beat would be the lack of lasting value. There's only three stages, each of which is about 12 to 15 minutes long. But don't let these number deceive you into thinking the game hardly lasts even an hour, it'll last you upwards of eight hours approximately to finish the game. The stages, mainly the second and third, are taxingly difficult and really stay true to the hardcore old-school by having you play them for hours and hours until mastering every beat pattern to complete them. I did find the stages to be a bit too long though, especially seeing how dying sends you back to the very beginning. All of this could've been solved by mid-way check points or even splitting the three stage in half into six smaller levels.

Another complaint I had with the game was how much went unexplained. The game does very little in teaching you anything. There's no tutorial mode, so you'll have to get a hang of it in the beginning of the first level. It also doesn't tell you that to keep a stage unlocked you have to get a high score in the previous one. I never had the problem, as you'll score somewhere in the high scores most of the time, but I'm sure it can get annoying to those who barely beat a level. Speaking of high scores, it's disappointing to see only local leaderboards. A game like this so centered around replaying stages to get higher combos and beat previous scores, it's unfortunate to not see online leaderboards.

Overall Thoughts

Gaijin Games really nailed the whole retro-revival style both graphically and with the impressive music that coincides with the gameplay perfectly. Bit.Trip Beat's a whole lot of fun and is a really unique WiiWare game that's perfectly priced at $6. One of the better WiiWare games to date and comes with my highest recommendation.

9/10

Poll #16 results

2009-04-26T16:15:00.000-07:00

Be sure to check out the newly crafted World 1-1 Review Archive on the right sidebar to catch up on any World 1-1 reviews you may have missed. (I got/stole the idea from SuperPhillip Central and Everyview.)

Unfortunately, much like the previous poll, Poll #16 had few votes (at least compared to earlier World 1-1 polls). The results are as follows...

How do you like your sports games? (16 total votes)

Arcadey - 31% (5 votes)
Realistic - 12% (2 votes)
Like them both - 37% (6 votes)
I don't play sports games - 18% (3 votes)

Even with very few votes, the voting choices are all very close in the end results. The vote for liking both arcadey and realistic sports games won by one vote count over primarily arcadey. The option, "Realistic", came in last barely earning less votes than "I don't play sports games".

I voted for the first choice, as I prefer arcadey sports titles (like Punch-Out!!) over realistic sports sims. While I've played some sports games like Madden and MLB games at friend's houses, I never really enjoy them. But I do love games like the Mario Kart, they're just a lot more "fun" in my eyes as they strive for you to be entertained rather than be accurate represent the sports.

Poll #17 is up as well. Chances are a lot of you play quite a bit of video games; this is a video game blog after all. But just how much do you actually play? Some of us have work and school to have to deal with, while others have a lot more free time to play all the video games they want. My poll question this week is "How many hours a week would you say you spend playing video games?"

The House of the Dead: Overkill (Wii) review

2009-03-19T08:17:00.000-07:00

Here's the long overdue review. And the scores are back! Mostly due to Everyview's Zac's request, and me feeling there was something missing. Enjoy! -Kyle

The House of the Dead: Overkill (Wii)

Developer: Headstrong Games
Publisher: Sega
Date Released: February 10, 2009 (USA)
ESRB Rating: M (Mature)

On-rails shooters have had a good run on the Wii with Resident Evil: Umbrella Chronicles, Ghost Squad, and The House of the Dead 2 & 3 Return. And this on-rails shooting fun doesn’t look to stop anytime soon with both Dead Space: Extraction and Resident Evil: Darkside Chronicles announced to be coming to Nintendo’s current console. HotD: 2 & 3 Return was (as you could probably guess) a port of both the second and third House of the Dead games. It sold pretty well and saw mostly favorable reviews. Though it was really just Sega testing the water, but now with an original game titled House of the Dead: Overkill, they’ve jumped all the way in with a cannonball and a slash.

House of the Dead: Overkill does a few things noticeably different from the previous arcade games. The most noticeable is the 70’s grindhouse style. The story is pays homage to the cheesy, zombie filled pulp horror films of the 1970’s. All of this is complete with cheesy dialogue, over the top violence, a hilariously clichéd and awesome plot, and a very unique graphical style.

The story is both well written and hilarious. As just about everything in the game, it seems the Headstrong gang watched just about every zombie flick they could get their hands on to craft the wonderful plot that Overkill presents. You follow the journey of the mysterious Agent G and profanity spewing Detective Isaac Washington on their way to take down the evil mastermind behind the mutant invasion, Papa Caesar. The story takes them to a variety of locales from a swamp with redneck mutants to a carnival with mutant clowns and carnies.

With the excellent story comes some great characters and hilarious chemistry between Agent G and Detective Washington. There are some funny jokes than turn into “inside jokes” with their frequency of use, particularly ones involving the G in Agent G’s name and elevators. Along the way the two meet up with a stripper named Varla Guns and she adds to the great dialogue even more. All of this is voice acted intentionally cheesy and it’s really enjoyable. My only gripe is Washington’s over the top swearing. It’s funny and some people will feel it fits the game and the grindhouse feel perfectly, but I found it to be a little bit too much at times.

As far as the gameplay goes, Overkill clings to some traditional mechanics, while bringing some fresh ideas to the table as well. First and foremost, the controls work great. The IR makes getting head shots and shooting tiny objects all the easier. It’s standard shooter controls for the Wii remote: B to shoot, to reload press A or flick the cursor off the screen light gun style, and the + button for grenades. It’s all very simple, intuitive, and a breeze to play with.

Each level in the game has you killings hordes of zombies, collecting items like health and grenades, and fighting bosses at the end of each. There’s a lot of fun zombie killing with heads bursting into unrealistic explosions of blood and gore and a powerup that instigates Slow Mo-Fo Mode for some excellent slow motion thrills. In between levels you can use money you’ve earned to upgrade and buy new weapons. The end level bosses were usually the biggest disappointment of each level for me. Generally, they’d be easy and predictable. There were only one or two that were memorable and fun. One of the worst had only one attack that he did over and over. With all the great level design Headstrong put into Overkill, it would’ve been nice of them to make some bosses of that same caliber of excellence.

House of the Dead: Overkill really succeeds in all the innovations it brings too. One being the Danger Cam, which lets you shift the screen a bit both directions so as to prepare for what’s coming and set up for kills, rather than having the screen locked in a position like most on-rails games. The other unique design that Overkill uses is a combo system that makes you fire with accuracy on your mind rather than pulling the trigger every time something moves. As the combo progresses higher and higher so will the bonus points that comes with each kill until you reach the awesome Goregasm that rewards you with 1000 extra points every kill and ensures you a spot high on the high score board if you can maintain it.

Speaking of scores, House of the Dead: Overkill handles retries very well too. In the arcades a continue screen that required credits was perfect for making the machines money and making players strive to not get a game over. But when these kinds of games are ported over to consoles the challenge is diminished, as it’s just a button press and you’re off onto the same level again. In Overkill it cuts your score in half, generally taking a lot of points, and returning that urgency and desire not to lose.

On-rails shooters aren’t known for their length, but House of the Dead puts up a fair fight. The story mode will clock you in around three to four hours, then you’ve got Director’s Cut, which has more zombies, extended levels, and an upped difficulty to play through. There’s also a coop mode that works wonderfully, three multiplayer-focused minigames that provide a short burst of fun, and Dual Wield mode, which is unlocked after completing both the Director’s Cut and the original Story Mode. You’ll want to play through levels again and again to beat high scores, get any little things you missed, and just play the addictive game some more. Unfortunately there aren’t any online leaderboards to speak of, so the only high scores you’ll be beating are your own. Headstrong really missed the boat on that one, seeing as it would fit perfectly with a score driven game like this one.

And finally we come to the visual and audio presentation of the game. In a word, it’s exceptional. The entire game has a visual look of a grindhouse, B-movie flick. Filters and lines indicating scratches and dirt marks are present through the entire game and make the game’s visuals really unique. The overall graphics are also really great and some of the Wii’s best, though the game suffers from some severe frame-rate problems. While I consider myself a versatile gamer and a gamer at that, I’m not quite like the journalists and game developers, meaning I can’t tell whether a game runs at 60 or 30 frames per second. And I generally can’t tell when a game stutters or not. But even I could see just how much slowdown there was in Overkill. Just about time a zombie was shot a something new appeared there was slowdown. But in the end it doesn’t take too much away from the experience and you’ll actually forgive it, seeing just how great the rest of the game is. On the audio side, there are some wonderful 70’s style songs and overall is a stellar soundtrack to compliment the gameplay and graphics.

Overall Thoughts

With it’s combo meter, Slow Mo-Fo pickups, and all the zombie blasting fun you could ask for, Overkill is a treat and an addictive one at that. Despite the slight issues of lackluster bosses and some prevalent visual slowdown, House of the Dead: Overkill is an entertaining on-rails shooter with a great grindhouse style and an enjoyable, well-written story (that is both intentionally cheesy and intentionally fantastic).

9/10

Comments or questions? Drop an email to kylehogg@gmail.com or leave a comment below...

Mega Man (Virtual Console) review

2008-09-23T03:22:00.000-07:00

As my first true Virtual Console review (my Super Mario Bros. 3 review was a mess), it's time for some explaining...

About the Virtual Console reviews: I'm not rating these games necessarily by today's standards, otherwise my graphics and lasting value categories would score very low. But I'm also not reviewing these games by their original system's standards. Think of it as a combination of the two and overall just if it's worth a download or not.

Developer: Capcom
Publisher: Capcom
Date Released: NES: December 1, 1987 (USA); VC: August 18, 2008 (USA)
Players: 1
Genre: Action/Platform
ESRB Rating: E (Everyone)

Many of today's popular video game characters and series started on the NES. Mario, Castlevania, Zelda, it all started on the NES. The popular franchise of Mega Man also started on that very same system. Even though Mega Man 2 was the best received, the original Mega Man still serves it's place as it laid down the basis for Mega Man games to come.

The story goes a little something like this: Dr. Wily is evil. He corrupts and reprograms six robots to do his evil deeds. Dr. Light, the original creator of the robots, is disgusted by what Dr. Wily did so he makes Mega Man to fight and defeat Dr. Wily and his six Robot Masters. That's all there is to it, and that's all there really needs to be in a game like this.

Platformers and side-scrollers made up a large portion of games back in those times. Mega Man is still a side-scrolling, platforming game, but what Mega Man did different than those multiple other games was include a whole different mechanic to fighting enemies. Instead of jumping on top of them or punching them, Mega Man shot baddies with his Mega Blaster. You start out with just a Mega Blaster, but a whole part of the game is getting different weapons, which brings me to my next subject...

Another thing that differs Mega Man from other games in the 8-bit era is that it isn't entirely linear. I say "isn't entirely" because you still move from left to right to the end of the level. What makes it nonlinear is the fact that you choose the order you complete which stages in. That is until you complete all six, then you're whisked away to Dr. Wily's castle, which does progress linear. In Mega Man there are six different stages. Each ending in a Robot Master. The real strategy in picking the stages is finding out each bosses weakness, since every boss is easily defeated with another Robot Master's weapon. While not as memorable as Mega Man 2's various blasters, Mega Man's different attacks are all pretty useful and each have their different uses. You're free to tackle the game's stages in any order you want, but if you want the easiest and most successful you'll have to discover the various weaknesses of each Robot Master.

Being a classic NES game you can be sure of one thing, it's difficult. Not broken mechanics difficult or over powered AI difficult. But controller-throwing-down difficulty in which you know it's not the game's fault; it's your's and your reflexes'. While it may not appeal to some people, the brutal difficulty is fun and very rewarding in my opinion (which is pretty much what this entire review is, my opinion, so deal with it).

Mega Man's bright array of colors (for a NES game) and detailed 8-bit backgrounds sum up to be a nice looking NES. Again, while Mega Man 2 is known for it's awesome music, the original appearance of the Blue Bomber sports some pretty nice music too.

Six bosses and several Dr. Wily stages are what you'll find in Mega Man. Definitely the shortest as far as Mega Man games go, it'll last your a few hours to five at best. But once you're done, you can always speed run or just play through the game again (as you should now know the best pattern to defeating the bosses).

Overall Thoughts

Gameplay: 9/10 Classic Mega Man, just as you remember. The rock-paper-scissors formula of progression is just as unique today as it was in the 80's. The game's a blast, end of story.

Graphics: 8/10 Crisp, colorful, 8-bit graphics.

Sound: 9/10 While not as memorable as the sequals, expect some nice tunes overall.

Lasting Value: 7/10 The first Mega Man's the shortest of the bunch.

8/10
Mega Man's first outing is still one of the best. Plus, with a price of 500 Wii Points, equal to $5, I recommend this to any fan of Mega Man or for someone looking for some plain, old-school fun.

Mario Kart Wii review

2008-05-28T15:00:00.000-07:00

Developer: Nintendo EAD
Publisher: Nintendo
Date Released: April 27, 2008 (USA)
MSRP: $49.99
Players: 1-4 (up to 12 players online)
Genre: Kart Racing
ESRB Rating: E (Everyone)

Seeing that both the super popular franchises of Super Smash Bros. and Super Mario have had their turn on the Wii, you may wonder where that other Mario series is... Mario Kart. Well, Mario Kart Wii is here. Is it worthy of the name Mario, or is it more shovelware doomed to the bargain bin?

Mario Kart Wii gets away with basically the some gameplay as all the past karts with a few minor additions. Haven't played since the N64? Not too much should be new. Basically, you choose a Mario character (or Donkey Kong, Diddy Kong, Funky Kong, or your Mii), choose a kart, and race around different Mario themed tracks in several different modes, including single- and multi-player, online and off.

It features 32 tracks in all. I have really come to love the tracks in Mario Kart Wii, especially the original ones. While it still features the super difficult Rainbow Road and Bowser Castles, new tracks such as Koopa Cape, Coconut Mall, and Wario's Gold Mine keep it fresh. Plus, along with the 16 new tracks, there's another 16 retro tracks, including favorites such as Sherbet Land (Nintendo 64), Waluigi Stadium (GameCube), and Delfino Square (Nintendo DS) to race on. Plus, now there's twelve racers on the track, rather than eight as in previous games, which ends up being even more hectic and random than before. And even more luck and randomness is not needed in Mario Kart.

And now not only do you have eight or so karts to choose from, you can also decide to race on motorcycles. Adding bikes to the series was a smart move on Nintendo's part. There's just the right balance between karts and bikes to insure that neither will have an advantage. The difference between the two are pretty noticeable; bikes are just a little bit faster, and can do wheelies, which will increase your speed but you won't really be able to turn. And bikes don't get as much of a boost off a powerslide as karts do. I enjoyed the bikes, but I still prefer karts any day.

There's also a few added items that will make this Mario Kart even more random than previous. The new items include: the POW Block, the Lightning Cloud, and the Mega Mushroom (from New Super Mario Bros.) I really like the Lightning Cloud, because it requires a lot of skill to get the most boost from it. When you get it, it'll speed you up, but if you keep it too long you'll spin out and shrink. The real skill in it is to use it for a boost, then bump into an opponent and give it to them (so they'll get shrunk). The Mega Mushrooms pretty cool too, turning you giant and letting you squish other player. Being my least favorite, I saved the POW Block for last; this item acts like a red shell to everyone in front of the user, spinning them out of control.

As in Smash Bros. there's four different ways to race. The Wii Wheel, Wii Remote and Nunchuk, Classic Controller, and Gamecube. All of the work, but my favorite is definitely the Wii Wheel. When I first heard of Mario Kart using motion controls, my reaction was skeptical. I decided I'd use the Classic Controller because I had recently bought one. But when Smash Bros. came out I got an old WaveBird out, so I decided I'd use that. But when the game came in the mail, I decided to try the motion controls to see if they worked, and I was hooked. Both the GameCube and Classic Controllers work fine, and I'd use one of those if you're into a more old-school style. The Wii Remote and Nunchuk combination also works especially since you get both the analog stick and motion controls for tricks.

Mario, sporting a snazzy new kart.

Wait, tricks? In a Mario Kart? Yes, folks, Nintendo has added tricks, too. Tricks are easy to pull off and rewarding. When you go off a jump just shake the Wii Wheel, shake the Wii Remote, or press a direction on the D-Pad (depending on which controller you're using) and your character will do a random trick and when you land, you'll get a short speed boost. Tricks are so addicting, I found myself shaking the Wheel wildly every time I got airborne. Like some of the new additions (bikes, etc.) to Mario Kart, tricks are a cool new mechanic but they don't change the game radically.

Another thing I should add is that snaking has been removed. No longer does the boost you gain after a powerslide have to do with you rapidly moving the analog stick back and forth. Now it matters how long you're in the powerslide. It's a dumbing down mechanic, but I feel it's a change for the better.

Just as in Smash Bros., you probably are going to play quite a bit of multiplayer in Mario Kart Wii. Sure, there's the (unfortunately) one-player only Grand Prix which will last you maybe a few days or even a week at most, but then you'll probably turn to multiplayer. Local multiplayer works great and up to four player can play on a single TV. But the real gem here in online multiplayer. Mario Kart Wii has one of the best multiplayer experience for the console. The Wi-Fi connection is pretty fast, Nintendo is actually has a lot of rules that will kick you out of a game (such as driving the course backwards and hit people with shells and stars), and it's actually pretty easy to navigate the slick menus. Another great thing is that two people can play on the same Wii online, further increasing the entertainment value of online play. The system that Nintendo devised for ranking is pretty genius in my opinion. Instead of Wins/Losses, you start out with 5000 points and how many points and whether you lose or gain them is determined by your placing.

Now while the multiplayer works, I have some gripes about it too. My main disappointment with the game is Battle Mode. This was one of the best modes in previous Karts, especially N64 and DS. This time around they limited it a lot. No longer is there every man for himself, and the last man standing wins. Mario Kart Wii, forces you into teams. Plus as in previous Karts you have three balloons which represent your lives. But that's where the similarities end. In previous games once you lost all three you were out of the game and could just watch it. Now when you lose, you're reborn a moment later with three more balloons! The only thing that matters for the team is your score. This definitely will turn a lot of people away from Battle Mode, as it did for me. About the only other bad thing about multiplayer has to do with 2-player online. The second player practically isn't there except in races. He/She will always be dubbed Guest and can't earn any points even if you have another save file on the game. Also if you're playing by yourself and a friend or family comes up and want to play they can't just drop in. You have to quit out of Nintendo Wi-Fi and select it again just with the 2-player option. But other than that, the multiplayer is the best way to go in Mario Kart Wii.

The graphics aren't nearly as good as some of the Wii's other great titles (Mario Galaxy, Metroid Prime 3, etc.), but it has that polished, cartoonish feel of other games such as Wii Sports. And it's pleasing to look at, even if there's not a lot of texture details and it's not too realistic.

Another thing that isn't extraordinary but works is the audio. The music is fun and fast, and it sort of adds to the experience. But the character noise sure get on my nerves. Every time they did a trick, got ahead, or anything else good they make annoying sounds like "Wahoo!", "Alright", and "Yes." Especially certain characters like the Miis, which are by the way are playable and awesome.

Overall, Mario Kart Wii is a great game. And it'll last you a while, especially in the online areas. But it's not for everyone. If you didn't like the other Mario Karts or like more realistic, less random racing like F-Zero, then this isn't for you. But I liked it and what it brought to the Mario Kart table, such as bikes, tricks, Miis, and a great online.

Gameplay: 8.5/10 Very fun, and Miis, tricks, and bikes are great. But the battle mode definitely bumped this score down.

Multiplayer: 9.5/10 Some of the best online on Wii. Local multiplayer is great too.

Graphics: 7.5/10 Good but not great.

Sound: 7.5/10 God those Miis are annoying. Nice music though.

Lasting Value: 9/10 Online will keep you coming back for more.

8/10

Fun game, while it lacks in some areas, online is great.

LostWinds (WiiWare) review

2008-06-09T15:00:00.000-07:00

Publisher: Frontier Developments
Developer: Frontier Developments
Date Released: May 12, 2008 (USA)
MSRP: $10.00 (1000 Wii Points)
Players: 1-2
Genre: Adventure/Platformer
ESRB Rating: E (Everyone)

If you follow the internet a lot, like me, you'll find that whenever there's something about WiiWare you'll usually find LostWinds mentioned. When WiiWare was just a month or so away, and someone would ask me what I thought of the service, I'd say something like, "Eh, looks pretty cool, especially that LostWinds game." I was really hyped for this game and being a launch title, I downloaded it the first day. Does it live up to the hype?

First off, LostWinds is a platformer but not a traditional one. The main character you control is named Toku and is actually really weak and useless. All he can do is walk left or right and climb small ledges. And strange enough, he cannot jump... in a platformer. Instead the Wii's cursor controls a little symbol called Enril, a wind spirit. Simply holding A or B and drawing a line in a direction near Toku, summons a gust of wind sending him in the air. It is a brilliant mechanic and works seamlessly with the Wii Remote. This mechanic is used for almost everything in the game. From moving Toku to a higher ledge to solving the various wind-based puzzles in the game.

Later on in the game you get more powerful wind powers, such as the ability to have three gusts of winds before Toku falls down to earth or being able to draw specific paths for Toku to be carried along on. The puzzles in LostWinds may seem easy at first but they do get harder later on. Not the Zelda or Zack & Wiki difficulty, but they'll have you sit there for a few minutes scratching your noggin. While they may lack in difficulty they make up in creativity, such as drawing a path for fire to burn through a wooden barrier or carrying water via wind to grow an essential plant. Since this is an adventure game, you will find puzzles around every corner, and it's pretty rewarding.

The controls work very well, and the game feels like it was meant for the Wii. There's very little you'd have to learn once you get in the game. You control Toku with the Nunchuk. The Z button pulls up plants or has other various purposes. The Wii Remote is only used for controlling the wind. The A and B buttons each have different wind powers. And that is pretty much it. Simple but gets the job done.

While LostWinds excels in gameplay, it also has a surprisingly deep and mythological story to back it up. I won't go into much detail, but it's about some ancient spirits that actually reminds me a bit of Native American lore. The boy in it (Toku) stubbles across a stone that the Wind Spirit, Enril, is trapped in and they begin their journey to defeat the evil spirit, Balasar. It's a cool little part of the game that definitely doesn't detract from it.

The graphics in LostWinds are very nice. Frontier achieves what a lot of developers can't do a regular disc, while they do it on a small 40 megabytes. Everything in the game is vibrant and living. When you move your wind cursor over a tree, it's leaves blow in that direction. Create a gust through a crowd of people? They stumble and grunt. From the texture detail to the lighting, it's just plain impressive. For me, LostWinds is up there with Super Mario Galaxy and Metroid Prime 3: Corruption as being the best visually for the Wii.

An example of LostWinds' excellent visuals.

To compliment the exceptional graphics, is the beautiful soundtrack. The music fits the game perfectly with ancient Native American flutes and literally flowing music. Right from the moment of clicking on the games channel you get sucked in with such great music. Definitely one of the highest points of the game.

One of my problems with the game is the length. LostWinds will last you anywhere from around two and a half hours to four. The developer's excuse is that a lot of the $50 games out only have a five to ten hours of gameplay. While this may be true, you still want a lot more from it once you've completed the story. Sure, you can go through it and collect all 24 statues which offers some replay value. I beat the game and I had around 13 or 14 statues, so I'll probably be playing it more for those. But still, once you've finished, there's very little that calls you back.

Another issue I had with the game was the difficulty. I think I died maybe a grand total of once during the entire game. Very little of the enemies or dangers present a big enough challenge that you lose a chunk of your life. You have only four segments of life and it stays that way the entire game. If you fall a long ways and gain speed, you'll lose a portion of your life when you hit. But if you slow down Toku's decent by pointing at him and moving back and forth you'll keep yourself from having that problem. The puzzles present a fair amount of challenge, but they're still not that hard. Many of the puzzles are repeated (such as the fire one), and you'll quickly learn how to come around a lot of them. It is easy, but I don't think an expert difficulty is especially needed for a game like LostWinds. It could use some upping in the difficulty area, but it's fine the way it is.

Overall, I think LostWinds is the best you can get from Nintendo's WiiWare service. It's entertaining and keep you hooked until the credits. It's short, but the graphics and audio really keep the game moving.

Gameplay: 9.5/10 Very fun and the wind mechanics are rewarding. The controls are simple and keep the game going.

Story: 9/10 Original and keeps the game moving.

Graphics: 9.5/10 Very nice and some of the best one the Wii, you won't be dissatisfied.

Sound: 9/10 A compelling soundtrack flows through the game like the wind you control.

Lasting Value: 3.5/10 Four hours at most and that's still very short. I really wish there was more to this game.

9/10

If you're only buying one downloadable game this year, LostWinds should be the one. If you don't believe me then look at the graphics, entertainment, and awesome soundtrack. You won't be disappointed in your decision.

Defend Your Castle (WiiWare) review

2008-06-11T14:00:00.000-07:00

Developer: XGen Studios

Publisher: XGen Studios

Date Released: May 12, 2008 (USA)

MSRP: $5.00 (500 Wii Points)
Players: 1-4

Genre: Arcade/Simulation

ESRB: E (Everyone)

Defend Your Castle started it's fame in the flash games industry (if there even is one). It was a fun, stick figure game that included blood. Well, Defend Your Castle is here on WiiWare; it does away with the gore and blood and adds a unique and loveable style to the game. At only $5, the game seems a bargain, but is it?

To start if off, Defend Your Castle is a unique game experience. Period. The premise is picking up little stick figures who run at your castle and fling them away. They'll fly in the air and land with a "Ahhh!" If they get to your castle, they'll start pounding on the castle walls with their bare fists (or stick figure arm stubs). Simple and addicting, that really seems all there is too it.

At least that's pretty much all there is to it in the first levels. Then more and more enemies start bombarding your castle. Different enemy types appear, such as giants and kamikaze style bomb men. With the points you earn you can buy upgrades such as other defense to your castle. Soon there'll be all kinds of explosions and noise across the screen. It's mad, and it's very fun!

The enemies are somewhat complex, but basic enough. The main guys you'll have to worry about, at least for the first 15 or so levels, are the basic, run of the mill stick figures. They'll run towards the castle, you'll pick them up, and you'll fling them away. Then, there's the battering ram guys, who are actually holding Popsicle sticks. They'll do a little bit more damage to your castle but move slower, making them easier targets. Later on into the game giants will appear. Their heads are made of bottle caps, and they sure are a pain in the ass. If they get to your castle they do some reasonable damage. They're heavy enough (I'm guessing) that you can't pick them up. The only way to defeat them is to click on them several times, which gets a little frustrating but presents a challenge. The last enemy I should mention is probably the easiest to deal with. They're little bomb men, rolling a pop cap gun thing (sorry for the loss of words). All you do is click on them and they explode. The real trick here is to let them get near some of the other enemies (e.g. the giants) and blow them up, killing the other guys too.

An example of the craziness of Defend Your Castle.

Besides just picking up and flinging, you'll be able to buy other forms of defense for your castle. First and foremost you need to purchase the Pit of Conversion (basically a bucket of paint), which will convert bad guys that you place in it onto your side. What do you do with these guys? You can use them as archers, wizards, bomb men, and repair men. The archers are pretty self explainatory and really get helpful the further you get into the game. It's the bomb men that you'll really notice their help. They run out towards the oncoming hordes and when you click on them, they explode. It's suicide, but it's an easy way to take out those pesky giants. The magic users of the castle can cast several spells, such as erasing an enemy or converting them without the Pit. And rounding it off are the castle builders. You won't really notice them being there. They kind of work behind the scenes; the more you have of them, the faster your castle health restores itself. While you have certain defenses, it will mostly come down to your reflexes and boy is it addicting.

The multiplayer in Defend Your Castle is nicely integrated into the game. With simple 4-player drop-in/drop-out mechanics, you'll have your friends joining with ease. And let me tell you, it definitely is helpful to have another hand when you get around level 30 or so. Plus if you want to try Heroic mode, you'll be facing tons upon tons of enemies from the very start. Another great addition for people who need a little more challenge (but trust me, it's very hard,).

While some may argue the graphics are intentionally bad, they're still bad. Nonetheless, they still have a lot of charm. Everything in the game looks like it was made in a kindergarten art class. The stick figures are rudely drawn, your castle's made of construction paper, and the clouds are hung up with classroom yarn. It's not the greatest graphics, but they're definitely cool.

The upgrade system.

Just as the graphics were very "homemade", so is the sound. Every sound from the cries of the dying enemies to the explosions are done by some guy. You and me could probably make the same sounds, and similar to the graphics there is some charm to Defend Your Castles' audio.

If you're good enough at it, the game will last you forever. But number one, you may falter and somehow lose the game. Number two, you will get bored after a while. Sure, having a couple friends over can definitely make it more fun, but it will grow old. Plus, you could try heroic mode and see how far you get in it.

Overall, it's quite a deal for $5. It's really a great and original game that I'd recommend to almost anyone. But if it doesn't appeal to you, I'd try out the flash game one first, and who know? Maybe you'll be satisfied with just that.

Gameplay: 8/10 Simple, brilliant, and addicting. While it does get repetitive, it will keep you entertained for some time.

Multiplayer: 7.5/10 The drop-in/drop-out mechanic is great and accessible.

Graphics: 5.5/10 You could tell they made them bad on purpose, but still they're kind of funny.

Sound: 7/10 Though music is pretty much nonexistent, the effects are charmingly hilarious.

Lasting Value: 7.5/10 It will grow old, but the multiplayer definitely livens it up.

7/10

Defend Your Castle goes way beyond what happened in the original. Aspects such as the style and the 4-player multiplayer vastly improve what was in the flash game. As a bonus it's only $5 and that really is perfect for this game. A great launch title and a great game in general, if you have the Wii Points (and not to mention the room in your "fridge"), pick this one up.

Comments or questions? Drop an email to kylehogg@gmail.com or leave a comment below...

Dr. Mario Online Rx (WiiWare) review

2008-06-14T23:44:00.000-07:00

Sorry about the late review guys. By the way, I've decided to shorten my review a bit. You may not notice but compared to my first review (Mario Kart Wii), this one is quite a bit shorter. Don't know if I'll continue the short reviews, but I just couldn't think of much for this game. Enjoy!

Developer: Arika
Publisher: Nintendo
Date Released: May 26, 2008 (USA)
Players: 1-4 (up to 2 players online)
Genre: Puzzle
ESRB: E (Everyone)

Dr. Mario is a classic puzzler that has gained many fans over the years. Originally released on the NES and remade on the SNES (packaged with Tetris), the games have been around for a while. The newest versions updates the gameplay with minor additions such as Mii-support, online multiplayer, and Virus Buster.

Dr. Mario Online Rx is really two games in one. It's both classic Dr. Mario from the NES age and a variation of the original called Virus Buster, which originated as a minigame in Brain Age 2 for the Nintendo DS. Both are pretty fun, but I feel the Dr. Mario game is the better of the two.

The Dr. Mario part of the game isn't anything new. But it's good that way. It's still the classic, line up four of the same colors and get rid of all the viruses. It offers both Classic and Flash modes. The real gem here is online multiplayer. Both Classic and Flash are available there, and it's a blast. The online incorporates Mario Kart Wii's ranking system. You start out with 5000 points and lose/gain them according to who you beat. It works fine, and I really hope Nintendo keep this system for later games down the road. As a bonus there's text chat online! No, not actual chatting. There are several predetermined phrases such as "Good game," "Go easy on me," and "Think you can beat me?!". Cheesy? Definitely. Get the job done? Yes. The online is really the greatest part of the game and keeps me coming back for more.

Now as for Virus Buster, it's an interesting variation of the original Dr. Mario gameplay. Instead of using the D-Pad to move the descending pill, you move the pills around via Wii Remote cursor. While it may seem a minor addition, there's more! Besides the 4-player co-op, there's a new gameplay mechanic too: any falling blocks that result from a previous line you can actually grab onto and move. If you haven't played the original you may not know what I'm talking about, but it's a radical change that can be used with a lot of strategy. That being said, Virus Buster is best played in multiplayer. Where as one of the players can line up the colors and the other move the falling pieces into place. You may not understand what I'm saying but you'll know what I'm talking about once to play it. Up to four players can join in, but I found two works the best.

Virus Buster in action.

As for the graphics, let's just say they're mediocre. Everything is 2-D, but it's pleasing to the eyes. No jaw dropping achievements but nothing noticeably wrong such as frame rate issues. Another cool little addition to the game are Miis. Now not only Mario throws your pills out for you, but your cute (or maybe ugly) avatars can do it too! Unnecessary but nice!

The audio in the WiiWare game is pretty much all the classic tunes. Favorites such as Fever and Chill return. The music goes along with the frenzy of the game well. They're enjoyable but some are on the verge of annoying. But most likely, you'll hum along in some parts.

Dr. Mario Online Rx will keep you coming back for more. Of all the WiiWare games out currently, I believe this is the most you can get for $10. With no campaign or story mode to speak of, you may think it will grow old. But both Classic and Flash modes, online and off will keep you hooked like a drug. And like that very same drug you'll keep coming back for more. (Junkie!)

Overall, Dr. Mario is fun, energetic, and just a little bit brain stimulating. Don't believe me? Maybe your friend will get it, and they can send you the demo (it's possible!)

Gameplay: 8.5/10 Still that same old Dr. Mario: fun and addicting.

Multiplayer: 8/10 2-player only for Dr. Mario and no online for Virus Buster is strange. But what multiplayer there is really works. And the online modes are quick and polished.

Graphics: 7/10 Two dimensional but nothing unpleasant to speak of.

Sound: 7/10 The same old classic, lovable Dr. Mario tunes.

Lasting Value: 8.5/10 With the online mode, it'll last you a long time.

8/10

Comments or questions? Drop an email to kylehogg@gmail.com or leave a comment below...

Gyrostarr (WiiWare) review

2008-07-02T15:00:00.000-07:00

Originally I was going to write a Boom Blox review, but I decided I hadn't played enough of it. So I'll review my other recently purchased game: Gyrostarr. Enjoy!

Developer: High Voltage Software
Publisher: High Voltage Software
Date Released: June 23, 2008 (USA)
MSRP: $7.00 (700 Wii Points)
Players: 1-4
Genre: Shooter
ESRB Rating: E (Everyone)

Lately there has been a lot of hype and attention towards High Voltage Software's first-person shooter, The Conduit. So a couple of days after the Conduit was announced, Gyrostarr was to. People started to get really excited about High Voltage and what they were doing with the Wii. Now that Gyrostarr's here, with an interesting price tag of 700 Wii Points, what do I think of it?

Gyrostarr is a Shoot 'Em Up, or SHMUP for short. Games in this sort of genre are filled with hordes of enemies, usually spaceships or other vehicles, and tons of power-ups. Gyrostarr embraces all of these common features. And it adds some unique and cool ones of its own.

First off, you control your little ship in several different ways. The first and easiest (for me) is holding the Wii remote classic, NES style (sideways). The D-Pad controls your ship, 2 for shooting, and 1 for nukes. Simple and effective. Then there's the motions controls, which don't work so well. It's very easy to oversteer and bump into the sides of the level. Nunchuk control and Classic Controller are available too, but I didn't really try out the two. The sideways Wii remote works very nice for me and is the way to go.

The premise of the game is that you're hurtling down these "twisting, turning techno-plasma canal(s) in space." While there's no background as to who you are or why you're doing it, it definitely makes a stylized, speedy shooter. There are half a dozen or so different enemies that you'll face as you fly down these tracks. There's the basic ones that take a hit or two to kill. Then there's those that don't shoot at all but block you unless you shoot them down. Next there's ones that explode and ones that hold tinier ones. There is some variety, but I could use a bit more.

Now for the other aspect common to shooters: power-ups! Gyrostarr has quite a few. They include everything from Triple Shot and Invincibility to Slow Enemies and Fast Shot. Another is the Nuke that will destroy all enemies on the screen. But you'll get an added bonus at the end of each stage if you don't have to use any Nukes. These objects really make the gameplay less stale.

While Gyrostarr has a lot SHMUP basics like power-ups and enemies, it also has some new concepts of it's own. Instead of merely surviving until the end of the stage, you have another goal too. White, floating balls of energy will pass along with enemies and power-ups. You must collect enough of the energy to fill up a bar (in the uppermost section of the screen) before you reach the end of the canal. It's really adds an element other than surviving to the game. The other aspect that Gyrostarr has is the grappling hook. Instead of just touching the power-ups or energy orbs (which you can do), you can also send out a grappling hook to grasp on and pull energy and power-ups to you. It works well and is a nice touch.

Gyrostarr's gameplay.

As for the difficulty, it somewhat lacks in this area. The first five levels are so slow, I'll be surprised if you lose a life. Currently I'm at level 15 or so and it's started to pick up. But still I have barely failed a level yet. With no options for difficulty, I feel High Voltage clearly missed the boat here.

The multiplayer in Gyrostarr is really unique. It blends cooperative with competitive. While you and up to three other players are all working to get enough energy to open the portal at the end. You can also choose to screw the other person up by taking the power-ups and shooting more enemies. At the end of each stage points are given, and it's here than the competitive edge really takes off. To make things balanced, whenever you obtain a power-up or energy orb, you're sent to the back of the order of ships. It keeps the gameplay even and works fine.

The graphics are average for a Wii game. It's nothing we saw in that tech demo of High Voltage's engine, Quantam 3. The techno feel of the game is cool. And the space backgrounds are actually pretty stunning. But as far as effects and the ships/enemies, it's nothing extraorinary.

Gyrostarr has only five or so different tracks that it play through out the game. But they're actually pretty cool. It's all techno, and it really blends with the game. But once again, it's very limited.

With 50 different levels, the game boasts a surprisingly large amount of stages. But while this is a lot for a shooter, it doesn't really do anything in these levels except up the difficulty and add more enemies. It would have really been cool to see some variation, such as boss battles or objective based missions (like survive with one life or use only your regular shot). High Voltage could have done so much more with this, but it will last you a while if you want to complete the game fully.

Overall, the game's actually pretty entertaining, but it's still an average title in all aspects. I'm still waiting for The Conduit to say whether or not the High Voltage is an extraordinary publisher. A decent one? Yes. Exceptional? Not quite yet.

Gameplay: 8/10 It embraces both the old and the new: from enemies and powers to the grappling hook and the energy meter (respectively). Fun while it lasts.

Multiplayer: 8/10 Unique and quite some fun. Combining cooperative with competive is where the multilayer shines.

Graphics: 7/10 Average, but the outer space backgrounds are pretty sweet.

Sound: 7/10 What's there is some pretty cool techno, but not there is variety in the soundtrack.

Lasting Value: 7.5/10 With 50 levels, it may seem quite a deal. But there's not much more in each of the stages besides increased difficulty.

7/10

Comments or questions? Drop an email to kylehogg@gmail.com or leave a comment below...

Boom Blox (Wii) review

2008-07-07T22:53:00.000-07:00

Developer: EA Los Angelos
Publisher: Electronic Arts
Date Released: May 6, 2008 (USA)
MSRP: $49.99
Players: 1-4
Genre: Puzzle
ESRB Rating: E (Everyone)

Recently, I watched all three of the original Indiana Jones to reacquaint myself with the globetrotting adventurer before seeing the latest one (which I haven't even gotten around to seeing yet!). So when the name Steven Spielburg comes to mind, I think more of Indiana Jones, giant sharks, or extraterrestrial beings, not colorful, kiddie blocks blowing up and flying everywhere. But apparently, Spielburg had a lot to do with my latest bought game, Boom Blox. But how good is the game really?

Boom Blox is definitely one of the uniquest experiences I've had on the Wii since Wii Sports. The basics of the game all revolve around a very powerful physics engine. Nintendo really has emphasized the term "innovation" this generation, and EA knows exactly what they're talking about.

The basics of the game include this: you throw a ball, shoot a laser gun, or try to pull out blocks Jenga style. There's hundreds of puzzles. Each of them has some sort of goal represented in bronze, silver and gold medals. In the point based puzzles you have to knock away the positive point values while keeping the negatives intact. You're overall score in each decides what medal you get (if you get one at all). Then there's the gem puzzles, in which you're awarded medals on how many throws it takes you to knock all the certain blocks down. Then there's the Jenga puzzles where you try pulling out blocks without toppling the entire structure. There's so much variety in the puzzles it's astounding.

Chaos!

Not only is there variety in the puzzles, there's tons of different blocks and block characters to make the puzzles even more unique. For example, there's the chemical blocks. These blocks will explode when they make contact with another chemical block, which leads to some interesting puzzles. There's also vanish blocks (which do just that, disappear once hit), point blocks, and bomb blocks (which explode). Not only are there different blocks, there's different characters that inhabit the different levels. Some will throw balls and random thing, which will both help and hinder your success, while others will light off bomb blocks or something along those lines.

There are three basic modes in Boom Blox: Play, Party, and Create. The first, Play is what you'll be doing a lot of alone. It has two other modes in it: Explore and Adventure. The former includes around 70 or so puzzles grouped according to the whole "block" it based around (e.g. Chemical, Vanish, Points, etc.). While the latter of the listed (Adventure mode), includes the basic story part of the game. It's a little silly. It concerns different aspects of the little block character adventures. You may be searching for lost gems as the sheep or defending your fortresses from rampaging, attacking bears. It's fun and a step away from the basic puzzles, but I found it a little stupid and enjoyed Explore mode far more. Plus, once you've beaten certain requirements of both modes, you'll unlock even more Explore and Adventure puzzles.

As for Party, this is the multiplayer aspect of the game. And let me tell you it's as fun or maybe even a bit more fun that single-player. There's two more modes in this to: Cooperative and Competitive, which are just that. In the latter, you're competing to either get the most points or pull blocks out of a tower without toppling it over. While in the former, you're working together to complete puzzles. Multiplayer is where the game really shines in my opinion, as it is a great party game. It's shame it won't sell very well, for it doesn't have the words Party in the title (but Boom Blox Party just sounds lame).

Create mode.

Boom Blox also includes a really unique, deep Create mode. Basically you can make any puzzle you want, as long as it will stand up according to the physics. I can see a lot of people going full out and making complex and awesome puzzles. But I really didn't have many ideas for the puzzles. Another nice feature is the ability to edit any of the puzzles already on the disc.

While the gameplay and multiplayer gameplay really shine, the graphics aren't so great. It's a cartooney style that doesn't really fit the game. Because the difficulty certainly isn't for children. The graphics are mediocre for a Wii game, but really don't downgrade the game that much.

To go along with the average graphics, is the audio of Boom Blox. The music is pretty forgettable, but the sound effects are a little funny. The cries of chickens and baboons are funny, but overall the audio is nothing amazing. At least it's not unpleasant to the ears.

And last but not least, you may be wondering how long this game will last you. Well, I have two words for you: a while! Just like the back of the box boasts, Boom Blox includes a whopping 300 single-player puzzles and over 100 multiplayer levels. Plus the with the level creator/editor, you could pretty much say the game never ends.

Overall Thoughts

Boom Blox is a great third-party game and an excellent game for your shiny, white box. The single- and multiplayer offerings are where it's at. The graphics and audio aren't so good, but the awesome physics engine keeps things new, as you'll almost never have the exact same reaction as the last time.

Gameplay: 9/10 The complex physics and originality of the game really make this game a must-have.

Multiplayer: 9/10 Great for parties, or even for a friend or two just hanging out.

Graphics: 7.5/10 Not so great, but no so terrible. As I said before, they don't really diminish the experience.

Sound: 7/10 Mediocre. Period.

Lasting Value: 9.5/10 Boom Blox will last you a long time. With over 400 puzzles total, it has some serious replayability.

9/10

Comments or questions? Drop an email to kylehogg@gmail.com or leave a comment below...

Guitar Hero: On Tour (DS) review

2008-07-23T15:55:00.000-07:00

Developer: Vicarious Visions
Publisher: RedOctane, Activision
Date Released: June 22, 2008 (USA)
MSRP: $49.99
Players: 1-2
Genre: Music
ESRB Rating: E10+ (Everyone 10+)

Guitar Hero on the DS... Not the system you'd really imagine the popular series to jump to, but guess what? It happened, and it works!

While there's been a lot of changes to the game to make it work on the DS, it still feels like a Guitar Hero at heart. Which is the most important thing.

The most noticeable change is the lack of a guitar peripheral. Instead you get a Guitar Grip, a neat little device that plugs into the GBA slot of your DS (as pictured below...). You'll notice that instead of the five button layout of the console versions, Guitar Hero: On Tour eliminates the fifth, orange button. A good choice in my opinion, as the game would feel clunkier if you had to slide your hand up and down. And if you're worrying about the difficulty due to the lack of a button, don't; the game really challenges you in the Hard and Expert difficulties (especially those last couple of tiers).

As for the peripheral, it works pretty well. The buttons all feel nice, which is good. I do have some gripes with it though. But it does feel a little loose in the GBA slot. Everytime I'd slide my hand in, it get disconnected. So here's tip: put your hand in the Grip before you turn your DS on. It'll save you a lot of connectivity problems. Another thing I should mention is after long periods of play, you'll most definitely get hand cramps. I don't really see how they could've prevented this with the Guitar Grip, but just remember to take breaks and stretch out your hand every once in a while. Overall the Grip feels pretty good and works pretty well. If only they'd made it a little more secure in the GBA slot.

Now you may be wondering how it all plays. You hold the DS like a book (à la Brain Age, Ninja Gaiden Dragon Sword, etc.) On the left screen are the scrolling gems above your selected character playing at selected stage. On the right (touch) screen shows your score, how much Star Power you have, how well the crowd likes you, and the strings of the guitar. Instead of a plastic strum bar like the console versions, the game comes with a stylus pick. So when you're pressing the corresponding color button, you strum across the touch screen with your pick to play the note. It works surprisingly well. Plus you can strum anywhere on the screen in any direction to play a note. The Whammy Bar is used by moving the pick back and forth across the screen without picking it up.

In the console version of Guitar Hero, you activate Star Power by tipping the guitar controller vertically and your multiplier would double. This is another area where Vicarious Visions has succeed in bring Guitar Hero to the DS. To activate it all you need to do is blow or shout some word into the DS's built in microphone (I found "Wha-hoo!" to work well). If you're playing in a loud room or in a vehicle, you may find that it activates itself on its own. This annoyed me a bit, but I couldn't see what they could've done to decrease it, as if you play in a quiet atmosphere, you may find yourself rather loud. But if you want to keep quiet, you can also activate it by pressing one of the DS's face buttons, which is nice.

The song selection is an interesting one. It focuses more on mainstream and recent rock, as is evident in songs like blink-182's "All the Small Things" and "What I Want" from Daughtry (which interestingly features Slash). While some classic rock songs appear, most of them have been seen on previous Guitar Hero (such as "Hit Me with Your Best Shot", "Black Magic Woman", and "Rock and Roll All Nite"). While I enjoyed the songs, I didn't so as much as previous games. But hey that's me. The song list will appeal to different people, and some people may not even buy the game because of the list. All in all, there's 26 songs in the game (only one of those is unlockable). It may seem small compared to other Guitar Hero's, but it's on the DS, so it's pretty incredible that they could fit that many on the little DS cartridge.

Guitar Hero: On Tour also improved some areas of gameplay that definitely need to be brought over into the next versions (console and handheld). The first of these is the pause game scenario. In Guitar Hero III if you'd pause the game and then resume, more often than not you'd miss the next couple notes, as it starts off right where you paused. In On Tour, it rewinds the song a bit but doesn't have any notes for the first five seconds so you can catch back up with the song. An excellent gameplay aspect in my opinion, and something they definitely need to used in the console versions.

The second area in which I feel they improve on 100% is the boss battles. I hated the Boss Battle and Battle modes of Guitar Hero III. They were horrible in my opinion. Well Guitar Hero: On Tour returns to them but improves on every gripe I had with GH3's. First off, in Legends of Rock, to win a battle you had to make crowd boo them off the stage, which was pretty hard to do especially in multiplayer (in which things often ended in a tie). In On Tour, all you need to do to win is get a higher score than your opponent. The other problem I had with GH3's battle mode were the unimaginative powerups. With the DS's touch screen and microphone Vicarious Vision's can do so much more. On of my favorites was one that made you sign a fan's t-shirt, purse, or fish to get back playing. Other creative items include blowing out a fire through the microphone and reconnecting guitar strings via the touch screen. Another great choice was making the battles separate. Instead of having to beat a battle to get to the next bunch of songs, it's in a whole other mode titled Guitar Duels.

There's multiplayer too, which includes both co-op and competitive play. In cooperative, one person plays lead, the other back-up. But it seems like competitive is where it's at: as you play the full Guitar Duels with friends!

The grachics are actually pretty nice for the DS. They still have that GH feel, but a bit smaller. If you go into detail, you'll notice that the singer and bass guitarist have been combined into one person. But overall they're above average for Nintendo's little handheld.

Overall Thoughts

Vicarious Visions succeeded in bringing over the popular franchise to the DS. You'll definitely be entertained with this version. While the song selection includes some pretty cool tracks, it won't appeal to everyone.

Gameplay: 9/10 Not so much like playing a real guitar, but quite a bit like playing Guitar Hero. And it's a great deal of fun.

Multiplayer: 8/10 Guitar Duels are great in single-player and even better with a friend.

Graphics: 9/10 Some very nice visuals for the DS. The two screen layout works well too.

Sound: 8/10 Some pretty nice tunes. About half of them are master tracks.

Lasting Value: 7.5/10 The 25 tunes (plus one unlockable) will keep you occupied for only so long. The Guitar Duels are a nice addition too.

8/10

Comments or questions? Drop an email to kylehogg@gmail.com or leave a comment below...

Order Up! (Wii) review

2008-09-15T08:28:00.000-07:00

Wow, it's been a while since I've done a review. Hopefully I can do them more often, as I have quite a back catalog of games in need of reviews.

Developer: SuperVillain Studios
Publisher: Zoo Games
Date Released: July 22, 2008 (USA)
Players: 1
Genre: Action
ESRB Rating: E (Everyone)

There've been many casual games on the Wii and DS. But one particular series that been praised as unique and casual is Cooking Mama. In it you preform different motions and touch screen controls to mimic the cooking and preparing of different dishes. Super Villain Studios' Order Up! is a like Cooking Mama and then some. The Cooking Mama games never were reviewed the best, so will Order Up! follow this trend? Let's hope not.

There are several gameplay aspects that make this game different (and potentially better) than Cooking Mama. The first being that the entire game isn't random minigames in which you make a dish of food. You actually have to manage your restaurant.

Outside your restaurant

The gameplay is broken up into days for each restaurant. You start off each day outside your restaurant. There you can check a number of things. Those being: hire new employees, upgrade things in your kitchen (oven speed, knife sharpness, etc.), and make various calls to a food critic, the delivery guy, and a chef tip hot line. Once you've taken care of that kind of business, it's time to start up your day and enter your restaurant!

In a single day you'll wait on around four to five tables. In the beginning of the game, you have to prepare single and double orders, but towards the end of it, you'll be preparing food for tables of three and even four people. As the day gets going, you'll send your waiter (or waitress, depending on the restaurant) to each table to take orders. Then, you'll receive the orders back in your kitchen and it's your job to prepare each meal as good and fast as you can.

Each type of technique in the kitchen has it's own motion control, and it actually works. For example turn the remote all the way over will flip your burger, moving the remote rapidly, up and down like a knife will dice vegetables, and tracing a circular pattern will stir up a stew or soup. You'll get four different ratings for each thing you do: Perfect, Good, OK, and Bad, thus determining how big of tips you get. Some orders will require you to do the motion as quick as possible to earn the Perfect or Good rating. Other will have you stir or flip it every now and then to make sure it won't burn or catch fire.

A look at the kitchen gameplay

After you serve certain customers long enough, you'll begin to recognize certain things they want changed in their dish. There's a kid named Sweet Tooth who wants you to add sugar to his order and a cowboy who wants you to burn his meat to a charcoal every time. You'll get a bigger tip this way and earn a lot more money in the long run. Other than the in restaurant stuff, you can also visit a farmer's market to stock up on tip guaranteeing spices and chef's specials in the Farmers Market.

The story in the game is nice and serves it's purpose. You get dumped off a plane into the island of Port Abello and start out working in a lowly burger joint and raise to top of culinary expertise by purchasing and working at American, Mexican, Italian, and (finally) French restaurants. With each new restaurant comes new recipes and increased tips per table.

Each restaurant will have you complete five tasks to earn a five star rating (cleaning your restaurant, getting a good review from the food critic, etc.) While the new recipes do offer some variety, you can't help but feel a bit bored as you do the same five things over and over for each restaurant. With that said, you'll definitely feel a lot of repetition as the game goes by. Even so, if you do get the game, take my advice: play through the entire story. While it may get repetitive, the ending sequence, a spoof on Iron Chef, is worth it.

One major disappointment of mine was the lack of multiplayer. It would have been the perfect fit, seeing as it's been done before in Cooking Mama and the such. A disappointment it is, but at least the single-player can still make up for it.

Order Up!'s visuals are cartoony and pleasant to look upon

Visually, it's nothing extraordinary, but the cartoony look fits the gameplay and is nice to look at at least. Along with that, the music is generic (Mexican for the Mexican restaurant, etc.). But there is actually some impressive amount of voice acting for each patron, assistant chef, and waiter/waitress.

The game isn't the longest of games, but it'll last you a decent time. I clocked around nine to ten hours through the story. So it does have some depth.

Overall Thoughts

The motion controls actually work, and aren't waggle the hell out of your controller. The characters and setting are charming enough to keep you playing. Overall, it's a very nicely made casual game, that I'd recommend a buy to most people; plus with a $40 price tag, it's cheaper than a regular priced title.

8/10

Comments or questions? Drop an email to kylehogg@gmail.com or leave a comment below...