I am once again excited about WiiWare. The floodgates of quality have been opened!

I've been totally loving WiiWare lately. I gotta admit, that after an OK start, things looked pretty bad for the service, with junk like Major League Eating, Protothea (not BAD, but no WiiWare game, that's for sure), SPOGS Racing, Pirates, and Beer Pong somehow getting released on the service. It was starting to look like a bit of a haven for shovelware, and that sucked since things started off so well with great, complete games like LostWinds and Dr. Mario, addictive digital-crack for retro gamers like me with Star Soldier R, and little casual gems like Defend Your Castle and Pop, that showed such promise for Nintendo's answer to XBLA. But lately there's been so many great, quality titles popping up on the service, just about the only games I've been playing are WiiWare games, and that is certainly not a bad thing at all.

After seemingly clearing out all the crap from the line-up over the summer, things really started to turn around in August with much better games like Wild West Guns, Homestar Runner ep.1, (neither of which I've tried yet) and a HUGE favorite around my household, Midnight Pool (Helix seemed like it may be cool, but it gets less and less fun each time you play it, and I totally regret downloading it...). But as nice as those games were, they were nothing compared to the line up of September and, so far, October, which has really revved up the WiiWare line-up into something I'd without hesitation call must-play. Sure, I downloaded the non-game/interactive-screensaver My Aquarium, but just because I thought it would entertain my 3 year old daughter (which it didn't), but I also downloaded three incrediblly AWESOME games in September as well: Mega Man 9, Art Style: Orbient, and Bomberman Blast.

All three of those were still being played daily (along with a game or ten of Midnight Pool here and there) when, last Monday, two more awesome-bombs dropped on the service in the form of Art Style: Cubello and the phenominally wonderful World of Goo, which I wish I was playing whenever I'm not playing it. Seriously, I think World of Goo is WiiWare's so-called "killer-app", you simply need to play this game if you love video games. As if five amazing games that I love to play living on my system weren't enough (had to unfourtunately erase Midnight Pool to make room for World of Goo, damn that limited storage!), this Monday sees Tetris Party get released, and there's still stuff like Space Invaders: Get Even, Alien Crush Returns, Animales de la Muerte, Swords & Soldiers, Gradius ReBirth, and at least one more Art Style game (Rotohex?) on the seemingly near horizon, all of which I have already commited myself to downloading. That's not even mentioning stuff a little further down the line that already has me drooling, like Cave Story (which can't be realeased soon enough...), or great stuff that hasn't even been announced yet (like these amazing Art Style games that just showed up outta nowhere).

I don't know when I'll put another disc in my Wii, it may not be for a while, as WiiWare totally has my gaming itch covered lately. I'll leave you with this thought: the total cost of these five games, all of which I am fully satisfied with and play frequently, is about the same or less than the cost of one new disc game. A fact which is highlighted in my house with the fact that I had just bought and was really enjoying Star Wars: The Force Unleashed - I was flying through the game actually - a couple of days before Mega Man 9 (then Orbient, then Bomberman, then World of Goo, then...), and have hardly even played it at all since. Maybe I will once I finish World of Goo. Maybe.

-Kimo

e3 '08: Well, it can't get much worse

Hello world, its been a while since I posted here. Two months, to be exact. Summer is always a busy time around my place - I have a huge yard to keep up with - plus I was waiting to write about all the cool stuff I didn't know about yet until after e3. Wow, what a huge disappointment that show was. The only really 'big' announcements from the big three were; Final Fantasy XIII and Mii's, er, 'Avatars', are coming to 360, WiiMotionPlus and WiiSpeak peripherals/functionality for Wii, and God of War 3 and "Massive Action Game" for PS3. Oh yeah, and GTA on DS. I mean, other than a bunch of stuff we already knew about, for the most part, that was it for "wow" at this year's e3, when comparing to year's past. Well, personally there was huge wow factor for me when Microsoft unveiled Galaga Legions for XBLA, designed by the geniuses behind Pac-Man: CE. I looooooove me some Galaga, and if they can do for it what they did for Pac-Man, this game is gonna rule. I'm a little skeptical going off the early video they showed, but who knows, I've got my fingers crossed...

I've been looking forward to the 'big show' every year since the big show was CES and e3 didn't even exist yet, and this was by far the least exciting 'big show' ever. I don't know why the focus has shifted so much by the whole industry, but this is no longer a show for the gamers or gaming press. This is a show for mainstream media nowadays, and it kinda sucks. Well, it sucks if you let yourself get excited for it based on past experiences, that is. But this is the new reality for our favorite hobby that has now gone more mainstream than ever before. Another part of the new reality is that there isn't one 'big show' for the year, but a number of big shows throughout the year (PAX, GDC, e3, TGS, etc..), where information can be revealed closer to release dates. That's just the way it is now, but its too bad that the big companies have decided to trim down their e3 showings this much. I miss the spectacle and excitement of too much information to process in such a short amount of time like there has been at past shows, F5-ing screens like crazy. Oh well.

I do hope that all this negative press about this years show leads to some kind of improvement for next year's show (which has already been confirmed to be taking place). It really, from a gamer's perspective, can't get any worse than this years. I mean, this is my post - for my VideoGaming blog - on e3 - the big VideoGaming show - and its already finished due to lack of excitement to talk about stuff. That`s kind of sad...

-Kimo

Most Ridiculous Wii Peripheral Yet?

Possibly, as I don't know what purpose this will serve other than crappy last-minute christmas present. Can you imagine how fast you'd go from "oh, cool" to "ahh, I see" upon opening this on X-mas morning? And for the same price as an amazing game like Zack & Wiki or Geometry Wars? Wow, what a rip-off. "Compatible with all Wii games", except, that is, all those Wii games that use IR at all, which almost every good Wii game does. I find it funny that Zellers' marketing department see's any benefit in advertising this as an "Exclusive" item, like it'll drive people into stores. Then again, someone must be buying all this lame, useless 3rd party Wii crap, as it just keeps coming out, so who knows....
- Kimo

Ask and Ye Shall receive....

….or so it would seem, as I had just posted a rant questioning Nintendo’s lack of Super Mario Galaxy hype, when they go and, first -and more subtly - release Super Mario Bros. 3 for Virtual Console in honour of Galaxy’s impending arrival, then they finally unload the long-awaited (by me anyways) commercial for it upon the airwaves and interwebs. ‘Bout time Nintendo, what took so long? As I originally feared, it continues the “Wii would like to play” series of ads, but its not as bad as I thought it would be. Still, I think they should have gone a different path with Galaxy’s ads, more in line with the terrific Japanese commercials. Perhaps for Smash Bros. I guess, as I’m not sure how that game will fit into the mould of the “Wii would like to play” style. Here’s a couple videos to compare, the just released North American commercial, and one of the Japanese commercials, which one do you prefer?




I like the “video-gamey” feel of the Japanese version, how about you?

-Kimo

Nintendo Wii (or Wü?) Wannabe Zapper Light Gun Review

I don’t know about any of you, but I intend on picking up the Nintendo Zapper- the plastic shell-cum-light gun cradle thingy that holds your Wiimote and nunchuk Tommy-Gun style - when its released later this month, even if only for the freebie Zelda-themed Crossbow shooting game that’s packaged with it. I was kinda iffy about it (I loved - and miss - the original design from E3 2006) until they surprised me with that announcement, and the prospect of shootin’ up some zombies and other blastables via Link and his crossbow sealed the deal for me. Ghost Squad from SEGA looks pretty damn good too, as does MOH2’s nice bonus old-school arcade mode, not to mention I’ll most likely end up owning RE: Umbrella Chronicles too, as I’m a sucker for that series in general. Sure I could (and likely will) play all these games without the extra moulded plastic hardware, but part of me feels that, hopefully, these games have been designed with the zappers’ unique layout in mind, and may actually play a little better, or be a little bit more fun, with the zapper as opposed to without. Probably not, but I intend on finding out when it’s finally released, as I’ve been a Light Gun gaming fan for years, and would love to see it replicated with the Wii Remote, as it seems a rather natural fit.

Imagine my delight then, when the other day upon finally waking up (I work graveyard shifts and sleep the days that I work, see), I find that a friend of mine had stopped by and dropped off a little gift for me, and it was a light gun cradle for the Wiimote. Here’s a couple pictures of the package it came in:

I got a chuckle from the classic engrish on the packaging, and their interesting take on the spelling of “Wii” (how the hell are you supposed to pronounce that?), but quickly got down to the business of tearing into it and trying it out. There is an input for the nunchuk on the bottom of the butt of the gun, which according to the packaging must be connected before the remote, not too sure why though, but whatever, it’s a good spot for it, and so far I was pleased. But then I was to soon learn something that would simultaneously become both one of the biggest knocks against this knock-off, and my biggest, newest concern about the official zapper itself: the Wiimote doesn’t fit inside the cradle if you’re using the blessed Nyko rechargeable battery paks. That is a huge, huge strike against it, and something that hadn’t actually even crossed my mind about Ninty’s offering until now.

Luckily I have a third Remote that came with Wii Play, that I still use batteries for (the Nyko charger only comes w/two paks.), I slid it in and it fit like a glove. I fired up the aforementioned game and went immediately to the shooting gallery game, which I thought would be a perfect fit. The gun itself adds a little (but not too much) weight to the remote, and it feels pretty good overall. Feels solid and generally well-built for what it is. Upon playing the game I discovered the biggest complaint against this product; the frustratingly-way-too-damn-slow unresponsive trigger. Seriously, the ‘targets’ and ‘alien’ levels were infuriating, and I was having really no fun using this gun with this game, as the trigger mechanism is just too slow. After a couple more rounds, and right-pissed off at this frickin’ gun, I tried a couple more rounds w/just the remote itself and more than doubled my previous sad, low scores when it was docked. “Why does this suck so much?”, I thought, and investigated the trigger mechanism. There’s a bit of plastic that moves back when you pull the trigger, and it in turn presses the B button on the Wiimote. Eventually. This is what it looks like:



What you can‘t see in these pictures, is that the time it takes for the trigger to move all the way back to its starting position, and back to finally press the B trigger is woefully inadequate for quality gaming, but I still thought I could make it work, so I gave it another go. I tried playing by keeping my finger pressed on the trigger, and not letting it recoil all the way, so I could keep the mechanism relatively close to the trigger at all times, resulting in, hopefully, quicker shots. While this did kinda work to some small extent, it is not in any way preferable to playing sans-gun, as you never quite keep your finger in that small ‘sweet spot’ the trigger needs to fire off successive rounds, and kinda makes playing it, you know, not fun. This gun was making my finger cramp up already, and I’d only been playing for about 10 minutes or less.

So, it kinda sucks with Wii Play, would it work with something else? Well, possibly I guess, but not with any of the most-likely games I have and tried. You can forget about using this with either Metroid Prime 3, Red Steel, Call of Duty 3, Transformers, or The Godfather, that’s for sure, as you simply need to use more buttons on the Wiimote than just the B button, which is pretty much all you have access to with this set-up. I went through that frustration for you already with each game, and no fun was had doing so. Don’t even think about trying Elebits with this, as you need more speed than this can offer, and it will kill your finger trying to keep up. This is not “playing easily, playing happily”, as the package had promised. Perhaps the game plays well with Splinter Cell Double Agent, since Sam Fisher is so prominently displayed on the packaging, but I don’t own that (apparent) shovelware clunker, and I highly doubt that it does anyways. The only game that was tolerable at all with the gun attached was Rayman Raving Rabbids’ shooting stages, since they move at a slow enough pace, and even then it was much less fun with the gun than it is without it, leading me to wonder exactly when I would ever use this hunk of white plastic again.

Probably never, which sucks, ‘cause I likely won’t be buying a 2nd zapper just for 2-player games (I do only need one copy of X-bow training, after all), and this could’ve been a neat alternate, but this is only really any good if you’re looking to handicap someone during a match, thus ensuring your victory. Otherwise, in my opinion, don’t drop your cash on this cash-in, as I guarantee you will regret it. No, in my humble opinion its likely better to wait and spend the wee-bit extra on the official plastic remote cradle that comes free with your purchase of Link’s Crossbow Training (or is that the other way around?). And, lets all just keep our fingers crossed that the official gun allows remotes with Nyko chargers attached, as I am now a little concerned about that. That would pretty much kill it for me, as I am done with batteries in my Wiimotes, and swear by the Nyko paks.

-Kimo

As an added bonus, here’s some more entertaining pictures of the packaging, and of the gun itself:

Should Someone Tell Nintendo That Super Mario Galaxy Drops on Nov. 12th??

Man, I’m so totally stoked for Super Mario Galaxy. I can’t wait. Even my wife, traditionally a rather casual gamer, is really looking forward to it, having finally seen it in motion and instantly having the urge to play it. But this wasn’t because she saw a commercial for it while watching TV. Oh no, for her to even know about it, I had to tell her, and then show her the Japanese commercial on YouTube to explain all the crazy things I was trying to describe. Same thing for my niece, sister, friends, etc., I showed them all these grainy internet flash videos, and now they’re all anticipating its arrival quite eagerly as well. You see this game, any stage, you instantly want to play it. Its got mad drawing power. But a few days ago they didn’t know anything about it at all. Isn’t this odd for a game that will be released in less than two weeks?!?!

Well I for one certainly think so, but that’s just how Nintendo rolls these days, now keen on the ultra-low-key approach. There seems to be some kind of over-confidence at Nintendo of America that all of their games will sell millions on the merits of word-of-mouth alone. That they don’t even have to show them. They missed the hype-boat for Metroid Prime 3 by a mile, and tried to make up for it with a “Month of Metroid”, but as much as I and other like-minded gamers appreciated that, what about those folks who’s Wii’s aren’t online, it was useless in getting the message to them, or even to people who don’t have a Wii, to which MP3 could’ve been a system seller? They got this ridiculous commercial to try and win them over with. I say ridiculous because I don’t think that an IP like Metroid is properly marketed with the ‘Blue Ocean’ philosophy that works for the rest of the Wii ads. Metroid is not the game to try and rope in new gamers with. I mean, for example, those people shown playing the game in the commercial would likely quit playing after 15-30 minutes upon realising the time investment ahead of them, and the intense gameplay involved in playing it. And to most gamers, that commercial wasn’t going to be the deal maker that made you want it. Quite the opposite could happen I’d think, as it may give the appearance that the game has been watered down to accommodate a wider audience (which isn’t the case, btw). In other words; this commercial did not fit the game being advertised, at all, in my opinion. Especially when you compare it against these other examples in the franchises’ history. This is the same company?

This is the same company that gave us this truly classic Mario ad, or this one for Super Mario 64, which properly hyped the revolution that it was in gaming? The same company that helped produce an entire movie just to hype and advertise Super Mario Bros.3? And they’re gonna stay mum on Super Mario frickin’ Galaxy, a game that looks like the Mario game to beat all Mario games? Not even a ‘Month of Mario’ or Mario Channel like Metroid had? I don’t get it. You’re leading the industry right now, why not make a little noise, stick your chest out and start pounding on it, yelling “look how awesome I am, look what I can do, this is why I‘m here to stay”, or whatever, instead of keeping things practically secret? Don’t you want people to know about these amazing games you’re making?

Let’s look at some of Microsoft’s recent marketing. Yes, the ad campaign for Halo 3 was overblown, but you’ve gotta admit that those series of ads were epic, and likely even generated interest from folks that don‘t know Master Chief from Laura Croft, but knew that it looked fun/interesting/important in someway. Whether or not you’re totally sick of this series of ads, you can’t deny how great they are/were in scope, and how much confidence in their product MS showed with them. I also totally love the new 360 commercials that are currently running, the one with Nothin’ But a Good Time playing over it. I like a lot of things about it, but I mention it here because you’ll notice that one of the games featured in the ad is Mass Effect, which isn’t released until Nov. 20th, but has been being advertised in this commercial for a while now. Its already being showcased as one of the games to be playing on your 360 before you ever see the first real ad for it. Subtle, but smart.

Sony too, has been improving with their ads, which used to be nearly incomprehensible at times, or downright creepy. Heavenly Sword was sufficiently hyped by its ad, I think, which was alright. I really enjoy this ad for Ratchet & Clank: Future too, and think Nintendo should be taking notes for its eventual Galaxy commercial from this one, as I feel its fantastic and one of my new favourite gaming commercials ever. Quite well done. But the best from Sony has got to be this recent PS3 ad. Wow. That’s one sleek video game commercial there! While there’s a lot to like about this one as well, the aspect worth pointing out as it pertains to this topic is thus: PS Home, while delayed until sometime in 2008, is largely showcased in this commercial. Again, that’s just smart, its getting the word out way ahead of time and claiming a bit of mindshare in a cluttered environment. More people are potentially aware of PlayStaton Home, which, again, is due next year, than are potentially aware of Super Mario Galaxy, out in nine days!! Cuh-razy.

My only other concern regarding Galaxy’s marketing, aside from the apparent complete lack of it, is that it will follow in Metroid’s footsteps, and be presented in the same style. Look, I like the “Wii Would Like to Play” ads, and Ninty’s new direction as a whole. I really do, it was a breath of fresh air, and who am I to argue anyways, its obviously working well for them. I like knowing that hearing that cool Kodo music means a Wii commercial is coming. I’m not attacking their style or new image here. No, I’m just saying that not all Wii games released should follow the same marketing style, as Metroid proved that it just doesn’t gel with everything. And me-thinks that Galaxy would be better suited to another style of marketing as well, more like the Japanese commercials, that keep the focus on the game, not who’s playing it or how they’re playing it, but why you want to play it. But I won’t hold my breath waiting for that, I’m pretty sure that whenever the ad is released it will follow suit with the rest of Nintendo’s Wii ads.

I guess we’ll see if that works, or if I’m wrong and they do a totally Mario-worthy commercial for it, whenever they finally DO release it upon the masses, which has gotta be pretty soon. But then again, another worthy Wii title, Battalion Wars II, is still MIA on the airwaves, but already in stores, so who knows. Nintendo, why don’t you want everybody to know about all these great games? Its very confusing….

- Kimo