Wii
This is a list of posts tagged with Wii.
de Blob – Nintendo Wii
[Editor's Note: For those that don't know, I'm on staff performing freelance reviews for a web-based game site. I get titles sent to me on a recurring basis and am charged with playing and reviewing them. The upside is free games and exposure. The downside - no pay and some dreadful games from time to time. Read on to see if this is one of them.]
At their big E3 Press Conference in July, Nintendo did a curious thing. They cancelled Christmas. At least, that’s the way it felt to the legions of fanboys (myself included) who have looked to the Big N’s annual briefing for news of the next big platformer or property that would be keeping us warm once the leaves fell and the holidays descended. With no new IPs announced or return engagements from their back-catalog of marquee mascots on order, Wii owners looked with... Continue reading »
Wario Land: Shake It – Nintendo Wii
I grew up among the Greatest Generation of video gamers – those who spent their time in the trenches waging war with antiquated technology like the Atari 2600 – fighting the good fight while trying to peer through the fog of war (represented by a monochromatic mass of pixels) in hopes that something beautiful rested on the other side. When the Nintendo Entertainment System resurrected gaming as a hobby and later, a mainstream entertainment choice, we knew our grunt work would pay off. The NES gave birth to Super Mario Brothers, the great 2D adventure that arguably fathered the billion dollar gaming industry we revel in today.
And while we live the good life now, with Wi-Fi enabled super consoles linking battalions of virtual soldiers and adventurers across the globe, those who stayed on this meandering path thr... Continue reading »
NHL 2K9 – Nintendo Wii
With its unique ability to offer players more tactile control over their onscreen avatars, thus further selling the illusion that you’re in the game, the Wii has been a prime destination for sports titles. This is the system that was arguably sold based on the strength of its pack-in Sports-themed minigame compilation – and since that thirst was first whet, gamers have looked to continually quench it with new experiences. One sport that has sat on the sidelines to date is hockey, which would seem a shoe-in for the Wiimotes ability to properly mimic a hockey stick. Skating to the rescue is Visual Concepts’ new release, NHL 2K9, the first official hockey title for Nintendo’s juggernaut.
Fans of the NHL 2K series will find that this latest installment keeps the core gameplay in tact while providing some new featu... Continue reading »
Emergency Mayhem – Nintendo Wii
The old maxim goes – “It’s a nice place to visit but I wouldn’t want to live there.” And then there are places like Crisis City – the chaotically out-of-control burg at the center of Codemaster’s new Wii release, Emergency Mayhem. The question is – would you want to play there?
With a name like Crisis City, you know mayhem is on order. Within the city’s four precincts – unlocked as you progress further in the game – all manner of crimes and misdemeanors crop up for the player to get under control. Still, despite the open world gameplay and the ability to tear through the streets in a variety of emergency vehicles, this is no Grand Theft Auto clone. Rather, Emergency Mayhem owes a lot of its inspiration to SEGA’s old arcade hit, Crazy Taxi.
Emergency Mayhem tasks the ... Continue reading »
The Dog Island – Nintendo Wii
Ever since Nintendo took the “virtual pet” craze to the next level by offering up actual digital dogs in their hit DS release(s), Nintendogs, game developers have mined this niche looking to excavate the next hit animal avatar. So, in the years since, casual gamers have been granted a vast menagerie of pretend pets in titles such as Horsez and Catz. The use of pet familiars has even hit the hardcore mainstream gamer, with developers like Peter Molyneux introducing a dog companion that your hero gets to befriend and nurture in his forthcoming follow-up to Fable, due later this year. That said, as dog lovers will attest, there is nothing comparable to the bond that develops with Man’s Best Friend – a fact that developer Yukes aims to showcase in their new release The Dog Island.
While The Dog Islan... Continue reading »
Summer Sports: Paradise Island – Nintendo Wii
It’s no secret that the Wii owes it’s mammoth success to Wii Sports – that little pack-in tech demo that single-handedly converted a legion of non-gamers into the fold and helped propel Nintendo’s dark horse to the head of the pack. Simply put, Wii Sports proved that anybody could game and those who had either been turned off by video games or turned away by increasingly complex control systems suddenly found themselves enjoying games as a communal activity. So it was during that holiday season 2006, that Nintendo caught the gaze of the non-gaming community who regarded the company with renewed interest. Watching someone swing their arms with wild abandon in a hard fought round of Wii Tennis, these neophytes looked on with growing interest and thought to themselves, “I could do that.”
For b... Continue reading »
Emergency Heroes – Nintendo Wii
One of the chief criticisms lobbed at the Wii’s current software catalog is that there are too many copycat titles. The immediate system selling success of Wii Sports opened the floodgate to a virtual Olympics of sports game compilations. Soon after, Wario Ware: Smooth Moves ushered in a glut of gimmicky mini game compendiums. And it seems like only a month ago, I was reviewing the Crazi Taxi-esque Emergency Mayhem and quickly upon its heels comes the similarly themed racer, Emergency Heroes.
While Emergency Heroes shares a lot in common with Emergency Mayhem, with both games presenting open world driving environments where the player is set loose to set right a variety of wrongs using various emergency vehicles (culled from the assorted police, ambulatory and fire professions), Heroes is the m... Continue reading »
Battle of the Bands – Nintendo Wii
Editor’s Note - As many of my readers know, I am on staff at Adrenaline Vault where I provide game reviews. I also plan on publishing these reviews here to keep a chronicle of everything I’ve written. That said, some of the games I get sent truly suck. Case in point, today’s feature. Don’t fault me for this dreck.
Ever since Harmonix proved there were millions to be made in the rhythm and music genre with the meteoric rise of the original Guitar Hero, a war has waged between game developers looking to launch the next hot music game. Of course, Harmonix moved beyond the guitar and assembled a full-on band with their latest hit, Rock Band, while Neversoft picked up the reigns to Guitar Hero III and kept gamers rocking all night. While those two franch... Continue reading »
Mario Kart – Nintendo Wii
Nintendo is the Walt Disney of video game development. By that statement, I don’t mean to echo the tired complaints of “kiddie aesthetics” that too often get lobbed their way. Instead, this is high praise for the big N, which like the House of the Mouse, has perfected the art of finely crafted family entertainment. And like Walt’s kingdom, Nintendo built their empire on the backs of marketable mascots with world-wide appeal, meaning Mario is often called upon to engage in many extracurricular activities – from baseball to soccer to practicing medicine. Of his side projects, none have been more beloved than the Mario Kart series, which makes its debut on the Wii with Mario Kart Wii.
It’s no secret that the original Mario Kart blazed the trails for an entire sub-genre of mascot driven kart racers. ... Continue reading »
E3 2008 – The Top 5 Things I Learned from the Xbox 360 Press Conference
The E3 (Electronic Entertainment Expo) begins Wednesday in Los Angeles. This is the annual conference where video game developers, publishers and press converge to present the hot new titles they’ve got cooking – with the focus on those games prepped to hit during the lucrative holiday buying season.
As with last year, I plan to offer up a series of posts with my reactions. The way the conference works is the big three console developers (Microsoft, Nintendo, Sony) launch with their pre-E3 press conferences and then the actual E3 event opens and we get to learn more from the game developers about their hot properties. Microsoft held their conference yesterday. Nintendo and Sony go today.
My plan is to provide a post on each press conference – essentially a Top 5 list of the big things I learned from... Continue reading »
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