Well, Nintendo has certainly done it again. Mario Kart Wii is absolutely top notch. Fun, thrilling and action-packed are just the tip of the iceberg. Mario Kart Wii manages to have brilliant racing mechanics that make it truly enjoyable to master.

With 32 tracks (as well as many battle arenas), Mario Kart Wii is already making quite a big statement on how much content they are going to pack in. But on top of that are 12 charaters available and 18 different vehicles right from the go. But that isn’t all, there are lots (and I do mean lots) of characters and vehicles to unlock on top of that.

New in Mario Kart Wii are bikes. Bikes tend to be lighter than karts (so they can be pushed around) but have the ability to perform a wheelie which give a slight boost in speed at the cost of handling. Unfortunately, bikes don’t the the biggest form of drift boost. . Each vehicle has several traits like weight, including speed, handling, drift, mini-boost and several others. The vehicles are very well balanced, with some being easy to master and other with more overall speed, but increased difficulty.

Anyone can pick up Mario Kart Wii and start playing and enjoying it in no time flat. But, as you continue you play, you begin to realize how many different ways there are to ilk out more speed from your vehicle. Everything from prolonged drifting around turn to tricks over jumps to following in peoples slipstreams gets you boosts. You reach a point where the once simple Mario Kart Wii becomes dizzying in possibilities and richness.

Multiplayer support is robust, versatile and working very well. People have complained about not having voice chat in multiplayer, but personally that doesn’t matter to me. To me, multiplayer should work the same way as single player, except that you know that they are real people, and not just cheating, rubber band AI.

All in all, Mario Kart Wii is a complete hit and a must have for the Wii. 10 out of 10.

Tags: wii cheats, nintendo wii fan club, nintendo wii news, wii nunchuk, xbox

Super Paper Mario is a mixture of the old NES Mario titles and the Paper Mario titles. There are many RPG elements, but all of the gameplay is action based. It seems as though such a combination is a little odd, and not likely to make a good game, but Super Paper Mario is a huge hit. Super Paper Mario has a high compilation score 85% from Game Rankings. Furthermore, it is the 8th highest rated Wii game made to date. But enough with the numbers, what makes Super Paper Mario so interesting?

Like other Paper Mario games, the idea is that Mario and friends are in a ‘paper’, 2D world. This accounts for why everything is flat. The graphics are cute, and help push the impression of paper even further. But, as the story continues, Mario learns a method of flipping from the 2D world to a 3D world. Each 2D area has a 3D counterpart that Mario can ‘flip’ into for a short amount of time. The relationship between the area in 2D and in 3D is clever, and often you’ll see that things had more space in between them in 3D then it seemed like they had in 2D. Getting though the game consists of using this change between 2D and 3D as a sort of puzzle element. Some things can’t be done in 2D, and other can’t be done in 3D. To add to this puzzle element, to have several characters you can switch between, each with their own abilities, and on top of that, you have several floating companions called Pixls, which each have thier own unique powers that must be used to get through various area. All in all the shear amount of stuff you can do make the game very interesting and fun.

Bun then there is the story. At first, the story seemed cheesy and flat, and in seemed like it was done on purpose in some sort of parody. A new villain called Count Bleck kidnaps and forces Princess Peach to marry Bowser. Apparently a book of doom, the Dark Prognosticus, fortold that this marrage would bring forth the Chaos Heart, a power that would destroy the world, and Count Bleck for some reason wants to destroy the world, of corse.

I didn’t pay much attention to the story at first, since it was clearly just an excuse to have us stomping on goombas. But as the game continued, the story got deeper, and people motivations (like Count Bleck) were explained. This was both surprising, and very pleasant. The story turned out to be deep, rich and interesting. While it isn’t going to be deeply analyzed and talked about for year to come, the way FFVII is, it was still a good enough story to earn my respect. The most interesting part is how the story suddenly pops into being, when you thought there wasn’t anything there.

All in all, Super Paper Mario was the most enjoyable game I’ve played on the Wii. It isn’t a hardcore RPG, nor is it a hardcore action game. It isn’t that difficult, but it is rich in secrets and content. The experience was really fun, and the feel, the atmosphere, was top notch. I give Super Paper Mario a perfect 10 out of 10. Keep it up Nintendo, you are the only company that knows how to make games like this.

Tags: legend of zelda, super mario galaxy, mario kart, xbox, metroid prime 3

Well, I was looking forward to this one, since I likes the old Nintendo and Kirby reflex games. But unfortunately, this didn’t live up to my hopes. There was a ninja theme, but not really a reflex theme. Really this was just another collection of minigames. One, a firefly game, had to do with reflexes, but there were so many that you could just keep clicking, no reflexes necessary.

I figured this would be a good group or party game, so I loaded it up ready for some competitive reflex action with friends, but it ended up being disappointing. Several games were hard to figure out and didn’t have a intuitive feel. Now, I say several, but I don’t want you to get confused, Ninja Reflex only has a handful of games, and their replay value is close to zero. This is from the guy who thought pushing the ‘A’ button when “DRAW!” apperead on the screen in that old Nintendo NES reflex game had a ton of replay value.

There just wasn’t the proper sense of competition in the game. Maybe if there had been some sort of tournament feature where players would compete in many round events that would have helped. Another problem is that most of the games weren’t anymore reflex oriented than your typical speed related game. So instead of reflex games, they were just boring minigames or the normal sort.

A real disappointment, I imagined that they could do some cool things integrating reflex and the Wiimote. It looks like they tried, they had a game where ninjas were attacking you and you had to move the Wii mote to block and slash, but that just didn’t do it. Something wasn’t right, the game wasn’t polished correctly. I just didn’t enjoy it and it was pretty much a flop with my friends and we switched to Big Brain Academy.

All in all, trying to keep my disappointment out of the rating, I give it 4 of 10. This probably won’t live up to your expectations either, so I just don’t think it is worth shelling out $40 for. It has an average rating of about 60%, so I’m a little low. But for the most part, no one is saying this is a great game. There is still a big enough selection of Wii games that we don’t need to stoop to Ninja Reflex. Maybe someone will make a reflex game right (although the obvious ninja theme has been taken, darn.)

They could have put more time into this. A few more games, a few good competitive modes and better polish on the “what am I doing” signals, and this could have been a pretty good game. As is though, it is pretty boring, and doesn’t have much in the gameplay department. Developers need to take the Wii more seriously, or stop complaining that their games aren’t selling. Cause - Effect, figure it out. It isn’t that hard. “Boo hoo, only Nintendo games sell.” That would be because their games are actually worth something.

Tags: super mario galaxy, lego star wars, wii news, no more heros, wii

I was looking forward to this one, since I like the feel and story of the original Raving Rabbids. But Rayman Raving Rabbids 2, in my opinion, isn’t quite as fun single player as the first one was. But, now it has tons of multiplayer games which are really fun. All in all, I didn’t like number two as much as number one (which I liked), but it does have the huge plus of having multiplayer games, so I think the come out about even.

The story is gone. No particular task or goal seems to exist. The menu seems to be in a mall, and you take various ‘trips’ which are groups of minigames. I don’t know when game producers are going to figure out that a game without a story is boring. Make anything up, I don’t care, better than nothing. Rayman Raving Rabbids was a little sparse on the details of the story, but because it had one I could enjoy doing the minigames (because I was accomplishing something, not just wasting time).

In any case, the multiplayer games are really fun. No split screen, all the games can be played without that. Many of them manage to tap perfectly into what makes multiplayer games fun. It really did manage to nail that part. The games are interactive, intuitive, and provide a lot of interaction between players.

If you are looking for a fun party game, something to play with friends, then Rayman Raving Rabbids is a really good choice. The games are quick, fun, and easy to jump into. Many of the themes boarder on the rude, which in my opinion is unnecessary, but whatever.

One of the main games is a shooter (similar to RRR1), but instead of 3D graphics they have real footage (with 3D bunnies coming at you). The effect is quite delightful, and really realistic. It was definitely odd to be shooting Raving Rabbids in Central Park thinking, “I’ve been here, weird.”

Like in the original, they kept a rhythm game. They took a leaf from Guitar Hero’s book and had the music of the instrument you choose actually effected by your performance. All in all though, I liked the original rhythm game better for some reason. This one had fewer goals (besides making points) and had an annoying shaking portion where you have to shake the controllers rapidly which I feel took away from the game.

All in all, thanks to the really nice multiplayer minigames, I give Rayman Raving Rabbids 2 a 8 out of 10. If number 3 had a good story and more multiplayer fun, it could get a 10 from me. The Raving Rabbis series was been selling alright, so they may very well decide to make a third, but they haven’t yet.

Tags: video game, nintendo wii fan club, wii cost, new wii games, super mario galaxy

Excite Truck is the successor to the Excitebike series. Now I really liked Excitebike for the old Nintendo NES. But alas, as far as I can tell, aside from overheating, there isn’t too much in common as far as gameplay goes.

This is just a typical racing game, but for some reason I never got comfortable with the controls. Unlike Excitebike, where everything was under control and everything was your own fault, Excite Truck seemed always out of control. Maybe I just suck, or maybe the controls do, I I just didn’t get a connection with this game. I’ve played and enjoyed plenty of other racing games, but Excite truck just doesn’t have anything going for it.

In the game, finishishing isn’t the goal, but collection ’stars’ is. You get stars by performing a variety of tricks, and by placing well in the race. Unfortunately, it seems that the more control you exert, the fewer stars you’ll get. Skidding wildly and out of control, wissing the track and running through trees while constantly over correcting will get you more stars than careful controlled driving. WHile this may sound like fun, what ends up happening is that as you get better at controlling the truck, the number of stars you get goes down. Now maybe, you are suppose to reach some point where you do the wild stunts on purpose and get stars, but I never reached that point. I had to flail about over correcting and running through trees to get my stars. All of this felt very artificial, and I didn’t like doing it. I could never make many stars from jumps (how I think you are supposed to), and besides that, the idea itself just didn’t seem that good to me.

It is fully possible that I didn’t give Excite Truck enough of a chance, but I didn’t feel a desire to give it a chance. Which I feel is the games fault. In any case, there didn’t seem to be anything horribly wrong with it, just nothing right either. All in all, I give excite truck a 6 of 10. It has an average rating of about 72%, so I’m a little under the average, but I don’t really dig racing games anyway. If you are a racing buff, give it a shot, it’ll probably work for you.

Tags: xbox, metroid prime 3, wii fit, wii cheats, new wii games

I have to admit, I haven’t played the original Cooking Mama for the DS, but all in all, I found this game completely boring. The idea is that you play several minigames for each stage of food preparation, and at the end you have a meal, rated based on how well you did at the minigames.

Firstly, the minigames were really boring. They usually involved movement, and — like real cooking — took no logic, problem solving or thought. Most of the games just involved moving in a particular fashion, and I must admit, I was frustrated with the control. Maybe it is just because I was trying to do things that I do in real life, but the controls seemed overly sensitive. This extra annoyance did not add to the gameplay at all, and wasn’t a challenge that I thing was intentional.

Secondly, things didn’t really show any sign of progress. Things didn’t get harder and I wasn’t really doing anything beside picking a dish, and then making it. The “Friends of Food” mode didn’t quite cut it as a story. This would have been so much better if I had a concrete goal. For example, I own a restraint and am building it up, or something. I don’t know, but the way things were, I had do motivation to do anything.

There was a very small variety of minigames, just a handful. Doing these things over and over, just in different order with different ingredients isn’t really fun at all. For some, maybe the cooking part is educational, but I cook a lot, and nothing was more interesting than reading a cookbook (which as you can imagine, isn’t interesting). I think they did give a good idea of what it is like to actually be in a kitchen, and if you don’t cook, there is a small chance this’ll give you the confidence to get in the kitchen. But maybe they shouldn’t have reproduced the cooking experience so accurately… since it is boring.

All in all, I only give it a 5 out of 10. Among other reviewer, it has an average of 62%, so it doesn’t look like other found it that interesting either. Quite a disappointment since Wired News said it is the Best “Game of CES 2007″. Guess CES 2007 didn’t have many good games.

Save yourself the money and don’t get this. If you have a thing for food and don’t want to actually cook, then maybe this is for you. But seriously, we can find a better game for you.

Tags: wii nunchuk, wii games, no more heros, new releases, nintendo wii game

WarioWare originally came out for the Game Boy Advance and did very wellwith its collection of tiny games, but I have to say, with the Wii, WarioWare has really found its home. The Wimote really takes the cake on this one.

Well, I have to say, WarioWare is a totally new type of experience. Besides the wacky, mismatched graphics and themes there is the gameplay. The games are nothing new in and of themselves. Quite the opposite, most of the minigames (or maybe mirco-games, since they are very small) are actually quite boring and typical. But the gameplay doesn’t really come from the games themselves, but rather figuring out what the games are.

I’m explaining this poorly. Let me try from the start. In WarioMare, you are quickly assaulted with a series  of mirco-games, only 5 or 10 seconds each. No instructions for the games are given only a brief screen which tells you how you are supposed to be holding the Wiimote. In a short amount of time, you have to figure out what is going on and perform the task required. As you start getting used to the format, things happen faster and become more involved. You are kept on edge, always in that rare moment of “what is this, what am I doing” that you usually only get at the start of a game.

It is quite novel, and quite wacky. WarioWare makes full use of the Wiimote (which is a part of the bazaar unconnected story). Each game has a pose you have to hold the Wiimote in, failure to hold the Wiimote in the right pose will usually end in you not being able to figure out what needs to be done (since many poses lead your thinking). Poses range from the Remote (pointing it at the screen) to the Elephant (holding it at your nose) to the Umbrella (pointing it upwards) to the Handlebars (holding it like the handlebars of a bike). Often, these poses are necessary for the Wii to figure out what you are doing, and other times they help you understand the type of motion that will be required. In my opinion, they do a brilliant job of giving you just enough information. Most games have simple word prompts like “Trap”, “Catch” or “Drop” which explain the game in the quickest way possible.

The game ends quite quickly, but there is a lot of stuff to do after the official ‘ending’. Once your ‘finished’ the game, there are many things to unlock and many levels of various games you stumbled upon. Multiplayer mode, which multiplies the craziness, is unlocked after your played through the game (which’ll only take a couple hours).

All in all, WarioWare is quite out there and totally fresh. It makes a really good party game and you can laugh at other people playing with a Wii Remote to their nose or attempting to hula hoop. Even though WarioWare is clearly a ‘casual’ game, I give it 10 of 10 for the new, bazaar feel of the entire game

Tags: no more heros, wii news, nintendo wii cost, nintendo wii game, video game console

Kororinpa: Marble Madness is a game similar to Marble Blast for the computer, only more. Your goal: guide around a marble through an obstacle course. There isn’t much more to say than that. Kororinpa allows you to unlock tons of content, and has a whole load of levels. You can pick marbles with different ‘difficulties’ (i.e. bounciness) to make the game even more challenging.

The controls are quite intuitive and simple. Tilt the Wii remote. That is all you have going for you as far as control goes, and yet the game manages to get quite complex. The graphics are good, and while the game lacks a story, it doesn’t really need one. You can race with friends, or set best times and progress up the levels by yourself.

All in all, this is a thoroughly ‘casual’ game, but a pretty good one. One interesting fact that popped up somewhere or another, surgeons who played the game before their practical test rated higher than surgeons didn’t. So I suppose, if you want your kid to become a surgeon, get this game while she’s young.

Much like the popular Marble Blast for the computer, things get tough. One might go so far as to say very tough. But also like Marble Blast, finishing the newest level isn’t the only goal, so if you are stuck it isn’t a big deal. All in all, I would give Kororinpa: Marble Madness a 7 out of 10. A great casual games, but really it doesn’t really have anything to bring it above and beyond any other marble game (except maybe all the content).

If you like Marble Blast, which many people do, Kororinpa is definitely the next step. Controlling the marble by actually tilting is a totally cool sensation and really shows of both the simplicity and complexty that can easily be integrated into the Wiimote. I don’t know if I can particularly recommend Kororinpa over other games, but if it sound interesting, it will definitely live up to expectations. Plus, it is quite adorably cute… in a rugged manly way of course.

Tags: ps3, nintendo, nintendo wii game, nintendo wii cost, nintendo wii news

Zack and Wiki is a fun pirate themed adventure game. Zack a budding pirate sets out to search to the many components of a cursed skeleton, supposedly in exchange for a nice pirating ship. Of course things go wrong, and the day must be saved.

If you’ve ever played Monkey Island or King’s Quest, you know what type of game Zack and Wiki is. You roam around areas, finding items and using them in creative ways to overcome obstacles. Zack and Wiki separates everything into areas with obvious goals and challenges. This separation makes it so that you always know what you are suppose to be doing, very much unlike those other games I mentioned. But the challenges are still just as hard to figure out, and the puzzles often reveal themselves in humorous and clever ways.

One of the most interesting features, is that when you interact with objects in the game, you make the motions with the Wiimote that you would in real life. It starts off very simple (sawing and turning keys), but later becomes quite clever and creates a puzzle in and of itself.

Critically, I think the game was quite fun. The starting was slow, too talky and quite boring. Plus they over explain everything. I almost gave up before it got interesting. Once I was through the begining (which could use some voice acting in my opinion, like the rest of the game), it picked up nicely. You can buy hints in game which help keep you from being completely stuck (yes I’m looking at you Lucas Arts), without giving everything away. The characters could use a little more development, they were flat and I didn’t really pin a personality to any of them, but hey, it is a game not a novel. Cleverness was overflowing through the entire game design. All in all, Zack and Wiki was really fun and comes very close to a must buy.

Several critics have been appalled by the poor sales of what they consider one of the best games for the Wii. Because of this, a Buy Zack and Wiki campaign has popped up, with many critics trying to drive the point home that you should buy the game. The game has definitely picked up in sales since then, but it is still somewhat lower than the quality should put it. At the moment is has about 300 thousand copies sold. If you have a big collection, and don’t have Zack and Wiki yet, what is wrong with you. If you are looking for a game and like the adventure genre, then Zack and Wiki is a must have. If on the other hand, you want another boring collection of minigames, well then don’t get Zack and Wiki.

Zack and Wiki is appropriate for all ages, but doesn’t really make for group fun. To much content, not enough minigames. This makes Zack and Wiki a little less ‘casual’ then other Wii games, which in my opinion is a good thing. We need more variety to Wii life. So, with that said, Zack and WIki gets a 9 out of 10 from me.

Tags: nintendo wii game, wii cost, new nintendo game, new releases, super mario brothers

Rayman Raving Rabbids takes place when the well known armless hero Rayman is taken captive by Raving Rabbids (Rabbits). If you are looking for a typical Rayman adventure here, this isn’t it. Rayman Raving Rabbids is a series of minigames, presented as some sort of arena challenge that the evil rabbits are forcing Rayman to compete in.

Rayman Raving Rabbids has been released for a ton of platforms and has had average reviews around 75%. Most people say that it is a good light and easy game. Nothing to get into, just start and go. One nice thing, is that the games was designed with Wii controls in mind. The game features a lot of motion and excitement, just like the Wii should. In fact, some critics have complained that the controls seem ‘tacked on’ for the other consoles. How is that for putting the shoe on the other foot.

After a successful fun through the arena, Rayman is awarded a plunger as a trophy. Rayman gets the idea to use the plungers to reach a very, very high window in his cell, so your task is to win him enough plungers to reach. In this quest for plungers you will be faces with a variety of minigames, all of which are pretty fun (although some are obviously fillers with no real content).

Throughout the game, very few of the minigames are repeated, except for a rhythm and song game which is quite fun and vaguely similar to DDR or guitar hero. The ‘boss’ minigame is often a shooter or a racing game. But aside from those, there is an amazing variety of games. Enough that the task of collecting 20 plungers isn’t all that tedious and stays quite fun.

One thing to criticize is the minigame setup as a whole. Why more minigames? Why not a full game. It looks like they put a good but of work into everything, so I’m just not sure about the format. In any case, I suppose it is fun enough, although I miss the old Rayman platform games.

In the games there is a good bit of content to unlock — including music and costumes — and the story and feel is a bit whimsical and comical. Many of the games boarder on the rude, which I guess is in style now a days so I guess I won’t complain. In any case, I enjoyed it, and got through it all.

Unfortunatenly, the games is solidly one player (something that Rayman Raving Rabbids 2 fixes). Me and my sisters still had fun passing around the remote. Come to think of it, all those minigames would have been thoroughly boring and mindless alone. In any case, if you need a ‘light’ game that you can pop in and play with friends, I would recommend Rayman, but like I said, it is only one player.

Tags: nintendo news, wii, mario kart, rock band, wii fit