• 4Jul 09

  Wii 2nd Impressions: Beyond Wii Sports

  

  After spending some time playing Wii Sports and creating dozens of Miis in my brand new Wii I decided to expand my 'Wiiniverse' by borrowing a few games. Here they are:

  . .. .

  And I got new impressions to share.
  First of all, we can easily conclude that Wii is not a graphical powerhouse. You can state it's obvious - and it is - but playing other games put that to another level of evidence. Wii Sports can be quite simple, but it's somehow elegant - it is not only a game, it conceals a whole concept of gaming that works fine.
  I'm saying that because I couldn't help paying attention to graphical issues in all games. As for Mario Party 8, it looks just a little better than Nintendo 64 parties looked before (aside the horrible, unreadable fonts for the screens titles, as if they were made with that old Microsoft Word Art); as for The Force Unleashed, the empty (and sometimes out-of-the-socket) eyes and the robotic mouth movement of the characters keep bugging me; and last, as for Wario Land, the movies are ugly.
  Among these three games Wario Land is the one which makes the best use of the Wii's graphical processing power. Its cartoony sty|e runs smooth and beautifully, aside being convenient too.

  

  

  

  All that said I must reckon that these problems scratch only the surface of the games, since a gaming experience is made not only of graphics. And I can say I'm enjoying them!
  MP8 is a so-so game. It uses the everlasting formula of the series, but the mini-games take advantage of the new control system. Nothing that would surprise me - it deserves the around-6.0 scores it's been receiving.
  Wario Land is a great 2D plat that put the motion sensing controls to use too. Despite some of these features feel like gimmicks, there are other pretty good ones. The overall experience is rewarding, and I'm sure I'll keep coming back for the extras of each stage.
  The Force Unleashed was surprisingly good for me. I thought I would have grown tired quickly of shaking controls, but that didn't happen. The way you use the controls to finish the bosses and to fight someone strong with the Force is cool (it reminds me of Dragon's Lair for Sega-CD), and it's awesome to see what the Force can do. Physics work great when you move objects around the environment and send shockwaves to knock down enemies.

  That's it for now. Soon I'll come up with the promised Miis screenshots.

  • Posted Jul 4, 2009 10:42 pm PT
  • Category: Games
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• 24Jun 09

  Another 'Proud Wii Owner' Here!

  

  OK, I know I'm a tad late ("I'm so two-thousand-late"), but here I am! My own Wii has arrived!

  I've been playing my father's (!) Wii with him for some time, and now I got myself one. Me and my wife just started spending some time in it, and our Mii plaza is getting crowded already (snapshots anytime soon). We're enjoying Wii Sports too, and my unexpected favourite sport is... Golf? Never considered playing that before, but it gets me relaxed and it feels good. I thought I would stick to Tennis (since I already played it before in the real world), but Mii's akward-auto-positioning bugs me a little. Baseball is fine, and so is Bowling (despite the fact my wrist always twist the ball to the left). Boxing is funny, but not precise - I can't stop hitting my coach's face while training.

  For now I'll play some games borrowed from my father, and I think I will put more effort into WiiWare games because it would be cheaper for me here - no taxes, and no shipping. We'll see what comes next.

  • Posted Jun 24, 2009 10:48 am PT
  • Category: Games
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• 14Jun 09

  Chun-Li and Other Pin-up Models

  

  A few days ago I was watching a trailer of the new installment in the King of Fighters series and that reminded me of something weird (though funny) that started to happen when all these fighting games came to home consoles: the 'pausing contests'.

  

  Take a whole generation of (teen) gamers being mesmerized by the graphics revolution started with the 16-bit consoles and mix it with some beauties starring fighting games and you'll get a pausing contest: just press 'start' during a match looking for the hottest pose!

  I know it's shameful; but it really happened. I was 12 when Street Fighter II was released for SNES and I can even remember some guys falling in love for Chun-Li! How innocent... That's hard to explain to today's boys well acquainted to 3D models.

  

  Along this post you can see sprites of some games that were frequently used for this 'purpose' and you can evaluate how silly it was. God bless us all...

  • Posted Jun 14, 2009 7:04 pm PT
  • Category: Games
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