About time I got around to mini-reviewing my Wii collection as well. As before, no scores but they are in order from least to most favourite.

I got this game free with a magazine subscription, and whilst I wouldn’t write it off completely it’s definitely the least favourite in my collection. I’m not a big fan of puzzle games, I enjoy puzzles in games, but games that are built solely around puzzles are rarely fun for me. It wasn’t so much the puzzle difficulty with Mercury Meltdown Revolution as the controls, there are two options first to use the Wiimote on it’s side and tilt in all directions, this was the most fun but I found it hard to be accurate, particularly racing round corners whereas the classic controller isn’t as fun and just simplifies the game. These are actually minor niggles, my main concern with this game is the lack of variety, all the levels are different but after a while it all felt too similar and I had little incentive to continue. As a cheap bargain you might have some fun with this, if you like puzzle games your interest should also be higher but ultimately it’s a little limited for most people.

To be fair to Geometry Wars, I haven’t had chance to have a proper play, and a lot of my opinion is based upon the style of game rather that how it actually is. Which is a shame because it’s probably the best of it’s kind I’ve ever played, the controls are smooth and there is a nice selection of options. Along with your spaceship, you have a little partner who can be set to different jobs which you unlock through the game, once set in a job it gains experience so switching a lot isn’t a good idea. The enemies are simple but that just makes them easy to identify, the main focus of the game being keeping an eye on the changing situation. The 2D plane on which you move can be deformed by certain things, such as gravity wells sucking everything into their gaping maw. Your lasers also has a nice feel to it, with a variety of power-ups changing it’s spread creating massive storms that devour all of your enemies, it is very satisfying. There is a nice addition in the ability to transfer a demo over to a DS, and if you have the DS version of the game you can unlock an extra galaxy in each. Not enough to encourage you to buy both but a nice bonus if you do. If you’re into space arcade games (maybe you’ve played it’s sister game retro evolved) then this is a good game and you should ignore my pessimism.

I haven’t played many football games, International Super Star Soccer for the SNES is the one I’ve played the most and then only because there was an easy way of tricking the AI. I’m not much of a sports person, preferring a small game with people I know than watching. Well, I wouldn’t want to play this sport, Mario Strikers Charged Football is a blend between Football and American Football traditional goal setup but with more close-quarters action. Shaking the Wiimote sends the currently selected player into a brutal collision with anyone nearby. Teams are made up of five players, the goalie, main striker and three backups. The Strikers take the form of Mario characters, each with their strengths and weaknesses and special moves. The backup players are the various underlings that normally get squashed under Mario’s feet, but they still play a big role in the game. The hard tackle I mentioned is fine if the victim has the ball but if not then the opposition get a powerup such as banana skins that trip up players and various other super powers, all in the Mario style. The ball builds up energy as it’s passed around, this encourages less holding and more action as the ball gets faster and harder for the goalie to stop. There are a lot of stadiums available some of which have interesting extras, the windy level for example sends debris and even cows across the pitch temporarily disabling any players hit, my favourite has to be Crystal Cannon, at the start of every play a random number of players are hit with a laser that knocks them out of the match until the next play, this adds a nice tactical shift to a match. Singleplayer is fun enough with a traditional ladder and special challenges but multiplayer is where the main action is, if your looking for a laugh with friends\relatives then local is great, if you want more of a challenge then online will will fit the bill perfectly. Up to four players can play together, since there are obviously only two teams some players will share a team as in traditional football games and can cycle between the available players. Sadly my one time online saw a brutal defeat and I never went back to it. I like having Strikers around though, it’s nice for an occasional play and is good fun with other people. If you fancy a less serious form of football then this is a good choice.

This is all about the board really, nothing particularly special about the games just the way they’re implemented using the board. The exercises have a nice range and are no doubt useful but still fairly limited and the exercise program has a lot of nice settings although could have done with a bit more fleshing out. It falls into the same position as Dr. Kawashima’s Brain Training, it’s not much fun carrying out the tests every day, and unless you are trying to lose weight or using it as part of an exercise regime you will eventually just stop doing it, much to the boards disgust. There is still some fun to be had with the games though, Ski jump is a lot of fun and great for showing other people, but you’ll eventually hit a wall where you cannot best your top score and then there’s little point in playing. The same goes for Slalom and the Stepping games. The running game has much more long term appeal, and if they’d included the ability to take different paths it would have been much better, as it is the island is a nice place and maintaining a good rythm whilst jogging on the spot can leave you out of breath on the ‘Round the Island’ course (but that may just be my lack of exercise). The island is simple but still beautiful, with lots of features and detail along the way, the addition of your other Miis running round at the same time makes for a very decent package. Tightrope walking is a little difficult to get the hang of, your not actually walking just leaning from side to side, but once you get going it’s interesting enough, it’s a good laugh when you watch someone else have a go and accidentally leap off. The others are reasonably fun, Table Tilt in particular can be quite a challenge, gentle shifts in your body are required. As of yet I haven’t bought any other games that make use of the board and of those I have seen they don’t use the board in a very interesting way. Given the price I probably wouldn’t buy this myself, if you’re into exercise this could be a nice alternative to the dance mat.

A long time ago, in a galaxy far far away (sorry, it had to be done) there was a game, a lego game, and it was brilliant. It had appeal for both adults and children, the gameplay was simple enough for anyone to get through whilst also having a lot of depth for more skilled players. It is also one of the best examples of ‘pure fun’ in a game, not childish fun, not jokes or silliness just…fun. Lego Indiana Jones sadly does not live up to the Star Wars version, it’s good and offers a unique twist but it will always live in the formers shadow. Which is a shame since it’s a pretty reasonable game in itself, it has a tendency to go a little off-track with the levels this doesn’t follow the story strictly. The idea of hats (basically disguises) is fun for a while but ultimately feels a little silly, and having to use certain items at certain times just ends up with the player either backtracking through the level, or wait for new enemies to spawn. The first level is very good, and manages to extend the story time without going too far away from the script. Indiana Jones is great, and the game does a lot to include the secondary character (such as give them a shovel), and the combat has a nice ‘punchy’ feel to it without being too violent for younger ones. The headquarters you go to between missions has a lot to explore, but is a little confusing at the start finding out which room you need. The game is much less fun in single player, so if you can find a partner it becomes a lot more fun.

Wii Sports’ less popular cousin, as a series of games it’s pretty average, however since the game comes with a Wiimote it makes the price much more appealing. The nine games that make up the package vary quite widely, some are very limited and have little replay value, others however could have been fairly successful if expanded and sold on their own. The highest quality game is Billiards (when will people learn…), the visuals are very good with just the table and balls in an unlit room helping you focus on the game. Learning when to let go of the button took me a while but once I’d worked it out things went a lot better. All of the traditional control options are present, the direction controls change the angle, the pointer allows you to hit different parts of the cue ball controlling backspin and the like, and to strike you draw back your hand and thrust forward allowing you to control the pressure. Sadly there is very little to the game, you simply play till you sink the balls and get awarded a score. Shooting range features some of the best controls, many people have wanted the traditional Duck Shoot games on the Wii as the pointer suits the style very well, this game does a good job of meeting it, various challenges appear such as shooting clay pigeons, playing keepy-uppy with a can and saving helpless Miis from an alien invasion. Gameplay is very smooth and is a lot of fun with a second player, sadly it doesn’t support a four player game. Tanks! is the most complex game putting you in control of a tank you have to take out the enemy with direct shots or rebounds. There are two options for control, either the direction pad and the pointer or nunchuk and pointer, the latter being the best by far. More structured than the other games, there are a series of levels with more enemies and restrictions on movement. Two of the games make use of the Miis stored on your console, Find Mii is a blend of Where’s Wally and spot the difference puzzles, the levels are randomly generated and have various conditions such as find the duplicates or people moving at the same speed. As the difficulty rises things can get very challenging and I had a lot of fun with this game. The other game to use Miis is called Pose Mii, bubble fall from the top of the screen and you have to move a Mii character to fill the space, rotating the Wiimote to fit them at the correct angle, as things get hard you have to switch between three different poses, things got a little too complicated for me and I enjoyed the early levels a lot more. The award for most artistic game goes to Charge, it’s a simple game that has you turn the Wiimote on it’s side and tilt as you attempt to steer a bull down the course, the bull and ground are all made of stitches, quite why I don’t know but it’s definitely interesting. The last three games aren’t very good however, Table Tennis is nothing like Tennis from Wii Sports, you simple move the paddle from side to side and the game hits the ball for you. Laser Hockey could have been pretty good, with a nice visual style, however the controls sometimes jump and can frustrating allow shots you blocked to enter the goal. The controls in Fishing are okay, but the game itself is simplistic and a a little confusing at times. Overall though this is a good package and since it retails around the price of a Wiimote you should buy it anyway simply to give you something to play in between other games.

The game that everybody has (except those that sold it), Wii Sports helped to introduce a lot of people to the console, and today you can find teams that play bowling as an actual sport. Of the five games on offer the weakest one is the boxing, aside from bumping up the age rating the game itself also has very little depth, there are strategies to it but it mostly becomes an arm punching exercise. I remember the early days when I used to become exhausted simply playing through a whole fight. The next weakest in my opinion is the Golf, the basic course is okay for quick games but not so much fun if you have a little more time on your hands, and the nine hole game can actually be a little too long at times. It would have been nice to have a few more options, although I realise that goes against the design of the package. Otherwise it’s a nice option to have, simplified in all the right places to make playing easy. The final three are all very good in my opinion, different people will have their favourites and none of them can be knocked. Bowling has the widest appeal, both as a general game and as part of Wii Sports, very few people do not know the rules of the game, roll the ball down the track andhit as many pins as you can. There is a lot of depth to this one, as well as moving from side to side (or strafing) you can angle the direction you bowl in and give it spin. But the most fun from this game is found when you accidentally let go of the ball throwing it behind you, all the players and spectators leap into the air with a yelp. The spectators are one of the nicest touches in the game, only appearing in Bowling and Tennis (also playing in Baseball), any Mii characters you happen to have stored on your Wii will randomly appear watching or even playing along side you. For some people this will be slightly strange, but as someone who mostly has relatives it’s a lot of fun pointing out those in the crowd we know. Tennis probably has the second widest appeal, more active than Bowling this isn’t for everyone but for those looking for an active exercise regime this is a good choice. As Bowling the game has been simplified so that it’s easy to start but gains difficulty the deeper you get, although I’ve never worked out what causes a power hit, you can put a lot of curve onto a ball possibly tricking your opponent. The last game was actually a surprise favourite for me, I’ve never been interest with Baseball as a sport but had a lot of fun with the game. This is mainly a game of timing, too early or late and you’ll miss the ball or possibly send it off in a strange direction, once I settled into this I played a lot of single player games. Wii Sports is mostly a social game, having other people share in your triumphs and mistakes adds to the game, not so for me in Baseball, I had more fun working my way up the ladder. This mini-review is getting awfully close to being a full-blown one so I’ll bring things to a close here, but I just want to mention the challenges, whilst the ‘exercise program’ is fairly weak the challenges put a different spin on the games (literally in some games) and are fun in their own right as well as teaching you how to play the main game better.

This game is almost exactly the same as my favourite my DS collection, so why is it lower? Firstly, while the Wiimote is a very good tool, it doesn’t give the same physical sensation as the stylus. The former is very much like a scalpel but the Wiimote adds a barrier between full immersion. That said it’s still the same game, with a few extra operations thrown in and now you can change the difficulty so that hopefully it won’t be anywhere near as challenging as the DS version. All of the characters haven been redrawn in a higher resolution and the colours are much more varied, despite still being limited by the Wii’s hardware this game looks great, the 2D artwork combined with the simplistic 3D bodies works well. The game uses both the Wiimote and nunchuk, this provides quicker access to the different tools once you’ve memorised the directions. An interesting idea I’ve read suggests that you can extend the game into pseudo-multiplayer, one player operating the instrument (Wiimote) the other being the assistant handing over tools (nunchuk), that said the game was crying out for co-op. As you’ve read, I’ve compared this game to the DS version a lot and that is perhaps why I have rated it lower. If you haven’t played the DS version then this is a very good game and well worth playing, however wait until you read on before making a final decision…

As I’ve mentioned I’m not a fan of puzzle games, which makes this selection rather surprising. That is actually a good way of summarising Zack and Wiki, ‘rather surprising’, it takes the traditional point-and-click adventure game and gives it a modern, more hands on twist. Something that suits the Wiimote very well, this game doesn’t use the nunchuk and you feel freer for it. The basic story revolves around two characters Zack, who aspires to be a pirate, and Wiki, his faithful flying monkey who are off on a quest for treasure. Each level is a quest for a chest which contains one more part of the treasure once belonging to the Great Pirate Barbaros. The levels also gives points for each individual element you complete, all of these add up to your overall Pirate rating giving you an incentive to go back and try topping your score. All the challenges are solved using tools, for example if there is a tree in your way you need to cut it with a saw, once you activate the tool you are then shown the manoeuvre you need to perform to use it successfully, so for the example you move the Wiimote back and forth this has a direct effect in the game. It’s not just a simple trigger, moving your hand faster moves the tool faster in the game, this was a breath of fresh air around the time the game was released. This game has been on sale several times for a very reasonable price and I recommend you pick up a copy if you’re a fan of adventure games, and if you’re not it still may be worth a go, the execution is very high quality and the characters are good for a laugh.

I don’t know which of these to rate higher, so I’m just going to place them together. The second is more free-form, but that just means the first is more structured. The tenuous grasp on Rayman is lost in the second and looks non-existent in the next, the focus here are the Rabbids. The Wii has a lot of mini-games compilations, but I think these are good enough to stand out on their own, the dark streak of humour and good variety edge the series above the rest. The first also had a slightly different world, particularly in the skipping and hammer-throw games, which didn’t appear in the sequel as the Rabbids went to the real world. In the first you play as Rayman, captured by the Rabbids and for each round you win you gain a plunger which you attach to the tall wall that leads to a window and freedom, in the second the games are divided up between continents giving them all a different style. As well as a random selection of mini-games there is also a more developed plunger shooting game, again I don’t know which I prefer more, the first uses standard 3D levels which offer lots of variety and gives the developers free reign on the events whereas the second uses real-life video capture of the various countries and then applies the Rabbids on top with fairly convincing visuals. The other stand out section is the music and in this the second wins by a mile, the first had a simple dance-rhythm game where you shake either the Wiimote or the nunchuk, the second however is similar to Guitar Hero, Rock Band etc. You get a choice of four sections (guitar, drums, base, vocals, keyboard, etc.) and then again shake either the Wiimote or nunchuk as their symbols pass down a line, the great part comes when you move on to the next difficulty, when you miss a beat it doesn’t play it in the track ramping up the immersion. Of the rest of the games they’re a mixed bag as you’d expect, some are great fun and could be played again and again (mobile in the cinema, skydiving) while others are overlooked once they have been played to unlock other games.

I’ve never played the previous Super Smash Bros. games, so I was heading into unknown territory with this one, but having heard lots of good comments I decided to give it a try. The series is a twist on the traditional beat-’em-up, rather than health bars you have to knock your opponent(s) off the stage in order to score points. Based in a fictional world where all of Nintendo’s greatest characters meet gives you a lot of choice and helps you find a favourite quickly. As I said the players don’t have a health bar but they have a percentage, the more times you hit a character the higher it goes, and as it rises your hits send them further until eventually they blast miles away from the stage. The main focus of SSBB is the multiplayer, however I though the singleplayer campaign was a lot of fun, a very basic sidescrolling platformer it wouldn’t win any awards on it’s own but it’s just one small element within a greater game. As you progress through the storyline you meet up with more characters and unlock them for the multiplayer, this is annoying for those who don’t enjoy the the singleplayer as they have to play it if they want all the characters, a different way of unlocking them would have been welcome. But as I said, I enjoyed the singleplayer, you travel through a series of worlds, each based on a Nintendo game. I say Nintendo but in this latest outing some third-party characters were introduced, mixing things up a bit. All of them have their own personality and set of moves, offering wide ranging ways of playing from brawler to long range attack. There are a lot of extras in the game, many new stages to be unlocked, special challenges to be completed and it’s all brought together in a wall of squares, once you unlock something it’s tile is revealed but it also reveals what you need to complete the tiles around it giving you something to aim for. Offering both online and local four player matches with lots of customisation, the only way I could see this game not suiting you is if you really dislike fighting games, and a lack of blood and gore just increases it’s market. With hundreds of collectables and even samples of Virtual Console games this one box will keep you occupied for a very long time.

(US Box-art)

I’ve read a lot of mixed reviews about New Blood, I don’t know why because I think it’s better than the previous Trauma Centre, simply because of the addition of co-operative multiplayer. You can now perform surgery with a friend, and it’s a lot of fun. The storyline is less caricatured than the first, more down to Earth at the start before building up later in the game. Since it has multiplayer there are now two surgeons, which you can choose between when you’re on your own. Nothing has changed regarding the surgical tools, they were so good to begin with why change them? The procedures however have changed, some becoming more complex to make-up for the lack of change. It was however a nice feeling to experience one treatment that was exactly the same from the last game, as soon as the name was mentioned both myself and my sister knew what we had to do. A feeling missing from a lot of puzzle games, but present in real life surgery, adapting a standardised technique to an individual situation. Some of the surgeries in the previous game were very difficult, and this game is the no different, however one of the great things about the new multiplayer is that you can now call in a friend to help, no need to use a separate profile, if you really get stuck you simply switch over to co-op, perform the surgery and then you can change straight back. You don’t have to have played the first game to get into New Blood, there are a lot of references though for those who have and the training stages have been split off into skippable levels so they won’t waste any of your time. New Blood is also fully voiced, both in cut-scenes and during surgery, the characters are mostly well developed.

Here we are almost at the end, Super Mario Galaxy was bound to feature somewhere and high up at that. I’m not a fan of 3D platformers, I still prefer Super Mario World but SMG still has a lot to offer. One of the most anticipated Wii games, early footage left people’s mouths open wide, everything flows so well and the flying taps into the childhood fantasy of soaring through the air. Each level is made up of a series of planets, which each have their own gravity field allowing you to run, jump and whoop your way round to the other side. It’s a little disorienting at first but pretty soon you will understand how to move instinctually in all directions and between heavenly bodies, knowing just when the pull of one planet stops and the next begins. By far my favourite part are the star boosts, jump into them and shake the Wiimote to boost your way around the level, it’s not complete freedom of flight but you won’t mind. We can always count on Nintendo using it’s hardware to great effect, and SMG is no different, as well as traditional platforming controls (and a few extra moves thrown in) the pointer sees a lot of use, ‘Star Bits’ are scattered through out the levels and you collect them simply by pointing, you can then shoot them to stun enemies and unlock extra areas. As in previous Mario games you don’t have to beat all of the levels to win the game, but you’ll still want to, each level having multiple layouts that offer a completely different way of playing but in the same style. The suits aren’t as good as previous Mario games, they each have a purpose but are often to specific, unlike the leaf, flower and feather of old. The Bee suit is nice though and allows limited flight on certain levels. There’s little point in recommending this game to fans of previous Mario games since they almost certainly have it already, for those who don’t have it, Super Mario Galaxy is a wondrous experience and easy enough for most people to eventually win the game.

If you ask most Wii gamers (as opposed to Wii owners) they will almost certainly have both this and Super Mario Galaxy in their top five, if not their top two. Which they would rate higher however is open to a huge range of opinions. Part of my reason for rating TP higher is because I enjoy RPGs so much, it doesn’t have the stats but it has the involving storyline, friends kidnapped, world to save, new and interesting lands to explore. The Zelda series is pretty easy to recommend, if you’ve played one before and you did not like it, chances are you won’t like any of the others. They all revolve around the same series of ideas, just in a different order, with different characters and slightly more refined tools to help you on your way. The main part that I enjoyed was the bow and arrow, surprisingly very little of the ‘Wii remote as a pointer’ games have actually impressed me, oh they’re good enough and I would probably rate it over game pad for accuracy and ease of use but they rarely impress me, TP was different. There was one section in particular that did it, without spoiling the game, those who have played it will know the caravan escort section. In the Ocarina of Time I got pretty good at the bow trials, where you had to hit gems to win a prize but I never really got the hang of doing it on horseback, TP was completely the opposite shooting on horseback was actually more fun. The Wiimote was so accurate and quick that you could easily let loose several arrows before adjusting your course (my one quibble being that you can’t steer at the same time), the wind rushing past, enemies riding at your sides, everything just flowed so well for me. The Zelda series still has some things it needs to clean up, and I would most likely rate OoT higher, but Twilight Princess did so much right that it is my favourite Wii game.

Pictures from Wikipedia.