From gonintendo.com, yesterday (yesterday, and it’s already 9 pages back because they update so often):

Channels:
-Digital Clock added to the Wii Menu right under the channel bar
-Forecast Channel now displays the current condition (cloudy, raining, etc.) directly in the Wii Menu in the Forecast Channel box
-News Channel can now show 2 scrolling headlines at a time in the Wii Menu, 3 when you click on the button
-Message Board now has the “Today’s Accomplishments” message as a white message which allows it to stand out from other messages
-Address Book entries can now be shifted around using A+B but only to empty spaces. Not too convenient.
-Calendar in Message Board no longer shows “Today’s Accomplishment” only days as having messages
-Scrolling messages in the Message Board now uses a different sound

Wii Shop Channel Overhauled (Visual aesthetic is the same, changes made to organization and browsing methods mostly)
-New Welcome screen detailing 4 Recommended Titles and the points they cost (gone is the title screen bar that had linkable games). The title bar can be clicked on to bring up a list of 20 recommended games.
-Titles You’ve Downloaded was moved to the main shop menu
-New ways to browse
-Popular Titles (2 pages of 10 and includes launch games so not only based on recent info)
-Newest Additions remains the same
-Search for a title which can use partial names
-Search by Category
-System shows the different systems and how many titles have been released under each
-Publisher showing different publishers and amount of titles released
-Genre (different genres listed and amount of titles under each)

Settings
-Warning added pre-system update detailing that technically modified consoles may cease to function upon being updated. Also the only way to not accept an update is to power down the console by holding the button for 4 seconds (the user can’t back out of hitting I Accept w/o powering down)

Maybe they should focus on keeping the forecast channel up-to-date before they focus on moving it around. One time it was snowing in the middle of June and my Wii forecast channel said it was like 100 degrees Kelvin. It also said the data was from like 3 weeks in the past. Maybe I’ll trust my windows instead of my Wii.

I guess also there’s support for usb wired and wireless keyboards in the wii shop and wii internet channels now. Good, but it reportedly doesn’t work with all keyboards, so we’ll just have to wait until nintendo releases one for $940.

Instead of changing the Wii shop around, maybe they should just add a feature that tells me when I can buy Legend of Zelda: Majora’s Mask for N64 so I don’t have to keep checking every 30 minutes. What if they release it while I’m sleeping? I gotta get to the end game first.

Also, like many people have probably already said, there’s no new word on Miis or why Nintendo continues to make them suck. There’s also no word on why it takes an act of God to enter a friend code, or why it takes another act of God to even find your friend code in the first place.

Will someone just email me when Majora’s Mask releases for Virtual Console? Seriously.

So my girlfriend bought me Super Paper Mario yesterday, after listening to me talk about it for the past 2 months. Her first attempt to silence me, arsenic, didn’t work, so the option buying this for me must have been a close second. Of course, I was ecstatic: girls, video games, girls giving me video games. What could be better, right? I didn’t actually know that Super Paper Mario (SPM before my fingers go numb from typing it out again) was an RPG, but that’s simply icing on the cake. You play as Mario, you level up, you gain experience (points). This game is incredible. I’ve seen that it’s gotten great reviews from most of the game sites out there, but I didn’t really know what to expect; this game has the kind of stuff that you can’t really explain in words.

The basic premise of the game is that you’re Mario, living in a boring, quiet world with your butt buddy best friend Luigi. One day, the two of you decide that it’s boring, decide to visit Princess Peach in her castle only to find out that she’s been kidnapped. Comedy ensues. Much later, after the comedy has ensued, you find out that Count Bleck (and not Bowser) has kidnapped PP (Princess Peach, or Poon, whichever the reader prefers) for his evils ends. Being the great guy he is and having the bold moustache he has, Mario decides it’s his job to get “shit” back on track.

It’s actually very complicated plot considering the audience, but it’s engaging and it gives you at least 10 minutes worth of excitement to thrive on until you’re given the ability to warp between 2- and 3-D. This is really the selling point of the game (well, for anything besides a Mario game, this would be the selling point), and it’s introduced with uncomfortable amounts of subtle humour and sweltering irony.

From here, the point of the game is to collect 8 pure hearts, which can be recombined into 1 massive, throbbing purity heart, allowing the legendary hero to defeat Bleck and close the dark portal that’s consuming all worlds. You’re given one heart for free, just to get the game going, and after about 1 hour of play, the second can be retreived. It’ll be interesting to see how long a game this one actually is.

Between her and me, we’ve gotten to the second chapter (of 8, I presume: 7 to collect the hearts and 1 for Bleck’s temple) and it’s looking to be a roaring ride to the finish. I’ll probably write a review on it after I’m done playing, even though the game isn’t new at all.

I found this video earlier today, and figured that it needed to be shared. I’m excited for the next game in the Super Mario series and from the looks of this video, I don’t think I’m going to be disappointed.

It looks like there’s heavy emphasis on moving around on non-flat surfaces, which is totally cool. Plus, if anyone knows how to get the most out of the Wii controller, it’s these guys.

Enjoy!

Many of my favorite memories from my Nintendo 64-playing days come from that land of Hyrule made so masterfully into 3-D in The Legend of Zelda: Ocarina of Time. I remember stepping into Hyrule field for the first time, thinking how amazingly vast the plain before me was. It was the first time that Hyrule had been cast into the third dimension, and the result was stunning. I still remember how “realistic” I thought everything was back then (and, really, compared to all that had come before, it was realistic). Many gamers can probably relate to all of the possible nostalgic sensations I could describe when I talk about this game, but that’s not the point of this discussion. The fact that Ocarina of Time was such a break-away hit and left such a good taste in so many gamer’s mouths was what I had in mind when I recently sat down and bought all of the Zelda games for sale in my Wii’s virtual console. Reality, however, had other plans.

I ended up buying The Legend of Zelda, Zelda II: Adventure of Link, and The Legend of Zelda: Ocarina of Time. When I first sat down with Zelda and Zelda II, I had forgotten how hideous the games on NES really were. The Wiimote bears a striking resemblance to the old NES squared-off controller once you turn it sideways, which was a nice treat for the eyes, but actually playing the games was a different story. I was quickly reminded why all of the old Nintendo consoles had “select” as a button on their controllers: you had to use it, and often. I’ll admit my attention span only lasted for about 30 minutes on each of the two NES games, but that was all I needed to remind myself that sometimes it’s better to let the past be past, and realize that the reason people play games on consoles like the Wii and the PS2 is because they’ve made so many improvements along the way. People don’t like pressing select, they’d rather use the arrow keys: thus, newer games use the arrow keys. OK, fine, $10 is an acceptable loss in this case. At least the logo channels will look good on my Wii’s dashboard.

Before I began playing Ocarina, I wondered if I would have a similar experience: maybe after having played Twilight Princess and Wind Waker, Ocarina of Time wouldn’t be very fun. With this in mind, I clicked the OoT channel with the Wiimote and began to play. Of course, with all Nintendo 64 games on the Virtual Console, you’ve got to use the “Classic” controller as they’ve labeled it; some kind of bastard child cross-breed of a nintendo 64 controller and a gamecube controller. It fits in the hand well, yes, but the controls are different enough from the original game to merit 10 to 20 minutes just to retrain your brain. It was amazingly hard to adjust to the new buttons, but the real test came with the movement of the character using the Classic Controller’s left thumbstick. The right thumbstick replaces the yellow ‘c’ buttons on the Nintendo 64 controller, and the change is nice. It makes it very easy to slide between any two of the yellow buttons, which is useful in some situations for the game.

The left thumbstick, the one which controls the movement of Link, is way too fast compared to the Nintendo 64 version. I don’t know what they did, or what they were thinking, but there is a subtle change here (I plugged in my Nintendo 64 and popped OoT into the cartridge slot just to be sure) and the stick is far more sensitive than the N64’s ever was. I suppose, if I had to, I would attribute the new sensitivity to the fact that the technology in the controller mechanism itself has greatly improve, and the controller I used to play OoT 10 years ago was probably a little worn out itself (not to mention that I’d spent so many hours playing on that thing that it seemed like second nature).

The game itself is exactly the same (so are the original NES versions), but this time we have a wireless controller (the classic controller plugs into the bottom of the Wiimote, and the Wiimote is wireless), some extra buttons on the classic controller itself, and the benefit of a “Home” button that we can use to get back to the Wii dashboard (N64 didn’t have a dashboard, so turning the console off after saving was the next best thing).

To be sure, I’m still making my way through the vast expanses of Hyrule to defeat Ganondorf (if only so I can then play Majora’s when it comes out on the console, and then wind waker, and then twilight princess with some continuity), but it’s going a touch slower than it went when I played the first time through. The magic is still there, but it’s harder to get into the game when the graphics aren’t so cutting-edge. For $10 (1000 Wii points), the game is a worthwhile investment, since it’s held to be one of the best games ever made by many authorities.

So, while Nintendo has done an excellent job recapturing the Ocarina in this case (the smoothness of play on the Wii is notable) with their new controller, they’ve missed something in terms of capturing the time that the game first came out. That exact magic felt when first entering the game may be elusive, but playing the game through once more on your Wii will feel a hell of a lot better than simply dwelling on it.

While Resident Evil: 4 is not a new game by any stretch of the imagination (released originally in 2005 for the Gamecube), it’s recent release for the Nintendo Wii has stirred up fans and newcomers alike, putting it at the top of sales charts everywhere its opening weekend. We got hold of a copy, sat down and played it, and were just as amazed as everyone else at how good this game is after 2 years.

This isn’t a full review, as the game is aging by all standards; instead, it focuses on the differences between the Gamecube and Wii versions of the game, commenting on the strengths of the wiimote as a complement to the already-engaging gameplay. The graphics and sound in the game have remained constant to the Gamecube version, which is kind of a bummer. At the same time, it means that this title is available for a cool $29.99 from most retailers, making it a great snag and a completely worthwhile addition to any Wii collection. Think of it as buying a better controller for your Gamecube version!

Without any introduction, the game starts out on the menu screen, with a noted lack of crosshair that we’re used to controlling in most Wii menus. Selection is made either with the thumb pad or with the nunchuck control stick, and confirmation is made, of course, with A.

The game itself starts out with Leon investigating a small, worn-down house in the middle of nowhere in Spain. Control is given to the player without any introduction, a strange move considering that most games coddle through the use of the controller, especially on the Wii.

The controls feel extremely natural, and the trade-off between the ability to move and the ability to shoot doesn’t seem nearly as restrictive on the Wii as it did on the Gamecube. The fluidity of the aim is another solid point: it really gives the effect of aim-and-shoot, rather than “hit the control stick and pray”. The one part of the game that I am still having trouble controlling fully is the “auto”-knife ability that is also exclusive to the Wii version. Regularly, one must press the c button on the nunchuck in order to equip the knife. The Wii edition includes the option to simply swing the Wiimote back and forth, simulating a slashing motion, which will cause Leon to perform the same move in the game. This is a very good way to do things, in my opinion; however, my problem is always that I’ve got the B button pressed down to aim, and swinging the Wiimote around in such a fashion causes my camera to look either sharply down or sharply up. Again, this is player error, but I would suspect that other people have this problem. I think I’m just a little too trigger happy.

Firing is acheived by pressing down B to aim, and then hitting A when desired. Reloading is implemented very skillfully by Nintendo: simply hold down B to aim and shake the Wiimote. Impressive.

Movement is performed using the control stick of the nunchuck, and is extremely fluid. One aspect of movement that the game (much to my dismay) does not include is the ability to sidestep, or strafe. I’ve grown rather accustomed to this type of movement during my time playing any game involving a gun, so it was sorely missed during the first hour or so of play. The Z button of the nunchuck can be used to perform a quick 180 degree turn, a complete lifesaver throughout the game, and one of the quickest ways to cover a lot of real estate with your crosshair in a short amount of time.

The inventory is accessed by hitting -, and the items within can be manipulated by pressing + and moving them around with the control stick on the nunchuck. Items can be rotated using the c button.

One important thing to note (and one of my favorite parts of the game) is the use of the Wiimote in a context-sensitive setting during cutscenes and boss fights. This is one of the things, in my opinion, that makes the game so fun and interesting. It’s like watching a movie. However, during the movie, when something is about to happen to the main character, there will be a hint displayed on screen as to the action you’re expected to perform with the Wiimote. Shaking side to side and pressing A and B at the same time are very common combinations. Successful completion of one of these combinations will result in the continuation of the scene, or maybe even the death of a boss!

Resident Evil 4 is still, in my opinion, a moderately difficult game. Much of the difficulty still comes from approaching situations in the game incorrectly, or not utilizing the world around you in your defense (or even offense). It’s intense realism will be too much for some to handle, but will keep many more engaged for the long-haul. The learning curve would be hard if it were expected to be mastered all at once, but the game does an extremely good job of easing you into character over the course of the first couple hours of gameplay.

For anyone who’s played Resident Evil before, I would recommend trying this game on the Wii. Like many other reviewers have said, and as this review hinted, the Wiimote does serve to soften the difficulty level somewhat, but it takes nothing away from the fun, and even serves to keep the player engaged. For those new to the Resident Evil franchise, don’t worry: you may be confused in the beginning, but the game will be no less engaging as you fill in the missing pieces for yourself.

Graphics: 8/10
Sound: 9/10
Gameplay: 10/10
Re-playability: 9/10
Value: 10/10
Overall: 9.2

Note: The overall score is not calculated as an average of the component parts. See our review calculation section for more information.

Much like WarioWare: Smooth Moves, Big Brain Academy: Wii Degree (BBA) gives the player an opportunity to test their skill in a variety of minigames. Unlike WarioWare, however, BBA will leave a far better taste in the mouth of the typical player as there is no true “end” to the game, which is designed to keep users coming back for small sessions every day.

continue reading "Big Brain Academy: Wii Degree Review"

There was some big controversy stirred up yesterday on the interwebs as the ESRB handed down their initial sentence rating of AO (Adults Only) for the anticipated game Manhunt 2. The game is to be released on PS2, PSP, and Wii simultaneously on July 10. For some reason, both Nintendo and Sony have adopted policies that they will not allow licensed third party software providers to release AO content on their console (meaning that only games without the license on the package, such as the white wii stripe at the top of Wii games and the “Playstation 2″ on the side of PS2 games, can have such a rating). This means that Rockstar’s upcoming title has no choice but to either abandon production (a stupid move for a game that’s already complete enough to be handed a rating) or take out enough of the content or mood to change the rating back down to M.

I personally don’t care about this game at all, and I’ll probably never even play it, but I feel like this situation and the attitudes of both Sony and Nintendo toward this issue are somewhat anti-competitive. Releasing a game with no license is a veritable death sentence for a console game. Retroactive edit of the game once it’s in this production phase seems as if it would take something away from the original intentions of the game designers. Rockstar’s in a pretty bad situation.

What are they to do? Personally I hate everything about having a video game rating system at all; what a good way to pass the buck to someone else for corrupting your kids, though. It’s not as if putting any kind of rating or preventative measure on a product has ever stopped any minor or otherwise from consuming as much of that product as they wanted. AO is a slightly different ballgame from an M rating, though. I don’t have enough information about how the ESRB came to their judgement, and whether it was a marginal case or not. However, the ESRB seems to have a disproportionate amount of power relative to the amount of good they’re actually doing.

I have a feeling that most of this hype is just a big marketing scheme for Rockstar, those silly guys. My feeling is based on nothing but my gut, which is why I believe it to be true with unflinching certainty. Hopefully Rockstar bucks up and tries to reverse this rating. Otherwise, I hope they make it way worse and send me a copy at my home address. At least it will be more interesting than trying to sit through another Saw movie.