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Some advice for Wii owners....
Apr. 3rd, 2008 09:46 pmOk, basically I wrote this in the comments of the Nintendo Wii LJ group. Since my comments were so well received and since I spent so much time on them and (most importantly) since I haven't written anything in my blog for so long, I'm posting it all here:
So....... here's a summary of the games I have and what I think of them. It should give a pretty simple idea of which ones are great, which ones are ok, and which ones require a bit of thought.
Personal Favourites
Okay, these first seven games are my personal favourites
Zelda: Twilight Princess
Super Mario Galaxy
Trauma Centre: Second Opinion
All of these games will take a long time, involve plenty of variety and are great fun from beginning to end. If you don't already own them I'm surprised.
Yes, that's right, I include Trauma Centre in that list. It's actually one of the best games for the Wii. It's imaginative, exciting, challenging, makes good use of the Wii controls, and also the music is pretty catchy. If you haven't played it either find someone who's got it or just buy it. You won't regret it.
Excite Truck
Great fun from beginning to end. Perfect controls. You'll probably notice that it is hideously underrated. (I'm hoping that Mario Kart works as well as this did.) I only leave it out of the earlier three because, being a driving game, it doesn't have the variety those games did. Nevertheless, what with being able to choose what music to drive to while you smash through other trucks, navigate through trees at high speed, and rocket-boost your truck over ramps and go soaring through the air, all go to make this a damn good choice.
Rayman Raving Rabbids
A true personal favourite (which unfortunately means that many people really don't understand why I love this game so much). I loved this from beginning to end, and still enjoy playing the dance game a lot. While it can be good to play in multiplayer, I found it great fun on my own.
Link's Crossbow Training - WARNING - VERY SHORT
Yes, this game really won't take you very long, but is actually probably the most fun of all the shooting games I've played. (It also benefits from being significantly cheaper, despite containing the Wii Zapper which, unfortunately, you might as well do without.) As usual, this is another Nintendo game which has that 'certain something' to it which just makes it 'work'. While it's short, it's gaming genius from start to finish.
Resident Evil 4: Wii Edititon
Quite simply the best version of the game you'll find. I only put it this far down the list because you've probably played it already. Nevertheless, it works really well with the Wii controls and I absolutely love it.
Update: Guitar Hero III: Legends Of Rock
Absolutely amazing. Not just a game, but an experience. The easy mode won't take you very long, but don't worry as you won't be satisfied until you've completed it on Medium. That'll take you a bit longer and then the addiction shifts to completing it on Hard mode. Basically this game becomes an obsession and it's fortunate that it inspires so much passion as it costs a bloody fortune!
Pretty cool games
Metroid Prime 3: Corruption
There are some very nice moments in this game, so it feels really mean of me to put it in the secondary category like this. However, in the end I felt a little underwhelmed. When I finished the game it just felt like something was missing. (This may be partly because I'm such a huge fan of the previous two games.) Another problem was I felt a bit too guided sometimes. Metroid games have always been about a lone bounty hunter doing their own thing not a special agent working for a boss. So, when you get contacted by some soldier saying 'come this way now' and get told you have been given 'objectives', you can sometimes feel a little irritated. (I'm actually being pretty picky here, but if I don't explain my issues with the game most people would wonder why this isn't amongst my personal favourites.)
Zack and Wiki (SHORT? Haven't finished it yet, so not sure.)
I actually love this game, but now I'm getting VERY stuck and I'm spending far too much time looking at FAQs. (That could just mean that I suck). Also I think I'm coming to the end of the game which means that the game isn't really terribly long. Nevertheless, the game is genius in so many ways. The game consists in a series of point and click puzzle games with a limited number of items to use. (The problem with this later level is that it is much longer and there are more items to keep track of. Nevertheless, the FAQ said that it was the hardest level in the game so I guess that explains it.)
Update: Yes, it is kinda short and the huge penultimate level is hugely irritating. There are some extra quests after the game is finished to find some extra bits of treasure but, to be honest, this extra section isn't that appealing. I still think the game is fantastic, but it is a little on the short side.
Ghost Squad WARNING: SHORT (SORT OF)
Not the best graphics, but a great shooting game nonetheless. A perfect port of a Sega arcade game. The rather odd way the game works means that it only has three levels, but adds more and more little sections to those levels the higher a level you get. While it might sound a bit dodgy it actually works very well.
Resident Evil: Umbrella Chronicles
Rather unforgiving in one player, but in two player the game is enormous fun. The menus feel rather unpolished, but the quality of the game cannot be denied.
Super Paper Mario
I've actually traded this in now. It's very text heavy and the later levels seem to run low on inspiration. However, that's by comparison to the earlier levels which are absolute genius. For the most part you'll find that the huge amount of text is nevertheless funny and entertaining even if it does take forever to scroll through. The game is absolutely fantastic for the first three quarters, but it becomes less fun after that, so when you reach the end you won't want to play through a second time. If you can borrow it from a friend, definitely do so.
Kororinpa WARNING: TOO SHORT!
This game is brilliant. I absolutely loved it. It involves rolling a ball around, but it's just done so, so well. However, length-wise it seems to rely on you wanting to play the whole thing all over again in 'mirror-mode' and unfortunately, unlike with Excite Truck, the levels don't feel particularly different when played backwards. As such, if you find yourself playing this game constantly (as I did) this won't last longer than a week. It's a real shame.
Don't touch this!
Marvel Ultimate Alliance
Starts off fun, then just gets boring. Slash at monsters, slash at more monsters, deal with naff puzzle, more slashing at monsters, a bad guy taunts us, then we kill them. Seriously, you have to a complete superhero obsessive to find any of this fun in the long term. It started off being pretty entertaining, but I couldn't keep going with it.
Mario Strikers Charged
Whether you win a game or not is pretty much random. When trying to win a cup in single player you have a semi-final to go through. No matter how well you've been doing prior to the semi-final, if you lose the semi-final you lose the cup (no retry options). The Wii remote controls feel tagged on. Just don't bother.
Call Of Duty 3
Oh, Jesus F**king Christ, the motions don't work, sometimes you find yourself stuck spinning in circles because of the cursor controls. Did I mention that the motion-controls don't work. And, oh dear me, the hand to hand fights are so ridiculously unforgiving, goodness knows what kind of motions you are meant to be performing, and it's a matter of luck whether you win or lose. Must be the worst Wii game I have ever played. Honestly, don't bother with it.
So....... here's a summary of the games I have and what I think of them. It should give a pretty simple idea of which ones are great, which ones are ok, and which ones require a bit of thought.
Personal Favourites
Okay, these first seven games are my personal favourites
Zelda: Twilight Princess
Super Mario Galaxy
Trauma Centre: Second Opinion
All of these games will take a long time, involve plenty of variety and are great fun from beginning to end. If you don't already own them I'm surprised.
Yes, that's right, I include Trauma Centre in that list. It's actually one of the best games for the Wii. It's imaginative, exciting, challenging, makes good use of the Wii controls, and also the music is pretty catchy. If you haven't played it either find someone who's got it or just buy it. You won't regret it.
Excite Truck
Great fun from beginning to end. Perfect controls. You'll probably notice that it is hideously underrated. (I'm hoping that Mario Kart works as well as this did.) I only leave it out of the earlier three because, being a driving game, it doesn't have the variety those games did. Nevertheless, what with being able to choose what music to drive to while you smash through other trucks, navigate through trees at high speed, and rocket-boost your truck over ramps and go soaring through the air, all go to make this a damn good choice.
Rayman Raving Rabbids
A true personal favourite (which unfortunately means that many people really don't understand why I love this game so much). I loved this from beginning to end, and still enjoy playing the dance game a lot. While it can be good to play in multiplayer, I found it great fun on my own.
Link's Crossbow Training - WARNING - VERY SHORT
Yes, this game really won't take you very long, but is actually probably the most fun of all the shooting games I've played. (It also benefits from being significantly cheaper, despite containing the Wii Zapper which, unfortunately, you might as well do without.) As usual, this is another Nintendo game which has that 'certain something' to it which just makes it 'work'. While it's short, it's gaming genius from start to finish.
Resident Evil 4: Wii Edititon
Quite simply the best version of the game you'll find. I only put it this far down the list because you've probably played it already. Nevertheless, it works really well with the Wii controls and I absolutely love it.
Update: Guitar Hero III: Legends Of Rock
Absolutely amazing. Not just a game, but an experience. The easy mode won't take you very long, but don't worry as you won't be satisfied until you've completed it on Medium. That'll take you a bit longer and then the addiction shifts to completing it on Hard mode. Basically this game becomes an obsession and it's fortunate that it inspires so much passion as it costs a bloody fortune!
Pretty cool games
Metroid Prime 3: Corruption
There are some very nice moments in this game, so it feels really mean of me to put it in the secondary category like this. However, in the end I felt a little underwhelmed. When I finished the game it just felt like something was missing. (This may be partly because I'm such a huge fan of the previous two games.) Another problem was I felt a bit too guided sometimes. Metroid games have always been about a lone bounty hunter doing their own thing not a special agent working for a boss. So, when you get contacted by some soldier saying 'come this way now' and get told you have been given 'objectives', you can sometimes feel a little irritated. (I'm actually being pretty picky here, but if I don't explain my issues with the game most people would wonder why this isn't amongst my personal favourites.)
Zack and Wiki (SHORT? Haven't finished it yet, so not sure.)
I actually love this game, but now I'm getting VERY stuck and I'm spending far too much time looking at FAQs. (That could just mean that I suck). Also I think I'm coming to the end of the game which means that the game isn't really terribly long. Nevertheless, the game is genius in so many ways. The game consists in a series of point and click puzzle games with a limited number of items to use. (The problem with this later level is that it is much longer and there are more items to keep track of. Nevertheless, the FAQ said that it was the hardest level in the game so I guess that explains it.)
Update: Yes, it is kinda short and the huge penultimate level is hugely irritating. There are some extra quests after the game is finished to find some extra bits of treasure but, to be honest, this extra section isn't that appealing. I still think the game is fantastic, but it is a little on the short side.
Ghost Squad WARNING: SHORT (SORT OF)
Not the best graphics, but a great shooting game nonetheless. A perfect port of a Sega arcade game. The rather odd way the game works means that it only has three levels, but adds more and more little sections to those levels the higher a level you get. While it might sound a bit dodgy it actually works very well.
Resident Evil: Umbrella Chronicles
Rather unforgiving in one player, but in two player the game is enormous fun. The menus feel rather unpolished, but the quality of the game cannot be denied.
Super Paper Mario
I've actually traded this in now. It's very text heavy and the later levels seem to run low on inspiration. However, that's by comparison to the earlier levels which are absolute genius. For the most part you'll find that the huge amount of text is nevertheless funny and entertaining even if it does take forever to scroll through. The game is absolutely fantastic for the first three quarters, but it becomes less fun after that, so when you reach the end you won't want to play through a second time. If you can borrow it from a friend, definitely do so.
Kororinpa WARNING: TOO SHORT!
This game is brilliant. I absolutely loved it. It involves rolling a ball around, but it's just done so, so well. However, length-wise it seems to rely on you wanting to play the whole thing all over again in 'mirror-mode' and unfortunately, unlike with Excite Truck, the levels don't feel particularly different when played backwards. As such, if you find yourself playing this game constantly (as I did) this won't last longer than a week. It's a real shame.
Don't touch this!
Marvel Ultimate Alliance
Starts off fun, then just gets boring. Slash at monsters, slash at more monsters, deal with naff puzzle, more slashing at monsters, a bad guy taunts us, then we kill them. Seriously, you have to a complete superhero obsessive to find any of this fun in the long term. It started off being pretty entertaining, but I couldn't keep going with it.
Mario Strikers Charged
Whether you win a game or not is pretty much random. When trying to win a cup in single player you have a semi-final to go through. No matter how well you've been doing prior to the semi-final, if you lose the semi-final you lose the cup (no retry options). The Wii remote controls feel tagged on. Just don't bother.
Call Of Duty 3
Oh, Jesus F**king Christ, the motions don't work, sometimes you find yourself stuck spinning in circles because of the cursor controls. Did I mention that the motion-controls don't work. And, oh dear me, the hand to hand fights are so ridiculously unforgiving, goodness knows what kind of motions you are meant to be performing, and it's a matter of luck whether you win or lose. Must be the worst Wii game I have ever played. Honestly, don't bother with it.
