Super Smash Bros. Brawl

I’m not a long time Smash Bros. fan. This is my first time with Brawl. The only experience I have had was with Melee for like 20 minutes of game time at a friends house.

At first, I have to admit, I was really disappointed in the game. It’s just after waiting so long for it’s release, I was expecting a 3D game with full usage of the wiimote and nunchuk for fighting. Instead I got a button mashing, side scroller. Don’t take me wrong. I really have learned to love this game, but I just think that they could have done something cooler with the wiimote and could have lost the side scroller.

I think one of the reasons I have gotten so into this game is because this is the first time I’ve used the Wii connection to play online with friends. Let me tell you, it’s really cool. I talked to one of my friends who I was brawling with on speaker phone and played a bunch of levels with him. It’s very easy, you just imput your friend’s friend code and you can play whatever games you both own. This seems to be the game me and my friends really like to play through the Wii connection, followed by Mariokart. – On a side note – If you decide you want to play another game, you’ll have enter a different friend code that the Wii will give you. I would recommend you find every friend that has a Wii, cause this is really fun.

When you start Brawl, you’re set up with a large bunch of Nintendo characters which should keep you busy for awhile. But in order to unlock the other characters in the game, you must play certain numbers of battles or do the adventure mode (the Subspace Emissary). I will talk more about that in a second. You can play as a wide selection of characters some are only unlocked after a lot of game play. From Mario to Olimar (Pikmin) and from Pikachu (Pokemon) to Sonic. Each character is very unique. They each have four special moves, different smash attacks (punches) and a final smash.

There are lots of different stages to Brawl on, and each one is based off different Nintendo games. One of my favorite stages to brawl on is Animal Crossing. You can go on and play Saturday nights at 8:00pm and see KK Slider playing a concert (by the way – when IS Animal Crossing coming out for the Wii anyways?). There is also a mode where you can create your own stages which you can completely design.

Also, like I’ve said before, sometimes getting the manual makes the game too easy and go too quick (especially when you’re shelling out $50 a game), but for Smash Bros. it helps unlock characters, stages, and beat the adventure mode but doesn’t ruin game playability. It also gives you a slight advantage when playing multi-player.

The Subspace Emissary is awesome. It’s Brawl’s adventure mode where you jump on Koopa Troopa’s heads, do boss stages, and just have time to explore, check it all out, and ’save’ the Nintendo worlds from a mystical villain. And…my favorite…getting to watch the cut scenes. Like I said in my review of Marvel Ultimate Alliance, the cut scenes are amazing. Once again, the cut scenes graphics are far better than the graphics in the game – by a long shot! Sometimes I just play the game to get to the next cut scene. They are so well played out, you might as well be watching a movie.

So, what I’ve learned is button smashing can be really fun, especially when you play through Wiiconnect24 with your friends. Side scrolling or not, this game has a lot to offer and it’s one that I go back to again and again.

• Play Ability 9 stars *********
• Game Graphics 7 stars *******
• Cut Scenes/Cut Scene Graphics 10 stars **********
• Multi-Player 10 stars **********
• Wiimote Usage 1 stars *
• Longevity 10 stars **********
• Overall 9 stars ********

Finally for some extra fun – go check out this free online game. It’s super fun, I’ve been playing it all night.

http://puzzlefarter.com/

Boom Blox

I usually stick with my favorite brands (Nintendo), but I’ll tell ya, Steven Spielberg and EA teaming up was genius. Spielberg’s Boom Blox uses all the things I love about the Wii really well and then blends it with my other favorite – building. I’m a Lego freak and it’s a perfect game for building. When Steven Spielberg teamed up with Lego years ago, he created Lego Movie Studio which I still love.

I read that he’s a gamer and really wanted a game to play with his kids. He was involved in all aspects of development. I heard he even named some of the characters after his kids.

The first thing you do is pick a little block creature to represent your file (I picked the cow). Then you choose a mode from play, multi-player and create. Most likely, you’ll choose play first. It gives you 8 or so training tests and then sets you up with the adventure mode which you can choose or you can go to a bunch of timed challenges and stuff. Let’s say you chose the adventure mode like I did, it shows you 4 worlds, but only one is currently unlocked. Every time you beat a world, you unlock another one.

Each world has a theme. The 4 themes are castle, where you throw virtual balls at different towers to defend and invade castles. The next one is a jungle adventure where you save baby ‘gorillas’ from evil tikis. Did I mention that the controls are spot on? I will explain why in a second. The third world is a Cowboy Gold Rush level where you harvest gold. The fourth and last world is a Halloween set of levels where you’re trying to protect trick-or-treating kitty-cats.

OK, now about the controls. They are awesome! In order to throw a ball at a stack of blox, you simply point the wiimote at the screen and press A to target. Then you simply flick your wrist like you are throwing a ball. One of the coolest things it detects how hard you are throwing it. Another way you use the wiimote is like a sticky hand to move blocks. You can also use it like a hose to spray blocks, a laser, and a lot of other different ways. The multi-player mode also works great. It so much fun to race against my Dad trying to knock down blocks faster than him. In the creative mode, you can build levels from scratch using all the pieces that are in the normal levels.

The controls for building levels, I thought at first, needed to be tweaked a bit, but after a few hours of play, it’s just perfect.

The only complaint I can think of is that it’s a time-sucker. My Dad and I think we’ve been playing for 10 minutes and 2 hours have gone by. Thanks to my Uncle and some cool things I’ve heard about Boom Blox, I got it. I am so glad I did because I was so surprised, considering I’m not usually drawn to games that are called puzzle games.

Trust me on this, get this game. It’s just pure fun.

• Play Ability 10 stars **********
• Graphics 8 stars ********
• Wiimote Usage 10 stars **********
• Longevity 9 stars *********
• Overall 9 1/2 stars ******** /*
  

Wiifit – Fitness post #2

Since I last updated I have lost 3 pounds and unlocked a lot of new exercises of different types.

I’ve unlocked a balance game called Penguin Slide where you lean left and right to catch fish, as well as a snowboarding balance game. I’ve unlocked a type of hula-hoop called “Super Hula-Hoop where you hula to the left and hula to the right – according to the games instructions.

I love a new game that I can jog in place called Free Run, (not on the Wii board, but with the controller in your hand) and you can change the imput and watch TV while you’re jogging. It’s awesome. I set it for 10 minutes and watch a little tube (my current favorite is “Big Bang Theory”) and get a little winded and… jog 1 1/2 miles!!!

There’s a new boxing game that’s called Rhythm Boxing. You punch a Wii boxing robot using the remote, nunchuk, and Wii board. You follow a sequence of foot moves, stepping on and off the board while ‘punching’ the Wii robot.

I’ve also unlocked a bunch of strength exercises and yoga poses.

I will continue to do updates on Wii Fit and keep working on reaching my goal.

• Penguin Slide 8 stars ********
• Rhythm Boxing 8 stars ********
• Super Hula Hoop 8 stars ********
• Free Run 9 stars *********
• Snow Boarding 9 stars ********
• Overall 9 stars ********