E3 !!!

Animal Crossing City Folk. I have never been this excited about a game (except maybe Super Mario Galaxy). I just finished watching the Nintendo spotlight from the E3 conference -and I had a feeling that they would be talking SOMETHING about Animal Crossing, but they came right out of the gate with it!!!

I was jumping all over the house. Seems that ever since the Wii debuted, there has been talk of Mario Galaxy and Animal Crossing. I felt like I waited forever for Mario Galaxy, but nothing compares to how long I’ve been waiting, checking, wishing, checking again, for Animal Crossing.

I found out a lot about Animal Crossing, but there are still a lot of questions I want answered. Like, I assume you use the wiimote to dig and ax as if you were actually digging and using an ax, but they didn’t talk about that. What they did talk about was AWESOME. One really cool feature is how integrated it is to the online community. You’ll be able to send letters from Animal Crossing to cell phones, or email them. The town itself looks basically like the other two, the style is a mix between the Wild World DS version and the original. From what I read, there was a round table discussion with the Animal Crossing creator who also announced that you could go between your DS version and the Wii, transferring items. I didn’t hear it first hand, so if it’s true, that would be great. More importantly, it’s the first Animal Crossing where four players can play at the same time, there seems to be questions as if it’s players on the same system, or anywhere in the world. Even though it will be really cool to play with people via the wifi connection, I’m still hoping that the people in my town (me, my Dad, mom, and sis) can all play at the same time. But what I do know is at least you can walk around town with your friends using wifi. Imagine fishing at the same time as your friends! AND with the new Wiispeak hardware, you’ll be able to hear them as well. That basically means that Nintendo will be releasing a little hardware device that can sit on top of your motion sensor bar and pick up voices in the room. So when friends are playing Animal Crossing with the Wiispeak you can hear each other and communicate. You can visit in houses together, talk, hang out. I can’t wait.

So why did they call it, “Animal Crossing City Folk?” Well when you see a bus pull up at a bus stop in the city, you’ll know. The trailer movie shows characters going in places such as Gracies (the fashion designer giraffe), and Harriet’s Hair Salon (where you can get a new hairstyle or even better, put on your Mii mask. There is also the Happy Room Academy with Lyle, the Action House with a Gyroid and so much more. Animal Crossing has always been one of my favorite games. My Animal Crossing collection is almost as big as my Mario collection. I have won many, many auctions to get each and every tiny (and I mean tiny) figure, house, and building. As you can imagine, I can’t wait to get my hands on this game. Whoo Hooo! 2008 release!!!!

After watching Microsoft’s gaming line-up and console plan and hearing about the future of Sony, It made me really understand why I’ve always been such a Nintendo freak. Simply, the games are FUN, not just for me, but for the whole family. Nintendo’s upcoming release line-up includes all sorts of titles I can’t wait to get my hands on. Sure they have a few dark titles, like the crowd favorite, Call of Duty, Something or Other, but mostly it’s games like Wii Sport’s Resort. A vacation in a box. Using the new, super sensitive addition to the wiimote, the wiimotion plus, you can play frisbee with your ‘dog’ on the beach, you can ride around in the ocean on a ‘jet ski’ even sword fight. Wii Sports Resort will be a Spring 2009 release, and promises to deliver more games, but these were the only ones they mentioned.

Another cool, new game is Rayman Raving Rabbids TV party. The third game in the Wii Rayman Raving Rabbid Series. What makes this different than the other two is they added the balance board to the selection of fun ways to take advantage of the Wii. From the E3 video trailer it looks like you get to sit on the board to control things such as sledding on some sort of wild animal. You can also stand on the balance board to surf and such. The story basis I read about in Nintendo Power (so I already knew about this game) is the Rabbids have taken over the Rayman’s world, our world, and now they are after the TV, I can’t wait for this game, it’s going to be a lot of fun seeing more of what the Rabbids have cooked up.

Nintendo didn’t really give away too many details of the new Star Wars Clonewars game, but what they did show looked fun. Light saber slashing battles with Count Dooku and General Grievous. So it’ll be a lot of fun doing that, but I’m not sure about it being a game I will go back to again and again.

There is a new snowboarding game called Shaun White’s Snowboarding to take advantage of the balance board. It’ll be fun snowboarding, but I don’t think I’ll get it over something like Raving Rabbids, TV Party.

Nintendo also showed a lot of new games for the DS. I think the fact that they are coming out with more songs for Guitar Hero: On Tour so quickly is great, because with all the music games, you start looking for new songs pretty fast. The new release, Guitar Hero: On Tour Decades will allow you to swap songs back and forth with friends who might have one game and you have the other. The other thing that they talked about a lot was using the Nintendo DS to access, what seems to be the internet, but they were a little vague. They did say you will be able to access sites to check when your plane is landing or how to get a rental car, so it will be some sort of online stuff.

There were a lot of DS titles I’ve never played or heard of, so it’ll be interesting as they start getting released, which ones end up top of my Christmas list.

I know that a lot of hardcore Mario, Link, and Samus fans were disappointed that there favorites didn’t make an appearance at E3 (I know I was a little). The closest we got was a picture of Mario and Samus flashed up on the screen during the presentation, but come on, ANIMAL CROSSING is finally coming to Wii. That makes E3 for me, without all the other cool stuff they announced.

My Dad and my Uncle went to E3, the last year it was open to the public, just months before the release of Wii. They played Mario Galaxy, got to play numerous titles, try out the wiimote months before I got my hand on one, and heard all about Wii Music (yes I was jealous). All of the things they previewed have now been released for the Wii, except Wii Music. So I am happy that E3 2008, Wii Music is now a reality.

Wii Music looks amazing. Looks like something we will play a lot. Especially since we all can’t play every instrument for real like my dad the musician. This actually looks like it will be fun for all ages, even my three-year-old sister! Seems you can choose from over 50 instruments. There are individual controls for each instrument, used in a way you would if you were really playing the instrument. Like, you hold the “guitar” like you would if you were actually holding a guitar, with the wiimote as the frets and the nunchuk to strum. You drum by hitting the air with the wiimote and nunchuk AND you can use the balance board as pedals.

What got the crowd cheering was when Mario creator, Shigeru Miyamoto, came out playing the virtual saxophone! He explained that in Wii Music you don’t have to follow patterns like Rock Band or Guitar Hero. You just hit, strum, or press buttons on your “instrument” and it makes the song sound cool. It does track your how fast or slow you play, so you should all play at the same tempo when you are playing a song with your “band.”

Another crowd pleasing moment was when Shigeru Miyamoto and some other Nintendo folks got up and performed live (and with their mii’s on the large screen behind them) the theme song to MARIO BROTHERS!!! A perfect way to finish the Nintendo spotlight.

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 #1

I have a confession to make, I have, lets call it a little bit of a Nintendo belly. There is just like 8 lbs. more of Mii than there should be. So I decided to use Wiifit to try and slim down the extra of Mii.

So I get Wiifit on release day (you pretty much know by now that I get Wii games that I really care about on it’s release), come home and get started. I am so excited about this, which makes me think that the folks at Nintendo are true geniuses to get gamers excited about exercising.

First off, I stand on the board not having any idea what it was going to feel like, but I did not expect what it did feel like, it felt like a regular floor. It wasn’t springy, bouncing, flimsy. It was really solid. It felt so cool just standing on it. So I begin, locate my wii, put in some height, clothing weight and age information and it begins to ’scan’ your body for your first BMI (body mass index) and weight. It finds your center of balance and measures your agility. It then tells you scores and then you ‘discuss’ your weight/BMI goals with a animated balance board. Mine is 8 lbs. by August, my birthday. It tells me that’s a reasonable goal if I’m dedicated, etc. Hmmm, me dedicated to a video game, I don’t think that will be a problem.

Training begins. You pick your trainer. I picked the guy (I would’ve picked my marathon training aunt if I could) and then the animated balance board gives you a fitness bank where you earn credits to unlock new exercises. There is four categories to choose from: Balance, Aerobics, Yoga, and Strength. There is also a fifth category called favorites where you can store the exercises you do the most. I start training with a skiing game. Awesome. This balance board feels your slightest motion as you ’ski’ down a mountain, going through gates. Next up I tried ‘hoola-hoop’ – Dad, don’t ever show that video! Very funny. Twirling my hips around to catch and keep up stacks of hoola-hoops.

It’s now day 5, I’ve exercised everyday. It’s hard and fun, once again, genius! So far, besides skiing and hoola-hoop I’ve done jogging (not on the board but with the wiimote in your hand), a marble balance game, soccer heading, penguin slide, basic step, tight rope walking, yoga (very hard), push-ups and more.

I’ll post again on my progress. Wish me luck.

• Play Ability 10 stars **********
• Graphics 8 stars ********
• Wiimote Usage 8 stars ********
• Longevity 9 stars *********
• Sound 7 stars *******
• Wii Accessory (wii board) 10 stars **********
• Overall 9 stars ******** (if I lose 8 lbs. – I’ll bump it up a star!)
  

Guitar Hero III: Legends of Rock

Guitar Hero III: Legends of Rock is a lot of fun. It’s great rocking out to songs like “Rock and Roll All Night,” and “School’s Out for Summer.” Although the button combinations get a little old after awhile, it still a great way to rock. This may be a weird complaint, but the characters all look ugly or dorky, and some just plain freaky. I would love it if we could play as our own Mii characters. That would be awesome. Two player would be a lot of fun… if they had come out with a second controller when the game was first released! Just now I am starting to find companies releasing 2nd guitars, but they’re pretty expensive.

You can play Guitar Hero without a guitar. It has advantages and disadvantages. An advantage is that you don’t have to strum so you can focus more on blazing through button combinations. A disadvantage is it’s hard to remember which buttons are which for notes and it’s just not as much fun as having a guitar in your hands.

Each stage you have four songs to choose from. If you do a song well, you also have encores. Each time you unlock a new stage (not only a new stage as in level, but an actual new ’stage’ to rock on), you get another four songs. Through career mode, you unlock songs and money. You can use your money to go buy new gear. I think it’s hilarious when they’re giving you little virtual slips of paper with bills that total money earned less all your expenses from life on the road, like when you get billed for trashing a hotel. I would love in the next Guitar Hero if you could virtually trash the hotel your getting billed for.

The one design flaw I found was, that unlike the new Wii Wheel for Mario Kart, you really have to either grab another controller, if you have one, or take the controller out of the guitar to easily use the Wii Menu. It does have a toggle but you have to be holding the guitar at just the right angle for it to work.

I want to review Wii online play, but, due to technical difficulties with my cousins Wii in Arizona, we only got to rock out for a few seconds – BUT THOSE SECONDS WERE AWESOME!!! Hopefully we’ll figure out the glitch and go through our gaming selection, play all the games with Wi-Fi and do a separate review.

My Dad is a guitar player, spent years at school studying music. Let me tell you, in no way does this give him an advantage over me who cannot play the ‘real’ guitar at all. My Uncle, who is an original geek, can kick my dad’s butt on Guitar Hero. Even when my Dad’s on Medium level of Hardness and my Uncle is on Expert. Dad, I’d still rather know how to play the real guitar if I could, don’t worry.

If you’re a hardcore rocker, or a music lover of any kind (like me who likes to play air-guitar), I would buy this in a heart-beat.

• Play Ability 8 stars ********
• Graphics 7 stars *******
• Wiimote Usage 4 stars ****
• Longevity 8 stars ********
• Sound 10 stars **********
• Overall 8 stars ********

Marvel Ultimate Alliance

Marvel Ultimate Alliance is fun playing just because is houses such a huge database of characters, but, unfortunately, that comes at a price. First of all, the camera is always zoomed out really far. It’s a bit annoying and it just gets boring beating up robots and such. All the power-ups are real confusing as well. One plus, is that each character has it’s own set of abilities, such as the Silver Surfer can ride his board through the skies while Spiderman can swing web to web. My dad and I are pretty big comic store geeks, so we had high hopes for this game. The game play is fun in multi-player mode, it’s just a little strange because your character looks so tiny (even with our giant tv). The movies within the game, strangely, are the best graphics I’ve seen and the best part of the game. In my opinion, the graphics on Marvel Ultimate Alliance Wii are better than the graphics on Zelda, Twilight Princess. Funny, they seem to have spent all their money and time making the graphics for the stories awesome and then they skimped on the graphics in the actual game. I’d like to tell endless details about every level, but to be honest, after beating up robots and stuff, bam, bam, bam, bam, bam, bam, bam, bam, bam, bam, bam, well I got pretty bored. Especially since Marvel Ultimate Alliance had to fight with my time against so many other awesome Wii games. If you are really into getting this game because it Marvel, then fine, but otherwise, if your looking for a similar style game, then go for the far superior, Smash Bros. Brawl.

Story and Story Graphics 9 ********* Game and Game Graphics 3 ***

wiiviewing

I’ve been a Nintendo freak since I was four when my parents got me my first Gameboy. My obsession with Mario soon followed. I’m a serious collector of all things Nintendo and feel that I am as qualified as any of those old guys at Nintendo Power are to review games. I have a Gameboy Advance SP, DS, DS lite, Gamecube and a Wii (purchased on release date, duh). I also have a PS2, it’s fine, but it’s no Nintendo!!! I have and will always (money allowing) get each and every Mario game the day it comes out. I’m also Lego obsessed (which makes me love the Lego Starwars series and I’m counting down the days until Indiana Jones and Batman). I’m super obsessed with Animal Crossing (collectibles too) and pretty much anything Wii. I will be wiiviewing all my wii games (I have 20 already!) as well as games as they come out and games I’ll rent. So in-between school, friends, family and legos … I will be updating with wiiviews as often as I can.