Post Via amazon in Wii Accessories Review
Wii Frontman Wireless Guitar
I was a bit hesitant going with a non Guitar Hero branded guitar, especially with some of the less than favorable reviews, but I am glad I took the chance. The Price for the Frontman is much more reasonable and so far the guitar has worked perfectly. I have not noticed any difference between it and the branded guitar. I am not quite sure yet, but I might even say I like it better. So if you are tired of playing Guitar Hero alone, I strongly recommend getting the frontman and saving a little cash for another game.
More Information - Best Prices
Post Via amazon in Wii Games Review
No More Heroes
this game is so whacky in its storyline and dialogue that it must have come from the minds of the great minds at ubisoft. fighting sequences are so violent and bloody but hella fun...especially when u nail a boss with a wrestling move. the side jobs u do to earn cash are so ridiculously mundane compared to the rest of the game that i cant help but laugh. seriously now...mowing the lawn and picking coconuts? lol. i love this game.
More Information - Best Prices
Post Via amazon in Wii Games Review
Winter Sports The Ultimate Challenge
We haven't tried all 15 events in Wii Winter Sports yet, but wife and I completed the 7 event competition earlier this evening. My second day of playing with it, her first. It took 55 minutes to complete the 7 event competition although there were a few pauses, as reported by the game itself. I'm not sure if it stops timing during pauses, but it wouldn't have made much difference either way. We were both breathing hard and sweating (and I swim about 500 yards each day). Then I did curling, which isn't in the 7 event competition and now my arm is sore from sweeping.
We've done ski jumping, 4-man bobsled, skeleton, figure skating, alpine skiing, 500M speed skating, and slalom skiing. You can compete against time or the Wii, depending on the sport, or against another team. You can have multiple people on a team. Many of the activities require you to use both the controller and the nunchuck, but there is very little use of the buttons on the devices. You use them to control or gain speed and to control direction. In curling you also use the controller to sweep.
There is an opening ceremony like the Olympics and medals are awarded - if you earn one. There are a pair of announcers and they don't mind making fun of poor performances.
Winter Sports doesn't use the Mii's. It does have more lifelike characters although you have no control over what your character looks like. Operating these games is more complicated than any of the games in Wii Sports, and the manual is only OK. I still don't know what carving is in downhill skiing, but the onscreen instructions tell you how to do it. For each event the game presents illustrated on-screen instructions before the event begins. It is easy to skip them and even to prevent them from being displayed. You also get to control the relative volume of the background music, the sound effects and the voices of the announcer. I have to reduce the volume of the music for the announcers to be understandable.
Overall, so far it isn't as natural to us as tennis or any of the other games in Wii Sports, but it is fun and exercises different muscles. These are sports that we've never actually participated in so none of them are as natural to us.
I've posted a note in the Amazon Forum asking for tips on how to use the controls in the curling event. I'll also ask in a Wii Usenet newsgroup.
More Information - Best Prices
Post Via amazon in Wii Games Review
Ghost Squad
My girlfriend and I love this game. I also own House of the Dead 2&3 Return, and its great to have two awesome shooting games for Wii. Just as I did in my review for HotD, I highly recommend picking up the Wii Perfect Shot Gun for use in this game.
I like unlocking weapons and costumes, it adds some replay value to the game. I also like the fact that you have an infinite ammount of continues (Although in HotD, I get more satisfaction when I win on my set ammount of lifes).
Skipping cutscenes is annoying if you are using the Perfect Shot (and probably the zapper). I only hold the Perfect Shot with one hand, and the action button (skip cutscene button) is the a button, so its usually annoying to push. It is also awkward to do the action scenes in the game, and change shot type, but its something that I can get used to.
There are a few mini games under the training section which are pretty fun to play. I haven't tried out party mode yet, but I've heard good reviews about it.
More Information - Best Prices
Post Via amazon in Wii Games Review
Guitar Hero Aerosmith Bundle
To be fair to everyone, I should state that I am approaching this item as a forty-something man who has been familiar with Aerosmith almost from the start of their career. While I am not a devoted Aerosmith fan, I have owned a number of their albums over the years and was happy that they revived their career after so many difficulties. I knew before I bought this game that it would feature mostly Aerosmith with songs from all stages of their time as a band, and of the forty songs in the game, there are twenty-four Aerosmith and three Joe Perry songs. One does not have to idolize Aerosmith to enjoy this game, but it would obviously help.
Here are the problems I found with the game.
1. Although we are supposed to be following the band's career, the songs do not appear in chronological order.
2. When the star power functions, the audience does not clap along to the beat of the song. It follows an arbitrary fixed rhythm that does not change from song to song. This glitch adversely affects play when one attempts to follow rhythm as well as visual cues.
3. The accompanying tour book indicates that perhaps at the last minute, the game company had to rely on cover versions of songs rather than originals. So, we do not have the New York Dolls, Mott the Hoople, the Kinks, or the Black Crowes in this game as originally rumored. We have art work in the tour book with those names erased, however. To their credit, the game developers now prominently name the cover bands during game play, and I actually like the new arrangement of All the Young Dudes that features a guitar solo at the end.
4. The playlist is stingy. I am happy to find The Cult and Joan Jett in the game. I would have liked to have seen more bands that have influenced Aerosmith and more that have been influenced by them in turn, to provide more context. And, honestly, Ted Nugent's Cat Scratch Fever shows up on practically every 70s rock compilation around, so I'm ambivalent about its being in this product, too. No offense intended to the Nugent fans, but he did record a lot more than that song (maybe not Stranglehold, but Motor City Madhouse would work just fine). Further, there are no current, breaking bands on this disc; including them would have made a stronger argument for Aerosmith's legacy--the newest non-Aerosmith songs on here are from the early 90s.
5. I do not think I have gotten all that talented on Guitar Hero, but I when I played the first few levels in easy mode, I creamed them. This game starts off much easier than Guitar Hero III. I suspect that this game is intended more for dads than for the kids, and the game producers have dumbed it down accordingly. I prefer to play games as tough as those intended for my kids; this easy mode could be a bit more challenging.
Still, the game works well, and I am happy to have gotten the option to purchase the bundle with the guitar so my family can play co-op mode of this game and Guitar Hero III. Still, I suspect we'll be playing GH3 more than this one.
Finally, if the company really wants to go for specific demographics, perhaps it should consider genre games rather than band-specific games. Guitar Hero III is predominantly metal, but it contains enough mainstream rock to have a broader appeal. I imagine a southern rock genre game would appeal to a number of older Guitar Hero fans, and considering the guitar-heavy sounds of Lynyrd Skynyrd, the Allman Brothers, and the like, that game could give players a mighty workout.
In conclusion, Guitar Hero: Aerosmith for Wii will provide exactly what the packaging says. Like Guitar Hero III, it lets parents and kids share music. It draws musical connections some might not immediately recognize. It's fun to play, and it works. I just wish they had done more with the concept.
More Information - Best Prices
Post Via amazon in Wii Games Review
Top Spin 3
I have played every top spin, had fun, played for hours and finished the game. But they seemed to have forgotten all the things that make top spin fun when they made this WII game. Custom characters, drop shots, overheads, lobs, slice, lots of characters to play, left handed support, levels, training tutorials... all missing (or working badly). I'm glad I just rented this one. It's going back early. One extra star for the music.
More Information - Best Prices
Post Via amazon in Wii Games Review
Top Spin 3
****__Control
***___Family Fun
**____Individual Fun
***___Overall
--- Descriptions ---
1) Control:
Much more realistic control than Wii Sports but more complicated (i.e. You don't need to move the player and only need to swing in the way you like it in Wii Sports). The control is a five-star for me but not for everyone. So I have to give it a four-star.
For beginners of sport games, it might takes a while to learn the simultaneous motions of moving the player by left thumb, choosing the swinging type (i.e. regular swing, slice swing, etc.) by left index finger, and swinging the bat by right hand. Also, the timing of swinging takes a while to get use to. The experience of Top Spin does help to the timing. In Top Spin, you need to move the player to proper location and push the swing button pretty early than you imagine. Once you push and hold the swing button, the player only slides a little bit toward the moving direction due to inertia (i.e. slides more on the sand in Paris) and the direction control becomes the control of aiming. For example, if you want to move toward left and swing the ball toward the right, you need to do the following control: (1) click left button (2) when you think the player reach the good spot for swing even the ball is still on the way, click and hold the swing button (3) at the same time, you need to release left button and hold right button.
Similarly, Top Spin 3 is following the same theory as Top Spin. You need to run to the proper spot for swinging and swing the bat even the ball is on the way to the spot. Once the ball reaches the spot, change the direction control (by left thumb) to the direction for aiming. If these control can be performed smoothly and the player has good ability for the motion, you can see a very smooth and strong performance of the player. Beyond that, if you can choose proper swinging type (by index finger) and swing properly (bottom-up diagonal swing for top spin, top-bottom diagonal swing for slice) at the same time, you will become a pro of the game.
Because of the way to control this game, when the opponent serves a super fast ball, you might have difficulty to catch the ball. The timing between the ball is released from the opponent and the ball reaches the swing spot, which is the exact time you have to make a decision for swing, is very short. When you face this kind of speedy serve, you can only guess and make either forehand or backhand swings within that timing. And cross your fingers that you can reach the swing spot in time and switch the direction control for aiming.
2) Family Fun
I give the game a three-star for this section because you will need four sets of Nintendo Wii Remote and Nunchuck Combo to play two-on-two. Furthermore, it's difficult to have four competitive people who all get used to the control.
3) Individual Fun
Unlike Top Spin and Virtua Tennis 3, create new player is on longer available. Yes, it's fun to play with known players. But it's even more fun to create a player on your own and watch his growth through numbers of trainings. All you can do from the game is Road to Glory Mode. It's a tree structure of events. You need to pass the events from the bottom of the tree and reach the glory by finish all the events. There are around 1x events totally. You can save after you pass some of the events and load to continue the rest next time.
4) Overall
I don't recommend to buy this game. If you want to enjoy the fun of swinging, you need to practice more or have some experiences from the previous game. If you want to have fun with your family, you need four Nunchucks. If you want to create a new player and build up his ability in the way you want, sorry this is not the game you want to buy. I will recommend the training games/tasks in Top Spin and Virtua Tennis 3, and the way you can increase the world ranking of your player in these two games.
More Information - Best Prices
Post Via amazon in Wii Games Review
Top Spin 3
This game isn't the worst game but it's not amazing. The gameplay takes a bit to get used to and the way you hold the Wiimote is really awkward. It is a fun game with all the swinging motion to hit the ball and stuff. I do wish that you could create a player like Top Spin. I think since Microsoft gave it's rights to 2K Sports, the game just isn't as good. Would recommend if you like to play real tennis. This works if it's raining outside and you want to play tennis.
More Information - Best Prices
|
|
xml feed