Console Review: The Nintendo Wii System

Okay where to start. Me, like every other 12 year old in the world wanted a Nintendo Wii console for Christmas. Me, like 500,000 other people were sadly disappointed on Christmas morning. However, since my sad reality of never receiving one, I decided to just lay low, and chill out on the whole “I NEED IT” attitude.
I dropped by gamestop every now and then, and constantly got told, “Sorry, sold out.” “Maybe next week/month”

4 days ago however my luck changed, and I got my greedy needy hands on the last one in the store. This is why I’m here; I want to brag about my Wii. I love my Wii!!!!

Before getting my hands on the system, I thought it was too good to be true. I doubted the Nintendo Wiis promise. Besides, how could a game literately put me inside of it? I don’t buy it, especially for such a small price tag.
Well my thoughts were wrong, and doubts erased. You will feel just that. You are in the game. You are what makes it go, what makes it tick.

Before I get into all of the technical things, let me tell you the system is awesome. I wouldn’t, and couldn’t ask for more from this system. Not only am I having fun, but my big butt is also getting in a daily dose of exercise. In which I barely did before. –Recent study showed that if a person played the Nintendo Wii for one hour everyday, they could lose up to 5 pounds a month. I read that on some Internet article. Unfortunately I don’t have the link. But if and when I find it, I will add it in this review.

SET UP

The Wii was boxed nicely. No foam pieces to get thrown around. Everything was packed nicely in sturdy cardboard inside of the initial box. Of course there were instructions. I, like many others, don’t necessarily like reading the instructions to anything. I’m the type of person who wants to just plug things in, and get things going immediately. WARNING: You will need to refer to the instruction manual. So don’t think about throwing it away the second you open the box. For one, you’re going to need to read the section about how to set up the Wii sensor bar to the top or bottom of your TV. Easy enough, you may think. Yes I thought so too. But you got to be careful where you place the bar. It is a very slim flimsy piece of plastic. The bar itself has double sided sticky tape. So wherever, you place it, try and make sure your not going to have to move it around too often. It can, and will break easily if not handled properly.

- You’re also going to want to refer to the instruction manual on how to get the Wii to register you Wii sensor controller, or controllers. It’s a pretty easy basic step, and asks for some button pushing. But without reading the manual, you could be lost, and think your remote controller is broken. It’s not; it just has to be registered. Once that step is done you won’t have to repeat the process, which is a great time saver.

These 2 things are pretty much the only need you will have for the manual. The rest of the plugs just go into the proper sized slot. There’s no rocket science to figuring out which plug goes into which hole in the back of the console.

THE NINTENDO WII REMOTE CONTROLS

At first I thought this was going to be impossible. I have never in my entire 18-year gaming history, seen, or held a game controller quite like this one. It’s shaped just like a standard TV remote control, only smaller. At first glance one may think it’s going to be hopeless gaming. However, once you have the system on, and controllers registered, you will immediately get the feel of the remote. You will also see that it’s way easier than you thought at first. This remote is the remote that you will use for most of your Wii gaming.

NUNCHUCK-

this is the attachment remote. It gets snapped right into the bottom of the other remote. WARNING: Do not rip it out from the other remote when you are done using it. There are two small buttons at the bottom that need to be held to release the nun chuck from the other controller. My nephew was the genius who decided to do this and it cost me another 20$ for a new one. So definitely stress this to smaller impatient children who may be playing with YOUR toy.

This remote is a small banana shaped remote you hold in your other hand. The remote itself doesn’t have much use to the Wii Sports that will come with the Nintendo Wii, if you happen to get this bundle. It has an analog stick similar to older game cube remotes in the middle of it. It also has a button on the bottom, which can be pressed for different results; depending on what games you may be playing. The only time this controller was used in Wii Sports was the boxing game. As you flail this remote out in any direction, the character on the TV will do the same.

WARNING:

Always, I repeat, ALWAYS, wear the remote controllers safety strap. It slides over your hand. This is to make sure no one flings the remote at the television or at someone else. –There have been plenty of accidents I have read about this system because of this. It’s a simple direction. WEAR THE STRAP! Don’t risk losing an eye, or TV set. Or heck, don’t risk breaking the remote. They are just as rare to get your hands on as the Nintendo Wii itself. If you don’t believe me, go check out the overpriced remotes they’ve got up for grabs at www.ebay.com

THE NINTENDO WII

When you first turn your system on your going to be asked to put in a few basic details. Here you can give your system a nickname. Add the time, and the date, and you’re ready to go.

After this quick initial set up you are then going to be taken to a screen with 4 different mini blocks. Some will be blank. These blank boxes will be filled up with games you happen to buy, or purchase at the Wii store.

What’s the Wii Store/Wii Shoppe?

Hehehe. This is the best feature in my opinion. In order for the Wii store to be activated you have to set up the system to the Internet. After this you may purchase old games from older systems to download onto your Nintendo Wii. Games from consoles such as, Sega, Nintendo, Super Nintendo, and more are available on the Wii Shop Channel. Neat old school classical games us 80’s children may of grown up with. You can only buy Wii stuff with Wii points. An annoying process I thought at first.
I thought I was going to have to go out to best buy or Wal-Mart and purchase a Wii Card. Nope. You can easily purchase points with a credit card. 2000 points will buy you about 2 good games and one ok game. Grand total $20. Nintendo 64 games will run you 800 points. So you could grab 2 great N64 games for 1600 points, and an old Nintendo game.

WII MAIL

That’s right, regardless of whether or not you have the system set up to the Internet, you can still and will still get wii mail. You won’t be able to send mail to other Internet users, but you can send mail to other Mii’s on your system. Say, your brother, boyfriend, or girlfriend uses the same Nintendo wii. You can post them messages. I found this to be a cute feature for parents who want to leave their kids a quick note that they KNOW they will get.

The Nintendo Wii will also send you a daily TODAY message. If you click on it, it will show how long you played for the day, or if you beat any records for the day. You will be surprised at how fast 3 hours goes by when you play the Wii.
Good exercise! I don’t know anyone who would exercise for 3 hours straight. You won’t even realize your getting a workout, but you are. Your body will feel it in the morning.

PICTURE STATION- (picture channel)

This is one sweet feature. You can place any SD Digital camera card into a small slot located in the front of your Nintendo Wii, and you can view your photos on you TV. Not only that but any picture you choose you can play with it. Either choose to draw on a photo, or play with the photo, by converting it into a puzzle, then try to put it back together again. You can also view all of the photos in a slide show if you want. I like this feature a lot. It’s neat if you want to show your family vacation photos without having to rush down and get them all printed up immediately.

NINTENDO MII’S

This is another feature on your start up page. You click on the Mii logo box, (also known as, the Mii Channel) and you are taken to a new window where you can create a character to look like you to play in the game. This is a fun spot to start. It gives you not only a chance to get used to the Wii’s remotes, but you can create pretty much anyone, of course with limitations. Clothing colors are limited to only about 16, which sort of stunk. Hair color red seems to be missing. You can choose a box that looks red, but your result is not red. It’s more of a darkish brown color. You can make your character short or tall, thin or fat. You’re Nintendo Wii, will store up to 100 Mii’s in the system. What’s neat about the Mii Channel is that you can store a favorite Mii into your remote controller and take your Mii to go. (A friend’s house)

I’ve heard of people being able to make a Mii look just like them, however I have not mastered this yet. My character looks nothing like me. The limitations are probably why. You’re limited to only a small amount of different eyes, noses, hairstyles and mouths. However with the color schemes your possibilities are pretty much endless.

After you have created your Mii, you can now start playing the Nintendo Wiis Sports game that may or may not of come with your system. –I know the this game is the game that came with the system. However there is a new release either out now, or coming soon, where the Wii console will be coming with Zelda.

The sports game has 5 different sports to play. Tennis, baseball, golf, bowling, and boxing.

All of them are just as fun as the next. My personal favorite is golf. So I’m going to cover that one first:

GOLF: You have 3 choices of play on the main game. Beginner, intermediate, and advanced. To play you just hold the Wii remote like a golf club, hold button A, and let her swing. There are also 3 more mini golf games to play in the training section. On a scale from 1 to10. I give golf a 10.

BOXING: This is very fun. You will need both remotes for this game. You can verse the computer or a friend. It’s very tiresome, and this game provides the best workout for you as well. Your arms will be very tired from this game.

TENNIS: I don’t like this one particular game. The controls act funny when you take a swing at the ball. It’s probably my least favorite. But I was never good at it in real life either. My rating on this one is a 6.

BOWLING- you hold the control and flip forward, the ball rolls, and wham. You either get a strike, or you don’t. This game gets a 10. I enjoy it very much, and you will have a lot of fun playing against your friends and family.

BASEBALL- this is also an extremely fun game. You hold the remote just like you would a bat. When the ball is heading for you, you swing away! It’s awesome. I give this one a 10 as well.

- All of these games have 3 mini games to play in the training section. So really your getting a total of 5 sports games, plus 24 mini games. Totaling 29 games in all. If this game didn’t come with the Wii, I highly recommend spending the money on it.

--Nintendo Wii may not have the greatest graphics out there, but for the small price tag compared to its Sony competition they’re sweet. The graphics may not be as great at PS3’s, but it’s my opinion to like the Wiis graphics more. I’ve always liked Nintendo’s cartoon like game worlds. Some may disagree, but it’s just my take on the whole graphics/realism topic. I don’t have the playstation 3, but from reviews I’ve already read, the price tag is absurd, and it’s not even that great.

Nintendo Wiis $249.99 price tag is well worth it, and beyond. I feel like the price tag on the system is an absolute steal.

There is also already a large collection of games readily available to buy. Some titles I know of are Zelda, Elebits, Warioware smooth moves, Rayman, Cars, Shrek, Spongebob, Red Steel, Wii Play, and many more.

I would, and I have already recommended this system to friends. I would buy another just to have it for the downstairs TV, that’s if I could get my hands on another one. It’s great fun for seriously anyone, of any age. I dub thee, Nintendo Wii, the greatest console ever made. A awesome, unique, fun, and energetic approach at the video gaming world. I predict Nintendo only getting greater and greater with time.

Game Review: Trauma Center: Second Opinion For Nintendo Wii

Trauma Center: Second Opinion for the Nintendo Wii, luckily for me was only rented.
I read the other reviews on here first, which promised me some fun game play, and this is why I picked it up.
I will agree the game was fun for, oh a mere 20 minutes. After that everything else was just a repeat of the last surgery, or mission. However you would put it.

You start off as an extremely immature, lazy sleepy eyed, doctor; Doctor Styles.
No one really likes him/you; everyone tells him he’s not a real doctor. Even as you play with him, you yourself will begin to feel like he’s a moron. What kind of doctor would perform surgery without blood test results first? Really it’s not your fault though. You have no control over the story line, and the immature behavior of your doctor. You only control him in the surgery room, after that he’s whatever the game developer wants him to be. Idiot, smart, idiot…

Every surgery is like the last with some minor changes. First you go through about 5 minutes worth of extremely boring semi pointless dialogue, before each surgery. No voices either. I’m talking reading, reading, and more reading. The character faces never change. They sit at the right side of the screen and the only thing that changes is the dialogue box.

The music never changes either. There are two, yes, only two different melodies; a good upbeat rhythm, or, a sad melancholy tune. When you hear the sad music, you know something sad is going to happen in the dialogue, or- story. If it’s good music, it’s good news. Extremely predictable. Get it? Got it? Good.

Performing surgery can be quite difficult at first. You have your operation tools on the bottom left side of the screen. This is the hardest part to figure out on the controller. For some reason all of the tools are lined up in a circle, instead of just a straight line on the bottom of the screen. You have to use the nun-chucks analog to choose which tool you will be using. However this is tricky, the analog is hard to control and choosing the right tool you want is hard. Like, very hard!

The remote you hold in your other hand becomes the doctor’s hand. At first it’s a tad bit tricky to do all of the things perfect. You will find yourself sewing up stitches, and sometimes messing up really bad. You have to move your hand in a zig zag motion to sew up a patient.

You really only get 3 patients to work on in the beginning as your tutorial, after that your nurse (assistant) leaves the hospital- more boring blah blah this and that dialogue. After she leaves you get a new nurse who doesn’t help you anymore. She will sit there at the bottom of the screen though, and scream ‘DOCTOR’ every time you mess something up. Other than that she’s useless to you. You will be hearing a lot of that in the entire game. DOCTOR, DOCTOR, DOCTOR… It’s very annoying, and probably the only real voice you will hear in the game.

Some of the surgeries you will be performing are, removal of tumors, removal of glass in the body. You will be putting bones back together, which is probably the hardest thing for you to do. It consists of making hands jerks, and weird twists and turns of the wrist, to get bones back to their correct positions. Every surgery will feel like the last, (besides bones surgeries) only longer and more tedious, as you have a time limit ranging from 3 minutes to 5 minutes. If you do not complete the surgery/operation within the allowed time, the patient will flat line and die. Yes, I lost one because of a fractured arm. Whoopsie daisy! My bad!

Pretty soon your immature doctor becomes an adult, and realizes his past mistakes, but wait there is a twist. Now that he takes his job seriously, he’s also magical! Hooray! Yawn. Figures…
That’s right, your character Dr. Styles has a rare healing touch. Mm hmm, this is the stupidest thing in the story they could of thrown in. You now can draw a star on the patient and it could save them from death. Pretty much it means none of your patients will die, if you draw a star on them time slows down, and you can save him. Lame.
You also have a magical potion, a shot. You give your patient a shot of this green medicine, and their heart rate goes up. The green magic goop never runs out either. So poke away.

You will be working with a few different tools. A scalpel, magic green medicine, disinfectant, ultrasonic/magnifying glass, tweezers, and during some missions other tools will become available. But only for that mission, you don’t get to keep them.

Now lets move on and cover the graphics. I myself have a weak stomach, and can’t bear to look at blood or inside of organs, and guts.
Thankfully this game did a nice job of making it not too graphical, or gut wrenching disgusting. To me they are not wonderful graphics, but well enough for such a game. I honestly wouldn’t want to see better graphics though.
However the way the blood pours in the game is too fake for me. It comes out in clouds, and kind of fuzzes over the effected area. It’s weird looking. A little gushing would have been okay to add, without crossing the line into disgust.

Every mission ends the same 99% of the time. You sew them up, disinfect them, and then give them a bandage. All done.
Each mission is repetitive, so you won’t find yourself playing this game longer than an hour or 2 when you first buy it. After that, it’s just another disc to throw into the closet. There is more dialogue in this game then there is actual game play. The dialogue is boring, and gets worse as the game continues.

I wouldn’t recommend buying this game, but I would recommend giving it a try by renting it. It’s not worth the $50 price tag most stores are asking for it. You could probably beat the game in a day or two, if you didn’t die of boredom first. For a game to last only 2 days, it’s not even worth a buy.

Video Game Review: Elebits for Nintendo Wii

They’re like little dust balls, lice, or even mice (except they squeal like kittens) just running around loose all over the house, all over town- its anarchy. They’re actually called Elebits though. They are little creatures that generate electricity, and they have all escaped during a lightning storm; now there is no power for lights or any electronics to work. It’s your job to capture them, and re-power the city, or world I should say, by zapping, or ‘sucking’ them in.

The story opens up, and Kai, a boy (you) is left in charge to collect the elebits with your dad’s zap gun. You never actually play as Kai though. The game is in first person shooter at all times. He’s just the one who will be telling the story.

Each level requires a certain amount of wattage (each elebit has a different amount of wattage depending on its color, and how you capture it, depending if the elebit is confused, scared, or happy, when you catch it, the wattage will differ) to pass on to the next level.

The game itself is a first person shooting game. Only it’s not hard like some other difficult first shooter games on the market right now. The controls are quite easy to use. The zap gun is easily used by pressing the A button, or the button underneath the remote. Then the nun chuck is used to move around the environment.

Elebits is like a search and find, where’s Waldo type of hunt, only much more advanced, and exciting. You move around using the nun chuck and basically search the room up and down. You capture an elebit simply by placing your zap gun target onto it, then press the A button. It’s really simple seeing how most elebits are slow moving.

As you capture elebits your gun will gain more power. This is when things get messy, and a little difficult. For one when you start throwing beds and desks around, sometimes you end up blocking yourself into a corner, and the only way out is to throw more things around. Also as you collect more elebits, certain things become unlocked. Such as lamps, televisions, and other appliances. One the appliance is unlocked, you can zap out a bucket load of elebits by pressing the A button. However some items require an action, and not all of them tell you what the action is.

Trying to figure it out wastes precious time. Each level gives you either 5 minutes or 15 minutes, so you have to use your time wisely, or you could end up failing the level mission. Opening doors sometimes can be difficult, but honestly I’d prefer to use the word annoying. The door requires you to hit the A button and hold it, and then you are to twist your wrist just as you would motion to open a real door. This is not the difficult part, but what is, is when the door quickly shuts on you. So basically you have about 1 second to react. If you don’t move fast enough, you have to do it all over again. Times a wasting, and the clock is ticking.

The game also comes with a generous assortment of tunes. Not vocal music, just chimes, and beats. Each time you pass a level, you also get a new song added to inventory. I think it’s neat, because God forbid they used only one song or two. You’d get annoyed quickly seeing how each mission ranges from 5 to 15 minutes. Hearing the same repetitive song could be annoying and bothersome.

As you pass each level, the game gets a little more difficult. Not extremely ‘I quit’ and throw the remote to the floor difficult though.

The game adds in some bad guys (they’re not really bad, but they can cause level failure). If you happen to make too much of a mess, a spiny elebit will come out. If this elebit throws itself at you, or you shoot it, you take damage. You will only be allowed to take 5 hits. So you have to watch your step, and not be too messy. As you become more accustom to the game though, these elebits will not even be an issue.
You also want to make a note to capture purple elebits as soon as you spot them. They throw balls of fire at you, and you take a hit. These elebits can kill you off pretty quickly if they aren’t taken care of.

Some levels also require you to stay quiet. The sound decibel will vary depending on the level. If you make too much noise, you fail the mission. This can be tricky, because as you advance some elebits will add to the noise. By either knocking dishes on the floor, or knocking things over as they try to escape you.

Also as the game increases in difficulty, you get more options to your gun. Through out levels there will be circular orbs and boxes for you to crack open. You get a new action to your gun. They range from the vacuum. This is the most fun; your gun becomes a big suction, and basically will suck up the elebits in huge amounts. If you find the vacuum in the level, you will clear the level quickly.

There are also shield orbs. This protects you from taking any hits. There are electrical orbs, in which I believe add power to your gun. –As the gun increases in power, it is able to lift heavier objects. Messy time! There is also the laser, this will target in on any surrounding elebits, making it easier to catch them in a quick manner.

Other levels require you to not break anything. You get a varying limit where you’re only allowed to break up to 10 items. This can be tough to do, especially when things get knocked over, and tossed around easily. You have to make sure you don’t toss anything into a vase, or glass. This limits the fun in my opinion. I love being able to freely roam, and make a huge mess without having to worry about breaking things. But you will get plenty of these levels to just run around and cause chaos, so I guess the added difficulty was needed.

About every 5 or 6 levels you pass, there will come a boss level. This battle for me was easier than catching elebits. The boss levels prove no real difficulty. So long as you know how to use the controllers, you wont have a problem at all. I like this, because Nintendo in the past has had a fair share of impossible bosses to beat. Being able to beat a boss gives a newer gamer the sense of accomplishment. However for a hardcore gamer, it’s also extremely disappointing to be able kick off a boss in less than 2 minutes.

Some levels also have cannons that will shoot at you. These are more annoying though, than they are a challenge. You can easily toss them aside by pointing your gun at it, and flipping the wrist. However, spotting them is not always so easy. So you will get shot a

few times if you don’t find the cannons fast. They are small and usually are hidden in high places, or sidewalls.

Besides story mode, you can also play Elebits in multiplayer mode. Up to 4 people can play. It’s basically whoever can catch the largest wattage/most elebits wins.

You also have an elebits album in the main menu. Here you can view all of the different species of elebits that you have caught, and learn a thing or two about them. This is a great advantage to you. You will learn sometimes where they hide, and or their weaknesses.

Okay so now that you got the basic point of the game, let me get into what I like, and dislike about Elebits.

DISLIKES

-Sometimes during game play the remote will go nutty, and the screen will point up at the ceiling.

-Being able to open doors and have them shut on you is terribly annoying.

- The lack of directions on certain actions is annoying

- Certain actions are too difficult to accomplish in a timely manner. For instance, putting a piece of bread into a toaster, or a pile of clothes into a washer.

- Some levels are repeats of the last. I’m not saying it gets boring or repetitive though. Just adding it as a note. Only one level I know of repeats 3 times. However when the repeats happen, new doors are opened. So you do get to explore a new room or two.

- I hate when I corner myself into a pile of mess. It’s hard to get out, and wastes time.

- I don’t know if it’s just me, but if you play this game for too long, you suddenly find yourself having a headache. I don’t know if it’s the 360-degrees of constant twirling and swirling on the TV, or if it’s just me. But my head hurts after about an hour of game play. It’s the same feeling you get when you stare at a computer monitor for too long.

LIKES

- I enjoy being able to throw things around with ease when my gun is powerful enough.

- I like how dresser draws open, refrigerators, closets, and everything in the home or level is intractable. No object goes unusable.

- I like how you feel you’re a human metal detector.

- The story pictures are beautiful.

- Music changes with each level. Nothing is repeated.

- I like the elebits that fight back (the spiked ones, and purple ones). It gives the game a neat challenge.

- Appeals to a wide assortment of age groups. Children or adults.

Now moving on to the graphics.

Like I’ve said in past reviews regarding Nintendo games, I’ve always been a fan of Nintendo’s carton looking games. This game is yet another Nintendo masterpiece. The levels are colorful, and bubbly. It’s sort of equivalent to Nintendo 64s Super Mario world 64. (Inside the castle)

The graphics however, are not up to par with the technology that exists today in gaming… but this is why I like it.

This game has already provided me with hours of fun, lack of sleep, and eye twitches.

It is definitely a great buy. You can purchase it at either Wal-Mart or Target for the best price. Or visit their sites. www.walmart.com or, www.target.com. The game will come to about $50 after taxes. However, if you wanted to get it for the lowest price, I’d just google it. www.google.com
You will not be disappointed.

Video Game Review, Sonic and the Secret Rings for Nintendo Wii

I’m going to be completely honest. Sonic and The Secret Rings is HARD! I’m one of these people who have little patience. If I can’t beat a board after 5 or 6 times of trying I throw the remote to the floor and have myself a gigantic pity party. I whine, I cuss, I give the TV the finger, and I get depressed. A game, defeats me!? I won’t have it! It is unheard of!

Someone defeated me, and honestly I don’t even know who. That is really how poor the storyline is.

Once you start the game you have to sit and listen to about 10 minutes of the most boring dialogue you have ever had to suffer through. (Like I said, I have no patience, and hate long cut scenes. A minute is more than enough for me, however I sat through it just so I could write this review)

Sonic is told by some genie, (she’s a girl) that the final pages to some book called Arabian Nights have gone blank (Yeah sounds pretty stupid right?) it is some dude named Erazor who is responsible for the blank pages. It is up to Sonic to collect these magical rings in order to beat Erazor and restore the blank pages to the book. Yay!!!

Blah blah, the genie gets a cold, she sneezes, and before you know it your thrown right into game play without even knowing whom your enemy is. Where is Dr. Robotnic?

WHERE WE GOIN’?

You will be taken to many different lands; however the first place you begin is just a tutorial, the desert oasis. Everything here is just a bunch of idiotic tasks you must perform in order to get to the next chapter inside of the storybook (or world). You will have to run through boards without breaking a jug (elebits anyone?), you will have to kill 10 enemies and not miss a single one in the level. You will be asked to collect 50 rings. All of the tasks are fast paced, and most of them are simple. However some tasks are close to impossible to complete.

The game is similar to how the original was. Sonic won’t die if an enemy hits him so long as he is carrying some rings. If he has zero rings, he will die, and you will have to start the level over again.

LAND HO’!

You will be taken to a desert oasis- this is the lands where your tutorial will take place. You will also be traveling to dinosaur land where you find yourself running away from some huge stampede in the beginning, robot land where you will do combat with a bunch of different types of robots, pirate lands, floating lands and more. Each land consists of about 20 missions. Some of these missions will be fast and easy to beat in only about a minute or two, while others can take around 5 minutes, or more depending on whether or not you die. There are a total of 7 fantasy lands, and one tutorial in all. So really there are 8, if you want to count the long boring tutorial.

SONICS’ GOT SKILLS

Depending on how well you completed a mission Sonic will also level up his ring. He will gain experience points depending on how well you did. You can only choose one ring out of 4 to level up. You can also customize your rings the way you want. For instance if you are on a mission that requires you to beat the world in a certain amount of time, you can customize the ring for speed.
You can either add speed, assault or defense when you customize your rings.

CUT! LIGHTS CAMERA, ACTION!!!!

Each chapter in the storybook you complete will take you to a cut scene. Sometimes a cut scene will even occur before you thought you finished the chapter, which can be annoying. Each cut scene is filled with more pathetic dialogue, and most of the dialogue in the scenes is 50% unnecessary. Why do we have to watch the genie sneeze? Why do we have to listen to Sonic say God Bless you?

OKAY

So what’s up with these controls?

Yeah it took me a hot minute to figure that one out too. See I was pointing the remote at the TV thinking that was how to control him. Nope. You turn the wii remote to the side and hold it like you would an old Nintendo remote controller. Now tilt it left or right. That’s how you get Sonic to move.

I find it stupid, and difficult even after a playing for a good hour or so. I don’t understand why the nun chuck was not used to move him, and the wii remote to jump and perform battle moves!

All of your battle moves will be done on the wii remote only, by flicking your arms forward. This is how Sonic kills things. However first you must jump, and then wait for the enemy to light up red. Then you can strike. Killing enemies takes a bit of practice and perfect timing. It is annoying, and most of the time your best bet is to just run passed enemies if you can.

You also can stop Sonic by pressing the 2 button. You make him jump by pressing the 1button.

However in order for him to jump high he must be completely stopped. Then you hold down the 1 button to get a higher longer jump. Weird, and in my opinion its lame to have to bring him to a full stop just to get him to jump high. Most of the time though he is running so fast it is impossible to get him to a full stop to perform a jump, so he just throws himself off of the ledge. This stinks because in most missions you will throw yourself off of ledges because you don’t know where they are, and they come up so fast. You will most likely die during these jumps until you’re aware of where they are, and when they’re coming up.

Sonic can also grind on rails. What I mean by that is he can jump up on rails and gain super amount of speed while he is zipping by. The rails however I would try to avoid. He slides so fast that once you see an enemy blocking your path, it is too late to perform any actions to kill it or get out of its way.

You can also tilt the remote back towards your body to get him to move backwards. Sonic will however go extremely slow when moving backwards, and it really messes with your vision when you try to back up.

What stinks about the controls in Sonic and the secret rings is how sonic is always moving forward. So if you happen to find yourself up against a wall, and an enemy behind you, it can get glitchy when trying to back up and smash the wall without getting killed by the enemy behind you.

SOUND-

Like I said before, the dialogue stinks, the tones of the voice actors are all over the place, and not only that but the songs in the game are all stupid little drumbeats trying to sound cool, but they are just annoying, and can give you a headache.

Not only do the songs and voices stink, but so does the fact that while in game play there is not a whole lot of different sounds. You will hear the chimes of rings being collected, sounds when Sonic hits an enemy, and a few others. There is not really a large assortment that you would expect. Each song and sound is the same as the last. Nothing really changes.

TONE DEAF?
Not only that but when a character is afraid, they sound happy. When they are mad, they sound calm. The tones of the characters are so off it can at times actually be funny, but not for long.
Eventually the whole dialogue just becomes a waste of your time, and really your patience.

I WOULD OF LIKED TO TAKE MY TIME AND SMELL THE ROSES-

There will be none of that in Sonic, and this is where I have the biggest bone to pick with the game. The graphics are beautiful, I will not deny that, the 3D scenes are beautiful; only, I can enjoy them for about a second.
Every world is colorful and charming. It is a mix of fantasy and reality and it does look stunning.

However Sonic runs so fast at times that I could see how one can easily pass out and start having an epileptic seizure. I found myself dizzy and getting headaches from this lightning fast game play.
It would have been nice if the fast packed action wasn’t such a blur. It would have been more enjoyable if I could have indulged in my environments instead of zipping through them with such ridiculously high speed.
The speed at times gets so out of control that you will not even be able to avoid enemies or spikes that pop up from floors or walls.

YOU SMELL SONIC, TAKE A BATH AND CLEAN YOURSELF UP

What stinks about Sonic and the secret rings is that the game play doesn’t continue in order. You must go into the chapter in the storybook, then click on the chapter you want to play inside of the chapter. Confusing yes? It’s not really hard to figure out when you are playing the game, however I find it annoying to have to continue to go back to the pages in order to play the next part of the game. Why could it not just continue in succession?
Not only does that stink, but the replay value stinks as well. I couldn’t fid myself wandering back to this game after completing it. It’s pretty and all, but it just lacks that ‘lets play more’ (again) aspect.

CAN MY FRIENDS PLAY?

They sure can, in party mode there are 30 different mini-games that come with Sonic and the secret rings. They are sort of fast paced Warioware type games, or Mario Party type mini challenges. All of them are fun, however after you’ve played each one they don’t really have that much replay value.

This is not what I was expecting from a $60 game purchase. The original charm from Sonic has been erased and fans have been striped of what made them fans in the first place. I really hope if they add a part 2 for the wii that it is nothing like this game.

YOU’LL WANT TO TRY IT, BUT DO NOT BUY IT

I would not advise anyone to go out and spend $60 on this game. However it is slightly fun, and probably worth a rent. Nothing more.

Video Game Review: Cooking Mama: Cook Off, For Nintendo Wii

So last night I cooked up some minestrone soup all from scratch in less than 5 minutes, not only that I was able to prepare exotic foreign meals in seconds. However Mama herself rated my meals. She didn’t quite agree with everything I had to cook. As a matter of fact, most of the time she wanted me to try harder. Sniff sniff.
But Mama listen, it’s not my fault really, the controls on your game… um, well they blow!

Cooking Mama Cook Off was first released for the Nintendo DS, and after reading an excellent review on the DS version, I just knew I had to try the newly released Nintendo wii version of the game. Cooking Mama Cook Off has brought to me 55 food recipes from 10 different nations, using 300 different ingredients, which I now can prepare on my television set with the ease of just flipping my wrist around.

I can now cook foods from Japan, America, France, Mexico, India, England, Spain, China, Italy, and Germany. Sweet!

The entire game itself is basically a series of a bunch of mini games that are placed in order to complete a certain food dish. However each task is time limited. So if you don’t chop the vegetables fast enough or complete the task on time, Mama will tell you to try harder. But instead of giving you a re-try you are thrown quickly into the next ingredient.

For me Cooking Mama Cook Off was sort of a bore. Each different recipe pretty much asked me to do the exact same thing as the last recipe. Nothing is really that different, and tasks become tedious and repetitive. Let me explain some of the tasks that you will be seeing a lot of.

GET TO THE CHOPPA!
Some recipes ask that you chop up some vegetables, waving the wii remote up and down as if it were a knife. You will have about 10 seconds to chop the vegetables.

*This task is far too easy, and I honestly wish they would of at least tried to make it a little bit harder, or maybe longer.

PEEL IT!
In order to peel vegetables you simply wave the wii remote up, and then down and the skins will come off. Hmph!

*The controls for this task make it quite difficult for me to perform this task. For some reason when you hold the remote upright like the game asks me to do, the sensor does not read the remote, and gets stuck a lot. You will most likely fail this mini game many times. I know I did.

GRATE THAT POTATOE!
Some recipes call for grated potatoes, ginger, cheese, or carrots. Waving the remote left and right can do this easily, and the vegetable will grate. However sometimes the grater will get clogged and you have to hold the wii remote upright and pound it down. For some reason, (like peeling) the wii sensor does not sense the remote anymore, and will simply get stuck or do nothing at all.

*Although the controls will glitch up, you will still be given enough time to complete the grating process. You have about 20 seconds to complete the grating task.

BUTTER ME UP!
There will be some recipes that call for buttering up a pan. There will be a large pan on the screen and a pat of butter. You have about 40 seconds to cover the entire pan with butter. This task is pretty simple. All you do is move the wii remote around and fill in the blank spots. It sort of reminds me of coloring. You will finish this task before time runs out.

STIR IT UP!
Stirring can be done by simply moving your wii remote in a circular motion; It’s pretty easy to do, although sometimes things can get a little glitchy and just stop for no reason at all.

IT’S GETTIN’ HOT IN HEA!
Heating foods are simple. Your dish will be placed in either an over, microwave or grill. You have to watch the bottom screen and make sure you turn off the device the moment the timing clock gets into the red. If you do not turn off the device fast enough you will burn your meal. You have about 6 seconds to get it right. You also do not want to remove your dish too early. This particular mini game does not call for any wrist motions. Simply click the ‘turn off’ button. It’s pretty simple.

FRY IT UP!

Fried foods can get tricky. You will be prompted to flip the fried foods whenever the screen asks you to. You can do this by flicking the wii remote in an upward motion and the food in the pan will flip around.
This particular mini game is easy except for the fact that everything is timed to precision. If you flip too early, or too hard the food will be ruined.

BARBEQUE, BARBE-QUE- A STINKY STINKY PEW PEW PEW!

The BBQ in Cooking Mama Cook Off is a little strange. You heat it up by using a Japanese fan. You move the fan back and forth to get the coals to start burning. Once the colas are burning be sure to keep an eye on the screen and not so much on the flame. You will be asked to flip the food that is on the grill. If you do not do this in time, your food will burn, and you will fail. Mama is not going to be happy!

LET’S COOK!

If you were to make minestrone soup, the first mini game you would be playing would be chopping the vegetables for the soup. Next you will be mincing them for about 10 seconds-Mama will then grade your chopping skills, next you will be grating some potatoes- Mama will then grade that, after this you are to stir the ingredients in a big pot. Stirring them can be difficult, the tasks are thrown at you fast, and everything is timed. You have to add ingredients when the game prompts you to, then you have to lower and higher the heat on the stove when you are told to do so, next you are to stir the pot. If you miss one prompt during any of the mini games Mama will decrease your grading.
After you have finished preparing the soup, Mama will give you an official rating based on how well you have done in each step. She can be generous and give you a gold badge (better than Mama), silver badge, bronze badge, or the big boot. Try harder.
After you complete a recipe a new recipe will sometimes be added into your recipe book. Yay!
Now what would of really taken this game to the next level would be to add the real recipe into my cookbook so I could prepare these foods in real life. Not having that is a little disappointing, seeing how the game itself is close to $60, adding in a few real life recipes wouldn’t of hurt. Fun and educational! No such luck.

MULTIPLAYER

Yes, Cooking Mama Cook Off will allow you and all your dorky friends to battle each other in this game. Well at least one anyway. The screen is split in 2, and you and a friend will be able to prepare a food dish. Whichever person prepares it the fastest and with the best accuracy will win the game.

INTERNATIONAL FRIENDS MODE
In this mode, you are basically challenging the computer. This is great for us dorks who don’t have many friends. Sigh* however you compete up against 10 different international foreign friends whom specialize in making certain foods from their country.
I totally hated this because for one the wii controls in Cooking Mama Cook Off are not so reliable, and the international friend is a specialist. The computer will never miss a beat, and you will. You will lose every time, so I am disappointed that this mode was even added, and why the computer ‘never ever’ messes up. Grrrr!

HOW’S THEM GRAPHICS?

They are pretty much like the majority of the Nintendo Wii games out right now; cartoony looking, and drawn in a childlike Japanese anime way. The colors are bright and sort of pretty, however there does not seem to be a large assortment of different colors so everything sort of looks the same. I’m going to give the graphics a 5 out of 10. Although they lacked colors, they weren’t terrible.

WHAT’S ON THE MENU?

Some dishes you will find in Cooking Mama Cook Off include, sushi, hot dogs, hamburgers, fried shrimp, octopus, pasta, fish, eggs, soups, custards, steaks, and more.

Alrighty then, let me tell you what truly annoys me about Cooking Mama Cook Off.

1. The fact that every time I get a gold badge for a dish, Mama has to annoy me with her high-pitched broken English squealing voice. ‘Gweat Joba, Bedda Den Mama!’
2. The fact that the controls are sometimes so glitchy that they stop responding.
3. The fact that I can’t beat any of the computer generated characters.
4. That each recipe basically asks for the same prompt as the last
5. That the game promised 300 different ingredients, but failed to mention that almost all of them are in the exact same white bottles just with a different name on them.
6. That the game does not include the real recipe so I could cook some of this sludge up at home. Octopus with ink sauce! Um… ech.
7. After completing a dish, I couldn't see myself wanting to go back and do it again. Basically once the 55 dishes are done, so is the game.

SO WHAT’S GOOD?

Well Cooking Mama Cook Off will provide you with a few hours of good fun. It is also pretty neat to play in multi-player mode and go up against friends and family members. Although the controls stink at times, it’s still a good game. Good game, not great, not excellent, just okay. Not only that but a lot of the mini-games will provide some arm exercise. Get them guns a little toned up!

PASS IT ON

I wouldn’t recommend buying this one quite yet, however it’s one of those games that I have a feeling will decrease in price quickly. The game play repeats itself, and gets pretty boring, pretty fast. Until the price of this game goes down, as of now it is only worth a rent.

Rapala Trophies for Nintendo Wii

This game was so bad that I honestly wasn’t even going to waste the finger power to write a review on it. I figured it might P--- me off if I did.

Rapla Trophies for the Nintendo Wii was one of the releases that came out quickly after the wii console launch.
Seeing how Wii’s gaming library was so small and this game was in this small library, I figured I’d give it a try. I love fishing. Why not right?!

I’m still confused as to why this one was even released; it really made me doubt Nintendo wii after I played it.

THE BEGINNING:

After I plopped the disc into the wii I was surprised at how beautiful this game looked. The opening scene had me in awe. Was this fishing game going to be that realistic!? I was super hyped, till the game actually started. Everything changed, and it took a turn for the worst.

SO WHAT IS IT?

It is a fishing game obviously. You pick a character out of the extremely small library of playable characters, then you pick your boat (only one is available at first, you have to unlock the rest) and you pick your fishing location.

Okay, got my dude, got my boat, got my pole. Got my location. There are 20 of them. I choose somewhere out in Florida. Figuring maybe I would see some gators while fishing.

No such luck though, what I did get was a small swamp like atmosphere with so much fog in the sky that I could barely make out what was going on. And no, this is not a glitch, its thick fog distorting the already pathetic grainy graphics.


GRAPHICS-

Aside from the fog screwing everything up Rapala Fishing looks like a game that got left in the closet for the Super Nintendo console. When Nintendo discovered this treasure in the closet they must have decided to go ahead and put it on the wii. The graphics are terrible. They look choppy, grainy, and blurry. Throw in some weather, such as fog or rain (in the game) and you really have yourself a mess.

GAME PLAY-

This is where things get really pathetic. I figured I would be okay with the crappy graphics if the game play was at least good.
You ride the boat around with the controller, and you steer with the nun chuck. (This is probably the best thing this game has going for it). Now you choose a spot on the water, and start fishing.

Wait… why isn’t he throwing in the line? Hmm, no instructions or pop up balloon like most wii games have on how to do this.
Looks like you have to figure that one out on your own.
So after about 2 minutes of jerking the wii remote around the idiot finally tosses the lure into the pond… and… oops, he flings it back up on the boat.
Great! Just wonderful! 2 more minutes of struggling with your wii controllers trying to figure out how to toss in the line, and finally we got it in the water.

I bet you’re thinking that the underwater environment will be much prettier; like the beautiful scenes in the beginning of the game. I thought so too.

I wanted to scream at myself for wasting money on this sucker. The underwater environment is equivalent to sticking your head underwater in a pool filled with a fresh spill of chlorine, and opening your eyes without goggles. AHHH! MY EYES! I can’t see a thing!

That’s what you get in Rapala Trophies. It’s blurry, but if you study real hard, you can see your thick fishing line, and then suddenly for no reason at all the camera zooms off into space and now the line is back on the boat. Great, great, great! Can things get any glitchier?

Why yes, yes they can actually.

Once you manage to figure out how to control your freaking line, which is almost impossible because the slightest movement will throw the camera off horrendously you will notice the fish. FINALLY! It looks like a giant brown blob, and the way it swims looks as if it is either hurt, or drying. The fish will dart around in an almost robotic rhythm. You will sometimes see a fish swimming forward, then instantaneously flip around in a lightning strike like glitch and be facing the other way. Its magic!

They don’t come often, and when they do most of them will swim right past your lure. If you actually manage to get one hooked to your line this is where the fun begins right?

Nope. Now one would think that when the fish is on the hook you would rotate your nun chuck in a circular reeling in motion. I thought so too, but I was disappointed to see that all you have to do is press the A button.

Something goes wrong though, while you’re pressing the A button the line will break if you keep pressing it. Make sure you release when you are prompted to. It took me quite a while to figure that trick out.

Not done yet, this part is what sucks the most. If you manage to keep the fish on the line long enough, the game screen will flash into this idiot Atari like mini game. Inside of a pale yellow circle is a fish. Now the screen will prompt you to press the A button on top of this black radar looking fish. It will move around the yellow circle and you have to hit it 3 or 4 times (It’s similar to duck hunt on Wii Play).

If you do this correctly, you win the fish. Yay! If not, it gets away! Shucks!
As if getting the damn thing on the line wasn’t hard enough they go and throw in this unnecessary glitched up mini game in the middle of my fishing tournament!

Okay, so now that I have already solved that this game sucks in less than 10 minutes I continued to play it, figuring after some time, I would maybe get used to these controls. However after about an hour of the same headaches I realized indeed, this game DOES suck, and it sucks BAD.

Not only that but even when I switched locations I seemed to only be catching the exact same species of fish, over and over again. Oh but I guess the developers thought this was okay, because yah know; their weight is different.

MUSIC: ((twitches))

You know I can’t wrap this up until I tell you about the music in the game. Haha! As if game play and controls weren’t enough to give you a headache they go and throw in this music. To me it sounds like an upbeat rodeo type beat. There isn’t really anything else but the beating of drum syllables. It gets annoying, and it doesn’t change. Even if it did, it sounds the same. It’s repeated versus give you a headache very fast.

Bad music combined with awful gaming is bound for failure, and that is exactly what this game is, a huge failure.

Overall Gaming Experience:

I honestly have never played a more awful fishing game. Even old fishing games for the N64 and PS1 are better than the garbage in this game. The controls are WAY too glitchy, the graphics don’t even deserve a grade. The game doesn’t even deserve a star.

Hmm how can I compare this to a real fishing experience? Oh I know, go get a stick of bamboo, tie on some shoelace and stick it in a puddle. Flail around for a bit, mucking up the water, and wait. You’ll probably have more fun doing that.

Video Game Review: Super Paper Mario for the Nintendo Wii

I was so hyped on Super Paper Mario for the Nintendo wii. I mean I had a countdown. Sadly though I didn’t put in a deposit for a pre-sale. However with some good use of words, and a little manipulation, I got my copy the day of release. YIPPIE!!!!

So I figured that Paper Mario for the wii was going to be similar to all Mario games. King Bowser shows up stronger than ever with new tricks up his sleeve, he captures the Princess, and there is your story.

However it was clear from the get go that the villain was a strange cartoon like character that I had never seen before in any Mario games I have ever played. The new villains name is Count Bleck. Count Bleck is not really interested in the Princess; he is more interested in destroying Flipside, the town in which the game takes place.

Count Bleck however is far from frightening. He was actually pretty pathetic looking, and looked like he'd make an easy enemy. I was more worried about that little floating joker guy. (One of his minions.)

After about 20 minutes of straight up text explaining the situation the game begins. But uh oh, Peach, Luigi, and Bowser have been kidnapped.
In order to find them, and save Flipside, Mario begins his quest. This quest will take you through 8 worlds; in each world you must collect 8 pure hearts.

Fear not though, although Mario’s brave sidekick Luigi has been kidnapped Mario gains a new partner. A butterfly pixel named Tippy. This pixel is a small crudely drawn butterfly that glows each color of the rainbow. In order to use Tippy you simply hold the remote towards the TV like a remote control. Tippy is used to uncover hidden things that Mario cannot see. Tippy is your main pixel in the beginning of the game.

Throughout the game you will collect more pixels each with an individual talent to help guide Mario on his quest. For instance you will come across a pixel that lets Mario use him to throw, another pixel will allow you to hop on his back to float quickly through long empty sections in boards, and another one will allow you to hammer down on your enemies.

Super Paper Mario for the Wii is a strange type of role playing game. In older Paper Mario games if Mario accidentally got hit by an enemy, a new board would pop up and you would be taken into an arena type battle.

This is not the case in this game. You go about your way just like you would with the original Mario bros. However with each hop and kill action Mario gains points. The more points you gain the more Hp (Heart power) Mario gains.

Moving on…

Each world is unique, and charming in Paper Mario Wii, no world’s repeat and look like the last.
Not only that Mario has a new trick up his sleeve. You can simply hit the A button to transform from 2D into 3D. So now things that you normally couldn’t see or find in 2D could easily be accessed by hitting the A button. However you have to be careful, you only have a limited amount of time when you flip into 3D. You have close to a minute in 3D, however when you flip back your life will slowly restore.

As you move forward you will rejoin with Peach, Luigi, and yes, even mister Bowser surprisingly joins the crew.

You can easily select which character you would like to use, and each have a special power, so throughout worlds you may be switching often. Peach can glide using her umbrella, Bowser can breath fire and eliminate enemies the fastest, and Luigi can do an extreme power jump. Mario is the only one who can flip into 3D.

OHH I LOVE THAT NOSTOLOGIC FEEL

There will be many areas in which you will be transformed into old school Mario Bros. Style gaming, which is an awesome addition to Super Paper Mario for the wii. When any of the characters hits a question mark block if a mushroom comes out the character will get enormous killing and smashing down anything in its path.
However when the characters blow up to this huge killing machine, they take on the form of there old Nintendo style look.

Not only that but there are some secret warp pipes that will warp you straight back into time. One warp in particular will take you to a board in which you may recognize from the original Mario Bros.
For me it was an awesome short ride back into old school gaming in which I at one time adored. You really have to appreciate old school Mario to enjoy these flashbacks though, otherwise they will just look like poorly put together mini boards.

DANG ENEMY’S!

Not only that but most of the small enemies that roam through the lands are the same characters we love to hate. You still have those goofy green turtles, the koopas, turtles with wings, and those guys I’ve always hated the hammerhead brothers. You will also meet up with the spiky rocks, the cactuses that follow you around, and many more old school enemies. Boo is also here, and many, many more.
All of them took on their old look, and have not been modified in any way.

There are also some newer enemy characters that just didn’t fit into the world of Mario, so it was odd having these guys present. Not only that all of the new enemies were poorly put together. I mean seriously they looked like stick figures. I was not impressed.

BOSSES-

There will be a boss at the end of each world. Sometimes there will even be two. I have found that this game uses extremely easy bosses and most kills only call for you jumping on the enemies head, or blowing flames at them using Bowser.
I felt a little jipped though while dealing with boss battles. Some battles were long, and tiresome, but were not at all difficult. Once you figured out how the boss moved, its pattern pretty much repeated. It never got upset and stronger as death approached like most bosses do in games.
Then I got sort of angry when every boss was just as easy as the last, and in some cases even easier than the last.
One would think as they progress through a game that enemies would get harder. They never did.

The only thing that got harder was the boards. Each land is filled with secret twists and turns only found while randomly flipping into 3D, so it gets a little tedious if you don’t know where to flip into 3D in order to find the secret passage, or hidden door using Tippy.

It was easy to figure out most of the secrets in the first 5 boards, but after that no clues were present, and I found myself roaming aimlessly for nearly 2 hours searching for something I could not see without constant flipping and the use of Tippy.

GRAPHICS-

Well here is where Super Paper Mario for the Nintendo Wii may have failed for some. The graphics were almost exact to Paper Mario on the Wii. However they had a little oomph. Not much, but a slight push in the right direction. I mean how pumped up do you want Mario games to be?
It’s the cartoon charm of Mario games that makes them adored by all who play them. If you go and put Mario on steroids will it even be a family based game you would want to play?

Worlds are drawn together before you begin them in almost an etch a sketch type charm, leaving you impressed, and at the same time wondering why it was done sort of poorly, almost as if it was rushed.

For me the graphics were more than acceptable. Colors were bright and vibrant, and nothing was blurry. Plus I enjoy the way Mario gaming is, and I wouldn’t want high-end graphics to mess with it in any way.

MUSIC-

Music you will hear in this game has that Mario chime and bell charm it always had. It is light and plays in the background softly, so it’s not annoying. I also didn’t recognize any repeats in different lands or levels.

WHATS GOOD-

I was in love with this game the moment I turned it on. I was pumped and ready to go and kick some Count Bleck butt.

But what made this game so cool that I couldn’t stop?

-The re-play value is a perfect 100%. Even after beating worlds and moving on to the next level, there is always something hidden and waiting to be revealed in the land. There are even some hidden specials waiting for you to return to that do not open up until you beat the next level.

-The game is not short; there is a good 20 hours of complete game play packed up in this disc. You’re not going to get bored either.

-The blast from the past. I enjoyed seeing old school characters and enemies.

-The use of the pixels and there special unique abilities.

-The hidden cards throughout the worlds. There is a whole bunch of mini cards scattered throughout the world, and although they are pretty useless, you can sell then in the card shop. Once you have collected an enemy card you can reveal its weakness. But odds are it was a weakness you already knew.

-The use of flipping into 3D. Oh man!!!!

-The use of other characters during game play.

-The game did not glitch once during my game play. Something I was afraid would happen before I even bought this game.

-The nostalgic feel of it all.

THE BAD

-How you get lost in some worlds not knowing what the heck to do unless you use a reference guide or looking on the Internet for a tip.

-How Bowser is no longer the villain. Something about kicking some lizard tail again was why I bought the game.

-The extremely long text. After defeating a land there would always be a 5 to 10 minute dialogue going on with both Count Bleck and his minions or with Mario and Merlon the wizard in town at Flipside. Most of the time you will find yourself hitting the button repeatedly just to get on with the game, and even still it’s a long 5-minute click battle just to get back into gaming.

-A lot of the items Mario collects proved to be worthless in battle. Unless it was a mushroom to increase my HP, it didn’t work.
What is the point of getting a lightning bolt if I can’t use it against one of the bosses!? I can only use these items against the weak in land enemies!? What good is it!?

-It’s only for one player, and there are no mini games for 2 people to play like other Wii games have.

Weak enemies I can jump on. So these other items are all useless, and take up space in my inventory.

OVERALL-

Super Paper Mario Wii is so far the best Nintendo Wii game I have played to date. I have been bummed out by so many Wii games I have bought in the past, and I honestly did not have high hopes for this game either.

However, Mario once again proves himself to be better than the rest, and I was happy with my $55 purchase.

I was seriously about to sell my Wii if I ran into another crappy game. I’m glad it didn’t have to come to that.

RECOMMENDATION:

Hear ye’, hear ye’…
I recommend this game to anyone who is anyone. It’s a game children and adults will enjoy.