Wii Play

I got a little time with Wii Play tonight. Overall I'm not too impressed--it feels like another collection of tech demos--but it does look good and the games play pretty smoothly. The one game that impressed me was this tank game. It's apparently played like some old game called Combat, but the bottom line is that it's fun. Really fun.

I'm not sure if it's fun enough for me to buy the whole game, but I'm seriously considering it. I wonder if they'll release the individual games on the Nintendo store?

Warioware Wii -- Revisited.

Warioware is a pretty fun game, with very interesting way of using the Wii controller.

The graphics is kinda bad, but it works for the game.

For one player mode, not being able to skip to the game is sometimes annoying.

Multiplayer mode unlocks when you completed the Single player mode.

The forms are very interesting way of using the controller.

Here are the forms and where you get them:


1) The Remote Control (You start with this form) - Wario

2) The Handlebar and The Umbrella - Mona

3) The Sketch Artist, The Chauffeur, and The Samurai - Kat and Ana

4) The Tug-of-War, The Waiter, and The Elephant - Young Cricket.

5) The Thumb Wrestler, The Discard, and The Big Cheese - Ashley

6) The Finger Food, The Boxer, and The Mortar and Pestle - Penny

7) The Janitor, The Mohawk, and The Dumbbell - Dribble and Spitz

There are 18 forms in total and mastering all the different forms are very challenging.

There are many interesting thing you could do with all the different forms and learning how to use the forms within 3 seconds may be quite hard at times.

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Multiplayer mode

Multiplayer mode ranges from 2-5 players to 2-12 players. It makes a great drinking game, but all the players should at least played through the game once to learn the forms.

It is also pretty stupid as passing the controller sometimes take a long time and putting the wrist strap on is essential as levels may require you to srop the controller...

Grabbed off digg.com - Online Play Finally Coming?

Developers Finally Getting Wii Online Dev Kits

ddb123 submitted, made popular 22 minutes ago (www.cubed3.com)

In an interview with the Mercury News, Reggie Fils-Aime goes on record stating that developers are finally getting the kits they need to make their titles online capable.  More…

Nintendo World is still the place to score system & accessories

If you know anyone still searching for a system, the Nintendo Store in NY gets a daily shipment of 50-100 systems a day - and a similar number of Wii-motes and nunchuks. They don't take pre-orders, but at least the days of waiting in line through the night appear to be over. The store opens at 9AM Mon-Sat and if you get in line by 7AM, it appears that you'll get your system. However, they are all gone by about 9:30AM and Wii-motes are usually gone by 10AM.

I'm just shocked that people are still lining up in the cold for the system a month+ after the holdidays were over. I love my system, just never thought that the demand would still be this high.

Venturing out there tomorrow morning to try and score a remote and nunchuk for Charlie's co-worker. Wish me luck.

2221 Points in Wii Tennis!!

I hit 2221 points in tennis today.

After playing perfectly for several games, I managed to get 2199 points, but a 40-30 win made me lose points and after winning several 40-30, I dropped to 2178!

I made some soup and composed myself to 5 straight perfect games, and the net result after the games today... 2221 baby!!

Wiilympics... here I come!

First Boston Wiilympics!

We hereby summon all able bodied players to join us for our first Wiilympics! Match your skill against other athletes in an epic Wii Sports tournament to be held the afternoon of February 17th! Win glory and earn the envy and admiration of your adversaries!

 

Rules:

1. Create your own country to represent.
2. Build your own team of five players. Must include at least one girl.
3. Each player has a specialty sport in which they will compete.

Location TBD. I hear River Gods in Cambridge holds regular Guitar Hero events. I'll call them to see if they'll host us for our Wiilympics.

 

Send me your team list, comments and suggestions on how to make this event even more awesome!

Wii Music and Ringtones

This guy has extracted the Wii music for use as ringtones etc. All MP3 files.

http://www.stupidshiz.com/list.cfm?category=wii

Tennis @ 2150

Damn, tennis has no love.

I played a game and won 40-30, yet I lost points to the computer...

You only get points from 40-0 perfect games.

Wii age 26 now..

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Bowling, I got 6 straight 245 today, making my score 1452 on bowling, but with a 180, I actually lost 40 points though I had all strikes and spares...

Rough day...

--Iron Bowl

Wii Sports and Wii Elbow

I did some searching on the message boards, and it looks like the 2000-rated girl is the toughest opponent on Wii Sports tennis and that's why we are put against her over and over again after getting high in the pro skill levels. Getting your rating over 2000 is very tough, and getting it up to 2400 is impossible, from what people have posted. Somewhere in the 2300's, there is a point where no more skill points are awarded even for a perfect match against
the top computer opponent (perfect=winning every point).

In other Wii Sports news, here's a guy who uses Wii Sports to lose weight (he has a funny youtube video):

http://wiinintendo.net/2007/01/15/wii-sports-experiment-results/

some mainstream media coverage of wii weightloss guy:
http://wii.qj.net/Wii-Sports-Experiment-covered-by-NBC/pg/49/aid/80155
http://www.gamespot.com/wii/sports/wiisports/news.html?sid=6164486
http://www.gamespot.com/news/6143007.html

Here's a guy who figured how to put on weight while playing Wii sports ;-)
http://wii.qj.net/The-Wii-Lazy-Guy-shows-us-how-it-s-done/pg/49/aid/80823

Some emerging Wii problems are "Wii elbow" and broken straps from people throwing the controls:
http://www.gamespot.com/wii/sports/wiisports/news.html?sid=6162355
http://www.gamespot.com/wii/sports/wiisports/news.html?sid=6162853

Here is somebody's video of a perfect 300 game in Wii Sports Bowling.
http://wii.qj.net/Vid-the-perfect-Wii-Bowling-game/pg/49/aid/78557

Wii News Channel

Did I say I love this cat?

Well the News Channel for the Wii is out today, and we have downloaded it

After downloading, your Wii screen will look like this.

Downloading this may take some time, so be patient. In the meantime, you could watch TV or play some other console you have...

The News Channel!!!

Its pretty cool, but it takes some time to download the updates again.

If you are bored, you can click on the cat.(On the top of the screen)

This will display when you click on the cat.

Then it will be back to downloading again... It does take some time.

Once updated you will get to this screen.

When you choose National News...

You can scroll to view other news down the page.

When you choose international news...

When you click on the news, another page comes up... Pretty neat for a console.

Some of these international news have maps of where they came from.

When you click on the Slide show, it will show you the news in brief along with a map.

This function is pretty cool to just scroll the headlines while you are doing things.

I'm pretty happy with the News Channel, though there are already many news website you can go to with the Internet Channel.

Still downloading this news channel takes some time, and for its worth, I'm still not certain that it is really worth the wait.

-- News Channel Review,

By Iron Bowl.

Wario Ware

I finally got Wario Ware: Smooth Moves (Smoove?) From Amazon. A thick slab of fun, though you often have to meet the game halfway in figuring out exactly what moves it wants you to perform.

The highlight, without a doubt, was the final boss game, which puts you in a chorus line in a surprisingly satisfying way.

As it's short, I highly recommend a rental. That may be all the fun you need, but it's a good ride while it lasts.

Shortages Persist

While some report that Wii peripherals are now abundant and easily available in Best Buy, EB Games and other such dispensaries, my coworkers continue to lament that they are unable to find a coveted second Wiimote for their systems. I have dispatched a request to my agent in NYC to acquire by any means a Wiimote from the Nintendo Store in Manhattan for our impoverished cohorts.

 

Fear not. Help is coming.

Is the Wii News Channel Here?

Chatter has started to appear on the Internet about the Wii News channel. Trapped here at work, I am unable to go home and check to see if a shiny blue update is available that will let me see the news on the Wii.

Apparently it gets its news from the Associated Press or Reuters and then puts a Nintendo twist on it: you can look at where the news is happening on the globe like with the weather channel. Scrumptious!

Wii Sports: Bowling Tips

To change the bowling ball color: When the screen fades to black after selecting bowling, press and hold the control pad in a set direction until the screen fades into the game. The ball colors are as follows:

• Red Ball: Press and hold left on control pad
• Gold Ball: Press and hold right on control pad
• Green Ball: Press and hold down on control pad
• Blue Ball: Press and hold up on the control pad
  

For strikes:

To have a high chance of strike, aim the ball so that it hits the side of the front pin. Depending on your throw, you may have a slight curve, so move your guy with the directional pad and press A to aim, then throw the ball.

For spares:

To bowl the ball straight down the lane, release the ball at the highest point so it drops on the lane before rolling, making sure to not rotate your Wiimote. This make the ball roll relatively straight for the easy spares.

Most of my games are strikes and spares, and I've bowled several 221 point games... Still trying to break that though...

Glowing Wii

The Wii is glowing with messages, all hail the Wii

You Have Won a Silver Medal!

Wii Sports has grown into a silent obsession around my place. Larry, Robin and I are quietly trying to outperform each-other in the various sports sneaking time as our schedules allow to put a few more notches in our scores. These last few days, when I come home from work, there are piles of notifications in my Wiimail saying so and so won a silver metal at training or whats-his-name went pro in tennis. I've even started to play through the training games for tennis and boxing...

I'm flummoxed in boxing though. I can't quite figure out how to avoid punching my trainer in the face during the focus glove game or to how to move the controls so I don't get tangled in the wire when I'm trying the dodging game...

(Nobody has achieved Gold in anything yet as far as I know)

Descent into Huggable Madness

Elebits is my new guilty pleasure. Matt gave it to me as part of a Christmas bundle of gaming crack, and it has grown to consume my Wii time, nudging Wii Sports, Zelda, and Rayman out of the warmth of the nest to chill and wither on my media shelves. I'd considered Elebits a girl game, full of cute music and adorable pastel mini monsters. In fact, the first couple times Matt suggested it as a gift I threw it back in his face, stomped my foot, and crossed my arms in virtual defiance over email. However, now that I have it, I've discovered the disturbing aggro subtext of the game.

See, your mission in the game is to collect elebits, little electricity spirits hidden in cabinets and appliances around your house. You do so with your "capture gun," a device that allows you to zap elebits a la Ghostbusters and also move objects, pull open drawers, put toast in toasters, and turn doorknobs. You start each gingerly nudging things aside to reveal elebits because your capture gun begins life with anemic abilities. As you collect elebits, your gun strength gets greater until peeking becomes searching becomes ransacking becomes RAMPAGING. It's a huggable descent into madness and frenzy.

Wiieeeeeeee!

I'm floored. It's like your best friend just bought you a car unexpectedly. While visiting my friend in NYC, she sprung my birthday/Christmas present on me: a new Wii with Zelda! What's more, as stocking stuffers she got me Rayman and a Wii backpack!

Naturally, the first thing we did was break it open and set it up. We played Wii Sports first (simple and fun) Zelda: Twilight Princess (beautiful but a little boring at first) and Rayman (a must buy for your release library--we all nearly pissed ourselves laughing).