Nintendo Wii Fanboy

Wii Fanboy Review: Heavenly Guardian

JC Fletcher — 2008-05-15T09:30:00 00:00

Filed under: Reviews

In late 2006, out of nowhere, Taito announced a PlayStation 2 sequel to their relatively obscure arcade game of twenty years earlier, Kiki KaiKai. The Western gamers who noticed, and who knew the game's SNES sequel as Pocky & Rocky, cheered, especially when the screenshots showed up, revealing a vivid 2D game that kept the same multidirectional shooting gameplay and top-down perspective as the original. And then Taito cancelled it.

Kiki KaiKai 2 resurfaced in September of last year, from publisher UFO Interactive, with altered character sprites and a new name to reflect the severed Taito relationship: Kiki Kai World. At this point a Wii version was revealed along with the PS2 version. We then had to worry about whether the Wii version would actually show up, since not even UFO's own website mentioned it.

In November, UFO changed the name again, to Heavenly Guardian, probably to remove any link to a property that Taito (or, rather, their parent company Square Enix) could aggressively protect.

The possibility of this game actually coming out seemed so remote that I never dared get my hopes up. It had already been cancelled once, and it had gone through two name changes and a publisher change. It seemed a lot more likely that Kiki KaiKai 2/Kiki Kai World/Heavenly Guardian would quietly disappear. I am happy to confirm that, after repeated near-death experiences, Heavenly Guardian is real and available. I wouldn't have believed it if I hadn't played it myself.

Gallery: Heavenly Guardian

Kiki KaiKai's shrine maiden, Sayo-chan/Pocky, has been replaced by a snow goddess called Sayuki, a member of a race feared by humans. Despite being unable to interact with them, she feels affection for one boy, which compels her to save him when he is cursed. The game follows Sayo-chan and her little snow-bunny friend as they traverse the world for the materials required for a healing potion. This story is delivered by a charming, retro sequence of hand-drawn images with captions. It does the job of providing minimal explanation for all the monster-shooting that happens, which is all it needs.

The graphics outside of the cutscenes are even nicer. Presented in full 2D, Guardian is all bright, vivid colors and thick black outlines on background elements. It's basically the power of the Wii (or PS2, at least), used to render 2D The enemy sprites are well-drawn, crisp and cute. There are no jaggies to be found, and the screen can, at times, be stuffed full of sprites. The presentation is well beyond what is expected of a budget game.

Sayuki can shoot icicles in eight directions, aimed in one of two ways. You can use the pointer to aim Toto the bunny in a particular direction, and shots will move toward Toto. It's basically the same aiming scheme found in Geometry Wars: Galaxies, but with a cute little white snowball critter that happily bounces around the screen. The other control scheme is activated when you move the pointer offscreen (or can optionally be set as the default mode, with Wiimote aiming activated by holding the Z button), and simply entails shooting in the direction you're pointing. Toto's ears turn from orange to green and it becomes a sort of "option," shooting at what you're targeting. Using the Wiimote to aim is even harder to get my mind around than aiming independently with a second stick, and I did have occasional problems with keeping the targeting reticle onscreen, but it didn't take me long at all to learn how to aim and walk independently. And after figuring it out, playing without the independent aiming seemed overly restrictive and difficult. The aiming is, in fact, sufficient justification for purchasing the Wii version over the slightly cheaper PlayStation 2 version.

Other attacks include a freeze move, done by contacting an enemy with Toto, a move that turns the bunny into a spinning shield, and a blizzard move that expends collected snowballs. The blizzard move uncovers hidden collectibles, but otherwise you'll just be shooting normally most of the time. The normal shot can be upgraded to 3-way, rapid fire, homing shots, or bombs, all in five degrees, by picking up crystals.

Enemies range from harmless top-hatted snowmen, which number in the thousands, to all manner of tengu, animate o-fuda, and other creatures based on Japanese tradition. Bosses are the kind of jointed-sprite skeleton monsters (in the case of the first boss) we know from classic gaming, though not always big. Like any shooter, dealing with them is a matter of understanding patterns. Enemies will appear from predetermined locations, meaning that you are only surprised by a Tsuchinoko popping out from behind a tree. The game keeps the numbers low at first, giving the first level a sparse feeling. But right around the area of the first boss, Guardian starts filling the screen with enemies who zip out at you and kill you. And starting with the first boss, the game goes from leisurely to brutally difficult. Complaining about difficulty in a shmup is like complaining about all the numbers in a Nippon Ichi strategy game, of course -- it's part of the point.

Footage from Japanese version, from YouTube user Choooo

Heavenly Guardian's difficulty doesn't lie entirely in numbers of enemies. The levels are long -- "four or five checkpoints per level," ten- or fifteen-minute affairs. And if you lose your lives, you continue from the beginning of the level. The epic length of the levels -- compounded by the lack of autoscrolling, which allows you to stop -- makes continuing much more of a penalty than it is in other action games, which tend to have very short levels. Careful play will get you to the boss, for the most part, but I went through multiple continues on just the first boss. That meant that I played through the first level for a good few hours.

And that's why I am complaining about the difficulty of a shmup in this case, because it's an irritating, insidious kind of difficulty. Replaying a few minutes' worth of a level and memorizing its flow is expected of shooters, but each level of Heavenly Guardian could probably be a short arcade shmup, in terms of length. This is made especially irritating by the fact that it's the last thing in the level, the boss, that is usually responsible for the return to the beginning. It's sad that the continue system doesn't let me restart at a later checkpoint (and I can't believe I'm even complaining about this, but it's that annoying!) because I admire the levels otherwise. It's really the only outright problem Guardian has, but it's a bad one, because it discourages replay and memorization, and therefore disrupts the whole nature of the game.

While I'm complaining, I'll note that you will have to play this with the sound off. The music is low-key, nice, and fits with the ancient Japan theme, but the sound effects are grating to the point of suspicion of sabotage. Every enemy you kill makes a cymbal-crash noise. The music doesn't matter at all because you can't hear it most of the time. Other annoying sound effects include a ridiculous musical flourish that is supposed to be a mermaid song, and -- I don't really know too much else, because I couldn't take it for very long and I turned the sound off.

I wanted to love this game, both as the spiritual successor to a wonderful old franchise and a new 2D shooter in 2008. And, for the most part, I liked it. The environments and characters are gorgeous, the controls work well, and the enemies are funny. But as much as Iwanted to see past the fatal flaw, I couldn't. The fact is that overlong levels with almost guaranteed restarts sucked the fun out of the rest of Heavenly Guardian and left me feeling both bored and frustrated.

Final score: 5/10

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Wii Fanboy Review: TV Show King

Eric Caoili — 2008-05-13T17:00:00 00:00

Filed under: Reviews, Screens, WiiWare

Gameloft's first WiiWare entry, TV Show King, might turn away most gamers with its casual premise and 1000 Wii Points tag, but the publisher has made an effort to pack value in the trivia title -- 3,000 questions, Mii integration, and a game show atmosphere complete with a smarmy host and a busty blonde. Is all that enough to warrant its $10 price? Read our review to find out!

Gallery: TV Show King

TV Show King starts with you selecting one of your Miis as your game show character, which is a nice, albeit expected, touch. Perhaps to make sure everyone is the same height, though, the implanted characters all seem to share the same body type, ignoring those extra pounds you specified when originally creating your Notorious B.I.G. Mii. The game also pulls from your Mii collection for the remaining contestant spots (four in total) and rustles a group of your system's wandering avatars into the studio as the audience.

You're given limited settings to adjust before the game starts, which is probably best considering TV Show King's casual audience. You can mark the amount of rounds you want to play -- three, six, or nine -- and your desired difficulty -- Normal, King, or Genius. For the purposes of this review and to make sure we felt smart at the end of it, we left the settings at three rounds on the King difficulty.

Keeping with its game show theme, TV Show King begins with its spinning logo and a clapping DJ while the camera pans over the studio set and audience. A spotlight scans the crowd before calling down your Miis to the podiums, just like in The Price Is Right, though the game's soundtrack never ventures from its bland music into anything iconic.

The host, Jerry, an uninspiring man with unfortunate eyebrows, leads you into the first round of questions grabbed from a range of topics from entertainment to science. Players use their Wii remotes to point at and select the correct answer from four options as a 15-second timer counts down. You can see what other players have picked, but TV Show King makes up for it by rewarding more money to the players who first select the correct answer. Depending on your answer, a pleasant or discordant noise will play on your Wii remote's speaker to notify you if you're right or not.

After a few questions, Jerry introduces a "special event" in which, for the remainder of the round, the first player to answer a question correctly wins a significant cash bonus. Once the round's questions have been exhausted, players are invited to spin a wheel that can just as easily reward you with bonus money as it can leave you bankrupt.

The wheel will be a controversial point for many from the beginning. as it's never explained how to effectively spin the wheel. Some might feel the rewards and the risks are too much -- it's possible to win $15000 from a single spin. The wheel can also make you hand over a a sizable portion of your savings to one of your opponents. Even if you opt out of spinning the fortune wheel, there are spaces on the circle that allow other players to grab your cash. Some will welcome the break from TV Show King's formula, though, and it's an opportunity for lagging players to catch up.

The wheel spun and the damage done, the show's top-heavy presenter, Angela, directs you towards a board with the current rankings. Following that, you're taken through another similar round with the same "special event" and wheel-spinning.

The third round brings a random twist to how the answers are presented. Depending on which mode the game picks, Scratch Quiz or Light Quiz, players will have to scratch at buttons with their Wii remotes like a lottery ticket to uncover the answer underneath or use their controllers as flashlights to reveal the four options.

Once those shenanigans are out of the way, the two contestants with the highest cash count face off in a trivia duel. Whoever answers five questions correctly first steals half of the other player's money. Afterwards, all four players are ranked by how much cash was in their pot at the end of the game.

And that's TV Show King! There's also a single-player trivia mode that challenges you to answer as many consecutive questions correctly as you can, but it's hard to imagine anyone having fun playing this game without friends. Though your scores are tracked and saved, TV Show King doesn't offer any online features, so you won't be able to share any records with your crew of trivia-game-score-obsessed friends.

Where the game really suffers, though, is in its replayability. Even with its total of 3000 trivia questions, you've seen everything TV Show King has to offer in terms of presentation after two ten-minute playthroughs (which go by even quicker if you skip the segue cutscenes). More unique events, format variations, and an expanded audio track would have helped a lot to keep the rounds feeling fresh. Hearing Jerry's "Impressive!" compliments after each correctly answered question gets old quick.

Despite those flaws, is it worth the $10 Gameloft is asking for it? Only if you have a group of friends over who don't mind TV Show King's tiresome host and risking their earned lead to a wheel of chance.

Final Score: 6/10

With the recent launch of the WiiWare service on the Nintendo Wii, we've been busy getting our time in with some of the titles available for download. Be sure to check out our reviews of Defend Your Castle, LostWinds, and Pop, as well as our early impressions of My Life as a King. Also, be sure to keep an eye on our Reviews category for more as it goes live on the site and stay tuned to the WiiWare category for more on Nintendo's new download service.

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Wii Fanboy Review: LostWinds

David Hinkle — 2008-05-13T14:00:00 00:00

Filed under: Reviews, WiiWare

Without a doubt, LostWinds is like finding a diamond-encrusted Hummer in your box of corn flakes. Sure, the WiiWare launch line-up hasn't been as boring as corn flakes, but there are some titles we could do without. And, LostWinds is so good, we're wondering if there'll be anything besides Alien Crush that can stand up to it this year on Nintendo's download service.

Gallery: LostWinds

The game starts with you waking up the main character, Toku, and thrusting him into a nearby cave. Once inside, Toku discovers a Spirit Stone holding a secret. Once you pick up the stone, it starts talking to you and reveals that there is a threat looming over the world (when isn't there?). From here on out, you'll be doing some light exploration and platforming on a quest to save your home.

But, what about the meat and potatoes of the game? What about controlling Toku and using the Gust ability? Well, it's pretty fun, to be honest, but has its flaws. See, by pressing the A button, you'll slow everything down, and should you draw a line on the screen while holding that A button down, you'll direct a gust of wind there. This is how you make Toku leap across chasms and reach otherwise unreachable areas in the game.

There's a problem, though, that comes up fairly often. Sometimes, Toku just won't react to a gust of wind being directed at him. It's noticeable more when you try to take him straight up into the air then flinging a gust of wind at him horizontally, but it's an issue that comes up enough as to warrant frustration. This is really the only flaw in the game that I could find.

It isn't all platforming, however. You'll encounter several NPCs in the game and explore large environments. Here, the game almost exactly feels like The Legend of Zelda, showing the title's inspiration comes somewhat from Nintendo's long line of games. That isn't a bad thing, though, as the game never feels like it's a carbon copy of the exploits found in those titles.

And, as you explore these large environments, you'll be taken back by the sheer beauty of LostWinds' game world. Whether it's the rustling foliage that responds to your cursor or the bright light shining over a mountain during the morning, this game is a visual feast through and through. I honestly had to stop and stare at several locations in the game, just to take it all in.

Basically, LostWinds needs to be downloaded. There's no getting around how valuable an experience this is. LostWinds serves as both an example of how smaller developers can use WiiWare to present viable titles to an otherwise unreachable audience and proves that in this new age of downloads and micropayments, Nintendo is not be counted out. We're hopeful that more titles with the high level of quality in LostWinds make its way onto Nintendo's download service in the future. Until then, we'll be playing LostWinds.

Final Score: 9/10

With the recent launch of the WiiWare service on the Nintendo Wii, we've been busy getting our time in with some of the titles available for download. Be sure to check out our reviews of Defend Your Castle and Pop, as well as our early impressions of My Life as a King. Also, be sure to keep an eye on our Reviews category for more as it goes live on the site and stay tuned to the WiiWare category for more on Nintendo's new download service.

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My Impressions as a King

Alisha Karabinus — 2008-05-13T09:30:00 00:00

Filed under: Reviews, WiiWare

Like a child counting down the days until Christmas, I've been looking forward to Final Fantasy Crystal Chronicles: My Life as a King. I'm a sucker for Square Enix anyway, and the prospect of a $15 game (even if there is pricey DLC) was too much to resist. That's why it was so shocking to discover that my first few game days in Padarak were ... well, boring. Everything was very controlled and linear, and I couldn't run around and explore. Instead, I sat through cutscenes explaining more than I wanted to know at that point, when all I wanted to do was flex my new architek power. And then, once I was free, I had very little in the way of resources! Frustrating.

Several hours later, since I was still playing, I realized that maybe I wasn't so bored after all. The simple directive of get more stuff sucked me in as soon as I had a free hand with the game, and before I even had time to think, I was obsessed with building up my little kingdom. Without my even realizing it, My Life as a King had gone from boring to fun.

Gallery: Final Fantasy Crystal Chronicles: My Life as a King

While we have a full review of the WiiWare title coming later, initial impressions of the simulation are that it's a lot like MySims, but better. My Life as a King manages to be even cuter, but with a gloss that's unmistakably Square Enix, and the characters are engaging. Even the random chatter with the townspeople is somewhat interesting. There's no awkward building; once you have the ability to construct something with your power, up it goes as directed. While it means the buildings are somewhat lacking in variety, it's quicker and frees up more time to do the important things, like hunt down the darn moogle who makes your blueprints for new buildings.

Early impressions of the adventuring system are also positive; as soon as that opened up, it quickly became the most interesting part of the game (so far). Since you're limited, in the beginning, in what you can build. it's nice to know that you can easily multiply your stable of adventurers and send them out in search of knowledge and resources. Every time you build a house, you get two new people: one citizen, and one would-be adventurer. As soon as you can afford to commission them, they're able to head out to the surrounding dungeons in search of elementite, the material used for your architek power.

Here at the beginning, there isn't a great deal to do, other than marvel that there are only single parents here (several single moms and one single dad in my kingdom), and wonder where that damned Mogtillo gets off to when I need him, but the game days are short. Later, I'm sure managing everything will become a challenge of time.

Check back with us later for a full review, in which we'll also take a look at the already-available downloadable content!

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Wii Fanboy Review: Pop

JC Fletcher — 2008-05-12T18:00:00 00:00

Filed under: Reviews, WiiWare

Click for larger image

Nnooo's Pop is an unusual puzzle/shooter hybrid. It has a lot in common with matching-based puzzle games: activating multiple objects (in this case, bubbles, activated by tapping) of the same color as they fall builds a score multiplier, and gameplay-modifying items are found in some of the objects. However, unlike Columns or Bust-a-Move, there is little immediate penalty for missing. Bubbles don't build up and kill you when they fill up the screen -- they fly by at a constant rate regardless of your actions. You are required to pop consistently to fill a timer, but the lack of building stacks does change the character of the game a lot versus that kind of puzzle game.

Instead, Pop's tension is based more on recognizing the flying bubbles quickly, and popping as rapidly as you can with some semblance of strategy. There's no penalty for popping different colors, but popping the same color builds your score multiplier. Big bubbles add more time but less score, and small bubbles add more score but less time. Since all of these effects are still positive, the basic strategy of the game is to pop the hell out of anything that is a bubble. In this way, the game feels very much like a scrolling shooter.

Gallery: Pop

You lose time for touching a non-bubble area of the screen, which forces you to choose a bit more carefully -- this then makes you pay at least a little attention to the screen, and thus motivates you to start working on combos. And that interaction -- discerning between bubbles, but still popping as quickly as possible -- is what makes Pop interesting. The first couple of games consist of players killing the timer by missing almost instantly. Then Pop clicks (pops?) and you start rapid-fire popping, adjusting how carefully you look for combo opportunities, and seeking out items (score multipliers, bombs, slow-down items, but not the skull that stops your combo), and you start flying through the game's waves.

The waves each have a different color scheme, and alter the speed and direction of bubble movement, as well as bubble size. Between every few waves is a bonus stage -- like Galaga's "Challenging Stages" but with way more things to shoot and no expectation that you'll shoot them all.

Multiplayer falls somewhere between cooperative play and competition. Exclusive multiplayer items include a flashlight that restricts the view to an area around one player's cursor, and a lightning bolt that temporarily prevents the opposing players from popping bubbles. However, despite trying to outscore your opponent, causing them to fail is not advantageous to you, because you share a timer. It's an uneasy alliance!

Pop features online leaderboards for single- and multiplayer modes, but these leaderboards can only be viewed after you finish a game, or in tiny form on the title screen. In addition, players earn "badges" (like achievements) whose requirements flash on the screen when it is awarded. These can only be seen in a little window when you're choosing your player profile, and you can never read what they mean again after receiving them. You just end up with a collection of meaningless icons.

Pop contains one very important feature that will make many gamers' lives easier. When creating your profile, the game will display the four different-colored bubbles and ask if you can tell the difference. If you say "no," the bubbles will be different shapes as well! Color-blind gamers: welcome to puzzle games. We missed you.

I thought, at first, that Pop was an irritatingly random twitchfest, the "watch your timer count down very quickly" game, and then within about five minutes I just got it. I began clearing multiple waves and I just fell into it. Initially, I scoffed at the idea that something so frantic could be designed to put you in a trance. But that frantic quality is exactly what makes Pop so entrancing. Unlike other puzzle games, you have to let bubbles pass. You focus your attention on what you can, and let the sea of bubbles wash over you while delightful ambient music plays and your bubbles pop in changing rhythm.

It isn't perfect, of course. The game still has a heavy element of overwhelming randomness. And there's a waggle-based bubble-inflation maneuver that doesn't seem to be useful, ever. But none of this matters over the course of five or ten minutes, which is the sweet spot for this game. After that long, you definitely feel like you've had a full gaming session. And you may not even realize you liked it until it's almost over.

My opinion is fascinating and all, but Pop wasn't exactly designed for me. I wondered what a more casual gamer would think about Nnooo's puzzle-shooter. So I asked one.

My wife, Mary, is a longtime gamer who enjoys "Wii Sports, puzzle games, and platformers like Super Mario Bros.", but only plays games "less than once a week -- maybe a handful of times a month." Furthermore, she's likely driven away from games by living with an insufferable game nerd (not her words). I sat her down with Pop (it wasn't hard -- "Want to play this WiiWare game?"), and after some single-player and a multiplayer session or two, I asked her impressions. She obviously isn't the voice of all casual gamers, but I figured that she could at least have a more casual perspective than me.

NWF: What do you think of Pop?
MF: I think it's fun to play for about ten minutes. It's pretty repetitive, but it's fun to pop the bubbles.

Was it easy to figure out?
Yes, it's very easy to learn. There's a short training game, and then hints come up.

How well do you think you were doing?
I thought I was doing slightly below average. I wasn't very good at chaining them, and I missed a lot.

You stopped because your hand was getting tired. Were you also getting bored?
Yes. I don't think I'm interested in trying to get a higher score. It's boring to play for long stretches of time.

I like getting the badges. If only they'd tell you what they were and you could look at them.

Click for larger image

It is worth noting that her "slightly below average" was #37 worldwide, which grew the next time to #20. And that she started a new game immediately after we finished our discussion of her last session. She declined to provide a review score, but she enjoyed Pop at least that much.

As for me, I was pretty sure that I was going to give Pop a solid 6/10, but the uncomplicated, addictive quality of Pop and the ease of playing downloadable games makes it a 7.5/10, easily. It's just so appealing to jump in and lose yourself for a few intense minutes. Just don't expect to play it for hours or days on end.

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Wii Fanboy Review: Defend Your Castle

David Hinkle — 2008-05-12T14:00:00 00:00

Filed under: Reviews, WiiWare

Click to see more screens from Defend Your Castle

The browser game that many of you have tried at one time or another has been revamped for Wii and launched alongside WiiWare earlier this morning. After spending a good bit of time with the game, we're confident that we can present a decent review of the title. With a price point of 500 Wii points, as well as a fairly addictive game just lurking beneath that small admission price, we're happy to report that Defend Your Castle is a good game and well worth your small sum of money.

Gallery: Defend Your Castle

First of all, we should explain what exactly the deal with this game is. If you haven't been paying attention, the object of the game is to defend your castle from the ridiculously large onslaught on invading armies that try to take it down day after day. While defending your castle during the daylight hours, you'll gather points, which can then be used at night to strengthen your castle or expand its plethora of assets. These assets include things from just strengthening walls (the castle's overall health), down to building a Pit of Conversion, which allows you to take enemy soldiers and convert them into followers that will do their best to protect your castle.

Click for larger image

It isn't as easy as just building the Pit of Conversion and calling it a day, however. Once you have a pit set up, it isn't going to help you until you fortify towers for different abilities, so that the converted units may be placed there for use. These different towers allow for you to place archers, which will kill enemies periodically, to a tower for stone masons who will repair your castle. There's also a tower that you can use to instantly pull out a unit that will destroy everyone around him, as well as the coveted Mage's Tower.

The Mage's Tower is the coolest ability in the game, because you can call on a variety of spells to dispatch the enemy troops. You can call on the pink eraser to automatically eradicate one foe, as well as a nice Instant Conversion technique that provides you with a new troop, yet isn't affected by the annoying wait time that comes from using the Pit of Conversion. And, once you get into the thick of it later on in the game, you're going to be depending on the Mage's Tower to get you out of a tough spot.

Visually, the game looks great. Small touches like the changing weather, as well as the unit variations, come together to make a very visually appealing package. The game has a lot of charm here and looks like the imagination of a 4-year-old child. If there's any landscape we wanted to pay home to our exploits of defending a castle from countless hordes of enemies, it's here.

For a 500 Wii Point game, you'd be insane not to give Defend Your Castle a download. The game is fun, very accessible and has almost no learning curve. We can't comment on the mutliplayer, but if the single-player is any indication, it will deliver there, too. XGen Studios have created a great WiiWare offering and we're sure your life will be better for having downloaded Defend Your Castle.

Final Score: 9/10

Hey, did you know that we like to review things? Sure, we do it all the time! Be sure to check out our Reviews category to stay current with our latest reviews and hands-on impressions.

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Wii Fanboy hands-on: Nyko Kama wireless nunchuk

David Hinkle — 2008-05-07T12:45:00 00:00

Filed under: Reviews, Peripherals, Controller, Features

When we received our Nyko Kama wireless nunchuk, we thought about what games would be the most appropriate to use the nunchuk with. As such, pretty much all of our games qualified as good candidates, so we went with Super Mario Galaxy, No More Heroes and Wii Sports. How did the Kama stack up against Nintendo's nunchuk? Read on to find out!

Gallery: Nyko's Kama wireless nunchuks

First up, we should point out that even though the prospect of having less wires is a good one, we cringe to think about how many AA batteries you'll spend on this wireless nunchuk. Aside from that, though, there is no downside to using the Kama. It's bigger than the official Nintendo nunchuk, providing those of us with bigger, more developed hands with a more comfortable feel.

So, first up was playing Super Mario Galaxy. Comparing the Kama to a normal nunchuk, we found no loss in control over the portly plumber. The Kama performed exactly the same as Nintendo's official nunchuk, causing us to believe that the Kama is the superior product. It operates in as well a capacity as the regular nunchuk, yet has no wires. Round one goes to the newcomer!

Next up, we popped in one of our favorites, No More Heroes. The goal here was to test the motion controls on the Kama, as we set out to do a plethora of wrestling maneuvers to ensure the Kama is operating up to spec. We're happy to report that the Kama held up here, keeping up with the Wiimote's gestures and allowing us to suplex and DDT our enemies with ease. Again, the Kama's performance caused us to think it the superior option here, as the lack of wires, plus the solid performance, gave round two to the rookie Kama.

Our final round brings us to Wii Sports, where we tested the Kama up against Nintendo's nunchuk in a couple matches of Wii Sports: Boxing. Here, the bothersome nunchuk wire on Nintendo's option made us realize the lack of wire on the Kama made for a much more pleasurable experience. Each option handled equally when interpreting our gestures into in-game actions, so we're also going to have to award this round to the Kama.

In the end, the only thing we feel that could possibly be a deterrent to picking this up would be the price tag. For $34.99, you're going to have a nunchuk that operates at the same capacity as Nintendo's $19.99 model, only without wires. Rechargeable batteries make the energy consumption more manageable (you should already be using them in your Wiimotes, anyway), but this is mainly going to come down to how much you dislike the nunchuk's wire.

interested in what we have to say about other Nyko products? We got our hands on the Perfect Shot and a wireless nunchuk adapter by the peripheral manufacturer. If that tickles your fancy, check out our other reviews.

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Report: Wii games aren't good

David Hinkle — 2008-05-02T16:00:00 00:00

Filed under: News, Reviews

Based on data pulled from GameRankings, folks over at GameFunk have prepared the nice little chart above. Apparently, Wii games don't get that great of marks from reviewers. Compared to the marks of games on other consoles, it makes the Wii's library look even worse!

Here's the numbers:

Xbox 360: 374 games: 26% good, 24% bad
PS3: 122 games: 33% good, 17% bad
Wii: 189 games: 11% good, 37% bad

But, before you punch your computer monitor in a fit of rage, know this: the Wii does have a lot of shovelware. It's just the price of success, as publishers and developers see the console as a means to make money. And that's what they're in it for.

Also, keep in mind that the PS3 and Xbox 360 don't have Metroid Prime 3: Corruption or No More Heroes. So they pretty much lose.

[Via Joystiq]

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Wii Fanboy Review: Summer Sports: Paradise Island

JC Fletcher — 2008-04-29T12:00:00 00:00

Filed under: Reviews

Destineer's Summer Sports: Paradise Island follows the same idea as Wii Sports: an assortment of casual sporting events to be played in multiplayer, with simple, representative motion-based controls. While it's obvious that this is where the money is on the Wii (to the point that even Game Party is a hit), Destineer smartly chose not to imitate Wii Sports outright.

Summer Sports seems to be an attempt not just to cash in on the Wii Sports phenomenon, but to serve as a companion to Nintendo's remarkably popular Wii pack-in. To that end, it features eight games that Wii Sports does not, and a surprisingly effective island theme.

Some of the minigames are total clunkers that make a compelling argument against motion controls, but some manage to deliver on the promise of Wii minigame collections: simple-to-understand controls in unique, fun games.
Summer Sports uses a simplistic, Dreamcast-esque graphical style. The characters are depicted in realistic proportions, but use smooth, low-poly models, and the environments are likewise low on details but smooth. While the graphics aren't technically impressive, they serve the game well, providing an upbeat, happy feeling. Similarly, the pleasant steel-drum-based musical score (along with steel drum menu sound effects) lend the game a calm, vacation-like feel.

Since Summer Sports is a collection of self-contained sporting games, I thought the best approach would be to discuss each separately, followed by analysis of the game as a whole.

Basketball: The basketball game is based on three common "casual" half-court basketball variants: H-O-R-S-E, Around the World, and Shot Clock. In H-O-R-S-E, one player picks a location from which to shoot, and (if the first player makes the shot) subsequent players must match it or else receive a letter. When a player accrues the full word "horse" (or any word up to five letters -- you have the option!), they lose. In Around the World, players shoot from a sequence of locations around the hoop. And in Shot Clock, players have a set amount of time to shoot as many goals as possible.

All of these variants allow players to set the options -- shot clock duration, number of shooting locations, the word (and the length of the word) to substitute for "horse." The only problem is the game. Shooting a basket involves holding the Wiimote with the B button facing you, holding B, and flicking the Wiimote forward in a throwing motion. It is extremely difficult to adjust your shots or to know how the movement relates to the distance and direction of your shots, which means that you miss about 90% of the time.

Horseshoes: Horseshoes uses either an underhand or a "boomerang" motion to simulate tossing horseshoes. Each player tries to land horseshoes closest to (or around) a stake in the ground, over a player-specified number of rounds. The difficulty is just right here -- your throws seem to correspond to onscreen events pretty well, and waggling harder seems to be equivalent to throwing harder.

Croquet: Croquet uses Wii Sports golf-style controls (hold A and swing as if you were swinging a golf club) on a traditional nine-wicket croquet course. Croquet works quite well as a Wii minigame, because the swinging motion required for a croquet mallet is quite small and sensible for indoor play (and not crushed TV screens).

Basketball: For some reason, two of the eight games on the menu are basketball. The only difference is that the second basketball game takes place in a driveway rather than a basketball court. Both have the same gametypes, options, and gameplay. There is no discernible difference at all between the two other than the appearance of the backdrop. Baffling.

Volleyball: Volleyball in Summer Sports is incredibly frustrating. It's a traditional beach volleyball game: bounce the ball over to the other side; if it hits the ground on your serve, you get a point. Unlike basketball, the controls are fine: move the Wiimote in roughly the direction in which you'd like to bop the ball, or hold B and waggle to pass. The problem in this game is with the camera: whether in the default dynamic view or the Wii Sports tennis-style view, the camera jumps around far too much to see what's going on. You serve the ball, and then, when the other player would be trying to return the serve, the camera jumps into another angle. In the overhead view, the camera doesn't change angles, but instead just jerks around. It ensures that you can't see what's happening to any useful degree.

Mini-golf: Miniature golf is the star of Summer Sports, in my estimation. Each of the nine holes is in a different theme, from a haunted house to a medieval castle, with appropriate decorations. Thematic stage elements like suits of armor use full 3D models not seen elsewhere in the game. The courses all have unique and clever gimmicks, like a barrel that fires the ball across the course, or a thin platform with heavy wind blowing across it. Like a great mini-golf game, Summer Sports mini-golf's courses are either impossible to recreate in real life or would be prohibitively expensive.

Badminton: Badminton involves swinging the Wiimote in the direction you want to swing your tiny racquet, like ... well, you know. That sports game. It works fine, but it doesn't matter, because badminton uses the same awful camera as volleyball, and is thus unplayable. Yes, the camera is that bad.

Lawn darts: Most people would agree that playing lawn darts on a TV is a safer option than the real thing, in which children are handed spears. Players take turn tossing lawn darts at a target on the ground, in order to meet (but not exceed) a set score. Occasionally, a seagull carrying a five-point target will fly by. As inured as I am to video game violence, I still found the intentional targeting of a bird in a semi-realistic sports simulation ... jarring. Hilariously so.

All seven (eight-ish) games suffer from one overarching problem: they go on for too long. A round of H-O-R-S-E in Summer Sports can last about half an hour, especially if nobody can actually shoot right. Elaborate transitions between turns, awkward, jerky "ready" animations and the interminable wait for the game's projectile (golf ball, for example) to reach its "resting" state contribute to the unnatural extension of gameplay. Even in an enjoyable game like mini-golf or croquet, the sheer duration of the games makes them boring.

The tedium can be mitigated in two ways. It's always a good idea to reduce the number of rounds/holes/points in each game to the lowest levels possible. The second method of breaking up the boredom is significantly more innovative and awesome: in each of the sequential-play games, players waiting for their turns can taunt the active player. Taunting in Summer Sports takes the form of ridiculous sound effects played through the active player's Wiimote speaker in order to disrupt his or her concentration. Developer Digital Embryo put together a collection of the very best public domain sound effects, from car horns to telephones to -- most importantly -- the iconic Wilhelm scream. Each player has a different set of sounds, activated with the D-pad. Playing the screeching Wilhelm while your friend is practicing a golf swing does not ever get old. It just gets more and more hilarious.

Basketball in particular suffers from a more insidious and less addressable problem: unclear representation of motion controls. The problem with simulating some activities with the Wiimote is that it's hard to tell exactly which aspects are simulated. The motion of throwing a basketball in Summer Sports is much like the motion of throwing a real basketball, but real basketballs have things like weight that give you feedback, and they react according to the full range of physics. If you throw a basketball and it fails to reach the goal, you know how to throw harder; similarly, if you throw it too far to the right, you know how to adjust to the left.

But there's no way to know how the Summer Sports universe calculates these things -- how actual physics are represented in the game. To throw harder, do you move the Wiimote faster? Follow through longer? To aim left or right, do you tilt the remote? Twist it? Since you're not really throwing anything, and doing so in a world that was made up by some guys, you can't really tell. In essence, "simplifying" the world and your interactions with it has made something very basic extremely difficult. It's simpler than the real world, but infinitely more complicated than a digitally-controlled game. You can experiment over and over to try to figure it out, but just as it takes forever to learn how to shoot a real basketball, the minute variation inherent in any analog control scheme prevents you from reliably experimenting.

You could wrestle with this issue, which is a potential hazard for any Wii game, or you could just ... not play Summer Sports basketball.

I tried to work out the score for Summer Sports in two ways: first, by trying to give a score that would roughly average the scores each game would get on its own, and second, by considering Summer Sports as a holistic experience. Either way, the result is the same: it's not a total failure, nor is it Wii Sports 2. It would fall directly in the middle, were it not for the mini-golf game and the taunting.

Final score: 6.0/10

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Wii Fanboy Review: Mario Kart Wii

Chris Greenhough — 2008-04-25T13:30:00 00:00

Filed under: Reviews

With its inclusion of bikes, stunts, and the Wii Wheel, Mario Kart Wii is an almost note-perfect riposte to all of those accusations that Nintendo is reluctant to innovate in its first-party games. In fact, in its bid to simultaneously please both newcomers and veteran players, Mario Kart Wii ends up feeling like the biggest deviation for the series since its inception sixteen years ago. And, on the whole, that turns out to be a good thing.

Gallery: Mario Kart Wii

The Wii Wheel seems like a good place to start, considering it's the first thing you'll see upon delving into Mario Kart Wii's bulky box. As a Mario Kart purist (okay, as a gaming snob), I've been pretty dismissive about the Wii Wheel in the past. In one way, my cynicism still feels justified -- I personally found that a GameCube controller allowed far greater precision when steering, and provided an important advantage when racing human opposition (on that note, the game even appears to acknowledge that the Wii Wheel is the inferior option, by recording how much time you spend playing with it). But get this: against all of my horrible expectations, the Wii Wheel is actually fun to use.

I forced myself to use the Wheel from the moment I first started playing, and six hours later, after a brief stint on the GameCube controller, I was back to using the Wheel! So yes, readers, this is me eating crow. No, the Wheel isn't as accurate as other controller configurations -- trying to perform stunts can be especially frustrating, as flicks of the Wheel don't always seem to register -- but it's definitely a more entertaining option.

Click for larger version.

Speaking of stunts, all of the new circuits in Mario Kart Wii feature zany jumps, half-pipes, and ramps (while some of the older tracks have had -- sacrilege! -- the occasional ramp added). At times, it's a bit like racing around inside Tony Hawks' head, but be warned: pulling off stunts (by flicking the Wii Wheel or tapping the D-pad) isn't always recommended. Despite the speed boost that can be gained from executing tricks, there are sections in most tracks where there is more to be gained from simply driving (you remember driving, right?). Even your AI opponents don't always seem that fond of stunts. They're not an entirely redundant addition, but knowing when to deploy them is important.

Bikes, the third of Mario Kart Wii's controversial newcomers, are a far more useful addition. Initially tricky to handle (particularly with the Wii Wheel), they're worth persevering with, if only because their extra nippiness in the turn and the ability to boost by pulling off wheelies give them the edge over karts. Do they upset the balance, as at least one site has suggested? In a word, yes. The advantage is narrow, but it does exist, and the number of bikes you'll see online is, unsurprisingly, high; people have twigged that there's a difference. In time trials, bikes become a necessity. Does any of this prevent the game from being hella fun? Not one bit.

And that's because Mario Kart Wii handles joyfully. Whether on bike or kart, or whether using the Wii Wheel or a controller, drifting and producing measured power slides and counter-steering to just the right degree as you take on a bend feels as deeply satisfying as ever. Of all the games in the franchise to date, it feels closest to Mario Kart DS, and such a comparison should tell you all you need to know about Mario Kart Wii's quality.

Click for larger version.

It's no technical slouch either, and although it does fall short of being as beautiful as, say, Super Mario Galaxy, there are still parts that can take the breath away. The first, ultra-steep drop in Wario's Gold Mines (above) is one such moment, as is the whole of Bowser's Castle, the penultimate race in the Special Cup, and surely the most visually stunning circuit to ever grace the Mario Kart franchise. Rainbow Road is another technical tour-de-force (complete with a cute Galaxy reference or two), not to mention as tough as old leather thanks to its brain-bending twists.

However, although there are plenty of pretty tracks, not all are ideal. Now that the number of competitors in each race has been increased from eight to twelve, many of the Wii-exclusive circuits are far more spacious. There's some indisputable logic behind making tracks bigger -- more racers require more space, after all -- but proceedings begin to feel rather empty and barren once you head online and find yourself in a field of three karts.

Thankfully, such small fields are uncommon, and besides, I don't like to chastise the online mode too much, because it's here that the game absolutely sparkles. Wonderfully, lag is extremely rare, regardless of the number of opponents, or their location. Only last night, I took part in a race with a full field of twelve players scattered all over Europe, Japan, and Australia. The resulting race was a revelation, a lightning-fast, lag-free contest from start to finish. Whether or not the North American servers will survive the inevitable onslaught this weekend is another matter, but the signs are good.

Click for larger version.

Indeed, the whole online set-up is quite excellent, from the brilliant and extensive Mario Kart Channel (which lets you keep tabs on your friends, store and share ghost data, enter Nintendo-created competitions, and view online rankings) to the littlest of touches (such as the game estimating how many players will be in the next race before you decide whether or not to continue, or how every player is introduced through their Miis before you start racing). My only complaint? In the hours I've clocked up online, there have been three occasions where a race suddenly froze up, and I was declared the winner (I was leading in none of them). Thankfully, such hiccups hardly spoil what is a generally stellar experience.

There are other issues I could nitpick at. The offline multiplayer is typically fantastic, but only Nintendo will understand its decision to not allow every-man-for-himself play in the game's Battle mode (you're forced to play in teams), and at least one of the new power-ups, the POW Block, is rather underwhelming (though I did love the Thundercloud, which hurls lightning at whoever picks it up, but which can be cheekily passed to other players by barging into them). Oh, and the rubber band AI? At times, it's a little too forgiving on those at the back of the field.

Yet the game does so much right (a lot of which was a gamble to start with) that you can't help but admire it. Frankly, Mario Kart Wii put a whole lot of happy into my head, and I've adored every turn and chicane since I first fed the disc into my Wii. Is it better than Double Dash!!? Unquestionably. The best home console Mario Kart ever? Not quite, but it comes scarily close at times.

Final score: 9/10

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Zero Punctuation has zero tolerance for Brawl

Chris Greenhough — 2008-04-23T17:00:00 00:00

Filed under: Reviews

Oh dear. This isn't going to be pretty. We're going to hazard a guess that Ben "Yahtzee" Croshaw's opinion of Super Smash Bros. Brawl doesn't exactly coincide with the view taken by most of our readers -- frankly, it sounds like he hated every minute of Nintendo's scrapper.

But before you start punching out that hate-filled, trembling-with-rage email to the man, stop right there and hear him out, because you may just find yourself agreeing with some of his points -- even we had to concede that a number of his grievances have bugged us in the past. With that in mind, take some deep breaths and head past the break for one of the most venomous Zero Punctuation reviews to date, and the usual dose of NSFW language.

[Thanks, Roto13!]

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Wii Fanboy hands-on: Deca Sports

David Hinkle — 2008-04-21T18:00:00 00:00

Filed under: News, Reviews, Controller, Features

Imagine our delight when we had a brown envelope from Hudson sitting on our doorstep Friday afternoon. As we opened the parcel up, we found the above items: a preview copy of Deca Sports and this sweet little wristband. Huzzah!

But, woe was us for we would not be able to just play and selfishly enjoy the four available sports on the demo disc by our lonesome (or with some friends). Oh no, we have a job and have to let our readers know what we think. So that's what we did. But, we didn't just settle for playing the included sports and writing up a preview. No, instead we decided that we'd do a nice little video for you. And for all of you who enjoy reading things, we wrote up our opinions as well.

So head on past the break for our hands-on look at Deca Sports for the Wii!

Gallery: Deca Sporta

The four available sports on this demo build are Badminton, Figure Skating, Supercross and Beach Volleyball. As we sat at the main screen showing off the 10 available sports in the game (six of which were, obviously, grayed out and unselectable), we wondered which should be played first. Should it be a sport we had high hopes for before going in to this? Or, should we try one of the sports we doubted? Well, we decided to go for the first sport that we would never find ourselves participating in (unless we were, like, possessed by another being that could control our actions or something) out in the real world: Figure Skating.

The premise of Figure Skating in Deca Sports is that you perform a routine, set to music, that very much resembles what one might see done in the Olympics or something. You have traditional Figure Skating maneuvers here that the player performs through a bit of waggle. See, you use the nunchuk's analog stick to navigate your skater along a line of yellow dots, and on this path you'll come across large circles that vary in color (red, green, blue, etc). Once inside these circles, all you need to do is shake the Wiimote in any way and you'll perform the routine's designated maneuver. The sport is very much easy to excel in, which is kind of its downfall. You see, with only three different routines available, along with the natural ease of it all, we found little replay valu in this. The initial play was incredibly fun, but after the second time running through a routine, we were ready for something else.

After that, it was off to warmer climates, namely the beach. Here, we put on our suits and decided to partake in some Beach Volleyball. Easily tied as the most fun sport in this demo build, it plays very much like Wii Sports: Tennis does. The game controls your player's movement, while you're charged with keeping the ball in play. The controls are a little more fleshed out than in Figure Skating, as you can perform different serves and volleys, along with the always-fun spiking that permeates the sport. Playing is incredibly easy, although we should say that it's a big pet peeve of ours that we cannot control our player's movement on the court. We HATE the game taking over player movement, because it often leads to missed opportunities in the game or our player running around like they just got a complimentary free bowl of soup with their lobotomy. But, as said, overall it's a blast.

Next up was Supercross. This was a major letdown, as the motion controls felt incredibly touchy and unresponsive. Turning smoothly was an impossibility for us, causing us to hit the guard rails and miss transition opportunities on jumps left and right. The controls, which handle more or less exactly the same as Nintendo's Excite Truck, never once felt consistent or familiar. Instead, we felt like we were trying to drive an alien spaceship each and every time we picked up the Wiimote to play.

Finally, we came to Badminton, which is anything but bad. It's tied with Beach Volleyball as our favorite sport of the bunch. Again, our complaint is that the game handles moving your player around the court, but outside of that, we found the controls to be inviting and the sessions to be furious and fun. Often we would be taking matches down to the wire, fighting with our opponent for supremacy on the virtual court up until the last point. And for those of you unfamiliar with the sport, it plays a lot like Tennis, except you aren't smacking around a ball and the shuttle can never touch the ground. If anything, it's some kind of weird mix between Tennis and Volleyball.

There you have it. Our time with Hudson's Deca Sports was overall very fun and enjoyable. We're anxious to try the remaining 6 sports in the bunch, as this preview disc has us craving more. Hudson may very well have a success on their hands, even with the almost unplayable Supercross. But, hey, you can't make an omelette without breaking a few eggs, right?

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Wii Fanboy Review: Baroque

Candace Savino — 2008-04-18T14:15:00 00:00

Filed under: Reviews

I'll be frank -- when I first started Baroque, I hated it. Being thrown into such a strange and ugly world with the barest of backstories was completely disorienting. I had no idea where to go or what to do, and didn't have the luxury of taking my time to explore because my vitality meter was plummeting from the get-go. One character (known as the Coffin Man) kept yelling "goddamnit!" at me, and when I finally got to the place where I was supposed to be, it wasn't long before I died.

If I hadn't been reviewing this game, I probably would have quit right there. But, since it's (clearly) considered bad form to write a review after only twenty minutes of playtime, I trekked on -- and I'm extremely glad that I did. Once I delved deeper into the world of Baroque, I realized that first impressions aren't always the best impressions.

Now that you've kindly read through my personal aside, let's move on to the actual review, shall we?

Gallery: Baroque

While the game doesn't explain much from the start, you soon find out (or can read in the instruction manual) that the world has ended in something called the "Blaze." Your character has committed a terrible sin that he can't remember, and in order to be forgiven, he must enter the dungeon (called Neuro Tower) and purify the world.

Neuro Tower is where you'll be spending the bulk of your time, but before delving into the combat system, there are some important distinctions that need to be made about the game. While it can be loosely defined as a "dungeon-crawler RPG," Baroque is actually more complex than that. It's more accurate, in fact, to classify this title as a "roguelike," since all items and experience disappear when your character completes the dungeon or dies. Even when you get to the bottom floor of Neuro Tower and "win," you'll be sent back to the outerworld, stripped of everything you've earned and collected.

While that might seem terrifying to those of you unfamiliar with the genre, Baroque is probably one of the more forgiving roguelikes. For one, the game allows you to save between dungeon floors, so dying doesn't always equate to starting from scratch. Also, there's a system in place that allows you to save some items for your next run through the dungeon. Scattered in the tower are balls called consciousness orbs, which you can throw items into. When you reappear in the outerworld you'll have lost everything, but a character known as the Collector will be holding onto the items you threw into the orbs. Still, the roguelike style of Baroque is a gameplay feature that you must be comfortable with to enjoy this game.

Ironically, one of the biggest draws of Baroque might also be one of its biggest turn-offs to some -- its atmosphere. The surreal, eerie setting of this game is refreshingly unique, though. It might not look great graphically, but the bleak scenery and strange characters will still draw you into its creepy world of distorted fantasies. Then, once you enter Neuro Tower, the enemies you fight only add to the oddness. Some gamers might find it all to be too strange to enjoy, however, so it's important to know your tastes before plunging into Baroque.

As for the combat, it takes place in real time (meaning it's not turn-based). At first, the combat seems disappointing -- essentially, you only have to press one button to attack, although locking onto enemies helps, too. This gets quite repetitive, but the incredibly deep item system makes up for it (and then some). The basic mechanics of Baroque add to its difficulty, since you have a vitality meter to worry about in addition to your health. From the second you begin the game, your vitality meter starts dropping. The only way to fill it is to kill enemies or use vitality-raising items. Should your meter get to 0, then your health starts dropping instead, and should that get to 0, you die.

Aside from items that will help you in this regard, there's a seemingly endless amount of other goodies to pick up in the tower. While the instruction manual will explain the basics, each item can have multiple variations. For example, wings are a helpful accessory, but there many different types. Some improve defense, some protect against status ailments, some increase the amount of experience you earn, and so on. This system adds a surprising amount of depth to the game. Each journey you take through the tower will be unique, because you'll be finding different ways to aid yourself and kill your enemies.

In every facet, though, Baroque walks a fine line between the refreshing and the frustrating. Most aspects that some people consider bad will be nothing short of enjoyable for others. Hopefully this review will have sent enough warning signs if you belong in the former group. Yet, even if you don't, there are still some annoyances to be wary of. The bad camera angles, for one, are something worth mentioning. Fortunately, the game doesn't have a fixed camera, but (for reasons explained below) it's not always convenient to adjust your view in combat. Secondly, the vitality meter can be a real drag at times. It's an essential part of the gameplay, but I wish it didn't drop in the outerworld (or at least paused when you talk to characters), so that you could feel free to explore without a proverbial time-bomb hanging over your head.

Baroque is also very hands-off, meaning that you'll often feel lost, confused, and disoriented -- sometimes a little too much so. It might have been nice if the game offered the player just a bit more direction. Lastly, some of the gameplay choices seemed questionable. For example, there's no way to enter the training dungeon (unless I did something wrong) before either "beating" or dying in Neuro Tower first, which doesn't seem to make much sense. On the whole, though, the risks and bold choices that the developers made when creating Baroque seemed to have paid off.

Controls: The game offers two control options -- the Wiimote with Nunchuk combination, or the Classic Controller. Although the Classic Controller is probably the more comfortable option, the Wiimote and Nunchuk work well enough. Repositioning the camera in the middle of battle can be awkward, since you have to get your thumb to the D-pad while holding the Wiimote vertically, but everything else is relatively basic. "B" attacks, "Z" locks on targets, "C" throws items, and "A" opens the menu screen. There's also some tacked on waggle, as shaking the Wiimote performs a special attack.

Visuals: Baroque certainly isn't the prettiest game to look at, and most will find themselves unimpressed by its graphics. At the same time, though, the dark and dreary settings immerse the player into the game's surreal atmosphere.

Sound: The voice acting is pretty good, but the music leaves something to be desired (especially compared to the Sega Saturn version's soundtrack). Most of the songs sound like cheesy 80s metal, which would have been fine (and perhaps even a bonus) if they were more over-the-top. As it stands, though, the music in the game is mostly forgettable.

Story: The story itself isn't very impressive. Although it's odd (to say the least) and vaguely interesting, it lacks any real depth. Yet, what should be lauded is how it's told. Like some sort of avant-garde film, the plot in Baroque isn't straightforward or linear. At the beginning, you are as clueless about the past as you are about the future, so you slowly come to piece things together. However, this style of storytelling is likely to irk many gamers who'd prefer a clear, easy-to-follow progression.

Difficulty: It should be noted that the game lets the player choose their preferred difficulty, with easy, normal, and hard settings offered. Assuming that normal is the default for most players, the combat should present a sufficient but not overwhelming challenge. The combat will probably be the least of one's difficulty worries in Baroque, though. Gamers who are used to titles that hold their hands should not expect that here. You'll often find yourself unsure of where to go, what to do, or how to progress the story. You'll also have to figure out on your own what certain items do, mainly through experimentation. Let's just say that this is the kind of game you won't be ashamed to use a FAQ for.

Final Score: 7.0/10 -- Most reviews for roguelikes can be summed up with a simple, "If you enjoy roguelikes, you'll enjoy this game" mantra. Although it's tempting to say the same thing for Baroque, and it's certainly not for everybody, the game deserves more distinction than that. Is it challenging? Yes. Is it niche? Yes. Is it weird? Hell yes -- but none of these things are necessarily bad, depending on your tastes as a gamer. If you go into the game expecting a classic RPG experience, you'll probably be disappointed. If you're willing to be open-minded and patient at first, though, you might find yourself pleasantly surprised by this unique piece of software. At the very least, Wii owners who have been looking for a "hardcore experience" should take note -- this is it.

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Zero Punctuation shines the spotlight on No More Heroes

Chris Greenhough — 2008-04-09T22:30:00 00:00

Filed under: Reviews, Video

Wii Fanboy favorite No More Heroes is the focus of this week's Zero Punctuation, and it actually gets off fairly easily compared to the roasting received by most games. In between describing Suda 51 as "the 51st result of an illegal Japanese cloning experiment to create the world's most auteur game designer" and fretting over what the game is satirizing and what it isn't, Ben "Yahtzee" Croshaw admits he enjoyed playing as Travis Touchdown, and eventually praises Grasshopper's game for its "unpredictable story and quirky aesthetics."

Finally, as if we didn't already admire the man enough, he reveals his deep-seated love of Branston Pickle. Way to make us forgive every mean thing you ever said about our favorite games, Yahtzee. Hit the break for the full, NSFW review.

Gallery: No More Heroes

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