Nintendo Wii Fanboy

During 2007, lots of companies realized that the Wii was doing good. Perhaps, too good. So, they scrambled to make games that they could port or "enhance" for the Wii, or other games that were made to take advantage of the console's adopters who were new to gaming and thus susceptible to spending money on crap games the unique capabilities of the Wii's controls scheme, causing a slew of cash-ins on the console that didn't necessarily bring anything new to the Wii other than another game sitting on the shelf. So, let's look at those games and you tell us what the most shameless and useless game of the lot is.

As one of those irritating "Black Friday" deals that gets desperate people outside at 4am, Best Buy will be offering four Wii games at a discounted price of $19.99 on Friday and Saturday. The selection includes enough of interest to make it worth leaving your family on Thanksgiving night to go camp out in front of an electronics store! If anything is.

We won't speak for Rapala Tournament Fishing! or Brunswick Pro Bowling, although if you're going to buy those, you might as well do it at a reduced price. More likely to be cared about is Sonic and the Secret Rings, which might well be $20 worth of game. The best deal is Resident Evil 4 Wii Edition, which, at $20, is about what you'd pay for a new copy of RE4 on the GameCube. If you don't see these on the shelves, just wait until a blueshirt comes by with the "last one" of the game you're looking for.

[Via GoNintendo]

For such a popular console that tries to offer something for everyone, the Wii also manages to be somewhat controversial -- and we're not just talking about Manhunt 2 here. The motion-sensing controls have been a bone of contention when it comes to nearly every game, even those people seem to enjoy. Some gamers find them awesome, and others ... not so much. We've selected six games which cover a range of game types (and aren't all first-party, either) as a measuring stick of what you think is best when it comes to Wii controls. We encourage you to vote early (and often!), but feel free to talk about other choices in the comments, as well as the reasons behind your picks.

You might have noticed that Wii Sports isn't on this list (and neither are several other well-received games!). We considered including it, because not everyone agrees that it works quite well as a showcase of the Wii control capabilities, but decided at the last minutes to include only non-bundled games. Feel free to voice your support for Wii Sports in the comments, however!

Which of these games boasts the best motion-sensing controls?
	The Legend of Zelda: Twilight Princess
	Cooking Mama: Cook Off
	Trauma Center: Second Opinion
	Madden NFL '07
	The Godfather: Blackhand Edition
	Resident Evil 4 (Wii)

Prepare yourselves for a very dry month, one lacking any kind of relief brought by new games. It's looking like we won't get anything new to play until the end of the month and, with the holiday having just passed, we're pretty much done with Resident Evil 4 as we found ourselves having some of that elusive free time.

What about you folks, though? Will you have enough games to get through this month? What are you playing?

We talked about this a little a few months back, but now that we've seen that a waggle-port can be done quite well thanks to Resident Evil 4, we thought it might be a good time to revisit this topic. Are you a little more inclined to be curious about ports with new controls now? And since you know there will be ports, what would you like to see redone for the Wii? What games do you think could really benefit from the addition of motion-sensitive controls?

If you're lucky enough to have a Hastings store nearby, the entertainment retailer is offering to exchange your moth-eaten copies of Super Paper Mario or The Legend of Zelda: Twilight Princess for a waggle-fied edition of Resident Evil 4. They'll also accept Rainbow Six Vegas (360) and God of War II (PS2), but not without scowling at you first.

According to the rest of Hastings's weekly ad, there's a buy-1-get-2nd-for-free sale on body jewelry, so be on the look out for that deal too! Put away the other two RE4 games you've already bought for previous platforms, throw on a shirt that shows off your belly-button-ringed midriff, and check past the post break for the full flyer.

We only had one game release this week, but it's one we've been anticipating for awhile now. This weekend, we plan on getting knee deep in crazed villagers and playing through this excellent game again. We did turn it on for a few minutes, just to check out the new controls, and we liked what we played.

But, enough about us. What about all of you? Will you be playing Resident Evil 4 Wii Edition with us, or do you have another game (or games) on your mind?

Shipping to retail shelves in the U.S. today, Resident Evil 4 hasn't had a shortage of coverage here at Wii Fanboy. We love the franchise and were anxious to see how the already amazing game could benefit from the implementation of gesture-based controls. Not only that, but always having a reticle on-screen seemed like such a simple, yet necessary, improvement. We're glad to say that, according to the critics at least, the newest version of the game is quite good.

• GameSpy (100/100) found themselves a perfect game: "The reason that the Wii version is the best is because the new control system makes the gameplay more enjoyable. Using both the Wii remote and the nunchuck, players will be able to perform all of the regular moves and attacks from before, only now they can do them in a more sensitive, accurate and pleasing fashion."

• CVG (93/100) thinks the game has been improved: "It has the looks, it has the compelling level design, and it has the scary bits. Check, then: this is Resident Evil 4 all over again, but slightly better."

• EGM (87/100) finds the new control scheme to be for the better: "Though they suffer a bit when things get hectic, the Wii-mote-enabled controls generally serve RE4 well: Aiming weapons, swiping your knife, and shaking off face-sucking nasties with real-world moves adds urgency to an already incredibly intense experience." [July 2007, p.82]

• EuroGamer (70/100) says the Wiimote controls hurt the game: "It's just a shame that one of the best ever action games has become another casualty of the Wii controller. Indeed, for a controller that was supposed to herald a new dawn of inclusive gaming there are a lot of third-party publishers who have yet to get their heads round it."

Sure, Resident Evil 4 may look the same on the Wii and GameCube, but it's contents weren't as uniform across its various regions of release. No, apparently the international version had the most violence and carnage in it, with the Japanese version receiving a trimming in that department. According to the latest This Week in Japan piece over at Next Generation, a "great portion of the blood and gore has been excised from the game," further adding that "headshots no longer kill, limbs can no longer be shot off."

Personally, we're wondering if the individual who wrote this up has a lot of experience with the original Japanese version of Resident Evil 4. Surely, a compare and contrast of the games is in order as we find ourselves confused as to whether the already-censored Japanese version of the game has become more censored in its transition to the Wii or if it's the original censoring in place.

[Via Joystiq]

Turns out it's just one Gamecube! Either that or Capcom is lazy. The evidence to support either conclusion is found in this Gametrailers video, which compares the Gamecube and Wii versions of Resident Evil 4 side-by-side. Major spoiler: they look exactly the same.

The sad part is, we actually don't know if the Wii can do better graphics than the original Resident Evil 4, because nobody has tried. Well, at least this version of RE4 has waggling. And it's not like the graphics were bad on the Cube or anything.

Capcom is offering up the chance at winning some goodies for its Japanese fans, namely a lucky 25 of those fans, themed after Biohazard 4. These items are some sweet pieces of gear, if we might say so, including a jacket modeled after Leon's and a pair of "Engineer Boots." Getting to this super-secret section of the website requires clicking on those little red blood cells floating around, but in the interest of saving you time, we'll just offer up a direct link to the page.

[Via Famitsu]

Capcom's Christian Svensson, Sr. Director of Strategic Planning & Research, recently sat down with Gamasutra to discuss everything from downloadable content to the company's increasing success in the West. Of course, the subject of the Wii came up, particularly in regard to original downloadable content. Original VC content may be an issue, Svensson said, due to file size limitations, but Capcom is also considering other options, like compilation titles for retail. We'd like to hear the word 'budget' in there somewhere, but it's too early to be cranky; we'll wait and see what they come up with.

Resident Evil 4 redux came up as well, and Svensson defended the company's choice to release the title on the GameCube originally. "A lot of people knock the decision to put it on GameCube, but at the same time, Resident Evil 4 was the number-one selling title for the GameCube in 2005, which is hard for a third-party," Svensson retorted, and we fully agree that that the combination of GC and Resident Evil 4 was a match made in heaven. We wait with bated breath for the Wii version.

If you're one of the five people on the planet who have yet to make your way through Resident Evil 4, you definitely don't want to head past the post break. Thar be spoilers back yonder! But, for the rest of us who might be looking forward to the upcoming release of the Wii version and have beaten the game every which way but Sunday, the video is a nice, brief look at the game's characters and plot. There's also a few glimpses into the Ada Wong side missions, if you never got your hands on the PS2 version.

Capcom's U.S. website has updated it's Resident Evil 4 section with what we're assuming is the final boxart for the game. Also, the site lists some deets for the title, but we all pretty much knew what we would be getting with the Wii port, no? And, while we think it's some pretty neat boxart, we've seen better already.

What do you all think?

See also: Resident Evil sites lunge right for our jugular

[Thanks, hvnlysoldr!]

And what exactly do we mean by this? Well, Capcom almost decided to make Umbrella Chronicles the spitting image of Resident Evil 4, which you can bet we would've been totally on board with, but after seeing Nintendo's Wii console in action, the company decided to make it an on-rail shooter. While we could sit here with a frown on our face and pout about the possibilities that could've been, we'll just think about unicorns. And big, fluffy clouds.

The game's producer, Masachika Kawata, argued that the new direction is more fir for Wii owners, claiming the game would've been "too complicated to enjoy. Wii users like easiness. Umbrella Chronicles is not only for game enthusiasts. Complex operability can be an obstacle for Wii users. We want players to enjoy the game's horrifying and creepy world and its thrilling shooting action. By reducing enthusiast-only elements, players can purely enjoy the world." Personally, we like our games to have some depth and find ourselves disagreeing with his stance on the issue.

Just because the Wii has these amazing innovative controls and product that appeals to just about every person on this planet, doesn't mean you should totally do away with an already established hot product (Resident Evil 4 is set to grace three different systems and has sold how many copies?). Or, are we crazy and Capcom's decision is the more sound one from a business point of view?

[Thanks, Josh!]