Nintendo Wii Fanboy

G4's X-Play managed to get some time in with Order Up!, which turned out to be the rumored project of SuperVillain Studios. As you can see in the video above, it has a very charming artistic style and looks to offer the same kind of fun found in other casual titles such as Cooking Mama.

Anyone liking what they see here? Think this is a title that should be avoided?


[Via Go Nintendo]

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!

So, WiiWare launched yesterday! We were all excited to see what we'd be getting, and we even found the time to check out a pair of the more casual titles on offer. But, who cares what we think, we're just a bunch of dumb jerks on a gaming blog.

We want to know what you think. Did you download any of the games? Read some impressions? What did you think of the overall WiiWare launch line-up? And, to make it simple, just go ahead and assign WiiWare's launch a score, like we do with our reviews (keep it between 1-10, makes it easier).

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.

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.

Sandlot Games' Cake Mania franchise is coming to the Wii for the first time via Majesco, as Cake Mania: In the Mix! The new Wii game combines the time-management-based gameplay of the first Cake Mania with the storyline of the sequel, and adds waggle to the baking and serving action in new minigames.

Other new features include an unspecified "Shop Rating" feature that enables unlocks and a phone system that enables even more orders to come in.

Majesco expects to release Cake Mania: In the Mix during this holiday season. It will be distributed by Codemasters in Europe for an early 2009 release. We're always interested in seeing how the PC casual games audience crosses over with the Wii casual games audence, and this is a perfect test case.

... if you're in France. Despite much frantic hunting on the internets, we've only been able to locate this neat little piece of Boom Blox merchandise at a French outlet, where it's being given away to those who purchase the game early (Boom Blox launches across Europe tomorrow).

Although it lacks a ball to knock your blocks down with once you've finished building, assembling this puzzle is probably the perfect way to pass the time while your family plays on Boom Blox and you stubbornly refuse to admit that you might have been wrong. Bah. Oh, one word of advice, though: handle with care.

Update: Moved video to past the break. It had a nasty habit of auto-starting and we know how annoying that can be.

Are you ready for twelve minutes of Boom Blox? If not, go listen to P.O.D.'s "Boom" a couple of times to get yourself psyched up.* The above video features the first twelve minutes of (a demo version of) the Spielberg-inspired puzzle action game about knocking over piles of blocks. It's actually quite a nice way to get introduced to the game, as the beginning naturally contains the tutorial.

You'll see how to aim and toss balls using Blox's imperfect but convenient control scheme (normally, when throwing a ball, you don't get to "lock on" first, but we're happy for the help), and what the different kinds of "Blox" are and how they can be "boomed." The "Chemical Blox" certainly look like a good time -- they explode upon contact with each other. The video also features one of the multiplayer modes: a game in which each player knocks over a tower of numbered blocks, with the numbers representing point values.

*No, don't do that.

One of our readers sent in this interesting article about the rise of Rock Band parties, and in his e-mail, Dan said that he felt Nintendo was on the right track with their games-for-everyone strategy. While he and his friends -- the force behind the parties mentioned in the article -- were playing Rock Band on other systems, obviously, he felt that one game was similar to many of Nintendo's current offerings. That is, it's a game that brings everyone together, whether they're into those "vidya games" or not.

He mentioned that he spends time playing WarioWare: Smooth Moves and Super Mario Galaxy with some of the new gamers in his life, gamers who were picking up the Wii, and that experience is enriching his gaming life as a whole. He can have it all -- time with more "hardcore" games, and time with his friends, just having a good time, and Nintendo is making that easier and more welcoming.

We wanted to pass along his story not only because, hey, we agree with him when he says Rock Band for the Wii is a sadly lesser entity, but also because we have to agree. Holing up for hours to get through one tough stage in the hardest of hardcore games is fun, but it's also fun to host a drunken tennis tournament or pass a few hours with a group of friends and WarioWare: Smooth Moves. But there's a trade-off: some of the traditional games are getting a little easier and a little more casual-friendly. For some of us, that's not a problem ... while others see it as a possible death knell for the hardcore niche title, and that's what we want to discuss this morning. Is the trade-off worth it? Can the hard modes in casual-friendly games keep things interesting for the rest of us?

[Thanks, Dan!]

Somehow, the Wii is now in the position of being the game system with two games about designing and building houses -- not including MySims or the inevitable Animal Crossing. We're quite sure that when Majesco announced Our House, they'd be comfortably alone in a genre of their very own.

Home Sweet Home is a WiiWare game from BigBlueBubble based on a casual PC title of the same name (and the same gameplay!) Rather than home-building, Home Sweet Home focuses on interior design and renovation, casting the player as a professional decorator. You'll talk to your clients about their needs, and then direct a team to do the appropriate building and decorating.

In addition to the 'home-design' genre, Home Sweet Home also joins Our House in the category of games whose titles remind us of songs. Enjoy some Mötley Crüe! It's Crüesday.



[Via press release]

Welcome to a new intermittent feature here at Wii Fanboy: Point/Counterpoint, in which two of our bloggers face off in an ultimate showdown of ultimate destiny over one simple question.

There's no denying that Wii Play is successful -- it has continually been one of the best-selling titles for the console. However, the inclusion of a Wii remote with the minigame collection certainly accounts for most of that success. How worthwhile is the game itself? Does it deserve to be one of the top games for the console? That's the question on the table.

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		The case against Wii Play

If you own a Wii, it's a safe bet you own more than one remote ... and you probably picked up that second remote with a copy of Wii Play. Why not? For an extra ten bucks, Nintendo threw in some mini-games, and for some reason, this aroused the ire of selected gamers and reviewers around the globe (including some who didn't even bother to play it).

Want a spare controller for your 360 or PS3? You're going to drop a similar amount of cash and get ... a controller. Want something extra? You're boned, friend; take your controller and like it. Not so for Wii owners, for whom a second controller is pretty much a necessity; after all, so many of the Wii's games depend on an in-house multiplayer experience, rather than the single-flesh-person online experience the other consoles tend to offer. Sure, that's a drawback in a lot of cases, but it's fact: the Wii is great for party games, so you need a spare remote or three. Period. Which is why the Wii Play bundle is not only brilliant, but an excellent bargain for Wii owners. You get nine small games for ten bucks -- and that's a deal any way you slice it.

But this goes beyond the idea of price. Not only is Wii Play a surprisingly good mini-game collection for ten bucks, but it's an effective game in its own right. Sure, it lacks the depth of most full-fledged games, but it beats the pants off a few, namely Super Monkey Ball: Banana Blitz and Carnival Games. Pound for pound, Wii Play is certainly a better deal than either of those titles. The first features a few completely unplayable mini-games (and has review scores I will never understand), and the second feels half-finished in many respects. Wii Play, however, can be a blast! Grab a friend and sit down for a few rounds in the shooting gallery, or half an hour with Tanks! or Charge!, and then tell us that it was the worst experience of your life. Unless you hate fun, you're probably going to manage to have a little.

Further, the mini-games of Wii Play seem tailor made to teach new gamers how to use the Wii remote in different ways; simply by playing, you learn to point and shoot, to grab and move items, and to "drive" while holding the remote sideways. There's a good reason for this -- Wii Play started its life as a tech demo, but that actually makes it very useful as an in-home title. Like it or not, many Wii owners (or users) are new to gaming, or returning to the hobby, and games like Wii Sports and Wii Play get them accustomed to manipulating the controller ... which means they'll probably want more games. That gives the more robust gamers more people to play with. Everybody wins.

Does that mean the experience is perfect? No, not at all, but despite the perfect review scores that are being tossed around more and more often, few games are. What's important is that Wii Play is exactly what it sets out to be -- an inexpensive bonus training game that offers shallow fun -- and for that, the bundle deserves the crazy sales. It's one of the best bargains out there for any Wii owner.

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Anti-Wii Play	Back	You decide!

Wii Play.

Anyone who keeps up with sales figures knows that the package has been selling steady ever since it released early last year. Folks see an almost-free game with a Wiimote for only $50 and they immediately think it's a deal. And many can argue that it is, but for this individual, the bundle has no appeal.

The first issue I have with the package is the software. Wii Play as a "game" is like saying a peanut butter sandwich is "a meal." It's lacking. When looking directly at the worth of the software (the games within it), one finds titles that, upon being tried for the first time might come off as mild amusements and "well worth the extra $10," but after several sessions, the truth comes out. These minigames feel like they were never finished.

The mini-games seem half-baked and only offer a diversion for a short amount of time. After giving them a few plays over an hour, I quickly came to my senses that Wii Play is something I didn't want to see happent to the Wii. I didn't want quick slap-togethers of minigames to flood the console. Luckily, that isn't the case, but doesn't save Wii Play from its own flaws.

Also, as a sort of "Wiimote trainer," it's not any kind of introduction to some wider world of Wii wonders that can only be seen through picking up Wii Play and playing it. Wii Play only trains you in how to get bored quickly. Nintendo would have you believe otherwise.

Finally, the comparisons between it and Wii Sports are inevitable. Again, where Wii Play is nothing more than a tech demo with some added polish, Wii Sports stands on its own as a worthwhile experience on the console. The sports games included in that package are, more or less, actually fleshed out and allow you to play for more than 5 minutes. In Wii Sports, you can also enjoy multiplayer gaming, where should you expose a friend to Wii Play you're probably only going to get a smack to the face in response. At least, that's what I'd do.

In the end, it's no doubt going to boil down to what your personal preferences are, but I really don't see the validation of Wii Play. For what this software is (a collection of quick and tedious minigames), I would say the only way I could accept Wii Play was if it were packaged with a Wiimote for free. Until then, my extra $10 will go to more important things. Like lottery tickets.

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	Back	In favor of Wii Play

[Via Joystiq]

Thank you.

Look, we here at Wii Fanboy love the Wii and often criticize it because, frankly, we expect nothing but the best. If nobody will step up and address certain concerns, then we will. It's our duty to present you with the news, but it's also our duty to be honest and objective with what we see. Considering that, we're not too happy with the amount of "hardcore" games available on Nintendo's latest console.

They've never been one to present oodles and oodles of more serious titles on their consoles, compared to their competition, but with recent games that have changed our life like No More Heroes and Zack & Wiki, we crave more long-lasting games that we can sit down with for more than a half-hour and enjoy. It's just how we feel.

And it would appear Sega of America president Simon Jeffery feels the same way. He thinks it's a mistake for western developers to ignore the hardcore gamers on the Wii, instead flooding the market with tons of casual titles that appeal to a wider demographic. "There's no reason why [hardcore gamers] should be excluded or excommunicated from the Nintendo world," he commented. We agree.

We're excited for Wii Fit and we're happy the console is getting the third-party support it deserves, but we want more. Maybe we're just too selfish?