Nintendo Wii Fanboy

While Europe gleefully blasts Bombermen at home and online, we must be content to stare at screenshots and artwork of the game, while we sit by and eagerly await our millionth chance to play Bomberman. Hudson has obligingly sent along new screens and art for us to direct our sighs toward. We wouldn't be surprised to see it here soon, though, now that it's out elsewhere.

As excited as we are about the 8-player online play, in our minds the 8-player home play is the real star here. We imagine a hypothetical situation in which we could gather enough Bomberman-friendly people in one place, with enough controllers, to make for an awesome party. Game Night seems like a much more ... possible venue for Bombermannery.



[Via press release]

We were confused for quite a while about the two simultaneously-developed Wii Bomberman games, one for WiiWare and one on a disc. Part of the confusion turned out to be due to the fact that the multiplayer portions of both games were essentially the same, with the retail version adding single-player mode and other extras. Helpfully, this promotional video for Bomberman shows the box and the 5,040 yen ($47) price at the end, which reinforces that this is the retail game and not Bomberman Blast.

The video introduces Bomberman's story mode, with adventure sequences (or cutscenes) between Bomberman-style action stages and fights against giant bosses. You can get crystals to power up, and even (apparently) buy equipment for your Bomberman. Then the video shows off the battle mode, which is ... well, Bomberman. As it should be.

Seeing as how the game has been out in Japan for quite some time now (and releasing here in little over a month), you've probably seen and heard all their is to Mario Super Sluggers. But, we'd be remiss if we didn't do our duty and sit down with the game and enjoy some time at the ballpark.

WordJong on the DS is unique among the system's puzzle games: a Scrabble-type game in which you build words onto existing stacks of letters in order to clear stages. It's even got an online mode and Achievement-like trophies. There aren't enough language-based puzzle games, and even fewer good ones.

That's why we're thrilled to see a new game listed on GameStop.com called WordJong Party. According to the listing, it'll be out October 21 for $40. If, uh, it's real, a multiplayer, scaled-up WordJong is definitely something to be excited about. Although, of course, it'll have to be particularly feature-rich to avoid the calls of "should be WiiWare" that haunt all 2D, puzzle, or shooting games.

A nice side effect of the Wii's expansion of the gaming audience is that people with skills and interests outside of video games have begun applying their expertise to our hobby. In this case, it means good food for once instead of the normal junk that fuels the stereotypical gaming lifestyle.

Chow.com has posted a list of delicious-looking recipes that is, in their estimation, ideal for Wii parties in two ways:

1. It can all be eaten one-handed, leaving a free (or at least clean) waggling hand
2. They're organized into nutritional groups designed to sustain lots of energy over time

We've got the Wii, and now we've got the menu. Next step: friends!

[Via GameSetWatch]

When you can't think of an original name for a new Wii title, simply add "party" to the end and call it a day. The Wii is great for parties, so reminding everyone of their obligation to entertain friends while gaming is standard issue these days. The upcoming Tetris game for WiiWare admirably follows this trend, with the latest information on Hudon's Japanese website displaying a name change and a lamentable delay.

Tetris Party is no longer released in July 2008; we're stuck with a "sometime 2008" instead. Well, that's for Japanese Wii owners, but hopefully the localization won't take a decade or something. All joking about the name aside, there's no reason this shouldn't be a great game. Tetris always is!



[Via Siliconera]

The most notorious game in Ubisoft's Imagine series of girl-focused casual games is headed to the Wii -- as a party game, of course. Babies Party combines the babysitting theme of the DS game with 30 minigames including (according to the press release) "memory games, puzzles, coloring and cutting up activities."

You can choose to play either as a baby or a babysitter. It's unclear exactly how the gameplay will change, but we imagine that there are different minigames involving taking care of babies as opposed to being babies. As with pretty much every Wii game that gets announced, Babies Party will support the Balance Board in some games.

Babies Party enters the exciting genre of baby-based party minigames created by the Korean arcade series Come On Baby, which also made use of innovative controllers.

... 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.

Our enthusiasm for Ghostbusters has taken a real beating these past few weeks -- after the initial yaaaay period of retro-tinged excitement wore off, suddenly we started to receive worrying news. Terms such as "casual" and "family-friendly" were bandied about in relation to the Wii edition, and we began to panic and hyperventilate a bit, despite Red Fly's admirable attempts to calm us down.

So here's something to lift our spirits (har): according to Sierra studio director John O'Keefe, the Wii version will support both four-way split-screen and the ability to connect your DS to your Wii and deploy the handheld as a PKE meter, a.k.a, the device with the winged arms that the real Ghostbusters used to track spooks. How totally awesome is that?

"Very awesome" is the answer.

Gamespot's question-and-answer session with Satoru Iwata is rich with (written translations of) excellent sound bytes. For example, about the risky change in strategy that brought about the DS and Wii: "I worked under the assumption that if five years went by and the world didn't change, I could kiss my job good-bye." Luckily for Iwata, the world did come along right about when the DS Lite came out.

Iwata expresses his surprise with the success of the Wii several times. As he puts it, the DS was easier to share and thus drive further sales, but showing off the Wii requires someone to visit your home. "In retrospect, the U.S. culture of the house party played a major role in spreading the value of Wii to a bigger circle faster than we ever predicted." He attributes the Wii's meteoric rise in the U.S. to this cultural difference, while Japan has gone more for the DS.

But by far the most interesting part of the discussion is about the upcoming Wii Ware service. Surprisingly for someone with such an interest in casual games, Iwata sees download services not as the entire future of gaming, but as a breeding ground for experimental game design: "When making games, though, you come up with a lot of fun ideas that could sell for ¥500 (about $4.70). Well, if there were a forum for releasing that ¥500 single idea into the market now, maybe the idea would grow into something that could be used as a full packaged game in the future."

[Update: Sonic_13 points out Iwata's claim in this interview that more than 10 million Virtual Console games have been downloaded worldwide! Go old games!]

We know that Wii owners are social animals, busting out the Wii Sports, Mario and Sonic, Raving Rabbids, and other favorites during parties and gatherings. The Wii has helped us all party harder (using our working definition of "partying hard," anyway) but it also has the capability to help us party smarter.

Are you using any of the Wii's extended functionality to improve your party experience? The Fletcher home is going to be the venue for a New Year's Eve gathering, and I'm planning to stream some music to the Wii to provide a soundtrack. It's a good way to get some music coming into the living room, and, uh, researching it is a good way to stop myself from worrying about the apartment and stuff.

How does your Wii enhance your atmosphere?

Even though we found out today that Ninja Reflex is going to be a "party game" of some kind and not an action game or silly ninja-esque training game or whatever we thought it was going to be -- and even though we saw the EA name on it from the start, we're staying positive about the title. Why? Well, because it incorporates one of our favorite themes: tired Internet jokes ninjas.

But what do you think? Is it possible for EA to sneak a decent game out under the cover of darkness? Or will it be just another minigame compilation to toss onto the pile?

The Wii may be the most socially-focused console ever made. Everything about it, from the personal avatars to the physical aspect of play to (especially) the pack-in game seems designed to get people partying. Certainly we've all heard about the rise of the "Wii Party" (not a political organization). Even Evite has gotten in on the Wii phenomenon, offering Wii-focused party invitations.

In the past year, have you found yourself hosting and attending more parties? Has the Wii influenced your social life? Has your formerly lonely nerd cave become a hub for Wii Sports parties? Or were you waiting for the Party Station to liven up your party room?

Some would argue that Far Cry Vengeance was beyond help, though we maintain to this day that the Ubiport would have been vastly improved with added Rabbids. Clearly, some swashbuckling young designer at Ubisoft shares our thoughts on this crucial issue.

The image above is one of nine spoofs to appear recently on the game's official site, all of which feature Rabbids invading a variety of Ubi's more well-known games. Sadly, none of them come in wallpaper size, which is precisely what these would be ideal for. Oh well.

Hop past the break for images of "Bunny Steel," "Bunnies' Creed," and "Rainbow Six Bunnies."