In an interesting tidbit of news, Sega’s Sonic will be teaming up with Nintendo’s Mario for Sonic & Mario at the Olympics. This is every 90s game fanboy’s dream, this one. In other news, Sony and Microsoft execs simultaneously wet themselves in fear of the teaming of the two gaming icons.
So, I made a brief note earlier that I had a Wii. Then you heard nothing from me for over a month. Why? Because the Wii is a brilliant piece of technology. If it could cook me breakfast, I’d probably marry it. (Jenn, I love you by the way. =)
To start, when was the last time you bought a console that came with a game right out of the box? Super Nintendo? Yeah, it’s been a while. So the fact that the Wii comes with one hearkens to a day when the game companies actually wanted you to have fun with their consoles, instead of spending all the time oogling over the technical specs and having to spend an extra 50 bucks on a game.
This isn’t to say Wii Sports is the end all game that will keep you satisfied game-wise for the rest of its life cycle. Wii Sports is actually more like a tech demo. A really fun tech demo, that I still bust out and play one month later, but a tech demo all the same. It lets you basically see everything your shiny new white box can do. There’s baseball (simplified game mechanics, but its basically throwing and hitting), bowling (addictive and great for multiplayer), golf (freaking hard, even with only four clubs to choose from), tennis (my personal favorite, albeit if you get 4 players going, it might get dangerous), and boxing (the only one that uses the nunchuk, and no, you can’t beat someone with one hand tied behind your back. Believe me, I’ve tried).
Wii Sports isn’t the reason most people bought a Wii. Most people bought it because of Legend of Zelda: Twilight Princess. I’m no exception. I loved Legend of Zelda: A Link to the Past on SNES, one of my all-time favorite game rentals as a kid (and to date my favorite Game Boy Advance game), and after trying the demo at EB Games, I was hooked (fishing pun aside – what got me was how much fun I had reeling in fish). The game was my first purchase to compliment my new console.
The game is epic. I mean, seriously epic. I thought that Ocarina of Time for the N64 was big. This game is huge. Not just huge, but gorgeous as well. Despite the Wii’s lack of the horsepower behind the X-Box 360 or the Playstation 3, the game looks incredible. I’ve logged about 30 hours of gameplay, and I’m still finding new things (for instance, I just unlocked a mountain area. I didn’t even know there WAS a mountain area aside from Death Mountain). Throw in the joys of horseback combat (Hi-ho, Epona, awaaaaay!) and some of the fun gadgets like the gale boomerang (which you can lock onto up to 5 targets and throw. Particularly effective on flocks of birds, you’ll bring them right into sword range stunned), and, of course, fishing (which is one of the highlights, I told one of the EB employees “I’d pay 50 bucks just for the fishing element!”), and you have a monster of a game. And, it’s fun to play. I’ve played fewer and fewer truly fun games as of late, so when I find one, I’m happy.
I also presently posess two other Wii games, NEed for Speed Carbon and Wii Play. Wii play, like Wii Sports, is very much a tech demo. It’s filled with little 1-2 player games that teach you how the controls can be used (tilt the controller forward to make the cow run faster. Genius, I say!). And, for those who are anxios for the return of the “Duck Hunt” franchise in late 2007, you’ll be glad to hear that Wii Play includes a duck hunt clone mini game where you shoot targets (but occasionally, you can shoot ducks for extra points =). Need for Speed Carbon, while it’s menu interface controls aren’t well thought out, is a fun game all the same, and plays to a strength I never knew I had – In the basic control configuration, tilting the controller left or right turns your car left or right. All my childhood, I was made fun of for leaning with my controller while playing racing games as if it made any difference. Well, you know what?
THE DAY IS MINE! MWAHAHAHA!!!
And, with forthcoming releases, I’m getting pretty excited for what’s next. Super Mario Galaxy & Metroid Prime 3, both late 2007, look like they’ll be awesome, and, hello, Mario Party 8? How much stranger can the mini games get with motion-sensing controllers?
Gamers, life is good.
Because if there is no truth, then the fact that there is no truth is a truth, therefore defeating the idea that there’s no truth.
Well, I don’t know how Sony’s people are so friggin’ optimistic about the PS3. Sony Europe’s talking head called the PS3’s sales as “Unprecetented. Just ask Gamestop”
Talk to someone at Gamestop, they’ll tell you it’s unprecedented, all right. People are still camping for Wiis (4 months after the fact), whereas I could pick up a PS3 at Best Buy, Target, EB Games, OR Fred Meyer at will right now.
What’s Sony doing wrong? Let’s see…
No really, truly “Killer App” to draw attention (I can’t name a single PS3 game, I can name at least 10 Wii or XBox 360 games).
Trying to win out the console war with “We’ve got the technology, hey, look at us!” approach (No one cares if you’ve got technology if you haven’t got fun games. Ask Nintendo.)
Buggy system (I crashed the demo machine at EB Games both times I tried playing it).
Limited backwards compatibility (Sure, so does 360, but at least you know what’ll work with the 360. And the Wii can sub as a Gamecube completely).
Sony’s got one hope… Slap a “Blu-Ray” player sticker over the “PS3″ box and hope to God that someone wants a deal on a Blu-Ray player…
Then again, HD-DVD’s winning in the high-def market…
Oh well, Sony, it was nice knowing ya…