Get ready for the ultimate racing showdown with Sonic and his SEGA friends! Sonic & SEGA All-Stars Racing is a fast and furious battle to the finish line. In a frantic battle to the checkered flag, Sonic & SEGA All-Stars Racing sees Sonic and friends speed around tracks set in medieval castle ramparts, lush rain forests and bustling cities, all taken from the visually rich and varied universes of Sonic and SEGA. Fan favorites such as Dr. Eggman, Tails, AiAi, Amigo and many more will join Sonic in their custom built vehicles, revving their engines and jostling to stay ahead of the pack. Each character will race around the track in cars, planes, motorbikes, and in AiAi’s case a banana mobile! Secret short cuts, swift handling and avoiding strategically placed obstacles are certainly the best way to get to the top of the podium.
written by Slimbo
\\ tags: Sonic And Sega All Stars Racing, Wii
Journey into the blue once again with this Wii game where players get to explore the ocean and interact with its sealife.
Endless Ocean 2 builds on the ocean experience first introduced with Endless Ocean. While the last game emphasized relaxation, this one is designed with more adventure in mind. Divers might find themselves escaping from or calming down attacking sharks, exploring shipwrecks or finding treasure. Endless Ocean 2 also has more creatures and improved graphics designed to fully immerse players in an ocean environment that they can freely explore at their own pace.
Features:
* Players dive into oceans all around the world to discover the fish, mammals and various sea creatures unique to each region while learning about their habits and behaviors. By selling salvageable items for money, players can decorate their own personal reefs to draw fish near or decorate their aquariums for their human guests.
* The ocean is teeming with life. Hundreds of real-life species are there to be discovered, from seahorses to giant whales.
* Are the local fish sick or agitated? Players can view their health status and then use a tranquilizer-like tool to zap the ones in need of rehab with healing energy.
* The game also includes a storyline that players can follow as they choose. The plot involves Oceana, a woman who investigates the Dragon’s Song, which her father, a prominent ocean explorer, was searching for just before his death.
* While at Nine Ball Island, players can become friends with a dolphin and teach it some new tricks. When on a dive, players can even bring along the dolphin, which players can hold onto for extra fast swimming.
* For the first time in the series, friends who have broadband Internet access can connect and dive with one another via Nintendo Wi-Fi Connection, while using the Wii Speak microphone to converse.
written by Slimbo
\\ tags: Blue World, Endless Ocean 2, Wii
Experience a revolutionary and unique workout where walking to the beat of great music unlocks an exciting in-game world. Keep movin’ to the beat of all your favorite in-game tracks as you extend your workout in bonus minigames. Compatible with the Wii Balance Board and the Wii DanceDanceRevolution Controller, Walk It Out will have you groovin’ your way to a healthier you!
written by Slimbo
\\ tags: Walk It Out, Wii
In Just Dance, players learn real dance moves to songs they know and love across a wide genre of music over the past sixty years.
Requiring only one Wii Remote per player, up to four people can break it down at a time, as they follow on-screen choreographed moves set to classic dance tracks, covering a wide variety of musical genres and bringing everyone to the dance floor.
written by Slimbo
James Cameron’s Avatar: The Game is the official video game based on the film, and it takes you deep into the heart of Pandora.
The Wii version of Avatar isn’t based on the same design that’s hit the PlayStation 3, Xbox 360, and PC, nor is it in stereoscopic 3D like the film promotes. A completely separate team worked on the Wii edition, and as fun as the game can get, it’s clear that Avatar suffers from “we gotta get this game out in time for the movie” syndrome. In other words, it’s got a lot of rough edges and a severely abrupt presentation, almost as if the team ran out of time to really give this game the once-over it needs.
Avatar on Wii follows a storyline that’s created specifically for the game, featuring an original native creature (a Na’vi) who’s quest is to seek out the “newcomers” (those are the humans) who’ve stolen precious Na’vi artifacts for profit. It’s a very cut and dry situation: infiltrate the colonies and take out the humans either with brute force or sneaky stealth.
In the on-foot levels, it’s a brawler that utilizes the Wii Remote motion as the character’s attacks. Swinging left, right, up and down produces different attacks with the Na’vi’s staff – while waggling the controller like a maniac will certainly put the “button mashing” down on the enemies, you’ll only be able to pull off powerful combos if you swing with casual and timed motions. I do have to say that the game does a very good job recognizing the specific directions, an area that many games seem to struggle. Earlier in the game’s development I was under the impression that the Wii Motion Plus was enhancing the motion recognition, but after playing through the final game, Wii Motion Plus support doesn’t affect the staff attacks. It’s just good Wii Remote programming.
The key element to these on-foot levels is the stealth focus: Na’vi can blend in with the surroundings pretty well, so you can simply duck into the high grass and the humans will look around for you all dumbfounded. If you elude their gaze you can easily perform automatic stealth attacks that require nothing more than a single button press to activate, and then a simple swing of the remote just to make it a little more challenging. Stealth is so integral to the gameplay that even the final boss battle depends on the element more than 90 percent of the time.
The levels feature a bit of exploration but for the most part the layouts of the areas are pretty straightforward. Your character will automatically walk across fallen logs and trees without risk of falling (he has, after all, grown up in the Pandora jungles) and can climb up designated ledges. But the designs are inconsistent in what you can climb up and what you can’t, so you might find yourself a bit frustrated trying to pull yourself up on top of a crate that clearly has a short enough distance to reach the top.
The secondary flying portions feel ripped right out of Panzer Dragoon: using the nunchuk’s tilt function, you control your creature’s pitch and yaw, all the while aiming at oncoming enemies with the Wii Remote’s pointer. These missions aren’t very challenging at all, and even if you die you’ll respawn at one of several checkpoints with full health and very little penalty.
The developer put common Wii accessories into play as optional control and gameplay mechanisms. The Wii Motion Plus may not enhance the standard controls of Avatar, but it does enable the ability to call upon a Pandora wasp, which players can control by tilting the Wii Remote and stun enemies as they try to shoot it down. The Wii Fit Balance Board can also replace the nunchuk-tilt control of the banshee levels, and your enjoyment with this option is directly linked to how well you can shift your weight to control the oversized winged beast. Me, I had better luck with the stock controls in these missions, and the Wii Motion Plus enhancement is minimal at best. It’s a little unfair to those without the attachment to show collectibles that can only be reached with the Motion Plus-controlled wasp. In reality, if you want to beat the game 100 percent, you absolutely need the attachment. But since there’s very little reward for the victory, don’t knock yourself out finding a unit.
Avatar tries to be quite the looker on Wii but struggles to maintain it. The developer definitely locked down the visual style of the Cameron film and attempts to push a lot of cool next-gen effects like depth of field. Very often, though, the framerate takes a dive and the game becomes distractingly choppy. Cutscenes are also pretty awkward with stiff animations, not to mention some absolutely dreadful voice acting and dialogue. Wait until you see Sigorney Weaver’s terrible line reads in Mission 7.
The game also implements the jump-in, jump-out multiplayer that seems to be all the rage on Wii. Thank you to the development team in including it, but no thank you to just how sloppy it comes off. The game just doesn’t feel like it was meant for this feature, and very little care was put into actually making it work. The single-character fixed camera system breaks to support two characters who move independently, but then the game has to abruptly switch to the single player camera for the quicktime events that get triggered during the stealth attacks.
That’s really the biggest fault of Avatar on Wii: its lack of polish. When you get to the final mission and you meet up with the “big boss” at the end with very little character development or introduction, it’s hard to shake the feeling that the development team didn’t have time to animate the cutscene properly. This becomes even more apparent at the game’s finale: win the game, and the rest of the story’s told through simple text and a five second “the end” cutscene, followed by scrolling credits. That’s it. Clearly the game was rushed through development because the ending is incredibly anticlimactic.
written by Slimbo
\\ tags: Avatar, Avatar The Game
This lovable platform puzzle game will charm you with its visuals and draw you in with its clever puzzles.
The Good
- Heartwarming relationship between the boy and his blob
- Beautiful, hand-drawn backgrounds
- Smooth difficulty curve
- Interesting boss battles
- Tons of unlockable levels.
The Bad
- Controls are sluggish during fast-paced action sequences
Who could have imagined that when aliens finally arrived on Earth they would crave nothing more than tasty jelly beans and a bit of human companionship? The relationship between the titular boy and his blob friend is at the heart of this beautiful reimagining of the NES classic. Hand-drawn visuals make these lovable protagonists and the world they inhabit inherently likable, and it’s easy to get sucked into their adventure. But the cute aesthetics hide a challenging quest that rewards players who like pushing their brains to solve tricky puzzles. The smooth pace at which the difficulty ramps up makes for a satisfying adventure in which you must constantly build upon your past knowledge to overcome the latest obstacle that threatens to halt your progress. By borrowing the best elements from the original game and throwing them into an accessible quest that encourages creativity, developer Wayforward has created an engaging and charming adventure that deftly balances its cute exterior with devious-though-always-logical puzzles.
After an evil king imprisons the blobs of Blobolonia, one blob escapes to Earth and teams up with an ordinary young child to help free his captured friends. Although the story is little more than a rudimentary backdrop for your adventure, the relationship between the boy and his blob is endearing, giving a personality to these mostly silent protagonists. The most touching aspect of their friendship is the ability to give the blob a hug with the push of a button. The warmth exuded in this embrace makes the amorphous blob as lovable as an adorable puppy, and it’s easy to smile as you watch the boy squeeze his squishy friend. You can also call out to the blob whenever you get separated, and each subsequent call adds a tinge of stress as the boy begins to show real concern for his absent friend. Aside from the subtle affection shown in this odd relationship, there are background details that add depth to the story. When you travel to Blobolonia, you can see blobs trapped in cages in the background. You can choose to save them or leave them locked away, and though there isn’t a tangible reward for being the hero, it’s hard to turn your back on these little guys.
Your main tool while traversing these lands is jelly beans. For some unexplained reason, your blob friend can’t get enough of these tasty candies, and he will transform into a helpful item whenever he gets one in his belly. You have an infinite supply of jelly beans, but you have only a few different types at your disposal in each level. In some levels you may be able to turn the blob into a ladder to help you reach higher places, whereas in other levels you need to use a trampoline or maybe an anvil to get to higher ground. Because the boy can hop only a short distance and dies whenever he makes contact with an enemy or evil trap, you rely almost entirely on your bag of goodies and adaptable friend to survive.
In the early stages, the keys to success are spelled out with obvious signs showing exactly what must be done to move further into the level. For instance, a picture of a parachute is stationed at the edge of a towering cliff, indicating that you should feed your buddy the appropriate jelly bean and float safely to the bottom. These signs are the only tutorial in the game, seamlessly showing how each new item can be used without interrupting the flow of the gameplay. There are moments in which the signs become a tad overbearing, giving away the solutions instead of letting you figure out on your own how to progress. However, as you get deeper into the game, the signs become less common, forcing you to use your mind to get past the obstacles. This also coincides with more difficult puzzles that require you to use a combination of tools. Some of the most challenging involve turning the blob into a clone of the boy who mirrors your every move, and solving these multistep puzzles is rewarding.
At the end of each of the four worlds are bosses who offer some of the most difficult challenges in the game. Although there are enemies in the normal stages, you can usually move past them without needing to kill them off first, so the boss battles present the only instances in the game in which you must partake in fast-paced combat. It’s a blast dodging their many attacks while you try to figure out what candy beans would best take them down, but the controls are not quite up to the task. It’s easy enough to navigate the environment and interact with your blob during the slow-paced puzzle levels, but when you are forced to move and react to the speedy blows of a deadly boss, the controls are too sluggish. With enough determination, you can pass these sections, but they are much harder than they should be because the boy does not quickly respond to your commands. It’s a shame the controls get in the way during these battles, because they are extremely well designed, forcing you to take advantage of your jelly bean powers in a number of interesting ways.
The 40 stages can take 10 hours or longer to play through, but there is even more to do after you finally vanquish the evil king. Each stage contains three hidden treasure chests, and if you find them all, you unlock a bonus stage. It can take quite a while to find every hidden chest and make your way through all 80 levels, and the game continually presents obstacles that will force you to make use of your jelly beans in clever new ways. Tangible rewards are only the icing on the cake of this great adventure, though. The lovable protagonists are so endearing, and the levels so beautifully designed, that it’s a pleasure just to make your way through these worlds and see everything they have to offer. And though the puzzles start off easy enough, they slowly ramp up in difficulty, tossing a number of imposing obstacles in your path before you figure out how to get around them. This is a great update to the NES original, a charming and rewarding game that stands tall alongside modern platformers.
written by Slimbo
\\ tags: A Boy and His Blob
This belated port successfully brings the greatness of Call of Duty 4: Modern Warfare to the Wii.
The Good
- Excellent campaign is full of thrills and surprises
- Online multiplayer is engaging and addictive
- More online modes than World at War.
The Bad
- Campaign is short
- Occasional control hiccups.
Wii owners who have been waiting since 2007 to experience the excellence of Call of Duty 4: Modern Warfare, your time has come. Call of Duty: Modern Warfare: Reflex Edition is a successful port that includes the intense, breathtaking campaign and engaging, addictive multiplayer that made Call of Duty 4 such a hit. While the visuals lack a certain sharpness, the environments still convey the drama and diversity that help make the campaign so excellent. And though there are some minor aiming hitches, the controls are precise and customizable enough to let you be all you can be. The multiplayer system that first arrived on the Wii last year in Call of Duty: World at War is even more robust in Modern Warfare, making it the best online shooter experience the Wii has to offer. If you’ve already played COD4 on another system, there’s no reason to pick it up again. But if you have yet to experience Call of Duty’s first foray into the 21st century, Modern Warfare: Reflex Edition will entertain you immensely.
In the modern world, wars are no longer fought as massive clashes between sovereign nations. Conflicts are much more isolated and far flung, requiring mobility, flexibility, and, of course, superior firepower. The campaign in Modern Warfare embraces this philosophy, and you undertake a wide variety of actions playing as a few different soldiers. There are tense infiltrations behind enemy lines in which silenced weapons and stealth tactics are the order of the day. These missions require you to quietly eliminate enemies or just sneak past them undetected. Then there are full-blown firefights through Middle Eastern streets where the bombed-out buildings are crawling with enemies and a friendly tank is your only sure cover. In these missions, enemies continually pressure you, so not only do you have to dispatch them rapidly to avoid being overrun, but you have to push forward to your next objective. The environments are more or less linear, and though they have occasional lapses in sharpness or detail, they do a very good job of accurately depicting a variety of locations. In most levels, the terrain allows you to take a number of different approaches to any given section, giving you an invigorating sense of battlefield freedom while still spurring you onward.
Many of the missions throughout the campaign are intense and exciting for various reasons, but there are a number of dramatic set-piece levels that ratchet things up to a whole new level. From the first mission in which you race to escape a sinking ship, to the levels in which you become the powerful air support that you have previously relied on, to one of the most electrifying sniper sequences to ever appear in a game, Modern Warfare’s campaign keeps you on your toes. You’ll see some things you never expected to see in a shooter, and these dramatic turns are used effectively to create an expertly paced, immensely exciting experience.
Unfortunately, it’s all over pretty quickly. The campaign doesn’t last much longer than five hours. You can play through individual levels again once you’ve beaten them, and there’s an arcade mode that scores you on your performance, but there’s no way to share those scores online. You can also have a friend join you and add some extra firepower as a disembodied target reticle, but this feature is novel at best and ends up being pretty distracting. Still, despite the short length and so-so replay options, there’s no denying that Modern Warfare’s campaign is an intense, diverse, and exciting shooter experience.
And that’s just the campaign. Once again, Call of Duty’s online multiplayer is a standout. The core system is largely the same one featured in World at War. You earn experience for killing opponents, accomplishing objectives, and completing challenges. This allows you to level up and unlock new guns, new equipment, and new perks. Equipment includes explosives like grenade launcher attachments and claymore mines, and perks are battlefield bonuses that bestow a range of abilities. Some of these are similar to those in World at War, but many are either tweaked versions of old perks or entirely different ones. They are still a lot of fun to unlock and employ, and you can outfit a number of custom classes with different weapons, equipment, and perks to suit many different gameplay styles. There are also different kill streak perks that fit the modern setting, so players who string together kills can call in an airstrike or an attack helicopter to decimate the enemy.
One of the biggest improvements is the number of online game types available. While World at War was limited to a handful of Free-for-All and Team Deathmatch variations, Modern Warfare includes objective-based modes like Sabotage (plant a bomb on an enemy target) and Domination (capture and hold control points). These modes add some much-needed variety to the online scene, and the 10 player cap (up from eight in World at War) fits the well-designed maps very well. There is still no support for Wii Speak, and the Kill Cam has been lost in translation, so you won’t get to how your enemy got the better of you. Yet despite these omissions, Modern Warfare’s multiplayer not only more robust than its predecessor, but it’s also the best online shooter action the Wii has to offer.
There’s just one other wrinkle in this otherwise excellent package, and that’s the occasional aiming hiccups. When you look down the sights of your weapon and are aiming near an enemy, your targeting reticle will snap onto that enemy. This assist is helpful when it works, but sometimes your reticle will jump back to where you were originally aiming or otherwise dislodge from your opponent. Sometimes the problem seems to be the result of frame rate stutters, and other times it happens while things are running smoothly. It’s disorienting and possibly fatal, but fortunately it doesn’t happen enough to become a full-blown nuisance. Extensive customization options that allow you to find your preferred aiming style go a long way toward mitigating this issue.
All told, Call of Duty: Modern Warfare: Reflex Edition does right by the source material. The expertly scripted and intensely exciting campaign is just as entertaining as it was two years ago on other systems, and even the occasional lapses in visual fidelity and control precision can’t keep it from being a must-play for Wii shooter fans. Though the multiplayer will feel familiar to World at War veterans, the modern guns, equipment, and perks will make it feel new again, and the expanded gameplay modes offer a lot more variety. Though there are a few hitches to deal with, the core excellence of this game shines through, giving Wii owners a great shooter to keep them entertained for months to come.
written by Slimbo
\\ tags: Call Of Duty, Modern Warfare Reflex
Outrageously irreverent, eccentric, and self-aware, No More Heroes 2 is a giant robot full of fun.
The Good
- Remarkably fun and interactive combat system
- Excellent use of motion controls
- Plenty of side jobs and minigames to keep you entertained
- Story, characters, and world ooze with style
- Some of the best graphics on the Wii.
The Bad
- Camera troubles ruin the fun
- Assassins aren’t very well fleshed out.
In the bizarre metropolis of Santa Destroy, duels to the death are broadcast on television, and an entire economy has sprung up around the business of taking lives. No More Heroes 2 is a satirical, irreverent, and bloody tale of revenge set in a world gone mad. Like its predecessor, No More Heroes, Desperate Struggle deals with one man’s rise to the top of an assassin leaderboard and focuses on his insane battles with a kooky cast of villains. However, it does so in a much more streamlined manner–the Grand Theft Auto-like open world and the ranked battle entrance fees have been removed, eliminating almost all of the tedium that plagued No More Heroes. With a raucously fun and brutal beat-’em-up combat system, a collection of enjoyable retro minigames, and a thoroughly entertaining story, No More Heroes 2 is a worthy follow-up to one of the most entertaining bloodbaths to be found on the Nintendo Wii.
Travis Touchdown is the Crownless King. Three years ago, the anime nerd and professional-wrestling aficionado purchased a beam katana on the Internet, fought his way up to the top of the United Assassin Association’s rankings ladder, and simply walked away. He has become a legend in the underworld, and partly because of his story, the murder-for-hire business has exploded and gone mainstream. When his best pal is murdered in retaliation for Travis’ killing spree, he returns to the UAA in order to seek vengeance on the man responsible, who coincidentally happens to be its number-one-ranked killer. Helping him out along the way are old friends, such as the beautiful UAA agent Sylvia, the deadly swordswoman Shinobu, and his twin brother and on-again, off-again rival Henry.
Much like its predecessor, No More Heroes 2 consists chiefly of magnificently violent and over-the-top bloody combat. If the idea of wielding a sword in a Wii game conjures uncomfortable thoughts of nonstop controller waggling, rest assured that this is not the case. Travis swings his totally-not-a-lightsaber at a press of the A button, and after you’ve sufficiently weakened an enemy, you can split him in twain–causing a morbidly amusing cloud of blood and dollar bills to rain down–by swinging your controller in the direction indicated onscreen. Alternatively, Travis can execute one of 13 different wrestling moves learned over the course of the game to finish off a stunned enemy in a slightly higher-concept and less-bloody manner.
No matter how you choose to destroy your foes, each execution causes a roulette wheel at the bottom of the screen to spin, and if three slots line up, Travis activates one of his darkside powers. By shouting aloud ridiculous attack names such as “strawberry on the shortcake” or “cranberry chocolate sundae,” he can perform superpowered feats such as slowing down time for his enemies or temporarily transforming into a tiger. But even if you aren’t lucky enough to hit it big with a jackpot, you can manually activate a new hyperspeed attack mode whenever you top off your ecstasy gauge, which fills as you dish out pain and empties as you receive it. Other changes include the ability to shake your remote when running for a slow-but-powerful slash, and the surprisingly effective option of using a Classic Controller to play through the entire game without motion controls.
By far the highlight of No More Heroes 2 are its eccentric duels with rival assassins. To earn the right to battle them, Travis must carve his way through their domains and their armies of hapless goons. After you make a game-saving restroom stop, the assassins reveal themselves in bizarre, spectacular ways, and the heat is on. Whether you’re fighting the hip-hop dancing leader of a religious cult or an adorable but deadly coed with a double-sided beam sword flute, the battles are fun, challenging, and unique. Perhaps most intriguing about the assassins are the elegant locales that serve as their arenas: a dilapidated haunted house, a grassy plain between the realms of life and death, and an eclipsing, setting sun all serve as backdrops of battle and inject extra personality into the duels. This is important, because the assassins–while wild and crazy–often lack personalities and, with few exceptions, are poorly or not at all fleshed out. Though the story is centered on Travis’ quest for vengeance, a bit more characterization of his archenemies would have been appreciated. Finally, it’s worth pointing out that though there are now 50 rankings in the UAA, group fights and other circumstances out of your control reduce the number of bosses you encounter to 15.
No More Heroes 2 features a much more streamlined method of navigating Santa Destroy than the original game–you simply pick where you want to go on the map and you’re there. Ranked matches also no longer require entrance fees, which means that if you want to go directly from one fight into the next to keep the action going, you can. Working side jobs is still a necessity, though, if you want to stay abreast of Dr. Naomi’s latest weapons technology, update Travis’ punk couture, or work out to increase your max health and damage output. This time around, you earn cash through simple and delightful 2D retro games by performing tasks such as exterminating bugs, delivering pizzas, and collecting trash in space. These fully featured but nonetheless brief minigames are a great way to relax in between murder sprees, but if you prefer an aside that’s a bit more “hands on,” you can always hunt down the goons directly responsible for Travis’ best friend’s death. As intriguing as this may sound, the revenge missions are ultimately disappointing–they’re simply timed deathmatches, and the hit men fight and act no differently than the average thug, which is a huge missed opportunity for more nutty villainy.
Desperate Struggle utilizes a highly stylized, cel-shaded look that delivers some of the most striking graphics that the Nintendo Wii has to offer. Even in the midst of a bloody massacre, the action unfolds smoothly and without stutter. The game’s greatest weakness, however, lies in its camera system. Though you can lock on to enemies and it’s easy to reset the camera, it all too often doesn’t know where to look, and things aren’t much better in the handful of nonstandard sequences during which you’re given direct control over it. On the positive side, Desperate Struggle includes an all-star voice cast, from the lovable and gleefully self-aware Travis to the sexy French siren Sylvia to the Irish badass Henry and beyond. Accompanying the great vocal performances is a wicked, eclectic soundtrack full of catchy punk and rock songs, fantastic retro themes, and brilliant parodies of cliche anime music.
Despite a couple of key shortcomings, such as a poor camera system and a general lack of rival assassin characterization, No More Heroes 2: Desperate Struggle is an overall improvement upon its predecessor. This greatly streamlined game throws out the tedium of the original, and a host of smart changes to the side jobs make even plumbing fun and rewarding. While an average play-through will last you 10 to 12 hours, you can easily put in more time by searching for all of the hidden collectibles, by earning enough cash to complete Travis’ wardrobe set, and by replaying boss battles for low clear times in the unlockable Deathmatch mode. Whether you’re yearning for a fun and violent Wii action game or simply want to live out a secret Star Wars fantasy of duel-wielding laser swords, No More Heroes 2 is the game for you.
written by Slimbo
\\ tags: Desperate Struggle, No More Heroes 2
With strong multiplayer, new modes, and lots of destruction, this block-bashing sequel is ready for its spotlight.
At one time in your life, you probably got a thrill out of setting up blocks and watching them fall down. Unfortunately, that was probably back when you sucked your thumb and dined on pureed food. Electronic Arts and Steven Spielberg have teamed up to make a game that brings back the joy of that simple destruction, minus the growing pains and onesies. Boom Blox Bash Party is a bigger, better, and more destructive sequel to last year’s Boom Blox. Problems with the first game have been ironed out, and a ton of levels, a variety of modes, and addictive multiplayer action have been added. This sequel will bring out your (destructive) inner child and have it clapping with uninhibited glee.
The Boom Blox formula is easy to grasp, because at the basic level, your goal is nearly always the same: destroy blocks. But how you do that will differ widely throughout the more than 400 levels. The single-player mode unfolds across a cheerful amusement park, and each area offers a different theme and variety of games. Each level will set an objective for you, such as knocking down a number of blocks within a time limit or accruing as many points as possible in a limited number of turns, and then rewards you with a bronze, silver, or gold medal.
While the original game emphasized careful Jenga-style block removal, Boom Blox Bash Party favors more destructive variations, which is great because they’re a lot more fun. Destruction games include knocking down certain blocks with baseballs or bombs and using the blocks themselves in a new slingshot mechanic. There are a bunch of new block shapes and materials, and there’s also a virus ball, which infects certain blocks and spreads the deterioration among other pieces. The new additions bring a lot of variety to the game and result in more challenging puzzles. For instance, levels set in space have you exploding blocks in every direction, while another draws its inspiration from Bejeweled and has you throwing paint balls at blocks to match colors. There are a few misses, like the mindless laser-shooting and the occasionally tedious Jenga-style game, but the sheer variety of modes and interesting ideas make up for any weak spots.
The large volume of challenges in the single-player game could keep you busy for a long time, especially some of the later puzzles that require a bit of finesse to nab the gold medal. Gold medals are worth collecting because they unlock more items in the creation mode. Boom Blox Bash Party features a robust level creator that is both deep and flexible. You can construct new solo and multiplayer stages or tweak existing levels to your liking, but you’ll need a good reserve of patience to manage the sometimes clumsy Remote controls. Fortunately, there’s a handy tutorial that makes the going a little smoother. You can share your new levels with friends online or download new levels from both EA and other players around the world. With all the new game modes and block pieces, there’s potential for some amazing user-created levels.
As entertaining as the single-player game is, it pales in comparison to the multiplayer. Boom Blox Bash Party is a game that’s best played with friends. Whether you’re dismantling a building in a cooperative game or trying to sink your opponents’ block-made ships in a competitive match, the multiplayer is a blast. Watching your friends line up a sure-to-fail shot or forming fragile alliances against others makes for some good times. Unlike with some party games on the Wii, you won’t have to spend your time unlocking modes or whittling away at the single-player content just to have fun with friends. You can jump right into the multiplayer action with Bash Party and play nearly all of the 400 levels either cooperatively or competitively. Like the single-player game, the multiplayer puzzles are all about variety. Some puzzles will have you playing all at the same time, forcing you to frantically blast blocks before your opponents can, whereas others are more methodical, letting each player carefully line up shots one at a time. Though there’s still no online play, you can create teams with four players locally and play custom levels from the level creator. All the options, game modes, and destruction add up to one of the most enjoyable multiplayer experiences on the Wii to date.
Controlling the block-blasting fun is easy for the most part, though a few snags do crop up. The slingshot is a fun new toy, but it isn’t reliable, and lining it up for the perfect shot can be difficult. Gently sliding pieces out in the Jenga-style games is also a chore because the game doesn’t afford you quite the level of precision it should. The camera control is a little touchy if you’re using the remote by itself, which can be a pain if you’re trying to find just the right angle to launch your attack. Thankfully, you can plug in the Nunchuk and use the analog stick to control the view. It might also take you a while to get accustomed to the slightly exaggerated physics. These things are only small annoyances compared to the solid controls everywhere else though. Throwing baseballs and chemical balls is as easy as holding a button to lock on and then swinging your remote forward. After a few rounds you’ll be blowing puzzles to pieces as the exaggerated pieces send blocks soaring into the distance
Nearly every level and mode can be enjoyed with friends.
Visually the game hasn’t changed much from the original. There are still plenty of bright colors, and there are some moderately attractive destruction effects. However, the goofy, square animals play a bigger part in the sequel. They roam all over the levels, star in silly, limited animation shorts before some games, and serve as your avatars during multiplayer. For the most part they’re entertaining critters. Some of them can become a little annoying with their nonstop baying or barking, but the game alleviates this a bit by giving you the option of using those cute little lambs as ammo for your slingshot or placing them atop a high tower just begging for you to knock them off. It’s a family game, so there’s no gore involved; animals just dust themselves off after a tumble, but it sure is satisfying to see them fall.
The first Boom Blox certainly wasn’t the cinematic opus that some were expecting from a game with Spielberg’s name on it, and this sequel has less story and more action than its predecessor. Less narrative and more destruction sounds a lot like Spielberg’s sequel to Jurassic Park, but don’t let that put you off; this sequel turned out much better. Boom Blox Bash Party is a huge step forward for the series. It’s got all of the good stuff from the first game and very little of the bad, plus a ton of extra content and multiplayer mayhem sprinkled on top. If you own a Wii and have friends, there’s no reason not to play this game
written by Slimbo
\\ tags: Boom Blox Bash Party
Tatsunoko vs. Capcom: Ultimate All Stars pairs well-known characters from Capcom’s roster of games with some of Japan’s most beloved characters from anime powerhouse Tatsunoko Production. From Capcom’s 30-year history comes characters the Street Fighter, Darkstalkers, Mega Man Legends and other
franchises. Tatsunoko’s near half-century of Japanese animation excellence is represented by such charactes as cybernetic warrior Casshan and comedic action hero Yatterman No. 1. All together, there are more than 20 colorful combatants to choose from in order to form the ultimate tag team combination.
Gameplay will instantly set fighting game fans’ fingers twitching, combining elements from Capcom games like Street Fighter and previous entries in the VS series. Players choose from the combined roster of fighters to create their favourite two man/woman/cyborg/robot tag team, rotating on the fly between the two players throughout the course of each match. Those new to the genre will appreciate the game’s bright visual style and simplified four-button fighting controls. Hardcore Capcom fighting fans will dig in to the game’s depth,
uncovering huge Aerial Rave combos and unique Variable Assists, gorgeous Ultimate Hyper Combos, and Variable Combinations that combine the capabilities of two members of the player’s tag-team to unleash huge damage.
written by Slimbo
\\ tags: Tatsunoko vs Capcom, Tatsunoko vs Capcom Ultimate All Stars
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