Gnome's Lair: Nintendo Wii

Showing posts with label Nintendo Wii. Show all posts

Apr 14, 2010

Of plastic guitars and pop music - Band Hero

One of the reasons I truly like and still enjoy my Wii despite that silly hardcore gaming debate, is that it easily manages to offer me a radically different gaming experience; especially when considering I've always been more or less a computer gamer. Interestingly, playing with Band Hero must be the pinnacle of such experiences, and I should know. I've had its ridiculously big box in my place since December and have since been moving those drums and guitars around in order to watch TV or access the DVD player in that crammed lair of mine on a daily basis.

Now, as I'm quite an impressionable gnome and not that experienced in the rhythm game genre, I would never attempt to actually and properly review Band Hero in contrast say to Rock Band or the earlier Guitar Heroes. Sorry about that, but that's what mainstream gaming sites are for. What I can do, on the other hand, is admit the fact that clicking on plastic buttons on a fake guitar, while friends attempt to sing to a most demanding karaoke machine and more friends bang on fake drums can be immensely enjoyable. The definition perhaps of a party game. A shockingly party-ish party game even, that can also be attended by people that aren't your average gamer. And women. And even babies.

What's more, the whole Band Hero thing -starting from its brilliantly oversized boxed- feels like an (admittedly not erotic) toy made for adults. Getting hold of it feels almost as thrilling as getting that huge toy back when you were 10. And to think I really didn't care much for that sort of game... To think I believed it was nothing more than a pointless attempt at further commercializing music. Well, it is rally, but it also is extremely fun and actually feels like playing an instrument, at least as much as a flight simulator makes you feel like piloting a soviet fighter against the Nazis.

Anyway. Better not digress. Let's stick to some review stuff.

As a game Band Hero makes a great job of introducing new comers to the genre, feels real polished and judging by the fact that nobody among the people that tried it managed to impress on the more demanding difficulty settings, I guess it should offer enough of a challenge to satisfy those obsessed Guitar Hero 12-fingered masters. The song selection, though decent and quite rich, is not to my liking, but happily there are much better selections of songs to download, even though the prices aren't exactly bargains. Oh, and having a band of friends trying to play American Pie is quite the spectacle...

Verdict: I like it. Really. Don't quite know why.

Related @ Gnome's Lair:

May 15, 2009

Broken Sword: The Shadow of the Templars: The Director's Cut: The Wii Review

Broken Sword: The Shadow of the Templars The Director's Cut Wii

As far as legendary creators of point-and-click adventure games go, Revolution, despite having only released a handful of titles, is second only to Lucasarts, though, as most Sierra fans will happily admit, quantity has absolutely nothing to do with quality. As for most hardened adventurers, they will definitely remember Beneath A Steel Sky, Revolution's magnum opus, a game that is up there with Monkey Island 2, Gabriel Knight 3 and Grim Fandango, and a game that you simply have to play and then play again just to make sure you fully enjoyed its delights (especially now that it's free). Many more though, the rather more mainstream audience apparently, will probably remember Revolution for the original Broken Sword instead; it was always the more popular game and has even gone on and spawned three quality sequels.

Interestingly Broken Sword, or to give it its full name Broken Sword: The Shadow of the Templars (a.k.a. The Circle of Blood in the US), was, despite its popularity and the fact that it also appeared on the PlayStation, a truly great point-and-click adventure game. Possibly even the last truly successful genre offering ever, and one of the first games to have a Templars theme. Some would even call it a classic and they definitely wouldn't be wrong.

The player stepped into the shoes of George Stobbart (a semi-likeable American tourist in Paris), who, with the help of Nico Collard (a very likeable French journalist), had to travel around the world solving puzzles, discovering the true history of said monastic order and uncovering conspiracies. Now, as most of you dear readers are either already familiar with the plot or don't care to have it spoilt for you, well, I wont say anything else about it. I'll just admit it's way above than the average game offering in terms of quality, sports some well defined characters, interesting themes, varied locales, a decent story arc and some rather successful touches of humour. Actually I'd rather watch someone play through Broken Sword than watch the Da Vinci Code ever again. Besides, Broken Sword still looks absolutely fantastic.

What's more, the game I should be talking about -what this review is all about- is none other than the brand new Director's Cut of Broken Sword for the Nintendo Wii; the only console that can properly handle adventures. And, yes, it does handle Broken Sword brilliantly, despite the Wii Remote being no mouse. After all, the slight lack of precision is offset by the sheer joy of playing an adventure on a big screen and from the comfort of your sofa.

Now, and to be absolutely honest, I have to admit I would probably have loved this Director's Cut if it was nothing more than a quick and dirty Wii port with new controls thrown in. I really would, but this, well, this was just unexpected. The game has really been expanded, updated, enriched and given the true -and 100% successful- director's cut treatment. Possibly for the first time in gaming history.

Not only have all the original artists (and that would of course include legendary Dave Gibbons of Watchmen fame), actors, and team returned to update this classic, but the work they've done is truly stellar. There are brand new gameplay segments where you get to play as Nico, new recorded music, new bits of dialog, new cut-scenes, brand new graphics, more puzzles, an amazing hint system, a helpful and well written diary you can access at all times and even a new anti-colonial (!) subplot. Of course the old bits have also been upgraded to look and sound the part -though a slight gap of quality, especially between new and old audio, is at times noticeable- and some gameplay glitches have also been fixed. Yes, even that notoriously frustrating goat puzzle has been simplified. And picking up that irritating little wire in Ireland wont irritate anyone any more.

On the downside of things the clickable hotspots have been reduced and the disc doesn't offer anything else besides the game as one -well, I at least- would expect form anything labeled a director's cut. I mean, really, how difficult would it be to include some trailers, bits of concept art, some sort of making of and a slightly richer manual?

Then again, I really shouldn't be complaining. I mean, look at the screenshot above. The improved interface and Dave Gibbons' close-ups of characters , as well as the excellent and innovative new puzzles (especially the two deciphering ones) are more than enough extras and brilliant additions to an already excellent adventure.

Verdict: Buy it. Even if you don't have Nintendo's latest console, buy a Wii and then buy it. Then love it sweetly, passionately and deeply for Broken Sword deserves it.

Related @ Gnome's Lair:

Sep 21, 2007

Nintendo Wii: A Retro Gaming Guide

According to our venerable but flawed gnomish calendar it's been almost a year since one of Nintendo's latest consoles found refuge under my TV and, despite the sadly obvious lack of an abundance of great games, I'm as happy with me Wii as a punter can be. Why? Well, besides enjoying the occasional Wii mini/party game and being blown away by the Twilight Princess, there's a strong and rather unique retro gaming appeal to the console, that I've learned to love and cherish. Hopefully so will you. After all, that's what this very guide/article thingy is all about.

First of all, we have the Wii Virtual Console, which despite its many shortcomings and definitely overpriced games, is the only online service currently providing access to Nintendo's impressive back catalog (NES, SNES, N64 anyone?) and some quirky hard to find TurboGrafx 16/PC-Engine games. Classic SEGA Genesis/MegaDrive games and the already announced Neo Geo offerings are a nice touch too, as is the addition of video previews to the games, though downloadable demos -a standard feature of Xbox Live for example- seem to have somehow been forgotten.

Admittedly though, and please consider this as an extra cost, to fully enjoy the Virtual Console retro gaming experience and to be actually able to play those SNES and N64 games you will need the modestly priced Classic Controller, that plugs into the Wii-mote the Nunchuck way and provides a more traditional option for game control. But is the Classic Controller really worth it? Of course it is, even Kotaku says so. It's extremely well built, sleek and even though it won't allow you to play GameCube games, quite a few Wii games support it as an alternative to the Wii-mote/nunchuck method.

Anyway, here are five VC games you must absolutely download. Mind you, they are not the best, neither a top 5, just some essential/excellent games currently available for your retro gaming pleasure:

Air Zonk (video link, MobyGames) It's a sci-fi Bonk spin-off and a wacky shoot-'em-up with amazing parallax scrolling, brilliant cartoon graphics and some of the weirdest power-ups you've ever seen. Nice splashes of humor, tactically demanding gameplay (well, for a shmup at least) and a smart buddy/power-up system are also a plus.

The Legend of Zelda: Ocarina of Time (video link, MobyGames) According to most this is the best Zelda game ever crafted and who am I but to humbly agree. Delving into Hyrule's past, time traveling and investigating the origin of the Triforce and all in breathtaking 3D? Yes, please! It was amazing back in 1998 and still is, as apparently is the sound and really everything else about this game. Probably will last you for more than 30 hours too.

Sonic the Hedgehog 2 (video link, MobyGames), the surprisingly named sequel to Sonic the Hedgehog, also happens to be the best Sonic game ever (with the possible exception of Sonic CD) and the first platformer to offer split-screen action and truly satisfying bonus stages. If you haven't played it yet, well, here's your chance.

Super Mario 64 (video link, MobyGames), the absolute N64 killer-app, was the first game to provide Mario with a 3D corpus complete with a suitably 3D landscape to play in and consequently the game to show mankind just how 3D platformers are supposed to work. Mario 64 is huge, diverse, smart, beautiful and probably one of the best games you'll ever play. Mind you, first time I read about its glory about it was in PC Zone...

Super Metroid (video link, MobyGames): The Space Pirates, truly nasty agents of the abominably evil Mother Brain, have stolen the last Metroid from a research station, and Samus Aran must don her awesome array of high-tech weaponry and lingerie and save the world. Again. Only this time, the open-ended Metroid experience comes with excellent 16-bit graphics, new weapons, dozens of different enemies and one of the best stories ever told in video gaming history.

On the no-so-old yet-quite-interesting games gaming front, the Wii is fully (and truly) compatible with the not particularly successful Nintendo GameCube. Of course, to enjoy them top GC games you will definitely need a GC compatible controller and most probably a memory card to save your games & settings too. Happily you're spoiled for choice. From the excellent Wavebird wireless controller, to the cheaper standard GameCube controller to the dirt cheap Logic 3 alternatives (which are more than decent, really) frankly anything will do. As for memory cards, well, it might just be me but I'd suggest choosing the first party ones.

Now, for the five Gamecube games you absolutely have to try, and no, there's no point in grabbing Resident Evil 4. The Wii version is way better. Also thought you could do without more Zelda, Mario or Metroid suggestions.

Eternal Darkness - Sanity's Requiem (Mobygames, official web, Amazon) Lovecraftian (with a touch of Poe), scary, atmospheric and featuring one of the most innovative insanity system ever, this game is an ignored survival horror gem. Already played 10 hours of it and am more than enthralled. Thankfully, the nightmares haven't started just yet.

Pikmin (Mobygames, official web, Amazon) despite its cutesy graphics and cheery atmosphere is one hell of a brainteaser. Huge time-sink, great game, a Miyamoto spawn, but whatever happened to Pikmin 3 Wii?

Animal Crossing (Mobygames, official web, Amazon) is to console gamers what The Sims has been to PC gamers: a glorified digital doll-house. AC though is definitely the better of the two games, going for the less realistic feel and providing hours of fun, tons of little games and incredible depth.

Beyond Good & Evil (Mobygames, official web, Amazon). One of the best games ever conceived, this beautiful arcade adventure sported an elaborate storyline, a brilliant setting, a greatly written female lead, good humor and a sublime mix of exploration, mini (and not so mini) games, combat and puzzle solving. Sadly it flopped. Tsk, tsk.

Star Wars Rogue Squadron II: Rogue Leader (Mobygames, official web, Amazon). Not as good as -say- TIE Fighter, but one of the better Star Wars games of the last decade. Very enjoyable, oddly addictive and sporting some of the most impressive GC visuals.

Sep 7, 2007

Metroid Prime 3: Corruption Wii walkthrough & guide

It really is annoying you know. A disgrace too, probably. Metroid Prime 3: Corruption is apparently one of the best games the Wii has to offer (don't believe me? try the Elderly Gamer then) and we Europeans still can't play it. All we can do is attempt to spoil everyone else's fun by posting the following selection of spoilery MP3 links (and being nasty):

Jul 26, 2007

Zelda Twilight Princess Wii Models Ripped

Where would we be without tradition, huh? Well, definitely not a roof singing about it, but probably also in a parallax universe where Gnome's Lair had presented you with this very post a couple of months ago. Anyway, I digress. All I ever wanted to say is it's been quite a long time since the lovely 3D models of The Legend of Zelda Twilight Princess for the Wii have been ripped for our highly questionable 3D modelling/toying-around pleasure. Find out more right here.

Mar 19, 2007

Nintendo Wii and the Adventure Company

With the Nintendo DS proving to be quite an adventure-friendly little handheld and Sam and Max's rumored appearance on the Wii, it shouldn't come as a shock that The Adventure Company is porting its modestly successful And Then There Were None PC adventure game to the Nintendo Wii. Did I say porting? Well, I meant updating, as according to Adventure Gamers the new version will (unfortunately) be doing more than just using the Wiimote's obvious point-and-click capabilities:

Players will have the freedom to control their character's actions, such as using a digging motion to unearth clues, or spinning the handle of a safe using the Wiimote; and the introduction of timed puzzles where, for example, players must race up a set of stairs from a boat docked below.

Not really sure these are the brightest of ideas, really, but then again I'm no game designer. Let's just hope they give the graphics an update too and keep timed puzzles to a minimum. Oh, and for those who would like to learn more about the PC adaptation of Agatha Christie's immensely popular novel, well, here's a review. Those, on the other hand, who'd rather learn how excited and fluent in manager-speak The Adventure Company's CEO is click here.

Agatha Christie: And Then There Were None, as the full name of the game will be, is already under development for the Wii and should hit shelves sometime during November 2007. Hopefully it, too, will come with a softback version of the original book.

Mar 15, 2007

The Wii (?) & PC Reunion video

I have already mentioned the tasty and still forthcoming Reunion platformer twice. Never posted a video before though. Nor shared the pretty interesting bit of information that this beautiful and very freeware little video game might also (besides the PC, that is) be coming to the Nintendo Wii. Ah, yes, a possible Wii freebie. Perhaps, the very first one too.

Related @ Gnome's Lair: Alien Abduction, System Shock 2 2K7, 3 Wii micro-reviews, Kudos

Related Tags: Reunion, Wii, Nintendo, PC gaming, Free game, Video, Freeware, Games, Nintendo Wii, Wii homebrew, Game, Platformer

Mar 9, 2007

Zelda: A Link to the Past Maps and Walkthrough

The Legend of Zelda: A Link to the Past (MobyGames entry) began its happy young game-life as a brilliant RPG for the Nintendo SNES and moved on to the rather popular Game Boy Advance, only to find its current place among the Wii Virtual Console games. Still, more than 15 years since its original release, Zelda ALttP remains a hugely playable, beautifully art-directed and quite challenging game.

To find your way, possibly Link's too, around Hyrule you're going to need a map though, aren't you? Well, here's one. Further assistance is available in the form of this lovely links collection:

Feb 27, 2007

The Wii Warp Zone

The cunning staff of GWN discovered another cute little Wii feature: the Wii Warp Zone. It's a nice free service mostly appealing to retro gamers, that provides them with historic information on a variety of Nintendo related subjects and should soon be as rich and complete as something impressively rich and complete. To access this hidden portal to the past (well, according to Nintendo), simply visit the Wii Shop Channel and click on the smiley face (this rather Germanic video should help clear things up). Expect something like this, only in English. Also, expect an interesting look at Kirby.

Related @ Gnome's Lair: 3 Wii games micro-reviewed, Sam & Max Wii, Zelda Twilight Princess PDF guide

Related Tags: Nintendo Wii, Warp Zone, Wii, Retro gaming, Nintendo, Kirby, Games, Game, Free, Wii Shop

Feb 16, 2007

Thrii Wii games micro-reviewed

Them last couple of months have been deeply and irreversibly influenced by Nintendo's quirky Wii console; the first current-gen console I have ever (ever) owned. Also, the first console/PC/handheld/whatever that made me buy not one but two whole games for 60 euros each, which -let's face it- might be a wise move from a gnome's liver point of view, but economically proved to be quite the disaster. Anyway, financial woes aside, what follows is a nice compact post swiftly micro-reviewing said games along with Wii Sports, the game only the Japanese are unfairly made to pay for...

The Legend of Zelda: Twilight Princess

Ahh, yes. Let's start off with the big one. The game everybody loves and praises, allegedly even people (or gnomes) that don't care much for Zelda. The Wii killer-app. The game that scored an impressive 95% over @ metacritic. Well, did I like it? Of course I did. The scope is truly epic, the art direction just fantastic, the gameplay varied, the story interesting and the controls much better than expected. Did I absolutely love it and declare it the best game evah!!1!, then? Uhm, no, not quite, even though I've spent less than 25 hours playing it and my judgement is far from final. Still, due to some weird reason, perhaps even due to severe lack of time, I haven't really gotten into the game. It still feels sort of consoley. But, please, don't get me wrong. I do see the sheer brilliance of the thing and did definitely enjoy many of the puzzles and set pieces. It's just, well, it's... it's just not as good as Beyond Good and Evil. There, I said it. More on the game, after I finish it, which according to my rough calculations should be sometime in mid-August.

Rayman Raving Rabbids

Rayman was an excellent platformer for the Atari Jaguar, Rayman 2 another excellent platformer for Sega's Dreamcast and Rayman Raving Rabbids the first properly funny thing to hit the Wii. This collection of mini-games, you see, as any old youtube search should easily prove, is the funniest thing since Monkey Island, with the only possible exception being them Sam & Max games.The 60 odd mini-games featured, most of which are extremely enjoyable (with 3-4 infuriating and badly designed exceptions), have you swinging the Wiimote like a lunatic, shooting Sam Fisher-esque rabbits in (on-rails) FPS style, getting all sado-masochistic with the demented creatures, dancing to ridiculous disco tunes and generally laughing your arse off. If only it were a bit more polished and offered a greater variety of mini-games, it would be an absolute must-buy, especially for people with at least one friend.

Wii Sports

Unexpectedly, Wii Sports is the game I've played the most. I think I have actually played it for over 70 hours, and, despite it's many shortcomings, I have enjoyed each and every one of them. Wii Sports, besides totally revolutionizing the way sports games are played (you know, by actually ...uhm... moving), is the perfect multi-player game, even beating Sensi on the Amiga, and also a way to get some much-needed light exercise while having fun. As for the included sports, well, Tennis is great, Golf is brilliant but too short, Bowling is okay, Baseball is pointless and Boxing is absolutely dreadful and unresponsive. The included mini-games are a nice diversion and so is the daily training/testing bit. Now, if Wii Sports definitely needed something, this would have to be online multiplayer. Then again, I haven't even managed to connect my Wii to a wireless network yet...

Jan 30, 2007

The Wii-ing lagomorph

Sam and Max, lovely, psychotic and hilarious Sam and Max, are definitely coming to the Wii. Oh, yes, it's quite obvious, as Telltale Games (the creative minds behind Sam and Max Season 1), having already promised Wii versions of Sam, Max and Bosco, have just announced a job opening for a Wii developer. That's how:

Wii Systems Programmer

We have an immediate opening for a Wii Systems Programmer. This position will be responsible for implementing our core 3D graphics and audio systems on the Wii. This is a full time position at our San Rafael location.

Responsibilities
Migrate core components of D3D based PC game engine to the Wii
Implement additional platform specific features
Modify and support existing art and production path to accommodate Wii production
Contribute to the design and direction of Telltale Technology and products.

Related @ Gnome's Lair: 3 lovely new Wii screenshots, Blackwell Legacy DEMO, Oh no! more free games!

Related Tags: Sam and Max, Sam & Max, Wii, Nintendo Wii, Nintendo, Adventure games

Jan 29, 2007

Another Wii post and 3 lovely new games to cuddle with (when you're all alone)

I know I haven't blogged much about the Wii recently and I know I should be reviewing the games I've already enjoyed, but the voices do indeed seem to have other plans. They've already forced me to post the pictures -screenshots some might call them- you see above and mention three quite promising forthcoming Wii games. Apparently only one of them a Nintendo release.

Nasty voices aside, let me ...uhm... swiftly introduce Looney Tunes, Driver and Super Paper Mario, a game that promptly got the Zelda treatment and made the jump from the Gamecube to the Wii. Here, that's them introduced then and me moving on to actually starting writing some proper reviews. Oh, and please let me thank the Wii Experience blog, as it was the source of them nifty piccies. Please? Thanks!

Jan 5, 2007

Just how fast is this Wii of yours really?

Apparently quite a bit, as long as it's not compared to the unfairly brawny Playstation 3 or the Microsoft priced Xbox 360. Better compare the Wii to the Gamecube, a console much more powerful than Sony's PS2 and quite capable of producing the rather impressive graphics of Resident Evil 4:

Beside the obvious differences of the Wiimote, the WiFi networking, the Channels and the Virtual console, the inclusion of a full-sized DVDx6 (that's its speed really), 16:9 support, the new design and the SD cards thingy, the Wii improves on the core Gamecube hardware as well.

According to Felix Domke's speech at the 23c3 Chaos Communication Congress in the free and always radical city of Berlin (see the speech here), this is what the difference between the two consoles actually looks like, when compiled into a chart by a gnome:

MaxConsole, on the other hand, estimates that the Wii is actually 1.5 times faster than the Gamecube, and then goes on to provide an extensive list of specs. Read it here. Just don't buy this outrageous Wii bundle...

Related @ Gnome's Lair: Twilight Princess the PDF guide, a post about a Wii, HiSaturn Navi

Related Tags: Nintendo Wii, Wii, Wii specs, Gamecube, nintendo, Resident Evil, Game, Games, Video games, Consoles, 23c3

Jan 2, 2007

Zelda, Wolf-Link and Dog-Thor

Ah! The brilliance of Zelda Twilight Princess. The sheer silliness of the following (quite Spanish) video. The incomprehensible brain of mustachioed dogs... Amazing, just amazing. Funny too.

Dec 22, 2006

The Legend of Zelda: Twillight Princess PDF Guide

The Legend of Zelda: Twilight Princess; my first 3D Zelda game (tsk, tsk) and I am absolutely loving it, despite some minor camera annoyances and the odd illogical puzzle. And, as Elderly has already prepared a fine Twilight Princess walkthrough collection, all I have to add, is the happy fact that Gamespot created the ultimate Zelda TP guide in PDF. It's a 145 pages long beast of an illustrated walkthrough and you can get it here. For free of course.

Dec 15, 2006

A post about a Wii

Gnomes and nymphs have traditionally (according to my very own, very personal mythology) been close. Their relationships have been excellent and accordingly peaceful, ever since Zeus decided to modernize the local (uhm, Greek) mythological fauna by letting gnomes build their wee weird settlements. Things haven't changed much since. Well, we did get broadband recently, but that sort of sums progress up. Oh, and Lenin did drop by for a weekend.

Anyway. You don't care about such things, I'm sure. What's really important, and perhaps even of interest to you too, oh most loyal of readers, is that a beautiful nymph actually gave me -a lowly gnome- a Wii. Yes, a whole European Nintendo Wii. And I've been fiddling with it for 6 days now. And it's rather brilliant. Well not as brilliant as said nymph of course, but pretty enjoyable as far as gaming consoles go.

As I have yet to take my poor Wii for an online stroll, guess I'd rather focus on its more traditional features. Better then begin from the packaging. It's stylish, very Apple like, and the tiniest Google search will convince you of the validity of this statement. What's different in the European version though is that the bundled game, Wii Sports, comes in a proper DVD case, along with (multi-lingual) manuals, registration cards and precious Nintendo VIP points. Hah! And we also get a nice extra adapter, I'm not very sure what to use for... Definitely not edible, that. Still, a nice touch.

Now, I'm not gonna tire you with re-reviewing the whole thing either. Most probably you already know how intuitively simple the Wii interface is, or how smart and comfortable the Wiimote-Nunchuk combination can be. If not, better check those reviews out. All I have to add is that this is the first console ever that seemed able to make my PC gaming attempts seem boring. It even went as far as forcing me to actually pay 120 euros for a mere 2 games (The Legend of Zelda Twilight Princess and Rayman Raving Rabbits), that will be reviewed in due time.

Bah! No point in blogging any further. The Wii really is a great console. Bloody amazing, too. And the first non-retroed one I lay my hands upon! Gasp!

Oh, and apparently, tens of free (unsold actually) Wii consoles are roaming in downtown Athens. No one should have trouble getting one. Videogaming ques are -thankfully- unheard of in Greece. Just don't think it'll be as easy finding an extra controller.

Ah, lovely nymph...

Related @ Gnome's Lair: 30 Wii games video, a NES Legend of Zelda map, free NES gaming

Related Tags: Nintendo Wii, Wii, Wii Sports, Console, Gaming, Games, Game, Nintendo, Zelda, Rayman, Review, Consoles, Weblog, Blog, Nymph