Wii Game Reviews
Review Castle of Shikigami III (Wii)
Shooting things and shooting the breeze...
The Castle of Shikigami series is one of the more recent shooting franchises to appear in Japanese arcades and subsequently home consoles. Castle of Shikigami III is the first to appear on Wii with Aksys providing the localisation for North America. Combining good looks, humour and challenging gameplay,...
Review Resident Evil: The Darkside Chronicles (Wii)
Do not underestimate the power of the Darkside!
When Resident Evil: Umbrella Chronicles was seen to only cover RE0, 1 and 3 it was pretty clear that a sequel would be in the offing; the positive reception and respectable sales figures it received probably didn't hurt. If you're a fan and expecting more of the same in this digest-version of the...
Review ANNO: Create a New World (Wii)
Have sim fans' prayers been answered?
The history of sim games on home consoles hasn't been the brightest since the control pad interface doesn't lend itself as well to the fine control you would normally expect using a mouse on home computers. The Wii's pointer makes a good mouse replacement of course, so theoretically a game like Anno: Create a...
Jambo! Now jam on outta here!
Animal games seem to be the big new thing, especially on the family-friendly Wii. You can't throw a Remote in a shop without hitting one these days, with every major publisher putting out their own take on the safari-vet-sim sub-genre. Jambo! Safari is Sega's entry in the virtual-wild-animal-game stakes, and a...
A mini-game collection for retro-fans.
Whilst the word "arcade" will mean "video game" to many, it mustn't be forgotten that many arcades also featured carnival-style games that dispensed tickets for buying plastic trinkets (or, for the truly skilled, something more flash like a transistor radio or a soft toy) from a prize shop...
Review Ju-On: The Grudge (Wii)
Time to break out those rubber underpants!
The Ju-On series of films are a true horror landmark. Released at a time when most horror films have just become an endless series of remakes or are more depictions of torture than "scary movies," they refreshingly provide genuine frights with terrifying tales of vengeful spirits haunting the...
Review New Super Mario Bros. Wii (Wii)
The Super Mario Bros. experience long-time fans have been waiting for
Nintendo has been making Super Mario Bros. games for as long as they've been making game consoles, and after the mammoth success of New Super Mario Bros. on DS, it comes as no real surprise to see them continuing that tradition on the Wii. And while Nintendo have made it clear...
Review Call of Duty: Modern Warfare: Reflex (Wii)
Two years old. HD-to-Wii port. Surprisingly good
When Treyarch first announced that they'd be porting Infinity Ward's two-year-old Xbox 360/PS3/PC powerhouse Call of Duty 4: Modern Warfare to Wii, nobody seemed to think that the game would faithfully translate to Nintendo's underpowered console. The first screens were laughed at and the game seemed...
Review Need For Speed: NITRO (Wii)
You've got boost power!
With lagging interest (read: sales) in their Need For Speed series, EA decided to try something new: instead of half-sim, half-arcade street racing games that lost direction with each new entry, the franchise would be split in two and refocused. Back in September, the Xbox 360/PS3's sim-oriented Need For Speed: Shift was met...
Well and truly off its trolley
As the fourth Rabbids game in the Wii’s three-year lifespan, you’d be forgiven for thinking Ubisoft has run out of ideas for its bizarre creations, but Rabbids Go Home is potentially the oddest game in the series yet. Making a clean break from its minigame origins, Rabbids Go Home is an all-new adventure game from...
Subscribe to Nintendo Life on YouTube764k Watch on YouTube A worthwhile upgrade or just Nintendo milking its new cash cow?
Wii Fit's runaway success seemed to take even Nintendo by surprise given the number of times Satoru Iwata has publicly stated he never thought he could sell millions of bathroom scales as a new kind of fitness product. It's probably not much of a surprise to see them testing whether not...
Review Cate West: The Vanishing Files (Wii)
An enjoyable way to make time disappear
While adventure games are becoming more and more popular over recent years, there has been a new entrance to the arena: the Hidden Object Game. This new breed has inundated the PC with numerous variations on the theme, taking place in fairgrounds, lost temples, mysterious locations and even haunted houses, and...
Review Harvest Moon: Tree of Tranquility (Wii)
A withering flower
Tree of Tranquility is the first game in the main Harvest Moon series designed exclusively for Wii, following 2007’s disastrous Gamecube port Magical Melody. It’s been available in the US for over a year, but now it’s finally available in PAL territories it’s time to see how it measures up. You’ll either be relieved or...
With a boss named 'Windy Pants', you know this game was made for the kiddies
The developers at IO Interactive - previously known for such mature titles as Hitman, Kane & Lynch, and Freedom Fighters - decided to switch things up this time around and try to create a game that they could play with their children; thus, the story and gameplay in...
Review Academy of Champions (Wii)
A drab 0-0 draw
Over the years there have been some really enjoyable and innovative takes on the game of football (or soccer to our overseas chums) – Nintendo brought us the Mario Strikers series of course and Sega released the stereotype-laden but still enjoyable Sega Soccer Slam on Gamecube. Now Ubisoft are after a piece of the half-time meat...
Review A Boy and His Blob (Wii)
Now this is how you're supposed to update a classic
Originally released in 1989 on the NES console, A Boy and His Blob was quickly praised for its originality and unique gameplay ideas. Unfortunately, it was also criticized for its often sluggish control system and sometimes confusing level designs. Over the years several developers have created...
Review Mario & Sonic at the Olympic Winter Games (Wii)
For once, there's no bad puns - snow joke!
A few years ago, the unthinkable happened – Sega announced that Mario and Sonic were to put aside their 16-bit rivalry and join forces in an officially licensed Olympic game. Clocks ran backwards, dogs barked uncontrollably in the street and the whole world lay in danger. Then we played it, and saw that...
A mini-game too far...
Mini-games. One might say that mini-game (or, more nicely, "party game") collections have a serious presence on the Wii; it is often a fact bemoaned by more "hard-centred" gamers. Some of these titles are amongst the more successful games on the platform: both Carnival Games and Game Party have done quite...
Review Marvel Ultimate Alliance 2 (Wii)
Ultimate? Not quite.
Marvel Ultimate Alliance was one of the launch titles for the Wii in 2006 and despite being a port of a game also released on the PS3 and Xbox 360, it was still good fun. As a love letter to Marvel fans over the decades it provided a virtual travelogue of the people and places of the Marvel universe and was a wonderful...
Review Dead Space: Extraction (Wii)
One of the most polished and immersive Wii titles yet.
Hyperbole is not uncommon on the back of video game boxes; claims that the game you hold in your very hands in the store is the “most exciting” or “mind-blowing” tend to be full of crap. For Dead Space: Extraction, EA studio Visceral Games went with “most cinematic action horror...
Review Wacky World of Sports (Wii)
Or should that be "Tacky World of Warts"? Maybe...
It’s a well-known fact that the Wii excels at quick-fire games – sports compilations and minigame packages abound, and amongst all those renditions of golf, tennis, boxing and the rest you’d have to assume there’s no sport on Earth yet to be rendered in glorious Wii-o-vision. Well, you would...
Stranger in a strange land...
Would you like to hear a story? Good! This is a story about Opoona and his family: his daddy is a famous Cosmo Guard -- that's right, Opoona and his family are from the planet Tizia. In fact, Opoona's daddy is one of the most famous Cosmo Guards ever! He was recently awarded the title of Startizian -- a rank only a...
Review Muramasa: The Demon Blade (Wii)
Gorgeous, engrossing, flawed.
A lot of Muramasa: The Demon Blade's pre-release hype hinged on its art; while you could get a good impression of the beauty of the game, it isn’t until you have it in motion on your own screen that it hits you. Vanillaware has delivered a visual and aural feast in its portrayal of feudal Japan; Muramasa is truly a...
Have your prayers been answered?
Cursed Mountain, like its ghostly enemies, came out of nowhere to surprise us: a bona fide adult game, where the phrase doesn't equate to gratuitous swearing, gore and nudity, designed exclusively for Wii. With a story heavy on Buddhist philosophies, a combat system that requires prayer gestures and plenty of other...
Review Ashes Cricket 2009 (Wii)
We don't like cricket... but we don't love it that much, either!
With the recent Ashes series over, the sport of cricket is buzzing with popularity, so it’s no real surprise to see the Wii get its first ‘proper’ cricket game. Codemasters have taken it upon themselves to create Ashes Cricket, but have they done enough to faithfully recreate the...
Far from the Madden crowd...
Taking its graphical cues from the recent Grand Slam Tennis, Madden NFL 10 on Wii eschews the hi-def emphasis on recreating every detail of the game, favouring a more stylised - though hardly cartoony - approach to the presentation. Defensive backs are bulky chunks of muscle, wide receivers are gangly running machines...
Review Metroid Prime Trilogy (Wii)
A must-play anthology
It took eight years, a group of Texans and a whole new perspective for Samus Aran, space bounty hunter extraordinaire, to return to consoles after Super Metroid. Seven years and three acclaimed games later, Metroid Prime Trilogy puts Samus' Phazon encounters in one slick anthology that newcomers shouldn't miss, but does it...
Review Indiana Jones and the Staff of Kings (Wii)
You call this archaeology?
Filled with cut scenes and swashbuckling action sequences, The Staff of Kings has the feel of an actual Indiana Jones movie. There are a lot of concepts included here that, if fully realized, could have made for a spectacular movie-style game. Sadly, as it turns out the imagination of the game’s developers exceeded...
Review Horrible Histories: Ruthless Romans (Wii)
History? Sort of. Horrible? YES!
If you live in the UK you're probably familiar with the Horrible History series of books from author Terry Deary; featuring illustrations by Martin Brown. They're books aimed at children (mainly boys) between the ages of 8-12 which try to make history fun by discussing the nastier bits of it; using humourous...
Review Tenchu: Shadow Assassins (Wii)
"Are you finished? Save your speeches for Hell!"
This is the fourth in a series of stealth-based action games which have often met with mixed reviews due to control and camera issues. After watching the atmospheric sepia-toned montage of game cut-scenes scored with Japanese opera and playing the game, fans and those new to the series will find that...
