After almost completing the game I can say this is a great game and one of the underrated games in the WiiWare service. Aside from the silly "R'n'R" theme, the game is the best climbing simulation I've ever seen in video game form. BTW, I'm always taking about the game as played using the balance board.
First: The way you interact with the game, using your arms and legs and leaning forward or backward to push up or down, as well as flexing your arms so the climber pulls up towards his/her hands works very well and gives the game a degree of immersion no other game of this type has. Also, the system gives you a lot of flexibility in how you approach a wall.
For example, you can extend an arm and lean forward to reach higher. You can also tilt the opposite hand towards you to flex the arm and reach higher, but sometimes, for example if you want to reach a far grip to the side, that won't do. Instead you might have to relax the opposite arm so your body kind of falls to the side. If you're quick enough you'll be able to grasp the grip with the other hand.
Other times, you might find that you can't move a leg up, and it's also too far down so it's keeping you from reaching a grip above with a hand. Just release the foot and extend the hand. These movements are pretty realistic and used by real climbers. It's more risky and you won't be able to use this on slippery grips, but it makes for some fast climbing through the easier walls.
There are some other non apparent moves like grabbing a grip far to a side with both hands and stepping off the balance board so the whole body moves to the side as the legs fall. It's a very effective way to move to the sides, as moving the legs to the sides (especially towards the inner side) is slower.
Overall, the feeling when you reach the top, especially on harder walls, is one of accomplishment, because of the way the game presents you with a puzzle added to the fact that you're interacting with the game with your whole body. And some of the walls are hard, but as you get used to the control system, the game becomes much easier.
The only downsides for me are two:
The game sometimes doesn't detect well when you lift a foot from the board. I guess this has to do with the balance of the other foot. It's not usually a problem, and doesn't interfere too much with the game.
The climber is TOO flexible some of the times. Usually, the modeling of the movements and capabilities of the climber is pretty nice, but sometimes the postures will be totally unbelievable. I understand this is a consequence of using a kind of "rag-doll" animation system that gives the player much more freedom of movement so I can forgive this. With its problems, it's a very big improvement from games with a fixed set of moves for each limb such as the classic Final Assault (aka Chamonix Challenge).
A small last complain is that I wish the game had included some way of making levels and a random generator too. That would have been awesome...
Downloaded it as soon as it became available in the UK 'cos I actually thought it's a great idea, Nintendo Life's review didn't put me off at all. Just can't get to grips with it at the mo, though I'm having fun trying. Not even beat the first wall (for shame), think it's prolly 'cos I've got atrocious balance, WiiFit practically laughes at me on balace tests. Gonna stick with it though, any tips?
At first I wasn't using the flexing of the arms and that's really important (otherwise the game becomes ultra-hard). Makes sure you use it (tilting both controlerllers towards you when you're grasping with both hands, and with the opposite hand when you're extending one hand towards a new grip). Also, leaning forwards is a must. I'm on my toes almost all the time while playing the game. If you have balance problems, then you can just stand on the forward part of the wii board.
Also, as I said in the first post, when you're trying to grab on a grip you can't reach, many times, lifting the foot from the opposite side helps a lot, as the body can extend further up and to the other side.
Yep. Pretend like you're actually climbing. You rise with your foot leaning forward and push off the rock below towards the next one whilst holding your arm out. Trust me, once you get the controls, you'll find it's one of the better uses of the Balance Board.
Cheers for the tips guys, makes a lot more sense now. I'll be giving it another go though I may be slightly distracted as I've just seen that my pre-order for a certain New Super Mario Bros Wii (I doubt you've heard of it!!!) has been dispatched - yoink!
Guess what guys. I played RnR Climber yesterday and I tried the Rock (or was it Pop Rock?) course with the Hilltop stag: my previous time from release of the game was 8:00-something (bordering on 9 minutes) and I improved to 1 minute and 14 seconds! Talk about a humunguous improvement. And yes, with the Balance Board!
After you get the hang of it, the game is much easier with the balance board because you can move arms and legs at the same time. Then you can climb much faster
I finished the game and unlocked some of the new courses. Some are pretty challenging, but some were quite easy. Lately my son can't get enough of the new Wii Mario game, so I'm not playing this one much...
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Topic: Rock'n'Roll Climber, a surprisingly good game!
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