Gabbo

@Hardy83
I'm not sure I follow you. Is McMillen "stupid" for not having health insurance, or am I "stupid" for not wanting to pay his bills in addition to my own? It's kind of a complex problem that deserves a more serious discussion than to simply say we should throw more money at it. But it's a problem of economics, not a lack of proper health care as you stated.

That being said, I wish him well and hope he recovers soon enough to start working on more games.

@pixelman
1) Can you use the nunchuck to move?
A: No, it is Wiimote only. There is a mechanic for moving around with the d-pad, but everything happens so fast it didn't seem like there would ever be much time for this. And characters move towards the ball automatically anyway.

2) How is aiming controlled? Time-based or thumb-stick controlled?
It's all in the wrist, as they say.

3) Is the multi-player good enough for two massive tennis fans to warrant a purchase?
Two tennis fans, absolutely it's worth the paltry 500 wii points. Two MASSIVE tennis fans are probably better off with a full retail release. As mentioned in the review, this is a casual game and offers nothing to reward repeat play or extended playing sessions. If you're going to be playing a lot of tennis, it's probably worth it to fork over the money for a bigger game.

Connect Five? Hmmm. So is Field Tactics really similar to Stratego? I would love to have a computer opponent to play that against.

Make that connect FIVE.

@lanafire7
It sounds like you saw a clip of a cut scene that plays when you do a special shot. It's not actual game play footage.

@orlick
We don't compare Wiiware and Retail disk games against each other. No (fair) review site could because if we did, we'd have to look at a game like Nyxquest and say that it pails in comparison to Twilight Princess. But that's not fair because they are two completely different platforms.

That would be like rating all of the Gameboy games we just recently reviewed poorly because they have stories and gameplay that are too simple, not to mention the black and white graphics. Games just have to be judged against other games on the same platform, otherwise you are judging the platform and not the game.

Ha, Ha. Click the Metacritic link for some other views. Here's the highlight of Gamepro's review: "I can’t think of many other WiiWare games I would choose over this one"

@eripmav
I'm terribly confused. I sent an email to the address you linked in your previous post (running@60fps) but the response back read:
"Thank you for subscribing to our episodic ebook, '60 Females Per Stud.' Your credit card will be billed automatically as each new episode is released. Enjoy!"

It's an Easter Egg hunt. I finally figured it out. They're even egg shaped!

@JayArr
Would you believe I actually volunteered for this when it was first announced? Talk about bad judgment on my part!

@JamieO
That's a Mark Twain reference all right. I've had it in the back of my head for a while now that when I accidentally volunteer to review a trully awful game that has online play I'm going to review it like it's just the greatest thing ever so that other people will be tricked into making the same purchase mistake and I won't feel quite so dumb. And then I realized that this scam has already been done with a little game called Halo, so I wrote a legitimate review here instead.

@Bulbasaurus Rex
To be honest, there isn't much difference between a 1,2, or 3. We advise avoiding all of them. But you're right. There must have been a remarkable amount of time and effort spent on development of the online component. And that feature keeps the game from being completely worthless. It's just too bad they didn't have a good game to start with.

@eripmav
Heh, heh. Contrary to what the movie would have you believe, American resistance at Pearl Harbor was not terribly effective. Does this mean we will inevitably 'lose' episode 1 no matter how well we play?

Also, I'll go out on a limb here and guess you guys aren't planning on a Japanese release.

What's so hard to understand about the score? Gameloft released Sexy Poker and we gave it a 2. Then Gameloft released this upgraded Texas Hold 'Em game and we gave it a 4. It sounds like it's substantially better and it has the higher score to show it.

I would have happily reviewed this version of the game as well, for the sake of consistency in reviewers. However it didn't come out in the U.S. first so that's just impossible.

@Outrunner
Well, I haven't heard that you're not.

I'm not sure why there was so much interest in the first game and so little in the second two. But it's been a blast for me to play these games again (even if they do cause that vein in my forehead to pop out) and I hope those of you outside of North America get a crack at them soon!

Oh no...I can already guess who's going to get suckered into reviewing this one.

@Stevii's Father
Hey, that's just mean. I'm not going to sit here and listen to admitedly accurate observations about a great man like Mark Hamill!

I agree with Bass X0. This is a ripoff of Sexy Poker!

But seriously I'm holding off judgment until we see the review. After all, Texas Hold Em is public domain. Anyone has the right to make a game in this genre and this one may be coming out later simply because they spent more time getting it right.

So Wii gamers are less interested in sex than they are in collecting pokemon. Another sad gamer stereotype lives on. Shame on all of you!

@SuperSonic1990
Just to be clear the 360 'version' is nothing like this. That's a shooter like Halo. This is an RPG. They're apples and oranges.

@Sushie and anyone else interested
Shadowrun is still around and in its fourth edition. Official site is http://catalystgamelabs.com/shadowrun/

@Mathew1
There's still a lot of holes in our coverage, and more games are released every day. In this case, I'm kind of cheap and noticed a couple weeks ago that there had been a price drop on this one so I picked it up on a whim.

@vherub
I actually asked myself how I would have reacted if this game had been released as Fate of Atlantis with Staff of Kings as the unlockable bonus content.

Nice review Mat. For me, Pilotwings was a wasted rental back in the day even with the fancy graphics. And today it's just a tech demo that's pushing 20 years of age. But to each his own.

To be fair, it's not really a price increase. If they left the price the same, it would actually be a price decrease due to inflation. This is just putting the price back where it was supposed to be in the first place. I'll shut up now.

Perhaps this now classic video will help shed some light on the comparison.
http://g4tv.com/videos/12487/PS3-vs-Wii-Commercial/

Excellent game! Dave's right about the lack of being able to move in combat, but everything else about this game was so good I didn't mind. I wish I had bought it back in the day as it is somewhat rare now.

And I don't see it coming to VC anytime soon as the rights are a tangled mess. In addition to Data East and Beam software, other invested parties include Microsoft (owner of all electronic IP in the Shadowrun universe), Smith and Tinker (licensee of all electronic IP rights in the Shadowrun universe from Microsoft, and Catalyst Games (owner of the actual Shadowrun universe and any 'residual' rights that its predecesor, Fasa, may have retained in this particular game. And then of course there is the shell corporation of Fasa that still remains and may also still retain some ownership rights of these existing games separate from the rights they sold to Microsoft. I could go on...

But this game rocks!

Edit: Oops. I meant to say that Topps owns the Shadowrun universe proper and licenses it to Catalyst Games.

Excellently written review, CB!

This is trademark infringement against Sony and Copyright infringement against Nintendo. Nothing to be happy about any more than the existance of thousands of piracy sites out there.

@shelia55
Heh, heh. It's the stealth multiplayer that initially contributed to my thinking that there was no multiplayer because my second wiimote was malfunctioning. Basically, you have to have your second wiimote turned on when you start the game and it will automatically be recognized. There are no options you have to select, it just happens.

Something else to consider regarding the score is that we've got two more of these games on the way that feature better game play, new cool options like force powers, and a lightsaber that actually works like a lightsaber and not a club.

To someone planning on buying all three games no matter what, these differences don't matter. But to someone new trying to pick only one, they need a score to help differentiate between them.

And by the way, a 7 is not a bad score. It's still a recommendation but with some warnings to take into consideration before deciding if this is the right purchase for you.

"Cheap shot". "Personal insult". Hmm. Now I'm glad I didn't go with the Carrie Fisher in a metal bikini joke.

@koolkitties
Given that there are now two Tecmo Bowl releases I wouldn't presume that they won't be releasing Super Tecmo Bowl. In fact, I'd almost say it's inevitable.

@warioswoods
It doesn't require widescreen. In fact, it has enormous black bars even on a widescreen tv. I guess it's just a funny aspect ratio that's keeping it from filling the screen, but I didn't bother to get out a ruler to measure.

@Bahamut Zero
I had two games to review this week and for some reason I chose to do this one second. What does that say about me? I don't expect it to become a running gag, but you never know.

By the way, I can confirm that this is for four players, not just two. Our review will be up shortly.

Great review, Brad! I may have to pick this one up.

@SmaMan

They're there on my widescreen. Of course, you could always fiddle around with your tv's zoom functions

@SmaMan
It's not noticeable. It just looks like a regular widescreen image, albeit shrunk with black bars surrounding on all sides.

@Betagam7
Sorry, but I take issue with the 'space' theory of video game development. Video games are developed by 'people' and do not 'spontaneously' appear out of nowhere. As such I merely pointed out that 'Gameloft' has control only over their own 'IP' and not anyone else's. As such they can only release 'their' games. It is their fault that 'Sexy' Poker 'sucks', but it's not their fault 'that' Earthbound has not been released yet. So are we 'cool'?

@Chicken Brutus
What can I say, I finished quickly.

"Sexy" + 500 wiipoints = Fleeman is right

@Betagam7
So far as I am aware, Gameloft does not have publiation rights to either Donkey Kong or Earthbound. So such a 'review' would not be as 'productive' as you think. And when was a review ever supposed to be 'productive' anyway?

@everyone complaining this isn't a 1
When historians comb over the remains of Wiiware someday and piece together the worst moments in the console's history, they'll find this game and say, "Oh, strip poker! That should be worth a laugh or two." Ergo it is not completely unplayable as a 1 would indicate.

@jones2929
Just sarcasm. We did try the rumble feature and it's just force feedback when you 'mouse-over' a selection. It doesn't really help and it's defaulted to off.

Ack, spoiler alert! Some of those screenshots reveal too much, if you know what I mean.

Anyway, now that we have screenshots the review should go live shortly.

Although I've been silent about it on the forums, I've been heavily campaigning for the right to review this one since the day it was announced. Apparantly I dealt out just the right amount of bribes and broken noses to get it. Sorry Chicken Brutus!

I almost forgot there is one option in one of the games. In Solitaire you can choose between draw one or draw three. Sorry.

@KeeperBvK
I just don't think it's possible to sum them up in a sentence apiece. Although I normally explain games in reviews, here it would have greatly bloated the review to take the time to actually explain all six of these games when really all anyone wants to know is whether or not this is a good venue to play them.

What raises my suspicions is the very assumption that VC games sell worse than Wiiware games. Although we are not privy to sales figures, I find it highly doubtful that the average Wiiware game can match the average VC game in sales.

@-TR
You're right. What is that, like two 7's in a row from me now? I'm turning into Corbie!

@3DPro
By that logic we could never give a game a bad review

Will people still read our reviews if we don't include a teaser line??? Read on to find out!!!

No online play, no. That information would be in the Game Overview shown in the top right corner of this page if such a feature were included.

@Incognito D
Just to be clear to everyone, lest there be any confusion, the score and review were based on the quality of the game. Not the price tag. I only mentioned the value aspect in the review because in some ways this is a de facto virtual console release.

Ironically, it's already out in Europe on PS2. In my research I discovered this was only ever released in Europe and so I can feel a lot better about not having realized it existed prior to the Wiiware release.

If you're looking for a racing game on Wiiware, your choices right now are Hot Rod Show, or this. I can't honestly say one is better than the other as they both are very different experiences and both have their redeeming points. But I personally lean more towards this one.

Is it safe to come out yet?