Gabbo

@SmaMan
I kind of mispoke in the review. I said 'Tiger Woods 09 was a great golf game' but what I meant by that is it was a big improvement over 08, which we gave a comparatively low score. But this game absolutely blows everything else out of the water.

@Machu
Heh heh. Sorry but I felt I had to play through the Open before the review in order to really get the whole experience.

@XCWarrior
Anyone know what the smiley is for whistling innocently? Unfortunately I am but a cog in the vast, relentless machine that is nintendolife

@warioswoods
Sorry, I was referring to the angle up and down, not left and right.

Thanks for the kind reviews of the reviews, everyone. I really had a lot of fun with this game, so it was a pleasure!

I'm a big fan of the original. Pick up a copy if you find it, and have a NES. It's my favorite Koei game of all and one of my top 3 favorite strategy games ever. I don't think we'll ever see it for Virtual Console, though.

This sequel is a reasonable substitute, though and captures most of the essence if not all of the charm of the original. However, I do still suggest getting your feet wet with Nobunaga's Ambition first before diving into the deep end with this one.

Hi folks. I'm working on the review as we speak.

@Adamant
I recommended playing Nobunaga first and I stand by that. I haven't played RotTK in years so I don't think I'm qualified to answer that. But this game is definitely on the bigger and more in depth side.

According to the referee Steve accomplished something that had never been seen before...jumping over three barrels at once.

@adamical
I don't know. It looks like that got left out in the site redesign that happened a couple months ago. Perhaps it will be added back in later?

@Nintendophile
There were 2 Super Mario Worlds on the snes

@Drake
Why can't they use the translations from the Playstation or GBA releases?

Resident Evil 4 is probably my favorite Wii game. The 360 may offer superior visuals, but it's still a big step backwards compared to the Wiimote controls on RE4. So yes, I would buy a Wii port of RE5 in a heartbeat.

This and Madstone are two different kinds of games, of course. But as far as longevity goes, you're right. I grew bored of Madstone and don't play it anymore. But this I'm still playing to this day and still love it. And I reviewed both games. Woops!

@pixelman
Well honestly, when they put 'silver star' in the name of the game what do they think reviewers are going to come up with?

@Outrunner
You have to have the broadband adapter and an internet connection. It's a whole lot of work for little reward. It was always more for 'enthusiasts' than for normal Gamecube gamers. And it's not really worth the effort now with the ease of being able to go online with Mario Kart Wii and finding tons of people to play with.

Ooo, likes like we've stirred up some controversy here!

I agree with the sentiment that this is not the best Mario Kart. I might even agree that it's the worst Mario Kart. My personal favorite is still Super Mario Kart on the SNES. But we're not scoring Mario Kart games here. In comparison to Gamecube games in general I think this is still one of the very best choices for the system.

But keep the comments coming!

@Damo
Thanks Damo. At least your heart was in the right place...after all it is a cash-in, just not on this particular movie.

By the way, it crashed on me last night after an hour of playing. I had to unplug the Wii just to get it to reboot. Why oh why couldn't they have included an autosave feature???

@sirgrim

I didn't call it a tie in, though. Some of the commentors did. The person who wrote the teaser line leading into the review called it a 'cash-in' so I guess that may be where some of the confusion comes from.

In between reviewing new games Nintendolife.com is going back and filling in reviews of older games that haven't been reviewed yet. I chose to review this game now because of the movie. It just seemed like a logical thing to do. Thanks for pointing that out though, as it sounds like some people might have been confused about the release date.

@sirgrim

Before flaming 'the reviewer', you might want to read what I said just two posts before you and also take note that the release date is clearly included alongside the review.

@Moai Head
Yeah, this was a bit early to be a tie in for the movie. Although the movie was completed a year ago from what I have read, so maybe there was some intent to have this on shelves when the movie came out.

However, I will confess that this review is a cheap tie-in to the movie.

I picked this up last month for $10 new, aware that we still needed a review for it here. I wouldn't be too happy paying it's 'budget' price of $30, but for the price of a Wiiware game I found it to be totally worth it.

"a lively rendition of the traditional “Happy Birthday” song will play for everyone to sing along"
Translation- A completely original, never before heard, non-copyrighted "Happy Birthday" song will play for the kids to scratch their heads at.

A battle is its own little mini game. It is completely fought before moving on to the next players turn. This means that there's no chance for reinforcements (although in other games such as Ghengis Khan they do work in a mechanic for calling in reinforcements from neighboring territories.)

@KnucklesSonic8 and SmaMan
Just to be clear, it supports 1-8 players. Not just 1 or 8.

@Adamant
In terms of complexity, this is to Romance of the Three Kingdoms IV as Checkers is to Chess. Similar games, but one offers a lot more strategic options than the other. For beginners, I recommend this one all the way.
But don't take my word for it...why not go read the one comment over at the review for RotTK IV?

Second!
This game could really use another round of upgrades. I would love to navigate the menus with a wiimote pointer. But that's not likely to ever happen. Although there are newer games in the series still coming out so anything's possible!

This game blows away Nobunaga's Ambition in terms of complexity. Now that that game is out on VC I would recommend that to anyone looking for their first Koei game and then progress on to this one later.

@03bgood
It's busy looking for your damn avatar

Thanks for the save Corbie!

@Maniac
It's not just bad language. It's bullying and poor sportsmanship. I see it every single time I play online on Xbox.

Sorry the review is taking so long folks. It is still forthcoming. This is my first non-Wiiware review and figuring out which direction to bend the disk has been a bit confusing for me.

@Ren
Agreed. I would expect the vast vast majority of wii owners have never downloaded a single game. And even the ones who know the service exists will be hesitant to use it without knowing more about the game before purchasing it.

@Kriqxz
That's actually not bad money when you consider that the average Wiiware game probably takes a month to develop, rather than a year. Assuming you were working full time. And many developers, I'm sure, do it in their spare time while working on a larger project.

Wow. With that little easter egg does that make Pitfall our first Atari 2600 game on VC?

@Atlantis1982
Yeah, no kidding. Do you think that's why they changed the name, or did someone finally explain to them the innuendo...

@Adam
Don't listen to him. He's just trying to stir up trouble. Everyone knows that every game on the SNES was better than every N64 game.

@thewiirocks

"1) Copyright protection creates the issue of piracy. Without copyright protection, it wouldn't be piracy. It would be legal."

Ha ha ha! Good one!

"2) Extending the period of a copyright has not traditionally lead to greater sales. Most products have a relatively short shelf-life. "

True. However, my point was that shortening the term of copyright reduces the total time that an author has the exclusive right to sell. Once others are allowed to sell or otherwise distribute the same work, the author will lose those sales.

"3) The Berne Convention revokes the requirement to register copyrights in order to receive copyright protection. Currently, every work is automatically granted a copyright upon creation."

However, U.S. copyright law still requires registration before you can enforce any copyright claim in court. As a result, if someone does ever attempt to enforce their copyright, it's getting deposited in the Library of Congress one way or another.

"The other problem with this change is obvious: Quite a bit of work is lost over the years because the copyright is not registered. There were some PC games that I remember as a kid which simply don't exist anymore. They were too low budget for a wide audience to take note of, and copies were not registered with the copyright office."

The thing is, one of the goals of Copyright law and the Library of Congress is exactly that...to preserve those works that the free market allowed to wither away. Copyright law offers a solution to this problem...lure authors into registering their works with promises of huge infringement awards if they file their copyright registration. But require them to deposit copies of their work in the process. So the solution then is more copyright registration, not less.

"Books, films, and photographs have also been lost to time. All because Mickey Mouse was going to become public domain. (Disney lobbied for the copyright extensions to prevent Steamboat Willy from falling into public domain. Thus the act that extended copyrights is often referred to as the "Mickey Mouse Protection Act".)"

Whoa now...did Mickey Mouse really do all that? After all, the law you refer to was passed in 1998. The problem of losing old works to the ravages of time had been going on long before then. And efforts to restore endangered works were already underway.

"My own opinion on copyright is that the best way out of this mess is a tiered copyright scheme..."

Actually, what you describe sounds a lot like the system we had in the U.S. before the Berne Convention. IIRC, the Berne Convention was around 100 years old in Europe before the U.S. signed on. So we obviously didn't all think it was such a great idea. But the benefits of bringing our laws into conformity with the rest of the world won the argument.

Personally, I agree with you. A renewal system such as you describe would neatly deal with the problem of works that are abandoned or orphaned. Let's start a petition!

@Adam
How do you reason with proponent's of Copyright law? Why, by using reason, of course (instead of declaring them 'insane' ). But you'll have a hard time of it because they have all of the best arguments already:

1) Copyright protection extends government protection over authors to protect their investment from piracy

2) Extended copyright protection increases the available time spent on the market and directly increases the total amount of sales an author can expect from their work over its lifetime

3) Copyright law encourages (and technically requires) authors to deposit one or more copies of their work with the Library of Congress (in the U.S.) expressly for the purpose of preserving it and making it available to everyone upon copyright expiration.

4) Contrary to your statement that Copyright grants ownership of an 'idea', the exact opposite is true. Copyright law grants ownership of only the expression of an idea. This encourages the publication of the idea because the author knows that his/her expression will be protected. The idea, however, is not and anyone is free to use it in their own games. In this way, Copyright law actually encourages the sharing, rather than hoarding, of ideas.

Sean's argument essentially boils down to this: he wants a shorter copyright term for video games. There are many arguments in favor of shortening the term of copyright in general which I won't get into here, but suffice it to say that Sean makes a good argument.

However I highly doubt that he or any of us really wants to see an end to copyright protection of video games. That would lead to disaster for the industry and an end to big budget releases.

Games are like that rock and roll those greased up beatnicks listen to these days. That's not music...it's noise!!!

Ah, Majora's Mask! I've been wanting to play this again since September of '06. I have it on the collector's disk, but I sold my gamecube in anticipation of getting a Wii. And I wasn't able to find a Wii to purchase until February of '07. By then I had Twilight Princess and I just never got around to playing this one! Perhaps now's the time to play along with everyone else.

I own both. Genghis Khan 1 was my favorite console strategy game of all time, so I really hope that one gets a release. I never liked 2 as much as 1, but I'm thrilled that we're getting either!

If this means I'll finally be able to watch hulu and other flash based video then I just may need to buy a second Wii. Heck, maybe one for every tv in the house!

Very well written review Steven. And thanks for taking that bullet for the rest of us!

@thewiirocks
That's because the screenshots ARE from a tower defense clone. There are no screenshots of the FF game.

@7th lutz
Agreed. That's why I said it is in Wisconsin's best interest to tax all online sales. Just as it is in every state's interest to do so eventually.

As a side note there used to be a federal law prohibiting taxation on online sales, but that was when internet sales were relatively small. These days, it really doesn't make economic or fiscal sense to leave any online sales tax free.

@sharecrow
Right. But they don't have to charge tax to everyone else out of state.

So if you live in Wisconsin and are trying to decide on whether to buy an item in a local store or from an online store out of state and it's cheaper online because there's no sales tax, then that's an artificial disincentive to Wisconsin consumers discouraging them from doing business locally. For obvious reasons, that is not in Wisconsins' best interest.

Although I love having a tax free internet as much as the next man, this sort of thing is really inevitable everywhere for one really good reason: Tax uniformity between B&M sellers and online sellers.

It's bad for the local economy (everywhere) for the government to reward online transactions while creating a tax disincentive for local retailers to keep their doors open. As more and more business is done online, local governments will have to tax it to protect their local businesses.

It sucks for services like Wiiware which have no physical counterpart, but the reason behind it is to keep services like Steam and Amazon from having an artificially created unfair advantage.

I need this now! Before my classic controller arthritis becomes full-blown.

Great review Mathew!

Hmmm. This 'patent pending version of fun' they speak of is nowhere to be found in the US Patent and Trademark database. I wonder if they are registering it in the Netherlands?

@nglt13
Thanks for the review of the review! I've grown to truly love this game and perhaps would have scored it a seven in hindsight. At the time I just didn't believe it would have any lasting play value, but even now I still play it for hours at a time with friends.

Anyway, it's still a top ten seller so apparantly other people must like it too.

Whether its good or not will be judged by the final release. But I think we can all agree that the fps genre is a large and relatively untapped market for the Wii.

Although the graphics obviously can't compete with the 360 or PS3, with Wiimote controls, online play, and a (relatively) low-cost downloadable game price tag, this game has the potential to be hugely successful.

@MarkyVigoroth
Not all of them. I've still got mine!

@joe-hamburg

Thanks for your comments. I'm sure you and many others will enjoy this game.

Just to clear up a misconception, we review games based on their gameplay, not on their single or multi-player aspect. In some cases games are different in multi-player and so require special mention. But in this case, the game plays exactly the same with more than one player as it does with one, so no extensive multi-player review was necessary.

Additionally, you stated that we gave this game a 'bad score'. However, a quick look at the score will show that we gave it a 6, which is specifically defined as "NOT BAD" . This means that while the game is not for everyone, there is a lot here to like and many people will enjoy it despite its flaws.

Some of my favorite games are 6's. This one apparantly is yours. Welcome to the club!

Speaking of the characters, one of them ( I don't remember which) has a dukes of hazard horn that sometimes plays during a big jump. Sadly, that was probably my favorite moment in the game.

@jpfan1989
Two words: "five" and "dollars"