I've had this game since release but never bothered to play past the missions on the first download pack. I've now got all three download packs and can confirm that this game is one of the best games on the service. Certainly worth more than 8/10 imo - in fact it really should be up there with World of Goo, Final Fantasy and Toki Tori.
This game is well worth the £14/$20US asking price and well worth cleaning out the fridge for too.
I too am scared of Ronald. I also play video games but cycle to and from work twice a day, I also used to go to the gym four times a week but playing video games didn't put a stop to that.
In all honesty it' shouldn't be down to the government to tell people to get kids off their arses. It should be obvious to parent, teacher and the kids themselves that slovenly behavior is not good both in terms of mental and physical health. Everyone should be pro actively encouraging kids to go out - whether it's on a five mile walk, a field trip or even to McDonalds. Britain has lost its sense of family-based social interaction which encourages social and physical activity, whereas (from what I've seen from my trips to America) Americans have not. America suffers too much from excessive amounts of overly cheap food (particularly all-you-can-eat restaurants) and alcohol (the later of which Britain is also beginning to do)
Whilst I agree with gamers and devs being angry about what the government have done, if they're honest with themselves they're doing very little pro-actively to help the situation - WiiFit is barely worth mentioning and that's the best the industry has to offer so far. Damo / Corbie - you're right about fast food joints, but its also your decision to eat there. McDonalds et al are at least moving towards better standards and are trying to make you aware of the content of their meals.
In all cases, whether you're stuffing yourself with fat or letting your kids rot in front of a television, ignorance isn't bliss. It kills.
I purchased it the day it released in the UK. I agree with Sean about any real lack of decent humor, the over-zealous use of swearing in place of decent humor and the rather long cut-scenes. I also found the difficulty to be rather inconsistent in places and the graphics are no-where near as polished as some publications would have you believe.
Generally the presentation of the game goes some way to approaching Grindhouse but it's ruined by the juvenile plot and the aforementioned excessive use of swearing in favor of real humor which is a shame because I enjoy that style of film (don't tell the wife) I lent the game to a friend a few weeks back before I'd finished it and to be honest, I'm not bothered about getting it back. I still prefer Umbrella Chronicles and I hope Darkside Chronicles will be more of the same.
I'm more inclined to see Overkill's sales as a product of people latching onto the idea that the Wii has a 'mature' game that hasn't been out-and-out beaten by the media or some over-protective governing body as opposed to being a great example of the genre which it honestly isn't. Certainly it's above average but only just and falls well short of the expectations I had of the game.
Notch one up for Sean Aaron. Sadly, colour blindness is a major problem for many puzzle-type games and too few devs take any sort of notice. Maybe exkee will include some colour-blindness features into their game.
Then again, the chances are just as likely as the idea of the devs behind Mozilla Firefox implementing the facility to automatically download British English dictionaries during the installation of their browser rather than rely on me being bothered to correct a major oversight at a later period in time. Hence, pretty slim.
@anthonyb: I was going to point that out. But hey, I'm British and never complain about anything Besides 'les couleurs' sounds a little effeminate for the macho blood-thirsty type that is looking for a game like this to ... oh wait.
Maybe I'll check out the review for this one. Outside of that, I have no interest in something that sounds more complicated than necessary and is wrapped in the most unbelievably crap story to add some cuddliness to the perceived game play.
Quite frankly the description of this game makes me want to vomit in terror to an extent not seen since HVS decided on a colour (that'd be 'color' to avoid confusion for some French developers) palette for one of its games.
Maybe the third iteration will turn into something better - it lookslike they're building the game into something special, but unfortunately this release really does sound like less than a half-way house.
I never bought the original We Ski and I hate the controls and visual style of SSX Blur (SSX 3 is my all-time favourite iteration of the series, with Tricky coming a close second)
I was tempted to buy We Ski and Snowboard but if there's nothing more to do than move from point to point and the multi-player suffers, then I see little incentive. Like I said, maybe next time.
Outside of YouTube I hate Flash with a vengeance (unless I'm writing a Flash based website for someone of course) My web browser has Flash blocking enabled for all sites just so I don't have put put up with a computer than runs like a dog because someone can't write a decent plugin.
Yes, there are some really interesting Flash based ideas and even games out there but the power required to run them far exceeds a well written equivalent in native code. Considering the Wii isn't that much of a powerhouse I can't imagine anything that would equal what many WiiWare titles offers today.
The only reason I can see Nintendo's inclusion of Flash into the WiiWare SDK is as a way to 'fast-track developers. Assuming that is the case I can imagine a whole host of puzzle games and over-hyped platformers rushing the service - at which point I unplug my Wii from the Internet. Forever. Mwah hah hah! |D
Sound crap-tastic. I personally can't see why this would benefit WiiWare other than for lazy programmers who can't be bothered to learn something new. I guess development times may be shortened (hence more crap between good releases) and I'm sure Nintendo were thinking it'd be an ideal fit for the service, considering 1 out of every 9 WiiWare games is actually worth buying.
I suppose the one real benefit to consider would be the version of Flash supported: if it is version 9, we could see better Flash support coming to the Internet Channel (which would give me some sort of reason to use it) Then again, why would Nintendo want to cripple further game sales by allowing people to play the free browser based versions of stuff they're supposed to pay for?
Smells like BS to me. Good luck with that one Nintendo.
Sorry you guys got such as sucky week on the VC. As for Gradius Rebirth: I'd rather buy it than R-Type Dimensions on XBLA where the '3D' mode just looks awkward and wrong in so many ways.
@TwilightCrow: I'm happy you don't care how it looks. That means I can now go ahead and make almost carbon copy visuals of every game I love and wrap them around similar but inferior games.
I'm sure none of the companies who took the time and effort to create the original artwork will mind, after all they're nothing more than money-grabbing faceless organisations who should give people every right to steal or duplicate their work.
@chunky_droid: And by short, Objection_Blaster means "sh"
It does look all too frighteningly familiar. Hopefully they'll go back and redesign all the artwork to look half decent and less law-suit provoking. I can understand tipping one's hat towards another company's genius but some of those screen are just too close for comfort.
I can only pray the game doesn't play like Lost Winds too. Not that Lost Winds played badly - it's just that I'm not looking forward to a sequel, nor a crappy knock-off either.
I'm probably the only one but I think the graphical update sucks. Plus the backgrounds are too busy. I preferred the less overwhelming approach of the original.
Oh well, it's not like I won't buy it (unless the game play sucks too) I love Bubble Bobble and Rainbow Islands
@Raptop78: I agree about Snowboard Riot. After the initial reviews I was a bit put off but I downloaded it anyway.
I can sort of understand people complaining about the rubber-banding but if you've played Mario Kart Wii you'll be prepared for the sort of unfairness that can occasionally plague this game. I say occasionally because I only failed to come first on the first course once and came first in one go in the second course.
I'm sure that at any other time this would have been completely different but it's really not that tough.
I also agree about the lack of online players but I can also see game play being considerably more frustrating once some pillock learns how to abuse the system.
I've already seen it in Bomberman Blast where someone will add a couple of invited non-existing players to a game, kill themselves instantly and then use your unfortunate lack of maneuvering space to pretty much get an instant kill. If you kill his/her player they kill one of their 'invited' characters (in revenge form) and repeat.
This game sounds awesome. Hudson are definitely getting back in their stride what with Onslaught and now this. My appreciometer has shot back up to 10 for them.
The graphics on this game look pretty good to me. The first couple of screens did look a little out of focus but the later shots get better. I can imagine everything will look fine in the end.
I'm also quite looking forward to the mini games - particularly if there's online leader boards. The skateboard survival game looks like it could be pretty good fun if they get the balance board control right and axe attack will probably wile away a little of people's time too. In fact all the mini-games look like good solid entertainment.
All in all, I'm really looking forward to this game! And no Wiiloveit, nobody's tied the real Calculon up in the basement before you ask
Wow. Either the guy on the Joystiq review really sucks or pretty much every review is spot on with the IR control issues. Considering I'd go along with the knowledge that there is NO WAY IN HELL that IR would offer finer control than any other method for this type of game play I'm going along with Matt's review on this one.
Plus I totally agree with the random obstacle issue that IGN brought up - I saw that coming when I watched the first preview videos a while back. My initial reaction was WTF? when whoever was playing couldn't move for about 10 seconds because he/she couldn't get out of the way of laser fire fast enough. I'm sorry but crap game design like that is just frustrating. Then annoying. Then INFURIATING.
Good to know HVS still aren't pushing their half-arsed efforts over here though. I still reckon The Conduit will suck too but I'll buy it because I want to become a graphical whore
I'd love to see this game reworked with zombies, flying demons and a few closer-to-home locales. How much of a shafting would that give Dead Rising? Oh man, I can just imagine putting that bug-spatter code to good use.
In all honesty the original game wasn't as bad as certain websites made it out to be. I can understand why Luc is pissed off with Altern8 - after all his game has been waiting in limbo for six months for what are only a few minor adjustments.
On the other hand, if they're reworking the whole game from scratch then that's just a big (bleep) you to Luc, in which case I can understand his anger over that too.
Danny Elfman has a lot to answer for, although these tracks (along with the similarly themed music of WoG) aren't quite there imho. The tracks on EC are nice, but a little too samey for my liking.
Still, I'm looking forward to the game coming to WiiWare all the same.
Holy crap! I haven't played Call of Duty since Friday. Onslaught has take over as my current Wii FPS shooter of choice. The on-line co-op is limited (yet still enjoyable) but the single player is awesome.
Not that I'm doing too well at the moment: This game hands you your ass just when you think you've got it licked. I've completed the game on normal but I'll be damned if I can get past mission five on hard. I get right to the last minute and the all-out bug assault always seems to be just one or two bugs too many. Oh well at least there's the added bonus of getting a better score each time until I finally beat it.
Seems like every day I appreciate this game more and more and I now agree with WiiWare World's review score - it is a solid 9/10. Not since Mega Man 9 have I ever known a game that I was looking forward to, score higher than I anticipated.
I can only hope that Hudson start working on a sequel which I'll gladly hand over my cash or soul for
Calculon really does want to comment on Luigi's statement but ... nah. What's been said has been corrected far more subtly that he would handle it. Demeanor switch flicked from uncontrolled ranting to 'Ha Ha!"
Yes the co-op is Wifi. No, you can't use Wii Speak nor is there a chat system. You don't communicate with your friends because technically they're rivals trying to get a better score than you. If you want to cover someone's back then do so - just don't expect any sort of reward other than personal gratification.
I'm actually really enjoying Onslaught. Just played a few online co-op matches and they were pretty challenging. I only ever came first once - some bugger was mad on the old rocket launcher.
I haven't played too much of the single player (only on level 5) as my wrist is killing after so much shooting.
I think I'm going to rate this game 8/10. Nice work Hudson! Definitely worth the £7 and I hope they do bring out a sequel or a multi-player vs game on the back of this.
@Nintendo-Naut:: There was never any official mention of Death Match or any sort of .vs mode so your rant is pointless. There is co-op online mode but seeing as the game's only been out for one day it's hard to establish if that's any good so you can't really knock that either.
As for my problem (Post 60) I'm beginning to think it may be the controller/nunchuck. I'm going to clean out the plug and maybe open the nunchuck up to see if there's any dust and crap in there that could be causing problems for the motion sensor. Of course, I could always just tap in against the floor but that's no fun.
It's actually not too bad. I can see it getting boring very quickly in single player.
As a side note - has anyone else experienced this bug?
I started the game on Easy and my character just looked like he was dancing to the music. You couldn't reload your weapon, nor throw grenades although you could use the whip laser. Shooting was laggy because of waiting for the hand animation to finish. Clearing bug slime wasn't a problem because that's what seemed to be happening constantly.
I tried all sorts of different things including changing the nunchuck and controller, restarting the game and fiddling with the in-game options. Finally i played in normal mode and it all went away.
If you fancy a challenge though, play in Easy mode. I got exactly half way through the first level before all my projectile weapons were rendered useless. The only bummer is that it takes ages to kill stuff with just the laser whip and enemies don't cause damage quick enough to make it feel any more threatening.
Wow! A WiiWare game that actually sounds really good! Which is why I agree totally with ALDAWGZ about the low score. In fact, when you consider that most of the 7/10 games are actually quite mediocre, I'd say that Lit ought to be a 9/10 game.
What lump it in with the rest of the crap? As a developer I'd find that quite discouraging.
I personally don't care whether this game comes out. I still rate it as vapour-ware at best.
Frankly I'm getting fed up of people using scores as test-beds as to how a game should be rated. I personally don't rate anything but a handful of games on WiiWare as being worthy of a score over 6/10 but that's my personal opinion. Certainly I don't think that games like Niki: Rock and Ball and Pop Them Drop Them deserve the score they got simply because I haven't gone back to them after the first 1/2 to 1 hours worth of play. So whilst IGN are renowned for their 'crappy reviews' I can't say that any of the reviews on this site provide any more of a quantifiable justification for choosing otherwise.
Honestly, WiiWare is simply too limited both in terms of physical size, through put, marketing support and (finally) in terms of the imagination that goes into most of the games on the service.
I abandoned the VC in favor of WiiWare because I got fed up of downloading sequels but quickly realised there's very little reason to purchase WiiWare either, and I just can't see that changing. Simply put: Nintendo's approach to DLC gaming sucks.
I also agree that HVS are overrated. Most of their WiiWare games are half-baked ideas with their 'ooh-pretty' (read vomit inducing) graphics engine wrapped around them. Put into perspective: They haven't proven a damned thing to warrant the sort of support many people are throwing at them and I'm glad to announce that The Conduit is going to be just another soulless FPS. Which should be fine by todays standards.
I've been getting less and less interested in Hudson's stuff since Bomberman Blast so this review doesn't surprise me. Hopefully they'll get back on track now they've released three crap titles in a row (Pop em Drop em, Pit Crew Panic and this)
@Wiiloveit: "8 is for the fact that it's a great game."
Yes Same Game is a good game. But -7 for lack of doing anything remotely interesting with it.
"and that presentation doesn't really compare to the actual game play"
Basically means that you're a sucker for paying someone for designing a crappy version of a game. Nice work - let's all encourage WiiWare developers to keep producing half-arsed ports of internet puzzle games. Adding visual effort to a game like Same Game is probably the lease time-consuming aspect, so it's obvious that Hudson had decided that this game was really just a quick cash-in effort if you look properly at it.
Maybe I ought to port my breakout clone with 5 levels to WiiWare and ask you to pay £5 for it and an extra £1 for each additional set of 10 levels on DLC.
I spent about 4 days developing the game - which looks to be about half the total time that was spent on this 'remake'. If forty people buy Pop'em, Hudson will have made their money back.
Ugh, I can't believe I talked myself into buying Pop them Drop them. What a waste of money - and it feels so boring! Basically It's Same Game but from Hudson and on WiiWare which is a perfect reason to buy it. Not.
The graphics are functional (but crap) and the music is the awful repetitive drivel I've started to recognise in Hudson's casual WiiWare titles. Come to think of it, I'm wondering if Hudson are on a idea recycling mission with this 'choose your pointless graphics/music/background' crap. After all, they've done it with Tetris Party, Cue Sports and now Pop'em. What's up Hudson? Can't you afford to pay programmers to make these games more interesting by changing the graphics and music every few levels?
I won't bash the game play because it's Same Game, which I've played and enjoyed on numerous occasions. Certainly the game controls well but how hard can moving a cursor over a grid with the d-pad be?
Sadly, for 500 points (or £3.50) this version offers very little to recommend it over the same games to be found on the internet (or even packed in with some PC Operating Systems) There's actually a more exciting version developed for the Homebrew Channel called Space Bubble. To give you an idea of how poorly I rate this game, I bought it at 9am and deleted it from my Wii at 9.25am. I didn't even copy it to SD in case I wanted to play it again simply because I know I won't. Even Niki: Rock 'n' Ball got better treatment than that (lasted a total of 1 hour)
Seriously, you can find better on the internet for free. Avoid this game like the plague. 1/10 (the 1 is for the fact that it's Same Game)
Who brought up the storage solution? I think the worst problem is that games can only have one save file. It makes putting the Homebrew Channel on the Wii so much more complicated that it would have been had Nintendo stuck to the old Gamecube save strategy.
As for Same Game: I have it on Linux already - it weighs in at roughly 5583 blocks if you download it with the Ubuntu installation CD ISO
@Kokstra, if it's a JPG image they probably will, as the compression doesn't cope very well when compressing two fine (i.e. 1 pixel) and very contrasting edges. That's why people are warned not to use JPEG files for pixel art. PNG is a much better choice as it's compression is not lossy (i.e. does not destroy visual information) but maintains good file sizes (particularly for pixel art)
Whilst I'd love to have online multiplayer for this game, I don't mind it not being there. Bring it on - one of the must have WiiWare games of this year!
What a crappy week. I was hoping for Snowboard Riot at least but .. y'know how Nintendo works. Or not. Probably not. I suppose we should be thankful we got 2 games though..
Comments 377
Re: Review: Space Invaders Get Even (WiiWare)
I've had this game since release but never bothered to play past the missions on the first download pack. I've now got all three download packs and can confirm that this game is one of the best games on the service. Certainly worth more than 8/10 imo - in fact it really should be up there with World of Goo, Final Fantasy and Toki Tori.
This game is well worth the £14/$20US asking price and well worth cleaning out the fridge for too.
Re: Does This Controller Make Me Look Fat?
I too am scared of Ronald. I also play video games but cycle to and from work twice a day, I also used to go to the gym four times a week but playing video games didn't put a stop to that.
In all honesty it' shouldn't be down to the government to tell people to get kids off their arses. It should be obvious to parent, teacher and the kids themselves that slovenly behavior is not good both in terms of mental and physical health. Everyone should be pro actively encouraging kids to go out - whether it's on a five mile walk, a field trip or even to McDonalds. Britain has lost its sense of family-based social interaction which encourages social and physical activity, whereas (from what I've seen from my trips to America) Americans have not. America suffers too much from excessive amounts of overly cheap food (particularly all-you-can-eat restaurants) and alcohol (the later of which Britain is also beginning to do)
Whilst I agree with gamers and devs being angry about what the government have done, if they're honest with themselves they're doing very little pro-actively to help the situation - WiiFit is barely worth mentioning and that's the best the industry has to offer so far. Damo / Corbie - you're right about fast food joints, but its also your decision to eat there. McDonalds et al are at least moving towards better standards and are trying to make you aware of the content of their meals.
In all cases, whether you're stuffing yourself with fat or letting your kids rot in front of a television, ignorance isn't bliss. It kills.
Re: Overkill Guns Down Chart Opposition
I purchased it the day it released in the UK. I agree with Sean about any real lack of decent humor, the over-zealous use of swearing in place of decent humor and the rather long cut-scenes. I also found the difficulty to be rather inconsistent in places and the graphics are no-where near as polished as some publications would have you believe.
Generally the presentation of the game goes some way to approaching Grindhouse but it's ruined by the juvenile plot and the aforementioned excessive use of swearing in favor of real humor which is a shame because I enjoy that style of film (don't tell the wife) I lent the game to a friend a few weeks back before I'd finished it and to be honest, I'm not bothered about getting it back. I still prefer Umbrella Chronicles and I hope Darkside Chronicles will be more of the same.
I'm more inclined to see Overkill's sales as a product of people latching onto the idea that the Wii has a 'mature' game that hasn't been out-and-out beaten by the media or some over-protective governing body as opposed to being a great example of the genre which it honestly isn't. Certainly it's above average but only just and falls well short of the expectations I had of the game.
Re: ColorZ - New WiiWare Puzzler
Notch one up for Sean Aaron. Sadly, colour blindness is a major problem for many puzzle-type games and too few devs take any sort of notice. Maybe exkee will include some colour-blindness features into their game.
Then again, the chances are just as likely as the idea of the devs behind Mozilla Firefox implementing the facility to automatically download British English dictionaries during the installation of their browser rather than rely on me being bothered to correct a major oversight at a later period in time. Hence, pretty slim.
Re: ColorZ - New WiiWare Puzzler
@anthonyb: I was going to point that out. But hey, I'm British and never complain about anything Besides 'les couleurs' sounds a little effeminate for the macho blood-thirsty type that is looking for a game like this to ... oh wait.
Maybe I'll check out the review for this one. Outside of that, I have no interest in something that sounds more complicated than necessary and is wrapped in the most unbelievably crap story to add some cuddliness to the perceived game play.
Quite frankly the description of this game makes me want to vomit in terror to an extent not seen since HVS decided on a colour (that'd be 'color' to avoid confusion for some French developers) palette for one of its games.
Best of luck to Exkee.
Re: Review: We Ski & Snowboard (Wii)
Maybe the third iteration will turn into something better - it lookslike they're building the game into something special, but unfortunately this release really does sound like less than a half-way house.
I never bought the original We Ski and I hate the controls and visual style of SSX Blur (SSX 3 is my all-time favourite iteration of the series, with Tricky coming a close second)
I was tempted to buy We Ski and Snowboard but if there's nothing more to do than move from point to point and the multi-player suffers, then I see little incentive. Like I said, maybe next time.
Re: WiiWare to Support Flash Soon
Outside of YouTube I hate Flash with a vengeance (unless I'm writing a Flash based website for someone of course) My web browser has Flash blocking enabled for all sites just so I don't have put put up with a computer than runs like a dog because someone can't write a decent plugin.
Yes, there are some really interesting Flash based ideas and even games out there but the power required to run them far exceeds a well written equivalent in native code. Considering the Wii isn't that much of a powerhouse I can't imagine anything that would equal what many WiiWare titles offers today.
The only reason I can see Nintendo's inclusion of Flash into the WiiWare SDK is as a way to 'fast-track developers. Assuming that is the case I can imagine a whole host of puzzle games and over-hyped platformers rushing the service - at which point I unplug my Wii from the Internet. Forever. Mwah hah hah! |D
Re: WiiWare to Support Flash Soon
Sound crap-tastic. I personally can't see why this would benefit WiiWare other than for lazy programmers who can't be bothered to learn something new. I guess development times may be shortened (hence more crap between good releases) and I'm sure Nintendo were thinking it'd be an ideal fit for the service, considering 1 out of every 9 WiiWare games is actually worth buying.
I suppose the one real benefit to consider would be the version of Flash supported: if it is version 9, we could see better Flash support coming to the Internet Channel (which would give me some sort of reason to use it) Then again, why would Nintendo want to cripple further game sales by allowing people to play the free browser based versions of stuff they're supposed to pay for?
Smells like BS to me. Good luck with that one Nintendo.
Re: EU WiiWare Update: Family Table Tennis and Jungle Speed
Two games I can't be bothered with. I bought the Soldier Blade VC title instead - well worth the points.
Re: USA WiiWare Update: Gradius Rebirth
Sorry you guys got such as sucky week on the VC. As for Gradius Rebirth: I'd rather buy it than R-Type Dimensions on XBLA where the '3D' mode just looks awkward and wrong in so many ways.
Re: New Golf Game Coming To Japanese WiiWare Next Week
@Wiiloveit: I agree - something that looks half as fun as a game that is zero fun is still a zero fun game. I stand by your opinion wholeheartedly
Re: New Golf Game Coming To Japanese WiiWare Next Week
No sale. Crazy golf mini-games are ten a penny nowadays. If only.
Plus Crazy Golf sucks unless your brain is stuck in the late Eighties. Hell, it wasn't that good back then.
Re: Cube: Gardens of Zen Coming To WiiWare
Meh. I saw a similar game ages ago. It was crap then - I don't see this being any different. No doubt someone will buy it.
Not me though.
Re: New Furry Legends Screenshots
@TwilightCrow: I'm happy you don't care how it looks. That means I can now go ahead and make almost carbon copy visuals of every game I love and wrap them around similar but inferior games.
I'm sure none of the companies who took the time and effort to create the original artwork will mind, after all they're nothing more than money-grabbing faceless organisations who should give people every right to steal or duplicate their work.
Rant over.
Re: New Furry Legends Screenshots
@chunky_droid: And by short, Objection_Blaster means "sh"
It does look all too frighteningly familiar. Hopefully they'll go back and redesign all the artwork to look half decent and less law-suit provoking.
I can understand tipping one's hat towards another company's genius but some of those screen are just too close for comfort.
I can only pray the game doesn't play like Lost Winds too. Not that Lost Winds played badly - it's just that I'm not looking forward to a sequel, nor a crappy knock-off either.
Re: Review: Family & Friends Party (WiiWare)
Looks like one of those games that you find in a pub, chuck a couple of quid into then wish you could smash the machine up to get it back.
Ahem ... in other words: I'll pass on this when (and if) it arrives on our shores.
On a more positive note. I have heard whispers of DLC coming to Onslaught - or possibly even a spin-off/sequel. Which is awesome news.
Re: Rainbow Islands Out in Japan Tomorrow
I'm probably the only one but I think the graphical update sucks. Plus the backgrounds are too busy. I preferred the less overwhelming approach of the original.
Oh well, it's not like I won't buy it (unless the game play sucks too) I love Bubble Bobble and Rainbow Islands
Re: EU WiiWare Update: Beer Pong and Snowboard Riot
@Raptop78: I agree about Snowboard Riot. After the initial reviews I was a bit put off but I downloaded it anyway.
I can sort of understand people complaining about the rubber-banding but if you've played Mario Kart Wii you'll be prepared for the sort of unfairness that can occasionally plague this game. I say occasionally because I only failed to come first on the first course once and came first in one go in the second course.
I'm sure that at any other time this would have been completely different but it's really not that tough.
I also agree about the lack of online players but I can also see game play being considerably more frustrating once some pillock learns how to abuse the system.
I've already seen it in Bomberman Blast where someone will add a couple of invited non-existing players to a game, kill themselves instantly and then use your unfortunate lack of maneuvering space to pretty much get an instant kill. If you kill his/her player they kill one of their 'invited' characters (in revenge form) and repeat.
Re: EU WiiWare Update: Beer Pong and Snowboard Riot
Woo hoo. Beer Pong!
Re: First Impressions: Mr. Driller World
Looks good. A definite buy for me if it arrives on our shores.
Re: First Screens of Adventure Island: The Beginning Revealed
This game sounds awesome. Hudson are definitely getting back in their stride what with Onslaught and now this. My appreciometer has shot back up to 10 for them.
The graphics on this game look pretty good to me. The first couple of screens did look a little out of focus but the later shots get better. I can imagine everything will look fine in the end.
I'm also quite looking forward to the mini games - particularly if there's online leader boards. The skateboard survival game looks like it could be pretty good fun if they get the balance board control right and axe attack will probably wile away a little of people's time too. In fact all the mini-games look like good solid entertainment.
All in all, I'm really looking forward to this game! And no Wiiloveit, nobody's tied the real Calculon up in the basement before you ask
Re: Review: Evasive Space (WiiWare)
I IZ THA MAZTA - THIZ SITE IZ AMAZIN'IN('IN) 'N STUF - I LUV U WIIWARE WORLD GUYZ ('SPECIALLY DAMO - HE'Z AMAZIN' - PUTZ FINGZ STRAIT 4 US)
Sorry. Had to do that Damo
Re: Review: Evasive Space (WiiWare)
Wow. Either the guy on the Joystiq review really sucks or pretty much every review is spot on with the IR control issues. Considering I'd go along with the knowledge that there is NO WAY IN HELL that IR would offer finer control than any other method for this type of game play I'm going along with Matt's review on this one.
Plus I totally agree with the random obstacle issue that IGN brought up - I saw that coming when I watched the first preview videos a while back. My initial reaction was WTF? when whoever was playing couldn't move for about 10 seconds because he/she couldn't get out of the way of laser fire fast enough. I'm sorry but crap game design like that is just frustrating. Then annoying. Then INFURIATING.
Good to know HVS still aren't pushing their half-arsed efforts over here though. I still reckon The Conduit will suck too but I'll buy it because I want to become a graphical whore
Re: Review: Onslaught (WiiWare)
I'd love to see this game reworked with zombies, flying demons and a few closer-to-home locales. How much of a shafting would that give Dead Rising? Oh man, I can just imagine putting that bug-spatter code to good use.
Re: Eternity's Child Nominated for GANG Award
In all honesty the original game wasn't as bad as certain websites made it out to be. I can understand why Luc is pissed off with Altern8 - after all his game has been waiting in limbo for six months for what are only a few minor adjustments.
On the other hand, if they're reworking the whole game from scratch then that's just a big (bleep) you to Luc, in which case I can understand his anger over that too.
Re: Eternity's Child Nominated for GANG Award
Danny Elfman has a lot to answer for, although these tracks (along with the similarly themed music of WoG) aren't quite there imho. The tracks on EC are nice, but a little too samey for my liking.
Still, I'm looking forward to the game coming to WiiWare all the same.
Re: Review: Onslaught (WiiWare)
Holy crap! I haven't played Call of Duty since Friday. Onslaught has take over as my current Wii FPS shooter of choice. The on-line co-op is limited (yet still enjoyable) but the single player is awesome.
Not that I'm doing too well at the moment: This game hands you your ass just when you think you've got it licked. I've completed the game on normal but I'll be damned if I can get past mission five on hard. I get right to the last minute and the all-out bug assault always seems to be just one or two bugs too many. Oh well at least there's the added bonus of getting a better score each time until I finally beat it.
Seems like every day I appreciate this game more and more and I now agree with WiiWare World's review score - it is a solid 9/10. Not since Mega Man 9 have I ever known a game that I was looking forward to, score higher than I anticipated.
I can only hope that Hudson start working on a sequel which I'll gladly hand over my cash or soul for
Re: Review: Onslaught (WiiWare)
Calculon really does want to comment on Luigi's statement but ... nah. What's been said has been corrected far more subtly that he would handle it. Demeanor switch flicked from uncontrolled ranting to 'Ha Ha!"
Re: Review: Onslaught (WiiWare)
@Comment 59:
Yes the co-op is Wifi.
No, you can't use Wii Speak nor is there a chat system.
You don't communicate with your friends because technically they're rivals trying to get a better score than you. If you want to cover someone's back then do so - just don't expect any sort of reward other than personal gratification.
Re: Review: Onslaught (WiiWare)
Great review for a great game. I didn't expect 9/10 but I'll take it!
Re: EU WiiWare Update: Onslaught and Pop-Up Pirate!
I'm actually really enjoying Onslaught. Just played a few online co-op matches and they were pretty challenging. I only ever came first once - some bugger was mad on the old rocket launcher.
I haven't played too much of the single player (only on level 5) as my wrist is killing after so much shooting.
I think I'm going to rate this game 8/10. Nice work Hudson! Definitely worth the £7 and I hope they do bring out a sequel or a multi-player vs game on the back of this.
Re: Evasive Space - Best Evasive Skills Competition
@Wiiloveit: Classic. Keep 'em coming.
Re: Evasive Space - Best Evasive Skills Competition
@Wiiloveit: Aww ... I love it when you talk all cute like that. Do it again
Re: EU WiiWare Update: Onslaught and Pop-Up Pirate!
@Nintendo-Naut:: There was never any official mention of Death Match or any sort of .vs mode so your rant is pointless. There is co-op online mode but seeing as the game's only been out for one day it's hard to establish if that's any good so you can't really knock that either.
As for my problem (Post 60) I'm beginning to think it may be the controller/nunchuck. I'm going to clean out the plug and maybe open the nunchuck up to see if there's any dust and crap in there that could be causing problems for the motion sensor. Of course, I could always just tap in against the floor but that's no fun.
Re: Evasive Space - Best Evasive Skills Competition
@citizen_zane: Neo forgot all about his childhood Matrix experiences. There is no ball.....
@AlexSays: Thanks. That makes you one on Calculon's Christmas list. And only one
Re: EU WiiWare Update: Onslaught and Pop-Up Pirate!
It's actually not too bad. I can see it getting boring very quickly in single player.
As a side note - has anyone else experienced this bug?
I started the game on Easy and my character just looked like he was dancing to the music. You couldn't reload your weapon, nor throw grenades although you could use the whip laser. Shooting was laggy because of waiting for the hand animation to finish. Clearing bug slime wasn't a problem because that's what seemed to be happening constantly.
I tried all sorts of different things including changing the nunchuck and controller, restarting the game and fiddling with the in-game options. Finally i played in normal mode and it all went away.
If you fancy a challenge though, play in Easy mode. I got exactly half way through the first level before all my projectile weapons were rendered useless. The only bummer is that it takes ages to kill stuff with just the laser whip and enemies don't cause damage quick enough to make it feel any more threatening.
Re: Evasive Space - Best Evasive Skills Competition
Will I win if I avoid sending in a picture?
Re: Evasive Space - Best Evasive Skills Competition
Hey, there's nothing to laugh about someone throwing a shoe. They seem to be the weapon of choice for modern day assassins.
There'll be no sole-less murders from now on.
Random Task.
Re: Review: LIT (WiiWare)
Having read the IGN review I'm more inclined to agree with 7/10. Good review then Scott!
Re: Review: LIT (WiiWare)
Sorry Scott! A warm welcome to WWW from the grumpiest reader/subscriber! Your review was excellent but the score, less so.
Re: Review: LIT (WiiWare)
Wow! A WiiWare game that actually sounds really good! Which is why I agree totally with ALDAWGZ about the low score. In fact, when you consider that most of the 7/10 games are actually quite mediocre, I'd say that Lit ought to be a 9/10 game.
What lump it in with the rest of the crap? As a developer I'd find that quite discouraging.
Re: Animales de la Muerte Officially NOT Coming To WiiWare
I personally don't care whether this game comes out. I still rate it as vapour-ware at best.
Frankly I'm getting fed up of people using scores as test-beds as to how a game should be rated. I personally don't rate anything but a handful of games on WiiWare as being worthy of a score over 6/10 but that's my personal opinion. Certainly I don't think that games like Niki: Rock and Ball and Pop Them Drop Them deserve the score they got simply because I haven't gone back to them after the first 1/2 to 1 hours worth of play. So whilst IGN are renowned for their 'crappy reviews' I can't say that any of the reviews on this site provide any more of a quantifiable justification for choosing otherwise.
Honestly, WiiWare is simply too limited both in terms of physical size, through put, marketing support and (finally) in terms of the imagination that goes into most of the games on the service.
I abandoned the VC in favor of WiiWare because I got fed up of downloading sequels but quickly realised there's very little reason to purchase WiiWare either, and I just can't see that changing. Simply put: Nintendo's approach to DLC gaming sucks.
I also agree that HVS are overrated. Most of their WiiWare games are half-baked ideas with their 'ooh-pretty' (read vomit inducing) graphics engine wrapped around them. Put into perspective: They haven't proven a damned thing to warrant the sort of support many people are throwing at them and I'm glad to announce that The Conduit is going to be just another soulless FPS. Which should be fine by todays standards.
Re: Review: Snowboard Riot (WiiWare)
I've been getting less and less interested in Hudson's stuff since Bomberman Blast so this review doesn't surprise me. Hopefully they'll get back on track now they've released three crap titles in a row (Pop em Drop em, Pit Crew Panic and this)
Re: Even More Onslaught Screens Break Cover
I'll pass.
Re: EU WiiWare Update: Pop Them Drop Them and Family Glide Hockey
@Wiiloveit: "8 is for the fact that it's a great game."
Yes Same Game is a good game. But -7 for lack of doing anything remotely interesting with it.
"and that presentation doesn't really compare to the actual game play"
Basically means that you're a sucker for paying someone for designing a crappy version of a game. Nice work - let's all encourage WiiWare developers to keep producing half-arsed ports of internet puzzle games. Adding visual effort to a game like Same Game is probably the lease time-consuming aspect, so it's obvious that Hudson had decided that this game was really just a quick cash-in effort if you look properly at it.
Maybe I ought to port my breakout clone with 5 levels to WiiWare and ask you to pay £5 for it and an extra £1 for each additional set of 10 levels on DLC.
I spent about 4 days developing the game - which looks to be about half the total time that was spent on this 'remake'. If forty people buy Pop'em, Hudson will have made their money back.
Re: EU WiiWare Update: Pop Them Drop Them and Family Glide Hockey
Ugh, I can't believe I talked myself into buying Pop them Drop them. What a waste of money - and it feels so boring! Basically It's Same Game but from Hudson and on WiiWare which is a perfect reason to buy it. Not.
The graphics are functional (but crap) and the music is the awful repetitive drivel I've started to recognise in Hudson's casual WiiWare titles. Come to think of it, I'm wondering if Hudson are on a idea recycling mission with this 'choose your pointless graphics/music/background' crap. After all, they've done it with Tetris Party, Cue Sports and now Pop'em. What's up Hudson? Can't you afford to pay programmers to make these games more interesting by changing the graphics and music every few levels?
I won't bash the game play because it's Same Game, which I've played and enjoyed on numerous occasions. Certainly the game controls well but how hard can moving a cursor over a grid with the d-pad be?
Sadly, for 500 points (or £3.50) this version offers very little to recommend it over the same games to be found on the internet (or even packed in with some PC Operating Systems) There's actually a more exciting version developed for the Homebrew Channel called Space Bubble. To give you an idea of how poorly I rate this game, I bought it at 9am and deleted it from my Wii at 9.25am. I didn't even copy it to SD in case I wanted to play it again simply because I know I won't. Even Niki: Rock 'n' Ball got better treatment than that (lasted a total of 1 hour)
Seriously, you can find better on the internet for free. Avoid this game like the plague.
1/10 (the 1 is for the fact that it's Same Game)
Re: EU WiiWare Update: Pop Them Drop Them and Family Glide Hockey
Who brought up the storage solution? I think the worst problem is that games can only have one save file. It makes putting the Homebrew Channel on the Wii so much more complicated that it would have been had Nintendo stuck to the old Gamecube save strategy.
As for Same Game: I have it on Linux already - it weighs in at roughly 5583 blocks if you download it with the Ubuntu installation CD ISO
Re: More Info and Screenshots for Bubble Bobble Wii
@Kokstra, if it's a JPG image they probably will, as the compression doesn't cope very well when compressing two fine (i.e. 1 pixel) and very contrasting edges. That's why people are warned not to use JPEG files for pixel art. PNG is a much better choice as it's compression is not lossy (i.e. does not destroy visual information) but maintains good file sizes (particularly for pixel art)
Re: More Info and Screenshots for Bubble Bobble Wii
Whilst I'd love to have online multiplayer for this game, I don't mind it not being there. Bring it on - one of the must have WiiWare games of this year!
Re: EU WiiWare Update: Pop Them Drop Them and Family Glide Hockey
What a crappy week. I was hoping for Snowboard Riot at least but .. y'know how Nintendo works. Or not. Probably not. I suppose we should be thankful we got 2 games though..
Anyway ... here's to another puzzler. Yay.