Sunday, April 27th, 2008

I picked up my copy of Mario Kart Wii Sunday afternoon, and even though I had very high expectations for this title, I was still not disappointed. Between the new additions to the series (bikes, steering wheel, online play, bigger jumps, tricks) and the refinement of the old standbys (old courses, characters and vehicles), this version has a lot of stuff that will make old fans of the series and newcomers alike very pleased with their purchase.

A lot of the classic tracks are included, from SNES all the way to the DS version of the game. Many are left in nearly the same condition that you recall from 10+ years ago, but others have received a slight facelift in their latest appearance on the Mario Kart series. The new courses are chock-full of jumps, tons of elevation changes, and a lot of great Mii integration (in one course I saw a poster with my Walter Sobcheck Mii, and that made my day). I’m sure a lot of ‘purists’ will bemoan the addition of jumps and mid-air tricks, but I think that it makes the franchise a lot more fun to play in a casual environment. My brother noted that it felt like ‘Mario Kart meets Tony Hawk’ on a few of the courses, but it’s really not that bad. Another thing I have noticed is that the switch from 8 to 12 racers has really made the action a lot more chaotic when you’re in the middle of the pack. On one hand, if you’re in 5th or so place, it makes it really tough to break out with all of the shells and such flying. But I’ve also found that the fray makes it a lot easier to make a quick jump from 10th to 2nd place in a matter of a half lap. If you can manage to avoid all of that action, you can make a move really fast.

I found it odd that the drift settings are set to automatic by default (the computer basically handles your drift, but you get no power-up this way), but my guess is that they are just trying to cater to newer users of the series and let them ease into that part of the game. I’ll say this though — not having to press left and right while drifting to get a boost is a great change. Makes it so much more natural.

One of the biggest additions is that of the motorcycles. These suckers can FLY, but are susceptible to getting bumped out of the way by the traditional carts. I’m still a cart fella for the main courses, but they’re tough to beat in time trials (since there are no others there to take advantage of the shaky nature of the bikes). The control in general takes a few races to get used to, but now that I’ve had a chance to play around with it some, I really do love playing with the ‘Wii Wheel’. I’d guess that control would be slightly more accurate with a GameCube or Classic controller, but the wheel just ‘feels right’. It makes the experience that much more fun, and having the jump/drift button on the back of the controller works great too. Overall, I’m quite pleased with the wheel, as I was afraid it might be a little gimmicky. But I’m pleased to say I was wrong!

The online experience is probably the best of any Wii game I’ve seen so far, but that’s not saying much. On the first run of the game, it asks you to update your Wii software, then allows you to install the Mario Kart channel if you so desire. This can always be done later from the settings menu, but it’s a nice touch to get it in there from the start. The Mario Kart channel is nearly identical whether you launch it from within the game, or if you launch the channel from the main Wii screen (this method doesn’t require a disc unless you’re going to play an actual race). From here, you can view top 10 rankings for each track, add/view friends, race against ‘ghosts’ (recorded versions of others in the same race that you are in), and enter tournaments. I played 10 or so races online, and there was no real lag to speak of, and the competition seemed fair. I won a few races and finished dead last in a few others. It was a lot fun, and I can’t wait to play against a few more of my friends who picked up the game today.

Overall, this game is as great as I anticipated it would be. If you’re a fan of the series at all, or just enjoy a fun, casual race game that has a lot of depth to it if you give it time, you’ll be nothing short of blown away by this entry to the Mario Kart series.

If you’re a Mario Kart Wii player and want to swap friend codes, here is mine: 2320 6527 8198.

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Posted on April 27th, 2008 | 4 Comments »

Saturday, April 5th, 2008

My latest Nintendo Wii Purchase has been MLB Power Pros, a baseball game that has incredible depth but you wouldn’t know if at first glance. I was a bit skeptical when I read reviews of this game, as the graphics are obviously quite simple. It looks like one of those games like “backyard football” where it’s totally geared towards children - sometimes featuring childhood versions of professional athletes.

MLB Power Pros is different, however. This game may look simple, but it is anything but. There is a wealth of information about each player already contained within the game, and the season mode immerses you in a sea of ridiculously thorough numerical data about every possible stat known to man. On top of that, the gameplay is quite easy to pick up, but leaves you a lot of room for improvement as you go on, and tons of control over pitching, batting, running and fielding. I really can’t state this enough - MLB Power Pros is one of those rare games that almost anyone could pick up and start playing instantly, but to fully ‘get’ the game they would have to play for hours or days.

The gameplay really is amazing. There are a variety of ways to play the game - you can use the Wii remote turned sideways, much like when you are playing virtual console games. You can also use the classic controller (this is what I do). Either way, you use the directional pad/joystick to aim where you want to place the ball after you have selected your pitch. A small baseball cursor appears where you are trying to pitch to, but the actual accuracy of the pitch depends on how talented your pitcher is, and how fatigued he is. Batting works similarly. You have an overlay of your batter’s ’sweet spot’, which varies from player to player. When you see the ball coming, you move your bat to the area you want to swing, and press B. If you managed to place the sweet spot in the correct location, you probably will make contact and get a hit. Based on your timing, you can hit the ball to any field you want, and based on the angle you swing, you can hit a fly ball or a grounder, etc.

It’s really very easy to get in there and start playing. There are more advanced controls you can get into (power swings, baserunning controls, etc) but the basic premise is really easy to learn and that makes the game a winner. As I mentioned before, the stats are incredibly deep. Pitch counts, pitch type counts, ball locations, batting stats and so much more are tallied by the game. You can bore yourself to death with this stuff, but I actually did use it to my advantage on a number of occasions when I realized a) I swung at every pitch the computer threw and never took a pitch and b) my pitching was quite predictable. I corrected both of these things and now I’m doing much better in my season as the Braves.

While the season mode is played with traditional controls, there are modes that you can utilize the Wii remote as well. There is a home run derby and an exhibition game that you can play in either one or two player mode, which allows you to swing the remote to pitch, run, hit, and field. You can also select Mii characters to play on your team and to play against you. Pitching and batting work just like Wii Sports Baseball. To run the bases or to run to the ball faster, you simply shake your remote. Kind of basic, but it doesn’t get too annoying.

Despite my gushing about the game, there are some things that are less than perfect. The announcer is usually dead on, sometimes gets too excited about ‘it’s a hit’ when it’s a hit … but it’s also an out. He also struggles with basic grammatical rules. This game is a port of a highly successful Japanese game by the same name, so that can explain some of the oddities in this area, but they are easily overlooked. Also, the rosters and schedule a year old. So if you’re the type who is super anal about these types of things, prepare to either play with last year’s team, or do a lot of editing of rosters.

Overall, this is probably the most entertaining sports game I’ve played in some time. This is definitely the best sports game I have played on the Wii, and I think that will probably hold true until I play NCAA Football this year, or whenever they come out with Mario Tennis.

Anyway, it’s only 30 bucks on Amazon so if you’re a baseball fan, a Wii owner, or a statistics nut, you will most likely love this game.

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Posted on April 5th, 2008 | 3 Comments »

Tuesday, December 18th, 2007

It’s Going To Be a Wii Christmas

Wii demand continues to soar. Good thing I have an awesome girlfriend.

Posted on December 18th, 2007 | No Comments »

Tuesday, December 18th, 2007

My, what a difference a year can make. This time last year was filled with drama, apartment searches, and so much more. Funny how much can change in such a relatively short time. Despite my old age, I had a great couple of days celebrating and spending time with my family and friends. Thursday I went to P.F. Chang’s with Michelle & my family, then went home and played my brand new Wii, compliments of my special lady. Everyone got a chance to give it a go, and it’s honestly even more fun than I thought it’d be. Mario Galaxy is a very addictive game, and all of the Wii Sports games are as fun as I recall. I also got Wii Play, which had a few interesting mini games, but didn’t spend a lot of time on it yet.

I’m so hooked on this thing already that I sold my xbox 360 and games on eBay and bought a few other new Wii games. This could get expensive, fast!

Incidentally, if you have a Wii friend code, post it here or shoot me an email so I can add you. Mine is 3001 5072 0611 8964.

Friday I went to Atkins Park over in Smyrna with the usual suspects. We even got to see Matt, which is a rare thing these days. All in all, good times were had by all, and I’m already excited about New Years’ Eve, and what should be a much more entertaining couple of nights.

Posted on December 18th, 2007 | No Comments »

Monday, February 5th, 2007

My Xbox 360 stopped working this weekend!

While in the middle of a game of Oblivion, the console froze. I’ve experienced, at most, a half dozen or so of these events since I purchased the 360 last spring. I wrote off to just one of those freak things, and rebooted. To be safe, I even cleaned the disc before restarting. The next startup only lasted a few short seconds before locking up on the Xbox 360 logo. I figured maybe the disc was bad, so I threw in another disc. Same result, but this time I even got a flashing red ring around the power button (this ring is usually green). Red is generally worse than green, so I jumped online to see what the problem was. Overheating? Bad power source? These are issues I had heard of before.

In typical Microsoft fashion, I was presented with a very descriptive summary of what I was experiencing:

CAUSE

This behavior occurs when the Xbox 360 console experiences a hardware failure.

No shit?

I’ll be calling and hopefully getting this all sorted out this week. From what I have read, the 1 year warranty covers this type of thing. If I am to pay even a dime for repairs on this thing, I will simply sell the games I own and buy a Wii. Write it down.

Posted on February 5th, 2007 | 3 Comments »