Publisher: Bplus

Genre: Action

Wii Points: 500

Rating: Fair

Don’t let the easy first few stages fool you.  This is another surprisingly difficult WiiWare title that requires tons of patience to get through.  Niki - Rock ‘n’ Ball is Bplus’s second attempt at a WiiWare title, and although their effort here doesn’t fall totally flat, there are some shortcomings.

The title of Niki - Rock ‘n’ Ball says it all, you play the role of a ball rolling around as you rock the Wii remote back and forth.  To defeat an enemy, one simply has to roll Niki over them.  Some enemies have spikes protecting their body, so Niki turns into a rock ball with the push of a button, enabling him to defeat those enemies with special protection.  Along the way, six pearls have to be collected in each stage, even if all the enemies are defeated, in order to move to the next level.  Niki can also jump and bounce off walls.

The motion controls take some getting used to.  One has to hold the Wii remote upright, with the sensor pointing towards the sky.  From there, the Wii remote has to be tilted left and right, resembling the motion of windshield wipers.  This was the first control option I played with, and although it was difficult and I didn’t get very far, I didn’t necessarily think this was a bad control scheme.  It had a learning curve for sure and it makes every stage twice as hard, but I still honestly had fun with this control scheme. The retro “NES” style controls made the game much easier.  That’s not to say it was too easy, as the later levels become difficult no matter what control scheme you’re using, but I definitely got much farther.  Jumping off the walls to get to a certain point can be tricky, and the timing gets easier with a d-pad.

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Publisher: AKSYS Games

Genre: Action

Wii Points: 600

Rating: Recommended

With it’s simple structure, it was hard for me to imagine anyone taking the concept of Pong and turning it into a decent modern video game that can hold its own, but AKSYS Games has done just that with Bit Trip Beat.  There is not much to find wrong with this game, other than maybe it’s slightly too difficult.  You’ll be frantically trying to move the paddle so quickly to stop the “beats” from getting past you, the fact this game is based on such an old concept will soon be forgotten by those who have never cared about Pong.  Yet at the same time, older gamers who did love that game, definitely have to try this.

First of all, the visuals are perfect for what they were going for.  There is a cool outer space feel to the whole game, which fits in well with the soundtrack.  Everything looks like Pong, but a hundred times more colorful!  Everything does look bright and crisp.  Normally the visuals don’t have much importance to me when playing a video game, but they really help here.  Bit Trip Beat has a “modern 8 bit” feel, if that makes sense.

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Publisher: Hudson

Genre: Sports

Wii Points: 500

Rating: Fair

Here is another game that could have fared a lot better if Nintendo games had a more interactive online mode.  There is nothing here that is too wrong.  It’s just that if you weren’t a fan of pool before this game, there is no reason to believe you’ll enjoy this.

The graphics are fine for a WiiWare title.  Sure they could have been more exciting, but let’s face it, this is pool.  The controls were satisfactory.  As with a lot of Wii games, I found myself cursing at the Wiimote once in a while wondering why some shots that I thought would turn out better ended up going nowhere.  But overall, the Wiimote gets the job done here.  The sound effects seem okay.  The music could have been a lot more exciting and varied, but it’s really no big deal.

What is hurting this title and all Nintendo games is that you can’t communicate with people online yet again.  Cue Sports is begging for some sort of lobby system where you can text each other before and after a match!  If it had that feature, I might have fully recommended the title.  But if you play a random match online as it is, you can’t even see the name of your opponent while you are playing!  There is just something wrong with these asinine restrictions Nintendo puts on the Wii’s online games.  Pool is not that exciting to play in a video game format, but if you could interact with people while doing it, the value would be ten times higher.

When all is said and done, this is an average game.  There is nothing grossly wrong about anything.  There are enough features and game modes to keep people who can’t get enough of sticks and a green table happy.  But if this wasn’t your type of thing in the first place, it won’t be here.

Another year has come and gone and now its our favorite time of the year: top 10 lists!

As nintendo added to their online shopping experience with WiiWare, new Wii games availible for download in exchange for the same points used for Virual Console Games and Wii Channels, there have been many not so great games and amazing titles that make it difficult to believe that the game you are playing was a download. Behold the top 10 of 2008.

10.  Final Fantasy Crystal Chronicles: My Life as a King

Genre: RPG     

1500 points

Square Enix

Square Enix just never seems to fail. Final Fantasy Crystal Chroicals : My Life as a King (yes, that is a mouthful) provides us with the other side of the Crystal Chronicals series, the life back at home  and as king of course! Beautiful graphics, addicting though sometimes repetitive gameplay and a content that will keep you coming back for a while earns this game a spot on the list.

9. Strong Bad’s Cool Game for Attractive People — Episode 4: Dangeresque 3

Genre: Action 

1000 points

Telltale Games

This game is highly entertaining and funny, if thats not enough for you to download this game then let me add that it looks great and theres more in the series to choose from. These montly installments on the Strong Bad series do many things right but the most important is that the keep getting better!

8. Art Style : Rotohex

Genre: Puzzle

600 points

Nintendo

Wiiware provides a big number of puzzlers to choose from, and not all are worth using your points for but this GBA to Wii game is. Its straight from nintendo so you can expect high quality work! The goal is simple,just rotate your triangles to form a hexagon of the same color, unlock modes and progress on the solo mode

7. Strong Bad’s Cool Game for Attractive People — Episode 5: 8-Bit Is Enough

Genre: Action 

1000 points

Telltale Games

The fifth installment in the Strong Bad series and like i said, they get better!

6. Toki Tori

Genre: Adventure 

1000 points

Two Tribes

This Game Boy Color game has found new life and glory on the Wii. Classic puzzling platform play is implemented well on wii controls, the music if fun, the visuals bright and the game entertaining.  Dont miss out on this game.

5. Art Style : Orbient

Genre: Action

600 points

Nintendo

Another one of Nintendo’s ports from the GBA succeeds on the wii. The simple attract/repel (only two buttons used!)  gameplay is mesmorizing and will keep you playing for hours.

4. Lost Winds

Genre: Adventure 

1000 points

Frontier Developments

An amazing WiiWare Launch Game! The game is obviously about wind which you control with your wii remote. Helping Toku save the day is worth more than the points the game costs.

3. Tetris Party

Genre: Puzzle  

1200 points

Tetris Online inc./Hudson Soft.

Tetris will probably never get old. You just cant go wrong with going old-school and dowloading this title for your Wii. Classic Tetris gameplay is always fun and new game modes keep things fresh. Great package overall and very reccomended

2. Megaman 9

Genre: Action 

1000 points

Capcom

Old designs seem to fill up this top 10 list and Megaman 9 is no different. Classic Megaman gameplay does the job well. Challenging levels will keep you coming back as you try and better your scores and if that isnt enough for you downloadable content will extend your play on the game.

1. World of Goo

Genre: Puzzle 

1500 points

2D Boy

Wow… That pretty much sums up this game. You just cannot top this. Use goo balls to build structures play with psysics and lead other balls to the exit. The concept of the game is very simple but the way it is executed is just amazing. It is definately hard to believe that this is a wiiware game, lets cross our fingers and hope that many out there learn from this and provide us with games that not only match this quality game but also exceed it.

Publisher: Shin’en Multimedia

Genre: Sports

Wii Points: 900

Rating : Not Recomended

Play minigolf with your friends in beautiful environments. Choose a character and turn your Wii Remote controller into a golf club. With its easy-to-use controls, all you need to do is aim, swing, and see who’s the best putter. Play 27 holes spread across America, Asia, and Europe. Enjoy exotic locations all over the world. Go for gold in single-player mode, or invite your friends. Fun! Fun! Minigolf supports up to four players. You can use one to four Wii Remote controllers. Fun! Fun! Minigolf is the ultimate party game for everyone.

Ok i bought the Nintendo wii for three main reasons

1. My family to spend more quality time together.

2. I love Boxing Games.

3. I thought the golf games would help me improve my slice ( and it has! ).

when I saw Fun! Fun! Mini Golf had came out I got excited! so excited I  ran out to wal-mart  the day after Christmas ( which was a big no no )  Just to get a wii points card.   After dealing with the mad shopping crowd.  I downloaded the game and went  looking for the option to set my golfer to left handed, but there isn’t any options.  So sorry lefties Fun! Fun! Mini Golf is for right handed players only!

But I thought “what the heck, I can putt right handed” .  So me and my wife started up a two player game and whent at it.  I must say the controls suck, they suck so bad my wife found her self playing better swinging the wiimote like a ping pong paddle.  Another issue is that if you dont get the ball with-in a certain distance from the hole, they consider it “Out of bounds” and starts you back at the tee, which gets very annoying.   I whent ahead and gave my kids a chance at the game figuring “well the kids will like it they like every game” WRONG! Let me tell you my kids will play any game they can get their hands on, and play it till I force them to shut it off.  Not with Fun! Fun! Mini Golf after about three minutes they put the wiimotes down and actuly walked away.  Man that is the first time I have ever seen them do that! This is one game I wish I could get my 900 wii points back from.  I will say one positive thing to the creators of  Fun! Fun! Mini Golf  “Thank you for getting my kids off the wii, so i can play a real Fun! Fun! golf game” .

Publisher: Reflexive Entertainment

Genre: Puzzle

Wii Points: 700

Rating : Recommended

Embark on a tropical adventure with the explosively charged Big Kahuna Party! Looking to make the ultimate party game, we started with a concept that’s accessible to the whole family—the popular match-three game. On top of that, we crafted a unique multiplayer experience in which you can choose to work together to complete the challenging levels before the timer runs out or go head-to-head and compete in a frenzy of fun. To top it off, we added 99 uniquely free-flowing levels, the challenging Tiki Pole, 20 hidden tropical sea creatures to unlock, the strategic Fish Net, and last but not least, BOMBS! The result is a family party game like no other. Easy to pick up but impossible to put down. Play alone or with friends, and unleash the Tiki spirit within!

This game is really fun! me and my family have been playing this for the last two nights none stop I do highly recommend this game, especially if your into puzzles.

Publisher: Square Enix

Genre: Shooter

Wii Points: 500

Rating: Recommended

Everyone remembers Space Invaders.  Ever since it’s release in 1978, Space Invaders has been successful in every way it possibly could be, from causing coin shortages in Japan to becoming the first thing that came to the average person’s mind when they thought of video games.  Even in the more recent 1990s era arcade glory days of Street Fighter and Mortal Kombat, more often than not there was probably a Space Invaders machine in there as well.  Well now instead of fighting the space invaders, you are them in Space Invaders Get Even.

The storyline of the game is simple enough.  Invade the humans and their land.  When the game starts, it explains the background story of how one ship was able to defeat all those aliens by itself, which I thought was a nice way to connect the old game to this one.  It’s not that the story is all that deep, but the way the game presents it in the introduction really makes it sound serious.  The introduction makes you feel like you really were a hero when you put in that quarter to play Space Invaders back in the day.

The controls aren’t too hard to figure out.  You lead your band of space invaders by using the analog stick on the nunchuck.  To aim where you want to attack, just point the Wiimote to what you want to destroy or kill.  Button A is used for all the different types of attacks.  The most basic one is where the aliens are thrown Read the rest of this entry »

Publisher: Big Blue Bubble

Genre: Sports

Wii Points: 500

Rating: Not Recommended

This might be one of the worst games ever made.  Big Blue Bubble may have started out not horribly with their simulation release of Home Sweet Home, but they have clearly hurt their name by releasing the extremely shallow Hockey Allstar Shootout.  This is really the type of game that hurts not only those who made it, but the Wii brand itself, further divulging the Wii into the stereotype that nothing but shovelware comes out for this console.

There are three modes to choose from, Head to Head, Sharp Shooter, and Power Shot.  Head to Head is basically you against the goalie.  To shoot the puck, you hold the trigger on the Wiimote and swing your arm.  This might be amusing the first 2 or 3 times you try it.  But after a while, one starts to wonder why there isn’t more to this game.  I mean, that’s it.  There are five shots before the round is over and the mode starts from the beginning.

Okay now let’s move on to Sharp Shooter.  There are bulls eye targets on the corners of the net and the goal is to hit each of them.  Again, this might be fun the first time you try it.  But the controls here are so inconsistent that it becomes nearly impossible to figure out how to really have a chance at the target being aimed at.  I must have aimed high above the net a million times only to see the puck scampering along the floor leaving me in puzzlement as to why the result ended up like that.  Even if I had figured out the controls though, there is just no depth to doing this.  This seems like something that should be a bonus mode in a full fledged hockey game, but it shouldn’t be a mode that one pays money to play.

Finally, there is the Power Shot mode.  In here, one has to Read the rest of this entry »

Publisher: Tetris Online, Inc

Genre: Puzzle

Wii Points: 1000

Rating: Recommended

Another puzzle game has been released on WiiWare?! There are a couple of sure things in life. The sun will come out at some point. The sky will always be blue. Puzzle games will be consistently released on WiiWare. WiiWare is home to tons of cheap, cash-in, puzzle games that will never be remembered (with the exception of World of Goo). There is one puzzle game though that seems to stand the test of time, no matter where or when it is released. Yes, I’m talking about Tetris. In this version of the legend of all puzzle games, there are plenty of single and offline multiplayer options to go around. The graphics are bright and fit the game. The familiar music everyone loves from the original Tetris is still there, but there are lots of other tunes as well. The only real letdown here was… Read the rest of this entry »

There is a beautiful looking new WiiWare platformer coming soon from the unknown developer Over the Top Games.  It sure looks like Kid Icarus to me…

From the official website…

“Fly with Nyx in her dangerous search for her dearest friend Icarus. With ICARIAN: KINDRED SPIRITS™ you will discover a new type of game play and mechanics that will surprise you…

The action takes place in ancient Greece, a place inhabited by all kind of fantastic creatures, where the fate of humans is in the hands of capricious Gods.