Wii Fit - Excercise… Fun… ?!?
July 11, 2007 | 5 Comments
Wii Sports meets Brain Age with a spin towards fitness. A few years ago, could anyone have predicted this would be Nintendo’s big announcement for E3 2007? OK, if yes, would you have predicted people would be excited about it, and that it looks like it will be an instant success? Yeah, me either.
Frankly, this looks fun. The fact that it will help keep me (and my family) fit is an unbelievably huge bonus for me. Truthfully, that could be enough to keep me playing a game for more than a couple weeks. I could actually see this extending into my normal daily life for a significant period of time.
From the Nintendo press release:
The active-play phenomenon started by Wii Sports now spreads to your whole body thanks to the pressure-sensitive Wii Balance Board (name not final), which comes packed with Wii Fit. The board is used for an extensive array of fun and dynamic activities, including aerobics, yoga, muscle stretches and games. Many of these activities focus towards providing a “core” workout, a popular exercise method that emphasizes slower, controlled motions. Family members will have fun staying active and talking about and comparing their results and progress on a new channel on the Wii Menu.
Tags: brain age, fitness, Nintendo, video games, wii, wii fit, wii sports
Wii Launch Games
October 15, 2006 | 4 Comments
As the Nintendo Wii launch date looms (34 days as of this post), I’m starting to think about what exactly I’ll want for games. With this in mind, I updated my Wii launch page with all the games GameStop is listing as available at launch, as well as everything else they have through the end of March.
If I can manage to get a Wii at launch, I intend on buying an additional controller and 2 or 3 games. With Wii Sports coming packaged with the system, that’ll flesh out my initial game list to 3 or 4 games. Due to my comic book obsession, I have to buy Marvel Ultimate Alliance. This leaves me with a serious debate for the remaining games to buy, especially considering there are 25 others to choose from.
First off, I’m going to eliminate any other sports title initially since I’ll have Wii Sports. This eliminates NBA Live ‘07, Tiger Woods PGA Tour ‘07, or Madden ‘07. If either of these is internet playable, I may reconsider post launch, especially if Bramer get Madden…
I can also eliminate all the games that are kids only. This means no to Avatar: The Last Airbender, Cars, Spongebob SquarePants, Grim Adventures of Billy & Mandy, Happy Feet, and Open Season.
Until reviews for one of these comes in exceptional, I’ll probably avoid the first person shooters and similar types: Far Cry: Vengeance, Call of Duty 3, Red Steel, or Splinter Cell: Double Agent. I would eventually like at least one FPS in my collection because I think the controller could really do wonders with this genre.
There are a bunch of titles that aren’t easily cataloged some of which are quite intriguing. Rayman: Raving Rabbids and Super Monkey Ball: Banana Blitz are strong contenders for my money. I’d like one or the other and potentially both. Tony Hawk’s Downhill Jam could be fantastic and I’d love to have this game if it is good. It is a change for this series, but it seems to be coming together as a nice cross between the other Tony Hawk games and SSX.
I don’t think Metal Slug Anthology, Trauma Center: Second Opinion, Blazing Angels, or Rampage: Total Destruction will make it on my list unless one of them truly stands out as a must buy after launch.
I would like some sort of racing title, but I’m not sure which of these will stand out: GT Pro Series, Monster Truck, Need for Speed: Carbon, or Excite Truck.
Finally, there is The Legend of Zelda: Twilight Princess. For all intents and purposes this is the game to buy if you are getting a Wii. I’m certainly looking forward to a long quest through Hyrule. It will not be easy to make a final decision on what I get, but however it turns out, this will be one of the greatest game system launches of all time!
Tags: Call of Duty 3, Disney/Pixar’s Cars, ExciteTruck, Grim Adventures of Billy & Mandy, GT pro series, happy feet, Madden NFL 07, marvel ultimate alliance, Metal Slug Anthology, Monster Truck, NBA Live 07, Nintendo, Open Season, red steel, Tiger Woods PGA Tour 07, Tony Hawk’s Downhill Jam, wii, wii launch, wii sports
Wii Launch Details
September 14, 2006 | 3 Comments
The Nintendo Wii is coming to the US on November 19 the price will be $250. This is higher than anticipated, but it will be sold packaged with Wii Sports. Wii Sports is a compilation of sports games including: tennis, baseball, golf, and (previously unannounced) bowling and boxing. Also included with the console will be one Wii remote and nunchuck attachment. A surprise feature is that Opera will be included by default.
The Virtual Console will launch with 30 titles. These games will cost $5, $8, and $10 for NES, SNES, and N64 respectively.
They also confirmed that first party games will be at the conventional $50 per game. Third party developers may set higher prices. Controllers will be a bit steep though. The Wii remote will be about $40, the nunchuck about $20, and the classic controller about $20.
Nintendo plans to ship 4 million units by the end of the year. Now waiting for a game list and November 19th!!!
Tags: games, n64, nes, Nintendo, opera, snes, videogames, virtual console, wii, wii launch, wii price, wii sports
Super Smash Brothers Brawl
May 11, 2006 | 1,616 Comments
Getting the bad news out of the way, the next generation Smash Brothers game will not be available until 2007. (On a lighter note related to this, both Zelda and Metroid are intended to be launch games)
Moving on, it will be called Super Smash Brothers Brawl and it looks phenomenal. A few new characters are being added including Pit from Kid Icarus, Solid Snake from Metal Gear Solid, Wario, and some others.
As expected, it will be fully online playable, with many robust multiplayer options. Other than wanting the new Nintendo Wii based upon the excitement of new control opportunities, this is the first game that has me fully transfixed. I will own a Wii if for nothing else, the existence of this game.
OK, so Zelda, Wii Sports, Metroid 3, Sonic Wild Fire, Madden 07, Excite Truck, Super Mario Galaxy, Red Steel, Tony Hawk, and others have certainly got me pretty much transfixed…
Go watch the trailer, but look at screenshots while you wait.
Tags: control, excite truck, games, kid icarus, mario, metroid, Nintendo, nintendo wii, red steel, smash brothers, sonic, sonic wild fire, super mario galaxy, super smash bros, super smash brothers, super smash brothers brawl, tony hawk, video game, video games, wario, wii, wii sports, zelda