Wiikly Wii Releases - 5/18-5/24: Wii Fit Edition

Welcome to the this week’s edition of the Wiikly Wii Releases! Here we’ll pick out a small selection of the upcoming week’s Wii titles and give you some information to help you pick the game that’s right for you. When applicable, we’ll choose one game to be the “MyWiiNews Pick of the Week,” a game that stands out among all the others as the title that takes the crown for that week. Without further ado, let’s look at what’s coming out this week

Wii Fit

Nintendo – May 21

With the release of such an important title as Wii Fit, it makes perfect sense that every other publisher decided to back off this week. Sure, there’s slim pickin’s out there for new titles, but that doesn’t mean that we’re going to gloss over this important title and not give it our fabled My Wii News Pick of the Week.

What’s to say about Wii Fit that hasn’t already been said? Nintendo continues to set its sights on the casual market through its latest peripheral bundle, Wii Fit, which comes with a huge hunking Wii Balance board to help you keep track of your body’s progress on its way to fitness. Sure, it can be seen as interactive edutainment, or worse, another low-substance minigame title, but let’s not lose focus of Nintendo’s dream: to completely integrate the Wii’s into every aspect of a gamer’s life, from the core to the casual. Here Nintendo opts to shift the focus from the social, interactive element of the Wii (found in most games, especially minigame fests like Wii Play) to the personal and individual experience of working out and getting yourself into shape.

Wii Fit is more than just an interactive board to stand on. It’s a peripheral that both calls out to legions of gamers looking to get into shape and integrate videogames into all aspects of their lives. While Wii Fit in itself isn’t enough to get you into shape, it does help people see their progress towards their goal and adds a bit of incentive along the way. I’m hoping to hear about some inspirational tales of people really helping themselves due to Wii Fit, yet I’m also skeptical about the finicky general public sticking with a strict gaming regimen. Any way you look at it, Wii Fit is certainly an original and worthwhile title, and one that helps to distinguish the Wii from its current-generation competition.

Wiikly WiiWare Releases For 5-19-08

Critter Round-Up (Konami, 1-4 players, Rated E for Everyone - Comic Mischief, 1,000 Wii Points): The critters have escaped, and the barnyard is in chaos! It’s up to you to quickly corral the animals in this puzzle-action challenge. You’ll have to mend fences in a hurry to keep all the critters safe and satisfied. But the fun doesn’t stop with the farmland; more than 50 challenging levels take you to several exotic locations, including the outback, the icy Arctic and more. There’s even a series of minigames for when the critters get you down: Snowball Soccer, Predator Rampage, Chicken Catch and Fence Trap. Up to four players can compete or cooperate as the critters run wild. So roll up those sleeves and grab a friend-those critters won’t catch themselves.

Star Soldier R (Hudson Entertainment, 1 player, Rated E for Everyone - Fantasy Violence, 800 Wii Points): Star Soldier R is a new kind of shooter where players aim for the best scores within a two- or five-minute time limit. Develop various scoring strategies, and pump out those points within the breakneck time frame. Assembled in record time to counter the advance of a powerful enemy, the mysterious Brain Forces, the “Caesar” starfighter takes off to fight for the very future of mankind. Shoot down countless enemies, upgrade your ship to the max with power-ups hidden throughout the levels and wage an all-out assault against the core of the enemy fortress. Combining the excitement of shoot-’em-ups with in-depth scoring strategies, this state-of-the-art competitive shooter will keep you coming back for more. Upload your best scores with Nintendo® Wi-Fi Connection, and pit your skills against the world’s best fighter pilots from the comfort of your living room. Hone your skills and show the world who’s boss.

Will Nintendo finally announce a HDD at this years E3?

For two years now, loyal Nintendo fans have been begging and pleading their beloved company for a hard drive and while their has been many rumors and a great deal of speculation we are still stuck here without one. Some gamers may disagree, but the mass majority of hardcore gamers all shout, “we need a hard drive!”

With game saves, virtual console, and now Wii-Ware, the 512mb of internal flash memory that Nintendo has provided us is quickly filling up. While we struggle with these problems, Nintendo repeatedly denies the fact that the Wii needs a hard drive. Here’s a quote from the NOA PR manager, Eric Walter.
“The way we look at it is, we don’t really want people storing every single game they buy on their drive…”

I really have no idea what that’s suppose to mean but it sure isn’t good. Hopefully what he is really saying is, “I’m making up something so that we can introduce the HDD at this years E3.”

While there have been awful comments by official Nintendo spokesman like the one above, there also have been pretty good ones to. A while back, Reggie Fils-Aime said that there is definitely a market out there that would like a HDD and it’s something that we always look into.
Also, here is a recent quote from Nintendo President, Satoru Iwata, addressing the Wii memory shortage problem.
“Statistically speaking, it is true that there are a small number of customers who feel that the flash memory is too small, while many others find that they have plenty of memory. However, because this small number of people are none other than the most avid players, we know we have to review the best possible solution to eliminate their inconvenience.”

Comments like these are very good, Nintendo is telling us that they know about the problem and they are doing what they can to fix it Maybe they’re brainstorming whether SD cards would work better or an HDD? But if using a SD card is the route that Nintendo takes then I think it is taking a step backwards. Both the 360 and PS3 uses HDD’s and they are very convenient. SD cards are basically the same thing as using a memory card. Although there are more possibilities when using a SD card over a memory card, they both have the sam annoyings setbacks. Thanks to their much smaller capacity, you’ll constantly be swapping SD cards while a much larger HDD would do the job all by itsef.

So basically, a hard drive would be the best and most convenient solution. It would even make Nintendo more money because everybody is buying other companies SD cards and not Nintendo’s because theirs is overpriced. It has been a while since the Wii has launched, and with all the speculation, rumors, and official comments, it looks like this years E3 could be the best time for Nintendo to announce a HDD. Nintendo has been talking about all of its issues for a while, they’ve said there going to look into but so far we’ve got nothing. Like voice chat for example, Reggie said that he, “would not be surprised if voice chat somehow made its way onto the Wii.” But still we see no Voice Chat.

Two things could happen at this years E3. One, Nintendo could totally ignore all of its problems, announce a few software titles, talk about how good the Wii is selling and their press conference would suck. On the other hand, they could announce a HDD, voice chat, show how they are going to improve the online interface, and announce some amazing software titles and they would have the best press conference out of the three big companies.

Nintendo has definitely pushed our patience to the limit and now I think they will finally address the issues. They will announce a HDD at this years E3 and if not they will address the memory problem with some sort of solution. I think they will also bring announce a Voice Chat feature, and make a few improvments to the online interface. If Nintendo does this right, this could be their big year at E3.

However, it looks like were just going to have to wait until July 15. My Wii News is gonna give you some E3 coverage so stay tuned. Leave a comment below saying what you think Nintendo will announce at E3 or take it to the forums; and keep checking back to My Wii News for more Wii and E3 info!

Virtual Console Games For 5-19-08

SKYKIDâ„¢ (NES®, 1-2 players, Rated E for Everyone - Mild Cartoon Violence, 500 Wii Points): Red Baron, from the freedom- and peace-loving nation of birds, Bird Land, faces off in the skies with his rival Blue Max in this side-scrolling shooting game. Defeat the many enemies that await you as you complete your mission, using moves like the loop-the-loop to shoot down enemies from behind. Fly low to pick up bombs placed in the stage and drop them on command posts, warships or other designated targets to destroy them. Then land safely at base to proceed to the next mission. Beware of enemy fire, though-it will cause you to crash, unless you’re able to recover by rapidly pressing the buttons. You can even play with a second person and fly simultaneously, sometimes helping each other and other times competing against each other. Prepare yourself and take to the skies, but make sure that the catchy background music (which became an instant classic when this game was originally released) doesn’t distract you from your goal.

Hot-lookin’ Wii games keep rolling in; now it’s Mad World!

Everyone knows about The Conduit. It looks good in motion. It proves that 3rd-party developers can make something look spiffy, and play like a manly FPS, reminiscent of Doom.

We already know about some great games to look forward to, but as can be expected from the Wii, our vision doesn’t have to fall on the near future.

Mad World, a game currently in development by Platinum Games, is exclusive to the Wii in its comic-style glory. In a Sin City fashion, Mad World is primarily black and white, with bright red blood spurting everywhere in the gory attacks the player can execute. The spikes on the wall, chainsaws, and caution signs are your friend; as well as your enemy’s… enemy.

Platinum Games, though seemingly unknown, has roots in games like Viewtiful Joe, Resident Evil 4, Okami, and Devil May Cry. All of these games seem to point in the same direction as far as the expected gameplay for Mad World goes. And Mad World seems to point to awesome. It’s not hard to embrace cell-shaded games after the masterpiece that is No More Heroes.

As if there weren’t enough games to look forward to, Mad World had to come about and preemptively snatch another 50 bucks from me.

Check out the trailer below!

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