[QUOTE=stpauler]
[li]Legend of Zelda: Twilight Princess (I don’t have the attention span needed to get out of the town for some reason.)[/li]
[/QUOTE]
The Zelda games have become increasingly irritating in this respect, making you do a bunch of semi-pointless tasks before you can actually really start to play the game. Twilight Princess is particularly bad in this respect - it’s several hours’ worth of play before you really even get your sword and get to leave the village.
I’ll recommend ExiteTruck; if you’re looking for a driving simulation, forget it. If you want to be leaning over and back in your chair as you powerslide around dirt tracks, this is your baby. Caution; the graphics, in places, border on N64 quality. But, testament to Nintendos mission statement, the gameplay is such that graphical inadequacies are soon forgotten.
[QUOTE=VCO3]
The Zelda games have become increasingly irritating in this respect, making you do a bunch of semi-pointless tasks before you can actually really start to play the game. Twilight Princess is particularly bad in this respect - it’s several hours’ worth of play before you really even get your sword and get to leave the village.
[/QUOTE]
While TP is the only Zelda game I have ever played, I can agree that this part was frustrating. But once you get past that it is a lot of fun, IMO. You could go look through one of the many walkthrough’s to get past the initial part as quickly as possible I suppose.
I love Tiger Woods, but I’m not altogether familiar with the previous Tiger games. The controls do allow for back spin, loft shots, punch shots, etc on the Wii. I’m finding I play the game maybe an hour a night these days (I’ve had the Wii for almost three weeks) and it’s not even close to getting old yet.
[QUOTE=stpauler]
Next to buy:
[li]Cooking Mama: Cook Off (I’ve heard good things about this one. Will buy used tho)[/li][li]Trauma Center[/li][li]Big Brain Academy[/li][/list]
[/QUOTE]
Cooking Mama is cool in a fun kitchie sort of way, it makes a fun party game. Trauma Center is awesome and crazy addictive. I heartilly recomend both.
(I don’t have a Wii myself, but my buddy does so I have played his games many times.)
The introduction part of Zelda is meant as a tutorial, really, which is good considering you’re working with a brand new control set. I admit it took a while for the real story to get rolling, but otherwise it was good for me.
I have Twilight Princess, Elebits, Super Paper Mario, and Rayman. Sadly, nothing else has really looked worth $50 to me right now (Mario Party 8 looks like fun, though). Right now I’m just slavering over the slowly approaching release of Super Smash Brothers Brawl.
There frankly isn’t that much for the Wii worth buying right now - and god forbid you don’t like minigame compilations, because that eliminates even more of the half decent stuff out there. Wii Sports, basically a tech demo that it is, is probably the best game the Wii has that you can’t play on some other system (Okay, Paper Mario maybe, not that we haven’t had plenty of those before too). I guess they’re capitalizing on people who haven’t bought any other systems recently or at all, but I am truly shocked that the Wii isn’t getting hit harder for its near-complete lack of desireable apps.
Of course, that looks to all change as soon as they get the Metroid-Mario-Smash troika out. But at the moment, the Wii’s offerings are just as pathetic as what the PS3 has out right now (though at a much lesser hit to your wallet!). I will buy a next-gen system when the games are out and save myself the trouble of waiting in line, thank-you-very-much. Meanwhile, the DS has a better library than all three of the major consoles combined right now, so I’ll be over there in the corner… 
So far, I’ve liked Wii Sports the best. And frankly, if this console only came with Wii sports built in and you couldn’t add another game, it would be worth the price. Wii Sports works as a solo game, as a party game, an an exercise tool, and the motion controls are the best for any Wii game I’ve tried so far.
I rented Super Paper Mario last night. I was annoyed right away by having to click my way through what seemed like hundreds of stupid dialog balloons. I’m not sure I like the flipping from 2D to 3D It basically means you’re always flipping back and forth just to find things. That’s already getting a bit tedious. Still, I’ll reserve judgement until I play it some more.
Last week we rented WarioWare Smooth Moves. I found that one pretty annoying as well. It seemed well suited to entertaining a bunch of drunken people in a party - I can see that being lots of fun. But as a solo game, it’s just tedious. Picking up the Wii remote to ‘answer’ the phone was cool the first time. After the 50th time, it lost its charm. And we never even managed to unlock multiplayer, or even figure out what you have to do to unlock it. We just kept getting an endless series of new challenges after we beat the older ones. But nothing was terribly different - all just variations on using the Wii remote as a broom, or joystick, or pointer, or something else.
Maybe the game gets a lot better and I was still only in the preliminaries. Maybe multi-player is a hoot. I wouldn’t know. It went back to the rental shop before we found out.
I’ve got Zelda here, but I haven’t tried it yet.
So far, aside from Wii sports I’ve been a bit disappointed in the games. Hopefully, there’s just a bit of a lag before the game developers figure out how to really use the Wii remote, and then the really good stuff will come out. I’ve heard that the new version of Tiger Woods and Madden will have much improved control systems.
We’ve bought the following (in addition to Sports, which is a great go-to for parties):
Warioware - Burned through it pretty quickly to unlock all the games and the multiplayer mode… then really haven’t played it since. Once you’ve seen the jokes (and it did have me laughing) once, there’s really not much substance to it.
Rampage - Tacked on motion controls are really weak, but it is quite satisfying when you want to just destroy shit without concern for the game’s quality.
Super Paper Mario - I haven’t really sunk much time into it, but El Perro Fumando is a battle or two away from beating it, and has really enjoyed doing so. What I’ve played has been quite fun.
Madden 07 - I like most of the Wii-centric additions, but it’s not remarkably different than other consoles. Some gameplay is easier on a standard controller.
Sonic and the Secret Rings - Another one I haven’t had much time to sit down and play. What I have played has been pretty fun, but Fumando got tired of it quickly, and a friend of hers who bought it gave up pretty quickly, finding it more work than fun.
Mario Party 8 - From what I understand, it’s not really any improvement over the last two or three iterations of the series, but many of the minigames stand up to repeated play, the board game gimmick tying everything together is compelling (and the five different boards that are used offer a strong sense of variety). It’s been panned for being more of the same, but we’ve been playing (usually together) at least one game a day for the past two weeks. Here’s my sunken thread for the game, which has a lot of impressions as I was first playing through it, unlocking games and getting used to the various boards. I’m still playing it and enjoying it about daily.
For really solid fun games, especially if you’re bringing friends into it, I say Mario Party is where it’s at. Super Paper Mario is a very strong platformer. I’ve been curious about Zelda since release, but haven’t had the time to sit down and play a game for thirty hours, so I haven’t bought it. I’ll wait until Wii builds up enough of a library to start releasing whatever the name will be for their Greatest/Platinum/Whatever Hits, and get it cheaper, so even if I don’t have all the time in the world to play, I won’t care so much.
gazpacho, I got mine at a Best Buy “Members” event, where they held stock of about a dozen systems away from regular public sale. I had a hunch they’d be there, and was right. Also, it seems that Circuit Citys (Cities?) and Targets in the area still do Sunday morning lines/vouchers. Circuit City even advertises such every few weeks in their circular.
Games I’ve played:
[ul]
[li]Zelda - Feels like it should be a good game, but I stopped playing it after, I think, the second or third dungeon. I’ll probably get back into it one of these days. I think the Wii controls are wasted here.[/li][li]Wii Play - Played each mini-game once. It feels very much like training software for the Wii Remote. I guess it makes sense it’s bundled with a remote.[/li][li]Godfather - It’s a port of the XBox/PS2 game, but I enjoyed it. Using the motion control for punching, throwing, and choking people is fun. The games felt short, although I think my save game playtime counter is close to 30 hours.[/li][li]Trauma Center - Only played the first surgery. It is very much like the DS version, which I wasn’t too interested in.[/li][li]Bust-a-move - A horrible, horrible game.[/li][li]Super Paper Mario - Cool game, but like others have said, too much text. There was one puzzle early in the game that took me way too long to solve. That turned me off to the game.[/li][li]Mortal Kombat - Blah. It’s Mortal Kombat. Wii controls don’t add much.[/li][/ul]
Coworker says Excite Truck is fun. Another coworker likes Madden. I haven’t played either game.
Virtual Console games are overpriced (particularly the NES games), but I’m tempted to buy The Legend of the Mystical Ninja just for the awesomeness of it.
Only had my Wii for a month or so, but here’s my take on what I’ve played so far.
Madden 07 - Pretty fun, ok graphics, a decent effort on the controls but a few glitches and some controls could be better. I’m hoping Madden '08 improves on these. The 2-man minigames are the best.
Need for Speed Carbon - Gamecube graphics, middling controls. Holding the controller horizontal and tilting it left to right to turn doesn’t feel very realistic but it works once you get the hang of it. The gameplay is short and repetitive. There are stupid teammates in races that always manage to get in your way and have sometimes ridiculous AI. All the side games and unlocking/customizing cars gets to be tedious, boring, and doesn’t do much to further the game. Despite these shortcomings, I enjoyed the racing quite a bit. It’s just enough of a challenge to keep you playing, but not so difficult that you lose interest and give up on it. Rent it for a long weekend but not worth buying.
Call of Duty 3 - I normally love FPS, but this one sucks. It’s just a rehash of all the other COD’s without much new to add control-wise. The missions are repetitive. The controls range from just ok to poor. There is a stupid hand to hand combat mode that is frustrating and just plain dumb. The graphics are ok. Gameplay is fairly short. Another one to rent but not buy.
Godfather, Black Hand Edition - My favorite so far. Nice story line, large environment that you’re free to roam around in. Large variety of missions, characters, side jobs, etc. to keep you playing for a long time. The controls are excellent. You can grab people, fight, strangle them, throw them up against a wall or over a ledge, rough them up a bit for interrogation, aim your gun for a shoulder or knee to disable rather than kill, throw objects, all the good stuff. There are nice tutorials along the way to show you how to execute moves as they are revealed in the game. All in all a good game, fun to play, moderately lengthy and nice variety. If you’re a fan of GTA, this is the game for you. The graphics are decent but not mind-blowing, and it’s similar in scale and scope to GTA Vice City. Worth buying to me.
Wii Sports - I love tennis, bowling and golf. I’m hoping for full-blown versions of these to come along. Boxing sort of sucks, and baseball gets boring quickly.
This thread has great timing. I just hooked up my Wii last night. I was playing the Wii sports until 2:00 AM. I can already see where injury can come from if you aren’t careful.
Paper Mario players- I am boggling at the idea of the various “pits of 100 trials”. Is there any reason why I should put myself through this an alleged three times with no saves?
I love the simple brilliant power of flipping dimensions, and I love the nods ot the old games. The other day, though, I was trying to get my gf to play (she was a huge Super Mario fan) and the cutscenes and talking bored her to death. I counted- it was a good 45 minutes before she got the ability that is the basis for the whole game. Unreal.
I can’t believe that made it through pre-reviews. It’s just obnoxious.
I think that a lot of people don’t understand that Super Paper Mario is an RPG that just happens to use a side-scrolling, stomping interface instead of a turn-based battle system.
[QUOTE=stolichnaya]
Paper Mario players- I am boggling at the idea of the various “pits of 100 trials”. Is there any reason why I should put myself through this an alleged three times with no saves?
[/QUOTE]
There’s three of 'em? I only passed the first one and haven’t even started thinking about the second. If you want to know what your reward is, read below:
After you finish the first 100, you have to defeat that flying dragon boss again, so be prepared and don’t die! For your efforts you get a new Pixl, Dashell, which lets you run faster by holding down a button just like in the Super Mario Brothers games.
[QUOTE=VCO3]
I think that a lot of people don’t understand that Super Paper Mario is an RPG that just happens to use a side-scrolling, stomping interface instead of a turn-based battle system.
[/QUOTE]
Hrm? That’s not what it is at all. If anything, it’s a puzzle-solving game that uses a side-scrolling, stomping interface. Maybe that’s what you mean.
Whatever it is, it is saddled with an immense albatross of expositional dialogue courtesy of several frustrated comedy writers, dialogue for which your only possible input is to hammer the “2” button for ten minutes like a thirsty hamster. If that is what a role-playing game is then I am glad I have not played any.
[QUOTE=pulykamell]
There’s three of 'em? I only passed the first one and haven’t even started thinking about the second. If you want to know what your reward is, read below:
After you finish the first 100, you have to defeat that flying dragon boss again, so be prepared and don’t die! For your efforts you get a new Pixl, Dashell, which lets you run faster by holding down a button just like in the Super Mario Brothers games.
[/QUOTE]
Apparently the second one must be done twice (!) to see any rewards (!!).
Regardless, I still love this crazy game.
How on earth has Lucasarts not designed a Jedi game for this yet. I mean, could it be any more obvious?
[QUOTE=JSexton]
How on earth has Lucasarts not designed a Jedi game for this yet. I mean, could it be any more obvious?
[/QUOTE]
(No cites, just general recollection)
In fairness, Wii was supposed to be an amusing also-ran in the race between PS3 and 360. A lot of third party developers didn’t get devkits for Wii until just before release, and those that did didn’t want to put on too strong of an initial commitment because the system was seen as such a wild card. Now that it’s come about as the most popular of the three consoles, I’m sure developers are scrambling like mad, but for the time being, it’s no mistake that the vast majority of games, and especially of good games are in-house Nintendo productions.
I’m guessing that a Jedi game is in the works, and if a friend at Lucasarts doesn’t have his tongue tied by NDAs and gets back to me, I expect to hear as much from him.
I have read that it is cheaper and easier to develop for the Wii as well.