It only took a week, but I got my Wii back fixed today. They had to completely replace the circuit board. Yikes.
Seems to be working fine, but as I feared, all my save-game files were deleted (I was only able to back up Tiger Woods and RE4 to an SD card before my Wii died), all my Miis are gone and my Wii console number changed (I updated it down on the right side of my GS profile). But all my wii friends were deleted too and I have to re-add all my friend codes in all my online games! :(
No big deal, but I'm kinda proud of this: the Mii I entered in a Check Mii Out Channel Cleopatra lookalike contest finished 22nd in the world. Nearly 14 million people have Wiis, and I wonder how many actually entered the contest? Whatever the odds against me were, it's cool in a geeky way. I rarely finish high in contests. If only I had used the Egyptian eyes instead of being fixated on the blue makeup, maybe I would've placed higher! I have a lot to learn. Some people can make amazing Miis. I've seen a few, like Jack Black, that are really lifelike...
Picked up GH3 at GameStop's midnight launch. There were about 30 hilarious gamer dudes out there - one guy had a huge curly white boy 'fro (I'm pretty sure he was at a different GameStop with me the night we got our Wii's last November).
I couldn't start playing GH's debut on a Nintendo console till after the Red Sox finished off the Rockies at like 1 a.m., but then I shredded till 3 a.m. The online play works perfectly. I ended up being ranked 252nd on the online GH leaderboard, but that was short-lived - I'm down to 800 now :( But I'll get better. I've played GH at other peoples' houses before, but I've never owned it myself.
It's cool how the Wiimote fits into the guitar to make it wireless, and makes sour note noises when you screw up and rumbles too. The PS and Xbox guitars can't do that! :D
GH3 for the Wii is an awesome game. It even has boss battles for the first time. I beat Tom Morello of Rage Against the Machine fame, but haven't gotten to Slash of GNR yet. I'd give the game a 9.5, but I'm sure most of the gaming sites that are tough with scores will give it closer to 8.5 or 9.
I also picked up the old GameCube game Fire Emblem: Path of Radiance, which is fantastic. I never knew I was so into turn-based RPG games. It makes me VERY excited for the Wii Fire Emblem game...
Well, back to shredding!
I finally beat Super Paper Mario this morning after 20-plus hours. The first three-quarters of the game were great - I was laughing and having a blast. Then the last couple of chapters were among the most tedious and unenjoyable I've ever experienced. Overall it's a good, innovative game. But the endless gameplay repetition (and endless dialogue boxes to read) down the stretch nearly ruined it for me, and all the bosses were way too easy.
I suppose my view is skewed because I beat the Virtual Console N64 Paper Mario right before Super Paper Mario, and I absolutely loved the original one. I know Nintendo was trying to push the envelope, but I really missed the turn-based fighting of the first one and Thousand Year Door for the Cube, which was great, too. I'd put Super Paper Mario third after those two. What did you all think of Super Paper Mario? I know it came out way back in April, but I never got around to buying it until recently...
Tiger 08 is MUCH better than 07 - thank God the backswing glitch is gone. The graphics are still terrible and there's no online play - which is baffling, since a turn-based game like golf is perfectly suited for online or at least a lot better than the disaster that is Madden 08 online multiplayer... But overall, there's so much to do that I can't complain, especially since I got it free at work to review :)
It's so sad: As cool as it is to have free online games on the Wii with Madden 08 with no pesky Friend Codes, the online play is completely broken. It's so bad, that it's not even worth playing. The main problem is a minimum 1-second delay from your Wiimote gesture to the screen. That means you have only 1 or 2 seconds to pick a receiver and throw, which makes passing nearly impossible :( And the delay also causes problems on defense: if you are controlling a lineman who is about to sack the QB and you snap the Wiimote to hit him, and he gets the pass off, your defensive back falls down and allows a 90-yard touchdown. It's SO frustrating.
Also, most people quit a game if they fall behind, even 7-0, getting an automatic loss, but if you quit too and don't play out the rest of the game against the computer, you get a loss too! Bogus!
Plus, the menus are extremely slow and laggy to navigate and you often accidentally pick the wrong play, like a field goal when you want to punt. And often your flailing Wiimote gestures for passing and kicking aren't even recognized.
The game overall is fun against the computer or another person in the room with you, but the debut of online football on the Wii is not a good one! I can't believe GameSpot gave this an 8.0 - it deserves more like a 7.0...
Nintendo brought smiles to the faces of many fans with the release of its "Metroid Prime 3: Corruption" Wii channel last week.
It was a unique idea and smart way to hype the long-awaited third game in the first-person trilogy.
But the larger question is: What if this free downloadable preview channel is just the beginning?
Sales of the Wii have gotten off to a tremendously fast start - it won't be long before its numbers surpass the nearly 2-year-old Xbox 360. But by contrast, Nintendo has been slow and methodical about software upgrades for the console.
At launch, the Wii came with the Wii Shop channel to buy and download Virtual Console games, which has been a great moneymaker for the company.
Then over the course of the last few months, the Weather and News channels were added, followed by the Everybody Votes channel and the Internet Browser.
Not too long ago, Nintendo announced plans for a Wii Ware channel, billed as something similar to Xbox Live, through which gamers can pay to download new games developed specifically for the Wii. Indie companies in particular have expressed excitement about this idea.
Last week, "Mario Strikers Charged" debuted as Nintendo's first true online multiplayer game, and it works well.
And Friday was the release of the "Metroid Prime 3" channel, which clearly wasn't thrown together overnight - it was something Nintendo polished to a shine.
What I want to know is if Nintendo will be doing more of this in the near future. The potential is almost limitless.
In the "MP3" channel, Nintendo was able to give us preview movies streamed over the Internet and an interactive picture where clicking on the screen reveals a hidden image. It's not a stretch to imagine more movies being available for download or even demos of games.
Many in the video game industry were surprised by the Wii's success. They hadn't planned on it - witness Electronic Arts' admission that they had devoted few resources to developing Wii games, but created a whole new department for it after seeing the Wii's red-hot sales.
But it appears that Nintendo isn't tipping its hand just yet at what it has the ability to do on the Wii - and that's very exciting.
Well, I'd like to think my injury wasn't completely caused by playing on the Wii, but it certainly didn't help...
I played basketball down the street last Monday and must've thrown out my shoulder (it's bad from me separating it a bunch of times in high school football). So then I got Strikers Charged the next day, and played for like 5 hours.
All the flailing must've really made my shoulder worse, because since Wednesday it's been throbbing and getting worse. By Saturday, I could barely raise my arm!
Thankfully, it's much better today. I think I slept on it wrong with a new pillow I got last week. So all these weird things added up to make my shoulder hurt like hell!
Anyway, while being incapacitated, I've severely slacked on my chores. I have a mountain of dishes to do and really need to wash laundry. Ick.
At least I got to play the N64 Paper Mario on the Virtual Console. It was pretty much the only thing I could do that didn't hurt my shoulder! I beat that today. What a great game.
And I got great news today: I'll be getting a free copy of Madden 08 to review for our newspaper. Yay me!
Now I just have to heal my shoulder, then play Transformers and Silver Surfer enough to write short reviews blasting how bad they are. I hate poorly done movie tie-in games :(
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