Wednesday, 5 September 2007
Super MonkeyBall: Banana Blitz Review
Bog standard Monkeyball action makes its disappointing way to the Wii!
As with all the Monkeyball series you control Aiai (or any of the other characters) as you roll around collecting bananas and reaching the goal. The game is split in a series of worlds, each world contains eight stages but unlike previous games in the Super Monkey Ball series, Banana Blitz feature boss battles.
Each character has different stats and abilities, and there are two new characters to choose from this time round: “Yan Yan” the new girl in town and an amnesia-suffering lemur who has made some great inventions who the towns folk call “Doctor”!
The visuals are a little simplistic, although that said, they are well-suited to the tone of the game, and using the Wii-mote to roll the ball, although difficult to master at first is actually quite intuitive, and superior to using the analogue stick of previous incarnations.
There are 50 mini-games in total in Banana Blitz. There is, also, a "party" mode whereby players can choose tournament-type gameplay, selecting mini-games going head to head in an attempt to accumulate the most points. It is good to see the number of mini games, even if a few of them aren’t really any fun to play.
Price: £ (or get given it as a birthday present!)
Pros: Lots of mini games, which are particularly good when played in the party mode. Nice use of the Wiimote controller.
Cons: Some of the party games are pretty unplayable.
Official Site: http://www.sega.com/gamesite/bananablitz/
As with all the Monkeyball series you control Aiai (or any of the other characters) as you roll around collecting bananas and reaching the goal. The game is split in a series of worlds, each world contains eight stages but unlike previous games in the Super Monkey Ball series, Banana Blitz feature boss battles.
Each character has different stats and abilities, and there are two new characters to choose from this time round: “Yan Yan” the new girl in town and an amnesia-suffering lemur who has made some great inventions who the towns folk call “Doctor”!
The visuals are a little simplistic, although that said, they are well-suited to the tone of the game, and using the Wii-mote to roll the ball, although difficult to master at first is actually quite intuitive, and superior to using the analogue stick of previous incarnations.
There are 50 mini-games in total in Banana Blitz. There is, also, a "party" mode whereby players can choose tournament-type gameplay, selecting mini-games going head to head in an attempt to accumulate the most points. It is good to see the number of mini games, even if a few of them aren’t really any fun to play.
Price: £ (or get given it as a birthday present!)
Pros: Lots of mini games, which are particularly good when played in the party mode. Nice use of the Wiimote controller.
Cons: Some of the party games are pretty unplayable.
Official Site: http://www.sega.com/gamesite/bananablitz/
Labels: Games, Reviews, Super MonkeyBall, Super MonkeyBall: Banana Blitz
Thursday, 19 April 2007
Kororpina Review
Another good example of what the Wii-mote control system can bring to gaming.
As with many marble games before it (Marble Madness, MonkeyBall, etc…), Kororinpa has a simple game concept: guide your marble through a maze collecting to get to the goal, and along the way you collect red crystals and bonus green crystals before hitting the exit point.
Sometimes there is a sense of disorientation, especially when the Wii-mote has been turned through 180 degrees and you are not sure which way is up; or trying to jiggle the marble sideways onto an unseen platform below, but the occasional miss is not too frustrating, as each level is not overly large by design.
Each level also contains many features to liven up the game play, from magnets, conveyor belts, canons, sliding platforms, honey and more.
The best fun to be had was with the split screen two-player competitive mode, which how I have mainly played the game.
The challenge, although tricky in parts, rarely gets too difficult; as such this is a game that can be enjoyed by a wide range of abilities and ages, but that did lead to all 45 levels being fairly swiftly completed. There is a ‘mirror’ mode which is unlocked, so all the levels are available again but this time in reverse.
You can also unlock different types of marbles, playing with the rugby ball (or I guess it’s an American football) shaped marble was a little tricky!
Recommended!
Cost:
Pros: Good graphics. Good, intuitive use of the controller.
Cons: Some larger and trickier levels would not have gone a miss.
As with many marble games before it (Marble Madness, MonkeyBall, etc…), Kororinpa has a simple game concept: guide your marble through a maze collecting to get to the goal, and along the way you collect red crystals and bonus green crystals before hitting the exit point.
Sometimes there is a sense of disorientation, especially when the Wii-mote has been turned through 180 degrees and you are not sure which way is up; or trying to jiggle the marble sideways onto an unseen platform below, but the occasional miss is not too frustrating, as each level is not overly large by design.
Each level also contains many features to liven up the game play, from magnets, conveyor belts, canons, sliding platforms, honey and more.
The best fun to be had was with the split screen two-player competitive mode, which how I have mainly played the game.
The challenge, although tricky in parts, rarely gets too difficult; as such this is a game that can be enjoyed by a wide range of abilities and ages, but that did lead to all 45 levels being fairly swiftly completed. There is a ‘mirror’ mode which is unlocked, so all the levels are available again but this time in reverse.
You can also unlock different types of marbles, playing with the rugby ball (or I guess it’s an American football) shaped marble was a little tricky!
Recommended!
Cost:
Pros: Good graphics. Good, intuitive use of the controller.
Cons: Some larger and trickier levels would not have gone a miss.
Labels: Games, Kororpina, Reviews
Tuesday, 17 April 2007
“It's-a Wii! Wario!".- Warioware Smooth Moves Review
The main feature of all WarioWare games is that they are collections of short, simple microgames in quick succession, and just like it’s predecessors half the fun is actually working out what action is needed to complete each game.
For the sake of the story the Wii-mote is called a form baton, and you progress by holding the baton in a variety of forms depending on the game, for example: "The Umbrella" holding the Wii Remote vertically like one would hold an umbrella handle; or "The Elephant" where you hold the bottom end of the Wii Remote against the nose like an elephant's trunk!.
Each stage of the game is represented by a specific member of the WarioWare cast, and begins with an introductory story sequence featuring the character, a sequence of frantic microgames and concludes with a boss stage (a longer, more complex microgame), followed by the concluding part of the story.
The multi-player mode is unlocked when you complete the single player stages, unfortunately though one remote is shared by up to 12 players, so the multi-player games are often quick due to the difficulty in passing the controller around the group rather than by the difficulty of the games. It would have been nice to see multiple controller support.
Along the way you also unlock some single player arcade style games, the best of which is a fairground style ‘duck shoot’ game.
And that, basically, is the game. Bizarre stories and strange animations, and lots of short frantic games, that get more frantic as you progress. It shouldn’t work, but it does, and even when you complete a stage by completing a set number of micro-games, there is still a desire to go back and play the stage again and again until you complete all the micro-games.
NOTE - The title screen is like a mini-game in itself: You can mess with Wario's moustache and also make different images appear by holding the Wii Remote straight up-and-down and moving it like a windshield wiper. (Well it passed a couple of minutes of my time!)
Highly Recommended!!
Cost:
Pros: Great graphics, and really good and imaginative use of the controller.
Cons: Multi-player games would have been better with more than one controller
Official site: http://wii.nintendo.com/software_warioware.jsp
For the sake of the story the Wii-mote is called a form baton, and you progress by holding the baton in a variety of forms depending on the game, for example: "The Umbrella" holding the Wii Remote vertically like one would hold an umbrella handle; or "The Elephant" where you hold the bottom end of the Wii Remote against the nose like an elephant's trunk!.
Each stage of the game is represented by a specific member of the WarioWare cast, and begins with an introductory story sequence featuring the character, a sequence of frantic microgames and concludes with a boss stage (a longer, more complex microgame), followed by the concluding part of the story.
The multi-player mode is unlocked when you complete the single player stages, unfortunately though one remote is shared by up to 12 players, so the multi-player games are often quick due to the difficulty in passing the controller around the group rather than by the difficulty of the games. It would have been nice to see multiple controller support.
Along the way you also unlock some single player arcade style games, the best of which is a fairground style ‘duck shoot’ game.
And that, basically, is the game. Bizarre stories and strange animations, and lots of short frantic games, that get more frantic as you progress. It shouldn’t work, but it does, and even when you complete a stage by completing a set number of micro-games, there is still a desire to go back and play the stage again and again until you complete all the micro-games.
NOTE - The title screen is like a mini-game in itself: You can mess with Wario's moustache and also make different images appear by holding the Wii Remote straight up-and-down and moving it like a windshield wiper. (Well it passed a couple of minutes of my time!)
Highly Recommended!!
Cost:
Pros: Great graphics, and really good and imaginative use of the controller.
Cons: Multi-player games would have been better with more than one controller
Official site: http://wii.nintendo.com/software_warioware.jsp
Labels: Games, Reviews, Warioware Smooth Moves
Subscribe to Posts [Atom]