So Long, My Wii — Now Playing: ?

momgamer wrote:

Are you sure we were playing the same game!?

Yes, it was different, but I came away feeling very positive overall about it. But I'm very much a story-based gamer, and I had plenty to keep me occupied. It's been several years, so I can't really comment too much on it, though.

Try the first one, if you like it, try the second. It's not going to set you back much, by now.

I'll confess to being in the minority on No More Heroes 2. Most people I've spoken to thought it improved on the original in every way, but I just didn't see it. But as I said, it's not that I didn't enjoy it, I just prefer the stuff from the first game that they threw away or changed.

Though in terms of story, I just remember thinking "WTF?" a lot in the second, something I didn't do for the first. To each their own mayhaps?

ClockworkHouse wrote:

Endoscopy wasn't bad. I mostly just found it tedious.

If by tedious you mean "made my arm hurt after 5 minutes of making a pulling motion" sure :p

Really crossing my fingers for a WiiU entry. The easier difficulty of Team made the game a lot more enjoyable than past entries. Especially since Demyx and I hit of a brick wall in First Blood fairly early on.

Yeah, if you're not going to play the LEGO games co-op, I say don't bother.

My wife and I beat LEDO Star Wars (Wii) and did a bit of the first LEGO Batman (PS2). They seemed pretty similar with a bit of a change to the mechanics to fit the franchise better, but it still feels very much like the same game, different coat of paint.

mrtomaytohead wrote:

Yeah, if you're not going to play the LEGO games co-op, I say don't bother.

I hadn't realized they did co-op. I'll run them by my wife to see if there's any interest there.


So I finally finished crawling through the WiiWare catalog looking for things that caught my eye. Here's what I came up with that I hadn't already played on the Wii or another platform:

  • Anima: Ark of Sinners
  • Art Style Series
  • Castlevania The Adventure ReBirth
  • Contra Rebirth
  • Final Fantasy Crystal Chronicles: My Life as a Dark Lord
  • Final Fantasy Crystal Chronicles: My Life as a King
  • Gabrielle's Ghostly Groove Monster Mix
  • lilt line
  • LostWinds
  • Megaman 9
  • Military Madness: Nectaris
  • MotoHeroz
  • Muscle March
  • NyxQuest
  • Swords and Soldiers
  • Tales of Monkey Island
  • Toki Tori
  • You, Me, and the Cubes
  • Zombie Panic in Wonderland

Anyone have experience with any of those before I add them to The List? Any real winners or stinkers?

Now I know what this thread's title is reminding me of: that old Chinese movie, Farewell My Wii. If you've seen it and like it, I could also recommend Raise the Red Ring of Death, or Waiting Online for Thousands of Updates.

I'm just surprised no one made the connection between this thread title and the subtitle of the Sakura Wars game in the list.

D'oh! Out-maneuvered on the obscure reference front. And well done too, I have to say.

Damn, and how often do I get to make Zhang Yimou spoofs?

ClockworkHouse wrote:

I'm just surprised no one made the connection between this thread title and the subtitle of the Sakura Wars game in the list. :P

I've been thinking, "Fragile Platform: Farewell to the Wii," since the thread's creation.

Mostly it just reminds me that the DVD drive in my launch Wii is dying.

My wife would vote for the first Lego Batman as being the definitive Lego game. And she has beaten all of them except for The Clone Wars.

Basically, Batman lends itself very well to using different characters to solve different kinds of puzzles. They all do it, but the assortment of villains and such really play to this strength. The second one is a really good game that throws in a ton of Super Heroes, too. It's more open world, but the story is much shorter.

Indian Jones was the first use of a really innovative split screen mechanic for co-op.

Lego LotR is coming out soon, and should be all kinds of awesome.

ClockworkHouse wrote:
Katy wrote:

Not interested in any of the Lego franchise? Or did you play those on the 360?

I haven't played a Lego game. My biggest problem with them is that there are about as many of them as there are Guitar Hero games, and I just don't know where to start.

I really liked Lego Star Wars but hated lego batman. If I had to put a finger on it I think I liked lego star wars because it was a parody of the movies and batman was completely new story.

ClockworkHouse wrote:

I'm just surprised no one made the connection between this thread title and the subtitle of the Sakura Wars game in the list. :P

I did but I feel like that is niche game that probably almost no one played.

Haru Akenaga wrote:

A few months ago, NIS America released Sakura Wars: So Long, My Love on PlayStation 2 and Wii. How did that do? Did it exceed, perform to or was it not as good as your expectations?

Not as good as our expectations.
http://www.siliconera.com/2010/06/29...

edit: I have it on PS2.

ClockworkHouse wrote:

So I finally finished crawling through the WiiWare catalog looking for things that caught my eye. Here's what I came up with that I hadn't already played on the Wii or another platform:

  • Final Fantasy Crystal Chronicles: My Life as a Dark Lord
  • Final Fantasy Crystal Chronicles: My Life as a King
  • Muscle March
  • Zombie Panic in Wonderland

Anyone have experience with any of those before I add them to The List? Any real winners or stinkers?

I've played these, and I can say that I enjoyed My Life as King more than Dark Lord if only because it's easier to send people off on quests than make a stronger dungeon. Muscle March is a weird game. If I could gift my copy to you, I'd do that. Zombie Panic is a lot of fun, it's very straight forward and all you have to do is shoot zombies and throw grenades.

Mega Man 9 requires holding the NES style Wii Remote, which doesn't cause rage for me like it does for some people. Plus, using the jacket makes it better in my opinion.

Swords and Soldiers was fun, but one level got a bit frustrating. It's probably not worth getting on the Wii as it's now on every other platform, including Steam/PC.

The demos for both NyxQuest and Motoheroz did nothing for me. I can't remember, but I tihnk the demos were on the Wii. Mtotoheroz is made by the same people as Trials and does basically the same idea of time trial obstacle courses. Not wanting to invest time in it to get really good pushed it out of consideration for me.

ClockworkHouse wrote:
  • Final Fantasy Crystal Chronicles: My Life as a Dark Lord
  • Megaman 9

Anyone have experience with any of those before I add them to The List? Any real winners or stinkers?

My Life as a Dark Lord was made a little better by using some leftover Wii points on DLC. I think one of them lets you cast extra spells during each level, and that can help a lot. There others were smaller touches.

Megaman 9 pays wonderful tribute to the style and difficulty of the first NES Megaman titles.

Third the Muramasa recommendation, with an added recommendation to only play it on Shura mode. "Easy" Musou mode allows you to button mash through to the end, but why play a technical brawler if you want to button mash? It's easy enough on "Hard" mode as it is.

For me, Muramasa's almost fighting-game number of moves and technicality is one of its main draws. If you want a SP fighting game that's a bit easy, then Shura on Muramasa might be what you're looking for.

Along the same lines, Red Steel 2 is just awesome. It may need a little tinkering with the settings to get it to a place where you're motion-controlling reliably, but once you get there, it just works. It's motion control fighting done right, the ultimate meld of traditional fighting/brawling mechanics and motion control.

By the by, HOTD: OK boasts one of the most accurate IR pointer tracking in Wii games. If you paint the corners of your TV with an IR (instead of relying on the IR bar), you can actually remove the reticle and just aim down the sights.

mrtomaytohead wrote:

The demos for both NyxQuest and Motoheroz did nothing for me. I can't remember, but I tihnk the demos were on the Wii. Mtotoheroz is made by the same people as Trials and does basically the same idea of time trial obstacle courses. Not wanting to invest time in it to get really good pushed it out of consideration for me.

NyxQuest is also on PC.

shoptroll wrote:
mrtomaytohead wrote:

The demos for both NyxQuest and Motoheroz did nothing for me. I can't remember, but I tihnk the demos were on the Wii. Mtotoheroz is made by the same people as Trials and does basically the same idea of time trial obstacle courses. Not wanting to invest time in it to get really good pushed it out of consideration for me.

NyxQuest is also on PC.

Ah, so it is.

I had no idea that Nintendo listed all of their digital and retail games listed online.
Here's Motoheroz and NyxQuest which both also have an indicator showing a demo is available.

So, two hours into Metroid Prime 2 and it's starting to get its hooks in me. But someone please tell me that this time-crush poisonous air in the Dark World nonsense doesn't last forever. Metroid is about taking your time to explore, not running from light bubble to light bubble as quickly as possible.

Thanks for the feedback on WiiWare stuff, everyone.

It's probably not worth getting on the Wii as it's now on every other platform, including Steam/PC.
shoptroll wrote:

NyxQuest is also on PC.

I realize I'm in the GWJ minority on this one, but I'd rather pay $10 for the WiiWare version of a game than $2.50 to get it on Steam. The PC just isn't my preferred gaming environment. So if Swords & Soldiers and NyxQuest are good, I'd rather play them on Wii unless there's a really compelling reason not to.

ClockworkHouse wrote:

So, two hours into Metroid Prime 2 and it's starting to get its hooks in me. But someone please tell me that this time-crush poisonous air in the Dark World nonsense doesn't last forever. Metroid is about taking your time to explore, not running from light bubble to light bubble as quickly as possible.

It's been a while since I played it, but if memory serves, you eventually get a Dark Suit that makes you immune to the miasma.

Garden Ninja wrote:
ClockworkHouse wrote:

So, two hours into Metroid Prime 2 and it's starting to get its hooks in me. But someone please tell me that this time-crush poisonous air in the Dark World nonsense doesn't last forever. Metroid is about taking your time to explore, not running from light bubble to light bubble as quickly as possible.

It's been a while since I played it, but if memory serves, you eventually get a Dark Suit that makes you immune to the miasma.

I can confirm this as well. I think you get it within the first 5 hours.

ClockworkHouse wrote:

The PC just isn't my preferred gaming environment. So if Swords & Soldiers and NyxQuest are good, I'd rather play them on Wii unless there's a really compelling reason not to.

Ah, that explains all the Telltale stuff

ClockworkHouse wrote:
  • Art Style Series
  • Megaman 9
  • Muscle March
  • Tales of Monkey Island

Anyone have experience with any of those before I add them to The List? Any real winners or stinkers?

I finished Art Style: Orbient, and thought it was pretty clever. The late levels got a bit frustrating, but up until them, it's a very soothing experience.

Megaman 9 is great.

Muscle March - you either get it for the laughs, or skip it. There's not much to the game, and I have the impression the pose recognition is a bit lacking. As it speeds up, the "input" lag caused numerous poses to fail, quickly leading to failure of the race/stage.

Tales of Monkey Island - no idea how it plays on the Wii. Honestly, I have a hard time imagining me playing it on that system. On the PC those games were a very nice continuation of the series.

Fluidity is finished. It gets both a for being a recommended Wii game and a for being one my wife and I enjoyed playing together. It doesn't have any sort of formal multiplayer options. We just passed the controller after each Rainbow Drop was collected and had a really good time with it.

I'm not sure what we'll play next. We'll likely give Rayman Origins a spin.

I've also been putting more time (although not much) into Metroid Prime 2. I mentioned before that I was a little disappointed by the game's lack of atmosphere in comparison to Metroid Prime. Where Metroid Prime presented the player with a beautiful, colorful world, Metroid Prime 2 was all about dark, dank caves and overcast skies. But what I saw as a flaw before I've started to see as a deliberate design decision. I posted this on Twitter:

@agreenbrier wrote:

Where I would describe Metroid Prime as solitary I would describe Prime 2 as desolate. A world not only lonely but also dead and poisonous.

Prime 2 is intentionally darker, bleaker. In Metroid Prime you're exploring the remains of a civilization that died out long ago. Their home has been overrun in part by space pirates, yes, but mostly by nature: indigenous flora and fauna that have crept back into land once claimed by the Chozo. In Prime 2, on the other hand, you're exploring the carcass of a civilization being brutally conquered before your eyes. You're not finding the remains of people long dead but fresh bodies killed just days or hours before, and the space pirates that were so intimidating in the first game are brutally crushed by the dark, amorphous Ing.

It's a different, more difficult game than its predecessor, and I'm starting to really value it for that. The shift in tone and intention reminds me of the shift from Ocarina of Time to Majora's Mask or maybe from The Legend of Zelda to Zelda II. I'm really looking forward to playing more and seeing what black, oppressive realm I find myself struggling through next.

You might be hitting some of why I still dug Echoes when everyone else seemed so down on it. I didn't like it as much as the first Prime, but I still liked it (more than 3, truth told).

The multiplayer was also a fun and amusing distraction.

I replayed MP2 on the Trilogy collection, for completeness sake. But I'll probably never play it again. It's just not fun. It's grueling. The shortage of ammo and almost requirement to use it on some enemies just creates this artificial difficulty that is not fun. That's what sticks in my head right now. I'm sure there was some other issues as well. Not sure if there's a Trilogy catch-all around here somewhere that I posted in or not.

I could still see myself digging out the first Prime and playing again though. Probably will whenever the next new Metroid game gets announced. Even the issues I may have with Fusion or Zero Mission and their linearity for story's sake, the game play is still fun enough that I will probably replay them too. And Prime 3 too.

But never again will I play Prime 2 or Other M. Even Metroid 2 on GameBoy has more redeeming features than those two.

I'll bet you summon, don't you?

Muramasa the demon blade is a great game. It has really fun combat and a pretty damn good story. Also it can be played in short bursts really easily. Probable my favorite game on the wii (which isn't saying much but still). Little king's story is also fun but can be tough as nails. My life as the king is fun but very grind happy , while my life as the dark lord was very boring.

Stele wrote:

But never again will I play Prime 2 or Other M. Even Metroid 2 on GameBoy has more redeeming features than those two.

You and me, we just might not agree about Metroid games.

Stele wrote:

I replayed MP2 on the Trilogy collection, for completeness sake. But I'll probably never play it again. It's just not fun. It's grueling. The shortage of ammo and almost requirement to use it on some enemies just creates this artificial difficulty that is not fun. That's what sticks in my head right now. I'm sure there was some other issues as well. Not sure if there's a Trilogy catch-all around here somewhere that I posted in or not. :?

I only just got the light beam last night so my impressions are really early, but I find the ammo mechanic fascinating. When the dark beam was first introduced, I was disappointed. It seemed weird to have limited ammunition for a weapon I had to use to open doors and the like, and the ammo drops seemed pretty uncommon. But once the light beam was introduced, the ammo system makes sense: defeat enemies with the light beam for dark ammo and with the dark beam for light ammo.

It's a pretty clever system, and I'm really excited to see how it plays out. It effectively forces you to use both weapons throughout combat rather than relying on just one, but it does so in a more organic way than Prime's requirement that certain enemies can only be defeated with specific weapons. It prevents you from hoarding ammunition until you need it, and it mechanically reflects the symbiotic nature of Light and Dark Aether.

But most cleverly, it forces you to make some really neat strategic choices moment-to-moment during combat. From what I saw, it looks like some enemies are more vulnerable to one type of beam than the other, but in any given combat encounter you won't necessarily have enough ammunition for the beam type they're vulnerable to. That means you'll have to try to defeat enemies with sub-optimal attacks in order to get ammunition for the better weapon, which you then have to decide whether or not to exhaust the ammo for.

It's a neat system that makes you constantly have to balance yourself between stronger and weaker attacks. And there was something really satisfying about balancing it poorly running out of both kinds of ammo in the middle of a fight and feeling really, really vulnerable.

Stele wrote:

I could still see myself digging out the first Prime and playing again though. Probably will whenever the next new Metroid game gets announced. Even the issues I may have with Fusion or Zero Mission and their linearity for story's sake, the game play is still fun enough that I will probably replay them too. And Prime 3 too.

It's funny: the two big reasons I bought the Metroid Trilogy collection were to play Metroid Prime 2 and to replay Metroid Prime with the Wii controls. The second of those was actually the bigger selling point for me, but I just haven't been able to replay Prime after a couple of attempts. I get about four or five hours in and flame out.

I think it's because the gameplay systems aren't all equally interesting. There's the environmental exploration aspect and then there's the combat. The exploration and collection is really marvelously done and completely addicting, but it's something that, for me, only works once. Replaying, I found that I was so familiar with every place and every secret that it wasn't as much fun to find all the bits and pieces. The combat, meanwhile, is fairly dull: jump around, select the right beam, shoot stuff. It's not bad, but it's also not something that's really engaging on its own.

But with Prime 2 (and Other M :P) I can easily see myself replaying the game if they can keep up that interesting mechanical balance between the light and dark beams. It makes both halves of the Prime formula interesting rather than just one and that'll make a huge difference for me in terms of replayability.

Not to belabor the Zelda comparisons, but it's (again) like the difference between Ocarina of Time and Majora's Mask for me. I loved Ocarina of Time, but it's not a game I replay much because I've already found all of its secrets and its combat and other aspects aren't really deep on their own. However, with Majora's Mask, I replay it regular despite knowing all of its secrets simply because the time travel puzzles are inherently fun to play even when I know the solutions already.

ClockworkHouse wrote:

It's a neat system that makes you constantly have to balance yourself between stronger and weaker attacks. And there was something really satisfying about balancing it poorly running out of both kinds of ammo in the middle of a fight and feeling really, really vulnerable.

See that's what I hate. Samus is the best bounty hunter in the galaxy. She's not supposed to be helpless. MP2 wasn't nearly as bad as Other M in this regard obviously.

Other M is a travesty. Oh noes I'm taking heat damage, but I'll wait until the man in charge tells lil' ol' helpess woman me to turn on my Varia suit that I have off for no logical reason while I take damage. Woe is me, whatever would I do without this male general around to tell me what to do? :p

Dammit Clocky, you're going to make me just sit down and marathon Prime 1, 2 and Other M once I get my Wii in my room. I can't believe how much of Echoes I had forgotten. It has truly been years since I last played it, and I think playing it a second time would almost be like new.

Stele, maybe I'm just forgiving of the developers for trying something new. The previous tactic in Metroid was "Pit you against a boss, reward you with a new item." Other M instead tried "force you into an area you can't get out of, feel hectic and helpless, and then grant you a new power-up in the knick of time that you then get to use immediately and feel bad ass with". It's different, but unfortunately the story it was delivered with pissed too many people off. I, for one, liked it after divorcing it from the story and viewed it purely as gameplay.

Then again, I'm willing to forego common logic to enjoy a story someone is looking to tell (or gameplay they're looking to deliver).

But in truth, I don't think the current guy at Nintendo who is writing the Metroid storyline is the right person for the franchise. He's evidently been a big part of the franchise for a while, but I feel like Retro Studios had a more fitting handle on delivering the narrative and what the games were about than the current Japanese guy in charge.

I think I wrote a pretty in-depth blog about it, if anyone wants me to link it.