So I boot up the Wii for some Brawl action yesterday, and I have 1 message waiting for me, from Nintendo. The message informs me that a new Channel is available called the "Nintendo" Channel. Immediately I go and grab this channel, and while it's downloading I remembered reading something about a DS channel available in Japan a few months ago. I hoped this was it.
The channel downloads and I open it up. A video starts playing hyping up WiiFit and MarioKart, Brawl, and other games. Below a "VideoList" button shows you a list of the videos available. I select a DS game for Brain Age 2, and then hit the big red "Information" button. Once in there I scrolled down and found the "Download a demo for this title" text and we were off.
My Wii is now a DS download station. F'N awesome.
Demos tried:
Brain Age 2
GamePlay: Brain exercises if you wanted more tests. I failed miserably on the Rock Paper Scissors test, they show a hand and you have to either win or lose. For example if they show paper and it says win, you yell out "Scissor". Well I did suck at this but I will say that Scissor had the hardest time being deciphered by the game. It actually stopped and restarted due to the fact that it was having trouble understanding me.
Verdict: If you don't have Brain Age, pick it up. Since I do I would like to see more puzzles from the game in order for it to make me want to pick it up.
Jam Session
GamePlay: Very interesting game, lots of potential, clumsy interface. Had a lot of fun with this one, you can strum a guitar string, and based on the stylus' direction and speed the guitar sounds different. Very intiutive. Also, you have a chord selection by using the D-Pad or buttons based on your hand selection. This also worked pretty well. However due to things being locked for the full game you only had the 4 default chords to play, which was disappointing. The best part was you could record your songs, and they encourage you to sing with the built in microphone to have a full on jam session. But wait! The recording does not record the vocals! DAMMIT!!
Verdict:So all in all a very good concept, but due to the lack of a good interface for the menus and effects, plus the lack of recording the voice, I don't see this one being picked up.....pun intended.
Disney Friends
GamePlay: Kill yourself. The control scheme is just wrong, the graphics are trying to do too much and the objective of the game is pointless.
Verdict: Boil water, reach into bottom of pot, repeat.
Rayman Raving Rabbits 2:
GamePlay: Mini-game madness. I chose 1 minigame where you had to drag certain colored boxes into the funnel? and then you had a certain time limit to complete the task. The time limit wasn't clear and the dragging of the boxes was good, I just sucked.
Verdict: For quick fun, pick it up, it's nuts!
The channel downloads and I open it up. A video starts playing hyping up WiiFit and MarioKart, Brawl, and other games. Below a "VideoList" button shows you a list of the videos available. I select a DS game for Brain Age 2, and then hit the big red "Information" button. Once in there I scrolled down and found the "Download a demo for this title" text and we were off.
My Wii is now a DS download station. F'N awesome.
Demos tried:
Brain Age 2
GamePlay: Brain exercises if you wanted more tests. I failed miserably on the Rock Paper Scissors test, they show a hand and you have to either win or lose. For example if they show paper and it says win, you yell out "Scissor". Well I did suck at this but I will say that Scissor had the hardest time being deciphered by the game. It actually stopped and restarted due to the fact that it was having trouble understanding me.
Verdict: If you don't have Brain Age, pick it up. Since I do I would like to see more puzzles from the game in order for it to make me want to pick it up.
Jam Session
GamePlay: Very interesting game, lots of potential, clumsy interface. Had a lot of fun with this one, you can strum a guitar string, and based on the stylus' direction and speed the guitar sounds different. Very intiutive. Also, you have a chord selection by using the D-Pad or buttons based on your hand selection. This also worked pretty well. However due to things being locked for the full game you only had the 4 default chords to play, which was disappointing. The best part was you could record your songs, and they encourage you to sing with the built in microphone to have a full on jam session. But wait! The recording does not record the vocals! DAMMIT!!
Verdict:So all in all a very good concept, but due to the lack of a good interface for the menus and effects, plus the lack of recording the voice, I don't see this one being picked up.....pun intended.
Disney Friends
GamePlay: Kill yourself. The control scheme is just wrong, the graphics are trying to do too much and the objective of the game is pointless.
Verdict: Boil water, reach into bottom of pot, repeat.
Rayman Raving Rabbits 2:
GamePlay: Mini-game madness. I chose 1 minigame where you had to drag certain colored boxes into the funnel? and then you had a certain time limit to complete the task. The time limit wasn't clear and the dragging of the boxes was good, I just sucked.
Verdict: For quick fun, pick it up, it's nuts!
Labels: Brain Age, Demo Reviews, Disney, DS, Jam Session, Nintendo Channel, Rayman, Wii
Friday, December 28, 2007
Contra 4...continued
Last night was my best night of gaming yet with the Contra 4, got past the jungle stage, through the laboratory stage and then it happened. They have a damn waterfall stage!! With very familiar music to the original game, this is the best damn remake of all time!!
Strategy: One of the few things people think of when they think of Contra is strategy, but yes you need it. The laboratory stage is nearly impossible without some sort of specialty weapon, I found the short range missiles to work the best for those lanky exploder guys, and you can simply jump over the Hills Have Eyes Guys if they get too much to handle. The waterfall is best dealt with, like almost anything with the Spreader.Yes I call the Spread Shot the Spreader. I may refer to it as the Spreader gun even, but one of the things I loved about Contra was how everyone who plays it has their own little names and ideas for what is happening on the screen. For instance I have forever called the spiked boards that you run into on the Hangar level as Pop-Tarts. To me they resemble the Acme versions of non-frosted coated pop tarts, so I called them that. Little known fact is that you can actually jump on them with enough skill.....
Once I was playing Contra in college with Matt Lucuski and he was an amazing player, described the guys who shoot you from behind on the later levels as Backdoor Assholes. That was one of the things that everyone had was their own way to refer to the enemies that nobody pays attention do. The reason for this is you have to communicate with your friends while playing and tell them to watch out for the backdoor assholes or the Strydor, cannot remember what he was referring to but still, you come up with stuff to save your lives so the other person cannot steal your hard-earned award medals which represented the lives you had remaining like a badge of honor.Well I could, and will, go on for days about Contra, and this Contra 4 is great because it forces you to be the best Contra player you ever could be, otherwise you will not survive.Thursday, December 27, 2007
![DJ Zing's Site [DJZing.com]](http://www.8bitx.com/Centrifugal_Force_Logo.jpg){kind=logo}
