More Monkey Madness and Enchanted Arms

Super Monkey Ball Banana Blitz (Wii) has 50 (!) minigames.  They are hard to control, so I figure that's where the bad reviews come from.  Consider that these games are party games, and the controls are supposed to be varied.  I like some, I hate some.  Go figure.

Enchanted Arms (Xbox360) has a bad plot.  Real bad.  The voice acting isn't bad, but the writing is.  Still, I'm having a ball with this trite RPG, about 82% done.  It has mini-tactics battles which you can do "auto battle" for the mundane random encounters.  The characters still haven't figured out that the guy who looks like Makato is actually Makato.  But they finally explained how Atsuma and his arm came to be.  It's funny how they can run around Junk City and not see that the ancient ruins are really the remains of the biggest, bad-assiest devil golem to be defeated in the Golem War.  I smell final battle.

Holy Jumping Monkey Balls!

I played my Wii Super Monkey Ball Banana Blitz.  I'm not sure why people hate this game.  The tilting of the controller seems very natural to me.  The old problems of SMB are back though.

1. Camera problems when you reverse direction.  You don't control the camera.  Stop thinking you can.
2. The controller doesn't literally tilt the playfield.  It accelerates the ball according to how sharply you tilt the controller.  I've noticed this from the first game, and games with Gon Gon prove it.  If he get's on a tilted part of the playfield w/o upward acceleration  he'll fall off the edge even if he's going slowly and the playfield is tilted sharply in the other direction.

The only 'new' problem with SMB:BB is that you MUST keep the Wiimote pointing perpendicular to the TV screen/Sensor bar.  The pointer function is not used during play of the regular game.  This means if you're askew, your tiltling will be askew.  I believe this happens mostly because you feel like you can control the camera by "yawing" the controller.  Pitch and Roll only, folks, no Yaw!

And the good news.  You monkey ball can jump!  Aside from SMB Adventure, this is a first.  You can either flick the controller up and pull the trigger, or you can just press "A".  I recommend the "A" method since the other method tilts the screen.

Still, with so much negative review of the game, I'd guess the majority of the people will not like this game, so see if you can't try-before-you-buy.

Wii Is Not Perfect

I just unpacked my Wii "Most Wanted" pack from Gamestop.com. Aside from buying all of that extra crap, the service from Gamestop.com was excellent. I'm not sure why people record videos of themselves taking their new systems out of the boxes when a simple pack-in list will do. I won't be doing that.

I have only played on a composite cables because I have old TVs. Those uber-large LCDs are so OVERPRICED it is ridiculous. They're just now dipping below $1000. I'll probably get one in '07. Mostly, the composite causes moire patterns on the screen similar to watching HD on a letter-boxed standard screen. Zelda really shows off this "feature."

Overall, my Wii experience has been great. None of the following criticisms make it bad. However, when the Wii-mote is used like a mouse, I don't call that innovative at all. A mouse does a better job than a jumpy pointer. I am very impressed by the Wii-motes situational awareness, like holding the bat in Wii Sports. The nunchuck is really just a Cube controller broken in half.

The game controller was more natural to break into than I thought it would be. Those damned wrist straps have the opposite effect when you're not playing. While you're playing, you don't really notice it's there. Try and take a drink, answer the phone, get up for the bathroom, or other mundane thing, and that safety strap makes it much more likely that you'll have some sort of mishap. I also think that wearing the strap gives you a false sense of security and you should consider learning how to hold on to your controller.

And as a 2Old2Player, I'm surprised at the lack of a puzzle game. Wario's Woods, Trauma Center, and Monkey Ball are the closest things. If Nintendo ever does a DS/Puzzle crossover, my vote is on Clubhouse Games.

Finally, Nintendo's initial ad campaign for the Wii was just awful. No kid over the age of 5 (including adults) is going to believe that any game will be able to tell if you roll on the floor with the Wii mote or if you dive behind the couch. The later ads with more realistic motions should have been their initial campaign.

That wraps it up for my first entry. I'll snazz this blog up a little when I'm home.

EDIT (5 pm EST):   I totally forgot about Solomon's Key.  I've loved the game for NES (the one at the Wii Market) and the Gameboy version was very close.  It's my pick for best puzzle.