In the latest game to be released in the franchise, New Super Mario Bros. Wii (NSMB) proves to be challenging, hours of fun, and lets up to four players play at once. To highlight how special the title is considered, it is boxed in a red casing; it’s thus one of only two games ever to come in a non-white casing.

The storyline needs no introduction to die-hard fans. Princess Peach is kidnapped by Bowser on her birthday, leaving Mario, Luigi and the Toads to rescue her, passing through different levels and worlds, all while collecting coins along the way.

Most notable are the 2.5D effects. The game is in 2D, while some characters and objects are displayed in 3D, which is rendered on a 2D background, resulting in a 2.5D effect.

Players can choose to play as Mario, Luigi or one of the two Toad characters. Player 1 is always Mario in multiplayer mode, and if a character dies, he will re-emerge in a bubble and can be freed if any other player touches the bubble. NSMB includes Nintendo’s new ‘super guide’ feature, which guides a player through a level, after said player has failed eight consecutive times; this feature will probably attract new fans.

Game control on the Wii is no different to the original games, with the option to connect the Nunchuck for analog stick control. It might be easier playing with the Wii remote alone, held horizontally. The remote has to be shaken to launch spin attacks or pick up objects.

Power-ups from the old games are still in place, with the addition of new ones, such as the Ice Flower, which freezes enemies, and the Penguin Suit, which lets you throw ice balls and swim easily.

The game can be finished quickly but with hidden stages and alternate routes, it will keep you coming back for more. It’s a must for die-hard fans and all Wii enthusiasts.

Written for Digital Life April / May 2010.

Spore Hero allows players to create their hero, while the main objective is to save their world from destruction. You can custom-design the creature, which then evolves as the game progresses. While the PC game has a vast number of galaxies, the Wii has a set storyline that you have to pretty much follow without straying too much.

Once you hatch, you appear in the simplest form – as a ball with legs, and not much else to customise yourself. As you progress, more body parts will become available to you, which can be changed when you get back to the nest or other nests you come across. The first body part you will add is a mouth, as this will allow you to eat fruit in order to maintain your health. The interface is user-friendly and highlights new parts and talents to add to the creature.

Continue the quest by befriending locals as they help you complete the mission. When encountering another creature, you have the option to socialise with them or engage in combat. A quest log keeps track of all current and completed missions.

The game is engaging mostly because of the little rewards you earn as you go along, which is motivation enough to carry on playing.

Written for Digital Life Feb / March 2010.

The game features all activities from its predecessor as well as 15 new balance games and six new strength-training and yoga activities.

Some new features thrown in include a calorie counter, the option to create a custom fitness plan as well as creating a profile for your pet.

You will notice ‘My Wii Fit Plus’ once you log into your profile, which allows for customising a fitness plan. There’s the option of the Wii Fit Plus Routines, My Routines and Favourites. My Routines lets you personalise a workout to include favourite games and exercises while Favourites just displays the frequent, recent and rarely played activities.

In here, you can also check the calorie count for all meals and see how many calories are being burned as each activity has a MET count. The more intense the activity, the higher the MET count, e.g. Super Hula equates to 4 METS. To calculate calories burned, use the following formula: MET x your weight x time spent on activity x 1.05 = calories burned.

New games can be found under Training Plus, like Snowball Fight, Rhythm Kung Fu and Obstacle Course, all of which should keep you entertained for quite some time. Slightly advanced ‘Plus’ games include Table Tilt, Balance Bubble and Jogging.

The Wii Fit Plus is definitely worth buying if you’re serious about burning those calories or staying fit in front of the TV. Of course, this has to be coupled with a healthy eating plan.

Written for Digital Life Feb / March 2010.

At the launch (or should I say preview?) today:

New Super Mario Bros. which was announced at E3, will be launching sometime this year. Nintendo could not confirm when, but it’s looking good:

I’m not sure if die hard fans will appreciate the simultaneous multiplayer mode. I personally prefer playing on my own.

Unfortunately I will have to wait a bit to get my hands on the Wii Sports Resort title. I have Grand Slam Tennis with Wii Motion Plus on review, which I should get around to playing sometime soon… someone’s gotta do it

There are initially 29 stages available for play, with 12 more needing to be unlocked. The stages vary and may take place on floating islands, battleships and roofs. Playable stages are based on games like Donkey Kong, Super Mario Bros and Mario Kart DS, which gives the player a sense of familiarity. Players have to make sure they don’t fall off the platform during battle, which will result in a KO or loss of a life.

During combat, items will be made available on the field for the first player who picks them up. These include containers, battering & shooting items, and performance & recovery items. Familiar items can be found, like the fire flower, which allows you to spit fire, and the super mushroom, which makes your character bigger.

Sticking to one character has its advantages as you become familiar with their strengths and weaknesses, while slowly building the character. This ultimately gives you an advantage if you play against your mates.

Fans will love the introduction of the ability to play online with friends, family or even strangers worldwide with up to four players via Nintendo’s Wi-Fi Connection.

Players are given the option to chat to each other and share screen shots or replays.

A Spectator mode is available and allows you to bet on an existing match using your coins earned from battle. The winner earns all coins wagered.

Once you’re familiar with the way the controls work, you are ready to play. The Wii remote is held horizontally, which may be confusing at first. Depending on your preference, the Nunchuck can also be used with the Wii remote. Playing extensively using the Wii remote (minus the Nunchuck) may result in very sore thumbs, which you will soon discover.

Who says gaming has to be anti-social? Invite your friends over for a competitive, action-packed, fun-filled evening of Nintendo goodness.

Written for Digital Life – Nov 2008

When you create a profile or your “Mii”, you will be prompted to add your date of birth and height. The Wii Balance Board will then determine your weight and and calculate your BMI (body mass index).

When your BMI results are displayed, you will be able to see if you are underweight, overweight, ideal or obese. Based on these results, you set a goal for yourself. My BMI read ‘ideal’, so I opted to lose about 2kgs over 2 weeks. I reached my goal twice before my targeted time during the month, so I just reset them to gain / lose weight.

Once your goal is set, you are ready to start excercising. I chose to do excercises from the ones I preferred. The options are Aerobic, Balance, Muscle Workouts and Yoga. The Muscle Workouts and Yoga were my least favourite so I didnt concentrate on them as much as Aerobic and Balance. I will quickly cover a few of my favourite games.

Under Aerobic, my favourite was activity was rhythmic boxing. Each workout is three minutes and the intructor on screen shows you exactly what to do. He has a go first while you watch and then you play. The routines vary a little but at this point you are playing “beginner” mode. When you play really well and burn enough calaries and do each routine exactly (rhythmic), you will unlock “advanced”. Advanced workouts last six minutes and are very invigorating. When I was done with this level – I was abit out of breath.

I also enjoyed Hula Hooping, which was quite fun. In the beginner mode, you hula and have to catch 4 hula’s which get thrown to you after you reach a certain score. You lean slightly to the left or right, depending which side it it gets thrown from; to catch it. If you have 2 hula’s, each spin gets you 2 points and with 3 hula’s; 3 points. If you score really well, you unlock “Super Hula”.

The length for all Aerobic games are 3 minutes on beginner and 6 minutes on advanced. In Super Hula, you get two rounds. First round, you move only in the right direction; and round two to the left. At the end of this workout, I was also left out of breath.

Step Basics – was just straight forward step training. I also unlocked the advanced level here. This one didn’t quite leave me panting.

My other favourite was the Balance Games. I think I over played these. The Ski Jump, and Snowboarding were fun. For Snowboarding, you have to turn the Wii Balance board 90 degrees and stand to the side.

I found the Heading game quite tricky. You have to head footballs being thrown at you. They come either straight, left of right. You have to be quick. In the midst of it, you get a tog and panda bear being thrown at you and if it hits you, you get 1 and 3 points deducted respectively from your current score.

The Table Tilt was loads of fun but the trick is not to move too fast. The aim is to drop the balls into the hole. Your body on the Balance Board controls the movement of the balls. I managed to unlock the advanced stage. Loads of fun and can be frustrating if you lose at level 7 when level 8 is the final stage which, once completed, advances you to the more difficult stage.

The media challenge that I took part in, required me to get onto the Wii Fit everyday and complete a 25 day routine. Before you start playing games, you are measured and given your BMI and then reqired to do two random body tests. Based on your current age and how you performed in the two tests, a Wii Fit Age is given to you. My age on day 1 was 39 years; and on day 25, 20years. This is how my age fluctuated over the 25 day period:

My absolute worst was 44 years on day 2 and best 20 on several occasions. I was slightly disappointed with my performance on day 17, when I reached 35 years.

The following is what my BMI was daily for the 25 day period. It fluctuated quite healthily:

Now I just have to wait and see if I come out in the top 5 for the media challenge.

Overall I’d say this is an excellent alternate to a gym membership, which we all know does not get used to its maximum compared to how much money goes into it.

Originally blogged on My Digital Life

I am very thrilled to have gotten the Wii and Wii Fit with balance board to take home to complete a 25 Day Challenge.

At the launch we were allowed to play games and it was loads of fun. I quite enjoyed the balancing games. Wii Fit is divided into four categories: Aerobic Exercise, Muscle Conditioning, Yoga Poses and Balance Games.

Last night after plugging in the console (without bothering to open the manual), was abit disappointed that the Wii Remote wasnt working. So I decided to check the manual and realised I didnt plug the sensor bar (duh). In my defence, the sensor bar was hidden in the box, so I totally missed it.

After creating my profile and basic training, a Wii age was given to me – which is 39. I dont feel so bad after hearing my colleague’s Wii age is 44. I have 25 days to get “fit”. You are prompted to select a goal after creating your profile. Since my BMI was 19.20, I made my goal to reduce my BMI to 19.

Each category comes with about four of five games that are unlocked. The more time you spend playing / getting a workout, more games become available. During my workout last night, I managed to unlock 5 games – but not all were to my liking. They open in different categories.

I started off with balancing games, did a bit of aerobic and under muscle conditioning, did some step traning. I did not attempt Yoga, yet. The most tiring activity was hula hooping. I was so out of breath after that (read: unfit).

I played for about 35-40 mins. Thereafter I played some Wii Sport. Its only been one day and I’m really enjoying it! I hope I have the will to continue my challenge over the next 24 days.

I will try to keep you updated on my progress.

Originally blogged on My Digital Life.