Wii Sports Resort is the sequel to Wii Sports, Nintendo’s launch title, which came bundled with all Wii consoles in South Africa.

The game takes place on Wuhu Island, with 12 activities available for play: archery, frisbee, basketball, cycling, canoeing, power cruising, table tennis, air sports, bowling, swordplay, golf and wakeboarding.

Each game has its own variation and multiple levels of difficulty, which are unlockable. One remote can be used for up to four players in all games except canoeing, where a remote is required for each player.

For the Wii Motion Plus, an expansion to the Wii remote is provided, for more accurate gameplay. The sensor on the Motion Plus enhances the accelerometer and sensor bar on the Wii remote, which depicts identical movements on-screen and in real-time. Movements during swordplay may cause the Wii remote to lose synchronisation with the Wii Motion Plus.

The most enjoyable and truly challenging game is undoubtedly archery, which provides hours of fun. The Wii remote is used as a bow while the Nunchuck is used for drawing. Starting at beginner mode, gamers will end up playing until they reach expert level, it’s that addictive!

One-on-one basketball is fast-paced as there’s just one minute to shoot the most hoops. It’s a little tricky initially, but once you get the hang of it, it will leave you wanting to top your previous score.

Wakeboarding is fun at the beginning, but once all the tricks have been figured out, interest is lost. Of course, it’s nothing like wakeboarding in real life. The least exciting game – maybe not surprisingly – is bowling.

Wii Sports Resort comes nowhere near the Wii Fit, one of Nintendo’s best-selling titles. Unlike the Wii Fit, Wii Sports Resort cannot be played over and over. It’s only exciting in the beginning of each of the various levels of difficulty. Once they’ve been mastered, the game quickly loses its appeal.

Written for Digital Life, September / October 2009.

Later this month Wii Sports Resort launches and it looks like loads of fun (its compatible with the Wii MotionPlus). If you enjoyed the Wii Fit, then you’d probably enjoy this a bit more. It includes the folllowing games: Archery, Air Sports, Basketball, Bowling, Canoeing, Cycling, Frisbee, Golf, Power Cruising, Swordplay, Table Tennis and Wakeboarding.

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

Unless you’ve run out of Wii games to play, you won’t be rushing out to buy this title. I found this game such a chore to play. Perhaps it was the freaky-looking creepy crawlies that were off-putting or maybe it had something to do with me being female. Whatever the reason, I didn’t enjoy it.

To start playing Deadly Creatures, you have to select what you want to start off play as, a scorpion or a tarantula. Each of these creatures has different fighting styles. The tarantula is quick but vulnerable and cannot block attacks while the scorpion is slower, packs more punch and has an advantage of brutal finishing moves but isn’t as agile as the tarantula. Once you’re done with your selection, all you have to do now is start fighting insects, spiders and reptiles. And they’re not pretty looking, so consider yourself warned.

Gameplay requires the use of both the Wii remote and the Nunchuck. The Wii remote is used to attack and the Nunchuck is used for movement. The game has ten stages which alternate between the tarantula and the scorpion. In other words, there are five scorpion stages and five tarantula stages. Each stage has multiple goals, like getting to a specific location or exploring a certain area. Every time you complete a goal, the next one pops up. You are tasked with completing goals by using the character’s abilities. The scorpion, for example, is able to cut through grass and reach new areas, while the tarantula is able to jump through webs, something the scorpion can’t do.

There is a story to the game, but it seems a bit pointless as the main focus of Deadly Creatures is engaging in brutal combat. If you think you can play a game like this for hours on end, then by all means go out and get it. But, it’s not a fun, family-oriented game that everyone can participate in and certainly cannot be played over and over.

Written for: Digital Life

Nintendo has gone all out in their latest instalment of the Super Smash Bros. franchise with Super Smash Bros. Brawl. This much-anticipated title has finally reached our shores and the good news is that the Brawl roster boasts a remarkable 35 playable characters, of which 14 have to be unlocked. New characters that fans would love to see squaring off against each other are Sega’s Sonic the Hedgehog, Metal Gear’s Solid Snake and Diddy Kong from Donkey Kong.

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

As promised, here is a follow up on my progress from the media challenge.

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

Yesterday I attended the media launch of the Wii Fit.

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.