Author: Sean

Ghost Slayer (WiiWare)

This game seemed a bit dodgy at first: sword fighting with ghosts? In fact the only reason I bought it was because I thought I was going to review it for Nintendo Life, but that turned out not to be the case. That wasn’t a big deal because it’s actually a decent little game; certainly as much fun as the fencing games in Wii Sports Resort. The artwork is nice, with a main character that looks like he just walked out of the deserts of Outer Mongolia and creepy ghosts in a spooky forest.

The controls work well with good use of Wii Motion Plus. I also played without it and the developer’s solution seemed a decent one. You hold B and tilt the remote to parry blows with and without Motion Plus, but if you’re sans the peripheral you also use B to set the angle of your blade for attacking (just release the button and your blade will stay angled), rather than the game attempting to read the direction of your swing. Whilst it might seem somewhat clumsy, in fact the results are good because you don’t get any false direction reading and I had no problem playing the game either way – though I preferred the nearly button-free Motion Plus play.

There’s a number of levels and difficulties to work through with best score/times saved for future score beating and more swords to unlock, each with their own unique special attacks. If you like sword fighting games this isn’t a bad one for only 600 Points, though as of this writing it’s only available in North America.

Wii Sports Resort

I’m surprised I haven’t written anything up on this previously as I’ve had it for several months now. I was originally uninterested, then I got sucked in by the hype and then other games came up and I read reviews and lost interest again. Around Xmas time I found myself with GAME credit and nothing to spend it on and the GAME on Sauchiehall Street happened to have a like-new copy – complete with box – for less than the online price, so I decided to punt. Other than it turning out to have been owned by a smoker (thus requiring me to ditch the silicone jacket and buy a new one on Ebay after failing to purge the stench of tobacco), I found myself pleasantly surprised.

The Motion Plus peripheral works great, though as many have noted elsewhere on the internet it’s not needed for most Wii games and isn’t really fixing something that was broken. Playing games that utilise it is quite a lot of fun, with fencing, table tennis, bowling and plane flying being worth the price of admission alone.

The overall Wuhu Island theme works great and makes playing Wii Fit Plus even more fun since you can see the Island from different angles in both titles. There’s a lot of variety on offer and whilst not all events are that successful, so many work well that it would be foolish to think that Wii Sports is the end-all-be-all of sports gaming on the Wii. Nintendo have really set the bar with this collection – nicely done!

Red Steel 2

I have no knowledge or experience of the first Red Steel game beyond thinking the original ads were funny in my pre-Wii-owning days. A guy sitting on his sofa pretending to swing a sword followed by the tagline: “Only on Wii” which made me think “Only ennui” – seriously, was that irony intentional? Who were the marketers that came up with that?

Fast-forward four years later and we have a “sequel” which has nothing to do with the first game and is the first 3rd-party game that requires Wii Motion Plus – even going so far as to have a pack-in version bundled with it (that’s the version I bought just so I could have two Motion Plus attachments). Needless to say it’s a gamble for Ubisoft, but one that seems to have paid off.

The controls are excellent, using both the direction and force measurement aspects of the Motion Plus attachment to good effect. I really enjoy doing big sweeping sword movements for maximum impact – so much so that I try to limit my play time just to ensure I’m not straining my arm overmuch! Shooting your gun is also well-implemented, with a simple aiming of the remote and press of the B button to fire. Honestly I don’t even think I could play a game like this with a mouse and keyboard any more, much less use a joypad after getting used to the intuitive and natural Wii controls that nicely mimic holding a firearm.

Of course a game isn’t the sum of its controls and thankfully from end-to-end Ubisoft have delivered an experience that really does live up to the hype. The game world is gorgeous with excellent use of animation and lots of little details to take in. The cell-shaded look gives it all a nice anime feel and the character facial animation combined with first-rate voice acting in cut scenes roots you firmly in the game world.

Whilst some might think the game is a bit on the short side at around the ten hour mark, the fast-paced mix of exploration and combat with swordsmen and ninjas of various stripes using fantastic over-the-top special attacks invites multiple replays on its own. I’ve said this before, but it bears repeating: a great 10-15 hour game is far better than a good 25 hour+ game which is needlessly padded out. It’s not the duration, but the quality of the entertainment folks!

I’d love to see any kind of follow-up set in Caldera and the Red West, whether another first-person action game, an RPG, whatever – if Ubisoft can put the same amount of care and attention into other projects like this then I’ll be first in the queue to slap down my hard-earned. This game really cements Ubisoft’s reputation on the Wii for me – good show fellas!

New Super Mario Bros. Wii

If you’ve read any of this site at all it should be apparent that I’m not a big fan of platforming games, so why on earth would I buy this? Good question actually and I’m sorry to say I just got swept up in the hype: the great visuals, the music and Charles Martinet’s enthusiasm, but in the end it’s still a Mario game and I just don’t like Mario games, sorry. It looks nice and the difficulty curve is loads better than Super Mario Bros. 3 (which the overworld and level design of this game bears a strong resemblance to), but ultimately I’m not really interested, so I traded it in today.

Crazy Climber (Virtual Console Arcade)

One of the first dual stick games, in the arcade this one could be a pain in the ass to play, but somehow I still loved it. Make the crazy man climb the side of a skyscraper with some rather unusual geometry to reach a helicopter at the top using one joystick to control each arm whilst avoiding falling bricks, bird eggs and people dropping flower pots on your head (seriously murderous tenants, eh?).

You really cannot fault the CC/Pro dual analogue controls. If you’re used to playing it via an emulator like MAME you’ll note the music is a bit different and the “Go For It!” sound sample is missing (instead there’s a voice you can barely make out; possibly saying something in Japanese). Whilst the music and samples are different, it’s the same gameplay and sound effects and it’s brilliant. If you’re a fan of the oldies I probably don’t need to tell you to download this one (assuming you’ve got a Japanese Wii).

Moon Cresta (Virtual Console Arcade)

This is a guilty pleasure from my youth, fuelled by the nostalgia of it being one of the first games I ever laid eyes on at my local arcade. It’s a vertical shooter from Nichibutsu which features some groovy music and a rather novel multi-stage player ship design rather than the conventional three lives. At the midway point and after completing all enemy waves you’ll get the opportunity to dock the sections, creating a more powerful ship. It’s not an easy game because the enemies bob and jig about and your rate of fire is pretty crap, but I love it to bits and I’m thrilled Hamster Co. decided to bring this and Crazy Climber to the Wii in Japan.

Overturn (WiiWare)

I already wrote a review of the Japanese version of this game, but I’ve been wanting a PAL release for a long time. It’s partially because I felt I wasn’t quite getting the tournament structure due to the language barrier, partially because I was hoping someone would translate the Story Mode (sadly that’s been cut from the PAL as well as the North American release), partially because online is dead at the times I’m online (or just dead generally in Japan), but mainly because my Balance Board is synced to my PAL Wii and switching that peripheral over just to play one game occasionally is a big pain in the ass. Thank you Gamebridge for gifting Nintendo Life a copy and thanks to the NL guys for steering it to me.

It’s a great game for fans of mecha fighting games and the Balance Board control is awesome – it adds a new and intuitive dimension to the gameplay and is the kind of interface more developers should be pushing on us. Best of all I even had my first online match (just one-on-one) with a fellow from Germany (sorry I mopped up the floor with you dude, but I had prior experience so don’t feel too bad). Unfortunately you only appear to be able to play online against other players in your territory (there’s a little note to that effect displayed in the online lobby) and past experiments in swapping Japanese and North American Overturn friend codes have ended in failure – probably a result of the game being originally designed without any thought to export it.

We can all hope that people will form clans and partake of online matches from time to time, but the solo game is still a blast and the price is right so I definitely recommend taking the plunge on this one.

Rabbids Go Home

I’ve skipped all previous Rabbids games because I’m not the biggest fan of slapstick or goofy mini-game collections. I got this on the back of James Newton’s excellent review and the news on Wii Folder that the virtual rabbid figurines you can create in the “Rabbid in your Remote” bonus part of the game can actually be ordered as physical items(!!!) – how cool is that?

At first I thought it was a bit boring just moving your little shopping cart around collecting rubbish with bits of grade-school humour (think Jerry Lewis, not Farrelly Bros.) interspersed. After the intro level the claws were definitely in and the combination of great analogue control, attention to detail and that fantastic rabbid customisation bit (which also allows you to swap out the in-game rabbids for your own) make this a game that even a miserable, old bastard like me can enjoy. I had it crash at the end of the 3rd “bubble bed” level which kinda sucked, but I couldn’t make it crash again so I won’t hold it against you too much, Ubisoft.

It’s lots of fun and features a surprising amount of licensed music from the 70s that older players like me will be tickled to death by. After finishing the game you can build new rabbids figurines and then install the Rabbids Channel where you can submit your custom Rabbids to contests a la the Mii Contest/Check Mii Out Channel and view the creations of others. This is the kind of 3rd party effort we really want guys, so support it!

Tatsunoko Vs. Capcom: Ultimate All Stars

Back when dinosaurs walked the earth there was a game that pretty much defined the fighting game genre: Street Fighter II. My mates and I played the heck out of that on the Genesis in Hyper Fighting, Championship Edition or whatever other iteration Capcom released in an effort to drive the franchise into the ground as quickly as possible. It was a great game with funny taglines for the characters and great ending sequences – genre-defining indeed. Later they released the Alpha series, SF3 and the Vs. series all bearing the venerable Street Fighter name.

I’ve played all of them in the arcades, but whilst the graphics were better the games just didn’t feel right to me. More characters and more special moves were being added, and with crazy combos and jacked-up difficulty it just stopped being fun for me. The newer games were targeted at the hardcore players who would live-breathe-eat the games learn all the moves and jump in on your game to force you off the machine in a quick 30 sec. match.

As a consequence I had determined to give this game a pass back when it was released in Japan as “Cross Generation of Heroes,” figuring it would be more of the same. Still, I loved the promotional film for the Japanese release and seeing characters from Gatchaman/Battle of the Planets really piqued my interest. Zavvi was doing pre-orders for only £17.95 and again the Nintendo Life review pushed me over the edge and I decided to give it a go. Since I got it in the post it’s been a rare day that I’ve not played it, it’s so good. The controls are accessible, the moves work like the old SFII moves, the hypers are brilliantly over the top and the Tatsunoko characters have me looking at buying some anime for the first time in years.

The final boss is crap, but with a little persistence and some “let’s play” videos you can be its master. Hopefully a sequel is in the offing that will do a proper boss (Bison and Zoltan maybe?) and expand the roster. I’ve still got a lot of stuff to unlock and then I need to get in more online matches – it’s a game that will keep you coming back for more, including that movie I mentioned earlier (hopefully I’ll get to see it again soon)! If you’re someone who fondly remembers the old Street Fighter II games and joined the Wii generation you owe it to yourself to bask in the memories and get this game!

Quarth (Virtual Console MSX)

The great thing about having a Japanese Wii is getting access to not only Virtual Console games that weren’t released outside of Japan, but getting access to systems which haven’t seen the light of day on the other Virtual Consoles. Of course I’m referring to the MSX, a failed computer hardware standard that was most popular in Japan (and to a lesser extent Europe), but is almost unknown in North America. There’s some decent stuff on it including nice arcade ports like this one.

Quarth was released as Block Hole in North America in the arcades and on the Gameboy. I bought the Gameboy cart because I enjoyed the arcade game and the quality of the port was quite impressive. This MSX version is also outstanding and even improves upon the arcade by giving you a choice of ship as well as customisation of a variety of settings.

The gameplay is pretty basic: you’re moving your ship back-and-forth shooting blocks at what are essentially groups of tetraminos. The background is vertically scrolling and your object is to complete the shapes so they form rectangles or squares; clearing them before they breach the line at the bottom of the screen and destroy your space ship. It’s a simple and fun concept that proves quite challenging near the end of each level when the scrolling speeds up. The broken shapes are often grouped together so it’s possible to clear many at once provided you can create a complete line around them, also netting you bonus points. Rounding out the experience is a really nice soundtrack.

If you have the means definitely give it a look as it’s probably the best version of the game going.

Rubik’s Puzzle Galaxy: RUSH (WiiWare)

The Wii is a puzzle game magnet, mainly because of the wonderful range of interface options; especially the pointer which makes for a nice mouse analogue. This was originally one of several puzzle games included in the disc release Rubik’s Puzzle Galaxy, however Two Tribes have wisely decided to enhance each of the offerings from that title and release them separately on WiiWare (do doubt to compensate for the lack of exposure afforded to niche releases on crowded Wii shelves).

In RUSH individual Rubik’s cube bits spawn from designated areas on a floating structure with the object being to guide them to exit portals elsewhere lest they roll off into space or hit each other. There are a variety of tools available to redirect the cubes on their journey and dozens of puzzles grouped according to difficulty.

The presentation is excellent with crisp, minimalist visuals and an engaging electronic soundtrack. The controls are centred around the remote pointer. You simply click on the tools with A and then move the pointer around the platform to place them as you see fit. You can click B to remove tools if you change your mind about placement and clicking A and B together will “grab” the platform, allowing you to change the camera angle as you see fit by holding the buttons and moving the pointer around.

As a nice bonus there’s a virtual Rubik’s Cube you can manipulate with the remote using button press and motion and a tutorial on how to solve it (my old method of taking it apart worked pretty well, but it’s cool that there’s a way to do it “for reals”).

A great package and well worth picking up for fans of puzzle games, cheers guys!

There’s been some debate about viewing video games as art, but here’s a game that should put that argument to rest. Muramasa: The Demon Blade is quite possibly the most beautiful game to appear on any platform, ever. It’s not just the detail in the characters and the animated backgrounds, but the style. The design sensibility is unique, echoing more old Japanese paintings or shadow puppets than modern anime which suits the medieval Japanese setting right down to its core.

From a gameplay perspective Muramasa feels like an old beat-em-up game with players taking their avatar on a journey through Tokugawa Japan. There’s random encounters with demons, ninjas and enemy samurai and boss fights with awesomely detailed monsters and human foes. Just writing it off as a “button masher” does the game a great disservice however as the action sequences are tied together in two stories that feel like they’ve been taken directly from Japanese mythology.

The stories concern two characters: Momohime and Kisuke, both of whom are questing for an Oboromuramasa or Demon Blade. Momohime is possessed by the soul of a treacherous sword master named Jinkuro who seeks a Demon Blade forged in Hell that will allow him to transfer his soul to a new body. Kisuke is a ninja who has lost his memory and seeks to find a Demon Blade possessed by a vengeful god which will bring ruin upon the land if it falls into the possession of the Shogun, Tokugawa.

The narratives are strong and ably conveyed thanks to quality subtitles that capture the meaning of the Japanese audio without being a mere literal translation of it. Given the large amount of dialogue and cast of characters it’s very much like watching a Japanese film; so it’s fitting it has a cinematic score to match. This does mean that players expecting some casual fun will probably not enjoy this game as much because there’s no hand-holding in the storytelling: you do need to pay attention in order to follow what’s happening and every boss fight is preceded by mandatory conversations with bystanders and enemies alike.

Muramasa is steeped in Japanese culture and mythology; so much so that in the past it would probably have stayed in Japan unless subjected to extensive editing. Whilst a knowledge of Japanese history, culture and religion will make it easier to follow what’s happening, mostly you just need to be open to the experience. You’ll fight classic Japanese demons like kappas and tengu, journey through Hell to combat demon lords and venture to the steps of Heaven to take on the gods themselves. Japanese religion and spirituality are referenced throughout and the story endings are faithful to Buddhist ideals of redemption and enlightenment.

Food plays a prominent role as well – which is rather novel in any game, much less a hack-and-slash affair like this one. Venturing into the many cafes, inns and restaurants provides not only a health boost for our weary heroes, but a break from the action as you press the A button to enact the eating of the lushly animated food placed before you. In the course of the game you’ll acquire recipes and ingredients used to cook meals between battles which are similarly rendered in loving detail – so much so that you may fancy a trip to a Japanese restaurant afterwards!

Food is not only used to restore health but provides temporary game benefits like reducing random enemy encounters or boosting attack strength, so having a tofu hot pot is as much a strategic decision as a necessity. You can also prepare food items to consume in the midst of combat like onigiri (rice triangles), roasted yams, fish or squid. There are other health boosts available in the form of food and beverage items you acquire like peaches or sake, or traditional medicines like pellets made from bear or tiger gall bladders.

Acquiring and learning to use the titular Muramasa blades is a key aspect of the game. There are 100 blades in all which are forged with the souls you collect from defeated foes (and those just lying about for you to find in wild areas) or awarded following boss fights; with the latter being key to breaking barriers to access new areas in order to advance the story.

There are two types of Muramasa: long blades which do more damage with each blow but have slower attacks and regular blades which lend themselves to building massive combos of consecutive attacks, but do less damage with each slice. Each blade has a powerful Secret Art which is triggered with a press of the B button. Using Secret Arts and parrying enemy attacks will reduce the soul metre on your sword – which you need to be mindful of lest your sword be broken.

Whilst sheathed your sword’s soul gradually regenerates as it “drinks the blood of the slain,” and you can carry three swords at any one time to aid you in balancing your attacks. If your sword does break it can still be used to attack, but it cannot parry or block attacks; nor can the Secret Arts be used.

Whilst you can just try pressing A repeatedly and get through the game playing the Muso or “normal” mode, switching to Shura or “hard” mode will provide a more satisfying experience once you familiarise yourself with the range of combat moves available. Your ability to parry and block attacks is reduced in Shura with the focus on technique and learning how to effectively use the Secret Arts. You can switch between Muso and Shura play modes at any time if you feel the going is a bit easy or proving too challenging.

Each story can be played through in less than 10 hours. Some secondary characters are common to both stories and the two main characters meet face-to-face at the hot springs (yet another place players can take a break whilst their characters recharge their health and soul), but their stories don’t really intersect that much and their boss battles and conclusions are different.

Once you complete both stories you can choose to continue both characters’ tales (a single save game contains data for both stories) prior to their final boss encounter in order to unlock any remaining swords, fight the other character’s bosses and find hidden bonus objects. You’ll also get the ability to warp between the shrines which act as save points, staffed by the bewitching fox spirits that act as guides on your journey.

Muramasa: The Demon Blade is a gem of a game which probably won’t enjoy a large audience due to the nature and content of its stories. From a gameplay perspective it’s great fun, but in order to fully appreciate it you’ll need an interest in Japanese culture and history. Vanillaware have positioned themselves as one of the premier Wii developers thanks to the exquisite detail and solid gameplay contained within. All due thanks to Rising Star for bringing this game to the UK whilst maintaining the quality of presentation and the integrity of the story.

Link’s Crossbow Training

This is a nice little target shooting game that was probably overlooked by a lot of people because it was exclusively offered with that rediculous plastic shell, the Wii Zapper. Fortunately the Zapper is unnecessary and thanks to Ebay you can find people selling the game separately, so I picked it up to give it a try before donating it to the Wii collection at my office.

It’s basically The Legend of Zelda’s answer to Capcom’s Resident Evil “Chronicles” series. You’ll find yourself touring a number of environments from Twilight Princess, shooting targets and monsters from the game (at long last you’ll find out the names of those things). Best of all it’s not all fixed camera shooting: some bits do have the camera locked in place, but others use the pointer to change view or make use of the control stick for moving Link about to take down enemies in fixed positions. Most exciting is the level where you’re defending the carriage against the marauders on the backs of giant boars — much less tedious taking them down with a crossbow in a cart rather than having to steer your horse as well!

All the levels are timed with only the first three being unlocked initially (though each one has three different areas within it). If you can get the target score on Level 3 you’ll earn a medal and then unlock the next level; eventually unlocking nine in all. You can also play the individual events in Practice Mode and Multiplayer (each of them having additional levels available as they’re unlocked in the primary Score Attack mode).

The producer has said he’d like to do a sequel, and given how much I prefer the RE shooters to the actual RE games, I’d have to say I quite enjoyed this and wouldn’t mind seeing a more fleshed-out follow-up.

Zaxxon (Virtual Console Arcade)

Not the best Sega arcade game ever due to the unconventional isometric view that makes it confusing to line up with your target (especially true in the space sequences) and a giant analogue flight stick that made it even tougher to control your ship – especially when it broke, which was pretty often.

Thankfully it’s nicely emulated and it appears to be the first Sega VCA title to support widescreen displays (meaning the display is already pillarboxed and you won’t need to mess with your TV controls); a good thing too, because otherwise the fact it was on a vertical monitor in the arcade would mean the game would take up even less screen real estate! The analogue stick on the nunchuk or Classic Controller Pro (my weapon of choice) works just as well as my Playstation dual analogue controller via MAME OS X on my iBook, though it still cannot overcome the limitations of the original game. You can remap the fire button wherever you like and there’s an option to configure a button for auto-fire if you so desire.

I think Future Spy (another isometric shooter from Sega) is a better game, but Zaxxon is worth having in your collection if you’re a nostalgic old fart like me.

Blaster Master (Virtual Console NES)

Sunsoft was known for getting the most out of the NES and this is exhibit A for that case. Wow, I really haven’t seen a nicer looking NES game than this and the music is excellent. You control a little spaceman in a tank that trundles along blasting enemies and jumps between platforms. When you get to little doors you can exit the tank and go into dungeon areas on foot where the game switches perspectives for the boss battles. On top of that there’s upgrades for your tank and special weapons to find. Far more than I would expect from a NES game and a must for the retro-junkie.

Ordyne (Virtual Console Arcade)

A cutesy shooter from Namco that already has a pretty decent PC Engine port, but I decided to forego that in favour of the arcade original. Music is excellent and it’s a challenging little game where you shoot various critters for money which you use to buy temporary upgrades for your ship. Not brilliant, but fun nonetheless.

Rompers (Virtual Console Arcade)

Now this is brilliant. A great maze game as only Namco can make them. Your little straw-hatted chibi character needs to get all the keys Pac-Man-style and avoid monsters in order to open the door to the next level. Your only weapon is the ability to push walls over to squish the baddies who then respawn from eggs. It’s great fun and has a nice playful air about it. The only console release it ever had was on the original Namco Museum Encore in Japan, so I’ve been waiting a long time to play this on something other than a home computer and it’s wonderful, though people without a Japanese Wii are sadly out of luck.

Chō Aniki (Virtual Console PC Engine)

I actually bought the sequel before this one, but felt I should check this out before reviewing the former. Whilst there’s no question that Ai Chō Aniki is superior in every way this is still a pleasantly bizarre shooter with a good soundtrack. It’s a little bit more pedestrian than the utterly insanse follow-up, but still good fun.

Galaga (Virtual Console Arcade)

What more needs to be said about this game? Certainly it’s the best vertical shooter EVER and this is a fantastic emulation of it. The only downside is the fact that no d-pad will provide the click response of a proper arcade microswitch. Get it now!

Toy Pop (Virtual Console Arcade)

Another classic from Namco. 1 or 2 players move through a series of single screen mazes (yay!) destroying giftboxes to find bonus items and special shots to dispatch rampaging toys. Some toys can only be killed by certain items which ups the challenge and ensures you’re always breaking boxes looking for the one you need presently. Get the hearts in jars to open the door and go to the next level. This kind of game is why Namco are the true masters of arcade fun!