Tag Archives: Nintendo Wii

Retro Select, Videos

Retro Select: Endless Ocean

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Sometimes it’s nice to have a chill-out game that doesn’t make any particularly difficult demands on you. And the Wii is a great console on which to explore that sort of experience.

One of the best games in the Wii’s library in this regard is the delightfully unusual fish-poking simulatorΒ Endless Ocean,Β which tasks you with exploring the deep blue sea in search of the aforementioned fish, sunken treasure and all manner of other goodies. It’s a thoroughly pleasant time!

Check it out in the video below, and don’t forget toΒ subscribe on YouTube for more!

Retro Select, Videos

Retro Select: Boom Blox

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When we first heard that Steven Spielberg was making a game, I think the last thing anyone expected was a physics puzzler for Wii. And once that had been revealed, I think the last thing anyone expected was for it to be really good.

ButΒ Boom BloxΒ is both of those things — and I’d go so far to say it’s an essential part of any Wii library today. Offering a wealth of fun and exciting things to do for both solo players and groups of friends, this is physics puzzling done right — and not a soddingΒ Angry BirdΒ in sight.

Check it out in the video below, and don’t forget toΒ subscribe on YouTube for more!

Retro Select, Videos

Retro Select: Blast Works

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Kenta Cho’s shoot ’em ups can be a bit of an acquired taste, but let yourself get wrapped up in them and you’ll have a whole lot of fun.

A great way to do that is to have a play around with Wii titleΒ Blast Works,Β which is an adaptation of Cho’s gameΒ Tumiki Fighters — and also includes several of Cho’s games as unlockable extras. It’s a satisfying game with some thoroughly unusual mechanics in its own right — then once you’ve mastered it you can build your own with some of the most comprehensive editing tools you’ll ever see on console!

Check it out in the video below, and don’t forget toΒ subscribe on YouTube for more!

Retro Select, Videos

Retro Select: Kororinpa

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There’s a lot of really good games on the Wii, many of which are completely forgotten in the mistaken assumption that the platform’s library is “all shovelware”.

Launch titleΒ KororinpaΒ is a good example of this. It’s an excellent example of how the platform’s iconic motion controls can be used to make a really rather compelling physics puzzler — and a game that deserved to do a whole lot better than it actually did! Oh well. At least we can appreciate it now.

Check it out in the video below, and don’t forget toΒ subscribe on YouTube for more!

Retro Select, Videos

Retro Select: Geometry Wars Galaxies

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Geometry Wars: Retro Evolved is the reason I bought an Xbox 360. The beautifully clear visuals really sold “HD” to me, and thus it was that game, more than any other, that brought me into the high-definition age.

I held off playing the Wii gameΒ Geometry Wars GalaxiesΒ for quite some time, at least partly because I thought the game might lose some impact in standard definition. I was very much wrong, and now I am regretting not having played this much sooner!

Check it out in the video below, and don’t forget toΒ subscribe on YouTube for more!

Cover Games, Sonic the Hedgehog

Sonic the Hedgehog: Erinaceidae of Colour

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This article is one chapter of a multi-part Cover Game feature!
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After 2008’s entertaining but divisive Sonic Unleashed, it would be another two years before we’d see the next mainline Sonic the Hedgehog game.

There were two versions ofΒ Sonic ColoursΒ developed, both of which remembered to put the “U” in for the European version: a Wii-exclusive version that combined 2D and 3D gameplay in the way we’d come to know from “modern Sonic“, and a side-scrolling Nintendo DS version developed by Dimps that was closer in execution to the original Mega Drive games.

Today we’ll be focusing on the Wii version, though anyone who has played a Dimps-developedΒ SonicΒ game will know the DS version will also be well worth your time. I’ll leave that for you to explore yourself for now, however… we’ve got one hell of a vacation to go on!

Continue reading Sonic the Hedgehog: Erinaceidae of Colour →

Cover Games, Sonic the Hedgehog

Sonic the Hedgehog: Dare to be Different

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This article is one chapter of a multi-part Cover Game feature!
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With how positively Sonic Adventure had been received on its original release — and many subsequent Sonic releases being compared unfavourably to it — it’s surprising that Sonic Team didn’t return to the concept sooner.

Return they did, however, with an ambitious multiplatform title that was originally intended to be the third officialΒ Sonic AdventureΒ game. Initially developed under the working title ofΒ Sonic World AdventureΒ — a title it would keep in Japan —Β Sonic UnleashedΒ was intended to shake up the series in a few fundamental ways.

These days, in retrospect,Β Sonic UnleashedΒ is seen as one of the earliest examples of what some people describe as “BoostΒ Sonic“, but it’s an interesting game in its own right. Let’s take a closer look.

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Cover Games, Sonic the Hedgehog

Sonic the Hedgehog: The Storybook Adventures

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This article is one chapter of a multi-part Cover Game feature!
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The Nintendo Wii was a peculiar system, as those who have spent any time in its company will attest. And I don’t mean that in a bad way.

Rather, I’m referring to the fact that out of all the consoles in that particular generation of hardware, you were most likely to find completely unique games for Nintendo’s hardware rather than straight ports. Sometimes this happened due to a desire to make use of the Wii’s unusual control scheme; sometimes it happened as a side effect of the system’s lack of power compared to its Sony and Microsoft peers. It always resulted in games that are fascinating — not always theΒ best, but definitely always fascinating.

And theΒ Sonic the HedgehogΒ series was no exception to this rule.

Continue reading Sonic the Hedgehog: The Storybook Adventures →