Tuesday, April 15, 2008

Final Fantasy: Crystal Chronicles: Rings of Fate

A month ago Final Fantasy: Crystal Chronicles: Rings of Fate was released on the Nintendo DS. Continuing the tradition of Crystal Chronical games on Nintendo systems it retains the same charm previous ones had while removing some of the more tedious aspects.

For those who have played the GameCube Final Fantasy this is a prequel and thankfully they don't have the Miasma and a stupid lantern someone has to carry around. Fooling around with some of the multiplayer the games works nicely with dungoen crawling involving fast paced combat, simple puzzles, and even platforming. You can also go straight into quests by getting them from the king in town, no need to dredge back and forth from town to dungeon. Unfortunately you cannot play through WiFi, so get your friends ready to get together.

Friday, April 11, 2008

Strong Bad's Cool Game for Attractive People on the Wii

Strong Bad is the most famous character from the popular website www.homestarrunner.com/. This website is mostly small flash animations made for a humorous purpose. The mainly point-and-click game will be release on Nintendo's WiiWare in June. If you are a fan of Strong Bad or any of his friends, you will definately enjoy this comedic video game.


Sunday, April 6, 2008

Summer Sports: Paradise Island for the Nintendo Wii

Are you tired of winter? Do you want to escape to paradise? Why not Paradise Island. With the options to play volleyball, basketball, horseshoes, lawn darts, badminton, or croquet. There can be up to four players at one time. The game projects an image of a beautiful island in the Caribbean. The graphics are crisp and clean. To play the games you must interact using the Wii remotes. Below is a video of badminton game play.

Friday, April 4, 2008

The Wii's Aquarium: Endless Ocean



Endless Ocean was released on January 21st in North America. But Nintendo dated launches in places like Japan and Europe months ahead of North America.

After playing this game, which was able to swallow up a week of my free time, I've come to realize that I would like to be a professional Scuba diver.
The game itself has a variety of things to do while submerging to the depths of a shallow tropical ocean that is filled with aquatic life. The game begins in a humble lagoon and are given a chance to get a handle on the controls and you get to look at the first of many different species of fish.
After you're released into the larger areas of the environment you're given control of your boat and can explore different areas of interest which feature deep chasms and maze like caves where you should familiarize yourself with the different kinds of wildlife that inhabit the areas. This familiarization should help you give exciting tours to other in-game personalities that come to you for underwater tours. Tourists often show up with the goal of finding a certain kind of fish. You are given a ranking on how well you perform in catering to these tourists and giving them a look at what they came for often is the five star clincher.
Travel and tourism is not the only feature. A companion on your humble sea craft is also doing research on an ancient fish, you assist her in locating this illusive fish by setting up tracking equipment underwater.
Another great part of the game is the ability to recruit dolphins in your scuba activities. Different kinds of dolphins patrol the waters waiting to be befriended. Once this is done you can take them on travels underwater and even train them to do tricks while on the deck of your boat.
The game features a custom soundtrack ability that allows you to import your favourite songs and swim along with them. However, only one track can be loaded per swim, so your favourite songs can get quite annoying if you've been below sea level for too long.
Nintendo has offered a different kind of game to their roster. This one in particular is a great way to relax and is quite informative in the process as you learn about different types of tropical fish, some of which only appear at different times of day, month or year. A great way to keep people swimming.

Tuesday, April 1, 2008

Emergency Heros for the Nintendo Wii

In May 2008 Ubisoft will release Emergency Heros for the Nintendo Wii system. This is a first person driving game. Players drive around the city and rescue citizens in emergency situations. Ubisoft will be developing futuristic models of emergency vehicles. This game will also allow for coorperative play between two players. This will be a great game for children.

screenshots



Final Fantasy Fables: Chocobo's Dungeon

Another Final Fantasy release is coming, but this time covered in yellow feathers. Final Fantasy Fables: Chocobo's Dungeon is coming to the Wii July 8, boasting a price tag of only $39.99. Take on the role of Chocobo to explore a town and dungeons created from citizens' memories.

The game will let the player choose from one of three classes for Chocobo: knight, black mage, and white mage. It is also going to tout a Wi-Fi card battle game. It will be interesting to see how well these cute and fuzzy titles do in North America as the trend in gaming seems to gravitate towards shooters. I'll probably fall into the cute and cuddly trap and grab myself a copy.

Ninja Gaiden: Dragon Sword

Ninja Gaiden is back, but this time for the Nintendo DS. Once again the players can take the role of Ryu Hayabusa or the new role Momiji and fight legions of demons, ninjas, and dragons. While it may not look like the Ninja Gaiden everyone is used to seeing, it works well on the DS.

Combat is controlled mainly with the stylus in that the direction you swing while touching is where your character slashes and can be used to create some very nice combos if you carefully aim. While easier than previous games, you can unlock a harder difficulty by beating it once and that mode is more inline with previous games.

The game is in stores now so pick up a copy if you're interested.