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A Blog about nothing by Brian Carl
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Archive for the ‘Wii’

Smash Brothers Brawl Update

March 13, 2008 By: BC Category: Mario Kart, Smash Brothers, Smash Brothers Brawl, Uncategorized, Wii, brian carl 6 Comments →

Just a quick Smash Brothers Update. The problems with the online play seem to be universal. I hope this is something that will be resolved soon. Apparently this was a problem with Smash Brothers in Japan as well. I can’t wait for the pay-to-play model to finally come to the Wii.

Which Brings me to Mario Kart Wii. It is dated officially for April 27th. There are a lot of sweet things that this game has added from the past ones and Nintendo has yet to disappoint me on one of their Classic game series.

* The first awesome thing is Mii integration. Honestly I don’t see why more games don’t have this option.
*

Second 16 person online play. This is the first game on the Wii that handles that many players at once.

I have heard rumors Mario Kart will be the first game to use the pay to play model. I don’t mind throwing a few Wii points around if it means a better online play, because so far it has been really sub par.

And I will leave this post off with my favorite song from smash Brothers Brawl
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Super Smash Brothers Brawl - Worth the Wait?

March 10, 2008 By: BC Category: Game Cube, Gamecube, Nintendo, Nintendo Gamecube, Nintendo Wii, Smash Brothers, Super Smash Brothers, Super Smash Brothers Brawl, Wii, brian carl 3 Comments →

  1. Well I got Super Smash Brothers Brawl yesterday. I played for about 7 hours give or take. (Yeah i know i probably had better things to do but ehhh). There are a lot of similarities from the last smash brothers title, but there are some big differences as well. The positives are…
  2. - The Adventure Mode.This is a huge difference from Melee. In Melee you chose a character and then played through a mode sort of like a Mario Brothers game and play through with your one character. Now in Brawl you don’t even get to choose a character at the beginning. At each section of the game you choose a character out of a choice of 2 to 4 fighters and you play with that one until you are knocked off the stage and then you move to the next character. St first this seemed a bit weird, but it makes sense because there is a running story line. Not to give our any spoilers, but the story is good as well.

- The Controller Options.There are 4 options for the controller. This was alluded to when they originally announced the game, and many players were worried about adding motion to the game. Lucky they did right by the gamers here. Now having 4 controller options isn’t anything new for the Wii. Every other fighting game has about the same, but they all seem to work in a way that is great for the game. Also the Gamecube players love the fact that you can play with your old Gamecube controllers, but I am personally converting to the classic controller. I think overall this feels the best for me, but it’s been a tough conversion process from the gamecube controller.

- Characters.Every Smash Brothers game thus far has been exciting seeing more and more fighters added to the game. This one antes up with Melee. Brawl has all of the good characters from Brawl, minus a lot of the clones, but adds some really awesome fighters to the mix. A short list of the classics that were added is

  • Sonic
  • Snake
  • Wario
  • Pokemon Trainer
  • Pit
  • Diddy Kong

- Create a Stage Mode. I haven’t used this much yet, but I am very intrigued. It is kind of hard to use, but it is still an awesome feature to have in a game. I might be lazy, but if I can find a few cool people to make stages for me to play then I am good.

- Assist Trophy Item. Everyone favorite item in Melee is the Pokeball. If you are saying the hammer, then you are way too competitive and need to calm down. This is just like the pokeball, but uses characters that didn’t make the game as playable, but needed to be in the game. There are other cool items in the game that were added, but this is really the highlight.

Beyond that the game-play is the same. I have to note here that I did not put the online play in the positive section. This is a huge positive for the game, but there is a lot of problems with it.

  1. There is no headset. This is not necessary, but it is nice to have. There is a place in the game where you can add taunts when your fighters taunts his opponent, but it isn’t the same as saying it to them.
  2. You really need to make a phone call or IM your friends to let them know you want to play online with them. There is no point of signing online if you don’t know they are online.
  3. I don’t have a feeling yet on the playing with random people yet. The day I got the game it seemed to be down. Multiple other people I know seemed to have experienced the same problem.
  4. The last thing maybe just me not knowing how to do it, but is there a way to play with your friend and other random people? I don’t think there is, which really isn’t cool, but I could be wrong on this one.

Overall I know there is a lot going on in this game and I am disappointed with certain parts of the online play, but I still feel this is the best Wii title to date. I would go as far to say this is the best game on all Next Gen consoles as of right now.

I am Cheap and Lazy - Wii

February 25, 2008 By: BC Category: 360, Blu-ray, Format War, HD-DVD, Nintendo, Nintendo Wii, Wii, Xbox 360, brian carl, xbox 5 Comments →

While reading some of my forums today I cam across this thread about Circuit City deals for next week (March 2nd - March 8th, 2008). There is a lot of fluff, but in there it has two big deals.

  • ” TheWii IS listed in this week’s ad on Page #1 // Limited Quantities // No rain checks // Limit 1 per household // Minimum 15 per store // Get your warm winter overcoat & mittens on early to get yours” So if you are one of those people that still needs a Wii before Brawl comes out, here is your chance. Which brings us to
  • “Pre-Order Super Smash Brothers Video Game for the Wii Gaming System and Receive a $10 Gift Cardwhen you pick up the game // Game available in store 3/9/08 // $5 Deposit required to reserve your copy.” This is awesome because I am going to buy the game anyway, at least I can get some free credit for it.

There is a lot more in the tread about DVD’s on sale and CD’s but nothing quite as exciting as this.

The last thing that now that HD-DVD has given up as a format, the HD-DVD played add on to the XBOX 360is now only 50 bucks. If I had an XBOX 360 I would probably buy this for the fact you can netflix the movies and don’t need to invest more than just $50 in this dead format.

It’s about time Wii see something worthwhile

February 24, 2008 By: BC Category: C64, Commodore, Commodore 64, Nintendo, Nintendo Wii, Rock Band, Rockband, Wii, Wii Rock band, virtual console 1 Comment →

I love my wii don’t get me wrong, but to be honest things have been disappointing as of late. The only things to look forward for on the console have been repetitively pushed back *cough*Smash Brothers *cough* . This is something to get excited about again.

Nintendo announced a pay and play type channel, similar sounding to the XBOX live. You will be able to pay extra for certain games to play online like MMOS and also to be able to buy additional content for games that you already own. This explains why all of a sudden a Wii Rock Band becomes probable out of no where. When that does come out, much to the displease of my neighbors, I am going to buy.

There is still a lot of time and not enough info for Nintendo to mess this up and it not be worth the hype (like American Idol)

The other big Wii news last week was the Commodore 64 games are coming to the virtual console. I for one am stoked. I grew up playing the C64 and I am glad to see its return.