Wesley Fenlon

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Stories By Wesley Fenlon

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    Nintendo
    Nintendo By Wesley Fenlon

    Born for Wii: Blade Runner

    It's always dark in the city. Always raining. The light from a thousand neon signs is refracted and scattered by the smog that hangs in the air, ominous and ever-present. Spinners pass by quietly overhead while those too poor to own a car travel by foot, hurrying with umbrellas clutched tightly and collars upturned against the cold and rain. A handful aren't even real -- fake, synthetic, the creations of man in his own image, now considered a threat and forbidden to walk the streets of L.A. For them, the chase is a fight for survival. They have no right to life. For you, it's just another day on the job. Retiring replicants is your business. You're a blade runner.More than 25 years after its release, Ridley Scott's Blade Runner still stands as one of the best science fiction movies of all time. It's a haunting dystopian noir, a gripping mystery, and a special effects marvel. In a fitting tribute to the film, Westwood Studios revisited L.A. circa 2019 in their 1997 adventure game, simply titled Blade Runner. The events of the game play out in parallel to the story of Rick Deckard, as rookie blade Ray McCoy hunts down his own set of dangerous replicants. Westwood's point-and-click adventure was an ambitious project for 1997, but it succeeds on all fronts: it's consistently atmospheric, delivers a solid and well-acted script, and alters the traditional gameplay enough to be a fresh take on the genre. #ninbutton { border-style: solid; border-color: #000; border-width: 2px; background-color: #BBB; color: #000; text-decoration: none; width: 100px; text-align: center; padding: 2px 2px 2px 2px; margin: 2px 2px 2px 2px; } .buttontext { color: #000; text-decoration: none; font: bold 14pt Helvetica; } #ninbutton:hover { text-decoration: none; color: #BBB; background-color: #000; } NEXT >> %Gallery-42597% Every week, Born for Wii digs into gaming's sordid past to unearth a new treasure fit for revival on the Nintendo Wii. Be sure to check out last week's entry in the series, BattleTanx: Global Assault, and for more great titles that deserve your attention, take a look at Virtually Overlooked.

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    Nintendo
    Nintendo By Wesley Fenlon

    Born for Wii: BattleTanx: Global Assault

    Sometimes looking back at the games of our childhood days can be painful. More than a decade later, it's hard to imagine how Combat Cars for the Sega Genesis was ever...well, fun. Ah, the indiscretion of youth: hoarding your money, saving for that one, glorious moment when you pick out a new game to take home and devour, only to realize, years later, how terrible it really was. Still, blind purchases could occasionally lead to good things, and a few weeks ago I went home and recovered my Nintendo 64 from its years of storage exile for the express purpose of reliving some of those magical gaming sessions of my youth. In this case, the game in question was BattleTanx: Global Assault.Likely one of the few good games to ever come out of the offices of the now-defunct 3DO, BattleTanx is about as straightforward as its name implies. The game turns 10 years old in 2009, and despite the fact that it looks and play like a Nintendo 64 game from 1999, it's still a lot of fun. Simple, arcadey gameplay, a multitude of tanks and a solid lineup of secondary weapons guarantee hours of mindless fun. The single-player is easy to plow through in short order, but fun enough to come back to -- and the real draw lies in the multiplayer, which rivaled Goldeneye, Smash Bros., and Mario Kart for four-player mayhem. Ready to take up arms with Battlelord Griffin Spade and Born for Wii as we assault the post-apocalyptic globe? Hit the link below. #ninbutton { border-style: solid; border-color: #000; border-width: 2px; background-color: #BBB; color: #000; text-decoration: none; width: 100px; text-align: center; padding: 2px 2px 2px 2px; margin: 2px 2px 2px 2px; } .buttontext { color: #000; text-decoration: none; font: bold 14pt Helvetica; } #ninbutton:hover { text-decoration: none; color: #BBB; background-color: #000; } NEXT >> %Gallery-41978% Every week, Born for Wii digs into gaming's sordid past to unearth a new treasure fit for revival on the Nintendo Wii. Be sure to check out last week's entry in the series, Super Mario Sunshine, and for more great titles that deserve your attention, take a look at Virtually Overlooked.

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    Nintendo
    Nintendo By Wesley Fenlon

    Born for Wii: Mario Sunshine

    Now that 2008 is tightly packed away into our memories and the glorious new year is unfolding before our very eyes, we're caught between looking backwards at what 2008 imparted upon us and anticipating what 2009 has to offer. Even though Born for Wii is all about looking backwards, it's hard not to be excited about what this year is bringing to the Wii: in just a couple months, the New Play Control version of Pikmin will be hitting the States, and it will be good times. But we've still got awhile to wait until then, and this week we're highlighting a sorely underappreciated Nintendo game of last generation: Super Mario Sunshine.Mario Sunshine was released in 2002 as the first real successor to the groundbreaking Mario 64, and it was clear from the beginning that things were going to be a little different. For starters, Mario was on vacation on a tropical island, and soon found himself equipped with a water pack for cleaning up sludge. Though it was generally well-reviewed, Mario Sunshine has since become somewhat of a whipping boy in the fan community, and many claim that it didn't live up to groundbreaking pedigree Mario 64 established years earlier. Mario Galaxy managed to exceed its predecessors in virtually every way possible, but in the end, Sunshine still has things worth going back for. The wonderful tropical locale, the FLUDD-less levels, and some fun water pack puzzles all made Mario Sunshine a worthwhile endeavor, and a New Play Control version would give Nintendo the chance to polish its shortcomings and give Mario the vacation he deserved. #ninbutton { border-style: solid; border-color: #000; border-width: 2px; background-color: #BBB; color: #000; text-decoration: none; width: 100px; text-align: center; padding: 2px 2px 2px 2px; margin: 2px 2px 2px 2px; } .buttontext { color: #000; text-decoration: none; font: bold 14pt Helvetica; } #ninbutton:hover { text-decoration: none; color: #BBB; background-color: #000; } NEXT >> %Gallery-40643% Every week, Born for Wii digs into gaming's sordid past to unearth a new treasure fit for revival on the Nintendo Wii. Be sure to check out last week's entry in the series, NBA Jam, and for more great titles that deserve your attention, take a look at Virtually Overlooked.

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    Nintendo
    Nintendo By Wesley Fenlon

    Born for Wii: NBA Jam

    Nintendo knows how to sell you a console. Whether it's Tetris bundled with every Game Boy, Super Mario World packed in with each shiny new SNES, or Wii Sports freely tagging along with the bazillions of Wiis they've sold in the past two years, the gaming giant has a history of providing fun and enticing games as a free incentive to buy their consoles. This generation, Wii Sports has certainly become a runaway success -- there's probably an unsettling number of people who never even put another game in their system. And while Wii Sports can be a lot of fun, it's obviously a pretty simplistic experience that doesn't cover the range of entertainment sports have to offer. Sports videogames often get a bad rap for spawning milked franchises and little but roster changes from year-to-year, but every so often a game comes along and totally annihilates the formula. In 1993, that game was NBA Jam. Midway's NBA Jam defined and popularized an arcadey, totally unrealistic and totally awesome style of gameplay for sports games. No fouls. Superhuman dunks. Turbo mode. Like the football series NFL Blitz Midway would develop several years later, NBA Jam passed up the finer points of basketball (like, you know, the rules) to focus on what really made the game fun. It's been several years since anything inspired by NBA Jam saw the light of day, and it's high time this timeless series returns to its former glory with a new take on its wacky, blissful gameplay. #ninbutton { border-style: solid; border-color: #000; border-width: 2px; background-color: #BBB; color: #000; text-decoration: none; width: 100px; text-align: center; padding: 2px 2px 2px 2px; margin: 2px 2px 2px 2px; } .buttontext { color: #000; text-decoration: none; font: bold 14pt Helvetica; } #ninbutton:hover { text-decoration: none; color: #BBB; background-color: #000; } NEXT >> %Gallery-40285% Every week, Born for Wii digs into gaming's sordid past to unearth a new treasure fit for revival on the Nintendo Wii. Be sure to check out last week's entry in the series, Oddworld: Stranger's Wrath, and for more great titles that deserve your attention, take a look at Virtually Overlooked.

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    Nintendo
    Nintendo By Wesley Fenlon

    Born for Wii: Stranger's Wrath

    After the dreary all-night study benders, frantic cramming, and endless writing that coalesce to produce the torturous period that is college finals, gamers around the country find time to kick back, relax, and play through the dreaded backlog that resulted from the flood of titles released during the holiday season. After playing through the wonderful Mirror's Edge, I set my sights on an older title I'd had sitting around for several months (thanks to the Xbox 360's spotty backwards compatibility). That game was Oddworld: Stranger's Wrath.Released towards the end of the Xbox's life cycle in 2005, Stranger's Wrath was also the last game created by Oddworld Inhabitants before the studio shifted focus to creating cinematic movies. And it's a shame, because Stranger's Wrath succeeds at everything it attempts. It's fun, inventive, and as full of life as every other Oddworld creation. Follow along with Stranger (in both first and third person!) as he tracks down bounties in the Odd version of the Old West in this week's Born for Wii. #ninbutton { border-style: solid; border-color: #000; border-width: 2px; background-color: #BBB; color: #000; text-decoration: none; width: 100px; text-align: center; padding: 2px 2px 2px 2px; margin: 2px 2px 2px 2px; } .buttontext { color: #000; text-decoration: none; font: bold 14pt Helvetica; } #ninbutton:hover { text-decoration: none; color: #BBB; background-color: #000; } NEXT >> %Gallery-39955% Every week, Born for Wii digs into gaming's sordid past to unearth a new treasure fit for revival on the Nintendo Wii. Be sure to check out last week's entry in the series, Marvel vs. Capcom 2, and for more great titles that deserve your attention, take a look at Virtually Overlooked.

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    Nintendo
    Nintendo By Wesley Fenlon

    Born for Wii: Marvel vs. Capcom 2

    Capcom has been on a roll this generation. First we got games like Dead Rising and Lost Planet which launched strong new IPs. Then the announcements started to hit. An Okami port for the Wii. Dead Rising: Chop Till You Drop. Resident Evil 5 (which, judging by its recent demo, seems to be shaping up nicely). Street Fighter 4. Mega Man 9. Granted, not all of those games are making their way to the Wii, but on the whole they represent good times for gamers. Does it really get much better than that? Maybe it does.As if the decade-in-the-making Street Fighter 4 wasn't enough to reinvigorate Capcom's fighting game base, the company decided to once again visit its vs. series with Tatsunoko vs. Capcom. Just launched in Japan, the new fighter already has adventurous message boarders and bloggers scrambling for imports and Twilight hacks, while the rest of us pray nightly for the miracle of resolved licensing issues and a domestic release. In the spirit of Wii gamers in the land of the rising sun playing the gorgeous Tatsunoko vs. Capcom, this week Born for Wii aims to celebrate with a look back at what may be the most legendary game in the vs. series -- Marvel vs. Capcom 2. #ninbutton { border-style: solid; border-color: #000; border-width: 2px; background-color: #BBB; color: #000; text-decoration: none; width: 100px; text-align: center; padding: 2px 2px 2px 2px; margin: 2px 2px 2px 2px; } .buttontext { color: #000; text-decoration: none; font: bold 14pt Helvetica; } #ninbutton:hover { text-decoration: none; color: #BBB; background-color: #000; } NEXT >> %Gallery-39415% Every week, Born for Wii digs into gaming's sordid past to unearth a new treasure fit for revival on the Nintendo Wii. Be sure to check out last week's entry in the series, Metal Arms: Glitch in the System, and for more great titles that deserve your attention, take a look at Virtually Overlooked.

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    Nintendo
    Nintendo By Wesley Fenlon

    Born for Wii: Metal Arms

    In an industry perpetuated by sequels, we see plenty of gamers rabidly demanding new installments in their favorite series, whether it be the predictable Madden: Year Edition, Medal of Honor: Kill Some More Nazis, or Metal Gear Solid: Even Longer Cutscenes. Of course, there's also a vocal community crying out against the terrible process of franchise-milking, demanding fresh characters and fresher concepts. Every year there are a few surprisingly original titles from the big studios. This year EA has been surpringly generous with new IPs, publishing heavy-hitters like Mirror's Edge and Dead Space. In the past, we've gotten gems like Beyond Good & Evil and Zack & Wiki. Unfortunately, as we all know, new franchises mean new risks, and they don't always sell as well as they deserve.Last generation, few games exemplified this tragic situation more than Metal Arms: Glitch in the System. Created by Swingin' Ape Studios, this wonderfully charming and surprisingly deep third-person shooter would be the developer's only project -- though they started work on the infamous Starcraft Ghost, they were eventually absorbed by Blizzard, and the game eventually disappeared. For whatever reason -- poor advertising, unappealing box art, or bad timing -- Metal Arms was overlooked by many a gamer. Those who gave it a chance discovered a lengthy quest chock full of hilarious characters, a genuinely original world, and a veritable ton of weapons, and that's why Glitch in the System is this week's game that's Born for Wii. #ninbutton { border-style: solid; border-color: #000; border-width: 2px; background-color: #BBB; color: #000; text-decoration: none; width: 100px; text-align: center; padding: 2px 2px 2px 2px; margin: 2px 2px 2px 2px; } .buttontext { color: #000; text-decoration: none; font: bold 14pt Helvetica; } #ninbutton:hover { text-decoration: none; color: #BBB; background-color: #000; } NEXT >> %Gallery-38875% Every week, Born for Wii digs into gaming's sordid past to unearth a new treasure fit for revival on the Nintendo Wii. Be sure to check out last week's entry in the series, Wario's Woods, and for more great titles that deserve your attention, take a look at Virtually Overlooked.

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    Nintendo By Wesley Fenlon

    Born for Wii: Wario's Woods

    Few genres can match the gnawing, unquenchable addiction of the puzzler. The classics like Tetris and Puyo Pop have populated virtually every platform under the sun in one form or another, and modern-day classics like Hexic and Zuma have undoubtedly caused more than one dreary office worker to find himself ejected from his cubicle. Sadly, just as many wonderful puzzle games have fallen by the wayside. One of those games is Wario's Woods.Wario's Woods has an odd history for a game: released on the NES and the Super NES only a few months apart in 1994, two similar, though notably different, versions of the game were on the market at the same time. Though the game only differs slightly from Puyo Pop and its various clones, the mechanics unique to Wario's Woods make it one of the most addictive puzzle games ever made. The NES version of Wario's Woods has been available on the Virtual Console for two years, but the superior Super Nintendo version is nowhere to be found. We've seen nothing new from the series for nearly 15 years -- it's well past time for a revival. And for reals, this time. #ninbutton { border-style: solid; border-color: #000; border-width: 2px; background-color: #BBB; color: #000; text-decoration: none; width: 100px; text-align: center; padding: 2px 2px 2px 2px; margin: 2px 2px 2px 2px; } .buttontext { color: #000; text-decoration: none; font: bold 14pt Helvetica; } #ninbutton:hover { text-decoration: none; color: #BBB; background-color: #000; } NEXT >> %Gallery-38304% Every week, Born for Wii digs into gaming's sordid past to unearth a new treasure fit for revival on the Nintendo Wii. Be sure to check out last week's entry in the series, Star Wars: Republic Commando, and for more great titles that deserve your attention, take a look at Virtually Overlooked.

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    Nintendo
    Nintendo By Wesley Fenlon

    Born for Wii: Wario's Woods (page 3)

    Even the Super Nintendo version of Wario's Woods has far better graphics than the NES edition that's available on the Virtual Console (and in Animal Crossing for the GameCube, if you still have that classic lying around). But Nintendo could go the extra mile and redraw Wario's Woods in big, gorgeous sprites for WiiWare, give the music a little oomph past the power of 16 bit processing, and make sure the game supports widescreen, which would come in especially handy for multiplayer matches. Wario's Woods already features quite a few game modes, ranging from a traditional series of puzzles to a progressive adventure with boss battles, time attack and 2-player. And while some puzzle games are better off a solitary experience, Wario's Woods truly shines in multiplayer. In fact, I can think of few better video game memories than the intense, madly-competitive sessions I had years ago on the Super NES version. Online play is an absolute must, and Wario's Woods would be a great game for Nintendo to promote WiiSpeak with. I think I'd buy it just to yell at my friends as I mercilessly assaulted them with perfectly-arranged combos. Puzzle games have changed and evolved over the years, expanding in gameplay modes and options to keep the experience fresh. It's ironic that Wario's Woods has received no such revisions yet remains one of the most fun, underappreciated puzzlers of all time. Just making the game available in its superior form, with online multiplayer, would be a boon to the genre. If Nintendo decided to add some new modes, supporting the Wii remote alongside a classic control scheme, so much the better. Small additions also go a long way -- unlockable characters to replace Toad, various works of art of the Mushroom Kingdom to be won and used as backgrounds -- sure, we're not talking extras to the extent of Smash Bros. Brawl, but when you combine fun rewards with an already-addictive experience... Well, let's just say that if Wario's Woods does get a remake, I may have trouble getting anything done. #ninbutton { border-style: solid; border-color: #000; border-width: 2px; background-color: #BBB; color: #000; text-decoration: none; width: 100px; text-align: center; padding: 2px 2px 2px 2px; margin: 2px 2px 2px 2px; } .buttontext { color: #000; text-decoration: none; font: bold 14pt Helvetica; } #ninbutton:hover { text-decoration: none; color: #BBB; background-color: #000; } << BACK COMMENT

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    Nintendo By Wesley Fenlon

    Born for Wii: Wario's Woods (page 2)

    Wario's Woods immediately sets itself apart from the average Nintendo game by thrusting the lovable Toad into a starring role. Mr. Mushroom Top himself rarely does more than squawk and get kidnapped, but in Wario's Woods he takes center stage. What's more, Toad actually gets in the puzzles. When he takes charge, he goes all the way. Toad's presence on screen may seem unimportant, but such a minor thing has considerable implications for the way the game actually plays. Unlike most puzzle games, in which you manhandle falling pieces via some magical and unseen force, Wario's Woods puts you in control of Toad as he walks around within the puzzle arena. Moving a character instead of the pieces themselves totally reshapes the way you think about the game. It also adds a little challenge to a pretty familiar concept, as Toad is slightly trickier to manipulate than the pieces in your average puzzler. Since Toad is running around on the ground (and eventually piles of blocks) as pieces rain down from above, you're obviously not manipulating objects as they fall. But that's what actually makes Wario's Woods as fun as it is -- once the pieces are down, Toad can lift individual blocks or entire columns and hustle them across the screen. The pieces falling from above come in a variety of shades as either monsters or bombs. And when you've got monsters and bombs, even a child knows what to do: blow stuff up. Using Toad to line up pieces in horizontal, vertical, or diagonal rows can be slightly disorienting at first, but it quickly becomes Woods' best feature, especially at the breakneck speed the game eventually demands. Wario's Woods uses a surprisingly complex control scheme for a puzzle game, taking advantage of every button on the Super Nintendo's pad. The D-pad moves Toad around. The A button lifts an entire stack of pieces at once, while B picks up the individual piece Toad is facing. Y (or the triggers) will kick pieces to each side for speedy monster or bomb rearrangement, while X makes Toad jump to the top of a column, assuring that you can't get lodged under a pile of puzzle pieces. Thanks to the wonder of the Classic Controller (or the infinitely more awesome SNES Pad, if you're outrageously lucky), Wario's Woods can be played as it was intended. It's practically begging for a new iteration, and there's no better medium than WiiWare. #ninbutton { border-style: solid; border-color: #000; border-width: 2px; background-color: #BBB; color: #000; text-decoration: none; width: 100px; text-align: center; padding: 2px 2px 2px 2px; margin: 2px 2px 2px 2px; } .buttontext { color: #000; text-decoration: none; font: bold 14pt Helvetica; } #ninbutton:hover { text-decoration: none; color: #BBB; background-color: #000; } << BACK COMMENTNEXT >>

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    Nintendo By Wesley Fenlon

    Born for Wii: Star Wars Republic Commando (page 3)

    Metroid Prime 3: Corruption and Medal of Honor: Heroes 2 set the bar for shooter controls on the Wii, and Wiimote pointing is ideal for Republic Commando's command system. By taking cues from its predecessors and retaining the feel of the original game, Republic Commando can make the transition and come out the other side as sharp as it was before. On the Xbox controller, the left and right thumbsticks are used to move and look, A is the activate button, B melees, X reloads, and Y jumps. The right trigger fires and the left trigger throws grenades, while the white and black buttons cycle through grenade and visor types. The D-pad is used to switch weapons, but holding down the A button switches each direction into a particular squad command. Republic Commando was also available for the PC, but a Wii version could potentially offer the best of both worlds: a simplified console interface with a form factor dedicated to gaming without sacrificing the accuracy of aiming on a thumbstick. The D-pad is still available for quick squad commands, and more visceral actions such as melee attacks can be handled by motion control instead of a button. And while a solid, intuitive default control setup is mandatory, the ability to customize is always a blessing, and is especially beneficial for shooters -- gamers are fickle when it comes to commands such as reloading.Though Republic Commando takes place on several planets in the Star Wars galaxy, most critiques of the game centered on its length. It is pretty short, and the ending only leaves you wanting more. Sure, it's only been three years, but there's no indication Republic Commando is going to get a follow-up, which is a crying shame. There's plenty of material to work with, after all -- author Karen Traviss has written four novels in the Republic Commando series, the latest of which is barely a month old. Clearly Lucasarts sees potential in the characters and setting of this little piece of the Star Wars timeline. Enough potential to warrant a sequel or an expanded version of Republic Commando, fleshing out the adventures of Delta Squad in their battle against the Separatists? The Wii may seem destined to be the perfect venue for epic lightsaber battles, but The Force Unleashed didn't exactly blow us away and let's not even talk about Lightsaber Duels -- maybe the ivory-clad Republic legions deserve another shot at the spotlight. #ninbutton { border-style: solid; border-color: #000; border-width: 2px; background-color: #BBB; color: #000; text-decoration: none; width: 100px; text-align: center; padding: 2px 2px 2px 2px; margin: 2px 2px 2px 2px; } .buttontext { color: #000; text-decoration: none; font: bold 14pt Helvetica; } #ninbutton:hover { text-decoration: none; color: #BBB; background-color: #000; } << BACK COMMENT

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    Nintendo By Wesley Fenlon

    Born for Wii: Star Wars Republic Commando (page 2)

    Republic Commando drops you into the helmet of a crack Clone Trooper during the period of galactic strife known as the Clone Wars. Instead of developing a traditional story with a super powered hero who singlehandedly saves the galaxy, Lucasarts took a smarter route. Republic Commando focuses on a four-man squad of elite troopers who work together to complete a number of deadly missions. Delta Squad is comprised of RC-1138: the Boss (no, not that one), as well as RC-1262 (Scorch), RC-1207 (Sev), and RC-1140 (Fixer). Sure, they're all clones, but since when did identical DNA mean you had to be totally derivative? Each member of the squad brings something different to the table in terms of personality and combat skills. Scorch handles demolitions, Sev is the weapons expert, and Fixer hacks whatever needs haxin'. The advantage of their unique personalities is twofold: they don't all come across as boring Jango Fett knockoffs, and their differences pave the way for some great squad-based gameplay.As the Boss, you'll give orders to the rest of the squad using context-sensitive commands. Though the interface is fairly simple -- you're not going to be navigating complex menus Rainbow Six style -- it adds enough depth to the combat to avoid the dreaded "just another shooter" territory. The squad can be ordered to secure an area, seek out enemies or back off, and more specific commands are available for each clone trooper to take cover, use turrets or breach doors, or even lay down sniper cover.When you're not issuing commands to your squad, there are plenty of aliens and droids to blast to pieces, and Republic Commando delivers the weapons in spades. From traditional blasters to sniper rifles, concussion rifles, rocket launchers and even wookie bowcasters, there's a ton of variety -- and that's before you introduce thermal detonators, flashbangs, and other grenades into the mix.Though Nintendo's consoles seem to be home to considerably fewer shooters than Microsoft's Xbox, the visual similarity between the Metroid Prime series and Republic Commando would give the game a good "in." The HUD will feel right at home to anyone who's seen through Samus's eyes, as will the alien environments. Of course, Metroid and Republic Commando diverge pretty significantly when it comes to gameplay, but the likeness is there, nevertheless. #ninbutton { border-style: solid; border-color: #000; border-width: 2px; background-color: #BBB; color: #000; text-decoration: none; width: 100px; text-align: center; padding: 2px 2px 2px 2px; margin: 2px 2px 2px 2px; } .buttontext { color: #000; text-decoration: none; font: bold 14pt Helvetica; } #ninbutton:hover { text-decoration: none; color: #BBB; background-color: #000; } << BACK COMMENTNEXT >>

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    Nintendo By Wesley Fenlon

    Born for Wii: Star Wars Republic Commando

    Star Wars games have a tough time. With a few exceptions, they generally end up steaming piles of bantha fodder. For every Knights of the Old Republic or Rogue Squadron there's a Super Bombad Racing or Revenge of the Sith. Still, each console generation manages to grab hold of a few shining stars of the Star Wars galaxy, and oftentimes these games are universally praised and well-received -- after all, anything Star Wars George Lucas didn't manage to screw up is something worth celebrating.Star Wars: Republic Commando, developed in-house at Lucasarts, seemed to pass under the radar last generation, receiving less attention than most of its contemporaries. Those who gave it a chance were treated to a squad-based first-person shooter better than the Battlefront series and considerably darker in tone than most Star Wars games (hello, Lego Star Wars). Gritty, bloody, and atmospheric, Republic Commando is an underappreciated gem and a great opportunity for the Wii to bolster its rather meager library of first-person shooters. #ninbutton { border-style: solid; border-color: #000; border-width: 2px; background-color: #BBB; color: #000; text-decoration: none; width: 100px; text-align: center; padding: 2px 2px 2px 2px; margin: 2px 2px 2px 2px; } .buttontext { color: #000; text-decoration: none; font: bold 14pt Helvetica; } #ninbutton:hover { text-decoration: none; color: #BBB; background-color: #000; } NEXT >> %Gallery-37875% Every week, Born for Wii digs into gaming's sordid past to unearth a new treasure fit for revival on the Nintendo Wii. Be sure to check out last week's entry in the series, Cubivore, and for more great titles that deserve your attention, take a look at Virtually Overlooked.

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    Nintendo By Wesley Fenlon

    Born for Wii: Cubivore (page 2)

    Though the game's original Japanese title, Animal Leader, hints at the ultimate goal in Cubivore, its domestic name provides a slightly more apt description of what you can expect to be doing. You'll find yourself in an unnaturally square world, populated by blocky creatures called Cubivores. The mack daddy of all Cubivores, the Killer Cubivore, is apparently kind of a jerk -- everybody was getting along just fine until he showed up with his band of colorless Cubivores, and if you've ever seen The Lion King, you can probably guess what happens next.The colorless Cubivore army decided to chow down on nature's inhabitants, and had soon robbed the world of that spiritual something -- in this case, "Wilderness" -- that makes the grass green, the sky blue, and the people happy. What's a Cubivore to do? Become the King of all Cubivores, knock off the Killer Cubivore, and restore peace, justice, and Wilderness to the barren quadratic landscape.Easier said than done. You begin the game as a cutesy Piggy Cubivore; alas, lovability doesn't count for much in the wild, so the first order of business is to find some easy prey. To have any chance of taking on the Killer Cubivore, however, good old evolution will have to take its course. After defeating other Cubivores and stealing their body parts to grow stronger, finding a mate and producing an offspring will result in a new, superior character. The mutation system in Cubivore is surprisingly complex, and the type of animal you evolve into will vary depending on the kinds of Cubivore parts you obtain. There are also some basic RPG mechanics at work here, and certain special locations scattered throughout the wilderness will allow you to level up certain abilities, such as defense or attack power. My personal favorite? Hump points.Cubivore is obviously a fight for survival, and at its heart the concept is actually pretty horrifying. Being the predator might just seem like fun and games, but when a bigger, badder Cubivore latches onto you and forcibly rips off one of your square appendages, the experience can be scarring. The real power comes from Raw Meat, which is the embodiment of the Wilderness we're seeking to restore. Only by obtaining Raw Meat and gaining special abilities from each piece will you be able to slay the Killer Cubivore. #ninbutton { border-style: solid; border-color: #000; border-width: 2px; background-color: #BBB; color: #000; text-decoration: none; width: 100px; text-align: center; padding: 2px 2px 2px 2px; margin: 2px 2px 2px 2px; } .buttontext { color: #000; text-decoration: none; font: bold 14pt Helvetica; } #ninbutton:hover { text-decoration: none; color: #BBB; background-color: #000; } << BACK COMMENTNEXT >>

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    Born for Wii: Cubivore

    Some games are a little out there. You've got your No More Heroes brand of weirdness, where collecting coconuts is as commonplace as mass murder and sexual innuendo. On another level, there's Katamari Damacy, where rolling entire cities into a ball is a perfectly acceptable way to repair the cosmos. And then there are the games that are so bizarre, so inexplicably removed from the norm, that they transcend weirdness in a way few things ever have. One of the games is Cubivore.Though it was released for the GameCube six years ago, it's still hard to believe that Cubivore found its way to the West. Thanks to Atlus, a company known for publishing titles that don't exactly have mainstream appeal, one of the most inherently Japanese games ever made was displaced from its home turf. Cubivore's eccentricity is also its greatest strength -- those few gamers who weren't turned off by its quirkiness discovered an adventure like no other, a fight to survive and evolve into a stronger, faster animal...thing. Its unique, hilarious, downright fun, and Born for Wii. #ninbutton { border-style: solid; border-color: #000; border-width: 2px; background-color: #BBB; color: #000; text-decoration: none; width: 100px; text-align: center; padding: 2px 2px 2px 2px; margin: 2px 2px 2px 2px; } .buttontext { color: #000; text-decoration: none; font: bold 14pt Helvetica; } #ninbutton:hover { text-decoration: none; color: #BBB; background-color: #000; } NEXT >> %Gallery-37135% Every week, Born for Wii digs into gaming's sordid past to unearth a new treasure fit for revival on the Nintendo Wii. Be sure to check out last week's entry in the series, Contra, and for more great titles that deserve your attention, take a look at Virtually Overlooked.

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    Born for Wii: Cubivore (page 3)

    When you get right down to it, Cubivore's 1-of-a-kind nature is the game's real appeal. The graphics, though unique, are pretty fugly -- the textures are horrible, and the square aesthetic could be improved by a better sense of style or more detail. Plenty of games from last gen looked far better, so there's definitely room for improvement. Even so, any game that casually throws out the term meat flaps can't be bad, and the gameplay itself is pretty solid. You'll likely spend at least as much time having fun as you will trying to contemplate just how out there this game is.On the GameCube controller, the analog stick controls movement, the A button jumps/pounces, B blocks, X retreats backwards (keep your eyes on you enemy!), Y intimidates, the L trigger locks onto enemies, and the C Stick moves the camera. Oh, and the Z button? Relieve your bowels. The basic control setup would likely be best transferred more or less intact, but Wiimote-implementation would be an effective way to add a little more challenge to Cubivore's battles. Normally, using the A button to pounce is all there is to an attack, but I'd like to see pointer and waggle controls added. To land a devastating hit, match on-screen directional hints with the Wiimote a la No More Heroes -- and when the killing blow comes, use the Wii Remote to rip off Raw Meat instead of simply pressing the A button.There's also considerable potential for a Wii port of Cubivore to use the controller in some pretty inventive ways in each Training Ground, where you take your Cubivore to level up various abilities. Want Hump points? Earn them. Redesigning the simplistic training grounds with a new Wii twist would make them considerably more fun, and that's the name of the game, right?Being such a niche title, it's the unfortunate facts of life that Cubivore likely wouldn't sell well even if it were re-released on the Wii with updated graphics and a new control scheme. Still, in the years that have passed since its original foray into the U.S. market, quirky Japanese titles like Katamari Damacy have made surprising headway among gamers of all ages. Could a budget-priced Cubivore on the Wii, which now has far more reach than the GameCube did in 2002, actually find success? Cubivore would be a longshot for Play on Wii, but not an impossible one -- after all, it was published by none other than the Big N in Japan.In the meantime, if you don't own the original game and just can't wait to experience the lunacy, a lengthy Let's Play video series can be found on Youtube for your viewing pleasure. Those of you lucky enough to own Cubivore, give that old disc a spin, and remember: "Females just love males with 'Experience!' " #ninbutton { border-style: solid; border-color: #000; border-width: 2px; background-color: #BBB; color: #000; text-decoration: none; width: 100px; text-align: center; padding: 2px 2px 2px 2px; margin: 2px 2px 2px 2px; } .buttontext { color: #000; text-decoration: none; font: bold 14pt Helvetica; } #ninbutton:hover { text-decoration: none; color: #BBB; background-color: #000; } << BACK COMMENT

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    Born for Wii: Contra (page 3)

    MultiplayerFor some people, Contra is all about memorizing patterns, honing skills to a razor's edge and clearing brutal levels without taking a scratch. For me, it's all about the multiplayer. For some people, it's probably about both of those things. But whatever your preference, it's hard to deny that Contra multiplayer is artful in its simplicity. It requires a significant amount of teamwork and coordination to really succeed, as anyone who's been the victim of an overeager friend can attest to.Being a portable game, Contra 4 lacks the ability to have two people playing the game together on a single console. Though it does have local wireless play, there's no way to play with people further away. Contra 5 should include both of these things, with a few bonus features thrown in.Local multiplayer would obviously be the mode's bread and butter -- there's something about the frenzied teamwork you just can't replicate at a distance. Still, for those poor souls whose friends live oh so far away, online play would be a great addition, as long as the game's netcode is up to snuff. Even a hint of lag could utterly ruin a match. A simple stat tracking feature would also make multiplayer even more fun and competitive -- picture an after-round tally of how many kills each player got, a score count based on the toughness of their slaughtered enemy legions, and penalties for deaths. To take the online integration out of the realm of good and into the land of awesome, Konami could tap into the online speed/perfect run community by allowing users to upload videos of their best playthroughs to show off. No longer would you have to scour Youtube for that perfect run to study over and over -- just boot up the game and watch it from your comfy couch. And if you don't have a comfy couch...well, really, what's wrong with you?It's rare for an IP handed off to a small developer like WayForward Technologies to produce such a fantastic game. Contra 4 is the ultimate homage to the retro entries in the series, but it's also one of the few tough-as-nails games to be released in this day and age that rivals the best on its platform. Though the audience for these games isn't large, it's certainly dedicated. WayForward proved they could play with the big boys with Contra 4 -- and since they're already working on something for the Wii, it's time for them to see how they handle Contra 5 in the big leagues (and maybe throw in a sequel to Shantae while they're at it). #ninbutton { border-style: solid; border-color: #000; border-width: 2px; background-color: #BBB; color: #000; text-decoration: none; width: 100px; text-align: center; padding: 2px 2px 2px 2px; margin: 2px 2px 2px 2px; } .buttontext { color: #000; text-decoration: none; font: bold 14pt Helvetica; } #ninbutton:hover { text-decoration: none; color: #BBB; background-color: #000; } << BACK COMMENT

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    Born for Wii: Contra (page 2)

    Contra follows the time-honored traditions of over-the-top 'roidfests, bypassing any semblance of a narrative in exchange for shooting everything that moves. And there's a lot that moves. Each stage is merely an excuse for elaborate setpieces, massive bosses and endless streams of baddies to be mowed down. Chances are, if you're still reading this you know exactly how Contra plays. Contra 4 left much of Contra III's gameplay system intact, which is absolutely a good thing: the simple, rock-solid design needed little tweaking more than a decade later. Two weapons can be held simultaneously and switched between on the fly. Take a hit and you're toast. Contra 4 ditches its predecessor's smart bombs but added the ability to power up your weapons.So you know the deal: it's a tried-and-true formula that demands precision and dexterity. What does the Wii have to offer to lure Konami into the creation of Contra 5?VisibilityWhen bullets blot out the sun and a single hit can ruin that 1-Life Hard Mode run you've been training for, it's important to be able to see everything. This is Contra 4's biggest problem: though the bullets aren't as tiny as they could be, they can still be hard to spot. It's especially problematic when they're coming from the system's top screen. Some people might welcome the additional challenge, but I think Contra 5 would be better served by a good old television than a tiny LCD. What Contra 4 did nail, however, were the graphics. They evoke the look of classic Contra while simultaneously delivering an amazing amount of detail in the crisp, lush backgrounds. The same craftsmanship and care would result in some really jaw-dropping sprites and fantastic environments on the Wii. Imagine 2D sprites that look as good as Tatsunoko vs. Capcom, but Contra. Mouth watering yet? #ninbutton { border-style: solid; border-color: #000; border-width: 2px; background-color: #BBB; color: #000; text-decoration: none; width: 100px; text-align: center; padding: 2px 2px 2px 2px; margin: 2px 2px 2px 2px; } .buttontext { color: #000; text-decoration: none; font: bold 14pt Helvetica; } #ninbutton:hover { text-decoration: none; color: #BBB; background-color: #000; } << BACK COMMENTNEXT >>

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    Born for Wii: Contra

    As gaming moves forward, the perpetual improvement of technology naturally leads to the Gears of War 2 creed: "Bigger, Better, and More Badass." Unfortunately, the trend of increasingly film-like 3D games leads to fewer and fewer 2D titles finding their way to home consoles. Many series, such as Zelda and Mario, have successfully transitioned to 3D. But others never quite recovered after the jump, and were always in their prime in the 2D era. Take Contra, for example. This weekend, upon curling up with my DS -- a handy shield against things such as responsibility and obligation -- and spending a few hours being brutalized by Contra 4, I realized two things. The first was that I suck at Contra. But the second was that, in spite of suffering several emasculating deaths every minute 10 seconds, I was still having a blast. The game perfectly captures the feel of the series and is a worthy successor to the incredible Contra III, which is now 16 years old (so I guess it's about time, eh?). But the experience isn't quite perfect -- the DS's tiny screens only makes a difficult game harder, and the divide between them compounds the problem. It's been six years since the last sidescrolling Contra made an appearance on a console, and if Capcom's Mega Man 9 is any indication, a classic series like Contra has a home on the Wii. This week Born for Wii attacks aggressively with Bill and Lance. #ninbutton { border-style: solid; border-color: #000; border-width: 2px; background-color: #BBB; color: #000; text-decoration: none; width: 100px; text-align: center; padding: 2px 2px 2px 2px; margin: 2px 2px 2px 2px; } .buttontext { color: #000; text-decoration: none; font: bold 14pt Helvetica; } #ninbutton:hover { text-decoration: none; color: #BBB; background-color: #000; } NEXT >> Gallery: Contra 4 DS Every week, Born for Wii digs into gaming's sordid past to unearth a new treasure fit for revival on the Nintendo Wii. Be sure to check out last week's entry in the series, Grim Fandango, and for more great titles that deserve your attention, take a look at Virtually Overlooked.

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    Born for Wii: Grim Fandango

    If spending your existence selling travel packages to the dregs of society sounds like a peculiar form of Hell, that's because it is -- quite literally. For Manny Calavera, life-after-death in the Land of the Dead is little more than a series of disappointing clients and missed opportunities. But things are astir at the Department of Death. Strange things. On the Day of the Dead, Manny finds his life as an indentured travel agent in serious jeopardy -- but could hope lie in the saintly (and recently deceased) Mercedes Colomar?Released in 1998, Grim Fandango was an inspired capstone to an era of PC gaming. Though Lucasarts published Escape from Monkey Island in 2000, Grim Fandango represents the last truly great adventure game from the company. Like far too many of its point-and-click brethren, Fandango failed to sell as many copies as it deserved. Few games can match the sheer originality and style Tim Schafer crafted -- a comedy noir set in the Land of the Dead with a Mexican motif is like nothing else out there. In honor of its recent 10th anniversary and place in gaming history, Grim Fandango is this week's game that's Born for Wii. #ninbutton { border-style: solid; border-color: #000; border-width: 2px; background-color: #BBB; color: #000; text-decoration: none; width: 100px; text-align: center; padding: 2px 2px 2px 2px; margin: 2px 2px 2px 2px; } .buttontext { color: #000; text-decoration: none; font: bold 14pt Helvetica; } #ninbutton:hover { text-decoration: none; color: #BBB; background-color: #000; } NEXT >> %Gallery-35986% Every week, Born for Wii digs into gaming's sordid past to unearth a new treasure fit for revival on the Nintendo Wii. Be sure to check out last week's entry in the series, Eternal Darkness, and for more great titles that deserve your attention, take a look at Virtually Overlooked.

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    Born for Wii: Grim Fandango (page 3)

    One of the most unfortunate things about Grim Fandango is that it can be a bit tricky to install or get running properly on Windows XP. Recoding the game for the Wii's hardware would be the first step in porting it and would eliminate any hardware issues -- no fiddling with Windows 98 compatibility mode!Oftentimes the Wii's 480p output seems lackluster in comparison to the competition, but in Grim's case, it may be a blessing in disguise. Re-rendering the game's numerous backgrounds and cutscenes would be a lot of work Lucasarts likely would never go for, but the Wii's max resolution would be able to handle Grim Fandango's existing assets just fine. While the 3D models look dated and blocky, the prerendered stuff still looks great. New character models would ultimately make the end product look a little better, but the blockiness does little to harm the presentation. The controls, on the other hand, could use some work. Unlike the point-and-click adventures that preceded it, Grim Fandango opts to do away with the mouse completely and rely on the keyboard or, optionally, a joystick (who still has a joystick these days, anyway?) Manny is moved via the directional arrows, and the Enter button interacts with other characters or objects in the environment. The I button opens the inventory, the P button puts items away, and the number keys 1-9 can instantly switch to items. Finally, the E button examines things that can be interacted with and the Shift button makes Manny speed up to a trot.The biggest problem lies in the arrow keys. Moving Manny around the environment is often awkward and sometimes frustrating, as he has trouble turning when brushed up against a wall, table, or any other solid object. It can also be pretty tough to position him properly to examine objects or talk to NPCs -- on the bright side, Manny moves his head as visual clue when he's near something that can be interacted with, eliminating the prospect of frustrating trial-and-error movement.I suspect making Manny's interactions with his environment a smoother experience would take more than a new control scheme, but fixing the bugginess of the movement and having a superior control stick in the nunchuk would be a one-two punch to Grim Fandango's biggest problem. Using the nunchuk for movement and the Wii Remote for interaction and inventory management would closely emulate the layout of the original game. To change things up a bit, Grim Fandango could alternately be adapted into a classic point-and-click setup, using the Wii Remote alone to move Manny, interact with objects and control the inventory. This could be accomplished pretty easily -- simply add an on-screen reticule that can be used to lead Manny around in the vein of The Legend of Zelda: Phantom Hourglass.Even if Grim Fandango was rereleased on the Wii without any substantial improvements, it would still be worth a purchase. The adventure genre is sadly and sorely underrepresented -- thankfully, the folks at Telltale seem committed to continuing to support it. Though not a point-and-click adventure game, hopefully Tim Schafer's upcoming Brutal Legends will sell well enough to rekindle a corporate interest in his older projects and Grim Fandango will rise again to show us all how much better life gets after death.In the meantime, if you can't get Grim Fandango on the Wii, how about getting the Wiimote on Grim Fandango? A certain resident GlovePIE wizard can give you the skills, and The Department of Death can give you the tools. Hey, it's almost as good as the real thing! #ninbutton { border-style: solid; border-color: #000; border-width: 2px; background-color: #BBB; color: #000; text-decoration: none; width: 100px; text-align: center; padding: 2px 2px 2px 2px; margin: 2px 2px 2px 2px; } .buttontext { color: #000; text-decoration: none; font: bold 14pt Helvetica; } #ninbutton:hover { text-decoration: none; color: #BBB; background-color: #000; } << BACK COMMENT

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    Born for Wii: Grim Fandango (page 2)

    Grim Fandango's story takes place over the course of four years on El Dia De Los Muertos. Our hero, Manny Calavera, works for the Department of Death and is responsible for helping guide the recently deceased into the underworld. Unfortunately, Manny is stuck in the Land of the Dead, the Eighth Underworld, working off his sins. His only hope to reach the salvation of the Ninth Underworld is to find clients whose good deeds in life qualify them for expensive travel packages in the Land of the Dead, such as a trip on the Number Nine express to a sunnier afterlife. But Manny's got it rough. Even when he manages to score a client that his rival Domino was intending to collect, things don't quite work out right. Mercedes Colomar, noble and pure of heart, should qualify for the Number Nine -- but all Manny can get for her is the harsh four year walk to the Ninth Underworld, a pilgrimage few complete. The Department is obviously crooked, but what's a guy gonna do? In Manny's case, skip town, find Mercedes and set things right.The plot of Grim Fandango unfolds during The Day of the Dead across a span of four years -- Manny is utterly devoted to finding Mercedes, and not just for his self-imposed obligation to her. Thanks to great writing and equally impressive voice work, Manny really feels alive (no pun intended). Beneath his witty observations and jokes, Manny puts on his best Rick Blaine -- a little bitter, a little forlorn, and a little love struck, no matter how he tries to hide it.Grim Fandango's narrative is strong enough to carry the game alone, but the presentation is really what cements it as an all-time classic. The influence of the movies permeates every aspect of the game. Oftentimes the characters and design are straight out of film noir -- everything from the low key lighting and profusion of cigarette smoke right down to the clothing. The soundtrack also falls squarely in the swing era and mixes upbeat and melancholy jazz and bebop tunes that meld perfectly with the art-deco look of the various locales Manny explores in the Land of the Dead.All the game's environments are created using pre-rendered CG, which makes for some moody lighting and especially detailed, expansive set pieces. Manny's journey takes him from his job in El Marrow to the port town of Rubacava -- and beyond. Each area has a fresh look and feel, but the setting of the Land of the Dead permeates every aspect of the game world and retains a sense of consistency. It also makes each unique character extra awesome -- the cast are especially memorable thanks to that fact that they're all unusually expressive skeletons. Well, not quite all. A few demons and other unusual creatures inhabit the Land of the Dead, such as Manny's ridiculously awesome beast of a driver Glottis, or the worker bees who bear more than a passing resemblance to New York blue-collar tough guys.Like most PC adventures, the gameplay itself is predominately puzzle-based, and Fandango has some real brain teasers smashers. It's by no means an easy game and requires a keen eye and the kind of out-of-the-box thinking that most Lucasarts puzzlers of the generation were made for. The difficulty generally makes finding the solution all the sweeter, and also provides a good reason to explore every nook and cranny of the game world and wring it for every drop of dialogue.It's easy to ramble on about Grim Fandango's positive attributes because there are just so many -- the few faults it has are only minor problems in an overall fantastic game. At a decade old, it's showing some weariness in those old bones. But by porting the game to the Wii, the few faults Grim Fandango has could easily be cleaned up and polished away. #ninbutton { border-style: solid; border-color: #000; border-width: 2px; background-color: #BBB; color: #000; text-decoration: none; width: 100px; text-align: center; padding: 2px 2px 2px 2px; margin: 2px 2px 2px 2px; } .buttontext { color: #000; text-decoration: none; font: bold 14pt Helvetica; } #ninbutton:hover { text-decoration: none; color: #BBB; background-color: #000; } << BACK COMMENTNEXT >>

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    Born for Wii: Eternal Darkness

    It's almost Halloween, gamers: are you ready? For most of us, the approach of Halloween signifies a few things: a chill in the air as winter crawls ever closer, overdosing on candy, and concerned parents fretting over how many razor blades they're going to find lodged in seemingly innocent candy apples. For a few of us, it means wild parties and crazy costumes. But for all of us, it's the season for scares.Of course, how you get your fair share of hair-raising excitement is up to you, but we here at Nintendo Wii Fanboy think there's a better way for you to spend your time than seeing Saw V this Halloween weekend. Close the blinds, turn off the lights, crank up the sound and settle down with one of the scariest, most original games of last generation: Silicon Knights' Eternal Darkness: Sanity's Requiem. Everyone's favorite purple lunchbox was often criticized as being a kiddie platform to the chagrin of Nintendo fans everywhere, and Eternal Darkness did its best to challenge those claims when it was released in 2002. The game's rich narrative and diverse gameplay were a large part of its appeal (and critical acclaim), but being one of the downright creepiest games of all time sure didn't hurt. For messing with our heads and making us afraid to sleep at night, Eternal Darkness is the scariest game that's ever been Born for Wii. #ninbutton { border-style: solid; border-color: #000; border-width: 2px; background-color: #BBB; color: #000; text-decoration: none; width: 100px; text-align: center; padding: 2px 2px 2px 2px; margin: 2px 2px 2px 2px; } .buttontext { color: #000; text-decoration: none; font: bold 14pt Helvetica; } #ninbutton:hover { text-decoration: none; color: #BBB; background-color: #000; } NEXT >> %Gallery-35492% Every week, Born for Wii digs into gaming's sordid past to unearth a new treasure fit for revival on the Nintendo Wii. Be sure to check out last week's entry in the series, Discs of Tron, and for more great titles that deserve your attention, take a look at Virtually Overlooked.

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    Born for Wii: Eternal Darkness (page 2)

    When a game begins by quoting Edgar Allen Poe's "The Raven," you know it's going to be something different. The Lovecraftian tale begins with our heroine, Alex Roivas, who gets a phone call at 3:33 AM (see? It's getting creepy already!) with some bad news: her beloved grandfather is dead. She soon makes the trip to Rhode Island to explore the Roivas family mansion, and when she discovers the skin-and-bone-bound Tome of Eternal Darkness, everything goes to hell.The millennia-spanning saga plays out through a series of flashbacks related to the Tome of Eternal Darkness. The grisly book depicts the struggles of numerous explorers throughout the centuries whose fates became intertwined with the Tome -- they all become embroiled in a battle against the Eternal Darkness, Ancients who seek to take dominion over the entire Universe. Quoting Poe before the game even begins hints at Eternal Darkness's literary pedigree -- the story is top-notch, expertly written and superbly narrated. Piecing together the plot as it hops, skips and jumps through time is exciting, and few games can match the intrigue and atmosphere Sanity's Requiem develops. Though the story creates an appropriately creepy atmosphere all by itself, the Sanity Meter is where the real scares come from. As you take on the roles of the various discoverers of the Tome of Eternal Darkness, hordes of rotting zombies and other freakish creations will come to claim your life. Because the game's characters are depicted as fairly normal people, the presence of the undead has a mildly negative impact on their sanity. The lower it gets, the more unsettling the game becomes. The scares in most survival horror games come from your shambling, flesh-sheared enemies, but Eternal Darkness is purely psychological. This game simply messes with your mind. Hallucinations are common -- your character's torso may unexpectedly explode. Rooms may inadvertently turn upside down. Dead women may spontaneously appear in blood-filled bathtubs (yeah, that one really freaked me out). The subtle effects can be even more disturbing, such as disembodied door-knocking. Eternal Darkness even breaks the fourth wall by seemingly muting or turning off your television or corrupting your save data -- now that would be a true nightmare.Gameplay in Eternal Darkness is a mix of exploration, puzzle-solving and combat. It's easy to spot traces of classic point-and-click adventures in Sanity's Requiem, as many objects in the environment prompt you to examine them, and the majority will offer a deeper description of the object with another button press. Examining your surroundings is, obviously, an important part of the puzzle-solving process. The puzzles generally aren't particularly challenging, but they often involve combining various objects or figuring out what to place where to activate a secret passage, open a door or make some ancient device awaken from its long slumber. Eternal Darkness also draws inspirations from the classics such as Raiders of the Lost Ark -- there are plenty of swinging axes, blow dart traps and other hazards to liven up your adventure. And, of course, there are those pesky undead walking around. #ninbutton { border-style: solid; border-color: #000; border-width: 2px; background-color: #BBB; color: #000; text-decoration: none; width: 100px; text-align: center; padding: 2px 2px 2px 2px; margin: 2px 2px 2px 2px; } .buttontext { color: #000; text-decoration: none; font: bold 14pt Helvetica; } #ninbutton:hover { text-decoration: none; color: #BBB; background-color: #000; } << BACK COMMENTNEXT >>

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    Nintendo By Wesley Fenlon

    Born for Wii: Eternal Darkness (page 3)

    The servants of the Ancients aren't particularly scary or hard to kill, but Eternal Darkness still boasts a fairly unique combat system. By holding down the R trigger on the GameCube controller, it's possible to target the arms, torso or head of any enemy. Did somebody say strategic dismemberment? Couple that with the fact that the variety of time periods results in a similar variety of weapons -- ultimately, the way you're killing zombies and other undead foes is largely up to you and will differ from chapter to chapter. To top it off, the surprisingly robust magic system allows you to (among other things) enchant weapons to dish out even more of a hurtin', whether you're wielding a Gladius or a shotgun.Eternal Darkness was a great game when it came out, and it's a great game today. Still, after six years, the combat feels a bit sluggish -- there's ample variety and originality present, but the underlying attack animations and character controls aren't what they could be. Even when it was released in 2002, combat was the game's biggest weak point. The critical acclaim Eternal Darkness garnered wasn't enough to guarantee solid sales numbers, and being a Nintendo-published title, the game is a ripe, succulent contender for the upcoming Play on Wii series.Introducing motion control for combat and slightly streamlining the menu system would definitely benefit Eternal Darkness and help the game feel a bit more hip to the now. For swords, swinging the Wii Remote in a particular direction while holding the Aim button could automatically target specific limbs -- swing the remote upwards for a decapitation, to either side for a limb shot, or straight ahead for a thrust at the heart. Similarly, when using guns or other ranged weaponry, tilting the Wii Remote could target those same body parts, and the A button would fire off a round. Examining objects can become tedious in the GameCube version; allowing the Wii pointer to be controlled independently from character movement would make exploration slightly faster. The text boxes that pop up with descriptions of things in the environment are also needlessly small -- eliminating the requirement to scroll simply to read a short description would be one more easy fix.Finally, the game could really use a quick save button. There are no dedicated save points, and any room free from danger is acceptable save territory, but accessing the menu and then tabbing to the correct page takes just a little longer than is really necessary.Eternal Darkness deserves another shot at the spotlight for being one of the most original games of last generation; few products in the gaming industry can accurately claim to capture the genre of psychological horror. Silicon Knight's Denis Dyack has even stated that the developer is interested in returning to the mythos they developed for Eternal Darkness, and considering the response to Too Human, a return to the struggle between humanity and the Ancients might not be such a bad idea. Until that day comes, the legions of Wii gamers will stand there wondering, fearing, doubting, dreaming dreams no mortal ever dared to dream before. #ninbutton { border-style: solid; border-color: #000; border-width: 2px; background-color: #BBB; color: #000; text-decoration: none; width: 100px; text-align: center; padding: 2px 2px 2px 2px; margin: 2px 2px 2px 2px; } .buttontext { color: #000; text-decoration: none; font: bold 14pt Helvetica; } #ninbutton:hover { text-decoration: none; color: #BBB; background-color: #000; } << BACK COMMENT

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    Nintendo By Wesley Fenlon

    Born for Wii: Discs of Tron (page 2)

    As you may expect of an arcade game predating the great videogame crash, Discs of Tron is a little barebones when it comes to...well, everything. You'll find your blue avatar standing defiantly on a floating platform in the foreground, facing off against the evil Sark in the distance. The goal is to nail Sark with a disc while avoiding the projectiles he throws at you himself. Discs can collide and be destroyed mid-air, or be reflected up close, although the reflector has a limited number of uses. Sark can't reflect your discs, but he makes up for his unfortunate defensive position by being equipped with two additional attacks that can only be destroyed with a disc -- try to reflect and you'll be one extra crispy disc warrior.Sark doesn't exactly play fair. The game will even throw up some barriers to complicate your task of hitting him; the two hits it takes to down him quickly becomes more and more challenging as you advance through the stages, as you're forced to bounce discs off the walls of the arena to catch Sark unawares while simultaneously dodging his attacks. Get far enough into the game and platforms will start moving to different altitudes, and the fact that you can then angle your discs appropriately is pretty cool for 1983, though it certainly doesn't make the game easier. With that bit of exposition out of the way, it's time to think about what the Wii could do for Discs of Tron. Unlike some games featured here on Born for Wii that simply need a thing added here or there to make for a great game, Discs of Tron has a long way to go. It deserves a complete reimagining, a built-from-the-ground-up remake for the Wii retaining nothing but the discs and the Tron that were once cutting edge.For starters, Discs of Tron needs to be taken into 3D without sacrificing the Tron aesthetic. The original game did as much as it could to emulate the movie's look, but the hardware was limited. The more recent Xbox Live Arcade release of Discs of Tron does a better job of being...well, Tron. The disc arenas need to pulse with those neon lines and bright blues that are so vivid and identifiable.The combat of Discs of Tron, better represented in larger, more detailed 3D arenas would remain much the same on the objective level -- derezz your opponent with a murderous disc. To once again harp on a concept I've mentioned before, Discs of Tron's gameplay would benefit immensely from Wii MotionPlus. My possible obsession with hurling things aside, a game based around using the Wii to bounce discs off walls, ceilings, and obstacles to take down opponents is potentially awesome. #ninbutton { border-style: solid; border-color: #000; border-width: 2px; background-color: #BBB; color: #000; text-decoration: none; width: 100px; text-align: center; padding: 2px 2px 2px 2px; margin: 2px 2px 2px 2px; } .buttontext { color: #000; text-decoration: none; font: bold 14pt Helvetica; } #ninbutton:hover { text-decoration: none; color: #BBB; background-color: #000; } << BACK COMMENTNEXT >>

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    Nintendo By Wesley Fenlon

    Born for Wii: Discs of Tron (page 3)

    The original arcade game had a fairly novel and cool control system for its time -- in addition to a joystick for movement, a knob could be rotated to control the angle at which discs were thrown. It could even be pushed down or pulled up to change the height in later levels. This design was pretty accurately translated onto the Xbox controller in the arcade re-release, with one joystick handling movement and the other changing the disc's trajectory. But a new Discs of Tron needs to do it better. On the Wii, a nunchuk and Wii remote control scheme would be the best way to emulate the separate functions of movement and attacking. The nunchuk's control stick would handle player movement, while the Wii remote would handle the throwing. To reflect attacks, simply adopt a Wii Boxing-like stance with the nunchuk and Wiimote held in front of your face. Discs of Tron would still need a lot of work to make it worth purchasing. The XBLA release had a few decent concepts thrown into multiplayer that easily deserve to be put to better use. Powerups absolutely need to be utilized -- extra lives, faster traveling discs, more discs available to be thrown simultaneously -- and power downs that hinder your opponent. Additionally, I'd love to see another game featured in the film meshed into Discs of Tron, in which the combatants bounce a ball off the ceiling to deactivate the concentric circles that make up each floating platform. This could easily be integrated into combat as an additional powerup attack, or even hold up as its own game mode. Multiplayer is a necessity, especially online. Local multiplayer would be extremely fun, though potentially hazardous -- as a game based around so much upper-body movement, collisions could be nasty. To make the game even more challenging and twice as likely to cause a sensory overload, 2v2 doubles matches would be a great way to get a whole group into the action. In terms of singleplayer, Discs of Tron needs to step up and offer something considerably more robust than the string of battles against Sark in the original. The game is a game itself -- why not frame it as a futuristic sport, comparable to tennis? With a decent tournament setup, a spattering of stages and ranked opponents to fight through, Discs of Tron could offer up a satisfyingly lengthy campaign mode that charges you with becoming the disc champion.Though the project is still nebulous at this point, it looks like Tron may be getting a sequel in the next few years: Tr2n is currently scheduled for release in 2011. If the Wii is still around in 3 years -- or if the Wii HD has been released -- a movie tie-in with Discs of Tron would give Disney a chance to make a movie game that doesn't suck. Few movies have captured the hearts of a generation like Tron, and perhaps the sequel will do the original justice. At the very least, a new iteration of Discs of Tron could cash in on all those middle-aged folks who first fell in love with Tron all those years ago.In the meantime, enjoy the result of Tommy Tallarico's love for Tron and gaming and fantasize about next week's Born for Wii: Halloween edition. #ninbutton { border-style: solid; border-color: #000; border-width: 2px; background-color: #BBB; color: #000; text-decoration: none; width: 100px; text-align: center; padding: 2px 2px 2px 2px; margin: 2px 2px 2px 2px; } .buttontext { color: #000; text-decoration: none; font: bold 14pt Helvetica; } #ninbutton:hover { text-decoration: none; color: #BBB; background-color: #000; } << BACK COMMENT

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