Diner Dash review
Everyone knows Diner Dash; the hit Flash game from 2003 which has seemingly been ported to every gaming system under the sun. Well apart from the Nintendo Wii that is, until now. Diner Dash has already ventured its way onto Xbox 360 and PS3 this year but Wii owners now finally have their chance to control the cute redhead Flo as she decides to run a restaurant business.
You take control of Flo who pretty much has to do everything in her restaurant minus the cooking. You’ll be seeing customers to their seats, taking their order, giving them the bill and then clearing up their plates when they leave. That’s the basic gameplay out of the way but it’s not as easy as it sounds. Once your restaurant starts getting busy with many customers arriving in quick succession you’ll find keeping up with the orders a real task. Flo is the only waitress and if you don’t keep the customers happy and seen to quickly then their happiness hearts will quickly decrease.
If all their hearts disappear then that means trouble for your chances of passing the level as well as dampening your high score. Your woes can easily continue with one simple mistake such as putting a party of two on a six seater table, thus not having enough seats for a party of five or six. Guess what happens if you’re carrying a dirty plate and a freshly made meal to the washing bin at the same time? Yes that’s right; the fresh food goes in the washing bin along with the dirty plate. Now the chef has to remake that order which can add a significant delay to the customer. All of this and more will drive you insane with fury but Diner Dash is so addictive that you’ll want to keep playing.
Finishing every level (unless you are playing endless time mode) requires you to reach a set number of points before closing time. Almost every task you complete gives you points but sadly you’ll need to put in extra effort to achieve an expert rating. This means matching the colour of a customer’s clothes to a particular chair to get bonus points as well as performing multiple chains. Chains require you to perform the same task multiple times in a row for an increasing multiplier score but as soon as you switch chores the multiplier resets to zero. Things are getting a bit tough and so you are given a little bit of help in the form of additions to your restaurant. Such additions include a drinks machine which can help satisfy customers waiting to receive their food and a podium which will let you recharge the heart meter of people waiting for a seat in your restaurant. The downside is that serving drinks and standing at the podium saps time you could be spending serving the customers already seated.
If you get stuck trying to make a success of Flo’s restaurant career then maybe you’ll want to attempt to play Diner Dash with friends. You can head online play hard head to head match with others via the Nintendo WiFi connection.
Diner Dash for Wii is a basic yet addictive casual title. Costing just 1000 points on the WiiWare shop channel means it’s not too expensive compared to a disc based game. The visuals are bright and colourful but don’t look as sharp as the HD console versions, perhaps even a little blurry in comparison. The music and sound effects are basic too, bippy boppy tunes that will get you by but not make you interested in owning the soundtrack. The simple and intuitive one button control scheme means almost everyone will be able to pick up play and enjoy Diner Dash. With no motion controls it also means that for a change you won’t need to wave your arms about like a madman.
Diner Dash for Wii brings nothing new to the table but is a nice little game you can load up at any time for a spot of time management fun. 3 out of 5.
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Related: Diner Dash for the Xbox 360, Hysteria Hospital Emergency Ward review
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Military Madness review
PlayStation 3 owners have had many reasons to think themselves better than Wii owners over the years. Be it the next generation 1080p visuals, Blu-ray Disc storage or an online multiplayer system that doesn’t require the pesky Friend Codes. One other reason the Playstation 3 owners had an excuse for smugness was the release of Military Madness Nectaris for the PS3 back in January. So it’s taken a whole two months but Wii owners can now (at last) get their hands on their very own slice of Military Madness pie from the WiiWare Shop Channel for 1000 WiiPoints.
So what is Military Madness for Wii all about? Well the first thing to mention is that Military Madness Nectaris for Wii is a remake of the classic 1989 Turbografx-16 game that most of us never played back in the day, either because we didn’t own the Turbografx or that we were born years after the game came out. Whichever the excuse; Hudson Software and Backbone Entertainment have resurrected the franchise and you now have no excuse not to get into the action; but before that – the story:
There are two factions battling for supremacy on the moon in the year 2156 and as with any War we need to look into the past to understand why it started. Due to an ever increasing population and therefore a total lack of space to build anymore luxury villas on the Spanish Rivera; somebody had to find a way to free up a bit of space on Earth and do it quickly. With Ethnic Cleansing (or to give it it’s correct name; Genocide) being out of popularity the only other option was to move all of the World’s criminals to a new hyper prison newly built on the Moon.
But wouldn’t you know it, there was another reason why cheap labour being sent up to the Moon seemed such a good idea to those on Earth. There just so happened to be a wonderful, powerful and valuable new element under the Moon’s surface which needed to be mined, refined and sent back to Earth right away. Jump forward a few more years and we find that the prisoners have managed to revolt against their captors and have managed to take over the moon and use that aforementioned new mineral to start developing a massive super weapon that could destroy the Earth.
So it’s time for you as leader of the Earth’s Military to put a stop to this mess by flying to the moon and engage in a series of turn based battles to defeat those nasty baddies.
Military Madness is a strategy game set in the future on the Moon. For the most part the setting doesn’t matter because you’ll really only be concentrating on one thing: numerous amounts of futuristic tanks shooting at each other against a bland grey Moon backdrop. Nectaris for Wii is split into two straightforward modes; a Single Player Campaign and Multiplayer. In single player mode you start with a series of small enclosed maps with normal difficulty and then when you’re done with those you can move onto some larger more advanced maps.
The goal of each map is to defeat the opponent by either capturing their home base or destroying all of their units. Both require quite different tactics so which you’ll choose to do is entirely up to you, your play style and how well you are doing at the time. Each map typically starts off with both forces on opposite sides of the map with their units spread out around their home base. To confuse things a little I must explain that each of those units is actually a placeholder for up to eight actual units. To put it another way, instead of having a cluttered map the number of onscreen units is limited by grouping eight individual units into one big unit. These units never separate into their individual parts but individual ones can be destroyed when you enter battle – I’ll come to battle in a moment. Teams take it in turns to move all, some or even none of their units. Units can only move set distances and this will also vary depending on the type of ground. Flat ground is easy land based units will only move slowly across rough land and slopes.
Let’s take a look into the strengths and weaknesses of these units:
- Walking Armour – Super tough but slow. Very effective against land and air based units.
- Transporters – As the name suggests these can transport other units around the map at high speed. They’re rubbish in battle though.
- Tanks – You already know what Tanks are. Very strong, but a tad slow.
- Aerials – These are very fast and agile but not the toughest by any means. It’s best to keep moving these around attacking in short bursts.
- Infantries – The weakest but also the most useful. Human’s in armoured spacesuits with jet packs capable of flight. These are the only units which can capture an opponent’s home base.
- Technicals – Unlike the other units these can attack and then run away afterwards. Quick and agile but very weak too.
When it comes to attacking other units it all comes down to RPG like stats. Although the main factor in any battles is the unit(s) strengths and weaknesses, there are other things to consider. If friendly or enemy units are directly surrounding in the battle then that will alter the stats. Another contributor is if units are on flat, unstable or higher ground. Ideally you want to surround an enemy with several of your units trapping them on lower ground; this will give you the upper hand even this will not save you if you send a weak unit up against something very strong. Units can be repaired in factories but they will lose a movement turn whilst under repairs and at any time the factory could be captured by the enemy if not guarded.
The Military Madness Multiplayer mode is very similar to the single player campaign featuring just a few gameplay tweaks not really worth mentioning here. The good news is that you and up to three others can battle each-other locally or online. Sadly just like my experience of Military Madness on PS3, the Wii game also features a distinct lack of people playing online in random matches. This isn’t too bad if you have friends with the game but it may turn out you’ll be playing offline more than online until more people buy the title.
Interestingly enough the WiiWare version of Military Madness stands up very well against its higher def sibling on the PS3. Sure Military Madness on Wii is in low definition but unless they were running side by side you could probably not tell the difference. Everything looks near identical to the game on PS3 just without being displayed in high res. It’s just a shame that the moon maps are very bland (understandably I guess) and the units all look more or less the same. Sometimes the similarity in appearance was to my own detriment; a couple of times I got a bit mixed up and sent in low powered units up against tough ones. Apart from the bland visuals and a lack of analogue or pointer controls I was very impressed of the Wii port of Military Madness and award it 3 out of 5.
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Related: Military Madness: Nectaris for the PS3, Onslaught Wiiware review
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Metroid Other M release date
At last we finally have a release date for Metroid Other M on Wii thanks to Nintendo’s recent media summit. Metroid Other M for Wii was originally revealed last year to everyone’s complete surprise and since then news has been quiet. The promise of old-school 2D gameplay for the core crowd and first person shooting for the younger Call of Duty fans may very well bring us all together for a terrific summer on Wii. The Metroid Other M Release date is June 27th 2010.
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Related: Metroid Prime 3 Corruption review, Moon for the DS review
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Alice in Wonderland release date
I agree that Tim Burton and Johnny Depp are a strange choice for a Disney Movie. Sweeny Todd lovers may not find enough blood in the upcoming Alice in Wonderland game for their liking but that doesn’t mean it can’t be fun. Alice in Wonderland for Wii is the game of the upcoming movie and promises to be just as imaginative and weird as the film. Disney haven’t been slumps when it comes to their video game releases lately so the thought of getting Alice to master abilities like; altering perception, making objects invisible and manipulating time, could mean that this Wii game is a hit come the Alice in Wonderland release date of March 2nd 2010.
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Related: Review of Spectrobes: Beyond the Portals, Ultimate Band review
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Super Mario Galaxy 2 release date
We finally have a release date for Super Mario Galaxy 2 thanks to yesterday’s Nintendo Media Summit 2010. Not only do we know the exact date but we’ve also seen a lot more of the game including Mario’s new Drill Ability as well as his trusty pal Yoshi who has an appetite for almost everything. Get your credit cards at the ready for another mushroom filled summer blockbuster on Wii. The Super Mario Galaxy two release date is May 23rd 2010.
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Related: Top 5 Games of 2010, Super Mario Galaxy sales
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Super Mario Galaxy 2 release date
Max and the Magic Marker review
Let’s start this review of Max and the Magic Marker with another one of my moments of reminiscing about gaming in days gone by. Throughout the 80’s and 90’s Britain was well known for its bedroom programmers. Back in the good old personal computing days of the BBC Micro and Sinclair Spectrum, it was possible for you program your own games right out of the box (providing you knew how to program or were willing to learn that is). This continued up until the mid-1990’s when game development finally became out of reach for a typical home computer user. The indie game movement we have today evolved from the public domain movement from back then; small groups or individuals who have a great game idea but for one reason or another design and make it themselves.
It’s great to see that rather than disappear into obscurity onto PC message boards, the indie movement has instead moved onto the home consoles; something I wouldn’t have thought possible with such domineering companies such as Nintendo; Microsoft and Sony ruling the console roosts. So whilst nowadays I’d wager that zero games appearing on the Wii, 360 or PS3 were developed in somebodies bedroom. We at least still have some great talent producing low budget games that don’t spawn from the gaming equivalent of factory farming. Yes I’m looking at you Ubisoft and your range of shovelware all ending in Z.
Ok so what has this got to do with Max and the Magic Marker? Well probably not too much besides the fact that Press Play; the developers behind Max and the Magic Marker for Wii are one such indie development group. Unable to get their title picked up by a big publisher, they stuck it to the man and decided to publish it themselves digitally through the Nintendo WiiWare service.
If you’ve played other indie games on WiiWare such as World of Goo then you’ll instantly feel at home after booting Max and the Magic Marker. This isn’t just because like 2D Boy’s Goo filled masterpiece that the graphics are somewhat kiddie; no it’s because you can instantly tell that care has been taken every step along the way in making this game. This isn’t something you just see with your eyes but feel when you start to control Max and his Magic Marker. The story of Max and the Magic Marker goes like this; Max is a young red haired child who loves to draw. Out of the blue one day he anonymously receives a new drawing pen; without thinking anything of it he rushes to work on a new piece of art featuring a purple Monster. To his surprise the Monster suddenly comes to life, then starts to run amok through Max’s other drawings.
Now of course you and I would solve this problem by putting all of the drawings through the paper shredder but Max is much more imaginative and has simple yet far better plan. Max draws a picture of himself using his new magical marker thereby allowing him to come alive in the world of his drawings and chase after that purple Monster. Will max manage to defeat the Monster and return home safely with only the use of his Magical Marker? Well I know the answer but I’m not going to spoil that now but what I can say is that I really enjoyed this game. Time to look a bit more in depth isn’t it?
You take control of the aforementioned Max with your Nunchuck and his Marker with your Wii Remote in this colourful magical adventure spread across three worlds. If like me you played Drawn to Life then you too may have been disappointed that you actually were tending to colour in shapes rather than really draw unique aspects to the game. Max & The Magic Marker is a little different in that you only draw things to assist you getting Max to the end of the level safely. So these could be staircases to reach higher platforms, weights to tip a seesaw, bridges to cross chasms or even basic platforms. I’d agree in saying that it sounds rather basic but this is actually just where the fun starts.
Simply drawing a few bridges isn’t going to impress anyone, no matter how well the Wii Infra-Red pointer control has been adopted. Max must collect globules of ink as he progresses throughout each level, the more ink he has the bigger your drawings can be. For instance, to reach a collectable up high you will might need to build a large staircase but if you didn’t collect every ink container that you passed you may find yourself with not enough ink to make it tall enough. This obviously corresponds further into the game when drawing a long bridge; there’s just no way to cross a large gap with only a small bridge right?
Well wrong actually, large gaps are no match for Max and his Magic Marker. At any point the a level you can press the A + B buttons together to warp out of the picture back into the real world where the real Max is on hand to physically draw on the paper (rather than being in game). This confusing trans-dimensional concept actually makes a lot of sense when you think about it and even if it doesn’t make sense, well it’s damn useful. Here instead of drawling inside a live living piece of artwork you can draw onto it statically before warping back in. What does this mean? Well to put it simply it means that when facing a large chasm and not much ink you can draw half of the bridge you require, make Max run across it and jump towards nothing and then hit the A and B button to warp out. Here you erase the old section of bridge and draw in the missing half so that when you warp back into the game Max lands safely. Clever stuff.
I could go on further about what to expect but that would only spoil a rather unique adventure which you should experience yourself. I’m sure that other fans of World of Goo, Lost Winds and Braid will really feel comfortable with this game. All that’s for me to say is that Max and The Magic Marker is a sensational concept title which maybe a little short but more than makes up for it with some crazy platforming antics; clever physics based puzzles and just a clever down to Earth charm about it. Max and the Magic Marker for WiiWare scores an almost perfect 4 out of 5
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Related: Cocoto Platform Jumper review, Manic Monkey Mayhem review
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Super Monkey Ball Step and Roll release date
Being the animal lover I am I wouldn’t typically condone the idea of sealing Monkey’s inside giant plastic balls. But Super Monkey Ball does make the idea more appealing than it ever should. Super Monkey Ball step and roll is the second in the series to appear on the Wii but this time your body and the Wii Fit balance board now become the controller.
I’ve enjoyed all of the Super Monkey Ball games ever since I played the original on the Nintendo Gamecube and I’m already waiting in anticipation to get hold of the latest one. The Super Monkey Ball step and roll release date is February 9th 2010 and should be on your preorder list right now.
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Related: Manic Monkey Mayhem review, Madballs in Babo Invasion review
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Colored Nintendo Wii Remotes
If you’ve been one of the unlucky people waiting for Nintendo to release multi-colored Wii Remotes since the consoles launch then your wait is finally over after 38 months. Yes that’s correct; it’s taken Nintendo over 3 years to change the colour of the plastic shell.
So for those of you with a house full of boring White Wii Remotes can now add a splash of colour to your life with these three new WiiRemote colors – black, pink and blue. You can now Preorder colored Wiimotes from Amazon along with matching Wii Motion Plus; perfect for a fun weekend with New Super Mario Bros and the forthcoming Zelda game which won’t work without the motion add-on.
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Related: Wii MotionPlus review, Grand Slam Tennis with Wii MotionPlus review
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Wacky World of Sports review
Tuna Tossing. Just look at that for a moment. Doesn’t the idea strike fear into your heart? And yet, here it is; one of the ten mini-games available on Sega’s latest crazy concoction – Wacky World of Sports for Wii. Sega have travelled the world, found the most bizarre cult and niche “sports” they could get coherently explained to them and decided to bring them to the Nintendo Wii. If you’ve ever wanted to see how far you could throw a fish and nobody ever gave you a chance, consider this your big break. You weirdo.
So there’s Tuna Tossing, and there’s Mud Sliding. That’s like sledging except instead of snow there’s mud and instead of a sledge there’s you. You can indulge yourself in a spot of Lawnmower or Furniture Racing if you’re looking for a Gran Turismo killer. There’s something called Fierjeppen which has something to do with holding on to a pole? You might want to ask Wikipedia about that one. How about some Log Cutting, Cheese Rolling or (wait for it) EXTREME IRONING. Wait, is this list for real? Card Boxing and Ice Golf? Very funny guys. You nearly had me.
This is certainly not going to be a serious sporting exhibition, so turn away now if you’re not interested in stupid, light hearted games. We’ve seen mini-game collections like this countless times before, especially on the Wii, and they’ve produced some rather odd stuff: dancing Bombermen and defecating Rabbids for example. There are only ten here which instantly puts the collection in a negative light compared to Mario Party 8 and the like and it lacks the hook or gimmick that kept Rayman Raving Rabbids and Warioware interesting.
You should get your first taster of the games in Tour Mode, which sees you and your wacky character (you know, fat dudes, anime chicks and people with afros) travelling the world in search of the perfect log to cut. Party Mode is where the action is though, this is where you can kick back and have some quality multiplayer time, even if you will be giggling at how absurd the whole thing is and going “Wait, what?” every five seconds.
You’ve got a Wiimote in your hands, so you know what these games are going to want from you. Ice Golf and Furniture Racing are the most “normal” of the mini-games, being gimmicky golf and racing games respectively. Cheese Rolling is a strange mix of Boules and cheese. Extreme Ironing expects you to pretend you’re actually doing the ironing, which isn’t fun, even if you are pretending to fall out of a plane. Mud Sliding involves moving your character through targets as he plummets towards a muddy bottom, and mostly the others require a waggle or a spin of the Wiimote to get your avatar into action. These aren’t exactly inspired gameplay mechanics and it seems like Sega have put very little creativity into them instead of choosing to offer workable, somewhat fun, but very standard games.
This would be ok if there were as many games here as there are on Carnival Games or Mario & Sonic but there are not. Unless you’re heavy into your multiplayer this game will be over for you in a week.
That’s the problem here. The game is fun enough, the graphics aren’t terrible and your friends will be happy to join you playing while you wait for something good to come out. But there’s not enough depth or charm to keep anyone playing for long. I would love to say this was a missed opportunity, but the concept itself isn’t that exciting to begin with. Maybe if some more thought had gone into the mechanics, or if there had been lots more games, Wacky World of Sports wouldn’t pale in comparison to half the Wii market and receive a lacklustre score of 2 out of 5.
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Related: Carnival Games Wii review, Grand Slam Tennis review
Tags: Wacky World of Sports, Wii, Sports, Sega, WiiSports
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Madden 10 for the Wii review
I can’t say I’m a big fan of what we in the UK call American Football (or just Football to the Americans themselves). Yes I’ve played a few games in the Madden series before (most notably the original on the Commodore Amiga) but even so the series for the most past makes me go, meh. Can Madden 10 for Wii with its family friendly graphics and control system win me over? It’s time for a review of Madden 10 for Wii.
If you’re unfamiliar with American Football I will try to explain the rules in the most basic fashion I can. The goal is to run and pass the ball towards the opposing goal line to score a touchdown, your opponents will try very hard to prevent you from doing so by knocking you to the ground. To keep possession of the ball you need to progress a minimum of 10 yards every 4 turns, if you fail possession swaps to the other team they become the offence and you become the defence. Obviously just like any sport there is a lot more to it but that should give you an idea of what we’re looking at here.
EA have once again tried to balance Madden as best they can between new users and previous players of the franchise on Wii. New or Casual players can play the game with little or no effort thanks to generous CPU assistance and the ability to just point and click at the screen to perform actions. Core players can jump straight into the action with full control using the Wii Remote and Nunchuck to control things. Motion controls are available to all players for passing the ball and performing field kicks but fundamentally control is quite straightforward without tons of arm waving.
As you may expect you can choose to play single matches against the CPU or other (up to 4) humans. Multiplayer has always been a favourite of Madden players and thankfully this still remains true here on Wii, 2 players is really the ideal but if you have extra friends they can help out in a special Huddle Up mode that can see them assist you invisibly like a Godly force.
For the real Football fans amongst you then trying to win the Superbowl is what counts and Madden doesn’t let you down here either. Now up to 4 players can play together in this mode but typically Superbowl mode has been a single player affair and that’s how I played it. Now sadly I can’t pretend I really enjoyed my time because when it gets down to it, all of the matches against the CPU feel very much the same. Unless I was playing using the advanced control scheme it felt to me as if the game was playing itself. Whilst Madden 10 does feature a full NFL roster with real NFL players the new graphic style does away with next gen photo realism. I don’t mind this but I doubt real fans will be able to recognise their favourite players on Wii and may have to look into the Xbox 360 or PS3 versions of Madden 10 for that.
When you are under full control of your team things get very complicated; choosing runs and formations is something for the true Madden players because I quite frankly can’t tell the difference between any of them. In all the games I played and won I simply either passed the ball and ran through the middle of the defence or let the Quarterback throw it upfield to a waiting player. Of course the CPU was trying to and often succeeding in intercepting the ball or making me fumble, but when they came to play my team was quite easily able to prevent them from scoring which soon made play switch to me being Offence once again. This isn’t to say that Madden 10 is easy; if you play by the rules and understand what you’re doing the game actually becomes harder because both teams are being quite tactical. However it just feels that not really knowing what you’re doing makes you fall into a style of play that allows for easy wins.
This does mean that new players can still win the trophy playing by their rules and tough players can attempt to win it by playing the game for real. What I don’t understand is how EA envisaged pictured families playing together in a happy way.
Let’s assume Dad and Son who have playing Madden games for years come up against Mom and Daughter who have never played it at all. Mom and Daughter play using the All Play mode with CPU assistance which in turn gives them a chance of winning and (after a couple of goes) maybe even a win. So if Dad and Son with all their skill do actually lose they will be quite annoyed at being beaten by the ‘cheating girls’, probably then storm off in a hiffy. This makes me think that adding such an extensive easy mode in a game really only suited for true Madden fans is a waste of time.
If you really like your American Football then Madden 10 for Wii won’t disappoint you; all of the teams, commentary and plays you’d want are here. If you do own one of the more powerful consoles you will probably appreciate the broadcast quality visuals a lot more than a couple of Wii specific features that may attract attention. Being able to point at a player with the Wii Remote to pass really does give you that directorship feel and puts you closer to being the quarterback than ever before, but it’s not such a standout feature.
If you want even more to explore then there are many mini games and practice modes available to hone your skills. I went into the mini games expecting them to be a bit Mario Party but I was wrong, again this is ok for NFL fans but your kids will wonder why these mini games are no fun.
Oh and before I forget you can now take Madden 10 online and play with random people or friends who own the game also. I’ll be honest and say I wasn’t able to find a random game and I don’t know anyone who owns it. However I assume that playing someone online is similar to playing them locally but without being able to seen them laugh or cry.
Madden 10 for Wii looks and feels ideal for an NFL lover who has taken a break from the series and wants to head back into it gently without investing many hours into learning the full complexity of the next gen versions which are more like simulators than games. 4 out of 5.
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Related: Madden NFL 10 video review, Madden NFL 09 video review
Tags: Madden 10 for the Wii, Madden, NFL, EA, Wii
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Madden 10 for the Wii review