Wal*Mart Stock in Corinth

I was awakened early by my mother yesterday so that we could do the last of shopping for Christmas dinner at Wal*Mart. In purchasing my brother’s Christmas gift from the electronics department, I happened to notice a few accessories that I haven’t seen in stock since Wii launch: two nunchucks and one classic controller. I grabbed one of each.

I then turned around to take a look behind the glass. As expected there were no Wiis. However, there were four 60GB “premium” PlayStation 3s. I asked a sales attendant, “Excuse me, but do you have any Wiis in stock?”

“No, sorry. Everybody wants a Wii this year; that’s the hot item. We don’t know when we’ll get our next shipment either.” I looked back at the pile of PS3s.

“Thank you,” I replied.

Zelda: That’s It?

I’ve returned to Mississippi to visit my parents for Christmas break, and as there is scarcely anything to do in Mississippi besides enjoying the company of others, I hoped to find some free time to finish Legend of Zelda: Twilight Princess.

Let me preface the remainder of this entry by saying that it is entirely spoiler-free.

One reason why I started Garden of WiiDS is because I’m a bit of an extremist. I don’t mean that I am a hardcore gamer; far from it. I consider my gaming abilities to be modest or average at best (aside from rhythm games at which I seem to have an uncanny natural ability). I am extreme in the sense that my interest in gaming is heavily tied to my music, movie, and traditional art sensibilities. I’m not a gamer, but I sometimes enjoy games in my spare time. Therefore in picking up and playing a game as mainstream as Zelda, I expect to have more trouble with it than the average person.

Initial reports put this game at 70+ hours for the first tester playthrough. Some reviewers said it was closer to sixty having finished the game in around fifty-five. A guy at work said that it took him about fifty hours to complete. Well, last night in my parents’ living room I went through what turned out to be the final dungeon and encountered the final boss. I took a lot of damage during the (long) fight, but I didn’t need any restoratives that were not readily available. After trouncing the boss, there was a short and relatively unfulfilling ending followed by credits. I just knew there had to be something left; every Zelda game I’ve finished had an incentive for playing through the second time. But no, I finished it and that was it. I looked at the clock. Fourty-two hours. It took me longer to beat Okami, and the ending was far more satisfying.

Don’t get me wrong, this outing of Zelda is one of the best games I’ve played. I guess I expected more. While the Internet was in an uproar about the art style of The Windwaker, I loved that game. I played through it twice consecutively. The art style was gorgeous, and the music suited the environments. It wasn’t perfect, but it was fun and immersive. The art style in Twilight Princess doesn’t really impress me save for the twilight realm, where thankfully you will spend quite a bit of time. The music is also incredible — good enough to spring for a subscription to Nintendo Power to get the soundtrack. But in the end, while the puzzle design in the fourth through the seventh dungeons is second to none, the first three are comparatively a joke, and the last two lack depth. I guess I’d call this a pacing problem. Finally, while Ganondorf and his puppet made me eat a fairy or two in The Windwaker, the final boss in Twilight Princess never put me in mortal danger. Each strategy change by the boss resulted in a number of cheap hits that had me swearing at the screen, but I quickly got the hang of it.

Am I wrong to expect more? From any other company, maybe. But this is Nintendo we’re talking about.

I hate to admit it (especially since they seem to be so biased against the Wii these days), but Gamespot was right: The Windwaker was better.

Elebits Impressions

I bought Elebits the day that it became available in stores. As some may know, this is one of the titles from E3 about which I was most excited because the early build showed a lot of promise about how the Wii remote could be used for greater interactivity. Turning on faucets, opening doors, and pulling open drawers were among the many actions possible in the demo, and despite the game’s playful nature, the general mechanic was in line with first person shooters only devoid of headshots and teabags.

Half a year later, Elebits hit the shelves and became the second Wii game I’ve purchased. Initial impressions by IGN were remarkably good, and a video that I posted earlier to WiiDS had me all but salivating to get my hands on the game. I was prepared to buy it review score unseen, which is rare. Well, how does it measure up?

I’ve heard Elebits described as Pikmin meets Katamari Damacy with the gravity gun from Half Life 2. Aside from the gravity gun part, that’s a terrible description. Though the most prevalent type of elebit — the electrical creatures that populate the gaming environments — bears a passing resemblance to a pikmin because of the stalk growing out of its head, there is no realtime strategy element here, nor are the elebits your friends or servants. And Katamari Damacy this game is not; there is no remarkable original soundtrack, wild sense of Japanese style, or memorable character roster (actually, quite the opposite for the characters given the laughable English-as-a-second-language voiceover work). However, I can’t neglect to mention that the stage setup is very similar to K.D. in that you are often forced to reach some goal by some time in an environment that necessitates exploring new areas and returning to old areas as your power increases.

The game mechanics of Elebits are simple. Using the “capture gun,” search out elebits and zap them in a variety of environments. This increases your wattage, and a typical stage requires reaching a certain wattage within a specified time limit. As your wattage increases, various electrical appliances will become usable. Switching on these appliances (usually by zapping the bright yellow power button or performing a simple action) releases a different kind of elebit that powers up the capture gun so that it can lift heavier objects. This, in turn, allows you to find more elebits by displacing objects you couldn’t move before.

Though the act of finding and capturing elebits is simple in premise, the game really shines when it comes to environment interactivity. With a little bit of controller finesse, doors and drawers can be opened. Faucets can be turned on. Toilets can be flushed. Coffee pots can be placed in the coffee maker. And just about everything can be lifted and tossed if the capture gun is powerful enough. In earlier stages, it is tempting to just start tossing objects because you can, but in later stages you are sometimes punished for this because of special requirements to break fewer than X objects, keep the noise down, or avoid summoning those dreaded black elebits that can’t be captured. The game physics are decent if on the “floaty” side, and the game can certainly have problems with slowdown if too many objects are flying. Neither of these are deal breakers, though.

Despite the minor problems in execution, Elebits has been a very enjoyable title so far. The first several levels seem like the same exercise repeated with different parameters, but the diversity really starts to kick in around the first boss fight (!) and starts to find its wings from there. Also, since every level will have you zapping elebits (which can become tiring really quickly), it is suited to short play sessions where you only have, say, thirty minutes or so to play games before doing something else. It’s nice to break up those marathon sessions of Zelda or relax after working on that pro rank in Wii Sports.

If this game sounds interesting to you, you won’t be disappointed with it. This title is a great accomplishment for a first generation game, but even outside of that context it’s a worthwhile investment.

WarioWare: Smooth Moves Dance

If this video does not make you laugh uproariously and want to buy this game, you are a cold piece of work.

Now, please give us a full game with this concept.

Bozon on Elebits

Not a full review in sight yet, but Mark Bozon from IGN is also raving about Elebits. Next week can’t seem to come soon enough.

Awaiting Elebits

Lately I tried to explain to someone briefly how I feel about video games. “If you are comfortable watching T.V. for hours on end on the sofa or recliner and look down on me for playing video games, you’re a f***ing hypocrite.” Beyond that, people who know me know that I don’t play just any type of video game. I am generally attracted to video games for the following reasons:

• The artistic direction is incredible.

• The story is engrossing.
• The control mechanics are unique and/or intuitive and fun.

When I first played the Wii at E3, I had high hopes for one title in particular that mostly overlooked by the gaming press for higher profile titles like Zelda, Super Mario Galaxy, Red Steel, and Metroid Prime 3: Corruption. This game was Elebits, a cute puzzle/action game from Konami combining playful graphics with FPS-style mechanics in a highly interactive environment. I’ve heard it described as Katamari Damacy meets Pikmin with the gravity gun from Half Life 2.

Elebits didn’t make it out in time for the U.S. launch, but it is scheduled to hit stores next week on December 12. IGN and Gamespot have recentedly posted their first impressions of it, which are favorable. However, the thing that really gets me is this video from Game Brink of the entire third mission being played.

All I can say is *WOW*. I can’t wait to get my hands on this one. I love the style, the music (the stage select screen sounds suspiciously like Rei Harakami), the game mechanics, the characters, the environment interactivity, the level design … I could go on and on. Rating unseen, I’ll be picking this game up the day it hits the shelves. Not only will it keep me occupied for a long time, but I think it’s a game that a nongamer can pick up and enjoy as well. I’ll be proud to add this one to my collection.

Anyone else looking forward to this?

Wii Will Win

I have decided to revise my previous level of enthusiasm for the Wii. This thing rocks. If the video gaming console race is to be relegated to a three-way competition, I think Nintendo would actually have work to lose it.

It’s not even that the Wii is the most amazing thing I’ve ever experienced by myself. The Wii is great. WiiSports is loads of fun in short bursts. The Legend of Zelda: Twilight Princess is (beginning at the first real dungeon, which is not the Forest Temple nor the two mini-dungeons after it) one of the most exhilarating and rewarding games I’ve played in recent memory. I’ve also heard great things about Rayman Raving Rabbids and Trauma Center: Second Opinion from friends that own them. But these experiences alone don’t begin to capture what I am talking about.

I wrote earlier that when I first began using my Wii that I explored all the built-in functionality before playing any games. Though I wouldn’t necessarily recommend that to every person, I have put a number of friends and family members through the following routine to great success:

1. Place a controller in his/her hand.
2. Have the subject power on the system with the power button.
3. Say nothing until (s)he reaches the channel select screen.
4. If the subject wants to explore, allow it.
5. Eventually direct him/her to create a Mii, walking him/her through the start of the creation process if necessary.
6. Hang around for a few minutes to answer questions.
7. Leave and come back 5 – 10 minutes later to check their progress. Answer more questions or volunteer help if needed.
8. Direct the subject to save his/her Mii.
9. Immediately start a game of (cooperative) tennis or bowling in WiiSports.
10. Offer help with the controls only if (s)he asks (which is most people).
11. Allow hilarity to ensue.

Here is the kicker: people who claim to not be a fan of video games are usually the ones who fall hardest for this system. Somewhere along the line, video games alienated a large portion of the population. Back in the day when Ms. Pac Man ruled the arcades, just about everyone played video games. They just got a little too complex after that for most people, and the average person resigned himself/herself to casual gaming or no gaming at all. Though most of the launch line up doesn’t reflect this, Nintendo knows it and wants to correct it.

WiiSports is essentially a very well-crafted tech demo. Tennis and bowling are awesome. Baseball is cool. Golf is a little frustrating. Boxing is incredibly tiring. But there is fun to be had from each of these games, and there is more depth to them than first appears. And, as Nintendo promised, anyone can pick up a controller and play. It’s the “anyone” part that makes the Wii stand out.

As the Wii has generally one less cable to hook up than my normal console (minus two wireless controllers but plus one sensor bar), I find it easy to pack up and transport to friends’ houses. The Wii is still in short supply, so I do this regularly. The majority of people I visit are at least game-friendly; they aren’t adverse to picking up a controller as long as the game doesn’t require a ridiculous learning curve to have fun. The thing that makes WiiSports so damned attractive, however, is that for basic skill the learning curve is almost instantaneous. Better yet, your computer-generated opponents don’t get better until you get better. I could play cooperatively with a beginner in tennis, and we would be paired with one total amateur and a pro. That keeps the matches very interesting. I could even step out of the game and have two beginners play together without worrying about their being able to handle themselves versus the CPU.

Playing WiiSports the way I do can be physically draining as well, so I was frequently happy to sit out matches not only so others could play but also because I needed the rest. Cheering from the sofa was almost as fun for me as holding the controller in my hand.

The common thread between all of my Wii-intro parties is this: everyone in attendance turns into a bright-eyed child once they start to play. And it starts with the Mii creation.

Some of the hardcore gaming audience has criticized Nintendo for forcing a pack-in, and others have criticized Nintendo for choosing WiiSports as the pack-in. I will say this: the DS Lite is king in Japan, and the Japanese public trust Nintendo enough to ensure that the Wii flies off the shelves without a pack-in. For the United States and other territories, though, including WiiSports was a stroke of genius. It must have been a simple marketing decision for them to make.

1. Complainers will not abstain from buying the system because of the pack-in.
2. Experiences like the one I described earlier will be commonplace, prompting the sale of more systems.

I live by myself, and though I love a good night with Zelda (get your mind out of the gutter), I take every opportunity I can to pack up the Wii and take it to a friend’s house to introduce the system. A thick fog of fun subsequently envelopes the room that causes all in attendance to laugh and grin like idiots. And the overall experience is more rewarding because I had it with friends.

This is the just the initial phase. We all know Nintendo, and WiiSports is a launch title. Now that the A-team is off working on Zelda, Nintendo is probably developing some IP right now that will do for the Wii what Nintendogs did for the DS. WiiSports showed us some fun ways that we can use the controller to interact with our friends. Within a year they will likely show us what it really means to be a “new generation” game. And when that happens, Nintendo will really be in a class by itself.