Wii

Contra Rebirth

October 13, 2009

Reviews / Wii / by Andrew Passafiume Make a comment! / Tweet it!

Contra has returned on the Wii. Although this game is called ReBirth, many consider Contra 4 for the DS to be the game that once again sparked interest in the series. Still, ReBirth has a lot more going for it than you would think. 

The first thing you will notice about this version of Contra is the art style. It is a bit different than any previous Contra title, and takes the cartoony style to an entirely new level. And with a storyline that is more present (and ridiculous) this time around, it is clear that the developers know Contra and just how silly the entire experience is meant to be. The look is different enough to distinguish itself from the rest, but also pays tribute to the original games on the NES and SNES. 

Like all of the previous titles, co-op is definitely a must, especially when it comes to the harder difficulties. The game also included three characters to play as, one of whom is unlocked when you finish it the first time through on any difficulty. But aside from their cheesy catch-phrases, none of the characters actually play any differently. You start out with your standard machine gun, but as you progress you can collect other weapons. All of the weapons and power-ups are what you would expect from a Contra game, including the always popular Spread Shot, which is just as effective here as it is in any previous iteration.

There are four difficulty modes: easy, normal, hard, and nightmare, the last of which is unlocked once you finish the game on hard. Newer Contra players should definitely stick to easy to start out with, as the game still presents the same challenge you would expect. But it’s also pretty friendly to newer players as well. While the famous “Konami code” is not available in this game, you can still set your lives from three to seven, and the game even offers unlimited continues. This lessened challenge may disappoint some veterans of the series, but keep in mind, nightmare mode will make you thankful of these changes. 

The main problem with the game is the length. Now you would never expect a Contra game to be incredibly long, and its short length is made up for the increased difficulty, but I was able to breeze through this game on normal in less than an hour. I can expect the play time will go up with the increased difficulties, but aside from playing with a friend and trying these higher difficulties, there isn’t much reason to replay this title as well.

If you are itching for a new Contra game, own a Wii and are short on cash, Contra ReBirth might be the perfect fix for you. It is the perfect Contra game for older and younger players alike, and I think everyone will find that it is a fun and challenging experience, no matter what the difficulty. 

ESRB: E10+ for ages ten and up; rated for plenty of cartoon and fantasy violence

Pros: Offers an old-school challenge for players of all ages; co-op is just as fun as it has ever been; the different options and difficulty modes make this game accessible for anyone; the look of the game is well done

Cons: The game is very short, even for a Contra title; not much replay value

Cursed Mountain

October 2, 2009

Reviews / Wii / by Andrew Passafiume Make a comment! / Tweet it!

Cursed Mountain is a game that interested some horror fans since its initial announcement. And while it’s a bit hard to say whether or not they will get a satisfying experience with this game, I think that there is a lot to love here. With the survival horror genre going through so many radical changes over the years, it is a bit difficult to tell if Cursed Mountain can stand out on its own. But it can be an enjoyable experience.

The story follows mountain climber Eric Simmons, who is searching for his missing brother, Frank Simmons. Eric journeys up the last mountain Frank was seen climbing, finding himself in some pretty strange territory. The story is intriguing, and although the basic plot is a bit familiar, it’s all wrapped in Buddhist mythology, which helps it stand out among the other horror stories in the industry. Eric is a believable character, and there are quite a few interesting twists along the way. Given the right amount of time, the story definitely becomes quite engaging. 

The game is visually impressive, and it gives off a very eerie and haunting style that you may come to expect from this kind of game. It can be incredibly realistic looking at times, and other times it is something completely different. During certain moments, it presents you with a creepy, truly atmospheric environment that reminds me of some of the best horror worlds, such as Silent Hill. The game has some odd graphical hiccups every now and again, but those slight problems are barely noticeable when you are truly taken aback by the amazing visual effects that are created.

Eric’s voice acting is fine, but aside from him, the voice acting is pretty bad. During the beautiful cutscenes, the atrocious acting can really take you out of the experience during many key points of the story. The music, on the other hand, is good. While it isn’t a large part of the experience, it plays a small but very subtle role in bringing you into the game.

The gameplay itself is the most important part, though. First, the game’s pacing is very slow, which isn’t a point against it. It’s able to slowly ease you into the experience, and there are some very intense and action packed moments. You have a basic weapon, which is a pickaxe, and is used for your melee attacks. Early on in the game, you pick up an artifact that, combined with your pickaxe, can be used as a deadly weapon to take down the evil spirits in the game. You will also find other artifacts throughout the game to increase your weapon’s power, among other things, and they will definitely help out as you face stronger enemies later on in your adventure.

Not too far into the game, you will gain the ability to see with your “third eye.” A quick push of the C button on the Nunchuck lets you see the world with this vision and allows you to use your artifact and pickaxe to shoot and destroy the enemies in the game (it sounds odd, but it somehow works). Eventually, after hitting the enemy enough times, you can finish them off with a gesture of the Wii remote. You have a certain amount of time to perform a set number of actions using the motion controls of the Wii remote and the Nunchuck as quickly as possible. The big problem is a lot of the time the game won’t recognize when you are actually making these motions, causing you to have to retry these parts several times before you get lucky enough for it to work. It can lead to much frustration. 

There are other problems with the controls as well, and they also tend to lead to a lot of frustration, especially during combat situations. For example, there is no quick turn, so it makes trying to turn around to run the other way a hassle. It just feels clumsy and with an added quick turn button or some way to perform it would have made things a lot easier. Also, if you try to change the aiming and camera controls to inverted, it will work for you when you are moving the camera, but for whatever reason it will not be inverted when aiming with your weapon. Just a few little problems that can make your experience with the game a bit more frustrating than it needs to be. 

But, when the controls do work to your advantage, the combat can be a lot of fun. Eventually, you do get used to these problems and are able to manage them as you take on the increasingly difficult enemies. There are also a few boss fights scattered throughout the game, and they are all very fun and pretty original for a horror game, with the exception of the disappointing and incredibly easy final boss. 

Despite Cursed Mountain’s flaws, Deep Silver has succeeded at bringing an original horror game to the Wii. It does have a lot of problems, but most horror fans can overlook these and will definitely appreciate the game as a whole. It may not be for everyone, but Cursed Mountain can be a fun experience, especially for fans of the genre. 

ESRB: M for Mature; rated for lots of blood, violence, and plenty of scares to be had

Pros: The art style is beautiful and the atmosphere is haunting; intriguing story; the combat can be fun (when the controls work); some original and fun boss battles; horror fans will appreciate it

Cons: Some control issues, which includes Wii motion controls that don’t always work; voice acting is generally terrible; very underwhelming final boss

Muramasa: The Demon Blade

October 2, 2009

Reviews / Wii / by Chris Ingersoll Make a comment! / Tweet it!

Unsheathing one of the cursed blades forged by the legendary swordsmith Muramasa often results in nothing but sorrow for the unfortunate wielder. Such is the case for both Kisuke and Momohime, the dual protagonists in Muramasa: the Demon Blade. Fortunately, anyone merely playing Muramasa is in for a much more entertaining experience.

At its core, Muramasa is a 2D hack-and-slash beat-’em-up in the vein of classic games like Final Fight and Golden Axe (with a little “Metroidvania” thrown in), but with some RPG aspects similar to previous Vanillaware offerings (Odin Sphere for the PS2 being the most recent). Most of the action is handled using only a single button, which lets you unleash a surprising variety of lethal attacks in combination with the c-stick/d-pad; other buttons use items, switch blades (and unleash screen-damaging “quick draw” attacks), and execute your blades’ special attacks if they have enough soul power. The game supports all three of the Wii’s control options; I opted for the Classic Controller due to Jump being mapped to up instead of its own button (plus it’s a 2D game anyway, so why do I need analog?). Whatever option you choose, and whichever of the two initial difficulty settings you attempt (you can switch any time) you’ll be brandishing katanas and hewing scores of ninjas and mythological beasts like you’ve been possessed by a demon swordsman in no time.

After all, that’s pretty much what happens to each of the characters in the game’s two narratives. You’re free to play either one of the two stories to their completion or switch between them at your leisure, but the two plotlines are not connected in any way save for the involvement of the spirit of Muramasa himself. The other character might make a cameo in whichever story you’re currently playing, but that’s the extent of the overlap; even the boss battles are separate. Since both plots borrow heavily from medieval Japanese folklore and kabuki traditions, the original Japanese dialogue is retained and subtitled (and in many cases abbreviated) in English. While that’s not really a problem, the fact that both stories seem to drop you in the middle of events will leave you confused as to what’s going on for a few acts. Just roll with it, and eventually the narrative will unfold.

The main selling point of Muramasa isn’t the plot anyway; it only takes one look at the game’s gorgeous visuals to see where the lion’s share of the effort went. Several locals are inspired by classic Japanese wood paintings, showing that plot points and enemies weren’t the only elements of the game borrowed from Japan’s rich history. As good as the game looks in still images, it is even more breathtaking in action. Muramasa is more than just a pretty face, fortunately, but that face is indeed very pretty.

It’s not perfect, however. The biggest problem with the gameplay is the intensive backtracking that must be done, which can get quite tedious. There are some other minor issues, like the repetitive animations when eating/cooking food, but the backtracking is by far the most complained-about. Once you beat a story (the first time… there are multiple endings for both characters) you can warp from save point to save point within that story, and there’s an item that can warp you back to the most recent shrine you visited, but there’s still a lot of walking and jumping to do in between. Of the ~22 hours it took me to finish both stories, I shudder to think how much was just moving from one empty screen to another.

But overall, these are minor quibbles in what is an otherwise smooth game experience. The Vanillaware team has a passion for 2D gameplay and it shows. There’s also some replay value in post-game challenges, multiple endings, and an ultra-challenging new difficulty level for the hardest of hardcore. I wouldn’t recommend Muramasa to everyone, as it takes some time to get into, but anyone who would enjoy some old-school action should definitely pick it up.
 
ESRB: T for Alchohol Reference, Fantasy Violence, and Suggestive Themes. The sake flows freely (Momohime is especially fond of it), you harvest souls of fallen enemies to forge new blades, and there are health-rejuvenating hot springs that your character visits wearing nothing but briefs (or a modesty towel, in Momo’s case).

Plays like: Arcadey beat-’em-ups; Castle Crashers is a rare recent example

Pros: Amazing visuals, crisp controls

Cons: Gameplay is somewhat repetitive, especially the backtracking

Wii Sports Resort

September 29, 2009

Reviews / Wii / by Chris Rasco Make a comment! / Tweet it!

Wii Sports is arguably the most popular Wii title to date, simply because it shipped with the system as a pack in title. For most people, it really just whet the appetite and left us longing for more. Nintendo’s back with a sequel: Wii Sports Resort.

Wii Sports Resort is different from the original Wii Sports in many ways. Most notably is the required use of the Wii MotionPlus accessory, which is bundled with Resort (and some other games) and is also available as a standalone purchase. Resort also includes a larger collection of sports, 12 to Wii Sports’ 5, and with it a new menu screen. Each sport has an initial challenge with additional unlockable modes of increasing difficulty. Each sport will allow between 1 and 4 players to compete in the challenge, depending on the challenge. Sports included are Archery, Frisbee, Basketball, Cycling, Canoeing, Power Cruising, Table Tennis, Air Sports, Bowling, Swordplay, Golf and Wakeboarding.

I really enjoyed some of these sports and others were just downright cumbersome. Bowling and Golf are largely unchanged. Table Tennis was essentially just a modified version of Tennis from Wii Sports. Archery, Frisbee, Basketball, Swordplay, and Wakeboarding were all quite fun with Swordplay being the house favorite. The Air Sports events were really cool, the top choice of my wife. I felt pretty lukewarm about Canoeing mostly because I did so poorly at it and didn’t really enjoy it. That leaves Power Cruising and Cycling, neither of which I found to be all that enjoyable. Power Cruising was downright hard and I just couldn’t get the hang of it. After a few tries I just stopped playing that one completely.

At its core, Resort really is just an incredibly fun tech demo to showcase the abilities and precision of the Wii MotionPlus. For that, it does a really good job. It’s essentially to the WMP what Wii Sports was to the Wii Remote. Some might gawk at the $50 price tag, but with the WMP unit bundled in there, it’s really only setting you back $30 for the game (WMP retails for $20). At $30, Resort has more than enough depth to justify the price. If Wii Sports was any indicator, I’ll be playing a whole lot of Wii Sports Resort for months to come. This is something you’ll eventually want to pick up.

Pros: Bundled Wii MotionPlus unit; Expanded sports lineup

Cons: Price; Power Cruising sucked

Grand Slam Tennis

September 29, 2009

Reviews / Wii / by Chris Rasco Make a comment! / Tweet it!

The Wii is the perfect platform for a tennis game, and it’s got no shortage of them already available. The newest of these is Grand Slam Tennis, a new franchise from the folks at EA Sports. Grand Slam Tennis boasts some features that make it stand out from the crowd and it promises to be richest tennis experience on the Wii, but does it deliver?

The game features an all star cast of 23 legend tennis players and it’s the first game to feature Wimbledon, making it the only tennis game to feature all four Grand Slam tournaments. The playable legend characters range from John McEnroe to Pete Sampras to the Williams Sisters each one complete with a special ability that is derived from their real life strength as a player.

Grand Slam features a few different gameplay modes including single player action that spans Grand Slam Career mode, exhibition matches, and even party games. Career mode allows you to create your own player and features an endless number of customizations, most of which you must unlock as you progress through the game. You can return to the character edit mode and update your wardrobe and equipment at any time. Career mode has you traveling to each of the four Grand Slams to take part in the tournament. Before beginning the tournament, you’ll play a few practice matches that include exhibition matches, legend matches, and skill challenges. You only have one shot to win each match. If you lose, you have to wait until the following year to reattempt that particular match. The tournament itself is a series of 5 consecutive matches against seeded players.

In addition to the new character customizations you can unlock through Career mode, you can be awarded special abilities as well as overall skill points. Upon creating your character, you start off with zero stars and you are gradually awarded additional stars for winning matches. Special abilities are awarded by defeating their respective legends. Initially you can only equip a single ability, but you can unlock the ability for two additional slots. In all, there is plenty to keep you playing Career mode in an effort to maximize the ability of your character.

One of the features that makes Grand Slam stand out is its support for Wii MotionPlus, the ultra-accurate accessory from Nintendo. I spent time playing Grand Slam with and without WMP and I personally preferred playing with just the standard Wii Remote. The standard remote was responsive enough for me to actually feel like I was playing a game of tennis, but I found playing with WMP to actually be less accurate. Any slight movement of the remote resulted in some movement of the racket and/or my character. On occasion, this resulted in very odd results where my character would as I prepared to swing the controller and when I did finally swing my character would lunge back and perform a forehand. It was all very unnatural and had me almost afraid to move prior to swinging. Without the WMP add on I was able to stand in front of the TV and freely swing the racket.

Despite the issues I had with Wii MotionPlus, the game itself presents a very realistic representation of swinging a tennis racket. The vertical direction of the racket could create a flat shot or one with spin and the direction of the ball was directly related to where in the swing you made contact with the ball. There was a minor learning curve to make sure you weren’t wildly hitting the ball all over the court, but usually a match or two should do it.

EA opted to go for a very cartoony style for Grand Slam Tennis and I think it fits the game perfectly. The characters and visuals look great and they did a solid job of capturing the mannerisms of the legends in the game. Audio-wise, the game was pretty average with a soundtrack that may as well not be there and commentary that feels a little dry.

Grand Slam Tennis is a great first title for a new franchise that is not without its flaws. I was really hoping the Wii MotionPlus implementation would improve the experience and not hamper it, but I would definitely recommend playing without it. The art style is great and I really enjoyed feeling like I was playing a match of tennis. I didn’t particularly care for the lack of a rematch option, especially early on in Career mode when your player was at a definite disadvantage. At the end of the day, Grand Slam Tennis is not a perfect game, but I really had a lot of fun with it and I’ve had no problem recommending it to friends and family alike as the go to title for a real tennis experience.

Pros: Great art style; Lots of fun

Cons: Wii MotionPlus support actually makes the game worse

← Previous Entries

Next Entries →