Wii Sports Resort -- The Legend of Zelda.

It's safe to say that at this point, for me, the Wii has been a disappointment overall. Sure, there is the great Zelda, and the return to form for Mario, and the Virtual Console has allowed for me to revisit and round up classic titles from yesteryear. But outside of a couple of Wii Ware titles and games like No More Heroes, and House of the Dead Overkill third party support hasn't exactly been stellar. Also it's gotten to the point where the spaces between the must have Nintendo developed titles are starting to get obscenely long. So now comes Wii Sports Resort. Don't get me wrong, I'm not calling Wii Sports Resort a must have Nintendo developed title. In fact, I referred to the original Wii Sports as a terrible tech demo and debated if the title should be considered a game or not. I'm not a fan of Nintendo's casual friendly philosophy. I'm not convinced they care about the so called core gamer despite their attempts to show they do at E3 this year. But see, at that E3, at a private showing, Miyamoto showed off some concept art for the next Legend of Zelda on the Wii. He also went on to say something along the lines of if you play Wii Sports Resort and pay attention to the swordplay and archery events you'd get a good idea how the next Legend of Zelda plays. That statement intrigued me enough, and I knew I'd need one eventually, that I went ahead and jumped into Wii Sports Resort. The big deal about Wii Sports Resort is that it comes bundled with Nintendo's new Wii Motion +. An add-on that attaches to the bottom of the Wii Remote and delivers 1:1 motion control. In other words, the Wii Remote will now be able to track itself exactly. So you'll have full on screen control. However you move, the game responds exactly. Ever since the reveal of the Wii's motion control the concept that most instantly grabbed everyone's attention was the idea of lightsaber battles. Now that concept is finally here. Wii Motion + works. The sword does move as you move the Wii Remote. Wii Sports Resort does show off the technology, but it never escapes the tech demo feeling. There is enough to get you excited that hopefully some developer out there is going to be able to deliver the real deal. It's the exact same way for Wii Sport Resort's archery event. The tech demo will impress you on that level while leaving you hopeful someone truly delivers. This slight next Zelda tease has me cautiously optimistic for the next Zelda title. As far as Wii Sports Resort is concerned, it's an even more glorified tech demo. I suppose if you're one of the fabled people who play the Wii every time their grandma comes over and you have all night sessions of Wii Sports then Wii Sports Resort will blow your mind. But if you're one of the more normal gamers who see the gimmick for what it is, Wii Sports Resort isn't going to be for you. But the potential for someone to do something great is here.

The Maw -- All In One.

I had so much fun with 'Splosion Man that I decided to play Twisted Pixel's first game, The Maw. While 'Splosion Man is a 2D platformer, The Maw is a 3D platformer with some puzzle elements. The premise of The Maw is that you're an alien who has been captured by some intergalactic science lab and or zoo. The ship you're on crashes, allowing for you to escape along with Maw, who comes off as pet like. He's essentially a one-eyed purple mouth. He'll eat almost anything. Each level plays out with you leading Maw around, feeding him enough creatures to make him grow. Once he's grown large enough he'll be able to eat larger creatures that will change his shape and enable special powers that will allow you to get through the puzzles of the level. Rinse and repeat through seven stages. Like 'Splosion Man, the characters in The Maw are charming. And that goes a long way to making the games more enjoyable. The Maw is sort of impressive as an Xbox Live Arcade title. I say sort of because of the existence of both Banjo-Kazooie and Banjo-Tooie on the system. It's sort of unfair to make the comparison, but they're the same basic genre on the same platform. I enjoyed The Maw, it gets an 8.

'Splosion Man -- All In One.

I have completed the single player campaign of 'Splosion Man by Twisted Pixel Games for Xbox Live Arcade. I've found and collected all forty-seven cakes. I still need to go through the multiplayer campaign via online with Magus. 'Splosion Man is a simple to control action platform game. I mean, you just have the stick for character movement and a single button to explode. Exploding works as your jump as well as your attack. Twisted Pixel has come up with some of the most devious action gauntlets I've ever experienced. And most of them require exacting timing. Some people might be suckered by the demo which hides the more challenging aspects of what the game really offers. Make no mistake about it, 'Splosion Man is a game designed for core gamers. The challenging gameplay is great, but the game really shines in its humor and the main character itself. 'Splosion Man is a truly manic character. He's literally bouncing off the walls, in both personality and gameplay. Graphically 'Splosion Man is solid looking and offers a high quality level of animation. The sound design is really good. From the music and sound effects to the babble of the main character, everything just fits perfectly. 'Splosion Man is Twisted Pixel's second game. Their first was The Maw, also on Xbox Live Arcade. I was impressed with The Maw demo and always intended to grab it when it went on sale or I had the time. I'm impressed with 'Splosion Man enough to ensure that I'll be picking up The Maw. I'm looking forward to see what Twisted Pixel comes up with for their third game. I'm giving 'Splosion Man a 9.

General Update (Again)

Wow, I'm really kicking ass this summer. Okay, so maybe the joke isn't funny any more. I'm not making any headway at all with my backlog. I haven't actually updated in a while due to the fact my computer has been off for a week or more while I awaited the arrival of a replacement CPU fan. Now that I'm back online I'm able to update once again. Not that there's a lot to discuss. We're still rather lazily moving through Sacred 2, only now with online! I still need the final four achievements there. Having my PC offline allowed me to finally get to work on Phantasy Star II via Xbox Live, which I've now earned the full two-hundred points for. Yes, I played a nearly twenty year old game I've played seven times before just for two-hundred achievement points instead of tackling my backlog. We've also been playing Battlefield 1943, which has turned out to be a great experience for the entrance fee. It provides all of the chaos and visceral thrills of its full sized brethren at a quarter of the price. Xbox Live's Summer of Arcade starts this week, which means I'll have to be taking a serious look at the Xbox Live releases for the next month or so because I need more of a reason to avoid my backlog. Splosion Man is this week, with the sure thing of Marvel Vs. Capcom 2 next week. Phantasy Star Universe continues to add new content at the worst possible times so we'll be likely to spend a couple days checking that out again this week. I really need to start a disc based game, but I sort of have no desire to and would have to force the issue. And that isn't always wise. It looks like I'll be continuing this slightly aimless drift for a while before the by necessity more structured approach to Fall begins at the end of next month.

General Update -- I've Been Busy, Really. (Again)

From a lack of updates one could assume I've been slacking off. That isn't really the case. I just haven't started anything substantial, as I probably should have done. I've actually been spread a little thin. I was playing Ghostbusters online which surprisingly turned out to be great fun. Only problem is that the achievements are severely glitched. A couple of them won't unlock for me when they should have, and another is entirely broken and not even possible because the final ghost that triggers it isn't showing up from being glitched as well. So until Terminal Reality and Atari address the situation with a patch, Ghostbusters online is on hold. Which is doubly bad for Magus as he just wants to play it for the fun of it. We're still slowly working through Sacred 2 for achievements. I'm chasing the one that you get for accessing the hardest difficulty level. That only amounts to having played through the campaign three full times. And we still have our online co-op run to go through. And within that I'm hoping to get the complete a campaign without dying achievement. And then that will leave the final achievement for me of completing the campaign with less than twenty percent of the map exposed. I'm also slowly, but surely, working my way through Phantasy Star II via Xbox Live Arcade. A few minutes here, a few minutes there. It's going to take a while, but I will get those achievements. I've also been further slowed by becoming involved in the 1 Vs. 100 beta, the trivia based game show on Xbox Live. This is another pleasant surprise. It's great fun and is going to really be something. I've also been messing around with Neves Plus for Wii Ware. It's a tangram based puzzle game. You know, figuring out how to fit the seven geometric shapes together just so as to form an image. And of course the eternal Phantasy Star Universe has been updated with a higher level cap and new content. New missions and new items to track down. So you can maybe see why I haven't started anything more substantial, and maybe why I'm not going to be starting anything any time soon. This upcoming week will see the long awaited Battlefield 1943 hit and that will further slow things down as it's sure to eat up more than a few hours. And that'll lead into Marvel Vs Capcom and beyond and then as with the last few years, the holiday season begins in late August and there is just no going back. So when am I going to knock out that ever growing backlog? I still hope to, but something has to give doesn't it?