In case you’re wondering whether or not to pick up Rock Band for the Wii despite it’s lacking features compared to the PS3/360 versions, check out this review from X-Play and see if it helps.

I’d say if you have a PS3 or 360, grab it for one of those, but if you only own a Wii you can’t go wrong by picking it up as it’s still going to be great fun for you and your friends.

In case you’re wondering what the Wii Ware Final Fantasy game is all about, Nintendo Wii Fanboy has their review up and overall, they like the game, but it’s not without it’s fair share of issues.

On a positive note concerning it’s addictiveness:

..I felt compelled to play My Life as a King more than most games I’ve picked up lately. The days are so short, and you can accomplish everything so quickly, that it’s easy to become glued to the screen, muttering “just one more day, then I’ll stop.” Part of this is probably due to the auto save system. At the end of each day, the game saves. That’s when you stop, right? Here’s the problem: right after the save is complete, you’re thrust into your morning reports of the kingdom’s goings-on. You could turn the game off, or you could just go ahead and look at those reports. And after you’ve done that, you might as well issue some behests to your adventurers and see what they can do … and then go donate money to the White Mage Temple’s research fund … and two hours later, you finally convince yourself not to look at that next report.

And some less glowing information regarding gameplay issues:

The gameplay seems all over the place here; in the beginning, you have nothing in the way of resources and are forced to wait around, while later on, you’ve got a glut of elementite for building and nothing to use it for. If you buy the extra race packs, you have to unlock them, and that takes effort. That means you have a choice: keep only a few adventurers in the beginning and unlock the extra races very slowly, or expand as quickly as you can to get them faster, and be limited in the number of adventurers you can hire from the Yukes, Selkies, and/or Lilties. The number of adventurers you can control caps at 16, and while you gain some extra later through another building, you don’t have any choice with them. You can’t decommission adventurers once they’re hired, either. If you end up unhappy with those you selected, well, too bad. Later on, you can form parties, but then if the whole party completes a task, you reward only the party leader, rather than everyone (or even just choosing someone who needs the boost). My Life as a King is filled with these little balance issues that combine into one big gameplay issue. The result isn’t a huge annoyance — you adapt — but it did make me somewhat wistful for the game this could have been, but just isn’t.

In the end, they give it a 7 out of 10 and mention the fact that the downloadable content for the game isn’t as costly as you might think and you can have a heck of a fun time with what they provide from the get go. Here’s that link to the review again.

We picked up Defend Your Castle from the WiiWare channel and the wife and I had a blast playing it for about two hours last night. I’ll be making a video showing off some of the medium difficulty levels as you get past the slower first ones and another video showing off WiiWare as a whole, but in the meantime, here’s a few reviews from other outlets for the currently available titles:

IGN
- V.I.P. Casino: Blackjack Review
- Pop Review
- Lost Winds Review
- Defend Your Castle Review
- TV Game Show Review

1up
- FFCC: My Life as a King review

More to come as I spot ‘em.

GameSpot has reviewed Boom Blox and while they found it to be entertaining enough, it just has too much repetitive gameplay to garner anything more than a 7.0 score. That’s not the only thing they didn’t like, they also seemed to want a better story and characters out of the game. Hey, fun is fun in my book and I’ll be for sure picking this one up.

It stumbles with certain game modes and its effort to appeal to kids with a poorly integrated story is ham-fisted at best, but Boom Blox is still a good game. Most of the hundreds of puzzles are fun to play alone, and it’s also entertaining to taunt friends during their turn as they try to keep a tower from collapsing. The ability to create your own levels adds quite a bit of value as well. In terms of where it ranks in Spielberg’s body of work, Boom Blox is no Schindler’s List, but it’s a heck of a lot better than Hook.

In case you missed the link tot he review, here it is again.

Boom Blox should be out this week and I for one am definitely picking it up. Here’s a review from the guys at GameVideos.com:

The always hot Morgan Webb from X-Play really likes Okami on the Wii as you can tell for yourself by watching their video review below:

Anyone picked up Okami yet and have any first hand impressions? I never played it for the PS2 but have been thinking of grabbing it. It’s a big month this month for games though with GTA4 and Mario Kart coming out so we’ll have to see.

Just got this month’s Nintendo Power in the mail and there’s a really cool 6-7 page Mario Kart Wii writeup complete with some new screens and pics of the pack-in wheel and it’s looking quite awesome. I have to be honest, I had worried about the motorcycles being added and if the wheel would be too gimmicky but it appears the cycles are alot of fun and the wheel looks to be slightly more than just a shell as it’s got a trigger on the back that you can use for powersliding. I’m actually interested in playing the game with the wheel attachment thingymajig.

In other news in this issue, the reviews for the Wii games were all over the place with a few that I had hoped would score well ending up scoring not so hot. Here’s a quick rundown of them:

Worms: A Space Oddity: 6.0
Nuts.. I had hoped this would be better as I love me some Worms action. No online play and “questionable design choices” led to the negative mark. They apparently cut out about half of the usual weapons which would suck. Eh, I’ll Gamefly it maybe.

Sega Superstars Tennis: 8.0
Hey now we’re talking. I had hoped this game would end up being fun and NP sure thought it was. They claim it reminds them of Super Smash Bros and the game offers a choice in it’s gameplay; you can play it Wii Tennis style where you just swing the Wiimote, or choose to control the character and swing at the same time. The game also supports the classic controller. Nice!

Bully: Scholarship Edition: 8.5
The open ended gameplay and how “alive” everything feels garnered high marks from NP as did the new controls and content. I’ve never given Bully a shot so perhaps this is my chance to enjoy it in all its glory?

House of the Dead 2 &3 Return: 7.0
Nuts, a 7.0 but they did like the game, they only rated it low due to the fact it brought nothing overly new to the table besides upgraded graphics over it’s previous renditions. I’m still getting it.

Opoona: 7.0
An RPG for beginners is what they refer to it as. Nice backgrounds and music, and fundamentally solid, they just didn’t like how rough around the edges the game is. Minigames that don’t take advantage of the Wii controls, instead you choose dance moves from a list for example. Inadequate maps and overall sometimes confusing, clunky environmental collisons, static dungeon cameras, the list goes on and on. A shame as it definitely has style.

Destroy All Humans: Big Willy Unleashed: 7.0
Full of puns that start with the title of the game, it feels like it’s “beating you over the head with it’s juvenile humor” at points. Low draw distance and generally poor AI were marks against the game as was the fact it didn’t really feel like a third installment, just a slight revamping of the previous iterations.

Sega Bass Fishing: 5.0
Noooooo! Well, it is a port of a nine year old arcade game, but man I was looking forward to this for some goofy reason. If you’re looking to relive this game with motion controls that work well, give it a go. Otherwise, it’s going to feel very dated with little to no upgrades going on in terms of graphics.

MLB2k8: 6.5
Good at being a fundamental baseball sim, solid batting and pitching, and even things stat junkies will enjoy but no online play or any other features the other consoles were treated to. “Last years edition with Wii controls tacked on”. To many nuances to list but if this is your only console and you are a baseball fan you will enjoy it on a decent level.

Obscure: The Aftermath: 7.0
Not too many survival horror games on the Wii so if you’re into those, this may be a must buy for you. It is no RE4 though. And it’s not even all that scary really so they claim. Campy characters and cheesy dialog, but you can play it coop and it makes good use of the Wii controls. I’d pay $30 for it.

Pinball Hall of Fame: The Williams Collection: 7.5
Being a fan of pinball video games, I just might have to pick this one up. Perhaps not the game for those not interested in pinball games at all. Makes great use of the Wii controls given how basic it is.

Baroque: 3.0
Popular Japanese series hitting other areas now, but they could have kept it according to NP. Slow dungeon crawler game that nearly feels turn based and grows boring rather quickly. No real explanation of what is going on just, “Here you go now play!” Not a game for me.

And that covers it. Some good, some very bad, but mainly a mix of some good titles. I’ll have to check out Sega’s tennis offering and of course get the HotD pack. Anything you guys were looking forward to?

In case you need another video review to show you how cool No More Heroes is, check out GamePro’s below:

GameSpy has their review up for No More Heroes and it’s garnered a respectable 4/5 stars. I expect No More Heroes to be one of those games like Zack and Wiki that sadly won’t sell as many copies as it truly should. From everything I’ve seen and heard, NMH is a quirky title with some very cool gameplay elements paired with a rather unique yet appealing graphical style that combine to form a must own Wii game in my book.

Here’s a couple of snippets from their review:

he most coherent way to describe NMH (other than “on something”) is that it resembles “Kill Bill” in regard to plot and a pint-sized San Andreas in execution. As Travis Touchdown, you’ll work your way up a list of targets in the California town of Santa Destroy on your way to becoming the best hitman in the world… that is, when you’re not living the lifestyle of a hopelessly pervy otaku. You’ll also be armed with the Katana Beam, a light-sword that should have George Lucas speed-dialing his lawyers.

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the game glows with style, even if it’s got quite a few poop and sex jokes. The visuals have a cel-shaded motif, but it’s not laid on quite as thick as killer7. All of the violence is completely over-the-top in its stylishness; as Travis dismembers the legions of anonymous villains, geysers of arterial spray and coins shoot from their bodies. We’re not fans of the pop-up as he drives around Santa Destroy, which could possibly be worse than in the GTA games. Otherwise, there’s no argument that the unique graphical style is among the best you’ll see on Wii this year.

No More Heroes should be available as early as today, is anyone going to be picking this one up?

Good grief, what happened to this franchise? It was fun for the longest time, maybe not the prettiest racer, but still fun and now it looks and plays like crap on the Wii according to GamesRadar. Their review is up and they give it a rather paltry 2 out of 10. This quote sums things up quite nicely from the end of their review:

Games this low-rent and unapologetically busted only come around a few times a year, but don’t bother savoring this rare experience - Cruis’n is undoubtedly the worst Wii racer to date, and another blight on a franchise that has long suffered in home conversions.

I’ve got a curiosity that drives me (no pun intended) to want to play crappy games so I have to check this one out. If I do, you know I’ll be sure to make a video of me playing it.

Don Reisinger from the Cnet blog “The Digital Home” has some choice words for Super Mario Galaxy and the reviews that have been coming out. But mainly about Mario Galaxy in his review of the game over on his blog. Calling the game “gimmicky”, “downright ugly”, and in the end “deserves a 7 out of 10″, Don doesn’t seem to share the same opinion that most folks that have played the game share. Of course, he also considers Mario Sunshine to be “one of the better games in the Mario franchise”. While Sunshine was a decent game, it’s no where near one of the better games in the series, but I’ll digress and instead post some of his noteworthy quotes from his review, which may be a strategically planned troll for traffic in which case it’s brilliant.

But after playing through Super Mario Galaxy for the past week, I simply don’t get all the hype surrounding the game. Is it a good game? Sure. Is it a great game? No.

The first thing that struck me about this game was the utter lack of beauty. And while I realize the Wii doesn’t have the horsepower we’ve all come to know and love in the Xbox 360, Playstation 3 or the PC, this game looks no better than games released back in 2001.(My note: Yes it does.)

Is graphics everything? Of course not. But don’t you think Nintendo could have done a slightly better job creating a better looking world? I hate to be picky, but compare this game to Resident Evil 4 on the Gamecube — Nintendo’s last generation device — and there is no contest. And after playing games like Call of Duty 4 and Assassin’s Creed, I can’t help but think this game is downright ugly for this generation.

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Am I the only person in the world who started playing this game and thought the need to “shake the Wii-mote” back and forth was one of the dumbest aspects of this game?(My note: You just might be the only person in the world that thinks this, yes.)

And I think that’s where Nintendo lost me. With a first-party game, I truly believe the Wii-mote should be inexorably tied to gameplay. Unfortunately, it simply wasn’t. In fact, it almost seemed like this functionality was tacked on at the end because, after all, a Wii game must use that Wii-mote in some way, right? (My Note: Did he not play far enough to use the motion sensing for the Ghost Sprint level or perhaps grabbing any of the “grab” stars at all?)

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But in the end, I was left wanting more out of this game. Not only does it look downright ugly at times, the tacked-on feel of some of its controls and its utter lack of a compelling story preclude me from calling it the “wonderful” game others have called it. Is it a good game? Yes. Is it great? Not a chance.

If you ask me, this game deserves a 7 out of 10.

Here’s my review of his review: Eeeeyuuckk..

Agree with him? Disagree with him? Does he make some good points or even one? Comment and let us know if you think this guy might be on to something here.

The Wii section of the Advanced Media Network has a review of Link’s Crossbow Training up and it’s a mixed bag ending up with a 6/10 being given to the title. Their review of it is as a standalone title and not a pack-in title with the Zapper which does give different weight to the game. Here’s some good and bad from the review, check the link for their full impressions:

Some good:

Despite its basic gameplay design, there is a surprising amount of variety to the levels in Crossbow Training. You’ll see a wide variety of familiar locales from the Zelda franchise as you make your way through the nine challenges (each of which features three levels). Further, there are three types of stages: rail-based, controlled third-person and free-roaming third-person, so you aren’t playing the exact same thing over and over each level.

And some bad:

Unfortunately for Link’s Crossbow Training, its greatest success – mainstreaming Zelda – is also its chief downfall. The game’s simple design backfires, as it’s shallow. The gameplay isn’t necessarily bad, but it’s so rudimentary that is struggles to entertain for long. We wrote earlier that it feels like Nintendo simply copy and pasted over its bow and arrow mechanics from Twilight Princess, and then it was (mostly) done from a design perspective. Regrettably, this is true, and while it can stand as a compliment (the controls are great), it doubles as an insult. The premise isn’t enough to keep you playing after the novelty of the first few levels wears off.

I’m going to look for the Zapper package today at our local GameStop and hope it’s in. Anyone else picking this up and maybe Ghost Squad as well?