I joined Wiidownloadspro in July to see what games I could get to carry on enjoying my Wii gaming experience. What joining means is that you receive two pdf files with very clear instructions about how to get started downloading Wii games, so in my opinion it’s not really a club that you join. Read the rest of this entry »
Unknown to most of the general Wii population is a burgeoning community of Wii enthusiasts who are dedicated to improving their Nintendo Wii experience. It’s not however without its potential pitfalls.
Team Twiizers have developed a Wii channel you can upload to your Wii to install all their hacks:
Instead of the annoying side by side split screen in Wii Sports 2-player boxing (annoying if you haven’t got a wide screen), Facebreaker gives a single mostly side on view of the action as it takes place. There is an element of comedy, faces distort comically as they’re hit, and also display damage accumulated during the fight. Facebreaker also shares other fight game concepts, characters have their own special moves, for example Voodoo throws a magic voodoo bolt that makes the opponent attack themselves. The game has many rich colorful and charismatic characters, so beats Wii Sports boxing hands down in this area. The game doesn’t seem to be Queensbury rules either, which makes for a lot of interesting moves:
Soon to be released (early ‘09 we hope) in the great Guitar Hero series is Guitar Hero 4, and this time the whole band gets to play! Following the EA’s Rock Band format, as well as the lead guitar, there’ll be bass, drums, and even a microphone for singer in you (admit it, you always wanted to sing, but only got to after several tequilas and a karaoke machine, right?) .
And this time the song catalogue is much bigger to, with rock, heavy metal, and even some hip hop. Van Halen and The Eagles tracks have been confirmed along with Linkin Park, but no mention of Thin Lizzy as yet ( Whisky in the Jar anyone?).
New features include a studio to create your own songs and if you’re not happy with the default band members you can create your own from scratch, even customising the instruments too! No price has been announced as of yet but its safe to hazard a guess being in the same region as Rock Band, that’s about £180, but I’m sure Nintendo will allow people to buy the instruments individually allowing people to purchase their favourites first (are you listening Nintendo?). Wii gaming rocks!!
This week we were treated to a glimpse of the future for Wii gaming at the E3 games conference, held in Los Angeles. The new add on, the Wii MotionPlus is promised to bring more in depth motion sensitive capability to Wii gaming, in that it is more sensitive to hand and wrist movement (imagine how accurate Red Steel could have been!).
The MotionPlus is small, almost cube shaped, and plugs into the Wiimote’s nuchuk port. It offers more accurate coordination in 3d space than the Wiimote alone. Nintendo claim that every movement made by not only the hand and wrist but arm also is matched exactly in real time game play.
I never thought I’d get off on a game where you have to pretend to be a rockstar, even though deep down I always wanted to be one. What does this game do for me? Well it allows that fantasy to come true, during gameplay at least. Using the Wii guitar to emulate playing the songs is mentally very challenging, and ironically, almost as challenging as learning a real instrument. Even if rock music is not your cup of tea, there’s plenty of classics in there that are bound to be enjoyed. What I really loved was getting to the next stage and unlocking another group of songs. I have nearly finished the easy (only 3 fingers!) section, but I dont know how I’ll get my little finger to play.
When the keys start to ‘fall’ right it really feels like your playing the guitar. The feeling of satisfaction as new connections being made between your brain and fingers is immense.
Hmm maybe I’ll see about guitar tuition…Nah, I’ll stick to Wii gaming
Click here to read my review on wiidownloadspro
In my opinion no. To play file-shared downloaded Wii games is not only illegal (games are protected by copyright), but you must have a modified chip installed in your Nintendo Wii. Sites that claim to offer Wii downloads are, in my experience, merely utilising peer to peer file sharing and what you end up buying is the instructions on how to do so. The advantages may well be that after waiting approximately 24 hours or more for a game to download, then extracting and preparing the game in order to burn it, you get a free game. Doesn’t sound too bad, I hear you say? Sometimes you might find that the game doesnt work, or is in another language, not to mention the damage to the Wii gaming industry. Then sometime down the line you may receive a summons from a game producer such as Topware Interactive, who recently won a landmark Court case in the UK, in which four defendants were fined £750 plus £2000 cost each for uploading a game copyrighted by Topware. The London Metro report (2nd July 08) went on to say that Topware’s solicitors the obtained disclosure orders for 1,000 further names from ISPs with the intent of prosecuting them. Ouch
I don’t know about most people but I can not afford to risk that financial hit for the sake of saving a few quid upfront. And a further 1000 people being charged £2,000 plus for damages (£2 million) means that joe public is going to be hung out to dry and some lawyers will be getting paid as usual.
I think i’ll hire my Wii games and evaluate before buying…
BUt if you do want to have a look at a selection of download sites:
To visit WiiDownloadsPro, please click here.
WiiMediaDownloads.com can be found here
