Raving Rabbids coming again to the Wii

Raving Rabbids TV Party, as the new game will be called, is coming to the Wii and will be utilizing the currently ever so popular Wii-board to help play the games. Ubisoft revealed this fact during their recent Expo.

I’ve played the previous games on the Wii and I have to say that utilizing the wii-board in a party game environment will be very interesting. Of course I think the need to take precautions with people hopping on and off the board will have to be taken, and it will be interesting to see how the board stands up to a good amount of use, but then again this would eventually happen with Wii Fit or other games that will be coming out to use the board.

Personally I think that if this game hits during the Christmas season there will be a ton of people rocking out the holidays with this game and friends. There is no release date set as of now, but here’s to wishful thinking.

Nintendo and McDonalds Wi-Fi deal coming to an End

Well I don’t know if anyone really used the deal, but Nintendo and McDonalds agreement to have free Wi-Fi for the DS is now coming to a close. Well actually it has come and gone, it actually ended last year, but with the lack of people using the network, and the lack of publicity in it ending probably shows that there was a good chunk of money that was probably being lost.

I understand the idea, McDonalds gets more sales because people will come in and play on their DSs, but the problem I think is that Nintendo didn’t take into effect that there are quite a few different places that Wi-Fi can be used, and to top it off there isn’t really a game that is hugely popular and that requires users to be online for a good amount of time. Sure there are games that benefit from a Wi-Fi connection like Mystery Dungeon, or the Pokemon games, but that’s just to pass the time it really doesn’t have an end all impact to the games.

Beyond Good & Evil 2 Officially Announced

Well at Ubisoft’s expo of sorts Beyond Good & Evil 2 was sort of revealed, but it was revealed in 3 pictures where you can see two of the characters that were in the first game. I have to say that this is really exciting, well it was until I found out a bit more about the game, which turns my joy into concern.

Because of the latest trend of casual gamers taking to video games, especially thanks to the Wii, which is still in high demand in the US thanks to the failing dollar and as a result the poor supply, the director for the game was stated as saying that this game will be created for the new generation of gamers. After suffering an abysmal commercial launch with the game, and the game really not taking off until later, thanks to an underground type of movement, the push is to make the game more casual and user friendly. I personally think by doing this there is a good chance that what was in the first that made it unique will be swept away and what will be left is another casual game that will once again drive the core gamers away. I probably will still pick it up when it comes out, but I think that a lot of the other gamers will wait to see reviews, demos, and trailers of gameplay before making a move.

I do understand that it is a matter of dollar signs, and right now the casual gaming market is a huge chunk of the pie, but there are games out there that appeal to the core gamers that are excelling in sales. A couple of examples, which are franchise games, but BGaE2 will make it a franchise/series: Super Smash Brothers, Grand Theft Auto, Halo, Condemned (which I still need to review), and SSX. I know its a risk to go that route, and with the economy as it is now I think I can forgive Ubisoft for the move, but I really hope that they don’t take too much of the complexity out of it and make it into a mindless game.

WiiFit Review

Wii Fit is the new craze for the Wii, an exercise program that allows you to play a video game to help you train. At least that is the concept that is out there. To combat the lack of Wiis on the market now you’re going to see a lack of WiiFits on the market as well, and I’m sure that there will be some retail companies that will try to do package deals so that they can sell both and rake in the bucks.

Here’s the deal, if you really want to work out and aren’t just trying to be a complete tool about it, you can actually get a good workout in. There are some programs that are going to leave you wanting more, and there are other times where you’re going to wish that there was just a play all button, but overall you’re going to get a workout in.

There are several different groups of exercises you’ll have yoga training, strength training, aerobic training, and balance training. Sadly most of the modes in the game have to be unlocked through working on some of the ones you don’t want to do, but when you unlock all the programs then you can really get down to work.

Every time I play, or work out I should say, I feel like I’m playing BrainAge for the body, the whole setup is the same. You have a test you need to do everyday to see how you are progressing, and you also have training methods to help improve your scores.

The one thing I have to warn you about is that the BMI and Weight screen will catch some off guard, and when you’re doing strength training and others you’re going to notice that the digital trainer isn’t always the nicest person. So after some good old fashion training I’m going to have to give this program a 8.7 out of 10.

For Those XBOX Live Arcade Players

Well it would appear that Microsoft will be doing some spring cleaning soon to fancy up their shop, and it looks like they are going to be removing some games from the service to make it look prettier, and to also give the average score of a Live Arcade game a boost. So here’s the list of games that are rumored to be on their way out, apparently if they scored lower than a 65% on some site and are six months and older they’ve got to go…

Crystal Quest
Speedball 2: Brutal Deluxe
Hardwood Hearts
Texas Hold ‘em
Fatal Fury Special
Contra
Marathon: Durandal
Missile Command
Time Pilot
Track & Field
Hardwood Backgammon
Hardwood Spades
Pac-Man
Frogger
Mad Tracks
Root Beer Tapper
Super Contra
Geon: Emotions
Soltrio Solitaire
Arkadian Warriors
TiQal
Rush’n Attack
Defender
Double Dragon
Xevious
Gyruss
Asteroids / Asteroids Deluxe
Battlestar Galactica
Centipede & Millipede
Spyglass Board Games
Tetris Splash
Ecco the Dolphin
Yie Ar Kung-Fu
Wing Commander Arena
Novadrome
Shrek-N-Roll
Scramble
Tempest
Street Trace: NYC
Word Puzzle
New Rally-X
Cyberball 2072
Screwjumper!

Street Fighter IV platforms announced

The rumor is that the newest version of the Street Fighter game is going to several platforms. These platforms include PS3, XBOX360, and PC. It looks like the Wii will be left out in the cold, though I don’t really know if capcom would have ever been interested in getting fully functional controls, or how that would work on the Wii.

I’m excited to see that this series is coming back to the consoles, in a newer form not just another Street Fighter Turbo Alpha Advanced Hyper Fighting Special Limited Edition.

For more info you can follow the link of where the rumor started, but I have to warn you that the site is in French, though it does have some extra pictures and some footage if you are interested… CLICK ME

Penny Arcade Adventures: On the Rain-Slick Precipice of Darkness Review

Penny Arcade’s dabble into games has produced On the Rain-Slick Precipice of Darkness, a mystery RPG where you get to run around parts of Arcadia with Tycho and Gabe. The game will pit you against mimes, robots, hobos, and clowns. This game is also rated M for Mature, and is so because of the blood, language, and dark humor.

To be honest I was beyond hyped about getting my hands on this game. I wanted it for the XBOX360 since I figured that it would feel natural on the system, and for the most part that’s exactly what it was. There were a couple spots where I wanted to check something out which was on the edge of the screen and I accidentally advanced an area, or I was trying to interact with something and instead I ended up interacting with something else because it was so close together.

The thing that troubles me about this game is that this game is strictly meant for a HD setup. I cringed every time I had to read something, or I had to decipher what amount of certain items I had. The other thing that I kind of got to me about this game is that yes I understand language, and the that whole thing but sometimes it felt that the writer just wanted to throw random cuss words in just for the hell of it, and I think that actually degraded the experience. My final gripe is that I just laid out 20 bucks to play this game and I got three areas to adventure in, and one place to continuously go back to. I felt that just as I was finally starting to go with the flow it was credit time. I understand that it is episodic material and that there’s more, but I wonder what the price tag for the second part will be.

Now for some of the good things. I liked the combat, even if I couldn’t really make out much of the commands on the screen. You had to act fast as if you didn’t your enemies were going to go after you. I wish that the counterattack move was a little bit crisper as I was able to time the button press a good portion of the time and sometimes I’d get the counterattack and other times I would get partial block. The way to execute the special moves I liked, it was interactive and didn’t always promise that you’d be able to do full damage to your opponent (Though of course there were times where I was getting my ass handed to me that I wanted the attacks to just work themselves and save me the chance of messing up). The other thing was that you only had to make it through the combat and your characters were automatically healed, which was freaking sweet.

To be honest this game has potential and the series as a whole could really rock people’s socks off, but I think that it really didn’t end up shining as much as I would have liked and I felt that there were parts that could have been better. I love the comic and I thought the game was a good first try, but I have to give this game a 6.9 out of 10.

Boom Blox Review

The Boom Blox game is a joint venture between Steven Spielberg and EA , and I must say, this is the type of family friendly casual game that even the more hardcore crowd would enjoy. The basis of the game is simple, knock, grab, or blast bloxs down. But don’t underestimate the content of this title. There are four different game modes in Boom Blox as well as over 300 levels in five worlds!

The controls for this game are very simple, and because of this even your Grandma can bust some bloxs. One thing that I realized is that the levels can be very easy to extremely hard in no real order. For instance you could beat one level and say hey, that was pretty hard, but then the next level is so easy that it really took no thought to meet the highest score.

One of the great features of Bloom Blox is the level design mode. In this mode you can create your own levels and also you can tweak any of the exsiting levels in the game. This feature adds a lot of replay ability to the title as well making a multi-player even more interesting.

So, if your looking for a different type of game that you can play with anyone and is fun and also very addicting, look no further.  8.8 out of 10.

Leave of Absence

Well as anyone can tell its been about a week since the last update, I just wanted to quickly hop on and say that it is not that we are neglecting our audience is because we’ve had to get some other stuff done. I will be personally posting at least 4 game reviews and I’ll try to get the comic thing back up and going soon. I had to take apart my wonderful setup in my office to get several computers reformatted and ready to be taken back to where they came from for some contract work. So hopefully I will be back tomorrow, I don’t know how I’m going to do it with all the stuff on my plate for Memorial Day, but I guess I should say that we’ll be, or I will, at least, be back by Tuesday ready to post a couple of reviews. To give you a taste of what I’ll be writing about I’ll just give you the 4 games.

Penny Arcade Adventures: Rain Slick Precipe of Darkness Ep 1

CRUSH

Wii Fit

and the other game eludes me at the moment, but once I find it and have time to write about it I’ll tell you all about it, just remember that it is a PSP game and its an RPG Turn Base Strategy with real time battles.

MSG4. Special Edition.

Sony is releasing a special edition Playstation 3 Metal Gear Solid 4 Pack for the launch of the latest MetalGear Solid game. I am a fan of the series for sometime now, and to be honest, I can’t wait to get my hands on the game. There is only one problem here, the price of the special edition PS3 bundle. The package includes one special edition 40GB PS3 unit ( really nice color, BTW ), one Dualshock controller, and one limited edition game, as well as a 2hr Blu-ray on the making of the game. This is nice swag and all, but for 600 couldn’t the system be a 80GB or 120GB??