Tag: first impressions

This past weekend, Nintendo had a free trial period which allowed Wii U owners to play Wii Sports Club at no cost. Wii Sports Club is an updated version of Wii Sports, which was the pack-in game for the original Wii. The game uses the motion controls of a Wii Remote Plus for each event. I spent about half an hour with Wii Sports Club on Sunday night.

I was disappointed to see that it only included three events: Bowling, tennis, and golf. The original Wii Sports also had baseball and boxing. Anyway, I tried bowling first. I’ve actually been playing some Wii Sports bowling lately, but that actually hurt me more than helped. The Wii U version is much more sensitive to putting spin on the ball. By being used to Wii controls, I put so much spin on the ball that two of my first three rolls were gutter balls. I soon adjusted and my game improved. I played two games, bowling a 148 my first game and a 171 my second game.

In addition to updated graphics, Wii Sports Club also has Miiverse support and online play. I didn’t use those online features directly, although Miiverse posts from other people will pop-up on-screen after each frame. It may be something related to what you did (“Keep those strikes going!”) or completely unrelated (“I’m a doggy!”).

Moving on, I next played some tennis. Tennis is one of my favorite Wii Sports events, and I enjoyed this version as well. But I didn’t notice any significant changes over the Wii version. The graphics are slightly better and the announcer’s voice is different, but that’s about it. I easily won my match against the computer, which is to be expected since your ranking starts out at zero and the early opponents are very easy to beat.

And then there was golf. I’m not a big fan of golf in general, and I rarely played the Wii Sports version. But golf seemed to get more of an upgrade than tennis and bowling did. There are more courses, and it uses the Wii U gamepad in a unique way. You place it on the ground in front of you; you’ll see the ball on the screen, along with the head of your club. So you can actually look down at the ball as you swing, instead of up at the TV. It’s a clever idea, even if it is just another gimmicky use of the Wii U gamepad.

From what little I played of golf, it seemed harder than the Wii version. The game is sensitive to the slightest movements during your swing, and it would probably require a fair amount of practice to get good at it if you’re like me and don’t know what you’re doing. 😀

Wii Sports Club could provide hours of fun for most people. But it would be hard to recommend it to anyone who already owns the original Wii Sports. Online play could be a major selling point for some people, but otherwise, the upgrades are relatively minor. And it’s missing baseball and boxing, which were included on Wii. Even though I enjoyed Wii Sports Club, I don’t plan on buying it.

Changing gears a bit, I just want to point out that I’m also blogging about Disney Magical World for 3DS now. Nintendo has provided me with an advance copy of the game, and I’m providing updates every few days. I considered posting the entries on this gaming blog initially, but I ultimately decided to make a separate section. So check it out if you’re interested: Disney Magical World Blog.

I recently bought Donkey Kong Country: Tropical Freeze for Nintendo Wii U. It’s the fifth game in the Donkey Kong Country series, which started with three games on SNES and continued years later with Donkey Kong Country Returns on Wii. As for this latest addition, I tend to abbreviate it as DKC5–even though that’s not an official name or abbreviation. I began playing through the first world of the game today.

The first thing I noticed was that the loading times seemed a bit long. And it’s not just that they were slow to load, but the loading screen animations themselves seemed to stop and restart; as if the loading screens themselves were paused to load. But fortunately, loading seems to be limited to menus, as I didn’t notice any delays during gameplay.

One complaint I had about Donkey Kong Country Returns was that it didn’t have any underwater levels. But mere moments into the first level of Tropical Freeze, I found myself swimming. Even better, the music switched to a subdued version of the underwater music from the first Donkey Kong Country–which is one of my favorite game tunes of all-time. A scuba-diving pig taught me how to do an underwater spin move, which can be used to take out some enemies.

This underwater section of the first level was extremely short, but I’m sure there will be more in the stages to come. Another thing I noticed about the game is that if you choose to play on the TV screen, the gamepad screen shuts off completely. To me, I think that’s a good thing. It’ll preserve battery power of course, but not every game needs a second screen all the time. It’s good to see a Wii U game treat the gamepad as just another controller instead of forcing some gimmick on us. Speaking of forced gimmicks, I’m glad we don’t have to use motion controls for special moves like we did on Wii.

Most of the hop-and-bop gameplay of previous games is intact, as are the K-O-N-G letters and hidden puzzle pieces to collect. Donkey Kong’s helpers Diddy and Dixie have returned, and Cranky Kong is also now available. The helpers ride on Donkey’s back and can alter Donkey’s jumping abilities: Diddy has a jetpack that lets you slowly glide back down after a jump, and Dixie’s spinning hair lets Donkey get an extra, secondary height boost. Cranky uses his cane as a pogo-stick, so DK can jump through spike-covered areas.

The fourth stage (Trunk Twister) is one of the mine cart levels the series is known for. These levels are fun and unpredictable. They often require some memorization, so they can be tricky at first until you have an idea what to expect. But being the first one of the game, it wasn’t too bad. But the twists and turns make this an enjoyable ride. Here’s a video of the level:

Even though this first world only had four initial stages and a boss level (although there are at least two bonus levels I have yet to unlock), the levels seemed a bit longer than you’d expect. I’m only beginning my adventure in DKC5 DKC:TF, but I’m definitely enjoying the ride so far. The graphics and sound are also very good. I’ll provide more updates in the future. Thanks for reading!

Buy Donkey Kong Country: Tropical Freeze at Amazon

I’m a big fan of Mario’s Picross on Game Boy. So when I recently saw there was a series of Picross games online in the 3DS eShop for just $5.99 each, I knew I had to give them a try. For the time being, I just bought the first game in the series, Picross e. (Picross e2 and Picross e3 are also available). For those that don’t know, the word Picross is a combination of picture and crossword. It’s a puzzle/logic game that will likely appeal to fans of Minesweeper.

Each puzzle has a grid, usually 10×10 or 15×15. Each row and column displays a number, or a series of numbers. Those numbers represent the numbers of consecutive squares that need to be filled in. However, you don’t know how many blank squares are in between them. For example, if a row shows “1 3,” that means there will be a single square filled in, followed by one or more blank spaces, and then another three consecutive squares filled in. Using logic and the process of elimination, you can color in all of the appropriate squares. The filled in squares will then reveal a picture when the puzzle is complete. Here’s an example of what the touch screen will look like during gameplay.

The stylus controls are ideal for a game like this, and they work well. However, I wish the shoulder buttons (L and R) could be used to switch between the pencil (for filling in squares) and the X (for eliminating squares). That would have made things more efficient. Instead, the L and R buttons are used for turning hints on or off. Anyway, a standard control method (control pad plus A and B buttons) is also supported for times when using a stylus may be inconvenient.

The top screen of the 3DS is fairly useless during gameplay. It shows the picture’s progress so far, as well as the elapsed time. Once a puzzle is done, the squares turn from black into different colors, making it more apparent what the picture actually is.

My biggest complaint about Picross e so far is the music. From what I can tell, there’s only one tune that ever plays during gameplay. And while that one song isn’t awful or irritating, it is rather boring and isn’t catchy at all. Mario’s Picross gave players the option to choose between five different tunes, most of which were pretty good. While the gameplay is essentially the same as Mario’s Picross, the lack of decent music does make it a bit less enjoyable. But this is still a fun game to play on the go, and it’s likely that I will give the sequels a try at some point in the future as well.