Karthos' WiiWare Special
Ad Sanctum Everyone!
Today I have a lot in store for you. Behold, a WiiWare Special! I am going to review the six WiiWare titles that I currently have downloaded, some of them have been out for a while, but they are all good and can be picked up cheaply.
Dr Mario And Germ Buster (WiiWare)
A remake of the classic puzzle game, with several new features. If you have never played Dr Mario before, it is a little bit like Tetris. If you haven't played Tetris then where have you been all these years. Basically, there are a series of coloured germs on the screen, simple objective, destroy all the germs. But how do you do this you may ask. Well, one by one you control pills with 2 colours on them, and it's simple, match four of the same colour and they dissapear and once you have destroyed all of the germs, that is the level complete. The higher the difficulty that you play on, the more germs there are at the beginning, and on max level they are pretty much right at the top of the screen (if it stacks up to high and your pill goes off the top of the screen it is game over). So it gets pretty hard. There is also another game mode, called Germ Buster. In this its the same principle, but rather than pressing buttons to spin and move the pills, you drag them by pointing and clicking with the Wiimote. And the last feature, there is online play. Two people can play against each other, the first one to clear all the germs wins, and if you get a combo rocks fall on the other persons screen, making it harder for them to clear. This is a must have for any Tetris/Puzzle game lover out there, and even if you're not a puzzle game lover, it has very fun multiplayer.
Score: 8/10
Cost: 1000 Wii Points.
Onslaught (WiiWare)
This is an FPS, and the story is simple. You are stuck on an alien planet and hordes of aliens want to kill you. You have a series of weapons at your disposal, none of which are that original, apart from a sort of beam whip you can use when they get up close, but that just makes me think of Metroid. There is a SMG, rocket launcher, assault rifle and a shotgun. You do pick up better weapons along the way, but they are just more powerful versions of the same guns, and they even have the same skin. I only have two more complaints about this game, then I will mention the good things. Firstly, you run very slowly, which gets very annoying for the faster paced battles. Secondly, it can't be played with the WiiZapper, reasons will be explained shortly.
Onto the good points, the graphics are very nice for a WiiWare game, and the controls are also very good, apart from the fact you can't play it with the Zapper. This is because firstly, you need to shake the Wiimote to reload. And Secondly, if an alien is shot at point blank range, their blood splatters on the screen and you can't see most of what is happening. Shaking the nunchuck wipes the blood of your screen, a very nice feature in my opinion, makes it nicely realistic. Unfortunately, like I have been saying, if you use the Zapper, it would get confused at whether you wanted to reload of wipe your visor. The last good point about the game is that there is online play. Up to four people can play through the missions together working as a team. Although, the few times that I have tried to play online, I couldn't find a match. Overall a rather fun game, and if you have the points spare, pick it up.
Score: 7/10
Cost: 1000 Wii Points.
Equilibrio (WiiWare)
This is a fun and cheap game. There are a series of levels, with various obstacles and ramps, and you have to get to the end of them. Sounds easy enough right? Well, to move the ball you tilt the Wiimote in that direction and the whole stage moves, and thus the ball rolls. There are also various types of ball, the rubber ball bounces, the stone ball breaks when falling from too high and the paper ball kind of floats along and is very light. There are quite a few levels but it doesn't take that long to complete. Although, there is also many challenges and achievements to do.
All in all, a very fun little game, too bad it wasn't harder or longer, although, some of the levels are extremely frustrating.
Score: 7/10
Cost: 500 Wii Points.
Bomberman Blast (WiiWare)
Now this is an extremely fun game. I haven't played the originals that much, but this is still extremely good. Playing it on your lonesome isn't as fun, because even on easy the computer controlled players are too good, making it very frustrating. But, you can have up to eight human players (four using Wiimotes, four using Gamecube/Classic controllers) and prepare for some mayhem! The main objective is, be the last one standing. And to do this, drop bombs, they explode in four directions, up down left and right. There are many powerups that make the bombs range longer, make you fast, even make you lay for bombs or put up a shield. It takes strategy to be the victor, and towards the end it gets extremely fast paced and hectic. It is also possible to compete online with people across the world. It is one of my favourite WiiWare games and is a must buy for Bomberman veterans and newbies alike.
Score: 8/10
Cost: 1000 Wii Points.
Bubble Bobble Plus! (WiiWare)
Another remake of a classic. Many of you have more than likely played it before. And if you haven't, you play as a little green dragon that can blow bubbles, in multiplayer the second player controls a little blue dragon. This remake has kept the same 100 levels (Standard Mode) as the original but has also made 100 more (Arrange Mode). There are also even more levels (Expert Mode 1 and 2) but they have to be purchased with additional Wii Points. On each level is a series of enemies and to complete the level you have to defeat them all. To do this you trap them in the bubbles that your dragon blows, and then burst the bubbles by jumping into them. I only purchased the game yesterday, and I was playing it with my mate for ages, and we got to level 53/100 in the standard mode before being driven insane. In standard mode the same song plays for ALL 100 levels! As catchy as the tune is, after a while it just gets damn annoying, and carries on being annoying even when not playing, for it just randomly pops back into your head. Thankfully, in arrange mode, the music changes every so often. That is my only complaint with the game, apart from that it is very fun and extremely addictive. There is also online mode where you can play with other people and also upload scores. Overall, a good game, apart from the annoying music.
Score: 8/10
Cost: 800 Wii Points.
Bit.Trip Beat (WiiWare)
My current favourite WiiWare game. You all remember Pong right? The classic little tennis game. Well, this is slightly similar to that. But it's a rhythm game. You control the paddle and many different coloured pixels and shapes come at you, and you have to hit them back. To move the paddle you have to tilt the Wiimote, this makes it harder. The more pixels you hit, the more complex the background looks (makes it harder to see the pixels) and also the better the song sounds. There are three chip tune style songs to play. “Only three?!” I hear you shout. Each song is around 15-20 minutes long, and they get extremely hard. It took me several tries to do the first song on my own, and I still can't do the second song on my own, I played it with my friend (he controlled a second paddle, can also be done online) and the second song was still hard but we managed to do It, before failing miserably on the third song. If you miss enough notes it just goes black and white, the song stops, all you can hear is a boring beep from your Wiimote when you hit a note, and then if you miss a load more while in that state, you fail. Extremely fun game, with good music, but it takes a while to get used to, and it is very hard. But it is still my current favourite WiiWare title. Look out for Bit.Trip Core that is coming out at some point. By the same people, and still a rhythm game, but looks very different.
Score: 9/10
Cost: 600 Wii Points (Very cheap for such an amazing game).