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Nintendo Download: 8/31/09

DSiWare: Puzzle League Express, 500 Nintendo Points

The classic puzzle theme seen in Tetris Attack and Planet Puzzle League is now downloadable in the form of Puzzle League Express. The game comes equipped with four modes: Endless, Clear, Score Attack, and Vs. COM. You can also change whether you play with the DSi held sideways or normally.

WiiWare: Tales of Monkey Island Episode 2: the Siege of Spinner Cay, 1,000 Nintendo Points

After conquering the challenges of Flotsam Island, the plot thickens in this second episodes of Tales of Monkey Island. A league of pox-infected pirates are holding hostage to a group of Mer-People, and it’s up to Guybrush Threepwood, Mighty Pirate, to save them while avoiding an expert pirate hunter.

WiiWare: 3-2-1, Rattle Battle!, 500 Nintendo Points

This party game offers very simple controls – shake the Wii Remote to "rattle" in order to complete the mini-games this title offers. There’s no local multiplayer, but you can compare your high scores to others around the world on Nintendo Wi-Fi Connection.

Master System: Phantasy Star, 500 Nintendo Points

The original game in the RPG series is now available for download. Alis’s brother has been killed by the evil King Lassic and she is out to avenge him. Travel across the Agol solar system, defeating your enemies with "glowing daggers, crossbows and magic spells".

I can say pretty confidently that three of these games are credible. Rattle Battle, who’s to say.

Posted by Jim Avery in General News, Nintendo Wii | Comments Off

New Muramasa Trailer, Pre-Launch Details

Earlier this week, Ignition Entertainment released another trailer for Muramasa: the Demon Blade, this time covering some of the boss battles you’ll encounter along your journey.

Additionally, Ignition and the Nintendo World Store in New York City will be holding a pre-launch event for the game on September 5 from 12pm to 3pm. The store will be transformed to reflect feudal Japan, and special perks include goodie bags, Muramasa demo stations, a kanji station, T-shirts, photo opportunities, and of course, the ability to buy the game three days before its actual release. For interested parties, the address is:

Nintendo World Store
10 Rockefeller Plaza,
New York, NY 10020-1903

It’s times like this I wish I lived in NYC. One day I’ll go visit the NWS and see how awesome it is.

Posted by Jim Avery in General News, Nintendo Wii | Comments Off

Wii Sports Resort Breaks A Million

Nintendo of America reported today that Wii Sports Resort has sold one million copies each in the United States, Europe, and Japan; in addition, over 2 million MotionPlus devices have been purchased by consumers, either through Resort, through Tiger Woods PGA Tour 10, or as a standalone purchase. Passing up an opportunity to put accolades on the MotionPlus, Cammie Dunaway instead offered that "Wii Sports Resort provides both novice and veteran players a fun, virtual escape to a resort island with their friends and family – something that will be even more appealing as the weather turns cooler this fall and winter."

Something I’ve noticed about MotionPlus buyers – most seem to think that it will improve the motion sensing of any game they use it with. Nintendo may want to clarify what it does a bit.

Posted by Jim Avery in General News, Nintendo Wii | Comments Off

Rock Band DLC Update: 8/25/09

23 new songs showed up today in the Wii’s Rock Band 2 music store; eight of them came from last week’s 360/PS3 update, and another 15 come from the back catalog, including several tracks from the Grateful Dead. All songs cost 200 Wii Points and are downloaded in-game.

Blind Melon – “No Rain”
Blur – “There’s No Other Way”
Dropkick Murphys – “I’m Shipping Up to Boston”
Eve 6 – “Inside Out”
Foo Fighters – “All My Life”
Foo Fighters – “I’ll Stick Around”
Foo Fighters – “Lonely as You”
Kaiser Chiefs – “I Predict a Riot”
Belly – “Feed the Tree”
Ghost Hounds – “Wind Me Up”
Godsmack – “I Stand Alone”
Grateful Dead – “Cold Rain & Snow”
Grateful Dead – “Doin’ That Rag”
Grateful Dead – “Don’t Ease Me In”
Grateful Dead – “Fire on the Mountain”
Grateful Dead – “Hell in a Bucket”
Grateful Dead – “Uncle John’s Band”
James Gang – “Funk #49”
Mute Math – “Typical”
Rob Zombie – “War Zero”
Turbonegro – “Wasted Again”
White Zombie – “Black Sunshine”
White Zombie – “More Human Than Human”

I’m pretty sure everyone knows Eve 6′s "Inside Out" from when they were younger. It’s a great song, with great charting. No guitar solo, though, which is sad.

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Nintendo Download: 8/24/09

DSiWare: Pop+ Solo, 500 Nintendo Points

From hilariously-named developer Nnooo, Pop returns in the form of DSiWare. Several play modes await you, including the standard Adventure (now with brand-new obstacles), Normal and Advanced modes, along with Bonus mode for tackling bonus stages, and Chill mode for relaxing and popping bubbles. You can even create your own challenges in Challenge mode.

WiiWare: Mr. Driller W, 800 Nintendo Points

Experience the exciting world of underground drilling with Mr. Driller W. This action/puzzle game has you drilling through colored blocks in "20 varied stages and missions" while keeping an eye on your oxygen level. This newest addition offers varying degrees of difficulty and a tutorial for beginners, as well as numerous fun characters.

SNES: Super Empire Strikes Back, 800 Nintendo Points

The saga continues in this SNES sequel. No gameplay details were given, so they are presumably similar to those of Super Star Wars, just in the locations showcased in The Empire Strikes Back.

Not as much going on this week, though I hear good things about the Mr. Driller franchise in general.

Posted by Jim Avery in General News, Nintendo Wii | Comments Off

New Muramasa Trailer Available

Ignition Entertainment has unleashed a new trailer for Muramasa: the Demon Blade upon an unsuspecting public. Named the "Locations Trailer", this video showcases the various locales where Kisuke and Momohime’s battles will take place.

Muramasa is due for release exclusively on Wii on September 8.

It’s too bad my Wii and I will be parted when this game comes out; I tend to leave it at home for my siblings during my college months.

Posted by Jim Avery in General News, Nintendo Wii | Comments Off

Beatles: Rock Band Music Update Part 2

Harmonix made a number of announcements today at Gamescon regarding its future downloadable content. One note was that several major bands, including Queen, Tom Petty, Nirvana, Pantera, Elton John and more would see Rock Band DLC before the year’s end. The other announcement was two additional albums that would be downloadable for Beatles: Rock Band, namely the albums Rubber Soul and Sgt. Pepper’s Lonely Hearts Club Band, the latter of which was named the greatest album of all time by Rolling Stone magazine. They will be released in December and November respectively, while the Abbey Road content will be available on October 20. The game is due for release on 9/9/09.

This news makes my day; those two albums are currently my favorite Beatles albums.

Posted by Jim Avery in General News, Nintendo Wii | 1 Comment

Beatles: Rock Band Music Update

Harmonix today announced 15 more of the on-disc songs that will appear in the upcoming The Beatles: Rock Band, organized below for your convenience with the name of the song and the album it was released on.

“Boys”, Please Please Me
“A Hard Day’s Night”, A Hard Day’s Night
“I’m Looking Through You”, Rubber Soul
“If I Needed Someone”, Rubber Soul
“Ticket to Ride”, Help!
“Drive My Car”, Rubber Soul
“Lucy in the Sky with Diamonds”, Sgt. Pepper’s Lonely Hearts Club Band
“Getting Better”, Sgt. Pepper’s Lonely Hearts Club Band
“Good Morning”, Sgt. Pepper’s Lonely Hearts Club Band
“Hello, Goodbye”,Magical Mystery Tour
“Hey Bulldog”, Yellow Submarine
“Dear Prudence”, The Beatles
“While My Guitar Gently Weeps”, The Beatles
“Helter Skelter”, The Beatles
“Something”, Abbey Road
“Come Together”, Abbey Road
“Don’t Let Me Down”, single
“I Want You (She’s So Heavy)”, Abbey Road
“I Me Mine”, Let It Be

In addition, there is a trailer showing off a gameplay video of "Ticket to Ride", which you can check out here.

I was very much hoping that "Dear Prudence" and "Good Morning" would make it into the game, the latter of which has a killer guitar solo. So what is the mystery song?

Posted by Jim Avery in General News, Nintendo Wii | Comments Off

Rock Band DLC Update: 8/18/09

Wii owners of Rock Band 2 are being treated to last week’s Music Store update, which consisted of tracks from Gorillaz, Janis Joplin, and the Who. In addition, they will be getting the entire Blood Sugar Sex Magik album from the Red Hot Chili Peppers, released late last year. All tracks cost 200 Wii Points except where noted.

Gorillaz – “Clint Eastwood”
Gorillaz – “Feel Good Inc.”
Gorillaz – “Re-Hash”
Janis Joplin – “Piece of My Heart”
Jefferson Airplane – “White Rabbit”
The Band – “Chest Fever (Live)”
The Who – “Magic Bus (Live at Leeds)”
Red Hot Chili Peppers – “Apache Rose Peacock”
Red Hot Chili Peppers – “Blood Sugar Sex Magik”
Red Hot Chili Peppers – “Breaking The Girl”
Red Hot Chili Peppers – “Funky Monks”
Red Hot Chili Peppers – “I Could Have Lied”
Red Hot Chili Peppers – “If You Have to Ask”
Red Hot Chili Peppers – “Mellowship Slinky in B Major”
Red Hot Chili Peppers – “My Lovely Man”
Red Hot Chili Peppers – “Naked in the Rain”
Red Hot Chili Peppers – “Sir Psycho Sexy”
Red Hot Chili Peppers – “Suck My Kiss”
Red Hot Chili Peppers – “The Greeting Song”
Red Hot Chili Peppers – “The Power of Equality”
Red Hot Chili Peppers – “The Righteous & the Wicked”
Red Hot Chili Peppers – “They’re Red Hot”
Red Hot Chili Peppers – “Under the Bridge”
Megasus – “Megasus” *
Honest Bob and the Factory-to-Dealer Incentives – “Entangled” *

* Song costs 100 Wii Points.

I’m not too sure how Gorillaz would go over in Rock Band as far as guitar goes; I can’t hear much of any in Feelgood, Inc. RHCP, though, is a great update. For serious challenge, try out "They’re Red Hot".

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Nintendo Download: 8/17/09

DSiWare: Brain Age Express: Sudoku, 500 Nintendo Points

The Brain Age Express series continues with an entry devoted to Sudoku. It’s unknown how many puzzles this download contains, but the Brain Age Check is still there.

DSiWare: Guitar Rock Tour, 500 Nintendo Points

Work your way up through the rock world as a guitar or drummer; either use the touch screen or press the DSi buttons in time with the notes flowing down the screen. The soundtrack mixes contemporary hits like "Girlfriend" with classics like "Beat It".

WiiWare: PictureBook Games: Pop-Up Pursuit, 800 Wii Points

Published by Nintendo, this board game has you purchasing and flipping cards to advance your way around the map. Collect as many coins as you can to try and get a coin bonus at the end of the game. Watch out for the Book of Magick, which can change up the gameplay in an instant. Play with up to three other players.

WiiWare: Family Slot Car Racing, 500 Wii Points

The family is back with their sixth outing, slot car racing. One or two players can race through one of three racing circuits and several different racetracks. Play on to unlock more courses and better slot cars.

Genesis: Revenge of Shinobi, 800 Wii Points

Shinobi is back in this Genesis sequel, once again out to defeat Neo Zeed. Travel through numerous locales, from Japan to New York City; defeat enemies with shurikens, "special ninjutsu moves", or your trusty sword. Watch out for massive bosses such as pictured above.

A first-party board game title? Color me intrigued.

Posted by Jim Avery in General News, Nintendo DS | Comments Off

HeartGold, SoulSilver Announced For US Release

Nintendo has finally announced that their remakes of Pokémon Gold and Silver, aptly named Pokémon HeartGold and SoulSilver, will see a North American release in Spring of 2010. In addition to enhanced sound and graphics, the remakes will sport touch-screen features and "a host of other surprises". More information about the games can be found at pokemon.com.

I’ve never played Gold or Silver, so this is probably a good time for me to get into it. A lot of people mention that their loves of the games may just be nostalgia, though, so we’ll have to see.

Posted by Jim Avery in General News, Nintendo DSi | Comments Off

New Free DSi Application Launches

Now available for download is the DSiWare application Flipnote Studio, initially announced by Nintendo at GDC 2009. This application lets users create their own flipbook-style animations using the DSi touch screen; once completed, animations can be uploaded to flipnote.hatena.com and shared with others who also have the program, and they can then edit it further if they wish. Flipnote Studio is available for download from the DSi Shop at no cost.

Making this free is a good idea, I think; it’ll warm people up to DSiWare if they haven’t taken a look at it already.

Posted by Jim Avery in General News, Nintendo Wii | Comments Off

Spyborgs Gets Pushed Up

Many people have had their eyes on the upcoming Spyborgs for Wii, so they’ll be glad to hear that the game is being released earlier than everyone thought; the new date is September 22, where it will retail for $39.99. In celebration, Capcom has released new assets, available on their website. In addition to new screenshots, the first of several Webisodes is now available, "Island of Fate". Check both these things out to get yourself prepped for the game’s release.

I think I need to give Spyborgs another try; I wasn’t that intrigued when I played it at E3, but everyone who isn’t me seemed to be impressed.

Posted by Jim Avery in General News, Nintendo Wii | Comments Off

Muramasa Website Launches

Ignition today announced the launch of their website for Muramasa: the Demon Blade, the aptly-named www.muramasathedemonblade.com. Several assets are available for download, including screenshots, wallpapers, and gameplay videos; there is also a fanart contest going on. Players interested in the game’s progress can also subscribe the team’s Twitter or Facebook accounts. Muramasa is slated for release on September 8, 2009.

Our site’s more frequent readers will remember that I quite enjoyed playing this game at E3, even though it eventually beat me down. I’d say keep an eye on this one, with all the other accolades it’s received.

Posted by Jim Avery in General News, Nintendo Wii | Comments Off

Rock Band DLC Update: 8/11/09

Another 25 back-catalog songs have arrived for the Wii’s Music Store in Rock Band 2, featuring one of my personal favorite bands, the Fratellis. Every track costs 200 Wii Points and is downloaded in store. With this update, there are now over 575 songs available for download; if this pace keeps up, the entireback catalog will be available by the end of the year.

Blink-182 “Dammit”
Blink-182 “Down”
Blink-182 “Feeling This”
Blink-182 “The Rock Show”
Damone “Out Here All Night”
Fratellis “Creeping Up the Backstairs”
Fratellis “Flathead”
Fratellis “Henrietta”
KISS “100,000 Years (LIVE)”
KISS “Deuce (LIVE)”
KISS “Parasite (LIVE)”
Lenny Kravitz “Are You Gonna Go My Way”
Lenny Kravitz “Freedom Train”
Lenny Kravitz “Let Love Rule”
Lenny Kravitz “Mr Cab Driver”
Pat Benatar “Hit Me With Your Best Shot”
Steve Miller Band “Space Cowboy”
Steve Miller Band “Take The Money & Run”
Steve Miller Band “The Joker”
Thin Lizzy “The Boys Are Back in Town (LIVE)”
Thin Lizzy “Cowboy Song (LIVE)"
Thin Lizzy “Jailbreak (LIVE)”
Weezer “My Name is Jonas”
Weezer “Pork & Beans”
Weezer “Undone – The Sweater Song”

"Costello Music" by the Fratellis was my pick for Best Album of 2006. Incidentally, I had a classmate who was in the "Pork & Beans" video; I went to school with the Daft Hands guy.

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Nintendo Download: 8/10/09

DSiWare: Brain Age Express: Arts & Letters, 800 Nintendo Points

Another entry in the miniature Brain Age series contains games designed to test your artistic and literary skills. Try out training games such as Word Attack, Reading Aloud and Piano Player, or check out Themes mode to try your hand at drawing, voice acting or photography. And if you ever need a break, there’s always Virus Buster.

WiiWare: NyxQuest: Kindred Spirits, 1,000 Wii Points

You are Nyx, a winged girl from heaven who is searching for her friend Icarus over the ancient Greek landscape. As you progress through this platformer, you’ll have to obtain help from the gods, who will use their powers to reshape the landscape, control the wind, or cast rays. A second player can pick up a remote and control the gods as another plays as Nyx.

WiiWare: Rock N’ Roll Climber, 800 Wii Points

Use the Wii Remote and Nunchuk to scale the face of a cliff in this rocking game; if you like, you can add on a Balance Board for further control. Scale a number of rock faces, from the easy Pop walls to the difficult Heavy Metal waterfalls.

SNES: Super Star Wars, 800 Wii Points

This game places you in the shoes of Luke and his friends as they take on the evil Empire. Take on enemies on foot with your lightsaber, or pilot vehicles in stylized 3D sequences, as you relive some of the best scenes from the movie trilogy.

Good to see more Virtual Console games showing up. Now where is my Darius Twin?

Posted by Jim Avery in General News | Comments Off

Nintendo Releases Q1 Financials

Nintendo has released its financial report for the first quarter of the fiscal year 2010, and the results are surprising; after over two years of increasing profits, their numbers have taken a serious drop. Here are some highlights from the report:

• Nintendo’s total sales this quarter were $2.66 billion USD, a 40% decrease from the same period last year.
• Net income was $443.8 million USD, a 61% decrease.
• Nintendo predicts a 2.1% decrease in total sales for the fiscal year 2010, but a 7.5% increase in net income.
• Nintendo sold $6.3 million worth of non-electronic merchandise this quarter, such as playing cards. Who knew?
• The DS sold 5.97 million units this quarter, making 107.75 million units sold to date. Of these, 3.65 million were DSi units; these have sold 6.68 million so far.
• The Wii sold 2.23 million units this quarter, making 52.62 million sold to date.
• Regarding software, the DS sold 29.09 million titles this quarter, with 1.34 million of these being new titles. The DS has sold 596 million titles to date, a number that doesn’t include downloadables.
• The Wii sold 31.07 million software titles this quarter, with 720,000 being new titles. The Wii has sold 384.09 million titles to date, a number that doesn’t include downloadables.

Nintendo comments that comparing this quarter to the same quarter last year, when Wii Fit and Mario Kart Wii were introduced, isn’t exactly fair, which I agree with. Still, I predict that these numbers will lead to a price drop on the Wii come the holiday season, of around $50. Don’t quote me on this, though.

Posted by Jim Avery in General News, Nintendo Wii | Comments Off

FYE Selling Rock Band 2 On The Cheap?

A FYE store in the vicinity of this editor has rolled out signs for a new promotion: in preparation for the release of The Beatles: Rock Band on 09/09/09, Special Edition bundles of Rock Band 2 for Wii, PS3 and 360 have been marked down to a sale price of $99.99. From the looks of things, this sale is not going to be limited to this local FYE store, and the promotion is slated to end around the first week of September, before the release of Beatles. If anyone else can confirm this promotion in their local area, the information would be greatly appreciated by the NintendoGal.com staff.

Posted by Jim Avery in General News, Nintendo Wii | Comments Off

Rock Band DLC Update: 8/4/09

All three systems get a blast from the past this week, in the form of eleven tracks from the This Is Spinal Tap soundtrack, recently re-recorded by the group during the Back From The Dead sessions. Wii owners are also treated to the rest of the Foo Fighters album The Colour and the Shape, from which the song "Everlong" originates. Lastly, three Black Sabbath covers make themselves known. Each track costs 200 Wii Points and is downloaded in-game.

Spinal Tap “(Funky) Sex Farm”
Spinal Tap “(Listen to the) Flower People (Reggae Stylee)”
Spinal Tap “America”
Spinal Tap “Big Bottom”
Spinal Tap “Cups and Cakes”
Spinal Tap “Gimme Some Money”
Spinal Tap “Heavy Duty”
Spinal Tap “Hell Hole”
Spinal Tap “Rock ‘n’ Roll Creation”
Spinal Tap “Stonehenge”
Spinal Tap “Tonight I’m Gonna Rock You Tonight”
Black Sabbath “N.I.B.” *
Black Sabbath “Sweet Leaf” *
Black Sabbath “War Pigs” *
Foo Fighters “Doll”
Foo Fighters “Enough Space”
Foo Fighters “February Stars”
Foo Fighters “Hey, Johnny Park!”
Foo Fighters “Monkey Wrench”
Foo Fighters “My Hero”
Foo Fighters “My Poor Brain”
Foo Fighters “New Way Home”
Foo Fighters “See You”
Foo Fighters “Up in Arms”
Foo Fighters “Walking After You”
Foo Fighters “Wind Up”

* Denotes a cover track.

I’m tempted to get that Spinal Tap music, but I don’t really know their songs that well and I’m not sure how fun they’d be to play. The Colour and the Shape is more intriguing.

Posted by Jim Avery in General News | Comments Off

Nintendo Download: 8/3/09

DSiWare: Art Style: Precipice, 500 Nintendo Points

Cubes are falling from the sky to form a tower, and it’s up to your little character to climb this tower as the blocks fall without getting himself squished. You can push and pull blocks to ease the climb, but watch out for special blocks that could help or harm you. Try for a high score in Ten Floors mode, or shoot for the moon in Tower mode.

WiiWare: Overturn, 800 Wii Points

In this futuristic title, you are piloting a giant robot tasked with blowing up other giant robots. You can unlock new modes and weapons as you compete in six different tournaments, and you can use these weapons to customize your robot before taking it online to battle up to three other players over Nintendo Wi-Fi Connection.

WiiWare: Sexy Poker, 500 Wii Points

Ladies and gentlemen, welcome to WiiWare Strip Poker. This M-rated title features six girls willing to strip down to their underwear (and no further, is my understanding), if you do well enough in either Texas Hold ‘Em or Blackjack. Each girl has her own playing style and personality, as well.

Arcade: Tecmo Bowl, 600 Wii Points

With the NES version already available, the arcade version of Tecmo Bowl rears its head. This popular football game can be played with up to four players, making a 2 vs. 2 match, and several other settings can be adjusted.

I never thought that I’d see this manner of mature content on the WiiWare service. I can’t stop laughing. That aside, Overturn looks like a poor man’s Armored Core, though it seems to have potential. I should investigate further.

Posted by Jim Avery in Miscellaneous, Reviews | Comments Off

Review: Wii Sports Resort

It’s taken its sweet time, but the Wii MotionPlus has finally arrived, offering to fulfill the original motion-sensing promises that the Wii Remote offered back in 2005 and 2006. To show off its capabilities, Nintendo offers us Wii Sports Resort, a package of 12-minigames designed to show you how much fun the Wii is going to be from now on. I don’t know if the MotionPlus is going to be the cure-all fun factory for future games like Red Steel 2, but I can safely say that Wii Sports Resort (hereinafter WSR) uses the device exactly like I had hoped it would.

One thing that you will not ever see in this game is "waggle". Waggle is when a video game shoehorns motion-sensing into their game, essentially replacing a button press with a random motion of the remote. The mini-games in WSR use the device rather carefully and deliberately (for the most part, anyhow), and it’s very satisfying; there are a couple rather noticeable examples of this. In basketball, you can play a pickup game, and as you can imagine, you’d toss the ball with the Wii Remote; if you toss it improperly, without getting enough arc and enough height, your shot is going to miss. With frisbee, the slightest curve of your wrist can (and in my case, does) send your frisbee in a different direction with a lot of curve. In bowling, you can turn your wrist like you would with a real bowling ball, and your ball will curve the way you want it to, and as much as you want it to.

Basically, MotionPlus works with WSR, and it works well. Of course, this doesn’t matter if the game isn’t any fun to play. Fortunately, the mini-games themselves are quite a lot of fun, and in some cases hopelessly addicting. I’ve put together a video of some of the highlights of WSR:

Wakeboarding is extremely simple, but a lot of fun; you curve the Wii Remote with the right timing to do a trick off the boat’s wake, and try to land flat as you can to get big points. Frisbee Golf is satisfying even if you suck horribly at it like I do; the feeling of control you have over your frisbee is rather unprecedented, and even if you are terrible, you get the sense that it’s not the game’s fault (and you can take that as you may). Island Flyover was a surprise hit with my family, as they watched me explore the numerous, oddly interesting sights of Wuhu Island, while my anti-balloon guns ensured that nobody but me was allowed to have fun at any one time.

Bowling returns triumphantly, as I mentioned before, and it brings with it improved controls and increased immersion; you can bowl on a normal ten-pin lane, or if you feel so inclined, you can try out the hilariously fun 100-pin mode for kicks, which is oddly satisfying. Golf is also back, and while it’s not the perfect simulator that Tiger Woods tries to be, it no longer feels like a badly designed game, like it did with the original Wii Sports; it measures the curve of your wrist and the strength of your swing, and translates it meaningfully into your golf swing, for better or worse.

The highlight of the entire package, however, is the fencing. WSR Swordplay is the mindlessly addicting swordfighting title everyone has been waiting for since 2005, and I can assure you it works wonderfully. It is the anti-waggle, as there are no pre-determined gestures or actions; whatever you do with your Wii Remote in your hand, your character will do onscreen with their sword. Press B to block, and if your sword is perpendicular to your opponent’s swing, you’ll catch them off guard and get an opportunity to strike back. The earlier levels are an exercise in swing timing, but the above video shows off the upper echelons of difficulty, where you really need to have quick reflexes and precise swings in order to get the upper hand. I played that game until my shoulder and wrist gave out. It is sublime.

Besides that, there are some games that are technically sound, but don’t really hold one’s attention for a long time, such as canoeing or cycling. Others, like archery and power cruising, were ones that I personally didn’t care for, but I could definitely see others getting into them with a little bit of practice. Lastly, there is one instance where the MotionPlus failed me, and that was in table tennis where I could not easily switch to a backhand. That’s my only real complaint regarding the peripheral.

As far as production values go, you can expect what you got out of the original Wii Sports. The graphics are passable and colorful and fun to look at, but they’re nothing special, though it is rather impressive checking out Wuhu Island in Island Flyover. The music is equally passable; nothing stands out, but nothing offends the ears either, and everything generally suits whatever game you’re playing. Imagine playing WSR in the lobby of a luxury hotel, with whatever music they’ve got playing at the time.

The replay value of this game is going to vary from person to person. If you’re the kind of person who really enjoyed Wii Sports, you’ll play this game for even longer; if you’ve got friends of the same calibur, this is going to be a party staple for many moons to come. That aside, though, this game does bring several games that are engaging enough to keep you coming back many times. And I guarantee even the most stubborn of gamers will come back time and time again to fence against stronger and stronger opponents.

In conclusion, I got out of Wii Sports Resort just about what I expected from it; it was an entertaining, if not deep, collection of mini-games that showed off what proper use of the MotionPlus was supposed to be like. With twelve sports to choose from, and further subdivision below that, there’s going to be at least one thing here that everyone will enjoy, and most likely more than that. A free MotionPlus, normally $25 at retail, should help sweeten the deal for those skeptical about the $50 price tag. I give this game a Yay! and encourage everyone to give it a try if they’re intrigued by the possibilities of MotionPlus gaming. This should make a few optimists out of nonbelievers.