Wii Sports: This game earned the title of Time Magazine's Top Video Game of 2006, and rightfully so. It is the perfect demo to introduce everything that the Wii is and could be. The anthology including tennis, baseball, golf, bowling, and boxing. There is no need to figure out how the game is played, and often times no buttons on the Wii Remote need to be pressed either. By eliminating confusing instructions and button controls, two major complaints from non-video gamers, suddenly everyone wants a piece of this new innovative technology. Also, using Miis as the players adds another level of interaction. My dad alone has probably clocked in about a day's worth of gameplay, and I'm pretty sure the last system he ever touched was the NES. The only problems that I've had with the game are with boxing, which is a little quirky, and the limited movement in tennis and baseball. But of course, Wii Sports exists to demostrate how awesome the games WILL be. This is a fantastic (and free!) game, and until Wii Play comes out (another anthology similar to Wii Sports that introduces nine new games like billiards, fishing, and shooting clay pigeons), this will keep everyone entertained for hours.
Rating: 9.5 out of 10
Super Monkey Ball Banana Blitz: I've been a huge fan of the Monkey Ball series and had been waiting for the Wii version to come out for a while. Billed as having 50 party games (!!!) along with newer and harder levels, this was the first game I picked up for the Wii. Unfortunately, I now have a laundry list of gripes with this game. First of all, only a handful of the party games are worth playing; the rest either have some serious problems or are just a sorry filler of a mini-game. I especially like Hammer Throw and Alien Attack, but come on, Puzzle? You... put a jigsaw puzzle together. They claim that the many party games will "keep the party going for hours," but really, you're just spending a lot of time trying to find the few that you like.
As for the main game, I am very, VERY disappointed that there is no multi-player. When my friends and I played Monkey Ball, it wasn't about the party games, it was about seeing who could actually pass each level (though we love Monkey Target). Also in Banana Blitz, the story is pretty much forgotten after the first world, and the levels seem to be a lot easier this time around. Perhaps because it is a launch game, maybe the idea was to cater to those who had never played any of the previous Monkey Balls. But what about the rest of us who were looking for new challenges? What happened to the beginner and expert modes? There are also boss stages at the end of each world, but they're relatively simple. And then after each boss stage, CREDITS. Really, really unnecessary. The graphics are still beautiful, the music is still fun and peppy (though I was really hoping for some of the cool groove music like in world 4 of SMB2)... Banana Blitz just doesn't live up to my standards for Monkey Ball games. Next time around, they should focus more on the main game rather than trying to wow us with a large number of mini-games.
Rating: 6 out of 10
Rayman Raving Rabbids: However, here is one game that got the mini-games right. I've never played any previous Rayman games, but apparently they were platformers. This one is just full of mini-games... and screaming rabbits. The story goes that Rayman was having a picnic with some fellow Globoxes (frogs?) and is suddenly interrupted by these screaming, stupid rabbits. Apparently these dumb rabbits are planning to take over the world. Rayman and his friends are kidnapped, and Rayman must perform tasks to win toilet plungers to escape out of his jail cell. Makes no sense? Well it's not really important, because the game is entertaining and hilarious nonetheless. Ubisoft is definitely trying to find all the ways you could possibly use the Wiimote, and picked the ridiculous idea of torturing rabbits to hook players. It works. My friend David is the one that owns this game, so I haven't gotten to play it that much, but I do know that he once had a group of more than 10 people fighting over the Wiimote to play the next game. That's "keeping the party going," Sega. The animation style looks great too, though I am a little confused why they decided to include a song by the Black Eyed Peas. Oh well. Great party game! I might have to trade Banana Blitz for this one ^_^
Rating: 8.5 out of 10
