Microsoft fan boy actually likes Wii (Originally Posted on MySpace on Dec 7, 2006)

Well yesterday I have three different talks with three different folks (Raleigh, Herman, and Becca) about "what's up with the Wii?". That is why when I cam across this post about Generally outspoken Microsoft proponent Ozymandes wii-impresions I just know I had to post it. He had some pretty "not to bad" stuff to say about the Wii. His criticism are fair. I've had a little time with the Wii in the Lab, limited time, but enough to get an idea of what games are gonna work well for the system. I've lifted Kotaku's description of his impressions.
* "The controller works well .. but for some genres. As I've said before, first person shooters and 'point to aim' just isn't this console's strength. It works, but there's a lag."
* "One feature I found super-compelling was the ability to create a mini-avatar, or 'Mii.' This is genius. I personally had way too much fun creating my little guy."
* "The online service isn't there yet .. but to be fair, it also wasn't promised at launch as did Sony. Nintendo is still insisting on using Friend Codes (or Wii number) to identify yourself on the system. This sort of sucks. While they took some good leaps ahead of all of the competition in personalization with the Mii concept, this is a definite throwback."
* "Graphically the Wii won't blow your socks off. Even Zelda, probably one of the best looking Wii games, only ranges from 'ok' to 'very good' in my opinion. (Yes, I have the component cables.) My hope is that there will be enough games that don't need high-end graphics to enable the Wii to survive past the first couple of years."
* Zelda does start slow .. fair warning. You have to spend literally two hours before it actually kicks in while they run you through what feels like a too long controller training level. I'll also add that the new controls don't add anything to the Zelda experience .. frankly, they were tacked on to help sell Wiis. However, they also don't negatively impact the game experience so it's a bit of a wash.

I didn't want to post this, but I just plain couldn't resist...I have a man crush on Frank West you see.

That picture up there...THAT is a nice piece of PR my friend. That makes me want to do the unthinkable. It makes me want to buy what I'm sure will be an inferior port (demake?) of one of my favorite Xbox 360 games.

Not only that, but it's good enough for me to link back to Destructoid twice in in one day.

You can check out jagged Wii Screen shots if that's your thing...but I'm just going to post up the AMAZING pre-rendred art of Frank and Isabela.

Ninja Cat video game could be the greatest entertainment ever released in any medium.

Ho. Lee. Crap. What every you're doing stop right now. Play this video. Looks like Tenchu 4 is going to have Ninja Cat action. Thanks to Kotaku for the amazing video below:

Two games in the same week on VC that I might actually download? What the hell is going on?

For a long time now virtual console on the Wii has really sucked. It's clear that from their E3 Press Conference and some off the collar quips that Nintendo really doesn't care about the core gamers upon who's wallets they rode a wave of hype to become famed as an object of desire among alpha moms and the elderly.

This has been covered a lot online. And I can't say I disagree. For a long time I'd say, "well I have a Wii, but really all I do with it is play virtual console." and for a while that was true. For about a year we were getting three games a week. And for a stretch there was usually at least one game that was keeping me on the little white waggle box. Hell, there was even a period when we were getting games that up until then had only come out in Japan. It was amazing. I could over look a few years of Wii Fit E3s if Nintendo kept bringing home those goods. However, that trend did not last forever. It seems to be that Nintendo is settling into autopilot, dolling out the bare minimum releases. I suspected that eventually they might even stop all together in favor of Wii Ware titles.

But the releases this week have redeemed themselves.

First a quick aside. There's a lot of places you can get information about Wii Virtual Console releases. You can never go wrong with Jeremy Parish and Chris Kohler over at 1UP. These guys know there stuff and their Virtual Console Round UP is a great place to get the scoop. The only problem I have with it is that, like Retronauts, it is somewhat inconsistant and does not always come out on a predictable schedule. The guys at IGN Retro write up stuff. My one complaint aobut this site is that, like most IGN stuff there isn't a lot of cohesion. I wish there were more specific RSS feeds. I wish I could get Virtual Console reviews without subscribing to a bunch of Wii shovel ware reviews. Also most of hte links in on IGN seem to blast you all over the site. Basically, if it's not from the saftety of my Google Reader, I hate IGN's layout and mish mash of inter linking. For this reason I recommend keeping tabs on the RSS feed from VC Reviews. This site has consistant updates, decent reviews (althugh I should say not as informative as Parish and Kohler's).

Anyway, today in my RSS feed was news that both Splatter House 2 and Mega Man came out this week. I don't think I need to say much about Mega Man. It is my favorite in the series, yes I like it better than 2, cause I sucked at 2 and I've never gotten over it. I haven't played much of Splatter House 2 or 3. I hear 3 is better than 2. But I'm a huge fan of the first, so I'm planing on checking this one out as soon as I can.

I'll post up impressions later on. For now I'm just glad that there is a brief glimmer of hope for Virtual Console. Hopefully this isn't the last gasp before oblivion...then again what do I care, if VC went belly up, I'd just have more time to play Soul Calibur 4.

Update: According to Chris Kohler's Wired blog, Mega Man is apparently NOT coming out today. Oh well. Looks like Splatterhouse 2 is still a go. Should have known it was too good to be true.

Playboy's not going to let some ad agency chic get all the hits...

A few weeks back there was some flo-fla about a sexy Wii Fit video, that for some reason people seemed obsessed to prove was a "marketing ploy". I'll credit Wilson for showing this video to me first, but it was all over the place, so I'm sure just as much 'credit' should go to the usual suspects. For those of you who don't waste your time RSS'ing video game industry sites, here's the "amateur video":




Not to be outdone by the un-airbrushed masses, Playboy, produced some slick videos of their own featuring their Cyber Girl of the Year Jo Garcia. Unfortunately, the videos are not embedable (yet), but you can click on Jo's "12 year old school boy" ass to watch the slightly NSFW videos at Playboys site: