Pirates vs Ninjas Dodge Ball review

June 30th, 2009

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Dodge Ball hasn’t ever taken off as either an adult or children’s sport here in the UK which does seem a little surprising when many other American sports such as; Baseball, American Football and Basketball are more popular here than ever before.

If you didn’t already know, Dodge Ball is primarily a school game for children (also played by adults) in which one team throw a red ball towards their opponents in an attempt to hit them. If a player gets hit he or she is out of the game but if they catch the ball, then it’s the thrower who is goes out instead. Hard throwing and good dodging skills are very important in Dodge Ball and typically this is one of those games that sort the Jocks from the Nerds; long before kids get off to high school and college when American Football takes over as the coolness decider and sport of choice. Now I don’t know about you but the thought of mixing a brutal kids sport with the awesomeness of Pirates and Ninja’s get’s me pretty excited. This is where my review of Pirates vs Ninja’s for Wii comes in.

The first thing I noticed upon getting stuck into the menu system for Pirates versus Ninjas for Wii is that there are a whole host of other characters in the game besides the expected Pirates and Ninjas. So whilst they don’t get their name on the front of the box it’s nice to know that the game also features six more ‘races’ to play as; Monsters, Aliens, Mushroom Men, Zombies and of course Robots. Every individual race has four characters each with their own personalities. They don’t really play any differently but the more the merrier eh?

Now as you’d expect there are a nice selection of game modes to choose from; Multiplayer for up to four players (2 on 2) and of course Single Player. Here you have one off Exhibition games as well as special achievement style Challenges. Story Mode is where you’ll find the main action with seven individual actual story modes to play through and this is what I’ll concentrate on here.

Now that story mode I mentioned features a whole story for each of the races featured in Pirates vs. Ninjas. The Pirate story is the only one that can be chosen from the very start and when you complete that, the Ninja storyline is unlocked and so on. Having so many storylines seems like good value but to be honest all of them are very similar and when you’ve played through one I doubt you’ll feel like playing the next but I should explain how they play before I cloud your own judgement.

Pirates vs Ninja’s isn’t a Dodge Ball simulator and as such takes many liberties on the official rules. Your standard Dodge Ball match with three on three standing on opposite sides of the court is the easiest mode where you simply fling the ball towards your opponents with a flick of the Wii Remote, the cpu takes care of your aiming which leaves you to get your timing just right for the more advanced throws such as; Power, Advanced and Homing. As it turns out the CPU are pretty good at aiming so you’ll need to use the dodge button quite a lot, but there’s a catch. Performing dodges uses up your stamina meter which could leave you open to attack if you use too much before it regenerates. If you stamina runs empty your character will go dizzy and literally see stars until they feel better again, the worst bit is they just stay fixed to the spot waiting to get a Dodge Ball in the face.

This brings me onto the special Dodge Brawl mode which oddly enough you’ll end up playing much more of than standard Dodge Ball. If you were wondering what was going to make Pirates vs Ninja’s stand out from the crowd then it’s Dodge Brawl you were waiting for. Instead of your typical half court game Dodge Brawl let’s you run around everywhere in the whole court and best of all let’s you attack your opponents. You can hit them both offensively to drain their stamina ready for one of your team mates to throw a ball at them, or you can attack them defensively while they are preparing to throw a ball at you making them drop it to the ground. This obviously gives you the chance to pick the ball up yourself and either throw it at them or pass it to a team mate. Another reason why Dodge Brawl mode is better than Dodge Ball is that you can also counter attacking player’s throws by successfully timing a Wii Remote swing just before a ball hits you, this will send the ball flying backwards towards the person who threw it at you, hopefully knocking some of their precious health off.

Playing through just a couple of story modes get’s quite repetitive when all you really do is take part in the same set of 5 or 6 matches in the same few arena’s, having a different team to control doesn’t really vary the proceedings that much. I must praise the story writers though who somehow managed to write many ridiculous reasons why these weird cast of races would want to play eachother at Dodge Ball.

So far it’s all sounding not too bad? I thought so too up until I actually sat down for a few days to play through the game and came across the standout flaws which spoil a pretty good game concept. What I didn’t know originally was that Pirates VS Ninjas appeared on the Xbox Live Marketplace a few months ago and is an extremely better version of the game (you can download the demo yourself and see). It appears Wii owners have been dealt a cruel blow and forced to put up with a very poor conversion with radically reduced graphic quality and horrid framerate issues when more than four characters are running about at once. Whilst I admit the Wii couldn’t pump out the same HD resolution of the 360 I can say for sure that Nintendo’s tiny console can do much better than what is on display here. I suspect that the developers (Blazing Lizards) merely chucked the game code through an old GameCube (or even PS2) dev kit that was lying in a cupboard and did nothing to actually optimize the game further.

What saddens me most is that you can tell a lot of care was taken in making the underlying game (for the 360) and that the written dialogue is quite funny and Dodge Ball itself is a nice little niche sports series. I would have forgiven some of the issues if the multiplayer mode was more fun and if like the 360 version, online play was included. Sadly just four local players get to duke it out in Dodge Ball or Dodge Brawl but the same technical flaws are evident which make it almost unplayable for any gamer worth his or her salt. I’m sure younger gamers who are content with Mario Party or Carnival Games could have fun with Pirates vs Ninja’s but once they grow a little older and learn to see the flaws themselves I can’t see the game being anything other than one passed on to younger nieces, nephews or the charity shop.

Apart from some well written text (no voice acting, what is this 1992?) which made me chuckle I can’t really recommend Pirates vs Ninjas for Wii to anyone other than those with children between four and eight. The trouble is the game is rates 12+ and I’d be very surprised that any twelve year old will put up with this for more than thirty minutes. Pirates vs Ninja’s for Wii scores a disappointing 2 out of 5.

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Tags: Pirates vs Ninjas Dodge Ball, Pirates vs Ninjas, Dodge Ball, Wii, Sports, Dodge Ball, Dodgeball

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Harry and the Half Blood Prince for Wii Release Date

June 9th, 2009

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After such a long wait we can finally look forward to the upcoming blockbuster movie and accompanying video game release of Harry Potter’s 6th adventure; Harry Potter and the Half Blood Prince for Wii. Electronic Art’s have spent many months and worked very hard to make this the best Harry Potter video game to date and promise to keep as close to the storyline of the film as possible whilst making the game fun for all ages. Wii owners can use step into Harry’s shoes and take part in interactive elements using the Nintendo Wii remote motion sensing controller.

This time around Harry Potter faces his darkest and most terrifying battles yet and will need all of his magic skills and cunning to defeat the evils brought on by Lord Voldemort. You will need to help Harry, Ron and Hermione protect Hogwarts once again in the sprawling and detailed game which is jam packed full of exciting motion based activities such as:

Competing in the exciting Quidditch Cup with your Wii Remote and Nunchuck becoming your virtual broomstick
Learning new magic duelling skills where your Wii Remote becomes your magic wand and taking them into battle
Creating exciting magic potions and use the Wii Remote to shake, stir and pour your concoctions

The Harry Potter and the Half Blood Prince for Wii release date for North American fans is June 30th and the release date for Harry Potter 6 Wii Europe is just 3 days later on 3rd July.

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Tags: Harry Potter and the Half Blood Prince, Harry Potter 6, Quidditch, Wii, Nintendo Wii, movie, film

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Nintendo E3 Roundup

June 9th, 2009

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After last year’s casual outing at E3 where hardcore fans were pushed aside to make room for Wii Fit moms, Nintendo had a lot of work to do to make things up to those who felt let down previously. As usual things had been very quiet right up until their conference so no one really knew for sure what was going to be shown and which audiences Nintendo were going to ponder to.

Thankfully right from the start Nintendo’s very own milf mistress Cammie Dunaway took to the stage and announced New Super Mario Bros., a spiritual sequel to the hit DS title. No one ever complains when Nintendo reveal a new 2D side scroller and this time up to four players can all play cooperatively at once on the same Wii (controlling Mario, Luigi and two toad brothers) with a zooming camera system which works in a similar manner to that seen in Super Smash Brothers Brawl, I can’t see this not being top selling hit later this year.

Cammie then went on to introduce us to Wii Fit Plus which is pretty much a standalone update disc which brings more activities and mini games along with more accurate weight monitoring statistics (such as calorie counting). Wii Fit plus arrives bundled with the Balance Board for new buyers but those who have already purchased the original Wii Fit will be able to purchase the disc on its own for a substantial saving (in money and white plastic). I’d be interested in playing some of the new games but I don’t think Wii Fit Plus is an essential purchase for me but I’m sure it will earn even more money for Nintendo.

Then it was Reggie’s turn to take the stage and he showed us more of the upcoming Wii Sports Resort and the new Wii Motion Plus accessory. Aside from revealing some of the new games and showing some live demo’s (which did look pretty good) we didn’t learn too much new but seeing as the Wii Sports Resort release date is July 26th we don’t have long to wait. Reggie then briefly mentioned other upcoming Wii Motion Plus games including; Grand Slam Tennis and Tiger Woods from EA, Virtua Tennis 2009 from Sega and Red Steel 2 from Ubisoft. A few more trailers were shown; Final Fantasy The Crystal Bearers an exclusive Wii title following in the footsteps of Crystal Chronicles on the GameCube. Kingdom Hearts 358/2 Days looked like a nice DS title for fans of the unusual RPG beat ‘em up starring Disney and Square Enix characters. Mario & Luigi Bowser’s Inside Story is another cute DS title which see’s our hero’s shrunk to a teensy size and then swallowed by King Bowser. Then another surprise announcement, classic RPG franchise Golden Sun is returning to DS very soon for a full 3D adventure.

Cammie returned to speak about DSi, she said something about it selling bucket loads and that every staff member at Nintendo has houses made of solid gold. No I jest really but to be honest we all know the DS and Wii are unstoppable sellers so we don’t need to be told how well they’re flying off the shelves. DS Trailers for COP (a GTA China Wars clone) and Women’s Murder Club (an interactive women’s novel) were then revealed along with Nintendo DSi Ware exclusive title Mario vs Donkey Kong 3 mini’s march again. Mario vs Donkey Kong 3 costs just 800 Nintendo points and is released next week, a top bargain for a first party title with custom level creation and online sharing. She then went onto explain basic details about DSi Facebook photo sharing, mentioned Zelda Spirit Tracks and all new Wario Ware DIY which features and extensive mini game building kit to design your own micro games to share with your friends.

Head of Nintendo Japan Satoru Iwata then arrived on stage to talk about the diversity of gamers, non gamers and those middling in between. Skipping past those details we then found out about the Wii Vitality Sensor; a glorified pulse rate detector. This idea isn’t that new to video games and I don’t really see a need for Nintendo to sell us another accessory which will hardly be supported or used in games aside from one original application. Luckily before the crowd turned into a baying mob Iwata presented Super Mario Galaxy 2, the first sequel to a 3D Mario Game ever, the video looked pretty good albeit quite similar looking to the original. Pleasant new surprises were rideable Yoshi’s, new abilities like a Drill Suit which let Mario burrow into the ground and most importantly; busier looking planets to explore.

Aside from some more trailers for upcoming games like Sega’s The Conduit the final big announcement was a brand new Metroid Game being made by Nintendo in conjunction with Team Ninja. Metroid Other M appears in an intriguing new semi 2D action game which looks to tell the story behind our beloved bounty hunter Samus Aran, it was difficult to gather much more about the game apart from it having stunning graphics and lots of action on screen at once – oh and Samus as a little girl, cute.

And that was it, an eye opening show from Nintendo with lots of key new titles. Sadly no mention of Pikmin or Zelda Wii until afterwards when Miyamoto said they were being worked on but not ready for us to see yet, we may have to wait until the next E3, Pax or GDC to find out more about those.

Tags: Nintendo, E3, Wii, New Super Mario Bros Wii, Wii Sports Resort, Red Steel 2, Super Mario Galaxy 2, Mario and Luigi Bowsers Inside Story, Golden Sun DS, The Wii Vitality Sensor, Metroid Other M

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EA Sports Grand Slam Tennis for Wii Release Date

May 19th, 2009

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Now that Nintendo have confirmed an early release date for their MotionPlus Wii Remote add-on that gives 1 to 1 control precision to compatible Wii Games, EA have given us more details on their upcoming new game EA Sports Grand Slam Tennis for the Wii. Featuring full Wii MotionPlus support you’ll really feel like you’re playing tennis, with 100% accurate forehand, backhand and spin shots as well as shot power recognition. EA Sports Grand Slam Tennis for Wii features your favourite tennis stars; John McEnroe, Boris Becker, Roger Federer, Andy Murray, Andy Roddick, Venus Williams, Maria Sharapova and many more. We can’t wait to test it out! The EA Grand Slam Tennis for Wii Release Date is June 16th 2009.

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Related: Wii MotionPlus, EA Grand Slam Tennis

Tags: Wii Sports, Wii Tennis, WiiMotionPlus, Wii Motion Plus

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How to buy WiiWare Games On Amazon

May 19th, 2009

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So far since the Wii’s launch it was only possible to purchase digital games for the system by using special points either in the form of the card or bought in advance on your credit card. Now in conjunction with Amazon.com publishers will now have the opportunity to list their WiiWare games for sale on Amazon’s WiiWare section as well as the Wii Shop Channel. Not only does this mean that users can avoid the hassle of buying points but also take advantage of any Amazon gift vouchers they may have unused and even look forward to special WiiWare discounts not available elsewhere. The first game available to purchase on WiiWare at Amazon is the terrific World of Goo which we recently awarded 5/5 and is probably the essential WiiWare game to own.

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Tags: Wii, WiiWare, Wii Points Card, World of Goo

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Tiger Woods PGA Tour 10 Wii Release Date

May 19th, 2009

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Now that Nintendo have confirmed an early release date for their MotionPlus Wii Remote add-on that gives 1 to 1 control precision to compatible Wii Games EA have given us more details on their upcoming new edition of Tiger Woods for Wii. Featuring full Wii MotionPlus support you’ll really feel like you’re playing golf, with 100% accurate fade, draw and shot power recognition. PGA Tour 10 for Wii will also feature operation with the Wii weather channel to provide real time weather effects for the course you’re playing on. We can’t wait to test it out! The Tiger Woods PGA Tour 10 for Wii Release Date is June 16th 2009.

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Tags: Wii Sports, Tiger Woods, MotionPlus, Wii MotionPlus, Tiger Woods PGA

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Sega Virtua Tennis 2009 Release Date

May 14th, 2009

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Now that Nintendo have confirmed an early release date for their MotionPlus Wii Remote add-on that gives 1 to 1 control precision to compatible Wii Games, Sega have given us more details on their upcoming new game Virtua Tennis 2009 for Wii. Featuring full Wii MotionPlus support you’ll really feel like you’re playing tennis, with 100% accurate forehand, backhand and spin shots as well as shot power recognition. Sega Virtua Tennis 2009 for Wii features your favourite tennis stars; Nicole Vaidisova, Boris Becker, Lindsay Davenport, Andy Murray, Andy Roddick, and many more. We can’t wait to test it out! The Sega Virtua Tennis for Wii Release Date is June 2nd 2009.

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Related: Wii MotionPlus, EA Sports Tennis 09

Tags: Wii Sports, Wii MotionPlus

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Wii Logitech Cordless Keyboard

May 13th, 2009

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Sometimes I don’t want to surf the web sitting at my desk and that’s why the Wii’s Internet Channel powered by Opera suits me just fine. I can sit on my couch and just point my way around the internet with a bag of potato chips and a cat on my lap. You may also think that a games console wouldn’t be that suited to web surfing but Opera’s hard work have brought a fully functional web browser to the Wii which packs most features and the rendering ability of its desktop browser cousin.

The on screen keyboard for the Wii Internet Channel works quite well but typing long web addresses and using webmail can be a little slow compared to using a real keyboard. Well I no longer have to worry about that because Logitech have teamed up with Nintendo and released a fantastic small white Wireless Wii Styled keyboard. Unlike other wireless keyboards this one contains special shortcut buttons which correspond to the buttons on the Wii Remote. At $50 it’s a little expensive but the build quality is superb and no other Wii Keyboard has the official Nintendo seal of approval so if you want 100% compatibility the Logitech Cordless Keyboard for Wii is your best choice.

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