Well get ready to react in that very manner because Jett Rocket for Wii is a 3D Platform Adventure game which takes great inspiration from Nintendo’s Gamecube classic. Before things get too silly I’ll point out right away; Jett Rocket is not as good a game than Sunshine – but that doesn’t mean it’s bad either, let’s find out more in this Jett Rocket WiiWare review.

Jett Rocket is a peaceful ecological superhero who looks a bit like Ben 10 crossed with GI Joe. Not everyone cares about the environment and it appears that the evil Power Plant Posse have invaded a peaceful planet called Yoroppa. Not only have they installed horrible fossil fuelled power plants all over the once beautiful planet; they’ve left lots of horrid robots guarding them all too. Just as you or I would, Mr Rocket vows to clean up this mess once and for all and promptly gets down to the planet’s surface to sort matters pronto.

So far you’re probably wondering about the afforementioned similarities to Super Mario Sunshine; well wonder no more. You may remember that in Sunshine Mario had a three function water pack called Fludd? Well Jett Rocket can’t quite afford expensive tech like that but don’t worry, he does at least have a standard jet rocket pack and if it means he can float about the place does it really matter what fuel it uses?

Ok so both games feature a rocket pack but what else do they have in common? Well each of the three world locations (Tropical Island, Snowy Artic and Toxic Swamps) are distinctively themed and split into levels. At the start of each level you’re given a quick scan of the horizon in a mini cut-scene which usually (in combination with the level name) gives you a clue of what your goal is. From here on it’s down to you and Mr Rocket to get the job done.

Completing a level is usually a simple case of running around solving some basic puzzles such as hitting switches, throwing bombs into containers or finding hidden batteries to power a stone cannon (weird eh?). On your way you need to collect as many Solar Panels as possible because these are your ‘Power Stars’ to unlocking the next world. Jett’s ship needs as much power as possible and the only way to power the transporter is to install those solar panels pronto. Now Jett doesn’t quite have the move set or aerobatic fluidity of Mario so you can forget about cartwheels, backflips and what not because you’ll mainly be running around doing the odd bit of jumping, smashing and floating with your jet pack. Nevertheless apart from the stiff robotic feel to Jett and his movements (even though he’s human), exploring the area does trigger that 3D Mario feel much more than you’d expect. Of course at the end of each world is a boss, none of ‘em are super tough but not they’ll not be walk in the park for you either.

Now let’s not get over ourselves here; Jett Rocket will not worry Shigeru Miyamoto and the Mario legacy but for once this is an example of a non-Nintendo developed 3D platformer that doesn’t just fall flat on its face.

If you just give the game a chance then Jett Rocket will give you that nice warm Super Mario Sunshine glow for a few hours, probably enough to whet your appetite for finishing off those missions you’re stuck on in Super Mario Galaxy 2. The control system is a basic Wiimote and Nunchuck affair, Jett is controlled with the analogue stick and jumps with a press of the A button (and floats with A held down), attacking comes in the form of swishing the Wiimote motion style and it works well. I’m no Wii Waggle advocate but this is very inoffensive and suits me just fine.

Jett Rocket features fairly decent graphics and audio; neither will stun you into a fiery oblivion but don’t forget that squeezing anything gorgeous into the 40MB WiiWare storage limit is a tough task for anyone. The levels are pretty enough and the special effects are good enough for any self-respecting game lover, it’s all crisp, smooth and does the job. For me a game with no slowdown and a half decent game camera goes a long way to being playable, Jett Rocket easily manages this and more.

For just 1000 Nintendo Points you can have a good dose of retro 3D platforming action. Gamerscore junkies will be pleased to see that there are plenty of achievements to earn as well. Of course being a Wii title they don’t really mean anything (they’ll not appear on your Xbox 360) but it’s certainly nice to see some effort towards WiiChievements, especially when Nintendo aren’t bothering. Fun stuff indeed! 4 out of 5.

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Related: Super Mario Galaxy 2, Free Nintendo Wii Points

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Related: Donkey Kong Country review, Donkey Kong Country for the Wii

We’ve had; Mario Party, Paper Mario, Mario Tennis, Mario Golf and a Mario Baseball title. One thing games have in common is that they’re not in fact developed by Nintendo themselves. Instead they’re farmed out to 2nd or 3rd party developers and quite frankly it usually shows because most of the time the games are poor.

This year Mario returns once again in Mario Sports Mix and as it sounds you can expect a party game based around sports, starring Mario. The game features four sports:

• Volleyball
• Basketball
• Ice hockey
• Dodgeball

Of course you can expect the usual cast of characters; Mario, Luigi, Peach, Bowser, Wario and the rest. As this isn’t a Sega title I’m afraid to say you shan’t be able to pitch Sonic against Mario this time. Mario Sports Mix looks like a great title for this kids but don’t expecting this to rival Wii Sports Resorts. The Mario Sports Mix release date is currently scheduled for early 2011.

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Related: Mario and Sonic at the Olympic Winter Games review, Best Wii games for kids

Rather pleasantly this isn’t just a Mario cash in; just like Wii Sports everyone can use their Mii avatar instead of the Mushroom Kingdom characters.

The Wii Party release dates is pencilled in for fall 2010, we don’t expect this one to slip because it looks like a perfect family Christmas title on Wii.

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Related: Mario Party 8 review, Rabbids Go Home review

But did you know that hit party game Just Dance has joined such illustrious titles in selling multiple million copies. With such success you shouldn’t be surprised to hear that Ubisoft have just announced Just Dance 2 for Wii. Featuring over 45 new tracks which are a mix of classic hits today’s chart-toppers. Combine that with a whole new overhaul to the dance system and plenty of new routines choreographed by real experts and you’ve got yourself a game to buy the girls this Christmas. The Just Dance 2 release date is October 12 2010.

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Related: Dance Central release date, Wii Fit

Kirbys Epic Yarn for Wii is a brand new title in the long running Kirby franchise, just as with most of the previous games this is a 2D Side Scrolling platformer. As you’ll probably already know, Kirby is a flying shape-shifting pink blob that can absorb special powers from the enemies he eats. This time around though most of Kirby’s amazing powers have been stripped away and it is you and your Wii Remote that has the power.

Gone are the cutesy cartoon graphics that you remember, bring in a lush vibrant and very detailed world of Cloth and Textiles. Everything in Kirby’s Epic Yarn (including Kirby himself) is made of fabric and boy does it remind me of LittleBigPlannet; but in a good way. Expect a world of unique puzzles that use this new graphic style and gameplay to match. The Kirby Epic Yarn release date is 31st October 2010.

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Related: Smash Bros Brawl list of characters, Nintendo DS buyers guide for Christmas 2010

For starters we now know that Skyward Sword for Wii is a MotionPlus only title, the add-on unit for the Wii Remote will provide greater accuracy and more realistic sword fighting and archery skills. Next up are the graphics, everyone was wondering if we’d see another Realistic Zelda or more Toon Shading. Turns out we have both; the adult Link from Twilight Princess returns in a colourful but not garish cell shaded world. I’m quite excited by this hybrid of Wind Waker Twilight Princes. I can’t wait for the Legend of Zelda Skyward Sword release date of Quarter 1 2010.

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Related: Legend of Zelda Spirit Tracks review, 3D Dot Game Heroes review

Metroid Other M is a third person adventure which fuses the classic retro 2D Metroid gameplay with modern first person shooter action. You control Samus in an almost isometric over the shoulder viewpoint whilst you run, jump and morph ball around the environments. What’s new is that at any time you can point your WiiMote towards your TV and instantly switch into a static FPS mode which literally puts you behind the visor for pixel perfect shooting.

The Metroid Other M release date is August 31st 2010 for both North America and Europe, we can’t wait.

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Related: Metroid Prime 3, Onslaught

The NBA Jam Wii release date is October 5th 2010, until then you’ll have to make do with the Basketball mode in WiiSports Resort for the Wii.

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Related: Pirates vs Ninjas Dodge Ball review, WiiSports Resort for the Wii

Just like last year, Tiger Woods PGA Tour 11 for Wii sees small but nonetheless impressive improvements over the previous year’s releases.

This year Tiger Woods 11 for Wii once again has additional support for the Wii Motion Plus addon which enables much more fluid and almost 1 to 1 golfing controls.

Here are just some of things you can expect in Tiger Woods 11 for Nintendo Wii this golf season:

• Ryder Cup Challenge with full roster control
• Improved MotionPlus support
• Tour View, an exclusive first person golfing viewpoint
• Play Frisbee/Disc Golf on most of the world’s best courses

Don’t forget you can get $20 Amazon credit by preordering before the Tiger Woods PGA Tour 11 Wii release date on June 8th in North America. European golfing fans will have to wait just a little bit longer for the Tiger Woods Tour 11 Wii release date on July 2nd 2010.

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Related: Wii Motion Plus, Grand Slam Tennis review

Building upon the impressive but flawed online modes in the original, we can expect a much more exciting range of features in the sequel. Details announced so far include:

• Team Invasion Mode, a 4 player online GOW style Horde Mode
• 12 Player online deathmatch
• 20+ Weapons
• Improved online security to stop cheaters and hackers
• Wii Speak voicechat support

Recently confirmed is the option to add WiiMotionPlus to your controller for improved accuracy, no word yet on a pack in deal but stay tuned for information if it happens. Currently the North American Conduit 2 release date is November 2nd 2010; hopefully that will be the same across Europe because that just happens to be my birthday.

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Related: The Conduit review, WiiMotionPlus

Just announced from major third party peripheral maker Nyko; Type Pad Pro for Wii is a portable QWERTY keyboard that plugs directly into the WiiRemote itself for quick and easy use. It’s a battery free design features a port pass through port for your WiiMotionPlus or Nunchuck accessories. Available right now from Amazon for under $30; sounds like it’s time to start writing those emails from your couch on your Nintendo Wii to me.

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Related: Using Guitar Hero controllers with Rock Band for the Wii, Logitech Wii Cordless Keyboard

I don’t know about you but after playing through the previous (dark and scary) Harry Potter game for Wii but I am quite looking forward to a less serious take on the series. Lego Harry Potter for Wii is promising to deliver the traditional light-hearted Lego fun as well as a deep Potter experience full of all the Wizardry activities you know and love; Spells, Quidditch and more! The Lego Harry Potter for Wii release Date is June 29th 2010 in the States and June 25th for those in Europe.

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Related: Lego Indiana Jones, Lego Batman

Now in 2010 Sin and Punishment 2 arrives from Treasure software and is pushing more pixels than any other Wii game to date. I can’t wait to find out how well Sin and Punishment Star Successor for Wii now plays with pointer aiming controls and eye popping 480p visuals. This is the ultimate for Bullet Hell loving shooter fans and best of all the game features a 2 Player coop mode as well as online leaderboards through the Nintendo Wi-Fi connection. The Sin and Punishment Star Successor release date in the US is June 27th 2010 and is out now in Europe.

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Related: Too Human review, Alien Breed Evolution Episode One review

You take control of Flo who pretty much has to do everything in her restaurant minus the cooking. You’ll be seeing customers to their seats, taking their order, giving them the bill and then clearing up their plates when they leave. That’s the basic gameplay out of the way but it’s not as easy as it sounds. Once your restaurant starts getting busy with many customers arriving in quick succession you’ll find keeping up with the orders a real task. Flo is the only waitress and if you don’t keep the customers happy and seen to quickly then their happiness hearts will quickly decrease.

If all their hearts disappear then that means trouble for your chances of passing the level as well as dampening your high score. Your woes can easily continue with one simple mistake such as putting a party of two on a six seater table, thus not having enough seats for a party of five or six. Guess what happens if you’re carrying a dirty plate and a freshly made meal to the washing bin at the same time? Yes that’s right; the fresh food goes in the washing bin along with the dirty plate. Now the chef has to remake that order which can add a significant delay to the customer. All of this and more will drive you insane with fury but Diner Dash is so addictive that you’ll want to keep playing.

Finishing every level (unless you are playing endless time mode) requires you to reach a set number of points before closing time. Almost every task you complete gives you points but sadly you’ll need to put in extra effort to achieve an expert rating. This means matching the colour of a customer’s clothes to a particular chair to get bonus points as well as performing multiple chains. Chains require you to perform the same task multiple times in a row for an increasing multiplier score but as soon as you switch chores the multiplier resets to zero. Things are getting a bit tough and so you are given a little bit of help in the form of additions to your restaurant. Such additions include a drinks machine which can help satisfy customers waiting to receive their food and a podium which will let you recharge the heart meter of people waiting for a seat in your restaurant. The downside is that serving drinks and standing at the podium saps time you could be spending serving the customers already seated.

If you get stuck trying to make a success of Flo’s restaurant career then maybe you’ll want to attempt to play Diner Dash with friends. You can head online play hard head to head match with others via the Nintendo WiFi connection.

Diner Dash for Wii is a basic yet addictive casual title. Costing just 1000 points on the WiiWare shop channel means it’s not too expensive compared to a disc based game. The visuals are bright and colourful but don’t look as sharp as the HD console versions, perhaps even a little blurry in comparison. The music and sound effects are basic too, bippy boppy tunes that will get you by but not make you interested in owning the soundtrack. The simple and intuitive one button control scheme means almost everyone will be able to pick up play and enjoy Diner Dash. With no motion controls it also means that for a change you won’t need to wave your arms about like a madman.

Diner Dash for Wii brings nothing new to the table but is a nice little game you can load up at any time for a spot of time management fun. 3 out of 5.

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Related: Diner Dash for the Xbox 360, Hysteria Hospital Emergency Ward review

So what is Military Madness for Wii all about? Well the first thing to mention is that Military Madness Nectaris for Wii is a remake of the classic 1989 Turbografx-16 game that most of us never played back in the day, either because we didn’t own the Turbografx or that we were born years after the game came out. Whichever the excuse; Hudson Software and Backbone Entertainment have resurrected the franchise and you now have no excuse not to get into the action; but before that – the story:

There are two factions battling for supremacy on the moon in the year 2156 and as with any War we need to look into the past to understand why it started. Due to an ever increasing population and therefore a total lack of space to build anymore luxury villas on the Spanish Rivera; somebody had to find a way to free up a bit of space on Earth and do it quickly. With Ethnic Cleansing (or to give it it’s correct name; Genocide) being out of popularity the only other option was to move all of the World’s criminals to a new hyper prison newly built on the Moon.

But wouldn’t you know it, there was another reason why cheap labour being sent up to the Moon seemed such a good idea to those on Earth. There just so happened to be a wonderful, powerful and valuable new element under the Moon’s surface which needed to be mined, refined and sent back to Earth right away. Jump forward a few more years and we find that the prisoners have managed to revolt against their captors and have managed to take over the moon and use that aforementioned new mineral to start developing a massive super weapon that could destroy the Earth.

So it’s time for you as leader of the Earth’s Military to put a stop to this mess by flying to the moon and engage in a series of turn based battles to defeat those nasty baddies.

Military Madness is a strategy game set in the future on the Moon. For the most part the setting doesn’t matter because you’ll really only be concentrating on one thing: numerous amounts of futuristic tanks shooting at each other against a bland grey Moon backdrop. Nectaris for Wii is split into two straightforward modes; a Single Player Campaign and Multiplayer. In single player mode you start with a series of small enclosed maps with normal difficulty and then when you’re done with those you can move onto some larger more advanced maps.

The goal of each map is to defeat the opponent by either capturing their home base or destroying all of their units. Both require quite different tactics so which you’ll choose to do is entirely up to you, your play style and how well you are doing at the time. Each map typically starts off with both forces on opposite sides of the map with their units spread out around their home base. To confuse things a little I must explain that each of those units is actually a placeholder for up to eight actual units. To put it another way, instead of having a cluttered map the number of onscreen units is limited by grouping eight individual units into one big unit. These units never separate into their individual parts but individual ones can be destroyed when you enter battle – I’ll come to battle in a moment. Teams take it in turns to move all, some or even none of their units. Units can only move set distances and this will also vary depending on the type of ground. Flat ground is easy land based units will only move slowly across rough land and slopes.

Let’s take a look into the strengths and weaknesses of these units:

• Walking Armour – Super tough but slow. Very effective against land and air based units.
• Transporters – As the name suggests these can transport other units around the map at high speed. They’re rubbish in battle though.
• Tanks – You already know what Tanks are. Very strong, but a tad slow.
• Aerials – These are very fast and agile but not the toughest by any means. It’s best to keep moving these around attacking in short bursts.
• Infantries – The weakest but also the most useful. Human’s in armoured spacesuits with jet packs capable of flight. These are the only units which can capture an opponent’s home base.
• Technicals – Unlike the other units these can attack and then run away afterwards. Quick and agile but very weak too.

When it comes to attacking other units it all comes down to RPG like stats. Although the main factor in any battles is the unit(s) strengths and weaknesses, there are other things to consider. If friendly or enemy units are directly surrounding in the battle then that will alter the stats. Another contributor is if units are on flat, unstable or higher ground. Ideally you want to surround an enemy with several of your units trapping them on lower ground; this will give you the upper hand even this will not save you if you send a weak unit up against something very strong. Units can be repaired in factories but they will lose a movement turn whilst under repairs and at any time the factory could be captured by the enemy if not guarded.

The Military Madness Multiplayer mode is very similar to the single player campaign featuring just a few gameplay tweaks not really worth mentioning here. The good news is that you and up to three others can battle each-other locally or online. Sadly just like my experience of Military Madness on PS3, the Wii game also features a distinct lack of people playing online in random matches. This isn’t too bad if you have friends with the game but it may turn out you’ll be playing offline more than online until more people buy the title.

Interestingly enough the WiiWare version of Military Madness stands up very well against its higher def sibling on the PS3. Sure Military Madness on Wii is in low definition but unless they were running side by side you could probably not tell the difference. Everything looks near identical to the game on PS3 just without being displayed in high res. It’s just a shame that the moon maps are very bland (understandably I guess) and the units all look more or less the same. Sometimes the similarity in appearance was to my own detriment; a couple of times I got a bit mixed up and sent in low powered units up against tough ones. Apart from the bland visuals and a lack of analogue or pointer controls I was very impressed of the Wii port of Military Madness and award it 3 out of 5.

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Related: Military Madness: Nectaris for the PS3, Onslaught Wiiware review

The Red Steel 2 release date is March 23rd and if you own a Wii then this is the must have title to own before the upcoming Metroid and Mario games. Unlike the original; Red Steel 2 for Wii is no longer set in Japan, instead you’re thrown into a futuristic Wild West setting. It’s still a first person action game and yes you’re equipped with your trusty pistol and a whacking great sword. Check out these Red Steel 2 screenshots to see the excellent Cell Shaded graphics, very slick looking and probably the best visuals on Wii so far.

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Related: Wii MotionPlus, Tiger Woods PGA 10

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Related: Metroid Prime 3 Corruption review, Moon for the DS review

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Related: Review of Spectrobes: Beyond the Portals, Ultimate Band review

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Related: Top 5 Games of 2010, Super Mario Galaxy sales

Ok so it might be a bit mean to label Pikmin New Play Control for Wii as a straight re-release as they have made alterations to the game. But have Nintendo put enough effort into this venture to make it more worthwhile than finding a cheap second hand copy of Pikmin for Gamecube and playing that instead? It’s time to take a look in this Pikmin for Wii review. Pikmin is one of those rare breeds; a successfully implemented strategy game for a console. Joypad controllers are great for many game genres but typically fail when asked to act as if they were a PC mouse. This has generally resulted in poor user experiences in the few strategy games that have ever made their way to console systems, even those that feature analogue stick.

So if you were around a few years back when Nintendo first presented Pikmin to the world; you too may have thought they had bitten off more than they could true by creating the world’s first strategy game primarily involving coloured flowers. You take of control Captain Olimar; a strange little spaceman whose ship has crash landed on a newly encountered planet. Much to his dismay; thirty rather important pieces of the ship have scattered across a large area and without them he will not be able to leave orbit. That sounds bad enough until you realise that he only has enough air in his spacesuit to last exactly thirty days as well. Normally you’d think Olimar would be done for but hold on a minute. What is that strange sprout sticking out of the ground?

So the intrigue gets the better of Olimar and he can’t resist pulling up the sprout to find out what sort of vegetable would be growing underneath. But what do you know; instead of finding a healthy addition to his ‘five a day’ he instead has discovered a living breathing flower with very cute eyes. The flower can’t talk but seems friendly enough and is certainly happy enough following Olimar around the place and so is dubbed a Pikmin.

Olimar soon comes across a giant pod (which he calls an Onion) and with the help of his new Pikmin friend soon discovers that this is in fact, some sort of breeding facility for the Pikmin species. When a Pikmin takes a seed capsule from a nearby flower and offers it up to the Onion like a sacrifice; the Onion pop outs seeds which fall to the ground creating new Pikmin sprouts. Yes I know it sounds like a cross between The Wicker Man and Gardeners Time but Pikmin is actually a bloody great game and here’s why:

Your goal is to locate a minimum of 25 of the thirty missing ship parts within the 30 day time limit; with the help of three Pikmin species (Red, Yellow and Blue) you will need to negotiate many natural locations and battle intriguing enemies. So what’s the deal with the different coloured Pikmin?

• Red Pikmin are immune to fire
• Blue Pikmin can breathe underwater
• Yellow Pikmin can carry/throw explosive rocks

To reach the missing ship parts you’ll need to use the skills of all you Pikmin individually and sometimes in tandem. An example would be of sending Red Pikmin into battle against a fire breathing enemy so that Yellow Pikmin can travel past to collect some explosive rocks which can then be used to blast down a barrier. Simple sounding stuff but at any one time only 100 Pikmin can be out of their respective (blue, red and yellow) Onions at once; will you take 33 of each colour out on your travels or venture out with just one colour each time? As you can imagine; you’ll find yourself a whole host of clever situations that will see you battling against reaching your next ship part whilst protecting the Pikmin from harm

Whilst there are three Pikmin species to encounter, there are also three growth stages to take advantage of too. The longer a Pikmin sprout stays in the ground before being pulled the bigger and stronger it will become; neatly presented by either a shoot, bud or full flower goring out of the Pikmin’s head. Despite its simple nature Pikmin is quite a complex game underneath that requires thought just like any other strategy game. Going gun hoe into any situation will see you lose Pikmin quite quickly, you need to take care of your flower friends and that includes putting them to bed at night. Any Pikmin left outside of an Onion during the hours of darkness will be eaten by giant bugs; and after nurturing them from birth it’s something you’ll always find distressing (well I do anyways).

So what was all the New Play Control stuff? Well; of course originally Pikmin on the Gamecube used the Gamecube controller. I do happen to have played the original and feel that Nintendo did a great job in mapping the game to the pads analogue sticks and buttons. Pikmin New Control for Wii does away with that and now uses the Wii Remote and Nunchuck. With the accurate pointer system; Pikmin for Wii becomes an even more joyous game to play than it did before; you still control Olimar with a joystick but now being able to point with near mouse cursor like accuracy where you’d like your Pikmin to go makes so much sense.

Apart from the new control scheme Pikmin for Wii and 16:9 Widescreen support; Nintendo haven’t added any other bonus content for fans who have already played Pikmin before. With a lifespan of around 10 to 15 hours may sound a little short but I still loved playing through the game once again and the new play control made it a much more rewarding experience. I can’t deny the graphics have dated a little over the 10 or so years since its original release but Pikmin New Play Control Wii still is top notch game worth of 3 out of 5 despite its lack of new features.

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Related: Tatsunoko vs Capcom Ultimate All Stars review, Digimon adventure online games

It’s great to see that rather than disappear into obscurity onto PC message boards, the indie movement has instead moved onto the home consoles; something I wouldn’t have thought possible with such domineering companies such as Nintendo; Microsoft and Sony ruling the console roosts. So whilst nowadays I’d wager that zero games appearing on the Wii, 360 or PS3 were developed in somebodies bedroom. We at least still have some great talent producing low budget games that don’t spawn from the gaming equivalent of factory farming. Yes I’m looking at you Ubisoft and your range of shovelware all ending in Z.

Ok so what has this got to do with Max and the Magic Marker? Well probably not too much besides the fact that Press Play; the developers behind Max and the Magic Marker for Wii are one such indie development group. Unable to get their title picked up by a big publisher, they stuck it to the man and decided to publish it themselves digitally through the Nintendo WiiWare service.

If you’ve played other indie games on WiiWare such as World of Goo then you’ll instantly feel at home after booting Max and the Magic Marker. This isn’t just because like 2D Boy’s Goo filled masterpiece that the graphics are somewhat kiddie; no it’s because you can instantly tell that care has been taken every step along the way in making this game. This isn’t something you just see with your eyes but feel when you start to control Max and his Magic Marker. The story of Max and the Magic Marker goes like this; Max is a young red haired child who loves to draw. Out of the blue one day he anonymously receives a new drawing pen; without thinking anything of it he rushes to work on a new piece of art featuring a purple Monster. To his surprise the Monster suddenly comes to life, then starts to run amok through Max’s other drawings.

Now of course you and I would solve this problem by putting all of the drawings through the paper shredder but Max is much more imaginative and has simple yet far better plan. Max draws a picture of himself using his new magical marker thereby allowing him to come alive in the world of his drawings and chase after that purple Monster. Will max manage to defeat the Monster and return home safely with only the use of his Magical Marker? Well I know the answer but I’m not going to spoil that now but what I can say is that I really enjoyed this game. Time to look a bit more in depth isn’t it?

You take control of the aforementioned Max with your Nunchuck and his Marker with your Wii Remote in this colourful magical adventure spread across three worlds. If like me you played Drawn to Life then you too may have been disappointed that you actually were tending to colour in shapes rather than really draw unique aspects to the game. Max & The Magic Marker is a little different in that you only draw things to assist you getting Max to the end of the level safely. So these could be staircases to reach higher platforms, weights to tip a seesaw, bridges to cross chasms or even basic platforms. I’d agree in saying that it sounds rather basic but this is actually just where the fun starts.

Simply drawing a few bridges isn’t going to impress anyone, no matter how well the Wii Infra-Red pointer control has been adopted. Max must collect globules of ink as he progresses throughout each level, the more ink he has the bigger your drawings can be. For instance, to reach a collectable up high you will might need to build a large staircase but if you didn’t collect every ink container that you passed you may find yourself with not enough ink to make it tall enough. This obviously corresponds further into the game when drawing a long bridge; there’s just no way to cross a large gap with only a small bridge right?

Well wrong actually, large gaps are no match for Max and his Magic Marker. At any point the a level you can press the A + B buttons together to warp out of the picture back into the real world where the real Max is on hand to physically draw on the paper (rather than being in game). This confusing trans-dimensional concept actually makes a lot of sense when you think about it and even if it doesn’t make sense, well it’s damn useful. Here instead of drawling inside a live living piece of artwork you can draw onto it statically before warping back in. What does this mean? Well to put it simply it means that when facing a large chasm and not much ink you can draw half of the bridge you require, make Max run across it and jump towards nothing and then hit the A and B button to warp out. Here you erase the old section of bridge and draw in the missing half so that when you warp back into the game Max lands safely. Clever stuff.

I could go on further about what to expect but that would only spoil a rather unique adventure which you should experience yourself. I’m sure that other fans of World of Goo, Lost Winds and Braid will really feel comfortable with this game. All that’s for me to say is that Max and The Magic Marker is a sensational concept title which maybe a little short but more than makes up for it with some crazy platforming antics; clever physics based puzzles and just a clever down to Earth charm about it. Max and the Magic Marker for WiiWare scores an almost perfect 4 out of 5

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Related: Cocoto Platform Jumper review, Manic Monkey Mayhem review

I’ve enjoyed all of the Super Monkey Ball games ever since I played the original on the Nintendo Gamecube and I’m already waiting in anticipation to get hold of the latest one. The Super Monkey Ball step and roll release date is February 9th 2010 and should be on your preorder list right now.

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Related: Manic Monkey Mayhem review, Madballs in Babo Invasion review

So for those of you with a house full of boring White Wii Remotes can now add a splash of colour to your life with these three new WiiRemote colors – black, pink and blue. You can now Preorder colored Wiimotes from Amazon along with matching Wii Motion Plus; perfect for a fun weekend with New Super Mario Bros and the forthcoming Zelda game which won’t work without the motion add-on.

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Related: Wii MotionPlus review, Grand Slam Tennis with Wii MotionPlus review

So there’s Tuna Tossing, and there’s Mud Sliding. That’s like sledging except instead of snow there’s mud and instead of a sledge there’s you. You can indulge yourself in a spot of Lawnmower or Furniture Racing if you’re looking for a Gran Turismo killer. There’s something called Fierjeppen which has something to do with holding on to a pole? You might want to ask Wikipedia about that one. How about some Log Cutting, Cheese Rolling or (wait for it) EXTREME IRONING. Wait, is this list for real? Card Boxing and Ice Golf? Very funny guys. You nearly had me.

This is certainly not going to be a serious sporting exhibition, so turn away now if you’re not interested in stupid, light hearted games. We’ve seen mini-game collections like this countless times before, especially on the Wii, and they’ve produced some rather odd stuff: dancing Bombermen and defecating Rabbids for example. There are only ten here which instantly puts the collection in a negative light compared to Mario Party 8 and the like and it lacks the hook or gimmick that kept Rayman Raving Rabbids and Warioware interesting.

You should get your first taster of the games in Tour Mode, which sees you and your wacky character (you know, fat dudes, anime chicks and people with afros) travelling the world in search of the perfect log to cut. Party Mode is where the action is though, this is where you can kick back and have some quality multiplayer time, even if you will be giggling at how absurd the whole thing is and going “Wait, what?” every five seconds.

You’ve got a Wiimote in your hands, so you know what these games are going to want from you. Ice Golf and Furniture Racing are the most “normal” of the mini-games, being gimmicky golf and racing games respectively. Cheese Rolling is a strange mix of Boules and cheese. Extreme Ironing expects you to pretend you’re actually doing the ironing, which isn’t fun, even if you are pretending to fall out of a plane. Mud Sliding involves moving your character through targets as he plummets towards a muddy bottom, and mostly the others require a waggle or a spin of the Wiimote to get your avatar into action. These aren’t exactly inspired gameplay mechanics and it seems like Sega have put very little creativity into them instead of choosing to offer workable, somewhat fun, but very standard games.

This would be ok if there were as many games here as there are on Carnival Games or Mario & Sonic but there are not. Unless you’re heavy into your multiplayer this game will be over for you in a week.

That’s the problem here. The game is fun enough, the graphics aren’t terrible and your friends will be happy to join you playing while you wait for something good to come out. But there’s not enough depth or charm to keep anyone playing for long. I would love to say this was a missed opportunity, but the concept itself isn’t that exciting to begin with. Maybe if some more thought had gone into the mechanics, or if there had been lots more games, Wacky World of Sports wouldn’t pale in comparison to half the Wii market and receive a lacklustre score of 2 out of 5.

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Offers: Use our February 2010 Godaddy.com promo code to save money on web hosting and domains – watch the godaddy discount coupon video for more details, using the CCS discount code valid for February 2010 ‘AFGAMEFS’ will get you free shipping with any order over $30 and ‘AFGAME15′ will get you 15% off any order over $75, using the February 2010 Squarespace discount code ‘WEASEL’ at checkout will get you 12% off the lifetime of your account.

Related: Carnival Games Wii review, Grand Slam Tennis review

Tags: Wacky World of Sports, Wii, Sports, Sega, WiiSports