It’s here – it’s finally here!  We just gout our Netflix Wii disc in the mail!  Now we can stream tons of movies and TV shows right to our TV!  I just checked, and there are a lot more choices in the “Watch Instantly” category than there were the last time I checked, which was admittedly a while ago.  I tried starting a movie and it worked fine, and I’m assuming since we have a strong Wifi signal (thanks, FiOS!) we shouldn’t have any issues.  Very exciting stuff!

P.S. If you have Netflix and a Wii and didn’t get the disc, just go to netflix.com/wii and they’ll send you one.

This is a real thing.

It’s a Wii game called Baby and Me, and it comes with the creepiest controller peripheral ever – a baby doll.

To play the game, you place the Wiimote into the doll. You can rock the doll to sleep, and if the “baby” is fussy, it will cry through the controller’s speaker. If you have a Wii Fit Balance Board, you can use that to teach the baby how to walk. And, somehow, you can even feed the baby. I’m really not sure how that works, nor am I sure that I want to know.

Is this going to be my main video game of choice until Baby Noah arrives? Can I use a motion-controlled game to give me some training in handling a newborn? As it turns out, the game will only be released in Australia, so I guess I’ll just have to settle with New Super Mario Bros. Wii. (Which, as far as I know, contains no babies, though you never know, Baby Mario could show up in a cameo…)

Who’s up for a Mario Kart tourney? Monday night, say 8pm?

“Wait, what?” you ask. “Didn’t the fourth show you were a PA on also have ‘very special sentimental meaning’ for some weird random reason?”

Well, yeah, at the time. Jeez, let me have my moment, will ya?

Anyway, it’s a good show, and several critics* have already declared it to be totally awesome!

It airs tonight at 10pm on the Science Channel, and is repeated throughout the weekend. Once again, the official site is here.

And Mario Kart tournament at 9:15pm before the show starts for anyone interested!

*Sherlock and the missus count as critics.

E3, the annual video game trade show, wrapped up yesterday, and there was some semi-big news on the Nintendo front. This year didn’t see anything that was absolutely jaw-dropping from the Big N, but there were still some interesting developments for Nintendo fans.

The most exciting announcement for most fans is probably the Wii MotionPlus accessory. This small device will plug into the bottom of the Wiimote, and it will make for totally accurate “1:1″ representations of your motion. In other words, before the Wiimote could (obviously) sense motion, but with this new dongle, every little movement, twist, and turn you make with the Wiimote will be recognized. The bad news is that it isn’t backwards compatible, meaning it won’t give you improved response to games that weren’t designed for it. But the accessory will come bundled with Wii Sports Resort, a sequel to the pack-in game Wii Sports. The new game will feature at least ten new mini-games that will show off the MotionPlus’ capabilities and be based around a beach theme. Three of those mini-games have been announced so far: a game where you throw a frisbee to a dog (pictured above), a jet-ski racing game, and a sword dueling game. I’ve never been to a sun drenched resort that featured sword fighting, but whatever. It’s a safe bet that this game will sell approximately a gazillion copies.

Nintendo will also finally get into voice chat with the new WiiSpeak microphone. The mic is designed to sit by your TV and work for a whole room. I personally think that is a much better idea than the headset microphones that the other consoles use. Not only do those headsets give off an incredibly geeky vibe, they are for one individual player at a time, whereas making a mic for the entire living room fits in perfectly with the whole “family-friendly” vibe that Nintendo is championing. WiiSpeak will be primarily used with a new Animal Crossing game. I’ve never gotten into that series, so I’m hoping more for an announcement that WiiSpeak will be backwards compatible, meaning that we can use it for online Mario Kart Wii races.

Then there’s Wii Music, the game that will allow players to use their Wiimotes and Nunchucks to virtually play over 50 different types of instruments, solo or with friends.  Shigeru Miyamoto, Nintendo guru, has said that Wii Music is more of a toy than a game, and impressions from the conference have been mixed so far.  The fact that you can use the Wii Balance Board to play drums is a pretty cool feature, though.

There were no specific mentions of future Mario or Zelda games, but Miyamoto has said that both teams are hard at work on new games, and that he wants to see both franchises return for another game on the Wii, which is excellent news.  The last time Zelda saw two games on one console was back in the N64 days, and it hasn’t happened for Super Mario since the SNES.  There were also hints at a follow-up to New Super Mario Bros. game for the DS, though nothing was confirmed.  And early impressions of Wario Land: Shake It!, a classic 2-D side scrolling game, have been pretty positive, which should help tide over anyone looking for a fix on their beloved Nintendo mascots.

This is one of the funniest video game “controversies” ever.

Long story short: Back in May a game for WiiWare (games you can download directly to your console via the Wii Shop Channel) was announced called “Frat Party Games: Beer Pong.”  The game was given a T (13+) rating, but people felt that wasn’t good enough, since one should (technically) be 21 before drinking, so a bunch of nutjobs went around complaining about the game.  Now the company behind the game, JV Games, has changed the name from “Beer Pong” to “Pong Toss,” and since the reference to alcohol has been removed, the game now has an E for Everyone rating.  Which, of course, still angers the nutjob types.  (Full news story is here.)

I personally think this is all pretty hilarious.  First of all, there’s the fact that the game does not now nor did it ever show beer, people drinking, people passing out or other drunken behavior in anyway – the game just had you throwing ping pong balls into cups for points.

But more importantly, who wants to play a video game based on a drinking game when there’s no drinking involved?

The whole point of drinking games is to drink and get drunk.  Otherwise they’d just be games.  Honestly, have you ever played beer pong just for the fun of throwing ping pong balls into cups?  No.  You play to drink and make other people drink.  I suppose in theory you could use the Wii version as a stand-in if you don’t have access to a long table and some ping pong balls, but there are a million other drinking games you could play with a deck of cards (or while watching a movie, or a TV show, or without any props at all, for that matter) to get a nice buzz on.

And as for the whole “this game will make kids think drinking is cool” argument, let’s be freaking realistic here: Teenagers and college students drink for a lot of reasons as it is; is this video game really going to make a huge impact on the binge drinking scene?  I sort of doubt it.

Besides, if kids do play this game and get good at it at home, they’ll already be pros when they do graduate to the real game.  Then they’ll sink ping pong ball after ping pong ball and make the less prepared people they’re playing against do all the drinking.

I might not have washboard abs or be able to bench 300 pounds, but I consider myself to be moderately in shape. (I did run a marathon a year and a half ago – that’s got to count for something, right?) So I was curious to see just what Wii Fit would have to offer me. Would it be just stretches? Would it be pointless without weights? Would I be able to really work up a sweat? I’ve been playing with the game now for a little over a week, and I find myself really enjoying what it has to offer. I haven’t yet sprouted those washboard abs, but I am really enjoying being able to do some real exercise in my living room.

Here’s an excerpt from my “Wii Fit” Review:

First off, I have developed a newfound respect for people who do Yoga. I had never done any of those poses before, and while I am certainly no expert now, I have gotten a little bit better, and I am curious to see how much further I can push myself. The strength training exercises are also very tough, and I have found my arms, abs, and legs to be aching the day after an intense workout. The balance games are also challenging, but extremely engaging, and they offer a nice change of pace from the more grueling exercises. The aerobic workouts are also fun, but I haven’t found myself working up the sweats there that I hoped to. I have been using them more as warm-ups and cool-downs, and they are great in those roles.

For the full review, please click here.

So I’ve been writing mostly TV reviews, but I have another love in my life – video games. I even camped out for 30 hours in the freezing cold to get my Wii, but that’s a story for another day. Anyway, I’ve been pretty addicted to Mario Kart Wii since it came out, and I finally decided that I had played enough of the game to write a review of the game for my friends over at The Comic Collective. Overall I’m a big fan of what the game has to offer, but that’s not to say that I don’t have a few gripes here and there.

Here’s an excerpt from my “Mario Kart Wii” Review:

This game took a cue from its DS predecessor and includes a whole slate of new tracks as well as four cups filled with classic tracks from Kart games past. The large selection is a nice touch, but the inclusion of vintage tracks helps highlight the unoriginality of some of the new tracks in this game. For example, the Mario Circuit in the Flower Cup bears a more than passing resemblance to the Leaf Cup’s GCN Mario Circuit. Neither of which is drastically different from the N64 Mario Raceway. There are old and new desert courses, ice world courses, and Bowser courses. While I don’t have a problem with there being new twists on old themes, I personally feel that the Wii courses could have stood to be infused with more creativity. Which isn’t to say that they are all retreads – Maple Treeway and Koopa Cape are obvious standouts in terms of course design, I only wish there were more fun and new courses along those lines.

For the full review, please click here.

Super Mario Galaxy

This is a strong contender for the greatest game of all time, and I thoroughly enjoyed playing it start to finish.  In fact, I loved it so much, that as I was playing through, I made it a point to collecting every star along the way.  And I abstained from cheating (looking up hidden star locations and things online) almost entirely, though I admit to caving a few times.  I took my time with the game and my goal of collecting all 120 stars, mainly because I didn’t want to be finished with the game.  Although after beating the game with every star, you are presented with the option of going through the game again. (I’m omitting a spoiler here for any readers who haven’t yet hit their 120 mark.)  At this point, though, I have to admit, my determination for TOTAL total completion in this game subsided a bit, as I wasn’t really that eager to get all 120 stars a second time.  I played through the first few levels, and I had already forgotten where some of them were.  Call me a quitter, but the task of getting every star a second time seemed incredibly daunting.  I still would like to do it, but I think it will take me a longtime, with me just getting a few here and there whenever I’m bored over the next several years.

New Super Mario Bros.
 
I got two out of the three stars necessary for full completion in this game – I beat the game and completed every level, but I sort of abandoned my quest to collect every Star Coin along the way.  Of all of the games that I haven’t hit 100% on yet, this one seems the most do-able, and I might go back at some point to finish it up, just, you know, because.

Super Mario Sunshine

I realized very early on in this game that collecting all 120 Shines would be impossible for me, if for no other reason that the necessity of collecting all of the blue coins.  The pairs of graffiti, where you sprayed one and the blue coin popped out of the other and you only had a few seconds to collect it were such a pain that I abandoned the quest very early on.  If anyone out there did it and though it was worthwhile, please comment below.

Super Mario 64

As I mentioned in my Buffy post, I skipped the Nintendo 64 generation.  But I did pick up the DS version of this game, and I loved it, though the thought of finding all 120 stars seemed like too much for me to handle.  I also had heard about what happens when you get all 120, and it sounded pretty anti-climactic to me.

Super Mario World 2: Yoshi’s Island

Check.  Beat the game with perfect 100’s on every level, and all of the bonus levels. Some of these were on the tougher side, but they never seemed totally impossible.  As opposed to say the prospect of getting all 100’s on the DS sequel, Yoshi’s Island.  (Which is not listed here, as it is not an official Super Mario game.  But jeez – did anyone out there hit perfection on that game?)

Wario Land: Super Mario Land 3

Despite the fact that Mario only shows up AFTER you beat this game (and even then, just for a second), this game is a member of the series, but alas, it was not in the cards for me to get a perfect mark.  In order to do so, one has to find every single piece of treasure in the game and an exorbitant amount of coins to have the genie at the end of the game give Wario his own personal planet.  I got a castle, which is the first runner-up prize, so I guess that counts for something.

Super Mario Land 2: 6 Golden Coins

This one didn’t really have much in the way of collecting, but there were a couple of hidden levels along the way.  I found them all, but that’s nothing much to brag about.

Super Mario World

Yup - found all 96 exits. This was the first Mario game that let you know when you found everything possible.  But this was before Power Stars were hidden at the end of levels; in this game there was a pair of gates with a piece of tape going up and down.  And if you found all 96 of them, you’d get a little star next to your save file on the select screen. Not the greatest reward ever, but it offered you the definitive proof that you had found everything there was to find in the game.  And of course, once you beat the Special World, everything turned to fall and the Koopas became Marios and the Piranhas became Pumpkins.  That was sort of cool, too.

Super Mario Land

After you defeat Tatanga the first time, you can replay the game in a harder mode.  I don’t think I ever beat the game again in the harder mode, probably because you couldn’t save, and that would have required a very long Game Boy session.  As a side note, was anyone else hoping Tatanga was going to show up as a mini-boss somewhere in Galaxy?  The game didn’t suffer from not having him make a cameo appearance, but it would have been nice to see the series’ first alien show up in the game.

Super Mario Bros. 3

Remember the first time you saw this game in The Wizard?  Yeah, you do.  Your jaw hit the floor.  Hard.  It was pretty cool when Jimmy found the warp whistle, but the real thrill of this game was checking out every level along the way, even though you didn’t have to.  You’re damn right I explored every nook and cranny of this game; with such a diverse landscape of levels and power-ups, I didn’t want to risk misssing a thing.

Super Mario Bros. 2

I thought I beat every level in this game, but who knows?  Maybe I just dreamed it.

Super Mario Bros. 2 – The Lost Levels

Once us Americans FINALLY got this game in 1993’s Super Mario All-Stars, we really found out just what we were missing.  This game was a hell of a lot harder than either SMB1 or the SMB2 we got stateside, so working your way through every level was far more challenging and more rewarding. Feeling like skipping ahead with a warp zone?  Beware the negative warp zones, punishment for gamers looking to take the easy way out.  Granted it was easier for me to beat every level on the SNES version that allowed for saving, but I am proud to say that I did what Nintendo thought was too hard of a challenge for us simple American gamers.

Super Mario Bros.

The original game.  Of course I beat every level in this game – I spent enough time with it.  You don’t have to beat every level to unlock the hard version, but it’s just more fun that way.  And yes, I am including the elusive Minus World.

How about you?  What Mario Bros games did you go through, collecting all you could along the way?  Was it worth your trouble?