The Video Game Critic

Well, I finally get to chime in on the Wii experience. I loaned a friend some dollars dollars cash money dollar what? dollar bills and he is letting me keep the Wii until I get paid back. I was pleasantly surprised with the control of most games. I honestly thought most games' control schemes would have been a train wreck. Here are my thoughts:

Wii Sports:

3 of the 5 games here are really fun. Boxing really isnt that fun to me b/c of the unintuitive controls (being a dude I wish this game was the best). Baseball just kind of sux. I love Tennis and Bowling, and the Golf is OK too... but I think I'm better at golf in real life and that is sad. I like the pick up and play style of this game (reminds me of good Atari games) and I hope Nintendo makes more use of the Miis because for some reason I really dig that.

PS: My wife loves this game. She doesn't play anything ever, either. She woke me up at 9AM today asking me how to get Wii Sports to work.

Trauma Center:

Me and wife wife also got into this. We swapped surgeries throughout the queer story. The dialouge and the story are your typical lame Anime junk but the controls are awesome and the game itself is pretty damn intense. I really liked this game alot despite it being so Japanese.

Sonic and the Secret Rings:

I read some where that the controls in this game were frustrating, but when I learned how to hold the dam wand there were more than OK, they were awesome. The story, voice acting and 80's heavy metal suck straight butt, though. The gameplay is amazing, I am happy to report, and I am not a Sonic fanboy. I was surprised with this one but those damn cutscenes almost ruin this game.

Red Steel:

I wanted to see how bad a Wii game could be and I think I found it when I rented this one. I play this game for a few minutes at a time and eventually I start getting dizzy to the point where it hurts my head and I get nauseated. The graphics are terrible, and the controls are too loose. The AI sucks, but that is good because doing anything in this game is too hard. This game makes me wonder if it is possible to have a good FPS on this system...

Anyway, I'm pretty happy with the Wii so far. I think I would buy Trauma Center and Sonic. 3 out of 4 isn't bad, but overall I'm relieved that the controls aren't jacked up in every game. My friend who loaned me this said he thought the Wii line up of games are terrible. I would disagree, because hell, its still early on, but I think there is some good potential with this system now.

I agree that there needs to be some good FPS and fighting games released soon, but I like games like Trauma Center and Sonic. Hopefully there will be tons more quality niche games that makes this system irresistable.

Cousin Vinnie

Not to be a cheerleader or apologist for Wii Sports Boxing, but if you give it a little more time it gets better. Timing is very important, and you have to watch the mii closely, so you are in sync with it, if that makes any sense. But I will admit I can't consistently throw hooks and upercuts, and the cheesy manual doesn't even seem to know they exist. What I don't like about boxing is, when you are both worn down, and you knock the other gut down, he comes up from the mat with much more power than you. Don't makes no sense! Glad yer having fun with it!

[QUOTE=Paul Campbell][QUOTE=Zenzerotron]
In truth, you tirelessly throw tons of punches as quickly as possible without resting,, and for every 10 punches you throw, your boxer maybe does one punch on screen. The controls are completely unresponsive, extremely poor.
[/QUOTE]

This is why it is not working for you.  There is alot more timing involved.  If you throw a punch while your character is in the middle of one, of course he's not going to respond.  If you give it some time and really experiment with the training modes, you will see that it is much more technique than just throwing a mad flurry of punches.  My friends and I LOOOOVE boxing, now that we have the hang of it.  The dodging and blocking and punching controls work perfectly when you get the hang of them.  I do wish the manual said something about the hooks and uppercuts, because I still can't figure out how I am even doing those sometimes.  But please, give it a chance.  I have a pair of friends who insist on playing at least a few rounds of boxing whenever they come over.  It really is good once you understand it.

[/QUOTE]

Can't you just be ok with the fact this game doesn't work? It seems that whenever anybody says something negative about the Wii either you or "a" jump in and try to solve the problem. Are you working for Nintendo "PR"? This game doesn't resemble boxing of any kind. I saw your other 1000 word post on "how to enjoy Wii Boxing". I mean, if you have to provide that kind of information then isn't something broken? Or better said, maybe some people expected it to resemble their boxing style not yours? This is not me bashing the Wii. I could care less. Besides, the rest of Wii Sports is decent enough where there is still some value in this collection however, Boxing is terrible...live with it.

[QUOTE=Paul Campbell][QUOTE=Zenzerotron]
In truth, you tirelessly throw tons of punches as quickly as possible without resting,, and for every 10 punches you throw, your boxer maybe does one punch on screen. The controls are completely unresponsive, extremely poor.
[/QUOTE]

This is why it is not working for you.  There is alot more timing involved.  If you throw a punch while your character is in the middle of one, of course he's not going to respond.  If you give it some time and really experiment with the training modes, you will see that it is much more technique than just throwing a mad flurry of punches.  My friends and I LOOOOVE boxing, now that we have the hang of it.  The dodging and blocking and punching controls work perfectly when you get the hang of them.  I do wish the manual said something about the hooks and uppercuts, because I still can't figure out how I am even doing those sometimes.  But please, give it a chance.  I have a pair of friends who insist on playing at least a few rounds of boxing whenever they come over.  It really is good once you understand it.

[/QUOTE]

Can't you just be ok with the fact this game doesn't work? It seems that whenever anybody says something negative about the Wii either you or "a" jump in and try to solve the problem. Are you working for Nintendo "PR"? This game doesn't resemble boxing of any kind. I saw your other 1000 word post on "how to enjoy Wii Boxing". I mean, if you have to provide that kind of information then isn't something broken? Or better said, maybe some people expected it to resemble their boxing style not yours? This is not me bashing the Wii. I could care less. Besides, the rest of Wii Sports is decent enough where there is still some value in this collection however, Boxing is terrible...live with it.

[QUOTE=Paul Campbell][QUOTE=Zenzerotron]
In truth, you tirelessly throw tons of punches as quickly as possible without resting,, and for every 10 punches you throw, your boxer maybe does one punch on screen. The controls are completely unresponsive, extremely poor.
[/QUOTE]

This is why it is not working for you.  There is alot more timing involved.  If you throw a punch while your character is in the middle of one, of course he's not going to respond.  If you give it some time and really experiment with the training modes, you will see that it is much more technique than just throwing a mad flurry of punches.  My friends and I LOOOOVE boxing, now that we have the hang of it.  The dodging and blocking and punching controls work perfectly when you get the hang of them.  I do wish the manual said something about the hooks and uppercuts, because I still can't figure out how I am even doing those sometimes.  But please, give it a chance.  I have a pair of friends who insist on playing at least a few rounds of boxing whenever they come over.  It really is good once you understand it.

[/QUOTE]

Can't you just be ok with the fact this game doesn't work? It seems that whenever anybody says something negative about the Wii either you or "a" jump in and try to solve the problem. Are you working for Nintendo "PR"? This game doesn't resemble boxing of any kind. I saw your other 1000 word post on "how to enjoy Wii Boxing". I mean, if you have to provide that kind of information then isn't something broken? Or better said, maybe some people expected it to resemble their boxing style not yours? This is not me bashing the Wii. I could care less. Besides, the rest of Wii Sports is decent enough where there is still some value in this collection however, Boxing is terrible...live with it.

[/QUOTE]

Can't you just be ok with the fact the the game works great but is difficult to figure?  And can't you just be ok with the fact that the Wii is a great console with lots of fun to be had?  It's not broken, it's just that people just so much expect it to work one way that when it doesn't, they don't try to figure it out and assume it's broken.

[/QUOTE]

I guess my point is for a system that is going after the "casual" gamer I would have thought the controls would work better. Personally, even when you get the controls to work I think Boxing is boring as hell. I love Fight Night for the 360 and I guess I prefer that game. Like I said the othergames work fairly well but if you need to spend a bunch of time just figuring out how the controls work I think a lot of people will be turned off.

I've been very surprised to read how many people are down on the Wii Sports boxing game.  My wife and I picked it up pretty naturally, though points about it's depth of control (matching the force of your punches, etc) are true.  Both of us also enjoyed the Wii Play games quite a bit.

All that said however, the Wii doesn't get nearly the play time that the 360 does from either of us (if you run into joshuavern playing Burnout Revenge on Live don't be shocked if you hear a Brazilian woman's voice).

Can't you just be ok with the fact this game doesn't work? It seems that whenever anybody says something negative about the Wii either you or "a" jump in and try to solve the problem.

[/QUOTE]

Why would you bring me into this Shawn? I actually don't really like the boxing on Wii Sports, so just go ahead and make assumptions elsewhere. The only time I come in to defend the system is when you say something stupid like all it has is mini games.