Telltale Games

The most exciting thing to ever happen to WiiWare is finally upon us. Strong Bad’s Cool Game for Attractive People Episode 1: Homestar Ruiner has finally hit the Wii for 1000 points and fanboys everywhere are surely up in a tizzy. I know I’m kind of excited.

From everything I understand SBCG4AP is a point-and-click adventure in the same vein as Roberta Williams’ King’s Quest games. I’m curious to see what state-of-the-art cell shaded graphics will do for the genre, but I’m more interested in how the developers will take advantage of the point-and-click interface given Homestar Runner’s predilection for Easter eggs.

Other releases after the jump.

Continue reading “Wii Virtual Console Releases for 8/11/08”

After nearly two years of waiting, the most anticipated Wii title to date has finally hit store shelves across America. Now that almost two weeks have gone by since it launched, everyone who wants to be playing it is.

For some people (myself included) the chance to play Super Smash Bros: Brawl came a little over a week after its initial release due to what Nintendo claims is a dirty lens. However, their top-notch repair team had my Wii back in my hands exactly seven days after it left and everything is running smoothly.

The first thing to mention about the newest member of the Super Smash Bros. franchise is that nothing of the general game mechanic has changed from Melee. In fact, the mechanics are so similar that you can play the game using your standard Game Cube controller with the same button set as the previous game. Continue reading “Super Smash Bros. Brawl: The Wait is Over!”

Somehow I’ve managed to miss all the previous Paper Mario and Mario RPG games released so far. It’s always been the wrong time or I didn’t have enough money at that moment, but with Super Paper Mario I think I’ve redeemed myself.

On the surface it plays like a traditional side-scrolling Mario game, albeit with cell-shaded graphics and a few new enemies, but behind this first impression lies a 3-D world that’s been hidden from us until now.
By pushing the A button on the Wii remote, you rotate the on-screen view 90 degrees horizontally and reveal the more dynamic 3-D world behind the relatively mundane 2-D platformer. Continue reading “Super Paper Mario: From Mushroom Kindgom to the Multiverse”

Wario Ware: Smooth Moves continues in the short but noble tradition of micro-games on the Nintendo Wii. Aside from the Wii remote, it plays nearly identical to the other titles in the Wario Ware series.

For those of you unfamiliar, you are given a series of micro-games to play through. If you complete enough of them more games open up for you to play. You have four lives to get through each level leading up to a boss stage, which is typically a micro-game of a longer nature. Continue reading “Wario Ware: Smooth Moves”

What else can I say about the new Legend of Zelda other than “Wow.” This is director Eiji Aonuma’s third Zelda title to date and with this installment in the series he has truly lived up to the work of Shigeru Miyamoto’s Ocarina of Time.

For the first time in the series we have a very realistic looking Link exploring much more realistic looking world. Don’t get me wrong, I’ve always been pleased with the art direction and character design of the Zelda series – I loved the look of Wind Waker – but this game out does the lot of them. In fact, this is the first Zelda title to have a T for Teen rating instead of an E for Everyone due to the animated blood and violence.

It just looks and feels the way it was always meant to be played. The Wii imbues the game with a new sense of verisimilitude both with the Wii remote and the graphics. Continue reading “The Legend of Zelda: Twilight Princess”