Wii thoughts for a slow Monday morning
News that the Queen of England is hooked on Wii Sports definitely put a smile on my face when I woke up. Will Nintendo be able to hold a Royal Warrant and claim “by appointment to her majesty the queen?”
Joystiq reports an that Destineer is toying with announcing an Iron Chef game for the Wii. If the game comes with a box-grater attachment, I may have to give it a miss. :p
I watched the 2-hour premiere of American Gladiators last night (with The Hulkster!!) and thought: “this could be fun on the Wii.” Because I dare you to watch the Joust or Assault and not think “I want to do that.” The gladiators are a lot less austere than I remember them being back in the previous version of the show, with gladiators named “Wolf” (who howls and snarls) and “Toa” (who performs a polynesian war-dance before events–some might call it racism, they like to call it ‘push diversity.’), and “Hellga” (notice the two L’s! She’s a teutonic demon!) It’s much closer to WWE than it used to be, with lots of smack-talking before each round, but I suppose it didn’t have to go very far. But back to the Wii: a lot of the games could be simulated using the Balance board and Wiimote, and God help me I might actually consider paying full price for such a game if it were particularly well done.
Usually, television show ports to consoles are pretty weak and I’ve avoided them, but these two titles could be my achilles’ heel.
January 7th, 2008 at 1:06 pm
So, the Queen has a Wii, and my grandparents got a DS for Christmas (from my mother, who may never have played a video game). It looks like Nintendo is making great strides in reaching out to new gamers.
January 7th, 2008 at 1:23 pm
I was thinking about getting my mom a DS for Christmas last year, and I floated a test-balloon by showing her Brain Age, but she got insulted when the Doctor told her that her brain was like, 105, and didn’t want to hear about it after that.
January 7th, 2008 at 1:31 pm
I cannot help but recall Mr Hick’s suggestion of arming the audience whenever I hear about American Gladiators. But reading the new names here doesn’t really do it for me; I need that 80’s vibe of Nitro, Blaze, and the like.
January 7th, 2008 at 2:43 pm
Yeah, I remember Nitro. I was sort of hoping that one of them would be name “Roids” but I suppose people would think he had hemmerhoids or something. :p
January 7th, 2008 at 10:15 pm
On the one hand, I would worry about an Iron Chef game being essentially derivative of Cooking Mama. On the other hand, Cooking Mama did a lot of basic things right, in terms of fun mechanics, but failed to put those mechanics into a compelling larger game. Structuring the mini-games into a larger competition that includes putting together a satisfying menu could turn Iron Chef into a far more interesting game.
Speaking of the Wii, I can’t stop playing Mario Galaxy lately. I’ve been playing through it with my sister as my Star Buddy. It’s a great way for a second player to participate in what is essentially a one-player game.
January 11th, 2008 at 10:12 pm
[...] Wii thoughts for a slow Monday morning QE II A Wii Fan God Save the Queen from Nintendo [...]
January 19th, 2008 at 9:53 am
Speaking of Gladiators, I now have a crush on Hellga. :blush: