In the three years I've had my Wii I've probably played my Xbox 360 more (and I've only had that for the last year). All be it fun and the source of all my plastic guitar collection, the Wii has always had glaring short comings in the features department.
One such example is the lack of demos. Now this might seem a trivial point but I've lost hundreds of hours over the years to demos and in hindsight I wish I could have banked them for later use of sleepless nights with children, but I digress.
Since the only hard drive support for the Wii has been a SD card which is a far from elegant solution I have never thought we would see them on the little white console. I comparison I have almost filled up my 60GB hard drive on my Xbox 360 with demos.
So you can imagine my suprise when my blinking Wii notified me that for a limited time they would have five downloadable Wiiware demos.
Having played all but NyxQuest with my kids (those sleepless night are about to payback big time now that they can play video games with dad) I hope we can see more of the same in the future.
World of Goo is already a classic and works so well on the Wii you should certainly try it out. A super fun physics puzzle game. And great that you can play up to four players.
Pokémon Rumble was a hit with the kids but I can see the repetitive game play getting old fast for adults.
Bit.Trip.Beat I thought was pretty innovative think Arkanoid meets Frequency. Of course the kids thought it was totally lame because dad was enjoying it.
The one negative is that the demo will launch the Wii store once completed in hopes of you purchasing it.
I really hope we see more of these demos from Nintendo it's a definite plus to try before you buy.
Last week FurtureShop's splash page had some suggestions for Valentine gifts for your special someone broken down by gender.
I don't know what this says about the perception of the Wii (not being a hardcore gaming machine even thought it outsells the other systems) or maybe this is the equivalent of guys buying their significant others a power tool for Valentine's day. Maybe it just bugs me that the Wii is on the same level for a girl gift as a pink iPod Nano.
Just a warning for those guys thinking of buying the Wii for their ladies. Don't pick-up Wii Fit in a bundle or you're asking for trouble. But if you're buying her that copy of P.S. I Love You (that was released in 2007?) I'm sure it would look really good on that HD television on the left.
Additional
Looks like this week the Wii has been replaced with a pink laptop. Image that.
Fedex had a package from me but had the wrong address so I haD to pick it up at the depot. It was from Redoctane but it was not my Guitar Hero 3 replacement disc that they say I should have ALREADY received?!?
The good news:
It was the thank you gift for sending in my Guitar Hero 3 disc to be replaced, that I have not already received. It's already on my guitar waiting for the game to show up.
I've contacted Activision support, but with it being the weekend I'm obviously not expecting a speedy response. I've waited this long what's a little longer right?
I know I was less than positive about the forthcoming Aerosmith Guitar Hero, but if it was out now I'd totally pick it up to start playing again.
Now if you excuse me I'm going to play some air guitar on my fake guitar.
As I send my Guitar Hero 3 off in to the void I now count the days for it's return.
I hope I get one of those free faceplates that Activision is sending out to those of us who actually part with the game for a month. Yesterday I was at BestBuy and thought about picking up a second guitar but what's the point, I can't play it for at least 3 to 4 weeks.
It was an easy decision to put in for the Guitar Hero 3 replacement Wii disc. If any game should not be in mono it's a music game. The problem now is that I'm faced with three to fours weeks sans Guitar Hero.
If this was any other game it would be a non issue, but the casual gamer aspect of Guitar Hero really makes it a very sticky game for me.
Did any of you go in for the replacement disc? How long did you wait for your Digital Dolby surround copy to arrive?
We recently celebrated our friends birthdays (Happy Birthday Jodie and JP) by having dinner out (without children) and our favorite wine.
Surprisingly enough they had kept their previous Guitar Hero experience secret from me all this time. Even though GH3 had no Bon Jovi we still had a great night of playing fake guitar.
But if I hear Metallica's One again it will be too soon. 😉
Just when I start to get prefect 5 starts on Guitar Hero 3 (on easy), EA's CEO lets slip that the Wii will be getting Rock Band. Of course no price, release date or mention of downloadable songs (which Guitar Hero 3 for the Wii lacks).
Now if I can only sucker the wife and the kids to play then we'd have a band.
Actually you haven't gone deaf from playing too much GH3, the Wii version only outputs audio in mono.
Activision is working with Nintendo to replace your disc with a re-mastered version of the game that will support the Dolby Pro Logic audio of the Wii. So sign up now for the pre-registration to score a replacement disc.
For New Years Eve we attended a pot luck at Aaron and Cynthia's.
I brought along Guitar Hero 3 and all the kids and some of the adults had a go rocking out. And no we did not plan on ET's t-shirt, it was just a happy coincidence.
Since we mostly all have kids, us parents left well before the countdown and after the boys were in bed, I went over to Nick and Edith's to watch the ball drop and play some Wii Sports in the new year.
The guys made fun of my non real golf technique, which mostly consists of my flicking my wrist and my other hand resting on my waist. But I do have a Pro rating in Wii Sports Golf and can hold my own. If I do say so.
I can't believe you actually need that many buttons to play this level of video game. But even if you do need all of them, one hand would have to over lap the other to play the thing. I do love how the button on the reverse is a steal button, quite appropriate I would think in this case.
I'm not the only one to have found these Wii look a likes laughable and as usual YouTube has a plethora of examples of the game play… if you can call it that.
