Montana Fragfest

The time is at hand again where we get to peek in to the deliciously unkooth world of anti-Mario. That’s right, Wario (our favorite little Plumber’s exact opposite) is back with all his wacky burp and fart fun.

Graphics

The graphics in this game are great. Stylistically he game is a giant cartoon with small video enhanced bits and it fits the game perfectly. I honestly think this is where the Wii is headed. It can’t compete wiht the PS3 or the Xbox 360 in video power, so they will work with things that are would look good on any system but many of the beefier systems have abandoned (such as a 2D platformer done in cartoons).

Controls

The controls in a Wii game make or break the game. Because it is the system’s big selling point, many developers focused on using the Wii’s motion controllers in as many ways as possible, which in many games is  complete overkill. Wario Land: Shake It! has the perfect control usage for the type of game it is. First, it uses the Wiimote in a horizontal fashion which for a simple 2d platformer is retro-heaven. Horizontally the Wiimote is nothing more than a slightly akward, wireless NES controller. The Wii’s 4 direction d-pad means that I never had trouble telling what direcion i was going in *coughBionicCommandoReArmedcough*.

The only time you use the motion in the game  is in fun little bits that remind you that you are on the Wii and are used in ways that make the game much more dynamic and fun. The basic motions are shaking the controller to spit out the treasure in a bag of gold (and with a title like “Shake It!” trust me, you will do a ridiculous amount of shaking) or moving the Wiimote down to do a ground slam, but they added some motion depth by using the tilt component in VERY fun little ways. My personal favorite was one world boss where you tilted to move a rolling cart back and forth which also changed the angle in which you used a giant punching glove on the front of your cart to shoot objects at the boss.

Sound

The music in this game is HORRIBLE. It sounds like Dentist Office/Elevator rejects. Maybe the developers were trying to make an inside joke here, but I just found it annoying. The other sounds in the game are great and very funny. Hearing Wario grunt while he climbs a ladder or a little bad guy scream like R2-D2 on fire is just priceless.

Overall

I loved this game, but then again I’m a huge sucker for a 2D scroller. It was cute while offering a challenge and not taking itself too seriously. I actually had a reason to fire up my Wii and not be completely disappointed and decide to sell it.

As I’m sure most classic NES nerds will admit, when we first heard of Mega Man 9 we had visions of a classic remake, somewhat faithful to the original but just not the same experience. Boy, did Capcom prove us wrong! I remember* playing Mega Man (specifically Mega Man 2) and just bieng in awe of its difficulty. Well Capcom has definetly kept the same theme in this new game. It looks EXACTLY like the classic games, right down to the graphical flickrs when there is too much motion in one spot.

Bullet-Tooth Tony and I have a habit of sitting around my apartment, drinking, playing classic Nintendo games on my Wii while we proceed to get drunk (fun, eh?). So last weekend we thought this would be a great throw-back game for our classic gaming ritual but after playing for something like 2 hours we had only beaten two robots (I also again must confess, both of the defeated foes were the work of Tony).

I’ll confess I bought this off of WiiWare. While I usually evangelize the Xbox360 as the console to beat, I hate hate hate hate the D-pad on the 360 controller. A d-pad needs up, down, left and right and when you are playing classic games on a d-pad with diagnals (like Bionic Commando: Rearmed) it just screws things up.

So pick this game up from your favorite game dispenser and give Capcom the money they deserve for giving us new content in a familiar format!!!

*Now, disclaimer time, I routinely was behind the times as a child. While I did have a Nintendo Entertainment System, I rarely got new games and when I did they were gifts from family members who had no clue what the “hip” and “happening” games were, so I played Mega Man first in my late teens via an emulator.