Entries Tagged 'Wii' ↓

Mario Kart Wii First Impressions: Vroom! Vroom!

I’ve been playing Mario Kart since 1998 on the N64. I’ve played it on the Nintendo DS and at the arcades as well - I remember spending afternoons at Rockwell as they had the first arcade to showcase Mario Kart with the card system that could track and save your race records in a small piece of plastic.
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Endless Ocean: Dive with me!

Endless Ocean

If you had fun watching the Aquarium Channel on cable, you will definitely enjoy this game!

Diving is an expensive hobby. So let’s make things so much cheaper and put a diving game on the Wii. To be honest, the game will either strike an emotional chord or be completely written off your gaming list, depending on how you appreciate stuff like this.
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Naruto Clash of Ninja: Two Shadow Clones Up!

Got a copy of Naruto Clash of Ninja Revolution for the Wii yesterday. Although I have a scheduled trip to Kuala Lumpur and Jakarta tomorrow, I’ve forgotten the time: been too busy unlocking characters from the Story Mode.

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Who ISN’T a fan of Naruto? Was able to grab a copy of the English version of Clash of Ninja Revolution (Gekitou Ninja Taisen in Japan which was released in 2003 for the GameCube) a few days ago and have been enjoying the experience of performing the Naruto’s Rasengan, Kakashi’s thousand years of pain, Sasuke’s Sharingan, and the other popular jutsu we’ve come to love in the animated series and comics. Naruto Clash of Ninja Revolution can be enjoyed in two ways - using the classic / GameCube controller or the WiiMote + nunchuck combination. As an old school gamer, I’ve always had a hard time adjusting to the WiiMote for these street fighter genres.

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Nintendo Wii Nights Comics

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Thanks Riane, you’re such a geek.

Nintendo Wii Firmware Update 3.1 supports USB keyboard

As the Wii at home is connected to the Internet, I received a firmware update request just moments ago. The 3.0E update allows for the use of a USB keyboard attachment to the back ports. The Wii has two USB ports which, by far are useful for charging your Lithium Ion Wiimote batteries and attaching a USB cooling fan. Any other Wii owners try attaching other USB peripherals onto the console?

The keyboard support is extended towards the Internet channel as well as the Everybody Votes channel. Apparently, keyboard support is modular for the console - meaning it doesn’t apply to ALL the channels. What’s cool though is that the new firmware update also supports Bluetooth enabled wireless keyboards. All you need to do is attach the dongle to the USB port at the back of the console and you’re ready to go!

Will we be seeing Wiimote + keyboard combo games soon?

On another note, NIntendo is also shipping free Wiimote jackets in the USA and Canada. While it may not be enough to replace those plasma screens that succumb to Wii Sports casualties, at the very least the jackets will protect your $50.00 investment. :)

A guide to maximizing your Nintendo Wii experience

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The Nintendo Wii revolutionizes console gaming (hence the original name “Nintendo Revolution”) by opening up value added options. Here is a short guide to maximizing the Wii gaming experience. The stuff that follows is really public knowledge but with the stigma that Nintendo was not the popular console of choice in the Philippines for the past 10 years, I felt that it may be necessary to talk more about it. There is no official office for Nintendo in the Philippines so the stuff we have here is sourced by a whole plethora of distributors.

The Wii provides value to any household by introducing gaming to a wider demographic. Which is why the Wii is a good choice for house parties. There are two types of games to enjoy on this console and I shall divide them into two such categories:
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My closet dancing frustrations are now satisfied by BOOGIE for the Wii!

I have always been a frustrated dancer. When Yapi and I went to look for new games for the Wii before she moves to China, we were adamant enough to scour Greenhills for a copy of Boogie, the new dancing / rhythm game published by Electronic Arts. Boogie, despite the low reviews from GameSpot, is one of the most fun workout games that utilizes the Wiimote and a USB microphone (yes you can sing too!). Though the game has its limitations, EA is definitely on the right direction to coming up with a great rhythm and motion game.

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The speaker on the Wii Remote acts as a metronome, and there’s also a visual indicator on the screen to help you stay in time to the music. The more moves you time properly in a row, the higher your score. As your score increases, so does your boost meter. Once you’ve obtained a bit of boost, you can hold down the B button to trigger a series of arrows at the bottom of the screen. If you follow the pattern correctly, your character will perform a special dance move that will net you big points. [read]

Sharm told me I lost weight during the Taste Asia II party. Blame it on the Boogie :)

Boogie is available at Datablitz for P2,300.00 (the cheapest one I’ve seen at Park Square, Makati). It comes with a Wii USB microphone but any USB microphone can be used for the Karaoke mode.

5,000 games being developed for the Wii!!!


Bonus Video: Tomb Raider Wii Edition

A new service called Knibble is currently on beta test stage. This company founded by CEO Sashi Chimala offers 5,000++ games ready to play off the Internet Channel of your Nintendo Wii. Purchasing the Wii Internet Channel from the Wii Shop will set you back 500 points which is roughly equivalent to $10.00.

Sashi Chimala is the chief executive officer and Knibble Wii Founder. He remarked, “We are very excited to offer Wii users with an entirely new and broad set of games, all easily reached from their Wii console. The success of the Wii has completely opened up the casual gaming market. We are very happy to be a part of it and look forward to the future of online casual games.” [source]

This statement is actually loaded. Chimala is saying that the casual game market can extend to the console industry, allowing developers to create games that can retail for free or for a mere price of $5.00 to $10.00 per game in the future. This market was once a PC-only model but now the Wii has opened the doors to developers eyeing console games (still the casual players at that) for their products.

If you don’t own a Wii, you can point your browser to the same website, www.wii.knibble.com and play some of the casual games in company’s beta stage.

Does this give people more reason to buy a Wii? You can basically play over 5,000 new games apart from Wii Sports after the Internet Channel is downloaded — and surf the Internet as well.

Use a Wiimote to control your computer

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syncing the Wiimote requires you to press buttons 1 and 2 together for discovery mode

Say you lost your Apple remote control. Or you were in the market for a cheap wireless presenter tool for your computer. My suggestion would be to buy a Wiimote instead (SRP P1,800 in Greenhills) and download an appropriate Bluetooth sync application for your computer. Darwiinremote for Mac OS X and WiinRemote for Windows allow you to do precisely this - sync your Wiimote with your computer and use it to control the mouse and other applications.

I’d love to whip out a Wiimote while doing a presentation one day. It’s one of those attention grabbers any presenter would love to do at the beginning of their talk.

Thanks Jerome for this tip. You can read a detailed FAQ on how to do this at hackazine.

It’s not the Wii that’s a work of wonder - it’s the Wiimote!

Mii Editor: Create and Edit Mii Avatars on Your Computer

The Nintendo Wii is more than a gaming rig. It’s by far the most versatile console to date, allowing you to not only download channels and surf the Internet, but also transfer data to and from your Nintendo Wii. By far, it is the Wiimote that boasts the most amount of seemingly complex technology crammed into one remote control. Not only does it work as a Bluetooth device, but also serves the function of an accelerometer and an optical sensor to determine where the Wiimote is pointing.

The Wiimote is also, to some extent, a flash drive allowing you to transfer information to and from your computer:

The Wii Remote contains a 16 KiB EEPROM chip from which a section of 6 kilobytes can be freely read and written by the host.[26][31] Part of this memory is available to store up to 10 Mii avatars, which can be transported for use with another Wii console. At least 4000 bytes are available and unused before the Mii data. Pokémon Battle Revolution also utilizes this memory. This function may also be included in Super Smash Bros. Brawl, allowing the user to save profile data to the Wii Remote. [Wikipedia]

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It is with this particular feature that I’ve been transferring, editing and creating Mii Avatars between my meager amount of Mii friends online. Here are some that I’ve made so far (topped off by … “me” above in my signature pink shirt), decided purely upon how easy I remember their faces:
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