Publisher: Midway Games
Developer: Midway Games
System: Wii
Genre: Compilation
Release Date: Available now
Reviewer: Christopher J. Troilo

As we all know, the Wii was designed primarily for non-traditional gamers, as Nintendo wanted to give us the electronic version of Family Game Night. Instead of pulling out Scrabble or Clue, groups can now decide to pop in a few Wii games. With this in mind, along comes Game Party 2, another in the recent spate of party titles. Its specific focus is on the simple games you might play in a backyard or an arcade.

Game Party 2 offers 11 different games, some of which share very similar objectives and mechanics. In a category one might call “classic backyard games,” the player can choose such options as Lawn Darts or Horseshoes, in which the goal is to toss objects closest to a target. Players can choose different scoring methods, such as what the total score should be in order to end the game. Beanbags, in which you attempt to toss a sack into a hole, is a variation on the Horseshoes theme.

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Publisher: Nintendo
Developer: Nintendo
System: Wii
Genre: Action
Release date: Available now
Review by: Ed Humphries

I grew up among the greatest generation of video gamers. In the era of the Atari 2600, Intellivision and Colecovision, the Nintendo Entertainment System solidified gaming as a hobby, and later as a mainstream entertainment choice. The NES gave birth to Super Mario Brothers; the 2D adventure that arguably fathered today’s billion-dollar gaming industry. Now we live the good life, with Wi-Fi-enabled super consoles linking battalions of virtual soldiers and adventurers across the globe. But those who stayed on the meandering path through the decades sometimes cast a wandering eye back to the great games of earlier years. This nostalgia has encouraged game companies to toss us a bone every now and again, rip an artifact from the past and apply a glossy new coat of paint, leading to the latest release from Nintendo, Wario Land: Shake It.

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Publisher: Majesco Entertainment Company
Developer: Coyote
System: Wii
Genre: Action
Release date: Available now
Review by: Christopher J. Troilo

As the Nintendo Wii becomes more associated with family entertainment, many publishers strive to combine engaging activities with the Wii’s unique control system to deliver a title that all ages can appreciate and enjoy. Even with the extremely popular Mario Party series, there still seems to be room in the Wii’s library for a fun, well rounded party game. Majesco, famous for releasing such popular titles as Bomberman, takes its shot by distributing Wonderworld Amusement Park, a carnival-themed game exclusively for the Wii.

In Wonderworld, the player designs a character using the game’s custom avatar generator, and then sends the character out to explore the carnival. Much like Disney-type parks, the carnival features themed locations with matching décor, rides and games. Areas include Spookyville (with Halloween attractions), Space, Pirate and Fairytale.

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Publisher: 2K Sports
Developer: Visual Concepts
System: Wii
Genre: Sports
Release date: Available now
Review by: Ed Humphries

With its unique ability to offer players more control of their onscreen avatars, thus further selling the illusion that they’re in the game, the Wii has been a prime destination for sports titles. This is the system which was arguably sold based on the strength of its packed-in, sports-themed minigame compilation Wii Sports, and with that thirst satisfied, gamers have looked to continually quench it with new experiences. One sport that has sat on the sidelines to date is ice hockey, which would seem to be a shoe-in for the Wiimote’s ability to properly mimic a hockey stick. Skating to the rescue is Visual Concepts’ new release, NHL 2K9, the first official hockey title for Nintendo’s juggernaut.

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Publisher: Ubisoft
Developer: Ludia Inc.
System: Wii
Genre: Sim
Release date: Available now
Review by: Michael Moody

Since the Wii’s conception, developers and publishers have jumped on the bandwagon to push the casual gaming market to a new level. The dizzying array of titles has swamped the market faster than you can shake the Wiimote. Hell’s Kitchen, inspired by the hit Fox TV series, is a new game on the casual chopping block. Does Hell’s spark a flame or is it just another title in this marketing frenzy?

Hell’s Kitchen focuses on preparation, cooking and service. You must master these skills to avoid the juvenile tantrums of Chef Gordon Ramsay. Acting as Ramsay’s apprentice, you must quickly accommodate each customer in the dining hall by making sure that they are seated and their orders are taken. In the kitchen, you must prepare the food. Each meal has its meat, veggie and fruit ingredients and has an allocated time to cook. The quality of the prepared dishes is measured in stars. If the food is cooked and sits too long unserved, the star rating decreases. The goal is to get the food out of the kitchen as soon as possible by clicking and dragging the provided icons. Ramsay’s temperament (indicated by a flaming meter on the screen) fluctuates depending on how well these tasks are completed. If your pace is slow, the indicator increases, and vice versa if your pace is swift.

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Publisher: THQ
Developer: Blue Tongue
System: Wii
Genre: 3D Platformer
Release date: Available now
Review by: Ed Humphries

At its big E3 press conference in July, Nintendo cancelled Christmas. At least, that’s the way it felt to the legions of fanboys (myself included) who looked to the Big N’s annual briefing for news of the game that would be keeping us warm once the leaves started to fall and the holidays arrived. With no new IPs or return engagements from the back catalog of marquee mascots announced, Wii owners looked with dismay at the cold days ahead. And then, an unlikely hero arrived to brighten this winter of our discontent. A true Cinderella man, de Blob is in de house, and he might just be de cure for what ails us.

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Publisher: 2K Sports
Developer: Konami
System: Wii
Genre: Sports
Release date: Available now
Review by: Andrew Clark

When I think of the great game of baseball, my mind always wanders back to the 1989 film “Major League,” the profanity-laden sports comedy about a baseball team that was built to fail. Charlie Sheen and Tom “the Substitute” Berenger were in the cast, but the Cleveland Indians were the real stars of the show; players struggling to make a catch, begging for a run and hoping that the owner didn’t succeed in her devious plot to sabotage the team and relocate it to Florida, sans players. There are laughable plays, wild pitches and a general feeling of hopelessness throughout the movie, yet after time and persuasion the Indians manage to overcome their faults and pull it together to win their division title. A happy ending, it seems, until you watch any of the sequels…

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Review by: Andrew Clark

Birds are trouble seekers, plain and simple. Tiki the kiwi from The New Zealand story, Kazooie from the Banjo games and many of the other fowl in the gaming kingdom often find themselves in situations where they either cause or relieve a problematic situation. Take Toki Tori, for example, a squat, yellow avian with enormous eyes and a stubby pair of legs. Our winged hero wakes one day to find himself in the unenviable position of rescuing his wayward kin, who have apparently flown the coop, shell and all. What’s an avian to do to prevent his relations from becoming a tasty selection on a KFC menu? Perhaps a little puzzle solving is in order? Maybe throw in some gadgets and special powers to make things interesting? Let the egg hunt begin!

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Publisher: Ubisoft
Developer: Ubisoft Barcelona
System: Wii
Genre: Action Adventure
Release date: Available now
Review by: Ed Humphries

One of the chief criticisms lobbed at the Wii’s current software catalog is that there are too many copycat titles. The immediate system selling success of Wii Sports opened the floodgate to a virtual Olympics of sports game compilations. Soon after, Wario Ware: Smooth Moves ushered in a glut of gimmicky mini-game compendiums. It was only a few weeks ago that I reviewed the Crazi Taxi-esque Emergency Mayhem, and quickly upon its heels comes the similarly themed racer, Emergency Heroes. Emergency Heroes has a lot in common with Emergency Mayhem. Both games present open world driving environments where you must set right a variety of wrongs using various emergency vehicles, but Heroes is the more serious of the two titles.

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Publisher: SouthPeak Interactive
Developer: TopWare
System: Wii
Genre: Arcade
Release date: Available now
Review by: Christopher J. Troilo

My father, for as much as he loved sports and games, never really understood the allure of video games. He could play chess, Scrabble, ping-pong or tennis all day, but getting him to hold a Nintendo paddle was like trying to get me to eat my peas. There was, however, one unusual exception to this rule, and it was pinball. Pinball, I believe, was my dad’s secret vice. We even owned a shoddy pinball machine, but it was falling apart and my father had long since mastered it. When he learned that there was an NES game, aptly named Pinball, he actually dragged me to the store with him to pick it up.

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Publisher: Nintendo
Developer: Nintendo
System: Wii
Genre: Racing
Release date: Available now
Review by: Ed Humphries

Nintendo is the Walt Disney of video game development. By that statement, I don’t mean to echo the tired complaints of “kiddie aesthetics” that too often get lobbed their way. Instead, this is high praise for the big N, which, like the House of the Mouse, has perfected the art of finely crafted family entertainment. Like Walt’s kingdom, Nintendo built their empire on the backs of marketable mascots with worldwide appeal, and Mario is often called upon to engage in many extracurricular activities, from baseball to soccer to practicing medicine. Of his side projects, none have been more beloved than the Mario Kart series, which makes its debut on the Wii with Mario Kart Wii.

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Review by: Ed Humphries

One of the hallmarks of the current console generation has been the increasing dominance of games available via digital distribution. The Xbox 360 has reaped a windfall through the assorted classic arcade titles and original garage games made available on their XBL Arcade service, while the PS3 has opened their own storefront on PSN allowing gamers to choose from an original selection of smaller titles such as Echochrome and fLow. Up to this point, Nintendo had only weakly responded with emulations of classic gaming through their Virtual Console.

While the VC releases have gone a long way toward scratching that nostalgic itch, there’s something to be said (and money to be made) in providing a conduit for independent game developers to give gamers the types of experiences that don’t necessarily require $100 million dollar development budgets. To fill that void and to increase the competition in this burgeoning market place, Nintendo has recently launched their WiiWare service, which competes directly against the original content available via XBLA and PSN. Of the six launch titles that heralded WiiWare’s arrival on May 19th, LostWinds is easily the most ambitious.

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Publisher: EA
Developer: EA Los Angeles
System: Wii
Genre: Puzzle
Release date: Available now
Review by: Andrew Clark

Videogames typically don’t translate well into movies. Let’s get that out of the way while bearing in mind that the same applies going the other way, too. Hollywood just can’t seem to get the formula right any better than they did with comic book movies, and it’s been proven time and time again. But take a moment to breathe this in: Steven Spielberg, the man responsible for keeping smiles on our faces throughout the 70′s and 80′s, has spawned a videogame. That game is Boom Blox, a physics puzzler poised to add fuel to the Nintendo fires and prove that when you switch roles around good things can happen.

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Publisher: THQ
Developer: Planet Moon
System: Wii
Genre: Rhythm and music
Release date: Available now
Review by: Ed Humphries

Ever since Harmonix proved there were millions to be made in the rhythm and music genre with the meteoric rise of the original Guitar Hero, a war has waged between game developers looking to launch the next hot music game. Of course, Harmonix moved beyond the guitar and assembled a full-on band with their latest hit, Rock Band, while Neversoft picked up the reigns to Guitar Hero III and kept gamers rocking all night. While those two franchises represent the apex of this formerly niche genre, there’s plenty of competition looking to make a name for itself. Into the fray comes Planet Moon’s Battle of the Bands.

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Publisher: Ubisoft
Developer: Yuke’s Company of America
System: Wii
Genre: Adventure
Release date: Available now
Review by: Ed Humphries

Ever since Nintendo took the “virtual pet” craze to the next level by offering up actual digital dogs in their hit DS release, Nintendogs, game developers have mined this niche looking to excavate the next hit animal avatar. So, in the years since, casual gamers have been granted a vast menagerie of pretend pets in titles such as Horsez and Catz. The use of pet familiars has even hit the hardcore mainstream gamer, with developers like Peter Molyneux introducing a dog companion that your hero gets to befriend and nurture in his forthcoming follow-up to Fable, due later this year. That said, as dog lovers will attest, there is nothing comparable to the bond that develops with Man’s Best Friend – a fact that developer Yukes aims to showcase in their new release The Dog Island.

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