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February marks the start of something new ... and the end of something lovely, too.  Den of Wii as a blog is no more; the force is being shifted into www.DenOfGeek.com, where you can get the Dennis teams views, rants and raves about all the formats of gaming, from the point of view of real gamers.  So we'll still be on hand to tell you the latest Wii news and reviews, etc. You might even discover other stuff that interests you along the way ...

As well as gaming, Den of Geek handles everything that's brilliant in a geeky way.  Cult TV, movies and icons will cram their way through the net onto your screens at home.  Don't click away until you've taken a dekko for yourself!

Thank you to everyone who has ever read, commented on or used our web site here at Den of Wii.  We love you and we'll miss you in this intimate form we've known and loved.  For those of you who would like to trace the work of those involved, you can catch me (Kim Kaze) and the team who contribute over at the Den of Wii Facebook group, which we'll keep running for now so you can comment, throw rotten veg - anything, really.

Once again, thank you all very much for being with us, and we'll see you over at Den of Geek!

-=Kim Kaze=-
Editor, DenOfWii.com

This week we begin our story at the end of the brutal Megadrive vs Super NES console war.  It was one of the most exciting times in gaming with Sega fronted by their platforming superstar "Sonic the Hedgehog" battled a bloody war with Nintendo and the legend that is "Super Mario."  It was so heated that I actually remember arguments in the playground over which company was better.  It was like supporting a football team.

Meanwhile, Sony decided they wanted a piece of the console pie and released the Sony Playstation in 1994.  Back then, little would have suggested that Sony's console and sequel would knock out Sega and have Nintendo on the ropes for years.  Why am I telling you all this?  Back in the console wars, the idea that you'd have a games company that did not have a platforming figurehead was unheard of.  Nintendo had Mario.  Sega had Sonic.  And in 1996, Sony had Crash Bandicoot.

When you browse the HMV shelves looking for a new Wii game to buy, current sales suggest that it's very unlikely your arm will reach for Madden 08. In fact, if Amazon's current Wii rankings are anything to go buy, it'll be 97th in your top 100 list of Wii stuff to buy. There, it rubs shoulders with Telly Addicts (which, I must admit, sounds strangely tempting) and "Controller Graphix Masks 7-Pack". Yes, people would prefer to customise their Wii Remote with some brightly coloured plastic than play American football.

All of which seems a little unfair. Madden 07 was, by all accounts, one of the best Wii games released last year, taking full advantage of the console's unique controls: a flick here, a thrust there, and before you knew it you were crossing the line screaming "Touchdown!" at an embarrassingly high volume. And Madden 08 adds a number of enticing features - including online play. Don't start imagining 22 of you hooked up to a communal game, this is strictly one-on-one stuff, but it does mean you can challenge friends, family and other Madden fans to truly test your skills. There's even a friendly "rookie only" area, so you don't have to rough it with the big boys straight away.

If ever there was a game crying out to use the Wii's innovative controls, it's arcade football. Forget about pressing a button to shoot - the only way mere buttons allow you to control the power is to keep the button pressed down longer, delaying the shot itself. Rubbish! What you need is to swing the Wii Remote with plenty of vigour. Want to do a finesse shot rather than a blaster? Then swing down, not upwards!

 

The system works extremely well, even if my current string* of victories are showing a certain lack of scoring flair: "1-0 to the Wycombe" is becoming a familiar chant on the Adams Park terraces (fear not, non-Wycombe fans, you can choose your own team - and the skills of your individual players will reflect the team's talent in real life too). But that's because I've only dedicated about three hours of my life to FIFA 08 so far, and I'm only starting to scrape this game's full potential ...

EA are one of the strongest games publishers in the world, and currently their success can be attributed to a few key, well placed incomes. One of them is the spawn of annual releases covering many major sporting events globally, and one such strong brand is the Tiger Woods PGA Tour golfing series. Still going strong, Tiger heads for the fairways again in Tiger Woods PGA Tour Golf 2008. So why purchase this one?

We're going to cut straight to the chase and tell you this - we're not golf fans, at all. The only golf games personally purchased around here are Wii Sports (which includes golf), and previous Mario Golf titles. Tiger had to impress us, and he has.

Ignoring some cheesy playable characters and a slightly patronising tone at certain stages through the game, the options available to you in this incarnation of Tiger Woods match and surpass previous editions. One that we were interested to see there was the sitting down option for controls, enabling you to play more effectively whilst sitting down on your sofa and using the Wiimote. Since this focuses on the gamer and giving them choice and options, we're pleased to see this here.

The Sims is a brand that is making EA millions, and it is also without a doubt one of a new throng of gaming brands and ideas that have ushered new gamers into the family; many more female gamers, more elderly gamers and many casual gamers, those who wouldn't usually spend lots of time sitting down in front of a video game.

With a Sims title due out later on the Wii, some were wondering what this 'MySims' venture was going to be all about.  Not itself a true 'Sims' game, but obviously borrowing heavily from the concept that made The Sims and Sims 2 such mega hit on various formats, we decided to find out.  EA sent us a copy and we prepared to be enveloped by elevator music and strange sounding language babble ...

Boogie is currently exclusive to the Wii, delivering a unique combination of dancing (using wiimote waggling), singing (the player sings), and music video editing (player edits their performances). EA have taken a bold step into the fray currently dominated by Singstar.

With a set of characters called 'the Boogs', you can expect the game to be aimed at a universal (read kiddie safe) audience. It's very cartoony in style, very simplistic and easy to use. The storyline is typically thin and unimportant; this game was born for two things:

Fiddling in the single player situation and having a bit of a laugh in multiplayer with your mates. Something quite new to gaming though, has appeared. Music video editing! And why not, eh?

The choice of camera angle is reasonable for software of this sort, offering some good selections for beginners to editing. Some of the wipes are a bit childish (remember Homer Simpson and his 'Starwipes'?), covering the music video with hearts or stars. Others are more artistic and offer a more mature edit; making the music video appear old and tea stained, for example. One of the more interesting is the 3D effect which works if you're wearing 3D specs.

You can add as many cuts/edits as you like, which we're pleased with. This means that if you get bored of adding wipes and camera angles, you can just leave it there and the end of your video will look a bit plain.

The singing accuracy feels more awkward than Sony's Singstar, it has to be said. The mic is a big improvement on the Gamecube mic, but shorter than the Sony, making it harder to hold. In short, it's a good attempt and it is fun - the dancing adds to the interest and editing your own music videos is pretty bold as a new step. We think the seeds of a great idea are here and on first try, it's done reasonably well. Rhythm is very important in the dancing, and developing rhythm is a sure-fire game winner, if the huge run DDR has had is anything to go by.

However, it's not going to make people who already refuse to play Singstar break out the moves, nor will it defeat the former great singing title. We're hoping that Boogie 2, with a few tweaks and a better singing system, might be the sort of next step that dance and singing games have been waiting for. Not a bad game at all, but it's more of a step forward than a leap into the future.

Kim Kaze 3/5

Sega's Alien Syndrome has arrived on the Wii in this remake for the new generation console. Take control of Aileen Harding, exterminate some alien vermin and save the colony! 

The adventure starts off inside a large cargo bay with plenty of things to shoot at and a wide area to explore in. This part of the game is a good start to get to know your character and a feel for the controls. As expected, the adventure unfolds as you progress. Your character will also develop in rank and weapon skills marking for new attributes and extra heavy duty hardware for your alien ker-splatting needs.

This RPG version of Alien Syndrome has a lot to offer on the menu including 110 monsters, 20 bosses (15 sub and 5 main), and up to 80 different weapons to splat them all with. There are 15 different levels also featuring side quests to beef up the length of gameplay. Aside from going it alone Alien Syndrome does offer 4 player alien blasting action too presenting some multiplayer shooting fun. 

Despite having previously said the game having a lot on offer there are aspects of this game that make it all seem like hard work and not the best of gaming experiences. The thing that bugged me most about Alien Syndrome was the fast revolving 'dizzy' camera. I think sharing the nunchuck for moving around on screen with the control stick and tilting the chuck left of right to spin the camera was a novel idea but does not come off too well, perhaps a bit sensitive at times. Graphically the game isn't anything special and nothing to write home about. Coupled with the dull looking characters and bland level design this game looks depressing. The other depressing aspect of the game I found was the strange mini games that involved mixing alien and human DNA whilst swatting evil bacteria to benefit your character speed, strength, attributes. Playing the mini games are worth it for the sake of making the character better but it is much more fun blowing up crates and collecting the power ups.

I never played the original Alien Syndrome back in the day but from what I understand there are elements from the original in this (such as the giant worms and other recognisable nasties) that would spark the interest of anyone that liked it. Considering there isn't that many action games on the wii including multiplayer shooters it may be worth a look but don't expect anything special. Don't play this for too long in single player or you might fall into a coma!

 -Ken Flatt 2/5

Dragon Ball Z Budokai Tenkaichi 2 is the most recent instalment of one of the most unique 3D fighting games franchises around today. Set in the universe of the hugely successful Dragon Ball Z Anime series, you have the opportunity to play through the most well known storylines from all the seasons of the show. There are four different game modes and over 100 playable characters which are unlocked by playing through different levels. One major feature is that the original voice actors of both the Japanese and the US versions of the show reprise their roles in the game, making this an authentic fanboy/girl item.

 

Characters can be customised by equipping them with Z Items which modify their stats or give them new special abilities, and these can be either bought with Zeny (money earned through playing), discovered as secret items hidden throughout the game, or given as rewards for completing certain side quests etc.

 

The Z items give the game a limited RPG element, where you can earn experience and increase the levels of your characters' abilities. One major difference in this game from most traditional RPGs is that it is actually the Z Items themselves which accumulate experience points rather than the characters and can be swapped around at will from one character to another. For instance, a character might be equipped with a Z Item which gives him +7 defence. Through accumulating experience, the Z Item 'levels up' to +10 defence. The character enjoys the benefit of the +10 defence only as long as he has the Z Item equipped. If you remove the item and give it to a different character, then that character immediately gets the benefit of +10 defence and the first character loses it. This allows for a greater degree of flexibility in how you want to customize your characters, and lets different players adjust the stats of the characters to suit their fighting preferences.

 

Fighting itself is set in a 3D landscape with a 'chase cam' view from behind your character. In 2-player mode this is presented in split screen format. The controls are difficult to pick up at first, and it is strongly recommended in the game to play through all the training missions first. Once you have completed the training there is still plenty more to learn in the form of combos and special moves, but the in game move list can be difficult to decipher, so downloading a move list FAQ from the 'net will probably be necessary. If you stick with it long enough to master the basics, then the same controls are used for each character, although their moves are different. In addition to standard attacks and combos, most characters have the ability to fly and shoot blasts of energy from their hands, as well as several special moves and ultimate finishers.

 

With cell shaded graphics and a cartoony style very much in the spirit of the TV series, Dragon Ball Z is very nice to look at. One of the most enjoyable things to do to your opponent is unleash a 40 move combo culminating in a smash attack which sends them crashing through a mountain, and then teleporting behind them to finally finish them off by slamming them into the ground and blasting them with a full power energy wave. Winning is very satisfying while losing in certain game modes might earn you a comical tongue lashing from various surreal characters like a fat white cat with an umbrella!?

 

All in all, if you are prepared to stick with the control system and learn how to play properly, then you will have a lot of fun playing DBZ. It's likely that most of your time will be spent in the single player mode however, as it might be difficult to find anyone else who is willing to put the time in to learn how to play well enough to beat you ... oooh now could that be a challenge to any of you gamers out there? *chuckles*

 

4 / 5 --- Paul Golf

When Mercury Meltdown was first released as part of the first diffusion of PSP games, it was met with a lot of critical acclaim and support from gamers as an original and innovative puzzler - an accolade all too rare in today's gaming industry. Now Mercury Meltdown Revolution, the sequel from Ignition, is multi-format and as popular as ever.

For anyone who has played the original, Revolution is immediately recognisable. You play a blob of mercury which has to navigate through different levels of obstacle courses within a set timetable. Sometimes the layout of the levels requires you to divide the ball of mercury into two more blobs and simultaneously control them to reach different switches at the same time. You lose a level by falling off the edge or running out of time. Progress is made depending on how many stars you collect in each level, and by what percentage of the mercury in your blob you successfully bring to the exit.

As we have seen with other titles that are multi format, the graphics suffer from the relatively low processing power of the Wii, but what makes this game most interesting on the Wii is that it takes advantage of the advanced motion sensors in the Wiimote. Instead of controlling your blob of mercury with the control stick or d-pad, you hold the Wiimote flat and tilt it in the direction you want the mercury to move. In gaming terms what you are actually doing is tilting the level around like a tray, and the mercury moves depending on how far and how fast you tilt.

This adds a whole new dimension of play which both the original and the sequel on other formats doesn't provide and is actually one of the best third party attempts to utilise the Wiimote that we've seen to date. The tilt sensor is remarkably fluid and easy to just pick up and play. As a game it doesn't require a lot of effort to learn how to play, and is interesting and challenging enough to make you want to keep coming back to play it. Saying that, at higher levels the game does become very difficult if you want to hit all the targets for star collecting and percentage of mercury saved. If you like puzzle games and are not afraid of a challenge then you're likely to enjoy Mercury Meltdown revolution. For casual gamers who are looking for something they can dip in and out of, then this is also a good buy.

3.5 / 5 --- Paul Golf