Go Vacation (Wii) Launch Trailer

It's finally here-- the ultimate in mini-game collections, Go Vacation for Nintendo Wii! Tour four unique parts of the game's island and participate in one of 100 different events. The game's budget priced at $39.99, so what are you waiting for? No need to book an appointment with your travel agent, just get down to your local video game retailer and pick this bad boy up! Enjoy this launch trailer.

Get away with the direct link.

Top Ten Favorite Franchises

We all have them-- series that make us gush with excitement when each installment is announced and is finally released. I've come up with my own personal list of ten favorite franchises of mine to share with fellow SuperPhillip Central readers. Once you've finished up reading my list, write up your own in the comments section. Alongside the series named I've listed five games apiece that are memorable mentions with the year they were released in North America. With that, let's begin.

10) Banjo-Kazooie


Kicking off the countdown is everyone's favorite bear and bird team, Banjo and Kazooie. While they've had the least amount of games of any other series on this list, the games they've gone through together have mostly been nothing short of spectacular. The original Banjo-Kazooie is still one of my favorite 3D platformers of all time, even beating out Super Mario 64. Some didn't like the direction Rare took the series with Nuts & Bolts, but I not only welcomed the vehicle aspect but I loved the overhauled visuals as well.

Memorable Mentions:

Banjo-Kazooie - N64 (1998)
Banjo-Tooie - N64 (2000)
Banjo-Kazooie: Grunty's Revenge - GBA (2003)
Banjo Pilot - GBA (2005)
Banjo-Kazooie: Nuts & Bolts - 360 (2008)

9) Sonic the Hedgehog


The blue blur has had it rough over recent years. Sonic Team just can't seem to get it right most of the time. When they have the keys to success, they throw in an asinine gameplay mechanic that sours the entire experience. Let's not even talk about Sonic the Hedgehog (2006). Regardless, with the classic Sonic games (1-3 plus Sonic & Knuckles) as well as the Sonic Advance trilogy, Sonic Rush and Rush Adventure, Sonic Colors (Wii version), and the upcoming Sonic Generations for Xbox 360, PlayStation 3, and Nintendo 3DS, the future is looking bright for the world's most famous hedgehog. Here's hoping his next twenty years have much less turbulence.

Memorable Mentions:

Sonic the Hedgehog - GEN (1991)
Sonic the Hedgehog 3 - GEN (1994)
Sonic & Knuckles - GEN (1994)
Sonic Rush - DS (2005)
Sonic Colors - Wii, DS (2010)

8) Hot Shots Golf


Outclassing the Mario Golf series of games, Hot Shots Golf has it all. I'm absolutely frothing at the mouth for the upcoming augmented reality enhanced Hot Shots Golf 6 for the PlayStation Vita. Besides looking at the future of the franchise, let's look at the past. From its humble roots on the original PlayStation to its two terrific installments on the PlayStation 2 to its pair of portable entries on the PSP that allowed for character customization through equipping new clubs, balls, accessories, and costumes. Whether you're a scratch golfer or set to be Tiger Woods with his A-game, Hot Shots Golf is the ultimate golfing game on the market. No wonder it's so popular in the land of the rising sun!

Memorable Mentions:

Hot Shots Golf - PS1 (1998)
Hot Shots Golf 3 - PS2 (2002)
Hot Shots Golf Fore! - PS2 (2004)
Hot Shots Golf: Out of Bounds - PS3 (2008)
Hot Shots Golf: Open Tee 2 - PSP (2008)

7) Ratchet & Clank


Ratchet and Clank are a platforming duo that obliterates any opponent that stands in their way. This is all the while dealing with the doofus known as Captain Qwark, foiling the plans of either Megacorp or Dr. Nefarious, and collecting gold, platinum, and titanium bolts tucked away in hidden locations. The fun comes from the splendid level design, upgradable weapons that grow more powerful the more Ratchet uses them, and the humor that Insomniac Games tosses in for good measure. There hasn't been a poor entry to the series yet even with a menagerie of games in the span of a decade. With the multi-player focused All 4 One due out later this month, the future of the franchise seems to be as strong as the lombax's close-ranged wrench.

Memorable Mentions:

Ratchet & Clank - PS2 (2002)
Ratchet & Clank: Going Commando - PS2 (2003)
Ratchet & Clank: Up Your Arsenal - PS2 (2004)
Ratchet & Clank Future: Tools of Destruction - PS3 (2007)
Ratchet & Clank Future: A Crack in Time - PS3 (2009)

6) Donkey Kong


It's on like Donkey Kong, or so the saying goes at least. Donkey Kong was part of arcade boom, tossing a barrage of barrels down on an unsuspecting Jumpman whose goal was to traverse a tower of beams to rescue his girlfriend. The mad ape wouldn't become as popular as he is now without being a part of many Mario sports and spin-offs such as Mario Kart, Mario Party, and Mario Tennis, to name a few. He'd grow immensely huge with Rare's Donkey Kong Country trilogy, be put through some design tests with Jungle Beat and the King of Swing games, and eventually go full circle with Mario VS. Donkey Kong. Retro Studios would get their expert hands on the mean monkey and develop the brilliant Donkey Kong Country Returns which rivals all but DKC2. For a bloody good time, there's nothing better than getting funky with the main monkey!

Memorable Mentions:

Donkey Kong - ARC (1981)
Donkey Kong Country - SNES (1994)
Donkey Kong: Jungle Beat - GCN (2005)
DK: King of Swing - GBA (2005)
Donkey Kong Country Returns - Wii (2010)

5) Metroid


If you were a kid growing up in the eighties to early nineties, you probably at one time in your life called the famous bounty hunter "Metroid" instead of her real name, "Samus Aran." You probably also was surprised at finding out that the bad-ass bounty hunter was in actuality a full-blown woman. Regardless, Metroid introduced players to a world that was fully explorable. When new weapons and abilities were learned new passageways previously inaccessible were open for Samus to uncover. Retro Studios would shock the world when they successfully turned Metroid into a first-person shooter/adventure experience with Metroid Prime. While there have been some low points in the franchise (the recent botched story of Other M being one of them), it hasn't sullied the reputation of this glorious series... at least for me, that is.

Memorable Mentions:

Metroid - NES (1986)
Super Metroid - SNES (1994)
Metroid Prime - GCN (2002)
Metroid Fusion - GBA (2002)
Metroid Prime 3: Corruption - Wii (2007)

4) Mario Kart


Even though I declared that Diddy Kong Racing outperformed Mario Kart 64, I still prefer the immensely entertaining Mario Kart series as a whole much more than any other racer whether arcade or simulator. Everything from the colorful and familiar cast of Mushroom Kingdom characters (Mario, Luigi, Peach, Toad, Yoshi, Bowser, Donkey Kong, Wario, Waluigi, Daisy, etc.), the excellent track design, the fast-paced action, the wealth of items, and the awesome local and online multi-player mayhem that is unleashed on players makes Mario Kart head and shoulders above any other racer. While Mario Kart Wii may have leaned more towards item abuse than past installments, the game kept its entertainment value with its sheer amount of content and terrific online.

Memorable Mentions:

Super Mario Kart - SNES (1992)
Mario Kart 64 - N64 (1997)
Mario Kart: Double Dash!! - GCN (2003)
Mario Kart DS - DS (2005)
Mario Kart Wii - Wii (2008)

3) Mega Man


While Capcom may have kicked the blue bomber to the curb in favor of rehashing the same old I.P.s and passing off their legacy franchises to Western developers to ill effects (Devil May Cry and Bionic Commando, anyone?), Mega Man still stands as my third favorite franchise of all time. Whether it's classic Mega Man earning new weapons from defeated Robot Masters to Mega Man X wall jumping and charging his X-buster to annihilate the sinister Sigma, the storied gameplay of this series is unwavering. Capcom may not care for Mega Man anymore (as evident by the cancellation of not one but two Mega Man games and his absence from Marvel VS. Capcom 3), but his fans sure as heck do.

Memorable Mentions:

Mega Man - NES (1987)
Mega Man 2 - NES (1988)
Mega Man X - SNES (1994)
Mega Man Battle Network - GBA (2001)
Mega Man Zero - GBA (2002)

2) Super Mario


"It's a-me, Mario!" Who hasn't attempted to imitate Charles Martinet's Mario voice? Mario has had an illustrious career that keeps going. Where does one even begin? There's the original Mario Bros, Super Mario Bros, Super Mario Bros. 3, Super Mario World, Yoshi's Island, Super Mario 64, Super Mario Sunshine, Super Mario Galaxy, Super Mario Galaxy 2, New Super Mario Bros, New Super Mario Bros. Wii, and a plethora of RPG spin-offs. Mario is synonymous with gaming. He is the Mickey Mouse of the gaming world. In fact, he may be even more popular and more of a household name than Disney's round-eared rat. There's no telling what the future holds for Mario, but you can bet that as long as Nintendo is around they will continue to innovate and impress with the portly plumber's action and platform-packed adventures!

Memorable Mentions:

Super Mario Bros. - NES (1985)
Super Mario Bros. 3 - NES (1990)
Super Mario World - SNES (1991)
Super Mario 64 - N64 (1996)
Super Mario Galaxy 2 - Wii (2010)

1) The Legend of Zelda


This is it. The top of the heap. The king of the hill. The cat's meow. Number one, baby. It's none other than The Legend of Zelda. Solving puzzles, riding Epona across a sun-soaked Hyrule Field, earning new items like the bow and arrow, ball and chain, spinner, boomerang, megaton hammer, iron boots, light, fire, or ice arrows, and many more, venturing inside deep and dark dungeons, fending off Moblins, Octoroks, and Gohmas, and beating down big bad bosses is all the M.O. of The Legend of Zelda series. With so many adventures under his belt, Link's journeys seldom fail to exhilarate. Each one brings something new to the table, so calling an entry a rehash is just foolish talk. Where do I even start naming memorable entries in this illustrious and remarkable series? From the introduction of time in Ocarina of Time to the inclusion of masks in Majora's Mask to the open world venturing of the original Zelda to the multi-player mayhem of Four Swords Adventures, there's a Zelda game for everyone which is the reason why this oftentimes heralded franchise takes the number one slot on my list.

Memorable Mentions:

The Legend of Zelda - NES (1987)
The Legend of Zelda: A Link to the Past - SNES (1992)
The Legend of Zelda: Link's Awakening - GB (1993)
The Legend of Zelda: Ocarina of Time - N64 (1998)
The Legend of Zelda: Twilight Princess - GCN, Wii (2005)

===

And so my list of favorite franchises is set in stone. Some honorable mentions include Final Fantasy, LittleBigPlanet, Kirby, Animal Crossing, Super Smash Bros., Castlevania, and Grand Theft Auto. Now it's your turn. Feel free to list ten (or less) of your personal favorite series. Let's compare and contrast opinions on the subject in our comments section.

Resident Evil: The Mercenaries 3D (3DS) Review

What perfect timing for a review regarding a Resident Evil game, or as it's known in Japan as Biohazard. Seeing as it's the month of Halloween, what better way to commemorate the occasion than with an action-horror title? That's exactly what we have here with Resident Evil: The Mercenaries 3D.

Evil Takes Up Residence On Nintendo 3DS In Arcade Form.

Ever since Resident Evil 4, there has been an arcade mode known as The Mercenaries where an endless array of enemies flocked to the player's position. The goal was to slay as many of these foes as possible before being overwhelmed and ultimately being killed yourself. The mode was so popular that it popped up once again in the fairly recent Resident Evil 5 with new maps and baddies to blast. Now on the Nintendo 3DS, Resident Evil: The Mercenaries 3D takes The Mercenaries mode in portable form and as its own game. Is there enough content to justify a stand-alone version?

With the odds against him, Chris Redfield must go all out.

The Mercenaries 3D is all about survival and killing as many enemies as possible within a strict time limit. On each map there's several time bonuses ranging anywhere from a meager thirty second time bonus all the way up 120 seconds. Players can also gain extra time from killing an opponent with a melee attack, but first the enemy must be weakened and put into a dazed condition. Usually shooting someone's leg will be enough to trip a foe into setting them up to annihilate them with one of many melee finishers. Additionally, there's several combo bonuses to collect from treasure chests strewn along the battlefield. These give one-thousand points for every enemy killed while the combo bonus is in play. It's only good for a limited amount of time, so obliterate and obliterate often.

Finishing a foe off with a melee
maneuver scores you extra time.

The main aim of The Mercenaries 3D is to garner a high score. There's many means to do this, but the regular course of action to accomplish this is to keep your combo going. Every time an enemy is defeated a combo begins. After ten seconds the combo ends, so the player must continuously kill Ganados and Majini (from Resident Evil 4 and 5 respectively) to keep their combo. The more enemies that are defeated during the combo means the more points the player or players earn. Skilled players can stretch their combo into the 100 kill range for an exceptional bonus.

Starting out, players begin with a row of tutorial missions to select from. These range from going to and picking up markers in a certain order to destroying a set number of enemies in the time limit. Once a row of missions have been completed with a B rank or better (upon finishing a given mission a rank is assigned based on the player's performance. This is anywhere from the lowest [a D rank] to the highest [which I believe is a triple-S rank].) the next tier of missions is unlocked. There's six tiers of missions, and each tier gets progressively more difficult and challenging to complete. The early missions have but ten or twenty enemies to defeat while other missions have the objective of staying alive while trying to defeat an onslaught of enemies (usually 150 in total). Two specific missions have the goal of surviving fifteen waves of foes. Each wave that the player survives adds valuable time to the clock as whatever time is left in a given mission is turned into points towards the player's final score.

That chainsaw spells impending doom for one HUNK.

Earning high scores is important in The Mercenaries 3D as they unlock in-game content such as new characters (players only start out with three unlocked), new costumes, and new skills. There's eight characters in total to be awarded to the player including Chris Redfield, Jill Valentine, Claire Redfield, HUNK, Barry Burton, Jack Krauser, Rebecca Chambers, and Albert Wesker. Each character has their own weapon loadout. For instance, Chris Redfield starts each battle with a handgun, shotgun, and rifle whereas Jill Valentine begins each battle with a machine gun, knife, and shotgun. Through completing each mission with at least an A ranking as one character, the player earns the right to use that character's loadout for any other character in the game. This means HUNK can utilize Krauser's loadout if Krauser finishes all missions with at least an A ranking or pays ten play coins for the helpful ability. Each character also comes with an unlockable costume which is purely for aesthetic purposes and nothing gameplay-wise. Hunk can look like the grim reaper, Wesker can summon the power of the Uroboros, and Ms. Chambers can dress up like a nurse to name a few.

A wide variety of skills can be learned and equipped to a player's persona. Three can be attached to a character at a time, and after successfully completing a given mission, they grow in strength, gain experience, and can level up twice. Leveling up usually gives a bonus benefit to a skill. There's a plethora of skills to unlock from increased handgun handling, the ability to take down bosses more easily, invincibility for a limited amount of time after picking up an item, enhanced melee power, and much more. Some skills even rub off on your cooperative partner.

Yes, you heard right. Players can hop online or play locally with a co-op partner. This exponentially makes the game much more fun and makes earning higher scores a lesser challenge. However, if one partner dies, it's game over. Players should stick together as when one partner gets injured severely, the other can run to their rescue, pat them on the back, and restore them to the land of the living. Nonetheless, they only have a set amount of seconds to save them before they succumb to death. Online play is smooth, and it is relatively free of lag. There's no voice chat which may ruin strategy, but players can press a button and a direction on the d-pad to call out generic orders such as "follow me" and "wait here."

Play alone, or with a friend or total stranger.
The choice is yours.

There's a mega amount of content to play through in The Mercenaries 3D. Completing the game's missions as every character will last people days while leveling up every skill will take a long time to accomplish. Then there's the multitude of medals that can be awarded to skilled players. Think of these as Xbox 360 achievements or PlayStation 3 trophies. They're given to players for completing specific tasks such as getting 100 headshots, playing fifty games with another player, saving your partner from death for the first time, defeating a parasite with a flash grenade, continuing a set amount of times, among more. In all, there's fifty medals to acquire.

The assets of The Mercenaries 3D are made up of content from both Resident Evil 4 and Resident Evil 5. The maps are all from those games such as RE4's village and castle and RE5's mine and African town. The enemies are also borrowed from the pair of excellent games. There's cult members who throw their scythes at players, dynamite-carrying and throwing baddies, chainsaw-wielding Salvadors (in both normal and Super forms) that can kill a player in one fell swoop, Garradors that attack through hearing the player moving or firing their weapon, biohazards like the bat and wasp-like beast, the gatling gun-toting Majini, and the executioner in both black and red iterations. That's but a sampling of the army of darkness players will encounter on the various maps. There's nothing more intense than taking on a brigade of baddies who fearlessly and carelessly fling around their chainsaws as they inch closer and closer to desperate players.

Meet your worst nightmare, Super Salvador.

This arcade version of Resident Evil controls pretty well. Players can turn a complete 180 degrees with the quick turn combination, heal with a press of a button (pending they have a green plant in their inventory), move and fire, zoom in and fire, and select weapons and view the map via the bottom touch screen. There's three differing control options, so players will be able to find the method that fits them best. Nonetheless, it can be jarring attempting to choose between weapons and grenades while trying to keep your character alive in the heat of battle.

One of the grandest problems with the game is the absence of being able to delete game progress. For some reason (the used game market) Capcom opted to disallow this ability, so players who wish to start from scratch and overwrite game data are out of luck unfortunately. In this day and age, that's inexcusable.

Some melee attacks are insta-kills.

Resident Evil: The Mercenaries 3D runs on Capcom's MT Framework Mobile graphical interface, and boy, do they know how to get the most out of the the hardware they're using! This game looks drop-dead gorgeous and eye-popping. The textures are well-defined, the characters look glorious, and everything runs smoothly and without any hiccups or bugs. The sound borrows heavily from past Resident Evils (mostly four and five) with music and sound effects from those games. A voice over the player's communicator explains the goal of each mission before a round begins. Otherwise what players are left with is a bunch of grunts and yells from the playable characters.

With dozens of hours of content through unlockable characters, costumes, leveling up skills, and collecting the fifty medals the game has as well as earning high scores with each character, Resident Evil: The Mercenaries 3D will have players fending off Ganados and Majini long into the holidays. With the addition of local and online play either with friends or total strangers, the longevity of the game increases sevenfold. (Solo and Duo mode scores are separate from one another.) Perhaps forty dollars is too much for the game, but if you can find The Mercenaries 3D for thirty clams for less, jump on in. There's enough replay value to last months for anyone who is a fan of achieving high scores, mowing down waves of infected enemies, and lovers of fervent fighting.

[SuperPhillip Says: 8.0/10]

Pokemon Rumble Blast (3DS) North American Ads

This YouTube video features both North American Pokemon Rumble Blast advertisements in one neatly edited piece. The commercials show off the game and do a splendid job of informing consumers on what the game is all about. I think this title could be a big seller come its release date on October 24th. Do you plan on getting this game, or do you think it should have been a 3DS download?

Are you ready to rumble?
The direct link is here.

Wii Hardware Review

This is uncharted territory for SuperPhillip Central. We've never witnessed a hardware review, but that's exactly what we're going to do here on this fine Sunday afternoon. Our subject for our very first hardware review is the Nintendo Wii. Without further ado, let's have it up, right here and right now.

You Hate What You Fear Or How I
Learned to Ignore the Haters

The Nintendo Wii is quite the controversial console. From the sect who say it has no games to the ones who argue that Nintendo "abandoned" them or whatever, you're not a "true gamer" if you don't loathe this platform. Whatever side of the fence you're on, it's difficult to argue that the Wii didn't change the face of gaming forever with its intuitive control methods (motion control gaming) and its library of both core and casual software. Even Sony and Microsoft were forced to imitate the Wii to varying degrees of success through the Move and Kinect respectively. Nearly five years after the fact, is the Wii worthy of being in a gamer's collection?

Right away, let's talk about the new control method used for the Wii, the motion controls. At first the Wii was relegated to an overused term in the industry "waggle." You usually shook the Wii remote to replace a button press such as in The Legend of Zelda: Twilight Princess where shaking or flicking the remote made the hero Link swing and slice his sword. The Wii remote then was imprecise, and it couldn't do intricate movements. Regardless, some games made great use of the controller in this form still including Boom Blox, Wii Sports, Mario Kart Wii, and The Godfather: Blackhand Edition (to name a select handful). Then came the Wii MotionPlus peripheral which Nintendo wisely attached to every copy of the ultra-popular Wii Sports Resort, the sequel to the immensely-popular Wii Sports. This attachment allowed for greater range of movement, and it was much more precise. However, many games do not use this peripheral to its full advantage. Some titles that do, though, are Red Steel 2, the already said Wii Sports Resort, and the upcoming blockbuster The Legend of Zelda: Skyward Sword.

The MotionPlus accessory added increased functionality.

I love the combination of the Wii remote and nunchuk attachment. The Wii remote itself has several buttons (1, 2, A, B on the backside, + and -) and a d-pad whereas the nunchuk whose cord plugs into the bottom of the Wii remote possesses the analog stick and the Z and C buttons on its backside. The controller is enjoyed by myself so much because it is super comfortable. You can stretch your arms out instead of being forced to hold your hands together like typical controllers. Being able to rest your hands on your lap is a godsend, and it just feels right. First-person shooters work wonderfully with this setup. You move around with the analog stick, and point the Wii remote at the screen to look around. This setup is ultimately but subjectively superior to dual-analog where you have to slowly move the cursor or iron sights to your intended target on the screen. With the Wii remote (and later the shameless copy, the PlayStation Move), faster precision was never this simple!

There were alternate peripherals aside from the Wii MotionPlus (now you can get the Wii remote with MotionPlus already built-in) such as the Wii Balance Board (for Wii Fit), the Wii Zapper (for Link's Crossbow Training and Resident Evil: The Umbrella and Darkside Chronicles), and the Wii Wheel (for Mario Kart Wii and various other racing games). Nintendo is known for-- and annoyingly so-- making one-off peripherals that are utilized in one or two games and then cast to the wayside. Many of the following peripherals fit this bill. Regardless, besides the Balance Board, the others were just shells for the Wii remote, and didn't really have an effect on gameplay.

Let's go from the controls to the games, shall we? The vocal minority (i.e. entitled gamers) declare that Nintendo turned its collective back on them. This is a ridiculous statement as Nintendo has never been more on top of their game. They brought back long-forgotten franchises, made some of the highest-rated games this gen, and constantly put forth effort in the majority of their titles. The Wii showed that you didn't need a triple-A budget to make fun titles. It's a shame most gamers have forgotten this. Let's list some of the first-party (whether developed internally or published) highlights to clarify this.

- Super Mario Galaxy*
- Super Mario Galaxy 2*
- Donkey Kong Country Returns**
- Kirby's Epic Yarn
- Punch-Out!**
- Excite Truck**
- Excitebots: Trick Racing**
- Sin & Punishment: Star Successor**
- Metroid Prime Trilogy
- Metroid: Other M
- Super Paper Mario
- Mario Strikers: Charged
- Mario Super Sluggers
- Mario Sports Mix
- Super Smash Bros. Brawl
- Mario Kart Wii
- New Super Mario Bros. Wii
- Animal Crossing: City Folk
- Wario Land: Shake It!
- Wii Sports
- Wii Sports Resort
- Wii Fit
- Wii Fit Plus
- Wii Party

*Two of the highest-rated games of this generation.
** I.P.s that were otherwise forgotten before this gen.

New Super Mario Bros. Wii was one of many
terrific Nintendo-developed titles.

Third-parties, on the other hand, normally treated the Wii as the red-headed stepchild, even with the console's unprecedented sales. The reason for this is that after the mindshare failure that was the Gamecube, many third-parties considered the Wii as DOA and felt that the HD consoles would be the best sellers. They were wrong and put all their eggs in the incorrect basket. They quickly tripped over themselves, throwing anything and everything on the console with little regard for budget or quality. There were some games that were a blast regardless of budget or those working on the games being the B or C teams such as Boom Blox, Monster Hunter Tri, Zack & Wiki, Resident Evil: The Darkside Chronicles (even though a traditional RE in the definitive version of Resident Evil 4 sold over a million copies, let's totally disregard that and make a light gun shooter instead. Smart move, Capcom.), Tatsunoko VS. Capcom: Ultimate All-Stars, Sonic Colors, No More Heroes and its sequel, A Boy and His Blob, Bully: Scholarship Edition, Red Steel 2, Rabbids Go Home, and many more. Don't forget those underrated gems that the Wii is greatly known for like The Sky Crawlers: Innocent Aces, The Munchables, Blast Works, just to name a few.

One of the few big efforts by a third-party on the Wii.

Shifting gears, the Wii's menu infrastructure is made up of channels. There's a 4x3 list of channels with multiple of pages to sift through. Users can download new channels alongside the already available channels which include the Mii Channel (where owners can create avatars of themselves or famous actors, characters, and creatures), the Photo Channel, and the Wii Shop Channel where users can buy Virtual Console games and original WiiWare games via Wii points. The shop interface is fairly basic and could be easier to navigate. The problem with using Wii points is that you can only purchase points in 1,000 point increments, so if you want a game that's 800 points, you have to essentially pay ten dollars and have points in tow. Additionally, there's some downloadable channels including the News, Weather, Nintendo, and Internet Channels.

The Wii itself was smartly (business-wise) made nearly as powerful as the Gamecube (hence the two Gamecubes duct taped together line). At the time, HD wasn't as widespread as it is now, so Nintendo made the Wii weak relatively to the Xbox 360 and PlayStation 3. The company already made bank on the Gamecube even though it came last place in the previous generation's console war. Profits were even larger with the wild success of the Wii. However, you couldn't tell most of the time that the Wii is more powerful than the Gamecube as many developers don't take advantage of its power. They put shoddy efforts on the platform. Some games like Metroid Prime 3, Super Mario Galaxy 1 and 2, and Super Smash Bros. Brawl show a clear increase in performance from the past gen, though most do not which is unfortunate. The visuals of most Wii games is what I dislike the greatest about the system. So much untapped potential by lazy developers who'd rather bleed money on the HD platforms (how many third-parties are in the red this gen or have gone out of business betting on the wrong horse? I've lost count.) than develop for the Wii. Nonetheless, that's an argument for another day.

Brawl is but one of the games possibly
not possible on the Gamecube.

Whether you like the Wii or not, there's no questioning the sheer dominance the console has had this generation against its competition. Even the greatest hater must concede that point. Those who complain that the Wii has the weakest library ever for a popular console need to keep their irrational hatred in check. It's not healthy. With such sheer blind dislike for the little white box that could, you'd think the Wii ran over their cat or something and then tweeted on Twitter about it, boasting happily. With a library of games in all genres with varying degrees of fun (my personal collection nears 100 with few clunkers), an innovative control method that inspired the competition, and the first-party surefire hits that Nintendo is best known for, the Wii is one of Nintendo's all-time great consoles. With friends and family, the fun is amplified up sevenfold. Wii would definitely like to play.

[SuperPhillip Says: 8.0/10]