Dead Island (PS3, X360, PC): This is a game that I’m really excited about, it’s like Dead Rising and Left 4 Dead came together and had a baby. The player takes on the role of one of four survivors stranded on a resort island that has been overrun with the living dead. It is a first person action game, just like Left 4 Dead and players can pick up weapons and combine them and upgrade their strength. The graphics are beautiful and the Island of Banoi is quite an impressive spectacle. Players can join each other’s games online (4 players max). Comes out on September 6th.

Resistance 3 (PS3 Exclusive): This FPS game picks up four years after the conclusion of Resistance 2 and the player steps into the shoes of Sentinel Joseph Capelli. The game takes place in an alternate version of the 1950’s in which America has been taken and destroyed by the brutal Chimeran alien race. In addition to the single player campaign, there will also be two-player split screen and two-player online co-op through the campaign. It also includes 16 online versus. PS3 owners will want to check this game out. Comes out September 6th.

Gears of War 3 (X360 Exclusive): It has been 18 months since the fall of the last human city and the war between the humans and locusts continues. Sad to say it, but this will be the last Gears game, but it looks like they’re going out with a bang. Includes a single player campaign and online versus modes, I got my hands on the beta and I was impressed to say the least, this is a must buy for fans of the series and newbies alike. Releases on September 20th.

Silent Hill: Downpour (PS3,X360): I’m glad to see that the Silent Hill franchise is going back to its roots. The past few games in the franchise have been mediocre, including onslaughts of grainy meat bags which hurl themselves at you. This game has a boost in graphics and story alike, the horror/thriller genre has had a dry spell for a while now on the consoles, and fans of the original games will want to check this game out. Comes out in October.

Batman: Arkham City (PS3,X360,PC): Sequel to the critically acclaimed Batman: Arkham Asylum, the Dark Knight is back with a vengeance out to kick some bad guy ass. Cat Woman is also a playable character in the single player story. Rocksteady has said that a lot has changed in this game, Arkham City is a whopping five times the size of Arkham Asylum, there is a wider array of characters in the story, and now there are interrogations (Splinter cell?). Comes out on October 18th.

Battlefield 3 (PS3,X360,PC): If I were ranking the games that I was looking forward to the most, Battlefield 3 would be at the top of the list. Boasting the Frostbite 2 engine, top of the line graphics, and the enjoyment of reducing a building to rubble with your weapons. I can’t really give any reason why you wouldn’t get this game, EA and DICE have really upped the ante this time around with another single player and competitive multiplayer with up to 24 versus online. Comes out October 25th, mark you calendar.

Elder Scrolls V: Skyrim (PS3,X360,PC): If this game is comes even close to its predecessor in quality and fun, then this is a must buy. A great RPG franchise already, this new addition to the series will hopefully live up to it’s franchises’ caliber. People who buy this can look forward to great DLC, which Bethesda is excellent with. This game releases on November 11th.

Honorable Mentions:
Uncharted 3 (PS3): November 1st
Forza 4 (X360): Fall
Mass Effect 3 (PS3,X360,PC): Unknown 2011
Star Wars Old Republic (PC): Unknown 2011
The Last Guardian (PS3): Unknown 2011
Zelda: Skyward Sword (Wii): Unknown 2011

FlingSmash

FlingSmash is a completely new concept from Yoshi’s Island DS developer, Artoon. The best way to describe the game is that it’s something like a sidescrolling Arkanoid. In FlingSmash, you use your Wii remote with Wii Motion Plus to fling Zip, to smash through enemies and obstacles to progress through the level. Zip is a spherical creature that bounces all over the screen breaking through blocks and other things. You can also get different powerups, such as Split, which gives you 2 more Zips to guide, doing more damaging and racking up even more points. If you have a friend and an extra Wiimote with Wii Motion Plus, you can team up with Player One controlling Zip and Player Two controlling his buddy, Pip.

FlingSmash is set to be released around the 2010 holiday season.

PokéPark Wii: Pikachu’s Adventure

PokePark Wii stars Pikachu as he is summoned by Mew to set out and find the missing Sky Prism Pieces of PokePark. As Pikachu, you make your way through the park by using the Wii remote held sideways. Throughout the game, you meet up with other Pokemon who will help you on your quest. But of course, you must fight other Pokemon as well using different attacks from Pikachu’s “shocking” arsenal. PokePark Wii also features a variety of minigames that put your skills to the test. In these events, you can choose any of the various Pokemon that you’ve befriended throughout the game. If you liked Pokemon Snap on the N64, you’ll love the photo feature that allows you to take pictures of different Pokemon to save to an SD card.

You can expect PokePark Wii: Pikachu’s Adventure to hit store shelves this Holiday season.

Samurai Warriors 3

In Samurai Warriors 3, you can choose from over 35 different samurai; some of which are based on actual figures from Japanese history. Each character has their own takes on the story, which will have you playing for a long time if you want to know everyone’s motives. You progress through the game by fighting armies of enemies on foot and on horseback. SW3 also has a variety of play modes such as “Murasame Castle” mode which has you teaming up with another player via broadband Internet access and Nintendo Wi-Fi Connection. This mode  is based off of the classic Famicom Disk System game, The Mysterious Murasame Castle. The game can be played with all of the Wii’s control options including the Gamecube controller; so you can choose which is best for you.

Samurai Warriors 3 will be in stores on September 27.

GameStop – Save $40 off Super Mario Galaxy 2 when you trade 2 select Xbox 360, PS3, or Wii games in store. If you’re buying online, you can get a $20 credit towards a future purchase.

Amazon – get a $20 credit towards a future video game purchase when you buy from Amazon. Free shipping!

Target – Buy Super Mario Galaxy 2 for $49.99 and save $20 on any one of these Mario games: New Super Mario Bros Wii, Mario and Sonic at the Olympic Games Wii, Super Smash Bros Brawl, Mario Kart Wii, Mario Party 8 Wii.

Best Buy – Buy Super Mario Galaxy 2 for $49.99 and receive 500 Gamer RewardZone points. Also receive a $20 gift card if you buy the game and the Wii Remote with Motion Plus.

Wal-Mart – Buy the game and receive a $20 eGift Card. Free shipping!

Toys ‘R’ Us – Buy the game and get a $10 gift card. Sunday only: Reward Members save an additional $15 off the game guide when purchased with SMG2.

Of all the deals, I like Amazon’s the most. I hope you like the game!

Nelson Tethers: Puzzle Agent is part of a new program that Telltale Games is calling a “Game Pilot Program” in which the released game is comparable to a TV pilot.  Presumably this just means that the games have very little commitment behind them, with their continued development being tied to the success of the first title. This could allow for the developers to experiment with the typical adventure game tropes. It could also mean this first title could be a truly self-contained story, unlike the typical Telltale release which tends to have a nice little cliffhanger to get you excited about the next episode.

The game will hit Windows, OS X, the iPhone, the iPad, and the Wii this June. Those who pre-order the game get a coupon to order either the newest Sam and Max episode or a t-shirt featuring a wolf in space for 50% off! I’m tempted to pre-order just to have the chance to get a cheap t-shirt that feature both the wonders of space travel and a majestic wolf.

Defining the Genre

The zero-gravity shooter is an iffy genre to define, I must admit. There are a lot of shooters which are technically zero or little gravity, but the issue is that a lot of these take the form of arcade-styled dog fighting games. I thought for quite some time as to what a good definition could be. While Wikipedia has a somewhat incomplete list of zero-g shooters, it does not offer a definition. Why should we consider Descent a zero-g shooter but not Wing Commander? I decided that the best approach was to start with Doom as a starting point. What defined Doom’s gameplay? For me, the maze-like nature of the levels are an important part of Doom. I cannot conceive of a version of Doom that does not include the magnificent level design of the series. Doom, at its most basic level, is about navigating mazes (while killing demons). My definition of the zero-g shooters can be understood as being like Doom, but with much less gravity and much more aiming (and typically less demons). Maze-like level design and the absence of gravity are vital for my understanding of what this genre is.

The History (from 1989-1996)

The zero-g shooter is a thing of a past decade, under-appreciated by the gaming community for its initially intimidating learning-curve. This genre is old – the first game in this sub-genre predates iD’s first-person shooters. Interphase was released in 1989, two years before Catacombs 3D and Hovertank 3D, and three years before Wolfenstein 3D. Interphase is an important title – it’s a 3D FPS that predates iD’s own landmark releases.

In 1994, Looking Glass Studio developed System Shock, which was published by Origin Systems. System Shock, which would spawn a sequel and serve as an inspiration to the Bioshock series, featured “cyberspace” sections in which the player could navigate a wireframe representation of the computer network. The wireframe representation of the computer network somewhat resembles the art style of Pyrotechnica, released a year later.

Despite how sprite-y he looks, that little guy is made of polygons

It was not until 1995, when Interplay published Parallax Software’s Descent, that the genre once again received any attention. The full version of Descent came two years after Doom and a year after Doom II. While iD’s shooters have been labeled “2.5D” in retrospect, Descent is undoubtedly a 3D experience. Before the advent of dedicated video cards, Descent was allowing PC gamers to play a game in which the enemies and the world were 3D! It would take a year for iD to release Quake, and this game required players to have a 1MB video card to play.

1995 also saw the release of Pyrotechnica and Radix: Beyond the Void, a fairly psychedelic looking shooter. Unlike the very positive reception to Descent, Pyrotechnica faced a cooler audience. Moby Games only has four reviews for it, two of them are not so positive (two of them are much more positive). The game’s environment is not as visually stimulating as Descent’s, though it appears this was a stylistic choice and not the result of developers trying to negotiate with the technology of the time. However, the response looking back is that his game was a poor man’s Descent, albeit one that tried to stand out due to the interesting art style – which tends to create hard to navigate levels.

Descent 2's enemies look a lot better

Radix: Beyond the Void was a much more conventional cross between Doom and Descent. The game almost feels like one is playing Doom with no-clip mode on and mouse-look (as anachronistic as that statement is). The game featured sections of the environment that could be destroyed, to various degrees. The game’s environments are much easier to navigate that Pyrotechnica’s LSD-fueled world, but resulted in a game that didn’t feel as unique – even the briefing screens recall Descent’s briefing screens. The 2.5D environments of this game make this the true poor man’s Descent, though.

Parallax released the sequel to Descent a year after the original was released. The sequel looks much better than its predecessor; it is actually hard to believe Descent II is running on the same engine that Descent used a year before. Support for hardware acceleration was added, which greatly improves both the quality of the visuals and the performance. The game had dynamic lighting – shoot out the lights and the area darkens, you can use flares and headlights to improve visibility.

Next Page

The article from Yahoo! reported that Amanda, a catering worker from Manchester, England, requires at least ten sex sessions a day after the fall from her Wii Fit Balance Board.

Amanda described the injury herself that “It began as a twinge down below before surging through my body. Sometimes it built up into a trembling orgasm.” This is apparently caused by even the slightest vibrations such as mobile phones to food processors.

A doctor diagnosed her with persistent sexual arousal syndrome due to a damaged nerve, which can really happen to a person. However, no reports of any lawsuit yet since accidents happen and you can’t really blame Nintendo for this.

Now guys, get those same ideas I had, out of your head.

The Wii version is a port of the PS2 version. Nothing new has been added; only the motion sensor controls. I wouldn’t call it a direct port as the whole game had to be re-built from scratch, due to some legal issues between the original PS2 developers, Clover studios and new developers, Ready At Dawn.

Story

Okami is set in a classical period of Japan. The game uses a lot of references from ancient Japanese legends and mythology, and does so very well. It often fits them into the main story and even side quests. The game begins in a narrative of an old legend set on the country of Nippon. 100 years ago there was great evil that plagued the land of Nippon. It required a sacrifice of a maiden every year in order for it to keep its power. On the day before the 100th year of its reign, a brave young warrior named Nagi with his divine blade together with a strange white wolf Shiranui with strange powers, fought and defeated the 8 headed demon, Orochi, and sealed it on a temple. A hundred years have passed since the above event and somehow Orochi has been awakened once again and started to plague the land. You now awaken as Amaterasu, the great Sun Goddess in the form a white wolf along with a trusty little friend named Issun. You have been tasked to rid the world once again of the evil Orochi.

That’s the most I can tell you without giving anything away, but there are many parts in the story where you’ll think it’s the end of the game, only to be pleasantly surprised.

Controls

Now a lot of people have said the Wii controls are rubbish. This is simply because people are not having any patience to learn them. It takes about half an hour to an hour to master the control; that’s not long at all. And I’m willing to bet most of you won’t have any problems with them. Painting with the Wii remote is brilliant, like everything it just takes a little practice. Just paint like a Japaneses artist (quick strokes, instead of smooth neat strokes). Once you’ve got it right, you’ll wonder how you ever got it wrong in the first place. The main fault in the controls is when using the dodge technique, it requires you to move the nunchuck in the direction you want to dodge, only it’s way to over sensitive. But luckily, you don’t have to use the technique if you chose not to.

Gameplay

The gameplay is heavily borrowed from “The Legend of Zelda” games, which isn’t a bad thing at all. You have your overworld which is huge. When I say huge I, mean huge! You know that really big overworld section in Twilight Princess where you have the horseback fight to get Colin back? Okami’s smallest section of the overworld map is bigger than that. That should give you an idea of how big Okami’s world map is. Aside from traveling to different towns and dungeons, the overworld is filled with sidequests, dojos, and hidden treasures and techniques; so you’ll be quite busy and can easily get sidetracked.

The battle system in Okami is similar to the Zelda games, only you don’t actually fight in the overworld. Instead, you interact with NPCs known as Demon Scrolls, which are normally just floating around. But get close and they will chase you. Upon touching them, you start the encounter. You are then enclosed inside a barrier as you ready for combat where you attack the enemy. Some enemy’s can be dispatched of easily enough with your main weapons (called Divine Instruments) but most of the enemy’s will require the use of the Celestial Brush. The Celestial brush is vital to the gameplay, as you can use in battle, such as, if an ice enemy appears you can draw the inferno tech, which will burn the enemy to a crisp. You also have to use the brush outside of battle too. Most of the time, it’s to solve puzzles and to get hidden treasure. With the Celestial Brush, you can control the flow of time, turn day into night, night into day, control which way and how strong the wind blows, make waterfalls, make dead flowers come to life, and so much more.

The dungeon design is some of the best work I’ve seen in a long time. The first dungeon is pure genius, and the boss fights are very well done as well.

Graphics

The eye catching graphics in Okami are to die for. If you thought Wind Waker was impressive, wait until you see Okami in action. It’s like watching a moving Japaneses painting. It’s purely beautiful and one of the most original concepts ever in video game graphic design.

Music

The music is simply amazing. Each piece fits the tone. And there’s a few in there that you’ll be humming along to long after you’ve turned the game off. Most of the music isn’t as drastic and epic as say Zelda or Mario, but it isn’t trying to be. It has a very fairytale mood to most of the music and that fits well with the game.

Replay Value

I completed the main game at 46 hours, which was with a lot of exploring. So the main game itself is around 30 hours, but the amount of sidequests and unlockable content to get will keep you playing for about 60 hours+. Replaying the game is a big plus since after completing your first play through, there are a lot of bonuses that will be carried over to your second game and keep you playing for more.

Conclusion

If you are proud to be a gamer, then you owe it to yourself to buy Okami. It’s one of the best games on the Wii by far, and Zelda fans will love it! Okami is truly a masterpiece. If you never played this game, hang your head in shame. You are missing out on a wonderful experience.

I give it a 10/10 on the Zippy Scale.

Story

Enril is currently only Wind Spirit left alive in the vast world of Mistralis. One day, Toku wakes up from his sleepy spot in the forest and finds Enril. Enril tells Toku about The Evil Balasar, who Enril and his ancestors sealed away years and years ago. But whilst sealing Balasar away, Enril also got sealed in with him. Now Balasar has broken free and Enril needs help to seal him away again; and Balasar has cursed the land once again. Story wise, the game is nothing special so far. But it does pick up near the end. And it drops hints that the story is about be fully exposed, however I’ll get to that soon.

Controls

Lostwinds use of the Wii remote is spot on. You use Enril to control the winds. You can create small gusts of winds to brush past bushes to get treasure, or make strong gusts of winds to make Toku jump and even hold up boulders. With a simple wave of the Wii remote while holding the jump button, you can fling Toku to make him jump further. You can also use it to fling your enemies from wall to wall till they are nothing but a big mess. Just by waving the Wii remote, you can also mess with the elements of the World, including water, boulders, and fire. While playing Lostwinds, I never had a problem controlling Toku or using the wind powers, it works like a beauty. I’d go as far as say it’s the best Wiiware game to make use of the Wii remote so far.

Gameplay

The gameplay reminds me of Zelda, in a way. You go thought short dungeons, and once you get to the end of each dungeon, Enril gets a new wind power, which helps you backtrack and find unreachable areas. Its main focus is set on platforming and puzzle solving. You use the wind spirit powers to complete puzzles. At first it may seem a bit difficult, but after awhile, they are very easy to figure out. This is a shame, as I’d like to have seen a bit more difficult puzzles coming from such a unique and fresh game. The game is 3D, but you play it from a 2D aspect like “New Super Mario Bros.” I’m glad to report that it works perfect in 2D. I doubt it would work as good if it was a fully 3D adventure. The main bad point about the gameplay is that, LostWinds only lasts about 3 hours. Just as the story really starts to kick off, you get a “to be continued” screen, It leaves you wanting for more, and you feel a little ripped off by the 1,000 points price tag, I think 500 points would be a lot better.

Graphics:

The graphics in Lostwinds are quite charming and simple. That’s really about all there is to say for the graphics. Nothing really stands out graphic-wise. But that’s not to say the graphics are bad, because they aren’t. Lostwinds easily has some of the most charming graphics on the Wii, and the graphic style fits well with the gameplay too, which is always a good thing.

Music:

Throughout the whole game, I think I heard about 3 whole musical scores. They fit well with the games theme, but don’t expect to be humming the music throughout the day, as you most likely won’t be. The sound in the game fits very well. If you brush a small gust of wind past the grumpy man in town, he moans. Do it to the school kids and they giggle. Everything seems to fit so well, even the little things. And it holds the game together very well.

Overall:

Bursting with new gameplay ideas that embrace the Wii controller, LostWinds really puts the power of the wind in the palm of your hand. LostWinds is a fresh and original adventure that should be played by everyone, The 1,000 points price tag may seem like a lot for a 3 hour game, but you will play it over again. And with a sequel already out, you wouldn’t really want to miss out on this great game series.

I give it an 8/10 on the Zippy Scale.

See, I’m a tad apprehensive to call it a beat ‘em up. The game works like this; you play as a Pokémon toy, given life by a magic key (just… just ignore the plot it’s quite clear nobody gave a damn about making it so don’t try caring about fulfilling it) and you get given a Rattata (of course, because no Pokémon game would be complete without 800 Rattata’s) who can tackle by pressing ‘2’. However, what is at first a very lazy button masher suddenly becomes much more interesting pretty quickly. Certain Pokémon, after having their head smashed in will befriend you, allowing you to collect them (again, logic isn’t the games strong point…) and these Pokémon have different moves. At first, simple variations on tackle with electricity/grass/ whatever element it is, but soon it’s not long before you have speed boosts, defence lowers and indeed all of the moves out of the original Pokémon games. Pokémon also have increasing power levels; the goal being to befriend a Pokémon of a certain power level to progress into the “Battle Royal” and to move to the next level. This adds an interesting twist, swapping out Pokémon for a certain battle style is a great idea and with all 150 of the original Pokémon in the game to collect, you can look forward to finding an old favourite.

Sadly, what the game does for coming up with a revitalizing and interesting concept, it lets itself down in some many areas, mostly repetition. The game consists of ranking up through the battle royals, but to do that you need to go and befriend some higher level Pokémon in 6 separate areas, each area carrying a certain type of Pokémon (a beach with water types, a magma factory with fire/electric types ect) but every time you beat a battle royal you sent to the next floor where you are confronted with the 6 same levels! The only difference is the Pokémon! It’s a lazy cut and paste trick that fools nobody and leads to the game being not just repetitive, but frustratingly so. The levels have nothing interesting to offer to begin with, essentially just giving you a grid to work in; there are no environmental hazards, no special paths, nothing. It’s dull, and it turns what could have been a stand out title into a rather crushing bore.

Another fundamental flaw in the game is the way Pokémon “drop”. When you collect a Pokémon after befriending them you can sometimes end up with a Pokémon with a high power level but equipped with agility and poison powder; not useful. Considering they were gladly attacking you with different moves before hand and have now suddenly forgotten how and learned two non-attacking moves is bewildering and maddening. Fortunately, you can buy a new random move off a machine in the main lobby providing you pay a fee from the coins you collect by defeating Pokémon. This can, however, lead to some more useless moves (Rest is especially worthless, you stand still and heal 1HP a second. Not fun) which kind of defeats the point. You can also buy new Pokémon, which is always worth a go as they tend to be rather powerful.

The graphics of this game are… well laughable, but in a really likable way. Polygonic to the max, some Pokémon look just fine (Rattata, Pikachu, Staryu) and some look amazingly bad (Machamp, Diglett, Mewtwo). It’s an acquired taste, but there’s no denying there’s an element of joy of seeing the Pokémon rendered in such a minimalist way. Not only that, but they look funny, and so when your captured Pokémon are paraded in front of you at the end of a level and stare, gormlessly into your face it can be hard to not at least crack a smile.

However, if there’s one saving grace for this game it’s this: Multiplayer. You can have up to 4 people playing at any time, and although I’ve only played it with one other buddy I can happily claim that, yes, it’s fun. If it wasn’t for this feature, this game would rank far lower than I score I’ve given it. The mode doesn’t really “add” anything in terms of gameplay, but what it does do is make the game more tolerable, because at least you and a friend can sit there mocking it together. Weirdly, this is a game that benefits from friends willing to crack jokes at its expense. Also, the added factor of a “Ah wow, look at how bad Diglett looks, the ground jumps with him!” moment is always a fun one to share.

Pokémon Rumble is, by no stretch of anyone’s imagination, a “good” game. However, it’s not exactly a “bad” one either, and somehow, despite so many obvious flaws I can claim that the game is damn fun. So I’ll put it this way, if you have friends who want a good laugh, enjoy some classic Pokémon memories and are looking for some mindless but enjoyable fun, then yeah, consider this as your next Wiiware purchase. To anyone else, stay away, this isn’t for you and you probably will get angrier with it than enjoy it.

I give it a 6 on the Zippy Scale.

With New Super Mario Bros. Wii outselling Mario Galaxy, it just goes to show you that 2D platformers are far from dead.