WiiBits

The first mario game for the Nintendo Wii is out and looks like a winner. Super Paper Mario is the continuation/evolution of the old Paper Mario rpg games and combines some elements from role playing games with classic 2D and 3D platforming. The game has an incredible art style and has tons of nostalgic fun. IGN loves the game and gives it a great score of 8.9. They have a few issues with it’s wordiness and the graphics when in 3D, but they’re definitely big fans:

“You should buy this game for a number of reasons. It’s a Mario game and for some that will be enough. It’s also one part platformer and another part RPG, successfully dabbling in both genres. It controls tightly and uses the Wii remote in a smart manner without stepping into forced territory. The new 2D-to-3D dynamic is built around clever and surprisingly complex puzzles that will challenge and impress you.”

Watch the video review below:

Super Paper Mario is a must buy for me and probably for most Wii owners over the age of 10. It looks incredibly fun and is just the type of game I’ve been waiting for, even if it was originally a GameCube title. A drought in new game releases for the Wii is headed our way this summer, so Super Paper Mario is a game that will have to hold us over till Pokemon in late June (if that’s your thing) or possibly until Metroid Prime 3 comes out this fall. I’ll definitely be picking up the game today when it hits store shelves.

Read the full review.

In an effort to thwart would be pirates and game importers, in the latest revision of the Wii Nintendo has altered the circuit layout.

“The new Wiis, which are part of new shipments of the console, have an altered circuit layout that makes modification more difficult than in earlier versions. Users attempting to mod the new consoles using current modchips are very likely to damage the system, the sources pointed out.”

This shouldn’t keep modders at bay for long, as I’m sure they’ll have a new modchip up and ready to go almost as soon as the new version of the console hits stores. Piracy and playing “backup” copies of rented games is wrong, but modchips are also necessary for Nintendo fans who like to import Japanese games to play on their US systems.

Read the full story. (via)

Another mildly disappointing review for a game I thought would be perfect for the Wii. The recently released Cooking Mama: Cook Off gets a score of 5.8 from IGN. The IGN review points out one huge issue with a lot of the Wii games released so far: no one to one relationship with your movements with the Wii-mote and the actions on the screen. Fun but flawed:

“The overall consensus; it’s still a fun game, as long as you can ignore some of its faults. The inviting presentation will still bring people in, it’ll still be a blast for certain gamers, and the act of doing motion-controlled cooking pantomime will be a hit with the younger crowd and a niche group of gamers.”

Watch the video review below:

Seems like there hasn’t been a “must buy” game out since WarioWare, and Cooking Mama doesn’t change that. Gamefly seems to be a real asset to the Wii owner through this small drought, letting us have a chance to play the many fun but limited games that are coming out.

Read the full review.

It is currently possible to buy two modchips for the Nintendo Wii gaming system with another one becoming available every day now. The available modchips are called Wiinja and cyclowiz, the one that comes out soon Wiikey. All three are connected to the Wii drive and prevent that the drive reports whether a original or copied disk has been entered. This however has the disadvantage that those chips will not be able to defeat the region code of the games.

Wiinja, Cyclowiz and Wiikey are able to play Wii and Gamecube backups from the same region and the Wiikey seems to have a good success rate to play games from other NTSC regions. This means that it could be possible to play Japanese games on a US Wii system. It is however not likely that you can play NTSC games on a PAL system with those modchips. […]

Read the full story at gHacks Tech News.

(via)

Ah, gameplay. Excellent. So far so good. It’s at least looking real nice.
DESTROYMAN! Luke Plunkett

Original post by Patrick Klepek

Great new commercial from EA for Tiger Woods PGA Tour 07 for the Wii:

The Wii is pretty much made for golf games, and while Wii Sports featured an okay round of golf Tiger Woods 07 could be an incredible game. If Tiger can nail the swing and make a fun and accurate game, it could really attract sports game fans that would normally be more interested in the more powerful systems.

Tiger Woods 07 is set for release in the US sometime this quarter.

(via)

For all of you out there itching to turn your wii into a media center there’s a great new product coming that you might be interested in. Mass Media Manager allows you to convert and rip movies to an SD card for use on your Wii. The software compresses video and even lets you set a desired screen size, bitrate and aspect ratio, it can also rip DVDs strait to your memory card and compress them to fit the allotted space available.
There are also tools included for viewing and manipulating digital images and playing and ripping MP3s as well as Podcasts updated on your computer via RSS and game save files you can download off the net for use on various Wii games.
Of course if you don’t want to dish out the cash there is also the free solution. Red Kawa has an open source project […]

Original post by shanoboy

WiiFanboy has an interesting poll up on Virtual Console game pricing. I’ve been pretty judicious in my VC purchases and only downloaded three or four VC games that I really want. The poll results are about what I’d expected, but be sure to have your voice heard and vote at WiiFanboy or below:

Brian touched on it a little earlier, but I know, he used words - pictures make things easier for you to digest. So here’s the slideshow of the abandoned, unloved Wii controller prototypes from Nintendo’s GDC keynote. Pretty sure we’ve seen them all before somewhere or other, but I like the faux-wear-n-tear on the star one. Very punk. Did I use that word in the right context? I don’t know anymore…Luke Plunkett

Original post by Dan Dormer