Game Thoughts: WiiWare Demos
Nintendo had released a few WiiWare demos on the Wii Shop a couple months ago, and I downloaded them back then, but only got around to playing them this past weekend. It seems the demos were finally taken down from the shop yesterday, so my timing is a bit awkward. But I’ll give a few mini-reviews on them anyway, because the actual games will obviously stick around.
Bit-Trip Beat:
This game is like, “What if Pong was really awesome?” It’s incredibly simple, but I had a lot of fun in the fifteen minutes or so that it let me play. The motion controls work really well, too. And for only 600 points, I definitely want to buy the full game, and maybe its sequels, too. Score: 5/5
Final Fantasy Crystal Chronicles: My Life as a Darklord:
I expected to hate this game, but it actually wasn’t bad at all. I guess it’s a tower defense game, seeing as how you’re literally just defending a tower. It starts off kind of bland, since you can’t do anything but add floors to your tower in the first level. But then it introduces monsters to hang out on the floors and attack people, different types of floors, and various types of upgrades to earn. The heroes that attack your tower also become more complex and varied, so by the end of the demo, I found myself getting really into the strategy aspects. I’m a little hesitant, but I’m almost sold. Score: 4/5
World of Goo:
Now this was a fun little puzzle game. The object of the game is basically to stretch your goos from one side of the screen to the other, and I was really amazed by how far the game stretched that concept (hurr) in just these early levels. I’m not going to buy it, but only because I found out we already own the PC version. Score: 5/5
Pokemon Rumble:
I like Pokemon, but this game didn’t really do a lot to make me want to support the franchise any further with it. It was cute and somewhat entertaining, and I like that it has co-op, but there doesn’t seem to be much to the actual gameplay. You just run around spamming attacks, with little room for strategy beyond “don’t get killed.” If it were a 500 point game, I’d snag it up in a heartbeat anyway, because maybe the full game does have more to offer, and if not, it wouldn’t be a huge loss. But for 1500? No thanks. Score: 2/5
NyxQuest: Kindred Spirits:
This one started out like a very simple platformer, but then it got very interesting when it introduced environmental interaction. Some of the puzzles were definitely a little challenging to figure out, but not frustratingly so. I was really impressed, and I think I’d definitely like to try the full version. My only complaint is that it seems a little too… tame, I guess? Score: 4/5
Who would have thought the Pokemon game would be the only one I wouldn’t want? That was the one I wanted to play most when I first downloaded them all, and I had no clue what most of the others were.