Tiny Diggers – An iPad Construction Truck Game for Kids Age 2-5

We’ve got some big ones coming to the Wii in June, so you’d best be ready. Start selling some blood or whatever you have to do, because assuming you haven’t fallen behind on the stuff that’s already out, you’re going to be in bad shape by the end of the month. This is notable as the first month where games with online play, not just online functionality, will appear on the Wii.

Release dates are pulled from various sources (mostly Amazon) and are as accurate as I could manage. I’m doing these in alphabetical order by title now, not by release date, since most of these dates are probably not right-on.

BIG BRAIN ACADEMY: WII DEGREE
June 12th

The impossibly successful casual game sensation hits the Wii. Expect big sales numbers on this one. Apparently it’s got online functionality, but I’m not sure exactly how that will work. What I do know is there’s quite a stir over the game’s seeming ability to pull names from your Wii’s address book and add them to your friend list in the game automatically. Since all those people are linked at the other end, if they’ve got the game, looks like you’re set up as soon as you turn it on. See, this is how it’s supposed to be! Smells like a clue to me.

THE BIGS
Summer 2007

Hey, it’s extreme baseball on the Wii. Looks pretty cool, I’d like to give it a try. From what I hear, they’re putting a lot of time into the Wii controls and they’ve really come together. We’ll see how that turns out.

ESCAPE FROM BUG ISLAND
June 19th

This game has nothing going for it. At least when it was called Necro-nesia it had an interesting name. Now it’s just a crappy, ugly, sloppy piece of shovelware that somehow managed to end up sharing a release date with RE4. I remember seeing it at E3 in 2005, I think it was, and going, what the hell is that, a PS2 launch game?

FANTASTIC 4: RISE OF THE SILVER SURFER
June 15th

Huh. More licensed movie fare, eh? Well, we all know how those tend to turn out. While I didn’t play it, I’ve heard that Hulk: Ultimate Destruction was good. Perhaps in celebration of this release we should all go out and pick up a copy of Hulk for like, ten dollars, and go home happy.

HARRY POTTER AND THE ORDER OF THE PHOENIX
June 25th

Well, it was a decent book (yes, I read it) if a little long, but I’ve lost interest in the Potter thing at this point. I thought the movies were pretty well done, the ones I saw anyway. Order of the Phoenix on Wii incorporates what we all felt should be in these games: direct wand control. Wingardium Leviosa! Aww, yeah. OK. Not buying it.

MERCURY MELTDOWN REVOLUTION
June 2007

The Mercury Meltdown series continues on the Wii. Tilt mazes to slide a gob of mercury around. The mercury will separate into smaller chunks, pass through fields to change colors and solve puzzles, things like that. Early reports say the presentation is lacking but the gameplay succeeds well beyond the earlier Kororinpa: Marble Mania which was a similar game.

POK?