Review: Cocoto Magic Circus

Let’s be honest. Mini-game collections on the Nintendo Wii tend to trigger the gag reflex in most traditional or hardcore gamers. But in case you hadn’t noticed, there’s a casual market out there and it is MASSIVE. Enter Cocoto Magic Circus from Conspiracy Entertainment. An unapologetically casual, budget priced, mini-game collection that is absolutely not intended for the Call of Duty 4 player who stays up until 2:00 A.M. every night trying to max out his rank. If you are said COD 4 player, stop reading now. If, however, you have kids in the age 6 to 11 range that surf the Wii, read on.

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Read-a-long with Nintendo Power (#229, June 2008)

That’s not Aerosmith: The Animated Series, that’s the latest Nintendo Power. Join Aeropause for this regular dissection of a twenty-year-old gaming staple… and read-a-long!

Issue #229, June 2008
featured games: Final Fantasy Tactics A2, Etrian Odyssey II, Wii Fit, Trauma Center: Under the Knife 2, FaceBreaker, Guitar Hero: On Tour, Guitar Hero: Aerosmith, Rock Band, Samba de Amigo

Take a look at that cover. Wow. Did anybody else think that the hypnotically awful Revolution X would get a sequel? What a surprise! Talk about mining the archives; Revolution X came out fourteen years ago! That’s longer than the wait between Super Metroid and Metroid Prime, and Nintendo is still trying to convince gamers that Metroid is worth buying. I’m a little rusty on my Revolution X plot, but apparently it involved you rescuing members of some hair band called Aerosmith. Since so much time has passed, I’m guessing this Guitar Hero Aerosmith band is comprised of the sons and daughters of the original Revolution X Aerosmith. Nintendo Power’s cover feature is unclear on this point.

What the article does cover is four upcoming Wii/DS music games, all without ever mentioning the complete lack of DLC songs. Hilariously, the Rock Band article says “some compromises had to be made to bring Rock Band to Wii. For instance, there’s no create-a-character mode.” WTF? First of all, the Wii already has a create-a-character mode that third party games are stupid to ignore: the Mii system. But more importantly, who cares about the gimpy create-a-character mode in Rock Band? You have, like, a million shirts and only four faces. Whoop-ti-doo.

No no, the compromise that Rock Band Wii makes is penetrating and obvious: no downloadable songs.
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The five Nintendo songs that should have been in Rock Band Wii.

After quite some time of keeping the secret, this week Harmonix announced the FIVE BONUS songs that will grace the Wii version of Rock Band. Since many previous Nintendo editions of multi-console games have arrived with fan-pleasing content (see such games as Soulcalibur 2, DDR Mario Mix and NBA Street V3), it was natural to speculate that Rock Band Wii would arrive with some kind of classic Nintendo music. But here’s what we’re getting:

• “Dirty Little Secret” - The All American Rejects
• “Don’t Look Back in Anger” - Oasis
• “Roam” - The B-52’s
• “Rockaway Beach” - The Ramones
• “Roxanne” - The Police

So yeah, five tracks already available on the Rock Band store for PS3 and 360. Some surprise.

This is fine, I suppose, but given that Rock Band Wii will have no online play and only a faint, faint hope of DLC songs… well, Wii owners will be forgiven for hoping for something a little nicer.

Like, say, five Wii-exclusive tracks culled from twenty years of Nintendo gaming? Here’s my nominations for the awesome Rock Band Wii that will never be…

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Aeropodcast #28: Guilty Pleasures and Ginger Lynn

George and Stephen joined Joe this week with an Aeropodcast that was all over the map, going everywhere from politics in games, to full motion video games, to Daikatana and at one point working in Ginger Lynn and Mark Hamill references.

Today we looked at all of our guilty pleasures and why we are driven to them. Immediately, Joe lost all of his PC street cred when he admitted to secretly enjoying Daikatana due to it being “so bad it is funny”. Stephen talked about the Megaman franchise and enjoying almost all of those games. George explained how he felt that World of Warcraft was a guilty pleasure for him, because he can’t explain why he still plays it. He also brought up Hellgate: London, which prompted a bit of heckling..

We then turned to politics, with this being an election year in the US, and decided to look at the candidate’s stands on video games. The two liberal candidates feel that there might be some need for modification to the ratings system, while John McCain feels the system is good now, and should just be monitored. We also tried to classify whether this is a liberal or conservative issue, but we all agreed with Stephen’s point that it all depends on the individual’s definition of liberal or conservative.

William H had the correct answer to our trivia question, and he has won a copy of Audiosurf, Half Life 2 and Half Life 2: Episode 1. Eric Kranz also had a question about his ongoing gaming PC build. He had some issues with temperatures and wanted a good heatsink that he could put in that would not require him to remove the motherboard. Joe recommended an Arctic Cooling Freezer Pro 7

Recorded: Sunday April 13th, 2008..
Length: 1:09:39, 108 MB. Download it directly from here.

Make sure as always to Digg the podcast, so we can become popular like those kids on the show The Hills. Also review us on iTunes, because we like to see what you like or don’t like about the show. It also helps with our rankings.

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Get Ye Flask: Strong Bad Coming to the Wii

Having completed the season finale for the second season of Sam & Max, Telltale games has apparently found time to work on some other projects leading to some exciting announcements. It was only a year and a half ago when Telltale was having some difficulty getting noticed by Nintendo with regard to their desire to bring Sam & Max to the Wii. Thankfully, the big N was able to hear the outcry of gamers and Sam & Max: Season 1 is on the way to Nintendo’s WiiWare service. This announcement was long due and expected, however, Telltale’s most recent reveal was much more surprising…and awesome.

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Wii Wheel to Cost…Too Much

Gamestop is known for unorthodox and somewhat shady pricing schemes. In addition Nintendo is known for releasing somewhat overpriced pieces of plastic that do not provide additional functionality. That said, I’m not sure who to blame for this currently unconfirmed price point for the Wii wheel to be released alongside Mario Kart Wii. Seriously, $14.99 for a more naturally-wheelish-feeling grip? I expect cheap third party knock-offs to actually be worth considering this time around. Actually, I’ll probably just use a Gamecube controller.

via: Gizmodo

Read-a-long with Nintendo Power (#227, April 2008)

Pejoratively referred to as the “Party Press,” Nintendo Power has long seemed stuck on the rocky road to respectability. Can recent editorial changes transform the magazine? Join Aeropause for this regular dissection of this twenty-year-old gaming staple… and read-a-long!

Issue #227, April 2008
featured games: Mario Kart Wii, Deadly Creatures, The World Ends With You, Okami, We Love Golf, Super Smash Bros Brawl

The cover feature this month is ten pages on Mario Kart Wii (is that really going to be the final title?), although those ten pages are padded with plenty of screenshots and large character clip art. The question is, what did they reveal?

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Gimped Wii version of Rock Band not even going to be worth it.

Maybe it’s the lack of a reasonable storage solution (can you play Rock Bank on the 360 Core?), maybe it’s the lack of a server-based online infrastructure. Blame it on Nintendo if you want, it doesn’t matter. The fact is that without even some small portion of the online functionality that the Wii version of Guitar Hero III offers, and without the downloadable content to extend the lifespan of the game, Rock Band on Wii really doesn’t make any sense, and is going to be lost in a wave of Guitar Hero sequels. Further, the five songs the Wii version of Rock Band will have over the 360 and PS3 versions seem more like an afterthought than some kind of consolation prize.

In case you don’t know what I’m talking about, the long-discussed Wii version of Rock Band (which came out last year for everyone else) has a date and and extremely spinny press release at the Rock Band website, in which online play is conspicuously absent. Follow-up questioning by others has confirmed that there will be nothing in Rock Band for Wii to make it worth buying.

Finally, the game appears to have the one issue that makes it an automatic no-sale for me: the guitar will not use a Wii Remote, which implies to me that I can’t use my Guitar Hero guitar to play the game. I’ve heard enough about how lousy that Rock Band guitar is, so no thanks. Too bad, guys. Late to the party and not even wearing pants. Maybe this game will launch without sound, so they can fall short of Guitar Hero III in one more area.

I’m upset. Oh, it’s coming in June, by the way.

Source: RockBand.com via Game|Life.

See also:
Rock Band Confirmed for the Wii
EA still not confirming, denying Rock Band for Wii.

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Snaking not allowed in Mario Kart Wii; anybody sad?

This is already peppered across every game site in existence, so we might as well get our lumps in. The Official Nintendo Magazine (think UK’s Nintendo Power) has an review on the latest Mario Kart and mentions that snaking is not part of the game.

Ever since Mario Kart 64, kart players could gain a speed boost by going into a slide and then wiggling the analog stick back and forth. Although this was a perfectly acceptable strategy when drifting around curves, savvy players soon figured out that you could pull it off on straightaways as well. This became known as snaking because you’d see your opponent zig-zag down the track, leaving you in the dust like a sap. Many players - myself included - credit snaking as the reason why they bailed on Mario Kart DS’s online play. At least in MK64 and Mario Kart Double Dash, you could punch a snaking player in the arm.

It has been argued that snaking is simply a high-level technique and that players unable to pull off the extreme waggling are just not playing hard enough. No matter your opinion, Nintendo took it out (your boost level is now dependent on long you hold the drift)… so if you’re a Jerky Hawk Pro Snaker, you’ll have to stick to one of the older Kart games.

All I have to say is: Mario Kart Wii purchase confirmed!

via Kotaku via GoNintendo via Official Nintendo Magazine (UK)

Mario Kart Wii US Release Date Announced

For those of us inhabiting the United States we can start to salivate for the next coveted Nintendo first-party release. Mario Kart Wii has been announced for April 27. Kind of quick on heels of Super Smash Bros. Brawl, don’t you think?

This looks to be a busy year for Nintendo’s Wii offerings with Wii Fit looming barely three weeks later on May 19. Nintendo has yet to announce their first party releases for the second half of the year leaving us pondering: Just what do they have up their sleeve? We’ve already seen an appearance by Metroid, Mario, Mario Kart, Mario Party, and a Zelda. It is much too early to see sequels popping up. Personally, I’d love to see the beautifully 3D rendered model of Pit from Super Smash Bros. Brawl show up in his own action game. Maybe it’s time for Yoshi or Kirby to show up to the party.

Via ArsTechnica.com