Once again, many games just don’t get the attention they deserve. Although these games may not have suffered completely from poor sales, I believe they could have received more love if they were only released on a different console.

Flow
If you have played the Flash version of the Flow, you’ll know where I’m coming from. This game screams Wii controller. You can also add newer features to the game by adding extra motion gestures. Additionally, you could elaborate and create a four person multi-player feature.

Viva Piñata
Isn’t it obvious? The majority of the XBox community shunned this poor title based on it’s bright colors and happy-go-lucky feel. The idea of Viva Pinata is to raise and attract many new pinatas in your garden. You spend time feeding them, breeding them and watching them fight. Sound familiar? Putting this game on a Nintendo system would have been a natural choice if it weren’t for the disputes between Rare and Nintendo. There are already millions of people familiar with this kind of game, who just “gotta catch ‘em all!” Lastly, Nintendo fans aren’t afraid of bright colors, rainbows, and fluffy things that just don’t make any sense whatsoever. (more…)

According the the June issue of Nintendo Power, Sonic Unleashed will find Sonic returning to his roots. Unlike the more recent 3-D Sonic games, Sonic Unleashed will focus primarily on 2-D game-play. The camera angle will occasionally pan behind Sonic but most of the game-play will be a from a side view similar the original Sega Genesis games. Sonic Unleashed will be available for the PlayStation 3, Xbox 360 and the Nintendo Wii. Sega of America implies that the XBox 360 and Playstation 3 versions may be the same, but the Wii version will be significantly different. Naturally, the Wii version will have unique control scheme.

Nintendo announced the first Mario Kart Wii Online Tournament. Every few weeks, a new tournament will appear on the Mario Kart Channel. Different tournaments will have different rules. The official press release mentions some might ask players to race a certain course as fast as they can with specific characters, or to collect a number of coins on a course using the Wii Wheel or another certain control setup. You can attempt the test as many times as you like however, you will only be able to participate in this tournament till May 9th.

Sounds pretty interesting. Seems like they are handling this similar to the way they handle the Mii Channel, where Mii contests are posted occasionally.

Mario Kart Wii is a nice collaboration of many of the great ideas we’ve seen in many the previous versions. The slide boosting, drift boosting, battle mode, and all the classic arsenal like bananas and turtle shells. One of the best upgrades added to the Wii version is 12 player online racing. The game also allows a second player to play split-screen on the same console during these online matches. Unlike the Mario Kart DS, there are online battle modes and now with up to 8 players! (more…)

A ranter at techradar.com tends to sound dumbfounded in his article, by success of the Wii and why roughly 25 million people have purchased one. If you read many game site rants towards the Wii you can see the same pattern. Traditional gamers just don’t seem to understand the Wii’s success. In my opinion Nintendo has come up with an amazing business plan and it worked! As long ago as 2005, Satoru Iwata made it clear that they would focus on nontraditional gamers and go after the non-gamers or the parents of that gamer. Well turns out, Nintendo did Just that!

What does it take to attract a non-gamer? Well take a look at the Wii games current gamers are calling crap on the Wii. Take a hard look at their ugly faces and realize this is the face of success. Nintendo has found out what non-gamers like and are creating games to cater to them. This doesn’t mean Nintendo developers are not creating traditional games. However, It appears the “Hard-core gamer” doesn’t want to see these casual games at all. It seems in retaliation, game reviewers give these casual games very low rating scores and horrible reviews. There is enough evidence in sales to show how ineffective game reviews are on these casual games. For instance, look at the reviews or rankings of Carnival Games, Mario Vs Sonic, and Wii Play. These games have been very successful in sales.

The Nintendo bashing article here.

When I first started playing Baroque for the Nintendo Wii, I was excited to engulf myself in a hack and slash, rpg dungeon crawler. I grinded my way all the way to the bottom level of a tower that is consist of about 20 randomly generated floors. During my journey, I acquired some very nice gear and leveled up to 27. My sword was laced with an electric buff that caused electrical damage and usually gave me one hit kills. When I manage to get to the final floor I felt the usual grand feeling of accomplishment. After the FMV ended, I was sent back out of the tower to the ‘Outer World’ at level 1 with none of my gear and none of the attribute boosts I acquired. First response, “OMFG, WTF!!! What did I do wrong?” After reloading my save file 5 times and realizing no matter what I got the same results. After my frustration waned, I thought further about what this game could about. In the game, there are spheres that you can store up to 5 items. Then it hit me…”Wait a minute…I was meant to die! I was meant to die not once but many times! I played the game entirely wrong!” (more…)