Media Summit
– Most focus was placed on Wii Fit.

Wii Fit
– Was able to go through a variety of gameplay modes and put the game to the test. Does it work? It certainly does.
– Actually woke up feeling pretty sore the next morning after doing strength contests against Chobot, felt like he had actually done hard strength training.
– Chobot fell flat on her face during the push-ups.
– Wii Balance Board senses and calculates a lot of data. Very accurate.
– As a workout tool, the game is fantastic. The mini-games like the Ski Jump are great fun. The Ski Jump requires careful balance when sliding the slope, making an upwards motion onto your tippy toes for extra height, and still maintaining balance in the air. It’s challenging but really fun.
– Matt’s really feeling it and believes it deserves all the (massive) sales it has already gotten and will continue to get when it launches in Europe and USA.

Mario Kart
– Absolutely flawless online. Blew them away.
– The offline multiplayer drops the ball because it instantly drops to 30fps when splitscreen, and still manages to chug despite not being a very pretty engine. There’s also a lack of free-for-all battle mode.
– Also, the single player mode still hasn’t progressed in any real way. It’s still dull and there’s still flaws like rubber-banding.
– However, the online multiplayer is phenomenal. You go on and are paired up with as many people as possible (12 being the max).
– Had initial issues where he couldn’t connect to the Treehouse development people in Japan, but worked perfectly after that. Absolutely silky-smooth and a lot of fun to play. Lots of stats tracking. Makes the Mario Kart Wii experience.
– Wii’s premier online game.
– New media should hopefully be coming up soon.

Guitar Hero On Tour (DS)
– Eyes-on demo.
– If the demo is any indication, it should be a really hot game.
– Songs sound like the actual song, not covers.
– Plug the peripheral in the GBA slot. There’s a button for each finger. It looks like it should be pretty accurate. You could stroke any where and didn’t have to be on the strings. It’s not contextual to location, but rather to the motion. Looks like it works really well.
– Comes with power ups, such as the amp becoming too loud and not allowing you to hear the notes, or having to sign someone’s shirt before you can play again, etc.
– You can put your own artwork on the peripheral.
– It’s not going to replace Guitar Hero, but as a portable its really coming close to the console experience. It’s coming together very nicely.

Boom Blox
– Love it. One of their most anticipated Wii games.
– Basically Jenga with explosives, but it works so well.
– Over 400 levels, tons of different game modes and mechnanics.
– Also contains a level editor that works really well as well as a fantastic multiplayer mode.
– The physics in the game are really good. If you think you can do something, you most likely can.
– The different types of blocks all behave in their own ways (eg: skeleton blocks attack others) and you can create your own scenarios.
– Accurately measures the power of your shots – if you throw like a pansy, you’re not going to have much of an effect.
– It’s strategic but will also appeal to the casual crowd. You should really keep your eye on this.

Crosswords DS
– Should be on people’s radars.
– Really well put-together, extremely accessible and intuitive.
– Reminds them of the sudoku portions of Brain Age.
– Several hundred anograms and several hundreds word searches.
– Had all types of grids, and it can get really quite hard as you progress.
– The stylus controls work really well, however there are some gripes. For example, double-tapping should be zoom, rather than clicking on different on-screen icons. However, they are only minor gripes.
– Developed by NST.

Major League Eating
– The basic idea is to use waggle to put food in your mouth, then hit the B trigger to chew. You try to eat as much as you can, and if you miss the food and press B, you will bite your own tongue.
– There are also burp and fart mechanics, and food can build up until you vomit it out.
– Pretty crazy premise but overall it is very simple. Hopefully it will be $5 or less.

Sonic Chronicles
– Very early in its development. Feels really sketchy right now and clearly there is a lot left to do.
– Overworld is 2D whilst characters are 3D.
– Not random battles – you’ll see the enemies on-screen beforehand. A lot of the attacks have DS-centric controls during battles.
– Feels very slow right now – feels like an RPG game with Sonic characters. Visually it looks great but hopefully it all comes together. Sonic might seem strange in an RPG but Mario made it work great, so there’s a lot of potential here.

Samba De Amigo
– Good fun. Some people were having control issues but they thought it worked pretty well.
– Can play with Wiimote+Nunchuk or two wiimotes.
– Contains calibration to work out the radius of each player. Think that more games need to do this.
– The version they showed is still in pre-alpha. Graphically it looks nice (the style in the dreamcast game has really held up) but nearly all the effort right now is being put into the controls.
– No surprises. Exactly what you expect it to be.

Lost Winds
– Going to be one of the major WiiWare titles.
– Runs in 480p in widescreen, looks and sounds better than most retail games on Wii.
– Really interesting premise – control the character with the analogue stick and gain gust powers, which are used with the wiimote. You learn more of these throughout the game which you can combo to control the character, as well as give you special powers like fire and ice.
– Probably going to be $10, which is a bit disappointing given the game will only be around 3 hours long. But for what it is, it’s really good and definitely worth a purchase.
– The WiiWare launch may have underwhelming in Japan but it looks like it will be really strong in the US.

Final Fantasy Crystal Chronicles: My Life As A King.
– You control a kingdom, building houses, increasing the population, and send parties to do jobs for you.
– The characters look like Crystal Chronicles but that’s where the similarities end.
– It’s a bit weird and underwhelming telling the parties what to do as opposed to actually being them.
– Unsure as to whether there is much of a story in the game.
– Hoping the core game mechanic is enough to validate the high price tag.

Strong Bad’s Cool Game for Attractive People
– Point-and-click adventure from TellTale Games.
– You can now read a Q&A with the creators of the game.
– It’s going to be a real Strong Bad experience. It’s really funny and its original humour.
– Doesn’t look very pretty (lots of low-rex textures) which were probably hampered by the file restrictions on WiiWare, but there’s lots of great voice work which is a real positive.
– Coming out in June. Looks like it will come together nicely.

Rock Band
– Plays just like the PS2 version. Can play all the instruments, but doesn’t have a lot of the features of the 360/PS3 versions.
– Can’t create your own band, can’t customize, can’t go online, no downloable content, etc.
– To not only arrive late, but to also miss lots of content and come out at the same price, is a severe disappointment.

World of Goo
– Perfect for WiiWare.
– Was developed for a mouse (started on PC) but works extremely well with the remote.
– Has a great style and awesome physics. Would definitely pass for a retail game.
– Use the remote to manipulate these gooey balls and build them together to make objects like a bridge. You have to make sure you balance the objects and don’t allow them to topple over.
– Very simple premise but it all comes together very well.
– Should come out around July at a similar price point to games like Lost Winds. They’ll be watching the performance of games like Lost Winds to see how well they sell at that price point, and then make their final decision from that.

Pokemon Mystery Dungeon
– Same as the last one, except this one you can send notifications via wifi to your friends when you die, so they can come to your aid.

Space Invaders Extreme
– Awesome.
– Not slow and plodding like older Space Invaders games. Really fast paced, music is great, really short but intense stages, fantastic style and a really good combo system to earn great powerups.
– Really works well with the paddle control (a weighted knob which can be imported from Japan). It’s great on its own but its even better with the paddle. It’s disappointing that the paddle control is not being released in the US.
– There’s multiplayer in the game as well as leaderboards but you can’t use your paddle controller for these because it would be unfair to those who don’t.

My Weight Loss Coach
– Comes packaged with a pedometer. Pedometer results are wiped clean if let alone for 24 hours.
– Not like Wii Fit, more of a lifestyle game. Challenges require more of an honour system – for example, putting away your salt shaker for 24hours.

Reader questions
Q: Are you planning to go above 7.9 for Mario Kart Wii?
A: It should make it into the ‘Great’ category. The single-player is a let-down and the offline multiplayer should be better (though its still great), but the online is phenomenal.

Q: How does Mario Super Sluggers play?
A: Either it wasn’t ready for showing, or its just super gimmicky. It’s controlled with just one hand and its a complete waggle-fest. It looks like too many things are controlled through motion, and some motions appeared to not work properly in Bill Trinnen’s demo. Not impressed.

Q: Did you say wow at the summit?
A:
Good wow – Some WiiWare games, Guitar Hero DS and Boom Blox.
Bad wow – Super Sluggers.

Q: How do you feel about IGN UK giving Mario Kart Wii an 8.9?
A: Think it’s definitely too high but everyone entitled to their own opinion.

Q: What recent WiiWare announcements have peaked your interest?
A: World Of Goo and Defend Your Castle. World of Goo is awesome.

Q: Is any coverage of Tales of Symphonia coming out soon?
A: Yep. On tuesday, if all goes well some exclusive coverage will be on IGN.

Q: Thoughts on Sadness?
A: If Sadness comes out, they will re-think everything on life. Maybe there are aliens.

Q: Do you think Nintendo will focus more on holding the DS like a book?
A: Probably, maybe the next DS will be more contoured towards that style, since holding it that way was clearly not the original intention.

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