With the influx of light-gun shooter games being released recently, Wii gamers around the world can finally rejoice that we can actually make good use of all these light gun attachments that are available. I stated before that general design of the Wii and the wii-mote itself makes for a very versitile game system, allowing for more immersive and interactive gameplay - especially for light gun shooter games. Now is the time to enhance the experience a little more with bountiful number of attachments that are available.

Among the light gun games available right now include : Resident Evil : Umbrella Chronicles, Link’s Crossbow Training, Ghost Squad, and in an included special mode with Medal of Honors Heroes 2. The granddaddy of arcade light gun shooter, “House of the Dead” has also been reported to be coming to the Wii in the near future. Not to mention that some gamers has even been playing games such as Metroid Prime 3, and Resident Evil 4 with light gun attachments (although I’m not quite sure how).

I have yet to actually try out a light gun attachment myself, but is definitely looking forward to trying one out in the near future. In the mean time, let us examines the ones that are available now.

The Wii Zapper

This is the official light gun wii-mote attachment from Nintendo themselves. Shigeru Miyamoto states that the concept for this attachment was formed when the wii-mote was created. Unfortunately Nintendo couldn’t get it out faster than the other 3rd party peripheral makers. The Wii Zapper is named in reference to Nintendo’s first light gun, the NES Zapper. Original designs in 2006 showed the Wii Zapper to resemble more of a shot-gun type shape attachment, rather than sub-machine design of its finalized state. The setup would require the player to use two hands to hold the Wii Zapper, but since most players are more likely to hold the num-chuck in their dominant hand and the trigger with the other would lead to a very awkward experience.

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As you all know, Mario Galaxy has been one the Wii’s most anticipated titles. After the somewhat ill-received Super Mario Sunshine released, many were still left with that void in their hearts that needed to be filled with classic Mario platforming, something that was rare in Sunshine. Now that Mario Galaxy has released, we can all take joy in knowing that Mario is back and better than ever.

The game starts out at a nighttime festival around the beautifully rendered Peach’s castle. You gain control of Mario and walk around the festival enjoying the beautiful atmosphere, that is, until Bowser rides in on his airship and rips Peach’s castle and its foundation off of the groud and blasts off with it into space. Mario, being the hero he is, tries to save Peach and jumps onto the castle’s foundation before it is ripped off. This doesn’t work too well as Mario is knocked into space by one of Bowser’s baddies. That is where the adventure really begins.

Gameplay:

Mario Galaxy is a classic 3-D Mario game at heart, but with a new twist, you  are in outer space. The outer space theme is very welcome as it offers gameplay that has never been done before while keeping the classic Mario platforming. On your
quest to save the Princess, you will be adventuring through outer space on small planets, big planets, and sometimes by drifting through space using the Wiimote pointer as your guide. Another element that really makes exploring the game’s 40+ galaxies a lot of fun is the return of Mario’s suits, which really add to the variety of gameplay. The development team did a great job at creating unique levels and challenges for Mario to use his 7 new suits on.

There are some interesting ways to use the Wiimote in Galaxy, all which work perfectly.

The most important gameplay factor though is the fun factor of the game. I am glad to say that this is the most fun game I have played in a long time. Never have I seen such an amazingly beautiful, yet amazingly fun, platformer. The game completely draws you in and doesn’t let go. Controlling Mario is a blast, and seeing Mario soaring across the sky after firing off a sling star for the first time is one of those great gaming moments that you’ll never forget.

10/10 

Controls:

If there ever was a perfect control scheme for the platforming genre, this would be it. It controls exactly how you would expect Mario to control. The two new additions to the controls is the ability to do a mid-air spin by shaking the Wiimote or Nunchuk, and the ability to pick up star bits by pointing the Wiimote at them. Both of these actions feel surprisingly good to perform, and they really do add to gameplay.

Mario uses some of his new moves while fighting bosses.

If I had to choose something to complain about though, it would be the camera. Even though the camera usually keeps everything you need to see in perfect view, there are times when you need to adjust the camera yourself. This wouldn’t be an
annoyance, but the thing is, you can’t always control the camera. There are a few times when you want to turn to see something, but the game won’t let you. This tiny control issue doesn’t really hurt the game overall, but it does become bothersome at times.

9.5/10

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New Trailer

New York City gameplay trailer

“A tiny bit of extremely rare insight into Nintendo’s Virtual Console sales status was provided today at a press conference held in Tokyo by Nintendo and NTT to formalize their upcoming business tie-up for Internet service.

Anyone out there want to try extrapolating estimates on per-game downloads based on the two figures?” - IGN

If only Nintendo had an offcial VC sales stats on the VC main page. Along with each game on the game’s page. At least put a download tracker so we can see whats popular and whats not.

Xbox 360 - $218 million
PS2 - $73m
Wii - $59m
DS - $47m
Mobile - $37
PSP - $21m
PS3 - $17m

Link

Released on November 13 in the US, the latest incantation of the horror-fest genre made it’s way into the homes of many eager Wii gamers looking for something else besides the happy family friendly offerings of the Wii. Resident Evil : Umbrella Chronicles struck a chord with many Resident Evil fans when it was announced several months ago that it was going to be a light-gun rail shooter. Many folks did not take the news too well, others like me were curious to hear more about it, while others just totally hated the game and concept before it was even released. Nonetheless, love it or hate it, the game is has arrived and interestingly enough, turned out to be everything I expected it to be.

Umbrella Chronicles was a title that confused a lot of folks at first, since the title does not seem to designate a brand new Resident Evil game. And in a sense, it really isn’t, but then again, it sort of is. Umbrella Chronicles is a somewhat short summarization (if thats even a real word) of 4 different Resident Evil games from the past that deals with the downfall of the Umbrella Corporation - hence we get the title “Umbrella Chronicles”. The game begins with the familiar train level scene from the Game Cube’s RE:Zero, continues on in the famous mansion the remake of Resident Evil 1, then glides along the areas in RE:2 and RE:3 Nemesis, then finishes off in a brand new level in Umbrella’s facility. But sadly, no scenes from RE4 like everyone was hoping. Characters you get play as include : Chris Redfield, Jill Valentine, Rebecca Chambers, Billy Coen, Carlos Oliveira, Ada Wong, HUNK, and Albert Wesker. Nope no Leon Kennedy folks.

How can anyone get tired of that lovely face?

So by now if you been following this game at all, then you would know that Umbrella Chronicles is not your typical survival-horror adventure (or in RE4’s case, survival action) game but takes a new twist in that it is a light gun on-rails shooter game. The thought that Capcom decided to go this route is outrageous to some fans, but ironically its not the first. What many don’t know is that Capcom has been experimenting with light-gun games in the RE genres for a while now such as Resident Evil: Survivor, and the Resident Evil: Dead Aim series. But Umbrella Chronicles to my knowledge, is the first to make a more noticeable impact.

The configuration of the Wii itself already makes it perfect for light gun games. Aside from the typical wiggle waggle you can do with the wii-mote, you can also point and aim. Thus resulting in a perfect control setup for a light gun shooter, which is possibly why Capcom chose to “experiment” their first Wii game as a light gun shooter game. When I first heard Capcom was going to do this, the first thought that popped into my head was WTF? But then I realized that this would in most case resemble the arcade light gun hit “House of The Dead”, which then I thought it may actually be a good thing after all. So what did I think of it? Well lets begin, shall we…

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