- 7:08 PM - Starting a Wii Ajax battle game

Once I get hold of a Wii (hopefully on Wednesday), I am going to start on an online Ajax battle game for it. The game will be multiplayer and I intend for it to have lots of nice 2D art to go with it.

The basic format is a turn-based fight between 2 characters, with some additional fun with the Wiimote (anything seems to be possible). I have a few nice ideas I'd like to put into it, but I need lots of help.

Firstly, and most importantly, I'd need a competent (that means "quite good") 2D artist of any variety. What I'm going to need is lots of sprites - characters, weapons, effects, the works. The same goes for sound: I'm also going to need some awesome sounds to put into it. Finally, someone who's half-decent at web design and templates.

It's probably most comparable to Final Fantasy. In fact it's probably exactly the same, except it will be done on the web and primarily designed for the Wii (but accessible from other browsers?)

Anyways, if you've got anything to offer, drop me a line at: personal at greg dot hughes dot name. If you can't be bothered e-mailing me, drop by on irc.incgamers.com, my nick there is Flukes.

Also, note to eXonyte: thanks for getting my password back!

- 3:39 PM - Also posting from my Wii

Typing sucks with the Wiimote.

- 8:10 PM - Hi from Wii land!

I'm posting this from my Wii right now. Isn't that great? :D

- 2:08 AM - Pump it Up videos coming soon

I doubt anyone that cares about the videos is actually paying attention to this site, but my camera spontaneously started working with my computer again, so I'll be pulling together all of the videos I've been meaning to post over the next week.

- 12:32 PM - We have a Wii!

Our local GameStop got in 3 Wiis yesterday. Actually, 3 Wiis, 6 PS3s, 3 Black DS Lites, and 3 White DS Lites. Anyway, my mom got there at 6:30am (they open at 10:00am) to find herself third in line.

Three hours later, bam! Wii.

Can't touch it until Christmas. But I already have the component cables hooked up and ready to plug in. 480p, whee.

- 1:15 PM - A polite request to all selling Wiis for double/triple value

**** ********. I got a letter today stating I wouldn't be getting mine due to "unprecedented interest" - £179.99 says that mine will be on eBay, tommorow morning, being sold by some greedy ****.

Censored by me; yes, I was rather angry.

- 9:15 AM - The only thing that sucks about Nintendo...

There will be no:
Donkey Kong Country
Conker's Bad Fur Day
Banjo-Kazooie
Banjo-Tooie
Perfect Dark
..or any other Rare game on the Wii. :(

Unless, of course, Nintendo has some contracts with Rare that Rare must fulfill in order to not be sued... But the games would probably suck under this condition.

- 11:28 PM - Emerging from the Twilight

So I finished Zelda tonight, after almost 50 hours of playing. I don't think I've ever felt as satisfied at the end of a Zelda game as I did with this one. None of the bosses were truly difficult, but many of the puzzles shined. I would say more, but I don't want to spoil anything for anyone who hasn't finished/played it yet.

- 1:17 AM - Oh yeah

Just to not let the Wii dominate the front page completely anymore... the new Bond movie is actually quite good.

- 2:46 AM - Wii mini reviews

Well, after a day of playing, here's my impressions.

Wii:
The whole channels thing works well with the remote. It's amazingly accurate. As a nice little detail, if you rotate the Wii controller in your hand, the on-screen pointer rotates accordingly. There's also this pleasant chiming piece of background music through most of the time. If only the Internet Channel was ready...

Mii Channel:
A fun little touch. Already created Miis for myself, a friend, and a cousin.

Wii Sports:
Definitely the first Wii party game. Bowling is amazing. I find myself playing exactly as I do in real life, which happens to be not very good. Golf is fun too, though very simplified. Tennis is tennis without having to worry about moving around. Boxing is interesting, but I need to try it two-player. Baseball is another very simplified, just pitch and hit. Simple, but not a bad first Wii experience.

Red Steel:
Admittedly, I didn't play it much today. In the short time I did play it, I found that the menu system could be improved. It features drag-and-drop simply for the sake of having it, which is stupid. Once you get in-game though, it's much better. It's actually fairly easy to get pretty accurate with the Wii controller doing the aiming. Nintendo has apparently grown up a bit, because Ubisoft managed to get some profanity in to the game. Hearing enemies yell "shit!" when you sneak up and start blasting just works out. It sounds funny having them call you a bastard for some reason. That's ok though, because the squishy noise when you hit a headshot makes up for it.

Trauma Center:
If you haven't played it, you should. It's basically an action puzzle game with a decent storyline, fast paced gameplay, and an anime coating. I hear it's basically a remake of the DS version, but there's enough in the Wii version to make it the better one for sure.

Zelda:
What can I say? It's Zelda. The Wii controller works out great with the sword and for aiming things. The cinematics are done quite well as well, even better than OOT.

Anyways, I'm going to bed now. If you have any specific questions about the games I mentioned, or about the Wii itself, just ask. I'll do my best to answer them.

- 9:59 PM - Wii revisited

So, I'll be getting my Wii on in a matter of hours. I swear, this is the worst part of a new console: The wait.

In other news, the icing on the cake for my hatred of the PS3 was revealed today: Apparently it's even more sensitive to breakdowns than the 360 was at launch. Even the in-store demo units are failing at a high rate.

- 1:19 AM - Firefox 2 Released

Again duping the news of other sites, Firefox 2.0 is available. You can get it from the usual place. It'll be delivered via auto-update within the next few days.

- 1:55 PM - Good thing I didn't want a PS3 anyway

After Sony starts playing this kind of bull, I'm now even less interested in the PS3.

To anyone out there that still wants a PS3 with all of the crap Sony has been pulling lately:

I hope you die.

- 7:23 PM - Someone's got issues at IGN.

It seems Nintendo stepped on Matt Casamassina's toes, after reading his article about some of Wii's wins and losses. Regarding the lack of HD and digital sound output, he says this:

Everybody? I have to disagree there. I don't know a single person who is actually using the optical output on their DVD player, PS2, or XBox. This includes people with multiple-thousands of dollar HDTV + Surround Sound systems.

Other than that, I agree with most of his article, but I have to poke at his comments about the pricepoint, labeling it "decidedly un-mainstream" and "deceptive". He's apparently forgetting that every Nintendo console has launched at a similar price, including the original NES ($249, including ROB, $199 without). Taking inflation in to account, $250 is not a bad price at all considering it actually has a pack-in game. Its competitors don't even come with a demo disc!

Anywhose, we've got one more month to go before reaping the Wii goodness. I know I'm looking forward to it.

- 1:14 PM - Wii preorder fun

EBGames and GameStop started taking preorders today for Wii. By now, the majority of them are claimed.

I ended up number 6 on the list out here. They must've either opened a little early or taken some last night, because I got there at opening time and there was only one person in front of me.

Considering the chance of this store getting at least 6 at launch is pretty good, I'll be Wario Wareing my heart out come November 19th.