Wii Minute Radio - Winter 2009 Edition 2x01 is here!

**BydoEmpire** · 02-06-2009, 11:51 AM

Good show, I like the mini reviews and the intro commentary. If the show is going quarterly I think having more (mini)reviews and less news makes a lot of sense, since the news could be months out of date already. The news summary in this show was perfect just to get up to date with the headlines, but without spending too much time w/ details.

**alexjlopez** · 02-06-2009, 01:40 PM

Originally Posted by BydoEmpire

Good show, I like the mini reviews and the intro commentary. If the show is going quarterly I think having more (mini)reviews and less news makes a lot of sense, since the news could be months out of date already. The news summary in this show was perfect just to get up to date with the headlines, but without spending too much time w/ details.

Thanks Bydo, I was thinking along the same lines. I agree, spending too much time on outdated news doesn't make a whole lot of sense.

**Nicko68** · 02-06-2009, 04:40 PM

Originally Posted by alexjlopez

Both Guitar Hero: World Tour and Rockband 2 are fine games (they were nominated, after all). My reasoning for choosing Wii Music over them along with Rock Revolution and Samba De Amigo is as I mentioned on the show; Wii Music was the only music game in 2008 for Wii with an original idea. Guitar Hero, Rockband, and now Rock Revolution are all clones of themselves and of each other. Doesn't mean they're not good games, I would have probably picked one of them for Music Game of the Year in 2007, but I enjoyed what Wii Music had to offer this year more than I did the others. It really does deserve more recognition that it's gotten.

I can understand. I guess the reason I think GH and RB are so important is that I feel they really pushed the Wii in terms of technology and the Wii store. They paved the way for downloadable content stored on the SD card (I think Activision may have been the ones who initiated this with Nintendo). They did what Wii naysayers said couldn't be done on the Wii (on the GH and RB forums people were saying "I'll believe it when I see it", "Activisoin has a track record of lying", "if you want dlc get a real console", etc. etc). I agree with you about Samba De Amigo, the controls are iffy. And nobody takes Rock Revolution seriously.

**alexjlopez** · 02-06-2009, 05:49 PM

Originally Posted by Nicko68

I can understand. I guess the reason I think GH and RB are so important is that I feel they really pushed the Wii in terms of technology and the Wii store. They paved the way for downloadable content stored on the SD card (I think Activision may have been the ones who initiated this with Nintendo). They did what Wii naysayers said couldn't be done on the Wii (on the GH and RB forums people were saying "I'll believe it when I see it", "Activisoin has a track record of lying", "if you want dlc get a real console", etc. etc). I agree with you about Samba De Amigo, the controls are iffy. And nobody takes Rock Revolution seriously.

I suppose I should clarify my "half-baked" comment with regards to GH: World Tour's DLC solution. I made the comment during the announcement of the nominees and winner of the "One Small Step for Wii" award, which GH: World Tour was nominated for, but EA's "EA Online" Service took the award.

I actually agree with you that the SD card solution was a response to a limitation imposed by Nintendo, not by the developers. But in the end, they only took it as far as Nintendo would allow them to.

In EA's case, they didn't stop at Nintendo's limitation of online play requiring friend codes. They put up their own money and created an online service where one login and password allows online access to EA's entire library of online Wii games--the closest thing we have to a gamertag on Wii today. They could have easily settled for the friend code foolishness, but they had higher standards and delivered something Nintendo hasn't wanted or been able to so far.

Now, if Guitar Hero World Tour had come with some kick-ass USB device that provided true storage rather than just a preview of something Nintendo intended to deliver eventually anyway, then I would have been really impressed.

But hats off to them on their accomplishment either way--like I said, being nominated is a nod of approval as far as I'm concerned. But only one game could win each category.

**WorknMan** · 02-08-2009, 06:30 PM

Hey, I dig the show and the commentary was bitchin'. Sounds like what we need is a gaming resource geared toward casual gaming in gneral (you seem to take offense to that term, but the 'mainstream gaming' you speak of really is casual gaming). Perhaps some of you who have a passion for this stuff should get together and create such a resource... I mean, an entire site dedicated to 'non-hardcore' gaming

In regard to Wiiware, I hope you'll expand coverage of titles such as 'Jungle Speed', which don't seem to get talked about much, except when sites like Giantbomb take time out of their podcast to laugh at them. Even if you don't purchase and/or play them yourself, it would be nice to hear any impressions you have heard about these games in general.

**alexjlopez** · 02-08-2009, 06:50 PM

Originally Posted by WorknMan

Hey, I dig the show and the commentary was bitchin'. Sounds like what we need is a gaming resource geared toward casual gaming in gneral (you seem to take offense to that term, but the 'mainstream gaming' you speak of really is casual gaming). Perhaps some of you who have a passion for this stuff should get together and create such a resource... I mean, an entire site dedicated to 'non-hardcore' gaming

In regard to Wiiware, I hope you'll expand coverage of titles such as 'Jungle Speed', which don't seem to get talked about much, except when sites like Giantbomb take time out of their podcast to laugh at them. Even if you don't purchase and/or play them yourself, it would be nice to hear any impressions you have heard about these games in general.

Thanks man, glad you enjoyed the show.

The thing with the term "casual" for me is that I think it's a term that is more appropriately used when describing a game, not a gamer. Sure gamers may lean toward one type of game more than another, but I think it's a lazy point of view to want to stamp every gamer's forehead with either the word "casual" or the word "hardcore". It's a lot more complicated that that, IMO. And lets face it: today's typical game journalist is more gamer than journalist, so easy explanations for concepts they can't relate to are conveniently embraced.

As far as WiiWare is concerned, like most Wii owners, I'll feel a lot more comfortable buying more titles than I currently do once the curtain is lifted on the forthcoming storage firmware update. If it makes DLC easier to use, I'll probably buy more. If it's still a hassle, I'll probably stick to a select few hits and experiment less with the service.

Funny you should mentioned Jungle Speed--I'm intrigued by the game after reading Cassamasina's review on IGN which was surprisingly upbeat (he gave it an 8.0) considering the whining IGN has been doing over the past few months about casual games. The only reason I haven't made the leap yet is based on his statement that while the game is great fun with friends, it's not so much a good single player experience. Here's the IGN review. If anyone here in community has played it, I'd be interested in hearing impressions.

**WorknMan** · 02-08-2009, 06:58 PM

Originally Posted by alexjlopez

As far as WiiWare is concerned, like most Wii owners, I'll feel a lot more comfortable buying more titles than I currently do once the curtain is lifted on the forthcoming storage firmware update. If it makes DLC easier to use, I'll probably buy more. If it's still a hassle, I'll probably stick to a select few hits and experiment less with the service.

Yeah, but you do a Wii podcast, so there should be more of an Incentive for you personally to download and play these games

IMHO, the podcast would be better if you were to review the games that nobody has ever heard of before, rather than to concentrate mainly on the same titles that everybody else is reviewing. There's no demos for Wiiware, and you can't rent 'em either (unless something has changed that I don't know about), so reviews of this nature would really be worthwhile. That is what made DSR a good resource, because they reviewed games that were 'off the beaten path'. Hell, you may run into the occassional AAA title that everybody else missed.

I look at Giantbomb the same way - you notice for the most part, the only games they review are the obvious, 'must have' titles like Fallout 3 and Gears of Bore 2, when you know these games are going to be good to begin with. (Well, at least good according to their standards anyway.)

**alexjlopez** · 02-08-2009, 07:11 PM

Originally Posted by WorknMan

Yeah, but you do a Wii podcast, so there should be more of an Incentive for you personally to download and play these games

IMHO, the podcast would be better if you were to review the games that nobody has ever heard of before, rather than to concentrate mainly on the same titles that everybody else is reviewing. There's no demos for Wiiware, and you can't rent 'em either (unless something has changed that I don't know about), so reviews of this nature would really be worthwhile. That is what made DSR a good resource, because they reviewed games that were 'off the beaten path'. Hell, you may run into the occassional AAA title that everybody else missed.

I look at Giantbomb the same way - you notice for the most part, the only games they review are the obvious, 'must have' titles like Fallout 3 and Gears of Bore 2, when you know these games are going to be good to begin with. (Well, at least good according to their standards anyway.)

Absolutely, and I do try to review the games no one is playing for the most part. That really is what I'd like to accomplish with the show, and for the most part I don't think I've reviewed any Nintendo first-party games, expecting that people will already know they will be good without my review. I pulled the trigger on World of Goo in the first few days it launched, it's just I haven't had a show in a while hehe. And having reviewed others like Wild West Guns, I think I've given WiiWare a good amount of attention.

I'd love more than anyone for Nintendo to make it easier to be a WiiWare customer, but I'm just being honest on this one hehe.

But point taken--you can bet I will continue to closely scrutinize each weekly WiiShop release and will share any gems I may come across.

**Nicko68** · 02-09-2009, 09:16 AM

Originally Posted by WorknMan

Yeah, but you do a Wii podcast, so there should be more of an Incentive for you personally to download and play these games

He does a FREE podcast, and it's not only download and play these games, but you forgot to mention the 'pay' part. Maybe he needs to think about adding a PayPal donation button on his site.

**alexjlopez** · 02-09-2009, 09:33 AM

Originally Posted by Nicko68

He does a FREE podcast, and it's not only download and play these games, but you forgot to mention the 'pay' part. Maybe he needs to think about adding a PayPal donation button on his site.

Hehe, nah, I never did like the whole donation concept. The way I see it, I'm going to be buying a good amount of games anyway.

Now if a publisher or developer wanted to send me a review copy, I'd certainly take it hehehe.