PixlBit

I agree with your assessment Jason, this game has the potential to be something great, but all of its problems really hold it back.

There's one kind of major thing we forgot to discuss: loading screens. The game world is separated into 8-12 segments, with a quick load screen when traveling from one to another. This isn't an issue in itself, as I'm sure it helps keep the game running smooth. Where it becomes a problem, is when fighting a monster near the loading barrier. The monster can travel past that invisible wall, and then become impossible to attack. It is also too common to be knocked into the load barrier, and then enter another area. When returning, your character appears in the area before the loading finishes, and you can be hit before you have a chance to move, or even see the attack. It's yet another layer of frustration.

This game shares no more in common with Battalion Wars than any other third-person shooter. You only control the one soldier, you don't command or travel with any others.

This is disappointing. I guess this signifies the end of Mario Party.

Personally I think it is a bit late into the Wii market life for this game to have much impact. What this game needs to stand out from the literally hundreds of other minigame collections is the use of Wii Motion Plus. As far as I know, there aren't any that currently use it, and that is the only real way for them to come up with dozens of minigames that haven't already been done several times before. That would be the only way I'd be interested in this, as I have enough minigame collections as is. This reveal didn't mention it, so I'm guessing it won't use it.

It's kind of a missed opportunity. They're clearly pushing Wii Motion Plus as a standard, considering it is now packaged with all Wiimotes except white, and is now even included with the system itself. Yet there are so few games for it, and only Zelda is currently in the pipeline. By the time this game releases, everyone will either have four Motion Plus, or one for every Wiimote they have, or could easily get them. I mean sheesh, even now some people have more than four.

Nice try Jason. This is the last time I take one of your suggestions for an abstract.

There are quite a few shooters on the N64 that I enjoyed, besides the obvious Goldeneye and Perfect Dark. All four Turok games, Quake 1 and 2, Doom 64, 007 T.W.I.N.E., both Duke Nukem games, and I'm sure there are a couple I'm forgetting. You'll hear about these when I come to them.

Most games look better in screenshots than they do in action. Remember, you're viewing them on a high-resolution monitor. Stretch them out on a television screen at a resolution of 320x240 and they don't look so hot. Plus, the choppy animation makes them look worse than they actually are.

Trust me, I've played a few sports games in my time. There are others on N64 with better human models, some even released before this game. Heck, even Goldeneye has better models, and that's a game where I felt the characters needed more work.

I can't really say what the developers were going for with this game. My guess is that they wanted to inject a little lighthearted silliness to it, but the end product is a game stuck between realism and fantasy resulting in a mess. The power shots aren't just simple super-strength stuff either, there's one where the ball stops at the net, emits a blue swirl, then charges forward at an incredible speed.

Mario Tennis surprised me, I don't even like tennis. It's one I look forward to playing again when the time comes.

I'm actually tempted to get a black system at some point. I don't have Wii Sports Resort yet, plus I wouldn't mind having an extra system to use for homebrew. I don't trust it enough to modify my current system.

It could use a Classic Controller though, enough games now use it that it should be a pack-in.

Might be more interesting if the feature were called the male bag and people send in questions about why a guy's desire to be Superman shows up in virtually every videogame.

Leave something for me to say Jason! :P

He pretty much nailed it, but I'll give my quick thought anyway.

One reason I chose alphabetical is due to organization, as it is much easier to remember what I have played that way. It is also easier for people to browse through an alphabetized list.

I can't say I agree about people only caring about games they've heard of, but then again, I don't really know what people care about and aren't going to speak for them. I, myself, would be curious about unknown games for a system I like; they're my favourite ones to write about, because there isn't anything I can say about Banjo-Kazooie that no one else has said.

I have been discussing with the staff about the frequency of these articles. Ideally I would want to post them more often, but remember, this isn't my website, it is a multiplatform site focused on the current generation of systems. I can't post an entry every day like I could on my blog, though I never wrote enough to do that there anyway. It is my goal to write more regularly, though.

ExciteBots has no other forms of turbo that I'm aware of. You can earn stars (points) simply by drifting, but that's all.