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On the one hand, I would never voluntarily do any sort of fitness or exercise activity if it wasn't play-monetized as it is in Wii Fit. I know it's not exactly the same as a gym membership, but when I'm staring at the TV and holding a Wiimote, twisting myself around like an idiot doesn't feel so bad.
On the other hand, I'm not totally sure about the effectiveness or accuracy of the game for practical exercise. Since I started playing (which, so far, has consisted just of doing my Body Test) I've allegedly gained weight at a somewhat alarming pace. I have trouble believing that I actually gained five pounds between yesterday morning and yesterday evening.
So, it's kinda fun, and I think I am getting at least something out of it in terms of general fitness. But I am as-yet unconvinced that it is capable of transforming me into a healthy person.
The controls are sloppy and frustrating. The level design is confused and boring. The graphics are mediocre. The music sucks. The gesture recognition sucks. The "story?" Sucks.
That's about everything. Everything about this game sucks.
I feel like I just kicked the shit out of Goliath with a slingshot. Those Free Mode puzzles were like an amazing challenge and a fantastic burden at once - now I'm free.
I tried this out the other day, and the difficulty really took me by surprise. I was expecting to be able to put on a disguise and waltz through the Sicilian mafioso mansion without much trouble - but the flunkies were able to see through my stolen suit, and started firing.
Now, the cool thing about Hitman is that there's usually some freedom in terms of how much you sneak and how much you shoot. But I figure I should be good enough to stealth through at least the first mission effectively. I'll definitely be trying this again, when I have the composure and concentration for it.
I've been dicking around with GTA4 at a friend's place, and driving into pedestrians and blowing up police cruisers is a shit-ton of fun. What GTA4 does right is taking the core features of GTA3 and enhancing them with stuff like a new physics engine and new AI features. But what GTA4 gets wrong is that the rest of the game - missions, a storyline, tertiary features - have not evolved at all. Some have de-volved, in fact. Crap like watchable TV channels sound nice on paper, but in a video game it's really just a waste of resources.
I'll probably pick it up when I snag a 360 of my own, but it's not enough to sell the system for me.
Oni has mediocre concepts, and a terrible implementation (and even worse voice acting). I might come back to it if it's short enough to finish in a sitting or two.
I'll say it again - the multiplayer in Mario Kart Wii is phenomenal, and is sure to be a hit with parties. But once you've played the new courses enough to find out how cool they are, single-player becomes the same boring venture you'vealreadyplayed. I'm really not motivated enough to keep getting gold cups and star rankings to get the rest of the game's unlockables, even though there are a ton of them.
Two and a half hours in, it's over. Of course I expected it to be short, and I can count the number of memorable puzzles/in-game events on one hand; but LostWinds felt a lot more fulfilling than I expected a downloadable adventure game to be.
You can read the game's prologue on Frontier's website. Here's the rest of the story:
Early on, Toku and Enril meet Deo, an elder in Toku's village who's taking care of the brat while his mother's away. Enril immediately recognizes Deo as one of her kindred ancient spirits. But it seems that he has spirit-amnesia, and he doesn't remember his own identity - until Toku and Enril find a Memory Chest, which unlocks part of Deo's power. Deo recalls that he sealed his own memories away in order to protect the stone prison. So Toku and Enril have to go on a quest to find the other three Memory Chests. Great!
After unlocking the fourth chest, Deo recalls that he entrusted his spirit power to a guardian of the earth, Magmok. So he goes to call upon Magmok for his power. But, whoops, Magmok's been possessed by Balasar's evil little black-goo minions. A boss fight later, Magmok recovers, restores Deo's powers, and - To Be Continued!
LostWinds looks to have a really respectable engine going, that could definitely generate a great sequel with the right polish and more attention to content. There is a surprising amount of action possible in the game that isn't directly documented or necessary. But stuff like the plot, and dialog, could use work. And I could really use a map and/or in-game signs with place names.
I've read that collecting all the hidden totems doesn't accomplish anything, so I'll be holding off on that. But who knows? I may play the whole thing over again sometime.
Until I get a new DS game, I've decided to pick up Picross again for not-at-my-TV downtime. When I put the game down a few months back, I had just finished Normal Mode, meaning that now all I've got is Free Mode - which is supposed to be harder, but I actually find it more relaxing. In Normal mode I was always getting penalties for a slip of the stylus, and getting all tense when I realized I had drawn myself into a mistake; but in Free mode, more often than not, I catch up to and correct minor errors by the puzzle's end with no real detriment.