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Games Ex has beaten in 2016:

91. Wario World|GameCube|2003|platformer|4h 54m|5/10

Back in the GameCube days, Nintendo was comfortable farming their second tier franchises to trusted third parties for software development. So nobody could blame them for trusting Treasure to handle a Wario game. And thus, in 2003, Treasure gave us Wario World. A 3D platformer starring that loveable scoundrel Wario. The one thing I remember about its release thirteen years ago, was that in 2003 I was able to buy a new copy for less than $20. Wario Ware hit the bargain bins pretty fast.

Now I know why.


If you want health, you have to pay for it. And the price for health restoratives continuously increases. So does the price of continues.

On the outside Wario Ware looks decent enough. The graphics are passable (if bland), audio is sufficient (if uninspired), and the controls are tight (though at times ill conceived). At first glance, one could be forgiven for thinking Wario World to be the Wario equivalent of Mario Sunshine. But after spending an hour or two with the game, that lofty assumption quickly evaporates. Where Sunshine was continuously inventive, Wario World is tedious and incredibly formulaic. Where Sunshine was charming and intuitive, Wario World is monotonous and grating. Trading in imagination for sheer tedium, Wario World is a pale shadow of Mario's GameCube adventure.


These yellow balls make up 99% of the platforming gameplay.

Wario World only has eight levels. But those levels are extremely long, long enough to be three levels unto themselves. This is actually annoying when you've been playing a level for over thirty minutes, and you'd just like to save your game. You spend your time in these levels repetitively beating up the same old enemies (who get reskinned for each new level), and searching for enough crystals to open the exit gate at the end. The same core gameplay concepts in the first level, are repeated all the way to the end. If you like surprises in your platformers, forget it. Wario World's got one recipe and that's all it's cookin'.


Once in a while you get to do SOMETHING different, like run from elephants.

Wario World does have one saving grace; boss fights. We all know that Treasure is the world's best creator of epic boss fights. And even in a game as phoned in as Wario World, Treasure still kept up that aspect of their legacy. Boss fights in this game are truly fun, usually challenging, and always imaginative. The boss fights serve as a stark contrast to the bland nature of the rest of the game. At least here, Wario's beat 'em up moves actually make sense in a game like this. Honestly, I wish Wario World had just been a series of twenty or thirty boss fights. I would have had more fun with that actually.


Boss fights are fun. The rest of the game isn't.

I could type ten paragraphs explaining in minute detail all the bad game design in Wario World. I'll refrain, but I will complain about the one that bothered me the most. The attack button and dash button SHOULD NOT be the same button. Nothing like attacking on a platform, and then having Wario decide to dash instead and falling off, just because you held the attack button half a second instead of a quarter of a second. That kind of bone headed amateur hour design permeates this entire experience.


I'd say about $50,000 that Nintendo paid Treasure for this potboiler.

Less discerning gamers may find Wario World to be a fun time. Perhaps they could overlook the stuff that continuously bothered me. All I know is when I'm playing a Nintendo published platformer, I expect to have a smile on my face the whole time. With Wario World, I was usually just gritting my teeth and pushing myself to just have the damn thing over with. Yes there are great Wario platformers, I've beaten a few. Nintendo and Treasure have produced some amazing games together as well. But Wario World does not fit either description. Truly every time Wario exclaimed, "Have a rotten day!" I couldn't help but think he was actually talking to me.

Guess I'll stick with Shake-It and the Land's.

3D platformers are pretty yucky in general.

Hell, 3D games are pretty yucky in general.

I remember quite thoroughly enjoying Wario Land the past 2 or 3 times I've gone through it. I'll definitely have to go through it again soon, now. I must reconfirm how good that game may or may not be.

Metal Gear Rising: Revengeance



+ Ripping spines out feels great. You'd think the same animation being repeated over and over would get dull, but its fast enough to not grate, and it has good impact.
+ The bosses were all very good, both in design and mechanics.
+ The story was actually really interesting. Its simple, and lacks the weirdness of usual MGS titles (They make up for it occasionally in other areas though), but it still gave me a bit of thought.
+ The Parry and Dodge mechanics, while simple to execute, are still engaging and require some focus. Parrying some of the larger attacks feels great.
+Stealth was done pretty well. Most opportunities arise outside of ranked fights, so you don't have to fight a timer to try to get sneaky.
+ VR Missions. I love these. Different objectives requiring different approaches and playstyles, all based on time, leading to optimizing routes and strategies. Going for 1st Rank on these is insanely fun.
+ Music, character design*, and action scenes were all very fun.

~ So many unlockables. This is good and bad in my book. I like having a reason to keep going, and having weapons and armor to try out in different runs, or for different Files. But holy shit, this game really went crazy with the amount of unlockables.
~ The pacing was weird. The first 4 Files all feel pretty even, if maybe a touch long. The last 4 Files, however, are rapid-fire, and feel like they all together are about as long as a single file from the first half of the game. Not a negative, because it still kinda works out, but it just felt weird.
~ The game is rather easy on defaults. Its still engaging enough to not get boring, but coming from stuff like DMC and Bayonetta (Let alone NG), it felt like I was unstoppable after learning how to Parry. This isn't necessarily a bad thing, as the game still contains challenges, and it could be chalked up to familiarity with the genre, but I can also see it being a turn off for some.

-The camera. Its too close to the character most of the time, and unless I completely missed it, there is no lock-on feature. Its at best tolerable, and at times is infuriating.
-Actual melee combat, while impressive-looking, is really shallow. I never found a need to learn combos, since every move chains into something. Things like knock-ups or gap closers were never necessary.
-No training mode. This, combined with the game not even telling you how to do new moves you unlock, just escalates the fairly lackluster melee combat. I have no need to learn them, and on top of that, learning them in itself is a pain.
- * Your base lackies were fucking awful. Cliche, with no personality, and yet they insist on talking to you constantly as if they mattered. It would have been passable if they didn't have more dialogue than any other characters in the game.


Overall, I really enjoyed this game, and I'm glad I went back and gave it another chance. I still don't think it quite holds up to the best of the genre, but it does offer enough of its own thing to warrant a spot on the shelf for any 3D Action lover.

(I like the +, ~, - system, it lets me avoid actually having to write cohesively :V)

Games Beaten in 2016 So Far - 86

January (20 Games Beaten)


February (8 Games Beaten)


March (8 Games Beaten)


April (13 Games Beaten)


May (6 Games Beaten)


June (13 Games Beaten)


July (7 Games Beaten)


August (11 Games Beaten)


86. Kirby: Planet Robobot- 3DS - August 19


I know I'm posting this on the 20th, but I beat it lying in bed last night. Let me say up front that I'm not the world's biggest Kirby fan. I think his games are cute, and I enjoy them from time to time, but in general, I don't enjoy them the way most Nintendo fans do. With that said, Planet Robobot was okay. It wasn't great, though maybe "good" is a more apt description. It certainly never approached bad. But I found myself playing it to say that I beat it, not because I had an overwhelming urge, although I certainly didn't have to "force" myself to beat it.



Planet Robobot is your fairly standard Kirby affair - six worlds, each with five levels and a boss. For the most part, the bosses are really easy. The world 5 boss, IIRC, has two phases, and the only one that was really a challenge at all was the final boss - it has, I think, six phases. It's certainly not the relaxing cakewalk that Kirby's Epic Yarn was, but it's basically the next most laid back thing. I only died three times - once I jumped into a pit early on thinking it was a secret area (too much Mario, not enough Kirby), and I died twice at the final boss when I was trying to figure out attack patterns. Fortunately with the final boss, if you die, it starts you back at whatever phase you died on; if you die in phase 3, you restart at the beginning of phase 3 with full health, not all the way back at phase 1.



I never actually tried out the amiibo functionality, so I can't comment on that. I will say, however, that - as with all games IMO - the addition of giant, overpowered robots was a HUGE boon for this game. It's extremely satisfying to punch a Knuckle Joe in the face with a robot hand three times his size and send him flying into oblivion. There are also come cool shmup-esque level segments when you're in the robot with the jet power-up. Other than that, I really don't have a lot to say about it. If you're a fan of Kirby, I think you'll definitely enjoy it. If you're like me and just so-so on the series, it's an okay game - certainly not a waste of time - but it's not mind-blowing or anything.

Partridge Senpai's 2016 Beaten List
1. Tales of Vesperia
2. SNK Vs. Capcom Card Fighters Clash 2: Expanded Edition
3. Toro! Let's Party!
4. Sonic Chronicles: The Dark Brotherhood
5. Ghost Trick
6. Shining Force: EXA
7. Fire Emblem: Awakening
8. New Super Mario Bros. U
9. New Luigi U
10. Riviera: The Promised Land
11. (Dragon Quest) Mori Mori Slime 3
12. Sorcery Saga: Curse of the Great Curry God
13. Yoshi's New Island
14. Yoshi's Island (repeat)
15. Super Back to the Future II
16. Enslaved: Odyssey to the West
17. Binary Domain
18. Star Fox Assault
19. Chibi-Robo Park Patrol
20. Scurge: The Hive
21. Henry Hatsworth in the Puzzling Adventure
22. Yoshi's Woolly World
23. BOXBOY!
24. Majin and the Forsaken Kingdom
25. Mafia II
26. Gears of War
27. Halo 3
28. Tales of Graces f
29. Tales of Graces f : Lineages & Legacies
30. DeathSmiles
31. Dishonored
32. Dishonored: The Knife of Dunwall DLC
33. Dishonored: The Brigmore Witches DLC
34. Animal Crossing: amiibo Festival
35. Tales of Symphonia
36. Ninja Smasher
37. Samba De Amigo
38. Mario & Luigi 4: Dream Adventure
39. Alien on the Run
40. Resident Evil Revelations
41. El Shaddai: Ascension of the Metatron
42. Beautiful Katamari
43. Katamari Damacy

44. Crazy Construction (3DS)

Another simple but brilliant downloadable game from the madmen over at G-Style (of Alien on the Run fame).

This game is more or less Tetris with physics, with some extra nonsense thrown in. Weird and random (although usually themed) object drop down from the top screen onto the bottom screen. You need to rotate them so they land on the base without falling off of it or through it. If stuff falls off of it, the badness meter goes up, and if it hits the top before you finish the 5-stage block, then you lose! I never had a problem with that though, though I came very close once or twice, as depending on how many objects you stack up in a stage, the meter is lowered by a certain amount.

Dropping the pieces isn't all easy though. On the top screen of about every stage, there're all kinds of nasty storm clouds, mutant birds, torrenting winds, and black holes trying to take away your ability to guide them slowly down. If you hit one of these top-screen obstacles on the piece's way down, then it plummets to the bottom. Being that these are physics objects, it will usually SLAM into your pile, and usually knock something loose and mess up your beautiful stack. Additionally, on the 5th level, a member of the evil construction company will come to harass you, and this ranges from horrible stuff like really ramping up the drop speed or randomly picking a direction for your object to constantly turn, to reletively harmless stuff like locking your ability to turn the object, or giving you a series of annoyingly shaped objects.

The story doesn't need to be there, and is totally aware of it. It's completely off the wall, tropey and very very silly. It's just there for a laugh between stages, and it accomplishes that goal.

Verdict: Recommended. It's not of the quality of something like Alien on the Run, but if you want a fun, quick time-waster on your 3DS, this is a fantastic choice

1. Star Wars Rogue Squadron II: Rogue Leader (GCN)
2. Max Payne (XBOX)
3. Eternal Poison (PS2)
4. Dragon Warrior III (NES)
5. Arkanoid: Doh It Again(SNES)
6. Super Mario Brothers 2 (NES)
7. Phantasy Star Online (DC)
8. Power Stone (DC)
9. Bare Knuckle 3 (GEN)
10. Thousand Arms (PS1)
11. Paper Mario: The Thousand-Year Door (GCN)
12. Mega Man 5 (NES)
13. Ninja Gaiden (NES)
14. Star Wars: Knights Of The Old Republic (XBOX)
15. Mega Man 6 (NES)
16. Metal Saga (PS2)
17. Mafia (XBOX)
18. Parasite Eve (PS1)
19. Shining Force (GEN)
20. San Francisco Rush: Extreme Racing (N64)
21. Bushido Blade 2 (PS1)

I beat Bushido Blade 2 on the Playstation 1 this afternoon!

I am a big fan of the original Bushido Blade. My friend introduced me to it and I got it for myself and played through the entire game with every character. The way of the of the Bushido was a bit silly, but I was able to enjoy the entire experience. A realistic fighting game where you can kill enemies with one attack is an amazing concept. I also liked injuring my opponents, the authentic Japanese setting, great environments and unique cast of characters.

Bushido Blade 2 is really not that much of a difference. There are only a few slight changes that hardcore fans would notice. Blocking is much more automatic as it is much easier for your character to shun an attack than before. You can't injure your opponents fully as you can't hurt their legs whatsoever, but you can still make a single arm useless. The environments aren't as exciting as before as they look really blocky and pixelated. Also, there is no bamboo forest where you can chop trees down at your will. But, there is a much larger cast of characters, the story is very deep and confusing as all hell and the fighting seems to be more smoothly. If you like the first game, I highly recommend picking this game up!

Games Beaten in 2016 So Far - 87

January (20 Games Beaten)


February (8 Games Beaten)


March (8 Games Beaten)


April (13 Games Beaten)


May (6 Games Beaten)


June (13 Games Beaten)


July (7 Games Beaten)


August (12 Games Beaten)


87. Disaster: Day of Crisis - Wii - August 20


Disaster: Day of Crisis is a game that I'd been hunting on and off for a couple years. It's a Wii exclusive, and it's game that was never released in North America - both categories I LOVE collecting. A couple weeks back, JoeAwesome sent me a PM mentioning that he'd found a copy and asking if I wanted to buying it since he remembered that I'd been hunting it. Obviously, I said yes, and he gave me a good price, so this review is dedicated to Joe.



This game was not what I went into it expecting, and in this case, that's neither a good thing nor a bad thing. I expected a non-stop cheesefest on par with one of the greatest motion pictures of all time, Sharknado. It certainly had a bit of that B-movie cheese feel, but the game had much higher production values than I expected (although really, I should have expected high production values from a Monolith game, especially after Nintendo bought them). The basic premise of the game is that this one guy who works for his city's crisis management team has the shittiest day ever. First there's a CATASTROPHIC earthquake. Then that triggers a series of devastating tsunamis. Then there's a massive eruption from the volcano right by town. All this happens while he's trying to rescue his dead best friend's sister from some ex-Marine terrorists who stole nukes. Then the city he chases them to ends up being dead in the middle of the path of a category 5 hurricane. tl;dr this guy's day sucks ass.



Being a Wii exclusive, it obviously has some "waggle" controls, but (with a couple of notable exceptions I'll address later), they're not overdone, and they're well executed. The actual gameplay really nails keeping a nice variety. Most of the game is played out as a third person adventure game where you run around the area going to the next objective and rescuing any people you find along the way. When you encounter terrorists (who, for once, are neither Muslim nor Russian), it switches to an arcade light gun format. You can hold a button to hide behind whatever cover you're near and pop out to shoot the enemies when you feel the time is best, and you can use restorative items or switch weapons, but other than that, the controls are pretty standard light gun - you can't move, only shoot and reload. I was a little disappointed that it wasn't a more traditional cover based combat system at first, but the more fights I played, the more it REALLY began to grow on me.



There are also several driving segments, and these have you disconnect the Nunchuck and turn the Wiimote sideways. 2 accelerates, 1 is brake/reverse, and A is the handbrake. You steer by turning the Wiimote like a steering wheel. Normally I hate this control scheme because it very often doesn't work at all, but in this case, it works quite well. Not perfectly, but well enough for me to get a lot of enjoyment out of it. A couple of the later driving segments are also among the toughest stages in the game IMO. Controlling somewhat similarly to the driving portions are the underwater portions. You hold B to swim forward and use the Nunchuck stick to control where you're looking.



There are a few less-often used segments that I won't describe in much detail like sprinting away from whatever's trying to kill you or swimming towards whomever you're trying to save, but suffice it to say that in the gameplay department, Disaster has more than enough variety to keep things from getting stale.



Graphically, I was actually fairly impressed. It's not as gorgeous as, say, Super Mario Galaxy or Metroid Prime 3, but it's one of the more visually pleasing Wii games I've played, to be sure. The audio design is also pretty well done. The background music complements the mood of the game nicely without being distracting, a balance that a lot of games mess up by either being too intense or too bland.



The one biiiig gripe I have with the game is with the final boss fight. It's a two stage fight, and that's not too bad, especially considering that there's a checkpoint between the two phases, but the last phase is complete bullshit IMO. It's all QTEs. Now normally, I really like QTEs. I'm pretty good at them, and I just find them enjoyable (might be part of why I love Shenmue). The except to this are when gesture based inputs are used. Unless you're using Wii MotionPlus (which this game does not), I just don't think the standard Wiimote is accurate enough to base QTEs on gestures, ESPECIALLY when some of the parts are instant kills if you fuck up (and this fight has one of those). I probably died 10 times before I finally just lucked out and managed to beat it. It's the last boss, though, and the game is great otherwise, so that definitely isn't a deal breaker for me.



A bit of irony I found amusing is that the game takes place in the United States, the characters are all American, and the voice actors (as far as I know) are all American, but of the four major regions (Asia, Oceana, Europe, and North America), we were the only ones NOT to get a release of this game. That's a shame, too, because while I wouldn't say that this game is "amazing" or "groundbreaking," it's a damn good game, and it's a good exclusive for the Wii. A game doesn't have to redefine a genre or push the limits of hardware capability to be a good, worthwhile game, and that's how Disaster is. It's probably not going to show up on any "Best Wii Games" or "Top XX Wii Exclusives" videos, but it's a good game, and anyone collecting for the Wii would be remiss to pass on this one.

ElkinFencer10 wrote:Games Beaten in 2016 So Far - 87

January (20 Games Beaten)

1. Shadow Warrior - Playstation 4 - January 1
2. The Order: 1886 - Playstation 4 - January 2
3. Dead Rising: Chop Till You Drop - Wii - January 3
4. NyxQuest: Kindred Spirits - WiiWare - January 4
5. Hatsune Miku: Project DIVA F 2nd - Vita - January 5
6. Shadow the Hedgehog - Gamecube - January 9
7. Fairy Bloom Freeia - Steam - January 10
8. Petit Novel Series: Harvest December - 3DS - January 13
9. Gas Guzzlers Extreme - Steam - January 14
10. Muramasa: The Demon Blade - Wii - January 16
11. Project Zero 2: Wii Edition - Wii - January 19
12. Killzone: Liberation - PSP - January 20
13. Sin & Punishment: Star Successor - Wii - January 20
14. Kirby's Epic Yarn - Wii - January 24
15. Sakura Wars: So Long, My Love - Wii - January 25
16. Corpse Party - PSP - January 25
17. Freedom Planet - Wii U - January 25
18. Earth Defense Force 2: Invaders from Planet Space - Vita - January 25
19. Silent Hill: Homecoming - Xbox 360 - January 26
20. Life is Strange - Playstation 4 - January 28

February (8 Games Beaten)

21. Corpse Party: Book of Shadows - PSP - February 2
22. Megadimension Neptunia VII - Playstation 4 - February 12
23. Dr. Discord's Conquest - NES - February 13
24. Corpse Party: Blood Drive - Vita - February 17
25. If My Heart Had Wings - Steam - February 18
26. Missing: An Interactive Thriller - Steam - February 18
27. Her Story - Steam - February 18
28. Fire Emblem Fates: Birthright - 3DS - February 26

March (8 Games Beaten)

29. Saints Row 2 - Steam - March 1
30. Saturday Morning RPG - Playstation 4 - March 3
31. Fire Emblem Fates: Conquest - 3DS - March 6
32. Donkey Kong Country: Tropical Freeze - Wii U - March 8
33. Pokken Tournament - Wii U - March 20
34. Moe Chronicle - Vita - March 22
35. Tom Clancey's The Division - Playstation 4 - March 23
36. Yoshi's New Island - 3DS - March 28

April (13 Games Beaten)

37. Alien Rage - Steam - April 1
38. Alien Breed: Impact - Steam - April 2
39. Alien Breed 2: Assault - Steam - April 3
40. Alien Breed 3: Descent - Steam - April 3
41. Bravely Second: Ballad of the Three Cavaliers - 3DS - April 6
42. Quantum Break - Xbox One - April 7
43. Sonic Boom: Rise of Lyric - Wii U - April 8
44. Akai Katana - Xbox 360 - April 9
45. Otomedius Excellent - Xbox 360 - April 9
46. Chasing Dead - Wii U - April 10
47. Fire Emblem Fates: Revelation - 3DS - April 14
48. Ratchet and Clank - Playstation 4 - April 20
49. Starfox Zero - Wii U - April 23

May (6 Games Beaten)

50. Aero Fighters 2 - NeoGeo - May 8
51. Bravely Second: End Layer - 3DS - May 11
52. Uncharted: Golden Abyss - Vita - May 15
53. Doom - Playstation 4 - May 20
54. Uncharted 4: A Thief's End - Playstation 4 - May 22
55. Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles: Mutants in Manhattan - Playstation 4 - May 25

June (13 Games Beaten)

56. MegaTagmension Blanc + Neptune VS Zombies - Vita - June 2
57. Republique - Playstation 4 - June 3
58. Splatterhouse - Playstation 3 - June 4
59. Spec Ops: The Line - Playstation 3 - June 5
60. 1943: Battle of Midway - NES - June 6
61. Mirror's Edge: Catalyst - Playstation 4 - June 12
62. Fire Emblem: Mystery of the Emblem - SNES - June 13
63. Homefront: The Revolution - Playstation 4 - June 15
64. Gone Home - Playstation 4 - June 15
65. Double Dragon Neon - Playstation 3 - June 16
66. Vanquish - Playstation 3 - June 17
67. Epic Dumpster Bear - Wii U - June 20
68. B3: Game Expo for Bees - Wii U - June 21

July (7 Games Beaten)

69. Raiden V - Xbox One - July 16
70. Tokyo Mirage Sessions #FE - Wii U - July 16
71. Shin Megami Tensei: Persona 3 FES - Playstation 2 - July 23
72. Lost Sea - Playstation 4 - July 24
73. Far Cry Primal - Playstation 4 - July 27
74. Black - Playstation 2 - July 28
75. Until Dawn - Playstation 4 - July 31

August (12 Games Beaten)

76. Divine Sealing - Mega Drive - August 1
77. Gal*Gun: Double Peace - Playstation 4 - August 2
78. Valkyria Chronicles II - PSP - August 5
79. Breach and Clear - Vita - August 10
80. Eternal Darkness: Sanity's Requiem - Gamecube - August 12
81. Metal Gear Solid - Playstation - August 15
82. Hello Kitty Kruisers - Wii U - August 16
83. Monster Monpiece - Vita - August 17
84. Army Men: Major Malfunction - Xbox - August 17
85. Layers of Fear - Steam - August 18
86. Kirby: Planet Robobot- 3DS - August 19
87. Disaster: Day of Crisis - Wii - August 20

87. Disaster: Day of Crisis - Wii - August 20


Disaster: Day of Crisis is a game that I'd been hunting on and off for a couple years. It's a Wii exclusive, and it's game that was never released in North America - both categories I LOVE collecting. A couple weeks back, JoeAwesome sent me a PM mentioning that he'd found a copy and asking if I wanted to buying it since he remembered that I'd been hunting it. Obviously, I said yes, and he gave me a good price, so this review is dedicated to Joe.



This game was not what I went into it expecting, and in this case, that's neither a good thing nor a bad thing. I expected a non-stop cheesefest on par with one of the greatest motion pictures of all time, Sharknado. It certainly had a bit of that B-movie cheese feel, but the game had much higher production values than I expected (although really, I should have expected high production values from a Monolith game, especially after Nintendo bought them). The basic premise of the game is that this one guy who works for his city's crisis management team has the shittiest day ever. First there's a CATASTROPHIC earthquake. Then that triggers a series of devastating tsunamis. Then there's a massive eruption from the volcano right by town. All this happens while he's trying to rescue his dead best friend's sister from some ex-Marine terrorists who stole nukes. Then the city he chases them to ends up being dead in the middle of the path of a category 5 hurricane. tl;dr this guy's day sucks ass.



Being a Wii exclusive, it obviously has some "waggle" controls, but (with a couple of notable exceptions I'll address later), they're not overdone, and they're well executed. The actual gameplay really nails keeping a nice variety. Most of the game is played out as a third person adventure game where you run around the area going to the next objective and rescuing any people you find along the way. When you encounter terrorists (who, for once, are neither Muslim nor Russian), it switches to an arcade light gun format. You can hold a button to hide behind whatever cover you're near and pop out to shoot the enemies when you feel the time is best, and you can use restorative items or switch weapons, but other than that, the controls are pretty standard light gun - you can't move, only shoot and reload. I was a little disappointed that it wasn't a more traditional cover based combat system at first, but the more fights I played, the more it REALLY began to grow on me.



There are also several driving segments, and these have you disconnect the Nunchuck and turn the Wiimote sideways. 2 accelerates, 1 is brake/reverse, and A is the handbrake. You steer by turning the Wiimote like a steering wheel. Normally I hate this control scheme because it very often doesn't work at all, but in this case, it works quite well. Not perfectly, but well enough for me to get a lot of enjoyment out of it. A couple of the later driving segments are also among the toughest stages in the game IMO. Controlling somewhat similarly to the driving portions are the underwater portions. You hold B to swim forward and use the Nunchuck stick to control where you're looking.



There are a few less-often used segments that I won't describe in much detail like sprinting away from whatever's trying to kill you or swimming towards whomever you're trying to save, but suffice it to say that in the gameplay department, Disaster has more than enough variety to keep things from getting stale.



Graphically, I was actually fairly impressed. It's not as gorgeous as, say, Super Mario Galaxy or Metroid Prime 3, but it's one of the more visually pleasing Wii games I've played, to be sure. The audio design is also pretty well done. The background music complements the mood of the game nicely without being distracting, a balance that a lot of games mess up by either being too intense or too bland.



The one biiiig gripe I have with the game is with the final boss fight. It's a two stage fight, and that's not too bad, especially considering that there's a checkpoint between the two phases, but the last phase is complete bullshit IMO. It's all QTEs. Now normally, I really like QTEs. I'm pretty good at them, and I just find them enjoyable (might be part of why I love Shenmue). The except to this are when gesture based inputs are used. Unless you're using Wii MotionPlus (which this game does not), I just don't think the standard Wiimote is accurate enough to base QTEs on gestures, ESPECIALLY when some of the parts are instant kills if you fuck up (and this fight has one of those). I probably died 10 times before I finally just lucked out and managed to beat it. It's the last boss, though, and the game is great otherwise, so that definitely isn't a deal breaker for me.



A bit of irony I found amusing is that the game takes place in the United States, the characters are all American, and the voice actors (as far as I know) are all American, but of the four major regions (Asia, Oceana, Europe, and North America), we were the only ones NOT to get a release of this game. That's a shame, too, because while I wouldn't say that this game is "amazing" or "groundbreaking," it's a damn good game, and it's a good exclusive for the Wii. A game doesn't have to redefine a genre or push the limits of hardware capability to be a good, worthwhile game, and that's how Disaster is. It's probably not going to show up on any "Best Wii Games" or "Top XX Wii Exclusives" videos, but it's a good game, and anyone collecting for the Wii would be remiss to pass on this one.

ElkinFencer10 wrote:and it's game that was never released in North America

Yay! Thanks Nintendo.

(Notice I quote people when there's a new page, take notes people!)