TwiddleGeek

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There’s a new Nintendo console, so of course there’s yet another update to the Mario Kart franchise. Like all the previous titles in the series, it’s a pretty solid all around… Bikes are great additions beside the karts, drifting has been greatly improved, and there’s several fun new courses. Unfortunately, it’s not everything it could have been. For one thing, the graphics have been given a mere moderate upgrade at best. The best improvement is simply the widescreen aspect ratio. Otherwise, nothing much has changed.

Compared to other series updates this year like Smash Bros Brawl and Mario Galaxy, Mario Kart Wii feels a little like a phoned in effort. The same problems as before still apply… blue shells are as cheap as ever, bullet bills can take you from last place to near first, and frustration with the CPU kicks in fairly quickly in Mirror Mode. There’s not many new power-ups — but the midair trick boosts and bike wheelies add a bit more depth to the experience.

Perhaps what many will consider the best addition is the online racing, something Nintendo has been way behind the curve on. It’s horribly lacking in options, but that’s Nintendo for you. The worst part is that the lack of options extends to the single player and local multiplayer. There’s almost no options or customization of the races to be had at all. Perhaps the biggest shame is that battle mode has been reduced to a team-brawl without elimination. Despite these problems, Mario Kart Wii is what it’s always been: a solid and fun racer / party game.

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The Prime series has managed to do what few people, including myself, thought would work: Transform the Metroid series into a successful first person adventure. The term FPS is a little inaccurate for this series considering the majority of your time will be spent adventuring and puzzle solving, but Prime 3’s new controls and streamlined gameplay feels the most shooter-ish to date. The game actually takes elements of story from Prime: Hunters on the DS, as well as a bit of the shooter-ish feel.

Rather than typical FPS running and gunning, Prime is all about the environment and story. Now filled with tons of voiced dialog, supporting characters, lots of scripted events, and — thank goodness — clear objectives… Prime 3 is a far more streamlined game than Prime 1 or 2. In fact, I felt Prime 2 was an absolute mess at times of hard to locate save points and endless expanses to explore. Though Prime 3 gives you a whole system of planets to explore and hop between, this is nicely broken up into nearly linear, easy to follow sections accessible by Samus’s signature ship. For me, this really improved the gameplay by leaps and bounds over Prime 2.

The biggest advancement with Prime 3 over the previous versions is easily the control scheme, which really makes the action feel fast and fun. The developers take advantage of the new found freedom with some interesting interfaces, some nifty gadgets, and even some combat requiring precise aim and strategy. Limited ammo guns have been kicked to the curb, and we’re thankfully back to stacking beam weapons ala Super Metriod once more. While I was a fan of Prime 1, Prime 2 was more of the same and less of what made it fun. Prime 3 is the return to form that should have been, and at just over 11.5 hours my first play-through, great fun start to finish.

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If you’ve played Melee, there’s really no point in asking if you’ll like Brawl. Brawl basically is Melee, only sporting a fresh coat of gfx paint, a handful of new characters, Subspace Emissary, and online play. If you dislike the core gameplay, Subspace Emissary is not going to be a reason to buy this game. Otherwise, though, it’s a lengthy and enjoyable 10 hour adventure with cutscenes that look like something from Square Enix at times.

But SSE is just a fun bonus compared the heart and soul of any Brawl game: the battles. New characters like Pit, Metaknight, Pokemon Trainer, and Sonic are all fun to play as and easy to pick up. Olimar is nearly worthless, while Snake takes a lot of skill to master. Dedede is a slightly more versatile heavy fighter than Bowser or Donkey Kong, while Diddy isn’t terribly impressive but passable none the less. Zero Suit Samus feels, sadly, weaker than I’d like… but Samus in her power suit is still one of my favorites.

Final Smash moves add an exciting dynamic to an already hectic game. For those worried they break the gameplay, they can be turned off easily enough. I would contend however that they are no more broken than scrambling to get the hammer item, and a whole lot more fun. Many can be dodged, some require aiming, and some are just worthless. Unfortunately that’s the most broken thing about them — they’re just not equally useful.

Brawl still plays more or less exactly like Melee, but with a few tweaks to the system. All the mechanics are the same, but some say it feels faster, while others claim it’s a bit slower. Items are now much easier to grab in mid-air, smash attacks have been added, and veteran fighters’ moves have been tweaked. With more characters than ever, more items, assist trophies, and more new stages, plus the stage builder to play with, Brawl can easily breath fresh life back into the series if Melee has gone stale.

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Umbrella Chronicles is my type of game. I love light-gun shooters, and the Wii is perfectly suited to them. What surprised me though was just how good Umbrella Chronicles turned out to be. The lengthy 22 mission game took me just over 17 hours to complete, and that’s not even counting the time I could spend going back to upgrade guns or try to get higher ranks.

Aside from the insane length, Umbrella Chronicles has an excellent story pulled straight from the series’ past, including Resident Evil 0, 1, 2, and 3. There’s no RE4 in here, but you’ll be seeing plenty of Leon, Ada, and Wesker again from the events leading up to RE4. Playing as Wesker is simply awesome, and his narrative throughout the game is always great. The graphics are always good, feeling true to the originals but obviously upgraded. Nothing is terribly stunning, but the atmosphere makes up for that completely.

There’s a lot of challenge here as unlike most light-gun games this isn’t simply a matter of being able to shoot the targets on the screen. Zombies take real strategy, including shooting them in the legs to stun them, using close-combat techniques, using grenades at strategic times, swapping between multiple weapons depending on the situation, and head-shots that are only critical if they hit right on the forehead itself. Bosses take incredible patience and concentration rather than simply spamming bullets, sometimes taking me over 15 tries to get it right. Whether it’s a nostalgic trip down memory lane or you’ve missed much of the RE storyline, Umbrella Chronicles is one of the best on-rails shooters I’ve ever played.