About two weeks ago I downloaded Dr. Mario Online for the Wii. I have wanted to dive into WiiWare since Nintendo launched the program and Dr. Mario seemed like the most complete package they have to offer. It’s the same game we all know and love (or hate). However there is a cool new mode for co-op play using the Wiimote, and there is also a fun online mode which is where I’ve spent most of my time.

First off, I’m getting my ass kicked in the Dr. Mario Online circuit. I’m talking serious beatings where I almost consider never playing the game again simply out of embarrassment. I’ve also noticed, thanks to the Miis, that most of the ass whooping is coming from the ladies. The only thing I can take away from this is that women love Dr. Mario. Of all the people I’ve played over the last few weeks, I’m going to say that 75% of my opponents are women. Also, a glance at the global rankings shows plenty of women in the Top 10. And they all put the hurting on me. I know I’m not a Dr. Mario master or anything, but I can barely hang with these ladies.

So far, 2008 is the year of Indiana Jones… or at the very least its the Spring of Indiana Jones. What better way to celebrate the first new Indy movie in nearly two decades than the release of a kick-ass new Indiana Jones video game? Building on the foundation they laid down with the Lego Star Wars franchise, Traveller’s Tales has created a game that would make any Indy fan smile (even the ones crying about CGI gophers and ruined childhoods). Admittedly, these are only early impressions of the game, I have not completed it and I’m actually only a couple of hours into the story mode. So take it for what you will.

The game opens with the classic beginning from Raiders of the Lost Ark, Indy is making his way through the South American jungles with a small entourage. After all of them are scared off, Indy is left to find the lost temple with the help of Satipo, also known as Doc Oc. The first thing you’ll probably want to do is give Indy’s whip a few healthy cracks (I know i did). The whip can be used to take out enemies from a distance, grab items that are out of reach or swing across distances where a hook is present. Unlike Lego SW where most of the combat is done with blasters and lightsabers, Indy will be doing most of his fighting the old fashioned way… hand-to-hand. You can pick up guns, crossbows, swords, etc from defeated enemies but they tend to expire after a minute or so which will have you going back to your fists.

Today, WiiWare went live on the Shop Channel. I actually didn’t know what to expect from WiiWare. I thought maybe I would have to download another channel to host WiiWare titles, but instead its only a section in the Shop Channel. I’ve been looking forward to “Lost Winds” so I gave that a shot. It downloaded rather quickly and took up around 256 blocks which is a sizable little chunk of my system memory.

“Lost Winds” is clearly inspired by “Okami” as you control a Spirit who can manipulate the wind to help little Toku get through the game’s world. The Nunchuck is used to move the main character around while the Wii Remote is used to send gusts of wind to help Toku get up to higher ledges, splash water on withered plants which then serve as a boost, and at this early point in the game to blow flames from a torch on the wall to smite a little blobby bad guy. So far, I’ve gotten past the early introduction of the game and I was having a good time playing.

I put some quality time into some Mario Kart: Wii tonight (about an hour) and have to say I love it. I opened up the Star Cup on 50cc, and did around three or four races online. Like the DS version, online is no frills, but it works and I had zero lag. The game played like a champ while I raced against thirteen people in the US.

The problem I noticed with the wheel attachment is that you need to hold it almost parallel to your body for it to fully pick up your turns. If its on an angle (as if you are resting it in your lap), the remote is not reading the full tilt like you think it is. Once I held it out some from my body, I felt like the turns were going much more accurately. However, I think I might be switching up to the classic controller. I just feel more comfortable playing Mario Kart with a more traditional controller. More after the jump…

Image stolen from someone who stole it from IGN

Okay, so after all the drama about registration servers, multiple IDs, and whatever other negative nonsense the internet could drum up… the time has finally arrived. Metal Gear Online has opened its beta doors here in the U.S. to anyone who pre-ordered the game. After watching some hot cylon-on-cylon action I fired up the PS3 and jumped in for a little friday night preview of how I’m going to be spending the next two weeks.

My game of choice was Team Deathmatch tonight. I was pleased to see that Konami has given us the option of doing Matchmaking or a pretty robust server browser. Because its getting late and I’m officially two and three-quarter sheets to the wind I opted to go with the matchmaking option. The system had me in a game in under a minute which was nice because I was kind of expecting a long wait.

For whatever reason, people seem to be shocked when they find out that I still buy and play NES games on a regular basis. Perhaps I really am just stuck in the past, or maybe I just like the simple pick up and play nature of most NES titles. Or maybe I just enjoy damn good games.

Back in the day, a company called Sunsoft made some of the best licensed and original titles for the NES. If you grew up in the NES era chances are you loved Blaster Master and Batman, and were frustrated by the likes of Festers’ Quest. Sunsoft released a game called Journey to Silius sometime in 1990. Somehow this one flew under my radar, and of all the great (and terrible) NES games I played during that time, I never played this one.

Knowing this one will likely never see a Virtual Console release, I sought to own it and nabbed it off eBay for a couple of dollars. Well it arrived a few days ago and I’ve had a chance to play it a handful of times, and each time has been met with a smile on my face.

For whatever the reason, Faxanadu is one of those games that sort of stuck with me through time despite absolutely hating it. Back when it was released on the NES circa 1989, the game seemed to make somewhat of a splash among players and was quite popular. If I remember correctly, the game graced the cover of Nintendo Power magazine (considering it was published by NOA, it makes sense) and was even featured in the cartoon Captain N: The Game Master. I remember being rather pumped to play it myself, but was let down by how difficult it turned out to be. I wasn’t just let down by the game, I down right hated it.Fast forward to today. Friday afternoon I took a trip to a local Game store that specializes in classics. I was browsing the NES section when I came across Faxanadu. I looked at it for a moment and decided to buy it. Maybe I was to young when it came out, maybe I just didn’t quite grasp what in the world I was doing. After playing the game for a solid 45 minutes, I can say with certainty that this game has and always will suck.

The game is very similar to Zelda II: The Adventure of Link, in that it’s a 2D side scrolling action RPG. You travel towns, get new weapons, learn magic spells, earn “golds” (as they say in the game) and do just about everything you’d expect to in an action RPG. You begin the game with absolutely nothing, not even a sword, just a worthless punch and an equally as worthless jump. In order to do anything, you need to talk to the king and who in turn gives you some golds. You use the golds to buy yourself a sword and key, which you need to pass the first monster, a big jump eye ball. Unlike Zelda II, your hero doesn’t control with the grace that Link does. As mentioned before, his jumps are worthless, and he can’t crouch down and attack, which sucks because most of the early bad guys can only be killed by crouching. Maybe you earn the ability to do that later? I have no idea, I just know I can’t attack half of the bad guys I’m coming across. Thanks to the shit controls, I can’t even attack the stupid jumping eye balls either.

How can I not write a Nerdlog post about Smash Brothers Brawl? We’ve only been talking about the game on the smorg for years, it’s been brought up in several podcasts, and it was one of my most anticipated games. I’ve spent about 10 hours with Brawl since scoring it early Friday afternoon (thanks Lou) and I figured I’d share a few notes about it thus far.

If it aint broke, don’t fix it.
This is Smash Brothers folks. It’s the same mechanics we’ve seen since the original back on the N64, but that’s what makes the game what it is. Just like how it’s always fun to jump into a round of Street Fighter and throw fireballs with Ryu, it’s just as satisfying being able to jump into Smash Brothers and know that a quick flick up on the stick followed up by holding down the A button will cause my rivals to fly into the sky. Smash Brothers is still the greatest fighting game ever created, and a few classic Brawls will remind people why.

The Club is one of those games that I heard about here and there, but I never actually bothered to read up on it. I saw some of the art from the game, a couple screen grabs, and the logo. I immediately thought that this was not a game that would appeal to me which is why I chose not to learn anything about it. Well, a demo of the game hit both Xbox Live and PSN this week, so while downloading the Devil May Cry 4 demo, I decided to throw this into the download list as well. It sat there, ready to be installed, until this morning when I finally got around to checking it out.

This game is like someone has answered one of my small gaming prayers. I am a huge fan of the Mercenaries mini-game included in Resident Evil 4, and I always thought Capcom was foolish not to expand on this game (side note: I guess Mercenaries is actually is an expansion of PN03 in a way). There is just something about racing against the clock and trying to get as many chains, multipliers and bonuses that make for completely addicting gameplay. I guess I wasn’t the only fan of this mode, because Bizarre Creations (the Geometry Wars dudes) have essentially created an entire game that shares a lot in common with Mercenaries.