Play with your Wii

BY ANDY ASTRUC

A rare chance to see the Nintendo Wii, nestled in its natural habitat: the dusty corner. Untouched by human hands, the orange standby light blinks sadly. Late at night, the Xbox hums a cruel song about impotence.

Old man Playstation laughs and teases the poor thing by complaining about having too many games and not enough time. Even the clock radio sees more action.

Wii sales have actually started dropping now, presumably because everyone's mother finally has one.

Sure, the Wii is kind of sad. Everything was all exciting and shiny and new when it came out. A motion-controlled console! Sword-fighting! Sports! Wiggling... things.

Sadly, that wore off quite quickly when people wanted to play games with the stupid thing.

There are just not that many options. Would you like to play a complex World War shooter, or a complex World War shooter with wiggling? Shake the remote to jump. Wobble the remote to give money to shopkeeper. Put the remote in your mouth to play music.

But it's not all doom, gloom and wiggle. Some Wii games are actually good. A fraction of those are even good because they are Wii games. I know, remain calm. Collect these to level up your mind, man.

DE BLOB

Evil ink-based fascists have flown in on their grey blimps, taken over the colourful world of the Raydians and sucked all the colour out of the universe. Just like World War 2.

You are de Blob. A blob. Due to his unique ability to absorb paint and smear his body all over people and objects, de Blob is recruited by the colour resistance to liberate the city of Chroma and destroy the evil I.N.K.T. Corporation.

This is accomplished by guiding your ball of goo across the dull city streets, filling him with paint and throwing him at everything in sight. Slap yourself against office buildings, cars, silos, rocks, citizens, fences, boats, highways, grass, pipes and anything else within reach. Every time you colour a piece of the world, the city livens up a little more - parks come to life, the sky brightens up and the extra funky soundtrack kicks in bit by bit.

Try shaking the Wiimote to the magic samba and watching as a building explodes in a shower of colour and music. If you don't feel warm and jiggly inside then you may actually be a zombie.

LITTLE KING'S STORY

A young boy is thrust into the most important position in the land, but for a very good reason. He found a crown in the woods. Now everyone does anything he says and you have to guide his small kingdom to World Domination. Little King's Story is part real-time strategy and part marshmallow cuteness.

With your kingdom as a central hub and an expanding band of loyal villagers, you can set out into the world to fight monsters and take land from peasants. You have to manage your cash flow, grow your kingdom and, most importantly, take exploration and battle teams out into new territory.

Each villager has a job, from the lowest carefree adult (jobless bum), to the helpful scout, dutiful builder, brave knight, mad priest, etc, etc. The RTS aspects work well, with a simple method of pointing to where you want a villager to be, then throwing that sucker. If the Wii is perfect for two things, they are cuteness and strategy games.

Oozing charm like a wounded Pokémon, this game might be missed on the shelf but should be implanted into your Wii post-haste.

- © Fairfax NZ News