Mario Kart for Nintendo Wii

Mario Kart is a racing game involving many of the characters from previous Mario games. I was playing in team mode with Chris. Players can choose from many different tracks that are categorized by competition. We raced on several of the tracks including Shy Guy Beach, Peach Beach, and WaLuigi Stadium.

Since neither Chris nor myself had played this game before, we consistently found ourselves in last place, but the game was amusing nonetheless. On each track there are cubes hovering above the track. The cubes can contain a power up or, alternatively, an obstacle. Some of the boxes are marked with what they contain, and others are marked with a question mark.

There were also different types of monsters on each of the tracks. Peach Beach had these giant crabs that can see players coming and will move towards them. Another track had Ghosts hovering above the racers.

The track that was the most fun for me was the WaLuigi Stadium. The track had lots of curves and dips with opportunities for jumps. This meant that even if I was going slow, it was still exciting. It’s also lots of fun to bump the other players, and it seems to slow people down when you collide with them.

The graphics in the game are very impressive as is the fact that even the machine generated players make mistakes. The machine generated player is no longer perfect at the game. This makes it more fun for a casual gamer such as myself, because it makes the competition a bit more fair. Another difference between this game and the other few games that I’ve played is that there are some objects in the game with which players are supposed to collide.

Mario Kart was very easy to pick up play without any real training. After all the stories that I’ve clicked through recently for Nintendo games, this was very refreshing. Racing games are fairly obvious anyway…steer and accelerate the car. The game came with a steering wheel that is supposed to be used with the WiiMote sitting inside. The wheel is easy to use, but made it more difficult to choose the character I wanted to play or point at anything else with the WiiMote.

I would recommend this game to other people to play. It was easy to have fun, and no trouble at all to learn. When a seasoned player and a casual gamer can play a game together, and enjoy it, it speaks to the game’s universal appeal.

Senior Games: A New Genre

One of the most underserved markets in gaming is senior citizens. I predict that over the next 10 years, as the baby boomers start to retire and are looking for ways to fill up their free time, they will start playing more video games. Let's face it, those of us taking this class will probably be playing games when we hit the retirement home.

What types of games will the seniors of the next 10 years want to play? I predict that games successfully penetrating the seniors market will require wisdom and the unique historical perspective that we all accumulate over time. What if you could recreate your own memories in a virtual environment? Yeah, I mean a holodeck, but not as a physical recreation, I mean as something on your computer. If we could recreate shared memories, this would allow for social networks where people create shared memories of events like baseball games or parties or even shared memories of other people like my sixth grade math teach...um...maybe someone else. This genre will also include games that recreate parts of daily life in which seniors can no longer participate in their real lives, such as cooking or gardening.

The user interface required for these types of games will have to be completely different from the interfaces we have today. Seniors do not have good reflexes or agility of movement. Even the WiiMote will be troublesome for seniors who are somewhat frail. When I think of the type of interface that will be useful for seniors, I think of devices such as the "Jitterbug" cell phone or even the "clapper."

I feel that this is a stand alone genre because of what I have observed when I have visited my grandmother in her nursing home. I see lots of men and women doing whatever they can to keep themselves amused. If games could be designed to give them back some of their favorite experiences, maybe there would there would be fewer seniors suffering from depression.

This genre may not be "trendy" but will make a lot of money for anyone developing these games. I hope that when I am older something like this exists. We will all be in the market for this at some point.

Blues Brothers

As an example of an older platform game, I decided to try one from the list of old Nintendo games that are available on the link provided by Dr. K.

Blues Brothers is a platform title from 1991. It has little Jake and little Elwood running around with all of the kitschy tunes from the movie rendered into synth tunes. This was not an easy game to play. The character does not jump high enough to make it onto the next level of platforms. Chris tried it and was also unsuccessful.

Ratchet & Clank

Since we're learning about platform games this week in my class, I asked Chris if he had a modern version of a platform game. His answer was Ratchet & Clank, another of my favorites to watch being played. This time, I was in the driver's seat which gave me a new perspective.

Ratchet and Clank takes place in an alternate universe that is about to be taken over. Ratchet is the Han-Solo type mechanic/pilot and Clank is a tiny robot who can help power the ships. They are trying to

After clicking through so much dialog in Okami and Trace Memory. It was refreshing to watch the story unfold. Ratchet and Clank has movie scenes in between game levels which seemed to move more quickly. I also started playing more quickly, although it was more difficult to figure out how to make the required moves.

Once I had the moves memorized, the game was pretty fun. Ratchet uses various different weapons to dispatch the enemy. The weapons get larger and more ridiculous as the levels advance. I seem to remember some kind of gun that turns anything it shoots into chickens.

Ratchet and Clank, as a platform game, is so much more interesting to me than Donkey Kong ever was. I know that Donkey Kong was the first widely played platform game, and I remember how obsessed my cousins were with this game. Donkey Kong just never appealed to me. Maybe it was the story, because I always wondered what a plumber, a princess and a gorilla could possibly have in common. Ratchet and Clank has an interesting story, and at least in the beginning, the climbing up and climbing down is de-emphasized. Being a 3d game completely changes the platform genre. In fact, it makes me really wonder just how viable "platform" still is as a genre. The whole premise of a platform game is based on the fact that you are sticking to a certain axis of movement for gameplay, but having a game in a 3d environment implies that restrictions on an axis of movement are no longer applicable.

Okami

Image via Wikipedia

There are a few games that have mesmerized me as I have watched my husband play them. He played Okami on the PS3, and I loved watching it. All of the art is based on ink brush painting and in order to progress through the game you have to draw shapes that translate to actions.

Okami is an action-adventure based game. The user plays the character of the wolf trying to rid the world of evil. Wikipedia says that action-adventure games are the broadest genre of computer game. This genre originated from the game Adventure.

Okami has been ported to the Wii, so I gave it a try. Most of the 1st hour that I played was spent on the back story and some training. I think I complained about this when I was playing trace memory, but I hate clicking through stories. I would rather read a comic book or scroll through a couple of paragraphs. I've been told that there is a lot of clicking through dialog in Okami...boooring!!

The drawing is more challenging than I thought it would be, but it is an interesting way to play a game. Okami's reliance on the Wii's Nunchuk betrays it's previous life as a PS2 game. The only real use the game makes of the WiiMote is for the drawing, but that's enough for me. Hopefully when the "3 games a week" phase of my life is over, I can come back to Okami.

And now for a word from Marlena's Soapbox:
What is it about video games and boobs???? I was really enjoying the beginning to Okami when they introduce this goddess. I have never EVER seen a classial depiction of a Japanese lady without her being very modestly dressed. This particular goddess had the most bizarre cleavage I've ever seen...ok, fine. I know that in the world of video games, all women are supposed to be an F cup size, but the real killer here is that she shakes the wolf's companion OUT OF HER BOOBS. WTF^2! This type of thing is SO TIRING to me, and was particularly out of place at this moment, and especially in this game.

Runescape

Runescape is an online game accessed through a browser. The first time I tried to log in, I had problems with the username I had created. Username number 2 worked, and I got in. Runescape has, what I consider, an excessive amount of training. The training was easy to follow, but there was too much of it. I trained for half an hour, and didn't even get halfway through their training.

I'm sure this game is fun once you get through the training, but I never have enough time to play any game for more than 30 to 45 minutes. It looked like this is one of those social games where you get to talk with other people which is also a turn off for me. I don't like talking with people online for any reason. I network a lot where I work, and when I start playing a game, having to rely on talking to other people makes me think, "great" (roll eyes) "more networking."

Zork was more fun because I got to start playing immediately and actually made some progress in the game. Maybe Runescape would be more appealing if the training was made into a quest.

Wii Fit

Image via WikipediaLet's face it, most nerds have self-image "challenges." This is why we live online. Online, there is no acne, no bad hair and everyone is whatever size they want to be. Enter the WiiFit.

The Nintendo Wii allows you to make a "Mii" which is Nintendo's version of an avatar. The first step in the WiiFit setup process is a body test. It takes your weight and you add in your height. WiiFit then gives you a BMI.

I am a chunky girl, but my Mii isn't. When WiiFit calculated my BMI, my Mii automatically and instantly gained epic proportions of weight. For the first time ever, I was faced online with the reality of my life, and oh how it sucked!!!!!! BMI is already a flawed measurement, in my eyes, because it does not account for muscle. I have read that according to his BMI, Arnold Schwarzenegger is morbidly obese because of the muscle that he carries. This means that when Ahnold's Mii has its BMI calculated, he too will balloon out like a Sta-Puft Marshmallow Man...I'm just sayin!!!

Mii horrors aside, WiiFit is a lot of game-playing bang for the buck. There are so many little games packed into WiiFit, that it will take hours just to get to them all. The game-lets are broken out into categories: strength, balance, aerobic and yoga. You get to pick a male or female trainer who leads the yoga and strength exercises. The balance and aerobic sections are the game-y parts of WiiFit.

A couple of the game-lets that I played were soccer and hula hoop. Soccer is in the balance section. You stand on the "fat mat" and shift your balance to either side. You aim for the soccer ball coming at your head or avoid the shoe or panda bear that is coming at your head.

The Hula Hoop game is in the aerobics section. You swing your hips around while you keep the hula hoops spinning. Other Miis throw hula hoops at you. You have to shift your balance to catch them while you keep swinging your hips around. If it weren't for the WiiFit game, I would NEVER hula hoop, and I can only imagine just how funny I look playing this, but it's fun!

Even though I'm still traumatized from watching my Mii balloon in front of my eyes, WiiFit is a fun and groundbreaking game. The fact that my mother, who is in her 60's, wants a Nintendo Wii so she can play WiiFit shows how Nintendo is taking advantage of a market other games makers have chosen to simply ignore.

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