Jim Cook’s Wii Commentary #3

As always, a quick look at recent news:

WiiWare Release - Water Warfare (800 Points): A family friendly first person shooter with water guns, from Hudson Soft. Core features apparently include water fountains serving as ’reload stations’, t-shirts getting wet rather than having a traditional health meter, and all weapons being generally harmless; such as water balloons, etc. I have yet to try this one, but I admit the idea intrigues me and I plan to pick it up soon for review.

WiiWare Release - Reel Fishing Challenge (500 Points): Exactly what it sounds like; a fishing game from Natsume. I’m personally not very fond of fishing, and the lack of demos means I haven’t even touched this one.

WiiWare Release - Silver Star Reversi (500 Points): Another game whose content is pretty easy to get, it’s based on the board game known as Reversi. I have trouble justifying this, because a search for "free Reversi" on Google turned up plenty of options that apparently don’t cost any money. And if you’re reading this, that means you’re probably able to play those free PC-based versions in some manner.

Virtual Console Release - Fantasy Zone II (Master System, 500 Points): I admit I’ve never played this one, so what I can tell you about it is based purely on quick research; it’s a rather colorful side-scrolling shooter, and focuses on being quite cute and pretty. I have no idea whether it’s worth $5 or not, though the few reviews I saw for the original Master System release seemed positive. On the other hand, those same reviews used "LOL" and tons of emoticons, so there may only be so much weight they carry.

At this point you’re probably as displeased as I am with the lack of detail I can provide. For lack of demos, it’s often a hit or miss proposal as to whether I know much about the game. With that in mind, this column is being renamed; it’s not just about WiiWare and Virtual Console any more, but rather any valid Wii topic. With that in mind, this week’s main topic will be how some enterprising fans of Smash Bros. Brawl are using homebrew to tweak the game, effectively making ’mods’ for it as though it were a PC game.