The demo for Hudson’s new Wii game, Rooms: The Main Building is sadly too short. I don’t feel I got a great feel for what the full game might hold in terms of the story they’re trying to tell. It did however give me a decent feel for how the game works. You play as Chris who has been transported to Rooms Street, where in order to figure out what’s going on, and how to get home, you have to solve the puzzles of the Rooms mansion. This plays a little like those sliding picture puzzle games, where in order to build the full picture, you have to slide the pieces around. The concept is similar here, where in order to get through a room, you have to slide around the jumbled pieces of the room so that Chris can get out of it. The picture concept is important because you can use the backgrounds of the room pieces to figure out exactly how the room fits together. However, as you piece each room together, you may have to do so no just with the use of sliding pieces around, but with keys or magical artifacts (like telephones that teleport Chris to another room piece, or wardrobes that swap room pieces) that help you reach different room puzzle pieces.

To solve a room puzzle, you don’t have to place everything perfectly, only manage to put the pieces together so that Chris can find his way out of the room. As part of the larger part of the game, you’ll also have to pick up certain items to unlock different areas in the mansion. On the Wii, you use the Wiimote to manage selection of items, negotiation of room piece movement and just about everything else. However, even on a large television I found a lot of this difficult because the game is not very well rendered, and even where it might be detailed, the puzzles don’t take up the entire real estate on my television screen like it could. Honestly, I felt like this might not be best suited for the Wii, and might instead be better for the Nintendo DS, which the game will also be available for soon. This isn’t a huge surprise for those that might already be familiar with the flash version of the game that came out in 2007. The game isn’t a direct port, but the graphics haven’t been expanded much.

The full game promises more than 100 puzzles as you play through the Room mansion, so if you’re a fan of puzzle games, I’d say this game would definitely be worth checking out. Even though I wasn’t completely sold on the game for the Wii, had I had the full game at my fingertips, I 100% positive I would’ve tried to crank through the 100+ puzzles. It’s just the sort of great puzzle game that lends itself to hours of mostly mindless game play, that makes it worth the money.

You’ll be able to find the game the 23rd of this Month.

Last week I had a hands-on with Disney’s original title for the Wii, Guilty Party. Guilty Party is a party game geared toward families and young children and where other Third Party Wii titles have failed Disney just might excel.

Guilty Party is created like a mystery board game akin to Clue. Stubbs the Zombie creator Wideload Games is working with Disney on Guilty Party, which results in a cute and hilarious game.

The title has a story that is woven through all the various mysteries to be solved. The clues are earned through various mini-games. Just because it’s a party game does not mean it has to be easy. There are levels of difficulty and the game will also increase the difficulty if it thinks the current level is too easy for you. The mini-games vary from things we have seen before to bribing a witness or staring them in the eyes. Everything uses the motion features of the Wii-mote controller.

After a successful challenge, the gamer will get a clue. Clues are gathered in the players notebook where gamers can go over the list of clues to figure out who they want to accuse.

The voice acting is very well done and helps bring the very creatively designed characters. I laughed throughout the entire demo.

Guilty Party will be available in the second half of 2010 and it just might be the first third party “party game” that families should pick up.

Boogie is EA’s attempt to cash in on the singing and dancing sensations made so popular by DDR and SingStar. The concept is sound, the Wii’s motion sensing controllers make it the perfect console to support this kind of game, and with the addition of a Logitech microphone and EA’s history of always including excellent music in their games, it would seem like it would be hard to get wrong. Unfortunately, EA is up the challenge, and managed to completely ruin a perfectly feasible game concept.

Developer: EA (Montreal)
Genre: Rhythm, Singing, Dance
ESRB: E+ 10
Number of players: 1-4
Publisher: Electronic Arts
Release Date: October 14th, 2008

PASS

The game consists of two main types of game play, a singing mode and a dancing mode. The singing mode isn’t terrible, it has just been done before. The words are displayed at the bottom of the screen, and a series of bars on a musical scale show the timing and pitch of the song, which you have to match. It looks exactly the same as singstar, except that instead of watching a music video, you are seeing your character dance instead.

The dancing in the game is where it really starts to fail. In order to dance, you must wave your controller either up, down, left, and right, in time with the ‘beat’, which is defined as the little green light on the side of the screen flashing. This wouldn’t be so bad, if the beat matched the beat of the song, which it does… sometimes. More often then not, the beat is somewhat arbitrary. It can be slightly before, or after, the actual beat of the song, or completely unrelated if the song changes part way through. The game favors those who can ignore their sense of natural rhythm, rather than those who embrace it.

As well as singing in karaoke mode, or dancing in either single or multilayer mode, you can play through story mode with five different characters. This may have added some element of replayablity to the game if story mode wasn’t ridiculously easy. There are five stages for each character, two singing and three dancing, each having a progressively higher point score to beat. However, in the first levels of the game, it is possible to chat casually to your friends during the karaoke levels and still get more then enough points. Whether or not the dancing parts are easy depend on if you have mastered the ‘beat’ system or not.

The characters themselves are either cute, or creepy, depending on your point of view. Personally, although the fact that they all make noises instead of talking weirded me out at first, I kind of liked them. At any point in the game you could change which character you were playing for the mini games, and what clothes they were wearing. Clothes, as well as songs and stages, are unlocked either by playing story mode, or buy winning tokens in the individual song modes.

The selection of songs in the game is quite good. It contains a good mix of older party songs that everyone knows, and more recent songs that if you’ve been exposed to popular radio stations you can’t help but to know. The problem is that they have also chosen the 30 most repetitive songs they can find. Which this may help you learn the words more easily, it also means that you tire of the songs more easily – as in while you are singing them. Three minutes is an eternity when you are singing the same thing over and over again. The other thing worth noting is that the game doesn’t feature original songs, rather it has covers of them, and what’s more, they are PG-fied covers. No more going to the liquor store for the hero of mambo number five. It’s not a big problem, but it does leave some interesting pauses in some of the songs.

Overall, this game really isn’t worth it. EA would have been better off picking either singing or dancing, and making it good, then trying to combine them both, and failing at them both.

You know that feeling you get when you’ve been spinning around really really fast, everything is a blur, and you feel confused, exhilarated, and a little bit pukey? Prepare yourself, as that’s what you get when you play Muscle March on the Wii.

Rating: E10+
Players: 1-4
Genre: Action
Publisher: Bandai Namco
Release Date: January 18, 2010 (North America)

BUY

The confusion started when my boyfriend was a little too eager to download easily the most camp game I’ve ever seen onto the Wii, a game mainly comprised of oiled up blokes, babes and bears in speedos that leave nothing to the imagination. It continued when we were greeted with this.

In the single player, you play as a chain of body builders. No single entities here, oh no. You’re quite happy pumping iron at the local gym, with your gym buddies that seem to share your stylist, and your face. Even the female character Brenda carries the gene mutation. As to why the only terrifying muscle woman in the game is said to be British, I’m not sure, I don’t know whether to be proud or mildly offended. As for the polar bear, I can only assume he has only just started his gym membership, he has a bit of a beer belly going on.

Being so buff doesn’t come naturally, so, you must employ a bit of help in the form of protein powder. Unfortunately, other people and things are after your special stuff, they steal it and run off with it. The only logical thing to do is chase them down in your speedos through the streets and off buildings in an orderly queue. Unfortunately, the people/aliens you are chasing have had a munch on your protein powder, and you guys haven’t had your fix. This means that despite your ultimate figure, they can run through walls, and you can’t. You play as the last bodybuilder in the queue following the thief through the walls. In basic terms, the aim of the game is to YMCA your way through the thief-shaped holes in the walls with the Wii remote and nunchuck, whilst unintentionally ogling your current character’s wiggling derriere.

I think I’m in love.
As time goes on, the AI-controlled bodybuilders in front of you gradually eat bricks and fall out of the queue because they didn’t flex their fine muscles fast enough. This means you move a little bit closer to the front of the queue, and your reflexes need to be that little bit more responsive. This is all good in theory, but unfortunately the controls are unresponsive for a game that’s centred around quick reactions. By the time you’ve realised that the controllers haven’t quite registered your perfect pose that even Arnold Schwarzenegger would have been proud of in his Mr Universe days, you’re already eating dirt. As for graphics, you can’t even see what backgrounds there are when you’re playing because your eyeballs are too busy bleeding, and the gameplay quickly becomes repetitive as the only things that change on each level are the thief and the route of the chase. If you’re looking for a game experience that will touch your mind and your heart, this game might not be for you. If you’re happy with rainbows, utter confusion and a good laugh, this game doesn’t disappoint.

The greatest thing about this game is that it’s rubbish, and that it knows it’s rubbish. It completely revels in it, from the cheesy J-Pop to the baby chick suffocating in one of the character’s afros. Anyone expecting a gaming masterpiece is insane, and Namco Bandai know it. This unashamedness leads to a truly unique game experience. Whether or not it’s one you want to have it a different matter altogether.

There is only so long you can play this game before the fun melts away, and the shame and awkwardness kicks in. Unless you’re drunk and surrounded by similarly drunk friends watching you play, in which case this may be the most awesome thing you’ve seen since watching a bar of soap expand in the microwave until it turned into the Stay Puft man (don’t try this at home, kids – watch it on the internet).

However short-lived the game may be, you’re only paying 500 Wii points (five US dollars) for a uniquely fun party game, or a quietly amusing single player game which you play in the dark with the curtains closed.

Overall, Muscle March is a game worth buying just to have your mind blown, then rearranged back together upside-down.

Want the fun of the original, but without the boring? Goichi Suda’s got the formula down in this ultra-violent action title.

Rating: M
Players: 1
Genre: Action
Publisher: Ubisoft
Developer: Grasshopper Manufacture
Release Date: January 26, 2010 (NA)

BUY

No More Heroes 2: Desperate Struggle is like a good steak. Delicious meat with just a little bit of fat mixed in, and a little bit of extra fat on the outside that you can do without. Designer Goichi Suda of Suda51 has done a good thing with this game, and it’s what every designer needs to do from now on: He actually looked at the previous title, decided what worked, made that better, and got rid of what didn’t.

The tedious parts of the first game are gone: The Grand Theft Auto-esque overworld? Gone. Now, you just select where you want to go from a list menu. Raising a ton of cash to enter each ranking fight? Gone. Each ranking fight is now 100% gratis. When you do enter a ranking fight, they are, on the whole, a lot shorter.

So, what is Travis fighting for this time? Revenge. Delicious, sweet revenge. After leaving the UAA ranking system torn to shreds in the last game, he just walked away – making him a mysterious enigma to the assassins that have decided to enter the fray in his wake. Without much reason, Travis’s friend Bishop is murdered, and to get to the man responsible, he’s got to fight his way to the top once more – through 51 assassins this time, including a lolita sniper, mecha quarterback, and a lovesick schoolgirl.

Travis isn’t doing all of this alone. The game features the return of two of the last game’s characters, and you’ll get to play as them, as well – one for far too long, and the other not long enough. Ultimately, if I had any complaints, these segments would be it (along with the fact that Travis can’t always hit people on the ground, but that is minor). The slightly modified controls for one character make a boss battle halfway through one of the most difficult sequences in the entire game, and you’re likely to pull your hair out if you don’t get the hang of the controls right off the bat.

"Miss me?"

So, even with the help, you’re killing a lot of assassins. Don’t worry, you won’t have to fight all 51. I wouldn’t be writing this review yet if you did. I’d still be enjoying the deceptively simple combat system, which amounts to button mashing and remote swinging. A much-appreciated addition to the combat system comes in the form of a tiger. A small tiger that counts as your ecstasy gauge goes from resting to roaring, and you can activate ecstasy at any time as long as you have a full meter, which comes in endlessly handy during especially tricky boss battles.

The better your beam katana, the easier it is to kill, naturally, and you need money to upgrade. This is where one of the best parts of the revamp comes into play. Side jobs that took place in the overworld last time have moved to an 8-bit paradise, accompanied by the sounds of blowing into a cartridge. You’ll cook steaks, eliminate insects, deliver pizza, gather coconuts, and four more games that all fit in seamlessly to the game’s retro-loving style. Some of them are obvious moneygrabs, but they’re almost all fun. What you’ll like depends almost entirely on what you used to play “back in the day.” Character strength and stamina upgrades also depend on 8-bit games, and playing with your morbidly obese cat, Jeane, does indeed have a purpose besides cuteness.

No More Heroes 2: Desperate Struggle is a game that definitely doesn’t struggle to find its voice. Its highly-stylized art features some of the best Wii graphics around, and the gratuitous violence and cursing (some baddies only have curse words for dialogue, but this is a family-friendly site, so you can figure out what “****!” means for yourself), not to mention the sexual innuendo, make this game’s M-rating a no-brainer. The game continually breaks the fourth wall and entertains from start to finish. It knows its genre and lampoons and skewers so many different parts of gaming culture that you’ll giggle out loud at each reference. If you loved the first, this is a no-brainer buy. If you love fun and are mature enough for that M-rating, you can pick this up without knowing too much about Travis’s past, either.

If you are looking to have a bit of light fun for you and your young family, then “Toy Story Mania!” could be what you’re after.

Rating: G
Players: 1 – 4
Genre: Arcade
Publisher: Disney Interactive Studios
Release Date: September, 2009 (NA)

RENT

Being a big Pixar fan, of course I have seen the Toy Story movies and I’m eagerly awaiting installment #3’s release in 2010. I’ve even played a Game Boy version from the Toy Story empire, but we aren’t exactly friends any more if you get my drift. Now we have a new game for the Wii by the name of “Toy Story Mania!”.

Based on the real life attraction “Toy Story Midway Mania!” at California’s Disney theme parks (as well as the Toy Story movies), “Toy Story Mania!” is a series of arcade-style mini-games to test your skills on. Many of these mini-games are the same as those you’ll find at the Disney theme parks, but there are also some generated for this game specifically. A lot of your favourite characters join in on the fun including Woody, Buzz, Bo Peep, Hamm, the little green aliens and more.

When you pick Story Mode, you have a choice of 6 different areas to play in. Each one has a theme; for example if you picked the area where Buzz features, then all of the mini-games have a space theme to them. Each mini-game has a variable amount of objectives to fulfil. If you do manage to complete all of the objectives, then the mini-game is unlocked in Free Play mode. If you don’t complete them all you have the option of trying again or proceeding to the next game.

Once you’ve completed the area, your points get tallied up in order to receive tickets – the games currency. These tickets allow you to buy games to play in Free Play and stickers and new pages for the Sticker Book – all of which are accessible in the Prizes menu.

Get ready for Woody's Rootin' Tootin' Shootin'!

While I enjoyed playing the different themed areas in Story Mode, the thing that was lacking was an actual storyline. When you select the area to play in, there is a tiny cutscene at the beginning and the end of the entire session, but in between there’s nothing along the lines of a story.

In Free Play mode, your choices are Quick Play, Play All and Build. Quick Play gives you the opportunity to pick one of the mini-games you unlocked in Story Mode, and just play it as it is. Play All allows you to play all of your unlocked mini-games, while Build lets you pick which games you want to play in whatever order you like.

Should you wish to play with more than 1 person, you can either pick however many players you’d like at the start (up to 4) or they can join in later after you’ve started. The gameplay doesn’t change much but there are instances where you have to play a session each, and then play in the next session together. But again it’s not much different than if you were playing on your own.

Provided with your copy of “Toy Story Mania!” is 2 pairs of 3D glasses – these are so you can play certain mini-games in 3D (accessible in Free Play). While 3D never seems 3D to me while wearing red & blue lenses, I was able to discern the different element it gave to the gameplay. It didn’t make me enjoy it any differently though.

Another thing that didn’t quite work was the Wiimote. Now while the Wiimote itself functioned properly, and the sensor bar was clear of obstruction, whenever I tried to aim in a certain spot the target pointer sometimes disappeared from the screen or jumped to a different position while I was trying to shoot at something.

If you are looking to have a bit of light fun for you and your young family, then “Toy Story Mania!” could be what you’re after. Adults on their own may get bored pretty quickly, so if you are able to I would recommend hiring it out first just to see if you would find it worthwhile.

Review product was provided by Madman Entertainment, and does not affect the outcome of this review.

Experience part of the Spore universe through the eyes of a Spore virgin, right down to the frustrations of singing without a microphone.

ESRB: E10 for 10+
Genre: Simulation
Number of Players: One
Publisher: EA
Release Date: Oct 6, 2009

BUY

Buy it on Amazon

I never jumped all over the Spore bandwagon. To me, Spore was just an alien version of the Sims with some more customization and the added bonus of exploring the galaxy. Not my taste, but for a lot of people, Spore was going to be the next big thing. Sadly, it suffered from people finishingthe game quickly and way too many people creating creatures not suitable for the Spore universe.

But this is not that game. In this game, you land on the planet as an egg stuck in a shiny blue meteor rock. These rocks are affecting the inhabitants, helping them evolve. However, there are other meteors which negatively interact with the planet being deployed by your nemesis. You must travel to all the areas available and locate pieces to add to the great idol statue, usually by battling a boss character and solving puzzles in order to reach hard to get areas. Once you pimp out the statue, an ancient god should descend from the heavens and save you all.

Learn the basics in Mushroom Valley

Plot seem a bit thin? Well, this is a game that I personally feel is geared more towards a younger crowd, hence the E10+ rating and the fact that it is on the Wii. The story is very linear: complete a quest, gain a new part (sometimes with an ability like swimming or flying), equip new part at nearest nest, access next quest, rinse, wash and repeat.

Customization is key in Spore Hero. It is a Spore title after all, and there are 327 parts for you to discover and edit your Sporeling with. You can morph body shape, add colour and texture, and equip and remove pieces as you need, maxing out or adding new abilities. Equipping parts depends on your blue meteor meter and DNA chain. Each part will cost you a certain amount of blue meteor to equip, however your equip limit depends on what level your Sporeling is currently at. There will be times when you may have to sacrifice one in order to use another. Not to worry though, seeing as nests are plentiful and you can edit as you wish.

Edit your Sporeling at a nest

You will find parts are easy to come by in Spore Hero. Whenever you locate a pile of bones, shaking the Wii remote will make your Sporeling dig, uncovering either a part for yourself or sometimes a part for the idol. Some bone piles are larger than others and will offer more parts. Keep digging until the bones disappear. Completing quests is another way to earn parts, as is battling other Sporelings and winning. In particular, you can take on the Combat Master in the Ancient Grounds. Defeating him in battle fifteen times will allow you to take away his title as well as gain one new part for each victory.

Ah yes, the battle system. I am going to be brutally honest here: I hate it! Sure, it seems simple enough when you fight your first battle. Simply shake to hit, B to bite and Z to block. Then they throw some more at you. Jump with A then shake to kick, etc. They continue to pile up fight combos, but when it comes time to use them in battle, half the time you can’t pull them off. The AI seems to recover way more quickly than you can from a hit, and they can also pull off an attack quicker, too. More than once I had to put down the controller and walk away for a while. Incredibly frustrating for me.

Fight to earn parts and respect

In addition to fighting, Spores like to sing and dance. Sing, you say? Yes. However no microphones are involved. When you are prompted to sing, its all about how your controller is angled and holding the A button during the appropriate times. Angled up, straight across or angled downward will cause your Sporeling to “sing” different melodies. Mimic the actions of the other Spore creature you are singing with and aim for 100%. If you do not reach 100% you will fail and have to retry. I did encounter a few instances when the Wii remote did not properly register the direction in which it was pointing had changed, so keep an eye out for that. Dancing works by shaking your remote, nunchuck or both in accordance to the instructions on the screen. Just like singing, you must get 100% in order to win. If you do not, you will have to retry the event.

Spore Hero seems a bit on the short side, too. I mean, yes, you can spend hours fine tuning your Sporeling to look however you want it to. But the fun in that only lasts so long. If you play more like I do, you can find yourself finishing the game in about thirteen hours or so, not incredibly long for a $50 game. That said, the game is still enjoyable. Yes, I hate the fighting control scheme and yes, I found it a bit short, but if I still have fun playing the game, then they obviously did something right.

Overall Opinion

Pick this one up if you find it new on the cheap – I’d say $35 and under is a good deal for the amount of play time you will get with it. There is a bit of reading but not too much, so if you buy this for a younger child or one with lower reading comprehension you may need to be nearby to give them a hand.

Review product was provided by Electronic Arts (EA), and does not affect the outcome of this review.

Hey everyone! GamingAngel Amanda here! This is a complete video review for Silent Hill: Shattered Memories on the Nintendo Wii. Half-reviewed, voiced, and edited by myself and half-reviewed, recorded, and made by Mr.  Lebert of Goozex. This was definitely one of the better sequels and we’ll tell ya why. Note that we did recommend you to RENT Shattered Memories, but only because it’s incredibly short–otherwise, it’s a must for Silent Hill fans! Stay tuned at the end for our final score on Shattered Memories! Enjoy!

Rating: M for Mature
Genre: Survival Horror
Publisher: Konami
Release Date: December 8th, 2009

RENT

There is no better way to enjoy a holiday than with a good puzzle game – they are wonderful little gems in the video game world. Given the technical and complex narrative advancements of video games over the last ten years alone, I am highly suspicious of any video game that requires the player to merely jump over obstacles without applying some level of critical thinking.

Platform: Nintendo Wii/Wiiware
ESRB: E (Everyone)
Genre: Puzzle
Number of Players: 1-2
Developer: Two Tribes
Release Date: December 11 2009 (PAL), December 14 2009 (NA)
Official Website: http://www.rubikspuzzlegalaxy.com/

But the concept of Rubik’s Puzzle Galaxy: RUSH frustrated me.

In my experience, it is a stretch to have a puzzle game on a console that is not a handheld console. Give me any number of puzzle games on my Nintendo DS and I will huddle away like a squirrel coveting a beautiful acorn. But put that puzzle on a 40″ LCD screen and it loses its accessibility and its quiet wonder.

I am aware that Nintendo’s WiiWare range caters for innovative, small-budget creations, and I have found many games that I am glad to have in my collection. But this is the first time I have had a pureblood puzzle game on my Nintendo Wii. Even though it took me a while to warm to a game that is, for lack of a better phrase, a chip off of an old block, I can see why many others have sung nothing but praises for this quirky but stylish WiiWare release.

Rubik’s Puzzle Galaxy: RUSH is quite a loveable little offspring of its semi-successful parent, Rubik’s Puzzle World (which, to prove my point, was also released on the Nintendo DS with slightly higher ratings). Using a mini game from the original World release, Two Tribes has developed its initial premise into a stand-alone WiiWare game. They have expanded the mini game to contain 70 or more puzzles in total, which seems worth the 600 Wii Points.

Each puzzle requires the player to place directional tiles in the correct positions on the playing field, which will safely allow automatically-spawning cubes to roll towards the corresponding ‘exit points’. There are different tiles that cause cubes to change direction, speed, or even warp to a different point in the game. All of these are demonstrated in a 6-puzzle tutorial session (requiring approximately five minutes to complete), and then the player is whisked away to the puzzles.

For those who would like a taste of the title’s namesake, RUSH also includes the original Rubik’s Cube as a bonus. The player can try to solve one of the four sizes of Rubik’s Cubes available, play a pattern-matching mode, or compete in two player mode. Two Tribes have also provided a tutorial on how to solve the original Rubik’s Cube, which may save many people ripping off the coloured squares on their Cubes and gluing them back on to cheat their way to victory.

The developers have worked hard to build more challenges as well as make RUSH look like a title specifically designed for the Wii, mimicking the colour style and ambience that is synonymous with the Wii brand. I think that this is something that works in their favour, and certainly allowed me to enjoy its premise. Playing on a 40″ screen, the picture and colours turned out great. The one downfall was with the sound. An early puzzle that contained multiple moving blocks and multiple warp points made me reach for the ear plugs as the sound was disgustingly grating. Options are available to turn off both sound effects and music if you choose, but it is a shame than there is no way to adjust the sound levels up or down for sensitive ears or sound phobic animals.

Overall, RUSH is a game that any Wii owner will enjoy for about 15-30 minutes prior to firing up a full-length game in their console library. The challenges for each puzzle are there, and the level of critical and spatial thinking is evident from the very first puzzle. True, I cannot help but believe that truly immersive games on consoles are created with a narrative context (with even World of Goo giving the player a vat of relatable ‘characters’), and RUSH lacks this element. That does not make it a bad game, but it can alter the engagement with the content of the game, as well as long-term interest.

It is not a game that I will stay awake playing at night, but certainly is a game that I savoured in small bites on a summer afternoon before firing up Metroid Prime. If you have the Wii Points spare, it is a good addition to provide variety to your holiday repertoire.

When I first got Marble Saga: Kororinpa I was excited to check out what looked like it would be a very fun marble maze game. I had read about improvements that were going to be made from the first game, such as more levels, so I was looking forward to playing a revamped and fun puzzle game.
Rating: E for Everyone
Genre: Puzzle
Publisher: Hudson Soft
Release Date: March 17, 2009

RENT

In general the game is pretty fun. You have 150 stages to play through, each one featuring interesting twist and turns that you have to guide your marble through. The one part that is off is the weird story that they try to insert regarding Anthony the Ant who needs to get the Golden Sunflower. You can get through this dialogue fairly quickly and move into the various stages of the game. The first few stages get you used to the mechanics of the game such as magnetic rods, tubes and cannons that are used to move your marble around. As you progress the mazes will become trickier to get through and include many different twists and turns.

But with these new twists and turns come some issues with controls. As you can assume, holding your wiimote parallel will level out the map, and the basic tilts you can use are forward, backwards and side to side. However when it gets to moving the map around so you’re upside down, you will have to turn the controller into many different contortions, some of which made it hard to do the map routes precisely. This honestly got annoying as I progressed and it had me stop playing for a bit due to annoyance. There are also some levels designed for the balance board, but these controls are even less precise and more frustrating than the wiimote.

I did enjoy all of the different maps and the ways you had to solve them. They are pretty fun and challenging and the various themes that you can play through lend themselves nicely. Another feature, though it needs to be improved on, is the level designer. The controls are a bit clunky and it really takes some time to get the pieces where you want them, but hardcore fans will probably enjoy this part. Once a level is designed you can share them over Wii Connect 24.

All in all though I wasn’t too impressed. The attempt at putting a story into the mix was weak and the controls really could have been better. I didn’t enjoy having to tilt my wrist in a weird way or hold the wiimote upside down. But it is a pretty solid puzzle game overall, and I know that there are some big fans of the genre. If you want to check out this game I recommend renting it to see if you’d enjoy it as to me it’s a hit or miss.

Review product provided by Hudson Soft, and does not affect the outcome of this review.