WiiNintendo

Snowboard Riot

- Craig threw a controller while playing (out of frustration)
- Has worst rubberband AI he has ever experienced in a racing game
- Offensive weapons on one button, speed weapons on the other
- He can’t beat the first level
- 1000 points – Craig says you don’t want to spend that money

LONPOS

- Basic marble puzzle game
- Try to fit pieces together
- Use Wii pointing to guide where to put pegs
- Twist wrist to rotate pieces
- Doesn’t support widescreen – all stretched
- Craig doesn’t recommend this game either – skip it

- Deadly Creatures (later this week, probably Friday), Tenchu (tomorrow), House of the Dead: Overkill (Weds/Thurs) reviews coming – all surprisingly good games
- Tenchu looks really nice on Wii
- Final version of Deadly Creatures is very polished – sounds like they fixed many of the bugs

Rune Factory

- Really fun
- Bozon is 5 hours in right now, having a blast
- One of the best console Harvest Moon games since N64
- Direct feed footage up, hands on
- Game has been out in Japan for awhile

New Play Control! Pikmin

- Matt really likes it
- It’s 8 years old and Nintendo’s charging $30 – Matt says it’s overpriced – Thinks it’s a $20 game
- Widescreen mode is a real widescreen mode
- Visually some textures don’t hold up
- Zoomed out Pikmin is still one of the prettier games on Wii
- Control advancements are awesome – feel really good, makes the game a bit easier
- Line management more tricky now with Wiimote – have to point in direction where you want Pikmin to line up
- Matt can’t wait for Pikmin 3
- Average review score for the game is a 7.5 (based on 2 reviews), don’t agree with it

Boom Blox sequel

- Matt thinks the game will be great
- Only thing they’re still lacking is online multiplayer mode (which is a debatable inclusion)
- Ton of WiiConnect24 support
- New physics
- Coming out in Spring
- Not doing Wii MotionPlus

Tenchu

- Matt thought it would be lackluster but it’s surprisingly good
- Review score will be better than you think
- Wii owners looking for traditional software should pick it up
- Has some flaws but Matt still had fun with it
- Cat mechanic is cool

Jungle Speed

- WiiWare game of the month
- Unlikely winner for game of the month
- Game all about identifying cards
- Presentation is very nice – good interface

SimAnimals

- Good game burried in there
- Game doesn’t run well, framey, ugly, controls are frustrating
- DS version turned out pretty well
- Mostly for kids – shallow learning curve
- SimAnimals DS good for kids

- Big Bang Mini – Great game, very innovative, difficult, flashy levels – Matt likes the style

Nintendo Minute

- Denise Kaigler responded to comments from question of previous week
- Basically said it’s up to us (listeners/gamers) to spread word about Wii online functionality

- Wii Fit + Wii console sold very well in January
- In third week of January alone over 300,000 units of Wii Fit were sold (US)
- Iwata was hyping up E3 – teased E3 software specifically, but did not say it is hardcore software
- Rumored leaked photo from Kid Icarus leaked – Factor 5 still hasn’t responded to calls
- Latest round of DSiWare was recently released – overall impression of DSiWare – not a must-have lineup but it’s enough to get people excited about the future

My World, My Way

- Pretty cool – not mind-blowing but a cool little quirky RPG
- All tile-based
- Can use points to leave random battles – spend points on tweaking the rules

C.O.R.E.

- Very generic
- Straight-up FPS
- Has multiplayer
- Now can tell where shots are coming from
- Uncreative FPS – does everything that others have done
- Not a stinker but it’s not very innovative
- Rarely more than 2-3 enemies to fight at a time
- 30 FPS and below

- Can now email podcast questions to nvc@ign.com

Reader questions

- No set release date for The Conduit – 1st half of 2009
- Next Nintendo press event won’t be until after GDC – Iwata will probably talk about DSi at GDC
- Tales of Symphonia: Dawn of the New World has sold just over 95,000 – NPD numbers
- Out of The Conduit, No More Heroes 2, MadWorld – MadWorld will see the most retail success according to Craig – Matt bets on The Conduit selling the most – Will be playing The Conduit the most
- Re-releases of Pikmin 1 and 2 won’t take away anything from Pikmin 3 – Pikmin can introduce some people to the series – re-releases won’t be a negative thing
- Status of Sword of Legendia unclear
- Usually can’t test online functionality with the community for reviews of games
- FF: Tactics Advance 2, Advance Wars, Fire Emblem, Disgaea all good tactical RPGs
- Matt not sure if EA Hasbro scrabble game for DS can play competively on one DS but can play wireless
- Craig will start creating Super Mario Galaxy for the DS (joke)
- LIT coming out for 800 points next Monday

[Summary via Nintendo Everything]

[Nintendo Chat (podcast) can be listened to at IGN]

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