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Features from WiiDS.co.uk

Wii Fit Plus With Balance Board – A How-To Guide

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Nintendo created a unique home fitness program with the Wii Fit game. This is a home work out system that you could use to improve your cardiovascular health, strength and balance. Now with the Wii Fit Plus and balance board you get an extra 15 fantastic programs with balance training exercises, yoga, strength training and also the ability to create your own personal work out programs and set fitness targets.

With the run up to Christmas and this system being a choice many people will be purchasing here is a tuition guide as to great ways to get the most out of the system and gain fitness.

1: Choose Trainer

First of all you need to select a personal trainer for you. Pick a male of female trainer and this person will be your motivator and the onscreen coach that will be pushing you hard each work out.

2: Cardio

To get going and get your heart rate up and you moving you should be doing cardiovascular exercises. This will be for you fat burners out there. Use the balance board for step aerobics, hula hood, or boxing to get your heart rate up and the calories burning. You need to be doing at least 30mins of this daily to be making progress.

3: Strength

Choose strength training to get a proper work out. To start choose upper body, lower body and core for an all over body work out. You need to sand comfortably on the balance board and in the correct alignment for the lower body work out with exercises such as squats and lunges. For the upper body you will be doing a variety of push up exercises on the board. Yoga poses are very good for strength and balance and you will be going through a great deal with the program and getting that core solid.

You need to be doing strength training every other day as a day of muscle rest will help you grow as they repair the selves.

4: Balance and Core

Standing on the balance board and performing balance training exercises such as skateboarding and juggling with increase you body stability (your core) this in turn helps you train harder with other exercise.

5: Flexibility

Any areas in your body you find stiff or in pain stretching will help. Chest exercises will get your posture sorted as you aim to keep proper alignment on the board with the programs. You should perform stretching on a daily basis as well to help your muscles recover from exercise.

6: Routine

Ok now get yourself a routine set up from the above advice and create a work out and then follow your Wii coach and make sure you do 30-hour each day to get the benefits.

7: Diet

To gain muscle you will want to eat lots of protein and carbohydrate each day and to lose and to lose weight you want to keep a nice 500 calories deficit each day. You can use the Wii to calculate this and lose via the exercise programs and healthy eating. For good advice try this site on weight loss. Ok now get to it you will be fighting fit before you know it!

Emporium of Forgotten Games – No More Heroes

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Oh, Suda51, how I wish I could mainline whatever it is your brain runs on.

I don’t think you’ve ever released a game that isn’t powered by lunacy.  Even the wrestling games you’ve worked on have their weirdness, with you routinely attending press conferences in their support in a Mexican luchadore mask, calling yourself ‘Mask de Suda’.  Killer7, arguably your best-known game had a plot in the loosest sense of the word, yet still managed to be one of the most mind-bendingly awesome games I’ve ever played.  And then there’s No More Heroes, arguably your most straightforward game to date, yest still filled with rampant insanity.  If you could take me under your wing and teach me your ways, or at least tell me who your dealer is, I would be immesurably grateful.

No More Heroes

Wii

Originally released March 14th 2008

In case you’re wondering who the hell this Suda51 guy is, and why I have an increasingly creepy mancrush on him, allow me to illuminate.   Goichi Suda, better known by the name Suda51, is, depending on your tolerence for the weird, either one of the greatest game designers around, or a pretentious arse who couldn’t tell a straight story with the aid of a very long, very straight stick.  One part David Lynch, one part Quentin Tarrentino, the only person in the industry who even comes close to him is Hideo Kojima, both in terms of inventiveness and controversy.  Unsurprisingly, the pair of them are both friends, and have worked together on occasion.  No More Heroes was his first game on the Wii, and while it’s his most easily accessable game to date, it’s proof that simplicity can sometimes be a relative term…
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Online Gaming On The Move

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I was recently asked the question of whether is was possible to connect your Wii to the internet via a mobile broadband dongle, and after a little bit of research I discovered that while it is possible, it isn’t the easiest thing in the world to do – so, I thought I’d write a little guide outlining how it is done.

Things you will need:

  • A Wii or DS
  • A mobile broadband dongle
  • A Nintendo Wi-Fi USB Connector
  • A PC or Laptop

Step 1:

First you will need to set up your pc/laptop with the software needed to get your mobile broadband dongle to work. Once this is done, verify that your internet connection is working by visiting a website (such as this one!).

Step 2:

Next up, plug in the Nintendo Wi-Fi USB Connector and follow the instructions it came with to install the needed drivers and to ensure the device is working.

Step 3:

Boot up your Wii and do the following:

  1. First, get to the “Wii Main Menu,” and then select the Wii icon on the bottom left.
  2. Now, select “Wii Settings” to access the “Wii System Settings” menu.
  3. Using the arrow on the right side of the screen, scroll to page two and select “Internet.”
  4. Next, select “Connection Settings.”
  5. You should now see three connection slots that say “None.” Select “Connection 1.”
  6. Select “Wireless Connection.”
  7. Select “Nintendo Wi-Fi USB Connector”.

This will then search for your device, and if all has gone well, your Wii should save the connection details and happily connect to the internet.

Other Methods:

There are many other methods for connecting your console to the internet via mobile broadband, but all of them will require the use of a pc of some description, or even the free laptop which came with your mobile broadband dongle, to act as an ‘internet connection bridge’.

I’ve only outlined the most simplest way above, but if you know of any other methods then please leave details in the comments section below and I will update this guide accordingly.

Emporium of Forgotten Games – Elite Beat Agents

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Once upon a time there was a game called Osu! Tatakae! Ouendan. Ouendan was one of the first rhythm-action games released for the DS, and while it never received a release outside Japan, it had a healthy amount of buzz on the import circuit, even getting a number of articles in the mainstream Western press, a market typically reluctant to give much space games unlikely to come out in their home territory.  Nintendo, keen to capitalize on this interest, decided to set to work on a version of the game specially catered to the Western market.  The end result was Elite Beat Agents.

Elite Beat Agents

DS

Originally released July 13th, 2007

As you can probably tell from the snazzy suits and snglasses, the Elite Beat Agents are Government Men come from the Government.  The Agents work for a secret department, answering only to Commander Kahn, who dispatches them to wherever they’re most needed.  Unlike pretty much every depiction of secret government operatives ever, however, these agents are unquestionably the good guys.  Whenever people are at the end of their tether, whenever folks have given up all hope, wherever baseball players are facing off against fire-breathing golems in theme parks, the EBA will be there to cheer them to victory!

EBA is basically a repackaged version of the original Ouendan, designed and developed by the original team.  In Ouendan, people in trouble with their day to day lives call for help, and the Ouendan come to their aid, cheering them on with music.  ‘Ouendan’ literally means ‘cheer squad’, similar in concept to the kind of cheerleaders you see at American sports, but slightly different.  Ouendan tend to favour noise, banners and chants, rather than acrobatic manouevers, and are often mixed gender or even all male, as demonstrated by the various cheer groups in the series.  EBA is almost exactly the same, though while the Ouendan games feature Japanese bands and songs, EBA takes its musical cues from (unsurprisingly) bands and songs more familiar to its home market.
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Emporium of Forgotten Games – Alien Syndrome

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Back in the 80s, game companies were a little less shameless about where they got their ‘inspiration’ from.  If it was popular, you’d clone it, change the graphics ever so slightly and ship it on its merry way.  This lead to an interesting state of affairs when movie licenses were involved.  The Contra series (better known until recently in Europe as the Probotector series) for instance, was unquestionably influenced by the classic action movies of the 80s, like Commando and Predator and were excellent shooters, even by today’s standards.  The games actually based on these, and other films, however, absolutely sucked.  So you’d wind up with the weird situation of the ‘homage’ being more fun than the real deal.

The original Alien Syndrome, released in the mid-80s by Sega, was blatantly influenced by both Aliens and Gauntlet, and while the home games based on the Aliens license weren’t bad, the arcade game released by Konami was a pretty simplistic shooter.  Alien Syndrome had large sprawling maps to traverse, which made for a more interesting adventure.  In each area, you had to rescue hostages and fight a boss, all with a pretty strict time limit, all while under near constant attack.  Alien Syndrome was ported to pretty much every machine under the sun at the time, but, other than a 3D remake for the PS2 some 15 years later that never saw the light of day in Europe, the series vanished without a trace.  That was until 2007, when, when, with virtually no fanfare, a brand new game was released for the Wii and PSP.

Alien Syndrome

Originally released September 7th 2007

The plot, for what it’s worth, is set a hundred years after the original Alien Syndrome, making this update a rare direct sequel, rather than a straight remake/reboot.  Aileen (oh ho ho!) Harding is sent to investigate a colony in the far reaches of space.  The colony has gone silent, and Aileen’s being sent in alone to check it out.  I’d normally call them out for this but, well, we’ve all seen Alien right?  Heavily-armed marines?  Wiped out in about ten minutes flat?  Yeah, one lone soldier’s always more than enough.  Predictably enough, the colony’s in the grip of the reemergence of the Alien Syndrome, a disease/infection that mutates and warps man and machine alike into hideous monsters.  And Aileen, unsurprisingly, is the only one who can stop it.

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Emporium of Forgotten Games – House of the Dead: Overkill

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The House of the Dead series has always been well aware of its inherent cheesiness.  It has no pretensions of grandeur.  I mean, this is a series that had a stumpy winged gargoyle ask the infamous line ‘Suffer like G did?’ confusedly and try to sell it as a serious threat.  But, in a way, it was hard to tell how much of it was intentional and how much was the producers just not giving a damn.  Was the voice acting deliberately bad, or did they just hire a bunch of drunk hobos for the price of a bottle of wine, realise how popular the bad acting was, then decide to run with it?  Only the hobos know for sure.   Overkill leaves you in no doubt whatsoever.  They know how stupid the premise is.  Might as well have some fun with it.


The House of the Dead: Overkill

Wii

Originally released February 13th 2009

The game was originally released to cash in on the (very) brief resurgence in 70s exploitation films, kicked off by the Tarrantino/Rodriguez double-bill, Grindhouse.  Much as Planet Terror and Death Proof were an attempt at creating a modern-day exploitation movie, Overkill is an exploitation movie in game form.  The screen has a filter on it, making it resemble aged film.  There are a few obvious moments of ‘bad editing’, just to give it that authentic feel, and the cutscenes even have crackles and a muffled soundtrack, again, to give the appearance of age.  The attention to detail in making the game look and sound like crap (though it’s a well-worn crap as opposed to just plain crap) is oddly heartening.  If nothing else, it’s a clear indication that the game was made with a lot of love.
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Competition Results – Win Red Steel 2 with MotionPlus

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It’s time to find out the name of our lucky winner of Red Steel 2 with MotionPlus competition.

We recently ran a competition giving our faithful readers the chance to win themselves a copy of the Wii smash hit, Red Steel 2 with a MotionPlus accessory, which was kindly supplied by our friends over at Ubisoft. In our review of the game, Lucy gave it a whopping 8.5 out of 10, so this is certainly a prize to be sought after.

After painstaking sorting through all the entries, printing them out, cutting each name out and putting them into our big Mario hat we can now reveal the name of our lucky prize winner is:

EmpireZero

Congratulations to you, and commiseration to all of the other entrants. All is not lost though as we will be having another competition very soon, and with a bit of luck, the next prize winner might just be you!

Emporium of Forgotten Games – Scurge

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Stop me if you’ve heard this one before: a plucky female bounty hunter is tapped by the local governing military to investigate an incident at a research lab.  During her investigation, her ship is attacked and she’s forced to crash land near to the lab, which is now home to the creatures responsible for both her mission and the attack on her ship.  Said creatures are alien parasites that drain the life out of their prey, then turn it into a host to spread their corruption.  The bounty hunter, ‘Jenosa Arma’ running around in a tight blue jumpsuit, her long ponytail flying behind her, is swiftly infected and, with the help of her ship’s AI,  she has to travel from area to area, picking up enhancements for her suit and weapons to try and curb the menace before it gets any further.  Sound oddly familiar?  Get used to it.

Welcome to Scurge.

Scurge: Hive

DS

Original Release: October 13th, 2006

Let’s not beat about the bush here, this is a game heavily ‘inspired’ by the Metroid series, in much the same way Edvard Munch’s The Scream was ‘inspired’ out of an art gallery a few years ago.  The main character is Zero Suit Samus Aran with the serial numbers filed off and a vaguely different name and hair colour (red instead of blonde, obviously).  You can look at the basic storyline up there and see elements of Super Metroid and Corruption, but the majority of the story comes from Fusion, the last of the 2D games before the shift to FPS.  However: before you go running off to complain about how Bad and Wrong this game is on your nearest message board, how about taking a look first, since there’s actually enough new here to keep it from being a completely shameless ripoff, merely bringing it down to the level of ‘almost entirely without shame’.

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Emporium of Forgotten Games – Splatterhouse 1 and 2

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Last week, you’ll no doubt recall I did a quick rundown of a few games I’d love to see ported to the Wii Virtual Console.   Chief among them was a port of Splatterhouse 3, the horror-themed beat-em-up on the Megadrive.  Considering how well known the games were at the time, however, they seem to have vanished into obscurity in the years since.  Even with a remake on the horizon, the series is still something of an unknown quantity.  Time to rectify that situation, don’t you think?

Splatterhouse – Turbografx

Original Release – April 21st, 1990
Virtual Console Release – March 16th 2007

It starts with a man and a mask.  Rick Taylor and his girlfriend Jennifer visit the West Mansion, home of the (currently missing) Dr. West.  The place has a history of strange happenings, and the couple go along to see if the rumours are true.  During a storm, Jennifer is kidnapped and Rick is left for dead.  When he reawakens, he finds himself wearing the Terror Mask, a powerful artefact West was working on, that will allow him to take on the monsters that have kidnapped his girlfriend…

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