It has been a while since I did a post about what video games I am currently playing.

Pinball Hall of Fame: The Gottlieb Collection



This is a follow-up to the popular Pinball Hall of Fame: The Williams Collection. I just received this the other day, I pre-ordered it when I saw it was going to be released. I’ve always been a fan of pinball machines, played them all the time back in the 80’s, while a lot of other kids my age were playing video games. I love the graphics, the sounds, and the interesting layouts the manufacturers came up with. This game isn’t as good as the Wiliams Collection, mainly because there aren’t as many table challenges, only one per table, compared to 10 on the Williams Collection. I still enjoy the tables in this collection, though; there’s a nice variety. As with the previous pinball collection, I enjoy grabbing a beer, putting on some music, and sitting back to play for a couple hours.

Super Mario Bros. Wii



I love this game. In fact, I can’t think of a Mario game I’ve played that I didn’t like. This game goes back to the 2D side scrolling style of Mario gameplay, and is super challenging. I’ve played through the entire game, and I have yet to find a way into level 7, plus I still have a lot of gold coins to collect, so I will be revisiting this one for a while.

The Legend of Zelda: Spirit Tracks


I love me some Zelda. These games are always a blast. I just started playing this one, so I haven’t gotten very far, but so far the story and gameplay are great. Like Mario, I’ve been a fan of every Zelda game I’ve ever played.

Tags: wii, nintendo ds, video games

Lego Star Wars: The Complete Saga was one of the first Lego video games, but it’s the last one I got around to playing.



The other two Lego video games I’ve played, Lego Indiana Jones and Lego Batman, I ended I playing until I reached 100%. I’m not doing so with Lego Star Wars. I am currently sitting at a little over 80%, and that’s good enough for me. I’ve gone through all of the levels in free play, and I have all of the Red Bricks, True Jedi’s, and Mini Kits. What I have left to do are all of the time trials, and I’m really not interested in doing that. I’ve already been through all of the levels a couple times each, no need to do it again in under a certain amount of time. While I usually try to get 100% on a game, I’m happy retiring this one early. It’s a fun game, very well executed, and I enjoyed playing it.

Tags: wii, video games

I finished Tomb Raider: Underworld earlier today. It was enjoyable, and the story was very interesting. My only gripe about the game is the controls weren’t all that great. There’s just some games that don’t translate all that well over to the Wii controls.

Once I was finished with Tomb Raider I collected all of the games for the Wii and my Nintendo DS that I have finished, and I took a trip up to GameStop to trade them in for store credit. I currently have a little over $250 in store credit. GameStop was crowded, so I didn’t bother spending time looking for a new game. I figure I can survive on Guitar Hero: World Tour for a while. I’ve finished the game, on Medium, but I haven’t achieved 100% on all the songs.

I also recently finished another book, “Plague Ship”, by Clive Cussler and Jack Du Brul.



Clive Cussler is the author of the Dirk Pitt series of books I used to read. Once the Dirk Pitt series finished he branched out into a series of books with Jack DuBrul which encompass the “Oregon Files”, named after the ship that the characters reside on. He also started a series with Paul Kamprecos which is the “Kurt Austin” adventures. He recently teamed up with his son, Dirk Cussler to pen the new Dirk Pitt series, which is about Dirk Pitt Jr, the son of Dirk Pitt from the original books. All of these have a couple things in common: they take place around water, they have the over the top, taking over the world bad guys, and they are meant more for a fun read that anything else. I don’t know why, but I’ve found that I enjoy these stories. Plague Ship ranks as one of my favorites from the Oregon Files series.

Tags: wii, video games

Shortly after I finished Lego Batman I purchased two new games for the Wii. Call of Duty: World at War and Tomb Raider Underworld. I finished Call of Duty yesterday and have now started playing Tomb Raider Underworld.

Call of Duty: World At War



I’ve been playing the Call of Duty games since they started coming out for Playstation 2 many years ago, only missing Call of Duty 4 because it wasn’t released for a system that I own. Call of Duty: World At War is a first person shooter that takes place in the final days of World War II. You play two characters, an American and a Russian, whose stories intertwine. The American conflict taking place with Japan, and the Russian conflict taking place in Germany. Just like Resident Evil 4, I found this game perfect for play on the Wii. This game supports the Wii Zapper, but I found it too hard to play that way because you have to be able to press the buttons on the WiiMote, which is hard to do when it is in the Zapper. Using the WiiMote to aim your weapon gives you better precision than using the joysticks when playing the game on other systems. This game has online play, but that’s something I’ve never been interested in, so I didn’t play that part, just the single player campaign mode. It’s a great game, definitely recommend it if you are into first person shooters.

Tomb Raider Underworld



Tomb Raider is another game I have been playing since it first started, back on the original PlayStation. I haven’t started playing this yet, so I won’t have a review until I’m finished. Most of the Tomb Raider games have been good, but there were a couple that felt thrown together just to release another title in the franchise. Hopefully this one isn’t one of those.

Tags: wii, video games

It took a while, but I finally finished Lego Batman on the Wii with 100%. I used the same strategy I used when playing Lego Indiana Jones. I saved up the points I earned along the way and found and purchased ‘invincibility’ and ‘score x 6’. These allowed me to get through the levels easier and also to earn enough points to purchase anything I needed.

It took me a while to figure out that you go through this game as both Batman and Robin, and also as each of the villains. It’s actually an interesting way to tell the story. Usually when you are playing as Batman, you show up to the scene after the villain has already done their deed. Now, when you play as the villain, you play the backstory that leads up to that deed.

Overall I think I enjoyed Lego Indiana Jones more than this one. The first reason is Indiana Jones followed the story from the movies, so it was something I could relate with. Secondly, while this game was entertaining, it seems like it was just created to milk the franchise. I still need to play the Star Wars series, but I think I am going to take a break from the Lego games for a while.

Tags: wii, video games

In todays world of video games that have a budget of millions of dollars, you wouldn’t think the little indie developer would stand a chance, but they do. While the big companies are spending all sorts of money on creating games with huge story lines, super realistic graphics and celebrity voice overs, the indie developers are out there creating games that are simple and fun to play. You can see this on all of the gaming sites that have cropped up where you can play a game in your browser using Flash. You can also see it on the iPhone app store, where you can purchase a game for a couple dollars that provides hours of entertainment. Now you can see it on your Nintendo Wii, through their launch of Wii Ware. When you go to the Wii Shop Channel, you can purchase games that are made by indie gaming companies on their Wii Ware platform. There’s a pretty good selection of games at the moment that cover all sorts of categories. I purchased one the other day called World of Goo, and I am having a blast with it. It’s a simple premise, you link together balls of goo to build a platform to reach the exit of the level. While it sounds simple, luckily it isn’t, because where’s the fun in that. You have to make it to the end of the level with a requested number of unused goo balls. This causes you to have to think about how you build your platform in the most efficient way possible. The graphics and sound are great, the controls are simple and perfect, and the gameplay is spectacular. I recommend this title as your introduction to Wii Ware.

Tags: video games, wii

After finishing Lego Indiana Jones I went out looking for a new game to play. I enjoyed the Lego game so much that I purchased the Lego Batman game. I’ve played the first level so far and it’s just as fun as the Indiana Jones game.

I also found that Guitar Hero World Tour is now out. I purchased the game itself, instead of going for the whole kit at the moment, just didn’t feel like spending that much. If you purchase the whole kit you get a drum set, guitar, and microphone. This new guitar hero is competing with Rock Band. The game is fun, and I may end up purchasing the drum set at a later date, because there are some good drum songs on it; but I will hold off for now.

Tags: video games, wii

I just finished Lego Indiana Jones: The Original Adventures with a score of 100%. If a game has a certain goal, and this one the goal is to get 100%, I try to play the game until the end. The game was pretty tough, but once I figured out a system, it wasn’t that hard to finish. The way I was able to finish it is to not spend any of your coins until you have enough to purchase a couple of the parcels you’ve collected. If you can purchase the Invincibility parcel and the Treasure X 4 or Treasure X 6 parcel, it will make life a heck of a lot easier. Once you are invincible and your treasure is being multiplied, you will be able to get through all of the levels in Free Play mode with no problem. Once you have collected all of the treasures, and all of the parcels, and you have collected enough coins to make it to True Adventurer on every level, you should have enough money to purchase all of the extra characters. If you found all of the Star Wars characters you can also purchase Han Solo. Go to Indy’s room and collect all of the treasure chests to get yourself a key to use in the Artifact room. This will allow you to get into the 3 bonus stages. Once you are through with those go back in a purchase the last secret character and you should now be at 100% complete. You can tell you are at 100% because it will start raining coins everywhere.

This was a great game. I’m looking forward to playing the Star Wars and Batman versions.

Tags: video games, wii

When I purchased Wii Fit and did my first weigh in, I came in at 185 lbs. Now, I’m not some chunky guy, but a 5’7” guy weighing in at 185 lbs tends to have some signs of love handles. I set my goal in Wii Fit to get down to 170 lbs. I set a goal of 3 months, figuring 5 lbs a month may be achievable. It’s taken a little while longer than that, but I weighed in at 170 yesterday. Now, my weight tends to head back up a couple pounds on the weekend, since this is when Paige and I head out to eat, but that’s fine. My next goal is to get down to 160 lbs. Wii Fit says my ideal weight is 148 lbs, but that’s just too skinny for me. I used to weigh that much back when I was around 28, and when I look at old photos my face was very skinny. I think 160 may be a good stopping point. To achieve this goal I pretty much just try to watch what I eat. I try to weigh in on the Wii Fit every day at the same time, and use it to work out when I have a chance.

Tags: wii, fitness

I purchased a new game a couple weeks ago called “Lego Indiana Jones: The Original Adventures”, and I’ve been having a blast playing it.



If you’ve never played one of the Lego video games, you don’t know what you’re missing. If you think Lego games are only for kids, you are completely wrong. These games can be pretty tough. There’s a Lego Star Wars game and also a Lego Batman game; they all operate pretty much the same. You first play through each level in Story Mode. In this mode you follow the story line of the movie. This game has all three stories in it: Raiders of the Lost Ark, The Temple of Doom and The Last Crusade. You play as Indiana Jones and you’ll also usually have one or two other characters on the screen too, which you can switch to when you need to use one of their talents (women characters can jump higher, short characters can climb through holes, etc). The game follows the story lines pretty closely, adding little puzzles along the way. Once you finish a level you can go back through the level in Free Play mode. In this mode you will have access to additional characters that you unlock along the way, and they can allow you to access parts of the level you couldn’t in Story Mode, so you can find additional secrets and treasure.

I have finished the game in Story Mode. It’s not tough to finish if you are persistent. You can’t die in this game, you just lose some of the treasure you’ve accumulated along the way each time your life force goes to zero. You use the treasure to purchase additional characters and abilities, so it is best not to get killed too often. Once I finished the game in Story Mode, I was only through with 67% of the game, so now I am going through in Free Play mode, trying to find all of the secrets for each level.

I definitely recommend this game to anyone who likes a game with puzzles to solve and also is a fan of Indiana Jones. There’s a lot of humorous stuff thrown in, including cameos from various Star Wars characters, which are actually Easter Eggs that you are supposed to find to get 100%.

Tags: wii, video games

I ordered Mario Kart Wii a while back, two copies in fact, one for myself and one for Paige. Having played Mario Kart on the Super Nintendo and also playing it on the Nintendo DS, I knew it would be a good game. It arrived yesterday and has lived up to my expectations. Mario Kart Wii comes with a steering wheel controller. It's not a big steering wheel, a little bigger than the Wiimote. It took a few minutes to get used to, but definitely adds to the playability of the game. There are 32 race courses in all, 16 new and 16 classic. This weekend I will give it a try playing against Paige. She got a new 58" plasma Hi-Def TV, should look really nice on it. You can race against friends online, will need to try that out too with some of my co-workers.

Tags: wii, video games

I finished Tomb Raider Anniversary Edition. It was as fun this time as the first time I played it through, but a bit easier this time since I had finished it before. I decided my next game would be the kind of game I could sit down and play occasionally, all in one sitting, instead of the kind of game that takes a while to play.

I ended up getting two new games. First is House of the Dead 2 & 3. This game uses the Wii Zapper, and plays exactly like the game in the arcade. It's a rails shooter, like Resident Evil: The Umbrella Chronicles, but you don't save anywhere to play from later. I liked playing it in the arcade and enjoy it just as much on the Wii.

The second game I got was Pinball Hall of Fame, and I have to say that this is my new favorite game on the Wii. I love pinball, played it all the time when I was younger. Pinball Hall of Fame has 10 classic pinball machines, including two of my favorites: Funhouse and Black Knight. The games look and play just like the real thing, with all the sounds and physics. I played for a couple hours the night I got home and opened it. If you are a fan of pinball, this is definitely a game to get, and it's a bargain at $19.99.

Tags: wii, video games

I finished Super Mario Galaxy this evening. I've been playing it off-and-on for a few months now. I definitely give this game a 10 out of 10. It's amazing. I've always been a fan of Mario, back from the original NES up through this game. There are a lot of challenging parts to this game, and I'm sure I didn't find all of the secrets, but I'm glad to be finished.

I'm currently playing Resident Evil: Umbrella Chronicles too. So far it's been great, but some parts of almost too hard, and can get very frustrating. Luckily I've always been someone that has a lot of patience, so it doesn't bother me too much.

Aside from those two games I've been playing the occasional Guitar Hero III or Tiger Woods Golf game. I'm actually thinking of cutting down on my video game playing. While I do enjoy sitting back and playing a game, all that time I spend on games can be used to do other things. I need to budget my time better.

Once I finish Resident Evil I picked up that Tomb Raider Anniversary game. I've been a fan of Tomb Raider since the first game, which is what this game is, just updated with better graphics and some extras thrown in for the Wii.

If you have a Wii and enjoy Mario, pick up Super Mario Galaxy. Takes a little while to get used to the control scheme, but it's worth the time.

Tags: video games, wii