A #Wii bit o’ fun for the New Year!

Just before the holidays I was treated to a demo of the new WiiU gaming system and some of the titles designed just for it from Ubisoft including:

• Just Dance 4
• Rabbids Land
• Marvel Avengers
• Your Shape Fitness Evolved 2013
• ESPN Sports Connection
• and of course for the Zombie hunter in the household… I have one too…ZombiU

Check out my ‘expert’ dance moves here while I tried out Just Dance 4′s ‘Never Gonna Give You Up’ by Rick Astley. Yup, I am definitely an 80′s music fan, my hubby is concerned I know all the words too .

I am a big fan of the Nintendo systems and had the very first Nintendo as a kid (which my sister keeps managing to take back and hide on me to this day), a Game Boy (which I actually am 99% sure is in the house somewhere right now) and most recently, the Wii. This is a system for me. I can work it, it’s user-friendly and, simply put, it’s all about fun!

When I first managed to track a system down, that was a challenge in and of itself, I was all hyper because I had been dying to get it since it came out about 6 months previous, my husband doubted I would keep it and figured I would get buyers remorse and take it back. After 4 hours of Wii bowling that very evening he figured this one was staying and he better move his system over and make room for mine .

What I really like about Wii in general is that it doesn’t try to be the ‘gamers gaming system’, this one is about fun and having fun with people present. It really is a party in a box. We and several of our friends all had house parties during the recession where it was infinitely cheaper to have everyone over and play this than go out. And I would argue we had more fun too!

Now that Wii has been on the  market for a while it was time for Nintendo to do a re-vamp and that is where the WiiU comes in. It really does take the Wii to the next level.

The remotes remain pretty much the same and so do the nunchuks, but the system itself now has a controller pad with a screen that works with the system and games to add another dimension to them. What do I mean by that? I think it best to explain with an example. When my friend Tracy and I tried it out ESPN Sports Connection she ‘pitched’ to me in baseball on the controller pad while I used the remote to hit in baseball. I got a triple, just, you know, letting you know

The games were awesome. My personal favourite was Just Dance 4 as you saw in the video above (I also rocked out to One Direction LOL) and can absolutely see that as the ultimate party game Monday night. What you may not have noticed during the video was at the end you saw words being scrawled across the screen, that’s right, the non-dancers can participate too by using that controller pad and stylus to rock out with you while you dance away 2012. I was impressed with the graphics too, really cool!

Then I tried out Your Shape as I have the one for Wii with the webcam and wanted to see what new things have been added. Well, the graphics have had a massive update and it is so user-friendly and so easily tailored to the individual. The exercises were fun too. Since I was still in a dance-mood I tried out one of the classes to Lady Gaga. Too. Much. Fun. Getting bored doesn’t seem to be an option with this version.

Ubisoft has done a great job incorporating the use of the remotes and the controller pad too and I’m guessing (cause Nonmom doesn’t speak ‘code’) that that was a bit of a feat to master. Some of the games can be done almost completely with the remotes, but with others you have the option to just run them off of the pad … as long as it’s within a certain distance to the system. But that’s cool too even for me if say I want to play a game and hubby wants to watch a movie or show on tv.

With Rabbids land for example, the controller pad and tv work together or apart. They both had different things going on too, which adds yet another dimension to the gaming experience.

Overall, I’m pretty impressed with the system and the titles to date. There is a lot coming for it too, like Wii TV which launches in the New Year to make the console more of an entertainment hub for your home. Ubisoft has again impressed me with their titles and diversity of levels of play, kudos to your coders, wow!

For New Year’s, why not look at a gaming night alternative? I must say, for us and a few of our friends, the one-time cost of the system pays for itself in money saved going out after about one night.

I have seen a few systems in stores the past couple of days so they are still available and could be ready for play Monday night without any trouble!

Happy gaming and Happy New Year!!!

Review & Great Idea For New Year’s: Monopoly Streets for Wii

In the past couple of years I’ve noticed that my hubby and I, and indeed a lot of our friends, are all going back to playing good old board games again. They were always so much fun, why we took a brief break I’ll never know, but the games seem to have forgiven us and welcomed us back with open arms and more fun than ever!
I was sent a copy of the new Monopoly Streets for the Wii (but it is available for other platforms, I happen to have a Wii) to review and NonDad and I popped it in the console and have pretty much been playing it every day. We’ve even managed to finish off the rechargeable battery pack on one remote so we’re temporarily back to batteries .
The graphics are great, so is the animation. You can play classic Monopoly or even modify the rules (and we all know different people have different ‘house rules’) to your familiar style.
One of the many things we like is the updates as you play. Mr. Monopoly pulls you to the centre of town every now and again and your net worth is updated by the growing or shrinking of a building with your token on top. Very cool.
The board itself is what it sounds like, a street! You walk around the board like walking around the block. And when you build houses and hotels, they reflect the value of the property. The ones on Marvin Gardens are my personal favourites.
When you play the games too you earn currency and can buy things like cool tokens (Mr. and Mrs. Potato Head are there) and use your Mii’s if you’re on a Wii. You can also buy different boards, we just got Landmark City and it was very cool to buy London I must say.
You can use a speed die to play quicker games (and it does work, we tried it out) and set limits on worth so that the game doesn’t take hours…or you can leave them alone and indeed play for hours just like the board game.
You can play by yourself against the game or have up to 4 remotes connected.
We are very impressed, there are so many aspects and details that are done well and I have a sneaking suspicion we’ll be playing this New Year’s Eve along with Trivial Pursuit and more.
Enjoy!