It took me by surprise when I found out that the first Wednesday after the summer of XBLA would have three releases instead of one. I was only surprised until I played them; only one of the three is worth looking at. In the never ending quest to charge money for things that are free (and possibly better) elsewhere comes Gin Rummy.
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COLUMNS
More new Miyamoto, and a fine introduction or supplement to working out.
Wii Fit is deceptively not a video game. I enjoyed both Brain Age games, but I had trouble convincing myself, even after Dr. Kawashima showed me all the studies he did, that it actually helped keep my brain young. As I got better at it, it didn’t feel like I was getting smarter, it felt like I was getting better at Brain Age in the same way one gets better at any game the more you play it. Wii Fit’s biggest success is that when you get better at it, it’s not because you’re better at Wii Fit the video game, it’s because you’re in better shape. It also has you thinking it’s a video game when you unlock stuff by playing for extended periods of time every day, but then you realize all you’re unlocking are harder exercises and more repetitions for the ones you already have. All it’s doing is making sure you’re ready for them before it even gives you the option to do them.
The only parts of it that are video game-like are the “balance games,” which happen to be the weakest part of the package. Stuff like marble rolling, skiing, and heading soccer balls do more to show off what the Balance Board can do than actually entertain you as games. It can feel much like the first time you played something with the Wii Remote; it’s touchier than you’re expecting and can take some getting used to, but the vast majority of the time it is perfectly precise and forgiving when it needs to be.
The Balance Board is what gives Wii Fit one advantage (compared to its many disadvantages) over going to a gym. During yoga and strength training exercises, it keeps track of your center of balance, so you can track how your steadiness and accuracy improve over time, and it makes sure you are doing the postures and exercises correctly. There’s also some crazy AI in there that can tell exactly what you’re doing wrong. If your hips are pushed too far back during the sun salutation, it will know. Unless you’re working one-on-one with an instructor, it’s impossible to get that kind of feedback, and even then it won’t be as scientific.
Like Wii Fit’s yoga and strength training, the aerobic exercises also work. Step, hula-hooping and shadowboxing all offer different levels that will challenge people that are either entirely out of shape or super-fit, and work great with the Balance Board. Running, on the other hand, which has you get off the board, put a remote in your pocket and run in place, is incredibly stupid. Unless there are bad weather conditions, you should just go outside and actually run.
While we’re on minor problems with the game, tracking my weight and estimated BMI in chart form is fantastic, but why give me a “Wii Fit age” also? You are given the option to skip that test every day, thankfully.
Wii Fit succeeds both as a piece of fitness software and as a greeting to an exciting new piece of hardware. It’s more new Miyamoto, and is a fine introduction (or supplement) to working out.
“Steps Toward an Elitist Critic Future” at Rock Paper Shotgun
I went into this article expecting the “elitist critic future” to be presented as a negative thing, but no. Kieron Gillen is openly admitting here that he likes it. I think he’s buying into the idea that games need what you could call “indie cred” (not his words) to be worthwhile. I love Earth Defense Force 2017, but no, Kieron, it’s not better than Gears of War.
Lower the price of the hard drive, Microsoft. I want to give you more money, all you have to do is let me.
“EA Partners Is A Murderers’ Row - Who’s NOT On This List?” at MTV Multiplayer
This is a good bit of investigative reporting from Stephen Totilo. With last Thursday’s announcements by Electronic Arts of deals with Grasshopper Manufacture and Epic Games, they now have at least half a dozen major partners, and that’s not counting the smaller companies they have outright purchased over the last couple years.
I have become amazed at what XBLA has done in the past few weeks. It started with Geometry Wars 2, a game Jim Canapa described perfectly in the previous column (he should know, since his high scores are far better than mine). Bionic Commando, another great game I will go into detail about later, was the most recent addition. But in the middle was Braid, the first game to ever cause an internal conflict for me.