All Wii Reviews

Madden NFL 07 (Review)

Nov 22, 2006

There's an outrageously good chance that if you're reading this, you're already a fan of sports games. If that's the case, rest assured that all your updated stats and faithful stadium recreations are intact with Wii's Madden NFL 07, but the greatest accomplishment here is the genre-opening motion controls. Much more intuitive than anything on the PS3, these gesture-based commands deftly control passing, tackling and hiking in such a way that anyone can wrap their minds around playing a game of ...

Madden NFL 08 (Review)

Aug 20, 2007

Those of us who've been playing Madden for years tend to like things just so. We get comfortable with our button layouts, strategy selections, and kicking mechanics to the point of righteous indignance when any basic fundamentals change. Hell, we're still complaining about the infamous passing cone - and that was a couple of seasons back, for crying out loud. So it is with no slight apprehension that we approached Madden 08 on the Wii, for the concept of waggle-based football is enough to make ...

Magnetica Twist - WiiWare (Review)

Jul 8, 2008

Download Magntetica Twist (known as Actionloop Twist in the UK), even if it’s only to experience the awesome ball-clack noise. For less ardent audiophiles, there’s also a polished puzzler here as well. The premise? Your Mii is plopped into a rotating cannon – twisted by turning the remote – that fires coloured marbles. Around your cannon a track of balls snake towards The Hole of Bad Things (our name). Chain ...

Major League Baseball 2K8 (Review)

Mar 13, 2008

While The Bigs and Power Pros have done their part to cure the baseball jones of Wii owners, until now 2K Sports' acclaimed sim franchise had been MIA from Nintendo's powerhouse console. To be frank, we were more than a little concerned with what awaited us in MLB 2K8. However, despite some rough edges, the result is a surprisingly enjoyable trip to the ballpark. MLB 2K8 had us wondering for months - will we be hurling pitches and swinging for ...

Manhunt 2 (Review)

Oct 29, 2007

Oct 29, 2007 It's been dogged by months of controversy, moral outrage, an outright ban in the UK and speculation that it might never come out at all, but Manhunt 2 is finally here. It's been through a few changes since we first saw it, but the basic premise of this stealth-horror adventure - hiding in the shadows and doing extremely nasty things to extremely nasty people - remains intact, as does its creepy storyline about escaped mental patients pursued by a shadowy, quasi-governmental ...

Mario and Sonic at the Olympic Games (Review)

Nov 6, 2007

Nov 6, 2007 All right, we're going to give this the benefit of the doubt. Because to review Mario & Sonic At The Olympic Games properly, we'd have to invent a cloning machine, build it, feed ourselves in like photocopier paper, then distribute our army of clone-twins across the country to find out how many laughs (or tears) the game delivers at every party and family get-together in the country. And the problem is that we're too fat to fit inside the cloning machine. All we know is that our ...

Mario Kart Wii (Review)

Mar 24, 2008

The brothers Mario clash on the racetrack. As their karts grind together, the combined mach speed threatens to tear the lip warmers from their very faces. The scene seethes with venom - never has Nintendo dredged up such ferocious rivalry. As an opening FMV? It’s a killer. As an indicator of the day at the races to follow? They’re being a little liberal with the truth.Entering our first race - Luigi’s Circuit in Mario’s ...

Mario Party 8 (Review)

May 29, 2007

Once again the folks at Nintendo and Hudson have managed to gently pat that formidable bottom of the minigame barrel - but without all together scraping it. Mario Party returns, finally on the system it was meant for. If you ever cared for the Party series, then there's no reason the newest entry won't bowl you over. There are over 70 minigames crammed into the disc, and hey, a handful of them you can even play with your Miis. To keep the fanatics playing, you'll earn Carnival Cards that can be ...

Mario Strikers Charged (Review)

Jul 24, 2007

Of all the GameCube titles we were hoping to see resurrected on Wii, Mario Strikers was never one that really showed up on our radar. After all, the original wasnt hugely impressive, being an exhausting and largely skill-free exercise in button-mashing attrition. If it was an arcade sports game its simplicity might have worked in its favor, but who would pay $50 for something so frantic and random? But its back, polished up and given a few new Wii controls though essentially unchanged in ...

Marvel: Ultimate Alliance (Review)

Nov 16, 2006

Raven Soft and Activision have teamed up for two of the best X-Men adventures in videogames (X-Men Legends and X-Men Legends II: Rise of the Apocalypse). Now, using some of the best, most powerful and most popular heroes in the Marvel universe, Marvel Ultimate Alliance is an enormous adventure filled with dozens of vile villains and multiple universe-shattering threats. The game features an ambitious story and an equally ambitious cast... that's wrapped up in the same old gameplay you've ...

Medal of Honor Heroes 2 (Review)

Nov 21, 2007

Nov 21, 2007 When Medal of Honor first appeared, around the same time as Steven Spielbergs gritty Saving Private Ryan, it was an eye-opener. War had never looked so realistic on big or small screen, and having seen the dirty gore of the movie, we could fill in the blanks left by the sanitised, bloodlessness of the game. These days, WWII is just another videogame cliché, and Medal of Honor has long since slipped into self-parody. We dont expect these things to be anything more than ...

Medal of Honor: Vanguard (Review)

Mar 27, 2007

Medal of Honor Vanguard drops in on the Wii and brings with it the arsenal of intensity that weve grown to love, (again and again). From the moment that you first land as Corporal Keegan on a beach in Sicily in Operation Husky, until the end of Operation Varsity, Vanguards assault rifle may jam once or twice, but its clip never runs dry. In Vanguard you take up your Garand again, this time as a member of the 82nd Airborne Division, one of Americas first airborne units. EA is one of the ...

Mercury Meltdown Revolution (Review)

Jun 22, 2007

Spiritualists and healers in the Far East who used to attribute mercury with healing properties would have been run out of town if theyd cited this game as evidence. After a few levels on Mercury Meltdown Revolution, theyd have been ready to club each other to painful death with a ritualistic bell, only realizing too late how damaging and toxic this slippery little element can be. Specifically, this is the first game to make us actually throw the Wii remote hard at the wall in real ...

Metal Slug Anthology (Review)

Dec 21, 2006

They dont make silly, shoot-everything-then-go-right games like the Metal Slug series anymore… unless you count the most recent entry in the 7-game Metal Slug Anthology, which just hit arcades this year. So, um… yeah, okay, they do still make games like that. What they shouldnt do is force you to use funky new control schemes that dont suit the old gameplay. The title of this side-scrolling shooter refers to “super vehicles” that come in the form of tanks, ...

Metroid Prime 3: Corruption (Review)

Aug 29, 2007

Aug 29, 2007 With so much emphasis on the casual market (Wii Sports, Wii Fit, Wii Play etc), it's easy to assume Nintendo's slowly leaving the hardcore gamer behind. Half of 2007 is over and the only true gamer's game we've seen from the company is Super Paper Mario - an RPG that either pushes your buttons or falls flat. Now, finally, there's a built-for-Wii title that embraces serious players and rewards them with intense shooting action, brain-sizzling puzzles and the smoothest graphics and ...

MLB Power Pros (Review)

Oct 10, 2007

Oct 10, 2007 If baseball is a game of inches, what then is MLB Power Pros, a game of fate, love, loss, friendship, loan sharks and pizza delivery? It's probably the most creative sports game to be released in some time, and a nice addition to any baseball fan's library. Developed by Konami, Power Pros is the Americanized version of Jikkyou Pawafuru Major League 2, the madly popular Japanese baseball game. As you can see from the oh-so-cute player models that lack legs, Power Pros is targeted ...

Monster 4x4 World Circuit (Review)

Jan 26, 2007

Not much has changed since Monster 4x4 World Circuit appeared on last generation consoles. It's still saddled with weak track design, dopey opponents, and flaming oil barrels that inexplicably follow targets around like lost puppies. Still, Ubisoft wisely scrapped the original, horribly unresponsive control system, and replaced it with surprisingly well done motion sensitivity for the Wii release. Included is a plastic steering wheel that snaps together easily enough and holds your Wii Remote ...

Monster Trux: Offroad (Review)

Feb 19, 2008

Regardless of our own personal feelings about the proper use of monster trucks, Bold Games has conjured up Monster Trux: Offroad for Wii - a straightforward racer that contains about as much quality content as its moniker has class and respectability - that is, not much at all. Its rough-and-tumble racing experience might at first be likened to Nintendo's own Excite Truck, but with few opportunities for air, it's mostly just a low-key ...

Mortal Kombat: Armageddon (Review)

May 30, 2007

Up, down, towards, away, A, down, away, B, A, B. Right now youre either nodding your head, thinking “thats what Im talking about” or youre quivering nervously, waiting for the bad GamesRadar man to stop. To the hardened Kombaters there is no greater thrill than to finger-dance opponents to their deaths with button presses; digit dexterity seeing icy-blasts ripping through human flesh and massive hats flung around with great abandon. To others there's nothing worse - a cruel hurdle ...

MX vs ATV Untamed (Review)

Dec 17, 2007

Dec 17, 2007 Youll probably often hear MX compared to Motorstorm, with both offering a similarly comprehensive vehicle set and both flinging mud about the place like a pig in the poo pond. But where Motorstorm is among the most beautiful racers ever made, MX is as plain as a bowling shoe and - inexplicably - has unrefined controls that dont hold a candle to its slightly better-looking versions on PS3 and 360. While its true the game is throwing around impressive physics and incidental ...