GamesRadar - Wii Reviews

Tamagotchi No Pika Pika Daitouryou! [import] (Review)

Feb 5, 2007

Clearly bent on taking over the world, the Tamagotchi critters are using a Wii multiplayer board game to decide on a President to lead them into battle. Up to four people can play, with the AI filling in if you (surely inexplicably) find yourself playing Tamagotchi on your own. Start by shaking the remote to throw a die, and move around the board to land on a square where: a) youre rewarded for doing nothing at all, b) youre penalised for doing nothing at all, c) youll get richer after watching ...

Tamagotchi Party On! (Review)

Jun 6, 2007

It's hard to properly weigh in on such a perversely cute board game. The minigames are preschool-level at best, often requiring nothing more than simple gestures to complete. Dialogue is so basic that a five-year-old kid could whip up something more profound. Even the Community Chest-style spaces you land on put the little guys into are right out of a fable or moral tale (helping kids across the street, visiting old folks). But somehow its invasive, saccharine cuteness manages to generate ...

Target: Terror (Review)

May 8, 2008

The credits list betrays their terrible secret. Many years from now, members of the Target: Terror development team will recount that fateful evening in the summer of 2004 when Target: Terror’s boss, Eugene Jarvis (of Narc and Cruis’n USA fame), sent down the order: Dave - bring in your bright red boiler suit; Gina - go get those PVC hotpants you wore to the Christmas party. And all of you - bring your sunglasses. The next day ...

Thrillville: Off the Rails (Review)

Oct 19, 2007

Oct 18, 2007 The sandbox (genre) is no place for kids. Between GTA, Saint's Row, and True Crime, lil' Ginny Gamer has smartly stayed the hell out, lest she shovel up murder weapon Uzis or carry home a pail full of sticky condoms. Enter concerned citizen Lucasarts, who with their new theme park grab-bag Thrillville: Off the Rails, has picked out all the used syringes and, sack o' toys in hand, reclaimed the sandbox for ...

Tiger Woods PGA Tour 07 (Review)

Mar 15, 2007

Ever since Nintendo broke the news of their weird white rectangle, we've been treated to many a photo of delighted Asians brandishing their remotes like golf clubs. Right out of the gate the Wii proved it could hit for power on the links with Wii Sports golf and Super Swing Golf. But we all knew there was a Tiger in the grass waiting rip the throats out of its cutesy predecessors and establish dominance amongst the "perfect" ...

Tiger Woods PGA Tour 08 (Review)

Sep 5, 2007

Sept 5, 2007 Anyone who's ever dragged a bag of clubs around a golf course in pursuit of a small, white ball knows how frustrating the game can be. Unless you're one of the few hundred people in the world who are actually good at the game, nothing humbles you like those eighteen holes. However, there's something incredibly wonderful that moment when, for whatever reason, everything clicks and you smash a perfect shot. You may send the ball all over the place the rest of the day, but that one ...

Tiger Woods PGA Tour 09 (Review)

Sep 8, 2008

Years ago, a round of Tiger Woods golf on your favorite console was a relaxing half hour, spent dominating the world’s best players with relative ease. Oh, how the Wii has changed things. Thanks to the wonders of waggle, 18 holes now translate into 30 minutes of violent gestures and measured nudges. ...

TMNT (Review)

Mar 30, 2007

When we first heard that the same studio that makes the fluidly acrobatic, lushly visualized Prince of Persia series was going to make a Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles game, we were thrilled. In our minds, no other team on Earth was better suited to blend the four things that define the turtles: a dark personality (in the original comics at least), incredibly acrobatic ability to treat an entire city like a jungle gym, teamwork, and high-flying martial arts shell-kickery complete with different ...

Toki Tori - WiiWare (Review)

May 27, 2008

It may not be a WiiWare game you've paid a great deal of attention to, but take an interest in Toki Tori you most certainly should, because it has the potential to be the biggest sleeper hit in the platform's early release schedule. ...

Tomb Raider: Anniversary (Review)

Nov 19, 2007

You had to see this one coming. Despite all the hooplah about Lara returning to the console that made her famous (well, its successor, anyhow), you had to know that the PlayStation 2 would not be the only place you could get your Tomb Raider Anniversary fix. Now, the game that looked uncannily good on PS2 looks, well, pretty much the same on Wii. With last years Tomb Raider Legend, new developer Crystal Dynamics tore down the decadent remains of what Tomb Raider had turned into and laid a ...

Tony Hawk's Downhill Jam (Review)

Nov 27, 2006

It's becoming increasingly difficult to get excited about Tony Hawk. Every year we get the same game with crazy new goals and some gimmicky new ability that's supposed to make everything feel different. Usually it doesn't and Tony Hawk's Obligatory Release ends up getting tossed away until the next one comes. It's this continuous cycle that makes Downhill Jam actually stand out from the mainline series. The open worlds of previous games are gone. No more roaming about Los Angeles or abandoned ...

Tony Hawk's Proving Ground (Review)

Oct 31, 2007

Oct 17, 2007 Proving Ground is an almost obscenely plump package. In a bid to outdo itself and fresh-faced rival Skate, Neversoft has jammed its latest game with so much content that you expect to hear distant groaning when holding the disc up to your ear. The first thing we noted, though, was what seemed like an oversight - there's no "free play" option, no chance to dive straight into the three-city-wide game world to just mess around. No, you'll have play the full-blown Career mode before ...

Top Spin 3 (Review)

Jun 23, 2008

From Rockstar to Sega superstars, we’ve seen our share of racquet games on Wii that haven’t offered any significant advance - in terms of motion controls - from the tennis freebie bundled with the console. For one reason or another, we’re still waiting to see if Wii Sports is actually as good as it’s going to get. Nobody else has really gotten the hang of what we always thought would be the most obvious sport on ...

Transformers: The Game (Review)

Jun 29, 2007

The second-biggest sucker in the universe is a character in the shabby, movie-based action smasher, Transformers: The Game - it's the main character's dad. The transformer Bumblebee has been ordered to protect an Earth boy named Sam - because they want his grandfather's eyeglasses (honest, we're not making this up) - on the very day that Sam's dad has promised to buy him a car. So, Bumblebee sneaks into the used car lot and somehow brainwashes the kid and dad into deciding he's the best car ...

Trauma Center: New Blood (Review)

Nov 20, 2007

Nov 20, 2007 Blood. Malpractice suits. Nearly a decade of book leanrnin'. Most of us don't have what it takes to brave Med school, much less dig sharp instruments into our fellow man. So when last year's Trauma Center hit the Wii, we finally learned for ourselves... how to save a life. Okay, it's just a game, but damned if slicing incisions, stitching wounds, and firing lasers at polyps didn't make for one of the most fun, and perfectly suited, experiences for Nintendo's new ...

Trauma Center: Second Opinion (Review)

Nov 15, 2006

What kid didn't love Operation? You know, the battery-powered board game in which you used tweezers to yank vital bones and organs from some poor schlub with bad hair and a light-up nose? What a great game. And Trauma Center: Second Opinion is the super-powered, seven-headed, genetically mutated video evolution of that game. It's niche-y and unique and a little gory and it isn't going to be easy to find. But find it anyway, because it's also the Wii's second must-have game (Zelda being the ...

TV Show King - WiiWare (Review)

Jun 30, 2008

We can’t be alone in thinking that playing quiz games on your own is more pointless than Paris Hilton. Whether it’s a digital version of Trivial Pursuit or a made-for-consoles title such as PS2’s Buzz!, there’s zero satisfaction or fun to be had pitting your wits against a bunch of AI contestants. This is as true for TV Show King as any other quiz ’em up. However, when the intended number of players is all flesh ...