Just Dance; Wii

I absolutely love this game! I didn’t think I would, but I do. My sister-in-law has been raving about it for months and has graduated onto Just Dance 2, but I thought I’d play it safe and stick with the first one.

My sister-in-law had been threatening to have a girly night with us all having a dance – I couldn’t imagine anything worse as I just can’t dance, but my mum got Just dance for Christmas so I thought I’d give it a go. Irrelevant that she’d only just taken it out of the wrapper when we went to visit for Easter!

We put it on on an overcast Saturday afternoon and we sweating within minutes. Songs like Eye of the Tiger and Surfin’ Bird  are such a good workout and I’ve found myself putting the game on for 30 minutes when I get in – rather than putting on Wii Fit as it’s a much more enjoyable workout!

There are lots of great song on there, and one of the great things is you’re constantly striving to beat your best score – it’s like a personal competition!

My only criticism is that you can often be following the moves and it not register what you’re doing. Maybe I’m not doing it 100% correct, but it can be very frustrating. Perhaps it’ll be sorted out in Just Dance 2? It’s on my wish list…

Wii Party

Ever since we saw the advert for this we wanted it – it just looked like so much fun! It was added to mine and my husband’s Christmas list right away, and I was so pleased when I opened the gift from my sister-in-law and it was Wii Party!

We took it up to my mum’s (where we spent Christmas) and road tested with it with my brother and his fiancee – and had a lot of fun. It’s got several different ‘main’ games to play, and you jockey for position by playing lots of mini games.

We particularly like the Mii of a Kind where you have to match two lots of three of a kind to earn the most points – its a game of luck and it’s really annoying when the computer seem to have all of it!

The Globetrotting game is also pretty fun, and my husband particularly likes the board game – the name escapes me – as he like to try and beat everyone else at the top to win the treasure. We haven’t really tried much of the house party gaming – although I spectacularly fail at the bomb-passing game with my five-year-old nephew!

My brother enjoyed the game so much that I bought it for him – aren’t I a lovely sister? – and he says its not so fun to play on your own, so it sounds like its definitely a family/party game.

Tetris Party Deluxe (wii)

I love Tetris – many an hour did I waste playing it on my PC when I really should have been doing my university coursework! I’d never been able to find another version to put on my computer and after a while I gave up, so I was intrigued when I saw that Nintendo was  bringing it out for the Wii and DS.

I was pleasantly surprised when I opened up one of my birthday presents (ok so its a few days early but I was bored and annoying hubby) to find Tetris for the Wii, although I wasn’t sure how good it would translate to the big screen. First things first a little go by myself – and it was pretty good on the big screen but the best thing was being able to play against my husband and beating him! So much fun, cant wait for Christmas to play my brother and throw all kinds of bombs and little men at him to sabotage his game.

There are a variety of different ways to play – I particularly like the challenging shadow game where you have to make the blocks match the shadow. Its frustrating when you can’t do it, but boy does it waste a few hours when you’re mean to be cleaning. I might even get it on the DS too!

Football Manager 2011 (PC)

This is definitely the game for all football addicts. This game offers many challenges; whether you wish to lead England to a much sought after World Cup victory, or wish to bring a lower league club into the dizzy heights of the English Premier League, this is the game for you. Or perhaps you are a fan of the football giants and want to win every trophy there is going? Or even a lower ranked premier league club and want to gain Champions League Qualification?
This game is more realistic than previous editions. You are now able to speak to football agents, have more conversations with your players, assign players to focus on individual training aspects, as well as a new in depth match preparation service. The game at times can seem slow, but this does depend on how many leagues you have running, and how many players you have loaded onto the database, but despite this the game is very addictive!
You can view the match screen in a variety of ways, in normal 2D, just commentary, or the new and improved 3D. The 3D is of much better quality than previous editions, with option to view the crowd and advertising hoardings, adding to a realistic match day experience.
The news screen is much more up to date, and it is now easier to flick through various screens. Despite there being much more information now available to you, it does seem easier to play this game. Be warned however, it is difficult to turn this game off. I often find myself saying ‘oh just one more game won’t hurt,’ however, when you see your upcoming fixtures, especially when your team is playing so well, you just want to continue playing. There are many more tactics to choose from, and I have often found myself thinking of new tactics to deploy or new players to sign when I am not playing. Football Manager 2011 can become your life, but it really is the best football management game around.

Wii Sports Resport

Basketball, bowling and Puppy frisbee – how much fun is Wii Sports Resort? I’m still working my way through all the games but I’m loving it!

OK so the ordinary Wii Sports has bowling, but the extra little bit on the bottom of the controller – the Wii motion plus sensor – makes an awful lot of difference. I’ve even managed to beat my husband a few times, much to his annoyance as he believes the bowling is the one thing he’s good at – bless him! He’s equally annoyed when I beat him at the table tennis…and the Puppy frisbee…and the sword fighting…and the archery.

The archery game is really hard at first and it takes a bit of getting used to as you have to hold the wii controller and nunchucks in the opposite hand to what you’re used to, but once you’ve got the hang of it, its pretty straight forward.

As with all the games, there are lots of different levels or types of game to play, each with their own awards to win. You can get a really good workout playing some of these games, while others you can have a bit of a rest and a sit down!

While you can buy the game and motion plus together, it’s a bit disappointing that it only comes with one motion plus controller. Fine if there’s just you, or you’re happy using one controller, but a bit frustrating if there’s more of you – or you just don’t like to share! We were quite lucky as someone was selling their motion plus controller at a car boot sale – can’t think why – so picked it up quite cheap.

This game is great – especially if you like a bit of friendly rivally/full on fighting with your other half! Or even against your brother and his other half…I can feel a Wii Sports Resort competition evening coming on…

Super Smash Bros. Brawl (Wii)

Its not very often I can beat my hubby at a computer game – and I really didn’t think it would be this one – but the look on his face when I beat him at Super Mario Super Smash Bros was so funny!

This is basically a beat-em-up type game – I’m sure there’s a technical term for this – with characters from loads of other games, lots I haven’t heard of! We’re still working through the game unlocking different characters so who knows whose left to find, but you’ve got the likes of Mario and Luigi, Kirby, Zelda, Pikachu and the Pokemon trainer.

I quite like the typically cartoon characters – the likes of Kirby and Pikachu. I don’t even mind Ness and Lucas – the little boys – but I can’t stand the humanised characters like Zelda and Marta – they just look so weird!

The game is fun to play but not exactly easy to pick up – it was definitely a case of trial and error for me. The instruction manual has instructions for playing with a normal Wii controller, and other controllers, but it was so confusing we gave up trying to work it out and just started playing.

My four-year-old-nephew loves this game – and he’s completed the challenges pretty easily – if he can do it I can do it…except I haven’t tried yet!

Super Mario Bros.Wii

Being part of the generation that grew up with Super Mario I was naturally excited by the prospect of an all-new game featuring Mario and Luigi – Super Mario Bros.Wii.  My four-year-old nephew was also pretty excited by the latest offering and even got the game before I did. Looking after him and his sister one night, my husband and I got the chance to have a quick go, and boy was it good.  So good we actually had to go an buy it for ourselves with our Christmas money!

You can play with up to four players.  Player one is by default Mario, which is a shame as I’d love to be able to play as other characters, but he can be joined by Luigi, Blue Toad and Yellow Toad.  The story starts at Princess Peach’s birthday party, which is rudely interrupted by Bowser and his minions, who kidnap the Princess and whisk her of to one of their castles.  Its up to Mario and his friends to battle through eight levels, full of games and bonus levels to rescue Peach.

Obviously, compared to previous Mario games, this is much better – the graphics, the music – everything has improved since the old games I used to play, and it’s even more fun than I remember!  My husband is pretty good – whizzing around the board as Mario but then he grew up with it all!  I’m still learning the ropes as I haven’t has as much practice as him and I’m sure my nephew could beat me hands down.  I’m rubbish, but its fun and I’d definitely recommend it to all old – and new – Super Mario fans.

Wii Fit Plus

Wii Fit was pretty fun when it first came out, and although I like to dip in and out of it every now and again, it never quite worked for me.  there were too many chances to stop and give up (unlike the Wii Active), and you spent more time trying to decide what to play next than actually completing exercises – but this seems to have all changed with the new Wii Fit Plus.

It has all the same exercises as before – plus a few extras and a handful of new games – but the best thing about this is you can now plan workouts to do all your favourite exercises in one go – with no stopping.  And all the games and exercises you still hadn’t unlocked because you lost interest, are now available for you to play.

I’ve yet to try everything out, but it looks like so much fun – the flying game is particularly cool and I can’t wait to try the Kung-Fu – certainly ticks all the right boxes for me

It makes the old Wii Fit disc a bit redundant, but it can always be traded in for something else, and the same Wii balance board can be used.

Wii Active Part 3

So the month is up…and I didn’t manage the 20 workouts in 30 days – no surprise there!

I managed to get to 13 workouts – which was the most I’d ever got to so I’m still feeling slightly proud of myself, but still pretty bad as I didn’t complete the challenge. I’m going to finish the 20 workouts, and then try it again – who knows I might get there!

Trouble is, if you stop for a few days (a week in my case as everything else seemed to get in the way), you quickly lose motivation and the tummy starts to come back – makes you wonder why you bother!

Wii Active Part 2

I’ve had Wii Active for about two and a half months now, and I’m yet to complete the 30-Day challenge. I love the idea of this – 20 workouts in 30 days, but in practice – I find it hard to achieve, not because I’m not motivated, but because something else always comes up! I started the challenge again at the beginning of September and I’m about half-way thorough, so I’m certainly on track to complete it this time. I’m even trying to fit in other exercise in my ‘rest days’ as I still don’t see any results. If anything I’ve put more weight on!

Michael says its the muscle, which is fine, and yes my legs, bum and arms are looking a little more toned, but what about my stomach? I still have an unsightly (at least for me to look at) bulge to deal with. I wonder if there will be any exercises to combat that coming up; I certainly hope so.

Once I’ve completed this work out, the plan is to move on the the next level, where workout should be a bit tougher, and probably a bit longer. I’m hoping this will have a more noticeable effect!