Nintendo did their thing, a new console was shown and my body was ready for it. Was yours? What did you think about what Nintendo is dishing out? More importantly, does this newest development make you want to sink some money into Nintendo once again?

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First, there was Wii Sports and stories of people letting go of their controller mid-tennis match and smashing their TVs. Then, PlayStation Move came out with its version, Sports Champions, and we heard the same stories. Well, Xbox’s Kinect takes away that fear by taking away the controllers! All while still providing a great sporting experience!

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Looking for some great gaming deals but you don’t get the Sunday paper? No problem! Check out below for a summary of all the weekly ads. Read the full story

Viewing Review -

Before I go into my review for Grand Slam Tennis, I want to let you guys and gals know that I am not too keen on sports games. I have never been athletically inclined, and I’ve found most sports to be boring.

Tennis is a sport that I would never play in real life. I’m just too lazy to run back and forth on the court just to hit a ball, so that brings me to video game tennis. I’ve played it in the past on various systems (Virtua Tennis on Dreamcast, Smash Court on Playstation 2, Top Spin on Xbox, and Wii Sports Tennis on Nintendo Wii), but my most recent video game tennis experience was far better than I could’ve imagined.

Image Courtesy of Electronic Arts (EA)

Grand Slam Tennis by Electronic Arts (EA) for the Wii is a fantastic game. Right from the beginning you can tell that it’s a clean game. I liked how you had the option of playing singles, doubles (together or versus), Career Mode, and online. From what I’ve read, Grand Slam Tennis has been praised for having a highly addictive online play. Great thing is that you don’t need to have friend codes in order to play with people. All you  have to do is sign up for a free EA account to have access to the full online experience.

While playing online you can particpate in ranked or unranked matches. Having that choice is nice because sometimes all a person wants to do is pick up the controller and play a few games for fun without having to worry about being so competitive. It can take the enjoyment out of a game. Online also matches you up with people playing the game from all over the world and I think that’s great. Having such a wide community to play with adds variety and versatility to the game.

Image Courtesy of IGN

If you choose to play ranked, you earn points when you beat somebody. Those points then determine what your overall ranking in the world is. A nice feature is that when playing ranked, not only do you earn your own personal points, but you earn points for your country. There is even a National Leaderboard where you can see which country has the top players.  Unranked matches do not earn you any points, but like I said before those games will be friendly and very low-key. Unranked can be good for people to prepare for the leaderboards without all of the pressure and stress.

Grand Slam Tennis features 23 different players to choose from. 12 of the characters are some of  the current top players, while the remaining 11 are retired legends. The 12 current players are Rafael Nadal, Roger Federer, Andy Murray, Novak Djokovic, Andy Roddick, Jo-Wilfried Tsonga, Kei Nishikori, Venus Williams, Serena Williams, Maria Sharapova, Ana Ivanovic, and Lleyton Hewitt. The 11 retired legends are Chris Evert, Justine Henin, Martina Navratilova, Michael Stich, Lindsay Davenport, Pat Cash, John McEnroe, Björn Borg, Pete Sampras, Stefan Edberg, and Boris Becker. There is even a “Create-A-Player” mode that will be familiar to people who have played the Tiger Woods golf series by EA.

Image Courtesy of Electronic Arts (EA)

One of the things I noticed while watching the game were the stadiums in which you played in. They were very realistic, vibrant with colors, and you had 12 different ones. Grand Slam Tennis is the first game since Top Spin 2 on the Xbox 360 to feature a licensed Wimbledon. Here are all of the venues:

• Australian Open: Hisense Arena, Rod Laver Arena, and Court 15.
• French Open: Court Suzanne Lenglen, Court Philippe Chatrier, and Court No. 12.
• Wimbledon: Centre Court, Court No. 1, and Court No. 3.
• U.S. Open: Arthur Ashe Stadium, Louis Armstrong Stadium, and Court 9.

Image Courtesy of Electronic Arts (EA)

When I was watching Grand Slam Tennis, I saw both singles gameplay and also co-op doubles.  Chris mostly chose Federer, while his cousin Lee would switch between McEnroe and Cash. One notable match was the two of them versus the Williams sisters. After the first serve, I knew that it would be an intense match. Both of the guys attached the Wii MotionPlus to their Wii Remotes so that their actions could be rendered identically on the screen in real time, and there is a dramatic difference between using the Wii MotionPlus and not. When they would swing their arms to volley back the ball, there wasn’t a lag like you’d get without it.  It was by far one of the most fluid tennis matches I had ever seen on any video game console.

The announcer who was calling the scores wasn’t annoying, the clapping after each round wasn’t overdone, and the sounds of the game were what you’d expect to hear when watching a real competitive game of tennis. Chris and Lee were really enjoying themselves and I found myself getting into it as well, even though I was just sitting on the couch.

I would highly recommend Grand Slam Tennis to anybody who owns a Wii console. For those of you who don’t, yet own a Playstation 3 or Xbox 360, Grand Slam Tennis will be released on both of those consoles later this year in the Fall. Details on those versions are minimal right now.

All I have to say is, Virtua Tennis… you better watch out. Grand Slam Tennis delivers all you could ask for in a tennis game, and more.

-Lindsey

Playing review -

My cousin recently purchased Grand Slam Tennis for his Wii.  At his in-laws house on the 4th of July, we decided to give it a shot together.  We had both been great fans of Virtua Tennis on the Sega Dreamcast, and are both fans of tennis in general, so it seemed like the thing to do.  Loading it up, the menu system was very easy to navigate.  The selection screens are all well done, and very clean looking.  The animations are smooth, and do not lag.  We chose our location (U.S. Open, Arthur Ashe Stadium) and our characters.  I started my first match with Pete Sampras, while he chose Pat Cash. Finally, it was time to start our game.  My cousin didn’t go into a great deal of detail about gameplay, so I had plugged in the nunchuk and was prepared to dash around for the ball.  I controlled my movement for the first game, before finally realizing that the game itself will control your movement for you, if you want.  This helped me immensely, because the nunchuk wire was quite the nuisance when trying to swing at the ball.  It caused me to miss a few shots that should have been fairly easy.

Image Courtesy of Electronic Arts (EA)

The game got into full swing, literally.  While I have been told that smaller, suble movements are sufficient to manage your player, they don’t have the flare and effort a good game of tennis deserves.  With this in mind, I was playing with my entire body, and with as much effort and energy as I could.  This level of physical engagement, however, may have been the cause for some of my accuracy issues.  When returning a service, I would more often than not hit the ball completely wide of the court (especially in doubles matches).  I tried varying my swing strength and angle, but generally ended up out.  This continued through my matches as McEnroe and Federer.  Controlling the direction of the ball could be difficult at times, especially compared to DC Virtua Tennis.  There were times where the trajectory of the ball seemed to be completely arbitrary, having absolutely nothing to do with my actual swing.  However, this could be a sign that I was playing a bit too exuberantly, as I have mentioned.

Image Courtesy of Electronic Arts (EA)

When playing in a doubles match, the system handles player positioning fairly well.  When one player makes a mad dash for the ball, your teammate moves to cover, which is extremely handy given the recovery time after a particularly epic dive.  The AI players do a decent job, but as with all AI players, they do have exploitable patterns and routines.  Look hard enough, and you’ll find them!

Two days later, my right arm is still sore from the exertion.  Grand Slam Tennis has some incredible, and obvious, improvements over games like the Dreamcast’s Virtua Tennis, while in other aspects, I feel Virtua Tennis has the upper hand (ball control!).  As I mentioned, though, this could have been due to my flailing, and not any fault with the game itself.  When looking at Grand Slam Tennis, the most important thing to consider is the fun factor.  In that respect, Grand Slam Tennis is one of the most fun sports video games I have ever played.  What more could you really ask for?

-Chris

Well, since Monday was heavily focused on the Wii, and Tuesday documented a Wii-related experience, I figured we might as well make it Wii Week and run three more days of Wii blog posts.  I bet you’re all excited about that!

Lindsey and I have been playing a lot of Animal Crossing: City Folk since we got it.  It is the most played game we own now.  When we got it, I figured that would be her solo game, Super Mario Galaxy would be my solo game, and Wii Sports, Wii Fit, and Mario Kart would be our together games.

I’ve played more Animal Crossing than Super Mario Galaxy.  Not because Super Mario Galaxy is a lesser game (it’s an amazing game), but because Animal Crossing is so easy and relaxed that you can’t help but lose track of time.

Which brings me to the point of this post:  Our lives are being devoured by the Wii.

Devoured, I say.

It’s a serious problem.  We’ve started caring less about things we enjoyed before because we’d rather be playing Animal Crossing.  The biggest problem is that I am completely aware of this problem, and I’m not going to do a thing about it.  I need to have a perfect rating for our town.  It will happen, and we will reap the benefits.

We’ve both had our houses expanded after paying off our original mortgage.  Lindsey has been grinding fishing for extra money, and I’ve started manipulating the residents.  Oh, it’s so very fun.

Is it weird that I like this game so much?

-Because I said so

On Friday the 13th, Lindsey and I became the proud new owners of a Nintendo Wii system, along with Wii Fit, Wii Sports, Wii Play, Mario Kart Wii, Super Mario Galaxy, Animal Crossing: City Folk (with Wii Speak), and some accessories.  Needless to say, our weekend was very productive.

Very productive.

We have both been playing mostly Animal Crossing.  She has played this game in depth on multiple systems (Gamecube and Nintendo DS, I think that’s it), while I have only jumped in briefly on her DS version.  With the Wii version, I’ve become far more interested in it than before.  We both have moved into Korriban (her choice, as the dark side is strong in her).  She is Revan (see what I mean?), and I am Zim (DOOOOOOOOOOM!).  It’s been fun, so far.  We’ve both managed to pay off our houses as of yesterday, and we had a new resident move in to town!

I’ve played some Super Mario Galaxy, going so far as to beat the Dino Piranha star (first star after the Observatory), and I am having an absolute blast with this game so far.  The camera angles can get very disconcerting, but I think they’ve done an amazing job with the levels.

Lindsey and I have played a couple of team races in Mario Kart.  We lost our first two team races, but we won the third.  It took a few laps to get used to the accelerometer controls, but I think we’ve got it down pat, now.  With Animal Crossing, Lindsey came in with the experience.  Mario Kart is my game.  I’ve played Mario Kart DS to death, I loved Mario Kart 64, and while I never owned a Super Nintendo, I had a friend with one and we would play Mario Kart a lot.  I know how to Kart.  Lindsey is very good as well, which is great.  Between the two of us, we’re almost never out of the top 3 in any given race.

Wii Fit.  Fuck the Half Moon and fuck Lunges.  Everything else is cool, but fuck those two.  The Lunges really did a number on Lindsey, and the Half Moon is really painful.  I’m going to keep doing the god damned Half Moon, because it’s probably really good for my posture and spine, but fuck it straight to hell.  Other than that, it’s an amazing game that makes working out a lot of fun.  With the training tracker, graphs, BMI measurements, Wii Fit Body Age, etc, you get to have a lot of fun while having a visual goal.  We’re going to try at least half an hour each every day.

I enjoyed the Wii Play games (most of them), but Lindsey has given Wii Play a solid thumbs down.  I think the 7-2 score may have had something to do with that.

We didn’t do anything more in Wii Sports together, but I played a few frames of Bowling, as well as a couple of matches of Tennis.  I also did a game of Baseball, which is a lot of fun, even though I don’t really enjoy baseball too much.

We browsed through the Virtual Console games, and found some titles that really took us back, and some that made us go “Fuck that” at the same time (Ecco the Dolphin, anyone?  That’s another post altogether.).

Last night we rented two more games to try out: Metroid Prime 3 – Corruption and De Blob.  Metroid is Metroid, this we recognize.  De Blob, however, we have heard nothing about.  It looks like a pretty cool party game, maybe a puzzle game, we’re not sure.  We’ll try it out and see.

We love our Wii.

-Because I said so

Today was Valentine’s Day.  It was the second Valentine’s Day that Lindsey and I have had, and the first since we moved in together and since we became engaged.  The first thing we did was get breakfast.  Sorry, let me correct that.  The first thing I did was get breakfast.  The first thing Lindsey did was play Animal Crossing: City Folk on our new Wii.  After eating breakfast, we continued playing Animal Crossing.  She took a bit of a nap, during which time I popped in Super Mario Galaxy, which is very fun (but has extremely weird camera angles).  Next up was Wii Play, which I found fairly entertaining, but which Lindsey hated most of.  After that, we put our Wii Fit to use with a half hour of training for each of us, followed by Wii Sports Boxing.  Once Lindsey put me down to the mat, she went off to start cooking our Valentine’s Day dinner while I played some more Wii Sports and some Animal Crossing.  Finally, dinner was ready.  Lindsey made some amazing salmon, spaghetti alfredo, peas, and a great salad.  For dessert, she made a wonderful red velvet cake with cream cheese frosting.  After dinner, we watched Memoirs of a Geisha, which she hadn’t seen for a very long time, and I hadn’t seen at all.  It just finished up about 10-15 minutes ago, when I realized we had yet to do a post for today, which brings us to the current moment!

Happy Valentine’s Day!

-Because I said so