More than just Wii Sports Vol. 2

Geoffrey Wright | February 16, 2023 | Feature | No Comments

It’s been a while since the last Wii issue, not really because of anything to do with the Wii either as plenty to play still, but a TV upgrade made a lot of my older consoles unusable due to a lack of anything but HDMI ports. No component for the Wii meant a Retrotink was in order, those cheap HDMI converters on eBay/Amazon ain’t too good, which was a little expensive but will at least support my other consoles too. Turns out the new TV is also too thin to support the IR receiver sitting on top, luckily some Blu-tack got the job done until a better is solution is found (tracking always seems off when under the TV for me). Until then here’s a few more of my enjoyable Wii games to consider yourself….

Dead Space: Extraction

Given the recent release of Dead Space Remastered, I though it may have been a good idea to return to Extraction for one of these. To be honest I’ve always had a soft spot for the game, it obviously plays different to the rest of the series but doesn’t lose anything really in that transition. Gone is the third-person horror to be replaced with a lightgun -esque game that’s a perfect fit for the Wii. Even with the change in gameplay it still manages to pack in jump scares alongside plenty of tense moments as the odds stack up with Necromorphs bearing down on you.

Series fans will get plenty out of the game too as its set on the colony which found the marker aboard the Ishimura, plus the narrative itself plays out surprisingly well considering the genre. Presentation helps in that regard, and granted there is a PS3 version (available as a bonus on Dead Space 2 disks), but the Wii certainly doesn’t pull any punches. Extraction attempts to bring the look of Dead Space to the Wii, and it succeeds as the game doesn’t look out of place at all against the other releases – plus it nails the atmosphere during the opening few stages.

The only dilemma really is whether to pick it up on Wii or PS3. PS3 does have better visuals and features Dead Space 2 on the same disk, but if you don’t have PSMove then the choice is obvious! Oddly enough though Extraction on the Wii costs nearly double (£15-20) to that of Dead Space 2 so I guess the choice isn’t really so obvious after all.

OneChanbara: Bikini Zombie Slayers

The OneChanbara series has always had a spot on my shelf since the Simple Series PS2 days, with this wII release one of the highlights. Story wise it follows on from Bikini Samurai Squad, but its self contained enough that you don’t need to play the other first to enjoy the events of Bikini Zombie Slayers. Funnily enough I generally prefer this Wii release over the prior 360 game graphically. Its not as detailed obviously but there’s more colour and variety to the proceedings and it leaves its sibling looking a bit barren to be honest. You also get more characters to play with this time around and once done with the story you’ll unlock a few more- there’s a lot of zombies to get through to 100% this OneChanbara as always.

Using the Wii-mote for combat is done in a motion way as you’d expect, there’s no classic controller support for regular controls. You attack with the flick a wrist, you could do an actual swing if you wanted, and it actually works well in that regard as it seems relatively easy to time your moves for combo’s. It’s a shame we never got another on the Wii that used the motion plus for some Skyward Sword styled slashing, but at least this doesn’t try to do too much so you can still kick back and play.

Being up there in the series for me, its good to see that prices haven’t spiralled out of control with this one as its cheaper than its 360 cousin. Priced at £10-20 on eBay makes it cheap enough to plug the hack & slash gap in your Wii library, and is a no brainer for fans

Rune Factory Frontier

One game for the Wii that I still enjoy firing up on the odd occasion to see how things are going is a packed Rune Factory release. Frontier offers something more akin to a Harvest Moon game as you take up the reigns of an old farm in a quaint village. There’s still dungeon crawling and the like to be had, but the farm and it’s nearby villagers are where you’ll be spending most of your time. The farm starts small but with a little work you can get it up and running pretty quick with some basic vegetables, and upgrades aren’t too far off.

Dungeon crawling lets you take a break from the farm and can score you some seasonal plants etc as well as progress the story, but visiting the village will give you more of a break. The game has a social system in place which sees your relationship improving with numerous depending on jobs you do for them or even just simply running the farm well. Marriage is also possible as another aspect from Harvest Moon included here, there’s over a dozen potential wives to choose from so it probably wont be something you’ll get to early – the farm will need everything you’ve got to get up & running.

As mentioned before, I do enjoy the game and oddly find it to be one of my favourites on the system, so would recommend picking it up. Unfortunately the price has been creeping up on this one and its around £20+ these days, worth it for me as there’s hours of relaxing farm work to be done, but may put off Rune Factory fans given it seems more like a Harvest Moon.