The christmas rush.

Do you remember last christmas? Was there a particular thing that happened? Did you visit someone you don't see often? Did you have a great time? Did you get drunk off your head?
Or, like me, do you remember ripping open the wrapping paper to find a nintendo Wii? And if so, was that not the time you fell in love with gaming on the Wii? After poor sales of the GC, the Wii really brought Nintendo back to being the most popular competitor in this three-way-market. Profits for the Wii are still rising. Wiis are STILL in short supply, and people are demanding more than can be made. The release of the Wii last year brought us great new releases, such as Legend Of Zelda- Twilight Princess, Red Steel (which my dad has spent many an obsessive night over), the ground-breaking Wii Sports (which cleaned up at the golden joystick and gaming BAFTAs this year) and Wii play, to name a few I can immeadiatley think of.

And this year will be no different. Here's a list of games being released for the christmas rush:
Super Mario Galaxy * @
Mario and Sonic at the Olympic Games * @
Lego Star Wars- The Complete Saga *
Guitar Hero 3 @
EA Playground !
Thrillville !
The Sims 2: Castaway
Spider-Man: Friend Or Foe !
Rockstar Table Tennis !
Rayman Raving Rabbids
Spyro: The Eternal Night
Tomb Raider Anniversary
The Simpsons Game
Zack + Wiki: Quest For Barbaros' Treasure

And those are just the ones I know about from my Nintendo Magazine! Here's the key for my annotations:
*- My brothers just got for their birthday.
@-Thoroughly recommend.
!- Avoid!!!

Now I could do any of those games for an online review. I could do 'em all right now. But instead I'm just going to focus on Mario and Sonic at the Olympic Games. I wanted to do SPG, because of how AWESOME it is, but ~d~ already has.
So- anyway. MSOG.

Three words- Hard yet fun.

It is so HARD.

Yet fun.

...

Let me give you an example. When I first inserted the disc and clicked the start button, which makes that trademark G note by the way, I did the 100m run. When it says "Ready", on the screen, you have to hold B to build up power. Then on "Go", you have to release B and flick the remote to start running and unleash your power. Then you have to do the whole up-and-down-running-even-though-your-arms-do-not-go-up-and-down-when-you-usually-run thing with the nunchuk and Wiimote. The first time I treid it, I played as sonic, a speed character. And that makes sense. But i came 8th. Out of 8, by the way. Because it takes a lot more effort then you think! I had to shake so hard that the cable flew into my face... heres a tip. Little flicks up and down. Makes you go faster. Anyway, I changed to my Mii, and eventually won. Two other things I will also mention- Archery and Trampolining. We'll start with the good news- trampolining is great, and you have to press buttons and twist the wiimote to get tricks, and flick the wiimote to bounce. As for the archery... am I allowed to swear? Can I swear on blogs? Is that ok? Anyway, point made. Its rubbish. To put it lightly. At the start you have a heart monitor- the thing that goes beep for hospital patients. You have to press A when the small white dot is in the centre. (Correction, btw- this is shooting, not archery. Archery is unlocked later in the game.) And the closer to the middle you are, the bigger a crosshair you get. Could someone show me the point of it , please?
Here's another3of my favourite moments.
1. On the long jump and triple jump. When you are being introduced, you repeatedly bring the wiimote and nunchuk togther to clap and draw applause from the crowd. And they keep clapping while you jump. Hilarious.
2. The controls. Most of the games are with the wiimote and nunchuk- but all are optional for just using the wiimote. Is that not a great door of accesability for all players opened? But when I raced my dad, he had just the wiimote, I had both. He lost, because in effect he was just using one leg! Funny.
The games are also-again- hard yet fun. A good investment. Me gives this game a cookie!
~E.G~