Nintendo Wii Screenshots: Zumba Fitness Core

Zumba Fitness Core is a good way to enjoy Zumba without having to go to a class, especially if you do not want to do it with others watching.  It can be kind of confusing and hard to do what the dancers are doing, but it just keeps going and you can just do your best as you learn to eventually do it all and keep up.  Plus, the Learn the Steps part can help.

The main annoying thing, though, is the Wii remote belt.  For one, I do not like that you cannot really put the Wii remote in the belt without taking it out of the jacket.  Could deal with just this issue, as I have so many Wii remotes and could just make one that I just keep in the Zumba belt.  The second thing that annoys me, though, is the belt seems to slip around.  It just does not seem to be adjustable to the right tightness on me to not be a nuisance.  Basically, it seems it would be better to just put the Wii remote in my pocket like other fitness games tend to have you do, but it does not track your movement right if you do that.

Overall Zumba Fitness Core is still a reasonable exergaming title, especially for those that want to dance.  It can certainly be high intensity and the different class options let you vary it up with different types of classes and lengths.

Nintendo Wii Screenshots: Order Up

Order Up is a cooking simulation game.  I enjoyed the Cooking Mama games, but this one is more of the Papa food restaurant flash game series style.  I do like this type of game and Order Up is an okay one in the genre.  My only issue was that the controls did not always seem to work effectively.  In particular, the flipping burger aspect seemed to be a movement you had to get just right to get it to work.  Maybe it is just me, but it seemed hard to get the stupid simple movement for the tearing the lettuce leaves off part, too.

Nintendo Wii Screenshots: Mario & Sonic at the London 2012 Olympic Games

I have loved the Mario & Sonic Olympic games since the first Summer one came out related to the 2008 Beijing Olympics.  I did not play the Vancouver Winter one as much, but I was still interested in trying out the new summer Mario & Sonic at the London 2012 Olympic Games.  The new version has really impressed me and is even more fun with at least as good replay value for me.

The thing I really like about the London 2012 Mario & Sonic game is the London Party mode.  This would be a fun way to play multiplayer, but I enjoyed it a lot playing on my own against all computer players.  It is interesting how you collect stickers depending on how well you do in the events and what you do while in the explore London part of each round.

It is also interesting that you collect scratchers as you play that you can scratch to win items to dress your Mii or music.  The losing scratchers can also be combined to unlock things.

The Challenges also had to the replay value, as it gives some extra things to try to achieve to fully complete the game.

Overall I highly recommend Mario & Sonic at the London 2012 Olympic Games.  Most of the events are reasonably challenging, although I found the soccer one to be frustratingly hard even on easy.  It is also nice that there are a good amount of dream events and some provide some more challenge to master.

Nintendo Wii Screenshots: National Geographic Challenge

When I rented National Geographic Challenge I expected a game with animal and nature questions, as that is what the Gamefly description said.  It turns out the description was really for the National Geographic Quiz! Wild Life game.  The National Geographic Challenge game is more about geography, which actually made me like the game more because I like geography while I am barely interested in animals.

Overall I really enjoyed playing the National Geographic Challenge trivia.  I found the questions quite challenging even on easy.  I do not mind a challenge with trivia games, but I can see this as too frustrating for those not at all familiar with geography because even though I know a good amount of geography trivia I did not know most of the answers.  It is great for learning and those that like a challenge, though.

The game also has puzzles like jigsaw, square, and slider, but I did not check them out because it just did not interest me to play that kind of puzzle game on a console.

Nintendo Wii Screenshots: PokePark Wii Pikachu's Adventure

PokePark Wii: Pikachu's Adventure sure is not the normal Pokemon game, but rather it is along the lines of Hey, You Pikachu! for Nintendo 64 and Pokemon Channel for Gamecube. This line of Pokemon games have always been among my least favorite, but I still find them fun to at least play through a little. PokePark actually was better than I expected, as it is kind of fun when you get to be Pikachu and make other Pokemon friends.

The best part is you actually get to control Pikachu and do battles where you can dodge and stuff in real time. The battles are very short and not the best, but certainly something that is long overdue to be in a Pokemon game.

Overall PokePark Wii can be fun, but it does not have much depth, especially since it lacks multiplayer for the mini games. It also is likely to be too cutesy or not enough action for many traditional Pokemon fans. However, there is certainly a niche of Pokemon fans that can appreciate this game, especially if they liked the previous similar games of Hey, You Pikachu! and/or Pokemon Channel.

Click on the thumbnails below to see a larger version of the screenshots.

Nintendo Wii Screenshots: Nickelodeon Fit

Nickelodeon Fit has some fun fitness games geared towards preschoolers with the use of the Nick Jr characters from shows like The Backyardigans, Dora the Explore, and Go, Diego, Go. It is a surprisingly good game and I found even myself really enjoying some of the stuff more than I expected, especially the Giant Bowling with the Backyardigans. However, some of the responsiveness is not that great and I imagine could be frustrating for young kids. For the most part this is not a real issue, but rather a slight learning curve to figure out how to play at the beginning.

The big problem with this game is the constant resyncing you have to do with the balance board. It is totally frustrating to have to do the get off the balance board while it syncs and step on to calibrate thing before doing every single thing. Sure Wii Fit sort of does that, but it is a passive thing of you just standing on the board not the annoying process of be off wait hit a button get on wait and finally be able to play one activity before having to do it again before the next activity.

Click on the thumbnails below to see a larger version of the screenshots.