Nintendo Wii U Screenshots: Wii Sports Club

Last night when I went to finally download Wii Fit U, I discovered Wii Sports Club.  I downloaded it to try out and immediately loved that I could play bowling against other people online.  The bowling on Wii Sports still remains one of my favorite games and it is fun that I can now play it on the Wii U without having to use the Wii disc.  Plus, playing it online against others and the Club aspect adds a whole new level of fun.

I also briefly tried the only other sport currently available - Tennis.  I totally stink at that one, but it partly seemed to be because of a lag.  I think that one has issues with the online aspect causing a lag, as several times I should have hit the ball, but it showed me missing.  Also, a couple times the screen totally froze for a few seconds.  Thus, the online aspect of Wii Sports Club is not so fun for games requiring simultaneous play, but when you take turns like in bowling it does not matter and that is more my sport anyways.

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.

Kongregate Badge of the Day: Beginner's Luck

The Kongregate Badge of the Day for Saturday, November 5, 2011 is the Beginner's Luck Badge.  This is an Easy rated badge for the game Crunchball 3000.  To get the badge you need to win a career match.  For getting this Badge of the Day you get 6 Gamestop PowerUp Reward Points.

As always if you already have the badge, just go to the game and you will be awarded the extra points.

Comment  if you have any if you have any other tips to help others get today's badge to help out those having trouble.  Also, feel free to ask questions if you need help and I will try to help you out.

Nintendo 3DS Screenshots: Brunswick Pro Bowling

I love bowling in real life, so I tend to like checking out bowling video games, although the online one I have ever really liked is part of Wii Sports.   I kind of have given up on liking bowling games on anything, but the Wii.  However, there has not been much I have wanted to even try on the 3DS, so I decided to rent Brunswick Pro Bowling for Nintendo 3DS and give it a chance.

I quickly became annoyed with Brunswick Pro Bowling, as you cannot control the menu selections with the buttons and instead have to use the stylus even if you choose Arcade Play controls for the bowling.  The game got further frustrating with the arcade controls being too picky and complex to get the hang of.  The stylus play option is not too bad to get the hang of, but I kept having issues of it not recognizing me swiping the stylus and it would take three to four swipes to actually throw the ball.  That got old fast and I did not even complete one whole game.

Brunswick Pro Bowling had potential to be fun, as I like the idea of leagues and tournaments in Career mode, but the controls make it not worthwhile at all.  It is basically a game full of cons with the main pros being in the title and the fact that the 3D does look cool.

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

iPhone Game Screenshots: Star Dunk

StarDunk is a fun hot shot style basketball game with a space theme. There are different power ups you get when you light up all 4 parts of the back board. The game is a fun quick game to play and it does have a good amount of replay value, especially now that you can customize your own balls with points you earn playing the game.

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

Nintendo Wii Screenshots: Water Sports

Water Sports sounded like an interesting game because it has wakeboarding and uses the balance board. Well, it turned out to be quite disappointing. I am so glad I rented it, as I almost bought it and that would have been a major waste for me. Now the game is not entirely horrible if you use just the Wii remote, but the promise of balance board compatibility majorly fails because it just is not very responsive and can be downright frustrating for turning.

The Water Sports include kiteboarding, wakeboarding, windsurfing, and watercraft racing (Jet Skis). It is mostly just different ways of racing, except wakeboarding is just tricks. Wii Sports Resort is much better than this game even though it does not have all these events and does not use the balance board. The wakeboarding I thought would be fun with the balance board, but not with the lame way tricks are (just going off ramps and on rails) and the poor responsiveness of the turning.

iPad Game Screenshots: NBA Hotshot HD

NBA Hotshot HD reminds me of playing Hotshot as a tabletop game. It is as fun as I remember that being. It is to some extent even better because you earn balls as prizes and then you can use those balls when you play. The ball designs include NBA and WNBA logos. It is especially cool that the WNBA is included, as the iPhone version does not have the WNBA. The controls are sometimes not the best, but I have this on the iPhone and I think the iPad controls work way better and are not too bad. The iPhone version does kind of stink control wise along with it not having the WNBA balls.

The app does cost $2.99, but I found it very worth it. I hope they eventually update it with more prizes to earn, though. A multiplayer mode could also be fun, although I personally very rarely have anyone to play with.

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

iPhone Game Screenshots: Cool Curlings

Cool Curlings is based off the Cool Runnings story about the Jamaican bobsledders. This game is about curling instead. Normally I would not even care to try a curling game, but I am in full Olympic mode this month and have been trying Winter Olympic themed games on my iPhone. I only tried the free Lite version, but I think it gives enough of an idea of how the game works. The only benefits of the full version appears to be more challenge levels (15 instead of 5) and more teams to choose to be in Versus mode.

The game is not too hard to figure out the controls to. However, being able to control the curling stone to end up where you want it does take practice, although I imagine it is easier than real life. The Versus mode kind of annoys me, though, as you cannot seem to play against anyone unless you join the OpenFeint network thing or you have someone else to pass your phone with. This is not horrible, but I kind of would have liked the choice to play against a computer opponent, especially for a game I was not sure I wanted to keep and thus why sign up for some network.

Click below to get the app for yourself.

iPhone Game Screnshots: Ski Jump

I was searching to get the NBC Olympics app yesterday and ended up finding the Ski Jump game. It is pretty interesting, but really is not much. The graphics are boring and a side view of track and your ski jumper. It would be better if it seemed realistic if the view was more like that on the Wii Fit game. It is kind of a fun Olympics themed game to enjoy right now, but unless you really like it the lite version is more than enough for most.

Click below to see a larger version of the screenshots.

Click below to get the app for yourself.