Category Archives: Wii

Doki Doki

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(That’s the onomatopoeia for the sound a heart makes if you speak Japanese.)

Slade and I played some Borderlands last night for the first time. It has a definite tough guy thing going on, with a twangy soundtrack from Cage the Elephant (think Beck) mixed with something that could be straight out of Firefly. Tons of fun, very surreal, and very much a game for two educators who had exhausting weeks to have the freedom of busting bandit gangs on a desert planet.

As I look at the upcoming release of the multiplayer Super Mario on November 15, I find interesting Mario facts along the way. Here’s something that caught my attention:

This is something that I had heard about a while ago, but now found the box art. You know how Super Mario Bros. 2 stands out as being completely different than any in the original series of games? A dream world with a lack of turtles but instead an abundance of radishes?

Yeah, that’s because it’s a game called Doki Doki that then had the Mario ensemble thrown on top of the sprites to make it more palatable for Western audiences. (What’s really funny is Super Mario Bros. 2 then got re-released, with the Mario characters instead of Doki Doki, as Super Mario USA.) Here’s an original screenshot:

Four characters go into a dream world to fight Shy Guys, Birdo, and King Wart. If you look at the box art, you can even see the crazy mask thing that would fly around and try to get you.

Don’t worry about it being some scandalous rip-off (because I know you were about ready to file a copyright infringement complaint, right? Don’t we all?). Shigeru Miyamoto (the guy who invented Mario, Zelda, Metroid, Wii Fit, and [cough]Wii Music[/cough]) came up with Doki Doki. The music was done by Koji Kondo. You may be familiar with his work. (The youngest adventurer in the Sidewalk Driver clan might appreciate this music video.)

I can’t believe what a trade-in freak I’ve become. But…New Super Mario Bros. Wii is now cheaper. With Wii Fit Plus having the same stuff from the first Wii Fit, I traded that sucker in.

I still think Slade’s students should play this one (Uematsu, not Kondo):

Estuans interius
Ira vehementi
Estuans interius
Ira vehementi
Sephiroth
Sephiroth

Estuans interius
Ira vehementi
Estuans interius
Ira vehementi
Sephiroth
Sephiroth

Sors immanis
Et inanis
Sors immanis
Et inanis

Estuans interius
Ira vehementi
Estuans interius
Ira vehementi
Sephiroth
Sephiroth

Veni, veni, venias
Ne me mori facias
Veni, veni, venias
Ne me mori facias

Veni, veni, venias
Ne me mori facias
Veni, veni, venias
Ne me mori facias

Veni, veni, venias
Ne me mori facias
Veni, veni, venias
Ne me mori facias

Veni, veni, venias (Gloriosa)
Ne me mori facias (Generosa)
Veni, veni, venias (Gloriosa)
Ne me mori facias (Generosa)

Veni, veni, venias (Gloriosa)
Ne me mori facias (Generosa)
Veni, veni, venias (Gloriosa)
Ne me mori facias (Generosa)
Sephiroth

Estuans interius
Ira vehementi
Estuans interius
Ira vehementi
Sephiroth
Sephiroth

Estuans interius
Ira vehementi
Estuans interius
Ira vehementi
Sephiroth
Sephiroth

Sors immanis
Et inanis
Sors immanis
Et inanis

Estuans interius
Ira vehementi
Estuans interius
Ira vehementi
Sephiroth
Sephiroth

Veni, veni, venias
Ne me mori facias
Veni, veni, venias
Ne me mori facias

Veni, veni, venias
Ne me mori facias
Veni, veni, venias
Ne me mori facias

Veni, veni, venias
Ne me mori facias
Veni, veni, venias
Ne me mori facias

Veni, veni, venias (Gloriosa)
Ne me mori facias (Generosa)
Veni, veni, venias (Gloriosa)
Ne me mori facias (Generosa)

Veni, veni, venias (Gloriosa)
Ne me mori facias (Generosa)
Veni, veni, venias (Gloriosa)
Ne me mori facias (Generosa)
Sephiroth

(fade away)
Estuans interius
Ira vehementi
Estuans interius
Ira vehementi
Sephiroth
Sephiroth

Why today was awesome

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  1. 1,500 words written towards a project I started today (~40,000 being the target)
  2. I got to play River City Ransom with my nephew. Fight for gravy! His best quote? “Here’s a trash can to the face, buddy!” Jeremy, I swear I’m a good influence. The state says so.
  3. My oldest and my nephew played some chess under my instruction…and they asked to play more. Sicilian Gambit from black off of e4? Child’s play!
  4. My extremely cute wife went into Discount Tire and Brakes Plus, got our van’s tire fixed and had parts replaced on the wheels…all for only $35. I go in there and they lecture me. She goes in there and they say, “Put away your purse. This repair’s on the house.” (Not exaggerating – that was today’s scenario.) A cute, prayerful wife is not to be underestimated.

DJ Battle of Epic Proportions

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Wii Fit Drum Major aside, I have not bought a rhythm game in a long time (Guitar Hero genre), nor will I anytime soon.

I would get the original Final Fantasy, now on Virtual Console for $5, before I got DJ Hero.

I can still go crazy about the playlist, though, right?

Three DJ battle items you might be interested in:

Vanilla Ice – “Ice Ice Baby” vs. MC Hammer – “U Can’t Touch This”
Marvin Gaye – “I Heard It Through The Grapevine” vs. David Bowie – “Let’s Dance”
Gwen Stefani – “Hollaback Girl” vs. Gorillaz – “Feel Good Inc.”

I think a half hour of that would melt the Wii.

Going for this:

instead of this:

Wii Fit Plus: Mysteries of the Sith

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For $20 if you already have the Balance Board, you get a great expansion pack to Wii Fit. The new disc has all of the old stuff on it as well as some great new features.

I built my routine tonight. I set it to 5 minutes with a mix of jackknifes (jackknives?), planks, and the tree stance. We’ll see how it goes tomorrow morning.

You may have seen my message about the drum major simulator. You really do flail around and people join you. The nice thing is that even though you’re flailing you’re burning calories. There are also some fun puzzle games where you’re moving the remote and the balance board in various directions.

There’s actually a pretty cool (ha ha) snowball fight that has a cover system similar to Army of Two, but you duck behind a barricade for real (and there’s not as much swearing).

The same star-based rating system is back, complete with very helpful titles bestowed upon your achievements.

After popping many beach balls and running down a robot mole, I can now be considered a Segway professional (maybe I shouldn’t brag).

The biggest excitement? Besides the workout playlist option, it will now calculate, based on what you’ve played, what you can eat.

I can now eat five saltine crackers but I’m working my way up to three marshmallows.

and what Nintendo exercise game wouldn’t be complete without me in a birdsuit?

I’ll skip the obvious jokes about how addicting Wii Sports is.

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September 22, 2009 – Police investigators sent to the home of a convicted drug dealer in Polk County, Florida found and used a Nintendo Wii console during their search, reports TampaBayOnline.

The entire act was caught on tape through a wireless security camera placed in the home where detectives were seen playing numerous frames of Wii Sports Bowling over the course of the day for about an hour.

“Obviously, this is not the kind of behavior we condone,” said Lakeland Police Chief Roger Boatner. “There was a lot of down time, but that does not excuse the fact that we should act as the consummate professionals.”

Police had reportedly placed the camera in the home as far back as December 2008.

At this time, it’s still undecided what, if any, disciplinary action will be brought upon the investigators caught playing the game.

“Certainly this was a case of bad judgment,” said Auburndale Police Chief Nolan McLeod. “We will handle it appropriately.”

How I know that I’m an adult

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Yesterday I traded in The Conduit for a pre-order of Wii Fit Plus…and I’m excited.

The Conduit was great when it worked.

But the majority of the time in multiplayer (since the single player was fun while it lasted – but was incredibly (Army of Two) short) your character would load under the map/inside a wall.

Slade was there to witness this happen the first time. I just assumed that it was a weeping and gnashing of teeth brought upon his very existence as punishment for his sins, his vile rage, against his enemy. (To Slade’s credit, it was really tough to map the turn the other cheek action to the WiiMote.)

I guess I’m not as mature as I would believe, though. I see this photo:

and I still wonder why they would put these two people, people paid to concuss each other until loss of consciousness, so close together. If he really wanted to throw the opponent off his game, Bugs Bunny him with a big kiss.

Wii Fit Plus

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The upgraded Wii Fit, with more exercises/games and, more importantly, the ability to create an exercise playlist, is scheduled for release on October 4 for $19.99.

This is yet another reason to love companies who have an obsession with white plastic. I felt the same appreciation for Snow Leopard – the slightly upgraded OS is worth the $25 I paid for it.

Thanks for not gouging us, even though you could have.

I had a weird moment yesterday when our maintenance guy started talking about Wii Sports Resort. The maintenance guy who is also a grizzled prospector (not being sarcastic) who comes to the library for old maps of our state.

New Wii peripheral simulates a facepalm

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As our league’s Fantasy Football draft approaches this Saturday, I wonder what it will be like since I have not bought Madden for a couple of iterations.

I mean, how many variations on guys in tights hugging each other can you get?

Companies are trying to grab new followers, experimenting with different immersion technologies. I think this first one is very limited.

The next one just scares me.

Yes, that’s an actual patent and yes, that’s the artwork their marketing department really thought would engage the imagination.

I think that they are intending this:
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for games featuring these:

where I believe that they are missing out on these:

I hope Vega enjoys tonight’s programming.

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By Vega I mean the star system and not the Super NES system star.

Thanks go to Devin for his cartographic curiosities.

Another Super NES star showed up today. Check out the Virtual Console for Super Star Wars today. I already have the original, but I’m glad to see that it will be preserved for a couple more years. This is probably one of the toughest games I have ever played.

So many dead womprats… I just never got how when you killed one large scorpion it turned into two small scorpions.

Rumor has it that the Check Mii Out channel will have Star Wars characters this week. I expect that Everybody Votes will finally let us figure out if Han shot first.

Which he did, you know.

You may have seen Bono’s challenging interview with Bill Hybels a while back.

I don’t know if you’ve seen the response:

In no way do I recommend living to make sure Bono is happy with us, but it is encouraging when I see people take action.

This is part of why I dig Aradhna. Their music is so different and refreshing – they also support Freedom Firm. It helped that I had recently read Sold right around the time that I hung out with the band. (And who wouldn’t want to hang out with a band in someone’s house? Coolest concert ever.)

Still Disturbed by the Smooth Jazz

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Stayed awake ’til 3
Finishing the final draft
Jason has it now

Walked into my work
Greeted by jazz in the dark
No soul was around

Kenny G played on
The IT guy in the dark
An awkward moment

Made some ID cards
One for a kid named “Cougar”
And for “Ju-wanna”

Heard about new game
X-Wing versus TIE fighter
MotionPlus on Wii?

Helped at Project C.U.R.E.
This air mask might not create
The desired “safe” vibe

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But it seems Elvis
And my good friend Jen have had
Even stranger days

Wii Sports Resort First Impressions

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When you finally tear yourself away from the imagery that Clinton’s sludge is tainting Obama’s administration, you need to check out Wii Sports Resort.

Actually, on an Obama note: I’m working on orders for the library. I chose a couple of biographies on Obama and Michelle, as well as Audacity of Hope. But, since it’s a junior high library, he’s on the order spreadsheet right alongside Ashley Tisdale, Shia LaBeouf, and the Jonas Brothers. (The majority of the biographies previously were as current as Selena and Salt ‘n Peppa.)

With Wii Sports Resort, it’s a fun purchase. My first impressions? Well, you may have heard the result from when I was racing across a rickety bridge over a waterfall to confront 13 assailants wielding red lightsabers kendo swords while listening to Battle of the Heroes cranked at MAX.

And then flying around an island strafing the golf course and basketball courts with laser fire.

What’s not to like?

Once you’ve done a billion points of damage…

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Tatsunoko vs. Capcom: Ultimate All Stars Various
Once you’ve done a billion points of damage, everything else is hyperbole.

Capcom vs. games, you make me laugh. Your instruction manuals promise “combos” but all I see are “flailings”. At least you’re not modifying the experience for Wii. Stay true to your insanity, Ryu. Stay true. (How old is that guy, anyways? I remember Slade and I counting quarters to buy the Super NES game. Before that, I remember playing the game in the lobby of a hotel in Disneyland.)

Bad Wii Bundles

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Because we all need motivation to buy the best-selling console out there right now.


This is what I feel like the majority of the companies view the Wii as. It shows by how the majority of games are developed. “Well, this sold. So how about throwing in a squirt gun and calling it good?”

How many carnival game collections does one system need? I’ve stopped hoping for decent RPGs and turned to an unlikely source…books.

These are actual bundles from Gamestop.

See the responses at IGN.

In which we rage against the machine

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We are back and the bloggh is in full human control.

A relaxing time was had, although the White House has just been attacked and Jack Bauer is stuck within. Pity the terrorists. We’ll be updating as the situation unfolds. The White House is having a tough time this week. Agent Ford is on his way to track alien Conduits, one perhaps in the Oval Office, that every conspiracy theorist warned us about.

Before we go any further, though, I guess everybody decided to go crazy while we were gone.

Cute photos are here.

Ants invaded our home, but our man on the inside eliminated them with reckless abandon. Uncle G, Master of Teras Kasi.

Celebrities…well, you know. I still think repeating clips of a guy as a zombie can come off as insensitive to his family when he just died. I could be wrong.

Square Enix unveiled a teaser site with a countdown, some artwork, and some old school midi. Does anyone recognize the music? I’m hoping for Secret of Mana, but I could be horribly let-down. A co-op RPG…and on the Wii? I think I ask too much. It’s not like we had the technology to do that back in 1993, right? Oh.

Capcom has 1560. I think that’s how many Street Fighter vs. Marvel vs. SNK vs. the GOP they’ve made so far. The heavy breathing gives it away.

Every video game company decided to merge into a mega-company, as we have foretold.

Government: It’s like a game of chicken, mixed with a bad MySpace page.

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For those worn out by politics, you might want to check out the G.I. Joe videogame developer blog (yes, there will be Stormshadow. Yes, there will be the collectible file cards. Yes, there will be Public Service Announcements…wha?).

Once you’ve done that, listen to Neil Gaiman read The Graveyard Book in its entirety. Newbery!

You may have seen that our politicians don’t always agree.

The legislature of Arizona approved a budget June 4. We can start planning for the school year, right? Not yet.

We have three branches of government (checks and balances still rock, even if we don’t wear powdered wigs anymore).

The legislature is holding onto the budget. It’s like a game of keep away, where they keep looking like they’re going to give the paper to her, and then they pull it back quickly.

It’s actually more like a game of chicken. We’re waiting to see who’s going to be responsible for shutting down parts of Arizona government. Who will flinch?

Who will have the stinky hot potato budget in their hands when the June 30 Catch Phrase buzzer goes off?

One branch of government is suing another branch of government and asking the remaining branch of government to mediate.

“I’m not speaking to you. Judicial Branch, will you tell Legislative Branch to give me the budget?”

“Judicial, you tell Executive that we can do what we want. I’m going to hold my breath until she says that she loves me.”

I think we may have a possible cause for low voter turn-out. There’s an attitude that politicians follow their own interests and not the interests of the people of the Republic – that the population doesn’t feel represented/that their vote affects policy. Intriguing…

And then we see goofy school districts doing stuff like this. I feel like mentioning that not all of us subscribe to the rubber room philosophy.

While I was looking up the details about the Arizona Supreme Court, seeing if I could find anything in the Supreme Court online records about the budget case…imagine my surprise at what I stumbled across.

The Public Access Case Lookup.

I searched myself and thankfully none of the atrocities committed under the Booyor banner were listed, but one guy who shares my first and last (but not middle) name should probably lay off the alcohol – forever.

Look up your name. Tons of fun for the whole family. Gotta love public access court documents provided by our government.

I know that we’ve been very focused on the Iranian elections (which I’m glad that crimes normally ignored are being brought to light) but I find it interesting that people haven’t been intrigued by what’s going on with North Korea, Myanmar, and China.

View Larger Map

A cargo ship, the Kang Nam, is heading to Yangon, Myanmar but may have to refuel at Shanghai.

Here are the complications: there’s a U.S. destroyer (the USS John McCain, ironically enough) following the ship to see if it has illegal cargo. After North Korea tested nuclear weapons and launched a missile in May, the UN has sanctioned North Korea from shipping nuclear weapons-type stuff. If they have that junk, the ship is to be redirected to a port of Pyongyang’s (North Korea version of Washington, D.C.) choosing to be searched.

North Korea has been saying that this would be an act of war.

We’ll see what happens with the port authority of Shanghai. I wonder if North Korea’s testing the sanctions like a one year-old tests if you’ll make them finish lunch (not like I have any experience, right?) or if they’re just waiting for the U.S. destroyer to slip up.

I should be careful with my comparisons to big news events with immature acts. I don’t want to pull a Hoekstra. He posted an exaggeration on Twitter:

Iranian twitter activity similar to what we did in House last year when Republicans were shut down in the House.

and an entire site was born:

You probably shouldn’t set your trivia encryption to EASY

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I miss Rogue Squadron.

I actually have only played the games on someone else’s machine – I’ve even played Super Bombad Racing, if you can believe the levels of Star Wars fandom. I remember hanging out in a Toys ‘R Us on a double date playing Rogue Squadron II on a demo Gamecube.

These are games where you play as Wedge Antilles and you visit planets like Bakura to interact with Tycho Celchu. This is the Expanded Universe.

There was a new Rogue Squadron game being developed for Wii by Factor 5. Then Factor 5 went bankrupt. To avoid surrendering their assets (in the process doing some shady business) they set a fake company called Blue Harvest and started transferring source code to the servers of that company.

Blue Harvest? Really? Like a mild Star Wars fan couldn’t pick up on that.

You might as well have hid the plans in an R2 unit. No one would have seen that coming.

Catching Fire review is up – and have you seen Mike’s group?

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Many updates today…

I put up a review of Catching Fire on the professional site.

One week until Conduit’s release. I am excited for a co-op game for my wife and I, though. The new Super Mario looks promising, and perhaps the next Ultimate Alliance could be good. I’m not current on my printed comics. Wasn’t Captain America dead? Now he’s back?

Japan is now going to have movie rentals on the Wii.

I guess I shouldn’t be blown away by the response to Mike’s Ghostbusters III group on Facebook. Since he ain’t afraid of no ghost, it’s the only logical progression. I do like Wil Wheaton’s thoughts on the busting of ghosts:

If there’s something strange in your neighborhood, you should call the police, contrary to what the song suggests.

I also appreciate his thoughts on current events:

Pretty sure the City of Los Angeles can find a better way to spend a million dollars than on a parade. Teachers come to mind.

It’s not that I don’t like the Lakers (I always forget, from time to time, that there are professional sports ever since the NBA started playing on cable instead of free TV).

But I am a fan of irony, and I guess some other Twitterers agree with something interesting that I noticed this weekend:

Riots in the same weekend. What do you stand for, Lakers or fair elections? #iranElection

Catching Fire has reminded me of what large masses of angry people look like.

Thanks to everyone who re-tweeted that. It’s been crazy watching Twitter hold CNN accountable for going light on the coverage of world events. They focus on Iran if it relates to something gossipy, but now the public demands more info on a government that cracks down on free speech.

On the topic of free speech (literally free…no cost to you, right?):
Shi Weihan was arrested for printing Bibles for free, which I guess is illegal in China still. Argh.

I’m intrigued by Kiva. I’m not a big fan of throwing money at a problem, but I know what it’s like to have an expense come up.

I must also confess that I am entertained on Twitter with pictures of director Adam Shankman with his dog on the movie set watching 3D monitors for Step Up:

as well as finding it fun that Miley Cyrus watches Funniest Home Videos to cheer herself up.

Keep those last two secrets to yourself.