Platform: Nintendo Wii

The Conduit is one of the few games for the Wii that makes an honest attempt to appeal to hardcore gamers. It boasts graphics that are about as good as you can get on the Wii’s dated hardware, online multiplayer, and lots of first-person shooting and killing. Unfortunately, the game comes across more as a tech demo rather than a truly compelling action game. Don’t get me wrong, the game can be fun and the Wii control scheme is about as close as you are going to get to the twitch responsiveness of a PC based FPS, but it suffers from uninspired level design and a by-the-book game plot: An alien invasion? Ya don’t say. Government conspiracies? Who’da thunkit? This game had a lot of potential, and I hope the developers will concentrate a little more on variety and story for the sequel.

The Wii has two areas in which it excels: family friendly games and pseudo-lightgun shooters (meaning, you point the Wiimote at the screen like a gun, but you are really just moving a mouse pointer and not really aiming your controller at targets). House of the Dead: Overkill is about as far away from a family friendly game as you can get. The game is non-stop blood, gore, incest and cussing. You know… “mature themes.” Fortunately, the depravity is backed up with some great on-rails shooting and pitch perfect grindhouse inspired art direction and humor. If you are going to play this, make sure to invest in a Wii Zapper or similar gun accessory for the Wiimote or risk some serious wrist pain.

This was a cartoony and fun side-scrolling platformer with nice2.5-D graphics. A bit easy and lacking the exploration and precise control of a Mario game, but enjoyable and worth playing through especially for the unexpected ending.

This was another bargain purchase for me. Ten dollars on Amazon during one of their Gold Box sales. I’d have to say it was well worth the price.

I remember when this game came out it got all sorts of game of the year awards on G4 and such. After having played it through I can say it isn’t THAT good, but it is pretty good game, and one of the best Wii games I’ve played. However, if this were a PC game I would only consider it to be mildly above average compared to other PC shooters like Half Life 2. The movement controls are atrocious and the ugly, muddy palette is so 1998. You do get used to the clumsy movement after a half hour or so. I was willing to deal with the tank controls because, on the other hand (literally), using the wiimote as a shooting device works very well. Taking aim at monsters and zombies and blowing them away is very satisfying.

The game’s story moves along at good pace and the voice acting pretty good. I especially like the Spanish curses that get uttered by all the evil villagers. As the game progresses there’s a bit of variety thrown in to the gameplay that keeps it from getting too repetitive. Although, as the final chapter approached, I felt a bit of sameness fatigue setting in and was relieved after beating the final boss. There is a bunch of extra gameplay modes that get unlocked when you finish the game, so it looks like I’m not quite done with this one yet. This is an essential game for the Wii if you want something with a little more meat on it than the kiddie titles that dominate the platform. Despite my nagging, I’d highly recommend it.

I found this game used for around twelve bucks a few months ago. I’m glad I picked it up because it is a really entertaining game. This is an adventure game. That means it’s not the fastest, most exciting game around, but I liked the laid-back pacing. Unlike the LucasArts game from the 90s, this game’s puzzles actually make sense. There was hardly ever a moment when didn’t have an idea of what I needed to be doing. The worst part of any adventure game is that feeling of being stuck with no idea what to do next. That said, as far as point and click adventures go, this one is quite simple. That may be a disappointment to some puzzle-brains out there, but I am too old to be pondering game puzzles for more than a few minutes. There is just enough challenge here to give you a sense of satisfaction as you progress through the story. On top of it all is a nerdy sense of humor and some vivid characters with which to interact. The only big flaw of this version is the janky animation and occasional audio stutters. I hope they’ve resolved this issues in Season 2 when that is released for Wii. A great game to play with the kids (if you don’t mind the occasional “damn!” in the dialogue).