Disney’s Chicken Little: Ace In Action (+)

A video game based on a movie that’s based on a video game. Oh boy do we want some chicken.

For being out less than a couple of months, the Wii has gained a great variety of genres. Anti-Nintendo fanboys have always bashed Nintendo consoles for having too many kiddie oriented games. While Chicken Little: Ace In Action may appear to be a kiddie game on the outside, it contains enough comedy and solid gameplay to entertain all ages.

Chicken Little is a prime example of why the Wii can make any sort of game fun even if you’ve played it before. Chicken Little is very similar to Nintendo’s Starfox series. Missions cycle through different gameplay modes such as foot soldier, tank, and a spaceship. Playing rehashes isn’t necessarily a fun process, but because Chicken Little: Ace In Action is the first game to utilize the Wii-mote in these gameplay modes and the fact the game plays very solidly this game shines. This game makes good use of the capabilities that the Wii-mote offers. Destroying your target by pointing your Wii-mote is made very simple by an automatic lock-on feature. Another standout feature is being able to move your space ship up and down by moving the Nunchuck device up and down.

The graphics of Chicken Little: Ace In Action are on par with other Wii games. It’s simplistic graphics don’t really make this game entertaining to look at, but they are suitable to gameplay.

The other aspect that makes this game worthwhile is the comedic dialogue that the characters say. Adam West, Zach Braff, and Joan Cusack are some of the voice actors in this game. For being a kiddie video game, it really has a smart script that both children and adults can find enjoyment in.

The game is loosely based off of the Chicken Little movie. This is great for those unfamiliar with the movie. The story is a lot of fun because it’s about Chicken Little and his friends playing a Wii game that features Chicken Little’s super hero alter ego Ace as well as the alter egos of his friends. So obviously this makes for a lot of funny commentary when Chicken Little and his friends comment on the gameplay and then Ace and his team are talking back and forth about their own actions.

I cannot whole heartedly recommend Chicken Little: Ace In Action because of the minor flaws that it has. If the game had only been fine tuned a little bit more it would have been an overall fun experience rather than frustrating game. All it takes is one nearly impossible level to ruin what would otherwise be an enjoyable time. For $39.99 Chicken Little: Ace In Action isn’t that bad of a purchase, if you’re looking for an experience that will tide you over till the new Starfox game. If there is one thing that I can say about Chicken Little: Ace In Action it’s that this game is going to be the example for future third person shooters and that’s a good thing.

Primeval (-)

A serial killer terrorizes Africa for years. Turns out this serial killer is a croc. Crikey!

There’s a lot to say about crappy movies – they’re crappy. Primeval is no exception to this rule. Why would you ever see this movie? In my case my friends wanted to see it even though I told them that it was bad. 10 minutes into the movie I asked them if they wanted to jump over to another theater that was showing Children of Men and we all agreed to leave. That was the best part of the movie.

Unlike bad movies that are funny such as Snakes On A Plane, Primeval is just a poorly made movie that begs the question how the hell did this movie get made? A killer crocodile in Africa sounds like a great idea that would make a thrilling movie (note the sarcasm). The movie has sucky actors who are in a sucky movie. There is nothing worthwhile here.

Avoid at all costs!

Metal Slug Anthology (+)

A compilation of the Megal Slug arcade series.

One of the great things that the Wii offers is its retro gaming with the Virtual Console. If you love the games on the Virtual Console or just in general like old-school arcade games, pick up Metal Slug Anthology! Not only does this game offer you six different ways to control your character, but it also packages in seven Metal Slug games! Even if you’ve played Metal Slug in the arcades you’ve never experienced it quite like this.

The objective in all Metal Slug games is simple: go from beginning side of the level to the end of it. Fight variety of enemies such as soldiers, mummies, undead, and terrorists. Throughout this game you’ll be dieing over and over. Unlike in the arcade, the Wii version allows you to respawn over and over again. You don’t have to insert more coins, simply press continue and let the mayhem keep on rolling.

It’s amazing to see what the Wii controller allows developers to do and Metal Slug Anthology is a prime example of how the Wii-mote can be used in different ways to simulate similar gameplay. While none of the control schemes work perfectly, it is fun to try them all out. The most difficult of all of these controls  Wii-mote and nunchuk, nunchuck only, tilt Wii-mote, Wii-mote, arcade, and Gamecube controller – is the arcade mode. It’s hard to emulate the feel of a joystick by holding the Wii-mote vertical. After a while it hurts your hands.

The 2D graphics aren’t comparable by today’s standards. When they are blown up on any big screen TV they just look nasty. Thankfully though it is still easy to see all of the action on screen. The blood that spews from enemies as you shot them or cut them with your knife is graphically speaking the best part.

There is co-op which allows for at least some replay value. The unlockables, music tracks and concept artwork, aren’t worthwhile though. For seven games Metal Slug Anthology is worth at least a rent. Since all the games were built for the arcades, the gameplay offered in them doesn’t last that long. But again if you like old-school games Metal Slug Anthology is a must buy.

Star Trek Legacy (+)

A space simulation Star Trek game that is the first to feature all 5 Captain voices.

There’s a lot to be said about controversial games. Not all game controversy has to lie in its content, rather with Star Trek Legacy its controversy lies in whether or not it’s a good game. Hyped to be one of the best Star Trek video games of all-time, Star Trek Legacy does stand out from the rest of the game series. With its emphasis on strategic space-combat and a story that spans all 5 generations of Star Trek, this game is not for the weak.

Star Trek Legacy is not an easy game to get into. At first you will question why there are so many button configurations, why the ships are moving so slowly, and why it takes so long to charge your lasers. After you get used to the controls and the speed of both the ship movement and laser recharge, you’ll begin to ask more questions such as why does the difficulty in the game change per level, why can’t your ship move straight up or down, and why some of the voice overs by the famous Star Trek Captains sound just as poorly spoken as the secondary characters. These are a lot of questions that you’ll have to get past before you can begin to enjoy this game.

Star Trek Legacy offers die-hard Trek fans an experience like none other. For the first time ever all 5 captains – Archer, Kirk, Sisco, Picard, and Janeway – are available in one continuous well-thought story line. The game allows you to control each generation’s ships. You can buy new ships with the experience points that you gain by completing each mission. As you progress through time, the ship’s technology improves which ultimately helps with the strategic factor in the game. Each mission forces the player to think about their objective before they set out to complete it. While this may sound like a good idea, it really becomes a trial and error process.

The first couple of missions are rather dull and and the controls take a long time to get used too. As each mission may take over 30 minutes to complete, Star Trek Legacy is a game that you have to invest a good amount of time into before it actually gets good.

The graphics in Star Trek Legacy look very nice. From the particle effects to the ship models everything screams high quality production. It’s amazing to see your damaged ship spewing out flames and missing parts of the hull! Regretfully the frame rate does drop in a couple of missions. The final mission has the worst frame rate speed. At points it is so choppy that the screen repeatedly freezes for split seconds.

Now Star Trek Legacy is not for the average gamer. Either the player has to be a major Star Trek fan and/or into strategic space-combat games in order to enjoy this title. This game will make you frustrated, but the story is engrossing enough to make you want to complete the game.

Space Empires V

Space Empires V is the culmination of 4X turn-based space strategy games. 4X, of course, refers to eXplore, eXpand, eXploit and eXterminate, in this case, a space empire game. Pretty obvious from the title, guys. Essentially, it’s in the style of the Civilization series.

Though I usually prefer Real-Time Strategy, I really liked this game as well. Beginning with a single homeworld, the player can expand throughout their star system, and then into the surrounding ones, all the while researching new technology and weapons that allow them to control their emergent Space Empire. The customization is probably the greatest feature but also the thing that most sharply brings up the learning curve.

Its easy to build ships from your build queues, but in order to do so, you have to design them first. The design manager allows the player to select a hull chassis, and then from there, add on whatever components are necessary to make the ship run, like crew quarters or life support, and then other components to serve the ships purpose”perhaps a satellite bay, or armor and weapon systems. There is an autocomplete feature, which allows you to select a ship, and then select its purpose and the game will automatically complete the ship with whatever components you have available, but I’ve found that you can be more successful designing them yourself.

The component idea is a really outstanding feature of this game. There are so many components and different kinds of weapons, armor, shields, and types of research that it may be a little dizzying at first. Once in the swing of it, though, it allows for very varied gameplay.

Aside from the component system, another one of the remarkable features of the game is the real-time combat. Once units enter combat, you can choose to go to tactical, much in the style of Lords of the Realm II, and use your ships in real time to combat enemies. The ships animations are very good even though they fly on a 2D plane.

From a graphical standpoint, the game doesn’t rate so high. The game actually is in full 3D, though all the gameplay takes place on a 2D field (Probably for the betterwith everything else you’ll be thinking of, its much easier to simplify game controls and spend time on your strategy). The illustrations and 3D models of most of the ships are a little sub-par. The icons for each component look pretty good, but while the models for the ships look good the textures kind of bring it down.

There are a lot of races in the game, and depending on what gametype you’d choose to play you can even customize your own, choosing specific race features, bonuses, and weaknesses to customize your people. Another fun thing you can do in the game is invade and conquer your opponents planets, which allows you to colonize, for instance, a gas-giant when you have only the technology to colonize Rock planets. This will usually result in a planet populated with a different race, so you can always choose to ship in some of your own kind, or let them live on their own.

There is also an extensive online community which discusses and mods this game, and available is a lot of user-created content. Coupled with the component system, the full 3D graphics, and the advanced alliance system (ranging from trade agreements to full partnerships), and the technology, I give this game a plus. Its fun to get on here for a couple of hours, play through a game you’ve been running for a few hours from last night, then come back to it again in a week and play a few more hours. Its rather addicting.