A. Aronsson’s WeBOLLog

Recently I finally downloaded World of Goo on my Wii, it had escaped me since this whole business with Christmas and New Year had kept me way busy. My older brother had bought it before me on his PC through their website, but it is also available through Steam, but even so I wanted it on the Wii as I find it easier and more comfortable to focus on these kinds of games when playing them in the couch by the TV. If I am at the computer I mostly want to do other things than gaming, like writing up blog posts! I had not checked the differences between the different system versions of World of Goo, but to my delight I discovered that the Wii version had a four player local co-op mode! One word: Epic! But before I go into describing that experience I will describe the game itself.

The game takes place in the fantastical World of Goo (doh) and you control a plethora of different goo balls to build structures to reach a pipe which the goo who has not been used for construction will escape through. The challenge is not only to finish the level by rescuing enough goo balls to meet the goal, but also to save as many extra as possible and to do it as fast with as few moves as you can.

The process of building structures with goo balls is by dragging them into place with your cursor and they will automagically connect to balls near them. Different kinds of goo acts and reacts in very different ways, and I am amazed on their ingenuity! The whole game is based on a physics engine which works on every goo ball and the environment, which really adds a great sense of realism to the simplistic but great looking graphics! Design really is worth more than high definition, for me, I have seen many ~nextgen~HD~games~ which sure has a ton of details and high resolution graphics, but the design is… well, crappy!

Yesterday evening I had a number of people at my place, and we played a bunch of levels together! The co-op function is really logically done, it simply adds one extra cursor per extra controller, so you can have up to four differently colored cursors zooming about the screen! This of course adds a ton of chaos, but also increases the speed with which things are constructed, and it is hilarious! With the right people that is.

As we progressed into the game, and into the night, we did more and more stupid things to sabotage for ourselves with tons of laughter at the funny goos their funny sounds, designs and functions. In the end we always finished the levels we played, even though we were building stuff like crazy, and we got to Chapter 4 before resigning to our respective beds. At certain points we did have to organize ourselves slightly and do some more planned teamwork, but most of the time it was just a flowing experience. Absolutely the funniest gaming session I have had in a very long time.

Right now I cannot tell if the game will be fun for long a long period of time, but for the price, 1500 Wii points or ~€15, it has in my oppinion already payed for itself! Nowadays with the small amount of spare time I have the motivation to play a game is proportional to how fun over time it is, this means I have a kind of a hard time motivating myself for anything which is rewarding after a big time investment, as I usually move on to another game before those rewards. I have a whole bunch of single player games in my bookshelf waiting to be played.

Last weekend I downloaded a WiiWare title for the first time, Bomberman Blast. Funny enough the only game I have bought for the Virtual Console is Bomberman ‘93…

I had very high anticipations for this new Bomberman game as it features eight player mayhem not only online but locally as well! That’s one crowded couch! I knew of this beforehand and even wrote a suggestion for control setups for the developer, but sadly none of my ideas were implemented, not even using the nuchuk instead of the GameCube controller, sad face.

I tried to write some comprehensible summary of the game, but here are my immediate feelings about the game instead.

I was skeptical to a 3D-bomberman, due to the perspective distortion, but it didn’t take long for me to love it anyway! The graphics are smooth and nice, the levels look gorgeous and the sounds are a treat. I guess after playing Bomberman ‘93 for several months that’s what anyone would think.

It is quite easy to start to play, just add players, enter a game mode, change settings if you want and launch a level! You can register players, but I guess that is mostly useful online… otherwise you can play as a Bomberman or a Mii. Playing like Miis are quite nice actually, especially when there many people. No more “WHO IS RED AGAIN? WHO WAS BLUE? WHO IS THE GREEN GUY?” when you can see who people actually are, even if the Bomberman is cute and all :P

I recognized a bunch of powerups, like the throw glove, punch glove, kick boot, roller skates, extra bomb, flame, golden flame, triple bomb, water bomb, land mine, power bomb, spiky bomb and of course the epic virus skull! New powerups (for me) were the dangerous bomb, and the powerDOWNs, the blue flame, minus bomb and minus boot.

In addition to powerups you can pick up items which you use by either shaking your Wii remote or alternately tapping your shoulder buttons on your GameCube controller. These items are the rocket pack, shield and bomb disguise. They seem overpowered at first, but the rocket pack and shield takes a bit of skill and brains to use. If someone managed to use them successfully, it’s a laugh!

I have yet to play eight players. We did play six players, and it was a (huhu) blast. I have ordered extension cables for the GameCube controllers as the WaveBird controller is just about impossible to get your hands on now, cheaply anyway.

Oh, and I think the starting blast range is shorter than before. Probably as that enables smaller starting areas, which means room for more players! It has caused me to bomb a spot three or four times in a row without hitting anything though :P but that was way past midnight too.

All in all, if you are like me, and love local multiplayer games (well, it has online too), these will be 1000 Wii points very well spent! And as an owner of Bomberman ‘93 I have to say that getting Bomberman Blast as well is definitely not a waste. It is very much worth it, especially if you have many merry friends!

Buy it! You will not regret it!

Enjoy!

Flumen Formula is one of my many spare time hobby Flash projects which is unfinished. This one I’ve spent a fair amount of brain-juice to create, so I better complete it or the waste would be terrible! The game is fully functional, but what it lacks is levels, and some polish.

Development grinded to a halt when it was time to design the 144 levels the game can handle, but after several months I got the suggestion that I should open up level creation for anyone who would dare, which is now what I’m doing.

So here you have it, your chance to make a contribution to this project!

The Game
Water flows from the blue block. Your mission is to move and rotate the colored blocks so the water uses all canals in the entire level, without any leaks, including canals that are immobile.

How to Play
To lift a block, click it and hold the button down. To rotate the block, use the scroll-wheel or the left and right arrow keys. To drop the block, simply let go of the mouse button. Give it a test spin to understand what it’s all about, use the link at the top or click the game logo.

Level Creation
I’ve written a description of how to create and test levels for Flumen Formula, and I present it here in Word, PDF or HTML format. Also available are reference material in PDF, PNG and Flash (in HTML) formats for the game board, the various blocks available and a sample paper conversion.

• Level Creation Documentation: levelkit.zip @ 193KB

As mentioned above, levels can be pasted into the game and tested, right now! How to is described in the documentation!

Submission
To contribute your level to the project, please paste it in an email, or attach a .txt file with the level data, and send it to submit@7708.net. You decide yourself what personal information you want to disclose, but any type of name will do. It’s all that is needed for the credits. There is no deadline, but I will post a message when I have gathered enough acceptable levels!

Ownership
If you submit a level you grant me the ownership to the level data if you don’t specify otherwise. This is to simplify the process if someone wants to purchase a license for the game or the source code. If you do not want to grant me the ownership please note that in your email submission. In an eventual business transaction those levels will be removed from the game.

Credit
Everyone who gets their level(s) in the final version of the game will be mentioned as level designers in the credits and on any eventual site/page that accompanies it. If you go by a moniker, it shouldn’t be perverse, politically incorrect or anything else I wouldn’t want to say in public.

Genereal Feedback
Of course I also appreciate feedback on anything surrounding the game. Be it user interface, graphics design or anything. Feel free to send your feedback to feedback@7708.net or post a comment right here!

Thanks!

Note: The game itself is hosted on my private server, and not the server that hosts this blog, which is why it’s located on the 7708.net domain.

Update: My initial plan was to have this ready two weeks ago, but as I was finalizing the public release I came up with new features that changed how levels were constructed and other things that needed polish, so I’ve been postponing it several times. Two times the post managed to pop up on my front page as my social life kept me so distracted I forgot about when the post was going live, as well as denying me the time to finish the small details I myself thought necessary, sorry about this.

About a month ago I wrote up an email to Hudson Soft, makers of the Bomberman series of games, concerning their upcoming games for the Wii. A retail and WiiWare Bomberman title. As I haven’t gotten any reply, I’m posting the message publicly.

I have played the Bomberman games for their multiplayer mayhem for a long time, and I love the series. I’ve prefered the older sprite-based Bomberman games with levels non-distorted by perspective, but these new games will have support for eight players, something hard to get without forcing your friends to get DSes or a Sega Saturn.

I haven’t read anything reliable about how to connect to many players to one console, but so far it seems that you would need four Wiimotes and four GameCube controllers. To me there are way more dynamic solutions to getting eight players on screen, which is why I wrote this letter.

Hello Hudson Soft!

* If this doesn’t reach a person involved with the development of the WiiWare Bomberman game, please forward it if deemed worthy. Thanks! *

My name is Andreas Aronsson, and I just cannot stop myself from emailing you, all the way from Sweden too!

I have read that you are indeed making a classic-ish Bomberman game for the WiiWare service, and perhaps a retail game as well.
I was glad to read that it will support eight players on- and offline, but I was a bit concerned when people said it would require four Gamecube Controllers. It’s not that I don’t have that, just that they aren’t the slickest things to have connected to the Wii console.

Me and my friends often play Bomberman on vintage consoles, and now Bomberman ‘93 on the Virtual Console, but we usually have to pass around the controllers.

My proposal is something I’ve thought of since I got my Wii last year. An idea how to make a massive Bomberman experience with the standard Wii hardware. You might be planning this already, but here goes.

Eight players could easily be achieved with the standard controllers:

• Four players use the Wii Remotes
• Four players use Nunchuks attached to the remotes.

A stick and two buttons should be enough for Bomberman, no? It would create a real physical bond between players as well!

That was my main concern, but lets go crazy for a bit.

Nunchuks could be replaced by Classical Controllers, if people have those. This also enables twelve players, as you can share a controller ala Micro Machines. Each player get a stick, a cross/face buttons and two shoulder buttons each, plenty!

Gamecube Controllers could also be added to add another four players, making it 16, but like the Classical Controllers they also have enough sticks and buttons to be shared (stick + cross) to get 20 players on screen at once… ! Which sure sounds like insanity to me.

Let us summarize.

• Four players on Wii Remotes
• Four players on the left side of Classical Controllers
• Four players on the right side of Classical Controllers
• Four players on the left side of Gamecube Controllers
• Four players on the right side of Gamecube Controllers

Twenty players is probably not practical, but enabling some of these options would give people a ton of different possible configurations to get eight players in a local game. As an example:

• Three players on Three Wii Remotes
• One player on One Nunchuck
• Two players on One Classical Controller
• Two players on One Gamecube Controller

Sum: Eight players!

One word, EPIX!

Thank you so much for your time!

Sincere Well Wishes

Andreas Aronsson
http://andreasaronsson.com

Ideas like this has been posted on other blogs since last year, which I noticed after I begun writing this, but hopefully this will be useful anyway.

By now Wii Play is probably on most peoples’ shelves, collecting dust, but if you lack a more-than-two player game, a full set of controllers or just want to have new fun with Tanks! this might be interesting!

As said, we’re going to play Tanks! which is the final game on the Wii Play disc.

Normally, each player plays with a Wiimote and Nunchuk combo, for driving and aiming with your tank. This is fun by itself, but lets take a look at all possible alternatives (where one player at the most use two controllers at once, since three or more seems far fetched!).

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Two players #1:
P1 -> Wiimote1 + Nunchuk1, P2 -> Wiimote2 + Nunchuk2

This is the standard mode of play, each player has their own set of controllers.

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Two players #2:
P1 -> Wiimote1 + Nunchuk2, P2 -> Wiimote2 + Nunchuk1

Lesser brain frying for both players. Now you steer the other players tank, and shoot with your own. Can you keep track of everything?

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Two players #3:
P1 -> Wiimote1 + Wiimote2, P2 -> Nunchuk1 + Nunchuk2

Greater brain BBQ for both players. Instead of two different control methods, you now have to steer two tanks, or aim with two cannons! More detailed descriptions of how you can play below, in the three player scenarios.

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Three players #1:
P1 -> Nunchuk1, P3 -> Wiimote1 + Wiimote2, P2 -> Nunchuk2

Here one player (P3) is the victim of brain pain, as he/she gets to aim for both tanks. To lessen the confusion you can do the double-barrel hack where you hold the controllers together to aim at the same spot with both. The other two players can calmly focus on steering their separate tanks.

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Three players #2:
P1 -> Wiimote1, P3 -> Nunchuk1 + Nunchuk2, P2 -> Wiimote2

This is worse than aiming for two tanks, as you can’t just double-track the two. Here the victim player (P3) have to try and focus on both positions, avoid projectiles heading for both tanks, etc. Breakage of the mind.

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Three players #3:
P1 -> Wiimote1, P3 -> Nunchuk1 + Wiimote2, P2 -> Nunchuk2

There is still just one player who suffers (P3). He/she now have to steer one tank, while aiming with the other, while two players get to either drive or aim for their own tanks.

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Four players:
P1 -> Wiimote1, P3 -> Nunchuk1, P2 -> Wiimote2, P4 -> Nunchuk2

If you are four player, there is no need to let one person use more of his brain than the others. Here everyone get one thing to do, either drive or aim for one tank. This is probably the best mixed up mode of them all, as it is least taxing on the nervous system. And of course, lets you play with more friends.

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This method of creating new game modes is applicable on many other games where you play with both the Wiimote and Nunchuk. For example, i tried it in Metroid Prime 3: Corruption with my younger brother, it was… interesting.

Enjoy!

I got my pre-ordered Wii Fit last Friday, but as my weekend was very hectic, I have had very little play time. This is why i haven’t posted my impressions yet, until now, here’s another Casual Review!

Pros:

• Solid hardware design. I was surprised that the Balance Board was so large, sturdy and heavy, which is positive. It seems very durable and looks nice. You might have trouble to decide where to put it when not in use, though.
• Exercises have a good spread. There are several categories of exercises, for burning fat, getting flexible, building muscles and train your balance, with a fair number of different choices in each category. Personally I will probably do more muscle and balance training than flexibility training, but alas, that’s just up to me! It should be easy to find what you want to focus on.
• A lot of underlying research. While playing you get a whole lot of information outside the exercises, like the importance of a good posture, sleeping habits, and probably much much more further into the game. And this is in addition to all detailed descriptions for the different exercises and tests!
• Charts and statistics. You can keep track of which kind of exercises you have gone through on a daily basis, your BMI change, compare your own training to other players on the same Wii, etc.
• Lots of rewards, like harder modes, new exercises and games, new user settings, stars and titles for your performances. The trainer also commentates on how you’re doing while you play, which feels fairly natural, even though certain comments occur pretty often. Rewards, even though virtual, are what makes games worthwhile for me.
• Lovable characters…? The Balance Board is alive! It notices your movement with utmost precision and reacts when you leave it, or stand on it when it doesn’t want to, and this is communicated to you through the game. The on-screen characterized version of the Balance Board is totally kawaii, which makes the game feel friendly, very friendly. There are many other happy designs in the game, like the FitPiggy, which collects the minutes you have exercised. I can’t help but smile when all my Miis are watching me during games, especially when running, as I have a bunch of downloaded Miis like a Storm Trooper, Kenny (South Park), Naruto, Rock Lee, Scream, Einstein, Mr. T, Alien (white face), etc ad infinitum.
• Oh, and it actually feels good for you! I’m not in the worst shape you can be, but hardly the best either, and I have to say that I can feel my muscles burning and stretch when doing the different exercises, and my body cries!

Cons:

• BMI is quite inconsiderate. I don’t think BMI is a very good unit for measurement of your bodily state, as it doesn’t consider if you have more muscles than a normal person, or thicker bones. But, I guess it’s better than nothing. You can display your weight instead of BMI, which probably is what people are used to track.
• No buttons on the board for menues. To constantly have to pick up the Wiimote to accept your choices and start events is a hassle. I would much prefer a face button or two on the board, or on the back side, where the power button resides.
• No online functionality. I currently have three friends who also bought Wii Fit, but I have no easy way of comparing my scores and training charts with theirs. I would have loved an online voluntary Wii Friend records/progress board. The Wii really needs a solid friends system like Xbox Live does.
• Price. I have to admit, it’s totally worth it, but I think it will be a barrier for those who would benefit the most from using it. But who knows!

And this time I also include some unboxing photos, which might be appreciated!

Today I bought Mario Kart Wii, an instant buy, as we have played the previous games way too much. This is a very short, first-day review, only meant to act like a casual comment of my first impressions with the game.

Pros:

• The steering wheel is awesome! It feels great, even if you can accidentally hit the B-button on the underside when in menus, the driving experience is very nice, considering it’s only a piece of plastic. I guess it’s much due to how the software work. I find it harder to play without the wheel, as you have to hold the controller with the face buttons facing you, which doesn’t come naturally for me.
• New level elements! I love conveyor belts (both linear and crossing!), the bouncy mushrooms that launches you in the air and the half-pipe-ish boost sections which launches you in crazy arcs above that track!
• Much tighter fights. Somehow, it seems like there are always a ton of vehicles at the front of the race, so if you crash as #1, you might end up as #5, #8, #11 or last, no problem! It is a bit crazy, but keeps everyone in the game, never give up!
• Bikes. Sure, it’s a bit weird to have bikes in a kart game, but they add a new dimension to how you steer your vehicle, with wheelies, lighter wheight and sharp turns.
• Looks. When I watched screenshots, I thought the game looked ugly, old, flat and boring. Now when I play through the levels, I think it’s gorgeous, fantastic, wonderful and thrilling! Kind of weird, but I guess motion adds a lot, but the design sure is great.
• Team play! Team play is fun, even if the computer players might be the deciding factor, it lends the game a co-op feeling.
• Online play! There are still friend codes! (gah!) But we have a friends list in the game to play private games with peeps we know! It might be a bit uncomfortable to setup, but it works fine.

Cons:

• No options for multiplayer, it seems to always be 100cc, there doesn’t seem to be any options anywhere. Crazy item-box, I miss! Update: There is a rules button on the Solo/Team Race selection screen which we had totally missed, as we do that selection really quickly. There you can change things around, like CPU difficulty/off, items, vehicles, etc.
• There is no co-op mode to win cups. As co-op gaming is what I prefer above all other, and the fact that I play mostly multiplayer, it kind of sucks to only be able to play all tracks after sitting down solo with it. We take turns to play cups now, but not for long, multiplayer mayhem is this game’s forte.
• No LAN mode. I was thrilled about the 12 player feature of the game. But, it seems to only be available for online play, not local LAN play. One of the features I have looked forward to since I heard the Wii had build in wireless LAN, was to play LAN games with my friends. Just dumping the consoles in a room with a bunch of TVs and then running it all wirelessly would be neat, but as is, that still hasn’t happened. Right now we would need to gather six consoles, six TVs and have a broadband connection to play a local game, which in reality would be online.
• Computer players. The race is always full of computer players, if you don’t fill the slots with human players. It does keep the game chaotic, action filled, and messy! But sometimes I would like to only play against my friends, even if we can only play four people. Especially in the battle games. Update: Changeable with the before mentioned race rules screen.
• No voice or text chat online. Sure, it’s more important that the game runs smoothly and doesn’t lag when playing a racing game, but when playing with IRL friends over the internet, I want voice communication, as that’s what I’m used to playing over XBL or on the PC. We can’t even freely text chat in the game room before a race, not even with friends only, there are only predefined speech bubbles to choose from which feels very limiting when trying to communicate.
  

Even if I miss a few things, it seems to be a great game :) and right now, four of my local friends has also bought the game, so there will probably be a few online matches! We just have to decide what we’ll use for voice communication.

Oh, and my Mario Kart Wii friend code is: 3566-1696-9741