Alan Hansen one of Liverpool’s all time great players. In his footballing career he had won several trophies ranging from the League cup right up to the European cup, in his current career he stars in several TV sport programs and TV/radio advertisements. Now Oxygen Games a UK based publisher presents Alan Hansen sports quiz. He is obviously a great choice of character to star in a sports-oriented quiz game.

The game starts out with virtual Alan giving you a brief introduction . Next you get to a very basic main menu screen with two choices start game and options, the option menu gives you rumble and sound settings. When starting the game you get to choose short, medium or long game. i decided to try a short game out just to get a quick feel of the game. You can have up-to four players, a choice of icon and a buzzer sound which varies from regular sounds up-to funny animal and farting noises. Once your ready to go, virtual Alan gives you an introduction to the first game called “kick off”, its You get four possible answers and must use one of the four Wii remote directional buttons to answer. All players get to earn points in this round , each question uses images which you may have to identify a players face or a team strip.

The next round i tried is “home or away” its very different you will see a question followed by a series of answers, you have to buzz in by lifting your Wii remote when you see the correct one, this round seemed a fun round when playing with two or more people, playing single player in this round isn’t that entertaining.

The “transfer window” round is exactly like the “kick off” round but you can see what answer the other players did and you have a choice to change your answer, again its a kind of game that is fun in a group but playing it on your own would be very dull. There are several other rounds very similar and aren’t very original, yes its a sports-oriented quiz game but its very similar to other quiz games.

This is definitely a party genre game and is short lived as a single player game, Overall this game is definitely for the sports enthusiasts , get a group of mates over for a few drinks, hopefully you will have four wii remotes to get the best out of this game, otherwise it isn’t that much of a winner and not worth buying an extra two more wii remotes. But if your rich and can afford more wii remotes and love sports questions so much, then this could be a game for you.

Pros fun for a party group , questions are not too hard

Consvery basic , not very original and only worth it if you have 4 wii remotes

Game-play 6/10 its a quiz game what can i say?

Graphics 6/10basic graphics and backgrounds , virtual alan looks fairly good

Sound 6/10 basic sounds and the voice of the legend himself

Lifespan 5/10you need 4 wii remotes and 4 players and its got some lifespan

Overall 6/10i think its basic  quiz game, if i was to add my own improvements i would make things a little more flashier, get Alan involved more in the rounds and not between them. Add some sort other of 4 player games that would only require one or two Wii remotes. Maybe oxygen could have made their own simple buzzer remotes to come with the game so gamers don’t have to shed money on extra hardware.

Jan. 28, 2008

Traverse the half-pipe from the comfort of your living room. With this classic game, it’s Winter Break all the time. Freestyle through white powder, and school your best pal with your new trick! Did you get air?

This new classic game goes live at 9 a.m. Pacific time. Nintendo adds new games to the Wii Shop Channel every Monday. Wii™ owners with a high-speed Internet connection can redeem Wii Points™ to download the games. Wii Points can be purchased in the Wii Shop Channel or at retail outlets. This week’s new game is:

1080°® SNOWBOARDING (N64®, 1-2 players, Rated E for Everyone, 1,000 Wii Points): Hit the slopes for some serious shredding in one of the first truly realistic snowboarding games ever created! Start in the lodge and select from five characters, each with his/her own particular attributes and special tricks. Then take a look at the wide assortment of available boards and choose one that best suits your rider and style. Once you’ve got the gear, six different modes of play, including Match Race, Trick Attack, and 2-Player Versus, await. Pick a course and get ready to experience a sensation of speed that’ll make you forget all about the cold—but it might just send a shiver down your spine. Throw in hidden characters and boards, varying weather and snow conditions, multiple paths through each course, and a variety of tricks to master—topped off with rock-solid play control—and you’ve got a recipe for winter fun that you can enjoy any time of the year. It’s all the fun and excitement of the sport, without the bruises and frostbite!

For more information about Wii, please visit wii.com.

Fancy yourself as a bit of a sleuth?
Love the odd murder mystery??
Got Wii? Read on……

Written by Agatha Christie, the world’s best-known mystery author and Queen of Crime, this classic story is brought to a new generation on Wii. Appealing to a broad audience, this platform opens the door for adventure games on console.

Using the Wii’s original Wii Remote controller, gameplay in traditional PC adventure games can be taken to a whole new level of interactivity. For instance, players will have the freedom to control their character’s actions, such as using a digging motion to unearth clues, or spinning the handle of a safe using the Wii Remote; and the introduction of timed puzzles where, for example, players must race up a set of stairs from a boat docked below.

The storyline revolves around ten people, all strangers to each other, who are invited to a lavish estate on an isolated island. Through a recording, their mysterious host accuses each of his ‘guests’ of murder and proceeds to exact justice by becoming judge, jury and executioner… The tension mounts and dark secrets are revealed as one-by-one the number of guests systematically dwindles according to the ingenious plan of the unseen killer.

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There is nothing i like better than after a heavy night drinking and gaming, just slobbing in front of the TV watching a good crime movie, especially the old stuff. Whether it be Poirot, Miss Marple, Sherlock Holmes etc… So when i had the chance to Preview Agatha Christies “And then there were none” I jumped at the chance.

Firstly I kinda expected the worst as most games from books or films turn out to be a dissapointment, was I right to expect the worst? Read on…

The booklet it comes with, quite basic but informative, gives you all about your inventory and little hints and tips on how to use the Wii controller within the game.

Ok, I put the disk in…  when it loads up there is a really nice rendered picture of the hotel at night with a storm behind, plus a very eerie hangmans noose swinging  quite transparent in the foreground. Click on “new game” straight away you get thrown into a lovley rendered intro scene that eases you into getting to know the profiles of the characters that are going to be in the game. Once the getting to know the characters is over, you start the game as Mr Narracot you end up able to wander around at will, only to find someone has scuttled your boat so unable to leave the island, one thing you have to remember about a murder mystery, its not all about action, its about taking your time profiling your killer(s), learning about them and overall nailing the right one.

Each of the “characters” are typically british, with quotes such as “is there any substance to the accusations toward you?” I love it already…
One thing I will point out and admire is the back drops and the beautifully rendered rooms.. check the pictures below as an example:

Ok enough digressing, after the terrible finding that someone has indeed scuttled your boat you head back to the guest house where the hired help is waiting, you explain the problem and he lets you come in to the place to stay the night.
At this point you are able to start sleuthing.  Walking around the guest house, takes time esp when you can listen to peoples doors and look through keyholes, doing this is a great means of getting to know the characters you find out quite a bit within the first hour or so…

I dont want to give too much away about the plot of the game itself, as its a lovley work of art and you need to play it to appreciate its greatness. (this of course is coming from someone who loves old detective movies, so if you are like me then you will love this game.)

The mechanics of the game work really well, its visually smooth, beautifully rendered and very well thought out. Menu’s are easy to navigate and the interaction with the characters could not be better.

The Wii remote is such a good tool with this sort of point and click adventure, it doesnt take a genius to work the controls, as my 75 year old mum pointed out when she started to play. (Now she gets into gaming its only taken 25 years) You use the Wii-mote to open doors with a handle twisting motion, pull draws open, scoop and so on….

The character you play seems to be a bit of a cleptomaniac, everything he sees he picks up and pockets (all for the investigation of course), some of the items are VERY useful, and others are a little confusing, when you pick items up you dont seem able to drop them so I gather they all are useful somewhere. You need to combine items to create other items to solve puzzles, nice bit of brain flexing is needed all the way through. One thing I have found lacking up to this point is a map, I would have loved to have been able to click on the inventory and open up a map to show me who’s room is who’s within the guest house. (There may be one but I have not found it yet..)

I am impressed this genre of game is entering the world of Wii, I reckon further down the line that this will bring more people over to the Wii and close the “Gaming Age Gap”

I will add to this preview as I get further into this very addictive game, I would urge anyone who is into sleuth movies / books esp Agatha Christie ones to rush out and buy this when it lands 28th February, as this game has done this book justice, the gameplay, the very english characters, puzzle solving and coupled with the eerie 1920’s background music this is turning out to be a fantastic game.

Gameplay - 8/10 - Smooth, easy to use controls a pleasure, a must for any sleuth.
Graphics - 8/10 - Beautifully rendered scenes, very aestetically pleasing.
Sounds - 7/10 - Retro Music, wonderfully portrayed british accents.
Overall - 8/10 - Well worth a buy for any fan of sleuth movies / books, its a pleasure .

Zack the pirate and his golden monkey sidekick Wiki are on a quest for treasure chests containing the body parts of legendary pirate Barbaros. In each level, all you have to do is get to the chest. Simple? Hell no.

Graphically, the game is just gorgeous, very quirky japanese manga style, but don’t let the cartoony animation fool you - it’s a puzzle adventure game of the highest calibre. Often the chest is in plain sight, but getting to it by using the enemies and items you collect will really test your logic skills. There is a huge amount of variety in this game, and each item you collect will have you waving your wii remote in all manner of different ways. Pure genius.

Enemies that you meet can be turned in to tools by shaking the wii remote to ring wiki’s bell. Utilising these tools is a core element of the gameplay, and thankfully it’s incredibly fun too.

If you enjoy logic puzzles like sudoku, you will love this game. Don’t use any FAQ’s though, because all of the fun comes from figuring things out for yourself. There is also an in-game hints system if you get really stuck, but none of the ’solutions’ are so obscure that you can’t figure them out with a bit of brain power, and some time to think it through.

Luco gives this game a whopping 9/10, it’s a game that every Wii owner should have in their collection. So go buy it already!