User blog:Element Knight 375/Reviews of my Top 5 Favorites

I've been intently watching the videos by the Wiiviewers (a man and his two sons who review games, compare them, play them, etc.) lately, and I thought it might be a fun idea to provide my own reviews of my Top 5 Favorite Video Games, as shown on my user page.

As such, the games I will be reviewing, in order, are Super Smash Bros. Brawl, Mario Kart Wii, Star Wars Battlefront, New Super Mario Bros. Wii, and Boom Blox Bash Party.

Super Smash Bros. Brawl
Where do I start? This is bar none one of the best games out there, at least for Nintendo titles. I'll start with a backstory and then move on to the review:

The game follows the bath of 36 characters total from the Nintendo universe who are forced to take their own paths in an impropmtu quest to stop the efforts of the Ancient Minister, who has been causing bombs to detonate that cause mass destruction through negative matter. And he does it by having R.O.B.s activate the bombs and dies along with it! Yeah, that's nice. Kill innocent robots that remind you of WALL-E. However, the Ancient Minister turns out to be an ally and all of the characters ultimately join up to combat Tabuu, a metaphysical being who is trying to wipe out all of the heroes who can get in the way of his conquest.

This game is known well by now for its proactive Brawl function. It allows up to 4 players to fight in teams or against each other to defeat opponents based off of rules set before hand, by optional parameters set up in the Special Brawl section. It also allows you to play through a very long Adventure Mode, in which you can find trophies, stickers, CDs, and ultimately new characters to add to the roster.

Now for the review. There are so many reasons why this is my favorite game. I really love the updated graphics and new appearances of characters, as well as the movesets, which (aside from Luigi's Negative Zone) really stay loyal to the histories of characters and make the experience feel real. The Adventure Mode was fun, but very long, taxing, and difficult at times. However, I did find it clever to include so many puzzles and searches to unlock new material.

Another group of favorites is the one with Photos and Replays. The replays are great, as they allow to relive great victories. However, it's the Photos that I have insane fun with. Not really because I like taking pictures of the action, but because I love taking pictures of Pokemon and Assist Trophies in action, as it's fun to look through them and remember ones you recognize.

The Masterpieces are a stroke of genius. I love being able to go in and play a few of the classic titles without having to go through the long task of downloading them. Because of them, I actually got to play a little bit of the first ever Zelda title, as well as the first Mario and Kirby titles.

Classic Mode is also pretty great. It allows you to go in and adventure your way through adversity to earn riches. These riches can be used in the Coin Launcher, another fantastic function where you can play to earn new stickers and trophies for your collection. I also like the Events section, as it's a fun way to create scenarios and see how you stack up to the challenges.

A very, very high point is the Stage Builder. I love the fact that it was easy to use, and that you could choose your own music and name for the stage.

Negative Aspects
There are a couple of things I didn't like about the game. First of all, I absolutely HATE Luigi's super move. When you get to play as Luigi in a game, you expect to have a fun time and remember his greatest achievements. But now they include a Super Move that's built from his hatred for being in Mario's shadow? That's NUTS! Luigi's proven himself tons of times. He rescued Mario in Luigi's Mansion, and you can also play through as him in Super Mario Galaxy, where he's the one who saves Princess Peach in the end. I would have very much preferred it if he used the Poltergust somehow. Another thing I didn't like was the fact that in Team Brawl, you were assigned a particular color for a particular team. It would have been fun if you could pick a team and change around the color swaps for each of the team members to make it more comfortable. The last thing I didn't like is...let's see here, um... WHERE'S TOAD!? Toad is one of my favorite characters of all time, and yeat they couldn't squeeze in one more character to fill the void? Ridiculous. In fact, they should have brought back characters from Melee as well.

Conclusion
SSBB is a phenomenal game, the best fighting game on the market in my opinion. Believe me when I say that your collection of Wii games is in no way complete without it. I highly, highly recommend it.

Mario Kart Wii
This is another wickedly phenomenal title. The second most recent title for the Mario Kart series, this game is highly updated from its predecessors in a number of ways. For one thing, the constant number of players in a race is set at twelve, a total of four players more than titles like the first installment, Super Mario Kart. This means that each race is a selection of half the characters in the game (oh yeah, there are 24 characters, too).

A couple of great features to the game are the many racing options. The options are Grand Prix, Time Trials, VS, and Battle. Grand Prix is updated well, with a total of eight cups divided into Nitro Cups, or new courses, and Retro, which consists of improved versions of older courses. This also features a fun Mirror Mode, which I unlocked rather recently. However, this is very challenging and disorienting at the same time, making it impossible to make any good headway.

Time Trials are also improved because you can try to really challenge yourself in order to unlock new characters and vehicles. For example, I wanted the second Mii outfit so bad that in late summer I made it like the only thing I did when I could stand it.

VS mode is fantastic. I love the ability it gives you to set the rules for the races and to pit yourself against your own challenges. I play it constantly now for the fun of it.

Battle mode is a recently discovered favorite of mine. Although by far my favorite option between the two is Balloon Battle, as it depends solely on skill and accuracy. This is not to say that I discourage your playing Coin Runners, but it's not my cup of tea.

Speaking of vehicles a couple of paragraphs ago, I love the variation in them, and the fact that they make it pretty easy to determine the ratings for one.

The WFC feature is enjoyable, but prone to hackers, so you enter at your own risk. However, it's healthy to go there once in a while to see how you stack up against other players and determine what you need to improve.

The multiplayer option is also fun, because you can not only race in teams (either with or against the other players), but you can also see how you stack against other human players in a crowd of CPUs. This makes it a really excellent tool for seeing who among the players can work their way through the adversity best.

Negative Aspects
There were a good few things that I didn't like. For one thing, I wasn't crazy about the automatic assignment of voices based on color for your Miis. It means if you don't like the voice your Mii has, you have only the options of dealing with it, changing your Mii's color to something you like less, or not playing as your Mii at all. As such, I would have liked the option of choosing a Mii's voice.

In the VS mode, I would have enjoyed the ability to customize the number of players and laps in a race. They're not deal breakers, but they're things that you tend to notice over time, and I don't much see why they didn't provide those options.

In Battle mode, I would have likes more variation in vehicles. It's not much of a disadvantage for me, as the Standard Kart they offer is my favorite one in general. But if other players decide they want another vehicle more, they should have that option.

There were some instances where the game made it far too hard to play effectively. For example, despite my relative ease with the 150cc Star Cup, it got insanely hard when I was trying to hit first to get Mirror Mode. So I think that they should have made it so that you don't ever have to fail despite trying as hard as you can possibly try.

There were also some problems with the bikes. With the Mach Bike especially, despite its great qualities I couldn't use manual drift. Whenever I tried, I just ran right into the wall and/or rough.

This last one isn't a criticism as much as it is an idea. I quickly got bored with the tracks in the game, despite the fact that they were all creative and fun. Therefore, I think that the game should have a level builder like in Trackmania, so that way you can have endless fun with endless options.

Conclusion
While there were some flaws with the game, that doesn't change the fact that it is a great gaming experience. When I first got Mario Kart Wii, I'd never even played a shred of Mario Kart myself before. This game was the perfect way to learn the mechanics of the series as well as have incredible, realistic fun. For this day and age, I find this game to be the king of all racing games and I'd say it's a must-get if you're a fan of the Mario Kart series, or even if you aren't.

Wiiviewer Reviews
thumb|300px|right|This is the first of two reviews, done by the Wiiviewer, for SSBB,Don't take my silly word for it. Watch videos from the guys behind the hype, the Wiiviewers!

thumb|300px|right|This is the second part of the SSBB review, done by the Lilwiiviewer (the oldest son).thumb|300px|right|This is the two-man review (Wiiviewer and Lilwiiviewer) for Mario Kart Wii.