Advice on Vidgames (Sqrl especially?)

[seawasp]

We just got a Wii for my son Chris. I'm looking for good games to pick up for him. RPGs are the primary genre of preference; we will be getting the new sports one that's coming out in a couple weeks, and I may consider Punch_Out for nostalgia's sake. But I'm looking more for fun stuff he can play (and possibly I can, too) which lasts, which is generally RPGs.

We have already gotten the latest Zelda.

Comments

[laptop-mechanic.livejournal.com]

Lego Star Wars/ Indiana Jones are fun for 2 players.

[howardtayler.livejournal.com]

Seconded. These games are amazing, and have lots of replay value.

[laptop-mechanic.livejournal.com]

Whoa. I just wanted to say I really enjoy reading Schlock Mercenary. You do excellent work. Reading Schlock (and my other morning webcomics) is part of my morning breakfast ritual before going to work.

[howardtayler.livejournal.com]

Thank you!

[xyzzysqrl]

Punch Out is indeed rather awesome.

... Uhm...

...Really, though, I'm drawing a bit of a blank. Smash Brothers Brawl is good. There's the Tales of Symphonia sequel, which is only good if you've played the first game. There's Baiten Kaitos, Skies of Arcadia Legends, and such for the Gamecube. There's the Chocobo's Dungeon: Final Fantasy Fables game. And there's Rune Factory Frontier, which is a fantasy Harvest Moon game.

That is... honestly all I can think of in the way Wii RPGs.

[argonel.livejournal.com]

Not RPGs but I can recommend Mario Party and Boom Blox as fun party games. They almost require 4 controllers and a bunch of people though, so they may be undesirable to you.

I've been vaguely interested in the newish animal crossing game but that is more a sandbox game than an RPG, and I don't have any first hand experience to make a recommendation.

Metacritic.com might be a good spot to browse to see if there are any good game that catch your interest.

[ninjarat.livejournal.com]

Ooooh. That's a shame. Ocarina of Time is a *great* game but once you play Twilight Princess on the Wii you won't ever want to go back to standard console controllers. That said, there's quite a bit to be had in the Virtual Console as far as old-school RPGs go. Three of the Phantasy Stars, several of the Shining games, Secret of Mana, and others.

[barbarakitten-t.livejournal.com]

rock band...

[noctyrnus.livejournal.com]

Believe it or not , the Bowling game isnt bad , I tried the demo at a Gamestop store, I liked it

[austin-dern.livejournal.com]

I haven't had enough time to play it and it's a stretch to call it an RPG, but Thrillville has been a lot of fun. The gimmick is you manage a set of amusement parks, so that there's a SimCity element --- placing rides, opening shops, getting power for all this, et cetera --- and some roleplay elements --- getting the simulated people to talk about what the park needs and what it's good at --- and some one-on-one challenges --- miniature golf, rhythmic dancing, racecar driving.

I find it satisfying, at least. But with all the things there are to do I don't get enough time for it, or for the Bally Pinball Classics game (which is just delightful and includes all-time classics FunHouse and Pinbot among others, but may be a particular taste).

[kakegawa.livejournal.com]

Have you checked out sites like www.gamefaqs.com, www.gamespot.com
or www.ncsx.com?

These might be appropriate.

Pikmin was remade for the Wii and when I last saw it, it was
really cheap. The premise of the game is that you're a little
alien who crash lands on another planet, one that has an atmosphere
toxic to you. Unfortunately the crash has scattered the vital parts
of your ship and so you must recover them while the fending off the
local wildlife. Luckily a bunch of benign and feisty plant life
have become bonded to you and act as your army/servants. Suitable
for all ages and highly imaginative as well as fun.

Another Wii game that might be of interest is Little King Story.
Kinda like Lord British in Ultima, you're poor sap is sucked in
from our world to be crowned king in a fantasy medieval world.
I heard it's fun and geared to all ages, though it's kind of a niche
game.



Are you still checking out stuff for the PS2. There were a lot of
interesting games for it.

Wizardry: Tales of the Forsaken Land, yup good ol' Wizardry as in
Sir-Tech and Werdna. There are Japanese gamers who still love the
old school games like Wizardry and Ultima. Dunno what happened with
Ultima, but Wizardry games still get made in Japan (sometimes with
the old-style graphics). This particular Wizardry takes place in a
kingdom that was destroyed in some cataclysm, you and your adventurers
are one amongst many going in to find out what happened and to prevent
a second disaster. The game makes a few overhauls such as greatly
improved graphics over the Apple and PC games, plus they have special
team tactics (such as one where attackers in the backrow can disrupt
magic users by using missile weapons or flinging rocks, another one
has a magic user in the back row teleport your forward line away from
an incoming enemy melee strike and then teleports them back in for a
counter-attack).

Culdcept-Think of Monopoly with Magic: The Gathering but without the
creepy fanboys.

Beyond Good and Evil-Canada has become the 3rd largest video game
producer in the world after the US and Japan, this Sci-Fi
action/adventure shows why

Warship Gunner II-alternative history world where a Dutch colony in the
Far East is embroiled in a sci-fi version of WWII. Worried about declining
reflexes, no problem when you're taking on patrol boats and destroyers
with a twin-hulled battleship armed with cruise missiles, plasma guns and
the wave cannon from Star Blazers. Good action that just doesn't cater to
the hardcore (Super Contra, I'm looking at you!!!), and the R&D plus ship
designing process was enjoyable in my opinion.

ICO-one of the earliest PS2 games but the graphics in it still shine, it's
one of the best examples of world-building and minimalist story-telling in
the PS2. Puzzles can be tricky but not brutally demanding (especially
if you check a faq/walkthru). ICO really captured a sense of otherness,
though not to everyone's taste.

Shadow of the Colossus-set in the same world as ICO but eons past. A boy
and his horse go to kill stone giants the size of hills in a deal with
dark forces to bring his deceased beloved back to life.

Dark Cloud 2-you might already have this one but you once mentioned
that you found Rogue Galaxy to be a decent enough game. IMHO I think
that Dark Cloud 2 is a better game than Rogue Galaxy but not as good
as Dragon Warrior V. You're main characters are a boy from a happy steampunk(?)
world and a princess from a future tech+magic version of it. The future
is in danger from some dark force which has been mucking around with the
past. So besides the usual action rpg smack-down, you go around influencing
the future by developing infrastructure in the past. As well
the boy from the steampunk world is an inventor and he gets his inspiration
from taking pictures of things that he finds to have potential and then mixing
them for blue-print ideas.

[chuk-g.livejournal.com]

My son really liked the Tales of Symphonia one, too. Second the suggestion for Wii Ware, lots of old school stuff on there that's still fun (and often not many points). Also if you didn't have a Gamecube, now you can play all the Gamecube ones, there are lots (original Tales of Symphonia was good, I personally liked Final Fantasy Crystal Chronicles but it's better as multi-player than single player).