NMS08: Joystiq hands-on with the future of Wii

by Alisha Karabinus { Apr 15th 2008 at 1:30PM }

Big-brother blog Joystiq's own Zack Stern got a little face time with some of the biggest games of your fanboy future at last week's Nintendo Media Summit, and mostly, the verdict is good, even in some surprising places. We've linked all of the hands-on impressions below, but will offer a quick recap here:

Rock Band for Wii is not quite a complete travesty; improvements made to the original Rock Bands are present here, and apparently, there is at least discussion of how to handle the online play/DLC problem, but whether or not that will be managed as a later add-on or reserved for a sequel was not said. But it's not all sunshine and rainbows ....
Star Wars: The Force Unleashed is the opposite of Rock Band, however, in that it sounds even better than we expected. Zack spent some time in the Wii-specific multiplayer duel mode, and it sounds as though the level of depth (and sheer fun!) to be found there will make Wii owners and Star Wars fans very happy. We're looking forward to it!
BOOM BLOX may seem like a simple game, but while we're on the subject of depth, this is another title with a lot to explore and discover, and we know a lot of you are excited about it -- so much so that you'll challenge the bloggers to steel cage matches and all. It's cool. We like to know you care.
Samba de Amigo both is and ain't the original. It looks and feels like the Dreamcast game, but Wii remotes just aren't maracas. We did get our wish, though you can use two Wiimotes instead of a Wiimote and a nunchuk if you want, to get your samba on.
Wii Fit is fun, with a lot of enjoyable mini-games, but Zack felt they might get repetitive after a while. Then again, what exercise routine doesn't? That's why they call it a routine, amirite?

Read: Joystiq hands-on with BOOM BLOX
Read: Joystiq hands-on with Rock Band Wii
Read: Joystiq hands-on with Samba de Amigo
Read: Joystiq hands-on with Star Wars: The Force Unleashed
Read: Joystiq hands-on with Wii Fit

Tags: boom-blox, impressions, nintendo-media-summit, nms08, rock-band, samba-de-amigo, star-wars, the-force-unleased, wii-fit