Word Party (Wii U) Review

Lightwood Games previously did Word Search by POWGI for Wii U and 3DS and then Epic Word Search for 3DS. Now, they are entering the genre of Party games with their newest game: Word Party.

Word Party is a collection of several mini-games all focusing on words. Is it a good party game? Read on to find out!



My dad and I teamed up to play this game. You can play Word Party by yourself, but its not that fun by yourself and you can’t unlock any new mini-games that way. Instead, you should play this game with two or more people. However, you can’t pick which mini-games you’ll play in multiplayer, whereas you can when you play alone.

It’s a shame that its so random which mini-games you’ll play. There were some mini-games I liked, while others I didn’t like at all and wished that I could avoid them. It would have been nice if Word Party had some options to pick which mini-games you’ll play and adjust the mini-games difficulty too. The game does have one option that I like a lot though! Word Party lets you use your Mii as your avatar to show whos turn it is and this is a feature that fits this game so well. The Mii's feel right at home with this party game. And while not all the mini-games are good, thankfully the game’s controls are never the reason why.



One player uses the gamepad to play Word Party, while the rest play with Wii remotes. The gamepad shows the same thing as the TV screen, so its very easy for the gamepad user to just look at the gamepad and use the touch screen to solve the puzzles. The Wii Remote works very well too. And the words on the TV screen are big enough that the Wii remote players will have no trouble seeing what they’re solving. That said, I wish Word Party was a little more fun.

As I mentioned earlier, not all of the mini-games are good. Some of this comes from the repetitiveness of certain puzzles being like other puzzles and some of it will just come down to personal preference. I also think that Word Party will only be for a certain group of people (English majors? Crossword fans?) and that it’ll be more fun with the more people you have. Just two people really doesn’t cut it. Still, Word Party is a good game if you have a lot of people who love word puzzles.



Word Party has very simple, yet charming graphics. The look of all the mini-games feel like something you’d find in Word game booklets. The game is very well put together visually.

As for the game's music, its good and never gets annoying. The sound effects are not bad.



I didn’t care for Word Party as much as Word Search by POWGI or Epic Word Search. That doesn’t mean it’s a bad game though. Word Party’s controls work really well and there are a few top notch mini-games in the collection. I do wish there were options to create your multiplayer fun and that the puzzles weren’t so repetitive. Still, if you have a bunch of people who love word puzzles in your family and/or among your friends, you’ll have a lot of fun with this game. Word Party isn’t for everyone, but there is an audience for it and they’ll have fun with it.

My Score: 7/10

Thank you to Lightwood Games for providing a copy of Word Party for review. The game is out now on the Wii U eshop. All of the above pictures were provided by the developer via a press kit on their website.

My Thoughts On Yesterday's Nintendo Direct (11/12)

WOW!

Ok, thats it. That's all my thoughts. Thanks for reading...

Just Kidding.

But seriously, wow Nintendo.

Now, I'm one of the few people who LOVED what Nintendo did back in June for E3. That said...

Yesterday's Nintendo Direct blew E3 away. I just have to say that that was the best Nintendo Direct EVER. I think if Nintendo had done that at E3, no one would have complained. Ok, some people would have complained anyway (they are complaining a little about yesterdays Direct). But not as much as they complained back in June. Yesterday's Direct was a fantastic presentation.

What made it so special?



First of all, the way the Nintendo Direct started was mind blowing. We had heard rumors for awhile that Twilight Princess HD was in the works, though personally, I didn't believe it. Now, I'm not a huge fan of HD remakes, but that said, I love the Legend of Zelda series. And Twilight Princess is one of my favorite Zelda game. I just love that game. So Twilight Princess HD? Sign me up. Plus, the graphics look amazing! And, well, there's this...


Who expected this amiibo?! Seriously. I'm not a big collector of amiibo (I only have two!) but, I need this amiibo. I want this one so bad. It is, without a doubt, the coolest looking amiibo EVER. So getting an announcement with Twilight Princess HD revealed and this amiibo was a wonderful way to start the Direct. And it wasn't the last of the Direct's wonderful surprises....




I was blown away and totally, amazingly happy, when Nintendo announced that Dragon Quest 7 and 8 are coming to the West for 3DS. These are two games that I thought we'd never see over here. I had pretty much given up all hope of seeing them. So to get this announcement...I mean...I almost want to say that I love it more than the Twilight Princess announcement. But its so hard to choose which one I like better. I love both announcements. Anyway, my birthday is in the summer and Dragon Quest 7 is coming out this summer....so you know what I want for my birthday! This was an amazing part of the Nintendo Direct!



Steamworld Heist was shown too! Oh man. The new footage for this game was jaw dropping. The hats, the guns, the new battles! And the game is coming in December. I'm so ready for this game. I can't wait to review it.



A lot of Pokemon games were shown during this Direct. I'm not a Pokemon fan, but I have to say that I was impressed by the games. Pokken Tournament, especially, looked awesome. A Pokemon fighting game from the developer of Tekken?! Oh wow. Pokemon Mystery Dungeon looks neat. And I'm sure a ton of people are happy about the older games coming in February!



Star Fox Zero finally got a new release date and its later than I thought (April!). Though the game looks even better now. I'm sure its going to be a ton of fun.



I was shocked and surprised that Mario and Luigi: Paper Jam is coming in January. Most of the time, Nintendo avoids January. This year, they have Mario and Luigi Paper Jam coming that month and Final Fantasy Explorers is coming in January too! Both 3DS games looked really cool.



The Nintendo Direct had a bit of humor! Bill Trinen is the best. That gag where he stuffs his face with donuts was so funny. And Reggie's reaction was perfect. I love how Nintendo always has something funny in their Nintendo Directs.

Oh, I could go on forever about the stuff I loved in this Direct. It was fantastic to see some much support from Square Enix for the 3DS and Nintendo's games lineup for the rest of this year and early next year is amazing.

Hey, speaking of Square Enix....



If you say you knew Cloud was coming to Super Smash Bros...you're lying!

No one saw this reveal coming. There weren't even any rumors about Cloud in Super Smash Bros...

I will always remember my reaction.

Reggie said that a new challenger was approaching, so I knew it was a new Smash Bros character. Then...

a field of stars was shown and a familiar piece of music. I will always remember that image & music. I love Final Fantasy 7. So I knew right away what they were showing but...I thought for a second I might be wrong. It just couldn't be Final Fantasy 7 related...right?

IT WAS! I couldn't believe it. My eyes were wide and my jaw was open. I was shocked. Cloud in Super Smash Bros?! Has the world ended???

Oh and that Midgar stage for Smash Bros looked awesome too!

And that Mii chocobo costume was silly, but neat.

I have to admit, foolishly perhaps, I wondered for a second if they would reveal that Final Fantasy 7 was coming to the Wii U eshop soon. Alas, it wasn't to be. But as many people have speculated and I did too, I wonder if the Final Fantasy 7 remake might come to the NX eventually. That would indeed make me buy an NX!

Anyway, as you can see, I loved this Nintendo Direct. I'm sorry for the length of this blog entry. I could have gone on a lot longer though!

I hope you enjoyed reading this. I'll definitely do a recap/my thoughts on the Smash Bros Direct in December too.

See you Monday!

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All of the above pictures are from Nintendo Everything's Twitter account.

Most of You Won't Like the NX and Neither Will Third Parties

I've said it before and I'll say it again: people are too obsessed with the NX.

These people think that the NX will "save" Nintendo. They think third parties will come running back to Nintendo and start developing games for Nintendo's new system. The Wii U is almost dead. All Hail the NX.

The truth is, though, most Nintendo fans won't like the NX. It won't be the system most of them seem to want: a system with a regular controller and next generation graphics. I don't think it'll be that hybrid system some other Nintendo fans want either.

The NX will be a new system that does things differently than the Playstation 4 or Xbox One. Many will say that its not as powerful as either system but the games will probably look better because of the brighter graphics (and they'll be more fun too).

Oh and third parties, ya, they won't come running back. Or if they do, they won't stay for long. Look at how "well" they supported the Wii. The Wii was the best selling system of last generation and third parties, the major third parties, didn't want to support it. And with the Wii U, they supported it a little and quickly abandoned it. Third parties won't support the NX. They'll play around with it a little, maybe, but then they'll go running back to Microsoft and Sony.

The NX won't "save" Nintendo. Nintendo doesn't need saving. Yes, the Wii U didn't do as well as the PS4 or the Xbox One, but its selling more and more all the time. The 3DS sells VERY well. Oh and there's a little thing called AMIIBO too. Those are selling like crazy, especially in the United States.

Nintendo is, in the end, making more money than Sony or Microsoft. Those guys have more popular SYSTEMS, but Nintendo has the popular IPs.

Nintendo refuses to lay down and just make "yet another video game console". Thats what a lot of "fans" want. They want Nintendo to create a powerful system that they can play ALL the games on. They don't want gimmicks or innovation or something different. But Nintendo loves to innovate. Nintendo isn't going to stop doing that.

And another thing....the NX is coming out in 2017 (or 2018 or...).

Next year is the year of the Wii U and 3DS.

P.S. I will definitely be avoiding social media during E3 next year. If you thought Nintendo fans were bad this year....whew...

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The above piece is all opinion and not really based on anything. I could be wrong and the NX might come out next year and be the mind-blowing, jaw-dropping system that "everybody" wants. We'll see I guess.

I'll be back on Friday!

Those Final Fantasy DS Remakes

My dad has Final Fantasy 3 and 4 for the DS. I haven't played either of these games in awhile. I remember that the Final Fantasy 4 remake was really good! It had some voice acting (no Spoony Bard voice acted though. ugh) and very good graphics. I didn't remember much about Final Fantasy 3 until I started playing it a little today...

And its very good too! It doesn't have voice acting like 4, but the graphics are pretty good still and the gameplay looks like its going to be addictive. I love job systems, so I decided I'd replay this one first. I'll probably replay 4 after I get done with this one.

The Final Fantasy DS remakes were very good. Square gave both games a nice visual upgrade and fine tuned the gameplay a bit.

I like how in Final Fantasy 3 all of the gameplay is on the touch screen, but it transfers to the top screen when you look at the menu. I like how the top screen has a drawn world map when you are running around in the overworld. There are other cool things about it too. I can't wait to play more of this game! I can't remember much of Final Fantasy 4's improvements, but I'll be sure to write about it once I start playing it.

Though, there is one downside to replaying these games and its that I start thinking about the Final Fantasy 6 remake. There was rumors or talk about a Final Fantasy 6 remake for the DS, but it never happened. Final Fantasy 6 is the best of the Nintendo Final Fantasy games in my opinion. Its a shame that Square has never got around to remaking it. Man, it would be wonderful on the 3DS. Imagine Final Fantasy 6 with upgraded graphics (like Bravely Default), the same gameplay, and maybe some voice acting. Wow. It would be the best remake ever.

It'll probably never happen though. Square did do a remake of Final Fantasy 1 for the 3DS eshop, but only in Japan. They've haven't brought it over to North America and it doesn't seem like they will. And Square is working on a Final Fantasy 7 remake for the PS4. I don't have a PS4, but I am worried that game will suck. Its too bad Square doesn't do the FF7 remake for the 3DS. That would be AMAZING. sigh. If only I ran Square Enix. lol. I'm sure a Final Fantasy 6 remake is not on their mind or if it is, it'll end up being on the PS4 or something. ugh.

Anyway, if you haven't played these Final Fantasy DS remakes and you like Final Fantasy, then I suggest you hunt them down. Both of them are great. It'll remind you of when the Final Fantasy series rocked.

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The above Final Fantasy 3 picture was taken from here.

Lightwood Games Rocks

So as you all know, I love words. I love to write. I wouldn't be here, and at Shigeru News, and at my Comic blog too if I didn't. But did you know that I love Word Games too? Well, you might have if you read my Epic Word Search Review or my Word Search by POWGI review.

And both of those games are actually made by the SAME PEOPLE.

Lightwood Games is a small two person developer that focuses on Word Games. They've made Word Search by POWGI and Epic Word Search for Wii U/3DS and 3DS respectively so far. Their upcoming games are Word Party for Wii U and Word Puzzles by POWGI for 3DS.

Word Party will be coming November 12th! It will feature a whole bunch of word mini-games. Perfect for a PARTY!



And their game Word Puzzles by POWGI is coming to the 3DS soon!

This game will actually feature support for AMIIBO!

For more information on Word Puzzles by POWGI, check out this Shigeru News post I made today:
https://shigerureviews.wordpress.com/2015/11/02/word-puzzles-by-powgi-will-come-to-the-3ds-with-amiibo-support/

If you haven't guessed it by now (or by the title of this article), I think Lightwood Games Rocks.

Keep an eye on Shigeru News too, because I'll have an INTERVIEW with the awesome Lightwood Games there soon.

In the meantime, run out and buy both Word Search by POWGI and Epic Word Search if you haven't already. Both are VERY good games.

You can find Lightwood Games @lightwoodgames on twitter! The pictures above were taken from their twitter.

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I'll be back on Friday with another blog entry. You can find me on twitter @df2506.

And of course, you can find me writing news posts & reviews a lot for Shigeru News

Remembering Silent Hill

Its almost Halloween again. I love this time of the year. Its a great time to play spooky games too. One of my all-time favorites is Silent Hill. I wish I could say I'm playing it again, but I don't have a copy of it for my PS1. I do, however, have a great memory for video games and I thought now would be a great time to talk about why Silent Hill is one of the best, if not the best, spooky games out there!



At the start of the game, you arrive in a small town called Silent Hill. You are trapped there and your daughter has gone missing. You're looking around for her everywhere. The town is covered in an eerie fog, Something could jump out at you at any moment. Silent Hill starts slow though. You are not attacked by anything at first....when it does happen....



Its really disturbing! As you can see in the picture above, there are flying creatures, but there also things that walk on the ground and chase you. There's all kinds of crazy things in this town...



Like the other world that you find yourself in once and awhile. If you think Silent Hill is disturbing, than you should check out Silent Hill's darker, dirtier underworld.



The graphics on Silent Hill haven't aged well, but the game is still super creepy/spooky. Its still a very intense game. It also has a lot of interesting puzzles to solve. But the truth is, fighting the monsters and running away from them is the real meat and potatoes of the game!

Anyway, I hear they did a remake of the first Silent Hill on the Wii. I never got the chance to play that one. I wonder how good was. I really need to check that out sooner or later.

Sure, its Halloween now, but you know what: Spooky/creepy games are good any time of the year!

If you haven't played the original Silent Hill, I recommend checking it out. They did sequels to Silent Hill, but if you ask me, none of those were as great as the first one!



HAPPY HALLOWEEN EVERYONE!

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All of the above pictures were found here on google.

I'll be back on Monday!

Stella Glow Demo Impressions

Yesterday, I downloaded the demo of Stella Glow, an upcoming strategy rpg from Atlus and Sega, from the 3DS eshop. I decided I'd write about the demo today. Here's what I thought of it...

The Stella Glow demo is so much better than the Legend of Legacy demo. Of course, the two games are very very different from each other, but the comparison comes from them both being released by Atlus.



Stella Glow is a tactical strategy rpg, similar to Fire Emblem or Final Fantasy Tactics. In the demo (and the actual game), you move the characters around a grid based area. The game is turn-based and the very handy turn order is placed at the bottom of the top screen. I really liked where the turn order was placed and I enjoyed the battle system a lot over all. You move the characters by selecting move in the menu and then use the D-Pad to move. The D-pad is pretty responsive. The analog stick is used to look around the battlefield, but that felt a little stiff. There is another way to look around the battle too. You can scroll through the good guys and the bad guys individually. I liked this a lot.

The battles themselves are pretty quick and you don't have to wait too long for turns. You have everything you'd expect find in the battle menu: Attack, Skills, Items and its all laid out really well. I like how the game shows you gaining experience and leveling up in battle! Also I found that the bottom screen was really useful!




Stella Glow's use of the bottom screen is brilliant! You can look a various characters status & skills at the bottom screen or switch to the mission objectives. I also liked how you could use the touchscreen to check out what the character's weapons, equipment, skills, and more do! This is all extremely useful for every battle. It really helps you plan out what you want to do. The whole battle system is really great and I wish that we had been given a little more time with it.

I thought all of the battles in the demo were good, although they were a bit on the easy side and the demo is more like a tutorial than an actual part of the larger game. I do wish the demo had given us a glimpse of the game's world map and provided a couple of random battles to play. Also your demo progress doesn't transfer over to the full game like Legend of Legacy. That said, the demo battles are fun and give you a preview of what to expect in the full game.

 Oh and I really love this game's graphics!



The artwork in Stella Glow is amazing. I especially love the in-game graphics, with its small characters, beautiful backgrounds, awesome close up battle animations, and fantastic 3D. But the character design artwork looks good too.



I'm usually not a fan of anime-like characters but Stella Glow's character designs and other artwork is just so very good. I was also impressed by the animated cutscenes in the demo!

I  really liked the characters in this game too. All of the good guys are very likeable and the bad guys are rotten to the core, but also complex and interesting.  I also thought the game's voice acting was good! I was actually surprised the demo had so much voice acting (a very nice surprise). I was never bored by the demo's story. In fact, I did a second playthrough of the demo where I skipped all of the cutscenes and the demo just wasn't as interesting. I love the battles, but the story & battles work so well together and make the demo well worth playing. I really want to know what happens next in the actual game too!

It looks like the game will have even more places to explore and lots to do. I've heard that the full game has multiple endings, 40-60 hours of gameplay, and lots of sidequests! I enjoyed the demo a lot and I'm pretty sure I want the game sooner or later.

I highly recommend downloading this demo if you're a strategy rpg fan!

Have you played the Stella Glow demo? What did you think of it? Let me know in the comments!

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All of the above pictures come from Google.

I'll be back on Friday with a Halloween blog entry!