Reviewed: Guitar Hero III

Are you ready to rock? I saiiiid, are you READY TO ROCK?

Sorry, I’ve always wanted to be able to scream that blindly at a crowd of people and not have things thrown at me as a result. With my purchase of Guitar Hero III, that seems to be the case. Now, I want to take a moment to express that I’ve never played Guitar Hero I or Guitar Hero II, so I can’t make any comparisons between the three games. So, this review comes from me playing the game with absolutely no experience with the series at all.

Radical.

After spending weeks trying to get my hands on one (without having to resort to buying it from some lowlife scalper) my girlfriend finally found six copies of Guitar Hero III, for the Wii (of course), in stock at a local video games store. I rushed down to the store and, after braving a massive boxing week sale line, got two copies (for two guitars, duh).

Oh how sweet it is.

Initial Impressions and Musings

The whole “guitar hero” thing never really appealed to me when the first two games were released. They looked like fun games, but I wasn’t a fan of DDR (Dance-Dance-Revolution) and I figured that Guitar Hero followed in DDR’s footsteps. Apparently I had decided that strumming on a fake plastic guitar was the same as hopping around on a plastic mat on the floor. Anyway, with the release of the third Guitar Hero I finally decided to bite the bullet and buy the game.

Once I got it home and got it all set up I noticed a few things.

1. The guitar is different from all of the other guitars. For the Wii you actually place the Wiimote inside of the guitar, meaning that you don’t have to buy any batteries or anything like that. Since I have a rechargeable battery pack (read my review of the “Phantiq Wiimote Rechargable Battery Pack“) I really liked this design choice. No more batteries to buy once you’ve got Guitar Hero III- just plug in your Wiimote and enjoy.
2. This game kicks ass. It’s bloody amazing, and I am kicking myself for not getting into it earlier.

Right from the get-go you can get into a single-player career mode, or play multiplayer with a friend (either cooperative career mode or “battle mode”, where two players duel the same song and launch guitar-themed attacks at each other). Since I had two guitars, and my girlfriend lives with me, we decided to jam together in cooperative career mode.

As you play along and strum the notes your virtual guitarist (a character that you can pick to be in-game) will play on the screen. If you stop strumming (or start making mistakes) the guitar portion of the song stops or makes a “twang” sound, while the background music and drums continue to roll on.

Now, I can’t actually write this review without saying (at least once) that your wrists will get sore for the first little while that you play it. But, after the eighth or ninth hour your wrists kind of go numb and then it’s no longer an issue.

Career Mode: Single Player and Cooperative

Both my girlfriend and decided to play on the “easy” setting, and after choosing our characters and their respective outfits, we got to playing. The first song, “Slow Ride”, was just that- a slow, easy song that introduces the basics of Guitar Hero to anyone who’s never played it before. After six or seven attempts we finally beat it and moved on to the next song.

What’s really cool about the Wii version of this game is that every time you mess up you hear a “twang” come from the Wiimote, making the experience that much more realistic.

We continued to play and eventually we beat 3 of the 4 starting songs, allowing us to play an “Encore”. We did, we rocked it, and we took a break for a whole (to ice our wrists and to celebrate or awesomeness as rock stars). We continued down this path, only using the first three (or five) fret buttons as that’s all we can use on easy. Eventually we rocked so hard that it was time to graduate to medium- this is where it begins to get difficult.

Easy is just that- easy. The songs are slower-paced, there’s only three buttons to worry about, and generally there are no combo’s or key-combinations that are hard to deal with. But on medium the difference is really night and day. That fourth button, combined with a faster tempo and harder key-combinations, really ups the ante in a good way. For someone who wants to feel like an actual guitarist, jamming along and medium or hard is perfect- you get a good tempo, plenty of keys to hit, and a satisfaction of knowing that you really do rock after nailing down the awesome guitar solo in “One” by Metallica.

Single player is even more fun than cooperative career play, as you get to “battle” with Tom Morello (from Rage Against the Machine) and Slash (from Guns’n'Roses), and at the end you unlock a song or two. It’s a great experience no matter what difficulty you set it at, though I recommend at least medium for maximum rockage.

Two Player “Battle Mode”

At first I had mixed feelings about this. The premise seems alright- you duel over a song, earning power-ups that you can unleash upon your opponent and vise versa, but I never really enjoyed it as much as I did the cooperative career mode. Perhaps it’s just me, but I’m much happier “jamming” with a friend of mine than trying to ruin their whammy bar or cut one of their guitar strings.

But, that being said, for those that enjoy competition this is the perfect way to truly show who the true guitar hero is.

Replayability and the “Fun Factor”

I love this game. I love the fact that I can jam to over 60 songs (42 in the standard track list + what you unlock in career mode + what you can “buy” with the money you earn while you play), and the track list has a little something for everyone- Red Hot Chili Peppers, Rolling Stones, Santana, Slayer, Metallica, Rise Against, and a lot more.

Once you’ve beat this game on easy, move on to medium. Once you’re done with that, move on up all the way to expert. You’ll constantly be learning and expanding your song-list, and once you get really good you can even try to crank out perfect scores and wicked “star power” combinations. Besides, what’s more fun than jamming with a friend on cooperative career mode or duking it out head-to-head on the “battle” mode?

This game has a little something for everyone, so if you can manage to find yourself a copy I recommend buying it, playing it, and rocking right the heck out!  

Oh, just make sure that you buy some ice packs for your wrists.

Overall: 9/10 - This game is amazing in every way.  If you have never played Guitar Hero before you will love this game.

Sound: 9.5/10 - Jamming to Santana’s “Black Magic Woman” is as good as it gets.

Visuals: 8/10 - The visuals are nothing really fantastic, but they get the job done.

Gameplay: 9/10 - Must… put… guitar… down… but I CAN’T!

Story: N/A - this game isn’t about the story, it’s about the guitar.

Reviewed: Alien Syndrome

I won’t lie- the Wii was lacking some good multiplayer games for a while. The single player arena was handled well right from the get go (games like Red Steel and Super Paper Mario), but when it came to playing with your buddies your best bet was always to load up Wii Sports and have at ‘er. Unfortunately, you can only play the same 9 holes of Wii Golf for so long until you’re a bloody expert and completely unbeatable.

Enter Alien Syndrome. This game has been out for a long time, but after a friend of mine gave me a copy for my birthday I decided that it was time to get my game on. Actually, we got our game on, but that’s beside the point. As it turns out, my friend (who gave me the game) wouldn’t be playing it for very long. Read on.

Also, I should mention that my digital camera kind of sucks so I posted screen shots of the game that have been taken from www.wiisworld.com- hit them up as they have a TON of great Wii resources. The screen shots are at the bottom of this review.

The Concept and Story of Alien Syndrome

The concept of the game is actually pretty decent if you’re a fan of 3/4 view shooters (as I am). You control a character on-screen with a “birds eye view” of the arena. Basically you run around and kill things, friends optional. The storyline is pretty vague- you’re some army chick (or something) and you’re on a ship that’s been infested with aliens. Your mission is to go around, collect some things, get to some areas, and kill a bunch of aliens.

Seriously, I’m not even joking. But, with this kind of game, the story is kind of irrelevant as it’s the actual gameplay that matters. The premise is very solid, and I had high hopes for this game as a fun shooter for when my buddy and I wanted to roast some aliens (and the flamethrower in the game made that very easy to accomplish).

One really unique feature is this robot that follows you around. It essentially allows you to make weapons/ammo from the items that you pick up along the way, and as your characters level up (there’s a slight amount of RPG element in the game) you’ll be able to use better weapons. Sounds pretty solid, so let’s get to playing.

Gameplay - The Good, the Bad, and the Ugly

At first you’re playing a kind of training mission (be it by yourself or with the aid of a friend), and once you’re used to the controls of Alien Syndrome (which utilize both the Wiimote and the Nunchuck) you’ll be blasting away alien hordes in no time. Everything appears pretty solid- movement is easy, firing is easy, weapons collection is easy, picking up keys is easy… everything is pretty easy to do.

But, whatever you do, do not hold the nunchuck in any way other than vertical. I couldn’t figure out why the screen kept spinning, and it literally took me 15 minutes of getting ticked off before I realized it was because I had the nunchuck held horizontal. Apparantly that controls the camera, and once I had it figured out I was able to keep the screen steady and actually see what the heck I was doing.

The first 30 minutes or so of the game is actually pretty interesting. Right at the beginning of the game you get to pick your character’s class (which determines things like health, what weapons you can use, etc.). I chose the “sniper” class and my buddy chose the “tank” class. I got a laser rifle, and he got a stick with a sharp thing on both ends. HA!

However, once we beat the first mini-boss we realized it was all the same thing. Run over here, kill these guys. Right over there, kill those guys. Pick up this key thingie, run back over here, kill some more people. With enemies randomly respawning all of the time you are never really sure if you’ve made progress or not, but it’s nearly impossible to run out of ammo since your robot can make you new weapons and and ammo on request. This game could literally go on forever.

What Drives me NUTS about Alien Syndrome

The entire time I played this game I kept wondering if something interesting was going to happen. Every now and then some guy chimes in over the radio about one of your objectives, and once you get your head around the mediocre voice acting you figure out that you need to go to some location within the ship to do something… in reality, as soon as you get to the location you’re treated to a pathetic in-game cutscene and then it’s more of the same.

That’s what drives me nuts. Why have a story if you aren’t actually going to do anything with it? This game would be 10 times better if it was simply kill enemies, upgrade your guns, blow some stuff up, and move on from place to place. Instead of trying to incorporate a weak storyline, focus on those other elements and let me blow stuff away. If you MUST have a story, at least flesh it out so that I’m half-interested in what I’m doing.

Conclusion

The game has a solid base, and if you can live with all of the little annoyance and major shortcomings you may actually enjoy it. The fact that you can upgrade your characters and allow them to use new and kickass weapons is cool, and playing with a friend is always a good time if you’ve had a few beers. The problem is that no one part of this game has any polish, and as a result the entire game feels rushed and weak.

Maybe one day I’ll pick it up and beat it (when I have nothing else to do), but I don’t see that happening for a long time. If you’re looking for a fun game to play either solo or with a friend, move on. This game is more irritating than anything else, especially when that stupid camera starts spinning because you’re holding the nunchuck 1 degree off-center.

Overall: 5/10 - The game is decent, but it’s not in the top 10. Heck, it’s not even in my top 50. Unless you really want to blow some aliens away I’d look elsewhere.

Sound: 7/10 - While nothing is really fantastic, the sound is there when it needs to be and the explosions from the grenade launcher have a nice “BOOM” to them.

Visuals: 7/10 - There are definitely nicer looking games on the Wii, but by no means is it an eyesore. The colors are rich, the aliens look kinda cool, and the environments aren’t lacking either. Alien Syndrome does fairly well in this aspect.

Gameplay: 5/10 - The first little while is fun, but after that it’s the same thing over and over again. Some variation would have been awesome, though I will admit that it’s kind of cool to have my robot make me a laser rifle or grenade launcher whenever I want it to.

Story: 3/10 - Hahahahahahahahahahahahahahaha. Story, WHAT STORY?

Screen Shots

These are taken from www.wiisworld.com, as my digital camera sucks and I haven’t quite figured out how to take good screen shots yet. 

As you can see, the new “Vii” looks kind of like an old school answering machine, complete with a large, blocky appearance and the mandatory black plastic “sensor area”. I think that this new Vii actually looks a lot like a Chinese rip-off this time- perhaps they were having legal troubles with the old design?

But, despite that, you know what really cracks me up? The “porwer” button. Way to go, China (click the image to see the full-size version).

It won’t be long before the new “Nintendo Vii” makes its way onto eBay, so if you’re really into rip-offs you should be able to get one there… not that it would do you any good unless you understand Chinese.

In short…

The “Nintendo Vii” = fail.

Throw On Your “Wii Finder” Hat and Start Looking!

The holiday season is here and once again there is a chronic shortage of Nintendo Wii’s available to be bought. Whether you think that Nintendo is doing this purposely or not is irrelevant, the fact remains is that it’s Christmas and Wii’s are nowhere to be found.

You’ve got two weeks before Christmas and if you’re going to find yourself a Wii you’re best bet is going to be in your local classifieds (Kijiji, Craigslist, etc.) or on eBay (eBay will be full of them), but don’t be surprised when you are paying $100 or more than what a new Wii from a store costs.

I will update this post in the next few days with more information about online stores that have Wii’s. Till then, good luck!

Reviewed: GameAccess.ca - 10 Day Free Trial

If you’re like me you aren’t a fan of having to go compete with everyone at your local video store for the latest video game rental. You know what I’m talking about- the hordes of fanboys that camped out Blockbuster when Mario Galaxy and Metroid Prime came out, or the parents that are fighting lineups to rent their kids the latest games (for some peace and quiet, no doubt).

Just as you can now rent movies online via Zip.ca (offering a two week trial), you can now rent video games online through GameAccess.ca. GameAccess.ca is based out of Montreal and claims a shipping time of 4 days to the western coast. Being born and raised in Alberta, I thought that I’d put GameAccess.ca to the test to see if they were everything that they claimed. After all, I like the idea of having my games mailed to me.

This is the perfect solution for people living in Canada and who like the idea of online video game rentals. The real question, however, is does it live up to the hype? Is renting video games online really a feasible solution for the average gamer, family of four, or a single person just looking to get their game on?

The Lowdown on GameAccess

GameAccess.ca is unique in that there are few competing services that will mail you video games to your door. Some related websites, such as Zip.ca, have a small selection of games but it’s certainly nothing worth getting excited over. GameAccess.ca, by comparison, has thousands of titles for all of the major systems (PS2, PS3, Wii, XBOX, XBOX 360, etc.) and even some systems that are less common (PSP, NintendoDS, etc.).

GameAccess.ca offers the following:

• 10 day free trial. I found this useful when writing this review, though I’ve decided to stay on as a GameAccess.ca member as I have all three of the major systems and love that I can rent games for all three online.

• Express shipping. Four days from Montreal to Calgary.

• No shipping charges. You never have to pay for shipping.

• No late fees. Keep the game as long as you want. Once you send it back they’ll mail you the next game in your que.

• Four different packages to choose from. The most common is their “two game out” package, though there are packages that are as a low as 1 game out and as high as 4 games out.

• Massive selection. I didn’t count them all, but there are literally thousands of games available for rent.

The GameAccess Experience

So, once I created my account and activated my 10 day trial I immediately picked out the games that I wanted to rent. Hmm, let’s see here… Rachet and Clank for the PS3, Resident Evil: The Umbrella Chronicles for the Wii, Mass Effect for the XBOX 360, and then Alien Syndrome for the Wii. I selected in what order that I wanted them and, my “renting” experience now essentially over for the day, I perused the site a bit. Apparantly you can buy games and hardware and stuff off of the site too- a good feature.

Three days later I had two games in the mail, complete with self-addressed and postage-paid return envelopes. Ratchet and Clank and Resident Evil, the top two of my list. Awesome.

That night I had a good gaming session and thoroughly enjoyed myself. Then it occurred to me to call customer service and say that one of the games didn’t work right (for the purposes of this review) as I wanted to see how they reacted and what they did. I wasn’t really enjoying Resident Evil as much as I was Ratchet and Clank, so I called customer service and told them that Resident Evil was wicked scratched and it won’t play on my Wii. Now, this is where I was pleasantly surprised: she apologized to me, told me to mail it back, and then explained that they’d mail me another copy of the game. If they didn’t have another copy they’d mail me another game from my list and mail me a copy as soon as it came back.

Awesome, pretty hard to argue with that eh?

Conclusion

So, I must admit that at the end of the day I was very happy with GameAccess.ca. In fact, I’ve gone well past the 10 day trial and have continued to use the service for nearly a month now. Each of my orders arrives in 4 days or less, they have all worked properly without any errors, and even then they took care of my fictitious error without any questions.

For around $25 a month you eliminate late fees and add a constantly revolving selection of games to your portfolio, and that’s only one plan. They have less expensive plans and more expensive plans that are designed to suit anyone’s tastes. This is perfect for someone who doesn’t want to have to run to a Blockbuster only to find the game out of stock or for someone who has kids and likes the idea of always having games without late fees.

Either way, regardless of what appeals to you, GameAccess.ca is an absolute steal and a wonderful service.

Overall: 9/10 - I absolutely love the convenience and simplicity of the service.

Value: With packages costing less than $10, anyone can afford it.

Speed: Games arrived in under 5 business days each and every time.

Selection: The latest games for most popular systems, though it would be awesome if they had some old-school systems out there.

Can’t Find a Nintendo Wii? Get a Vii Instead!

Ever heard of the “Vii”, the Chinese knockoff of the now iconic Nintendo Wii? I suppose that this is Nintendo’s answer to their stock shortages!

Just as you’re able to find bootlegged and counterfeit everything (from iPods to iPhones), you are now able to buy a Vii, the fake Wii that is making news everywhere. I’m not too sure who exactly was the first to post details about the Vii online, but I can tell you for sure that I’ve personally witnessed no less than 12 different sources that all had the same information about the Vii on it. Unfortunately no one is able to get their hands on one quite yet, but give it some time as I’m sure one will turn up somewhere.

The Vii (pictured here on the left) is reported to have similar features to the Wii: wireless Viimote’s that are connected via Bluetooth, infrared sensing for motion control, built-in games, and a host of other features found on the Wii. What’s perhaps the most interesting is the fact that the Vii could easily be mistaken for a Wii by someone who isn’t well-versed on what a Wii is (and isn’t).

I’m the kind of person that simply cannot sleep at night until I know absolutely all there is to know about something like this, so I’ve spent a few weeks digging up as much information about the Vii as I could whenever the opportunity arose. I’ve found some pretty interesting information about the Vii, including a “disassembly” video where the Vii is taken apart to show what’s on the inside (I’m still trying to find confirmation that it’s legit).

What We Know

At this point there are a few things that we know for certain:

• The Vii does exist and it is available for purchase in China.

• The Vii does appear to have motion sensing capabilities.

• The Vii has games bundled or burned right into the ROM of the hardware- right now we don’t know which one it is.

• The Vii has an expansion port for what appears to be cartridge-based games.

Unfortunately, nobody here at WiiViewed.com can read Chinese (or any variation or language related to it, actually), so the best that we can offer is a simple “that’s all we got”. What we do have though are some kickass videos of this “amazing” machine in action.

Here’s a commercial (infomercial) for the Vii:

Reviewed: Wireless Wii Remote Sensor Bar

I’m a real wireless freak since my two cats seem to love to jump at all things dangling, even if they’re my $100 cables connecting to my audio equipment. When I first set up my Wii I was slightly concerned about the sensor bar as the cable is impossibly thin and has the structural integrity of a matchstick house. I knew that it was only a matter of time before one of my cats had their way with it.

Thankfully, a few minutes on eBay is all it took to save the day. To my rescue is a generic wireless Wii sensor bar. The brand itself is not important because it’s the generic model, meaning that all of the other manufacturers simply re-brand this sensor bar as their own. This little unit cost me $25, shipping included.

My sensor bar came about a week after I ordered it off of eBay (from ThumbMonkey games) and came with two main pieces of equipment:

• Wireless sensor bar - The actual unit itself looks nearly identical to the OEM piece, save the lack of wires.

• Four AA batteries - That was nice of ThumbMonkey to include them

Initial Impression and Usage Test

One of my major concerns was that the wireless sensor bar wasn’t going to read as well as the OEM unit. The OEM sensor bar is little more than a piece of plastic with two IR readers, but you never know. It never hurts to have a bit of caution when you are changing something as important as your Wii sensor bar.

My worries were quickly relieved once I set up the sensor bar and began playing. The auction claimed up to 30 hours of use and an effective range of 25 feet. We’ve found that the Wii OEM unit starts to mess up the signal at around 10 feet, so 25 feet should be an accomplishment. Of course we were determined to see how well it worked at that distance.

Our sensor bar has a switch on the back for turning it on and off, and there is also a timer that will beep after a certain amount of time to remind you that it’s still turned on. We have heard of other sensor bars with automatic power saving features but we haven’t been able to get our hands on one… yet.

Once we started playing we noticed that the wireless sensor bar worked better than our old OEM unit. At distances we found less signal degradation (or “jitteryness”), as our inputs were smooth as silk. Typing text on messages boards in the Wii browser was simple and painless thanks to smooth sensor operation. We couldn’t ask for more.

The only real downside to the wireless sensor bar is the fact that the batteries will need to be changed fairly often. If you play the Wii for an hour a day you’re looking at changing them once a month, and if you play it for three hours a day (as I do) you’re looking at nearly once a week. Still, if you don’t want wires running everywhere it’s a good solution, and at under $25 it’s certainly a good value.

Pros:

• Looks cool
• Look Ma, no wires!
• Strong signal output
• Reads the Wii remotes better than the OEM version

Cons:

• Have to replace the batteries fairly frequently
• If you accidentally leave it on all night say goodbye to your batteries

Overall: 7.5/10 - a good solution, but we’re going to stick to wired.

Preview: Wii Fit

Is anyone as excited about the upcoming Wii game “Wii Fit” as I am? This game looks like is has everything it needs to be a smash (baby). Created by gaming genius Shigeru Miyamoto (responsible for other Nintendo hits such as Nintendogs and Pikmin), Wii Fit should be an absolute smash hit.

The game itself features over 40 different exercises, from Yoga-style poses to push ups, jogging, soccer, and more. The game accomplishes this through a special peripheral called the “Wii Balance Board“, a device that is unique designed to accomplish multiple tasks at once.

The Wii Balance Board: What is It, and How do You Use It?

The Wii Balance Board is a specialty peripheral that has been in development for more than two years at this point. It has been designed for the upcoming game “Wii Fit”, though there is no doubt in my mind that it won’t find it’s way into the programming minds of developers who will want to use it for other games. Rumor has it that Tony Hawk wants to use the Wii Balance Board for his next skateboarding game (that would be awesome).

The Wii Balance Board realistically accomplishes two main goals:

• It is able to determine your body mass index (BMI). For the game Wii Fit, users will be able to track their BMI over time and compare it with other users via the game’s own Wii channel in the Wii menu.

• It can measure your center of gravity. This allows it to track just about everything, from dance steps to hula-hoop motions (see the trailer video below).

Using the Wii Balance Board is as simple as simply stepping on to it and performing the motions naturally and as controlled as possible. Just as the Wiimote and Nunchuck combo is almost second nature to just about every Wii gamer around, the Wii Balance Board will become just as intuitive and second-nature.

Wii Fit as a Game: What’s Included?

Aside from the proprietary peripheral, Wii Fit will be shipping with around 40 different exercises. They are further divided up into four categories: aerobic exercise (lasting around 10 minutes), muscle conditioning, Yoga poses, and balance games. For those who are looking for a great way to balance their workout routine, Wii Fit should fit right in.

We don’t know which games are going to be included as of yet, but the first Wii Fit trailer (see below) shows us the following:

• Yoga exercises
• Push ups
• Rythmic dancing
• Hula hooping
• Soccer (as a goalie)
• Aerobics
  
• Balance games

Don’t take our word for it (even though you should), check out this awesome trailer:

Reviewed: Phantiq Wiimote Rechargeable Battery Pack and Charging Station

When I first got my Wii I played that sucker for a week straight, five or six hours a day. Wii Golf, Wii Boxing, Super Paper Mario (weird, but good game… see our review that’s coming soon), and so on. Both my girlfriend and I had a blast playing Tennis, and as it turns out she can (repeatedly) kick my butt in bowling. I tell you, the Wii has really changed our lives. That is, of course, until I ran out of batteries while her and I were boxing. Ever watched your girlfriend (or boyfriend) kick your butt at something and not even be able to fight back?

Thankfully, that’s all changed thanks to the Phantiq Rechargeable Battery Pack. This little beauty costs $11.99 (if you buy it now from eBay) plus around $11 shipping, so about $23 in total. That’s a screaming deal for what you get:

• Wii remote charging station - Connects to your Wii via USB cable. Simply place the Wii remote into the charging station to begin charging. The system automatically stops charging once the battery is at full capacity, eliminating annoying things like overcharging.

• Wii remote back covers - In order to be able to charge you will need to replace the Wii remote battery cover with the one included with your Phantiq pack.

• Two rechargeable batteries - These batteries are custom designed for the Wii so that they fit into the battery slot without any issues.

Initial Impression and Usage Test

Once the item arrived (about five days after I purchased it from eBay) I quickly unwrapped it and set everything up. I didn’t bother reading any instructions since it really is stupid proof (take off Wii remote battery covers and store them somewhere, replace batteries with the rechargeable ones, plug recharging stand into Wii via USB cable, place new battery cover from Phantiq, put Wii remotes into charging station). It takes about four to six hours to get a full charge.

As you can see from the image everything is designed to fit and look OEM, and it does (to a large extent). The charging station looks pretty nifty when it’s got the Wii remotes plugged into it, and the red/green LED’s let you know if it’s still charging or if the battery pack is ready.

It’s important that you let the Wii remotes charge completely before using them. Since you’ll undoubtedly want to use your new batteries as soon as you can I recommend setting everything up just before you go to bed so that in the morning your batteries are charged and ready to go. They won’t overcharge as the charger stops charging once the batteries are full.

My only real “complaint” regarding the Phantiq package is that the color of the Phantiq battery covers don’t exactly match the color of the rest of the Wii remote- they’re off by a couple of shades. Now, since I don’t really spend much time looking at the back of my Wii remotes this doesn’t really bother me, but that’s about the only flaw I can find with this package. Aside from that incredibly minor gripe everything is as it should be.

On a full charge I get about three to four days of solid playing time (at roughly four hours a day between my girlfriend and myself). I’ve never had the battery level suddenly drop, nor has anything happened that is out of the ordinary or any different that what I was experiencing before. On the whole I must admit that this package is well put together, easy to find on eBay (I’d post a link but chances are good that the auction would be over by the time that you read this), and surprisingly high quality.

I’ve had this package now since July of 2007 and it works as well now (as of November 25, 2007) as it did the day that I bought it. The batteries still hold a great charge, nothing has broken or malfunctioned, and everything looks as good as it did when it was brand new.

The Phantiq Dual Wii Remote Charging Station gets my absolute recommendation. Anyone who has a Wii should have something like this, and instead of paying $40 or more for what you find in the stores you can get the whole thing shipped to your door for under $25- how’s that for a bargain?

Pros:

• Inexpensive
• Direct replacement
• Five minutes for a five year old to install
• Good charge life

Cons:

• Battery pack cover slightly off-shade

Overall: 8.5/10 - go buy it!

I’d like to mention that there are many different brands available on eBay- after testing three or four different brands (among my friends and I) I have to say that all of them have greatly exceeded my expectations. Don’t worry about brand- get whichever one is affordable and convenient!

1. (Par 4) A simple drive and iron shot should put you really close to the hole. Putt it in for the birdie.
2. (Par 3) The wind is extremely key here - it can make or break your chance for the birdie. Ideally you’d have about a 10mph head wind so you can easily hit past the bunker but not too far. A hole in 1 is ideal but normally you should settle for the birdie.
3. (Par 5) Always go for the left-most landing pad on your 1^st shot, unless the wind is coming back at you 15 mph or more. Your 2^nd shot can hit the green most of the time if you hit it softer than you’re used to - the strength meter doesn’t take into consideration elevation drops, so you’ll want to go about a half a dot less than you might first think. Eagles should be fairly common here with practice.
4. (Par 3) Just like hole 2, the wind is very important. Birdies are common but always go for that hole in 1 with your iron.
5. (Par 5) With a light or favorable wind, you should always aim into the trees about a third of the way up the main fairway stretch. Even if the ball hits the trees or lands in the rough, a shot to the green is very possible at this point. With a cleverly placed driver whack for shot 2, you can get the ball to bounce over the sand trap since there’s a large bump in the fairway right before it. Aim for the eagle, settle for birdie.
6. (Par 4) I’ve seen a chip-in on the 2^nd shot here, but of course that’s as luck as a hole in 1 on the Par 3s. This one’s pretty straightforward, although the difficulty of the putting slope may push you from a birdie to a par.
7. (Par 4) Here you’re often faced with a situation where a sand trap’s position is advantageous to your driver shot. If you have no clear iron shot to the green after your 1^st shot (often it’ll be obstructed by trees), you can actually drive the shot to the very edge of a sand trap - the sand will slow the ball down and allow it to slide onto the green perfectly. Mark it a birdie.
8. (Par 3) The wind will make or break you here. Most of the time, get your first shot to bounce just above the middle pathway’s end and roll onto the green. Ideally you’ll have a head wind to slow your ball down but even without it you can usually get pretty close to the pin on your 1^st shot. Aim for birdie but settle for par here.
9. (Par 5) Most of the time, aim for the left-most island on your first shot. Then aim for the last island with your driver on the 2^nd shot, aiming for the first piece of accessible land. The ball will roll very far so be careful not to overshoot it. An eagle is possible but birdies are a bit more common.

Other tips:

• If you’re in the rough and you have a strong head or tail wind (>20mph), don’t worry about overshooting into the red if you need the extra distance. The wind will take control of the ball very quickly and your hook or slice will barely matter.
• In the sand trap, the game will always auto-choose your wedge. This isn’t always the best club choice, as oftentimes you won’t be able to get the distance you want without hitting into the red. Choose the iron and hit the ball super soft, and let it roll right close to or into the hole.
• If you land at the edge of a green or even in a fairway near the green, sometimes it’s best to putt, especially if you have a strong wind. Wind doesn’t affect putts, nor do you hook or slice if you hit into the red.

It’s possible to at least birdie every hole - I figure with absolutely no mistakes and a little luck with the wind, the best score you could get would be about a -12 or -13. This includes one or two hole in 1s and eagles on each of the par 5s. Sounds crazy I know, but it’s doable. =) The best possible score, as in there’s no physical way you could beat it, has got to be -21. That includes nothing but eagles and hole in 1s - anytime you can hit the green, it’d have to go in.

On that note, I’ve almost double eagled all 3 par 5s - each time actually hitting the pin but the ball bounced away. I wonder if anyone’s ever made these shots…?

My best game so far is a -10. I was stuck at -9 for about 6 months until finally I pulled this one off last week.

Anyone else have any tips or insight to share?