I played the first half of this one a while back and felt underwhelmed by it; nothing bad but just felt a bit dull. picked it up again recently and then finished it off tonight in a better environment to enjoy the game imo. having secured a widescreen CRT, the 480p anamorphic widescreen illustrations look much cleaner than on the hdtv I previously tried it on. even tho the has a bit of a Flash quality to it, it pops on a CRT and improves the experience quite a bit. the overall framing/themenig is cute as well, with the different poses being localized from their japanese counterparts expertly, the wiimote and nunchuck being artifacts from a temple, and mahjong tiles being used to represent the microgames in the free select menu. the cutscenes for each stage aren't intrusive either, and overall the game keeps you chugging through microgames as quickly as it possibly can.
the microgames themselves are a bit of a mixed bag... on one hand this may be the wii game that demonstrates the potential gimmicks of the wiimote the best, but on the other hand the games can generally be split up into either "some sort of generic waggle motion" or "fleshed-out idea with extremely imprecise controls". the former category isn't necessarily bad, as many of the games are excellently designed in order to be parsed quickly upon a first try. even if the actual movement is simple or doesn't require a special pose in order to do, the kinetic feeling involved with accomplishing the task is palpable, a bit like a phantom limb. it's when you begin to lose control over the game that it becomes much less fun, and more like a product of undercooked motion controls. thankfully I didn't really encounter this feeling outside of the final main stage, as the stages prior weren't too difficult at all. in fact, I was laughing at each microgame a fair bit during the middle stretch, which definitely hit on the mark for a game of this style. once you beat the game you get a couple extra options: orbulon's minigames involve the nunchuck but this sacrifices some of the simplicity and made the game feel clumsier in my opinion, while crygor is just an exercise mode using a collection of the most egregious waggle microgames from all stages, as if giving myself tennis elbow playing this is a real substitute for hitting the gym.
glad to have finally finished it and I may return to this one to do some multiplayer stuff. it's a solid wii game overall, and honestly the perfect game to download and try out considering how short it is. it's not as novel or in-depth as the original, but it more than does in a pinch.
the microgames themselves are a bit of a mixed bag... on one hand this may be the wii game that demonstrates the potential gimmicks of the wiimote the best, but on the other hand the games can generally be split up into either "some sort of generic waggle motion" or "fleshed-out idea with extremely imprecise controls". the former category isn't necessarily bad, as many of the games are excellently designed in order to be parsed quickly upon a first try. even if the actual movement is simple or doesn't require a special pose in order to do, the kinetic feeling involved with accomplishing the task is palpable, a bit like a phantom limb. it's when you begin to lose control over the game that it becomes much less fun, and more like a product of undercooked motion controls. thankfully I didn't really encounter this feeling outside of the final main stage, as the stages prior weren't too difficult at all. in fact, I was laughing at each microgame a fair bit during the middle stretch, which definitely hit on the mark for a game of this style. once you beat the game you get a couple extra options: orbulon's minigames involve the nunchuck but this sacrifices some of the simplicity and made the game feel clumsier in my opinion, while crygor is just an exercise mode using a collection of the most egregious waggle microgames from all stages, as if giving myself tennis elbow playing this is a real substitute for hitting the gym.
glad to have finally finished it and I may return to this one to do some multiplayer stuff. it's a solid wii game overall, and honestly the perfect game to download and try out considering how short it is. it's not as novel or in-depth as the original, but it more than does in a pinch.