THQ's Wii Line-up Examined ign.com)

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Australia, November 27, 2006 - So, we're living it up right now, since the good Nintendo fairy delivered our Wii into the IGN AU world. Still, what good is a system if there are no decent games to play on it? We ventured out to THQ in Melbourne for an exclusive hands-on with three of their latest efforts, including the Australian-developed Barnyard. And what did we think? Read on for the whole enchilada.


Super Monkey Ball: Banana Blitz - December 7, 2006

The monkeys are back. In one of gaming's strangest pairings, hamster balls and the monkeys who ride them have rolled on Wii. Though the game is already out in the states, we were keen to get hold of the final build and draw our own conclusions. Though this is by no means a review - just a taste of what's in store.

For those unfamiliar with the off-kilter experience that the Monkey Ball series provides, the object of the game is to tilt the course or playing field and roll your monkey to the goal at the end/top/bottom. Traditionally, outside of the Super Monkey Ball Adventure iteration, there has been little to no need for button-pressing. Just use a stick on the control pad to tilt the field this way and that until you've made it to the end in one piece.

In this respect, Banana Blitz is a perfect fit for the wiimote. With the inherent motion control of the wiimote, tilting the course in line with your hand is a natural fit. We were concerned at first that not having a control stick with a definite 'up-down, left-right' tilt might make hand controls quite imprecise.

Instead, we found we had very little trouble adjusting to the motion-controls - in fact, we practically prefer it. The motion is smooth, with negligible delay between the onscreen action and your movements. The 300 courses, divided across more than 8 stages, cater for all difficulty levels. Early courses are very straight-forward affairs designed to teach the rolling mechanics, as well as the newly-introduced jump feature. By tapping A on the wiimote, you can bounce the ball over obstacles, gaps and up stairs and platforms. It's arguably a bold move, introducing necessary button control into a game that has done so much with so little.

The simplicity of the controls naturally gel with the wiimote.

Of course, with this shake up comes all manner of new and maddening puzzles to attempt (and fail) dozens of times. We found that it certainly didn't detract from the experience; though, pressing the button sometimes caused our hands to wobble - which, when you're on a precarious ledge, can spell doom. But the trial-and-error gameplay has always been the core of the game, and even with a new control scheme, we found our feet quickly.

Boss battles, situated at the end of each set of stages, seem a little unnecessary, however. Being placed in a circular arena with a giant rainbow-coloured buzzard and being asked to bash it on the head through repeated jumping and rolling seems kind of pointless - regardless of whether loose 'plot' might deem such an encounter necessary. It kind of dilutes the purity of the puzzles.

This being a Wii game, a greater emphasis has been placed on developing the mini-games. In all there are 50 of them, and although we didn't have enough time to sample even half, the ones we did play we enjoyed.

Of these, the first-person shooter mode, Monkey Wars, was pretty nifty - up to four players can go head-to-head in three different multi-levelled arenas. The AI was merciless, and the aiming felt pretty precise. Picking up banana rockets, a controlling a tank or UFO, or simply sniping another player from a distance felt natural; we were impressed by the amount of care that has clearly gone into making a mini-game like this feel fully-fledged.

Others were a little more unusual - using the wiimote and well-placed taps of the A button to bounce a paper sumo-wrestler around a ring in an attempt to knock your competitor out, for instance. Other games ask you to whack moles in holes or jump rope. These kinds of mini-games will keep you distracted for a long time, and the sheer number of games, not event counting the main stages, is hugely impressive and a good indicator of the variety of gameplay the Wii is capable of. We're keen to play more, come launch day.

Sure, it's a children's game. Sure, it's a license. Sure, it probably won't be taking home any BAFTAs or setting the world on fire with groundbreaking game design. But for all the cards stacked against Australian developer, Blue Tongue, and their movie spin-off, Barnyard, the game still managed to make us smile. Heck, it was actually pretty good.

Picture, if you can, a sandbox adventure game - ala a certain carjacking-mobster simulator - minus all the violence and questionable themes. You play a bipedal cow, secretly living the high life on a farm, under the nose of the human farm owner. Shenanigans ensue.

The game is essentially a wiimote-adapted version of the GameCube build of the game - but don't write it off. The developer has rightly tuned the gameplay into the wiimote's unique abilities and creates some very specific changes to the flow of the game. Played with the wiimote and nunchuck attachment, controlling the main character is done with the control stick. Jerking the nunchuck upwards makes him jump. The camera can be spun quite intuitively by moving the on-screen cursor to the edges of the frame.

More complex movements, such as picking up objects or breaking crates can be done with a combination of the A button on the wiimote and a shake of the nunchuck. It's all done nicely, with each movement very discernable and intuitive. Rarely did we try to perform one movement and accidentally pull off another.

Sure, the male cow has udders. But of course, he's also standing on his hind legs and shaking his rump.

Later in the game, you gain the ability to spray baddies with a dose of udder-propelled milk. We'll look past the fact that the male cows have udders and spray milk, THQ. Just don't come crying to us when little Billy fails preschool because he can't tell the difference between male and female cows.

Aiming is handled with the Wiimote's reticule and, although there is a little lag, it performs nicely. Our one minor gripe is that you can only fire in short bursts - which makes it tricky to hit a moving target. We'd love to be able to unleash a longer spray, instead of continually adjusting our perspective in order to nail the shot.

Barnyard's graphics ape the film's CG nicely. The animation is excellent and the voice-acting, provided by the actual actors themselves, is generally spot-on. Really, for a film adaptation that's been turned into a free-roaming adventure game, we're casually impressed. For the under 10s who own a Wii, you could do a lot worse.

As is the call of the hour, a host of mini-games have been crammed under the hood. These are all wiimote-specific, and pleasingly, are really good, harmless fun. Dart throwing, chicken-launching and squirt-the-vegetable-thief modes are all excellent fun. As in the main game, you can get behind the wheel and control an old pick-up truck for a bit of street racing, too. We were quite impressed with the nifty interpretation of pool and snooker too - a five-sided table built into a small dinghy makes for an interesting change-up of an otherwise straight-forward game. Plus, using the wiimote as a pool cue actually works nicely.

All up, it's shaping up to be a fully-featured game for the 'tweens and the young-at-heart. Sure, your mates might rib you for not picking up something a little more mature-themed, but then, they'll miss out on all the fun. Besides, can you think of another game that allows you to walk around as a bipedal cow, go to a bar and order a milkshake, before riding a bike across the North forty? We didn't think so.

Sonic and the Secret Rings - 2007

With a title more akin to a Harry Potter novel, we weren't quite sure what to expect when we picked up the wiimote to give Sonic and the Secret Rings a whirl. On offer were two levels from an early build of the game, and we were mildly impressed at this early stage of development.

If you've played any of the more recent 'traditional' entries in the Sonic franchise, you'll recall that there have been some significant control and content issues. Shadow the Hedgehog had a blaster and a penchant for violence over extreme speed and good controls. The Xbox 360's Sonic the Hedgehog - a spiritual return-to-roots for the game, still suffered from loose and unresponsive controls and a wonky auto-attack system.

However, Sega have wisely adjusted their stance on the series for their Wii entry. The controls have been suitably simplified to take advantage of the Wii's unique motion-sensing technology. No longer is running a case of pushing a stick forward. Instead, Sonic automatically sprints on his merry blue way, and you can steer him left and right by tilting the controller (held horizontally, handlebars-style) in the appropriate direction. You can slow him down to the point of reversing by tilting the wiimote backwards (towards the player).

This is Sonic-on-rails; a game that, while not removing all of your freedom, definitely focuses on your reflexes rather than puzzles and hardcore platforming. It's a deliberate and interesting design choice - to remove the need to propel Sonic forwards frees up your hands (and brain) to focus on timing jumps, linking attacks and activating speed boosts.

As we are finding with a lot of Wii games, there is a definite learning curve at work behind-the-scenes. Learning to master the analogue movement of the wiimote when steering and using different motions to activate Sonic's inherent abilities takes a little while to get used to. But once you do, the gameplay mechanics really do become second nature.

Occasionally breaking up the speed of the Sand Oasis is a little bit of careful shimmying.

The Wiimote's '2' button is really the only button you'll use (obviously, subject to change if Sega so decide). Holding the button down prepares Sonic for a jump. He'll enter into a slide movement and will leap into the air when you let the button go. The longer you hold it down, the higher you'll leap, but at the cost of speed. In fact, holding the button down for more than three seconds will bring the blue blur to a standstill - this is a bit of a strange call, since running and jumping kind of go together in the rolling hills of Sonic's lands. In practical terms, this means you need to pre-empt any jumping you need to do well in advance. This makes knowing the course layouts essential.

Like we mentioned, we ran through the two courses on offer - Sand Oasis and Dinosaur Jungle. Both gave a good taste of the gameplay to be expected. Throughout the levels are the usual lines of rings, some enemies to dash into, loops and corkscrews, pot-shaped launch pads and obstacles to avoid. However, there is also a new addition to the gameplay mix in the form of orbs of energy that can be collected like rings, stored until your indicator bar on the right of the screen is full, and with a forward thrust of the wiimote, you can go into a blisteringly fast speed dash for a few moments.

Though not mentioned in the basic control instructions, we worked out that, in order to attack an enemy, you need to jump with 2 and thrust the remote forward. This propels sonic into an airborne glide towards oncoming enemies, who he will then dispatch on contact. If you time it correctly, this can be chained to another jump and attack. It works well in practice, and we didn't suffer from being launched over edges or into inanimate objects like in past entries.

Graphically, even at this early stage, the game is looking very pretty. The textures look relatively sharp, with some excellent water and lighting effects and a solid framerate and sense of speed.

Other aspects remain shrouded in mystery - where is Sonic's spin dash? Will there be a multiplayer or cooperative mode? Will the lack of more direct control over Sonic eventually hamper or inadvertently overcomplicate the latter levels? With many months still to go before release, we're as eager as you are to find out more.