Educational Games For The Nintendo Wii
Although most of the games available for the Nintendo Wii would not strictly be considered “educational”, there are a few that meet that definition.
Zack & Wiki: Quest for Barbaros’ Treasure
Zack & Wiki: Quest for Barbaros’ Treasure is one such game. Zack is a boy with a dream of becoming the greatest pirate in the world. To reach his goal, he must solve 24 puzzles. In each one, Zack must manipulate the environment in some way to finish that portion of his Quest. He is helped by his sidekick Wiki.
Zack and Wiki employ problem-solving skills in order to meet their objective.
Arcamedic Builders
The developer Arcamedic Builders sells many Wii games which focus on math and word skills. In Grand Prix Multiplication, the performance of the player’s cars depends on answering math problems correctly. With Word Frog, the player must choose antonyms, synonyms, or homonyms for specific words
Arcamedic Builders games are online games that are optimized for play on the Wii. Over one dozen games are available.
Big Brain Academy: Wii Degree
This game is based on a Nintendo DS game with the same name. The game begins with a test, in which you are rated in 5 categories. These scores are used as a baseline for future tests. One can compete with up to seven other players.
In contrast to similar games available for home computers, Wii Degree makes extensive use of the WiiMote.
Cranium Kabookii
Cranium Kabookii is a new kind of Wii game that takes advantage of the unique features of teh Wii. The game utilizes the Wii Remote and the “Kabookii Decoder Glasses”. Cranium Kabookii creates a living canvas on the TV screen in which teams jam together, exercise drawing ability, act, solves puzzles, or even crack codes to win games.
The activities include:
* Getting players to spraypaint the entire solar system on a wall. Believe it or not, you can hear the can shaking in your hand!
* Turn the Wiimote into a hammer to play “Auld Lang Syne” on a xylophone
*Solve word puzzles
The Kabookii Decoder Glasses are an added bonus, as they let only one player at a time to individually see the hidden clues on the TV screen.
Smarty Pants
Do you enjoy trivia games? Smarty Pants is just such a game! It cleverly alters the questions to what is most appropriate for each individual player. The way it works is this: players reveal their ages (they do this when they create their Mii) and then the game only asks questions suitable for that age of player.
Smarty Pants is a good choice for ages eight and over, and is also an excellent choice for a family party game.
Regardless of your age or interests, you can find an educational game for your Nintendo Wii.
3 Big WiiWare Games Of 2009
While many third-party efforts for WiiWare have been lackluster and of little consequence, a good many this next year are looking to be surprisingly promising. Not only do these three games look good considering they are cheaply sold offerings for a game download service, but they may just give big-budget games a run for their money.
The first of this three is a game in development by the makers of De Blob, called Swords and Soldiers. Swords and Soldiers is a competitive strategy game featuring cartoony graphics, and a splitscreen multiplayer mode as well as a singleplayer campaign. As the devs have put it, it is basically a sidescrolling RTS, in which the object is to deploy your troops at just the right moments in order to outwit and defeat your foe. The reason for this is that in Swords and Soldiers, the moment your troops have been created they will automatically move toward the enemy base.
However, there are additional tactical elements. For example, certain sections of the battlefield allow you to set up a fortress and bunker down. There are also different specific paths you can make your men take, potentially opposing or confronting an army your path may cross with. Though you can use all kinds of spells and abilities to aid your troops in battle, what it really comes down to is careful timing and resource management.
The second game I’d like to point out is called Cave Story. Cave Story was originally a free-to-play title for pc. It featured an extended storyline about a race of underground rabbit-like creatures called mimigas, who an evil doctor manipulates by feeding them red herbs that transform them into monsters. The majority of the game took place underground, where you, a robot by the name of Quote, had originally been sent to exterminate the mimigas.
The storyline was deep and intriguing for an indie game, and the action utilized certain roleplaying elements, as you leveled up your weapons with every attack. Now, the developers will be upgrading the graphics and adding at least ten levels to the game. It should be interesting to see what this talented developer comes up with on a larger budget and with more possibilities to enhance the game.
Lastly, there is Muramasa: The Demon Blade, a very highly anticipated game that is being developed by the team that brought you Odin Sphere. Like Odin Sphere, it is a cartoon sidescrolling action RPG. The style is so visually awesome that many people called it one of the best looking games presented at the Tokyo Game Show conference. The watercolored look of the environments is nothing less than gorgeous.
The gameplay combines oldschool beat-em-up action with RPG gameplay as the character leaps from area to area defeating enemies; gaining experience and new weapons and abilities. Players can also stop at certain villages and speak with the townfolk, to complete quests for gold and experience. Such deep and engaging gameplay systems are usually reserved for the big-budget games on store shelves.
