Wii are back

Please forgive the break.  I started a new job and all of my focus has been there. Look forward to more posts in the coming weeks.

SSB now works on our Wii

I realized that Easter break for my Daughter is a week away. Guessing that it would take Nintendo longer than that to get a cleaned Wii back to me. I decided to try to clean it myself. I did just that and it works.

I vacumed it from the back with a small computer vacum, and took a can of air and blew it into the disk compartment. The disk now works. We were playing SSB after her homework was done.

I do intend to send it back, but now I can do it after the Easter break.

Happy Gaming.

Super Smash brothers give some Wiis a black eye.

On Sunday after breakfast and clock changing my daughter and I went to our local EB games to pick up our reserved copy of SSB.

We inserted the disk into our Wii received a popup about updating the Wii the Wii updated rebooted itself and then a message came up that the Wii could not read the disk. I thought my daughter hit a button or something as the disk was loading and made a comment to her about not pressing buttons until the game can up and then reinserted the disk. The game came up after the second disk insertion and we played for many hours.

Later that night after she went to bed I was about to do some late night gaming but I received the same “can not read disk message”. It turns out that according to Nintendo :

“Super Smash Bros. Brawl utilizes a double-layer disc which has a large memory capacity. A very small percentage of Wii consoles may have trouble consistently reading data off this large capacity disc if there is some contamination on the lens of the disc drive. Nintendo has specialized cleaning equipment that can resolve this problem. (Please do NOT attempt to clean the lens yourself, as you may damage the system.)”

Any with this problem Wii has to be sent back to Nintendo to be cleaned. Nintendo will cover all costs.

If you are having this problem you need to go to following link.

http://www.nintendo.com/consumer/repair/repair_form_us_ssbb.jsp

Well it looks like we will be dusting off and playing the old xbox over the next few weeks.

It will give me some time to catch up on reviews for games we have played.

I must give kudos to Nintendo for promptly acknowledging and addressing the problem at no cost to its customers.

Happy gaming

Disney should not be on the band wagon.

After reading this article about Disney’s new game the Ultimate Band. I think Disney not understand the appeal of Guitar hero.  In my option a major part of the appeal is the controller.  Disney needs to have a controller unique to the game in order for it to hit and stick.

Currently the game will be a 1 or 2 player game.  I my option any game that will have band in the title should accommodate at least 3 players.

The only hope Disney has to make this game a winner would be to ledverage  the High school Musical and the Hanna Montana franchise music to this game and market it as a High School Musical game for the 08 holiday season.

Spielberg is a Wii fan

Mr Spielberg is a big Wii fan. He is working on the development of a Wii Game for EA called Bloomblox.  The previews I have seen look like this game will be a solid multiplayer family game.  Follow this link to get a look at the game.

My Daughter completed Guitar Hero 3 today

My little girl completed Guitar Hero 3 on easy today.  For those familiar with the game she beat Lou on her first try.   Much better than daddy it took me about 6 attempts before I finished the game. 

She was very excited when she finished it, now on the next level with daddy. 

Good enough for the Queen of England….

The Queen is a Wii Player. Read this.

Guitar Hero 3 Cheat codes and tips

Go to “options” and then go to “cheats.” Now, cheats are entered completely differently in the third installment. You now have to strum with the frets on just like normal playing! Two or more notes in parentheses indicate a chord.
G=Green, R=Red, Y=Yellow, B=Blue, O=Orange

Code Effect
(BY) (GY) (GY) (RB) (RB) (RY) (RY) (BY) (GY) (GY) (RB) (RB) (RY) (RY) (GY) (GY) (RY) (RY) Air Guitar
(GR) (GY) (YB) (RB) (BO) (YO) (RY) (RB) Easy Expert (does not work in Career mode)
OBOYOBOY Hyperspeed
G R G Y G B G O G B G Y G R G (GR) (RY) (GR) (YB) (GR) (BO) (GR) (YB) (GR) (RY) (GR) (GY) Large Gems
(GR) B (GR) (GY) B (GY) (RY) O (RY) (GY) Y (GY) (GR) No Fail (does not work in career mode)
(RY) (RB) (RO) (RB) (RY) (GB) (RY) (RB) Performance Mode
(GR) (GR) (GR) (RY) (RY) (RB) (RB) (YB) (YO) (YO) (GR) (GR) (GR) (RY) (RY) (RB) (RB) (YB) (YO) (YO) Precision Mode
(YO) (RB) (RO) (GB) (RY) (YO) (RY) (RB) (GY) (GY) (YB) (YB) (YO) (YO) (YB) Y R (RY) R Y O Unlock all songs in Quick Play
(GRBO)(GRYB)(GRYO)(GYBO)(GRYB)(RYBO)(GRYB)(GYBO)(GRYB)(GRYO)(GRYO)(GRYB)(GRYO) Unlock Everything (no sound plays when you enter these chords)

Unlockables
Through the Fire and the Flames

To unlock TTFAF, you must beat Career mode on any difficulty. Then, when the credits role, you will play TTFAF (note: you can’t fail). From then on, TTFAF can be found in the bonus songs section.Unlockable How to Unlock
Through the Fire and the Flames Beat Career Mode on Any Difficulty

Unlockable Characters
Unlockable How to Unlock
Lou Beat his Boss battle, Buy in Shop for $15,000
Slash Beat his boss Battle, Buy in Shop for $10,000
Tom Morello Beat his Boss Battle, Buy in Shop for $10,000

Unlocking Additional Guitars

There are many guitars not in the store but are available for purchase after completing tasks.Unlockable How to Unlock
Bat Guitar Five Star every song in Career Mode on Easy
Beach Life Bass Beat Co-Op on Hard
El Jefe Guitar 5-star all songs in Expert mode.
Jolly Roger Guitar Five Star every song in Career Mode on Medium
Moon Shot Guitar Beat Career Mode on Easy
Nemesis 13 Guitar Beat Co-Op Career Mode on any difficulty
Neversoft Skateboard Guitar 5 star every song on Expert Co-Op Career
Pendulaxe Beat Co-Op Career on Expert
Radioactive Beat Co-op Career mode on Hard
Risk Assessment Guitar Complete Expert mode.
Rojimbo Guitar Beat Career Mode on Hard
Saint George Guitar Beat Career Mode on Medium
Tiki Guitar 5* every song in career on hard mode

Guitar Hero 3 A+

Guitar Hero 3 was a family gift this Christmas. This game gave our family and guests days of solid entertainment. The music line up is incredible it contains some of the greatest rock music of recorded.

I was fascinated that our daughter was really into the music. it seems her favorite song is also one of my favorites ” Bulls on Parade” by Rage Against the Machine. I love watching her get into the song with the guitar that comes with the game.

The game play is good. The community aspect of the game is what sets it apart from other games.  If your Wii is connected to the Internet you can join it to GuitarHero.com and view all of your statistics from game play the site.

We completed the game on easy in about 3 days and it was all fun.  We have started to play the game on medium and it continues to be fun.

Family Gaming Practices

There are many parents who are against video games for their children.  Typically they all have a similar litany of reasons why video games will lead to the destruction of civilization, as we know it. I am not going to point counter point listing all of the reasons. I will however discuss a few best practices that I have found enable video games to have a positive impact on family life.

Our eight-year-old daughter rarely plays the Wii alone, my wife and or I normally play with her. This has helped make the Wii a family experience. 

No new games until a game is completed. This has helped her see the importance of completing what is started.  The only exception is that she can buy games with her own money as she chooses.

During the week she is not allowed to play video games until all homework has been completed, checked, and her daily reading and music practice is complete. On the weekends it is open as to when gaming can be played. This has worked for our family.

Share your best practices and how gaming is handled in your family.