Just finished Twilight Princess, here's my review. This is a game I will be playing alot more of over the years.

My final time was around 75 hours. I wish it would have been 75 more hours....This is so much of a more realized 'Ocarina' type world. I enjoyed every minute of this game, at no point did I find myself thinking 'man this isn't fun'.

If you haven't got this yet - do so.

I have had my Wii for just over a week now and here are my full impressions:

Funding - I saved up enough money that I was able to buy a Wii, points card and Twilight Princess launch day. I also had enough money left over that I bought a new 27" Sony Wega TV the next day.

I went to a Best Buy close to where I work at around 10:30p the 18th and waited all night in line - I asked an employee leaving when I got there if there were enough units for those in line, he said they had 110 units. Cool I thought - I almost decided to go home, because there were only 20 or so in line, but I hopped in line and opened my chair to start the long process of freezing my nads off. I was #24....and when it turned 8am - the line reached around 3 sides of the building, must have been over 200 people there, good thing I had my gold ticket for my order.  Anyway I got my Wii and there was peace in the universe. Now to the topic of this post.

Out of the box, Wii Sports is one of the most fun collections of games I've played in years. Tennis, Golf and now Bowling are my favorite to play. The remote responds so nice - I was suprised how nice it felt and responded. Setup for the system was quick and easy - allow access to my wireless network and we're online! VC titles.

I downloaded Sim City for SNES, this is my favorite sim game ever...it's the only sim game besides Sim City 2000 on the GBA that I even play...this one is the best IMO. I was suprised to see this title for download - I'd thought it would have been a bit more obscure and there would have been a bunch of others available first, it plays true to the roots of the SNES. The emulation runs flawless, it's just like playing the SNES, other than the fact I'm using a Wavebird to control it, but a game like this the controller being like the SNES isn't a requiremement.

I've also downloaded Sonic the Hedgehog, it's also great to play, a nice touch with VC is the ability to leave the game and come back to where you left off. A good option for a game like this that does not feature save.

Wii games: I've only got Twilight Princess and that's still a cube game with Wii controls mapped to it, but it plays really good. There is something about using the remote and nunchuck that after a few minutes - it feels so right. It makes a regular control pad really feel outdated. So far everything in TP control wise feels spot on, a small learning curve for the controls and I mean small. I'd say 30 minutes if that to start out - boss battles take a minute more to get used to, for me anyway. It becomes second nature after a bit.

Miis' - These are fun to create. A couple of you sent me a Mii or two. It's fun to see them show up at Wii Sports events, in bowling they sit behind and 'talk' with the other Miis' It's also fun to create a Mii that looks like you or a family member.

Photo Channel: This I was doubtful of at first, after loading a card with photos and some MP3 files - I can see this a ssomething going on the background while friends are over having a few drinks..a nice touch.

Overall I am really happy with my Wii, I say get one if you've even thought about one.

10 out of 10. This is the best Nintendo system ever IMO, and I remember the day the NES came home. (Like that really has any bearing on your thoughts of it :lol: )

November 19th......not far off now. A 2.5 year wait for Twilight Princess ends with a new console. Zelda was my first experience with a video game that really drew me in....that was almost 20 years ago, and here we sit at the dawn of the greatest Zelda title ever, not my words mind you - but the words of Miyamoto. So I have really high expectations of this game, I expect it to surpass Ocarina of Time in all ways possible and take it's place as the greatest game ever created. That's not asking much, right?

I don't think Twilight Princess will bring home a 10 on IGN or Gamespot...everyone is too jaded now. Sure it will get great reviews...but there will be those little comments like 'Well, it worked pretty good, but I wasn't able to aim AND run at the same time while stirring a cup of tea" and  "The Wii-remote is very responsive, yet there was difficulty when aiming at small objects a far distance away from me" :| It's this attitude that will result in a sub-10 rating. I'm not going to get off on a rant about how reviews are performed nowadays...that's another post - maybe after the reviews of TP comes out and I myself have played for a good bit - I'll write a blog comparing the two experiences.

Wii. This will be the first Nintendo home console I will purchase at launch. I have owned the previous 4, but have never got one during the launch period. I have been at launch for GBA, GBA-SP, DS and Micro and have bought each of those during launch, DS was launch day.

I started saving up July 2005 for the Wii simply because I decided I was getting one at launch and did not want to have to deal with 'Do I have enough money?' item. So for over a year I've been putting money away here and there into a sealed container - I have no idea how much there is in it now - but I can tell you this, when I put any change into it - it doesn't hit the bottom, a nice cushion of paper holds it. It's also harder to put money in it, literally I have to stuff 20's into it....this is a Cool Whip container :lol: So I will post back on the final amount when I crack it open, I will add cash one last time before launch. My hope would be that I have enough money for the Wii, Twilight Princess, Classic Controller and Points card (5000 should be good to start) and MAYBE either another Wiimote only or a 1G SD card....that's asking for alot when I have no idea how much I'll have to spend until a week before! For sure I'm getting Wii and TP.

And then what? Well, I'm taking a week off from work the week AFTER launch week to play Zelda. I wanted that extra week just in case I couldn't get a Wii on launch day :lol: Then I'm really waiting for only a few more big titles (MP3, RE Wii, for DS: PH, FF3)...I may get Red Steel but will wait on it for a while. Then I don't know what - it's been a long time since E3 2004 when we first heard about this gaming revolution coming, and it seems like forever since we first saw the Twilight Princess trailer, and now we have less than a month to go until it's in our hands and on our televisions.

You might not be seeing me around that much after the Wii launches. Just a heads up.

I would like you stop by a union and check it out - The Evolution of Nintendo Union is 700+ members, it's all about *drum roll please* Nintendo. Stop by and have a peak and then become a part of the best Nintendo union on Gamespot.

Evolution of Nintendo

Keeping this simple and to the point. Reply to this blog if you add me and I will add your numbers....check back as new WiFi games come available.

STAR FOX: COMMAND - 508 007 804 584

METROID PRIME: HUNTERS - 4853 9885 9170

I have been working on my first CD 'Dawn of Orion' since last october, and I'm getting ready to wrap it up and finish it off. I have learned alot about recording on the PC the past several months and can appreciate the work that goes into a disk. Just making the songs gel together is a task to do. I'm fairly proud of my work, and being that I created everything and did everything makes me happy.

The only item missing is vocals - the original singer for wickerman has been 'working' on lyrics since last December and my faith is really shaken. Sucks cos he's got a great voice, but I've done everything I can to make it a painless process for him and think it's getting close to just give him the axe from the band. Which would make Wickerman a one man band, I have always been the core of the band and have always written all the music, starting with a demo and fully fleshing out the band with others. So it looks like I will be having to sing (oh snap!). But I am ready to complete the project and move on to the next...THE EIGHTH DAY is the current working title, yeah - I like moody dark crunchy stuff as the titles indicate.

So I chug forward. If you like heavy rock/metal and wanna hear what this GameSpot member has been up to in-between games - check out some of the very near final songs (less vocals) at www.motagator.net/wickerman , the full CD will be available by the end of August, now if you'll excuse me...I gotta go learn how to sing :shock:

Just got back from a local Toronto EB Games, where I picked up Brain Age (which I didn't know was out already!) and......demoed the DS Download station they have. Very cool indeed.

Version 1 has quite a few titles to sample from. At first I got Brain Age - then a clerk asked me if I got it and what did I get, I told him and he said it was out and very fun. So I powered off and grabbed a copy and proceeded to download 'True Swing Golf'.

This is a fun golf game - from the demo I don't see why it got such low scores here at this site. Very nice play controls, almost all stylus. Nice graphics too. This might be a title that I buy from my demo time with it.

So I have this game until I power off....and while I want to play it for a couple days...man I wanna crack open Brain Age and start seeing how dumb I am!

My wife got Meteos demo on her DS while we were there too. The downloads are fairly quick and impressive with the amount of data you get. I played 9 holes on a few courses with True Swing.

I recommend finding a download station around you and giving it a go.....I bet verion 2 will contain a Phantom Hourglass demo......sweet.

OK - I'm off for a game of golf, hopefully you'll be off sometime soon to download the demo yourself!

First blog in a LONG TIME, I deleted all the old crap. Let's start anew....mmmk?

Have been very busy recording a cd of original tunes called 'Dawn of Orion'/ It's coming along - if you like metal - check out some of the songs posted online. The homepage is www.wickerman.ca the songs aren't finished yet and still have to yet to be put through the final mix stages - but you get the idea. Waiting for vocals right now.....hopefully those will start seeping back up from the south sometime soon.

Gaming related....Metroid Prime Hunters is great. The single player mode is really good - I was concerned it would suck when it was announced. I'm slowly adding friends to the list, most usually a friend match ends with me being the loser, but I don't care - as long as it's fun I could care less about the record...but it does need to improve.

Psyched about the Zelda for DS...didn't see that one coming! I figured 2008 would give us a Zelda.

E3 2006 is just around the corner - I can't wait to see what it brings.