Category: Video Game Musings

Recently in a video, I gave slight praise to the Xbox 360 controller that I bought for Windows… maybe I spoke too soon, because last night, when I plugged in the receiver to test out a game I haven’t played in a long time, it wouldn’t work. My PC doesn’t recognize it or anything… and I’ve tried several USB ports to no success. Maybe it’s the hardware… will have to try some other PC.

(October 2013 Update: Works with the new PC I picked up in July and rather well. The trade off is that the wireless keyboard and mouse combination likes to spazz out once in a blue moon… oh well.)

From Gamespy back in 2003 is a list of 25 dumb decisions and events that took place in video game history up to that point, along with five reader-submitted honorable mentions. The actual site no longer has the article, but I was able to pull out through that Wayback Machine thing. Link’s below. Check it out. It’s quite an interesting read.

Downloaded the new version of SFxMM last night after many attempts to get the damn site to show the proper download link.

This one runs a bit better than the first version, although music and sound still breaks up on occasion. I can, at the very least, play the game remotely properly with my wireless 360 controller.

Initial thoughts? Not a badly made game. Quite a nice challenge. The idea isn’t that bad…

Maybe up for review? Who knows?

Actually downloaded the Mega Man X Street Fighter game from the Capcom site…

Runs slow as shit on my system…

Rather depressing because it looked fun…

Digital Foundry did a pretty comprehensive review of the recent Canada-exclusive Wii Mini console release and can be read here for anyone interested. After reading this review, it pretty much confirmed my original thought process on the console; stripped down to the bare minimum and not worth the money for a budget gaming system, especially since for an additional fifty bucks you can get an original Wii model with pack-in game.

So another set of details has surfaced regarding the upcoming Wii Mini that’s up for sale in Canada and another bit of information has come up that might kill some potential sales. As if the lack of Gamecube support and Internet access might be rage-inducing to some people, it’s also been revealed that the Wii Mini lacks an SD card slot. So, in other words, if you’re looking to back-up your save data or carry over your save data from another Wii console over to the Mini, you’re out of luck.

This is disheartening to hear. While I’m not going to be shedding any tears over the lack of Gamecube and Internet access (meaning no WiiWare and Virtual Console), I would’ve thought they kept the SD slot for the sake of backing up saves or that sort of thing. I know some saves couldn’t be transferred, but I figured they would work around that at the very least. Considering that there is NO SD slot to be found on the system, my thoughts on whether this would be a worthwhile purchase – even as a budget system – seems to be waning even further towards the negative.

Mind you, I had no real intention of picking up a Wii Mini, especially since my 2008 Wii model – the one with Gamecube support, Internet access, and an SD card slot – is still working fine and might be subjected to a good softmodding if I can find a safe means of doing so… but there was the thought of picking this up as a novelty item. And if I could transfer my saves from Big Wii to Mini Wii, then at the very least, I’d have a back-up Wii. But the lack of a very common component in the SD card slot means that Nintendo will most certainly not be getting my money when it comes to this venture.

Really, I’m still not seeing the value of this thing as anything other than something for the collectors to buy and preserve for the eventual boost in resale value in five to ten years. I mean, if you were really looking for a decent budget system, there are dozens and dozens of better alternatives. I recommend picking up a Super Nintendo instead.

A local trip to the local flea market yielded interesting observations. Aside from a couple quick pick-ups for myself, I noticed one of the vendors had a working Vectrex console on sale for three-hundred bucks. Unfortunately, it’s out of my price range and probably not a worthwhile investment at this point, but man, talk about bad luck. I’d love to get my hands on one of those babies… oh well.

(2024 Update: Oh, 2012 Dave. Just wait another decade and your dream will come true.)

For anyone who may or may not know, Nintendo recently announced the release (in Canada only at the moment) of the Wii-Mini Console, essentially a budget version of their original Wii console which costs about a hundred bucks, lacks Gamecube support, lacks Internet access, and looks to be a top-loading game console.

Honestly? This isn’t something I’d be interested; I’m perfectly content with my 2008 Wii that has Internet access (that I use for WiiWare and Virtual Console) and Gamecube support (that I never use), but I could certainly see this as a nice little budget alternative for those wanting to get into gaming. Of course, the fact that there are no more Wii games coming out means that it’s basically a system dead on arrival, considering the mass majority of Wii games are… let’s just say, anything but memorable. There’re some gems, some decent titles, but a mass lot of games that isn’t worth the time and money.

Then again, you could probably say that about any gaming console.