Wii Fit turns out to be more like a real exercise program than most people expected. Everyone starts off with great intentions but only a select few succeed at really turning over a new leaf. It's actually kinda sad. Wii Fit is a great game/program and the Balance Board is really nothing short of brilliant, yet there they sit, next to those little white consoles that could, just collecting dust.

It's actually not that strange or surprising when you really think about. It's not news to any one that the Wii attracts casual gamers and by the very definition, casual gamers take their game time rather "casually". In order for any exercise program to really work it takes commitment, a lot of commitment. Commitment to work-out when you don't want to, eat right when you are craving some sinful pleasure, and commitment to keep at it even when you face set backs.
Wii Fit has already been a success in terms of copies sold and it would have helped sell more Wiis if there were any Wiis anywhere to sell. But Wii Fit is not going to succeed as a weight loss program, at least not for the majority of casual gamers that managed to pick up a copy. It's not that it couldn't succeed, I'm completely convinced that Wii Fit could help me get in better shape, it is just that buying a novel exercise device, or program, does not provide the kind of motivation that it takes to get people to truly commit.

The Balance Board itself is a completely different story. It works and it is fun to use. If developers stick to their decisions to release more Balance Board compatible games and continue to come out with creative ways to incorporate the technology it is going to succeed. Of course Balance Board success means Wii Fit success and vice versa because Nintendo has already promised not to sell the Board separate from the game.

It's a win - win - win situation.
Casual gamers pick-up Wii Fit to experiment with casual exercise, even though they are not likely to continue long enough to really see any lasting benefit; the massive number of Balance Boards out there draws more developers to find ways to use them; and new Balance Board compatible games are going get picked up simply because gamers don't like to see the boards just sitting there not being used.

So is it Balance Board boredom that we face?
No, just casual gamers living up to their reputations and there's absolutely nothing wrong with being a casual gamer as long as you don't actually begin to think that a "casual" attitude will help you lose weight.

So it must be Wii Fit failure right?
Well, maybe and maybe not. Wii Fit's success as a product is already written in stone but as a weight loss program it will only succeed for people who commit to making it work.

As Promised

metascore: 85
Plasma Safe Verdict:
Green Alert

I am a man of my word and I'm not the kind of person that can't admit it when I'm wrong. So, as promised I sat down and gave BlastWorks another chance. As some of you will remember my first review of this game was, lets say, less than shining. If you want details about my original review of the game it can be found here:

BlastWorks: Tired, Bored, Annoyed

So here is what I figured out since last time.
I still don't like this game. Sorry, I really tried to like it, honest I did. I hunted this game down for days until I finally got a copy and I was really excited about it but I just can't get into it. Apparently, some of you were right when you said that reviewers need to be fair even if they don't like the genre of the game. My problem was that until I played this game I thought I liked the shoot-em up genre. I guess not.

But For Those That Like Shoot-em Ups

Despite my poor first impressions of this game I have to admit that BlastWorks is a good game. The strategy required to succeed involves learning how to dodge enemy fire as well as knowing when to hide your ships add-ons so they don't get knocked off. It is also important to try and catch the fallen enemies the right way so they both protect your ship and shoot in the desired direction, which is usually forward.

BlastWorks: Build, Trade, Destroy lives up to it's sub-title very well. You get to build your own levels in virtually limitless ways and you can even create your own ships. The editor is really outstanding. You can trade your creations with other users and even download new official content for the game (although no official content was available when I checked last). The destroy part is a given in shoot-em ups and Blastworks gives you plenty of opportunity to do so. Tons of enemies will come at you and you will get the pleasure of blowing them out of the sky.

For what it is worth I have upgraded this game to a Plasma Safe Verdict of Green Alert. Having had played it longer now I can say with confidence that it should be completely safe for your Plasma screen as long as you don't leave the editor on your screen for days on end or anything like that.

RATING: 7.5/10 - the editor and downloadable content options are still sweet and the strategy required to succeed is both challenging and interesting.



PS. My copy is still going back to my local game store. Sorry, it's just not my thing.

Toki Torific

metascore: 77
Plasma Safe Verdict:
Green Alert

This puzzle adventure game is actually one of the best WiiWare titles so far. Your job is simple, or is it, help Toki Tori collect all his eggs in level after level of puzzling fun. You unlock a variety of items to help Toki Tori including Bridge Building, Teleporting, and a Freeze Gun, just to name a few.

The levels get more and more challenging as you progress throughout the game, requiring you to find the best ways to use your often very limited number of items. If you get too badly stuck on a level you can use your WildCard to let you go on to the next level. Be careful though because you only get one WildCard and you can't get it back unless you go back and solve the level that had you stumped.

This is a great little game that looks good and makes good use of the Wii-mote and Nunchuk. If you like puzzle games and want to get your hands on one that is very well put together for a great price Toki Tori is your bird.

RATING: 8.5/10

Bored, Tired, Annoyed

metascore: 85
Plasma Safe Verdict:
Yellow Alert

The feeling of being let down by high expectations going unfulfilled is one that gamers everywhere experience from time to time. Playing BlastWorks has been one of those times for me. This side-scrolling shooter has a novel approach to it. As you fly through the levels any enemies you kill can be added to your ship (or airplane) simply by flying into the fallen foe. Once enemies are joined to your ship they act as shields and other killed enemies can now "stick" to them as well. What's interesting about this is that the ships that stick to you will now continue to fire their weapons for you in the direction they were facing when you caught them.

Sounds interesting, right?
Please, I played this game for all of 5 minutes before boredom began to set in. It's not that the game fails to preform the way it should but that it just isn't fun to play at all. Pinning down the b-button and flying up and down the screen avoiding enemy fire while your ship turns into an absolute abomination sounds like a good time I know, but it just isn't. Pieces stick to you and fall off, over and over again. There is no sense of strategy or accomplishment in the game because everything seems so random. And to make matters worse, if you succeed at clearing a level there is no save feature so you get to do it all over again once you lose all your lives.

The game has one redeeming factor and that is the editor and downloadable content. You have access to a virtually limitless editor in the game that lets you create your own ships and levels. Your creations can be uploaded through your Internet connection and you can download other peoples content. This is all fine a good. In fact, it's actually really cool and well designed. But why anyone would spend hours creating levels and ships for this game is beyond me. I mean if you always wanted to create a side-scrolling shooter BlastWorks will suit you fine, that is unless you actually wanted people to play your creations. The editor and download functions of this game require a fairly large save file (at least in Wii standards) and with storage space being the valuable commodity that it is on the Wii this just not does not seem worth it.

I don't even want to talk about this game anymore. The whole experience has left me Bored, Tired, and Annoyed. My copy is on the way to the trade-in counter at my local game store.

RATING: 5/10 - the editor and downloadable content options are sweet but everything else is sour.

Is Playing Video Games on a Plasma TV Worth the Risk?
The risk of getting struck by lightening are pretty low but it can happen. You don't live your whole life worrying about it but you are still smart enough to take precautions against it or at the very least intelligent people avoid high risk situations. You don't go out and carry metal poles around in thunder storms because you know that greatly increases your risk of getting hit.

The fact is, if you have a Plasma TV and like to play video games the risk of burn-in still exists. It's not easy to get a permanent image burned into your set and it's probably not likely to ever happen to you. But the risk exists and you need to know about it so you can avoid it.

Fear mongering?
No, I don't want people to stop playing video games on their Plasma TVs. I just want them to have the best experience with their systems and TV sets as possible. Nothing could ruin your day faster than to spend time trying to conquer your favourite game only to realize that it conquered you or more accurately your TV in the process.

What is Burn-in?
So here's the deal in the simplest terms I can think of. Plasma TV's burn out sort of like giant long-life light bulbs that get dimmer and dimmer over time. Eventually they will burn-out. It doesn't happen very fast and it doesn't happen all at once. When you play video games on a plasma TV those stationary on-screen items like power bars, timers, meters, and gauges sit in one place for so long that the pixels in those areas get "worn-out" faster than the others on the screen. This process of wearing-out certain pixels faster than others is called burn-in.

Burn-in or Ghosting
If you have been playing a game for a few hours afterwards you may notice a faint image in your screen where the health bar used to be. You need to take a few deep breathes and just try not to panic. It's probably not burn-in. What you have is called Ghosting. Ghosting is actually the very very very early stages of actual burn-in. Ghosting does not take long to get and it will go away shortly after you start watching something different on your screen. It's really just a harmless annoyance. Ignore it and it will go away.

In order to get an image to burn-in to your plasma permanently you would need to leave the image on the screen for many many hours, maybe even days. If you have an older Plasma TV say one that was made 3 or 4 years ago the risk of burn-in is somewhat higher.

How to Avoid Burn-in
Here are some real easy tips to help you avoid burn-in:
1. Change games: Playing different games in one sitting will cause different pixels to share the work. That way no one area is overexposed
2. Turn on the anti burn-in features on your TV and game system
3. Turning down the contrast on your TV can help reduce the risk
4. Try to avoid games that won't let you play in full screen. Playing games in letter-box format can cause burn-in to happen faster than normal.

So Should I Play Video Games on My Plasma or Not?
YES! Of course you should. I do and I plan to continue to do so for many years to come.

If you're reading this you have probably already invested in a beautiful Plasma TV or you are about to. It would be silly to let something like the risk of burn-in stop you from buying a Plasma TV and it would be even sillier to let that risk stop you from playing games on it. You just have to be aware of the risk and learn how to avoid it. The risk of having a car accident is pretty low but still very real, yet you still drive wherever you need to go and it works out ok 99.999% of the time. Play away and play hard. Just play smart while your at it and everyone including your Plasma TV will turn out ok in the end.

Is It Really Great for Your Body? More Importantly Is It Safe for Your Plasma TV?

metascore: 79
Plasma Safe Verdict:
Yellow Alert

Sometimes things in life seem so close to ideal that it's almost scary. Wii Fit carries those ideal promises with it everywhere it goes: Lose weight playing a video game. Get in shape without leaving the house. Lose all the weight you want for one easy payment. Gym membership benefits without the gym membership price or embarrassment.

By now most people have figured out that if it seems too good to be true than it probably is. Wii Fit is a great Wii add-on / game and the Balance Board holds wonderful possibilities. But we know it's not going to make us all thin and sexy. In fact, most balance boards won't get through their first set of batteries before a layer of dust covers them.

Can Wii Fit help you get the body of your dreams?
Sure it can! Well, it certainly won't make the one you already have any worse. The software is good and the Balance Board is excellent. But, like all things exercise related it will take time and commitment. Oh, and a healthy diet goes a long way as well.

But more importantly is Wii Fit safe for your Plasma TV?
The best answer I can give you is "YES, almost."
Wii Fit would have received a Green Alert rating here on Wii Plasma, which basically means we believe it's totally safe, except danger lurks deep in one area of the game. Wii Fit contains many mini-game like exercises for you to enjoy and almost all of them are Plasma friendly because they either don't last long or they don't have any stationary on-screen items that could cause burn-in. All expect for the Free Run. Once you have jogged your way around the island a few times you open up the Free Run which lets you run for extended periods of time. This is great if you like to jog in place but the on-screen timer and step counter stay still the whole time your jogging.

Now, I know a 30 minute Wii Fit jog really is not long enough to cause permanent damage to your plasma screen but it is long enough to leave a ghost impression and leaving a ghost impression is cause for a Yellow Alert here at Wii Plasma.

Thankfully the solution to this problem is actually a part of the Free Run concept itself. When you start a Free Run the game tells you that you can change the channel on your TV and the sounds needed to keep you on track and in-step will come from your Wii-mote. If you change the channel the risk for burn-in or ghosting is gone and it makes the time go by faster as you burn off those unsightly hours of stationary gaming from the day before.

You can almost hear those folks over at Nintendo Headquarters whispering to each other nervously,

"If we all act like there is no problem, maybe it will just go away."

The truth is we all knew it was asking a little too much to expect Wii Menu 3.3 to fix the storage issues with our beloved Wii consoles, but it would have been nice. Instead, the big N in all their wisdom decided to mask their latest slap to the homebrew community under the transparent veil of "Mii Transporting?".

So sad to see that Nintendo places a much higher value on solving their own personal problems over the very real problem that hundreds of thousands of Wii gamers face everyday. We all know how Nintendo feels about video game piracy and having their systems hacked. But come on, lets face facts, the hand-full of Wii Homebrew Channel users out there pales by far to the number of Wii owners who can no longer pay for and download new VC and WiiWare games.

I'm the first to admit that I'm certainly no financial genius but it doesn't make sense to me for Nintendo to continue to ignore the fact that so many customers, who are desperate to send their gaming dollars on the Shop Channel, can't because of storage restraints. It's not the ultimate solution that we all really want (a.k.a. a hard drive) but at the very least a firmware update that allows games to be played from the SD card would have shown us that Nintendo cares about our problem.

The hopes of a hard drive from Nintendo seem all but dashed completely with the latest news from Nintendo's Laurent Fischer (click here) and we now know that Wii Menu 3.3 won't fix the storage problem. So let's corporately continue to hold our breathe hoping that Nintendo will remember us, their bread and butter, at E3 this July. "Come on, give us a little something. USB storage anyone?"

So, if you own a beautiful Plasma TV and a Nintendo Wii there are two things you need to be aware of:

Number 1: Throwing Wii-motes at any flat-screen tv will not result in a pleasant moment for you or your television.

Number 2: and much more importantly, is the very real risk of plasma burn in.

Plasma televisions have a layer of a phosphor material built into the screen. It is this phosphor that reacts to an electrical current to produce an image on the screen. The thing with phosphor is that it actually gets "used up" very slowly over the life of the tv. Don't worry! A new Plasma TV has a life expectancy of about 50,000 hours. That's nearly six years of continous non-stop viewing (that is of course if you remember to keep your Wii-mote strap good and tight.

When viewing "normal" programing on your tv the random images causes the phosphor to get used up evenly through the life of the set. Burn in happens when the phosphor worn out more in some areas of the screen than everywhere else. This can really only happen if an image or some part of an image remains static on the screen for too long. This is where video gamers like us can have a problem. Lots of games have meters, gauges, and score indicators that don't move. If these games are played for extended times these on screen items can leave behind faint but visible impressions of themselves that may never go away.

Status: Fake for now but hopefully it will be the real thing before too long. Hopefully there will be a nice juicey annoucement at this years E3


http://www.nidzumi.com/how-a-wii-hard-drive-should-work

Plasma Safe Verdict
Green Alert

Status: Fake --- I hope.

http://www.slashgear.com/wii-power-glove-092860.php

Ok I know this game does not exactly have stellar graphics but I picked it up yesteray and I like it a lot.
Metacritic scores it at 80 which is quite respectable.
oh, and I got mine for under $5 at EB Games.
Why has this game not got on?

metascore: 78
Plasma Safe Verdict:
Yellow Alert

After having played this game for more than a few hours I am beginning to realize that my original verdict of a green alert may have been premature. There is a risk with this game that the on-screen point meter may burn in to your plasma tv. It is possible that this game may get moved to Red Alert status.

metascore: 97
Plasma Safe Verdict:
Green Alert

Elebits

metascore: 75
Plasma Safe Verdict:

Green Alert

Plasma Safe Verdict:

Green Alert

Super Swing Golf or Super Goof?

metascore: 72
Plasma Safe Verdict:
Red Alert

Can I just say right up front how disappointed I was when I first realized that Super Swing Golf and my Plasma screen were not feeling the love.

I honestly enjoy this game very much but my Plasma wins out over this one. In fact, the risk of burn-in was so high with this game that I traded it in at my local games shop simply to save my screen.

I was a big fan of Pangya on the PC and I am very pleased with the Wii version. The game is well made and very fun to play. This would definitely be in my game library today if it were not for the burn-in.

Please Note: I have yet to play Super Swing Golf: Season Two so I can't be sure if this applies to both editions of the game.


So what was the problem?

The problem with Super Swing Golf was the two meters on the bottom left and right corners of the screen. Although very necessary for the game itself they are definitely not wanted as permanent images on my 42" screen.

After even as little as 30 minutes of game play these two circles were dangerously visible on my plasma screen. Thankfully they didn't stay forever but the risk is certainly there.



Final Word: If you have a Plasma TV don't get Super Swing Golf, er unless you don't care about your TV. If you don't have a Plasma TV than I would recommend this game to anyone who likes golf games.

Plasma Vedict: Green Alert

One of the saddest things about owning a really nice plasma TV and a Nintendo Wii is that some games are not Plasma friendly.

Yes and No.

Wii Sports
Plasma Safe Verdict: Mostly Safe

Super Swing Golf or Super Goof?
Plasma Safe Verdict: Not Cool at All

Can I just say right up front how disappointed I was when I first realized