WiiWare and WordPress Update

It was a nice fall day a couple days ago. I really enjoyed this sight, in my backyard. 🙂 Quite overcast and dull, the last couple of days, though.

Games

I updated my About page with my Tetris Party friend code. (Add me!!) It’s pretty fun, but I say that as someone who has never owned a Tetris game before, so I’m not a Tetris vet… (unlike Shirley and Alex, who think the DS game is far superior, apparently). My only real complaint with the game so far is the music – they could have done AWESOME things with it. I want a hoppin 8bit remix of these classic tunes… the included midi, even the classic stuff, is pretty dry and slow. Need something with a faster pace. The computer moves at seemingly impossible speeds at levels above 12, but I suspect that some people out there can play like that, as well. Scary. (Especially the top ranked in the Americas, Java AI … hmmm…) Anyway, I can’t beat level 13 yet. And I think I still like Dr Mario for VS more… so fun. … but Tetris Party offers tonnes of modes, including 4-player vs! That’s pretty cool. Maybe I’ll become a Tetris snob, yet.

While on the topic of Wii(Ware), I also got World of Goo. It’s a really great physics based puzzle title. I really love the dark and comical graphic design (reminds me of Tim Burton’s stuff). The music in Goo is epic, as well. I can’t believe everything was made by two guys (+1 for Wii optimizations); two guys in debt! They’re my heroes. Seriously. Both Tetris Party and World of Goo are the most expensive games on WiiWare ($12 US, $15 US, respectively), but I haven’t been disappointed. And with Goo especially, I don’t have any problem supporting the little guys making great stuff. That’s where I’d like to be. 🙂

WordPress

I updated my wp-upgrade script to display a big warning to deactivate all your plugins before continuing (wouldn’t want to damage your database!). Then I used it to update to WordPress 2.6.3. I think that makes me largely up-to-date.

7 comments

  1. _I_ am the one who thinks Tetris DS is far more superior, but both Alex and I agree Tetris Party is ok/meh/wish-it-wasn’t-the-A-button/big-screen-sucks.

    >>The computer moves at seemingly impossible speeds at levels above 12
    I am sure Alex will comment on that.

    >>I want a hoppin 8bit remix of these classic tunes… the included midi, even the classic stuff, is pretty dry and slow.
    That’s what made Tetris DS far more superior, too. Tetris just doesn’t feel right without that particular style of background midi music.

    Tetris Party made me feel better about the $15 World of Goo purchase. In fact, Goo got me interested in graph/tree algorithms again.

  2. I don’t know what I am supposed to comment on here…

    Anyway, I find Tetris Party worth the cost, but the DS version is definitely better in quite a few ways. The only weakness in Tetris DS is the fact that multiplayer requires everyone to own a DS.

    I don’t remember at exactly what level the computer goes at impossible speeds, but the only level I have issues with is level 15. I think I need to play 10 games to win 1. I haven’t yet played it again with hold button configured to “B”, so maybe that’ll improve my odds. But yeah, it’s like they’re cheating. Very unfair.

    You guys are right about the music. I didn’t really notice the subpar music — but I didn’t notice much music at all, whereas in other versions of Tetris, there’s always that familiar tune…

  3. >>The only weakness in Tetris DS is the fact that multiplayer requires everyone to own a DS.
    You need to own a Wii PLUS you need to buy the game to play Tetris Party.

    I won’t say the AI is cheating or unfair, the CPU does make mistakes and he probably has mastered the left / right rotation buttons.

    I don’t think I would be able to beat level 15 with the A hold button.

  4. 1 person owns a wii and buys tetris party is a lot more likely than having 3 other friends who also own a DS, in my opinion.

    A family of 2 adults and 2 kids is also a lot more likely to have 1 wii and tetris party than 4 DSes.

  5. Definitely have to agree w/walex on this one: requiring 4 DS’s and 4 games, each of which cost more than Tetris Parrty, is bit of a steep requirement for multiplayer

    You people need to register your emails to gravatar or something. My friends are all faceless. :'(

    I”ve only played the level 13 five times… but I haven’t won yet. And after playing Alex, the computer at level 13 still moves quite a bit faster, but with less intelligence. 🙂

    @siuyee: Not sure exactly how Goo got you interested in graph/tree algorithms again….

  6. You guys are right. I was simply thinking it’s easier to ask a DS owner to get Tetris than a Wii owner to buy it off WiiWare. Obviously, the “family with two kids” scenario never crossed my mind.

    >>Not sure exactly how Goo got you interested in graph/tree algorithms again….
    It’s problems I need to solve at work. Goo inspired me to experiment with tree graph presentation, which is traditionally only used for tree objects. I can use it to represent a bunch of nodes (not from a tree, but from a state machine). Things get interesting when you add weight to the nodes, which Goo does. You can create something like a hyperbolic graph, which can display a few thousand nodes on the screen easily and still be browsable and usable.

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