This is the first year that 2K Sports will be offering the NBA 2K franchise on the Nintendo Wii. Originally scheduled to release on 6th alongside the other versions it was delayed until the 19th.  Now though the game has been pushed again, this time back to November 9th. It remains a possibility that the release date moves back from that however all retailers currently have the 11/9 as the expected date. No reasoning behind the delays has been given but there has been some speculation that it has encountered difficulty passing Nintendo’s strict certification process.

Outside of PES and FIFA the team sports have yet to translate very well to the Wii and its integrated motion controls. Previous attempts at converting NBA Live have failed and was abandoned this year which is where 2K stepped in. It’ll be interesting to see if they can take a scaled back version of 2K10 and make it an enjoyable experience on the system.

How many times have we seen this story? The story of a former champ who thinks he has one last title shot in him. A former champ who just doesn’t know when to quit. Rocky, Roberto Duran, Oscar De La Hoya, they’ve all been victims to this sad story. Now after 15 years Nintendo is bringing the former Video Game Champ, Little Mac, out of retirement and back into the ring. And you know what? Little Mac still has some fight left in him.

When I had first read Punch-Out!! was going to be released on the Wii, I knew that it was a “must buy”, if only for the nostalgia the game would bring. I wanted to relive those memories from Mike Tyson’s Punch-out on the NES. And when I popped the game in, to my delight, it did. If you are too young to remember, Punch-Out!! follows Little Mac’s career toward the WVBA championship. And of course Doc Louis is there to help you with advice on how to beat other fighters. This version for the Wii features many of the fighters from the original NES game. Even though the fighter’s boxing styles have been tweaked a bit, they still require the same strategies to defeat them. You still punch King Hippo in the mouth, and then punch him in the stomach to knock him out.

There are three different ways to control Little Mac: holding the Wii remote sideways like a controller, using the remote and nunchuk for motion controls, and you can throw the Wii Balance Board in the mix to duck and dodge punches. Holding the remote sideways seems to work best. If you’ve played before, you know that in order to defeat opponents you have to have good timing. It’s almost too hard to accomplish this with the motion controls, and forget about using the Wii Balance Board. You have to give yourself more time to dodge punches than you normally would using the remote. This can throw your timing completely off.

The graphics in the game are vibrant and cartoonish. I think Nintendo did a great job at capturing the original fighters, and expanding on them. After having played the original NES game for years (I still do), I think the graphics and sound is what stands out most. Nintendo took many of the same fighters, songs, and sounds from the original game and gave them a 2009 face lift.

Punch-Out!! also offers a two-player mode, although it is limited. Each player takes Little Mac, and the screen is split in two so each person views the game from behind their fighter. Once a player lands enough punches, he turns into a bigger Little Mac, and the contest becomes lopsided. It’s nice to play once or twice, but gets very boring.

Overall, Punch-Out!! is a fun arcade style boxing game. Nintendo does a great job of capturing the original NES classic, and sticks to the roots of the game. Any fan of Mike Tyson’s Punch-out will appreciate this game. I felt like I was 8 years old again in my bedroom playing Nintendo.

Thanks to Fred for doing the write-up! He can be found everyday running the forums. – PP

Both Wii versions of Tiger Woods 10 and Grand Slam Tennis will now release on Monday June 8th. Previously they were slated to come out on Tuesday June 16th. This release date change is significant because they now come out the same day as the Wii MotionPlus controller add-on. Instead of having no games to utilize M+ with at launch now there are two highly anticipated ones.

There will be a limited run of Tiger Woods 10 bundled with M+ that will go for $59.99. The bundle offers a savings of $10 over buying M+ which sells for $20 seperately.

Ever since the Wii exploded onto the scene there has been the question what the user base would respond to when it came to licensed sports games. By in large the efforts so far have been met with apathy. The only one that has been a real success is the Tiger Woods series. That and Grand Slam Tennis now get the enhancement that comes with Wii MotionPlus. Nascar Kart Racing recently joined the success column as they went away from sim to completely arcade. However team sports games don’t  seem to translate as well to the console and attempts to straddle the hardcore-casual line (All-Play) have not worked out.

Thankfully EA Sports seems to have realized this and we’re seeing the start of a new direction for the Wii with Madden 10. No one gets excited about playing the PS2 version of Madden on the Wii. Instead the idea was to create a completely new and fun experience. This is the first year the Wii version has been developed at the Tiburon studio which is significant and should result in better offerings going forward.

Madden 09 on the Wii was a decent game. Outside of the 5 on 5 mode however there really wasn’t any reason to play that over the 360/PS3 version. Even as the game tried to be attractive to the casual crowd it remained a little over-complicated and unnatural to play.

The most obvious change for 10 is the new art style which presents five different body types, all of which are exaggerated to fit the different positions. The Wii version isn’t supposed to be completely serious so having that unique look is refreshing. I got a good laugh out of seeing Matt Hasselbeck so oddly shaped. The graphics aren’t going to be spectacular so they should attempt what they can to offset that. The cartooney style they have this year does an admirable job. I almost thought they could’ve gone more ridiculous looking though. It half looks like they went for the new style and half that it was unintended and just a result of the mediocre graphics of the Wii.

Last year the game introduced “Call Your Shot” where you could draw receiver routes on the screen and run quasi-created plays. For 10 they’ve added what is being called “Call Your Coverage” to defense. Simply point on and select a player and then place their assignment. Choosing an offensive player they will be put into man on that individual while choosing an open area will put them in a zone coverage.

The controls in 09 were deemed to be too complicated so they were simplified this year. Instead of selecting the receiver then making a throwing motion you just point the wiimote at the receiver you want to throw to and hit the button. Also instead of having different moves based on the motion made now just shake the wiimote and the game will make the best suited move for the situation. The old control scheme can be switched back to, but really I think the crowd who just wants to play and enjoy the game will like the changes that have been made.

All the stadiums have been completely re-built. While they aren’t 100% accurate they are a reasonable representation of their real-life counterparts. The gameplay screen is easier to read with score and clock now much larger.

I was encouraged by what I saw of Madden 10 on the Wii. These are just some basic changes that have been made to the game and the new direction it is headed. They developers seem know what has to be done and that is to create something that attracts the casual/family crowd as well as those purchasing it as a complimentary title to the 360/PS3 version.

There has been an interesting series of developments over the last month or so when it comes to the launch of Wii MotionPlus. At first it appeared that the Wiimote add-on was essentially delayed and would miss the releases of the first two games to utilize it, those being Tiger Woods 10 and Grand Slam Tennis. Then the official announcement was made that the M+ would be available on its own on June 8th and then the expected bundle with Wii Sports Resort would wait until July 26th. Today though comes news that Wii MotionPlus will actually be bundled with Tiger Woods 10 for a limited time upon release of the game on June 16th.

This exclusive and limited-time offer is exciting news for sports fans who want to enhance their Wii experience for a great value with the new Wii MotionPlus right at launch with Tiger Woods PGA TOUR 10. The functionality of the Wii MotionPlus will help us deliver the authentic, true-to-life sports motion for Tiger Woods PGA TOUR 10 and EA SPORTS Grand Slam Tennis that will redefine the sports experience on the Wii.

Tiger 10 on its own will be $49.99 and the MotionPlus bundle will sell at $59.99. This cuts the cost of the add-on in half as bought seperately MotionPlus will be $20. EA must be ecstatic they were able to pull this off given the frantic rate that any Nintendo peripheral for the Wii sells at. While the add-on will be out for purchase seperately consumers may wait until they can get it alongside a game that utilizes it and that first opportunity will be picking it up along with Tiger 10.

July had been the expected arrival time for Wii MotionPlus before now which was somewhat problematic considering the June releases of Tiger Woods 10 and Grand Slam Tennis. Nintendo has officially announced today that the controller add-on will be available for purchase on June 8th. The price will be $19.99 or it can be purchased for $49.99 when bundled with Wii Sports Resort on July 26th.

This means that M+ will be available for the launches of Tiger and Grand Slam on June 16th. These two games take full advantage and it enhances them immensely. So much so that I believe it may turn them into the preferred option for the hardcore players when put up against their 360/PS3 counterparts.

The only obstacle is the price which is higher than most had been anticipating. A family with four wiimotes will have to spend $80 to upgrade them or $110 if picking up Wii Sports Resort. The total price of a single fully equiped wiimote is now $80 (controller, nunchuck, M+) which is twice as much as a controller for the PS3 and 360. This isn’t going to prevent those people who only need one or maybe two of them from picking them up. But for the money conscious family, a big portion of the Wii’s consumer base, it may be asking too much for them to invest such a signficiant amount on a controller upgrade.

Grand Slam Tennis and Tiger Woods 10 will both be utilizing the new Wii MotionPlus controller add-on. Unfortunately it is becoming more and more apparent that MotionPlus has been delayed from its original targeted release. Nintendo has dropped it from its release schedule and rumors are now circulating that is because are attempting to work out some issues with it.

And that leaves EA out to dry in this situation. Recently they came out and stated the games will still perform well even without MotionPlus. Which is another sign that internally they are aware it won’t be making it out in time for their June 16th releases. Clearly it’ll take some excitement out of the releases if the add-on isn’t ready to go in time though.

These are two of the games I’ll be checking out later this week. It seems unlikely that MotionPlus will make an appearance at the event but I’m sure it’ll end up as a big topic of discussion.

In addition to unveiling the name for what was previously known as EA Sports Tennis the official website for Grand Slam Tennis has gone live. The game will be one of the first to utilize the Wii Motion Plus, includes all four Grand Slam tournaments, and will be releasing on the Wii (June 16th) before the 360/PS3 receive a version of their own later in the year. More details on the game such as roster of players and cover announcement will be made in the near future.

This is one of the games that I’ll get to check out in a couple weeks. If you have any general questions about it feel free to leave them in the comments.

Through an email laying out the plans for an upcoming media event EA has confirmed that both Tiger Woods 10 and their soon to be officially named tennis franchise will be utilizing the Wii Motion Plus. These are the two games that certainly seem most fitting for the 1:1 technology that will come with Motion Plus. The accessory attaches to the bottom of the Wiimote to capture a greater level of movement precision.

Even without the upgrade Tiger has been by far the most successful title for EA Sports on the Wii and the swinging worked extremely well. Knowing that it will be enhanced even more makes this year’s effort even more intriguing. It’ll be interesting to see how they do with the tennis game also. There are multiple other tennis offerings already out in the works however this will be the first one to use Motion Plus.

Not long ago I posted about the introduction of Nascar to the Wii. Rather than a sim representation EA Sports decided to go with a Kart theme. While my general feeling that the Wii audience won’t be interested in a game with Nascar in the title still stands, we do have some more details on Nascar Kart Racing via ESPN’s Jon Robinson which make it sounds as though it could turn out to be a fun game.

So what should you expect? How about Jeff Gordon and Tony Stewart dropping oil slicks behind them as they race for first, the Dover monster starring as an actual monster on the track, and teammates who are able to work together to slingshot one another to first place.

The game is currently slated for a February 10th release at a price of $39.99. Recent titles on the Wii have been disappointments as has the start to the Freestyle brand. That is more than enough reason to remain skeptical. It will be interesting to see if they can successfully mesh a sport that has very little casual attraction and create a game that will be appealing to consumers who aren’t fans of Nascar.