And Livin’ on a Prayer. And Lump. And Everlong.

I’m just gonna go out on a limb and say Rock Band is gonna get my GOTY vote 2 years in a row.

Oh, and the music rules. Manic, loopy, genius.

Let’s see if the Wii version is both unfashionably late and gimped like its predecessor. Guitar Hero: World Tour tops my list so far, because Rock Band for Wii was horribly crippled.

This freaking year! BC DLC!

That’s all I needed to hear.

Also, speedrun is MADNESS.

I think judges and laws definitely brought unnatural restriction to the series, but considering other grueling aspects of the first that they did away with, such as waiting for a spell to work, revives and phoenix downs giving your units two or seven HP sometimes, and your units actually perishing for good after a few rounds of unconsciousness, it’s a fair trade-off in the series.

Since you’re fairly new to the series, this isn’t a bad way to get into it. In fact, I think that the original tactics is the toughest and most complex, so working your way backward through the series would be a more natural progression of difficulty.

Also, USB drives allow users to load just about anything, including illicit boot-loaders, hacks, their own game ROMs, etc. Though, if it were possible or easy, I’m sure such a thing would have already been loaded onto an SD card and served there.

But courses like Grumble Volcano, Maple Treeway, Coconut Mall, DK Summit and Bowser’s Castle are among the best of great Mario Kart courses.

Mario Kart Wii is equal parts MK 64 and Double Dash, and to me, every innovation that hurt Double Dash (item droppage, less-than-stellar course design and item saturation) also plague Mario Kart Wii. It got all its bad qualities from Double Dash.

Also: Item drop rates are hideous in this game. They were pushing it in Mario Kart DS, but the inclusion of more “screw everyone” items and a higher occurrence of gaps in the courses makes falling into holes far more common than ever before, and the higher CC single player cups demand more luck in the computer’s item rolls than skill in getting Star ratings.

I think they should have skipped motorcycles, spent more time on thrilling courses that test every skill players develop instead of shoe-horning in out-of-the-way half pipes, and put a little more thought into the weapon balance. I get WMDs more often than green shells now.

As far as how much is left to be desired, it just depends on what features any given person with an opinion wanted in Mario Kart Wii. For me, I just wanted larger courses and less item-droppage — or, to be more general, a game more like Mario Kart 64 and less like Double Dash. For those who loved DD, chances are they’ll love this one. Both are full of frantic action and less racing. Considering that you aren’t terribly familiar with Mario Kart 64, I’m surprised that I’ve taken to Mario Kart Wii more than you.

Leaves a decent amount to be desired? What a cop out! It leaves a lot to be desired. Customizing VS matches is so out of the way that it’s almost not there (though it’s fairly robust), the half-pipe reentry boost is nearly useless in most places, and most of the new tracks leave little to be discovered (and those few discoveries, only worth a half second at best).

It does the job, but I don’t want to pay full price for “enough.” Lucky them the online is easy.

For kids who aren’t quite yet teenagers, it’s an entertaining summer blockbuster with a nostalgic throwback to a trilogy fondly remembered by the previous generation. It’s got that cool, retro factor to it.

But Indy 4 is new, so they can lay their claim to it. It’s pushing plenty of new merchandise and making the rounds with cereals, fast food and other endorsement deals. In some ways, I see it someday being held in higher regard than you or I may believe it deserves purely because it gives a younger crowd easy access to Indiana Jones fandom.