Wednesday, March 2, 2011

February Brewed, March Brewing - Coffees Consumed, Games Played



Coffee Beans:
     Well, February is over.  For those of you that are following the Reader Points each month, I have January's calculated, but I've made a few adjustments to the algorithm I use to calculate the points, so January and February Reader Points should be posted in the next 2 weeks.

     While I did get sick with the flu in the middle of February, I was able to play quite a few games, and drink some good coffees as well.
     I'm feeling better now, and hopefully with a new month upon us, there won't be anymore sickness!  So, before March takes over, let's take a look at the coffees I consumed and the video games I played during February!

Coffees Consumed in February:
  • Caribou Coffee Reindeer Blend(Medium Dark Roast) - This has been a slowly consumed coffee in our house.  I received it as a Christmas gift from Mrs. Coffee, and it's a 16 oz. whole bean bag.  I still have about half the bag left, so depending on how many tests I have this March, it may/may not last the month depending on that.  I enjoy this coffee blend, and our son has fun grinding the coffee beans in our coffee grinder with me at night sometimes, so that's probably why I'm consuming it slower than the regular big tubs of coffee we normally have.
  • Maxwell House Custom Roasted Dark Roast Ground Coffee - This was a 270 cup coffee tub, and we finished it during the last week of February.  It was kind of funny, because I knew we were running low, and I kept rationing my pots of coffee thinking, "Hmmm, I need this to last a few more days until Mrs. Coffee goes to the grocery store again."  Well, I was Mr. Unobservant and didn't notice the other 270 cup coffee tub Mrs. Coffee had already purchased and had sitting in the pantry!
  • Maxwell House French Roast Ground Coffee - This was the 270 cup coffee container my wife purchased us in February, that I didn't notice for a few days.  I believe this is a newer blend of the Maxwell House coffees we have tried, and it has a pretty solid flavor.

    Video Games Played in February:
    • Donkey Kong Country Returns - Mrs. Coffee and I completed Donkey Kong Country Returns with all the KONG letters found, and all the puzzle pieces found, on February 8.  We had an absolute blast playing through the game, and if I hadn't of gotten the flu, I would have finished my write-up about our play-through of the game.  Hopefully the write-up will be finished, and with more game-play footage, in the next 2 weeks.
    • GoldenEye 007 - I played some more of GoldenEye's single-player campaign, finishing another mission on the "Agent" difficulty setting.  I also hopped online early in February, and played some online multi-player matches: Golden Gun, Black Box, and Team Conflict.  I think I'll be playing GoldenEye less, until I finish(or give up) on my New Year's Video Game Resolution.
    • Greg Hastings Paintball 2 - I'm still working my way through the campaign in Greg Hastings Paintball 2 for the Wii.  The game becomes more challenging the further you get, and you have to make sure to trade players out, and/or train your team, to make sure they can compete against the higher ranked teams.  I honestly don't know how any "reviewer" of this game put up a review within a week of receiving the game.  I have put probably 15+ hours just into the campaign, and I'm only about 50% through it now.
    • Killzone 3 Demo - If you didn't see my FPS Friday that was on my time with the Killzone 3 multi-player beta, you can read my thoughts, and even watch a video I put together of an online multi-player match HERE.
    • Fluidity WiiWare Demo - I downloaded and played through the WiiWare demo for Fluidity, and think it's an interesting idea.  If you missed my data report, you can see how many game-play hours Fluidity debuted on the Nintendo Channel with in February, HERE.  The game only costs $12, and from the game-play hours reported, it appears most Wii owners are getting almost 9 hours of game-play from the game.  I think 9 hours of game-play for $12, is an awesome deal.
    • Dementium II - After finding where I "lost" my DS Lite, I started playing some more Dementium II.  I have put a little more than four hours into the game, and a little more than half of those hours were in February.  The game does keep to its atmosphere pretty well, and I'm enjoying it, though it does make me wish the DS(and soon the 3DS) had dual analogs.
    • Call of Duty: Black Ops - So, I finally beat Call of Duty: Black Ops on the PS3.  I completed the game's campaign this past Friday night, and I thought the campaign improved the further along it went.  The storyline was interesting, and it would make for an interesting second play-through knowing certain things now, but I don't think that will happen.
    • ExciteBots: Trick Racing - If you missed my post on Monday, "An Exciting Wii Racer - Ignored by Nintendo, Not Known by Wii Owners", I talked about how I think ExciteBots: Trick Racing is a game that has flown under the radar of many Wii owners since it released, simply because there was little, or no, advertising for the game.  I started playing ExciteBots again when a fellow blogger, Dustin from MyLittleGamer.Blogspot.com, said his son was going to be reviewing the game.  I was able to hop online one day and play a few races against against his son, Daemion, and Dustin as well.  You can see a video of two of our races in the post from Monday.  You can read Daemion's review for ExciteBots HERE.
    • Resistance: Fall of Man - This game is one of the many on my backlog, that I had not touched in months/years.  This was one of my first PS3 games I purchased, when it was on sale on Amazon.com for like $15 one day and I had a gift card to use.  I started playing Resistance: Fall of Man again, after completing Black Ops last Friday.  I'm actually enjoying the game's setting/story, and the game is turning out to be longer than I expected.  I don't know how many hours it will take to finish, but I've already played it more than Call of Duty: Black Ops, and still haven't finished it yet.
    • Rage of the Gladiator WiiWare Demo - Okay, this is probably the game on the list.  I own the full WiiWare version of Rage of the Gladiator.  I purchased the WiiWare version of Rage of the Gladiator the day it released on the service last year, yet when I saw the WiiWare demo for Rage of the Gladiator had been released last week, I went and downloaded it.  Why?  Well, I played through the demo to see what you will experience, and it's a pretty solid demo.  I think it offers you enough game-play, to give you a good idea of what to expect from the full version.  I highly suggest you all go and download the Rage of the Gladiator WiiWare demo for FREE, and give it a try.  Rage of the Gladiator is my most played WiiWare game so far, and if you enjoyed the old Punch-Out games, or even the new Wii Punch-Out!! I hear, you should enjoy Rage of the Gladiator.
    Thoughts/Questions:
         From my original list of ten games on my New Year's resolution list, I completed just Call of Duty: Black Ops in February, but played three others on the list.  Hopefully in March I can complete several more off the list, and perhaps even provide coverage/thoughts on the games that I complete.
         I really wasn't sure how February was going to go, but I ended up playing more games and game demos than I thought I was at the beginning of the month, with ten total for the month.

         So, what video games did you end up playing in February, and did any of you perhaps try a new coffee blend in February, that you perhaps hadn't tried before?

    Monday, February 28, 2011

    Mario Madness! Mario Sports Mix Debut Data Report

    Coffee Beans
    Mario Sports Mix was released on February 7, 2011 in North America, with a MSRP of $49.99.  The game was developed by Square Enix and published by Nintendo.

    The ESRB gave the game an "E for Everybody" rating, with "Mild Cartoon Violence" being the only content listed for parents to be aware of.

    A portion of the game's Amazon.com description reads, "Mario Sports Mix is a fast-paced and fun sports game for Wii featuring all your favorite Nintendo characters in over-the-top Mushroom Kingdom athletic action.  Events included in the game include basketball, volleyball, dodgeball and hockey playable both on ice and elsewhere.  Additional features include: multiplayer support, including four-player co-op play and two-on-two competitive play; special devastating moves available for each character; the ability to use koopa shells and other means against opposing players; a variety of game environments and more."

    How many hours have Wii owners spent playing basketball, volleyball, dodgeball, and hockey in Mario's Mushroom Kingdom, with 22 days reported?  Let's take a look!

    Hours shown are for the United States of America, not world-wide.

    Approx. Number of Players Reporting
    Mario Sports Mix has 7,341 Wii owners reporting their game-play data through the Nintendo Channel, on its debut.

    Average & Total Game-Play Hours Reported
    Mario Sports Mix has 89,820 Total Hours of game-play reported on its debut, with an average "sports" play-time of 12 Hours 17 Minutes "Per person"(or console) reporting data. The game's average play-time per session is just over 2 Hours 39 Minutes.

    Sale Rank & Advertised Price
    Mario Sports Mix's Amazon.com sale rank is #64, and it's currently selling for $49.99 from a third party on Amazon.com. (Sale rank and advertised price recorded around 9:30PM, on 2-28-11)

    Review Score Averages
    Mario Sports Mix's "professional" review score average is 64.69%, based on 26 reviews on GameRankings.com.

    Mario Sports Mix has a 4 out of 5 Stars rating on Amazon.com, based on 8 customer reviews. Mario Sports Mix's customer review score average is 85%, when converted to a 100% review scale.  You can see the customer review scores breakdown in the image below:

         (Review score averages recorded around 9:30PM, on 2-28-11)

    Filtered Thoughts
    I haven't played Mario Sports Mix, and I probably won't play (or buy) it anytime soon, though I am interested to see how hockey plays in the game.  I really enjoyed Mario Strikers Charged, because it reminded me a lot of the NHL Hitz hockey games I used to play.  If the hockey game in Mario Sports Mix plays like either Mario Strikers Charged or the NHL Hitz games, I would probably enjoy that sport the most.

    If you haven't seen how Nintendo has been advertising Mario Sports Mix, here's a compilation trailer showing three commercials I believe Nintendo has been running for the game:


    As for the game's debut game-play hours, they actually took one week longer to debut than I expected for this game, considering it's a Nintendo published title with the name "Mario" in its title.  The debut hours are pretty solid for a game initially debuting though, and I think it will be interesting to see how the game performs over the next few months considering it has online multi-player, as well as local multi-player.

    I guess with March Madness almost upon us, Nintendo's release of Mario Sports Mix in North America was well timed for basketball fans, that are perhaps also Mario fans.  It's like Nintendo basketball fans can have a "Mario March Madness" in the Mushroom Kingdom with Mario Sports Mix!

    Questions
    If you have played Mario Sports Mix, do you think the game is closer to an 85% review score like the customer reviews, or do you think it's closer to the 64.69% "professional" review score average?

    Also, if you played the NHL Hitz hockey games, how does hockey in Mario Sports Mix play compared them if you can remember?


    If you're interested in Mario Sports Mix, you can see prices for it listed on Amazon.com linked below:
      

    An Exciting Wii Racer - Ignored by Nintendo, Not Known by Wii Owners

    Coffee Beans
    When you think of the Wii and racing games, what's the first game that enters your mind?  Mario Kart Wii, Sonic and Sega All-Stars Racing, or perhaps even the Wii release title Excite Truck?

    Well, I think one Wii racing game that has flown under the radar since it was released is ExciteBots: Trick Racing.
      
    ExciteBots: Trick Racing was released in North America on April 20, 2009 with two versions: one for $39.99 that was the game by itself, and one for $49.99 that included a Wii Wheel.  The game was developed by Monster Games, and published by Nintendo.

    Now you may be thinking, "What do you mean that it was ignored by Nintendo?"  Well, it was released with little fanfare and given basically no media attention from Nintendo.  Considering how well the game plays, and the amount of content in it, I'm really surprised that Nintendo didn't give the game at least one commercial(if they did, I couldn't find a record of it).

    I received ExciteBots: Trick Racing as a surprise gift from my wife in May of 2009.  She had one of my friends call me and ask me what new Wii games were out, that HE may be interested in.  After thinking of Endless Ocean: Blue World and ExciteBots: Trick Racking, I told him I had seen a video of ExciteBots, and I thought he would like it. Well, a few days later Mrs. Coffee presented me with a gift, and I unwrapped ExciteBots: Trick Racing!

    As for ExciteBots not being known by Wii owners, I remember talking with my neighbor one day (same neighbor who gave me the 2011 Club Nintendo Calendar I used in the Contest/Giveaway last month!) and mentioning ExciteBots to him. He hadn't heard of it. I ran into the house and grabbed my copy of ExciteBots and let him borrow it.  He's a pretty regular gamer on the Wii, and knows when games are releasing, but ExciteBots had flown under his radar.

    If you haven't seen any footage of ExciteBots: Trick Racing, here's a video of me racing against Daemion, from MyLittleGamer.Blogspot.com:



    Filtered Thoughts
    I've really enjoyed my time with ExciteBots: Trick Racing, and if you're looking for a unique racing game on the Wii that offers many hours of fun, I highly suggest ExciteBots: Trick Racing.

    ExciteBots: Trick Racing features both local splitscreen multi-player for two players, or online multi-player races for up to six racers. The game has 40+ races to participate in through the "Excite" and "Super Excite" modes, and 19 ExciteBots to choose between for the races. The game also features a "Poker Race" mode where you are playing poker DURING the race.  It also has a separate section for the 10 "Minigames" you encounter during many races, allowing you to practice and get/record high scores for each minigame.

    One example of a minigame in the video above you may have noticed, was me driving through bowling pins during the race, and it would give me Star points for each pin I knocked down.

    If you want to see what Daemion thought of ExciteBots, you can read his review HERE, http://mylittlegamer.blogspot.com/2011/02/review-of-excitebots-trick-racing-feb.html.

    If any of you own ExciteBots: Trick Racing, and are looking for people to play with/against online, feel free to add my Friend Code for the game:  0860-9995-8866.

    Questions
    If any of you own ExciteBots: Trick Racing, what do you think of the game...good, or bad?  Also, if any of you want to see more coverage/videos of ExciteBots: Trick Racing, please leave a comment letting me know!


    If anybody is interested in ExciteBots: Trick Racing, you can see prices for the game on Amazon.com linked below:
      

    Sunday, February 27, 2011

    Paint By Numbers! Disney Epic Mickey's Data Report

    Coffee Beans:
         We last looked at Disney Epic Mickey's game-play hours the week they debuted on the Nintendo Channel, on December 27, 2010.
         Just about 2-weeks after I posted that report, it was reported that Disney Epic Mickey had sold 1.3 million copies its first month, basically being all of December 2010 considering it released the very last day of November.

         How many hours have Wii owners been painting in Mickey's world during the 57 days reported since the last report?  Let's take a look!

    Hours shown are for the United States of America, not world-wide.
    Approx. Number of Players Reporting Data:
         Disney Epic Mickey now has 81,197 Wii owners reporting their game-play hours through the Nintendo Channel.

    Reported Player Increase:
         How many more players are reporting play-time data for Disney Epic Mickey since the debut hours report?
         Well, Disney Epic Mickey has seen an increase of about 71,557 more gamers reporting game-play data through the Nintendo Channel, since the hours from December 27, 2010.

    Average & Total Game-Play Hours Reported:
         Disney Epic Mickey now has 765,347 Total Hours of game-play reported, an increase of 687,263 Total Hours in the last 57 days reported.
         The average play-time for Epic Mickey is 9 Hours 26 Minutes "Per person" reporting data, which is an increase of 1 Hour 19 Minutes since the debut game-play hours.
         Disney Epic Mickey's average play-time per session is now just over 2 Hours 8 Minutes.

    Sale Ranks & Advertised Prices:
         Disney Epic Mickey's Amazon.com sale rank is #108, and it is currently selling for $43.99.

         The Disney Epic Mickey Collector's Edition Amazon.com sale rank is #1,834, and is currently on sale for $55.57.
         (Sale rank and advertised price recorded around 11:30PM on 2-26-11)

    Review Score Averages:
         Disney Epic Mickey's "professional" review score average is now 72.21%, based on 52 reviews on GameRankings.com.

         Epic Mickey has a 3.5 out of 5 Stars rating on Amazon.com, now based on 211 customer reviews.
         Disney Epic Mickey's customer review score average is 71.65%, when converted to a 100% scale.
         (Review score averages recorded around 11:30PM on 2-26-11)


    Filtered Thoughts:
         I think it's interesting seeing how quickly Disney Epic Mickey sold more than a million copies, especially with the mixed bag of reviews the game received after it released.
         I'm sure having Disney behind the product helped, and perhaps the way Disney marketed Epic Mickey should be looked at by other third party Wii developers/publishers, to get ideas for marketing their games?
         Being that my wife and I don't have cable television, I have no idea what(if any) commercials Disney ran, and how long they ran them for Epic Mickey, so if you saw any commercials, leave a comment if you can remember what time/what channel you saw it on perhaps.
         If you haven't seen any commercial or trailer for the game, here's a trailer that shows some game-play elements, as well as giving a brief idea behind the story:


         I think Disney Epic Mickey will continue to see a steady increase in the game-play hours reported, as it appears that the game is being played slowly and the gamers aren't rushing through it.
         On my last report, CoffeewithGames reader gLitterbug left several comments about his experience with Disney Epic Mickey, and when it came to his play-time he said, "I've finished the game in about 3-4 session and tallying up to a bit over 18 hours."
         I think seeing the "Total Hours" reported for Disney Epic Mickey being already close to one million game-play hours is very good a third party game with no online element, and I think it will be interesting to see when this game crosses one million Total Hours reported, since many Wii games released will never reach that.
         While I still haven't played Disney Epic Mickey, I am making progress through my backlog of games, so perhaps I will play this game before the end of the year!

    Questions:
         Have any of you played and beaten Disney Epic Mickey since the game released?  If so, about how many hours did it take you to complete from start to finish?
         If you have played it and beaten it, have you found yourself going back to play it again to try and make different decisions than you made the first time?

    If anybody is interested in Disney Epic Mickey, you can see prices for the game and Collector's Edition on Amazon.com linked below:
       

    Friday, February 25, 2011

    The Legend of Zelda's Birthday - Another Year Older, More Game-Play Hours Reported

    Coffee Beans:
    The Legend of Zelda was released on the NES in North America on August 22, 1987.  The Legend of Zelda was originally released in Japan on February 21, 1986, so the game had been out for more than a year before Nintendo brought it to the United States.

    Nintendo re-released The Legend of Zelda in digital form through the Wii's Virtual Console service on November 19, 2006 for 500 Wii Points, which is $5.
      
    How many hours have been spent in the land of Hyrule, during the last 4 years with Link's first adventure?  Let's take a look!

    Link, does he take coffee and cake?

    Approx. Number of Players Reporting Data:
    The Legend of Zelda has 230,769 Wii owners reporting their game-play hours through the Nintendo Channel, with 1,556 days reported.

    Average & Total Game-Play Hours Reported:
    The Legend of Zelda has 1,454,030 Total Hours of game-play reported, with an average play-time of 6 Hours 18 Minutes "Per person" reporting data. The Legend of Zelda's average play-time per session is just over 50 Minutes.

    Sales Information:
    The Legend of Zelda is currently in the top 20 on the Virtual Console's "Popular Titles" section, sitting at the #7 spot, and it has the highest spot of the "Zelda" games in the "Popular Titles" section.

    The Legend of Zelda's North American WiiWare version has made Nintendo about $1,153,845 (before taxes!), based on the approximate number of players reporting data and the game's $5 price point.

    Filtered Thoughts:
    I honestly can't remember playing and beating The Legend of Zelda, but I do remember watching it being played when I was younger.

    Many of you may have seen posts this week noting that The Legend of Zelda turned 25, which I thought was interesting mainly because Nintendo didn't release any special edition Zelda game disc, like they did for Mario's 25th birthday.

    If you don't remember what The Legend of Zelda looks/plays like, here's a very brief video showing some footage from the game:


    Perhaps once I complete my Video Game New Year's Resolution, I can attempt to play The Legend of Zelda, and at least then KNOW that I beat it.

    While I've enjoyed some of my time spent in the land of Hyrule, I hope the Zelda series continues to mature in ways other than age, like perhaps trying new game-play elements not normally in the "Zelda" games(FPS shooting style elements) and perhaps a more involved story, with character development.

    Questions:
    Have any of you played through and completed The Legend of Zelda in the last 4 years?  If so, was it as good as perhaps you remembered in the past?

    Also, are any of you surprised, like me, how Nintendo didn't seem to do much for The Legend of Zelda's 25th birthday?

    If any of you are interested in The Legend of Zelda, you can still download the game from the Wii's Shop Channel for $5 using either Wii Points(pictured below) or a credit card:

    LinkWithin

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