@mike : I found another review on Wii Ware World 8/10 :

http://www.wiiware-world.com/reviews/2008/08/helix

I've downloaded Helix, and I found the game quite enjoyable. If you like Dance Dance Revolution or Samba de Amigo, you will probably like Helix at least enough to justify the $10 entry fee.

The soundtrack is 100% dance techno from the dozen or so songs I've unlocked so far, but this music suits the purpose of the game. As somebody who used to loathe music like this before I got into DDR, they all make me want to move and none of them grate on the eardrums.

There are at least a dozen different gestures in the game, making for some nice variety in the gameplay compared to other rhythm games. The motion recognition isn't 100%, even with calibration, because in the heat of the moment, the wiimote may not be in the same starting position, may twist in your grip, etc. This doesn't detract from the game to me, but it might for you if you always tried for perfection in DDR. Buttons on a dance pad are much more distinct than gestures in the air, so incorrect gestures might be misinterpreted as correct and vice versa.

One challenge I find a little frustrating is the method for reading ahead. Arrows or coloured dots don't slide across the screen for you to read ahead like in other rhythm games. The robot will do a move and you have to mimic it a moment later, when the robot will be performing the next gesture. This is easy enough to follow on easy mode with long pauses, but starts to get challenging on fast parts on medium difficulty, because because the robot will be going more than one step ahead of you. Perhaps this is just something that takes practice, but right now these fast sequences are devolving into wild flailing. The game marks about half my flailing correct anyway (see above paragraph), but all the fun flies out the window.

Two player support is a little weak. You're meant to each take a single wiimote and do one arm of the robot. I don't see why a full-featured two player mode couldn't be implemented by adding a second scrolling bar, health meter and score counter. However, I'm used to trading off the DDR pad, and two people can quickly swap profiles and take turns at the game, without even needing to trade wiimotes if they each have a pair (it supports all four wii remotes, you just can't play with more than two at once). Helix is enough of an aerobic workout that the break can be very welcome.

I'm enjoying my purchase and I intend to replace Wii Boxing with it in my video game exercise regime.

lost winds, one of the best wii ware games available.

My thoughts on Helix.

It's my first Wiiware game, and I will say it's definately worth ten bucks. I haven't had long sessions with it yet, but while sitting here at work I am looking forward to play it once I get home.

It's pretty simple really, watch the Helix model make moves and then replicate them in a timely fashion. The easy mode is fairly easy, the medium mode is just right, where with practice you probably could perfect it, and the hard mode I have yet to complete a song (but I was close). The fun in the title lies with three things. 1. People watching you play hard difficulty moving around in laughable speed only to see you fail. 2. The movement makes you feel good (as most exercises do) especially when timing complicated sets of move just right. 3. A pretty fun mental game in that your brain has to queue your following moves while your body is performing the current set. If you check out at any point expect to fail.

The grafx aren't stellar, but you really won't notice as your eyes are glued to the little Helix dude (and I'm not one to really care about the quality of the graphics, anyways). It meshes well with the music which seems to be all technoish. Not being a big fan of techno, I think it really is the only genre that works with this kind of game, and oddly enough I do get into the tracks.

I recommend it.

Some people were asking about Gyrostarr so I'll add my thoughts on that game.

It's simple, it's easy, and it's pretty inexpensive. It does have multiplayer, though I haven't tried it out, but I expect it would mostly just make the game easier while adding some competition for the top score. I found the presentation to be lacking, I just don't find this game visually appealing and I felt the framerate was low for a game which couldg et so fast-paced at times.

If you're a serious shooter fan, you're better off getting Blast Works, but if you just want a game you can kill 15 minutes with and can't be bothered to put a disc in, this one is alright. I do think that there are better things I could have spent those 700 points on.

Dr Mario is really fun even if you've never played the previous ones before.
Good single player and really fun multiplayer, online or offline.

I only have Pokemon ranch and I wrote a short summary on the game page

This game is all right, when I first got it I started with only a few Pokemon and in a small ranch. but as time go on I get new Pokemon every day and the ranch gets bigger over time.
Of course you can also somewhat play with them, with a toy that comes randomly everyday in the ranch.
I still play it today to see what new Pokemon I have received and to see what new items I have. I haven't tried the DS to wii feature yet, but soon I will.
Overall I don't play this for hours and hours just around 10 minutes everyday to see what's new, so I guess it's worth the purchase, but it fails for not having a pichu on the cover

IGN just posted the worst review I have ever seen on that site about Helix. I suggest anybody interested in the title ignore it since it's more about the reviewer's own insecurities than it is about the game.

Gosh, people might look a little silly while playing a rhythm game? Where's this guy been for the last decade?

Thanks for the reviews so far, folks. A few questions for some of you:

@Pretendo: is it still worth getting if you've played a previous version to death, i.e. does it add enough new stuff to make it worth $10 for the longtime player?

@pichu_pichu: the game sounds more involved than I'd originally been led to believe: I thought it was just a glorified storage space for more Pokemon. Can you give me a brief overview of what exactly one does in the game please?

Wow, great thread noname2200! I was going to start one like this myself, but never got around to it. Here are my WiiWare reviews. Some would say they're short, but I prefer concise.

Block Breaker Deluxe
4/10 - You got your mobile phone game in my WiiWare. Also, the music in this game sounds like porn music. The gameplay was a little unbalanced towards the end too. For most of the game, you're playing an Arkanoid clone. However, at the end, you can get into this underground club where they throw a pong clone with SUPER pong AI at you. Nasty.

Dr. Mario Online RX
6/10 - VERY pick up and play, but nothing to keep me playing. I haven't played Germ Buster and I've only played the game twice. I found sparse levels to be too easy and anything more populated than that to be too hard. I haven't played it much, so I'm not sure if there's a story mode, but something like that might have been appreciated to ease me into the harder levels.

Lost Winds
6/10 - So far, it hasn't managed to get me hooked. The puzzles are neat, and very organic. Apparently it's short (I wouldn't know). The main character is cute, and the presentation is definitely up there.

Pirates: The Key of Dreams
2/10 - DO NOT BUY THIS GAME. It gets > 1/10 because its presentation is not exactly poo.

Star Soldier R
8/10 - I keep coming back to this, and I keep rating it higher and higher. I started off thinking you were a ship, shooting enemies and dodging bullets. Now I think of it more as a sweet space ballet. The game is ultimately about getting your timing right and finding the best possible path to deliver the ultimate performance. There's only one level in it, but what a level! It's crazy how such a "short" game can have so much depth. I'm #7 in Australia on two minute mode.

Toki Tori
7/10 - My second most played WiiWare game. This game has puzzles that have lasted me several gaming sessions. I'm still nowhere near finishing it, but I'm loving every bit of it. The game combines a restricted set of mechanics on each level with gravity/enemies/pits and other effects. If you liked Lode Runner for the puzzles (and not so much the action), you'll like this.

TV Show King
6/10 - Great multiplayer fun. This is strictly a multiplayer title though. The single player mode sucks.

Wild West Guns
7/10 - This is like the third best game compatible with the Wii Zapper IMHO. What you get is a no nosense series of light gun shooting galleries set in NA's old west. All of the games feature a consecutive hit combo mechanic that can give a seasoned light gun professional ridiculous scores. One of the more positive aspects of the game is its achievements system. I hope Gameloft include this with more of their WiiWare titles. One negative was the repeated use of some shooting games in later levels. I'd have appreciated more games instead!

Strong Bad's Cool Game for Attractive People
8/10 - I haven't played the WiiWare version of this all the way through. It came out later in Europe/Australia than in the US, so I bought the PC version... then the WiiWare version just to support it. This is an adventure game for beginners. The puzzles are a little too straightforward, but for the most part, the humour's spot on. One grating thing was the reuse of jokes from the flash animations. Extended play is a great addition in lieu of genuine replayability. I can't stress how accessible they've made this game. You don't need to know much about Homestar Runner. You don't need to be a professional pixel hunter. And even if you don't like the main story, there are minigames to play.

My Aquarium
3/10 - Call me a cretin, but I expected a game here :(. I speak from personal experience when I say that if you're not a fish person, My Aquarium isn't going to change you. It's your very own electronic fish tank with very little in the way of player interaction. You choose the fish, the background and props, and then just let it go! You can feed the fish, and there's not much more to say. The music was okay too. The concept failed as far as I'm concerned though.