One of my mates with a modded Wii, imported Ghost Squad (+Zapper) from Japan - and Zak & Wiki (from the US).

Some brief impressions:

WiiZapper: This is actually a lot better than I expected. Its very well made, very neat, hides all the wires well - and feels great. I have another Wii controller (a shotgun, and this leaves it for dead. The trigger also feels pretty good and responsive. I would say its a 8.5/10 (hardware score).

Ghost Squad: Firstly - my mate was pretty shocked to learn that its a "port" of the arcade game (he never saw the arcade game). The graphics are pretty average (1st-gen Wii title - its no Metroid!). It runs fast (60fps), and is a LOT of fun. I was really surprised how much fun it was - the Zapper also really made it.

We played through the first level only - and it had a variety of game modes it in. Rescue hostages, sniper mode, firing rockets at a helicopter, etc.

I can see this being a real surprise to a lot of people - its very casual, very easy to play - and a lot of fun. And it comes with a WiiZapper - which is a nice touch. Playing 2 players is also the way to go :)

The other thing, is this game has us seriously hyped for RE:UC (which my mate will get next week - along with Galaxy) - and I can't wait to play either. Deeper game, designed for Wii from ground up... etc. 

Zak & Wiki: This is already out in the US, so a lot of people already have it. The graphics were clean & nice, and the game has a strong Japanese feel. Its also quite obviously aimed at the kids market - which might hurt its sales in the long term. 

I played from the start, and it was a pretty slow process. Long sort of tutorial, ending with the first simple puzzle and the general objective of the game.

I didn't get a strong feel for it (didn't have enough time to really play any of the good puzzles), but I'm definitely looking forward to it... when it DOES hit Australian shores. 

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I'll finish up with some thoughts on Metroid - which FINALLY hit Ozzie shores a couple of days ago (and I picked up for $70 at JB - sweet!).

The graphics (on my TV at least) are awesome. It really looks like a next-gen title in every way. Animation is smooth, architecture/textures are done really well, effects are great... etc.

The moving controls are fantastic - to me it DOES feel like mouse control on a console. I picked it up, and instantly had full control running (strafing + aiming + jumping).

Now... I'm a bit critical on the game itself.

I'm a Metroid "purist" - and don't really play FPS games. I don't *mind* FPS titles - I just expect FPS to play like FPS titles, and Metroid to *not* play like a FPS.

The "lock-on" has effectively been broken - and on purpose. This is true of both the "free-look" and other modes - you basically can't target/select just by hitting the 'Z' - no easy way to "toggle" selection to other creatures/objects (just locks on, based on where you are aiming). This dramatically changes the game.

The game now feels *almost* completely linear. The whole exploration concept within Metroid (so far) is pretty much out the window (I think I'm about 15% in, so this may change). This is especially dramatic, considering I was playing (and loving) Super Metroid before playing the game.

I'm also not big on the hypermode extensions. They seem to unbalance the game - without them the game is too hard, with them - the game becomes almost way too easy (for now anyway). The game isn't really about combat anyway - its more about solving puzzles, and some of these are really getting me stuck.

There is also WAY too much scanning - its become ridiculous, and I think loses a LOT of the point of the original Metroid / visor concept. When I walk in a room, I now spend too long trying to scan/read everything. It would be great if indicators would show up in non-visor mode (combat mode), and you can select something - then scan it as needed. I'm more worried about missing an "essential" scan item - and not getting 100% completion on the game - than I am about dying.

I'm also going to complain about some of the other controls. The first thing I did was toggle jump/shoot (I can't understand how people use 'A' to fire, and 'B' to jump - just feels wrong to me). But majority of the game uses 'B' to cancel/back out of a menu - and this hurts my brain (considering its my "accept" button now).

One thing the Wii is lacking is a standard way to "navigate" menus. On the GC for instance, 'A' was always "accept", "B" was always cancel - and it worked for all games. The Wii doesn't really have a standard (for buttons anyway), and this confuses things.

I'm also critical of the mapping system. Zoom in/out is too fast - should give you more control. Too much of the screen is taken by borders (about half!), leaving not enough space to see what you really care about.

And I can't believe that on the Wii - that has a onscreen pointer - they allocated an ENTIRE button of the controller (2) to just "help". It seems like a real waste to me.

The Wiimote actions added do add immersiveness - but they also feel a little "tacked on". If there were more, and more complex actions/combinations - it might feel a little better. 

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Anyway - a lot of this is "minor" gripes, and in general the game is great. But I honestly say Metroid Prime 1 > MP2 > MP3 (at the moment anyway). MP2 lucked out in terms of gfx/level architecture - but it has a really strong Metroid adventure feel, and I really enjoyed the exploration elements. MP1 even more so - but that was a really, really awesome game (and GOTY).

MP3 is hovering around a 8.5/10 - 9/10 for me - its definitely NOT a 10/10. I can now fully understand its position on gamerankings, and why reviews like EDGE gave it a 7.

It also screams out HARDCORE to me - sometimes even I lose patience with it. It may in the long term struggle to sell to the same level that even MP2 did.

(note - my opinion may change dramatically with the remaining 80% of the game - I just upgraded my ship for the first time, for those interested - and I have racked up about 6hrs of game time). 

I did like being able to jump in ball mode without using a bomb.

That's all I have to say about that :)

Spring Ball?

Yeah, Spring Ball is back - right from the start.

You know in Metroid you can opt to have the lock-on mode on. It's in settings somewhere. However, it did seem to have been 'casualed down' so that it appealed to a wider audience. Great game though.

About Ghost Squad, Is it hard to play due to the Japanese language or is that easy to get around?

Its not too bad. The menus are obviously in Japanese, but it doesn't affect the gameplay at all - once you start (apart from the choice of some paths in the game).

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@eddie182: Even with lock-on on (i.e. no free look), the targeting feels broken IMO. It just doesn't function the same way that it did in MP1 or MP2.

I think its gone AWAY from being casual, to even more hardcore actually. The combination of FPS + Metroid makes it more difficult to control (harder to manually aim, than it is to just press the "aim" button). It will please hardcore gamers though - its a great example of how a hardcore FPS could rock on the Wii.

In a way, its a pity they didn't JUST incorporate some type of hunters game into the Metroid universe - with online play (i.e. drop all premise of exploration, aka 2D Metroid). I think the message would have been a lot clearer, and it would have appealed to a lot more people. 

Have to wonder what Retro are working on now - I really hope it has some form of online play!

oh tell your friend if he has a mod chip to be careful importing games as you can end up with multiple news/weather channels, which can be a pain. The best way to get around that is to use WiiBrickBlocker.

Wha wha? 6 hours and only your first ship upgrade? I'm at 7 hours abd already have to go to the pirate home planet o.O . Somehow this form of Metroid really sped the game up for me. In comparison i played Metroid Prime a few days ago and ended the game at 16 hours time.

Shams, if you plan to play on Hyper Mode after beating the game you will keep all your scans from the game you finished, so I wouldn't worry too much about missing some scans.

I really do tend to over explore, and examine everything. This is why I tend to double the average completion time for a game, for myself.

This is also part of the confusion I feel mentally - do I play this like a FPS, and just rip through it - or like a Metroid game, and go slow - examining every corner, twice over for secrets? (was hating approach #2 for this game - so its back to #1). 

From memory, I clocked Prime in around 27hrs? Around 85% of items collected.

MP2 took me a lot longer - if I have time, tempted to replay that sometime just for fun.

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BTW, had the friggin game CRASH on me last night. Just finished playing a long session, picked up the spinner (ball) and was on the way back to the Aurora unit... when my Wii reset (no idea why) - I think it was game related. Lost at least 1hr of game time - the game needs more save points, or a "save & continue" feature.