Welcome to another installment of Wiikly WiiWare Wiiview. This week, we get bored to death by Little Tournament Over Yonder and Harvest Moon: My Little Shop, but check out our Bit.Trip Void review for reasons to be glad you own a Wii.

Little Tournament Over Yonder
Remember the joy of turn-based strategy classics such as Archon and Gemfire? Little Tournament Over Yonder takes that same concept and removes most of the fun factor. For anyone too young to have ever played a turn-based strategy game, it is rather simple to explain. You are in charge of a faction and your enemies are in charge of their own factions. The goal is to take over your enemies factions. To handle this dispute, you take turns strategically placing your units and attacking each other. The person with all of the factions is declared the winner. It’s a simple formula that is simple to get into and enjoy. Somehow, Gevo Entertainment managed to complicate things and now we are left with Little Tournament Over Yonder.

Just like the beloved turn-based strategy games of old, Little Tournament Over Yonder is all about factions trying to conquer each other over the confines of a convenient grid. It may be significantly cuter than the classics and the story isn’t particularly compelling, but the same basic concept is still there. So, what went wrong? If you ask me, the largest problem here is that Little Tournament Over Yonder strays from the classic battle mode and instead opts for a live battle in which you run around and desperately try to fell your opponent before they are able to do the same to you. A live battle such as this sounds fun, but the awful controls suck all of the joy out of the experience which may leave you rooting for the other team. I am sometimes willing to lower my standards slightly, but I simply cannot enjoy running around on a square of grass, my enemy and I shooting little spells at each other like Harry Potter and missing about 85% of the time.

To be perfectly honest, the battle mode is my only real qualm with the game, but it is a huge qualm. If all other aspects were disappointing and this one aspect was fun, the game would be far more enjoyable. It is very frustrating for me to have an otherwise fine game be nearly ruined by shoddy gameplay and clunky controls. And to top it all off, the levels and scenes are boring, lazy, and repetitive. Sure, the graphics look nice, but you may have a difficult time actually enjoying them. This could be overlooked if the game provided more fun, but that unfortunately is not the case. If you remember the classics, save yourself some pain and stick with them. If you are new to the genre, I suggest playing The Battle For Wesnoth, a free turn-based strategy game for the PC that will introduce you to the gameplay in a friendlier manner. And be sure to check out the classics.

Score: 3/10

Harvest Moon: My Little Shop
Natsume has finally combined the gameplay mechanics of Harvest Moon, Lemonade Stand, and Facebook’s FarmVille into one title that nobody really asked for. In almost every way, My Little Shop is a step back in the farming simulation franchise. They actually managed to take a repetitive game and make it even more repetitive. This may be acceptable to some people, but for whatever reason, Natsume also removed some of the fun. My only guess is that will all of the new additions, there simply wasn’t enough room for all of the fun, so they had to take some of it out. After all, who needs fun when you can do the same things over and over again?

To be fair, this isn’t necessarily a bad game. It’s hard to make sense of why the character’s parents would rush off for an archaeological emergency and leave the farm to their child whose age is obviously not in the double digits yet, but most other aspects of the game are quite nice. The graphics in particular are quite lovely. My Little Shop’s appearance may be too cute for comfort at times, but for the most part, I found it rather charming. And kids will get a kick out of it, which is always a plus. The music is also light and simple, and even endearing at times. The controls, gameplay, and minigames are all done quite well. There is even a clock within the game that makes you wait hours or even days in real-time for certain things to grow.

The problem here is that My Little Shop is excessively repetitive; playing it consistently will seem more like a chore than a game. With the exception of very hyperactive children, this game is well-suited for the young ones. It provides the repetition that many of them can tolerate and yet it has enough variety to challenge their minds. However, for most teenagers and adults, My Little Shop will simply be too boring to play for extended periods of time, even for some of the die-hard Harvest Moons fan. This would be great as a smartphone application, but unless you think the game can keep your children’s attention, I don’t feel that this belongs on a home console.

Score: 5/10

Bit.Trip Void
The highly-anticipated third installment of the Bit.Trip series reminds us all of what is so great about WiiWare. Lately, WiiWare has seemed to make somewhat of a decline as more and more subpar titles are accepted into the overpopulated library. But then a game like Bit.Trip Void comes along and suddenly, you can forgive Nintendo of its past indiscretions. Or perhaps you’re the bitter unforgiving type; even so, there’s no denying that this is a definitive title for the Wii, surpassing even many of the large retail games, and yet the game is so incredibly simple compared to much of what is out there. It truly proves that sometimes, less really is more.

As with its predecessors, Void is all about keeping up with the beat by collecting small elusive dots on a 4-bit playing field in space. Void, however, changes things somewhat…and in a good way. This time around, you are not nearly as stationary. Instead, you get to control a large circular void via the nunchuk (or the classic controller if that strikes your fancy) and collect little black dots as they appear on-screen from various directions. Because of this, rather than being entirely hit-or-miss, you are given an opportunity to chase after dots that you missed, and you can even collect out of sequence if you so please. The catch here is that each dot increases your size, which makes it more difficult to avoid the white dots that will send you spiraling into the Nether zone. To combat this, you are given the ability to reduce your size by hitting the A button, but don’t think that doing so will make the game any easier.

Although simple in design and concept, Bit.Trip Void is no walk in the park. All of the complexities from the previous games are here in full force, perhaps moreso now that you have to take on the task of collecting some dots while avoiding others. Also adding to the difficulty is the fact that there is no progress bar that shows you how close you are to reaching the Nether zone or how close you are to escaping it. This is the largest drawback of the game. The difficulty may also be a drawback to some, but the gameplay is so addictive that you probably won’t mind. If it is an issue, then you can use the new checkpoint system to your advantage. It is most definitely a welcome addition, but it could have been implemented much better. Unfortunately, reaching a checkpoint takes you away from the game for a minute, completely ruining the flow of the song until you are able to get back into it. Of course, these issues do not compare to the tight controls, fantastic soundtrack, mind-boggling puzzles, and gameplay that will make you glad you own a Wii.

Score: 9/10

Little Tournament Over Yonder was developed and published by Gevo Entertainment.

Harvest Moon: My Little Shop was developed and published by Natsume.

Bit.Trip Void was developed by Gaijin Games and published by Aksys Games.

All titles were released for WiiWare in North America on 11/23/2009.