As women flock to Nintendo's Wii, its games become more violent

Dec. 14, 2007
By Doug Elfman
The Game Dork

My fiancee played cute Wii games at first, such as "Table Tennis" and "Rayman Raving Rabbids." But it was a bloody fighting title that turned her into a game nut for the first time in her life.

There she was, stomping people, punching them in the throat, and trying to rip out their spines.

"What is this game?" Stephanie asked excitedly.

"Mortal Kombat: Armageddon," I said.

"Oh!" she called out with a shock, knowing the great old game only from its controversial "bloody" headlines a decade ago. "This is what 'Mortal Kombat' is?"

And so, the video game industry often presumes new women gamers only will be interested in bunnies, sudoku and sparkle ponies. But the truth is, women enjoy anything good (just like men do), if they're enticed to give it a chance. And the Wii magically draws in women.

"The standard game console makes no sense to us," Stephanie says. "All those buttons and controls. And we give up easily. The Wii is far less intimidating, and we can easily master the controls."

The controls also vibrate, and this is cool, she says.

Lately, there's a whole slate of violent games for the Wii. Nintendo even has an excellent new gun device called the Wii Zapper for $25. It looks like a small rifle. You snap your Wii controllers into it, and you point the whole thing at the TV, which reads your aim and trigger finger.

You can use the Zapper if you want to dive into a typical "guy's game," such as "Medal of Honor: Heroes 2." It's a fairly entertaining, rather difficult World War II shooter. You crouch. You gun down Nazis. You walk some more. And this goes on for many hours.

If, however, you're like Stephanie and prefer fighting games, "WWE SmackDown! vs. Raw 2008" is the standard bearer of wrestling matches. It's good fun.

You use whichever wrestling style you like -- technical, dirty, submission -- to punch, kick and pile-drive burly men.

You want to stay away from "Resident Evil: The Umbrella Chronicles," because it's just an arcade shooter. The game forces you down various paths, things pop up in front of you, and all you do is aim guns and blast them in the head. It's OK, though very utilitarian, like a shooting gallery.

And it's just not on par with the Wii's "Resident Evil 4," one of the best games of all time.

"Resident Evil 4" is very hard. Crazy farmers act like zombies as they come at you with pitchforks and other weapons. You snake your way through a very long story, killing the farmers and some anti-American religious cultists.

But the Wii game that seems destined to appeal to women is "Lara Croft: Tomb Raider Anniversary." It's a masterpiece.

You explore tombs and cities by running through them, climbing ropes and walls, swinging across open spaces from a grappling hook, swimming underwater and, of course, shooting anything that gets in your way, which includes bears. Poor little bears.

New women gamers also will see why guys have been into Lara Croft so much visually. When she shimmies poles and does heaving-bosom splits while climbing ledges, it looks like the cleanest dirty game ever. So it seems like it's made for a man, but it's strong enough for a woman.



("Lara Croft: Tomb Raider Anniversary" retails for $40 for Wii -- Plays very fun. Looks great. Challenging. Rated "T" for violence, mild suggestive themes. Four stars out of four.)

("Medal of Honor: Heroes 2" retails for $50 for Wii -- Plays fun, if routine. Looks great. Challenging. Rated "T" for violence. Three and one-half stars.)

("Resident Evil 4" retails for $30 for Wii -- Plays very fun. Looks great. Very challenging. Rated "M" for blood, gore, intense violence, language. Four stars.)

("Resident Evil: The Umbrella Chronicles" retails for $50 for Wii -- Plays rote. Looks very good. Challenging. Rated "M" for blood, gore, violence. Two and a half stars.)

("WWE SmackDown! vs. Raw 2008" retails for $50 for Wii -- Plays fun. Looks good. Challenging. Rated "T" for blood, mild language, suggestive themes, violence. Three stars.)