Noteworthy Games of 2008 Trivia Quiz

Answer: Stretching

"Wii Fit" went off the shelves as fast as the Wii itself. "Wii Fit" also introduced a new peripheral to the Wii known as the Wii Balance Board. Since then the Wii Balance Board has been used in other games such as "Skate It" and "Rayman Raving Rabbids: TV Party." The four main areas of concentration in "Wii Fit" are Yoga, Strength Training, Aerobics, and Balance Games.

The main goal of "Wii Fit" was to create an equal balance between the right and left sides of your body. Every day you would start out with some balance tests that measured your balance and would give you an age of how old your body was.

The goal unlike "Brain Age" was to get an age closest to your actual age.

Answer: "Anna Molly" by Incubus

"Guitar Hero: On Tour" was the first portable version of the "Guitar Hero" franchise and was greeted with mixed results. Activision went through many peripherals before they found the four fret system that fits into the GBA slot. That could be one disadvantage of the DSi, the next version of the DS, as it does not have a GBA slot.

Many people were not too thrilled about the soundtrack as it was varied and not mostly concentrated on rock songs. Wavegroup and Line 6 also covered some songs on the game. Wavegroup is the music group responsible for many of the songs in "Samba de Amigo" released for the Wii in September 2008. Shortly after On Tour's release there was another portable version called "Guitar Hero: Decades," which went through several decades of rock and making the venues reflect the decade of which the songs were released.

The career mode in "On Tour" went through five venues those being: Subway, Rooftop, Parade, Greek Arena, and Battleship and had twenty-five songs plus some unlockable ones.

Answer: Episode 2: Strong Badia the Free

Beginning in August, the famous characters from homestarrunner.com appeared on the Wii, having a new episode each month. WiiWare, like the Virtual Console, creates a new channel when you buy a game with Wii points. WiiWare games can be totally original such as games like "World of Goo" or can be popular franchises like "Mega Man 9." The game follows a main plot of Strong Bad whether it be to fix his video game system or to make Homestar Runner's life terrible and reflects the humor that the website is famous for.

A popular feature was that players had the opportunity to make their own versions of "Teen Girl Squad" the popular comic strip that Strong Bad draws. There are supposed to be six episodes, one each month, ending in January 2009. Each title costs 1,000 Wii points.

Answer: The Maharajah

"Lego Indiana Jones" is the third of the Lego series of main video games. The first being "Lego Racers" and the second is the whole "Lego Star Wars" series. Recently "Lego Batman" has been released. "Lego Indiana Jones" was released also for the Xbox 360, PS2, PS3, PSP, PC, and DS. Like previous games based off movies, the goal of the game is to get through the many chapters of each story while collecting different items to get 100% completion of the game.

In the "Lego Star Wars" games they were red power bricks, minikits, and studs.

In the "Indiana Jones" game they were parcels, artifacts, and treasures. As you progress you could buy more characters from the library in "Barnett College." Many characters have different abilities such as Indy can cross chasms with his whip, ladies can jump higher, and Marcus Brody along with other characters can read hieroglyphics.

These different abilities come in handy during Free Mode which can be accessed after completing a chapter. Free Mode allows you to take several characters who have different abilities which can be used to obtain artifacts with different abilities, that were inaccessible before. You will be playing through chapters of "Raiders of the Lost Ark," "The Temple of Doom," and "The Last Crusade." Indiana Jones was also an unlockable character in "Lego Star Wars: The Complete Saga" by watching the previews.

It does make sense though since Harrison Ford played both Indiana Jones and Han Solo. Barnett College acts as the hub world to all the chapters. The original score from the movies are also used. Some people don't like the Lego games as you can't die but just lose studs if you lose your four hearts. If you gather enough studs you can get the title of True Adventurer. If you get a parcel and put it in a mailbox you can buy certain abilities such as the ability to gain studs when destroying a character, or the ability to fix things faster.

Answer: garlic

Garlic has been a staple in the "Warioland" series ever since Wario appeared in his first adventure on the Game Boy "Super Mario Land 3: Warioland." Unbeknown to most people this, was not his first appearance. His first appearance was as the main villain in "Super Mario Land 2: 6 Golden Coins" also for the Game Boy. "WarioLand: Shake It!" was the first Wario adventure game for the Wii and the second Wario game overall, his first being "WarioWare: Smooth Moves." "WarioLand: Shake It!" goes back to the original roots of Wario and makes it a side-scroller platformer with a dash of 3-D in there.

This is an old technique dating back to the N64 called 2 1/2 D, which was first used in "Yoshi's Story." Like previous Wario games, there are a lot of treasures that are not out in the open to find.

In most levels there are 3 treasure chests to find and several missions to accomplish such as accumulating a certain amount of coins or defeating a golden enemy. Garlic serves as the health source of Wario and in some levels one of the goals is to eat a number of garlic cloves.

In addition to the many coins and treasures found in each level, there are secret maps that can be found that lead to generally tougher areas. You can buy hearts at Captain Syrup's store, usually after defeating a boss, to increase your life much like "The Legend of Zelda" series.

Answer: mantis

Despite what many would think it is actually a mantis. The cockroach may be one of the most disgusting bugs in the list of sixty-four but the mantis is actually mentioned as the possible problem. When Blathers explains a mantis he talks about their egg sacs, and when he was a young owl he says one ruptured in his desk and says that this episode could be the possible reason why he hates bugs so much.

This is the third installment of the "Animal Crossing" franchise to be released in the United States.

The first one "Animal Crossing" was on the Gamecube, and "Animal Crossing: Wild World" was released on the DS. What "Animal Crossing: City Folk" does is mash these two games together taking the better qualities of the two. One feature on the Gamecube version that many people have wanted to see is the return of NES consoles but the main reason they do not appear is most likely because of the Virtual Console. "Animal Crossing" is like a kiddy version of "The Sims", where you can arrange countless pieces of furniture in your house, catch fish or bugs, visit with your neighbors, and countless other activities. Time passes in this game whether you are there or not so if you're not there any in the whole day your neighbors are still chatting away, shopping, all sorts of things. Likewise, seasons change in real time. You can be catching numerous bugs in the summer and then be building snowmen in the winter.

Answer: Boss Battles

This can be really annoying especially when you reach the Intense and Very Hard difficulties. "Super Smash Bros. Brawl" is also a third installment of a popular franchise. "Super Smash Bros." premiered on the N64, and the still popular "Super Smash Bros. Melee" premiered on the Gamecbe. "Super Smash Bros. Brawl" was met with mixed results.

Some people loved it, some people hated it, mostly because of certain characters that did not appear. Originally, Nintendo said that they were not going to include clone characters, but as Toon Link, Wolf, and Ganondorf appeared, this proved not to be true. "Super Smash Bros." was a unique idea of pitting all different characters of Nintendo in a slug fest. You could have Mario, Link, Kirby, and Pikachu battling on a "Metroid" stage. "Super Smash Bros. Brawl" included many firsts for the series though.

The main first was including third-party characters such as Konami's Solid Snake from the "Metal Gear" series and Sega's Sonic from the "Sonic the Hedgehog" games.

Another first, was the ability of Wi-Fi connectivity which has become a staple with many multiplayer games. Another first and probably one of the best received features was the inclusion of a huge musical score bringing together many of the great composers of video games to make a score that numbers into the hundreds. On the same line, when these songs were unlocked you could adjust how often the play on certain stages. Another well received feature was the Stage Builder. One could build their own stage unlocking parts as they build or battle on them. They weren't as complex as some of the regular stages but there was a new one every day when you connected to Wi-Fi. The last component of firsts was an item called the Smash Ball. This item when broke open gave the character an ability to unleash a devastating super attack. Whether it was engulfing the stage in a glacier, using a Landmaster, or forming a large orb to induce status effects on opponents, there was always a huge rush to break these open.

Answer: 2:17.546

All of these are staff records but the 2:17 is the only one that is for DK Summit found in the Flower Cup. The 2:37 is for DK's Jungle Parkway, the 2:38 is for DK Mountain, and the 2:13 is for Coconut Mall. This is the sixth "Mario Kart" game and has become one of the most popular franchises on Nintendo. Staff records appeared first on the N64 versions but only for certain tracks.

They started appearing on every track on "Mario Kart DS" but only if you beat a certain time in Time Trial mode. In "Mario Kart Wii" there are two staff records one is a staff member sometimes not trying their hardest but if you beat the first staff record then you go against the top staff records that require true expertise to beat.

The "Mario Kart" franchise started way back on the Super Nintendo with "Super Mario Kart" and only hosted eight characters. Since then there have been many other characters and karts to choose from. "Mario Kart Wii" upped the ante not only by placing twelve characters in Grand Prix mode but by adding a whole new vehicle altogether.

In "Mario Kart Wii," you can either ride in a kart or on a bike. Each has their own advantages and disadvantages. Karts can charge up to a double stage mini-turbo but don't turn as tight as bikes. Bikes can pop wheelies to gain speed but can only charge up to a one stage mini-turbo. However, many of the best staff records are on bikes. "Mario Kart Wii" followed the trend of "Mario Kart DS" by having thirty-two tracks. Sixteen new ones, and sixteen from previous games. Besides that, "Mario Kart Wii" also allowed online capabilities and the ability to perform tricks that gave players a slight speed boost. "Mario Kart Wii" also added a new peripheral called the Wii Wheel. One puts the Wiimote in the Wii Wheel and turns the wheel to whichever direction they want to go and shake the wheel to perform tricks.

Answer: Twenty-six

"Professor Layton and the Curios Village" was a game released in the United States in Feburary 2008. This game follows the adventures of Professor Layton and his apprentice Luke as they run around the village of St. Mystere trying to find a treasure known as the Golden Apple.

This game has the normal mystery motif of a murder since there is an inheritance on the line. The game is a point and click game but not the normal adventure game. The way to progress through the game is by solving brain teasers and riddles. Weekly puzzles could be downloaded by Nintendo Wi-Fi but were discontinued after the puzzle "Bright Idea." However, that was only the start of the puzzles. Level 5 and the brains behind the puzzles, Akira Tago, a professor at Emeritus Chiba University, have announced the release of two more games following Professor Layton and Luke and plenty more brain teasers.

Answer: Triforce

Yes as funny as it seems treasures from different video games are found in "The Great Cave Offensive." The triforce is worth 800,000 G, Mr. Saturn is worth 120,000 G, the screw attack is worth 80,000 G, and the Koopa Shell is worth 800 G. "Kirby Super Star Ultra" is a souped up version of the game "Kirby Super Star" originally released for the Super Nintendo. For a long time "Kirby Super Star" was one of the games that many people wanted to see on the Virtual Console. Well Nintendo added more games and more features and "Kirby Super Star Ultra" was born. Released in the United States in September of 2008, "Kirby Super Star Ultra" is not your normal Kirby game because you have eleven games to choose from and five mini-games! In the game "The Great Cave Offensive" the goal is to get through a large maze-like cave collecting treasures, there are sixty of them, along the way. You will battle some bosses such as Fatty Whale and a computer virus, before you get to the final boss Wham Bam Rock, who reappears in the game "Helper to Hero" but has another form Wham Bam Jewel.

Many of the songs from this game appear as part of the Kirby soundtrack in "Super Smash Bros. Brawl." I feel it necessary to mention some other great games that did not make this list due to the fact that I have not had the opportunity to play them yet. These games are: "Guitar Hero: World Tour" for the Wii, "Chrono Trigger DS" for the DS, "Rayman Raving Rabbids: TV Party" for the Wii, and "Guitar Hero: Decades" for the DS.