4 posts tagged “nintendo”

In my last post I mentioned waiting for new Super Smash Bros. Brawl information from Nintendo World, the gaming event being held in Japan as I type. Well, no convulsions from me (unless I really, really want to). GameTrailers has release a video from the show featuring new in-game footage, including new moves from the playable characters (Here's a hint: Snake is kind of sneaky) and features such as breakable platforms and new levels. That is exciting, though the secrets I was anticipating, demanding even, were new characters. Well, Nintendo answered that with a gimped whisper, announcing Fox McCloud of StarFox game as playable. Color me Cerulean Blue, or maybe Brick Red. No, Firetruck Red! Yeah.... Seriously, though, I'm unsurprised, as would anyone be, as Fox has been in both of the other Smash Bros. incarnations. This isn't exactly a huge secret, Nintendo. You better be prepared to release unexpected characters, or at least some that are of moderate-surprise level quality. Or else I'm gonna cry a bit. Well, I may shed a tear. OK, I'll just whine a lot, but seriously, where's the 480p beef?

Article:
Super Smash Bros. Brawl - New Footage (GameTrailers)

Good day, Internet! It is Thursday, and that means it's the weekend. Well, for me anyway. You suckers get stuck with another day of the week. You know, I think I'm just going to squander the day, just to rub it in. Of course, I'll have to be visited by the ghost of a dead celebrity or something, who will take me on an inspirational and spiritual journey detailing the wrongs of goofing off. Ooh, or maybe it's a talking Dinosaur! No, Denver! Denver the Last Dinosaur. Yeah, that'd be rad.

Oh, 80s!

Anyway, there's a little news on the wire. You know the one I'm talking about.

• Unfortunately, reports that the Wii would output at 720p, putting it on par with many 360 and PS3 games, are untrue, according to a story at EuroGamer. The output resolution will apparently max at 480p.
• Nintendo World is upon us, which sounds like the eve of destruction in some bizarre acid-trip movie (Beware the Ives of Nintendo! The Nintendonians are invading! Ohno, Nintendo is coming for us! We better hide, or we'll be destroyed in a most excruciating manner!) This event, loosely resembling the late Space World Expo, is actually a series of shows touring the Japanese nation in different cities, showcasing the latest in Nintendo gaming products. With the highly anticipated launch of the Wii just weeks away, this will be one of the last instances where someone gets to touch the wild, undomesticated Forbidden Fruit before it becomes standard, everday household fruit (My analogies are flawless. Do not attempt to delude yourself into thinking otherwise). As you may guess, what I'm looking most forward to are the new Super Smash Bros. Brawl characters reported to be unveiled at the show. One (me) can only hope that this announcement occurs at the first show, as opposed to one of the later shows, causing me to spasm uncontrollably until the secret is revealed.
• In order to fully grasp the reality of the demand for the Wii, you could imagine a family of bears who are craving sweet, sweet honey at the end of their winter slumber. These creatures have not eaten for months, and their level of hunger causes a state of delirium in which they confuse human-people for their tasty snack- effectively mistaking little Suzy for a bottle of SueBee. What we have on our hands here is a bloodbath. The lesson, you ask? Bears are dangerous, and can attack at any time. Seriously, though, anytime a retailer opens up pre-orders for the Wii, they sell out lightning-quick, much like my super-human reflexes. The latest example is Wal-Mart, whose online store experienced just such a phenomenon, selling out in just a few short hours.
• Wii rhymes with 'pee.' We get it.
• Bioware has announced a new PC-exclusive RPG titled "Dragon Age." Games For Windows, the magazine previously known as Computer Gaming World, featured the game on the cover to their latest issue, which means you can go to your bookstore, newsstand, or literary haven of choice and read more about it there. For an idea of what the games all about, imagine, if you will, the developer of Baldur's Gate, Knights of the Old Republic, and the upcoming Mass Effect (it's a stretch, I know). Now, imagine that this developer is creating a new game called "Dragon Age" and that's all you really wanted to know anyway. There. Are we clear? Good. Seriously, though, from what little I've read about it so far, it sounds pretty damn cool. We're mixing Baldur's Gate style pause-game, issue commands style combat, Mass Effect style almost-real-time conversation, D&D style role playing (think classes and game rules. Momma didn't raise no Barbarian! Well, unless of course you roll up a Barbarian, in which case I hate you forever!). Oh, and you can do cool stuff like run between the legs of the humongous creatures, climb up on their backs, and more. From the looks of it, the game will feature multiple stories to allow, nay, encourage repeating the game.

That's it. That's all I've got right now.

Articles:
Nintendo reconfirms Wii 480p (EuroGamer)
Nintendo World 06 - The Wii Lineup (Kotaku)
Nintendo World 06 - The DS Lineup (Kotaku)
Wal-Mart Wii preorders sell out (Gamespot)
Games For Windows featuring new Bioware RPG - Dragon Age (1up)
And just for kicks... (YouTube)

I'd rather not submit absurdly huge posts encompassing all the subjects I want to talk about, so from now on, I think I'll keep it simple. Anyway, since this blog is in its early days, I'll now introduce you to Alex Speer, gamer. My tastes in games vary quite a bit. I like games from most genres, excluding, of course, horse-racing, fishing, hunting, most sports, and most blatantly-licensed garbage (except M.C. Kids for the NES. That game blew my pre-adolescent mind. It was ahead of its time, truly the forerunner to every epic game franchise to date, even the ones that started before its release).

I will love Nintendo products for a long, long time. I always have, especially since I was raised in a Nintendo-centric household. My favorite system to date is the SNES. I do, however, own an Xbox 360, and I used to own a PS2. Nintendo fanboy or not, I've been excited about the company's new system for quite some time. Most of this is from massive amounts of conjecture as to the possibilities given a game developer's creativity. As for everyone else in the world, however, it has been widely argued that the system, the Wii, may end up as just a gimmick. Today's article, via Kotaku, is by Ryan Garside at Bit-Tech, concerning this very matter. The Wii was played, and what followed was his critical analysis. Some games are fundamental to the enjoyment of the platform, while others boil down to mere novelties. This comes as no surprise, and my point is the following. Nintendo created the Wii for everyone. That's not just little Billy. That includes his sister, his parents, and his highly jaded Grandfather from the Old Country, where people worked for a living and didn't need to be entertained all day long. As such, it needs to be casual, much like the Nintendo DS. People need to be able to pick up a game, play for a little while, and go. There are other video game consoles for long-term gaming.

Just so we're clear on this, the article merely sparked my topic of interest. I'm in no way offering a opposing anything in the piece, just using it as a subject to jumpstart my post. That goes for all the articles linked to on this blog.
In short, I'm still excited for the Wii, especially since I don't expect it to be my 'primary' gaming console. Hopefully Nintendo proves the doubtful to be wrong, but these things can't all be winners. I still can't wait for the new Smash Bros. Also, have any of you seen the new screenshots of the Wii version of Madden 07? Super sweet, though useless to me since I'm not a big fan of Football.

Article: Bit-Tech: Nintendo hands-on Wiiview

As much as I'd love to jump right into more important matters (or rather, more interesting ones), I feel that I can't open up a blog and avoid introducing myself. I am Alex Speer, young writer, artist, and avid fan of movies, video games, and other sorts of media. I'm not a terribly interesting specimen myself, but that doesn't matter since I doubt if anyone will ever read this anyway. I foresee a total of... two, maybe three people. However, if I ever become famous, or even just internet-famous, I think it should be documented that I had specific notions and opinions about certain things covering an ambiguous spectrum of topics.

Anyway, today I happened across an interesting article at a mobile-gaming site called MODOJO about the demise of the GameBoy brand at the incompetent hands of the GB Micro. Basically, Dan Biersdorf talks at length about factors of the system's end, including poor sales, poor redesign of an already popular version of the hardware (which was also enhanced with the same brighter screen), and the introduction of the new Nintendo DS, which made owning a GameBoy somewhat useless. Personally, I love my DS, and I loved my GBA enough to buy the first and second iterations (the GBA and GBA SP respectively). However, as often happens with Nintendo, they oversaturated their product lineup. Who needs a tiny GameBoy that you could easily lose in your couch cushions, or more likely, the poorly-lit dungeon you call a bedroom?

This isn't even taking into account a quickly and severely diminishing library of game titles for the device. Last year saw some rather remarkable games, including Fire Emblem: The Sacred Stones, Sigma Star Saga, the re-release of Final Fantasy IV, and Gunstar Super Heroes. Since FFIV is just a port, even that seems fishy in the list. The best games for the system as a whole came out in 2001-2004, which I suppose is fitting since that's the majority of its lifespan. Still, the most games coming out last year and this one are licensed games based off of movies and TV shows, which really doesn't bode well for the system. The core audience now is the younglings, which is still relatively lucrative, but is seriously limiting. I'm all for sucking the money out of little kids' pockets, but there's got to be a limit to the amount of disease-ridden, grimy single-dollar-bills you can safely handle.

It seems apparent that the "three-pillar" platform Nintendo adopted was an elaborate scheme to make sure the company had an out in case the DS flopped, and since it's been such a success, there's been no need for the Gameboy. Is that a bad thing, though? The NDS is now a powerhouse portable gaming platform (I've always wanted an excuse to get away with saying 'powerhouse'). It's not uncommon for a company to drop a product-line when something steps in to take its place. This is especially true in tech, with products like graphics cards and processors, as well as lines of cell phones and PDAs, to name a few. How many people do you know carrying around true Palm Pilots these days? Hell, I think I had a Voodoo3 video card at about the same time I had my old Palm m100. Do any of you actually know what those are? Or are you, rather, far older than I, contemplating writing a snarky comment about Commodore 64s and rotary phones? I hope not, since I just called you on it.

Article: http://www.modojo.com/features/20061023/125/rip_game_boy/