RowdyRodimus

@Miketh2005 he said that the dpad fro the game and watch series influenced the dpad on the NES and the Game Boy, but the way it was written if you didn't read the previous paragraph it could be confusing lol

One other thing about the lasting influence of the Game Boy, I haven't been in a match in close to six years but I still get to go backstage at a lot of events and even ride with people during some road trips. Yet, you still can't go backstage at a wrestling show and see at least one of the boys playing one of the iterations of the Game Boy. The older guys say "We used to talk about how to get more heat in a building (meaning get more of a reaction from the crowd) during a car trip, now all you guys talk about is what bleepin' game your playing".

You really see the genius of the late Mr. Gunpei ith his theory of Lateral Thinking of Withered Technology. You also see why the Virtual Boy he developed was such a flop;it was too soon, way too far ahead of it's time.

It's still a shame that Nintendo either made him resign or quit because of the VB fiasco, especially after all the money he made for the company not just with the Gameboy itself but with all the software that came from that system, Metroid, Kid Icarus, etc. It shows how Japans Honor system is completely outdated and his dismissal from the company should always be a black eye for the company and not forgotten when discussing nintendo's history.

Gunpei and Miyamoto made Nintendo in my opinion. When the layman thinks Video Games (well, up until very recently) they think Mario and the Game Boy.

@Ren Especially when Chinatown Wars can be had for less than a twenty.

Namo, if you think one article about a guy is "Spammed all over the front page" then you haven't been to the WiiWare forum and the 3,643 threads on Mega Man 10 ranging from "Who's your favorite robot master" to "How yellow was your urine when you first played Mega Man 10?"

So is this Blade Braxton's copy? He's the one that found it cleaning out his moms house. (He's the co-host of Wrestlecrap Radio and co-author of their book Wrestlecrap's Book of Lists).
If he got 41 grand for it that's awesome. His mom died not too long ago leaving a lot of bills and was going to have to sell the house and everything else just to pay them off. So that right there was a gift from whatever cosmic force you believe in.

I have a feeling that all these falling block games are ways for Japan to indoctrinate our youth into being good palletizers. (If you've ever worked in a factory and had to palletize (stacking box on top of box for hours on end) you'll appreciate that joke lol)

I remember when my friend called one day and said "I just got Legend of Kage, wanna come over and quest?" Without thinking I answered, "Who in their right mind would make a game about Luke Cage."

That anecdote is probably the best thing about this game. 1/10

I can get a few Demo discs, so (first come first served) email me at crusher46905@yahoo.com and we'll see how many I can get sent out if you can't get one. (one of my best friends is a Gamestop DM, I've let him know about how you guys have said that the employees have handled the demo distribution)

I have a complete copy of this for the SNES packed away in the "Storage Garage of DOOM!!!" that I picked up at a garage sale for a couple of bucks, but never got to play since my ex (girlfriend at the time) took my SNES when she moved.
I went to a used game store today and they had a sealed copy of the DS version for 9.95 so I picked it up.
FIrst a DS Phat for $10, then finding this for $10, Spectrobes, Sonic Chronicles and Mystery Dungeon Shiren the Wanderer for $5 each; this must be my lucky week lol

I know it's a sin to say this, but think of how much money (and greater choice of games) a person could save by getting a used PS2 and picking up all the compilation packs that the different companies have done for these games. I know I can go to Game Traders here and pick up both SEGA arcade comps for less than a tenner.

But then again, even if the VC is overpriced, it's nice to have all the options we have at hand to get our classic gaming fix today no matter what the platform.

Question about the game they show- In curling, does the sweeping motion act as unresponsive as it seems from the video?

Oh, and I can't stand when people get names wrong on things they report on, I don't care if it's a comedy news program or serious, it just shows a huge lack of respect for the repoorters that do their jobs the right way.

Great game and a bargain at 6 bucks.

@Chibi Link
Japan has the money-Japan also is the home of Nintendo, keep the parents happy and you can do what you want with the daughter in a way.

Well, for those saying it should be a $30 dollar game, Gamestop now sells it for 29.99 new.

@vherub, I was fixing to say the same thing about the points.

@irken004 Rated M for MEAT?

If any game was rated that, it would be Muscle March lol

This is a day 1 buy for me. It seems to be more of an homage to 8 and 16-bit games as opposed to a straight "ripoff" (I don't mean that in the negative way it's just hard to think of a word for it) of Atari type games that bit.trip games remind me of.

With that said, I'm loving the fact that my generation are making games that are both love letters and criticism of games from the Atari age to the Extreme 90's we grew up with.

All these indie studios are doing a great job with games like Braid, Shadow Complex, bit.trip and Super Meat Boy. They are putting me in the poor house but I don't mind a (8?) bit.

Sadness = me thinking of buying DSi just to get Dark Void Zero

So it's like Jenga, in reverse, and on crack? Awesome!

Just wanted to apologize for the secondary portion of my comment (#56), it was meant an entirely different way than it came out and was insensitive and not approporiate.

And no, I wasn't asked to told to do this.

@Vendetta, I was actually coming to edit that out when I saw you already had so once again, I apologize for it.

And we wonder why people hate on the Wii.

_{EDIT: I removed your incredibly insensitive reference, Rowdy. Don't go there again. -Vendetta}

Just imagine your parents renting a game for you, sight unseen, popping it into your nes and then finding this. That's what happened to me and I've never stopped thanking my dad for getting this one. It was so good, before the rental was up we were at the store buying a copy. Awesome game. This is what a hidden gem really is.

I remember getting this for Christmas the year it came out. The onlky reason I do (and might still download it) was the reaction my grandma had when she saw my grandpa got me an extra gift (they'd already got my brother and I matching Batman and Joker bedding sets and some other stuff) and he took her aside and said "Chris is my oldest grandchild, if I want to get him an extra present dammit, I'll ge him an extra present!"
Such a good memory from such a "bad" game (bad when compared to 1 and 3)

Good thing....

I can't stand the Metroid Prime series. So it works out for me, an extra slot in stores for a game I might buy.

Nintendo, Sony and Microsoft just need to buy more carbon credits after all, we know that works. The leader of the Green Cult, Al Gore said so...Not that he owns 10% of the company that handles that or anything.

Oh and to all the people upset at the ones who don't care about Greenpeace or the Cult of Global Warming, guess what? Your opinion doesn't mean a damn bit more than theirs.

Methinks we have a developer in our midst who didn't like the review of a pitiful excuse of a game.

Joined the day the review was done? Check.
Location is the same as the developer? Check
Has a name that somewhat mentions name of company? Check

I will get this. I will also continue calling it the name I have given it in Sanner Doesn't Stop.

Don't Stop Sanner...Or using the age old Japanese meaning to English trick of reversing the words, perhaps it's Sanner Doesn't Stop?

Anyway, if it comes to NA I might pick this up. It seems crazy enough to at least have some fun in it.

Happy Hammerin' sounds like a solo game to me unless your really comfortable around your friends...

@thewiirocks You a board game fan, too? If so, isn't sad that so many people won't try board game (which I feel are much better party games than anything a video game can do) until it comes to a downloadable version?

We need a WiiWare version of Dominion or at least the Carcassonne or Ticket to Ride that XBL has.

Oh and never trust the AVGN. Anyone who drinks Rolling Rock (slightly beer flavored water) is not to be trusted.

Interesting sidenote about the Intellivision; my uncle was a member of the Matell boys division back in the late 70's to the mid 80's (he helped with the launch of Masters of the Universe, how cool is that?) and according to him the reason the Intellivision lasted as long as it did was due to the popularity of Masters of the Universe and Barbie. The money from those divisions allowed them to keep the Intellivision going even though it was a black hole in terms of profits.

(Not unlike the PS3 and the 360 accounting for losses for Sony and Microsoft today)

@Stuff
Let's just play along with it. It's kind of cool even though it's totally ripping off Marvel Comics Sentry idea. (Supposedly he was a character created by Stan Lee back in the 60's who had his own comic, but for some reason everyone forgot about him only to be found in the 90's and brought back into the Marvel canon.)

That actually looks more fun than the console release. It has a Rocketeer/Batman/Mega Man vibe to it. I just wish it was coming to WiiWare!

@Token, what's funny is if the soccer mom's had bought and used a Disney iron on transfer like you can find all the time at craft stores, Disney couldn't say a thing about it. That's one of the things that scares me about Disney buying Marvel Comics, if they are that sue happy fo Mickey Mouse (who hasn't been relevent since the 50's) imagine what they will do with Spider-Man.

@Karl
That's what I'm getting at. The people that set the prices for comics (Overstreet, Wizard and CBG usually) base the values they print based on an average of what the title has sold for in a given period based on actual data from dealers and auction. When the price of a video game comes up, we mostly hear "there's a guy selling generic action rpg on ebay for $150" when we should be saying "what has generic action rpg been sold for on average the last few months on ebay".

We hear of values for games not for what they have sold for, but what the seller is asking for it. That's what I meant with the Superman #75 reference. The dealers were asking $100 a copy less than a week after it came out, but nobody bought them so they ended up being worth squat.

I'm not saying that price guides are 100% accurate, because as they are called guides that's what they do, they guide you in a general direction of the price of what you can expect to pay on average, it might be more or less than the price asked and if you think it's a fair price, then that's what it's worth to you.

Although, it does bring up the fact that a magazine like Wizard would be great for video games. The only thing is, the people would have to be honest in the research and not buy up 10000 unopened copies of Zoop on the Genesis and say they are worth $100 bucks so they can sell them. (Wizard did that with a Cpt. America issue a few years back when Bucky took over as Cap and the fans basically told them to go make love to themselves lol)

@Stargazer I know what you're saying, and I guess I'm looking at it like wrestling promoter (you'd be surprised at all the business lessons you can get from wrestling lol). Say you're in charge of the WWE. WrestleMania weekend comes around, you know you're going to get a lot of buys from people that don't normally watch wrestling every week. So you do something during the show to entice them them to watch the Monday night show. Then you set up something else for the next week so they'll watch again. By giving the people one BIG thing you actually help out the little guys by getting them noticed by people who wouldn't look at them before.

It just seems that (for NA at least), Nintendo is doing just the opposite. They release all the high profile games at one time and then lump the little guys together and hope they "get over" with the customers.

I'm not denying that there are plenty of amazing games on the service ready for people to download, but people like to be part of a happening. That's why so many people buy a game or go to a movie the day it comes out. That's also why they don't release an Avatar and a Dark Knight or a Final Fantasy and a Call of Duty on the same day.

I was just thinking that it would be in the best interests of all of the parties involved to start the year off with a bang to get people excited. But please, don't take this as me saying you're wrong and I'm right; I just wanted to explain my thought process better.

To me it seems that Nintendo would want this week to be an awesome week in terms of the shop channel. You had a lot of new potential customers get Wii's and DS's for Christmas and they've had a little over a week to get excited about the idea of getting classic and new games when they are released instead of having to play catch up and getting games that others downloaded two years ago. Sure the same games are available, but you want the new people to see how great it can be to look forward to monday and releasing darts, a light gun game and another puzzle game isn't the way to do it.

I know there was a Monday right after Christmas, but I'm willing to bet 80% of the new users didn't get points before then but probably half of them got at least one card since then. Personally it doesn't bother me since the game I was waiting for (and partially got a Wii for) was released last week, but just from a business standpoint it makes no sense why Nintendo doesn't stagger their releases so there's a "must have" title every week instead of having months of nothing and then a rapid fire month of must own games followed by more months of nothing.

@Token Girl, this person is the director of such "great" SEGA games as Iron Man and Golden Axe: Beast Riders- so their opinions about games is like listening to a 3 year old with fingerpaints complain about Rembrandt, sure they can do it, but until you do it well you really shouldn't complain about others who do.

I agree with Ferret75 that it's scored a bit low. While it's not a great, must have game by any means it has that certain Nintendo charm that the mid 80's games are known for. I'd go 7/10 myself.

I've found that most people who want M rated titles are usually the most immature of the gaming community. I don't care if a game is K-A or M, if it's a good game it's a good game. Most M rated games are horrible to be honest, they add blood, violence, sex and language to cover up a lackluster game.

Still, SEGA complaining that the fans don't buy a certain type of game makes no sense considering they never listen to the fans when it comes to their games. We've been wanting an old school Sonic game since SA2, we've petitioned them, called them, wrote letters-the fans have told them time and time again. So what does SEGA do? They turn Sonic into a Werehog, put him in an Alladin type game and make a game that has him using a sword against the Black Knight.

Does the Wii need more adult games (adult in storyline not in excessive sex and language)? Yeah they do. Does that mean you have to stop making games like Boom Blox or even WIlliams Pinball Hall of Fame? Not at all. Companies just need to prioritize what they spend the big bucks on. If a game is a simple platform/action game there isn't any use in spending tens of millions of dollars developing a new engine that can make a tree sway realistically. Look at the game designers of the past or even the ones on WiiWare, where on pretty much a shoestring budget they are able to make good games. If SEGA (or any developer) didn't spend so much on frivilous stuff in their games lower sales wouldn't hurt them (for SEGA just look at Shenmue and how every person that owned a Dreamcast would have to buy 2 copies for SEGA to break even on it. That's insane and you have to tell the director/creator it doesn';t matter if their artistic vision won't be exactly what they want because the money is just not going to happen.)

So Nintendo goes after the fans who made a film that in no way presents itself as an official motion picture adaptation, but still allow IGN to randomly use their April Fool's Day Zelda trailer that actually makes it out to be official.

Wow.

Bad or not, they were fans expressing their love of classic gaming icons, then again, all they do is hand Nintendo money everytime a new game or system comes out. It's not like they give the games reviews and give us eloquent works not seen in the press since the days of W.R. Hearst such as "Nintendo is Lazy and You Don't Care".

@Objection I left it in a comment on your new blog all you have to do is moderate it.

I ordered the posters about 3 am this morning. I'd been debating on them but I love the Twilight Princess artwork and the history of Link. The other one I could do without but my niece thinks it's pretty and wants it for her room so it all works out.

objection, do you have Wario Land shake it registered on CN? If not, loet me know and I'll send you a code (mine came with 2 for some reason)

I call shenanigans on the article. I believe that the market is slowing because the prices were overly inflated to begin with and now with the economy the way it is people don't want to pay hundreds of dollars for a game. Collecting games is a pretty new trend as far as things go it's not like collecting comics or even stamps. But the reason I say that the article is looking at the wrong thing is this- Amazing Fantasy #15 still sells in the tens of thousands of dollars easily even though it's been reprinted hundreds of times, same with any other classic comic. But if you look at a book like Superman #75 (the death of Superman) you can find them in the quarter bin even though they were selling for a hundred bucks around here. Why? Because the price was artificially inflated by the dealers and people finally caught on to it. It has nothing to do with being re-released, it just has to do with people not wanting to pay outrageous prices for something because So and So says it's worth it.

I don't know how she did it, but I left my niece (she's not quite 4) alone with the Wii on for less that 5 minutes and the next thing I know I have this thing downloaded. They really need a one hour return feature or something for downloaded games. Maybe I'll get some use out of it or Natsume just got the easiest money since the banks asked Washington for some.

That the Wii doesn't have the online MP of say the 360 doesn't bother me in the least. Why? Because to often the developers spend too much time making online maps and game types and the offline game suffers because of it. We pay 50-70 bucks for a game and we should exect more than a three hour single player campaign because they want to make the Fratcore players happy with the ability to teabag online opponents.

I know Matt from IGN said Nintendo is lazy and we don't care, but the truth is MOST developers are lazy now and we don't care. We allow them to put out the same game year after year adding nothing but new maps and a number behind the title and if the graphics are good it's a game of the year candidate. The developers do this because they know they can. We've allowed them to become lazy because the titles sell and why try if they can do a half assed port of an already made game and add a few new rifle skins and maps? The only voice any of us have is with our wallet, support the games you like and if you want certain features buy the games that have those features. I prefer single player games so that's pretty much all I buy but if Nintendo makes a Mario game with online MP I'd buy it, as long as the single player game didn't suffer because of it.

Let's just pray they don't release the SNES Ultraman game on VC to commemorate this release.

Sean, if you don't win it I can get it for you for 2 US dollars.

As an aside, how cool would it be to combine Hogan's Alley with Smash Bros. in like a Nintendo Paint Ball game?

I picked it up Thursday (New Years Eve) and surprisingly, it felt like a full game and less of a tech demo I was fearing it would be. I hate the term "casual gamers" that is associated with the Wii (I admit I had that type of attitude during the early days of it when there was Twilight Princess and our "Christmas Gift" Reggie announced, Super Mario Bros. on the VC for only regular price ) but after playing some of the so called "casual" games like Sports Resort and even something like Boom Blox, yes the games are designed to be easy to get into for the "casuals" but if you really start playing there is a lot of depth for the "hardcore" (not Fratcores) player to find in the seeming simplicity of the controls.

Great Review, Mr. Dillard!