I really dig this game. Its so nice to have a real, meaty, contemporary game done in wiimote-only style. The nunchuck is cumbersome. The digital dpad controls work pretty damn well here, and I'm glad Team Ninja used streamlined controls and fixed/smart camera angles to emulate the 'feel' of a 2D game. It works; it works really well. Aiming at the screen is a pain in the butt though, but its still a nice way to do it - I remember back in the N64/PSX era, where every platformer and third person game had a first person look option, where you had to hold a button a trigger to do it. It IS far smarter to just turn your controller, but its still a pain in the butt when you just wanna grab your wiimote and play. Also the dodge move is...well, dodgy. The story seems like typical, bad anime melodrama. Penned by someone who watches too much Bleach and not enough Ergo Proxy or Ghost in the Shell: Stand Alone Complex. But while its pretty stupid, and as a result Samus' voice actress sounds stilted (really though; why try when your dialogue is so stupid?), the cutscenes are gorgeous. Hell, the entire game is gorgeous, but that's not surprising considering the developer. Ninja Gaiden Sigma 2 was awesome (and the ONLY NG to NOT be brutally difficult); Metroid Other M follows that up very nicely. Heck, its just encouraging to see some bump mapping in a wii game (if you know a thing or two about textures, you can spot 'em as the indentation on Samus' suit in a flash). Really, really welcome mix of action rooted in the old school and visuals planted firmly in the modern era. A great Metroid game, but nowhere near as revolutionary or as notable as Metroid Prime or MP3. Still, I definitely wouldn't mind seeing some more Metroids by Team Ninja in the future. Or DS/3DS ones in this style, should NST or Intelligent Systems feel up to attempting them.
Huzzah! Finally got my Wii to connect to the internet and just downloaded Ufouria! Seems like a fun little game; nice to see a "happy" take on the Metroidvania style of gameplay. Its a little weird though - I only found out on accident that Bop Louie could stomp enemies, for example, which seems important. Who thought holding down during your jump was a good idea for that, huh? Glad to see it come out here finally.
Oh and heck Mr.Ireland. I got some Wii points to kill (don't know WHY I ever thought pumping 30 bucks worth into the thing was a good idea. WEEKS go by without hardly anything worth downloading), so I can gift another copy of Ufouria to a friend and still have some virtual bucks left for whenever Aero the Acrobat 2 comes out.
I'm doing my part. I just need to see ONE MORE WAVE of Sunsoft games hit and I'll be happy. Journey to Silius, Gimmick/Mr. Gimmick, and Waku Waku 7 -- which is ALREADY out in Japan for the VC -- would be great. But you could substitute Chameleon Twist 2 in there somewhere if you get the chance; some third party needs to put an N64 game up there sometime!
Good luck making money with the overhead involved putting these games on the VC!
I'd rather these guys keep pumping out interesting failures than dreck licensed games. But for the meantime, it looks like they'll continue to do both. And I can't blame 'em when you gotta keep your studio open and licensed titles sell...no matter how bad Iron Man 2 is.
Also, I live only a few states away and I want to apply for work there eventually. So I gotta root for the studio to be successful!
I'm just hoping that they'll resurrect Animales De Los Muertos someday. Could make for a fun little arcadey shooter in 3D, guys.....
Can't wait for this game. But Wayforward IS quite busy right now, what with multiple SKUs of Batman: Brave and the Bold to iron out (which looks fantastic). So I can be patient. But man, this new Shantae is gonna rule....!
Aaaaand Disney has just decided to take 70 of my dollars come release day instead of 50. That's alright - Epic Mickey looks amazing! I just hope they advertise it well so it does pretty good. They did a great job advertising Split/Second and Toy Story 3...but then again, Guilty Party (which looks pretty rad; go check out Giant Bomb's Quick Look for the title) is coming out THIS WEEK and I haven't seen so much as a web banner for it anywhere, let alone a tv commercial.
Dude, I AM TRYING! I've been trying to start up the Wii Shop Channel ALL WEEK. Several times a day! And all I get are 051330 errors. AKA, "We at Nintendo have sh*tty servers. Just keep trying" errors.
I stuffed my Wii with 30 bucks worth of points as soon as Sunsoft announced that Aero the Acrobat, Aero 2 and Ufouria would be coming in the summer. It took me a week to get into the shop and download Aero last time, and now I'm on track to wait AT LEAST THAT LONG to nab Ufouria. It's just extra stupid since I won't even have to buy more Wii points - all I need is, like, 20 seconds to get to the download and nab the game, and my money will be yours! But Nintendo has other plans it seems.
Still, you can bet your - that in spite of Nintendo's incompetent digital storefront - I will do my best to support the crap out the games Gaijinworks/Sunsoft brings to the VC. I already picked up both Blaster Masters and Aero (which I really dug when I was a kid - thanks for getting that on the service!). And I really wanna see Journey to Silius and Mr.Gimmick on the service someday. So I'll keep trying until I can FINALLY download Ufouria! As long as it takes!
Anyone else having immense troubles connecting to the Wii Shop? All errors about server issues, too?
If the answer is yes, it figures. The first worthwhile update in weeks or months, and Nintendo's screwing with our ability to connect. At least those gamers in the North-east US. They really have to open their wallet and buy some more damn servers.
This dude went on to do Rebelstar Tactical Command for GBA right? I would LOVE to see more from him and his team, even if I loathe XCOM and most PC games from that era. They look like and they know it. What kind of fool would ever try to shoot for "realism" on a g-damn VGA monitor? XCOM is more spreadsheet simulator than game; so normally I would be pretty down on this scoop. But Rebelstar was actually quite good.
The press release on other sites (namely IGN) says that only the PS3, 360 and PC versions will allow content sharing, thus making the Wii version pretty useless if you ask me. Also, what the hell is this? It just seems to be something capable of making "scenes" - not puzzles, not levels, not anything game related. You hit play and watch sh*t happen. Doesn't seem very engaging at all.
I'm not expecting much from this. EA Bright Light has been trying desperately to be creative with stuff like Boogie in the past, but they've missed the mark. "Create" actually looks cool, visually, but it really seems like a useless thing compared to what it SHOULD be - a LittleBigPlanet 2 type game.
I wish more amazing, charming NES games came out on VC. Stuff like this, Mr.Gimmick, Crystalis...even Whomp'Em, NES Strider, Demon Sword and Power Blade and stuff. Needless to say I'm thrilled to see Ufouria here! And legally, for the first time in my country (I've only played it on emulator before...and I didn't play much because, lets face it, that's a horrible way to play console games)
The early 90's NES games were so, so polished and just instantly fun; there are a lot of games approaching the caliber of, say, Kirby's Adventure. And they're all just 5-6 bucks! They're the best value on the service, easily. And yet, there are so few of them that are worthwhile and AREN'T the big Nintendo first party franchises.
good to hear there's another quality wiiware release again finally! Its pretty much just become a graveyard for iphone/psp mini ports these days, unfortunately. So many cheaply produced, crappy forgettable puzzle games and thats it. We don't see games like Lost Winds, Cave Story or NyxQuest very often anymore, and yet here come Fuzzy Legends and Dive: Medes Islands in the same month? What a weird way to release things, Nintendo.
Unfortunately, I got my Wii points saved up for Gaijinworks/Sunsoft's stuff. I gotta pick up both Aero games and especially Ufouria. THEN I will consider some more Wiiware stuff.
About the beginning of the article, I think it's perfectly reasonable to complain about the abundance of on-rails shooters on Wii. Mainly because they evolved into FPS's, and there are far too FEW of those on the Wii. Which is directly related to the amount of on-rails shooters - most publishers would rather do an on-rails entry in a series on the cheap than spring for the production of a full blown FPS. Of course, I'm talking about EA and Dead Space here, but you can see it generally this generation. Id software also did it with Doom 3 on iPhone. That sucks. Especially when ALL on-rails games are just like Heavy Fire: shoot, shoot, shoot, buyer's remorse. Even the best ones do the same damn thing, and get old very quick. We do not need so many damn on-rails shooters on Wii.
At the very least, we should have more where you control the characters. Besides Sin & Punishment 2, I mean. Where's Star Fox? Panzer Dragoon? Space/Planet Harriers? Its not much more effort than a dumb old first person on rails shooter, and yet it adds so much depth to be able to avoid shots.
@Skrubber: Kameo is pretty good. But Viva Pinata is sooooo NOT for everybody, unlike Rare's DKC series and all of their N64 classics. And Banjo 3 was ugly and too different from its predecessors, not to mention uninspired in its own right (lets face it, almost all the missions boiled down to "destroy this" or "race to here"). Their 360 games have been disappointing overall, and their Xbox 1 output was pathetic.
Rare has definitely been in decline since being bought by Microsoft, but i have NO idea how much of that is their fault or MS's. If you travel to unseen64 sometime, you can see just how many Xbox 1 and Xbox 360 titles Rare have had cancelled by MS in the past. Really, really promising stuff. Quest, Urchin, Kameo 2, Saber Wulf Stampede, etc. And then they get killed and we end up with....Kinectimals and Kinect Sports and Avatars and whatever else MS wants to ripoff from Nintendo. It's very, very sad.
I never heard of Mundorare till this week, but it IS sad to see that the state of Rare is so bad these days. I would give anything to just see them make one more awesome platformer/action game. Banjo was as close as they'll get for a long time, I think, and it was really disappointing. Fun to play around with the vehicles, but then there was far too little to do with 'em. And christ it was hideous. Why redesign everyone to be so blocky? Just do it like the excellent, high res promotional/marketing art for Banjo Tooie on N64!
Its hard to imagine a better looking DS game than DQIX right now, but I'm sure both Final Fantasy 4 Heroes of Light and Golden Sun DS have a good shot of doing it. Looking forward to this very much!
This game looks awful. I got nothing against traditional JRPGs, but they gotta have good characters and stories. Like a Dragon Quest or Eternal Sonata - the turn based combat and overworld exploration are just gameplay mechanics with which to hinge your story that's hopefully worth telling. Look at any trailer for Arc Rise, and you can see that this story is NOT worth telling - not by a long shot. It's the kind of mediocre, derivative, Bleach-level anime sh*t that is literally just recycling TYPES OF CHARACTERS from countless other mediocre Japanese creations, instead of actually writing characters. Also, of course, the voice acting is exacerbating things, but I won't blame Ignition for not having the money to toss around recklessly like Square-Enix - you can always just mute 'em. But seriously, the story looks so not worth it, and the combat is never a selling point, which means the game sort of just exists. Unless it's Dragon Quest, none of these traditional JRPGs have refined the standard gameplay mechanics enough to actually be fun. For example, turn based combat - when mired in fancy cutscenes, it takes too long, and becomes a slog. Arc Rise is THAT kinda JRPG. So, y'know: not my kinda game Power to you if you enjoy it - I got nothing against supporting Ignition! But I'll be way more interested in their other games this year, like El Shaddai for PS3.
I wonder if Nintendo will bundle those tech demo-sounding minigames into a 3DS equivalent "Wii Sports" and have it come built in with the systems. Just to guarantee super million sales right away.
"3DS Sports" sounds like just the kinda lazy game name that soccer moms would make a kajillion seller, that's for sure!
hmph. Way too harsh on an otherwise pretty good game if you ask me, but hey - that's your opinion Nintendolife. Don't get me wrong, Aero is definitely a second fiddle Sonic. And unlike Sparkster, who actually has an amazing couple of game deserving of much more fame (at least he got a contemporary sequel on PSN!), Aero's game is jankier. However, its definitely still worth playing. Especially since the VC releases have slowed to a trickle. The controls are a TAD too loose (although compared to most garbage western platformers from the time, like Rayman, Earthworm Jim and Super Star Wars -- all of whom suffer from overly artsy backgrounds with unclear platform designs and slippery controls which made for frustrating gameplay), Iguana came so close to nailing that tight platformer control. Eventually, they nail it with Aero 2, but whatever. The first game is still very, very attractive - one of those quintessentially 16-bit looking games, the kind that shows why legions of gamers love sprite art - and has some really cool set pieces in there. And the open level designs with mission objectives, instead of just "go from left to right", is oddly forward thinking. Much has been said of all the Sonic ripoffs that came out of the 16 bit era; those soulless, marketable animals with 'tude. And while Aero definitely has some of that (watch his sunglasses/moonwalk combo during the score screen after finishing a level!), he's NOWHERE near as bad as many say. The game is good, and well worth playing if you're a fan of SNES/Gen platformers and already have other ones on the VC. He's definitely closer to Sonic and Rocket Knight than he is to garbage like Awesome Possum and Rocky Rodent. Don't go confusing him with the likes of those guys! Just look at the trailer Sunsoft (quietly) put on Youtube for this re-release*: This game has some greatness in there. It's just a tad janky. But decidedly NOT mediocre. Nintendolife is right in that it could use a REAL checkpoint system and some less cheap stage gimmicks, but hey - that's the 16 bit era for ya. And trust me - nothing makes you good at a game like dying over and over again. And Aero is definitely the kinda game where you get noticeably better after failure, so that's good.
@Weblaus: Actually, Square-Enix is pulling a lot of DS games from their release schedules lately. Thats why we didn't get Blood of Bahamut, for example. Apparently the DS piracy is killing some of their bottom lines. Stuff like FF3 remake sold way better than, say, Kingdom Hearts DS. Blame it on piracy and move on. They didn't even wanna take a chance on DQIX, since that series has never really blown up in the western world either -- so, luckily, NOA picked up the slack. Or NOE. One of 'em, that's whats important. So couple rampant DS piracy (so many little punk kids have those damn R4 cards these days!) with Dragon Quest's traditionally lukewarm (for Square anyway, whose used to multi-million sellers) receptions and there was a serious chance they were going to pass on DQVI.
Personally, I think they'd be smarter to embrace the "one thousand true fans" policy that the Dragon Quest games get. Not nearly as many gamers play 'em over here in the west as, say, Final Fantasy. But everyone who does LOVES 'em. You almost never see used DQ copies in the wild, y'know? But who knows if these DS remakes sell well enough to validate the cost of translating them. Remember, these games never saw a proper western release back in the day.
Jeez laweez - I'm still burning through DQV! And I bought DQIX at launch (to help those all important first month sales; Square and Nintendo need to see that fans want these games to continue to see western release!) -- I can't even THINK about Realms of Reverie yet! My kids were just born in Heavenly Bride!!!!!
@Otaku: I agree. At least with DQ8. According to Hardcore Gaming 101's EXCELLENT article on the series, DQ7 is a huge bore. The "Final Fantasy XIII" of the series in that it takes something ridiculous like 30 hours to really get going. And all the characters are the worst in the series - which is a HUGE blow considering how awesome the characters are in 4, 5 and presumably 6. Even though IV made me fall in love with the series, I'd definitely skip a 3DS port of 7. Though I'd love to see DQ8 come there...which it probably will, because Level 5 loves Nintendo:D
@Xkhaoz: AWESOME gif/avatar dude! Even though I don't really know why those little dudes are OMG'ing so much.
A 2.5D side scroller would work, as Jett has a similar moveset to another one of my favorite platformer heroes, Sparkster the Rocket Knight:) And Climax's recent PSN remake of that game was excellent. Making a Jett Rocket sidescroller could be really cool - heck it would make a great "little brother" title for DSi (or rather, 3DS).
Well, I HATE GnG, personally. The Maximo games were good though, and I know they're related. At any rate, it doesn't matter - I would just like to see more Capcom games on the VC and VCA in general Particularly Demon's Crest. But at this rate, I don't imagine an EXPLOSION of new titles until the next Nintendo home console and all new people just completely rediscover the service. Hopefully by then, Nintendo will learn to advertise this awesome service.
Really hope this finally - FINALLY - comes to America now. Even if only 10 people buy it. This and Mr.Gimmick are some of the best games ever put on the NES, and we never got either. C'mon Sunsoft - put 'em out there and show the world your retro game chops! People still only think of Blaster Master when they hear you (or your awesome NES Batman games), and frankly, you gotta show these gamers what for. Games like Ufouria and Gimmick are classics too!
Also, there aren't enough great NES platformers on the VC besides Kirby's Adventure and the Mario stuff. Bio Miracle Bokutte Upa is okay.
I don't care. Get to work on Beyond Good & Evil 2, Ubisoft Montpellier:D The 2D Rayman games were always "meh" at best. Gorgeous, yes, but lacking in the gameplay department. The games were "too artistic" if anything, as it was hard to tell the "bounding boxes" for platforms -- especially for a hero with no limbs. Will he reach that platform and climb up or not? And if not, why the hell not? Can't he "float" his hand over another inch.
Also, all Rayman could do was walk, so it was pretty sluggish. Except for the slippy-slidey music stages.
I've seen the trailer for Rayman Origins and it definitely looks stupid to me. First off, who gives a sh*t about Globox? Kill that dude off already. Secondly, why the immature tone? Last I checked, Rayman wasn't the sort to be entertained by fart jokes and its ilk.
Rayman was a hero - the same sort of guy as Mario, who was just motivated to do what he did because it was right and his friends needed help. So I really don't care for Origins at all, and couldn't care less as to whether or not it shows up for Nintendo download channels.
Rayman 2 was one of the best games ever made though, and 3 wasn't a bad platformer by any means (too combat focused though, and again, Globox is stupid and shouldn't have been featured that heavily). So I'll always give Rayman the benefit of the doubt. But I'd MUCH rather hear that they do another 3D one than any announcement like this.
But seriously, Beyond Good & Evil 2. Keep plugging away at that, Ubi!
The first chapter of this game was neat. The second one? Not so much. First off, the game needs more music - the stupid "main track" that plays is dopey and repetitive, and it drives you insane when you have to go through so much text. But the thing that really drives me crazy are the QTE prompts, like when Gemini asks about your umeboshi? She says she might not like it, and Shinji says she probably will, and then you have 2 seconds to push a bar towards "feed it to her" or not. Go all the way in either direction, and you fail and she gets mad at you. So then it's a guessing game as to where the eff it wants you to hold it. Oh, and if you don't hit the button when the time runs out, you fail too, because it doesn't just accept where you have the bar anyway at the time of...the timer running out:( It's confusing and aggravating as hell if you're a completionist looking to do everything successfully, because that stupid crap means reloading the chapter and starting all over.
I just wanna get to the next robot fight!
It's still a really neat game, and oddly compelling for something so minimalist. Also, the art book was great in the special edition, so thanks again Rerun for the tip! But man, is it hard to love. What a janky game.
This game is difficult:D Every level has, like, 17 bosses. And by level 3 (level 1 for some, I'm sure), the "kiddie gloves" come off (aka, they throw hundreds of guys at you instead of merely 10s). But I dig every minute of it. This is definitely one of those games where every time you die, you literally get enemy patterns BEATEN into you, which makes you do better next time. It's old school, and it's punishing, but it's gorgeous and awesome.
Although it doesn't feel like Sin & Punishment to me at all. Sure, the story is the same bad anime nonsense, but the sound and art direction is slightly different (just look at the eyes of the main characters in cutscenes, or the fashion sense), and of course now they can fly. It feels way more like a Space Harrier sequel to me. So I consider it a bad sequel, but another awesome on-rails shooter from Treasure. Not as good as Panzer Dragoon Orta (which also, to this day, looks sharper than this game. God, Smilebit was talented), but right up there in second place, tied with Star Fox 64 Very, very good.
@Nintendoftw. Yes, because we all know that what makes good fighting games is blood and gore. That's why Street Fighter IV has none of it and sucks right? Oh, and it also uses color and style instead of greys and browns that all good, "realistic" games have, right? That's TWO strikes against that steaming pile, Street Fighter. That game is totally for "teh kiddiez".
thank you for not directly insulting people -- TBD
@moosa: Actually, I bet they didn't make crud on the Conduit. If you look at some of the licenses they've worked with in the past, like Dora the Explorer and Ben 10, those games CLEANED UP at retail. A ton of Ben 10 games have sold over a million units. Certain licenses, especially those targeted at kids (with less discerning tastes as gamers - remember some of the crud we all played when we were little), are practically money-printing machines. If anything, all these original IPs they're working with are the risky ones, even though they might help establish them as a "gamer's developer" someday.
I'm glad they switched the theme to fantasy and legends from the boring old "grounded in reality" gladiator stuff, but the game was never destined to be good. HVS has no fighting game experience, and that's what you need for a fighting game - and yes, there's no way to say that without sounding like a douche.
But fighting games require a really, really tight animation pipeline - you need to animate hundreds of moves, and more importantly, tons and tons of transitional animations and stuff like "hit stuns". You can't just decide, "Hey guys! Lets make a fighting game this year" and have it turn out well. And to put it on a system with a limiting motion controller? Bold move, but dumb. Really dumb.
They were smart to try and pattern after something less traditional, like Bushido Blade, but dumb to flip-flop back to some traditional one-on-one genre staples. They would've done better if they decided on a Power Stone/Bushido Blade style game 100%, instead of this Castlevania: Judgement kinda thing.
However, HVS, Conduit was good fun. Very old school corridor shooter - very much in the same vein as Perfect Dark and Goldeneye. There are way too many haters for that thing, but who cares because they're probably mainstream CoD-fanboys anyway, and those guys are morons:) Good luck with Conduit 2 and Grinder, guys. But yea, Tournament of Legends never looked like something worth getting excited about. I'm shocked that SEGA picked it up for release at all to tell you the truth.
I'll still give it a rent though. I totally dig that art; very Soul Calibur-meets-Gauntlet Legends:D
I've never heard of Miffy. Is it a European cartoon? Because it looks like the sort of cartoon that Kipper the Dog was, which DID make its way to the 'states eventually.
Anyway, I'm far too old to really care about this:) I just like the art style because it reminded me of Kipper!
@SmaMan: You DO know that there are other Earthbound games right? Just because us westerners didn't officially get them doesn't mean you can call the sign a lie. Why just last month, I bought an NES Reproduction of the english language Earthbound Zero for a friend of mine who loves the series to death. And we both played Mother 3, via an excellent fan translation, through emulation at various points in the past. So don't call the sign a liar, sir!
Jett Rocket is awesome. I knew it'd embarass most third party retail efforts visually, but I'm really surprised by how well it plays. It's like Banjo Kazooie or Spyro, or any other solid N64/PSX era platformer, which is way more than I thought it would be. And the use of waggle is actually really solid, satisfying to use, and - gasp! - actually fun. The game is well designed all around, and has Shin'en's signature charming faux-Japanese/old school presentation behind it(Jett Rocket reminds me at once of both Alex Kidd and Commander Keen). I knew it would be good - I didn't expect to love it as much as I am really:)
Honestly, I kinda wish they'd port it to other systems. It wouldn't need any graphic re-working to fit on PSN honestly, and the Sixaxis can detect the "slamming" motions needed to do all the motion in the game. I'm not sure how well Wiiware games sell, but what I do know is that good games need to be made available to everybody who wants to play them. So if they had to be working on more Jett Rocket so soon, I'd want it to be that - a port for HD Consoles and Steam or something. But I'll gladly take a sequel any day of the week, Shin'en!
Someone bothered to make a wii headset? For what? 4 games? That's effin' crazy man.
At any rate, it's a non issue. Both the PS3 and Wii's online user base are DELIGHTFULLY silent. Choosing non-verbal ways to communicate online (the ModNation Racers community for example seems quite alright with the software keyboard in that game. Heck, I've played Borderlands with people who just honked thier buggy's horn and shot at stuff to communicate stuff). Which is, in every possible way, the preferred way to play with strangers.
No one will use this. I played Conduit 1 for a few weeks after launch and NO ONE had wii speak. It's like they put it in just because effin' Matt Cassamassina on IGN kept bugging them about it:D No one cares. Unless they bundle in a voice headset with the system a la Microsoft, no one will use it. Which is definitely how it should be! So I'm not worried. Conduit 2 will definitely, 100%, have silent online multiplayer. I'm sure of it.
@SoulSilver4: Man. That shouldn't even be a parental control - that should be the ONLY option for EVERY game console. Blocking headsets for everyone but friends? Genius idea, mate!
Totally not worth it. Not only is that picture a good example that there's little to no difference with this thing, but - lets face it - most developers don't even try with the Wii anyway. That'd be like getting an upscaler for some ugly PS2 games.
Wii games - the GOOD ones, anyway - look great regardless of resolution. This is silly. Just wait for Nintendo's sixth(?) generation console.
I like that mock up. I'd love to get Namco's Mario Kart Arcade Grand Prix on a Nintendo console SOMEDAY. I'm sure it'll happen eventually though, considering that this generation has established that older games will always see digital re-release in the future.
That's a pretty good review I suppose. I wanted the FC3 Plus the MOMENT I discovered it existed, but too many user reviews throughout the 'net mentioned its jankiness and I decided to pass. I think I'll check this one out instead now...
The levels in Jet Force Gemini were AMAZING once you opened up all the characters and their second suits. Such a cool game design - and its awesome to hear about it here:) Though I gotta say, while Vela was the only one to be able to swim, I rather enjoyed Lupus' ability to just turn into a hovercraft tank and float around on top of it:) You never expect pontoons to just pop out of a mechanical dog like that.
Amazing game. Unfortunately, it's pretty unplayable nowadays. Blurry textures, horrid framerate, and the N64's awkward and horrible controller. It was awesome back in '97, but nowadays it is clearly backwards. The "Freelook" stick needs to be on the RIGHT hand, not the left. After Banjo-Kazooie, Banjo-Tooie and Perfect Dark, this BETTER get an HD remake for Xbox Live. That'd actually convince me to get a new 360 after years of ignoring that junky system. The PS3 and Wii are a much better combo, but I'd definitely get a new Xbox if this came out. It bugs me that I never DID finish the HD Banjo remake before my last one Red Ring'd on me. Again.
People only played Streets when I played it...or was it Pentagon? Warehouse? The Conduit's environments lacked variety, so I don't even remember. It was the one with the two, three-story office buildings looking over a middle street, and there was a big whole in the building in one end for you to run into, using the rubble. It might have been 2 sets of symmetrical areas like this, actually, so 4 buildings? At any rate, I remember teams sniping the beejeezus out of each other from across the street in the other buildings' windows. It was pretty fun...
I don't really care. Hudson sucks. I mean, Bomberman is awesome, but that's ALL they have, AND its already available for every system thats important this generation.
Though Lost in Shadows (despite its janky name) definitely looks cool, like Ico meets the original Prince of Persia. And a Mario Party 9 would certainly be welcome, but won't happen since Nintendo can do "wii party" for much cheaper since the Miis and their stupid island are horrid little detail-less creations.
But mostly, they barely had any output on the last generation of consoles, and everything they've done this generation has been awful little downloadable titles or bomberman. Has anyone seen their US-developed "Bonk: Edge of Extinction"? Awful.
Couldn't care about this company any less right now.
ugh...Valhalla Knights was SUPPOSED to be awful. I never played it personally, but it got horrendous reviews when it came out - to no aplomb and no advertising - here in the 'states last year. Like a poor, poor, POOR man's version of Monster Hunter. I can't believe its coming to Europe like a year later...and after Monster Hunter Tri, no less. ewwwwww.
Secret Rings was such a good idea, and its execution was a'ight. It suffered from the crappy ring leveling system though, because it wasn't balanced for all the powers you could equip. You could actually run PAST scripted events if you turned on all the unlockable speed powerups, which would break the game horrendously. Also, it began terribly, because you need to level up Sonic's controls and speed to get him somewhere that's responsive. Too many bad ideas and bad execution really brought that down.
Unleashed though was a massive improvement. Like Burnout mixed with a platformer. Its the only 3D Sonic game to have polish at all. No clipping through walls, great controls, great mechanics (the drift and slide kick need to be in every Sonic game going forward). Unfortunately, 70-80 percent of the game WASN'T that stuff, and was that werehog stuff. Which was an okay brawler, but repetitive as heck...and not Sonic in the least.
Here's hoping they've really learned a thing or two since that game. I'm sure it'll be better than their past games though, simply because it wasn't annualized. Those last two wii exclusives came out in February and needed more time in the oven. This game has clearly missed that release, and Sonic 4 was delayed too - SEGA knows they need to polish their Sonic games going forward, and these latest games HAVE been in development for longer than usual. Good luck to it.
This game blows. I remember downloading it on PSP when they launched their PSP Minis, and it sucked super hard. Even though its only like 3.99 on PSP, it's a god awful waste of money. Gameloft does not know how to code/animate/pull off a melee engine. This thing is janky as balls, with zero transition animations or "frivolities" like hit stuns. It reminds me of the old, crappy Midway fighters like Mace: The Dark Ages.
Good for Nintendo UK. I HATE how NOA "advertises" the wii this generation. As in, they don't - at all. The only games that get a bit of love from NOA's advertising are 2 year old DS titles that, apparently, non-gaming country starlets enjoy playing. Like Nintendogs. Thats BS. I wish Nintendo would bring back the "Wii would like to Play" dudes, or get their own "Kevin Butler". SOMEONE to show off the killer games on the system that ARE DECIDEDLY NOT "Just Dance". Stuff like Tatsunoko VS Capcom, Fragile Dreams, No More Heroes 2, Sky Crawlers, Bit.Trip Runner, Red Steel 2, Cave Story, Prince of Persia Forgotten Sands, Sonic All Stars Racing, etc. etc. etc. And all those excellent games are just from the beginning of this year. Yet, most gamers don't know, or care, about those titles. Instead, they just keep claiming "My wii is collecting dust" or "there's nothing to play on wii". And Nintendo doesn't seem to care.
They're THE only first party who doesn't care, and its aggravating to say the least. So it's nice to see NOE make a commercial or two. Welcome to 2006, Nintendo - yes, you're involved in a console war, you fools.
Impossible. Nintendo's a very...."careful with their money" kinda company (cough* CHEAP *cough). Not to mention it would be embarassing if their handheld outperformed their home console.
Of course, judging by how badly they advertised the wii and its library of games this generation, maybe they'd just exit the home console space if this turned out to be true? Even though, of course, it won't be. This thing will be about as powerful as a PS2 or Gamecube.
I didn't know Miyamoto had input on THIS game too! Man, Rare sure did change a lot to accomodate that guy back in the day. The more you look into it, the more you see how he had hands in Dinosaur Planet, Diddy Kong Racing, Banjo-Kazooie and of course DKC. No wonder Rare games nowadays feel a tad "off" (although Kameo is still pretty awesome...stupid looking, googly-eyed monsters notwithstanding).
I hope the sequel does the same in the west. Although I won't blame it if it doesn't - it's going up against a LOT of heavy hitters, namely ModNation Racers and Red Dead Redemption. As well as games like Lost Planet 2, Split/Second, and several SKU's of Prince of Persia: Forgotten Sands.
May was a crazy month for gaming. But Mario Galaxy 2 is FANTASTIC. And since story doesn't really matter in Mario games, it IS actually the better game between it and it's prequel. It helps that its way more streamlined, and just the overload of content and fantastic level designs and gameplay ideas. I didn't think Galaxy 2 could do it - and when it was announced, I didn't even want it yet - but this sequel definitely tops the original. It deserves at least as much success as Galaxy 1, that's for sure.
The Brave & The Bold is a totally rad cartoon. It's about time someone put the fun back in the caped crusader! I was actually hoping that this would end up like....well, like a GOOD version of what Activision tried to do with Spider-Man Friend or Foe. I'm kinda shocked that they went with an uber old-school 2D look -- it looks like a sequel to the old Genesis (Mega Drive) and SNES game, "Batman: The Animated Series". Which is kinda...awesome, actually!
Plus, it's very clear that they put their Boy & His Blob team on this - that animation is beautiful, and way more fluid than the animation in the actual 'toon, which is really cool. I'm sure Wayforward's going to pump out another awesome game. I'd like to see more of this.
"...but removing some of the tension that drove the original levels so brilliantly."
I'm sorry, but anyone who says the original Prince of Persia is brilliant is a psycho. I recognize it for what it did, but damn - bad controls are bad controls. That's like defending Tomb Raider in retrospect - it simply shouldn't be done.
Anyway, I really enjoyed Forgotten Sands. I'm glad Ubi Quebec stepped up and did a unique Wii version - and it's telling how much of it borrows from Mario Galaxy that they did their homework. The pointer heavy controls, the same style of co-op play, the intelligent camera; there's a LOT of good in this version of the game. And if you're like me and you played through it all with the unlockable Sands of Time skin, then it feels like a truer sequel to that game than Warrior Within ever did. Letting the player form their own pathways with different combinations of the pointer-based magic abilities is a brilliant idea. The execution just isn't as perfect as you'd want it to be, and letting the player find their own way through each room causes the otherwise intelligent camera to get confused, which is a shame. But overall, things work often enough to make for a really cool Prince of Persia sequel; one that manages to bring something truly fresh to the table. And it's a far prettier game than the HD version, which I also got. I mean, sure it lacks the lighting effects and shader stuff, but the use of color and baked-in lighting in the Wii version is superior. The environments pop a lot more than the drab scenery on display in the PS3 version. Also, the prince looks much better in the wii one - I don't know why, but his face is just ....wrong in the HD one...
I would've given it a 7, but good review nonetheless. The words I agree with, not the number:)
Comments 423
Re: Review: Metroid: Other M (Wii)
I really dig this game. Its so nice to have a real, meaty, contemporary game done in wiimote-only style. The nunchuck is cumbersome. The digital dpad controls work pretty damn well here, and I'm glad Team Ninja used streamlined controls and fixed/smart camera angles to emulate the 'feel' of a 2D game. It works; it works really well.
Aiming at the screen is a pain in the butt though, but its still a nice way to do it - I remember back in the N64/PSX era, where every platformer and third person game had a first person look option, where you had to hold a button a trigger to do it. It IS far smarter to just turn your controller, but its still a pain in the butt when you just wanna grab your wiimote and play. Also the dodge move is...well, dodgy.
The story seems like typical, bad anime melodrama. Penned by someone who watches too much Bleach and not enough Ergo Proxy or Ghost in the Shell: Stand Alone Complex. But while its pretty stupid, and as a result Samus' voice actress sounds stilted (really though; why try when your dialogue is so stupid?), the cutscenes are gorgeous. Hell, the entire game is gorgeous, but that's not surprising considering the developer. Ninja Gaiden Sigma 2 was awesome (and the ONLY NG to NOT be brutally difficult); Metroid Other M follows that up very nicely. Heck, its just encouraging to see some bump mapping in a wii game (if you know a thing or two about textures, you can spot 'em as the indentation on Samus' suit in a flash).
Really, really welcome mix of action rooted in the old school and visuals planted firmly in the modern era. A great Metroid game, but nowhere near as revolutionary or as notable as Metroid Prime or MP3. Still, I definitely wouldn't mind seeing some more Metroids by Team Ninja in the future. Or DS/3DS ones in this style, should NST or Intelligent Systems feel up to attempting them.
Re: Buy Ufouria If You Want More Quirky Virtual Console Titles
Huzzah! Finally got my Wii to connect to the internet and just downloaded Ufouria! Seems like a fun little game; nice to see a "happy" take on the Metroidvania style of gameplay. Its a little weird though - I only found out on accident that Bop Louie could stomp enemies, for example, which seems important. Who thought holding down during your jump was a good idea for that, huh? Glad to see it come out here finally.
Oh and heck Mr.Ireland. I got some Wii points to kill (don't know WHY I ever thought pumping 30 bucks worth into the thing was a good idea. WEEKS go by without hardly anything worth downloading), so I can gift another copy of Ufouria to a friend and still have some virtual bucks left for whenever Aero the Acrobat 2 comes out.
I'm doing my part. I just need to see ONE MORE WAVE of Sunsoft games hit and I'll be happy. Journey to Silius, Gimmick/Mr. Gimmick, and Waku Waku 7 -- which is ALREADY out in Japan for the VC -- would be great. But you could substitute Chameleon Twist 2 in there somewhere if you get the chance; some third party needs to put an N64 game up there sometime!
Good luck making money with the overhead involved putting these games on the VC!
Re: High Voltage Software Has 3DS Ideas That "Break The Mould"
I'd rather these guys keep pumping out interesting failures than dreck licensed games. But for the meantime, it looks like they'll continue to do both. And I can't blame 'em when you gotta keep your studio open and licensed titles sell...no matter how bad Iron Man 2 is.
Also, I live only a few states away and I want to apply for work there eventually. So I gotta root for the studio to be successful!
I'm just hoping that they'll resurrect Animales De Los Muertos someday. Could make for a fun little arcadey shooter in 3D, guys.....
Re: Now You Can Follow Shantae Wherever You Are
Can't wait for this game. But Wayforward IS quite busy right now, what with multiple SKUs of Batman: Brave and the Bold to iron out (which looks fantastic). So I can be patient. But man, this new Shantae is gonna rule....!
Re: Epic Mickey Gets Collectable with Special Edition
Aaaaand Disney has just decided to take 70 of my dollars come release day instead of 50. That's alright - Epic Mickey looks amazing! I just hope they advertise it well so it does pretty good. They did a great job advertising Split/Second and Toy Story 3...but then again, Guilty Party (which looks pretty rad; go check out Giant Bomb's Quick Look for the title) is coming out THIS WEEK and I haven't seen so much as a web banner for it anywhere, let alone a tv commercial.
Re: Buy Ufouria If You Want More Quirky Virtual Console Titles
Dear Mr.Ireland,
Dude, I AM TRYING! I've been trying to start up the Wii Shop Channel ALL WEEK. Several times a day! And all I get are 051330 errors. AKA, "We at Nintendo have sh*tty servers. Just keep trying" errors.
I stuffed my Wii with 30 bucks worth of points as soon as Sunsoft announced that Aero the Acrobat, Aero 2 and Ufouria would be coming in the summer. It took me a week to get into the shop and download Aero last time, and now I'm on track to wait AT LEAST THAT LONG to nab Ufouria. It's just extra stupid since I won't even have to buy more Wii points - all I need is, like, 20 seconds to get to the download and nab the game, and my money will be yours! But Nintendo has other plans it seems.
Still, you can bet your - that in spite of Nintendo's incompetent digital storefront - I will do my best to support the crap out the games Gaijinworks/Sunsoft brings to the VC. I already picked up both Blaster Masters and Aero (which I really dug when I was a kid - thanks for getting that on the service!). And I really wanna see Journey to Silius and Mr.Gimmick on the service someday. So I'll keep trying until I can FINALLY download Ufouria! As long as it takes!
Re: Nintendo Download: August 23rd (North America)
Anyone else having immense troubles connecting to the Wii Shop? All errors about server issues, too?
If the answer is yes, it figures. The first worthwhile update in weeks or months, and Nintendo's screwing with our ability to connect. At least those gamers in the North-east US. They really have to open their wallet and buy some more damn servers.
Re: 3DS Gets Tactical Launch Title Courtesy of X-Com Creator
This dude went on to do Rebelstar Tactical Command for GBA right? I would LOVE to see more from him and his team, even if I loathe XCOM and most PC games from that era. They look like and they know it. What kind of fool would ever try to shoot for "realism" on a g-damn VGA monitor? XCOM is more spreadsheet simulator than game; so normally I would be pretty down on this scoop. But Rebelstar was actually quite good.
Re: Get Creative with EA's Creatively-Named Game "Create"
The press release on other sites (namely IGN) says that only the PS3, 360 and PC versions will allow content sharing, thus making the Wii version pretty useless if you ask me. Also, what the hell is this? It just seems to be something capable of making "scenes" - not puzzles, not levels, not anything game related. You hit play and watch sh*t happen. Doesn't seem very engaging at all.
I'm not expecting much from this. EA Bright Light has been trying desperately to be creative with stuff like Boogie in the past, but they've missed the mark. "Create" actually looks cool, visually, but it really seems like a useless thing compared to what it SHOULD be - a LittleBigPlanet 2 type game.
Re: Review: Ufouria: The Saga (Virtual Console / NES)
I wish more amazing, charming NES games came out on VC. Stuff like this, Mr.Gimmick, Crystalis...even Whomp'Em, NES Strider, Demon Sword and Power Blade and stuff. Needless to say I'm thrilled to see Ufouria here! And legally, for the first time in my country (I've only played it on emulator before...and I didn't play much because, lets face it, that's a horrible way to play console games)
The early 90's NES games were so, so polished and just instantly fun; there are a lot of games approaching the caliber of, say, Kirby's Adventure. And they're all just 5-6 bucks! They're the best value on the service, easily. And yet, there are so few of them that are worthwhile and AREN'T the big Nintendo first party franchises.
Re: Review: Dive: The Medes Islands Secret (WiiWare)
good to hear there's another quality wiiware release again finally! Its pretty much just become a graveyard for iphone/psp mini ports these days, unfortunately. So many cheaply produced, crappy forgettable puzzle games and thats it. We don't see games like Lost Winds, Cave Story or NyxQuest very often anymore, and yet here come Fuzzy Legends and Dive: Medes Islands in the same month? What a weird way to release things, Nintendo.
Unfortunately, I got my Wii points saved up for Gaijinworks/Sunsoft's stuff. I gotta pick up both Aero games and especially Ufouria. THEN I will consider some more Wiiware stuff.
Re: Review: Heavy Fire: Special Operations (WiiWare)
About the beginning of the article, I think it's perfectly reasonable to complain about the abundance of on-rails shooters on Wii. Mainly because they evolved into FPS's, and there are far too FEW of those on the Wii. Which is directly related to the amount of on-rails shooters - most publishers would rather do an on-rails entry in a series on the cheap than spring for the production of a full blown FPS. Of course, I'm talking about EA and Dead Space here, but you can see it generally this generation. Id software also did it with Doom 3 on iPhone. That sucks. Especially when ALL on-rails games are just like Heavy Fire: shoot, shoot, shoot, buyer's remorse. Even the best ones do the same damn thing, and get old very quick. We do not need so many damn on-rails shooters on Wii.
At the very least, we should have more where you control the characters. Besides Sin & Punishment 2, I mean. Where's Star Fox? Panzer Dragoon? Space/Planet Harriers? Its not much more effort than a dumb old first person on rails shooter, and yet it adds so much depth to be able to avoid shots.
Re: MundoRare Shuts Down After Losing Faith in Rare's New Direction
@Skrubber: Kameo is pretty good. But Viva Pinata is sooooo NOT for everybody, unlike Rare's DKC series and all of their N64 classics. And Banjo 3 was ugly and too different from its predecessors, not to mention uninspired in its own right (lets face it, almost all the missions boiled down to "destroy this" or "race to here"). Their 360 games have been disappointing overall, and their Xbox 1 output was pathetic.
Rare has definitely been in decline since being bought by Microsoft, but i have NO idea how much of that is their fault or MS's. If you travel to unseen64 sometime, you can see just how many Xbox 1 and Xbox 360 titles Rare have had cancelled by MS in the past. Really, really promising stuff. Quest, Urchin, Kameo 2, Saber Wulf Stampede, etc. And then they get killed and we end up with....Kinectimals and Kinect Sports and Avatars and whatever else MS wants to ripoff from Nintendo. It's very, very sad.
I never heard of Mundorare till this week, but it IS sad to see that the state of Rare is so bad these days. I would give anything to just see them make one more awesome platformer/action game. Banjo was as close as they'll get for a long time, I think, and it was really disappointing. Fun to play around with the vehicles, but then there was far too little to do with 'em. And christ it was hideous. Why redesign everyone to be so blocky? Just do it like the excellent, high res promotional/marketing art for Banjo Tooie on N64!
Re: First Impressions: Golden Sun: Dark Dawn
Its hard to imagine a better looking DS game than DQIX right now, but I'm sure both Final Fantasy 4 Heroes of Light and Golden Sun DS have a good shot of doing it. Looking forward to this very much!
Re: Review: Arc Rise Fantasia (Wii)
This game looks awful. I got nothing against traditional JRPGs, but they gotta have good characters and stories. Like a Dragon Quest or Eternal Sonata - the turn based combat and overworld exploration are just gameplay mechanics with which to hinge your story that's hopefully worth telling. Look at any trailer for Arc Rise, and you can see that this story is NOT worth telling - not by a long shot.
It's the kind of mediocre, derivative, Bleach-level anime sh*t that is literally just recycling TYPES OF CHARACTERS from countless other mediocre Japanese creations, instead of actually writing characters. Also, of course, the voice acting is exacerbating things, but I won't blame Ignition for not having the money to toss around recklessly like Square-Enix - you can always just mute 'em.
But seriously, the story looks so not worth it, and the combat is never a selling point, which means the game sort of just exists. Unless it's Dragon Quest, none of these traditional JRPGs have refined the standard gameplay mechanics enough to actually be fun. For example, turn based combat - when mired in fancy cutscenes, it takes too long, and becomes a slog. Arc Rise is THAT kinda JRPG.
So, y'know: not my kinda game Power to you if you enjoy it - I got nothing against supporting Ignition! But I'll be way more interested in their other games this year, like El Shaddai for PS3.
Re: New Trademarks Suggest Potential Names for 3DS Tag Mode
I wonder if Nintendo will bundle those tech demo-sounding minigames into a 3DS equivalent "Wii Sports" and have it come built in with the systems. Just to guarantee super million sales right away.
"3DS Sports" sounds like just the kinda lazy game name that soccer moms would make a kajillion seller, that's for sure!
Re: Review: Aero the Acrobat (Virtual Console / Super Nintendo)
hmph. Way too harsh on an otherwise pretty good game if you ask me, but hey - that's your opinion Nintendolife.
Don't get me wrong, Aero is definitely a second fiddle Sonic. And unlike Sparkster, who actually has an amazing couple of game deserving of much more fame (at least he got a contemporary sequel on PSN!), Aero's game is jankier.
However, its definitely still worth playing. Especially since the VC releases have slowed to a trickle. The controls are a TAD too loose (although compared to most garbage western platformers from the time, like Rayman, Earthworm Jim and Super Star Wars -- all of whom suffer from overly artsy backgrounds with unclear platform designs and slippery controls which made for frustrating gameplay), Iguana came so close to nailing that tight platformer control. Eventually, they nail it with Aero 2, but whatever. The first game is still very, very attractive - one of those quintessentially 16-bit looking games, the kind that shows why legions of gamers love sprite art - and has some really cool set pieces in there. And the open level designs with mission objectives, instead of just "go from left to right", is oddly forward thinking.
Much has been said of all the Sonic ripoffs that came out of the 16 bit era; those soulless, marketable animals with 'tude. And while Aero definitely has some of that (watch his sunglasses/moonwalk combo during the score screen after finishing a level!), he's NOWHERE near as bad as many say. The game is good, and well worth playing if you're a fan of SNES/Gen platformers and already have other ones on the VC.
He's definitely closer to Sonic and Rocket Knight than he is to garbage like Awesome Possum and Rocky Rodent. Don't go confusing him with the likes of those guys! Just look at the trailer Sunsoft (quietly) put on Youtube for this re-release*: This game has some greatness in there. It's just a tad janky. But decidedly NOT mediocre. Nintendolife is right in that it could use a REAL checkpoint system and some less cheap stage gimmicks, but hey - that's the 16 bit era for ya. And trust me - nothing makes you good at a game like dying over and over again. And Aero is definitely the kinda game where you get noticeably better after failure, so that's good.
Re: Trademarks Suggest Dragon Quest VI is Europe-bound
@Weblaus: Actually, Square-Enix is pulling a lot of DS games from their release schedules lately. Thats why we didn't get Blood of Bahamut, for example. Apparently the DS piracy is killing some of their bottom lines. Stuff like FF3 remake sold way better than, say, Kingdom Hearts DS. Blame it on piracy and move on. They didn't even wanna take a chance on DQIX, since that series has never really blown up in the western world either -- so, luckily, NOA picked up the slack. Or NOE. One of 'em, that's whats important. So couple rampant DS piracy (so many little punk kids have those damn R4 cards these days!) with Dragon Quest's traditionally lukewarm (for Square anyway, whose used to multi-million sellers) receptions and there was a serious chance they were going to pass on DQVI.
Personally, I think they'd be smarter to embrace the "one thousand true fans" policy that the Dragon Quest games get. Not nearly as many gamers play 'em over here in the west as, say, Final Fantasy. But everyone who does LOVES 'em. You almost never see used DQ copies in the wild, y'know? But who knows if these DS remakes sell well enough to validate the cost of translating them. Remember, these games never saw a proper western release back in the day.
Re: Trademarks Suggest Dragon Quest VI is Europe-bound
Jeez laweez - I'm still burning through DQV! And I bought DQIX at launch (to help those all important first month sales; Square and Nintendo need to see that fans want these games to continue to see western release!) -- I can't even THINK about Realms of Reverie yet! My kids were just born in Heavenly Bride!!!!!
@Otaku: I agree. At least with DQ8. According to Hardcore Gaming 101's EXCELLENT article on the series, DQ7 is a huge bore. The "Final Fantasy XIII" of the series in that it takes something ridiculous like 30 hours to really get going. And all the characters are the worst in the series - which is a HUGE blow considering how awesome the characters are in 4, 5 and presumably 6. Even though IV made me fall in love with the series, I'd definitely skip a 3DS port of 7. Though I'd love to see DQ8 come there...which it probably will, because Level 5 loves Nintendo:D
@Xkhaoz: AWESOME gif/avatar dude! Even though I don't really know why those little dudes are OMG'ing so much.
Re: Jett Rocket's Return May Not be in Platform Form
A 2.5D side scroller would work, as Jett has a similar moveset to another one of my favorite platformer heroes, Sparkster the Rocket Knight:) And Climax's recent PSN remake of that game was excellent. Making a Jett Rocket sidescroller could be really cool - heck it would make a great "little brother" title for DSi (or rather, 3DS).
Re: Capcom Bringing Titles to Japanese Virtual Console Arcade
"Come on, we like Ghouls 'N Ghosts too..."
Well, I HATE GnG, personally. The Maximo games were good though, and I know they're related. At any rate, it doesn't matter - I would just like to see more Capcom games on the VC and VCA in general Particularly Demon's Crest. But at this rate, I don't imagine an EXPLOSION of new titles until the next Nintendo home console and all new people just completely rediscover the service. Hopefully by then, Nintendo will learn to advertise this awesome service.
Re: Review: Ufouria: The Saga (Virtual Console / NES)
Really hope this finally - FINALLY - comes to America now. Even if only 10 people buy it. This and Mr.Gimmick are some of the best games ever put on the NES, and we never got either. C'mon Sunsoft - put 'em out there and show the world your retro game chops! People still only think of Blaster Master when they hear you (or your awesome NES Batman games), and frankly, you gotta show these gamers what for. Games like Ufouria and Gimmick are classics too!
Also, there aren't enough great NES platformers on the VC besides Kirby's Adventure and the Mario stuff. Bio Miracle Bokutte Upa is okay.
Re: Still Hope Rayman Origins May Find its Way to Nintendo Consoles
I don't care. Get to work on Beyond Good & Evil 2, Ubisoft Montpellier:D The 2D Rayman games were always "meh" at best. Gorgeous, yes, but lacking in the gameplay department. The games were "too artistic" if anything, as it was hard to tell the "bounding boxes" for platforms -- especially for a hero with no limbs. Will he reach that platform and climb up or not? And if not, why the hell not? Can't he "float" his hand over another inch.
Also, all Rayman could do was walk, so it was pretty sluggish. Except for the slippy-slidey music stages.
I've seen the trailer for Rayman Origins and it definitely looks stupid to me. First off, who gives a sh*t about Globox? Kill that dude off already. Secondly, why the immature tone? Last I checked, Rayman wasn't the sort to be entertained by fart jokes and its ilk.
Rayman was a hero - the same sort of guy as Mario, who was just motivated to do what he did because it was right and his friends needed help. So I really don't care for Origins at all, and couldn't care less as to whether or not it shows up for Nintendo download channels.
Rayman 2 was one of the best games ever made though, and 3 wasn't a bad platformer by any means (too combat focused though, and again, Globox is stupid and shouldn't have been featured that heavily). So I'll always give Rayman the benefit of the doubt. But I'd MUCH rather hear that they do another 3D one than any announcement like this.
But seriously, Beyond Good & Evil 2. Keep plugging away at that, Ubi!
Re: Review: Sakura Wars: So Long, My Love (Wii)
The first chapter of this game was neat. The second one? Not so much. First off, the game needs more music - the stupid "main track" that plays is dopey and repetitive, and it drives you insane when you have to go through so much text. But the thing that really drives me crazy are the QTE prompts, like when Gemini asks about your umeboshi? She says she might not like it, and Shinji says she probably will, and then you have 2 seconds to push a bar towards "feed it to her" or not. Go all the way in either direction, and you fail and she gets mad at you. So then it's a guessing game as to where the eff it wants you to hold it. Oh, and if you don't hit the button when the time runs out, you fail too, because it doesn't just accept where you have the bar anyway at the time of...the timer running out:( It's confusing and aggravating as hell if you're a completionist looking to do everything successfully, because that stupid crap means reloading the chapter and starting all over.
I just wanna get to the next robot fight!
It's still a really neat game, and oddly compelling for something so minimalist. Also, the art book was great in the special edition, so thanks again Rerun for the tip! But man, is it hard to love. What a janky game.
Re: Review: Sin and Punishment: Star Successor (Wii)
This game is difficult:D Every level has, like, 17 bosses. And by level 3 (level 1 for some, I'm sure), the "kiddie gloves" come off (aka, they throw hundreds of guys at you instead of merely 10s). But I dig every minute of it. This is definitely one of those games where every time you die, you literally get enemy patterns BEATEN into you, which makes you do better next time. It's old school, and it's punishing, but it's gorgeous and awesome.
Although it doesn't feel like Sin & Punishment to me at all. Sure, the story is the same bad anime nonsense, but the sound and art direction is slightly different (just look at the eyes of the main characters in cutscenes, or the fashion sense), and of course now they can fly. It feels way more like a Space Harrier sequel to me. So I consider it a bad sequel, but another awesome on-rails shooter from Treasure. Not as good as Panzer Dragoon Orta (which also, to this day, looks sharper than this game. God, Smilebit was talented), but right up there in second place, tied with Star Fox 64 Very, very good.
Re: Review: Tournament of Legends (Wii)
@Nintendoftw. Yes, because we all know that what makes good fighting games is blood and gore. That's why Street Fighter IV has none of it and sucks right? Oh, and it also uses color and style instead of greys and browns that all good, "realistic" games have, right? That's TWO strikes against that steaming pile, Street Fighter. That game is totally for "teh kiddiez".
thank you for not directly insulting people -- TBD
@moosa: Actually, I bet they didn't make crud on the Conduit. If you look at some of the licenses they've worked with in the past, like Dora the Explorer and Ben 10, those games CLEANED UP at retail. A ton of Ben 10 games have sold over a million units. Certain licenses, especially those targeted at kids (with less discerning tastes as gamers - remember some of the crud we all played when we were little), are practically money-printing machines. If anything, all these original IPs they're working with are the risky ones, even though they might help establish them as a "gamer's developer" someday.
Re: Review: Tournament of Legends (Wii)
I'm glad they switched the theme to fantasy and legends from the boring old "grounded in reality" gladiator stuff, but the game was never destined to be good. HVS has no fighting game experience, and that's what you need for a fighting game - and yes, there's no way to say that without sounding like a douche.
But fighting games require a really, really tight animation pipeline - you need to animate hundreds of moves, and more importantly, tons and tons of transitional animations and stuff like "hit stuns". You can't just decide, "Hey guys! Lets make a fighting game this year" and have it turn out well. And to put it on a system with a limiting motion controller? Bold move, but dumb. Really dumb.
They were smart to try and pattern after something less traditional, like Bushido Blade, but dumb to flip-flop back to some traditional one-on-one genre staples. They would've done better if they decided on a Power Stone/Bushido Blade style game 100%, instead of this Castlevania: Judgement kinda thing.
However, HVS, Conduit was good fun. Very old school corridor shooter - very much in the same vein as Perfect Dark and Goldeneye. There are way too many haters for that thing, but who cares because they're probably mainstream CoD-fanboys anyway, and those guys are morons:) Good luck with Conduit 2 and Grinder, guys. But yea, Tournament of Legends never looked like something worth getting excited about. I'm shocked that SEGA picked it up for release at all to tell you the truth.
I'll still give it a rent though. I totally dig that art; very Soul Calibur-meets-Gauntlet Legends:D
Re: Get Cute and Fluffy with Miffy's World on WiiWare
I've never heard of Miffy. Is it a European cartoon? Because it looks like the sort of cartoon that Kipper the Dog was, which DID make its way to the 'states eventually.
Anyway, I'm far too old to really care about this:) I just like the art style because it reminded me of Kipper!
Re: Jett Rocket Sequel May Already be Firing Up its Boosters
@SmaMan: You DO know that there are other Earthbound games right? Just because us westerners didn't officially get them doesn't mean you can call the sign a lie. Why just last month, I bought an NES Reproduction of the english language Earthbound Zero for a friend of mine who loves the series to death. And we both played Mother 3, via an excellent fan translation, through emulation at various points in the past. So don't call the sign a liar, sir!
Re: Jett Rocket Sequel May Already be Firing Up its Boosters
Jett Rocket is awesome. I knew it'd embarass most third party retail efforts visually, but I'm really surprised by how well it plays. It's like Banjo Kazooie or Spyro, or any other solid N64/PSX era platformer, which is way more than I thought it would be. And the use of waggle is actually really solid, satisfying to use, and - gasp! - actually fun. The game is well designed all around, and has Shin'en's signature charming faux-Japanese/old school presentation behind it(Jett Rocket reminds me at once of both Alex Kidd and Commander Keen). I knew it would be good - I didn't expect to love it as much as I am really:)
Honestly, I kinda wish they'd port it to other systems. It wouldn't need any graphic re-working to fit on PSN honestly, and the Sixaxis can detect the "slamming" motions needed to do all the motion in the game. I'm not sure how well Wiiware games sell, but what I do know is that good games need to be made available to everybody who wants to play them. So if they had to be working on more Jett Rocket so soon, I'd want it to be that - a port for HD Consoles and Steam or something. But I'll gladly take a sequel any day of the week, Shin'en!
Re: Meet the Dragon Quest Creator at this DQIX Launch Event
I'm soooo there. @Egg Miester: Screw you. NYC is the crown jewel of America. You should move there, or much closer at least.
Re: Strap On Your Headset for Conduit 2
Someone bothered to make a wii headset? For what? 4 games? That's effin' crazy man.
At any rate, it's a non issue. Both the PS3 and Wii's online user base are DELIGHTFULLY silent. Choosing non-verbal ways to communicate online (the ModNation Racers community for example seems quite alright with the software keyboard in that game. Heck, I've played Borderlands with people who just honked thier buggy's horn and shot at stuff to communicate stuff). Which is, in every possible way, the preferred way to play with strangers.
No one will use this. I played Conduit 1 for a few weeks after launch and NO ONE had wii speak. It's like they put it in just because effin' Matt Cassamassina on IGN kept bugging them about it:D No one cares. Unless they bundle in a voice headset with the system a la Microsoft, no one will use it. Which is definitely how it should be! So I'm not worried. Conduit 2 will definitely, 100%, have silent online multiplayer. I'm sure of it.
@SoulSilver4: Man. That shouldn't even be a parental control - that should be the ONLY option for EVERY game console. Blocking headsets for everyone but friends? Genius idea, mate!
Re: E3 2010: The First Coat of Epic Mickey Game Details
That trailer is so cool.
@David77: You clearly don't know much about this game. Have Warren Specter educate a bit about why Epic Mickey is amazing and will be a must play Wii game later this year before saying stuff like that again, huh? Check out this:
Warren Specter Story trailer:
http://www.gametrailers.com/video/e3-2010-epic-mickey/101616
Walkthrough
http://www.gametrailers.com/video/e3-2010-epic-mickey/700331
This game will be AMAZING.
Re: Hands On: VDigi VD-W3 Wii HDMI Upscaler
Totally not worth it. Not only is that picture a good example that there's little to no difference with this thing, but - lets face it - most developers don't even try with the Wii anyway. That'd be like getting an upscaler for some ugly PS2 games.
Wii games - the GOOD ones, anyway - look great regardless of resolution. This is silly. Just wait for Nintendo's sixth(?) generation console.
Re: Third Parties May Reveal Their Own 3DS Games at E3
I like that mock up. I'd love to get Namco's Mario Kart Arcade Grand Prix on a Nintendo console SOMEDAY. I'm sure it'll happen eventually though, considering that this generation has established that older games will always see digital re-release in the future.
Re: Final Furry Legends Trailer Wants to Scare You
Good to know there'll be something worth downloading on July 5th. Now, when's Jett Rocket coming out too?
Re: Feature: Hyperkin Retron3 Console Review
That's a pretty good review I suppose. I wanted the FC3 Plus the MOMENT I discovered it existed, but too many user reviews throughout the 'net mentioned its jankiness and I decided to pass. I think I'll check this one out instead now...
Re: Feature: The Making of Jet Force Gemini - Part Two
The levels in Jet Force Gemini were AMAZING once you opened up all the characters and their second suits. Such a cool game design - and its awesome to hear about it here:) Though I gotta say, while Vela was the only one to be able to swim, I rather enjoyed Lupus' ability to just turn into a hovercraft tank and float around on top of it:) You never expect pontoons to just pop out of a mechanical dog like that.
Amazing game. Unfortunately, it's pretty unplayable nowadays. Blurry textures, horrid framerate, and the N64's awkward and horrible controller. It was awesome back in '97, but nowadays it is clearly backwards. The "Freelook" stick needs to be on the RIGHT hand, not the left. After Banjo-Kazooie, Banjo-Tooie and Perfect Dark, this BETTER get an HD remake for Xbox Live. That'd actually convince me to get a new 360 after years of ignoring that junky system. The PS3 and Wii are a much better combo, but I'd definitely get a new Xbox if this came out. It bugs me that I never DID finish the HD Banjo remake before my last one Red Ring'd on me. Again.
Re: Nintendo Download: 7th June 2010 (North America)
(insert comment about unhappy VC output here)
Re: Vote for a Conduit Map to Return in Conduit 2
People only played Streets when I played it...or was it Pentagon? Warehouse? The Conduit's environments lacked variety, so I don't even remember. It was the one with the two, three-story office buildings looking over a middle street, and there was a big whole in the building in one end for you to run into, using the rubble. It might have been 2 sets of symmetrical areas like this, actually, so 4 buildings? At any rate, I remember teams sniping the beejeezus out of each other from across the street in the other buildings' windows. It was pretty fun...
Re: Hudson Announces E3 Lineup
I don't really care. Hudson sucks. I mean, Bomberman is awesome, but that's ALL they have, AND its already available for every system thats important this generation.
Though Lost in Shadows (despite its janky name) definitely looks cool, like Ico meets the original Prince of Persia. And a Mario Party 9 would certainly be welcome, but won't happen since Nintendo can do "wii party" for much cheaper since the Miis and their stupid island are horrid little detail-less creations.
But mostly, they barely had any output on the last generation of consoles, and everything they've done this generation has been awful little downloadable titles or bomberman. Has anyone seen their US-developed "Bonk: Edge of Extinction"? Awful.
Couldn't care about this company any less right now.
Re: Rising Star to Bring Rune Factory 2 and More to Europe in Autumn
ugh...Valhalla Knights was SUPPOSED to be awful. I never played it personally, but it got horrendous reviews when it came out - to no aplomb and no advertising - here in the 'states last year. Like a poor, poor, POOR man's version of Monster Hunter. I can't believe its coming to Europe like a year later...and after Monster Hunter Tri, no less. ewwwwww.
Re: First Sonic Colours Details Emerge
Secret Rings was such a good idea, and its execution was a'ight. It suffered from the crappy ring leveling system though, because it wasn't balanced for all the powers you could equip. You could actually run PAST scripted events if you turned on all the unlockable speed powerups, which would break the game horrendously. Also, it began terribly, because you need to level up Sonic's controls and speed to get him somewhere that's responsive. Too many bad ideas and bad execution really brought that down.
Unleashed though was a massive improvement. Like Burnout mixed with a platformer. Its the only 3D Sonic game to have polish at all. No clipping through walls, great controls, great mechanics (the drift and slide kick need to be in every Sonic game going forward). Unfortunately, 70-80 percent of the game WASN'T that stuff, and was that werehog stuff. Which was an okay brawler, but repetitive as heck...and not Sonic in the least.
Here's hoping they've really learned a thing or two since that game. I'm sure it'll be better than their past games though, simply because it wasn't annualized. Those last two wii exclusives came out in February and needed more time in the oven. This game has clearly missed that release, and Sonic 4 was delayed too - SEGA knows they need to polish their Sonic games going forward, and these latest games HAVE been in development for longer than usual. Good luck to it.
Re: Review: Hero of Sparta (DSiWare)
This game blows. I remember downloading it on PSP when they launched their PSP Minis, and it sucked super hard. Even though its only like 3.99 on PSP, it's a god awful waste of money. Gameloft does not know how to code/animate/pull off a melee engine. This thing is janky as balls, with zero transition animations or "frivolities" like hit stuns. It reminds me of the old, crappy Midway fighters like Mace: The Dark Ages.
An absolute waste. Pass on this one.
Re: New Nintendo Video Reminds You Wii has Great Games
Good for Nintendo UK. I HATE how NOA "advertises" the wii this generation. As in, they don't - at all. The only games that get a bit of love from NOA's advertising are 2 year old DS titles that, apparently, non-gaming country starlets enjoy playing. Like Nintendogs. Thats BS. I wish Nintendo would bring back the "Wii would like to Play" dudes, or get their own "Kevin Butler". SOMEONE to show off the killer games on the system that ARE DECIDEDLY NOT "Just Dance". Stuff like Tatsunoko VS Capcom, Fragile Dreams, No More Heroes 2, Sky Crawlers, Bit.Trip Runner, Red Steel 2, Cave Story, Prince of Persia Forgotten Sands, Sonic All Stars Racing, etc. etc. etc. And all those excellent games are just from the beginning of this year. Yet, most gamers don't know, or care, about those titles. Instead, they just keep claiming "My wii is collecting dust" or "there's nothing to play on wii". And Nintendo doesn't seem to care.
They're THE only first party who doesn't care, and its aggravating to say the least. So it's nice to see NOE make a commercial or two. Welcome to 2006, Nintendo - yes, you're involved in a console war, you fools.
Re: Rumour: 3DS Could Rival PS3 and 360 in Power Stakes
Impossible. Nintendo's a very...."careful with their money" kinda company (cough* CHEAP *cough). Not to mention it would be embarassing if their handheld outperformed their home console.
Of course, judging by how badly they advertised the wii and its library of games this generation, maybe they'd just exit the home console space if this turned out to be true? Even though, of course, it won't be. This thing will be about as powerful as a PS2 or Gamecube.
This rumor is garbage.
Re: Feature: The Making of Jet Force Gemini - Part One
I didn't know Miyamoto had input on THIS game too! Man, Rare sure did change a lot to accomodate that guy back in the day. The more you look into it, the more you see how he had hands in Dinosaur Planet, Diddy Kong Racing, Banjo-Kazooie and of course DKC. No wonder Rare games nowadays feel a tad "off" (although Kameo is still pretty awesome...stupid looking, googly-eyed monsters notwithstanding).
Re: Super Mario Galaxy 2 Blitzes Original's Launch Sales Figures
I hope the sequel does the same in the west. Although I won't blame it if it doesn't - it's going up against a LOT of heavy hitters, namely ModNation Racers and Red Dead Redemption. As well as games like Lost Planet 2, Split/Second, and several SKU's of Prince of Persia: Forgotten Sands.
May was a crazy month for gaming. But Mario Galaxy 2 is FANTASTIC. And since story doesn't really matter in Mario games, it IS actually the better game between it and it's prequel. It helps that its way more streamlined, and just the overload of content and fantastic level designs and gameplay ideas. I didn't think Galaxy 2 could do it - and when it was announced, I didn't even want it yet - but this sequel definitely tops the original. It deserves at least as much success as Galaxy 1, that's for sure.
Re: Kapow! New Batman Trailer is Both Brave and Bold
The Brave & The Bold is a totally rad cartoon. It's about time someone put the fun back in the caped crusader! I was actually hoping that this would end up like....well, like a GOOD version of what Activision tried to do with Spider-Man Friend or Foe. I'm kinda shocked that they went with an uber old-school 2D look -- it looks like a sequel to the old Genesis (Mega Drive) and SNES game, "Batman: The Animated Series". Which is kinda...awesome, actually!
Plus, it's very clear that they put their Boy & His Blob team on this - that animation is beautiful, and way more fluid than the animation in the actual 'toon, which is really cool. I'm sure Wayforward's going to pump out another awesome game. I'd like to see more of this.
Re: Review: Prince of Persia: The Forgotten Sands (Wii)
"...but removing some of the tension that drove the original levels so brilliantly."
I'm sorry, but anyone who says the original Prince of Persia is brilliant is a psycho. I recognize it for what it did, but damn - bad controls are bad controls. That's like defending Tomb Raider in retrospect - it simply shouldn't be done.
Anyway, I really enjoyed Forgotten Sands. I'm glad Ubi Quebec stepped up and did a unique Wii version - and it's telling how much of it borrows from Mario Galaxy that they did their homework. The pointer heavy controls, the same style of co-op play, the intelligent camera; there's a LOT of good in this version of the game. And if you're like me and you played through it all with the unlockable Sands of Time skin, then it feels like a truer sequel to that game than Warrior Within ever did. Letting the player form their own pathways with different combinations of the pointer-based magic abilities is a brilliant idea. The execution just isn't as perfect as you'd want it to be, and letting the player find their own way through each room causes the otherwise intelligent camera to get confused, which is a shame. But overall, things work often enough to make for a really cool Prince of Persia sequel; one that manages to bring something truly fresh to the table. And it's a far prettier game than the HD version, which I also got. I mean, sure it lacks the lighting effects and shader stuff, but the use of color and baked-in lighting in the Wii version is superior. The environments pop a lot more than the drab scenery on display in the PS3 version. Also, the prince looks much better in the wii one - I don't know why, but his face is just ....wrong in the HD one...
I would've given it a 7, but good review nonetheless. The words I agree with, not the number:)