E309 – Nintedo Regains Respect

Firstly, I know this has been a bit slow. But you learn to deal, I have been writing up reports for E3 over at WiiLoaded in an attempt to get us some attention. Should be going pretty well actually. Anyway, back to E3.

I think by many, this will be known as Nintendo’s redemption for reasons I will get into. When Cammie first came out onto stage I think a lot of Nintendo fans felt their heart sink. She was part of the reason that last year’s conference sucked so very, very much. But this year things were a bit different, sure she was as boring and annoying as ever. But she announced Nintendo’s first new game: New Super Mario Bros. Wii. Basically this game is a follow up to the hit DS title, and seemingly intends to keep the same visual style. I already hear a lot of gamers rising up saying, “What?! A Wii game that has the visual quality of a DS game?!” and I’ll tell you now to calm down. The game will also feature four player (drop in and out) co-operative play for its side-scrolling action. Now I do believe this is the selling point, and from the demo it looked like a lot of fun. Due out around Christmas 2009 as well, so this was a very good start for Nintendo.

However, what followed was not as inspiring. Reggie came out and bleh, Wii Motion Plus and Wii Sports Resort were talked about (even though we heard all about them last year) and it seemingly made the conference drag on. A lot. But they also slipped in another new announcement, which was already being talked about several months ago. Wii Fit Plus is coming to the Wii, with new mini-games and improved exercise features.

They also gave spotlight for a few games that we already knew about, these included the Conduit, Resident Evil: Darkside Chronicles and Dead Space Extraction. Nothing too new from these games, Conduit looking like it’ll be as fun as ever. And the two rail-shooters looking like they could have been so much more than ever. Nintendo also gave some time to the DS, and officially announced Golden Sun DS (which exploded the RPG fanbase on the DS with unstorable amounts of awesome) and a release window for Mario & Luigi 3: Bowser’s Inside Story and Kingdom Hearts 352/2 Days. I was so surprised to hear a new Golden Sun was coming, I am a fan of the franchise but I didn’t think Nintendo seemed to concerned about following it up. Sounds like they made a fool of me, but they did so for most of this conference. And I was happy to see Kingdom Hearts on DS, it is looking like one of the most visually breath-taking DS games yet. Not surprising either, the ROM is 200mb in size as well.

After this Iwata came out, and introduced us to the newest Nintendo gimmick: the Wii Vitality Sensor. This is directed towards Nintendo’s casual audience. I assume it’ll be used with a future Wii Fit game (maybe Wii Fit Plus), but definitely something along that line. The device apparently reads your heart rate and various other messages being sent around your body. The only positive I can think of from this is a new horror point-and-click adventure game that could react to your heart rate. Imagine this, if you please, you are in Silent Hill (a town which is noted for reacting towards the person in it) and every time your heart reat increases, the game would trigger something that would scare you more. Forcing you to control your heart rate and push through. However this concept would rely heavily on gamers being scared, which isn’t likely.

Towards the end of the show Nintendo officially announced Super Mario Galaxy 2 as well, and it will apparently contain 90% new content. Which is an exciting prospect, apparently it is going to be similar to Super Mario 64 in terms of gameplay. Whether this means more landscape related environments (instead of tiny planets) or just more classic platformer gameplay is yet to be completely seen. It is slated for 2010 though and I am very excited about it. Note to self: Buy Super Mario Galaxy 1.

And last but not least, Nintendo closed with the biggest surprise yet, one that blew me off my feet and even as I tried to get back up it blew me up again. For the whole minute and fifty seconds of the teaser video I was exploding all over. Metroid: Other M is coming to the Nintendo Wii in 2010. It will not be like Metroid Prime 3, and nor will it be developed by Retro Studios. The reigns have been taken up Team Ninja (of Ninja Gaiden fame) who are now working together with Nintendo to create a game that will bridge Super Metroid and Metroid Fusion. And it will seemingly be 3D side-scroller/3rd person action/1st person shooter all at once. I’m so very, very excited for this game.

Nintendo, you won my heart… again…

Bastards.

Ol’ Chinatown.

So, since I finished RE5 the other day I’ve been able to spend some more quality time with Chinatown Wars, the new GTA on the Nintendo DS. And I gotta say, its a pretty good game. And I never thought I’d say that about a GTA game… maybe the DS is a magic handheld.

First place to start is the visuals. Even though this entry into the franchise returns to the classic top-down view of GTA, I have to say I love it!! This game captures everything I loved about GTA. And I can’t get enough of it. I think I’m on a measly 40% completion at the moment, and I’ve been playing it on and off over the last few days. Enjoying every moment. Even though the game is top down, you can see its in full 3D. And I think that’s the most impressive thing. They have essentially rendered two of GTAIV’s islands into the DS. And its quite an accomplishment to behold.

The only weakpoint is money. Getting money in this game is so damn easy, I mean, with the drug system its pretty hard to not be filthy rich. Which is good for those who are newer to the franchise. But I feel it makes money more of a expendable thing. Especially since it means even if you get busted all you need to do is deal a few drugs before you can buy back your entire arsenal of weaponry. But if it works, it works.

The new “Wanted” system is a bit strange as well, and another element I am currently uneasy with. This time you have to eliminate a police car for each star you have before you can lose that wanted star. This sounds nice in concept, but speeding along the highway the police will wipe themselves out nearly all of the time, leaving you to just speed on away weaving through traffic watching as your pursuers bite the dust.

More on the game at a later date.

The Return.

I understand I have been absent for awhile, I have had quite the busy schedule, maintaining work, Uni, gaming and real life stuff isn’t easy. Also I had my 21st birthday party recently, I’ll spare you guys the details but it left me sickly for a few days.

Anyway. What’s happened? I finished MGS4. Several times. Love it. Adore it. Treasure it. Except for its ending. Got my R4 card, experienced a lot of awesome things because of it. Had holidays, now they’re over so back at studying and stuff again.

Also, WL is undergoing difficulties so I’m putting time aside to help them.

Peace and love readers!

TGS Comes And Goes Again… Surprise?

So, another year and another Tokyo Game Show has gone past with about as much information that we could care about as the Nintendo E3 conference had this year.

In fact, Nintendo fans should probably stop worrying about events at this rate because they are far better at keeping their lips tightly sealed than any of us can imagine. The only mildly interesting thing I found about TGS was the announcement of another bunch of Kingdom Hearts games and one of them is for my beloved handheld, the DS. Now no doubt the PSP KH game will be better and a truer to the Kingdom Heart franchise but its nice to see that we’re probably going to get a Crystal Chronicle/Kingdom Hearts game. It interests me, although the fact that it is being developed by the team responsible for Chocobo Tales doesn’t inspire hope. I suppose we’ll have to wait and see…

Halo 3 has been well received by the gaming community and after all the hype of the “Finish the Fight” tagline the game carries you’d be forgiven for hoping for a more conclusive ending. But sadly we did not get that, I will not spoil it for those who would rather wait but it didn’t impress me in any way what so ever, although I assume Halo fans will disagree. Much like if Metroid Prime 3 had a boring ending most people dislike it except Metroid fans. Its how the world spins.

So where do Nintendo fans cast their RSS feeds to now? Prepare for Entertainment For All of course, its going to be supermassive and I wish I could be there. Sadly I couldn’t afford the $3,000AU it would have cost me to get there and stay comfortably. Ah well, maybe next year?

WiiLoaded Staff Members will be attending EfA so keep your eye on the WiiLoaded News Portal for news as it breaks (hopefully, so long as D4rk isn’t too busy challenging Nomad and LZ to various drinking challenges).

We are entering game season, Mario in November, Smash in December. Its actually going to be a time when I’m glad to own a Wii.

Metroid Prime 3 is still yet to be reviewed by me as I’m still yet to install my Wiikey chip. One guy offered to install it… for $80AU. I definitely did not agree to that, lol.

See you next mission.