Saturday, March 29, 2008

Battle Of the Boxarts- Smash Bros

Hey! This is my new feature on Wonderful Nintendo, it's where I take a franchise on Nintendo Platforms, and review all of the boxarts, and at the end I decide which one's the best!

OK! So lets start this!

SUPER SMASH BROS BOXART BATTLE

Fighter 1- Super Smash Bros.

Being the very first Smash Bros game, it was allowed to look basic.
It just needed to be something to start the franchise off.
The cartoony look of the game could've made you think that this game could only be enjoyed by kids. But this game is so hardcore, kids had trouble perfecting the way they played it.
You would expect Mario to be at the front, but why is he being attacked by Pikachu?
My guess is that because this is the first game to mix all these characters together, they really wanted to mix up the fights.
The cover looks exciting. The title has the word 'smash' exaggerated in a comic book like way.
I have no idea what Link is doing.
He looks as though he's traumatized.
I had to take away points for that. Link is one hell of a fighter, and you couldn't tell be looking at this cover.

86/100
A basic boxart to start off a brilliant franchise!

Fighter 2- Super Smash Bros Melee
hmmm...

The cover shows the addition of Bowser and other characters.
Mario is facing Bowser in his fight pose, Pikachu is dodging the fire that Bowser is breathing out, and Link, well, he's diving right into the fire.
As if he's trying to stab it!
Don't get me wrong, it looks epic but out of place.
What's that castle in the background?

It only has 4 characters fighting. This is because the slogan says " Nintendo's Best in four player action'.
But The original Smash bros boxart has six characters fighting.

What's the deal with the teen rating in the corner?! Smash Bros isn't for teens, it's for everyone!

85/100
It Looks a little bland.







Fighter 3-Super Smash Bros. Brawl
(THE BEAST)
By far the most epic Smash Bros Boxart is brawl's.
With Link at the front this time (not looking stupid) and Pikachu running towards the camera.
Everyone in their fight pose, with characters flying over everyone, and a great blue background with a white light in the middle.

Every character looks brilliant in a great 3D look. Almost every character is angry, the title looks amazing, and this boxart is by far one of the greatest Nintendo has ever created!





100/100
There is nothing wrong with this boxart at all.








And the winner is.....
Super Smash Bros. Brawl

Next week the Mario Kart Franchise will battle it out for this prestigious prize!








Still Playing? (Zelda Edition)

What Zelda games are you still playing?

I have clocked Phantom Hourglass twice ( and a half). I finished Twilight Princess 4 times. What Now?
Phantom Hourglass can be played after you've beat it. The same way as most Zeldas. You beat the last boss, it resets to the part before, you battle it, and then you can do what you want. Sam with Twilight Princess. But!
Which offers more replayability?

Phantom Hourglass gives you the option of collecting ship parts.
While this sounds fun, it only takes about an hour and a half to collect them all. You could try and find all of the gems. But that means you'll have to reset the game if you miss any.

Twilight Princess gives you more options.

You could collect bugs. But there are so many it would take ages to get them all. But at least you get rewarded by the bug lady.

Fishing is a better option. OK so it costs money but who cares.
Fishing controls work great, but if you don't have the patience, it won't be that fun for you.

If you go into the hut near the fishing hole, you can play the rolling ball game.
It costs 5 rupees per go.
Tilting the Wii Remote to move the course works great (most of the time)
I got up to the last level, and never beat it.

There is a rapid ride game (shoot the balloons without hitting anything to get a heart piece), the clawshot game ( Clawshot your way around a cage to collect the glowing orbs. Win and get a larger quiver.) and a few others.

In both Zelda games there is also the option of collecting heart pieces, but this can be a hard task without a strategy guide.

So there you have it, two Zelda games explored to the max to squeeze every bit of fun out of them.

Are you still playing them?

EA Announces 'Zubo'!


The popular company behind titles such as FIFA 08, and NBA, has announced a kids rhythm game for the DS.

In Zubo, the player must aid the inhabitants of Zubalon against the evil Zombos.
The player must feed, train, and use their Zubos to kill stuff in a kid-like way!

"Zubo represents the culmination of a dedicated incubation project, which specifically sought to develop a new videogame property for boys and girls under 12," said Harvey Elliott, Head of the EA Bright Light studio in Guildford, UK. "The team here has designed a rich, immersive and, above all, enjoyable experience -- one that will live in the schoolyard, at home or on the move."

Players enter the world of Zubalon to help the colorful and zany inhabitants, the Zubos, defeat an evil force which is bent on world domination. Players can befriend the Zubos they meet along the way, feed and nurture them, help them gain skills and strength, and assist them in their battles with the enemy, the dastardly Zombos.

A key element to Zubo is music, which is intrinsic to Zubalon from its tuneful plant life through to its currency of musical notes. The player will use the music to drive the battles forward, synchronizing their stylus action and tapping in time with the musical beats to win!

With 55 Zubos available to find and recruit to a player's squad, plus a wealth of interactions and mini-games, and the world of Zubalon to explore, Zubo offers a deeply rewarding Nintendo DS experience.

Zubo is developed by EA Bright Light studio in Guildford, UK and it will be available on the Nintendo DS this autumn.

Friday, March 28, 2008

Paramount Now Moving to Games Development

The movie company, Paramount, will be devoloping games for the DS and PSP (Why only handelds?).

"We are entering into deals now where we will be publishing games this year," said Sandi Isaacs, Par's senior veep of interactive and mobile. "There's going to be a slate where in some cases we're publishing, in some cases we're co-publishing, or in others we're funding development and another publisher buys it. It's important for us to have a flexible model." At this stage there is no word on exactly what games they will be publishing or co-publishing but their first title is expected to be released later this year.

Paramount will continue licencing out it's movies to game developers as always, because Paramount is only interested in new licenses and catalogue titles.

So you'll have to wait and see what they have in store for you.

Lego Batman Announced


Holy Moly, Batman, we're made of Lego!

It was inevitable. First it was Star Wars. Then it was Indiana Jones, and now, Batman!


The game will apear on all platforms including Wii and DS (what a surprise!)

There is no release date for the game yet.

Are you excited about this game? I'm not!

Wednesday, March 26, 2008

Game On

Game On is a game expo to be held at ACMI (Australian Center for the Moving Image) in Melbourne.
Next week Game On is holding a 'Gamerthon' for seven days. The games will change each day. And of those games, there are no Wii, or DS to be seen.
The prize money altogether is $50,000!

I'll be there. But I'm still disappointed that there are no DS/Wii games in the gamerthon. There are plenty of competitive Nintendo games (Smash bros anyone?).

But of course the actual expo will feature plenty of Nintendo games for you to play at your leisure. Game On is all about the history of games, and the history of game wouldn't be the same with out Nintendo!

Game On is running from the 6th of March to the 13th April. So be there if you want to see gaming's past present and future!

For more info visit:

http://www.acmi.net.au/

Tuesday, March 25, 2008

It's a real life Mario Kart!

Well, it's more like a beetle but whatever.

This car looks totally awesome!

UK retailer GAME has offered this awesome mario kart themed Volkswagen in a forthcoming Mario Kart Wii competition!
All you have to do is pop along to one of the thirty participating UK stores on April 5th and get the fastest lap in the country. Easy!

There other prizes as well. One being the chance to play Mario Kart Wii a whole week early!

Too bad I'm not in the UK...

Monday, March 24, 2008

Classics- Mario vs Donkey Kong


it's truly a handheld achievement to remember!

I just felt like playing one of the classics! :)
If this game isn't perfect, then I don't know what is!

Mario vs Donkey Kong referenced back to the first game Mario Appeared in: Donkey Kong.
The game even features the classic start tone of Donkey Kong.
Mario Vs Donkey Kong was a very good looking game boy game. It had 2D characters and objects, that somehow, looked rendered in 3D! It looked great.
Mario Vs Donkey Kong also featured 3D pictures. That was basically the equivalent of the first cutscene.



Donkey Kong has to settle some differences with Mario, when Mario's Mini Mario toys get sold out everywhere.
Donkey Kong storms into Mario's company building, and steals all the mini Marios!
Mario must chase Donkey Kong around the building, to try and get his precious toys back.

The game makes you feel as though your running after Donkey Kong (and that's a good feeling).

This game is definitely a classic and should be remembered as: Portable Genius!

SCORE- GRAPHICS-89/100 STORY- 87/100 CONTROLS- 92/100 OVERALL- 95/100

"It's truly a handheld acheivement to remember"

The Evolution of Smash Bros



Gametrailers has recently posted this great video showing the differences (and similarities) between the smash bros games.

It's recommended that you watch it if your a fan. It shows the differences between levels,characters,game modes etc.

So sink your teeth into the video above!!!

New Logo For Wonderful Nintendo

Well? What do you think?! The logo above was made by me entirely. It has four different kinds of Mario! (Now that's gotta be good!)

Please tell me if there is something wrong with the logo. Or if there's something you don't like.
You could even give some suggestions.

But please don't give me harsh criticism.

That logo will be there for a while, so get used to it!

New N+ Video







I'm sure you're all aware of the new game coming to DS (N+). Judging by the video, I would say that it's looking pretty good. But, The way the character moves just isn't the same as the N game on the computer.



IGN recently had an interview with Metanet Co-founders, Mare Sheppard and Raigan Burns.



Raigan Burns: Some of the first stuff we did was just stuff moving around, so you need collision pretty quickly.



Mare Sheppard: And we knew that we wanted to do something a little different than what you typically find in games. Basically we had kind of a rough concept of something that we really wanted to play. So we were kind of working on, "How are we going to make this happen? What do we need to do?"



IGN: So you guys started out thinking about doing a 2D platformer and it just sort of mushroomed from there?



Raigan Burns: Yeah. It was a good simple thing to go for.



Mare Sheppard: Yeah, a good first project.



Catch more of the interview here.

Sunday, March 23, 2008

Sonic Unleashed Confirmed?

The game said to be released on Wii and 360, has had some screens and videos leaked. After this leak Sega released information into a German Sega magazine (sega On) with information confirming the existence of the game and then the German magazine removed it.

Here is some information about the game.

The Sega teams are hoping to rebuild the Sonic brand, and prove that int could work in 3D environments. Sonic Unleashed involves a ware wolf style sonic (above) either as a player transformation or as an enemy.

Well that sounds pretty cool, but why did the German Magazine remove it? Here is a video of the game:


Saturday, March 22, 2008

Australians have to wait three months for Brawl after Americans already have it!


It's hard to be patient for a game, especially when it's the most anticipated game of the year!

We have been waiting for Brawl for a long time. Americans have been complaining that the release dates were always changing, when we never even had a release date! By the time we get Brawl, everybody who got in America will have done everything in the game!!!

Please Nintendo, Think about us! I understand that your giving us Mario Kart Wii Earlier than US, but that's not enough!
Please make brawl come out in May. At least.

Mario Kart Wii Japanese Intro Revealed!



It's time to get excited! The Mario Kart Wii Japanese intro has been revealed onto the website 'Gametrailers.com'.

The video above is exactly that. OK so maybe the quality of the video isn't the best, but who cares! At least we were able to have a peak at the intro to the game!!

It just looks so cool to see Mario &Luigi racing on invisible karts with nothing but a Wii wheel!

There will be 32 tracks in Mario Kart Wii, just like on the DS. The amount of characters im not sure of though.

So have you pre-ordered? I sure have!

Friday, March 21, 2008

Nintendo's Sympathy

I'm sure you've heard this before but whatever. Someone called Nintendo explaining their situation of a broken DS. Nintendo quickly reacted by sending them a brand new one.

Would Sony do this? No. Surely Microsoft? No. Nintendo.
Nintendo is the only game company with enough sympathy to refund a DS lite entirely because (somehow) they broke theirs.

Now that is sympathy. But I've been wondering: What else would they refund? A Wii remote? A Wii?!!

Who knows?

Wario Woods on Wii?

The NES puzzle game, Wario's Woods, has been rumored to appear on Wii!
Some fresh screenshots have appeared out of nowhere!
The screenshot to the left is of the original game. The screenshots show a full 3D game!
The game is said to appear as Wii ware.

What a rumor huh?! The screenshots could be fake, but they look so real!

I personally think it could be possible.

Stay tuned for more information as it comes.

Official Japanese Mario Kart Wii Website Launches.


If you can read Japanese, then please head over to the website. If not, then go there anyway.
Theres still a lot of great content there (even if it is in Japanese).

Content such as, video s screen shots and more.

I personally can't wait for Mario Kart Wii! It comes out in Australia on the 24th of April, and in America on the 27th of April.

Here's the site

http://www.nintendo.co.jp/wii/rmcj/new/index.html

Thursday, March 20, 2008

Spectrobes: Beyond The Portals announced!


Disney Interactive studios has announce a second Spectrobes game (Spectrobes: Beyond the Portals.)
It will feature an entirely new story, 3D game play and the Debut of a WI-FI battle system! ( Don't Forget more new Creatures than you can poke a stick at!)

“Spectrobes has become an international sensation,” said Craig Relyea, senior vice president of global marketing, Disney Interactive Studios. “By continuing to build on its enthralling story, unique game play features and memorable characters, Spectrobes: Beyond The Portals will continue to thrill fans. This second game is part of our plan to expand the series in the coming years.”

Spectrobes : Beyond the portals is planned for a late 2008 third quarter release. Expect a review.

Final Fantasy XII: Revenant Wings- DS Review



I have never played a Final Fantasy game before this one. First impressions are everything, and I think I have just jumped on the Final Fantasy Bandwagon!

The first thing I noticed when I played this game was the BEAUTIFUL cut scenes! Sure they were a little choppy at times, but for DS standards, they are incredible. But when you get past the Cut scenes you see actual game play, and realise: This game looks nothing like its cut scenes. The first time you see the game in action, you notice that it has 2d sprites in a 3d world! The world looks great the sprites don't look as good.

Now that we're past the graphics, lets move on to the story and game play.
The game's story is similar to what you'd expect from a Final Fantasy game. A bunch of Sky Pirate kids go on an adventure. If I told you any more you'd probably get bored. The storyline has been done before many times in different forms.

The game is controlled entirely with the touch screen. You select your units by cropping a square over them, and you select the enemies you want to attack by tapping them. The controls work well most of the time, but a lot of the time you'll be struggling to select individual units, you can make a lot of mistakes with the controls.

The problem with Revenant Wings is the pacing. Very Early in the game you'll find yourself struggling to take down a few Alligator people. The level of Difficulty can be all over the place sometimes.

Revenant Wings is incredible. I'm no RPG fan but I still managed to enjoy it. A lot of time can be spent playing this and I think it's a welcome addition to your game collection.

OVERALL- A great game with a few minor problems (pacing is bad)

Graphics-8 Sound-9 Game play-9 Story-7 overall score: 8/10

De Blob is an Insperation to Third Parties.



For once it seems as though third party companies are started to do things right again. Watching this video shows that THQ has changed it's bad game-making ways, and put their effort into a luscious and great free roaming game.

The video above is quit short,but it's just there to show everyone what De Blob is all about.

Lego + Link To The Past= Awesome!


wow... I never pixels could look so.. real!
Enter Lwelyk, is the incredible creator of this masterpiece, and many others. From octoroks to song teaching fish, he's got it all! He really is a Lego Artist.
Just Check out his blog here-

DS-10 to release worldwide

D-10, the great new Music synthesiser will be available Worldwide soon. When? Well, nobody knows.

It's funny how I posted this just after I posted the Guitar Hero DS article.

Two Music Games competing? We'll see.

Here is Korg's blog ( D-10 is made by korg).

http://www.ds10blog.jp/?p=35


Wednesday, March 19, 2008

Guitar Hero DS announced!


Celebrations are in order as one of the greatest rithym game ever made is coming to the DS!
As you can see from the image (right), Guitar Hero DS will be bundled with a new peripheral that will be inserted into the second slot (or 'GBA Slot").
I don't know if this peripheral will be ideal for controlling, but it's a great Idea none the less.
Guitar Hero: On Tour (as it is known on the DS) will also feature two player co-operative, and head to head.
That's about all the information that has been said. Apart from the only game play video, that all the content as well.
I know your dieing for more, so here's what the CEO had to say:
"We began prototyping ideas for Guitar Hero on DS in early 2007. We quite frankly didn't know whether it would be possible to bring the core essence of the franchise to handheld and have it actually work. It was 20-something game play prototypes that were built, all trying different mechanics and uses of the hardware. Some were pretty cool, others were total disasters!”
”At some point, we hit upon the idea of creating a peripheral that would have the fret buttons plugging into the GBA slot of the DS," he recalled. "We ripped apart an old GBA cartridge and did some electronics work on it to rig up a prototype device. As awkward and crude as that prototype was, that's when we knew we were onto something. We figured that attaching a full-size guitar or even a mini-guitar would be too awkward to play on the road, hence the design of the more compact Guitar Grip, which gives you the tactile sense of the fret buttons, with the touch screen depicting the strings of the guitar."
Stay Tuned for the info as it comes.