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• Nintendo Might Just Hate You

  The Nintendo Press Conference back at the beginning of October was, as Bob so precisely put it at the time, a bit like Christmas for the Nintendo faithful. The reveal of new Punch-Out! and Sin & Punishment games and a recommitment to Trace Memory (one of the publisher’s scant few newborn IPs) certainly made the old Nintendo fanboy inside me stir for the first time in a couple of years. The announcement of Nintendo’s Play On Wii line of re-appropriated Gamecube games featuring tacked on Wii controls gave me pause though. It’s a very good thing to give games like Metroid Prime, Pikmin, and Chibi-Robo a new print run considering that there are literal millions of Wii owners who never had the chance to try them out on their initial release (or don’t know they can walk into any Gamestop in the country and pay fifteen dollars total for all three.) But will they be full price? Should they be? Will any new content offered be made available to owners of the original games? On the one hand, giving Donkey Kong: Jungle Beat another chance at life makes it seem like Nintendo loves you. Adding new levels makes it seem like they really, really love you. Yoshiaki Koizumi and EAD Tokyo’s debut platformer, the game that led to their making Super Mario Galaxy, is one of the Gamecube’s best. Read More... Posted Nov 12 2008, 08:15 PM by John Constantine with | with 7 comment(s) Filed under: john constantine, nintendo, wii, donkey kong, gamecube, pikmin, metroid prime, super mario galaxy, chibi-robo, trace memory, punch-out!, play on wii, yoshiaki koizumi, Nintendo ead, donkey kong jungle beat, sin & punishmen

• Pikmin Remake: Too Soon?

  The Pikmin series is one of Nintendo's most recent franchises, and seemingly, its most overlooked--but Nintendo itself is seeking to remedy this with a new, improved Wii-make (I shudder at the terminology) of their cartoony take on the RTS. As a big fan of Pikmin, it's nice to see some attention given to a series that's really deserved more; and even hardcore Nintendo fans can admit that the GameCube was by no means a popular enough system to make Pikmin the hit it should have been. But if this new Pikmin is more of a remake than the Wii's Resident Evil 4, wouldn't Nintendo's time be better spent on making a new game? Note: I realize they don't normally solicit advice from gaming blogs. Of course, we don't know if the "new" Pikmin Miyamoto casually mentioned at E3 is this remake--so things are still up in the air at this point. But if the only new Pikmin we see this gen is a slightly revamped version of a seven year-old game, you'll be able to taste the disappointment in the air. Read More... Posted Oct 03 2008, 11:00 AM by Bob Mackey with | with 9 comment(s) Filed under: remake, nintendo, wii, pikmin, klonoa, bob mackey

• Top Ten: Favorite Bosses part 2

  The first arcade game to sport a boss fight was Phoenix, which was released in 1980. While most people were probably playing Space Invaders, I was playing Phoenix on my Atari 2600. Boss encounters have come a long way since the days of yore, displaying wonderful variety and imagination. The last five on my list go far to demonstrate just how unusual these encounters can be. !! Spoilers Ahoy !! Read More... Posted Sep 19 2008, 01:00 PM by Amber Ahlborn with | with no comments Filed under: shadow of the colossus, amber ahlborn, pikmin, super mario galaxy, metroid prime 2, top ten list, sly cooper

• Personal Firsts: My Gaming Scrapbook, From A to Wii

  Written by Amber Ahlborn At some point in the 1980s, the year nebulous in my memory, my mom bowled with her team every Thursday night. I loved Thursday nights because dad let me stay up late to watch M.A.S.H. and Benny Hill. Sometimes he and I would hop in the car and go visit mom at the alley, and that was the best. Dad would sit and watch mom bowl. Me? I would squeeze every last quarter I could get out of him. With a fist full of change and dollars soon to be converted into change, I’d walk down to the alley’s hamburger bar, snag a stool, and drag it through the glass doors into the arcade. Without deviation, I’d position my stool in front of the “Ostrich Game” and stay planted there until I ran out of money. I’m speaking of Joust of course, but at that age I could neither reach the controls without a stool to sit on nor read very well. Read More... Posted Jun 02 2008, 01:00 PM by John Constantine with | with no comments Filed under: pac-man, metroid, wii, legend of zelda, snes, nes, ico, mega man, atari, gamecube, amber ahlborn, kaboom, katamari damacy, chrono trigger, firsts, pikmin, Playstation, joust, pitfall, star fox, ps2, frogger, super mario bros, ds