Saturday, January 29, 2011

Badass videogame console poses

Written by pikaby

No one does it better than Miyamoto. Image from Kotaku.


You know what this reminds me of though? This.






As much as I like the newest photo shot, nothing comes close to the badassery of Miyamoto with Wiimote.
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Rhythm Heaven Wii trailer

Written by pikaby



Apparently shown alongside the new Kirby Wii game yesterday in a Nintendo investor's meeting (so it wasn't leaked out of the top-secret games factory as I initially thought). Now with real rhythm and a minigame to show. No mention of a release date yet.
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Battle and Get! Pokemon Typing DS dated

Written by pikaby


This handy image from Nintendo World Report mentions the release date of the new Pokemon take on Typing of the Dead (okay, maybe that wasn't such a good comparison) that teaches kids how to use a keyboard and make Pokemon fans spaz over.

April 2011 in Japan!
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Friday, January 28, 2011

Pokemon game for 3DS is being made

Written by pikaby

Link

This comes from Official Nintendo Magazine UK, quoting Iwata-san while he was talking to investors "We are also developing Pokémon related products on the Wii and 3DS." No other details were given at the time.


Let the speculation fun begin. Pokemon Ruby/Sapphire remakes or Pokemon Grey for 3DS? Pokemon Battle Revolution 2 for Wii, with added story mode, more battles, and even minigames? Or will Nintendo just screw us over and make Pokepark Wii-style spinoffs? (to be honest though, I did enjoy Pokepark Wii)
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New Wii Kirby game leaked

Written by pikaby



Guldarnit, and barely a month after Nintendo 5-Star's resident Kirby freak finished playing Epic Yarn! If that was a little too alien for your tastes, this will bring back infinite joy to old-school Kirby fans! Just look at that footage...It may not be the pseudo-3D adventure we saw on Gamecube, but it works.

Now for it to actually be released and not be canceled- because this rumored Kirby is in the exact same spot as Kirby 64 and Kirby GCN...right at the end of the console's lifespan.

My life is worth living once more.
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Tuesday, January 25, 2011

Mario Sports Mix TV ad



Woah, it's the end of January already? Seemed like it was just yesterday I was looking at footage of this game at E3 2010. Time sure does fly.
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Game title quiz II

Written by pikaby

Zekira got most of the questions correct for the first one. Check his answers with yours on the forum!

And then, another round of fun wordplay with game titles. If you breezed past the first one, you shouldn't have too much trouble figuring this next set out.


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Monday, January 24, 2011

Wii Sports theme instrumental



Predates back to 2008 from the Club Nintendo exclusive game music album. Can't believe I haven't heard of it till now.
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Why NIntendo doesn't like Achievements

Written by pikaby

Quote from Bill Trinen:

"We're not opposed to Achievements. When they create their games, [Nintendo's designers] don't tell you how to play their game in order to achieve some kind of mythical reward. Basically, the way the games are designed is they're designed for you to explore the game yourself and have this sense of discovery. To that end, I think that when you look specifically at games from EAD [the group long led by Mario and Donkey Kong creator Shigeru Miyamoto] and a lot of other games that Nintendo has developed a well, there are things you can do in the game that will result in some sort of reward or unexpected surprise. In my mind, that really encourages the sense of exploration rather than the sense of 'If I do that, I'm going to get some sort of artificial point or score that's going to make me feel better that I got this.' And that, to me, is I think more compelling." - Nintendo's Bill Trinen

Well, most action-adventure and platforming and RPG games would work this way and Achievements would actually be an added hindrance. But when you're playing something aimless and less progress-oriented like Smash Bros or Wii Sports, achievements actually make sense by rewarding players for dedication to perfecting their gaming skillz. Heck, there ARE achievement systems placed in Smash Bros Brawl and Wii Sports Resort. It's just not the console-wide affair on PS3 and X360. Seriously when you get an Achievement for dying once in a game, you have to rethink on the actual point on these things.
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Game title quiz

Written by pikaby
Found this off GoNintendo and decided to post here. I think I can recognize quite a few...how many can you spot? Each square is a game title.



I could post my answers here, but that'd be ruining the puzzle. Lol.
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Thursday, January 20, 2011

Kotaku hands-on with Pilotwings Resort

Written by pikaby



Because there hasn't been any footage of the game before this, and there are already like a billion videos of Street Fighter 3DS.
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Metroid Other M stage in DoA Dimensions

Written by pikaby




Weird eh? Why the collaboration? There's even a Ridley in the background- if it's not Ridley it's very, very close.
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3DS Price and other details

Written by pikaby


January 19 came and gone...without any of that secret big reveal of a Metroid game, not that I've heard of. Instead, we have an actual price for the console revealed now...$249. That's the price of a launch date Wii. I won't be complaining as the exchange rate to Malaysia is always against my favor anyway...no matter how steep the price I'll eventually plunk down the cash to get one. It could be worse. It could be $300, or more.

Face it, technology's advancing, and it costs more to make high-tech stuff. It might not mean much when there's only one console, but when the X360/PS3/Wii/PSP successors come out the comparison might be a little more fair. Nintendo beats everyone with its low price point. What you might see hee is a little steep, but when the competition comes into play, well, you know.

And from Nintendo's press release about online features, haters of Friend Codes better listen up, because the system is returning. Well, not really.

"Fans of online play will be happy to learn that the friend codes for Nintendo 3DS are specific to each Nintendo 3DS system, not each game. Once friends trade hardware codes, at any time they can check their friends list to see which of their friends are online and what they are playing."

This means you get one, and only ONE, Friend Code with the system itself, and you don't have to memorize or write down a billion codes anymore. Is that sweet or what? The number becomes your gamertag of sorts. Sure, it would be nice to not see even a single string of numbers, but it's a good start.

Not bad, although I wouldn't expect the US launch lineup to be anything stellar outside of Street Fighter, probably. Oh well, Nintendo did mention something about pacing and releasing their games on a regular basis instead of pushing everything out in one go. And we might get new features along the way too.
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Tuesday, January 18, 2011

Thoughts on Gen 5 Pokemon names- Part 3

Written by pikaby


Let's see, last checkpoint was on Beheeyem. I think I can finish the rest of Gen 5 today.

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New Metroid game tomorrow?

Written by pikaby

http://www.gonintendo.com/viewstory.php?id=147552

Source above... "It's absolutely fine, I don't expect you to spill anything, it's nice to have a surprise. I have my fingers crossed for Metroid.."

"I think you're going to be pleased then..."

DO WANT. 3DS Metroid Prime please.
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Sunday, January 16, 2011

Thoughts on Gen 5 Pokemon names- Part 2

Written by pikaby


I last stopped at Lilligant (one of my favorites~ cute flower Pokemon for the win). Today I'll cover another set of Gen 5 Pokemon further down the Pokedex.

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Saturday, January 15, 2011

Thoughts on Gen 5 Pokemon names- Part 1

Written by pikaby


The revealing of an entirely new batch of Pokemon always gets me excited. The next step after getting used to their designs is inevitably getting to grips with their English names, which is never a bed of roses with each passing generation. Basically the whining on Internet forums about the Gen 5 names is exactly the same situation five years ago when the Diamond/Pearl name list came out, as if there was ever a standard to which names sound like Pokemon names and which ones don't....will people ever learn not to complain?

The rumored Gen 5 English names, leaked just yesterday, had me tingling the same way as if it was my first time meeting the Gen 5 Pokemon all over again. I'm busy learning the new ways to call my favorites and loathing some of the few terrible choices!


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Friday, January 14, 2011

3D not compulsory for 3DS

Written by pikaby

“Right. It’s compatible with software for previous Nintendo DS systems, which will be viewed in the 2D mode. New game cards, however, will be specific to Nintendo 3DS, but whether they will be in 3D or not is basically up to the maker, just like how much to use the touchscreen was up to developers for Nintendo DS.” – Shigeru Miyamoto

I know some people will be complaining that the whole point of the console will be lost, and it might cause a small loss to some extent especially when it's the main gimmick of the entire console, but to me this actually is a good idea. Remember when Wii/DS first came out? People were stuffing motion and touch controls into everything they could think of even if it wasn't necessary. In the end none of those games worked out and people moved back to making minigame collections anyway.

Even with 3D on, 3DS has much better graphics than the old DS, and it'd be such a waste if all people are going to use it for are for cues and menus to pop out at you, like the one below (Splinter Cell 3D). This just screams 'I just wanted to use the 3D effect for lulz'


Well instead of wasting all that processing power on 3D, that could be channeled into making the visuals twice as good without 3D. With RE: Revelations already looking damn sweet with 3D on, imagine what it would look like had Capcom decided not to 3D-ify the game. Think of the possibilities....

Not to mention anything making use of the 3DS' gyro sensor might not think of 3D as a good idea, as you'll be moving away from the sweet spot all too often.
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Thursday, January 13, 2011

Rumored list- All 5th Gen Pokemon US names

Written by pikaby


Typing out all the names is one huge chore...one picture sums it all up with US names and Japanese names.Remember that all this is still a rumor with the exception of a handful already on the official site (Musharna, Braviary, Reuniclus, Gothitelle, Axew, Drilbur, Patrat, Woobat, Cofagrigus), so take these names with a pinch of salt. Many creative names this time, though not all of them are good (I will forever hate Throh and Sawk and whoever came up with those names), and an internet favorite making the official list (Emboar).

It's a huge chart so click on it to enlarge the list and find out what your Gen 5 favorites could be called in English!

Image source: Pokebeach.com
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Nintendo 5-Star: Games Of The Year!

Written by Pokefreak

As you may or may not have noticed, 2010 has ended. And like everything else, the video game world deserves a best of the year section. So we might as well get to it for us as well. Each section has had nominees voted by our users and each winner won a vote by our mods and TheFreakyManga. There's no fanboyism here. Just democracy.


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Nintendo 3DS March release schedule

Written by pikaby

From GoNintendo:

3/11: Super Monkey Ball 3D (Sega)
3/17: Tom Clancy's Splinter Cell 3D (Ubisoft)
3/24: Dead or Alive Dimensions (Tecmo Koei)
3/24: Gundam The 3D Battle (Namco Bandai)
3/24: Rabbids Time Travel (Ubisoft)
3/31: BlazBlue Continuum Shift II (Arc System Works)
3/31: Pro Baseball Famisuta 2011 (Namco Bandai)

Unspecified March release dates

Asphalt 3D Nitro Racing (Konami)
Pro Baseball Spirits 2011 (Konami)
The Sims 3 (Electronic Arts)
Tsukurou Ponta no Gardens 3D (Electronic Arts)
Shanghai 3D Cube (Sunsoft)
Naruto Shippuuden Nin Rittai Emaki! Saikyou Ninkai Kessen!! (Takara Tomy)
Will Shooter XX (Dorasu)
Steel Diver (Nintendo)
Nikoli Puzzle (Hmaster)

No Nintendo games of note, except maybe Steel Diver, which has already been delayed so much from DS all the way here, it's ridiculous. I want to see what it's like for real! Great to see BlazBlue and Monkey Ball getting released this early though!
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Real Life Zangief Ultra

Written by pikaby





ULTIMATE ATOMIC BUSTAAAAAAAH
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Gameloft's Legend of Not Zelda

Written by pikaby



Played a Legend of Zelda game before? You have? You'll probably recognize quite a few things in this minute-long trailer of an unnamed Gameloft adventure game. Ripoffs. The best thing is they won't admit to the game being a direct ripoff of Zelda. 'There's an average of one new idea every year', they said. Great excuse for laziness right there.
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Monday, January 10, 2011

Miyamoto, the Nintendo World 2011 spy

Written by pikaby

He was spying on the proceedings from above. He didn't come out to show anything or talk. Oh come on, at least give the man a chance!

user posted image
user posted image


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Kyabajoppi, Fantasy Life trailers

Written by pikaby

A couple of Level-5 games that don't have Layton in their names. The characters you have to entertain in Kyabajoppi, the dating sim, include cameo characters from anime shows. Fantasy Life looks like a cuter Rune Factory. Hopefully a lot better too. Trust Level-5 to make quality stuff. These trailers date back to Level-5's Vision 2010 event, but have recently surfaced again.




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Nintendo 3DS Augmented Reality demo

Written by pikaby



This is some cool tech. You place a card on a surface, and as long as the 3DS can detect the card, it can manipulate objects such as Miis into the environment shown on your twin cameras. There are 6 cards in all (though only one was shown in the demo) and they are used to do funny things and play some games. Of course, they come with the console and are all free.

The detection seems to be a lot better than the ambitious head-tracking from DSi, which the console simply wasn't powerful enough for.
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Professor Layton, RE Mercenaries gameplay, DoA Dimensions Trailer

Written by pikaby







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Paper Mario and Mario Kart 3DS demo gameplay

Written by pikaby




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Nintendo 3DS 2011 software lineup

Written by pikaby



3DS hardware support continues to pour in droves. Whether it's good games, mediocre games or those that you know are plain crap even by just one look, Nintendo looks like it's finally getting the real 3rd party support it deserves, even more so than Wii. Check the video above! Not more than five of the games shown there are minigame collections!

Release date quoted is for Japanese version. Shown in order:

-nintendogs+cats (Nintendo) / February 26 2011
-Steel Diver (Nintendo) / Spring 2011
-Winning Eleven 3D Soccer (Konami) / February 26 2011
-Super Street Fighter IV 3D Edition (Capcom) / February 26 2011
-Kingdom Hearts 3D (Square Enix) / TBA
-Super Monkey Ball 3D (Sega) / Spring 2011
-BlazBlue Continuum Shift II (ArcSystem Works) / Spring 2011

-Resident Evil: Revelations (Capcom) / TBA
-Dr. Lautrec and the Forgotten Knights (Konami) / Spring 2011
-Shanghai 3D Cube (Sunsoft) / Spring 2011 (great, just what every Japanese guy dreams of. Mahjong cubes)
-Pro Baseball Family Star 2011 (Bandai Namco Games) / Spring 2011
-Combat of Giants: Dinosaurs 3D (Ubisoft) / February 26 2011 (No! Bad Ubisoft, bad!)
-Dead or Alive: Dimensions (Koei Tecmo) / Spring 2011
-Bomberman (working title) (Hudson) / 2011
-Rabbids Time Travel (Ubisoft) / Spring 2011
-Tales of the Abyss (Bandai Namco Games) / Spring 2011
-Tom Clancy's Ghost Recon: Shadow Wars (Ubisoft) / Spring 2011
-Sengoku Musou Chronicle (Koei Tecmo) / Spring 2011
-Driver: Renegade (Ubisoft) / Spring 2011 (Ubisoft's shitstorm is the worst of any 3rd party dev ever)
-Deca Sports 3D (Hudson) / Spring 2011
---
-Paper Mario (working title) (Nintendo) / TBA
-Starfox 64 3D (Nintendo) / 2011
-The Legend of Zelda: Ocarina of Time 3D (Nintendo) / Spring 2011
-Tetris Axis (working title) (Hudson) / Summer 2011
-Resident Evil Mercenaries (Capcom) / Spring 2011
-Runabout for Nintendo 3DS (working title) (Rocket Company) / Spring 2011 (what.)
-Cubic Ninja (working title) (AQ Interactive) / Spring 2011
-Tom Clancy's Splinter Cell 3D (Ubisoft) / Spring 2011
-Sudoku and 3 Puzzles (Hudson) / Spring 2011 (Meh. Sudoku in 3D is still just Sudoku)
-One Piece Unlimited Cruise SP (Bandai Namco Games) / Spring 2011
-Touch!! Double Pen Sports (Bandai Namco Games) / 2011
-Animal Resort (working title) (Marvelous Entertainment) / Spring 2011 (God save me)
-Gundam: The 3D Battle (Bandai Namco Games) / Spring 2011
-Tobidasu! Puzzle Bobble 3D (Square Enix) / February 26 2011
-Professor Layton and the Mask of Miracle (Level-5) / February 26 2011
-Asphalt 3D Nitro Racing (Konami) / Spring 2011
-Fish On (working title) (ASCII Media Works) / Spring 2011
-Clash of Heroes 3D (Acquire) / TBA
-Naruto Shippuden Action Project (working title) (Takaratomy) / Spring 2011
-The Sims 3 (Electronic Arts) / 2011
-Ridge Racer 3D (Bandai Namco Games) / February 26 2011
-Metal Gear Solid: Snake Eater (Konami) / 2011
---
-Animal Crossing (working title) (Nintendo) / TBA
-Pilotwings Resort (Nintendo) / Spring 2011
-Mario Kart (working title) (Nintendo) / TBA
-Kid Icarus Uprising (Nintendo) / 2011

Few surprises, the biggest of them all being the announcement of BlazBlue Continuum Shift II, also bound for PSP. All its prequels sold decently well and were great fun to boot, so Nintendo gamers just scored another good game!

A lot of the rest sound like enthusiastic 3rd party developers excited to try out some game-making on the fresh new 3D console (who needs ANOTHER fishing game?). Whether or not they'll succeed will depend on the success of 3DS itself and how Nintendo handles piracy on the system, and how long the 3D gimmick will last (for some reason publishers who produce steaming piles of crap will somehow stubbornly cling on to the console). There will come a time when the magic disappears (like Wii's motion controls). We'll see how many loyal supporters Nintendo will have gained by the end of its first year.
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Sunday, January 9, 2011

3DS info trailer

Written by pikaby




A 4 minute long trailer of 3DS info on Minna no NC.
-Shows the console and what it can do, the 3D slider, and the twin cameras.
-3DS Menu looks more well-designed than the simplistic DSi menu
-Mii Studio. Is it just me or are there really 11 PAGES OF HAIRSTYLES NOW??? WANT!...wait, it has Wii compatibility and Tomodachi Collection connection. Guess not then.
-Has some sort of sleep-mode connection similar to the one done by Dragon Quest 9
-AR games require placing a special card of the table to play. Wow...that's technology. Hopefully the detection is better than the god-awful DSi's head-tracking games.
-Tracking of play time and data, much like the Wii
-Two colors, blue and black.
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NIntendo 3DS boxart and game box!

Written by pikaby

January 19 inches closer and people are showing off live demos of 3DS games being played. The eight 3DS launch games for Japan have been announced. The hype is building!

The box that contains the 3DS (with the grossly out-of-place grey analog stick on the block 3DS, I mean...seriously) is sleeker and cooler than the old one (Kotaku image)


...while the game boxes use white-colored plastic much like Wii games, instead of black. The 3DS tab has also been relocated to the right side of the box, from the left.



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Thursday, January 6, 2011

Nostalgia in Kirby's Epic Yarn

Written by pikaby  



You know, I had the impression that everyone would have played through the entire game without me so I didn't bother to write about this. But just a moment ago I read the Iwata Asks article on Epic Yarn (again, I'm late to the party), and I saw the discussions going on about the music. Hirokazu Ando was there to talk about his classic Dream Land compositions.

---

Iwata: So in the end, how did you integrate the songs made by HAL Laboratory and the songs made by Tomita-san?
Ando: The structure of the story was important, so Tomita-san’s music plays during the first half and towards the middle.
Ikegami: In other words, we used the new sound in the first half and middle to highlight the difference between this new world of yarn and the usual Kirby world.
Ando: And HAL Laboratory was in charge of the songs that play in the latter stages. As you proceed through the game, an arrangement of the Kirby theme that everyone is familiar with plays, so you feel like, “Ah, I’ve come home.” I think it’s a very effective structure for the game. 
Iwata: The structure of the levels and the music that plays during them are directly connected.

---

This is amazing. It's like Ando-san read my mind, and probably the minds of all Kirby fans everywhere. After all the new music, suddenly coming back to this really does feel like a happy reunion with all the familiar things you knew about Kirby. It's spoiler territory to say which stage this remixed Green Greens theme plays in, but I will say- it's more than just the music that will be familiar to you when you get there. Pretend you're Kirby, and take 'I've come home' very literally. Know which stage I'm talking about now?
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Wednesday, January 5, 2011

New Pokemon A and B

Written by pikaby





While showing off merchandise for the 14th movie starring Victini, once again, the publishers repeated the trick they used many times over during Pokemon Gen 4...place new Pokemon A and B in their merch posters to pique our interest. None of them have turned out to be brand-new Pokemon though, they've all been different Formes (ugh) of older, known Pokemon (Skymin, Origin Giratina, Spiky-Ear Pichu), but who knows.

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