Anyway, keep in eye out for another DS, as that partnership with Nvidia has yet to bear fruit. I still see a higher graphical quality hand held on the way from Nintendo.
In the meanwhile, here is a picture of the new (and, Ill admit it, pretty) DSi LL:
School gets tough, boring, and downright tiering. Sometimes you just need a little vacation. Well, I just got back from mine! I took a vacation to a nice little resort on a small island somewhere in fantasy land. Oh, the fun times that were had! I went jet skiing, flew a plane over the islands volcano (even took a quick fly through inside!), sword fought with some good friends, played some ping-pong, and when the moon came up and things stared to cool down, I took a trip to the basketball court to shoot some hoops! It was a great vacation indeed.So, this review cheesy enough for you yet? Well, I'll stop with the vacation describing, and get into my review of Wii Sports Resort for the Wii!
Wii Sports Resort is the sequel to the oddly popular Wii Sports, that was launched with all North American and European Wii's. I say oddly popular, because in all honesty, Wii Sports was kinda lame. It was fun for a few moments, as you realized that the motion controls could in fact be awesome. But, once you got used to it, there was almost no point in playing it. Unless you were super casual about it that is.
Resort turns that around. While on the outside, the game looks as casual as ever, it really is not. There are many elements that make this game hardcore... if you will. (It is tough to call a game where your Mii is the main character "hardcore".) There are a total of 12 "sports" games in total, all of which utilize the Wii MotionPlus, a new device released by Nintendo that improves to motion sensing capabilities of the controller to the point of 1:1 movement. What you do with the remote, is mimicked exactly how it should be on screen. Awesome. This little device (packaged in with the game) is incredibly fun. Granted, I think the Wii remote should have had these abilities to start with, but alas, but late than never, right?
As for the games, they can be played for surface value alone. For example, during the plane flight simulator, you could simply fly around the island, look at things you cannot normaly see during normal game play, quit, and pretty much never come back to it. Now, if you are looking for a deeper experience, try finding all, what is it 40, 44, I dont remember to be quite honest, but try finding all 40ish hidden "locations", marked with a little token, around the map. Not easy, trust me. Also, each game has 5 "achievements" or "stamps" that you can earn through doing outstanding things during the game. An example of this would be striking the bulls eye three times in a row during archery. And that is one of the easier ones! These little extras make Resorts replay value much longer than one would expect. I have logged about 25 hours into it (more than I thought I would initially) and still am just over halfway done.
I would talk about presentation, such as graphics, sound, etc., but on a game like Resort, that sort of seems pointless. The aim of this title was to present Nintendo's new little device, the Wii MotionPlus, and along those lines, I can say from the bottom of my heart that I believe the thing shows a lot of promise. I am not gonna lie, the MotionPlus did have some minor issues, such as needing to be recalibrated regularly, which really breaks the flow of the game, but I think those little problems can be ironed out by the time bigger titles start utilizing the Plus. Regardless, for the most part, like I just mentioned, it felt pretty awesome to use the MotionPlus, and see it actually work. I could not believe the smile that creeped up my face as I played Table Tennis. Give it a shot, trust me on this one.
Wii Sports Resort is the embodiment of Nintendo. They try to make games that appeal to the casual audience, something that Sony and Microsoft just can not do, despite their efforts. Resort does that with the cute presentation and the ease of playing the games. At the same time, Nintendo tries to cater to the hardcore audience at the same time, which Resort does with tough challenges that the casual player would never bother even attempting. It is a shame that most hardcore players are too lazy to look past the cute graphics and kiddy appearance of the game to see a truly great game that cannot be experienced anywhere else but with Nintendo.
Wii Sports Resort: 7.5/10
The Nintendo DS was released in 2004 and was more popular than anyone had expected. Its popularity led to Nintendo releasing a newer, slimmer, brighter, sleeker DS in 2006, called the DS lite. Once again, sales of the device were off the charts. Most recently, in 2009 Nintendo put out the third version of the uber popular hand held, the Nintendo DSi, which supports music playback, larger, brighter, screens, two cameras, one external and one internal, downloadable games, and SD card support.
So what is next? The Gameboy Advance, Nintendo's previous hand held, also had three iterations: the Gambeboy Advance, the Advance SP, and the Micro. Is this where the DS stops, or is it just getting going? Could there perhaps be a fourth DS in the works? Most of the evidence points to: yes, there will be another DS.
What would lead crazy ol' me to think this? Well, a few things. Nintendo just gave Nvidia rights to power the next DS console. Keyword, "next." After this announcement, it has been made pretty clear in a number of publications that Iwata will announce this next DS late 2010. Seems a bit too soon, but than again, that is just the announcement, it would probably be released a little less than 3 years after the DSi, which is plenty long enough to wait.
There are a number of reactions to this news. Some of you are probably pretty dang upset about this, and may even be wondering if you should bother upgrading to the DSi, or if you should just hold out for this next model. Others of you are probably happy as a clam to see Nintendo giving you more innovation, as they surely will add all kinds of neat things to this new model. I fall into that second category, though i must admit, I am a little upset about this whole thing. I would much rather see Nintendo give us a whole new experience, something brand new. Thats where they are most talented anyway, right? However, the happy part of me also likes to see that the DS, which is in fact my all time favorite game machine, is far from dieing. This means that games will be getting made for the system for years to come. This makes me really happy, and I am excited to see what they will add onto the already content-packed machine.
It should explain what this Nvidia chip is. First off, I believe it is called "Tegra" and it is what you could call a computer on a chip. The first product it was used on is the Zune HD, and has been put into a number of smart phones. Point is, it seems to be a very powerful little chip, meaning this next Nintendo DS could be a power house... and very pretty graphically.
For all of you that are strongly against this movement, try looking at it this way. There is a new cell phone or iPod announced every hour it seems. This is essentially the direction Nintendo is taking their hand held. With the DS being as popular as it is, Nintendo does not want to end its life, why would they? Instead, it seems obvious that they intend on following trends set by Apple and the cell phone industry. By releasing a slightly different model every few years, their intention is to provide a number of different models for different demographics. I do not believe they are trying to get every consumer to buy each type of model, but instead, pick the one that fits their personality best.
...
Though I must admit, I have, and will buy every model they put out... (^_^);;
Well, wherever you stand on the topic, I am pretty sure we will see another DS in the near future, so keep that in mind if you are planning on buying a DSi anytime soon!
Before I went to bed tonight, I wanted to give a big Happy Birthday wish to the NES and Super Mario Bros., as today, 24 years ago, they were both released! Wow, what a long road Nintendo has paved! From the NES, to the SNES, to the Nintendo 64, than the Gamecube, to the most recent, Wii, Nintendo sure has come up with some unique and fun consoles, and cant wait to see what they have up their clever sleeve next! Iwata, drop the bomb-omb!
Some of you may have heard of a little something called "Kind Code" in development for Wii. Well, as you also may know, it was confirmed toe be real, and is going to be implemented for the first time in New Super Mario Bros. Wii. More details were released on the thing earlier, and I figured I would share them with you here, in case you don't already know about them. First off, the name Kind Code has been officially changed, and it is now called "Super Guide." I like Kind Code better too, but oh well. Anyway, here is how it works for you hardcore fans that are a little nervous.
Super Guide lies dormant in the game, unusable even if you want to use it right off that bat. That is a good thing. However, once you lose 8 lives on a single level, an OPTION appears on screen asking you if you would like to utilize Super Guide. For most hardcore players, you are going to want to say "no" to this option, but for arguments sake, lets pretend we choose "yes." What happens then? After starting up Super Guide, the computer will take control of the character and run through the level for you. During this process, you as the player can take over the controls at any point in time as well, meaning if you only want help on one certain area, than you want to play again, you can do that. Thats right, the game will play itself, jump all the pits, avoid or kill all the enemies, defeat all the bosses.
Lame. Super lame. Lamest thing ever. However, their is an upside if you look hard enough. For one, as I mentioned earlier, you have to lose 8 lives on a single level. That is a lot of lives, heck, you only get 5 per continue, meaning you would have to have used at least one continue in order to activate Super Guide. Next, the game will track how many times Super Guide was used, so this prevents your ego centered friend from using it, beating the game quickly, than claiming he did it all on his own. His record will state that he used Super Guide, and tell how many times he did. Lastly, many developers, well, okay, thats a lie, a FEW Nintendo developers have expressed their love for Super Guide for one simple reason. It allows them to make games insanely hard. Obviously, with a system that allows you to hold its hand as it guides you through a level, game developers could make it as hard as they want. This is spectacular for those of us who miss the days of super hard games that we only knew of way back in the day... Or with Trauma Center... Dang you Trauma Center...
Either way, it should be a pretty huge accomplishment to beat these newly challenging games without the use of Super Guide, and heck, maybe if Nintendo is smart, they will add bonuses at the end of the game for those who did not use the Guide! Just an idea!
Well, that is Kind Code, er, Super Guide for you in a nutshell. Let me know what you think about it!
Recently announced, Nintendo is the "best business in the world" according to business weekly. Awesome. The whole dang world. Way to freaking go Nintendo.
Everyone has their qualms with all of the video game companies, heck, even I have my dislikes towards Nintendo, though I will rarely vocalize them. Regardless, for this one moment, you must push aside those dislikes, and realize what Nintendo has done as a corporation. Back in 2003 and 2004, they had nothing but bad things being said about them in the video game industry, in the business world in general. Nintendo was almost dead in the water. A few people claimed that the Wii would even be Nintendo's last shot at a successful gaming console, a rumor I refuse to accept. Regardless, after being the most unpopular video game provider of the 6th gen, and having abysmal sales, Nintendo seemed doomed.
The release of the Nintendo DS gained Nintendo a little momentum, however, and they started to move again. Their creativity began to saturate the gaming market. This built up to the release of the little white box that could, the Wii. After the Wii was released, Nintendo sky rocketed to the top, and have sat there, number one of generation 7, without faltering. This is an incredible comeback. This is all from a fan boys point of view, though.
What is truly impressive, and what nailed them that number one spot in the business world this past weekend is something different, and very incredible. One must realize the risks Nintendo took when releasing the Wii. It uses last gen technology for the most part and favors the never before tested motion control over high def graphics and power like the other two consoles were. Along with this, they appealed to a different demographic, opening up gaming to people who had before never played video games. Try and fathom the size of this accomplishment. Video gaming is aimed at a very select type of person today. It is difficult for someone completely new to the hobby to be competitive. That is, unless they own a Wii. Nintendo did what is literally impossible for Sony and Microsoft. They opened up gaming as a hobby to everyone. It is not just a slogan, they actually did it.
Granted, this is not always a good thing for the hardcore gamer as we have all found out, however, it is a very impressive accomplishment, and now that they have opened the market up, I believe they will, and already are, going to to cater to the hardcore just as much as they have in the past.
All that future stuff aside though, the point is, right now, this very moment, Nintendo is on top in every way. They have won the 7th generation console wars, and they are the number one business in the world. This is Nintendo's moment, and whatever happens next is up to God. Leave Luck to Heaven right?
Congratulations Nintendo. I'm with ya till the end!
Scribblenauts was by far one of the most anticipated DS titles in recent memory. Lets face it, if you were not living under a video game rock, you knew about this game, and had heard the rumors that it held the potential to be one of the most innovative games of all time.
The basic idea behind Scribblenauts is that you can "Write anything, and solve everything." What does that mean? Well, the game consists of over 100 puzzles in which you must earn a "starite" which is a weird sparkle covered star like thingy. The catch of the game is that you can write (or type) anything into the game, and as long as it is a noun, not vulgar, and not copyrighted, it will appear in the game with its proper functionality! This means a black hole will suck up everything, a shark will eat a fish, a magnet will attract metal, etc.
Now, the above scenario would sure be impressive in a game, but also very difficult to pull off. So the question is, did the developers at 5th Cell succeed? Believe it or not, yes, they did. There is virtually everything in the game, and it all does what it would do in real life. It is quite incredible really, and I found myself with a massive smile on my face as I typed words that I thought would surely not be in the game yet they still appeared before me! Very cool. Even cooler are hidden items in the game such as Internet memes like "keyboard cat" etc. I have found countless items that are normally just found in popular culture. This game is very "hip" if I dare say.
So, does this game have a downside? Yup. A mighty one at that. The controls are horrid. Perhaps some of the worst I can recall in any video game ever. One flaw is that the camera returns to Maxwell, the main character, after a certain period of time. This really sucks, as at times you are focused elsewhere on the screen, summoning an item to do a task, when the camera whips back to Maxwell. One of two things happen here: 1: you tap the screen where the item you just summoned should have been. However, since the camera is moving back, you accidentally tap the screen on a blank spot of the map, causing Maxwell to run in this direction, usually resulting in him running straight into something that kills him. This forces you to restart the level. 2: You notice the camera moving before it is too late, and thus do not accidentally kill Maxwell. However, you find yourself constantly re-adjusting the camera, centering it on what you want to be giving attention to.
Granted, option two sounds less severe, but it sure is annoying. Also, option one can get extremley frustrating as some of the levels take a tremendous amount of time and planning out, and it really blows when all of your careful planning is ruined by a camera shift and you have to replay the level. It has been annoying enough that I have shut off the game for some time before returning only to be punished some more...
Also, it seems that Maxwell does not always do what you want him to. Sometimes, you tap something while holding a gun, in hopes that you will shoot it, as the games instructions say you will, but instead you go walking right up to it, usually getting attacked and dieing in the process. Also very annoying.
Lastly, I would like to mention the glitches in this game. There are alot of them. Some of them simply freeze your game, some of them just do weird things... really weird things. Try dropping a meteor on a T-Rex, see what happens. Not pretty.
The combination of the atrocious controls and extreme amount of glitches makes this game feel like it is in its alpha stage of development. The fact that you can summon everything imaginable, and it does what it should is incredible, and 5th Cell should be commended for this effort. However, this fantastic game element cannot succeed when the game itself is so bad. I was one of the fans that was stoked beyond belief for this game, so believe me when i say it pains me to admit that Scribblenauts really does need a lot of improvement. The fact that the summoning is so perfect, the character is adorable, and the music is fantastic however, mean I love this game. I really do. I have spent hours on the title screen summoning object after object after object. I have discovered some truly interesting things, and cant wait to discover more!!! Just because I enjoy this game does not mean I can not see its flaws though, and thus, though I will continue playing the game with much joy in my heart, I must give (a very generous) score to the Nintendo DS game
Scribblenauts: 6/10
