Lost Winds: Winter of the Melodias Announced

New details have emmerged regarding the sequel to Lost Winds. The game will be entitled Lost Winds: Winter of the Melodias. Here are some more details.

- Devs listened for complaint about length
- NPCs are more interactive and have more to say, help you more (which will add to the game’s length)
- Takes place almost immediately following the first game
- Magdi (Toku’s mother) has gone missing while exploring ruins of a city created by the Melodia
- Toku and Enril go to the mountains to rescue her – her journal provides the only clues
- Arrive at Summerfalls Village – it’s trapped in an eternal winter
- People at the village fear monsters in the snow
- Toku manages to get the help of Sonte, a spirit who can help him change seasons
- Old elements are still in this sequel in addition to a number of new elements
- Changing seasons will be important for many puzzles
- Glorbs (gooey enemies from the first game) are back and have new forms
- Create a cyclone by pressing buttons in the Wii remote and doing a firm shake
- Sales of the first game “were pretty much spot on” with the developer’s predictions
- Game is almost done with development

I have contacted Frontier for more information on the game. I will give you that interview when I have received a response. Stay tuned to Nintendo Okie for more information.

Source: Nintendo Everything

Activision Taps Hugh Hefner and Playboy For GH5 Ad Campaign

Guitar Hero 5 launches next week and Activision is prepping the ad machine to get the word out about their latest game. They announced their new ad campaign for Guitar Hero 5 with a press release saying they've teamed up with Hugh Hefner and the Playboy franchise to do advertising for the game. The press release is quoted saying:

The commercial spot features Hugh Hefner, Playboy's Founder and Editor-in-Chief, with girlfriends Crystal Harris and twins Karissa and Kristina Shannon along with a bevy of beautiful Playmates, including Tiffany Fallon, 2005 Playmate of the Year and Kara Monaco, 2006 Playmate of the Year. During the ad, the Playmates are doing some serious finger fretting in their signature "Risky Business" attire while Hefner, in his iconic pajamas and smoking jacket, enjoys his personal jam session.

"The 'Risky Business' ads continue to work so well because fans can't get enough of seeing their favorite celebrities doing their own entertaining rendition of the famous 'Risky Business' scene. Playboy is recognized worldwide as a pop culture symbol of fun and entertainment; it's only natural for Hugh and the Playmates to be the next faces of the ad campaign."

I have been a big supporter of Guitar Hero 5 and the Guitar Hero franchise in general. I more or less chose them over Rock Band as my platform for music games because it was still more of a game. I really liked the ads they did for Guitar Hero: World Tour and Guitar Hero: On Tour spoofing Risky Business with different celebrities.

I take issue with their statement about Playboy being the pop culture symbol for fun and entertainment. Playboy is more known as the pop culture symbol for boobs and butts. If you're trying to appeal to families you don't go about it with half naked girls on TV who are better known for wearing nothing at all.

New World Hinted at For Max & the Magic Marker

I will not hide the fact that I'm really excited about this game. I don't know why, there are just some games that hit you and you get really excited about. I think it's because it reminds me so much of Harold and the Purple Crayon which is a favorite children's book series in our house. You can check out an interview I did with the developers for Nintendojo.com here.

They've hinted at a new world they've been working on today.

Prepare yourself to guide Max through a world of wooden legs, treasure maps, skulls, parrots, wooden rafts, cannons, rum, and everything else that goes with the pirate lifestyle.

They also said they'll be updating and giving us a taste of the music that accompanies this world and hopefully they'll have some screenshots to go along with it. Stay tuned to Nintendo Okie for more information on Max & the Magic Marker.

Analyst Says Nintendo Should Cut Price On Wii

See that little white box over there in the picture? That's a Wii. Since November 19th, 2006 and as of right now that will cost you $250 to purchase. I think that's a fairly reasonable price. In that same amount of time its competitors, the Xbox 360 and the PS3 have dropped their prices numerous times and come out with a large number of different versions of their consoles. The Wii has stayed virtually the same and has not dropped the price at any point.

A Gamasutra report says that an analyst with EEDAR is saying the Wii should now be dropped in price to $199 to compete with those boxes. Not because its in danger of losing its foothold on the top, but because eventually it will be in danger of losing its foothold there.

"In order to maintain this position Nintendo should drop their Wii console down to $199, not because the current Xbox 360 or PlayStation 3 pricing structure poses a threat; rather, because they will eventually pose a threat. Nintendo's strategy should be to capture as many consumer dollars as possible while their competitors are still weak in their offerings to the casual audience and price sensitive consumers," Divnich adds.

The problem I see with that is that for three years now at the $250 price point the Wii is selling. Sales have not dropped off dramatically and it still outpaces its competition every month. The other consoles needed shots in the arm to boost their sales and get people buying their platform. Wii has had no problem leaving store shelves and Nintendo continues to put out quality software that people are buying, even at price points higher than a normal game. There has been no reason for Nintendo to reduce their price and I see no reason especially with the lineup they have over the next few months to drop the price.

It's really been an anomaly in the console business for a console to do as well as Wii and DS have done and continue to push forward rather than slow down.

Dragon Quest IX Sales Cause For Panic?

Sales figures out of Japan show the latest information for Dragon Quest IX selling only 79,000 units this week. The life to date sales for the game put it at approximately 3.7 million units sold in Japan since it was released on July 11th. That's only a little over five weeks. Square Enix is hoping to sell 5 million copies of the game in Japan. Is this sudden drop below 100,000 copies in a week going to be cause for concern on their part? I would wait until next week to see if sales go back up or if this is a trend that will continue.

I'm pretty sure the game will have no problem reaching 5 million in Japan, it just may take a little longer than Square had hoped it would. That franchise is a huge seller on the island and once it's released over seas it will just add more millions to that already large total. I don't think there is any cause for concern yet.

Spyborgs - The Docks Screens and Video

Capcom has released new screenshots and a new trailer for their upcoming brawler Spyborgs.

No Rock Band Network on Wii

Later this year Harmonix plans to update Rock Band 2 to allow users to connect to the Rock Band Network. The tools for the service were developed using Microsoft's XNA toolset, meaning that all the content will be available to Xbox 360 users. According to a Harmonix PR Representative they would "love to get it running on Wii."

What this means is that the service will be unavailable to users on Wii. The reason for this? Companies, other than Nintendo, cannot patch a game after it has been released. Only one game so far has even had a "patch" through a firmware upgrade and that was Wii Sports Resort. The only way to do this would be through a new disc release or possibly some kind of server side update for Wii owners, but I'm not sure just how possible that would be. If you're looking to get user generated content on Rock Band 2 and you play the game on Wii, you'll have to hope that some of the songs might be released through their weekly download service.

Source: Joystiq

Top 20 WiiWare Titles: Week of August 24th

This week’s Top 20 WiiWare titles are based on the information from the week of August 24th, 2009 (parentheses indicate the previous week’s rank).

1 Reel Fishing Challenge (1)
2 My Aquarium (2)
3 My Pokémon Ranch (5)
4 NyxQuest: Kindred Spirits (3)
5 World of Goo (6)
6 Tetris Party (9)
7 Final Fantasy IV: The After Years (8)
8 Sexy Poker (4)
9 Texas Hold'em Tournament (10)
10 Tales of Monkey Island: Chapter 1 (7)
11 Dr Mario Online Rx (12)
12 Final Fantasy Crystal Chronicles: My life as a Darklord (11)
13 Family Mini Golf (14)
14 Water Warfare (13)
15 Family Slot Car Racing (N/A)
16 Defend Your Castle (16)
17 Brain Challenge (18)
18 Cue Sports - Pool Revolution (19)
19 BUST-A-MOVE Plus! (17)
20 Overturn (15)

This week we see, hopefully, the downfall of Sexy Poker. This is the one title I've felt in a long time didn't deserve to be as high as it was. It's only capitalizing on one thing and it doesn't do it that well. Reel Fishing Challenge continues to hold on to that #1 spot and it doesn't look to be going anywhere any time soon. There was one new entrant into the charts this week with Family Slot Car Racing taking a spot away from Ant Nation.

The two games that don't surprise me for being on the list as long as they are would be Dr. Mario and Tetris Party. Those two games have proven to be timeless classics and will probably continue to be on this list for a very long time. World of Goo continues to bob along even after dipping off of the charts for a while. I think that proves that good games are good no matter when they were released. I would be interested to know what brought about the resurgence in its popularity.

The biggest mover of the week was Overturn, which fell five spots and is in danger of dropping off the list next week. Let's keep an eye one that one. Come back next week to see the developments and don't forget to leave a comment down below on your thoughts for the list.

The World's Newest Meta Game

Two rival drink company employees at a Safeway in Rohnert Park, California decided to see who could create a better drink display. The masterpiece you see before you was done by the Pepsi employee. This could lead to some interesting displays in the future and is the type of thing I would love to see happen in my local grocery store.

Maybe we'll see the newest Nintendo IP because of this; Pepsi Mario.

Two Games That Should Come to WiiWare

It should come as no surprise that I, much like most other people in America, have played these two games. I'm, of course, talking about Peggle and Plants Vs. Zombies. I've played these game numerous times, and Peggle on multiple platforms. With the announcement yesterday that another version of Peggle is coming to XBLA I couldn't help but wonder why these two games don't come to WiiWare. This new version of Peggle even has a new character not seen in any previous game yet. The control scheme is perfect for both of these games and the Wii has so many different control schemes possible that you could find one for any play style you like. You can use the pointer to point at nearly anywhere on the Peggle board you like, or even use the nunchuk or classic controller to get the pinpoint precision that the analog sticks allow. You could even combine the two where you point to where you want with the Wii Remote and the use the analog stick to further pinpoint the precise location. You can't say the control scheme would not work because it would be possible to make it work.

The point and click nature of Plants vs. Zombies is absolutely perfect for the Wii Remote. You don't have to be precise with your pointing. The fun atmosphere of both these games lend themselves to the family attitude Wii has generated for itself. I can't count the number of times we've hooked our laptop up to the TV so that people could just watch someone playing this game and we didn't have to crowd around the small monitor of the laptop. It has become the perfect family time game and with the ability to add some multiplayer that you kind of lack on a computer it's the perfect reason to port this game over to the Wii. You wouldn't have to add any kind of online play, but some form of leaderboards would be nice to see. You could have one person concentrating on setting up your defenses and actively working against the zombies while another person collects the sun and everything that drops during the levels.

I know the options for online gaming for the Wii are slowly showing that you can get a similar, but still less featured, online experience to Xbox Live Arcade. Games are now coming out and integrating your system friends list rather than having to have a seperate friend code for every game. The new Guitar Hero 5 has the ability to stream downloaded content straight off of the SD card and the Wii now has the capability to run 32GB cards. Size limitations shouldn't be an issue anymore. If the reason these games haven't come to Wii yet are the size limit on WiiWare then that is a black spot on the service, not the developers. There is no reason Nintendo couldn't lift that limit to allow developers to create the fully fledged games the other services allow.

These games, aside from being the most addictive games to come out in years, are brilliantly designed games that show you don't have to have overly complex plots or control schemes to create a fun game. They bring families together in a way that I don't even think Pop Cap expected. These games need to be on WiiWare. I want to see these games come to WiiWare. The system seems to fit. I've contacted Pop Cap and expressed my opinion. I suggest everyone out there do the same.

Ninja Bee and Grubby Games Announce WiiWare Title

Indie video game developer NinjaBee is proud to announce it has partnered with fellow indie developer Grubby Games to bring the 2008 PAX 10 Award-winning game - The Amazing Brain Train - to
Nintendo WiiWare™, the Wii™ system’s downloadable service, this fall.

Professer Fizzwizzle, lauded educator from many PC games, has made the move to WiiWare with this upcoming brain training title. Unlike many brain training games before it this game is packed with quests, trophies and high scores that you haven't seen in many games in the genre. There are fifteen different games in three different game modes to play.

The Amazing Brain Train will be available this fall on WiiWare.

Play On Beta Allows Streaming Video on Wii

If you're the type of person who likes to watch streaming video on your TV, but you only have a Wii, well this might be an option for you. The beta for Play On's streaming video is now available for Wii. You can get it here.
It will install a program on your computer that will allow you to watch Netflix, Hulu, CBS, Youtube and more on your television. You can find all the details on the website. I'm on my way to try it now. I'll update this story when I find out how it works.

Update!!!:

After playing around with the service for a few minutes it would be hard not to recommend this to people looking for a way to stream video onto their TV through their Wii. The program is a very quick install, about 20MB, and is easy to setup. You can set up your Netflix accounts, Hulu accounts, and other things very quickly. Any of the content in your ques on those services show up with screen captures in a few user friendly menu on the Play On service on Wii.

To get to your videos on your console you have to have the Internet Channel installed and go to http://wii.playon.tv . The system will look for any computer you have in your house that has Play On installed and it even recognized my computer even when it was turned off. All the video services you have linked to your account show up on the left hand side of the TV. You simply have to click on one and it will pull your que up. All of the videos are in standard definition so you HD snobs out there will have to look elsewhere for that video quality.

The streaming quality was very good. I never had any issues with the picture skipping or the video having to buffer. It was just like watching it on my television. The one drawback is that you'll have to manage those services individually on your computer before loading it up on your Wii. Early impressions are the service will be well worth the $40 asking price especially because you can have a large number of services available all in one place. This is shaping up to be a very good service for Wii owners.

Wii Sports Resort Review

Nintendo's Wii launched nearly three years ago on November 19th, 2006. Along with the system, for the first time, you got a pack in game, Wii Sports. It wasn't so much a game as it was a tech demo to show you show of the things the Wii Remote could do. People flocked to the system because of that and it's still being credited for Wii sales today with many people still playing the game after almost three years.

Fast forward to July 26th, 2009 and the release of the sequel to that launch game, Wii Sports Resort. Nintendo has taken all the feedback from that previous game and fleshed things out, added new games and even a new peripheral. Wii Sports Resort comes packed with Wii Motion Plus, Nintendo's add on to the Wii Remote to make motion control more precise. Many people though that Resort would be another tech demo to show off the new peripheral. After getting your hands on the game, you'll find out that's not the case at all. Wii Sports Resort is a fully featured game that has twelve sports, ten of them being new, bowling and golf returning from the previous game. Within those twelve sports you also have the ability to unlock new modes and variants to those games giving you a total of 36 different events that can be played. Each of those events also has an achievement system in the form of stickers that can be earned during play. This gives Wii Sports Resort an almost innumberable number of replays because you'll want to earn each of those stickers. They can't be posted online for friends to see, but you'll be playing this game with friends in your own home so they'll be able to see exactly how good you are at the game.

When you first boot up the game you are forced to watch a video on how to attach and disconnect the Wii Motion Plus peripheral. This is a fairly straight forward video and chances are when you watch it, you'll already have the device attached. It takes about three minutes to watch and then you'll never have to see it again. Also on the first time you boot up the game you play a sky diving mini game that introduces some of the precision controls of Motion Plus. You'll find yourself twisting and shaking the Wii Remote to test just how accurate the device is and you'll be surprised by the near perfect precision that you'll have. After this mini game you are shown the menu system that you will use to navigate through Wuhu Island. Each game is unlocked from the beginning and the menu features large easy to recognize buttons. Click on one of the games and you'll be given the options for play modes. Each one begins with only one mode unlocked, but after one playthrough the next mode is unlocked so it will not take any time at all to unlock all the varieties of games available.

The first game you should try out is the sword fighting. It was used most in demonstrations of Motion Plus before its launch and you will realize just how fun sword fighting can be after playing this game. You face of one on one against another Mii in a duel on a platform above the water. Your goal is to knock your opponent in the water as quickly as possible. A swing of the Wii Remote corresponds to the action your Mii does and it follows you precisely. You can parry incoming attacks by holding the B button and countering when your opponent is staggered. Other variants of this game are speed slice where you attempt to slice an object in the appropriate direction faster than your opponent. First one to ten slices wins. The last variant of sword fighting is by far the best. It's called showdown mode and you'll traverse various areas of the environment while hordes of Miis come at you. You have three hearts and all the time you need to defeat your foes. Lose all three hearts and the game is over. If you defeat them all, many of them need multiple hits to be defeated, you'll unlock the next area. After you play through ten levels you'll do it all backwards against much harder foes. The difficulty ramps quite nicely and you'll find yourself coming back to this mode many times.

Other events include canoeing where you use the Wii Remote as a paddle and you must learn how to control the canoe to get through a timed course as quickly as possible. Add a second player to the mix for an interesting test of your cooperation skills. If you don't work together you'll find your canoe spinning in circles and you won't get anywhere. If you can master these controls, though, you will find yourself speeding through the course in no time at all.

Basketball is another event you may find yourself hooked on. The three point challenge has amazing control. You'll have to accurately shoot the basketball in order to score as many points as you can. You have 25 shots and can earn up to 30 points. If you don't use a proper motion you'll find yourself throwing line drives at the hoop or the ball will rainbow and fall well short of the basket. There is also a pick up game where you play a three on three game of street basketball. If you miss a shot or have the ball stolen then time stops and play is given to the other team. It's a very quick game of basketball that will have you laughing with and at your friends as you steal passes, block shots and generally just have some fun. I would love to see this control scheme fleshed out into a full game of basketball because the shooting motion is very fluid and intuitive and adding a nunchuck for movement would not hinder things in any way.

Archery is an event that you should not pass up. The Wii Remote is held vertically like you would hold a bow. Pressing the Z button knocks the arrow and you draw the nunchuk back to begin your shot. Release the Z button and the arrow flies at the target. You will have to pay close attention to the wind and the distance from the target and compensate for the best possible shot. When you press the Z button your vision zooms in on the target and a circular reticle appears. It will get smaller as you spend more time aiming. Don't take too long though or your arms will get tired and you'll have to line your shot up again. When you aim, the background and peripheral areas blur to give you the feeling that you are focused solely on the target. It's a wonderful effect and having done some archery myself I can attest to the accuracy and feeling of this game. There are also secret targets hidden on every level that you can shoot for a full 10 point shot.

The next best, but probably, my favorite overall is the table tennis. I am a huge fan of the actual game and was blown away by the accuracy and strategy you can get when playing this game. Motions you would do in real life cause the appropriate actions to happen during play. Backspin, topspin, lobs, smashes are all there and can be used as you would use them in real life. My only gripe about this game is that it is a shortened six point version of the game. I would love this to have been a full 21 point game. You can unlock an eleven point game to increase the length of your sessions of table tennis. You'll also see that the difficulty ramps up very quickly and after you reach pro level you'll have to play many opponents multiple times before you are able to beat them. Rally's between two well matched opponents will last a long time and the reward for winning one of those rally's is an amazing feeling of accomplishment. You play this game next to a pool and there are dozens of Mii's gathered around to watch you.

The last game I'm going to talk about in detail is the air sports. There is a flyover mode where you have five minutes to just fly around the island. Every place that you go to during a mini game can be flown to in your airplane. The environment is very large and it will take multiple fly overs to see everything there is to see. The island is also bustling with activity. Mii's are everywhere interacting with each other. There are 80 points of interest that you can fly to and visiting them unlocks new times of day and other fun things that can enhance your experience. You hold the Wii Remote like you would a paper airplane and your movement corresponds to the appropriate flying mechanic. Many people will say this is what a Pilotwings game should feel like and they would be right. There is also a dog fighting mode, but you'll find the environment might be too big for a one on one dogfight.

There are other games as well, many of them good, only a couple are not as good as they should be. You can play power cruising, which is another name for jet skis, golf, bowling, wakeboarding, cycling, and frisbee. All of those game mimic real life motions very well and the accuracy is as stated many times before amazing.

The visual style of the game is very similar to the Wii branded games before it. Your mii is used as your in game avatar and most times they still do not have arms or legs. The visuals have been improved somewhat from the original. The lines are more crisp, the colors are brighter. They've really tried to capture the feeling of being at a resort. There are Mii's everywhere and they're all engaged in activities you would expect to find at a resort. There are whales out in the bay that jump out of water or flip their tails creating big splashes, and birds fly everywhere. There is no end to the amount of stuff you can see while you're on the island. Nintendo has been quoted as saying they wanted to turn Wuhu Island into a character and they've succeeded in doing just that. I can't wait to see what else will await us on our next trip to the island.

The sound design is also much improved over the previous game. The usual sounds you would expect to hear are present such as birds chirping. Sword hits resonate around the sword fighting arena. Nintendo has done a beautiful job capturing the sounds of all the various events and you really feel like you're present at those events. The theme for the menu is just as catchy as the Wii Shop channel or the previous Wii Sports theme.

There are a few things I would have liked to have seen improved. You will find yourself constantly recalibrating the Wii remote, though it is generally masked very well. Things like grabbing the frisbee before each throw hide the fact that you are actually recentering the controller and if you find things not responding like you expect a quick press of the down button on the d-pad will recenter the controller and you're back in the action. It's very easy to reach and can easily be done between actions. Many of the games, while there are a number of options sometimes feel like they could have been fleshed out a bit more. It's a small gripe as there is always plenty to do and the action in the games currently feels good. You just feel like you want to have a full version of each of these games and any of them could have stood alone as a full retail game or a downloadable WiiWare title by themselves with some additions.

All in all, Wii Sports Resort is more than just a tech demo to show off the capabilities of Wii Motion Plus. There is a ton of content in the game already and you'll find it's as fun to play by yourself as it is with friends. The game rewards you for playing alone in the form of the stickers. Many of them can only be gained during single player play and that may be a bit of a crutch to get people to play alone, but it's still very enjoyable. If you own a Wii you should also own Wii Sports Resort. It's the next game that could sell millions of copies and get you playing your Wii again if you've drifted away. The improved controls, better graphics and sheer volume of content make the game easily worth the $50 price tag. The Motion Plus is just a bonus that comes along and gives you more enjoyment to a clearly fun game.

Final Score: 5/5

Texas Hold'em Tournament Review (WiiWare)

One thing that seems to come with downloadable services for video games are card games. WiiWare to date has only had one, VIP Casino: Blackjack. Another one has been added to the service with Leisure Games latest release, Texas Hold ‘Em Tournament. If you’re not familiar with the game two player place blind bets, a small blind and a large blind, before the cards are dealt. Each player is then given two cards and another round of betting takes place. If there are still players left after that round of betting 3 community cards, called the flop, are dealt and another round of betting takes place. That is followed by another community card, which is called the Turn, and another round of betting. Finally a last community card, called the River, is dealt and a final round of betting takes place. If two or more players remain they show their cards and the player with the highest hand is awarded the pot. That is Texas Hold ‘Em in a nutshell. Luckily, if you’re still confused or have not played the game before there is a tutorial mode in the game where you can learn the basics.

You can participate in single player free play where you face off against five computer controlled opponents. There are also five different tournaments to compete in that will get progressively more difficult as you move along. The Blind bets in the game start at $50 for the small blind and $100 dollars for the big blind. There is a timer in the top right corner that counts down. Once it reaches zero the blinds are doubled. This is to encourage play to continue and makes the pots higher as you play.

The Free Play and Tournament modes are all available for online play as well where you can have up to six other human opponents, which is where this game really hits it big. There really is no substitute for humans when dealing with games like this. The online play worked well, and I never had any problems connecting to other players. It takes about two to three minutes to find the necessary opponents and play begins. It was, however, more difficult to find opponents for the higher ranked tournaments as you have to play through them all before reaching the higher ranked tournaments. This could have been due to the fact that the game was newly released and not enough people had been able to reach those tournaments.

The game play itself was very solid, which is what should be expected in a card game. All the necessary options, such as folding, checking, calling and such are there and you can’t choose an option that is not allowed. That means that new players to the game will not get lost as it’s very easy to tell which portion of the hand you are in and what your options are exactly. Raising your bet is done with on screen chips. You simply point to the various denominations and place your bet.

Graphically the game leaves a lot to be desired. There is Mii support in the game and if you’re playing online with other players that’s not an issue. The environments you play in are modeled quite well. They resemble the card rooms in a real casino. The character models for the background players and your computer controlled opponents, however, look like they were pulled straight from a Nintendo 64 game. It was a bit distracting having to look at blocky opponents and the Mii characters are a much more desirable choice. It begs the question, why weren’t random Miis from your system memory used rather than the ugly characters they have in the game.

There is little to no flash to the presentation. You have a number of menu selections that you can choose from. They are bare bones boxes that you simply point at to select and it takes you to the next selection of menus, if any are available before jumping into the game. All the options available to you during a hand are displayed at the bottom of the screen when it is your turn to place bets. You also have a small selections of emotes that you can choose from, but they will not be seen unless your character is on the screen at the time, and there is no audio component with these, they are all visual.

There is little audio used in the game. None of the characters speak, but there is background crowd noise to help you feel like you’re in a casino environment. Voice chat would have been a welcome addition, as you could have had some interaction with the other players online. The music will make you feel like you were in an elevator and never stepped out. It was quickly turned off during the review and not missed at all.

Overall, it’s a very good, quality representation of the game of Texas Hold ‘em. Digital Leisure did a good job making sure the game worked properly and in that regard it works wonderfully. The bare bones presentation, ugly character models, and little to no audio in the game left something to be desired. The game does work, and it was easy to play against human opponents, but it just felt dull and boring when it wasn’t your turn to do something. A little more interaction with the environment and other players would have gone a long way to making this a really good game of poker. As it is it’s just an average poker game.

Final Score: 3/5

Review copy of the game provided by Digital Leisure.

Resident Evil: Darkside Chronicles Release Date Announced

Capcom announced today the release date for Resident Evil: Darkside Chronicles, the sequel to Resident Evil: Umbrella Chronicles. You can go to your local game retailer on November 17th to purchase the game. Darkside Chronicles weaves the stories of Resident Evil 2 and Code Veronica with a new storyline that ties the two games together. If you pre-order the game from Gamestop you get their "Let your darkside out" T-shirt for free. You can also purchase the shirt from the Capcom Store for $24.95.

If you visit the official website you can get a taste of the Resident Evil 2 section of the story. You can also check out Claire and Leon on Twitter.



Source: Capcom Press E-mail

UK Law Currently Gives Minors Ability to Purchase Adult Content

The Times Online, a London based newspaper is reporting that a blunder by the British Government concerning a law passed in 1984 has given children the ability to purchase adult rated content in the United Kingdom. The 1984 Video Recordings Act was passed to give the government legal means to prosecute people who sell adult content to minors, this includes pornography, movies and video games.

The problem is that the law was never properly enacted. This means that any new prosecutions based on the law will not be brought before a court in the United Kingdom. Anyone that is currently serving a sentence because of this act will be unaffected and those prosecutions still stand, simply no further action will be taken against people until this problem is rectified. The British government is working as quickly as they can to close this loophole.

Jeremy Hunt, Shadow Culture Secretary, said: “Much of the problem would have been avoided if they had sorted out the classification of video games earlier, as we and many others in the industry have been urging them to do.”

Source:Times Online

What this essentially means is that as of right now there is nothing stopping a ten year old person from going out and buying porn or what would be an "M" rated game. They can't use the ratings on the material as a marker because they can't be prosecuted because of it. Hopefully this situation will be cleared up very soon and the sales of inappropriate material will not get out of hand. Most people will still use it as a guideline, and won't buy things for their kids they wouldn't normally buy, but there will be slime bags out there who will do whatever they can for a buck.

Another Crazy Nintendo Patent

The crazy patents continue. This time we have the Wii football. Would you play any game with the Wii Remote and Nunchuk crammed into a football? I don't know how easy it would be to play with something like this. If you're holding the thing like a football should be held it would be very awkward to reach the controller. Like many patents, this one will probably never see the light of day, it's just Nintendo registering something so no one can use it and they're trying out ideas to see how well they would work.

This Week in Nintendo History: August 23rd to August 29th

Howdy folks, and welcome once again to our weekly look back at the history of Nintendo. This week we'll take a look at Mario, dolphins, Metroid, and more. It's a pretty good week with some fun filled facts. Let's jump right into it.

First up this week we'll travel to August 23rd, 2005. Pac 'n Roll was released for the Nintendo DS. Pac-Man (who has been put under Golvis' sphere curse) must save Pac-Master's family from the evil Golvis and Ghosts, with their evil plot to turn Pac-Land into Ghost-Land. This was a bit of a mash up between Marble Madness gameplay and Super Monkey Ball. The touch screen was used to control a 3-d version of Pac-Man while he traveled around various levels.

Space World on August 24th, 2000 was the site of one of the biggest reveals of the year. Nintendo lifted the curtain on their next console and the world was introduced to the Nintendo Game Cube. A little over a year earlier Howard Lincoln, NoA's chairman, had announced Project Dolphin which would become the Gamecube, but it wasn't until this day that it was officially revealed. Rather than standard sized DVD's like the other consoles of its generation, the Gamecube used proprietary 8cm DVD's that would be the subject of debates for a number of years. It also made some innovations to controllers with the C stick and analog shoulder buttons. Probably the most famous feature of its controller was the giant green A button that had not been seen until that time. The launch for the system was also the first time that Mario was not present in the starring role of a game. It would end up not being a very big success commercially, but paved the way for the next generation for Nintendo and the advent of the Wii. The last game released for the system, officially, was Madden NFL '08.

August 24th, 2006 would be the first time that Final Fantasy III would be released in America. This would be the first time that the game was released outside the country of Japan. This version of the game was also the first of Square Enix's 3-d remakes of Final Fantasy games on DS, and would soon be followed by the ever popular Final Fantasy IV. The DS release of the game would make some changes to the game to improve playability. Things like the job system would be rebalanced, new abilities would be added and the initial job for the player would be changed from Onion Knight to Freelancer. Job specific abilities would also be added if a character had fully mastered a certain job. Final Fantasy III would also make use of Nintendo's Wi-Fi Connection allowing players to send mail to characters, as well as other players. This remake would sell over 500,000 copies in Japan during its first week in stores and has sold more than 1 million copies to date.

Let's move to the year 1997, more specifically, August 25th, 1997. This was the day that third person shooters would begin to gain popularity on consoles. On this day in history GoldenEye 007 was released for the Nintendo 64. This game, based on the popular James Bond story, and developed by Rare, featured four player split-screen multiplayer and one of the most popular death match modes in a shooter to date. It was well loved by fans and has a Meta Critic score of 96%. GoldenEye 007 is on many players most wanted lists for the Virtual Console, but it has been stated many times that the possiblity of it coming to download services is small.

August 25th, 2002 saw the release of the first true Mario adventure for the Gamecube. Super Mario Sunshine was the first, and only game in the main Mario series to release for the GameCube. It has been received to very differing opinions among Nintendo fans. In the game Mario was framed for committing a crime he did not do. He is sentenced to cleaning up the entirety of Isle Delfino, home to the Piantas. The main gameplay element, which is the cause of the wide variety of opinions, revolves around Mario using a water pack to clean up the environment and help him reach areas otherwise inaccessible to him. As of June 2006 it had sold more than five and half million copies worldwide and placed 46th on Official Nintendo Magazine's Top 100 Games of All-Time.

Fast forward one year to August 25th, 2003 and the release of F-Zero GX. This was the fifth game in the popular racing franchise and the first in the series to include a "story mode" where the player assumes the role of Captain Falcon who must complete various racing missions to proceed through the story. It retained the series high speed, frantic hover racing action, but increased the overall difficulty of the series considerably. It is considered by many to be the best racing game to release on the GameCube. It featured thirty different pilots who could compete on twenty different tracks throughout the game.

Also on that day Pokemon Pinball: Ruby & Sapphire were released for the Game Boy Advance. This was a pretty standard pinball game that featured two tables and four different modes of play.

Super Mario Sluggers stepped up to bat on August 25th, 2008 for Wii. This was the second baseball game in the Mario franchise and featured some Wii specific controls, such as swinging the Wii Remote to bat or pitch. In order to unlock all the characters and stadiums, Mario must complete a series of challenges against various opponents. If successful another character or stadium would unlock. There were 41 different characters from the Mushroom Kingdom that were playable. The game received very fair reviews, but none were overwhelmingly good. The lack of online play and the fact that it came out after Wii Sports and its baseball game contributed to those reviews.

Let's go back to August 27th, 2007 and the release of one of the best games so far on Wii, Metroid Prime 3: Corruption. This final chapter of the Prime trilogy was released to very positive reviews and it considered by many to still have some of the best controls for a shooter on Wii. It was praised for its gorgeous visuals, solid controls and excellent storyline. It was one of the first games in the series to feature a large amount of voice work, even if Samus herself did not speak and even featured an online element. Players were able to trade tokens with each other that would enable them to unlock bonus features such as concept art and movies. This game is be re-released on a single disc with the first two games in the trilogy as Metroid Prime Trilogy on August 25th, 2009.

Developer 5th Cell was founded on August 28th, 2003 by Joseph M. Tringali, Jeremiah Slaczka and Brett Caird. The company develops games primarily for Nintendo's Wii and DS systems. They are most well known for the Drawn To Life series, as well as Lock's Quest an the upcoming game Scribblenauts. When asked what kind of games he wanted the company to be known for Jeremiah Slaczka, the company's Creative Director said, "Innovative games – we want to be known as a company that produces AAA content you can't get anywhere else from anyone else. So far, with both Drawn to Life and Lock's Quest, I think our products have lined up with that vision. We've completely switched our company's focus to original titles now. We don't do licensed games or work for hire anymore."

Star Fox Command was released for the Nintendo DS on August 28th, 2006. This game returned the series to its air combat roots after a couple of previous missteps. It was also the first game in the Star Fox series to feature online play. Up to six people could join together in local wireless play.


There you have it, another week of history is in the books. What do you think? Have you enjoyed this article? Is there anything coming up you know about that you want to see in the article. Leave me a comment and let me know.

A Positive GameStop Experience

Gamestop takes a lot of flack for being this evil corporation that everyone should hate. Sometimes that may be the case, but I find it to be rare. I don't trade a lot of games because I enjoy collecting the games I have, but I do occasionally use their service and I do have an Edge card. Their persistance paid off and one day I finally said yes, if nothing it'll get them to stop asking for a while. I know my Gamestop guys as I go in there about once a week.

Anyway, I want to relate a positive experience I had recently, because it seems there aren't enough of those to go around. Last Friday I decided to go in and get the new Madden game on the Wii. That was a mistake. I took the game home, played it for a couple of hours and realized it was missing many of the things that I would expect from a Madden game. I'm not a big fan of Madden, I'm what you would call a casual player. The last version of the game I owned was Madden '06 on the Gamecube. I have played every year, but never bought the game myself. I was intrigued by the new art style, which I do love by the way, so I decided to give it a go.

After the couple of hours of playing I decided I really didn't like it and wanted to take it back. I called Gamestop and the guy I talked to remembered selling me the game earlier. I explained that I really didn't like it, it wasn't exactly what I was expecting and I asked if I could return it for another game. He said he could do it only if it wasn't opened. I said well it was opened when I bought it so I wouldn't have had that opportunity. After a few minutes of talking he said, "I tell you what, if you bring it back in ask for me and I'll take care of you."

I ended up taking the game back and he and the other guy behind the counter were surprised at how different it was from the other versions of the game, because they hadn't really heard a lot about the Wii version. I traded it straight across for Tiger Woods PGA Tour 10, which is absolutely amazing and was sealed, by the way. They did say that if I opened that game and didn't like it they would only be able to take it back as used, which I completely understood because I would have opened the game myself. It was a very positive experience and I have no problems using Gamestop. The guys in my local store are always friendly and haven't been pushy, or rude or acted like they knew things they didn't really know.

I just wanted to let everyone out there know that it's not all negative news when it comes to Gamestop.

Tatsunoko vs. Capcom Has More Playable Characters

The Vs. series by Capcom has seen a number of different opponents over the years, including Marvel and SNK. The newest opponent to jump in the ring is Tatsunoko, a Japanese animation company founded in 1962. Tatsunoko vs. Capcom: Ultimate All-Stars producer Ryota Niitsuma sat down with Gamespot last week during GamesCom in Cologne, German to talk about the upcoming fighter that will be released exclusively for Wii. During that discussion he confirmed that the western release of the game will feature four new fighters that have not yet been announced. Two will be from the Capcom side of the fight and two will be from the Tatsunoko side.

The game was designed using a new engine that would better take advantage of the Wii's capabilities. Also announced was that the online match making has been improved over the Japanese version of the game to allow better placement of matches based on skill. European and American players will also be able to play against opponents from all over the world.

"We wanted to do something really wacky," he said in our interview, "and fill in the space for a Wii button masher."

Tatsunoko vs. Capcom has not had an official release date for North America or Europe, but that announcement is expected some time before the fourth quarter of this year.

Source: Gamespot

Water Warfare Review (WiiWare)

Most first person shooters are geared toward an older audience that has no problem seeing limbs blown off and blood all over the environment. Hudson is trying to increase the size of the shooter audience by creating an FPS geared toward children. Water Warfare is a typical first person perspective game where instead of lead flying all over the place, players engage in a giant water gun fight.

Water gun fights are not an experience many, if any, have had on a console. It was thought that the FPS genre was only for the older players. Water Warfare opens up by allowing you to create your on screen representation rather than having a stock character typical to the genre. You have about nine different options for faces, hair, and clothing to choose from giving you a large variety of options to use in creating your virtual hero. The single player campaign is broken up into about 40 missions spread over 8 maps, most of them taking just a few minutes to complete and all based around a single objective. You are tasked with eliminating a pre-determined number of combatants during a set amount of time or defending an objective, such as a playground slide, from oncoming “invaders”. The eight maps are map up of small and large versions of the four locales in the game. You will be fighting on a beach, the playground, a city plaza and a small mountain arena.

The controls in water warfare are very responsive. Aiming is done with the Wii Remote’s pointer, fire your water guns with the B button and you can jump with the A button. The object is to soak your opponents before they soak you. Each player has a T-shirt that represents their health. If the shirt fills with water you are knocked out of the fight and must respawn. If you run out of water you can refill your gun at water fountains or in the ocean. You must be careful though because you can take damage by standing in water. There are no melee combats but there are a number of objects around the environment that can be used to help you in your quest to dominate the water soaked battlefields. Raincoats allow you take water damage for a short period of time. Towels reduce the amount of water you’ve been hit with allowing you to get back into the fight again. You also have things like water bombs that act much like you would expect a grenade to work in a traditional FPS. There is also the ability to dual wield water pistols to increase your rate of fire. All together there are about 6 different weapons that you can wield from a standard water pistol or water machine gun to a water shotgun or bazooka that fires blasts of water at your opponents. For players who don’t like the Wii Remote and Nunchuk you can hook up a Classic Controller and use the dual analog stick control method typical of other console shooters. You can also use the Wii Zapper if you find that controller to your liking.

Also included are a number of multi-player modes. Split Screen multi player is supported as well as online matches for up to eight players, though only one player is allowed per console in online matches. You connect through the Nintendo Wi-Fi Connection and a clock counts down while opponents are located. You can battle in the standard death match and capture the flag modes and well as team death match and capture the flag. The online experience does not lag and the match making is usually very quick to find opponents. You can, as you would expect log on and play against friends using Nintendo’s Friend Code System. If you’re having trouble finding people to play with or you just want to practice before heading out into the real world all the online maps are available to play with bots so you can hone your skills.

Visually the game lacks behind experiences typical of today’s standard. The game appears similar to a later version of a Nintendo 64 game or a very early game cube game. There are not a lot of textures and the characters, while there are a lot of variants have the slightly blockly look you expect of games made in generations past. This does not detract too much from the overall experience as there are a lot of details in the environments and you can interact with many of the objects such as rocking horses on the playground map.

This game is a solid experience, especially for younger players who can’t play the more gorey, blood fests found today. There is no violence to be seen unless you consider sniping children with water guns to be violent. It has the same laughable, fun experience you would expect if you were actually on a playground shooting your friends with water guns. If you’re looking for a light hearted experience or you really like water guns you should check out Water Warfare.

Final Score: 3/5

Nintendo Download: Week of August 24th

It’s a bit of a lighter this week for Nintendo’s download services. We get one game this week on each service, but they’re all worth a look. We’ve got Jedi, drillers and bubbles; three things that everyone should enjoy.

The Virtual Console brings us the sequel to Super Star Wars with Super Empire Strikes Back. This is a result of the partnership between Nintendo and Lucas Arts to bring Star Wars content to Wii. You'll be able to relive the adventures of Luke Skywalker and company in this digital version of the Star Wars world.

WiiWare has an arcade classic in Mr. Driller W. You'll be trying to dig your way down as far as you can while avoiding falling blocks, rocks and air loss. How far down can you go?

DSiWare has another version of the WiiWare launch title Pop by developer Nnooo. Pop virtual bubbles, chain combos and use nuclear blasts to score as high as you can. There have been new modes added to the game since its release on WiiWare and the game was already a quality title there.

Virtual Console

Super Empire Strikes Back
Original platform: Super NES™
Publisher: LucasArts
Players: 1
ESRB Rating: E (Everyone) – Fantasy Violence
Price: 800 Wii Points
Description: Pursued across the galaxy, Rebel forces now marshal new strength on the remote ice world of Hoth. Though tracked by probe droids, attacked by ice monsters and confronted by an army of gigantic Imperial Walkers, you must not give in. You are the Alliance’s only hope. Learn the ways of the Force, then test your skills in this fast-paced, action-packed sequel to the hit game Super Star Wars.

WiiWare

Mr. DRILLER® W
Publisher: NBGI
Players: 1
ESRB Rating: E (Everyone) – Comic Mischief
Price: 800 Wii Points™
Description: Mr. Driller W is the newly updated version of the exciting game that challenges players with level upon level of frantic underground drilling action. Experience more than 20 varied stages and missions. Drill through a seemingly endless onslaught of colored blocks while avoiding falling obstacles and strategically managing your air supply. Multiple degrees of difficulty now challenge everyone from novices to hardcore Mr. Driller veterans. A tutorial will even help first-time players learn the rules quickly and easily. Vibrant graphics, engaging game play and loads of characters make this a modern twist on a gaming masterpiece.

Nintendo DSiWare

Pop+ Solo
Publisher: Nnooo
Players: 1
ESRB Rating: E (Everyone)
Price: 500 Nintendo DSi Points™
Description: Pop bubbles, build chains and try to keep the timer alive in this awesome puzzle/shooter. Pop your way through 16 waves of bubbles in Adventure, Normal or Advanced modes. Race against the clock in a one-, two- or five-minute run. Try the new Bonus Round mode, where each bonus round can be played in three, five or 10 rounds of increasing difficulty. Or just chill out in the relaxing Chill mode with no score or time pressures to worry about. Pop+ Solo comes to the Nintendo DSi™ system with eight modes and five bonus rounds, plus plenty of new badges to collect. Adventure mode introduces some new elements to the game with mines, golden fish, jets of water and four boss battles. The new Challenge mode lets you create and customize your own challenges to play again and again.

I think Mr. Driller W will be my first download of the week. My daughter got hooked on Mr. Driller after a visit to her uncle's house a few weeks ago when she played the XBLA version of the game. It's a pretty fun little puzzle game. Star Wars is huge as well in our house and I've never played the originals so I'll definitely have to check it out on VC. I don't own a DSi, but I can tell you that the WiiWare version of Pop was a lot of fun and new modes should make the gameplay even more interesting. All in all, it's a pretty good week on Nintendo's downloadable front.

Touching Tribute to Fallen Soldier

There are fewer men that I respect more than soldiers. They do a job I couldn't possibly do and they deserve all the respect in the world. This is a touching tribute by a fallen soldier's father. Private Richard Hunt, a member of the British military was killed in action in Afghanistan last week. The funeral happened on the soldier's 22nd birthday and a number of people came to remember him. During the funeral, his father left a copy of Call of Duty: World at War on his grave with a note. You can't read it in the picture, but the note reads, "Happy Birthday 'Hunty'. Play you again one day."

It is both a bit of irony and an extremely touching tribute to one of the world's heroes who died during his own "call of duty". Make sure you tell all the soldiers in your life "Thank You" for their service and their sacrifice.

Source: GoNintendo, Kotaku, Game Politics