Nintendo Download: Week of October 5th

Discover New Worlds, Hidden Words and the First FINAL FANTASY

Fans of the legendary FINAL FANTASY® series should be especially pleased with this week’s downloadable game lineup. Making its Virtual Console™ debut is the original FINAL FANTASY, an NES™ classic that can now be enjoyed on the Wii™ system for the very first time. For hand-held gaming action with a sci-fi twist, this week’s new Nintendo DSiWare™ title, Thorium Wars™, lets you take control of an arsenal of vehicles to blast through waves of enemies in a variety of exotic locations. If it’s a more down-to-earth experience you’re after, check out an engaging new WiiWare™ puzzle game. Consumers should also note that today is the final day of a special promotion: You can receive 1,000 bonus Nintendo DSi Points™ by purchasing a new Nintendo DSi™ game system and connecting to the Nintendo DSi Shop by 11:59 p.m. Pacific time on Oct. 5, 2009. For full offer details, please visit DSiOffer.Nintendo.com.

Virtual Console

FINAL FANTASY
Original platform: NES
Publisher: SQUARE ENIX
Players: 1
ESRB Rating: E (Everyone) – Mild Fantasy Violence
Price: 500 Wii Points™

Description: The world lies shrouded in darkness. The winds die. The sea rages. The earth decays. But the people believe in a prophecy, patiently awaiting its fulfillment. “When darkness veils the earth, four Warriors of Light shall come....” After a long journey, four young travelers did at last appear, and in the hand of each was clutched a crystal.

Nintendo DSiWare

Thorium Wars
Publisher: Big John Games
Players: 1
ESRB Rating: E10+ (Everyone 10 and Older) – Fantasy Violence
Price: 1,000 Nintendo DSi Points

Description: In Thorium Wars, you must stop the Thorions, a super species of Thorium-based machines, from destroying mankind. Blast through waves of Thorions by controlling an arsenal of tanks, skyfighters, hovercrafts, gunboats and starfighters with either the standard or touch-screen controls. In 12 exciting missions, navigate through a variety of combat environments while viewing 360 degrees of the battlefield, fully rendered in 3-D. Toggle between first- and third-person views to destroy the terrifying army of Thorium beasts, from swarms of Redeye Drones to the bone-crushing Manticore Walker. This man-versus-machine battle proves to be the ultimate test for the survival of the fittest.

WiiWare

Word Searcher
Publisher: Digital Leisure Inc.
Players: 1
ESRB Rating: E (Everyone)
Price: 500 Wii Points

Description: You’ll need a sharp eye and a quick mind to complete 100 themed word-search puzzles. Word Searcher contains fun words from multiple categories including anatomy, world cities and U.S. presidents. With a huge assortment of subjects to choose from, there’s sure to be a puzzle for everyone to enjoy. Help improve your vocabulary, memory and problem-solving skills with these engaging puzzles. Track and try to beat your own play-through times again and again—words are scrambled every time you play.

Nintendo adds new titles to the Nintendo DSi Shop and the Wii Shop Channel at 9 a.m. Pacific time on Mondays. Users with broadband Internet access can redeem Wii Points or Nintendo DSi Points to download the games. Wii Points can be purchased in the Wii Shop Channel. Nintendo DSi Points can be purchased in the Nintendo DSi Shop. A Nintendo Points Card™ can be purchased at retail locations. All points from one Nintendo Points Card must be redeemed in either the Nintendo DSi Shop or the Wii Shop Channel. They are not transferable and cannot be divided between the two systems.

Remember that both Wii and Nintendo DSi feature parental controls that let adults manage the content their children can access. For more information about this and other features, visit Wii.com or NintendoDSi.com.

Final Fantasy IV: The After Years Review

I have to be perfectly honest and open up front, and like I said in my preview I’ve not played many Final Fantasy games. I started with Final Fantasy VII, but haven’t played anything before that. So this review is coming from someone who hasn’t played the original Final Fantasy IV. I can say that I’ve played many RPGs in the past and this one ranks near the top in terms of games I’ve enjoyed.

Final Fantasy IV: The After Years opens up with the main character, Ceodore, following in his father’s footsteps. He is embarking on his journey to join the Knights of the Red Wings, the elite fighting force of the Kingdom of Baron. His father is King Cecil, a paladin, and his mother is Rosa, a white mage; they are also the heroes of Final Fantasy IV. The game takes place 17 years after the events of the first game. Once his quest to join the knights is completed the second moon which has been gone for the past 17 years suddenly reappears and the kingdom is invaded by hordes of monsters. Ceodore must defend himself and return to his home to aid in its defense. Along the way he is met by a mysterious “hooded man” who offers to join him on his trip. Other adventures that take place during this initial chapter of the game involve Cecil, Rosa and the engineer Cid, as well as the mysterious dragoon Kain who wants to have a meeting with Cecil. All of these different adventures tie together in a web of intrigue to discover why the second moon has returned, who is the mysterious woman behind it and why does Kain need to see Cecil as quickly as possible.

Many elements of the original release were to become staples of the role playing genre, and they return in this game with some new updates. The Active Time Battle System is the one you will encounter most often. Each character has a bar that fills up and once full they may perform an action. That can be to attack, cast magic, use items, or “band” together with another character. You can customize this a bit to your liking. You have to ability to have the game wait until you’ve decided a characters action or continue to run in real time. There is also the option of speeding up or slowing down the speed that these bars move so you have more time to choose what each character does. The banding attacks are powerful combo attacks between 2 or more characters that can be used to deal massive damage to a single enemy or even groups of enemies. They are extremely powerful, but require a small amount of MP, or magic points, to activate. A few of these banding attacks will be given to you throughout the story, but you can also try different combinations of characters to discover other ones on your own. One element of the game that will become increasingly frustrating is the random encounters. These encounters happen very frequently and can interrupt the Gameplay somewhat. In order to survive for extended periods of time you need to make strategic use of all the special attacks you have available to you, and learn each monsters weakness in order exploit them to help speed combat along.

Another new element to the game is the moon phase system. This will cause different aspects of each character to become stronger or weaker based on the phase of the moon you are in. This will change at various intervals, but can be changed at will by pitching a tent at specific locations throughout the world. For instance, during a waxing or waning moon attack power is increased while during a full moon magic abilities are increased. Learning this and how it affects your character will be very beneficial in boss fights. There is also the ability for up to three friends to join in the action and take control of characters during battles. This is an interesting addition, but unless you and all your friends can keep up with the frantic pace of battles it may cause fights outside the in game battles as well.

One aspect of the game that is wonderful, and expected in Square Enix games, is the visuals. The After Years uses the same art style as the original SNES release. The environments are gorgeous; character sprites are vibrant and very animated. Spell effects sparkle and shine; there are a wide variety of these as well. The only downside to the visuals is that environments are reused throughout the game. If you’ve been in one cave, you’ve been in every cave in the game. The layouts may be different, but the look and feel is always the same. This is a small gripe and does not affect the overall feel of the game. Square Enix also knows how to compose music. The upbeat battle theme is a nice contrast to many of the slower, more moody melodies you’ll encounter.

Final Fantasy IV: The After Yearsis broken up into a number of chapters. The first chapter is available for 800 points. Overall, the story is broken up into nine separate stories. The first and the last, which will be available in September, are the only required elements if you want to get the full experience of the main story. Also available now is the first of seven Character Stories, Rydia’s Tale. These will be available in the first weeks of July and August in groups of three. Each Character Story will cost 300 Nintendo Points, but are optional side stories that detail the events that happen to many of the characters you will encounter through the game. They are not necessary to the understanding of the main story. The main story will run you between four and five hours, each of the side stories should take around two hours to complete. All together if you purchase all the available content it will run 3700 Nintendo Points.

For fans of Final Fantasy IV this is a welcome continuation of many peoples favorite game in the series. If you’re new to the series it may feel awkward trying to get into the story. It’s probably helpful to know the history of these characters, but not necessary to follow the story. It’s well worth the price for a quality title in a storied franchise. The only real problem with this release is that once you’ve really gotten into the story and are starting to wonder exactly where things are going the credits roll and you have to wait a bit to find out the rest of the tale. The episodic nature of the game means you’re going to get the experience that you want to have, and it’s an experience that many people would and should enjoy.

Final Score: 4/5

I'm tired of defending Wii

That may sound like something strange coming from someone who loves Nintendo as much as I do, but it's true. Everywhere you turn "hardcore" gamers are bashing Nintendo for abandoning them. For almost three years now I've spent a lot of it trying to sell Wii to those people who want bigger explosions, more realistic graphics and more blood in the Wii games.

Well, I'm not going to do it anymore. I play games to have fun. I enjoy games like the Munchables and My Sims because they're fun. I enjoy games like the Conduit and Call of Duty because they're fun. I don't play games because they look like what I see out of my window. I don't care what the graphics of a game look like. I don't care how much blood a game has in it. I generally avoid those types of games anyway, because that seems to be all there is to them.

I sit down for an hour in front of my TV with a controller in my hand because I want to have fun. I don't want to spend an hour trying to convince a 13 year old boy that the Wii is a fun system. They want cursing, realism, blood and guns in their games and if it doesn't have those the game sucks in their opinion. They're entitled to it, but I think they're wrong.

They won't play a game like The Munchables because it looks like a game for kids. They don't remember the days when we played games like Pac-Man or Galaga because they were fun to play. I don't know when gaming turned from that the the gore fest shooters that people think games have to be in order to be fun.

I just know that I'm tired of listening to it. I'm not going to defend it anymore because it's a losing battle. I'm going to continue to buy the games that I like because I think they deserve support. My gaming shelf is full of games that many would say are stupid. I own My Sims, The Munchables, Paper Mario. I also own games like Call of Duty and The Conduit. They're all fun and arguing with people about that isn't so I'm not going to do it anymore.