Especially those without the paddle controller.
Anyone else up for some more anagram reviews? I am not. This one took too long.
Update: NeoGAF poster EmCeeGramr gives us this spot-on assessment.
(Inspired by this resurrected NeoGAF thread of anagrammed game names.)
On the occasion of last week's announcement of a release date for Dragon Quest IX and the development of Dragon Quest X on Wii, Nintendo president Satoru Iwata made some interesting comments about the popular RPG series.
Here's what Iwata had to say, as quoted on 1up:
With the release of Dragon Quest IX, there are two things I'd like to make reality. The first is to build a thriving Japanese game market together with Dragon Quest that rivals the West's. The second is to form a strong tag team to promote Dragon Quest overseas. At Nintendo, we were able to popularize the Brain Age series overseas, which was said to be unmarketable. I want to increase the number of people worldwide that understand the appeal of Dragon Quest, which represents all Japanese gaming culture...even if that only turns out to be a single person. I'm looking forward to working together with Mr. Horii and Square Enix.
The significance of these brief remarks should not be overlooked.
Continue reading "Nintendo Pitches In to Help Dragon Quest Succeed -- What It Means" »
Despite being a blatant Super Mario Bros. clone, The Great Giana Sisters was one of the best platforming games of the late 80s -- and now, thanks to dtp Entertainment, it's coming to the Nintendo DS.
Developed by Giana creator Armin Gessert's Spellbound Studios, and featuring a soundtrack full of remixed versions of the original game's tunes and updated 2-D graphics, the new version hits European store shelves in June 2009
Unfortunately, Nintendo's tireless legal crusade against the game when it was first released led to The Great Giana Sisters being almost unknown here in the U.S. It wouldn't be very surprising if the updated version skipped our part of the planet due to perceived lack of gamer interest.
Image courtesy dtp Entertainment
I'm glad that Level-5 isn't treating Professor Layton like a cash cow.
The Japanese publisher's breakout hit series of logic puzzle games for Nintendo DS could have rested on its laurels. Fans would have purchased the latest, titled Professor Layton and the Final Time Travel, based purely on the strength of the previous two games. And if the (currently Japan-only) third game had been exactly like the previous two but with a new selection of logic puzzles, it would have been perfectly fine.
Instead, Level-5 chose to gild the lily. The new Layton has more of everything: More puzzles, yes, but also more high-quality animated story sequences than you thought a Nintendo DS cartridge was capable of holding. More voice work during the non-animated cut scenes. More variations on character artwork during those static dialogue scenes. And a few much-needed gameplay features.
Come on, Nintendo -- where are the American versions of the next two Layton games, already?
Continue reading "Impressions: Professor Layton 3 Crams In More Movies, More Puzzles " »
Aside from a few flamboyant introductory scenes and screenshots I hadn't seen much of the actual game within Square Enix's Dissidia: Final Fantasy, until I came across this clip pitting Final Fantasy VII's angst-ridden protagonist Cloud against angst-incarnate antagonist Sephiroth.
Forget for a moment that it's in Japanese, forget also that it features two of gaming's most iconic characters -- can any of you actually imagine how that would function on a PSP? I have faith in Square Enix after the surprisingly excellent Crisis Core, but Dissidia looks like Virtual-On with bondage gear and eyeliner.
It doesn't help that I can't tell if we're watching a cutscene or a live-action fight through most of the footage, either.
Then again, pitting Cloud and Sephiroth against each other in an almost certainly metaphorical abstract realm is enough to ensure half a million copies sold, if only to those fans who one day plan to name their child "Aerith."
Dissidia: Final Fantasy is coming to America theoretically, though we have yet to hear of a release date.
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December 01, 2008 | 4:03:03 PMCategories: Console Games, Online Gaming, Portable Gaming
Square Enix said Monday that Final Fantasy Crystal Chronicles: Echoes of Time, the latest in its action-oriented RPG series, will arrive in the U.S. this spring.
Echoes of Time is a unique game, to be sure: Not only does it offer online four-player adventuring for the first time, but it will be released on both Nintendo DS and Wii, allowing home and portable players to adventure together.
Sure, the Wii version will look like an up-rezzed DS game, but you can't say this isn't a potentially awesome idea.
Both versions will be released in Japan on January 29. I'm glad we won't have to wait too long for the English releases, especially considering that this game's predecessor, Ring of Fates, was quite good.
Image courtesy Square Enix
Oh look, it's the "Mario Red" Nintendo DS Lite bundle, in person.
You just know that these are going to fly off the shelves when they are released on Black Friday -- not only to parents snapping up DS hardware for Christmas, but gamers who want that snazzy Mario logo on their portable console of choice. I expect fistfights.
On November 28, Nintendo will release two limited edition $150 DS bundles -- this one, which includes a copy of New Super Mario Bros., and an Ice Blue system that comes packed with Brain Age 2. Want to know what's inside? Unboxing pics are below.
Continue reading "Unboxed: Mario DS Lite, This Year's Hottest Black Friday Buy" »
Midway's new Nintendo DS game Mechanic Master takes off of Sierra's classic puzzle game The Incredible Machine, but its puzzles thus far are significantly simpler and more linear.
I'm flying from New York to San Francisco as we speak, using American Airlines' awesome new in-flight internet, and just killed some time playing Mechanic Master. Your goal in each of the game's levels is to eliminate all of the purple aliens by setting them on fire, pushing them off the screen, etc. In some levels you've got to save humans who are trapped in cages by breaking the cages apart.
To do this, you use a variety of different parts. Each level has a few parts pre-arranged for you that you cannot move, and you've got to add other ones in just the right places so that the resultant machine connects in just the right way, launching all the different bits of machinery to smack into the aliens and people.
I played the first ten or so levels (out of 100, says Midway). This isn't The Incredible Machine, for a few different reasons. First off, Sierra's game used real-life objects, and you could generally tell exactly what they would do just by looking at them. Mechanic Master, however, uses fictional objects like spinning wheels with rocket packs, robots that clean up garbage, and aliens with suction cups attached to them. So you've got to learn their behavior patterns.
Continue reading "In-Flight Impressions: Mechanic Master's Entirely Credible Machines" »
The Nintendo DSi is here. Well, actually, it's only available in Japan, so it's really there, not here.
I've been using one for the last week, and sat down with Gadget Lab's Danny Dumas to discuss Nintendo's latest refresh of its popular portable platform on this week's Game|Life video. The cameras! The downloadable software! The internets! I wrote a product review of the DSi for our reviews site, which you can go read now.
While I am not over a barrel for the new hardware features as of yet, it does in the end come down to software. Nintendo launched DSi in Japan with basically nothing in that area: The camera and music apps are fun to mess around with, but not worth the purchase price on their own. And while the DSi Ware shop is functional, easy to use, and filled with promise, there isn't anything up on it yet except the Opera web browser software, which is merely OK.
I'll be writing a lot more about the downloadable DSi apps once they actually release some. For now, I'm just enjoying the matte finish (more comfortable) and bigger, brighter screens (even though they eat battery like crazy).
As always, if you're having trouble viewing the embedded video above, this week's episode of Game|Life the Video is also available on Wired.com's YouTube channel and on iTunes.
Nintendo DSi Review [Wired]
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You got your Shadow of the Colossus in my Final Fantasy! You got your Final Fantasy in my Shadow of the Colossus! And so on.
The first trailer for Square Enix's upcoming Nintendo DS roleplaying title Blood of Bahamut seems to be a large departure from the company's typical number-crunching, melodramatic fantasy tales -- at least in the gameplay department.
We're sure the game will still have effete, troubled male leads, sassy, overly competent female fighters and adorable monster mascots, but presuming that the above footage isn't a bizarre sidequest, this combination of kill-the-behemoth action and Final Fantasy's traditional roleplaying could be very interesting.
We have had rumble since launch
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