A Link to the Wrong: Nintendo's Problems

Nintendo's current situation has been well documented for months now.  The Wii U is currently the worst selling console on the market and despite incredible sales, the 3DS is not selling enough to make up for the Wii U's dismal sales.  A part from those points, third-party publishers this side of the Pacific are abandoning Nintendo and their systems like they are a sinking ship.  The talk surrounding Nintendo is in such an ugly place that an article that either praises or dismisses the Wii U is front page news on any video game website every week.  As an avid fan of Nintendo, I personally do not like the battle between positive and negative press flying around all mediums of communication.  Even if the Wii U does not pan out, Nintendo has an enormous amount of money saved from their successes like the Game Boy, DS and Wii to support themselves into the future.  Another point, the Wii U is only in its second year on the market.  There is still time for Nintendo to turn things around with the system.  The 3DS is a prime example of the possible turnaround that could happen with the Wii U.  With all that said, Nintendo's current situation is entirely their fault.  While the marketing for the Wii U has been a mess since the very beginning, it is not the main cause of their situation.  There are a good number of issues that Nintendo as a company has not been aggressive in tackling or have avoided altogether which have created this perfect storm.  These issues are not independent to one of Nintendo's systems; they involve Nintendo as a whole.

1)  No Party for Third-Parties

Nintendo's problems with securing third-party support has been an ever-present issue with their systems since the days of the Nintendo 64.  One would expect this issue to be solved sometime between the three console generations since the N64.  Funny enough, it has only gotten worse.  Third-party support outside of Japanese publishers and Activision is nearly non-existent.  Even Ubisoft, which has been a big supporter of Nintendo products the past couple generations, is severely cutting back their support aside from downloadable titles and yearly Just Dance installments.  Third-party publishers seem to be moving away from Nintendo products because they believe they cannot make a profit on them.  That impression is not one Nintendo should continue to let foster.  The Big N has shown off some of the partnerships they have forged with Japanese companies like Sega, Atlus and Tecmo Koei, but Nintendo needs to make strides with the publishers in which they have had problems enticing in the past.  First-party games, no matter their great quality, can only take you so far.  Third-party games are needed to pad out the times where there are a lack of first-party titles.  Better for Nintendo to aggressively seek fixing this issue now rather than let it fester any longer as it will be hard repairing these relationships later.

2)  Stalling with Online Multiplayer

Nintendo has dabbled in online multiplayer with games like Super Smash Bros. and Mario Kart.  Compared to the efforts of their competitors, Nintendo's efforts have been lacking.  More games in their portable lineup have received online multiplayer to great success.  These portable games show the great potential of Nintendo-crafted online multiplayer.  Now Nintendo just needs to start adding an online component to games that should have it.  The lack of online multiplayer in games like Nintendo Land, New Super Mario Bros. U, Super Mario 3D World and Pikmin 3 is a missed opportunity in this writer's honest opinion.  Personally, I am a huge advocate for local multiplayer, but those days have been replaced by playing with others without leaving the comforts of your home.  Nowadays, online multiplayer is expected to be included in most games.  Nintendo does not need to add online multiplayer to all their games, but they need to start adding some sort of online component to those which already include local multiplayer.  I have had great times playing games like Nintendo Land, New Super Mario Bros. U and Super Mario 3D World with my friends locally.  Just imagine being able to recreate that fun at anytime without the hassle of trying to gather a group of people every single time you wanted to play some multiplayer.

3)  Stuck on Gimmicks

Nintendo has never been a powerhouse when it comes to graphics.  Their strength has always been gameplay, but sadly the world has become obsessed with the amount of polygons you can cram on a screen.  It is hard to communicate gameplay without giving people the game to actually play.  Case and point, Super Mario 3D World.  Upon first impressions, everybody thought 3D World would just be a up-scaled port of 3D Land.  Once people got their hands on the game, their opinions completely changed for the better.  Nintendo combated this superficial obsession with cutting-edge graphics by introducing unique gimmicks to their consoles and games from the two screens of the Nintendo DS to the motion controls of the Wii.  Nintendo's focus on gimmicks did pan out with the DS and Wii, but they have become a little too reliant on gimmicks to push their games and consoles.  Gimmicks work only when you design games that take advantage of those gimmicks in new and creative ways.  In the Wii U's case, Nintendo has not made any games that truly take advantage of the hardware within the Wii U Gamepad which has caused it to backfire on them.  Gimmicks are not a bad thing, they just become tiresome when you rely on them far too much.  If Nintendo is going to stick with using gimmicks to separate themselves from the competition, they need to be more careful in adding gimmicks that truly institute creativity and innovation rather than just adding gimmicks for the sake of having them.

4)  Wanted:  New Blood

It is hard to think of the last new franchise Nintendo introduced on such a large scale.  You would have to go back to 2006 with the introduction of Wii Sports.  In all honesty, nobody thought Wii Sports would spawn into a franchise which would include Wii Play, Wii Fit, Wii Music and Wii Party.  Looking at that fact, it has been eight years since Nintendo last introduced a major franchise.  Nintendo has introduced new IPs such as Rhythm Heaven, Professor Layton, Pushmo/Crashmo and HarmoKnight, but they all have been confined to handheld or downloadable space instead of major releases on their consoles.  Although it is only one game, there is hope in the mysterious new IP Shigeru Miyamoto is currently working on.  Hopefully, the possible success of this unknown game could spur Nintendo into taking more risks in developing games outside their comfort zone of Mario, Zelda and Pokemon.  Nintendo can even dive into their back catalogue and make new entries in series such as Star Fox, F-Zero, Earthbound or Metroid to alleviate some of the franchise fatigue affecting their most relied upon series.

Year in Review 2013: Games I Missed

Hundreds of games release in a year both physically and digitally.  It is impossible for one person to play every game that releases in a year.  You have to pick and choose which games to spend your valuable free time playing.  With this mindset, you will miss experiencing some great games.  As game releases slow after Christmas, it is an opportune time to pick and play those missed games.  While I did not get much or any time with the games on this list back in 2013, I hope get plenty of time with them in 2014.

Guacamelee!
Luchadors, wrestling moves and Metroidvania-style platforming.  Guacamelee is made for me.  Sadly, its early Sony exclusivity kept this writer from picking Guacamelee up until its eventual release on Steam.  Playing as an average Mexican farmer turned super powered luchador, the player is tasked with saving El Presidente's daughter from an evil skeleton.  Crazy story aside, Gucamelee looks to be a great extension of the classic Metroidvania formula.  Switching the classic weapon upgrades out for wrestling moves, adding a dimension-changing mechanic and focusing on melee combat are the ways that Guacamelee differentiates itself from other action-platformers in the Metroidvania vein.  I love this style of platformers and have put countless hours into many games in this sub-genre from Super Metroid to Castlevania: Dawn of Sorrow.  Once I get the chance to install Gucamelee on my computer, I predict much of the same with this game.

Ni No Kuni:  Wrath of the White Witch
This joint venture from the minds of legendary animation house Studio Ghibli and esteemed video game developer Level-5 originally released for the Nintendo DS in Japan.  A decent number of gamers heard about this unique collaboration through the media, but nobody thought Ni No Kuni would make it to our shores.  Thanks to Namco Bandai, the PS3 remake, Ni No Kuni: Wrath of the White Witch, came to North America last January.  Just as unique as the collaboration between Studio Ghibli and Level-5 is Ni No Kuni's gameplay.  A mix between the combat of Namco's Tales series and the monster collection of Nintendo's Pokemon franchise, Ni No Kuni has the player switching between human characters such as Oliver and his party members and monster-like creatures known as Familiars during enemy encounters.  This unique battle system along with the excellent 2D and 3D animation and art provided by Studio Ghibli make Ni No Kuni stand out as a quality JRPG in a generation that has seen more lackluster entries in this genre than standouts.

Phoenix Wright Ace Attorney:  Dual Destinies
My love for the Ace Attorney series has been well documented in the annals of Silver Bit.  Apart from Capcom's controversial decision to keep Dual Destinies as a digital-only release, the latest entry in the Ace Attorney series was easily among my most anticipated games of 2013.  Following the events of Apollo Justice, Phoenix Wright has returned to the courtroom to help the wrongly accused from awkward teenagers to killer whales from facing prosecution.  Even though Dual Destinies Mature rating, the game still looks to have all the comedic hijinks that fans have come to know and love.  Dual Destinies adds the Mood Matrix to Phoenix's arsenal, which replaces the psych locks and perceive system from previous installments.  The Mood Matrix allows Phoenix to gauge the emotions of a witness during cross-examinations in order to pick out contradictions.  While this writer is still holding out for a physical release of Dual Destinies, I will definitely pick up the newest Ace Attorney within the next year.

Puppeteer
Sony may have been hitting it out of the park on the hardware side of things in 2013, but their software has not gotten this writer as excited.  Sony's major releases consisted of unnecessary sequels such as God of War: Ascension and Gran Turismo 6 and over hyped new IPs such as The Last of Us.  The one game from Sony that got this writer excited was the one that got the least hype from the electronics giant--Puppeteer.  Puppeteer is an interesting platformer from Sony's Japan studio with a striking presentation as the entire game plays out as an actual puppet show.  Apart from the unique aesthetic, Puppeteer features a couple cool mechanics such as the ability for Kutaro, the player character, to switch heads for different abilities and Kutaro's pair of magical scissors which can be used to interact with the environment, fight enemies and traverse trails of string and paper.  From what I have seen and read about Puppeteer, I am excited to eventually spend some time with the PS3's most interesting exclusive of 2013.

The Seventh Generation: Nintendo Wii

While it has been much longer than just a couple weeks, The Seventh Generation is back.  The first console to look back on is Nintendo's biggest gamble, the Wii.  Coming off of a turbulent run with the Gamecube (Nintendo's weakest selling game console at the time), Nintendo came to terms with the fact that they could not compete with Microsoft and Sony when it came to computing power.  Nintendo looked at their strengths, gameplay and design, and the risk taken with the Nintendo DS for inspiration for their newest console.  Instead of directly competing with the Xbox 360 and PS3 in terms of power, the Wii focused its entire design around one core mechanic, motion control.  Motion controls were attempted in earlier console generations, but they were never refined to the point of actually being more than a non-functional gimmick.  The Wii brought motion controls to the forefront of the video game industry and nobody could have predicted the success to follow.

Apart from the hardcore Nintendo fans that flocked to the Wii for the newest entries in Nintendo's venerable franchises (Mario, Metroid, Legend of Zelda, Donkey Kong and Super Smash Bros.), the Wii caught the attention of people who never considered playing video games as an activity for them.  The simplistic design the Wii Remote, which was intentionally designed to look and feel like a TV remote, and the familiarity of the sports included in Wii Sports, the game packed in with every Wii system, broke down the large barrier of entry video games had before this point in time.  No longer did people have to learn complex button presses to play games, they just had to mimic certain motions to get involved.  This universal appeal equated to monstrous sales for the Wii.  While the Wii may had been a minimal improvement over the Gamecube in terms of power and graphics, it easily outsold PS3 and Xbox 360, incredibly more powerful machines, this past generation.

Being the most successful system of the past generation did not mean the Wii was the best console of this past generation.  In actuality, the Wii was quite the opposite.  Although Nintendo and a few other developers used the Wii's under-powered specs to create artistically stunning games, the majority of Wii games can be considered lacking at best.  During the early years of the Wii, there was such a large number of shovel ware released on the machine that it was hard to discern between the good and the bad.  For every Super Mario Galaxy, there were dozens of shovel ware like Carnival Games and Chicken Shoot.  The Wii, much like the Nintendo 64 and Gamecube, suffered from a lack of third-party support.  While there were publishers like Sega, Ubisoft and EA that supported the Wii with numerous games, a good number of publishers such as Bethesda and Take-Two passed over the Wii due to its lack a processing power.

For Nintendo fans, the Wii offered a lot of great games both old (through the power of the Virtual Console) and new that you could not experience anywhere else.  Apart from the core Nintendo faithful and the new slew of casual gamers, the Wii did not offer enough to sway people away from the most cutting-edge systems in the PS3 and Xbox 360.  The Wii may be among Nintendo's most successful video game consoles, but it will never be remembered as fondly as its predecessors.

Launch Station: New Super Mario Bros. 2

Back in 2006, Nintendo revitalized classic 2D side-scrolling Mario with New Super Mario Bros. for the Nintendo DS.  New Super Mario Bros. was so popular for Nintendo that they brought it to the Wii in 2009.  Now 2012 marks a rare occasion that sees two 2D side-scrolling Mario games release in the same year, New Super Mario Bros. 2 and New Super Mario Bros. U.  Today, we are looking at the direct sequel to New Super Mario Bros. for the original DS, New Super Mario Bros. 2.  While New Super Mario Bros. 2 does mark the first 3DS entry of this type of Mario game, New Super Mario Bros. 2 is also the first 3DS game to release in both digital and physical forms simultaneously.  Come midnight Sunday, you will be able to download New Super Mario Bros. 2 from the Nintendo eShop for the same price as the retail copy of the game will be sold for.  While quite late in the game, it is a pretty big step in the right direction for Nintendo to say the least.

Bowser has kidnapped Princess Peach yet again and it is up to the Mario Brothers to save the monarch of the Mushroom Kingdom once again.  There is a huge emphasis on coin collecting in New Super Mario Bros. 2.  While your main goal like all Mario games is the save Princess Peach, the ultimate goal of New Super Mario Bros. 2 is to collect one million coins.  There are a few new items such as the Gold Flower and the Gold Block to help produce large amounts of coins for Mario and Luigi to collect.      Aside from the main game, there is the new Gold Rush mode for gamers to sink their teeth into.  In Gold Rush mode, you play a set of three levels collecting as many coins as you can possibly collect with one life and challenge other gamers to beat your high score through StreetPass.  Sometime after the release of New Super Mario Bros. 2, Nintendo will be releasing brand new levels to play in Coin Rush mode that you can buy as DLC.  As long as you have two copies of New Super Mario Bros. 2, you can play two player co-op throughout the entire game.

When Nintendo first announced New Super Mario Bros. 2 back in April, I was very excited for a brand new entry in the New Super Mario Bros. series.  Come August, I not as excited as I once was.  The more I have seen of the newest Mario side-scrollers, the more it feels like the same.  Do I plan of ever picking up New Super Mario Bros. 2?  Yes, I do plan on picking it up, just not now.  I have other big games to pick up this month and sadly New Super Mario Bros. 2 does not fit into the equation.  As much as I love classic side-scrolling Mario games, it is time for Nintendo to shake things up before I really get excited for another one.  Everything here is just one mans' opinion.  If you are looking for a 3DS game that will certainly be worth the money or just a big Mario fan, definitely pick up New Super Mario Bros. 2.  You can never go wrong with Mario.

Launch Station: Theatrhythm Final Fantasy

Final Fantasy is a video game franchise that has been renowned for its' incredible music.  So much in fact that  there are concerts dedicated to the music and anthologies of CDs that fans look for.  One Winged Angel, the Chocobo theme and the Victory theme are just a short list of incredible music that has been produced for the Final Fantasy series.  Tomorrow, there will be a game that will allow gamers to experience the music of Final Fantasy in a whole new way as Theatrhythm Final Fantasy releases for the Nintendo 3DS.

Theatrhythm Final Fantasy is a rhythm game spin-off in the Final Fantasy series.  The gods Chaos and Cosmos have disrupted the music crystal in a place called Rhythm.  It is now up to heroes from the Final Fantasys I to XIII to increase the output of the music wave known as Rhythpo in order to restore the crystal in Rhythm.  The player is able to choose a party of four Final Fantasy characters.  Some characters you can choose are Cecil from Final Fantasy IV, Cloud from Final Fantasy VII, Squall from Final Fantasy VIII and Lightning from Final Fantasy XIII.  There is a level for each game in the main Final Fantasy series.  Each level has three stages that highlights a different song from the corresponding game.  The three stages from each level are a Field stage, a Battle stage and a Event Stage with the option to play through the opening and ending themes of each level.  The gameplay is very similar to Nintendo's Elite Beat Agents for the DS, where you tap and swipe the touch screen in the correct spot in order to keep in time with the beat of the song.  After completing each stage, your characters will gain more experience and level up.  As you play through the Theatrhythm, you will unlock bonus songs to play along with bonus movies as well.  Theatrhyhtm also features varying difficulties, a Challenge mode and a Chaos Tower mode to keep gamers busy playing this game for weeks and possibly even months on end.

Theatrhythm Final Fantasy looks like an incredible amount of fan service.  Anybody who loves the music that has been produced for the Final Fantasy series these last 25 years will definitely want to pick up this Final Fantasy themed rhythm game.  When it was first announced, Theatrhytm looked interesting, but nothing really worthwhile.  The more I have seen of it, the more I believe Theatrhythm Final Fantasy could be a considerable third-party hit for the 3DS and rightfully so.  It is a game I will eventually pick up someday for my 3DS.

Nintendo Direct 6.21.12 Impressions

Nintendo Direct is a mini-conference where Nintendo announces new and exclusive Nintendo announcements and showcases their upcoming games.  Nintendo Direct serves as a way for Nintendo to keep Nintendo fans up-to-date on the newest happenings in the Big N directly from them instead of through video game websites or magazines.  It is a very cool idea and personally these videos have always been fun to watch.  Last night, Nintendo hosted another Nintendo Direct that focused mainly on Nintendo 3DS, but had a little section to showcase a game or two for the Wii.

First and foremost, I really did enjoy this Nintendo Direct as it did wrapped all the information about 3DS and Wii into one concise 20 minute video that flowed perfectly.  My one big grip is that a lot of the big announcements that Nintendo shared with us should have been at E3, not this 20 minute mini-conference.  The major announcements of the Nintendo 3DS XL and Namco Bandai helping develop the new Smash Bros. games along with the reveals of Fire Emblem and Professor Layton and the Miracle Mask should have been showed E3 because it would have definitely improved Nintendo's okay showing at the event and it would gotten out to more people than just this little mini-conference that usually is only viewed by Nintendo fans and video game journalists.  While I can criticize Nintendo's decision to omit a lot of this huge announcements, the Nintendo Direct did what it was suppose to do.  It got Nintendo fans excited for the next wave of 3DS games and the Kirby Dream Collection for Wii.  I would have liked if Nintendo gave a concrete release date for The Last Story, but that is just minor.  We got a price and date for the 3DS XL, a rundown of all the third-party 3DS games, looks at New Super Mario Bros. 2, Professor Layton and the Miracle Mask, Kirby's Dream Collection, Fire Emblem, Pokemon Dream Radar, Pokedex 3D Pro and Pokemon Black 2 and White 2.  One of the other big announcements for me at least was the 8-Bit Summer initiative for the Nintendo eShop.  If any of you have read some of my On the Download posts, I have been crying to the heavens about the lack of Virtual Console games on the eShop.  It seems somebody at Nintendo of America has heard my prayers.  There will be two Virtual Console games released each week in July starting July 5th including Kid Icarus: Of Myths & Monsters, which should of come out alongside Kid Icarus: Uprising in my opinion.

All-in-all, this Nintendo Direct mini-conference was very good.  It was packed to the brim with great content and announcements.  While some of this stuff should have been at E3, I cannot fault this mini-conference for Nintendo's obvious gaff.  If you want to check it out, I have provided the video for you to watch below.  Enjoy and have a nice day.

Launch Station: Pokemon Conquest

There are certain crossovers that you do not think will ever happen.  Well nobody saw Pokemon being mixed with a feudal Japanese setting and historical figures.  First released in Japan as Pokemon + Nobunaga's Ambition, many people including yours truly had their doubts that Pokemon Conquest would make it to our shore.  Well Nintendo must have saw the incredible amount of interest the game got when it was announced in Japan that they decided to bring it over to North America.

Pokemon Conquest is a crossover between Nintendo's Pokemon franchise and Tecmo Koei's Nobunaga's Ambition series.  Pokemon Conquest is a turn-based tactical strategy game much like the Final Fantasy Tactics games.  The player takes control of a young Warlord linked with a Eevee on a quest to conquer and unite the Ransei Region.  On your way to completing your quest, you will befriend Pokemon and rival Warlords to build your forces and fight the evil Warlords that currently rule the Ransei Region.  The battles in Pokemon Conquest are 6-on-6 turn-based skirmishes that will have you on your toes as you choose the right Pokemon for the every-changing battle conditions.  Every Warlord both friend and foe has a special ability that can be used to boost their Pokemon's powers, which can turn the tide of battle when in a tough spot.

The more I read up on and talk about Pokemon Conquest, the more I want to go out and buy it.  The Pokemon franchise has been taken in so many different directions with so many lacklustre spinoffs that many fans including myself have strictly stuck to the core RPGs.  Pokemon Conquest looks like the best Pokemon spinoff in ages.  It has incredible potential to sell very well as there are millions of 3DS and DS owners.  If you are a fan of tactical strategy games or Pokemon, Pokemon Conquest is game that will definitely find a home in your DS.

Hump Day Music: Departure

Among Sonic the Hedgehog and Mario, there was one other gaming mascot that I loved when a was much younger.  Capcom's resident Blue Bomber Mega Man.  From the moment I got Mega Man II as my first game for my Game Boy Pocket, Mega Man is one of my favourite franchises of all-time and one of the reasons why my favourite video game genre is the platformer.  Throughout the years there have been many different incarnations of Mega Man such as Mega Man X, Mega Man Battle Network and most recently Mega Man ZX.  While I do have a soft spot for all the Mega Man platformers, my favourite incarnation of Mega Man is Mega Man Zero.  Taking place approximately a century after the conclusion of the Mega Man X series, Mega Man Zero follows the exploits of the Reploid named Zero, who is reawakened to save Neo Arcadia from the evils of a fake X, the Dark Elf and Dr. Weil.  Along with great action, the Mega Man Zero series has some of my favourite pieces of video game music I have listened to.  Who knew that those dainty speakers on the Game Boy Advance can pump out such great music.

My favourite piece of music from the Mega Man Zero series comes from Mega Man Zero 2, my favourite game of the series.  The piece is called Departure and it is the theme Mega Man Zero 2's opening stage.  After a year of being hunted by the Neo Arcadian forces, Zero is wandering through a sandstorm.  Once the sandstorm clears, Zero notices the Neo Arcadian soldiers chasing him.  With no where else to go, the injured Zero rips off his cloak and decides to make one final stand.  Right in that iconic moment, Departure starts and it's music never lets you go.  This epic music keeps pushing forward, defeating enemy after enemy, giant robot after giant robot on the way to giant scorpion boss.  Departure makes what would be an average opening stage that much better and memorable to the point that I consider it one of my favourite video game openings of all-time.  If you love great music and platforming, the four Mega Man Zero games for the Game Boy Advance should not be missed.  Considering in this day these Game Boy Advance games are hard to find, it is much easier to find the Mega Man Zero Collection for the Nintendo DS.

Kid Icarus: Uprising Review

“Sorry to keep you waiting.”  The first line of dialogue in Kid Icarus: Uprising is an apology to fans that have been waiting close to 20 years for a new Kid Icarus game.  Uprising serves as one hell of an apology from Nintendo.  The fast-paced action, witty banter, fun story and solid multi-player far outweigh Uprising’s few shortcomings to create one of the best games available for the Nintendo 3DS.

Medusa is back and it is up to Pit and the Goddess of Light, Palutena to stop her and the Underworld Army.  Kid Icarus: Uprising’s story mode is one hell of a ride containing some great twists and turns that keep things fresh and exciting.  When you think Uprising is over, Nintendo and Project Sora throws an amazing twist that has to be seen to understand how great it is.  Every character in Uprising is completely voiced and unlike Nintendo’s other attempts of adding voice acting to their games, the voice acting in Uprising is superb.  The almost constant banter each of Uprising’s levels, which may be a turnoff for some, is highly enjoyable as it breaks the fourth wall early and often, which makes for some truly hilarious and memorable lines.

As an aid to fight Medusa and her Underworld Army, Palutena grants Pit the “Power of Flight”, which allows Pit to fly for five minutes at a time.  This story element plays right into the gameplay as each level is broken into sections, air battle and land battle.  Air Battle plays much like an on-rails shooter such as Sin & Punishment as you control Pit’s projectiles and position on the screen while he flies through the environment.  Land Battle is fairly linear, but offers Pit more freedom to move around the environment and battle enemies.  This simple formula might get tedious in lesser games, but Uprising’s levels are so diverse and unique that it keeps things from getting repetitive.  Plus playing on higher intensities, which can be adjusted by offering hearts (Uprising’s currency) to the Fiend Cauldron, opens up new rooms to explore and better items to collect thus creating many reasons to replay Uprising. 

Aside from the story mode, Kid Icarus: Uprising includes a full-on multi-player that is much more than tacked on.  You can play locally with friends or online over the Nintendo Network in either Free for All or Light vs. Dark.  Each multi-player mode plays out much like the Land Battles in the single-player, but in a big non-linear arena.  Out of the two modes, Light vs. Dark is the most compelling.  In Light vs. Dark, you are split into two teams, the aforementioned Light and Dark.  Each time a person dies on either team, you lose a portion of the team life bar.  Once a team’s life bar is completely gone, one member of said team becomes either Pit or Dark Pit, depending on if the team is Light or Dark.  Once Pit or Dark Pit loses their entire life bar, the match is over.  Overall, the multi-player is just as fun and frantic as the single-player and ran without any hitches for this writer.  Like some have said, you initially buy Uprising for the story mode, but stay for the multi-player.

The biggest polarizing feature of Kid Icarus: Uprising is the game’s controls.  You either love them or hate them.  For veteran handheld gamers, Uprising’s controls are very similar to those of Metroid Prime Hunters for the original DS.  You control Pit’s movements with the Circle Pad, the camera and aiming reticle with the stylus and attack and/or fire projectiles with the L Shoulder Button.  It takes a bit of getting used to and might cause a few hand cramps if you play for long periods of time.  The key point is that you can play Kid Icarus: Uprising, even in 3D, without the stand that comes packaged with the game.  After a little time with the game, I adjusted to the controls and found them very intuitive even if the few instances they do make things a little more complicated.  Other than a few shortcomings with the game’s controls, the game’s Augmented Reality features feel tacked on and more or less completely useless.

While Kid Icarus: Uprising has a couple of shortcomings with the controls and the useless AR Card Battles, the fast-paced action, witty fourth wall breaking banter, exciting story and solid multi-player sure make up for those shortcomings.  It is one of the best games you can find for the 3DS and one incredible apology to those who have been waiting for a new Kid Icarus since Game Boy days.  Hopefully Nintendo won’t make us wait another 20 years for the next entry in the Kid Icarus series.

Nintendo 3DS: One Year Later

Releasing one year ago today in North America, the Nintendo 3DS has had one bumpy year.  Starting out of the gate deemed a "horrible" launch by the gaming media (funny how they forget previous console and handheld launches) and lower than average sales to making a total turnaround with an incredible price drop and the release of some quality first and third party games.  The Nintendo 3DS has sold more in its first year on the market than the best selling handheld of all-time, the 3DS's predecessor, the Nintendo DS.   There are no signs that the 3DS's sales will be slowing down anytime soon.  When everybody jumped on the bandwagon that Nintendo was heading for their doom, the legendary company proved to never count them out.  Having supported the 3DS since day one, I want to look back at what Nintendo has done right with the 3DS this last year and what Nintendo still needs to improve on as the 3DS moves forward.

When it comes down to it, the Nintendo 3DS is a well-designed gaming machine.  The Circle Pad has amazing feel, the touch screen works like a charm and the no-glasses 3D, while a gimmick, is just stunning that we no longer need cumbersome glasses to see real depth to our video games.  My personal favourite built-in feature on the 3DS is the Activity Log, which logs all the games you have played and how long you played them for.  The Activity Log also keeps track of how many steps you take with the 3DS.  Close to every time I finish playing a game on my 3DS, I check how long I played it for and how it ranks among all the other games I have played on my 3DS.  With the 3DS, Nintendo has looked to improve their online service.  So far I have been impressed with the Nintendo 3DS's online capabilities in the both Mario Kart 7 and Kid Icarus: Uprising.  Everything runs silky smooth with no lag whatsoever and you can always find people to play with.  Both Mario Kart 7 and Kid Icarus: Uprising is how to righty do online multi-player for the 3DS, so developers take notes and hopefully we will be seeing great online offerings from other developers in the near future.  Nintendo's new focus on creating affordable and unique downloadable games for the 3DS is great step in the right direction and has created some great games like Pushmo and Sakurai Samurai so far.  While all that is great, the meat and potatoes of every system be it a console or a handheld are the games both first and third party.  Like all Nintendo systems, the first-party support for the 3DS is phenomenal as Nintendo creates games that use everything that the 3DS has to offer perfectly.  The third-party support is good so far as big console franchises such as Resident Evil, Metal Gear Solid, Street Fighter and Dead or Alive find a home on the 3DS.  More than the last few generations, Nintendo is looking to strengthen their releationship with third-parties and the 3DS looks like their first step to solving a problem that has plagued other Nintendo systems.

While there is a lot to good to say about the 3DS, there are quite a few things Nintendo needs to improve on and one thing they should avoid at all cost.  I love the Nintendo eShop, but it needs to be re-designed.  The layout now is just too cumbersome to find what exactly you are looking for.  Other than the featured items, it is hard to find the certain games, mainly the DSiWare, as they do not have defined sections.  Nintendo should take a note from the Wii Shop Channel as it has a nice clean design that breaks everything into nice neat sections.  The eShop desperately needs this type of design to make it easier for gamers to find all the games hidden under the clutter.  Hopefully with the inevitable Nintendo Network update, we will see a newly designed eShop.  On the topic of the eShop, in the last few months the support for the eShop has become satisfactory at best.  Nintendo needs to step up their game and start making each weekly update to the eShop be monumental with releases of new demos, new 3DS Virtual Console games and new downloadable 3DS games each and every week.  Also Nintendo needs to let gamers know what is coming out for the 3DS as it seems like we are left in the dark until Thursday rolls around.  The biggest complaints most people have with the 3DS is it's battery life being short and the lack of a second Circle Pad for certain games mainly shooters.  While Nintendo has addressed the lack of a second Circle Pad with the Circle Pad Pro attachment, people and the media have been begging for re-design of the 3DS.  Personally I think that would be a huge misstep on Nintendo's part as it would alienate those gamers like myself who put down 250 dollars to buy the 3DS on day one.  I hope Nintendo does not cave into the pressure and stands by the design of the 3DS now, but improves on these things with the 3DS's eventual successor.

Overall, the 3DS's first year has been one crazy ride, but it was well worth it.  I am very happy I got this system day one as it has provided me some amazing experiences.  Be it completing classics such as Ocarina of Time and Star Fox for the very first time, jumping into an online race in Mario Kart 7, defeating Bowser in 3D with Mario or experiencing Pit's return to gaming glory.  These are all experiences that I could only have on my 3DS.  It is a splendid handheld that is a steal at 170 dollars.  With a rocky yet extremely successful year one in the books, the Nintendo 3DS can only go up from here.

Golden Sun: Dark Dawn Review

As the third entry in Camelot’s acclaimed RPG series and the first for the Nintendo DS, Golden Sun: Dark Dawn looks to continue the story from the first two entries in the series while also bringing in newcomers with it’s easy-to learn mechanics and generous difficulty level. As the last Nintendo release for the Nintendo DS, Golden Sun: Dark Dawn serves as worthwhile swan song for Nintendo’s dual screen behemoth and a very approachable RPG for those looking to get into this genre of games.

Golden Sun: Dark Dawn picks up 30 years after the climactic Golden Sun event at the end of The Lost Age.  You control Matthew, Tyrell and Karis, the children of the Warriors of Vale (the heroes from the first two games).  After a brief introduction dungeon, Matthew and his friends are sent on a quest to retrieve the mystical Roc’s Feather in order to fix the Soarwing that Tyrell destroyed.  Things escalate from this one simple task as Matthew and company get sucked into an evil plot to cover the world of Weyard in darkness.  Matthew and his friends must travel to distant lands, meet up with new party members and activate the Alchemy machines in order to save the world from utter destruction.  As a whole, the story can be dismissed as your regular RPG story, though it does pick up in the latter stages of the game.  For those who have not played the first two Golden Sun games much like yours truly, there are some allusions to those games that might go over your heads, but Camelot does a great job of getting players up to speed with the important plot points.  This makes Dark Dawn a great jumping on point for those interested in giving this series a chance.

Over the years, there has been one aspect of the game that has made the Golden Sun series stand out from your average Japanese RPG.  That aspect is the puzzles.  As all the characters in your party are Adepts, people who can use Psynergy (Golden Sun’s equivalent to magic), they can interact with the game environment in different ways to reach unreachable areas and solve some head scratching puzzles.  These puzzles make the trudge through dungeons and towns that much more bearable as there are more things to outside of battling random enemies.  Also in your travels you will be collect djinn, elemental creatures that can boost a character’s stats and offer different uses in battle from reviving a party member to boosting each party member’s defense to unleashing devastating attacks.  Golden Sun: Dark Dawn’s battle system is very similar to battle systems found in other turn-based RPGs.  You select from a menu of attacks, psynergy abilities, djinn, summons and defense, target an enemy and repeat.  With Dark Dawn, Camelot has improved on a complaint about the battle system from the first two Golden Sun games.  Camelot has included smart combat, so if an enemy is killed before other party members can attack it, now they intelligently attack one of the remaining enemies instead of just switching to defense.  This improvement makes combat much more faster and fluid experience than its predecessors and make going back to that battle system a little harder on some.

For longtime RPG fans, Golden Sun: Dark Dawn will be a walk in the park.  The easier difficulty makes for a more approachable game to RPG newcomers, but Dark Dawn is easy to a fault.  Personally I only died once in the entire game and that was at the final boss, which had an insane difficulty spike.  Speaking of the final boss and the ending, they were both a bit lackluster to say the least.  It felt as you reached the halfway point of the game, the big twist that would lead into the final hours of the game and the true finale.  That does not happen and you are left feeling like Dark Dawn is the first part of a much bigger story.  Camelot does wrap up the majority of mysteries brought up during the course of the game, but there are some big plot points left open for the inevitable 3DS sequel.  Personally, I did not mind as much, but it will bum a lot of people that after 30 hours you will have to wait a few more years for the actual conclusion to this story.

At the end of the day, Golden Sun: Dark Dawn is an entertaining RPG that any gamer no matter age or experience can pick up and play.  The lackluster final boss and ending and the difficulty will turn some people off, but those who stick with the game will be treated to a worthwhile RPG with a cool story, simple yet fun battle system and some excellent puzzles.

Hump Day Music: Cornered 2001

OBJECTION!  TAKE THAT!  Words that any seasoned Ace Attorney knows like the back of their hand. Japanese gamers had these glorious courtroom adventure games for a long time before it landed here in North America on the Nintendo DS.  Since then the Ace Attorney games have become cult classics with the star of these games, Phoenix Wright becoming gaming icon.  Phoenix Wright is so popular that Capcom added the defense attorney as a new fighter in Ultimate Marvel vs. Capcom 3.  Speaking of Ultimate Marvel vs. Capcom 3, for the past few days I have been listening to Phoenix Wright's theme from the game so I decided to bump Hump Day Music up a day.  Also I wanted to talk about the new Club Nintendo games that were supposed to be announced today, but considering that at this very moment they are not I decided to move it to tomorrow.

Like last week with the Castlevania series, there are plenty of tracks for the Ace Attorney series that I will definitely highlight in future editions of Hump Day Music.  Today, I would like to present you one of my favourite tracks from the series.  It is from the original Phoenix Wright: Ace Attorney for the Nintendo DS  and plays right when you have suspect on cross examination on the ropes so to speak.  It gets your blood pumping as you continue your courtroom battle to prove your client is not guilty.  It is Cornered 2001.