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Howdy folks.  It’s Monday so that must mean it’s time for our weekly look at what’s happened in history.  This week is filled with game releases, some big, some not so big.  It promises to be interesting at any rate.  Let’s take a look, shall we?

You were able to hit the courts on November 8th, 2004 with Mario and the gang in Mario Power Tennis for Nintendo GameCube.  The game featured 18 different playable characters each with their own play style.  Each character also had their own unique power shot that could be performed at certain times throughout a match.  There were a number of modes such as tournament that could be played as either a singles match or a doubles match.  In addition to traditional tennis play you also had access to a number of themed tennis courts such as a DK Jungle themed one or a Sunshine Island themed court.  These courts all have unique features that enhance, or sometimes detract from the game play.

November 8^th, 1995 was the day the doors opened at Creatures, Inc., though at the time they were known as Ape Inc.  This company is a subsidiary of Nintendo and owns one-third of the Pokemon license alongside Nintendo and HAL Laboratories.  The company is responsible for a number of Pokemon titles such as Pokemon Ranger, Shadows of Almia.  They were also behind the development of the Mother series and have worked on all the titles in that franchise.  They are developing the upcoming Wii game PokePark: Pikachu’s Big Adventure.

A young Kobe Bryant graces the cover of NBA Courtside 2 released on November 8^th, 1999.  There were a number of additions made to this second game in the series in an effort to modernize team looks, rosters and make some changes to game play.  Character movement was looked at  to make the game feel more realistic.  Ultimately though, it did not fare well as there were better basketball games on the market.

Mario’s Bombs Away was released on November 10^th, 1983 for the panoramic Game & Watch series.  In the game Mario was delivering bombs from a factory trying to keep them away from flaming oil spills and enemy torches.  One touch from either of these was enough to cause the bombs to explode.  The game featured a back-lit screen and the action was viewed through a mirror.

It was download day on November 10^th, 2008.  Mega Man 3 for the NES was the only Virtual Console release of the week and was met, by fans, with a lot of love.  Brain Challenge by Gameloft and Yummy Yummy Cooking Jam by Virtual Toys were the WiiWare releases of the week.

An RPG classic would see it’s beginning on November 11^th, 2001 with the release of Golden Sun for Game Boy Advance.  Golden Sun‘s story follows a band of magic-attuned “adepts” who are sent from their home town into the wide world of Weyard to prevent the potentially destructive power of alchemy from being released as it was in the past. Most of the game takes place, with it’s cast of up to four characters at a time, in dugeons as you would expect and you’ll do a lot of different actitivies to advance the story, while fighting during a large of number of random encounters.  The game was praised for it’s unique elements, and strong story.  There was a sequel on the GBA and a third game in the series is planned for the DS in 2010.

Medal of Honor: Rising Sun was the fifth game in the Medal of Honor franchise by Electronic Arts on November 11^th, 2003, this time for the Nintendo GameCube.  The game begins during the attack on Pearl Harbor when you, as Cpl Joseph Griffin, is awakened.  You then take on a number of missions during the fight with the Japanese in WWII.  There were two multi player modes where you could play solo and team deathwatches.  The game was not received very well and as a result the planned sequel was quietly cancelled by EA.  There is a soundtrack available for the game via iTunes.

Fire Emblem: Radiant Dawn was a sequel to the GameCube title Fire Emblem: Path of Radiance and released on Wii November 11^th, 2007.  The game is an RPG that uses turn based battles set up on a grid.  Many of the characters, playable and non-playable, from the previous game make an appearance in this game.  One of the unique features of this series is that any character that dies during a battle is dead for the rest of the game so you needed to protect them as best as you could.  There are four different story parts that are each set up by intro cut scenes, the main story and then an “endgame” scenario essentially breaking the game into four different stories.  Any players that played Path of Radiance and still had a save file could import the data into Radiant Dawn giving their characters a bit of a stat increase to begin the game.  Fire Emblem: Radiant Dawn received a large variety of reviews, many noting the difficulty of the game, despite being able to save mid-battle.   

Fans of Club Penguin, a computer based MMO targeted towards younger players, were able to take their friends with them on the go starting on November 11^th, 2008.  Club Penguin: Elite Penguin Force was released for the Nintendo DS on that day.  In this game, players assume the role of being a member of the “Elite Penguin Force”, a branch of the Secret Agency in Club Penguin.  The squads “Gadget guy”, Agent G, has gone missing.  When he’s found he’s lost his memory.  It was up to the player to discover all the clues that would help him recover his memory.  Despite not being a true MMO, there was a way that players could link their accounts together to gain access to different features in both games.

Do you know where you were on November 12^th, 2007?  I know where I was.  I was sitting in front of my TV playing Super Mario Galaxy which was released that day.  This was the first true Mario franchise game to be released on Wii and featured unique elements never seen before that time on a console.  Players traveled through the galaxy collecting stars that would be used to power a space ship, the Comet Observatory.  The game introduced characters to Rosalina the leader of a race of stars known as Lumas.  The game featured a large variety of environments, many out in space in the form of small planetoids.  The game used a new physics system that allowed players to travel around these spherical objects in ways Mario had never done before.  It was praised for its uniqueness, new power ups, such as the Ice Flower and Spring Suit and the bizarre twist at the end of the game.  There was, for the first time a two player co-op feature that Mario platformers had not seen up until then.  A second player could use a pointer that allowed them to collect star bits scattered through the levels.  They could use these in the game to stun enemies to help the first player progress or use them as currency in the game’s hub world to access new areas of the game.  It was for a time, the highest rated game ever and was many outlet’s game of the year for 2007.  There is a sequel to the game planned for 2010 that will introduce Yoshi to the Galaxy.

November 12^th, 2007 was Virtual Console day in America.  On that day players were able to download Volleyball for the NES, Axelay for the SNES, and Blue’s Journey for the Neo Geo. 

It seems that every franchise has had a kart racing game at one time or another.  Disney is no exception and on November 13^th, 2000 Mickey’s Speedway USA was released for the Nintendo 64.  The game featured the usual modes, such as Grand Prix, as well as multi player racing and battle modes.   Many of your favorite Disney characters were available as playable characters; Mickey, Minnie, Goofy, Donald, Pete and others.  In total there were 10 characters to choose, 21 tracks, 5 tournaments and four battle arenas.  Game play itself is very similar to another N64 kart racer, Mario Kart 64.

Yoshi’s Island DS hit stores on November 13^th, 2006.  Kamek has kidnapped newborns, among them were Mario and Luigi, but Mario manages to escape.  He falls into a group of Yoshi’s who decide they need to help him rescue Baby Luigi.  For the first time, though, you’ll be joined by other babies.  There are four other members of the Mushroom Kingdom that will help out, each with their own unique abilities.  Baby Peach allows to you float on drifts of wind, Baby DK allows you to swing on vines.  Baby Wario uses a magnet to collect coins and move heavy objects and Bowser Jr. shoots fire allowing you to torch enemies and melt large blocks of ice in your way.  The game features the same game play of the original and the same crayon style graphical showing.  Fans of the original were able to jump right in with no problems.  Many people loved the game, but some thought it stuck too close to the original.  My thought is, “if it ain’t broke, don’t fix it.”

Our last entry of the week is truly a scary one.  Resident Evil: Umbrella Chronicles hit US shores on November 13^th, 2007.  This game takes place during the events of Resident Evil Zero, Resident Evil and Resident Evil 3: Nemesis.  The action was on rails allowing players to concentrate on killing the hordes of zombies and evil creatures that attacked them and giving a bit more of a cinematic feel to the game.  Many familiar faces made appearances during the game and a second player was allowed to join in on the action.  Since the game controlled movement for you each player controlled a separate targeting reticule giving the game a very arcade feel to the action.   One of the biggest gripes people have about the game was the difficulty in performing headshots meaning ammunition was at a premium and many times you might find yourself without a gun and relying on your hand to hand abilities.  There is a sequel planned for November 17^th of 2009.  

That’s it folks.  We’re done.  I hope you enjoyed our look back at this week in history.  Come back to us next week to see what else we can learn.  As always, leave us a comment and let us know what you think or give us an idea of things coming up we might not know about.  It just might be featured in this article.