Nintendo Okie

Howdy Howdy everyone.  Welcome to our weekly look back at the events that have made up the history of our favorite gaming company.  I’m really glad that in the last few years developers are beginning to see that there are 12 months in a year and those games will sell no matter when they come out.  This is a very slow week in terms of game releases so let’s jump right in and see what happened this week.

Age of Empires has been a popular real time strategy franchise.  On February 14^th, 2006 Age of Empires: The Age of Kings hit the Nintendo DS in North America.  You could play through the single player campaign as one of five races; the Britons, Franks, Mongols, Saracens and Japanese.  Each army has five types of unit; infantry, cavalry, range, siege, hero, some of which are unique to each race.  The hero units are the most powerful of these units.  Battles took place on a grid with the stylus controlling most of the commands given in the game.  Play generally began in the dark ages, but you were able to advance civilization through a number of ages by meeting certain requirements.  Fans of multiplayer action were able to take the competition to your friends in wireless play using multiple DS cartridges and systems.  The Age of Kings was received positively overall with a few issues that could hamper your experience such as the game freezing, or save data becoming corrupted. 

Nintendo brought a solution to all the amateur gamblers of the world on February 15^th, 1985.  On that day they released their Game & Watch version of Blackjack.  The game had all the necessary features to make for a very enjoyable blackjack game including dedicated buttons for betting and doubling down.

Evasive Space hit WiiWare on February 16^th, 2009.  This game is a top down game that many label as a shooter despite there not being any shooting in the game.  It’s instead an action game that has the player pressing one button to thrust their ship forward while using the pointer to control their direction.  In the game you were to guide your ship through a course as quickly as possible while avoiding obstacles.  There is a multiplayer mode for up to four people on the same console.  Evasive Space has received very mixed reviews with some praising the polish and visual style while others regard the game as nearly uncontrollable. 

Nintendo fans remember GoldenEye most fondly in terms of great James Bond games.  On February 17^th, 2004 Electronic Arts released James Bond 007: Everything or Nothing for the Nintendo GameCube.  This game follows the titular hero as he attempts to rescue Dr. Katya Nadanova, a nanotechnology professor at Oxford who has been kidnapped by terrorists.  During his mission he must also rescue other agents who’ve gone missing and recover the technology created by Dr. Nadanova, a nanobot that can repair electrical wires.  Everything or Nothing is a third person shooter and is the first Bond game to feature a two player co-operative mode.  While it does feature this mode it does not feature the deathmatch mode that had been a hugely popular part of the franchise since the GoldenEye game a few years earlier.  James Bond 007: Everything or Nothing was received very well with some outlets calling it the best Bond game ever.

February 18^th, 2008 was Virtual Console day in North America.  On that day Ninja Gaiden III: The Ancient Ship of Doom for the NES, and Phantasy Star II for the Sega Genesis were available for download on Nintendo’s classic game service.

February 19^th, 2007 saw four games released on the Virtual Console; Donkey Kong Country for the SNES, Streets of Rage for the Sega Genesis, New Adventure Island for the Turbo Grafix 16 and The Legend of Kage for the NES. 

Our last event of the week took place on February 20^th, 2007.  That was the day that Sonic and the Secret Rings was released for Wii.  This was a third person platform game that took place in a fantasy world set in the Arabian Nights stories.  The camera was placed over Sonics shoulder and had you look past him to avoid obstacles and attack enemies.  The game was controlled with the Wii Remote held sideways and tilted like a steering wheel to control Sonic.  A quick shake of the Wii Remote would cause him to attack or leap forward to help jump over gaps.  Many of the other characters from the Sonic universe took part in the game in the guise of many of the characters from the Arabian Nights stories.  While it was praised by some as the best Sonic game in a number of years it is still considered to be one of the worst Sonic games to be created.  There were numerous complaints about the action and the controls not being very easy to use.  Despite this there was a sequel to the game created later that took Sonic to the world of medieval Europe.

So there you have it folks.  Another week in the history books.  If you know of anything coming up that you would like to see featured in the article please feel free to let us know.  You can send me an email, leave us a comment or head over to the forums to discuss anything in the article or whatever is on your mind.