Zen Studios continues to provide their user base with more great tables with the release of Epic Quest. This time the theme is a medieval story right out of a child’s, fairy-tale book. Your character, the Dudley Do-Right-esq knight known as Max, stands on the left side of the table with his sword in one hand and his stick horse in the other. Behind him is a scrolling, scenery screen out of some old-time, stage play. As you shoot the array of target and ramps on the table, you will activate quests which pit you against various monsters; evil trees, skeletons, rats, vampires, etc. All through the battle, your knight will deliver his “heroic” lines as if he were King Arthur’s right hand man while in reality he is a bumbling hero more like Inspector Gadget. The table is bright and colorful as if someone turned Mother Goose into a Transformer while the background is reminiscent of a little kid’s room. On the table you will find a dynamic landscape of a forest, a water wheel and an evil-looking, plant thingy. It all looks really cool. Read more…
(Editor’s Note: Shannon received his 3DS after the system had been out almost a year. These are his impressions based on the system after the software lineup had increased, the Ambassador Program had concluded. It’s an interesting look at a newcomer’s perspective to the system after nearly 12 months.)
So my wife surprised me this last Christmas with a 3DS and there was something that I’ve noticed… Most of the reviews and impressions I’ve read about the system came from last year when the system was still a whopping $250 and the game library was minimal to lousy. This is going to be my take on the system with the purchase price being $170 and the game library including the eShop and other retail releases not out at the system’s launch, enjoy…
The original Prince of Persia is one of the few games that can lay a challenge to Rayman 2’s number of times ported crown. The 1989 adventure which spawned a successful franchise has appeared on no fewer than four different Nintendo systems over the years, making an appearance on the NES, SNES, GB and GBC along with numerous other platforms, all stemming from the original Apple II release. What makes the game so special though is that no matter how many times it re-appears, it is still a worthwhile investment thanks to it being a landmark in video game design. The hours spent honing the animation of the Prince are well documented, making Prince of Persia an important moment for any gaming fan to experience.
With the dawn of the Virtual Console, the game has a chance to show off its simple, yet extremely effective, design once again to a whole new generation. While the Wii VC has the upgraded SNES port of the original, the 3DS VC gets the GBC port which is a direct port of the original game with a few tweaks to allow it to run on the handheld more efficiently. The question is though, is the game still a worthwhile investment 22 years after it was released? Read more…
Demos do a lot to make or break people’s opinions about a game. They’re designed to get people excited about a new release and give you just a taste of what to expect if you buy the full version of the game. Nintendo just began offering demos for retail 3DS games as downloads through the Nintendo eShop. The first did available did a lot to make me interested in picking up Resident Evil: Revelations. How does the demo for Mario & Sonic at the London 2012 Olympic Games do in making me want to buy that game?
Resident Evil: Revelations is the first proper entry in the franchise that will make its way to the 3DS, following last years high score fiesta, Resident Evil: The Mercenaries 3D. Capcom released a demo of the game in the eShop this week and we’re going to take a look at what you can expect when the game finally launches on February 7th.
This is the first demo that has been made available in the eShop so I think I should tell you what that process is like. Have you downloaded a game on the 3DS yet? Then you know exactly what to expect. It’s one of the first listings currently in the eShop, but is also easily available through a search should you not be able to find it. The demo is just over 1100 blocks in size and downloads pretty quickly. I was able to get started playing the game in about 5 minutes. You’ve got the opportunity to boot up the demo 30 times after you download it, but you can play through it as many times as you want during each play session.
Let me just start off this article by saying that my vast amount of tennis knowledge comes from playing Mario Power Tennis on the GameCube. If flowers don’t spontaneously grow on the court then you’re not really playing tennis as far as I’m concerned. I know enough about the sport to understand how things work. I know if your score is love it’s a bad thing. I know some names like the Williams sisters, Andy Roddick and Maria Sharapova. I know Wimbledon is in England and John McEnroe was an angry man. That’s about the extent of my knowledge. Having said that I really like tennis games and wanted to expand my horizons a little bit and try something a little more serious than a Mario sports game, so I downloaded the demo for Grand Slam Tennis 2.
The first Grand Slam Tennis was released for the Wii in 2009 and was one of the first games to be bundled with the Motion Plus accessory and was pretty well received as a great use of the new technology. This sequel is forgoing the Wii in favor of the Xbox 360 and the PlayStation 3 with this preview based on the 360 version of the game.
Asura’s Wrath is one of those games that I didn’t know what to expect when I went into the demo. I had heard very little about the game and just happened the download it on a whim. I fired it up last night to mess around with it and see what it was like. Boy was I in for an experience.
You play as Asura (pronounced Ah-soo-rah), a former general of the gods who has been accused of a crime he didn’t commit. At some point Asura is confronted by the real perpetrator but is defeated and essentially banished to earth. After twelve millenia he is awakened and begins his quest for revenge battling the gods and their soldiers along the way.
Zen Studios has been pumping out tables for Pinball FX2 like mad. If you think about it, they have been doing episodic content better than Telltale lately. Their latest release is a second set of Marvel themed pinball tables. This time around they give some love to Thor, Ghost Rider, X-Men and Moon Knight (heck yeah Moon Knight!). If you played the first four pack of Marvel pinball tables (Iron Man, Spider-Man, Wolverine and Blade) or if you have played the single release tables for Captain America or the Fantastic Four, you might think you know what to expect. Well not so fast there, Captain Jumpy, because these are the most elaborate tables Zen Studios has ever made for Pinball FX2. I’ll give you a quick rundown of each table and then you can go try them for yourselves. Can I get a booyah for free trials?
Thor
As I said, these tables are far more elaborate than anything else in Pinball FX2 and you will notice that the second you load the Thor table as it is filled with lights and comic artwork. The Thor table is pretty much a set of ramps with four different flippers to hit them with. Since it’s mostly ramps, you won’t spend the first part of every game hitting bumpers and activating switches. Instead, all you have to do it hit the gate to Asgard three times to open it, then a fourth time to travel to the home of Odin; an easy shot to hit. From there you can start missions where you battle Loki, the Destroyer Armor and Ymir. These missions ask you to hit ramps before times runs out. I didn’t find much else to do besides that. The plus side is once you learn how to hit each ramp you can race to a high score very quickly. The down side, hitting ramps over and over can get a little old. I get the feeling this table is the first of the pack they made since it has only one sound effect for the flippers. Overall it’s a good table for high scores but not so much for variety.
The folks over at Zen Studios are definitely in a Halloween mood. A couple of weeks ago they released a new table for their pinball platform, Pinball FX 2. The table is called Sorcerer’s Lair and I have to say it’s a pretty nice table. The surface of the table is a mix of various purples and a deep blue color. There are contrasting light blue and yellow lights littered all over the surface. The table stars two young children named Jake and Amanada, who’s cute anime faces grace the lower end of the table near the flippers.
The story of this table sees the two being battled by an evil sorcerer who sends out legions of skeletons, spiders and ghosts. They need to explore all of the different areas of the table in an effort to defeat him. The only help they get is from a friendly ghost named Whisper.
We don’t really post reviews of Virtual Console titles here at Nintendo Okie so you’re not going to get a traditional review of The Legend Of Zelda: Four Swords. The game was made available yesterday for North American DSi and 3DS owners to download for free. I’m here to tell you, take advantage of that opportunity, because this game would have been worth the $7 or $8 that Nintendo is going to ask for it in February.
If you don’t know anything about Four Swords let me give you a bit of background on the game. It was originally released as a multi-player addition to the GBA remake of The Legend of Zelda: A Link to the Past. It came on that cartridge and was only playable by two or more people using the GBA link cable. In the game you play as Link, or one of three copies of Link that are made after he pulls a sword, called the Four Sword, out of a pedestal. From there you have to go through four different worlds collecting rupees, solving puzzles and beating bosses along the way. It’s basically a time attack, score attack mode for four players where you have to co-operate with each other to solve puzzles and defeat enemies while competing for rupees at the same time.
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Zen Studios continues to provide their user base with more great tables with the release of Epic Quest. This time the theme is a medieval story right out of a child’s, fairy-tale book. Your character, the Dudley Do-Right-esq knight known as Max, stands on the left side of the table with his sword in one hand and his stick horse in the other. Behind him is a scrolling, scenery screen out of some old-time, stage play. As you shoot the array of target and ramps on the table, you will activate quests which pit you against various monsters; evil trees, skeletons, rats, vampires, etc. All through the battle, your knight will deliver his “heroic” lines as if he were King Arthur’s right hand man while in reality he is a bumbling hero more like Inspector Gadget. The table is bright and colorful as if someone turned Mother Goose into a Transformer while the background is reminiscent of a little kid’s room. On the table you will find a dynamic landscape of a forest, a water wheel and an evil-looking, plant thingy. It all looks really cool. Read more…
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