Nintendo Okie

The people who were early adopters of the 3DS got a little surprise yesterday when the ten NES games were released a day early. If you haven’t downloaded them yet just log on to the eShop and you can download them all for free. I thought I’d give you my thoughts on each of the games. We’re not going to do legitimate reviews for each of these titles as they aren’t available to the general public and they were all released for free. Some of these games I’ve played before. Some of them I hadn’t played before now. Let me just say this. Many of these games (especially Super Mario Bros.) highlight the need for the 3DS Virtual Console to have customizable button layouts like the 3D Classics.

Super Mario Bros.: Let’s just start with the biggest name on the list. Super Mario Bros. catapulted modern video games into the spotlight and brought the industry back from the brink of destruction. This game has been made available on numerous platforms across the years in a number of different ways. Chances are you’ve beaten it hundreds of times before and now it’s just good to have it with you wherever you go. It feels as solid as it ever has. Visually I was impressed with it. It is much smaller because of the screen size for the 3DS, but it also had the added benefit of removing any of the jaggedness that you’ve grown accustomed to. Everything looked more smooth and round. The colors were crisp and vibrant. I liked it enough to beat it four times the first day. It just really would benefit from being able to remap the buttons.

Read more…

The Cap is back and this time you don’t have to thaw him out to wake him up. Releasing this week for PSN and XBLA is the Captain America table for Pinball FX 2. Just in time for the 4th of July and the Cap movie. What an uncanny coincidence. I have already written a review for the release of Pinball FX 2 (Tony reviewed the Marvel table pack) and everything I said there still holds true. However, I do think the Cap table is very cool and is one of the best tables FX 2 has to offer.

One thing you will notice looking at the screen, this table has a lot going on. This could be good or bad depending on how you look at it. It will take a while to figure out what to do, when to do it and how to make the proper shot. This kind of frustrated me when I reviewed Pinball FX 2 and I had 12 new tables to learn. But some are drawn in by such learning curve. Playing this table will have Cap fighting a robot, blocking bullets, throwing his shield, punching the Red Skull Read more…

So the big day has finally arrived. The launch of a new Nintendo system is always a huge event for me, but the launch of the 3DS has been anything but a relaxing experience. For the first time ever, I pre-ordered the hardware from an online retailer, and have spent much of the past 2 days trying to ascertain where my console is. I’ve been up since 8am waiting for a courier delivery which ended up arriving 8 hours later (time well spent there…) but now I have the console in my hands, I thought I’d give you some updated impressions.

The good news is that it’s still as amazing as ever. It’s been almost 2 months since my initial and thorough playtest with the 3DS, and the system is still as mind-blowing as it was back then. For some reason, having the console, MY console, in my hands makes everything seem even better. The 3D is looking better than ever and graphically the system looks like it still has much more to give. In short, the 3DS is an incredible piece of technology and one that’s been well worth the wait.

Read more…

So there I was, on a Thursday night thinking to myself “How can I make an article REALLY stand out, and enjoyable for others to read?”. Then it hit me, what if I picked a game every week (new or old) and play it for the first 10 hours and write a short review about what its like? BAM!, Mac’s 10 Hour’s was born. Being a gamer myself, I know how important the first few hours, or even a few minutes are when you buy a game and are unsure of whether or not that money was well spent. Fear no more! I will give you the best points of the game, and some weak points I think each game represents. Please keep in mind that these are only opinions, and if you disagree or think something else is wrong, please inform me because I like to hear everyone’s thoughts and opinions. We all have our own quirks, and our own likes/dislikes. Other then that folks, sit back, crack open that mountain dew, and enjoy!

Pokemon White Verison

Pokemon is back folks! And boy, did they do a good job with this one!

Remember Pokemon? Yeah, the multi-billion dollar empire that has made several movies, a TV series that lasted longer then then a decade and put out games that sold literally MILLIONS of copies in the first week? Well, they are back! We all know very well what GameFreak Inc. has provided us with for the better part of the last 10 years. I remember sitting down for the first time with Pokemon Red when I was about 10 years old, and loosing myself in this epic game. Of course this was 13 years ago, and I could not WAIT to get my hands on the brand spanking new Pokemon White Version. It took well over a week to get (seeing as I am in Afghanistan, we tend to get mail a little later then most) but it was not only worth the wait, but also worth the first 10 hours I put into the game the first day. It was amazing to see my DS Lite using its graphic capabilities to the fullest, and deliver such an amazing view for a Pokemon game. You may have heard of the phrase “It’s the little things that count”, and GameFreak Inc. was not shy about changing the biggest things, and the smallest things, in this version. A major improvement was the over all graphics and feel of the game. It was not this boring 2D side scrolling  adventure you had to endure for 100+ hours, but rather a fully realized 3D game.

GameFreak Inc. has truly stepped up their game, and used 3D to tell the Pokemon story in a whole new way.

This not only made it easy on the eyes, but also made running back and forth to the Pokemon Center ten times more enjoyable. The over all game-play and menu settings have also been re-imagined. Easy access to switching Pokemon, using items, and utilizing new “friend tools” was only a fraction of what has been remastered. The best thing however, is the brand new Pokemon! All new, and waiting to be caught There are so many more features I will discuss in later posts to come. Now for the downside. Oddly enough, there was not too many thing wrong with the game. A few glitches here and there, but nothing that would completely take you away from the over all game experience. I noticed when I used ‘Repel’ or ‘Max Repel’, that I would still run into Pokemon in the wild, when all I wanted to do was go to the Pokemon Center to heal my team up, and it only happened a few times. Besides this minor issue, I have not found any major downside to the game. If anything else should appear, I will be sure to mention it to you all! Stay tuned for more information on Pokemon White.

Mac’s Rating: 10/10     Gold Award

Why: The game we knew ten years ago has totally been re-done, and it is clear that Pokemon White kept most of the same things in it, such as trading, battling, catching Pokemon, but also changed HOW we do this. Global Inter-Connectivity (GIC) is one of the best things to come to the Pokemon Franchise yet. Now we have the freedom to trade anyone in the world, or battle anyone across the globe. This game has set very high standards for itself, and hopefully Pokemon games to come will mimic and continue, this awesome franchise we all love.

I’ve just had the chance to download the Okamiden demo which became available for download on the Nintendo Channel today. This is Capcom’s chance to bring the colorful game about a cute wolf god and his companion to a smaller, more portable system. Okamiden stars a pint sized descendent of the previous games heroine, Amaterasu. This time you play as Chibiterasu. How well do I think the game is going to make the transition from the Playstation 2 and Wii to the Nintendo DS? Read on to find out.

Read more…

It’s becoming a cliché now but truly my first words when I set eyes on a 3DS in front of me and saw Kokiri Forest sprawling out in front of me were “wow, it really works!”. Nintendo’s marketing for the 3DS has largely been focussed on a mantra of ‘seeing is believing’ and before today I would have dismissed that as pure propaganda. We’ve all seen 3D films, and we live in a 3D world, so how can seeing a 3DS be any different to what we’ve seen before? As it happens, seeing truly is believing as it turns out that the 3DS delivers everything it promises – glasses free 3D and a completely stunning piece of hardware that brings Nintendo back to being the powerhouse we all know and love.

I was lucky enough to try out the 3DS today at an exclusive event in London, England and I can honestly say that if you pick a 3DS up on launch day without trying it before, you won’t be disappointed. It’s an absolutely wonderful piece of technology, and I’m going to give you my thoughts and opinions on the 3DS and what it can do in this article.I’ve been considering how to go about this for a few hours now, and considering the sheer volume of information I have to impart on you, I’ve decided to split it into little segments. I’ll spend some time discussing the hardware, the games and the features of the system before giving you an opinion on the overall product.

Read more…

I posted the picture earlier today of Daniel and I working hard at our review for the new Ghost Recon game for the Wii.  I thought I’d spend a few minutes today letting you know what our initial impressions of the game were.  We were using two different control schemes as you can see in the picture so we got to taste a couple different ways to play the game.

Essentially this is the first release of the new Ghost Recon: Future Soldier which will be hitting the HD consoles late in 2011 or early 2012 and takes the game from the first person shooter of the past and makes it more of a third person shooter with some cover mechanics.  Since the game is on rails where you can go is controlled by the game itself, but when you can move is all up to you.  Arcade style light gun games have been popping up on Wii since the days after its release and with the lack of success that many of those titles have seen it’s been interesting to see how many are still coming out on the platform.  In the first 30 minutes or so of the game that we’ve played there hasn’t been anything that’s going to turn the genre on it’s head, but we’ve had some fun with the game so far.

The game follows the story of two characters, Dalton Hibbard and Joe Booth, as they attempt to halt the invasion Russian Ultra-nationalists in Norway.  We’ve played through the first two missions of the campaign in co-op, but you can play the game by yourself with the AI controlling the second character.  As you advance through each mission arrows will pop up at different places where you can take cover.  By pointing at those locations and hitting the C button you’ll move forward.  You can do this at any time and it will take some team work in order to make it from one point to the other.  We also noticed that much of it will be staggered movement where one person moves forward while the other gives them some covering fire.  It’s taken some real co-operation between the two of us to successfully complete the missions and when you work together it feels solid.

There are healthpacks at various checkpoints, and in order to get people working together you’re not allowed to heal yourself.  Instead when you’re both at the same piece of cover you can heal your team mate.  It’s another one of those little things that make you feel like you’re really working with another player because you have to let them know when you need healing, when you’re moving and when you’re reloading.

I have been using the Wii Zapper to play the game and it feels really good.  I really like the peripheral and wish there were more games coming out that would make use of it.  Most of the controls are very easy to access, the one exception being the button to heal your partner, which is mapped to the A button.  You use the analog stick to cycle between weapons.  The C button is your action button that allows you to move from cover to cover and the Z button allows you to lean out of cover to get better shots at the approaching enemies.  The Wii Remote works in a very similar manner, but you can use the D-pad to Cycle between weapons if you would prefer that.  The other controls have been identical to those mapped to the Zapper.

There have been a good number of different enemy types to face.  Most of the grunts are cut and paste copies, but there are others who carry different weapons that need to be dealth with.  Soldiers with rocket launchers can kill you in one shot.  Enemy engineers send out RC cars with bombs that you can blow up as they approach and use them against the enemy if you’re quick enough.  There are a lot of different weapons you’ll use as well.  The main assault rifle seems to work the best, but we’ve encountered sniper rifles, high powered assault rifles that fire in bursts and drones with rockets and chain guns so there is some variety to the arsenal that you’ll use.

It’s not breaking any ground and the story is kinda generic, but we’ve had fun so far.  We haven’t had a chance to dive into the arcade mode yet, but you can expect more talk of that when the review is posted later this week or early next week.