Nintendo Okie

There’s no denying that Ubisoft likes to get in on the ground floor when it comes to new consoles. You need not look any further than their support of the Wii and the 3DS. The publisher launched four games in November of 2006 when the Wii hit stores; GT Pro Series, Monster 4×4 World Circuit, Rayman Raving Rabbids, and Red Steel. When the 3DS hit stores in March of 2011 they were ready with six games; Asphalt 3D, Combat of Giants: Dinosaurs 3D, Rayman 3D, Tom Clancy’s Ghost Recon: Shadow Wars, Rabbid: Travel in Time 3D Edition, and Tom Clancy’s Splinter Cell 3D.

The Wii U launch is coming up later this year and publishers are beginning to trickle out information concerning their launch titles, if any will be ready. Ubisoft is no doubt ready to be a part of that launch and they’re hoping it pays off big for them. Games Industry.biz is reporting that Ubisoft has seven titles they are preparing for the launch of the Wii U.

Part of Ubisoft’s success is expected to come from Nintendo’s Wii U, launching at the end of this year. Ubisoft is a very strong supporter and is quite bullish on Wii U. The company will have five casual titles and two core titles. Guillemot pointed to the Avengers game slated for Wii U (and Kinect) as a title that should do very well with the casual market.

They’re ramping up the number of titles even more with this launch. We know they are working on Ghost Recon: Online, which could be free to play, and they’re working on the Avengers game. The third title we know about is Rayman Legends. What the other games are is anybody’s guess.

Super Smash Bros. Brawl was a huge success for Nintendo, selling nearly 10 million copies worldwide. The staff of the podcast has been making it a weekly tradition to beat up on me in Brawl sessions after recording the show. Obviously 10 million copies isn’t enough for Nintendo and they’re making it a little easier for people to get a hold of the game.

Beginning June 10th, Super Smash Bros. Brawl along with Donkey Kong Country Returns will be getting a price drop. Both games will go from the $49.99 price that they currently retail for to $29.99. If you haven’t picked up the Nintendo fighter yet I would highly recommend you do so. I’ll also be taking this opportunity to pick up Donkey Kong as I haven’t played the game yet.

The Nintendo Selects line of games has a nice library built up. It began with titles like Wii Sports, The Legend of Zelda: Twilight Princess and Animal Crossing: City Folk. Then added a number of sports titles like Mario Strikers Charged, Mario Super Sluggers and Punch-Out!!. Nintendo is now set to add to more titles to the series; Pikmin 2 and Mario Power Tennis. Both of these titles were a part of the New Play Control line of games for the Wii, but only the latter made it over here on the Wii.

I really enjoyed the NPC version of Pikmin and was waiting for this release of the second game. You’ll be able to use the Wii Remote to move the titular creatures, including two new colors, around the environment. Mario Power Tennis updates the controls to take advantage of the Wii Remote, but opinions vary on how well the controls made the transition.

These games will make their debut on June 10th for a cost of $19.99 making them a good value for anyone that might not have played the games before.

Micah likes LEGO.  He’s got a huge collection of things from Pirates of the Carribbean, LEGO Prince of Persia and other stuff filling a room of his house.  It’s not surprising that he can be found in the LEGO section of a toy store.  While he was out and about today he saw this and had to take a picture of it.  It basically confirms the existence of a LEGO Lord of the Rings game.  We sort of knew it was inevitable when we heard about the line of LEGO toys, but now it’s more or less real.  I’ve sent word to Warner Bros. asking about the game, but I imagine we’ll get nothing more than, “We don’t comment on rumor or speculation.”  I’ll let you know.

The Avengers recently hit movie theaters and it seemed a bit weird that no one was hyping up a video game to tie into the film, especially because it’s seems like such an easy property to milk a licensed game out of.  Well, Ubisoft, not wanting to be one to disappoint, has announced there is an Avengers game coming out this year.  The publisher will be bringing Marvel Avengers: Battle For Earth (I almost said Middle Earth) to the Wii U and the Xbox 360’s Kinect sometime in the fall.

The game will take advantage of both system’s motion control capabilities and will have more than 20 different characters such as Iron Man, Hulk, Captain America, Thor and others.  If you want to find out more you can stick here with us or head on over to the game’s official website.

The eShop has a listing for Kirby’s Block Ball that shows the release date to be 5/17/12, which just happens to be next Thursday.  I’ve been buying up original Game Boy games on the 3DS left and right and will most definitely be adding this game to the collection.  I’ve never played the game, but it looks very interesting.

What Game Boy or Game Boy Advance games are you waiting for to show up in the Virtual Console?  Will Shelby keep his vow of not buying VC games until they’re tied to an account?  We’ll find out next week.

There are some people out there that might not have a DSi yet and maybe aren’t ready to get on the 3DS bandwagon.  Well, Nintendo is making it a little easier to get in the handheld market.  Beginning on May 20th they will be dropping the price of the DSi to $99 and the DSi XL to $129.  Both of those systems have a huge library of games available to play.  I would recommend games like Mario Kart DS, Mario & Luigi: Partners in Time or Dragon Quest IX as a good place to start.

I actually have been thinking about picking up a DSi XL and this price is getting a little closer to making it a purchase I’m willing to make.  That is just a great looking system and the screens make the games look fantastic.  If $180 is still a little much to make you want to pick up a 3DS then this would be a great place to start for gaming on the go.

If you asked me I would tell you that Kid Icarus: Uprising is one of my favorite games on the 3DS and easily one of my favorites of 2012. If you asked me if I wanted a sequel to the game I would tell you I would most definitely want to play another game in the franchise. If you asked that same question to Masahiro Sakurai, however, you might get a different answer.

“If by ‘lasting universe’ you mean to ask if there’s a sequel, the answer is no because we pushed a lot into the game in order to let people have this short yet deep experience, but the novelty of that would likely grow thin in the next game. For now, my thought is that perhaps we’ll see someone else besides me make another Kid Icarus in another 25 years.”

I would absolutely be interested in playing a sequel to Uprising, whether they kept the same gameplay style or changed it up a little bit. I would prefer the next game be on the Wii U, as I think that would accommodate different control schemes and allow more people to enjoy the game. Should Sakurai be at the helm of another game? Sure. He’s the master of putting tons of content into his games and it was that pile of extra stuff that really made parts of the game a lot of fun to mess around with.

For now, though, it appears the franchise is on hold for a while, but here’s hoping Nintendo doesn’t make us wait another 25 years.

Microsoft is trying everything they can to get their machine into as many homes as possible. One other device that just about every home in the world has (mine might be the only one that doesn’t) is a cell phone. Those devices generally work on a contract model where you pay little to no money up front to get the phone, but you have to agree to a multi-year contract at a set price.

Now, if you can actually get to a Microsoft Store, you can purchase a 4GB Xbox 360 with Kinect for $99. Sounds great right? Well, when you purchase this system you have to agree to sign on to Xbox Live for two years at $15 a month. That works out to around $460 for the two years if you take advantage of this deal. The other alternative, if you want the same bundle, is the buy the system bundle ($299) and two years of Xbox Live ($120 at $60 a year) for around $420. You can generally find deals for both the system bundle and Xbox Live which would bring the cost down even more should you want to pay up front.

As with a typical cell phone contract there is a termination fee should you decide not to honor your two years of Xbox Live, though it was not disclosed what that cost is. This is also apparently part of a pilot program to “test new products and offers to understand how to best serve our customers.”

So, what do you think? If you don’t already have an Xbox 360 would you be interested in a deal like this?

It’s getting close to summer and that means we’re getting close to E3.  But there’s another video game convention in the month of June and Nintendo Okie will be there.  The 9th annual Oklahoma Video Game Exhibition is happening on June 16th.  If you’re in the Tulsa area you need to attend this event, come see all the classic, video game merchandise and hang out with us.  We’ll have a table at the event doing live versions of the Question Block all day long.  We’ll be giving out prizes and just having a good time.

We’re going to have Jesse Hardesty on the podcast very soon and he’ll be here to tell us all about the history of the event and what we can expect to see out there this year.  If you’re in the Tulsa area come to the Spirit Bank Event Center in Bixby.  Entry is $5 at the door.