Reader Poll #30 – How much does dying affect the experience of a game?
Posted on 11 years ago by Austin(@NE_Austin) in Features, General Gaming, Reader Poll | 2 Comments
This is a survey that requires no signing up, accounts, clicking through ads, or anything. Just answer a required question, answer a non-required question (if you want) and make your voice heard in yet another NintendoEverything reader survey poll thing! Results will be read on the next podcast! Thanks very much.
Thanks very much. As stated above the topic for you guys this week is “How much does dying affect the experience of a game?” Check out two small questions in there.
More: highlight
Here’s a Podcast – Episode 68!
Posted on 11 years ago by Austin(@NE_Austin) in Features, Podcast | 3 Comments
Jack says that this was a pretty good episode, and I think I agree! Lots of talk about Super Mario 3D World and how Mario games should be or are judged, some talk of Mighty Switch Force 2, Ocarina of Time, Jett Rocket II, and Laura’s new 3DS XL during what we played, and then a whole heaping pile of listener mail rounds out the show. So far so good!
This Week’s Podcast Crew: Austin, Jack, and Laura
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Extra Life 2013 – Prize winners finally revealed!
Posted on 11 years ago by Austin(@NE_Austin) in Uncategorized | 0 comments
Did you know that if you participated in our Extra Life 2013 livestream charity event, you may have been entered to win some fabulous prizes? Anyone who correctly answered a question in Jeopardy or who donated money received some number of raffle tickets which were used in a drawing for some digital download games and a few physical prizes that we’ll send out to you. The winners of those prizes are below, but first, the rules:
1) You have to be in North America to be eligible for game codes.
2) You must be in the lower 48 United States to be eligible for physical prizes.
Each prize has three winners: The primary winner gets the prize unless they don’t qualify, in which case it goes to the first backup winner, and if they aren’t eligible, the second backup. Please contact us via [email protected] with your name and what you won if your name is listed below at all, even if you’re the runner-up or third-back-up winner since we’ll need a way to contact you directly. This is how we’ll work out shipping details or code exchanging.
Hit the break for the winners.
More: highlight
Research firm expects lifetime sales of Wii U to be around 25 million
Posted on 11 years ago by Austin(@NE_Austin) in General Nintendo, News, Wii U | 5 Comments
The following comes from research firm DFC Intelligence, who has been at least moderately accurate with their predictions in the past:
– They expect Wii U to sell 25 million units or less over its lifetime
– A bit more than the Gamecube
– Lower than initially expected, but they believe Nintendo is playing the right cards
– “Nintendo is carving out a different audience”
– Not the same audience that Sony and Microsoft are going after.”
– They’re going after Nintendo fans first, “I think … it’s the right strategy”
[Review] Senran Kagura Burst (3DS)
Posted on 11 years ago by Austin(@NE_Austin) in 3DS, 3DS eShop, Features, Reviews | 8 Comments
System: Nintendo 3DS
Release Date: November 15th, 2013 (NA) – Q1 2014 (EU)
Developer: Tamsoft
Publisher: XSEED Games
Price (as of publication): $29.99 (NA)
Author: Austin
“Apparently, within 30 seconds of thinking about a possible game [producer Kenichiro Takaki] decided that one of the things people want to see the most in 3D are breasts.”
Without the existence of the 3DS eShop and a publisher like XSEED, North American audiences would probably never get to fully experience Senran Kagura Burst!. The anime-inspired (directly, in fact: there’s an anime in existence of the same name without the “Burst!” tagline) brawler seems to be on the radar of a handful of folks who probably stumbled upon an eccentric screenshot or video thumbnail that proudly displayed the game’s fascination with large, round breasts. This, after all, is how I was first intrigued.
But another curiosity quickly follows exposure to the game’s aesthetic: Is it actually well-designed, or does its merit hinge solely upon its ability to assail you with large boobs?
It is, a touch regrettably for some, chiefly to do with the boobs.
More: highlight, review, Senran Kagura Burst
Creator of Hyper Light Drifter talks about making an SNES port of the game– ‘we have a deep love for the SNES’
Posted on 11 years ago by Austin(@NE_Austin) in News, Wii U eShop | 1 Comment
This was serious — we all have a deep love for the platform, and that type of money would allow us to hire someone full time to ‘down-port’ the game. Of course, it would be a hefty task and there would be significant differences — fewer enemies, effects and animation frames due to memory limitations — though I think we could adjust and make something incredibly special with ‘Super Hyper Light Drifter’ regardless. It’s a dream goal to put it up on my favorite console of all, and I hope to accomplish that dream sooner than later. Maybe once we release the game we will have the opportunity to accomplish this.
– Hyper Light Drifter creator Alex Preston
Alex spoke with RedBull Gaming about plenty of other things, particularly mentioning the potential inclusion of an area of the game that uses Mode7-like traversal– a ‘fun vehicle section’ as he calls it. Plenty of things to be excited about here!
More: Heart Machine, Hyper Light Drifter, indie
ZombiU and Fire Emblem devs talk about working with perma-death in story-writing
Posted on 11 years ago by Austin(@NE_Austin) in 3DS, General Gaming, General Nintendo, News, Wii U | 1 Comment
In the latest issue of EDGE magazine there lays a feature about the inclusion of permanent death in a game– that is, when a character dies, they’re gone for good and you can’t do anything about it. Two notable examples of games that utilize permanent death (perma-death) have come within the last year or deux: ZombiU from Ubisoft on the Wii U and Fire Emblem: Awakening on 3DS from Nintendo. A designer from both games sat down with EDGE to discuss their experience with perma-death:
I think that all of the Fire Emblem games are fun, but a lot of beginner players stay clear of them because they think they are difficult. I think this is a real shame. A big reason for wanting to include this mode was so that those kinds of people could play Fire Emblem too…Since your characters come back when they die, one advantage is that you can play more aggressively or take more risks.
– Fire Emblem: Awakening director Kohei Maeda
[Writing ZombiU] was the toughest challenge I’ve faced in over ten years of writing for games. It took… the whole production team to find solutions for all the ‘But what happens if you die here?’ issues, which were sometimes mind-bendingly complicated.
I created the Prepper character and the survivors’ notes to establish a link and reinforce between the survivors who all fall under this mysterious character’s influence. Without a main player character, you need to embrace your main NPCs. Our character assemblage system produced avatars that were less gorgeous than a single player character would’ve been.
– ZombiU design director Gabrielle Shrager
More: Fire Emblem, Gabrielle Shrager, interview, Kohei Maeda, ZombiU
Large-scale UK study says there’s no causation between game playing and behavioral problems
Posted on 11 years ago by Austin(@NE_Austin) in General Gaming, General Nintendo, News | 2 Comments
The following details are from a study conducted in the United Kingdom of 11,000 kids as young as five years old by the University of Glasgow:
– Exposure to video games had no effect on behavior, attention or emotional issues.
– Watching 3 or more hours of television at age 5 did lead to a small increase in behavioral problems in youngsters between 5 and 7.
– Neither television nor video games lead to attentional or emotional problems.
– There was no difference between boys and girls in the survey results.
Here’s a Podcast – Episode 67!
Posted on 11 years ago by Austin(@NE_Austin) in Features, Podcast | 3 Comments
Well, here’s another one for you. What we played: Wii Fit U, Fire Emblem: Awakening, Call of Duty: Ghosts, Sonic: Lost World, Senran Kegura Burst!, and more. We also have listener mail and have an interesting discussion about the future of Mario…
This Week’s Podcast Crew: Austin, Jack, and Laura
Download this episode (click this link)
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Ubisoft says they have Watch_Dogs on the way to Wii U in response to question about future support for the console
Posted on 11 years ago by Austin(@NE_Austin) in General Gaming, News, Wii U | 5 Comments
“Ubisoft has a long-standing relationship with Nintendo. Most recently this has been reinforced by our varied and high-quality line-up for Wii U, with big titles including Assassin’s Creed IV Black Flag, Just Dance 2014, Rayman Legends, Tom Clancy’s Splinter Cell Blacklist already released and Watch Dogs on the way.”
– Ubisoft representative
The above doesn’t seem indicative of either a lack of support or a plethora of it coming forward– it’s just a standard PR response with very little going on under the hood.