[Feature] WarioWare: Origins
Posted on 9 years ago by Patrick(@Patricklous) in DS, Features, Game of the Month, GBA | 1 Comment
When it was released back in 2003, the first WarioWare title was praised by critics for its innovative manner of transforming a series of minigames into an addictive gauntlet of five-second challenges. The surprise Game Boy Advance hit introduced the world to its unique bite-sized forms of gameplay, a variety of visual styles, a new cast of characters and enka music, but some of its more “innovative” aspects actually originated from earlier Nintendo experiments. It makes sense that a weird game would have a weird history behind it, and in WarioWare’s case it comes from one of the weirdest consoles – the Nintendo 64 Disk Drive.
More: Game of the Month, highlight, Mario Artist, Nintendo 64DD, top, Wario, WarioWare
Here’s a Podcast – Episode 106! (Dr. Mario)
Posted on 9 years ago by Austin(@NE_Austin) in Features, Podcast | 3 Comments
Podcast Crew: Austin (Twitter), Jack (Twitter), Laura (Twitter)
Welcome to episode 106. How are you? I’m okay. I hope you’re okay too. Here’s an overview of what we’ll be talking about on this episode:
Segment 1, What We Played: The only game we bring up during WWP is Mario Kart 8, and we talk about it for half an hour! Austin thinks he figured out specifically– down to the point by point game design elements– why he finds Mario Kart 8 less intense or engaging than other games in the franchise, and he tries to explain it to the rest of the crew as best as he can.
Segment 2, Book Club: After a lovely commissioned, professional-grade audio clip about our book club, we delve (perhaps TOO deeply) into the first chunk of The Legend of Zelda: A Link to the Past. Does this game feel less unique than other Zeldas? How does it feel having such a speedy intro without a lot of setup? What’s special about this game? We answer these questions and more!
Segment 3, Listener Mail: Plenty of listener mail to go through this week including a grill session about Monster Hunter 4, a grill session about Jack saying he wishes Wii VC would stretch the old games to fit his TV, lots of nice words, and much more.
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[Feature] The Microgames of WarioWare’s Cast – A look at the style that creates Orbulon, Mona, and more
Posted on 9 years ago by Scott(@UnlikelyYuusha) in Features, Game of the Month | 2 Comments
This week, Scott dives into our Game of the Month with a video about each character in the original WarioWare. Fascinatingly, he tries to pin down the style of each one and their microgames, which lead me to learn that Dr. Crygor’s are definitely my favorite. Nothing can beat that photorealism…
Here’s a question though: Which style of minigame suits you best, and which character’s games do you like the most? Did you ever really notice a difference in style between all the characters?
NintendoEverything Book Club – The Legend of Zelda: A Link to the Past, PART 1
Posted on 9 years ago by Austin(@NE_Austin) in Book Club, Features | 2 Comments
(Well, it’s a little late at night but I think this’ll do…)
Hello all, Austin here. Most of you don’t listen to our podcast, but if you did, you would know that we’ll be restarting the podcast-tied “Book Club” again all about the video game The Legend of Zelda: A Link to the Past. If you’ve never heard of or participated in a book club, it’s pretty much what it sounds like: We all play a game at sort of the same pace, and every week we discuss in detail that week’s goings on in the game on “Here’s a Podcast”.
You can share your thoughts on the first part of the game using the Google Form below, or feel free to post a comment. Remember, we aren’t looking for general thoughts on the game– we want thoughts about this particular section of the game! Play along with us, or go based on memory, but we like depth because we love games. Hooray!
We’ll select a few of your guys’ thoughts to read on the podcast and help spur further discussion, so leave a name and location if you like.
For this week: From the beginning of the game through the game’s first temple, the Eastern Palace.
Tell us your thoughts with this easy and handy form!
~Austin
Here’s a Podcast – Episode 105! (Snake Rattle ‘n’ Roll)
Posted on 9 years ago by Austin(@NE_Austin) in Features, Podcast | 4 Comments
Podcast Crew: Austin (Twitter), Jack (Twitter), Laura (Twitter)
Welcome back to episode 105, the episode that makes us all thankful that post-production and editing exists!
For this episode, we have X primary segments:
Segment 1, What We Played: After some talk about Snake Rattle ‘n’ Roll, we jump into a few big games that we’ve been playing including the unreleased Monster Hunter 4 Ultimate, but Laura also regales us tales of dating ancient Japanese historical figures in Hakuoki: Memories of the Shinsengumi for 3DS, and then Austin wraps things up with some talk about the only legitimate criticism anyone could have of Bayonetta 2.
Segment 2, Discussion: After a brief musical break, we come back to discuss some of what went on in the Nintendo Direct this past week, branching off into tangential discussions about relevant games like Majora’s Mask 3D (we talk about whether it was innovative or not) and a full-fledged diatribe about amiibo from Austin! Plus much more.
Segment 3, Listener Mail Grab-Bag: Almost no legitimate questions this week means we end up talking about where we like to shop, whether it’s good to bathe yourself, and how everything is going to be okay in life. Send us discussion questions: nintendoeverythingpodcast at gmail.com.
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[Just a Chat] Nintendo Direct reaction – New 3DS, Fire Emblem, and more
Posted on 9 years ago by Brian(@NE_Brian) in 3DS, Just a Chat, Videos, Wii U | 1 Comment
NintenDaan joined me to discuss the latest Nintendo Direct. There was plenty to talk about between the New 3DS, a new Fire Emblem 3DS game, and more!
Random note: we did this recording with me having very little sleep under my belt. Actually, I’ve been exhausted these past couple of weeks. So please understand if I come across as a boring mess.
Check out the discussion below:
Here’s a Podcast – Episode 104! (The Great Reboot)
Posted on 9 years ago by Austin(@NE_Austin) in Features, Podcast | 6 Comments
(Note: Throughout this podcast I referenced how you can view certain images on your listening device if you’re listening to the “AAC” version of the podcast. That doesn’t work anymore, so I’ve included the images below if you want to see them.)
Podcast Crew: Austin (Twitter), Jack (Twitter), Laura (Twitter)
Everyone’s favorite podcast that they’ve never listened to has returned for a reboot— a reinvigoration, a reincarnation, a rethinking— of old concepts, with all three crew members recording in remote locations over Skype, rather than in the same room as had become customary.
For this episode, we have three primary segments:
Segment 1, What We Played: Intro discussions about an old NES soccer classic, a bit of complaining about The Sims 4, plus the first ever discussion of Itoi-made curiosity MOTHER 3 on our podcast.
Segment 2, Anecdotes: Jack talks about signing “poop sheets” at work, Laura talks about some weird movie named “Tusk”, and the whole crew gives a quick shout-out to everyone’s favorite Daan man.
Segment 3, Discussion: WarioWare Inc. takes the stage as we talk a whole lot about this classic GBA game and others in the series. In addition to giving our general opinions on the game, we talk about connections this game has to the Gameboy Camera, how we feel the aesthetics are paramount in why this game is so good, and what particular micro-games stand out to us.
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[Feature] Historical WarioWare: A Look Back on Wario’s Finest
Posted on 9 years ago by Vincent Ward in Features, Game of the Month | 3 Comments
Mario was always the character who got to sit in the spotlight. Wanna go karting? Sure, but only if it’s called MARIO Kart. Wanna spend a day playing tennis? Of course you can, but it has to be called MARIO Tennis. Hell, even a social gathering has to be called a Mario Party. So after years of watching his childhood best friend get all the attention while he sat there doing nothing, it didn’t take too long before Wario started thinking of ways to get his own time to shine, and what better way is there to be the star of your own video game series than to have once with your name in it!? So let’s spend today reminiscing the history of Wario’s series, and see what made them so special.
More: Game of the Month, highlight, top, WarioWare
GAME OF THE MONTH – WarioWare, Inc.: Mega Microgame$!
Posted on 9 years ago by Austin(@NE_Austin) in Features, Game of the Month | 0 comments
An unfortunately truncated Game of the Month for January because the holidays left us a bit lazy and unworkable, but we’re here nonetheless and we’ve got a truly wonderful game for you: WarioWare, Inc. Mega Microgame$!. Released back in 2003 for the GBA, it has spawned plenty of sequels on many different platforms using many different gimmicks, so we’ve tasked our staff writers– Vincent, Kira, Jonathan, Patrick, and Scott– to shed some light on the series as a whole, their thoughts on it, or any other interesting things they might be able to pull out related to the game or its development.
We don’t have a concrete schedule for you, but here’s a short list of some of what you’ll be seeing on the site over the weeks of January:
– Vincent with “A History of WarioWare”
– Scott with “WarioWare’s Characters and the Minigames Behind Them”
– Podcast Gang with “Why is WarioWare so Wonderful?”
– Patrick with “WarioWare’s Heritage on 64DD”
The first article will be going up tonight, with all the rest coming over the course of the month.
Do you like writing and have something interesting you’d like to share about WarioWare? Email us using the “Contact Us” form with your idea and we may select you to have an article published on the website as part of our Game of the Month feature!
[Review] Chariot (Wii U)
Posted on 9 years ago by Vincent Ward in Features, Reviews, Wii U eShop | 1 Comment
Author:Vincent W.
Nowadays, finding a good couch co-op game to play with a friend isn’t as easy as it seems. In an industry that strives on giving an experience targeted towards online play, enjoyable games that let you sit down with a close friend or sibling in the same room are few and far between. That’s not to say that online gaming is bad or a step in the wrong direction. But there’s a feeling you get when you’re close enough to smack the controller out of their hand after they wreck you in games such as Smash and Mario Kart that feels like no other. Now Frima Studio is ready to take it back to the good old couch co-op days with their puzzle-platformer Chariot.
