Nintendo hosted its annual shareholders meeting a couple of weeks ago, and Austin and I discussed some of the more interesting topics – including Satoru Iwata and Shigeru Miyamoto’s approval ratings, Zelda Wii U, a tease of new “ideas” for Zelda on 3DS, and more.

Check out the video below:

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[Famicompendium] Cave Noire

Posted on 10 years ago by Patrick(@Patricklous) in Famicompendium, Features, GBA | 4 Comments

Okay, so I know that I teased that I’d be writing about a different game in the last column (which was posted five months ago, holy crap) but there’s a reason for that. Turns out that a game that’s essentially “Style Savvy but also a dating sim” isn’t all that unique when Nintendo ended up adding boyfriends to Style Savvy anyway. So instead I chose to write about one of my favourite Game Boy titles in celebration of the handheld’s 25th anniversary (which was three months ago, holy crap). Yep, that chunky handheld sure gave us plenty of timeless experiences like Link’s Awakening, Mole Mania, and Revenge of the Gator’s title screen, but today I want to focus on a lesser-known classic for Nintendo’s monochromatic machine, an early Japanese dungeon crawler called Cave Noire published by Konami way back in 1991.

More: cave noire, famicompendium, Game Boy, highlight, Konami

[NE News Bulletin] Fi in Hyrule Warriors, Dragon Quest X 3DS, 3DS update

Posted on 10 years ago by Brian(@NE_Brian) in 3DS, NE News Bulletin, Videos, Wii U | 0 comments

The Nintendo Everything News Bulletin returns! Here’s a quick video covering the latest character in Hyrule Warriors, Dragon Quest X for 3DS, and the new 3DS update. Kind of had to rush through this one a bit, so I’ll try to make the next one better!

Now on with the video:

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Here’s a Podcast – Episode 100!

Posted on 10 years ago by Austin(@NE_Austin) in Features, Podcast | 7 Comments

Question of the day: Is it always bad design to allow a game-player to enter situations that they aren’t prepared to succeed in without telling them or giving them an easy way out? Is it ever okay to make something practically impossible? Like this horrible, traumatic area from Fallout: New Vegas pictured above?

ON THIS EPISODE: Can you believe we made it 100 episodes? Even though Jack and Aysha aren’t around to celebrate, Laura and Austin manage to pull together another solid episode for everyone.

PLUS: Laura kicks things off with some impressions of some survival horror PC games like Outlast, and then Austin discusses the idea of games letting you face things you simply aren’t prepared to face without telling you through the lens of Fallout: New Vegas. Some brief discussion of BIT.TRIP BEAT and BIT.TRIP CORE round out the segment.

AND: We pick our short book club game, which will be The Legend of Zelda: A Link to the Past! Listen for more details, or just start playing at your leisure. Listener mail, of course, closes things out.

This Week’s Podcast Crew: Austin and Laura

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[Around the Water Cooler] 2D vs. 3D Mario

Posted on 10 years ago by Brian(@NE_Brian) in Around the Water Cooler, General Nintendo, Videos | 8 Comments

Around the Water Cooler is the latest feature we’re introducing on Nintendo Everything. It’s mainly being led by Scott – someone who you may have seen before if you’ve checked out his Unlikely Review video (more of those are hopefully coming soon by the way!).

So here’s the deal. Around the Water Cooler is you’re opportunity to sound off on Nintendo-related subjects. Every two weeks, Scott will come up with a new topic (we are definitely welcoming topic ideas from you guys), and discussions will be held in each post. The subsequent video will highlight select comments about the previous topic made on both the main site and/or on YouTube.

Scott wanted me to let you know that this first video is a bit of a pilot. We already have a few improvements in mind, and your comments/interest will shape Around the Water Cooler’s future. Also: you’ll see more than just a silly green screen next time!

And now for this week’s topic: 2D vs. 3D Mario…

Sound off in the comments below!

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Here’s a Podcast – Episode 99!

Posted on 10 years ago by Austin(@NE_Austin) in Features, Podcast | 7 Comments

ON THIS EPISODE: Still no Jack and Aysha’s out of town, which means it’s the first even Laura and Austin podcast! What we played? The duo square off about Tomodachi Life getting boring, Shovel Knight being wonderful, and Fallout: New Vegas actually having kind of good storytelling.

PLUS: A new mini-bookclub has been announced. The options? Minish Cap, A Link to the Past, Another World, Stick it to the Man, and Attack of the Friday Monsters! Make your case for which one we should all play and discuss in the comments.

AND: Listener mail about Suda51, “boring” games, and why nobody ever talks about bad game soundtracks in reviews rounds out the end of the show, as usual.

This Week’s Podcast Crew: Austin and Laura

Download this episode (click this link)

Subscribe via iTunes by clicking this thing!

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Subscribe with Yahoo something-or-other by clicking this thing!

More: highlight, podcast, Shovel Knight, Tomodachi Life

[Developer Musings] Hands-off Helpfulness: three independent developers talk about working with Nintendo

Posted on 10 years ago by Brian(@NE_Brian) in Developer Musings, Wii U eShop | 1 Comment

Being a developer that works with Nintendo has, in the past, been considered something of a novelty for independent companies. Before WiiWare existed on Wii there wasn’t much of a way to get your game published on a Nintendo platform without a “proper” publisher, and even with Nintendo’s digital offerings on Wii and DSi things remained relatively closed off.

Now, with Wii U and 3DS, game development is open and independent developers have brought out masses of titles to the two platforms. But what’s it like to work with Nintendo? Is there any hint of their shielded past nowadays, or have things loosened up so much that such a past is indistinguishable?

“Willing to help” seems to be the common theme across all three of our entries in this week’s ‘Developer Musings’ series. Of course, there does seem to be some of that traditional red tape still involved– head past the break for comments from Dakko Dakko (Scram Kitty), Ludosity (Ittle Dew), and Nyamyam (Tengami).

(Unsure as to what Developer Musings is about? Check out our first entry here for an explanation.)

More: highlight, indie, Joel Nyström, Phil Tossel, Rhodri Broadbent, top

[Review] Sayonara Umihara Kawase

Posted on 10 years ago by Patrick(@Patricklous) in 3DS, 3DS eShop, Features, Reviews | 3 Comments

System: Nintendo 3DS eShop
Release Date: April 24, 2014 (EU)
Developer: Agatsuma Entertainment
Publisher: Agatsuma Entertainment/Natsume

Author: Patrick

Sayonara Umihara Kawase’s title might suggest a farewell to this series, but for most players it’s more like a welcome to this bizarre world full of freakish fish and perilous platforming. While the first two Umihara Kawase games never left Japan, they managed to become cult classics thanks to their mix of unforgiving but addictive gameplay and some good old-fashioned weirdness. As a return to the series’ distinctive tone and action, Sayonara Umihara Kawase initially seems geared to hardcore fans, but it also manages to serve as a more gentle introduction to its unique style of platforming —before throwing players into the deep end of a pool full of acid.

As far as I’m aware there aren’t any major differences between the European version, which I played, and the Natsume-published North American version. Well aside from the fact that it was re-titled to “Umi’s Odd Odyssey”, because Natsume just have to alter the name of everything they localize. Just be glad they didn’t call it Legend of the River King Gaiden or Spanky’s Quest.

More: agatsuma, highlight, Natsume, Sayonara Umihara Kawase, umi's odd odyssey, umihara kawase

Here’s a Podcast: Episode 98! (Shovel Knight, Tomodachi Life, Mass Effect 3)

Posted on 10 years ago by Austin(@NE_Austin) in Features, Podcast | 5 Comments

NOT ON THIS EPISODE: Jack and Laura! Jack has to take a break from the podcast for several weeks and Laura will likely be intermittent for a few weeks as well. The show… will be different…

ON THIS EPISODE: Special guest Aysha fills in to help save the podcast! Her and Austin talk about the Mass Effect 3‘s lost charm (but it’s still got romance) and Tomodachi Life‘s charm overload, and Austin bring his impressions of upcoming indie game Shovel Knight.

PLUS: Listener mail rounds out the end of the show! We’ve got topics from Nintendo’s E3 performance to whether we think walkthroughs ruin a game experience.