Posted on 12 years ago by Austin(@NE_Austin) in Features, General Nintendo | 1 Comment

Update: Voting is now over either which way. Zelda ended up coming out on top at the last second with 51% to 49%. Good job.

Sorry guys, I’m just making up the post of the day to talk about something sort of weird, but oddly intriguing. You see, I’ve fairly recently begun going on reddit, and through the thousands of upvotes and (now) failing college grades, I noticed that the wonderful folk on r/Zelda were rallying incredibly strongly for the prevalence of The Legend of Zelda: Skyward Sword in G4’s “2011 Gaming Deathmatch”. Basically the idea is that everyone will vote in head to head matches of video games, and the winners of each round will continue to move up until the final face off. Well, needless to say, G4 seems to have had it in for Skyward Sword since the beginning of the voting period.

In the first round they pitted Nintendo’s finely crafted adventure against Uncharted 3, and while no one thought it would ever beat such a monster of a PS3 game, r/Zelda rallied like crazy behind it (I heard the folks on ZeldaDungeon got behind it too) and they managed to take down Nathan Drake’s fantastically crafted action adventure title with a final tally of 53-47. Pretty cool, right? Well, in the second round it easily defeated NBA2KGeneric, but the third round had it fighting the critically acclaimed Arkham City. Another great game, another fight no one thought Skyward Sword could win, but once again it narrowly escaped defeat with a final score of 51-49. So why am I telling you this?

Well, now it’s up against the monstrously huge open world fantasy title, The Elder Scrolls V: Skyrim, and while- once again- everyone thought it would lose horribly to such a big game, the current score stands at 51-49 in favor of Zelda. Don’t get excited, because it’s shifting back and forth more often than a tennis match, but the sheer fact that it’s essentially equal to such a fantastically made game is a testament to the strength of Nintendo’s fanbase. Now, I’m not tellin you this because I want you to go vote for Zelda and make “us” win or whatever. If you wanna go vote for Skyrim or forgo voting entirely, I don’t care at all. The thing is that on r/Zelda, people are going nuts over defeating Skyrim, and consequently the Skyrim community is going nuts over beating Skyward Sword. People are making multiple accounts on both sides I’m sure, there’s posts about this very battle across the internet, and in general fans of both games are freaking the hell out over beating their now-rival. It’s sort of silly to me, but I figured I’d bring the discussion to you.

How do you feel about these game-offs that people do? Do you think they’re accurate representations of what’s best? Would you ever vote in them?

Personally, I did vote for Zelda and I definitely hope it wins, but ultimately I don’t want to go overboard worrying about it. More than anything, I just want to “show” G4 for their blatant bias against Nintendo games. Also you can vote here if you want.

Posted on 12 years ago by Austin(@NE_Austin) in 3DS, Features | 0 comments

You can read today’s post of the day here.

Apologies for not doing a post of the day yet this week. Finals are coming up soon, Skyward Sword is just begging to be played, and I have about a thousand other things to do- but alas, I have a free moment this evening and I’m here to tell you all about something I legitimately consider pretty gosh darn important: The brilliance of Renegade Kid’s upcoming platformer, Maximillion and the Rise of the Mutant Mudds.

As some of you who were here during our E3 coverage know, I had the pleasure of spotting and talking to Jools Watsham outside on a bench near a giant tank. I’m not sure what the tank was actually for, but it didn’t really matter because as soon as he put the E3 demo of Maximillion and the Rise of the Mutant Mudds in my hands, I was completely enthralled and forgot about the hunk of metal completely.

The reason I chose this particular post for the PotD is simply because I want to make sure you all know how much I recommend getting the game when it releases this January. This isn’t Renegade Kid coming to me asking me to do a feature, it’s not me getting some secret swag for writing about the game, and it’s not like I’m getting paid to write about something specific. As is the case with everything I write, I’m actually just doing it because I want to tell you guys something I’m passionate about.

For those who aren’t aware, Mutant Mudds was first announced waaaaaay back when as a 3D platformer, but eventually went through various changes/deaths/rebirths until- as we see today- it became a beautiful and incredibly fun “12 bit” platformer that uses the strengths of the 3DS’ glasses-free thing to absolutely fantastic degrees. Honestly, it’s one of the most fun 3DS games I’ve ever been able to lay my hands on, and I’d venture to say that- perhaps in hindsight let’s say except for Skyward Sword– it’s the best game I played at E3. Man, it would be so easy for me to go into a thousand word article about the game’s strengths, but I really want to keep these PotD things short and easy to read, so ultimately just go check out videos and info yourself- I know we have a bunch of it on NintendoEverything. Essentially, if you have any interest in games like Mario and Rayman, please put this one on your list, because it’s looking to become the first great eShop exclusive. Period.

Posted on 12 years ago by Austin(@NE_Austin) in Features, GameCube, Wii | 0 comments

Posted on 12 years ago by Austin(@NE_Austin) in Features, Wii | 0 comments

Disclaimer: I will be putting spoilers past the breaks of these articles. These are for people who have played certain parts of the games to come discuss things with me, so don’t click if you haven’t played it yet!

So, it’s pretty safe to say that the majority of you are playing Skyward Sword right now, or if not, you will be playing it very shortly. Since I think we’re all really excited and just looking for a place to gush about how good (or bad, I guess) the game is, I figured I would start a collective playthrough/talk about the game that all of us can get in on and… uh… stuff. I’m not going to go for a really professional tone as I do with many articles; instead I’ll just be talking honestly and candidly, so forgive any weird statements. Here’s the deal:

The Low Down:
– No spoilers beyond the point of the game we’re discussing are allowed.
– Every time a new discussion is posted, it will deal with a new part of the game.
– If you are behind on the playthrough, let me know and we can slow it down to fit as many people’s needs as possible.
– This is sort of like a collective “review” of the game.

This week’s section is going to deal with all of the forest-y area. Hit the break to see exactly what that means.

Read More

Posted on 12 years ago by Austin(@NE_Austin) in Features | 0 comments

(View today’s PotD here)

Sorry about the late post, folks- I started playing Skyward Sword and… well… I couldn’t stop! Before I knew it, four hours had passed and I was scrambling to finish everything I needed to for the night. I’m guessing a few of you are having similar experiences with the game.

It’s no surprise that everyone who’s anyone has Skyward Sword on the brain, but what about Nintendo’s other system. You know, the little handheld one that does other stuff? Well, we got our first PotD-worthy piece of news about the 3DS this evening, and it has to do with that update we’ll be getting sometime this month which will unlock a few new pieces of tech on the device. My personal favorite? 3D video recording. If all goes well, this will also mean a higher framerate for the 3DS’ camera; lord knows we could use it.

The particular post is actually rumor that the update will hit on November 30th, and while that’s about as late as you could possibly get into the month, it’s also only nine days away. If we play enough Skyward Sword I’m sure we’ll make it there in no time. What I’m really curious about is whether or not our free GBA games will come with this update, or if we’ll be waiting longer for those. Anyone want to wager that we’ll have to wait until December for those nice gifts?

~Austin

Posted on 12 years ago by Austin(@NE_Austin) in Features, Wii | 0 comments

Disclaimer: I will be putting spoilers past the breaks of these articles. These are for people who have played certain parts of the games to come discuss things with me, so don’t click if you haven’t played it yet!

So, it’s pretty safe to say that the majority of you are playing Skyward Sword right now, or if not, you will be playing it very shortly. Since I think we’re all really excited and just looking for a place to gush about how good (or bad, I guess) the game is, I figured I would start a collective playthrough/talk about the game that all of us can get in on and… uh… stuff. I’m not going to go for a really professional tone as I do with many articles; instead I’ll just be talking honestly and candidly, so forgive any weird statements. Here’s the deal:

The Low Down:
– No spoilers beyond the point of the game we’re discussing are allowed.
– Every time a new discussion is posted, it will deal with a new part of the game.
– If you are behind on the playthrough, let me know and we can slow it down to fit as many people’s needs as possible.
– This is sort of like a collective “review” of the game.

This week’s section is going to deal with the first ~2 hours of the game. Hit the break to see exactly what that means.

Read More

Posted on 12 years ago by Austin(@NE_Austin) in Features, General Nintendo | 0 comments

A couple weeks ago we held a poll on Facebook asking all of you to vote on which Zelda songs you think are the best the series has to offer. In honor of Skyward Sword’s release tomorrow/Sunday/Friday/whatever, here are the results!

Note to self: Probably no more green screen usage. It just messes with the footage a lot and becomes terribly hard to edit. That, coupled with a few other issues means we’re far from perfect, but I’d say it’s a significant step up from last week! We hope you feel the same.

Posted on 12 years ago by Austin(@NE_Austin) in Features, Wii | 0 comments

If you missed today’s post of the day, you can view it here.

Apologies for being late on tonight’s Post of the Day, but I was busy editing a positively terrible new video for all of you guys about the top ten Zelda songs ever. Remind me to never ever use a green screen ever again, because editing gets ten times harder with every new piece of tech you add to the mix. Bleh.

Anyway, the important thing here is that Skyward Sword is out in Europe today and it comes out in TWO DAYS for the rest of the world, but already we’re seeing video walkthroughs, story spoilers, and reviews of the game across the world-wide interwebz. In fact, today’s PotD is a video of someone who played through the first 70 minutes of the game, and did us all the pleasure/pain of posting it up on Youtube for the world to see. I think that breaks some copyright law, but whatever.

My question then for all of you guys is this: Do you watch these types of videos? I personally am not a big fan of spoiling too much about a game before it releases (especially Zelda), but I couldn’t help myself from seeing bits and pieces of it, especially considering that I had to play it at E3. It also doens’t help that I have little to no self control when it comes to these sorts of things.

Sometimes I wish I had gone on total media blackout for it, but alas, ’tis too late for that now! That being said, I did stop watching trailers at a point. Once the first couple reviews of the game rolled in, I ceased watching all new videos and reading new details, simply because I need to have at least 75% of the game untouched. I’m not sure if Valay is the same way, though honestly I feel bad because he almost has to read it whether he likes it or not.

Are any of you guys going on total media blackout for Skyward Sword? If so, why? If not, where do you draw the line on spoilers?

Edit: Also, a warning to anyone who has yet to play Skyward Sword, but intends on picking up the game tomorrow/Sunday. The game never makes use of the IR sensor. Never in the game will you need to point at the screen to select things, so don’t get confused when- if you’re pointing at the screen- the cursor is going nuts. Pay attention to the nuances of the device and get a handle on how it works before complaining that the controls are bad. That’s what happened with Gamespot, and they ended up giving the game a 7.5.

Posted on 12 years ago by Austin(@NE_Austin) in Features, General Nintendo | 0 comments

You can read the post of the day here.

For those that missed it, today was Shigeru Miyamoto’s 59th birthday, and as the aging game creator doesn’t really show any signs of slowing down, it got me thinking: What would Nintendo be if he suddenly died? I don’t think he will, but I really worry about how much of what they make comes from his genius in game development, and how much is from other people. Similar to the feeling I had when Steve Jobs passed away in October, I like to think that he has taught his “underlings” well enough where they could pick up the slack and keep making just as high of quality games, but I’m not 100% sure.

Now, that being said, I think it’s fair to say that I’m probably wrong. I felt the same way about Koji Kondo’s music skills, and when I learned that he only actually composed one song for Skyward Sword, I was ecstatic because the music was so great despite him not being the main composer. It gave me hope for the future of the music in Zelda games, but whether the same can be said about the gameplay and story elements is yet to be shown.

Do any of you worry about this as I occasionally do?

~Austin

Posted on 12 years ago by Austin(@NE_Austin) in General Nintendo, Reviews | 0 comments

Can this hastily created platformer live up to the hype, or will it fail in the wake of Super Mario 3D Land’s release?

If you’re at all like me, you’ve probably been looking forward to Super Tanooki Skin 2D for a long time. After all, since its initial announcement nearly 48 hours ago, the information we’ve gathered, screens we’ve seen, and videos that were posted online were nothing short of astonishing, and when I finally got my hands on a review copy this afternoon, I was ecstatic to say the most. We most certainly don’t get enough 2D platformers in this day and age, and with Maximillion and the Rise of the Mutant Mudds getting delayed until early 2012, we all need a little something to tide us over. With a little luck, that something would be Super Tanooki Skin 2D.

Clearly something in the heavens doesn’t want us to have a little luck.

Read More