Submit a news tip



Features


Game publishers and developers shove nonsense into our faces a lot, and most of the time we just say “Yea, that’s cool. It makes sense.”, even when it doesn’t.

Well, I feel like I don’t want to take that anymore. At least for today.


Author: Austin

I wouldn’t be writing this feature if the response to last night’s quote from Gearbox regarding why Borderlands wouldn’t be coming to Wii U was different. If bloggers and pseudo-journalists had called them out and said “Hey, you know what, that reason makes absolutely no sense!”, I wouldn’t be furiously (okay, not furiously– that’s a word to make it seem more exciting) typing away right now, anxious to tell you all why this is a bunch of baloney.



There’s a lot of good to be found in Nintendo’s latest home console– but not all of it is as pristine as it seems.


Author: Austin

Sometimes it’s hard to look at a console objectively and pick out its successes and failures with equal clout– especially when you are trying to justify spending over $400 on it– but amid the great leaps forward the Wii U has made in its quest to become Nintendo’s greatest console of all time, it’s painstakingly obvious that parts of it still fall far behind the lines that were drawn even by Microsoft and Sony’s now-last-gen consoles. So here’s a question for you:

What do you think so far? What are your favorite things? What don’t you like about it? Let’s hear all of it, and if you need some inspiration, here are the things I’ve compiled thus far:


17 episodes in and we’ve already started to get lazy with the show format! We end up getting through news and all of the regular stuff this week, in addition to a saturated discussion about whether the Wii U is “next gen” or not, and round things off by discussing the things we wish the Wii U could do after spending a week with it.




As always, thank you guys for your questions, and if you want to submit some for next week use our email address ([email protected]) or keep an eye on our Facebook page. I always ask for questions a few hours before we record!


Download this episode (right click and save)

Subscribe via iTunes by clicking this thing!

Subscribe with Google by clicking this thing!

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



The ‘Call of Duty’ series may still be about intricate stories and engaging characters after all.


Author: Austin

A lot of people make fun of Call of Duty for being mindless, repetitive nonsense that too many people buy into when there are way better games out there that they could be playing. Hell, whenever I need a game to be the faceman of the excessively high-octane, testosterone-fueled trends that permeate gaming culture today, I turn to Activision’s inhumanely popular first person shooter franchise. It just seems… “right”, somehow. And yet, after playing Black Ops 2 extensively over the last week or so, I can’t help but feel as though I need to clarify something:

Treyarch is now exempt from the criticisms that apply to the Modern Warfare series.



Nintendo’s latest entry into the ever-expanding ‘New Super Mario Bros.’ series launched alongside Wii U, but can it do anything to bring this stale franchise-within-a-franchise back to the glory days of old?


Author: Jack

With the launch of a new console– Wii U in this case– industry staple Nintendo always turns to a premier intellectual property to act as a catalyst for initial sales to hopefully make a dent in the marketplace. With Wii U’s predecessor “Wii”, Nintendo forwent tradition and went with a (highly anticipated) Zelda game, in addition to a new family-friendly motion-gaming-based aesthetic, and the rest is history—Twilight Princess became one of the most critically acclaimed games of the seventh generation, and the Wii went on to outsell its Sony and Microsoft contemporaries by 29%.

This time around, Nintendo is going back to its roots and kicking things off with a Mario game, oddly enough only three months after releasing the third New Super Mario Bros. iteration on 3DS. The fourth in line for the series, will New Super Mario Bros. U break the mold of the increasingly cookie-cutter series and offer a fresh experience akin to Super Mario Galaxy, or will it continue down its road of slight obsolescence? Upon (near) completion, the latter is definitely a better descriptor, but New Super Mario Bros. U still manages to be well worthy of your time and money.



I am the minigame queen and Nintendo Land is my kingdom.

The virtual Nintendo themed amusement park may seem like a very obvious way to teach us all of the new features of the Wii U, but it also delivers a fun and charming party game with the familiarities of our favorite Nintendo games.


Author: Laura

Following in the footsteps of Wii Sports, Nintendo Land uses a fun mini game style to teach us how to get the best experience out of the Wii U’s new features. I played some of it multiplayer on the livestream we did a few days ago, and some by myself, and I’m happy to say that either way it was a lot of fun. Party games are usually only fun in a…well, a party! But I can honestly say I enjoyed playing by myself as much as I did with friends, and you can’t get that same feeling with games like Mario Party, Wii Sports or Wii Party.



Survival horror has made its triumphant return to consoles.


(Note: This is a review of the single player. Multiplayer is pretty much exactly what you’d expect.)

I’ve been playing ZombiU constantly over the last two days, and when I first started out I considered myself nothing more than certifiably intrigued. A couple of hours in, and I went from intrigued to impressed. A few hours on top of that and I was enthralled. Add an hour or two more and I found myself legitimately surprised that I was enjoying the game as much as I was. I had read in so many places that at best it was “fun-but-flawed”, and I had damn-near convinced myself that such a label was “good enough”, and very admirable for a launch title.

When it comes down to it though– and I do NOT say this lightly– I’ve ended up thinking that ZombiU is one of the best survival horror games I have ever had the immense pleasure of playing.



I’ve counted no less than 30 games releasing alongside the Wii U in North America tomorrow (or today, depending on when this goes live). So let’s not waste any time going over all the games you might be playing if you’re not waiting two more weeks for the console to come out like I am…


If you want to know all about the Wii U, this is the episode to watch! We talk about our impressions of ZombiU, NSMBU, Sonic All Stars Racing, SiNG Party, Nintend0 Land, and Call of Duty Black Ops 2. It’s all Wii U, all the time! And some regular news, of course…




Nothing too much to say about this one other than that it was a very good, clean podcast! Thanks for the questions all, and we hope you enjoy hearing our impressions of all the games and features.

~Austin


Download this episode (right click and save)

Subscribe via iTunes by clicking this thing!

Subscribe with Google by clicking this thing!

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


Note: This is the very first review written by podcast crew member Laura. Be nice, but be sure to let us know if it’s really terrible so we can fire her.


We all grew up with that love-able talking mouse who charms his way through any situation, right? Well, he’s back again with another ‘Epic Mickey’ installment, only this time he’s charming his way across side scrolling platforms.


With a lot of gaming franchises you’ll end up seeing a poorly-transferred version of a console game come out for the handheld device of the time, presumably for some easy money. Epic Mickey: Power of Illusion takes that idea and gives it more hope. While the game has quite a few flaws, it carries many of the same elements as the original console game but at the same time holds strong on its own. Disney Interactive Studios has created a whole new game for the 3DS that fits with in the Epic Mickey world, and instead of trying to recreate an entire console game and shrink it down for a handheld device, they used the transfer to their advantage.



Manage Cookie Settings