News, what we played, and the complaint corner all make their regular returns. On top of that, we discuss ZombiU vs. Resident Evil Remake, whether Wii U games have to use the Gamepad in novel ways (or if they can just be “regular” games), and then list our top four weirdest business decisions by Nintendo.

Despite a myriad of technical issues, I’d be willing to bet that this show is out best so far! There was no one thing in particular that made it amazing, but energetic discussions (and some really hilarious anecdotes!) made this one a podcast for the record books! Enjoy!

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[Review] Liberation Maiden

Posted on 12 years ago by Patrick(@Patricklous) in 3DS, 3DS eShop, Podcast Stories, Reviews | 0 comments

Suda51 delivers a well-produced mecha anime that’s as hyperactive as it is hyper-nationalistic. But how’s the actual game?

Author: Patrick

Level 5 really haven’t been having a whole lot of luck when it comes to the 3DS. Professor Layton and Inazuma Eleven might still bring in the cash, but the company’s attempts at starting new IPs like Time Travelers and Girls RPG: Cinderella Life sold poorly. But perhaps their biggest bomb of all was Guild 01, a compilation of quirky games that sold fewer than 15,000 copies upon its first week of release despite having some well-known game designers collaborating on the project. Oddly enough, Level 5 are now giving Guild 01 a second chance by rereleasing most of the games in the compilation through the 3DS eShop. The first of these titles to be available outside of Japan is Liberation Maiden, a 3D shooter heavily inspired by Japanese cartoons – specifically the kind where plot is second to cool robots flying around and blowing stuff up.

[Opinion] Gearbox’s reason for not putting Borderlands on Wii U is more baloney than this pseudo gaming-journalist can handle

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

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.

[Opinion] A week with the Wii U – What do YOU think?

Posted on 12 years ago by Austin(@NE_Austin) in Features, Wii U | 14 Comments

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:

Here’s a Podcast – Episode 17!

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

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!

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[Review] Call of Duty: Black Ops 2 (Wii U)

Posted on 12 years ago by Austin(@NE_Austin) in Podcast Stories, Reviews, Wii U | 0 comments

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.

[Review] New Super Mario Bros. U

Posted on 12 years ago by Austin(@NE_Austin) in Podcast Stories, Reviews, Wii U | 0 comments

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.

[Review] Nintendo Land

Posted on 12 years ago by Austin(@NE_Austin) in Podcast Stories, Reviews, Wii U | 12 Comments

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.

[Review] ZombiU

Posted on 12 years ago by Austin(@NE_Austin) in Podcast Stories, Reviews, Wii U | 0 comments

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.

The Colossal Wii U Launch Game Roundup

Posted on 12 years ago by Patrick(@Patricklous) in Features, Podcast Stories, Wii U, Wii U eShop | 1 Comment

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…