Features

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

Well folks, that was a LOT of fun. Admittedly we didn’t hit our goal, but we still raised a hundred and a half for charity, which is pretty dang awesome for not only our first charity event, but our first live-stream AND “Let’s Play” events ever all rolled into one big… thing. I really want to thank everyone who donated, watched, chatted, commented, or even thought about doing any of those things. I really, truly appreciate it! I actually want to give a special shout-out to the few folks who stayed up absurdly late, chatted with us via the uStream chat, and helped fend off the exhaustion by a few more hours.

If you missed it but you have a passing interest in seeing one of the many games we played (Mario Party, Brawl, Goldeneye 64, Banjo Kazooie, Warioware, etc etc etc), you can actually watch almost every single bit of it via uStream for a limited time. There are lulls in the action (it’s unedited so it includes eating time, figuring tech out time, etc etc), and a few parts didn’t get recorded, but I think you could find things worth seeing. Especially once the entire gang rolls around in late part 2/part 3.

These will only be up for a limited time as I only have so much space I can use on uStream without paying (expect them to be there for about a month), but I plan on editing together a “highlight reel” to entice other folks into watching future streams. You’ll notice some issues with this stream if you watch bits, and I wanted to list them so you know they are technical kinks that we learned from for future reference:

– Audio levels (vocals vs. game audio) were poor in the beginning.
– We will be buying a proper vocal mic for better audio quality as well.
– Video got choppy when playing Brawl (the ONE game it would be worst to have choppy, haha)

Aside from that, things went really well from a technical standpoint. Thanks for hanging out, guys!

~Austin

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

Update: Opted to switch times to PST so the max number of people will be awake to watch. Not sure too many are up at 6AM on a Saturday. 😛

NintendoEverything has never attempted to do a livestream of something before. I mean, sure, we’ve done near-live blogs and hosted some of Nintendo’s own streams, but actually streaming ourselves? And for 24 hours straight!? There are bound to be some major technical issues! Nevertheless, we’re going through with it, and we have a whole slew of games (mostly ones chosen by you!) lined up for every hour of the day. We even added some “terribad” games, as requested by you guys.

Here’s the full schedule, subject to change. All times are Pacific Standard Time (add two hours for CST, add three for EST, use Google for everything else):

[8:00-10:00AM] Mario Sports Mix
[10:00-11:00PM] WarioWare: Smooth Moves
[11:00-12:00PM] Shaq-Fu (Hopefully– SNES has been acting up)
[12:00-2:00PM] Goldeneye (N64)
[2:00-3:00PM] Star Fox 64 (Goal: Beat the game)
[3:00-4:00PM] Timeshift Multiplayer
[4:00-6:00PM] Super Smash Bros. Brawl (Goal: 99 Life Match)
[6:00-8:00PM] [OPEN– TO BE DECIDED LATER]
[8:00-10:00PM] Mario Party 6
[10:00-1:00AM] Banjo Kazooie (Goal: Beat the game)
[1:00-3:00AM] Mario Kart: Double Dash
[3:00-4:00AM] War Gods (N64)
[4:00-6:00AM] The Legend of Zelda: Skyward Sword
[6:00-7:00AM] Just Dance
[7:00-8:00AM] Wii Sports Resort

After a final check of the technology that will be supporting us (uStream and a capture device, baby!), I’m ready to head off to bed, wake up early tomorrow and start gaming. I know most of you will miss the first couple of hours, but please tune in if you want to, and, arguably more importantly, consider donating to our page to help kids.

I’m off to bed. See you all shortly!

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

tl;dr – Austin is going to stream 24 hours of gaming and perform hilarious commentary, all for charity. And YOU get to decide which games are played.

Twelve games. Two hours each. One man (and sometimes the rest of the ‘Here’s a Podcast’ gang, schedules permitting). Donate here.

Update: We will be streaming Saturday at 8AM via either uStream or TwitchTV! The games we play will be announced tomorrow! PLEASE consider donating (even $5– I’m sure a lot of you have a few dollars in bank accounts somewhere!) to help kids. I want to let you know that– due to demand– we’re adding a few “terribad” games to our list, which means we’re going to play a single terribad game for two hours straight at some point Saturday/Sunday. Maybe twice! And you can watch!

I’ve never made a single penny from all the writing and podcasting and video-making I do for Nintendo Everything. I would never think to ask you guys for money for myself. That’s not at all why I started writing for NE and not at all why I keep doing it!

That being said, I’m asking for money from you for the first time ever. Not for me, but for kids without health insurance who need medical care across the country. It’s all part of something called “Extra Life“; a huge charity event that pits players against time as they attempt to game for 24 hours straight, requesting “sponsorship” from friends and family for each hour that they play. It’s an awesome way to put gaming to good use.

Here are the only two rules:

1. Austin will be playing games all 24 hours, only stopping to go to the bathroom or trade off on single player games. He’ll still be there offering commentary to make things funny, and his eyes will never leave the TV.

2. Eating will be done while playing.

3. If other members give up, Austin will keep playing. Austin is strong. Austin will not stop.

Why Should I Donate?

Well, firstly to help kids. Any amount is great– a dollar, five dollars, ten, seven, thirteen, a hundred thousand–, and one hundred percent of it goes straight to the kids. No administrative costs for the organization, no money for Nintendo Everything, no reimbursement for how much I’ll be spending on caffeine– absolutely 100% of it goes to helping people in need. It is, as donations all are, tax deductible.

Beyond that though, I’m giving to you in return for your generosity. Not only will I be playing games from 8AM Saturday morning to 8AM Sunday morning, but I will also be streaming the entire thing live so you can slowly watch me go from alert and focused to delirious, reflexive, and exhausted. The whole thing will be like Mystery Science Theater, but for video games, live, and really really tired. It is bound to be hilarious fun.

Oh, and did I mention that you guys get to decide what games I play? There will be one game from each genre played in two hour spurts (which means twelve games in total), and voting is open now!

When Is This Happening?

The fun starts at 8AM, October 20th and ends at 8AM, October 21st.

What Games?

Nobody knows yet! Voting will be open shortly.

What If I Have No Money?

You can watch the event regardless of whether or not you donate, but if you want to help out without monetary donations, share my ‘Extra Life’ page on Facebook, Twitter, Friendster, etc and tell them your friend Austin is going insane to raise money for charity.

Thank you guys so very much! It’s a pleasure to be able to make features for you, and I hope you consider supporting Nintendo Everything’s efforts to raise a bit of money!

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

Leon approves!

Topics this week include DLC (and when it’s unacceptable!), game worlds we’d want to explore in virtual reality, Resident Evil 6, and as always: news, what we played, complaint corner, and GTGWTMIGY.

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Copy/Paste this link into any RSS/Podcast reader to subscribe to us that way!

Download this episode (right click and save)

A huge thank you to all you guys and gals who listen to us. I had no idea there were so many of you and I’m absolutely floored by the numbers we got in for last week’s episode! If you need ANYTHING from the podcast gang please don’t hesitate to email us at [email protected]

[00:03:15] What We Played – Austin, Laura, Jack, Max, Nick
[00:06:32] News – Details about Wii U games, PETA being silly, no 1080p (?), more.
[00:30:45] Discussion 1 – Where do you draw the line on DLC?
[00:48:15] Complaint Corner – Mostly about Resident Evil 6
[00:55:42] Guess the game with the media I give you – Image here.
[01:03:48] Top ten list – Three game worlds we would love to explore in virtual reality

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

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I just now realized that I’ve interviewed this guy before. It was way back in November of 2010, just before the first ‘Epic Mickey’ launched. I asked him if an ‘Epic Mickey’ game would land on 3DS in the future, and he told me that it was “too early to say”.

I wonder if he was lying and they had actually already planned out Power of Illusion…

So, there I was once again, sitting in my imaginary room waiting to imaginarily interview someone, pretending it was in-person instead of via email. The subject this time around? Mr. Paul Weaver from Junction Point. I’ve actually interviewed Paul before, but it was so long ago that I wasn’t even doing this “pretend I’m interviewing them live” thing. It was just straight Q&A, IGN-style.

Boring, am I rig–

Before I could finish the thought, Paul entered the room. I was pretty excited to get the chance to talk to him– primarily because I had gotten such pleasure out of playing Junction Point’s last game, “Epic Mickey”– and I didn’t waste too much time with formalities before getting right into the hard-ball, tough-as-nails questions about how amazing I think their games are:

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

Copy/Paste this link into any RSS/Podcast reader to subscribe to us that way!

Listen to this episode, right-click + “Save As” to download the raw MP3.

Edit: iTunes may take a few minutes to update with the new episode. If you subscribe via iTunes you’ll download the latest episode regardless of what it says.

You can hit the break for the “Table of Contents” of the show so you can skip to the parts you care about.

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

Download the show here!

One away from the tenth episode, which is the one on which I said I’d start putting these on iTunes like you’ve all asked me to. I haven’t gotten any closer to figuring out how to manage that, but I’ve certainly gotten quicker at putting these together! Here’s the rundown for this week’s episode:

[1:05] What We Played – Austin, Jack, Aysha, Laura
[3:21] News – NSMB2 DLC, Platinum Games Speaks Out, Banjo Kazooie Successor
[23:01] Discussion #1 – How’s New Super Mario Bros. U shaping up? Images we talked about: Image 1, Image 2
[29:36] Discussion #2 – Trend Setters vs. Followers, AKA “Why Austin Loves Nintendo”
[42:46] Complain Corner – Not much going on here this week.
[44:06] Guess the Game With the Media I Give You: Here’s the image for this week. Play along if you so desire!
[47:54] Top Ten List: The Top Five Most Atmospheric Video Games, According to the Podcast Guys

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

Game Info:

System: Nintendo 3DS (eShop)
Genre: Puzzle
Players: 1
Release Date:  September 6, 2012 (EU), At Some Point, I Guess (US)
Developer: Jupiter
Publisher: Nintendo

There sure are a lot of Picross games out there. Whether they’re calling them Picross puzzles, Nonagrams, Pixel Puzzles or Griddlers, developers have been releasing these logic puzzles in video game form since they first became popular in the early 90s. Though the concept behind Picross certainly wasn’t invented by Nintendo, the company has published numerous compilations of the puzzles over the last two decades, usually handled by Japanese developer, Jupiter. With so many different versions of the game out there, surely all the different features introduced and refinements made should result in “The Definitive Picross Game.”

That game was Picross DS. Picross e, the latest of the Jupiter-developed, Nintendo-published puzzlers, feels like a massive step backwards.

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

How to fix 2D Mario games, Sony versus the Wii U, Wii U’s (non)existent achievement system– PLUS our top five games that would make utterly horrible movies (and who we would cast in them!).

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Download the show here!

At one point during the podcast, Jack said (in reference to New Super Mario Bros. Wii) that he “could have just found” a secret I was talking about, but he just didn’t WANT to. I challenged him to try finding it after the show and he agreed to give it a shot.

He was unable to locate it.

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What we played: Laura, Jack, and Austin  -{3:55}-

News: Reasons to buy ZombiU, Wii U processor power, Platinum Games responds to criticism, more -{8:05}-

Discussion 1: How to “fix” 2D Mario -{25:00}-

Discussion 2: PS3+Vita can do everything the Wii U can do? (Thanks to Osobari for some insight on this!) -{37:03}-

Discussion 3: Achievements on Wii U? (Thanks to Alex for the idea!) -{43:12}-

Complaint Corner: Wii U Launch Games, People Thinking the SNES is Better Than N64, more -{45:15}-

Guess the Game With the Media I Give You: Image here. Play along at the time specified! -{49:15}-

Top Ten List: Our top 5 games that would translate into really terrible movies. -{54:09}-

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

The simple thing Nintendo did to effectively hold “New” Super Mario Bros. back from ever reaching super stardom.

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Right this very moment, my Wii is sitting in my basement, power on, Super Mario World loaded onto the screen, waiting to be played again whenever I muster the strength to give Forest of Illusion another shot. You see, I’m stuck in the (what I assume to be) infamous area where you cannot go on without uncovering some secret and opening up the next level, crafting your way through the trees and onto the next castle. Please don’t tell me how to do it.

In my break, though, I’ve been pondering quite strongly the differences between this Super Nintendo classic I’m plowing through for the first time and the round of 2D Mario games we’ve seen plop out of Nintendo’s money machine over the last six years. Upon first glance, there’s really not much that stands out as being truly different aside from the graphical downgrade seen in the three entries to the New Super Mario Bros. series that have been released so far, and yet something feels indistinguishably different.

Chalk it up to “atmosphere” if you’d like, chalk it up to music or “heart” or anything else truly intangible– and I’d certainly be hard pressed to disagree with you– but I think the big difference between the two “chunks” of Mario’s 2D history can be boiled down to how memorable it is.

And, well, how memorable it is can be boiled down to how much time you spend with each level.

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