Features

Posted on 13 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.

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Posted on 13 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 13 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 13 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 13 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 13 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 13 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.

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Posted on 13 years ago by Austin(@NE_Austin) in Features, Wii | 0 comments

I propose a caption contest for this image.

See how I did that thing where I named this post something as if it were part of a series that we’ve been doing for a while? That way I can trick people into thinking we have consistent enough features to have series of features and they’ll think we’re more professional. >:}

(You can view today’s “Post of the Day” here.)

Anyway, Skyward Sword comes out in six days, and I don’t think I’ve ever been this excited for a video game to come out before. The closest experience I can recall is the way I felt just before I went to pick up my Wii and Twilight Princess, and then after that the next most excited I’ve been was for The Conduit. We all know how that one worked out.

Clearly a masterpiece.

Now, for a while here I’d been following up on all of the videos, screenshots, and news posts about Skyward Sword. I felt bad for ruining some of the game’s mechanics, but I just couldn’t help myself. Eventually, spoilers went too far and I stopped myself from looking at anything relating to the game, save for a few of the spoiler-free reviews out there, when today I stumbled upon one of the best posts about the game I’ve seen in a long while. The reason for it is simply the thumbnail of Link falling and screaming or something, with a face tagged on that clearly says “IF I COULD TALK I WOULD BE SAYING ‘OH GOD’ RIGHT NOW”. It’s possibly the best picture of seen from the game, and just from that we can really see a couple of things:

First off, facial animations have gotten exponentially better since Twilight Princess. I know we sort of already knew this, but the amount of personality we see in such a goofy freeze-frame is wonderful, and I sincerely hope that this level of brilliance carries throughout the game. Secondly, anything with a character named “Groose” gets a 10/10 from me, especially if he’s always up to some silly antics. THIS GAME WILL BE THE BEST. Maybe. Does anyone here actually believe that Skyward Sword will truly be the best Zelda game? If it is, that means I’ll also consider it the best game of all time. That’s not something to be taken lightly at all…

Posted on 13 years ago by Austin(@NE_Austin) in Features, General Nintendo | 0 comments

As I sit down to write a feature that I’m sure will be simultaneously received as a decent piece of gaming “journalism” and a terrible rant perpetrated by none other than the king of Nintendo fanboys himself, I can’t help but feel as though much of what will be said in response to this is rather unimportant. Not to downplay the significance of feedback, because the vastness with which I appreciate it should never go unnoticed by all of you, but in light of the subject I’m going to be writing about from the true depths of my being, I ask if you all could forgo judgement and angry comments in lieu of positive discussion or civil disagreement.

That being said, I really think that someone bringing this subject to bear is long overdue, and while I’m certain I’m not the first to do it, I do hope that I can add a worthwhile two cents to the conversation, and get even more people talking. After all, video games are an art, and whether tradition-friendly die-hards want to agree with me or not, it is safe to say that the The Legend of Zelda stands high and mighty as the king of all this artistic benevolence.

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Posted on 13 years ago by Austin(@NE_Austin) in Features, General Nintendo | 0 comments

Oh man, it was quite a long road to get this totally edited and done, but it’s completed and uploaded and everything is good. Woofta.

Still a lot of technical things to be worked out with using all of the crazy new nonsense, but I’d say we did okay for a first episode!

~Austin