There’s something to be said for article titles that trick people into clicking the link in order to get hits, but whatever that something is, I’m not going to say it in this article because this article is about Zelda and not about the evil and devilish ways the blogging industry makes itself successful. Ah yea, Zelda. A series that last year held its 25th anniversary bash, and as the celebrations continue into 2012 with the touring Zelda symphony, a lot of people are taking advantage of this popularity to write articles that make people upset. The latest in this string of upsetting editorials comes from Kotaku’s Tevis Thompson, who yesterday put out a gem titled “Zelda Just Keeps Getting Worse, But It’s Not Beyond Saving.”

Now, I was linked this article by a friend of mine (who happens to share most of Mr. Thompson’s views on the series), and very very quickly knew I wasn’t particularly interested in finishing a read-through. Somewhere between saying “The original Legend of Zelda is the greatest Zelda” and “Zelda would be better if it had no story”, it was simply clear that this particular article was not meant for my eyes. I mean not to dissuade you from reading it- by all means, here is the link– but frankly… the arguments made within were both incredibly merited and deeply flawed, jumping back and forth quickly enough to give one whiplash. However, that doesn’t mean I didn’t take something from reading it. I took an obnoxious reminder as to what I imagine is the main difficulty with developing Zelda games must be from reading it: the fans.

Tales of the Abyss review

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

Game info:
System: Nintendo 3DS
Genre: RPG
Players: 1
Release Date: November 25, 2011 (EU)/February 14, 2012 (US)
Developer: Namco Bandai
Publisher: Namco Bandai

After the Nintendo DS became a virtual Mecca of fantastic RPGs, it’s strange that the console’s older brother has been around for almost a whole year with barely any games to scratch that role-playing itch. Aside from Atlus’ Devil Survivor: Overclocked, there haven’t been any other RPGs on the 3DS, so thankfully Namco Bandai are finally trying to fill the niche with this recently-released port of Tales of the Abyss. Originally released on the Playstation 2 back in 2006, Tales of the Abyss —part of Namco’s long-running Tales series— told an anime-styled story about “the meaning of birth” and was met with fairly positive reviews. But the PS2 is a completely different system to Nintendo’s handheld console, so does this RPG make the transition to a portable system completely intact?

Review: Mutant Mudds

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

Game: Mutant Mudds
System: 3DS (eShop)
Cost: $8.99
Release Date: January 26, 2012
Developer: Renegade Kid

I haven’t done a game review in a long time. There are a lot of reasons for that, but mostly it boils down to the fact that I normally don’t enjoy trying to sift through everything I feel about a game, stamp a number on it, and then tell you to buy something you may or may not like. Nothing really makes my opinion better than any of your guys’, and it’s taken a while for me to fully realize that. Still, I’m giving reviews another shot anyway, and hopefully I won’t look back on this one with as much regret as I do my Call of Duty: World at War and The Conduit reviews. Those games are not as good I claimed, but I’m pretty sure this next one is.

What game do I have the pleasure of reviewing today? The astonishingly charming platformer, Mutant Mudds.

Talking with Jools Watsham: Mutant Mudds, Dementium 3D, DLC, more…

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

It was nearly eight months ago now I first got to sit down- on a bench outside of the Electronic Entertainment Expo (E3), no less- and play Renegade Kid’s upcoming 2D/3D platformer, Maximillion and the Rise of the Mutant Mudds. There wasn’t a fancy playing station, there weren’t any giant LED screens, and not a single booth babe could be seen; in layman’s terms, all of the flash and glamour of E3 was left indoors with the big budget games, alongside the bells and whistles we’ve come to expect from them. When I played Mudds, the only thing that could force me into enjoyment was the game itself, and much to my delight, it was every bit as fun as I had hoped.

Which is really quite good because believe me, there really isn’t anything more awkward and difficult than telling a developer to his or her face that you don’t like their game.

Fast forward to now, and the game is finally nearing its release date (January 26th, for those unaware!), garnering some much-needed media attention to drum up the hype required for it to sell. Being the good gaming “journalist” I am, I figured it was time for me to do my part, so I sat down with Renegade Kid CEO and co-founder Jools Watsham and forced him to answer some questions in return for my services of marketing his game. Because we at NintendoEverything are nothing but a bunch of sellouts who make absolutely no money. Hit the break for the interview…

In Defense of Party Games; Game Reviewers Are Full Of Sh*t

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

Today was Christmas, and seeing as how I’m a human-being who celebrates and enjoys all of the consumerism and materialistic goodness associated with the day, it was only natural that I would spend some time with my family and friends. I hadn’t planned on playing Just Dance. Heck, I was exhausted from how long the day was, but when I was urged to rekindle my relationship with the game, I just couldn’t resist. I stood up- Wiimote in hand- and danced my ass off to “Viva Las Vegas” and “Girlfriend”. Like every single time I’ve played that game, I came away completely baffled at how anyone could dislike it.

That One Show – A Look “Back” On Skyward Sword

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

I’m always so torn on whether or not to make these longer or shorter… I used to have them this long, then people complained to I made em shorter, and then more people complained so I’ve gone back to having them longer. Help me make up my mind!

Post of the Day: Motion Controls + Zelda = Forever

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

Read today’s PotD here.

Okay, maybe I overexagerrated with the “forever” thing, but I think it’s safe to say that- at least for a next few console entries of the series- we’ll be ‘stuck’ using motion controls to control our favorite hero. The question is: Is this a good thing, or a bad thing? That’s where you guys come in. For those of you that have played Skyward Sword, why do you like/dislike the controls? Do you think they should stay with the series for a while? Let us discuss! (I shall start; see my comment in the comments section)

Post of the Day: What if Miyamoto “retired”? What would YOU want to happen?

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

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

Okay, so by now we’ve all heard the news that Miyamoto is not retiring, changing roles, or pretty much anything that the Wired interview said he was doing. I don’t know what got lost in translation there, but frankly it doesn’t really matter at this point! He’s here to stay… at least for a few years. But, I have a question for all of you: Let’s say Miyamoto did retire/step down/whatever. What would you look for in that situation? Let me go over a few possibilities…

In the case that he steps down, maybe he’d stop work on games like Mario and Zelda in lieu of Pikmin, and other smaller Nintendo franchises. If he did this, I’d really like to see him finish Pikmin 3 firstly, and then go in and really work hard on a new Star Fox game. I mean, seriously, when are we finally going to see another great entry into that fantastic (err… sort of fantastic) franchise? I grew up with it, and by golly, I want to keep growing up with it!

But let’s say he stops working on established franchises altogether, and instead goes for making new IPs with a smaller team. I don’t know about you guys, but what I’d want to see is him delving into some really deep and trippy emotional stuff, like he dabbled in with The Legend of Zelda: Majora’s Mask. That game was so dense and layered and fantastic that I got lost in it within half a second, but it took me years- quite literally- to realize the full depth to which that game went in dealing with the emotional and psychological properties of mortality. It was a great game in its own right, but realizing those subtleties makes Miyamoto’s projects that much better.

Lastly, what if he left Nintendo altogether and just stopped making games? This one is the hardest to predict, but I’d really like to hear your guys’ thoughts on this! You can probably come up with more interesting scenarios than I can anyway…

Post of the Day: New 3DS Update, Anyone?

Posted on 13 years ago by Austin(@NE_Austin) in 3DS, Features | 0 comments

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

Well, despite being delayed once, the 3DS firmware update actually came a couple of days early than expected, giving us 3DS owners plenty of new content to chew on over the coming months. Currently mine is in the process of downloading, and it’s taking its sweet time to do so; I think I’ve had it running for nearly fifteen minutes! I suppose it’s fair, given the amount of content we’re getting, but golly, I didn’t expect to wait this long at all! The big question: What are we all most excited about?

Personally, I think it’s a tie between Find Mii 2 and the stop-motion video creator. I’ve always been a fan of artistic mediums, and I find stop motion to be one of the most entertaining ones to create and share, so the fact that I’ll be able to do it in 3D (albeit with a shoddy camera) is pretty neat. A close second would have to be Find Mii 2, which gives me yet another reason to keep my 3DS in my pocket at all times. Admittedly, I haven’t been even bothering to streetpass since I beat both minigames back in August, so I’m extremely excited to have it passing away again!

Which new features are you most excited for? Have you had the chance to try them out yet? Also, am I the only one who actually enjoys searching for puzzle pieces more than playing Find Mii?

G4 Poll: Zelda vs. Skyrim – How Do You Feel About Gaming Face-Offs?

Posted on 13 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.