Features

Posted on 14 years ago by Austin(@NE_Austin) in Features, Site updates | 0 comments

Update: Game Night is now over!

Goodness gracious, I have had a busy day! From getting stranded outside in the cold to missing 4 buses in a row to get home and breaking all the zippers on my laptop bag! I think the one thing I need right now is to sit down on a comfy couch and play some video games with you cool cats. That’s why we have game night, right?

Game(s): Call of Duty: Black Ops (Wii), possibly some Mario Kart or another game if you don’t have Black Ops.
Time: 7PM EST, 4PM PST (about 1 hour from when this is posted)

If you’re going to play, it’d be super helpful if you could post your codes here instead of in the IRC, but don’t sweat it if you can’t do it until later. Thanks a bunch, guys!

~Austin

Posted on 14 years ago by Austin(@NE_Austin) in General Nintendo, Reviews, Videos | 0 comments

Dear whomever reads this,

You are hereby chosen. Chosen for what, you ask? Chosen to be the guinea pig for my new video style episodic thing nonsense. This means you must watch, and you must analyze the video above, and then comment down below regarding what you thought of it. Consider it a weekly video podcast of sorts, and pay no mind to the shoddy quality of jokes and dialogue; the style is what I’m curious about! I appreciate the feedback, guys!

~Austin

Posted on 14 years ago by Brian(@NE_Brian) in 3DS, Features, Wii | 13 Comments

Recently, I was listening to an episode of IGN’s Game Scoop podcast. On there, ex-Nintendo editor in chief Craig Harris made an interesting comment that got me thinking. During a discussion about the PlayStation Move’s “modest” debut, Harris brought up how, while everyone is playing catch-up with motion gaming, Nintendo isn’t focusing on that element anymore. The examples he used included nearly all of Nintendo’s major releases for the holiday season, which are mostly traditional games with no special use of the motion controller. Donkey Kong Country Returns, Kirby’s Epic Yarn, and GoldenEye are those titles.

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Posted on 14 years ago by Austin(@NE_Austin) in Features | 0 comments

Update: Game Night is now over!

Join up with us for more Goldeneye this week! Hop in the IRC, have your friend code ready, and we’ll be good to go. Enjoy your night!

Posted on 14 years ago by Austin(@NE_Austin) in Reviews, Wii | 5 Comments

Game Info:

System: Nintendo Wii
Category: First-person shooter
Players: 4 player split-screen, 8 player online
Developer: Eurocom
Publisher: Activision

I’m in a rather unique position as a reviewer of Goldeneye right now: I’ve never actually had the joy of experiencing the single player campaign of the original 1997 title, and I certainly never saw the 1995 movie that goes along with it. Because of that, I feel like I almost have a special perspective on this re-imagining of that classic N64 title that not many people get, but playing through this game has convinced me that perhaps I should go back and give the original game a shot, if only to understand where this sequel came from and what has changed since then.

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Posted on 14 years ago by Brian(@NE_Brian) in Reviews, Wii | 7 Comments

Game Info:

System: Nintendo Wii
Category: Platformer
Players: 1
Developer: Dimps, Sonic Team
Publisher: Sega

It goes without saying that most modern Sonic games haven’t exactly been great. After the hedgehog made the jump from two dimensions to three, he’s been stuck in a downward spiral filled with annoying animal friends, werehogs, and bizarre interspecies romances. Sonic needed a return to his glory days, and who better to attempt this than the developers of the surprisingly good Sonic Rush and the Sonic Advance series, Dimps. With Sonic 4, Dimps were tasked with creating a Sonic game that would both bring back fond memories of Sonic Team’s early games on the Sega Genesis and Mega Drive, still be an entertaining 2D platformer, and please Sonic’s unappeasable fanbase. Did they manage to pull off all of these things? No, not really.

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Posted on 14 years ago by Austin(@NE_Austin) in Features | 3 Comments

Note: The following feature was written entirely by Adrian Madriz, one of our Goldeneye 007 contest winners.

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I seriously think that my physical copy of GoldenEye 64 was cursed.

Not cursed in a bad way mind you. It actually turned out to be quite handy on certain occasions. But there was no denying between me and my friends that there were some seriously strange and spooky things that happened around that game cartridge—things that might be explained by coincidence… or maybe demons?

Anyway, some context for your curious eyes. I bought my copy of GoldenEye in conjunction with my (then) best friend Giovanni. He payed for one half of the game, and I the other half. This would later turn out to be a decision that would lead to the end of our friendship as we simply couldn’t decide who was the “true” owner of the game. Petty I know, but this was no small matter. This was GoldenEye. And not just any copy of GoldenEye, the copy of GoldenEye that anyone would pay 10 times the amount that we paid for if they knew what it could do.

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Posted on 14 years ago by Austin(@NE_Austin) in Features | 0 comments

Just a quick note: Game night tonight will be at 7PM Central (5 minutes from now) rather than 6PM as I said on Thursday. We are still playing Goldeneye, so grab your copies and join the IRC when it gets posted in an hour!

Look forward to seeing you there!

Posted on 14 years ago by Austin(@NE_Austin) in Features, News | 6 Comments

Junction Point talks game length, choice mechanics, and the future of the series in our ‘Epic Mickey’ interview with them.

Last night, we posted up an interview regarding the upcoming game Okamiden for everyone to read, and tonight I’m excited to get back on the interview train with a game that is coming out a little sooner than that one! About a month ago I got an e-mail asking if I wanted to have an interview with some of the guys working on Epic Mickey, and I was ecstatic! Needless to say, I accepted right away, and posted up about it on the site for all of you to give us some questions!

Of course, being the fantastic readers you are, you gave us some things to ask about, and we sent em off. Well, now we’ve got our answers and we’re very excited to let you all read over them. There’s some pretty good info in here, so I encourage you to take a peek.

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Posted on 14 years ago by Brian(@NE_Brian) in 3DS, DS, Features | 6 Comments

My experience with Okami is a somewhat odd story. Of course, I was aware of the title’s existence when Capcom was readying the game for the PlayStation 2. I knew it played like Zelda, and I knew that it had a unique art style. That was pretty much it, though. For one reason or another, I just wasn’t keeping much of an eye on it.

Fast forward about a year later, and we heard that Ready at Dawn was porting the game to Wii. I started to become a bit more interested in the title due to the the fan excitement surrounding the controls, but I still wasn’t completely sold. Following the game’s release on Wii, I decided I might as well take the plunge. After all, it would be just like Zelda, right?

And boy, was I floored. Immediately I was captured by the game’s incredible graphics and story. I felt that the characters were fascinating, the musical pieces were melodious, and the gameplay was indeed similar to Zelda, which I absolutely love. Sure, the two franchises aren’t exactly the same, but there are a number of gameplay similarities. I remember being quite disappointed when I finished Okami – I thought there’d be no possible way we would ever see a sequel. After all, Clover was gone, and the sales for both the PS2 and Wii versions were underwhelming.

Well, I was in for a shock once more when Famitsu finally unveiled Okamiden last year. My jaw almost hit the floor when I saw the first screenshots of the DS title – it looked remarkably comparable to Okami on the PS2/Wii. It feels odd that the title is already out in Japan – I almost can’t believe it’s real. Unfortunately, fans in North America and Europe will be forced to wait until March 2011 to get their hands on the game. It’s going to be long wait, but hopefully our interview we recently conducted with Capcom Product Marketing Manager Eric Monacelli will hold you over until then!

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