General Nintendo

Posted on 16 years ago by Brian(@NE_Brian) in Features, General Nintendo | 22 Comments

Nintendo Power’s moon has stirred up quite a bit of discussion. People have been antsy, waiting in anticipation to find out which title Nintendo Power was referring to in its last issue. The knowledge that the mystery game is a third-party narrows the playing field a bit, yet there are still endless possibilities that lie in store for Nintendo Power’s innocuous moon. Here are a few that could definitely be featured next month, although there are many, many other possibilities…

Castlevania

New iterations in the Castlevania series would be the most likely title(s) to be revealed in next month’s Nintendo Power. The series has always been associated with the moon, vampires, and other dark content. Castlevania: Order of Ecclesia was recently confirmed for the DS and Koji Igarashi hinted at a Wii Castlevania. Nintendo Power also teased readers that they would reveal a “game or two.” Therefore, next month, Nintendo Power might be showing off Order of Ecclesia for the DS and another Castlevania title for Wii.

Harvest Moon

The Wii has seen its fair share of Harvest Moon titles, so another game announcement wouldn’t be completely farfetched. It also doesn’t hurt that “moon” is part of the Harvest Moon title, too. However, Nintendo Power very recently previewed the upcoming Harvest Moon: Tree of Tranquility game for the Wii. Would Natsume really announce another game even though they already have a Harvest Moon title releasing in North America in just a few months?

Platinum Games title

Does that moon in back of the Platinum Games logo seem familiar? It should, since it is nearly identical to Nintendo Power’s moon image. Nintendo Power could be showing off MadWorld, Platinum Games’ extremely mature title or perhaps an unannounced game. After all, Platinum Games confirmed that they do have one additional title in development, though it is unknown which console it will release on.

Planet Moon title

The picture of the moon on the last page of Nintendo Power may have been an indirect hint rather than a clear indication of the game(s) the staff are planning on revealing next issue. It is possible that NP will be revealing a game from Planet Moon, a company that has expressed interest in Wii development? Based on Planet Moon’s history on Wii, a possible game from the company may be more of a casual title. Nonetheless, it could be promising.

Posted on 16 years ago by Brian(@NE_Brian) in General Nintendo, News | 9 Comments

The blood battle between Grand Theft Auto 4 and Ocarina of Time has been comparable to a ping-pong battle, except with some added controversy. Apparently, a review was removed/changed from the reviews aggregator Game Rankings, which caused Ocarina of Time to drop to the position of third best game ever. For now, however, the title is back on top, barely ahead of the two versions of GTA4. The war between Grand Theft Auto 4 and Ocarina of Time is sure to continue on for awhile. Then again, does it really matter considering they’re both great games?

Posted on 16 years ago by Brian(@NE_Brian) in General Nintendo, Rumors | 0 comments

New/renewed trademarks have popped up in Japan recently, two of which include Wario. Trademarks (whether they’re new or just being renewed is unknown) for both WarioWorld and WarioLand have been discovered, which may hint at new games for the DS, Wii, and perhaps, WiiWare. At one point, rumors of four Wario titles in development were made known from a somewhat reliable source and Nintendo does essentially have a third option to release a game because of WiiWare. The last “true” Wario game – Wario: Master of Disguise – was not exactly the best, so a good sequel would be more than deserved.

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Posted on 16 years ago by Brian(@NE_Brian) in General Nintendo, News | 0 comments

One fan has taken the liberty of placing Mario and his brother in a typical Las Vegas setting. Mario must be taking a day off from saving the Mushroom Kingdom, as he has a content grin on his face, a cigarette hanging out of his mouth, and has his chest hair exposed. Certainly not the clean-cut Mario we’re all accustomed to!

Come on, Mario! Get that thing under control!

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Posted on 16 years ago by Brian(@NE_Brian) in General Nintendo, News | 3 Comments

“We feel that games aren’t something to be used as educational tools and from that respect they wanted to create something that was fun to play that was exciting. As far as [we’re] concerned it’s not really a risk because [we’re] creating a fun game.”

It’s great to know that the developers of MadWorld are completely committed to the gaming experience. On the other hand, I do think games can be used for educational purposes if done correctly. Many people have caught on to the Brain Age (and brain games in general) craze, which is a good thing – Gaming needs all the support it can get!

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Posted on 16 years ago by Brian(@NE_Brian) in General Nintendo, News | 1 Comment

“I am working on Beyond Good & Evil 2. We have been in preproduction on the title for a year, and we’re currently doing market research. But for the moment, it’s in the early stages, and Ubisoft still hasn’t agreed to it. We want to be in continuity with the first game, with a big variety of levels, lots of emotion in the gameplay, and characters we care about. This time we are dealing with planet Hillys’ future, and the relationship with animals…” – Michel Ancel, Rayman/Beyond Good and Evil creator

Wow, I’m sure many people will be happy to hear this news – myself included. However, Ubisoft really needs to agree to publish this title for anything extremely positve to come out of this news. Oh, and bringing this to the Wii wouldn’t hurt…

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Posted on 16 years ago by Brian(@NE_Brian) in General Nintendo, News | 1 Comment

For the second year in a row, Nintendo will be the lead sponsor for London’s Handheld Learning Conference. Slated to take place on October 13-15, the conference (now in its fourth year) aims to demonstrate the capabilities of handheld devices and how they affect learning for people of all ages.

“We are proud to be supporting this important event once again and look forward to hearing from the some of the world’s leading thinkers in the field of learning,” said Darren Gorton, Business Development Director for Nintendo. “With over 70 million DS units in peoples hands we are genuinely interested in the positive impact that they can have for self-improvement and collaborative learning.”

Graham Brown-Martin, founder of Handheld Learning, said, “We are delighted to receive such confident support both from government agencies and industry alike. The provision of the Nintendo DS handheld is far from a gimmick as we are encouraging delegates to do the kind of things during the event that are often not allowed in classrooms throughout the world despite the power and possibilities of such devices”.

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Posted on 16 years ago by Brian(@NE_Brian) in General Nintendo, News | 1 Comment

“Casual games have become mainstream in the industry. It’s not just a Japanese phenomenon but also something that’s happening worldwide. There are new markets and possibilities opening up thanks to the trend, which is great. But on the other hand, we shouldn’t forget about the hardcore gamers whose lives are about videogames. The gamers who consider video games a subculture, and enjoy taking their time to sit down and play games that gives them energy and courage. I wanted to remind those gamers about the fun of video games. I know that we’re going against the trend, but we’ve been working hard for the past four years so that the fire [of non-casual games] won’t blow out.” – Hideo Kojima of the MGS series

In a sense, I can definitely see where Kojima is coming from. Developers are hopping on the casual bandwagon, knowing that their title will have a good chance at being successful regardless of the quality. However, there is room in the industry for casual games, and just because these titles are different than to the tastes of the core gamer, they should not be forgotten completely.

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Posted on 16 years ago by Brian(@NE_Brian) in General Nintendo, News | 3 Comments

Tomonobu Itagaki, the creator of Ninja Gaiden, specficially mentioned to Kotaku that he would be interested in something…

“…totally new, completely unrelated to anything I’ve done before. Not any part of any existing franchises. I think the Pacific theater of World War II is a interesting topic. I think it would be cool to work with an American developer and do a game based on the Pacific Theater.”

It is a bit sad to know that Itagaki wants to move on, but at least we’ll be able to see how he can approach an entirely new game/franchise.

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Posted on 16 years ago by Brian(@NE_Brian) in GameCube, General Nintendo, News | 1 Comment

“There is a chance; we love all the games we work on. We don’t want to be pigeon-holed [into a genre], we want to be known for strong content…There’s a strong chance we’ll return to it, but there’s no announcements yet.” – Denis Dyack,Silicon Knights

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