Posted on 8 years ago by Brian(@NE_Brian) in GameCube, General Nintendo, Videos, Wii U | 1 Comment

EVO 2015 is now in its second day. Super Smash Bros. for Wii U semi-finals are beginning right now. Melee semi-finals will also be held today, though that will be happening at 5 PM ET / 2 PM PT.

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Posted on 8 years ago by Brian(@NE_Brian) in GameCube, General Nintendo, Videos, Wii U | 0 comments

EVO 2015 has officially kicked off. If you’re interested in watching the first day of matches – which includes Super Smash Bros. for Wii U and Melee – head past the break.

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Posted on 8 years ago by Brian(@NE_Brian) in GameCube, News | 21 Comments

Project X Zone 2 director Kensuke Tsukanaka, speaking with Siliconera, explained why Baten Kaitos isn’t represented in the games. Monolith Soft developed Baten Kaitos and its sequel along with the Project X Zone titles.

Tsukanaka was also asked if we’ll ever see Baten Kaitos again, even if it’s outside of Project X Zone.

Here’s what Siliconera was told:

“So, do you remember that KOS-MOS and T-elos, from Xenosaga, were in the first Project X Zone game? We didn’t include them just because Monolith Soft was developing Project X Zone, we put them in there because there were so many fans of their games on the team, and that they happened to make sense for the world of the game.

“The reason there’s not Baten Kaitos characters in the story is because they just didn’t seem to fit in anywhere. As for [Baten Kaitos] itself outside of Project X Zone, well, I can’t really say much about that yet, but I think we need some substantial feedback from fans before moving forward with a project like that. What do they want to see from it? What platform do they want to see it on? If we can gather more voices for Baten Kaitos, then maybe we can start something with Bandai Namco Entertainment. That’s about all I can say right now!”

I honestly never thought I’d be writing about Baten Kaitos in a news post. I have so much love for the first game, though I’m ashamed to say that its sequel is sitting in my never-ending backlog. I’d be a massive supporter of a third Baten Kaitos!

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More: Baten Kaitos, interview, Kensuke Tsukanaka, Project X Zone, top

Posted on 8 years ago by Brian(@NE_Brian) in GameCube, General Nintendo, News, Wii U | 1 Comment

The full tournament schedule is in for EVO 2015.

Various battles in Super Smash Bros. for Wii U and Melee will be taking place at various hours on July 17. Quarterfinals for both titles will be held later in the day.

On July 18, semifinals are planned for Smash Bros. Wii U and Melee, with the former title’s finals being held on the same day. Melee’s finals are set for July 19 – the last day of EVO 2015.

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Posted on 8 years ago by Brian(@NE_Brian) in GameCube, News, Wii | 103 Comments

The latest episode of IGN’s Podcast Unlocked features an interview with former Microsoft executive Peter Moore and Xbox boss Phil Spencer. At one point of the podcast, they reflected on the launch of the Xbox 360. Moore noted that Microsoft “completely discounted Nintendo” when bringing out the console due to the performance of the GameCube.

Here’s a roundup of everything that was mentioned:

“I also then remember the E3 when, God bless, Kaz Hirai and Jack Tretton announced $599, and we were all back stage like ‘Woohoo!’ We knew then we had an opportunity to get ahead, drive ahead, get our games out quickly and get that lead. And I always said that the first to 10 million wins.” – Moore

“It was one of the greatest times of my career. You had to build a team, because we were growing then. We had prematurely put the Xbox to sleep, we needed to get ready for this and we knew what we needed to do. We had a three-day meeting at the Sheraton in Bellevue where we wargamed the scenario, and I actually played Ken Kutaragi. And we brought in a consultancy, it was a lot of fun. And the one thing we’d forgotten about, I don’t know if you remember this Phil [Spencer], we completely discounted Nintendo. Because they came off the GameCube and it was a disaster.” – Moore

“…and they destroyed both of us!” – Spencer

“Yes, with the Wii. But we wargamed for three days, what are you going to do, what do the launch titles look like, what are the marketing budgets, what is the positioning? And it was a fascinating experience which I’ll never forget. And this is a decade ago. And I actually played Ken, and my job was to destroy the launch of the Xbox 360.” – Moore

Of course, you can’t really bank on anything these days! Although the GameCube was far from Nintendo’s most-successful console, we all know what happened with Wii.

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Posted on 8 years ago by Brian(@NE_Brian) in 3DS, GameCube, Videos, Wii, Wii U | 0 comments

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Posted on 8 years ago by Patrick(@Patricklous) in 3DS, Features, Game of the Month, GameCube, Wii | 17 Comments

The last time I played through Xenoblade Chronicles was just after its European release in 2011, so I’ll let the other staff writers with fresher memories of it handle the actual game of the month. Instead, I’d like to take a not-so-brief look back at the history of the game’s developer, Monolith Soft, and the games they developed prior to Xenoblade. There are plenty of recurring themes, gameplay elements and staff involved, so let’s see how almost a decade of developing RPGs shaped this robot-slaying, god-climbing adventure.

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More: Baten Kaitos, highlight, Monolith Soft, Project X Zone, top, Xenoblade, Xenosaga

Posted on 8 years ago by Brian(@NE_Brian) in GameCube, News, Videos | 0 comments

In Metroid Prime’s original GameCube version, players can unlock the original Metroid by connecting a GBA system. We’ve heard rumors about Retro Studios planning something similar with Super Metroid, but that’s only just now been confirmed.

It turns out that Retro did indeed have Super Metroid up and running. Sadly though, Nintendo wouldn’t allow for its inclusion since it was using a third-party emulator. That does make some sense, as it wasn’t a tool that the company personally owned.

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Posted on 9 years ago by Brian(@NE_Brian) in GameCube, Videos | 19 Comments

Perfect Dark Zero ended up on the Xbox 360, but that wasn’t always the plan. Rare was initially developing the title for GameCube before Nintendo sold off the studio to Microsoft.

Unseen64 shared a video today that shows concept art from a prototype Perfect Dark Zero build via an art gallery. It gives us a look at the different sort of art style Rare was originally toying around with during the GameCube era – something more cartoony and Japanese manga-inspired at one point. Take a look at the video below.

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Posted on 9 years ago by Patrick(@Patricklous) in Features, Game of the Month, GameCube, Wii U, Wii U eShop | 10 Comments

It’s safe to say that Mario Kart 8 takes more than a few cues from F-Zero. Nintendo’s other racing franchise that started out on the SNES gets comparatively little love nowadays, but several features from this series have worked their way into the latest Mario Kart. The new racetracks are the most obvious influence, with gravity-defying courses that are straight out of F-Zero (quite literally in the case of some of the DLC), but the new 200cc class brings Mario Kart’s speed just a little bit closer to its older brother. Heck, you can even play as a Mii approximation of Captain Falcon if you can track down his elusive amiibo. But for all the inspiration that Mario Kart 8 takes from F-Zero, the two series remain distinctly different. Some people are claiming that Mario Kart is now an adequate replacement for the currently MIA F-Zero (and by some people I mean just one guy on Neogaf), but taking a look at the design philosophy behind both titles shows that they’re completely at odds with each other.

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