Nintendo Everything news: A new contributor, Wii Fit Plus review, and a contest

It’s been awhile since we’ve had a dedicated post for Nintendo Everything updates, hasn’t it? But now I actually have some pretty exciting news to share!

Some of you may know of Jason Tanner. He’s become a fairly regular commentator on the site over the past few months, so the name might be recognizable. Jason and I have been talking over the past few days and we were able to work out an agreement that will provide a huge boost for original content on the site. Basically, Jason will be handling a number of our reviews and also (in what will be a first for NE), interviews with developers.

This is something that I’m happy we could work out, mainly because we’ve been lacking in the features department as of late. But with Jason’s additions, we’re going to have all of our bases covered. I’ll still be covering news while reviewing some games/working on other features here and there, Austin will be our middleman with a mixture of news/reviews/articles, and Jason will only be handling reviews/interviews. Basically, you’re going to see the amount of content here go way up!

Jason has actually written a little blurb for you guys, which explains how he initially found interest in gaming. We’ve posted it after the break, but first I wanted to fill you all in on some other news.

We’re going to begin hosting a number of Scribblenauts contests in the near future. Details will be posted tomorrow, but I think that it’ll be a great way to promote more of a community aspect on the site. I don’t want to give much away for now, but I hope you check back in to see what it’s all about!

Last but not least (I’m sorry this is going on so long!), Jason’s first review will be going up later tonight. He’s been playing through Wii Fit Plus and has compiled his thoughts into one lovely post for you guys. Jason actually has a slightly different review structure than Austin and I employ, but I think it works quite well. You can read all about it after the break!

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Hello Nintendo Everything readers!

I’m Jason, the new contributor to the site and I just wanted to take this time to introduce myself to all of you and tell you a little bit about me so you can better understand where I came from as a gamer and how I write the reviews that you will be reading here in the very near future. But first, let me give you some of my history and allow me to establish my credentials as both a gamer and writer.

The Atari 2600 and Nintendo Entertainment System

I grew up on Atari 2600 through a surrogate owner; and from the first time my 5 year old hands held that joystick and pressed the red button in1983, I became a life-long gamer. After Atari, my parents purchased me and my sister our first console during the Christmas of 88′. It was a NES and it enveloped my fifth grade imagination completely.

Genesis and Super Nintendo

Onward to the 16-bit era. In 1993 I was a freshman in high school. I never did get that Turbo-Grafx 16 with Keith Courage that I wanted so badly, but I did manage to get my hands on a Sega Genesis and later; the Super Nintendo, which I purchased with money I had saved from my paper route. It was during this time that I would frequent a local arcade and become involved with competitive gaming. The game? Street Fighter II. It was also there at that same arcade I first beheld the glorious Neo Geo. For the next year or so I would fantasize about owning one of these $500.00 miracle machines non-stop whilst lusting over them in my E.G.M. magazines.

Sony Playstation and N64

It’s now the autumn of 1997. I’m in my first year of Community College as a music major and the Sony Playstation was in full force. During the next few months I would log more hours into Final Fantasy VII then I would my homework. After a year of C.C. an older friend of mine will convince me that I would make a great salesman and soon after that I did; as a car salesman at a local dealership. There, I spent my days helping people find their next vehicle, and my nights with three of my closest friends and a Nintendo 64 with 007 Golden Eye and WCW Vs. NWO: World Tour.

Gamecube

The year is now 2002, I’ve already moved away from home to a much bigger city and have been there for three years. In that time I’ve become disillusioned with car sales after my experience at a big name dealership in my new city. I am now working under two of my new best friends as a shift manager at a Taco Bell. During my time at Taco Bill I will become completely fluent in Spanish and meet the woman that I would eventually marry three and a half years later. But I’m getting a bit ahead of myself. It’s still 02′ and the Nintendo Gamecube has just dropped in price and I have just dropped $150.00 at Gamestop for my ticket into the next-gen gaming era. At this point I’m living in a nicely sized duplex along with the two best friends that I work with; it’s within the next two years that we will experience some of the most fun gaming of our lives together.

PC Gaming and Emulators

Now fast forward to the summer of 2004; my friend and I have all moved on in our professional lives and apart from each other; as we have all left the duplex we had once occupied and now live in our own apartments. One friend is married and the other is dating the girl that he will be married to within two years time.

I have now sold all of the consoles that I had accrued up until this point (which was all of the Nintendo consoles and many, many rare and hard to find games) in order to help fund the building of a new and more powerful computer. After I had discovered the world of emulators and roms, it seemed more logical to build a computer easily capable of running all of these games from one machine and in a higher resolution to boot. This decision would open the door for me to virtually own the console that I had been dreaming about many years earlier; The Neo Geo. In time I obtained all of its games that had left such a strong impression on me as a kid. Samurai Showdown, King Of Fighters and Metal Slug would be just a few of the many SNK games that I would come to play endlessly.  I also hunted down and played all of the rare gems from the consoles that I had previously owned as well.

Soon after building my new computer I would go headlong into the world of PC gaming where I will fall in love with what has been labeled “the best game of all time” : Half-Life 2.

Nintendo Wii

This brings us to the autumn of 2008. Upon playing Mario Kart Wii at a local Best Buy, my wife indicates her interest in us purchasing a Nintendo Wii. I am stunned to hear this as my wife has never been interested in video games. I quickly realize that this would be a great opportunity for me to be able to include her one of my favorite past times. But at this time the Wii is quite scarce; only those you were willing to pay a bit extra for it would be able to obtain one, I would be among the willing. Shortly thereafter I order my Wii from a seller on Amazon for a little bit over $300.00, and from the time my  index finger completes the last click of the transaction until its arrival from UPS, I feel a forgotten anxiousness building up in me as the days pass.

It’s been several days since the purchase of my Nintendo Wii and it’s 10:15 a.m. on a Saturday morning when I hear a loud knock at the door. I jump out of bed and answer the door to find my Wii is finally here. After frantically confirming the delivery with a digital scribble, I then close the door and bring it into my bedroom. My hands quickly open the box to reveal the Nintendo Wii logo, in that moment there is a blinding flash of light. As the light fades and I begin to open my eyes again, I see that I’ve been transported back through time to the Christmas of 1988. As I stand there smiling, seeing the excitement in the eyes of a young ten year old unwrapping his first video game console, I realize the cycle is complete.

Well I hope you’ve enjoyed this abridged tour of my gaming life. Next I would like to briefly explain my game review format and rating system

Review Format:

[Game Info]: Here I go over the basic info of a reviewed title; Genre, Video and Audio info as well as date of availability and the games verdict.

[Game Summary]: Basic premise and description of the title in review.

[Likes]: I list the and explain the most prominent and attractive aspects of the game.

[Dislikes]: I think you get the idea.

[Developers Notes]: This is where I list my ideas on what could make the game and perhaps its subsequent sequels a more enjoyable gaming experience.

[The Verdict]: The game is rated and the rating is then explained in my summary of the reviewed game.

The Rating System:

My scoring system is simple and designed to quickly inform readers of what they ultimately want to know about the game they’re reading the review about and that is; “Do I buy this game or not?”. With my system, there’s no number scores, letter grades or star amounts that need to be interpreted or deciphered in order to know whether or not a title is “Worth Owning”, “Worth Playing” or simply “Not Worth it”.

Well that’s it! I apologize for being slightly long winded. I do look forward to serving all you some well written game reviews and reading your thoughts and comments on them.