• 3Apr 08

  Quickie Virtual Console Reviews

  I've now had my Wii for a little over 4 months, and I have to say I love this little console. Without doubt, no console has brought me this much entertainment since the original Playstation. And one of the things I've especially enjoyed is the Virtual Console. It's given me a chance to go back to a bunch of old game that I miss playing or just missed out on. So I thought I'd give a quick rundown of all the titles I've download and offer a thought or two on each.

  Milon's Secret Castle (NES) - Mind-bending frustratingly hard, but not actually a bad game if you can handle the pain. A FAQ or hint sheet is required to have fun with it though. Grade: C

  Ordyne (TG16) - Utterly boring. Generally I like cute'em ups, so I though I'd check this out. It's not necessarily bad, just boring and bland. There's not a single aspect of this game that makes it stand out. Grade: D

  Super Castlevania IV (SNES) - Awesome. Still one of the best pure action games ever. Great controls, great music, and great level design. No real replay incentives aside from the quality of the action though. Grade: A-

  Super Mario World (SNES) - The definitive 2-D Mario. Save your breath telling me how good SMB3 is. World has always been my favorite and it's as perfectly balanced as ever. A must own. Grade: A

  Sim City (SNES) - Not as good as the PC version but there's still plenty of value to be had here. It's classic Sim City fun with a few neat little SNES bonuses thrown in. Grade B-

  Yoshi's Story (N64) - It was fun the first time I played it 10 years ago, but not any more. It was never hard, and really just nothing more than a cute game. I should be more fun. Maybe I'm just old and bitter? Grade: C-

  Harvest Moon (SNES) - Amazingly this game is as good today as it was 10 years ago. It doesn't have the all the bells and whistles of later games in the series, but the core gameplay of balancing social life with farming is still here. Grade: B+

  Lord of Thunder (TG16) - I missed this one back in the day, and wow!!! This is an amazing shooter. Exactly what the genre should be. Great soundtrack too. Frustrating that we don't have a modern remake of this. Grade: A

  Super Street Fighter II (SNES) - In 1994 I worshipped this game. Sadly nostalgia isn't enough to keep this game good. It just hasn't aged well in regards to either graphics or controls. Plenty of better 2-D fighters out there. Grade: D+

  Pokemon Snap (N64) - It's criminal that a game this original has never had a sequel. It's short and not real hard, but it's also pure fun. Highly recommend this game if you never played it before. Grade: A-

  Solomon's Key (NES) - Like all good puzzle games, this one will drive you almost to the point of madness before you figure out how to beat each new level. Still it leans towards being impossible almost too often. Grade: B

  • Posted Apr 3, 2008 6:08 am PT
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• 24Mar 08

  Fond Memories of Street Fighter II (and the bloody fists that ensued)

  The very first time I heard about Street Fighter II, it was in my Freshman homeroom class, and my first thought was "how come I never heard about Street Fighter I?" However, after listening to some friends talk about it, it seemed pretty cool. Lord knows they were as passionate about it as any game I had ever heard of. But I rarely went to arcades so I didn't think about it much until a few months later during my summer vacation when I finally saw a unit in an arcade I was hanging out in.

  There was a massive group of guys gathered around it, but there were so many people crowded around I couldn't even see the screen. However over in the corner I saw a regular old Street Fighter. As a logical gamer my first thought was, "I really should play the older one first so I know what's going on." However this was one of those Street Fighters that didn't have buttons. It had the punch pads, that you had to slam your fist on to make the character throw a punch or kick.

  There was a problem with this. The "punch" punch pad had it's cover torn off with some of the metal poking out from the bottom. After punching a few times I ended up slashing the hell out of my hand and was bleeding fairly bad. I had enough of that game, and pretty much considered Street Fighter and all of it's predecessors to be trash, based on this experience.

  However I was corrected by several friends who explained that the current SFII was nothing like the original and if they didn't share the same name you likely would have no idea they were related. That summer I found a few empty arcade units once Championship Edition was introduced into the arcades, but it wasn't until I got my SNES and SFII along with it that I finally started to figure out the game. And yeah, I was hooked. . . however I completely sucked.

  The first character I ever beat the game with was E. Honda. And it took me 66 continues to do it (30 of which alone were used on the bastard Sagat). In time though I got decent, but was never really one of those dominant fighters. That's fine though. I never really cared about being number 1. Just let me have fun. That's why Super Street Figher II was always my favorite.

  That game it was just a ton of unique characters, great music, cool background. Aesthetically it was the total package. Even Ken and Ryu were no longer clones. Sure it lacked balance but who gives a damn when you could play as a claw diving Vega or a rastafarian who didn't have a single decent move of his own?

  Anyway, damn good series and as I said SSFII was always the best of it. Granted when Alpha came out that pretty much blew SFII out of the water in my book, but as far as console fighters went in highschool, this game was untouchable.

  • Posted Mar 24, 2008 9:58 am PT
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• 17Mar 08

  The Brawl Effect: A Marketing Guy's Viewpoint

  There seems to be a lot of panic for some Wii owners about how Nintendo doesn't have anything left to put on the Wii once Kart is out. People can argue all the time how Nintendo only focuses on the casual market now, and lord knows there's ample evidence to support that theory. However, SSB:Brawl has become a freaking Juggernaut (that's the word of the day), and my guess is it's even exceeding Nintendo's expectations. Now you can accuse Nintendo of a whole lot of things, but one of them is knowing how to jump on an opportunity when it comes to their own franchises.

  With the uber success of Brawl (approx 3 million already sold world wide, and I expect no less than 10 million copies will be sold when all is done and said), they've managed to put a whole lot of eyeballs on their second string characters. This is the perfect launching pad for games for a lot of these characters, and any company that would let that opportunity pass by doesn't deserve to be in business. Ultimately, every character that showed up in Brawl should show up at least once more on the Wii. After exposure from Brawl it would just be leaving money on the table. Hell, I wouldn't be shocked to see another Metal Gear on the Wii at this point either. Konami can't ignore how many Nintendo fans are enjoying playing as Snake.

  So here's a quick list of characters from Brawl who haven't shown up on the Wii yet, and why they'll be showing up sooner than later.

  Captain Falcon - F-Zero for the Wii is inevitable. Nintendo won't stop making the series now. But it can't come out too close to Kart otherwise it'll be ignored. This is either showing up in the holidays or first half of 2009.

  Fox and Crew - Like the Kirby cast, these guys always show up on Nintendo's main console. It's been a while since they had a great game, (though to be honest I never liked any of them), but they still have their following. They'll be showing up soon, so no need to doubt this one.

  Ice Climbers - I'm still surprised as hell they didn't get a Gamecube game. I guess they were just a little too lame. So since there was no GC game, adn they didn't have too much of a role in Brawl, I'd just leave them on ice *rimshot*.

  Kirby, King Dedede, Meta Knight - These guys have been thriving pretty well on the DS, which isn't surprising since the series was originally started on the Gameboy. Kirby always makes it to the consoles though so it's a given he'll show on the Wii.

  Mr. Game & Watch - God no. Just. . . no.

  Ness, Lucas - In the Subspace story mode, these two were actually very prominantly featured. I don't know how Mother 3 did in Japan, but it's fair to say that Nintendo is leaving money on the table by not rebooting this series worldwide on the Wii or at least on the DS. Find a way to put both of these characters in the game and you'll sell half a million copies between the rabid Earthbound fans, starved Wii RPG fans, and girls who just thought Lucas was cute.

  Olimar - Pikimin didn't catch on as much as Nintendo probably hoped, but it's done well enough to justify Pikimin 3. I think the game would lend itself very well to Wiimote controls so I actually expect this to be the best in the series so far. It'll happen, possibly this year, but I do think Nintendo is taking extra care of the franchise this go around.

  Pit - Pit's been hyped since the game was announced. If there's anyone destined to have their legacy revived it's him.

  R.O.B. - I wouldn't be entirely shocked to see Nintendo try to make some kind of mini-game collection based around him as a character. He's popped up F-Zero GX, Mario Kart DS and now Brawl. Each time with a bigger role. Someone at Nintendo thinks he's worth keeping around.

  Zelda - The early concept art for Twilight Princess suggested that Zelda would make an appearance again as Sheik. It didn't happen, but she still showed up that way in Brawl. I could easily see Zelda getting her own solo game in the near future where she switches between the characters in a similiar way as Link did with the Wolf form in order to solve puzzles, etc. In fact, I think a stealth game would work extremely well in this regard.

  Zero Suit Samus - Sure it was probably just a way to insert a little sex appeal into the game, but Zero-Suit Samus was a solid character all the way around. Now that Retro is finished with Metroid it's likely we'll see a new take on the series (hopefully going back to more of the 2-D style of gameplay). Corruption sales were on the low side, but the series still has a ton of value. An entire game of Samus sans armor (or very limited use of it) could be a solid way to reboot the series.

  • Posted Mar 17, 2008 9:06 am PT
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