Happy 25th, NES!

That’s right, 25 years ago today, the Nintendo Entertainment System transformed the world, saving the ailing video game industry in the process.  Starting on this day 25 years ago, children (and adults) were treated to Mario, Zelda, Kirby, Mega Man, Metroid, and countless other franchises that have since exploded in popularity.

There’s nothing really special about this post.  Just wanted to pay homage to a system that will forever go down as one of the most important pieces of history in the world.  Can you believe a third of households had an NES?  So awesome.

Thank you, NES, for changing all of our lives for the better.  May your offspring provide us with more hours of fun, more characters to love, and fewer insanely hard games that don’t work unless you blow on the cartridge.

-benjamines

(btw, there’s a rumor that the spectacular 25th anniversary DSi XL will indeed be coming to the US.  Here’s hoping the Mario Collection [Mario All-Stars for Wii, more or less] gets here, too!)

3DS is go!

I know it’s N64 week month, but there is some big news that you need to hear!

At Nintendo’s Press Conference that happened just now, they announced that the Nintendo 3DS will release on February 25th in Japan, for 25,000 yen (about $300).  It will launch in the US and Europe in March.  If I had to guess I’d say it’ll be $250 for the US.  Hopefully, anyways.

The launch colors (for Japan, anyway) are Aqua blue and Cosmo black.  I was hoping for Red, so I might have to exercise some serious self-control to wait for that one.  Although, they haven’t announced the colors for North America yet, so we’ll see.

When the system launches, they will have GameBoy and GBA games for Virtual Console!  Hooray!  They are also making many classic games in 3D, possibly even Link’s Awakening, the best Zelda game ever!!  So cool!

Here are some other cool features!  It will include a Mii Creation Studio to create and probably import Miis.  In fact, you can use the built-in camera to take a picture of your face, and the studio makes a Mii for you!  Holy crap, that’s amazing!  You can also download the Mii data (in the form of a QR code) to an SD card to post it on a website.  From there, other users can scan the image with their own 3DS to import your Mii.  Holy awesomeness!

The new and improved Tag Mode lets multiple games keep small pieces of data ready for when someone passes by.  For example, in Animal Crossing, you could send anonymous letters and gifts to people as they pass by you in real life.  This all happens while the system is in sleep mode.  Cool stuff!  All 3DS games will potentially have Tag Mode options.  Also, the system will automatically download data such as leaderboards, ghost data, and updates, all while in sleep mode.

There will be a variety of Augmented Reality games for the 3DS.  Basically, it uses the images from the cameras and adds objects to the screen that move as you do.  Also, you can take 3D pictures with the camera.  That is so awesome!

There are hints that the system has a built-in pedometer that tracks your steps.  That means I can stop carrying around my regular pedometer.  Its 0.1 ounces are SO HEAVY!!

The system will come packed in with a 2GB SD card.  That’s sweet!  Although, I’ll probably get a bigger one eventually.  Still cool, though!

Some of the games include Ocarina of Time, Starfox 64, Pilotwings Resort, and many others.  No words on release dates or prices on games yet.

So there you go!  Here’s hoping it’s no more than $250, and that it comes in Red at launch!  We love you, Nintendo!

-benjamines

Still?

That's right, folks!  N64 week has been extended to N64 two-week!  I didn't have enough time to play all the awesome games I wanted to last week (plus I was super lazy).

So... go play some more awesome N64 games, ya dinguses!

-benjamines

More 64!

I’m feeling lazy today (what’s new, right?), so here’s my post:

Smash Bros. for the N64 is freaking amazing.  Even now, it holds up as a fantastic title.  And, as it turns out, I’ve played it for approximately 250-300 hours.  That’s hot.  Btw, if you want to see the original commercial for the game, click here.

Excitebike 64 is also an amazing game, and one that is surprisingly not available on Virtual Console.  It’s disappointing, really, because that game is so insanely fun.  Plus, I beat the Hill Climb in 1:41.  Suck on that!

Anyways, stay tuned for hopefully a few more posts this week.  Then, I may or may not go back to posting sporadically.  And of course, by that I mean not at all.

-benjamines

Review: WaveRace 64

You might find it strange that it would take me this long to post a review for a game that has been out for some 10-15 years, in addition to it being one of the most popular for the N64.  Well, believe it or not, I didn’t own this game until a year or two ago, and I just got around to it.  So get off my back!!

Just kidding.  Anyways, I just finished the delightful WaveRace 64.  As you may have surmised, it’s a jet-ski racing game for the Nintendo 64.  It also sold nearly 3 million copies worldwide, so it was a pretty big hit.

In any case, the game is a simple, yet fun racing game.  You pick a vehicle (the character stays with each vehicle, so you don’t pick both), and then you race it.  Sounds simple enough, right?  Well, there’s more to it than that.  Scattered around the track are buoys labeled L or R, which means you have to pass by the Left or Right side of them.  Every time you do this correctly, your power meter goes up one notch.  Once it’s full, it stays full until you pass on the wrong side of a buoy.

The game has 10 tracks, including one practice track, which may seem a little short, especially when you compare it to other N64 racing games (Mariokart [16 tracks] and F-Zero [24 tracks plus the randomly generated X cup]).  I now understand why one of the creators of Wii Sports Resort said that the wave runner portion of that game would be deeper than WaveRace 64.  But don’t let that get you down.  It’s a really fun game with plenty to do.  The locales range from your standard beach side harbor to a swamp to, yes, the arctic.  Yeah, buddy!

We all know that one of the issues with many N64 games is that they don’t look very good by today’s standards.  But WaveRace still looks quite nice.  The water effects are surprisingly good for the system, and I never experienced any graphical slowdown.  As for sound, there is an announcer that isn’t too terribly annoying (which is important to me, although you can turn it off anyway), and the music is quite good.

All in all, it’s a fun little game.  Sure, it may not keep you playing for weeks and weeks, but it’s quite good, especially with multiplayer.

Pros:

• Fairly easy to learn
• Looks good for an N64 game
• It’s fun!

Cons:

• Too short

This game has earned a blatantly biased:

Nintendo 64 Week!

I hereby declare this week… N64 week!  So get out those three-handle controllers and have some retro fun!  As for me, I’ll be playing some Excitebike, Smash Bros, and Kirby.  Stay tuned for reviews and some other stupid crap!

By the way, there were no N64 games released on Virtual Console today, so Mondownloaday has been cancelled!  Like you ever read the article anyways…

-benjamines

Prontesser Lernton and the Bumground Suture

Wait, what?

Behold!  In case you haven’t had the pleasure yet, enjoy the trailer for the upcoming Professor Layton game: The Unwound Future!



Pretty sweet, eh? I think so! The game will be released on September 12th!  Go get on that crap!

3DS Pricing and Availability

Well, Nintendo released its Quarterly Earnings Report today, and while their sales are down overall from the same time last year (just like everyone else's), they also said they will announce the price and release date of the 3DS on September 29th.

Meatwad Plame!

So, if there's one series that is known for being super cool, but also super hard, it's Metroid.

Since the NES days, there have been several Metroid games.  The first one was probably the hardest, since there was no map, no hints, and no way to finish it without being verifiably patient.  And of course by that, I mean insane.

Thankfully, Nintendo eased up a little for future titles.  Metroid 2 for Game Boy was a similar type of sci-fi action adventure, with the benefit of a little less pain-in-the-butt.

But the series really hit its stride on Metroid 3, also known as Super Metroid.  It's a beautiful, exciting, and just plain fun game.  There are plenty of great weapons, scary enemies, and gigantic bosses.  To this day, I believe it stands out as one of the best of the series.

In any case, the reason I'm writing this post is to remind you all about the newest Metroid, Other M, due August 31st.  It takes place between Super Metroid and Metroid Fusion (GBA).  From what little we know so far, it fleshes out the story of Samus and her origins.  Plus, it looks amazing.  The game is played by holding the Wii remote sideways, but if you want to look around, you simply point the remote at the screen and the game switches to first-person view.  Looks cool to me!

Ok, so I'm bored now, so I'ma go play a game or something.  Buh-bye!

Btw, Amazon (and to a lesser extent, Walmart) is offering a $20 gift card if you preorder the game.  There's no way to know how long this deal will last, so I would suggest buying it right now!  Plus, then you don't have to leave your house to buy the game!  The darn thing comes to you!  Holy crap, that awesome!

Up in da Club!

Attention, Nintendo lovers!  Wednesday is the last day to register your games and systems on Club Nintendo!  Remember, if you get 300 points, you get the Gold Prize, and if you get 600 or more, you can pick one of two Platinum Prizes.  There is no word yet on what the prizes will be, but they will likely be awesome!  Last year, platinum members had a choice between a real life Mario hat and a special downloadable version of Punch-Out where you can fight Doc Louis.  So get those games registerered!