Nintendo went back to Mario’s roots when deciding where to take the franchise and gave gamers a classic 2D side scrolling game.  I was happy with this approach as I am always wishing we would get more retro style games that take advantage of newer connectivity options.  Nintendo excelled in the first category and failed miserably in the second.

No one can deny that New Super Mario Bros. Wii features addictive, classic gameplay in just the right doses.  This game plays exactly like all the retro Mario games you know and love.  To this point the Big N delivers in waves.  However, once again, they have failed to deliver the polish and production we have come to expect from blockbuster 1st party efforts.  It is quite clear that they developed this game with the casual gamers in mind and did just enough to appeal to the hardcore crowd.

I am going to completely ignore the lack of online coop as this is the most maddening ‘missing’ feature of them all and it disgusts me to the point of sickness that it was excluded and I don’t think any further explanations are necessary.

First off, there is only 3 characters available to play with: Mario, Luigi, and Toad.  This is appalling.  Instead of Princess we get another Toad (albeit a slightly different palette).  Were they afraid of the rift in the space-time continuum that would likely occur if Princess was trying to save herself?  Are they that worried about realism?  Why couldn’t they have Daisy as a playable character?  Or, even better, have Princess as an unlockable character once you saved her.

How come said characters all behave the same?  I loved Super Mario 2 where you could choose your character based on their physical abilities.  Would that not be so much more fun with this one?  Would that not make it more fun from a teamwork perspective?  I think Nintendo is afraid that this would just baffle the casual gamer and that millions of gamers like you and I would be subject to countless phone calls from grandma imploring as to why she can’t get the second coin star in level 4-2 using Mario.

How about having unlockable characters?  Example, you finish 4-2 under a certain time and you get to use Birdo.  Is this too much of a stretch?  How about unlockable Mii clothes?

Lastly, I think the coolest thing they could have done was incorporate some sort of video sharing system.  How it would work is that the game would record everything you do in a certain level.  If you do something cool you could save the replay.  Trim off the cool part and upload it to the web or send it to your friends.  Even better if they don’t have to have the game to view them.  Seems like a great way to virally promote the game to me.

These are just a few features I have thought up.  Surely the geniuses at Nintendo with all their innovation can do better.  Why don’t they?

Being a bit of a Metroid fan, and trilogy releases in general (damn you repackaged media!).  I am pretty excited about the coming release of the Metroid Prime Trilogy.  Better still, I have yet to play the 3rd and final game.  This will be the perfect opportunity for me to give it a spin.  Bravo!

Press Release from Nintendo:

Metroid Prime 3: Corruption set a new standard for first-person motion controls in video games. Now it’s bringing those controls to the rest of the celebrated series, allowing players to experience the entire Metroid Prime story arc with the peerless precision of the Wii Remote. Nintendo announces Metroid Prime Trilogy, a new premium three-game collection for the Wii console that bundles all three landmark Metroid Prime games onto one disc and revamps the first two installments with intuitive Wii Remote controls, wide-screen presentation and other enhancements. Metroid Prime Trilogy will be available exclusively for Wii on Aug. 24 at a suggested retail price of $49.99.

Each game maintains its original storyline and settings, but now Metroid Prime and Metroid Prime 2: Echoes let players use their Wii Remote to aim with precision as heroine Samus Aran. Based on the breakthrough control system that debuted in Metroid Prime 3: Corruption, these new Wii controls bring an entirely new level of immersion and freedom to these milestone games.

"Metroid Prime Trilogy puts the best first-person adventures all in one place, with a host of new additions that make these three timeless titles more engaging than ever," said Cammie Dunaway, Nintendo of America’s executive vice president of Sales & Marketing. "A great deal of care and detail has gone into Metroid Prime Trilogy, providing longtime fans with new ways to experience the games they love."

All three games now reside on a single disc. Players can access the game they want from a unified main menu that ties together all three adventures. Through a new unlockables system, players can gain access to in-game rewards such as music and artwork by accomplishing objectives across all three games.

Metroid Prime Trilogy was developed by Retro Studios and Nintendo, the same developers that created the original games for the Nintendo GameCube and Wii systems.

Remember that Wii features parental controls that let adults manage the content their children can access. For more information about this and other Wii features, visit Wii.com.

For more information about Metroid Prime Trilogy, visit www.Metroid.com.

Been a while since my last post.  Between 3 blogs, an open source MVC framework, 2 kids and a wife, it is hard to find the time.  We bought a vsmile for Cameron for christmas and he plays with it and enjoys it.  Recently while playing Mario Kart Wii I decided to let him have a go.  He did ok.  Ok meaning it captured his attention for about 20 minutes and he was actually using the wheel like he was supposed to (kinda).

So it’s that time of the year when the nights are long and gaming is short.  There is a gigantic void in the gaming industry in the  middle of the summer, that is only made palatable by the anticipation of exciting news coming out of E3.  Except, E3 is no longer what it used to be.  Gone are the days of waiting patiently for your magazine subscription to hear the latest news from the show, and gone are the days of millions of people sitting and refreshing their browsers on their favorite video game website, in hopes of being one of the first non-attendees to hear breaking news.  This year (and future years) we are stuck feeding on the table scraps of the few companies who are still participating in this affair.  Nonetheless, here are my predictions for this year:

1. Bungie will indeed announce a cross-platform game.
2. Song lists released for the next Guitar Hero and Rock Band. UPDATE: Rock Band Track List
3. Nintendo will announce the much anticipated, Kid Icarus and provide very little details.
4. Microsoft will drop the price on all the Xbox 360’s by $50, worst kept secret ever.  UPDATE: Worse yet, the $50 price drop is only until the 20 GB model runs out and gives way to the new 60 GB one
5. and, Sony will talk some more about the ill fated Home (or be suspiciously silent, maybe everyone will forget), which one is worse?

Now that seems drab.  Hopefully, there will be at least one exciting announcement.  What I would like to hear:

1. Activision and EA are cancelling the next iterations of Rock Band and Guitar Hero due to the fact that they are just fancy karaoke games and will soon be relegated to drunken, old, fat men playing in seedy bars on Sunday nights.
2. Nintendo is going to drop the D’s from 3 to 2 in their next Zelda game, since the last time the series had a decent game was in two dimensions.  Oh yea, and they will announce that it will be out by Christmas.
3. Friend codes will be removed from all Nintendo products, gamers will be treated like adults, and the Big N is implementing some kind of original ‘achievement’ type system.
4. Sony is going to redesign their PS3 console so it doesn’t look like something out of a flash forward in a low budget science fiction flick from the 80’s, and lighten it so it doesn’t weigh as much as my couch (is there a brick in there?).
5. Microsoft is going to add Blu Ray support to the 360, in the form of an external drive or Xbox Blue Edition, seems like a no brainer to me.

Needless to say, I am not holding my breath…

Mario Kart Wii came out today and I broke down and bought it. I received an invitation from a friend to play and I couldn’t resist. I have been disappointed with my wii ever since I bought it. Nintendo’s failure to implement simple and necessary components is maddening. It was with this in mind that I decided to give Mario Kart Wii a shot.

So far I think Mario Kart is a step in the right direction. We still have to deal with the friend codes, but at least they added the invite feature, which sends your friend code to your friends. No voice chat (no upside to this). I must admit though, leaving out voice chat does not bother me much when playing with randoms. I know I will be really annoyed when I am playing with friends though.

As for the actual gameplay, it is pretty much more of the same Mario Kart goodness. Each character has several vehicle, and they have added motorcycles. The ‘catch up’ factor is still present. I have mixed feeling about this. On one hand, it really annoys me that I can lead a whole race then get 3rd at the last moment b/c of excessive blue turtle shells, lightning, etc… On the other hand it really levels the playing field, allowing for people of different skill levels (ie. wife, kids) to compete.

I am glad I bought this game on a whim. I have played a little single player and some online with my wife, and it has been really fun. I think I should get plenty of playing time out of it and I highly recommend it to all wii owners.

I recently finally finshed TLoZ:PH after playing it for about 1.5 months. You see, I don’t play my DS too much, just for short periods at a time and I wanted to relish the Zelda experience so I did not rush through the game. I usually just cruised around looking for anything to do. Unfortunately, there is not a whole lot to do. That leads me to my first point of contention. Once you visit a ‘place’ and retrieve the item or information you need, you rarely need to revisit it. This is disappointing to me. I was expecting side quests and other story lines than just the main quest (there is one side story that I can think of). Instead, you get standard go to dungeon, get item, beat boss, get treasure, and never use item again. Why not engage the players sense of exploration? How come all we get are tiny islands with on gimmick? Cruising around in my ship I am excited when I have found a new island! All to often the island contains a ‘game’ and that is it. I want sprawling island landscapes that contain treasures that can only be found if you solve a difficult puzzle or come back with items you do not yet have.

My second point of contention is the boat building, and magical abilities. These are neat features and should have been exploited more. Perhaps, I did something wrong but I never got passed the 1st level of magic and I feel that I explored fairly extensively. I was almost to the second level, and, since I never read an online guide or anything, I do not know if there is a third or even what the second levels would do. I am not expecting a full blown magic system, but I would have like to at least, given the amount of time I invested, been able to upgrade again. As for the boat, I love the item collecting, and boat building, but in the end it really makes no difference. I know there is supposedly some performance enhancements or coordinating bonuses, but, these are not nearly pronounced enough. How about a new cannon that fires at a different rate, casts a spell, or fires two? I know we are playing Legend of Zelda, but isn’t it time to inject some new life into the series?

Thirdly, the touch controls, I really, really, enjoy the touch controls. These are fantastic. I love being able to just click something across the screen and have link run over and kill it, or grab it. However, in certain situations it is the biggest pain in the ass. What would be wrong with being able to use the control pad to move if you want? I know it would screw up the flyout menu controls, which, I never used. Selecting an item is very frustrating because the action never stops. I know a real person would probably be fumbling around in their weapon sack for the boomerang when being charged at by a gigantic fish (with arms and legs, madly flailing a sword, and, like all villains in this game, only vulnerable in his back) but I would rather not be pummeled to death in this manner in a video game.

All things considered this is a really good game. It just frustrates me to no end that Nintendo, whom are supposed to be innovators, keep rehashing the same games over and over (Metroid, Zelda, Mario Kart) and bring nothing new to the table (besides touch controls). I would argue that this game is a step back from games like Link’s Awakening, or A Link to the Past. Where is the real innovation? I know I have harped on the Mii features in a recent post, but, wouldn’t it be cool if I got a special Ocean King hat for my Mii for beating this game? Nintendo is supposed to be all about connectivity, but Sony is killing them in this area. How about being able to find rare items that, while not necessary to completing the game, would make it a lot easier (add these to your mii)? All in all, if you are a fan you have already bought this game and beat it, if you aren’t you should play this game. But know this, we have been slighted.

As the release date of one of the most highly anticipated games on the Wii draws near, Nintendo dropped a bombshell, Super Smash Brothers Brawl will include demos of VC games! Yippee? Yay? Whatever? This has to be the lamest, most shameless marketing ploy I have ever heard. Are we expected to be excited that we can play a few minutes of a 20 year old game? We should be able to do this anyways in the shop channel. It is the least Nintendo can do to engage the fans that they are gouging for VC games. You know why they do not do it? Because people would see what crap these old games really are. Aside from the rare classic like Mario 64 or Super Metroid, most of these games are not even playable anymore. I never played Tecmo Bowl after purchasing it and I wasted many a childhood day zig zagging across the luscious turf of the Tecmo Bowl. So, why would I care to play 5 minutes of Ice Climber? Don’t get me wrong, I think including full retro games is a great idea… When they did it 5 years ago in Animal Crossing.

I have an idea for Nintendo. I know what would be a nice addition to Super Smash Brothers Brawl. How about voice chat? The lack of voice chat is so utterly ridiculous that I think even if they announced it, there would be a collective sigh from the community. More of an, “It’s about time” than a “Alright, I am going to have to get this game now!”. I am not sure, but I think I was playing online games with voice chat 8 years ago. No joke, so this puts Nintendo at least 8 years behind in online gaming. For this reason, I have vowed to not purchase an online title for Wii until it supports voice chat.

If innovation Nintendo wants, how about this. Unlockable content for your mii characters. This could be pretty neat, similiar to achievements but not blatantly copying them. How about a gold Mario hat for your mii for getting all the stars on Mario Galaxy, or a Samus suit for finishing Metroid. These are the kinds of things Nintendo needs to be doing. If I can think of such stuff why can’t Nintendo and their marketing teams? You know they have some skilled marketing. They have somehow managed to convince people that 5 minute advertising for overpriced, 20 year old games is news worthy.