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Tekken 3D Prime Edition review: Far from prime edition
We've raised our expectations for portable fighting games in the last decade, especially in the past year.The last time Namco brought Tekken to a Nintendo handheld, it produced 2002's Tekken Advance, which received praise from reviewers at the time but in hindsight was a poor facsimile of the console and arcade experience -- like the Kid Cuisine version of spaghetti and meatballs, fortified with essential vitamins and minerals, but, c'mon son, that ain't a proper meal.Another Tekken Advance (that is to say another handheld port that's far from arcade perfect) wouldn't stand today, not when releases like Super Street Fighter IV 3D and Ultimate Marvel vs. Capcom 3 set the standard for fighting games you can play on the go. Those releases don't stop at just emulating the big screen experience; they raise the bar for what all portable titles can accomplish, online and off.That is why Namco Bandai and Arika's Tekken 3D Prime Edition will disappoint both new and casual Tekken fans. Because while the core game -- the parts in between "Round One, Fight!" and "K.O. You win!" -- are just as great as the Tekken 6 I've played on consoles and in arcades, everything else is lacking.%Gallery-130929%
Urban Champion is the 3DS's latest 3D 'Classic'
Well, the 3DS had a good run. Of all the NES games to spend time and money remaking in 3D, Nintendo has chosen its worst first-party game as the third 3D Classics release. That's right, Urban Champion follows Excitebike and Xevious in the 3D Classics line, coming to the eShop in Japan July 13, for ¥600 ($7.40). The 3D perspective change effect actually looks really cool, and there's local wireless multiplayer -- two new aspects that temporarily distract from the crumminess of Nintendo's 1984 fighter. The same day, an unaltered retro game will also come to 3DS in Japan via Virtual Console: Adventure Island 2.
DSiWare First Look: X-Scape and Metal Torrent
Two DSiWare shooters were on show at Nintendo's Q1 Media Summit -- X-Scape (left) and Metal Torrent (right). Both hail from different dimensions (of gameplay and graphics). I played them both, and you'll find my impressions beyond the break.
DSiWare screens and trailers from Nintendo Media Summit
There wasn't as much DSiWare stuff on display at Nintendo Media Summit as there was WiiWare, but Nintendo did announce three new games. Photo Dojo is Japan's Photo Fighter X, the bizarre two-player fighting game made out of your photographs. Metal Torrent, as you may have heard, is a localized version of Aa! Mujou Setsuna, a vertical shooter from Arika. X-Scape (above), fascinatingly, is a super-stylish first-person tank game from Q-Games, a sequel to the vintage Game Boy game X. You can see screens and video of all of them after the break. %Gallery-86442%
Endless Ocean 2 dated in Europe
Nintendo of Europe just revealed that the wait for Endless Ocean: Blue World will, in fact, have a very specific end point: February 5. Not only does the diving exploration game arrive in Europe before North America's February 22 date, it comes with a different name: Endless Ocean 2: Adventures of the Deep. Endless Ocean 2 is an extremely rare game -- in that it actually uses the Wii Speak peripheral. That's right, if you want to chat when you're playing online (that's right, it does that), you'll have to dig the Wii Speak out of your pile of unloved Nintendo accessories. It'll be under the MotionPlus. What, too soon?
Japan's DSi Shop adds shmups, instrument tuning next month
Aa Mujou Setsuna is something DSiWare has yet to see: a vertical shooter! The downloadable shmup, releasing in Japan on September 2, is listed as a Nintendo/Arika collaboration. Arika is responsible for various home ports of Cave shooters, including the DS Ketsui Death Label. Aa Mujou Setsuna has two selectable ships, a chain-based scoring system and even online rankings, for just 500 DSi Points. Somehow we doubt this is the news Nintendo Power teased, but it certainly makes us happy. Check out some footage after the break.Less hardcore, but still kind of cool, are the two 200-point apps also releasing on September 2. Nintendo DSi Metronome is, well, a metronome, that allows users to input their own beats and tempo to play along with, and even record their own drum sounds. It has multiple "skins" including a Game and Watch look, and Balloon Fight and Donkey Kong minigames; the latter of which involves clapping to make Mario jump over barrels. Hey, it's a Mario counterpart to Jungle Beat! Except really simplified.Nintendo DSi Instrument Tuner also includes a Game and Watch skin. This useful program allows you to play an instrument into the DS mic and get information about its pitch.
Endless Ocean 2 trailer: More endless than ever
How is it possible to make an experience as truly expansive as 2007's Endless Ocean any more ... erm, endless? Crocodiles! It's the trailer for Endless Ocean 2, folks. No joke. So here's the thing -- we're not absolutely sure there weren't crocodiles in the first Endless Ocean, due to it's, ya know, endlessness, but we don't recall any swamps or bayous in the game. If you spent the requisite forever with former of the series, let us know what new stuff you spot in the trailer.
Nintendo conference screen mega-roundup!
Click for full-sized image Nintendo announced a lot of games last night at their Japanese conference. Many of them, like Punch-Out!! here, were brand new. Some, like Supan Smasher and Cosmic Walker, we still don't know anything about. But we've got screenshots. So many screenshots. After the break, you'll find galleries of all the new games, along with new screens of some upcoming games we've known about for a while. Of special interest to us: the previously-announced Oboro Muramasa Youtouden, coming to the US as Muramasa: The Demon Blade, because it looks super hot, Karaoke Joysound Wii, which appears to have art by Parappa creator Rodney Alan Greenblat, and Takuto of Magic (Wand of Magic), which appears to be a followup to Taito's LostMagic on the DS. %Gallery-33381%
Nintendo conference video reveals one billion new games
Well, it's a bit late for accurate estimation. Let's just say a lot of new games. And rather than write a separate post about each new game seen for the first time in this Nintendo media conference video, we'll just list out every new game we see in the order we see them, with a bit of description in case you can't figure out which is which. We'll also point out known games for which we're seeing the first video. Okay? Let's Tap, developed by Prope, published by Sega. The sidescrolling platformer/fireworks ... thing. Karaoke Joysound, developed and published by Hudson. We knew about the game, but this video was the first look. It's the one with the rabbity avatar. Klonoa: Door to Phantomile. We saw scans of this remake this morning, and now there's the first video. Taiko no Tatsujin Wii. It's the one that looks like a Taiko game! Coming December 11! And many Nintendo-published games for 2009!
Top 5: Games for your Day Off
Gaming is a hobby, but sometimes it can feel like a job. As developers try to boost replayability, your gaming commitments can become anxiety-inducing. Just ask anyone who dared to attempt achieving 100% of Grand Theft Auto: San Andreas. At first, it's a fun and wonderful romp through a vivid world that's just oozing with life and character. By the end, you wish you'd never left Vice City. Did anyone here complete all of Super Smash Bros Brawl? I'm talking Classic Mode with every character, all of the Event matches, the target smashes, and every trophy and sticker available. At a certain point, some games can become an obligation rather than a means to entertainment. Today being Labor Day in the US, let's take a break from completing every mission, collecting every star, and unlocking all bonus content. Sometime between your 11 AM rise from bed and your evening consumption of copious amounts of hot dogs at your family barbeque, take some time to truly enjoy gaming. Here's our Top 5 recommendations. NEXT >> #ninbutton { border-style: solid; border-color: #000; border-width: 2px; background-color: #BBB; color: #000; text-decoration: none; width: 100px; text-align: center; padding: 2px 2px 2px 2px; margin: 2px 2px 2px 2px; } .buttontext { color: #000; text-decoration: none; font: bold 14pt Helvetica; } #ninbutton:hover { text-decoration: none; color: #BBB; background-color: #000; } The Top 5 is a weekly feature that provides us with a forum to share our opinions on various aspects of the video game culture, and provides you with a forum to tell us how wrong we are. To further voice your opinions, submit a vote in the Wii Fanboy Poll, and take part in the daily discussions of Wii Warm Up.
Get Ketsui boss advice from Cave's boss
Arika's Ketsui DS is more than just a stripped-down "boss rush" version of an arcade shmup -- though it does seem to be a boss rush, judging from the website's description of the difficulty levels (which show different progressions of bosses based on the difficulty). It's being loaded with extra DS content including levels that can be shared via download play, recordable replays (which can also be shared), and an "Evac Report" mode, which seems to contain an unlockable art gallery. The wackiest new feature is the "Oshiete IKD-san!" ("Teach me, IKD-san!") mode, in which Cave's president, Tsuneki Ikeda ("IKD"), offers shmup lessons to the player. Shooting Training: of course![Via Insert Credit]
VC Monday Madness: WiiWare and VC team up yet again
Now, this is something we can get used to. Both WiiWare titles and Virtual Console titles releasing together, side-by-side? Totally awesome, if you ask us. And, on top of it, both of Nintendo's services are hooking us all up with some solid downloads today. With it being a holiday and all, we're glad Nintendo is providing us with some stuff to do during our downtime. Virtual Console games available for download this week: City Connection (NES, 1 - 2 players, 500 Wii Points) Metal Slug (NEOGEO, 1 - 2 players, 900 Wii Points) WiiWare games available for download this week: Dr. Mario Online Rx (1 - 4 players, 1,000 Wii Points) Family Table Tennis (1 - 2 players, 500 Wii Points) As always, be sure to stop back here later for our video wrap-up of today's Virtual Console releases, as well as a review for Family Table Tennis. For those of you interested in Dr. Mario Online Rx's features, give our review a read. %Gallery-23089% %Gallery-23707%
Dr. Mario prescribes Family Table Tennis for WiiWare
Here we are in the third week of WiiWare and we still feel like we aren't able to equip you guys and gals properly for your buying decisions. We feel pretty confident about Dr. Mario, if you aren't burnt out on it, but we have literally no clue about Family Table Tennis. Let us know in the comments if you give either one a spin. Dr. Mario Online Rx (Nintendo, 1-4 players, 1,000 Wii Points): It's the classic Dr. Mario that you have played a thousand times love, wherein an Italian plumber tosses more pills then Amy Winehouse to practice medicine completely without a license. But Nintendo has added new multiplayer modes, including a Friend Battle Demo that you can play with someone who doesn't own the game. Family Table Tennis (Aksys Games, 1-2 players, 500 Wii Points): You can probably figure out what to expect here. It's table tennis (though we don't know if it uses the Wiimote's motion sensing). What we'd like to bring up is this line from the press release: "Just like a real family, choose your character from a cast of four, which includes Daddy, Mommy, Sarah and Billy." What sort of Cold War-era ethics are you trying to impose on our families, Nintendo? Even more sinister is the release's insistence that the game includes "four table tennis-tastic stages." Table tennis-tastic? We don't care what anyone tells you, that collection of words and punctuation means nothing.
Japanese homebrew games that will blow your mind
Whenever the topic of internationally developed homebrew DS games comes up, as it often does among hip and attractive people, most people in "the scene" immediately think of France, whose homebrew community rivals North America's in both size and production. You'll see an occasional release from other countries, such as Spain or Korea, but you'll rarely see much activity elsewhere. But what about Japan's scene? For a country with so many DSes and a strong independent game development community, outside of Infantile Paralysiser's MoonShell media player, we've hardly seen any DS homebrew projects cross the Pacific. Where are all the doujin developers? At least one programmer in Japan has been working on creating games for the DS, and we're bringing him out of the shadows to highlight three of his projects, likely games that you've never even heard of, let alone seen. If you're interested in homebrew development at all, you definitely need to pay attention to MeRAMAN!
Wii Fanboy Review: Dr. Mario & Germ Buster
Reviving a seventeen-year-old puzzle game seems like a strange way of kick-starting a download service that promises "genre-defying gameplay." That said, we find it easy to forgive Dr. Mario & Germ Buster for its lack of innovation. While not the perfect version we had hoped for, Arika's Dr. Mario benefits from the kind of classic, timeless design that defines the very best puzzle games. Innovative or not, it's still every bit as addictive in 2008 as it was in 1990. %Gallery-23089%
Dr. Mario prescribes demo to WiiWare
What's this? A demo? That's right folks -- if you're lucky enough to be a Wii owner in Europe or Australia, you'll be able to download the WiiWare game that many of us in the U.S. have been coveting -- Dr. Mario. Are you still unsure whether or not you want to lay down 1000 Wii Points, though? Fear not, because there's a demo out there that'll let you test the waters. Interestingly, not just anyone can play it. A registered Wii friend who bought Dr. Mario & Germ Buster has to send you the free demo (we've tested this and it works). Once you receive and download the trial game, you can register the friend codes of people who've bought the full version and play against them over Nintendo's WFC. Unfortunately, deprived gamers on the other side of the Atlantic won't be able to download the demo. Even though Wii owners in the U.S. can recieve it from a friend, trying to download it will generate a message saying, "The software you selected is not available in this country." Sad times, indeed. Gallery: Dr. Mario Online RX
WiiWare lifts off in Europe and Australia
Right on time, Nintendo has pulled the appropriate levers, flicked the necessary switches, and sent a whole world of WiiWare goodness down the pipes and into Europe and Australia. Here's what greeted this blogger on his local servers just now: Dr. Mario & Germ Buster -- 1,000 Wii Points Final Fantasy Crystal Chronicles: My Life as a King -- 1,500 Wii Points LostWinds -- 1,000 Wii Points Star Soldier R -- 800 Wii Points TV Show King -- 1,000 Wii Points Toki Tori -- 900 Wii Points Expect reviews of Dr. Mario and Toki Tori in the very near future; in the meantime, let's hear what you've downloaded so far, PAL people! %Gallery-23089% %Gallery-20255%
Dr Mario: Take ten of these screenshots in the morning
Where in the world is Dr. Mario Online RX (besides Japan)? Despite our hopes and wishes whispered to falling stars, Nintendo of America didn't debut the Dr. Mario remake with this week's WiiWare launch, and it doesn't look like the puzzler is in the cards for next Monday, either. Nintendo of Europe has the game listed in its "launch window" agenda, so it's possible that our friends across the Atlantic will have the game next week. We're not sure how long we'll want to consider Europeans our "friends," however, if they get to play the new Dr. Mario game as much as they please while we suffer this cruel, unspoken embargo. While we wait for an open date to schedule an appointment with the mustachio'd medical practitioner, you can look over ten English screenshots (and a logo!) for Dr. Mario & Germ Buster, the European title for Dr. Mario RX. %Gallery-23089% [Via press release]
Dr. Mario charges $10 fee to play on WiiWare
Dr. Mario has been priced for WiiWare and given a new name. Dr. Mario Online RX will cost 1000 Wii Points ($10), but there's still no word of an actual release date. Wii Fanboy noticed the price and name while meticulously scouring the video introducing the Nintendo Channel. Now, would somebody please prescribe us a pill to get the "Fever" theme song to stop playing in our heads after someone so much as mentions Dr. Mario? Don't know what we're talking about? Feel our pain after the break.
Dubious WiiWare sales numbers
We don't know how a Ruliweb poster came across these statistics for Japanese sales of four WiiWare games. They could be inaccurate, they could be stolen from some analyst, or they could even be totally made up. Don't start writing any in-depth articles about these sales numbers or anything like that. Final Fantasy Crystal Chronicles: My Life as a King is the biggest surprise here. We weren't sure how a very nontraditional Final Fantasy game (with grating DLC) would sell, even in Japan. If this report is to be believed, we have our answer: very well! Kotoba no Puzzle Mojipittan Wii: 72,971 Final Fantasy Crystal Chronicles: My Life as a King: 129,904 Dr. Mario & Virus Buster: 43,354 Pokemon Ranch: 234,745 [Via NeoGAF]
