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Nintendo Media Summit: Jam Session impressions (DS)
One of the many quirky little games on display at last week's Nintendo Media Summit was Ubisoft's Jam Sessions for the DS. The title is described as a "music experience" that turns the DS into a guitar that musicians of any level can use to improve their skills. It also allows for players to create their own songs by strumming the touchscreen and selecting chords with the d-pad, or play along with popular songs for practice. It even allows for you to save anything you play, a nice little touch for when you really rock it out.It's kind of hard to call Jam Sessions a game -- in fact, it's impossible. That's not saying it's a bad thing though; it displays Nintendo's push to expand the software line-up on the DS beyond the core gaming market. It just makes it harder to approach the title from a preview perspective. There's no story to talk about, no real graphics to talk about, no real gameplay, yet it still remains a fascinating piece of software.%Gallery-3420%
Friday Video: NMS round-up edition
This week, it's all about the Nintendo Media Summit, and we thought we'd wrangle all the videos into our weekly spotlight, even if it does get a little crowded in here. See what we're willing to sacrifice, just to bring you videos?Okay, okay, you caught us. We like watching the videos too, so it's not much of a sacrifice at all. The overview is particularly nice, as we get footage and discussion of so many forthcoming Nintendo titles. Check 'em all out after the jump.
Friday Video: Massive NMS round-up edition
The Nintendo Media Summit may not have offered up the huge news, but it did give us one thing that's awesome -- a metric ton (less than a megaton) of trailers for all the games we'll be playing in the coming months. So we thought it might be a good week for a very special video spotlight, and instead of one or two videos, we'll hook you up with several. Dare we even say many? See for yourself after the jump.
NMS: Planet Puzzle League hands-On
If this is a league of planetary bodies comprised of many puzzles, we want in. If this is a planet full of puzzle leagues, we want in. Okay, we just want in. Our fondness for puzzle games is well-documented in these parts, so it should be no surprise to you that we want this game. We want it now. But, alas, we must wait, as Joystiq reports the game isn't due out until next month. But, in the mean time, we can read about their exploits with the puzzle game at the Nintendo Media Summit.Played entirely through the touch-screen, the player is charged with holding the DS in the book style (like when playing Brain Age). But, we're happy to report, that even though the folks at Joystiq find the gameplay to be kind of de rigeur as far as puzzlers go, the inclusion of full voice chat between two players over Wi-Fi Connect, along with up to four players over ad-hoc gameplay, should instill some more value into the title.%Gallery-3456%
NMS: Cutting a rug in Boogie
Joystiq managed to get down with EA's Boogie while at the Nintendo Media Summit and their impressions were quite positive. Not only do they remark that the game looks great, but they also comment that the gameplay was fun and exciting. Also, they got some time with the karaoke portion of the game (which uses that bundled microphone). As far as graphics go, they went so far as to say it was the best looking game at the Media Summit, only challenged by the likes of Mario Strikers: Charged.Boogie is broken down into two main sections: the rhythm-based dancing, where the player must flick the Wiimote in-time with the song causing the on-screen character to dance with the beat, and the karaoke portion utilizing the microphone. This second section of gameplay is highly reminiscent of titles such as Karaoke Revolution and SingStar.%Gallery-3449%
NMS: Brain Age 2 confirmation and impressions
The mocking head of Dr. Kawashima is officially a go -- he will be back to taunt you a second time. Joystiq's own man on the scene got a chance for a little hands-on (brains-on?) action with the good doctor at this week's Nintendo Media Summit. There's really not a lot to "fix" when it comes to Brain Age, except perhaps some of the more famous glitches, and that seems to be where a lot of the improvements focused. And there's an exciting extra: an unlockable, fully playable version of the original NES Dr. Mario! Hear that? It's the sound of thousands of retro-lovers squealing in delight.We will definitely admit that we're excited to give the sequel a chance ourselves, but mostly, we're looking forward to another few years of Photoshop fodder. The head of Dr. Kawashima is filled with comedy, and the above screenshot is just about the best thing we've ever seen in a video game.
Nintendo Media Summit: Pokemon Battle Revolution impressions (Wii)
The Wii has done many things right (like selling), but one of the common complaints has been the complete lack of online multiplayer gaming. That's all changing though, with the very first online multiplayer Wii title in North America, Pokemon Battle Revolution, arriving on the 25th. The latest in a long-line of incredibly successful Pokemon titles, this is the first Wii Pokemon version and looks like it may be the biggest one yet.The game takes place on an island called Poketopia and has ten different Colosseums to battle in, with the ultimate goal to become the Poketopia Master (of course). The gameplay is classic Pokemon but appears to be taking it to a larger scale than ever through the use of heavy DS integration. Though the game can be played with the Wiimote, the Nintendo folks strongly suggested the DS as the preferred method of control (of course they did). It was fascinating watching people connect their DS to the Wii via WiFi and, upload their captured Pokemon from Pokemon Diamond and Pokemon Pearl, and have them battle it out on the big screen. It was the GameCube / Game Boy Advance connectivity promise, given new life through wireless tethering and a killer app.%Gallery-3415%
Nintendo Media Summit: Drawn to Life impressions (DS)
The Nintendo Media Summit this week had many quirky games, but one of the most unique and endearing was the DS action/adventure title, Drawn to Life. The coolest part of the game is that you can actually draw your in-game character, his weapons, and even create moving platforms to help you get over bottomless caverns. It's an incredibly fun idea, and the game pulls it off well. The story of the game is fairly typical: Your village is overcome by darkness and evil and it's up to you to save the day by beating down all the bad guys. The twist is just how much of the game is user-created or modifiable. You can use pre-existing character models, or you can tweak them, or you can just make your own guy entirely. You'll even create in-game creatures by drawing them! There is something really fun about seeing your drawing spring to life and hop around. The game also allows you to trade your various creations back and forth with other friends (handy if one of your friends is a better artist than you). %Gallery-3419%
NMS: Big Brain Academy hands-on
Our friends over at Joystiq have already started enacting nefarious plans against us, planned with their newly enlarged brains. The tiny-brains at Wii Fanboy don't stand a chance against the bigness of their horrible brains. How did Joystiq get such big old brains? They got a hands-on preview of Big Brain Academy: Wii Degree. And even with their freakishly enlarged brains, they were positive about the game. It contains a series of minigames, each designed to improve one mental ability (Identify, Memorize, Analyze, Compute and Visualize) as well as presumably being fun. In addition to 8-player games at home, you can trade student profiles online to compete with your friends. Check out the screenshots in our People on the Couch Gallery! %Gallery-3434%
NMS: Up close and personal with The BIGS
Colin Torretta headed out to the Nintendo Media Summit for the Joystiq Network to get a little hands-on time with a lot of games, including the upcoming baseball blowout from Take-Two's 2k Sports, The BIGS. The BIGS is a baseball game, sure, but it's not your average game. It's baseball made bigger, better, faster, and completely awesome ... unless, of course, you want a fully realistic experience. But come on, you can get that anywhere. Sometimes it's nice to wallow in a string of heart-wrenching moments of baseball badassery -- and that's what The BIGS promises. And according to Colin's impressions, The BIGS delivers exactly as promised in most ways ... but not in one highly-anticipated extra. The controls sound fluid (like a beefier Wii Sports Baseball), and judging from the screenshots, we don't have much issue with the look of the game. But it seems that the promised online mode is missing from the Wii game. It's a shame, but we're starting to get used to inviting people over to enjoy the Wii at this point. %Gallery-3430%
Wii Warm Up: Safe for those with heart conditions
Everyone is expecting a massive flood of Nintendo megatons from the Nintendo Media Summit today (can you have a flood of megatons? Just go with it.) And, while we have a lot of great coverage of upcoming games to show you, there's nothing that could be called a "megaton." No exclusive new Mario Galaxy screens, no surprise game announcements, and no information about whatever the Wii download service is going to be.It wasn't as spanuuuund as we hoped it would be. We don't have an E3-level news day to give you. What we can offer you is a load of gameplay impressions of some highly anticipated new games. And delicious pie. And what's more, we can deliver on one of those offers!On the one hand, we're pleased with everything we have to look at, watch, and talk about. But on the other, no Metroid. No non-Striking Mario. No Smashing. How do you feel about a media event that ignores the biggest games in Nintendo's lineup?
Nintendo Media Summit: Brain Age 2 hands-on (DS)
After the monumental success of the first Brain Age on the Nintendo DS, it's no surprise that Nintendo would revisit the Brain Age series again. At this week's Media Summit, the press got to play around with their sequel, the cleverly named Brain Age 2. Upon powering on the DS, we are visited by the floating, disembodied head of Professor Kawashima, who is back to once again help us train our small and unhealthy brains with a variety of tricky minigames. One of the immediate things that I noticed was that the hand-writing recognition has gotten way better. My writing is pretty horrible, so I was stoked to see that feature improved upon. The developers mentioned they put a lot of time into refining the recognition engine The minigames themselves were the variety of mathematical and word-based tests that you'd expect out of a Brain Age title but seemed a little more entertaining than the ones included in the previous game. The best part in my opinion though, had nothing to do with training your brain. As you complete tasks, you earn tickets that you can then use to play a Brain Age version of the NES classic, Dr. Mario. Now that's what I call a reward! Look for Brain Age 2 on the Nintendo DS on August 20th and check out some new screenshots below. %Gallery-3407%
Nintendo Media Summit: Mario Strikers Charged hands-on (Wii)
During the press conference with Reggie Fils-Aime, the President of Nintendo of America, he mentioned that some people felt that Nintendo was catering too exclusively to casual gamers with titles like Nintendogs and Brain Age. To this he countered that they had a number of games that appeal more to the core players, as he called them, and said he was going to show us one of them today. The title in question was Mario Strikers Charged, a sequel to the generally well received Gamecube original. Seemed kind of dubious to consider it a 'hardcore' game, but I suppose it was when compared to the other titles shown at the event.Before we were able to get a hands-on with the title, Reggie called up one of the developers of Mario Strikers Charged who loaded up the opening cinematic of the game for us to enjoy. The cinematic was a high-energy movie featuring all the major Mario characters kicking ass on the soccer field in some form or another. The characters had an interesting art design, much more anime-esque than the normal Mario designs. One of the highlights of the opening cinematic was seeing all the special moves that each of the characters have, like Donkey Kong's ability to smash the ground and knock everybody out around him. The developer pointed out that even though the opening movie was pre-rendered CG, all the moves are actual ones that the characters themselves have.%Gallery-3412%
Nintendo Media Summit: Boogie hands-on (Wii)
The most pleasant surprise at this week's Nintendo Media Summit was the EA-developed rhythm/singing game, Boogie. I was pretty skeptical of the game from just the early screenshots that I had seen, and judging from the deserted EA booth, a lot of other people felt the same way. You'll understand then that I was surprised to find myself actually enjoying Boogie, not only for the gameplay but also the attractive and pleasant graphics. For those of you unfamiliar with the game, Boogie is one EA's attempts to cash in on two current crazes at the same time -- rhythm/music games and the Wii. It combines a rhythm-based dance game with karaoke (via an included microphone) and a host of likeable, wacky characters and they pull it off surprisingly well.Probably what impressed me the most about Boogie was the graphics; it had a really nice cel-shaded look to it, fantastic stages, and good animation. It was by far and away the best looking game at the show, with no other game except maybe Mario Strikers Charged coming anywhere close. The five different characters are attractively designed in a cartoonish way, and they're all well animated -- a key detail for a dancing game. The stages themselves were fairly small, but the backgrounds were huge and detailed. The forest stage in the below screenshots is probably my particular favorite. And the game gets extra points for being less aliased than any other title shown by Nintendo that day -- a huge plus for people bothered by the chainsaw-like jaggies on some other Wii titles (like me).%Gallery-3417%
Nintendo Media Summit: Big Brain Academy: Wii Degree hands-on (Wii)
The sequel to the DS hit, Big Brain Academy, was shown this week at the Nintendo Media Summit. Dubbed Big Brain Academy: Wii Degree, this version offers tons of new mini-games to test your senses and give your brain a workout. It supports three multiplayer modes for up to 8 players, and 15 new challenges for single-player mode. It also allows you to trade your student data over WiiConnect24 with other players, allowing you to challenge others and compare results. In a nice touch, the game also imports all your friend's codes automatically. The gameplay is focused on fast-paced small minigames that are meant to help you increase your mental capacities in one of five areas: Identify, Memorize, Analyze, Computer and Visualize. The game tracks your progress and gives you a diagram showing your strengths and weakness in the different categories. To improve a poor stat, you need to play games specific to that category. For example, if your Identify skill is low, you could play "Fast Focus," in which you see a distorted image slowly revealed. The point of the game is to correctly guess the subject of the picture as quickly as you can, using the Wiimote to select the answer from a provided list. "Fast Focus" was probably my favorite of the minigames, but unfortunately I saw quite a few images repeat after only playing it for a short time. Kind of a bad sign for the longevity of that particular minigame, but may have just been a fluke. %Gallery-3406%
Nintendo Media Summit: Mario Party 8 hands-on (Wii)
One of the games that was shown at this week's Nintendo Media Summit was Mario Party 8, the latest in a long line of Mario-themed party games. Coming out next week on the 29th, the game boasts mini-game action for up to four players as they fight there way around a variety of new gameboards. The game looks like a solid addition to a decent series, but it's probably not going to be winning over any new fans. The graphics were Gamecube level at best and really the only new addition that it seemed to bring to the series was extensive use of the motion controls. The mini-games all appeared to variations of older Mario Party games or of a very similar theme, though at the rate Mario Party games are released I guess thats not a huge surprise. Luckily, the magic of the Wiimote did allow them to mix things up a bit by including games like shaking up cans of soda until they burst or lassoing barrels off a platform. It was a fun enough title to play, and made good use of the controller, but it still managed to feel stale. Maybe it was the lack of friends around to play it with, or maybe after this long the series just needs a bit of a break. And of course, there is no online play. If you are a huge fan of the previous Mario Party titles, then I'd say its worth giving this one a shot when it comes out next week. Otherwise I'd heavily recommend giving this one a rent to see if the motion-sensitive gameplay is really worth partying with Mario again. %Gallery-3408%
Nintendo Media Summit: The BIGS hands-on (Wii)
This week's Nintendo Media Summit was a largely first-party affair, but there were a handful of third-party games also being shown off for the Nintendo Wii. The first game I played was Take-Two's baseball title, The BIGS. I was particularly interested in the motion controls and how The BIGS differentiated itself from the other major baseball offerings like MLB '07 or MLB: The Show. It turns out that The BIGS is almost an arcade game. Though the gameplay itself feels fairly realistic, concessions are made to make baseball more ... fun. The developer showing off the game mentioned that baseball is kind of a boring game, but it has moments of extreme excitement. Home runs, triple plays, and stolen bases all grab your attention and make the game worthwhile. To this end, Blue Castle Games decided to increase the action in the game. You're gonna get more home runs, you're make more spectacular plays, and there are gonna be more 'wow' moments per game than you may see at your local ballpark. Also, as you pull off great plays, you earn special points for moves that allow you to power up for a super powerful hit or save, à la NBA Street. Overall, it seemed like a great combination of realism and arcade fun, a rarity in sports games -- especially baseball games.%Gallery-3425%
Nintendo Media Summit: Planet Puzzle league hands-on (DS)
One of the DS games on display at this week's Nintendo Media Summit was Planet Puzzle League, the newest title from the developers of Tetris Attacks and Super Paper Mario. The game is a block-based puzzler along the lines of Bejeweled and Tetris and offers easy, accessible touch controls. You use the stylus to grab blocks and pull them left or right to line up three blocks of the same color to make them disappear. Like many games of its ilk, the goal is to create chains and combos by lining up multiple sets of blocks at once. All the while as you do this, the game is constantly shoving more blocks up from the screen, forcing you to react quickly.While playing the game, you hold the DS like a book, something thats always felt a little awkward to me. The controls are entirely touchscreen based, and the top screen (or left screen in this situation) gives you level detail and your score. The levels themselves look nice, with lots of bright flashing lights and pleasing music and the gameplay was entertaining, if not particularly original. The game also offers online play with full voice chat for two players and supports up to four players over ad-hoc wireless. Unfortunately, I wasn't able to get any versus play in while I was at the event, but I heard from some other writers that the game really started to shine when in a heated battle over WiFi.Planet Puzzle League comes out next month, and it should definitely make puzzle game fans happy, as long as they're not too burnt out on moving blocks around for points. And really, who ever could get tired of that? %Gallery-3414%
