Points of Interest – 12/6/07
InFormers: Robots in the News
- One interesting piece today comes from Kotaku‘s CliffyB, with some talking to Toyfare magazine about collections and how to make a perfect TransFormers video game.
Assorted Mushrooms
- The Official TMNT Web Site has new pictures up of a few figures, including Alien Hunter Donatello, Leonardo, Michelangelo, Raphael, the amusingly-titled Dumpjumper, and Thrashmor.
- “The turtle must not die.” But why? Click and see.
- Well, I’ll be damned. Maybe J. Jonah Jameson was right! Of course, Batman got in most of the shots…
- Spoiler warning: lots of Dragon Ball Z plot twists abound as IGN counts down their ten favorites.
Too bad the pics seem to have almost nothing to do with what they’re talking about, except for the fact they’re from DBZ.
Video Power
- Loading.Ready.
RunReviews brings us Desert Bus, a 15-year old unreleased SEGA CD game.Unreleased for good reason, at that.
Man, I had forgotten how sort of eerie the SEGA CD startup screen was. Certainly less cheerful than the “SAY-GUH!” that opened up, say, Sonic 2.
- …“Cheese fans?” I guess the little guy does sort of work the bowtie…
- Snaking sucks. It’s not cheating, technically, but that doesn’t make it good.
Some people want things like Snaking and Wavedashing (Super Smash Bros. Melee) in the Wii iterations of these games, but unless they’re MEANT to be in there and are accounted for in the programing, I’d rather they weren’t.
- It’s interesting. Take away all the sports games, the parties, and so on, bring Mario down to his core platforming persona, and I’d say that he and Link are pretty much the opposite of what’s described here these days.
Starting with the N64, there’s Link’s Ocarina of Time and Majora’s Mask to Mario’s Super Mario 64. On GameCube, there’s Wind Waker, 4 Swords Adventures, and Twilight Princess to Sunshine. It’s bad enough when there’s a game you don’t care for released in a series you love, but to have it be the only one released during the console’s duration? Let’s face it, that sucks, and Wind Waker haters were atoned for by the end. Even with all the delays for Twilight Princess, it didn’t bother me as much when I had Mario to give perspective.
For Game Boy, there was Super Mario Land and Super Mario Land 2: 6 Golden Coins before Wario hijacked the series, and Zelda’s boy got Link’s Awakening, Oracle of Ages, and Oracle of Seasons. On Game Boy Advance (I’m leaving out remakes/remixes, by the way), there was… surprisingly little for either that wasn’t a retread, but 4 Swords and The Minish Cap take Link into a clear lead there.
Nintendo DS, things are a bit more even… for the moment. Mario has New Super Mario Bros., and Link has Phantom Hourglass. And on Wii, Mario has the current lead with Super Mario Galaxy. One might include Twilight Princess, since I suppose it’s technically more a port than a remake/remix.
Supposing then that one were to take spin-offs into account, Mario would perhaps be a clearer winner, with the likes of Wario, Yoshi, and even Princess Peach carrying on in his stead. But for the “pure” experiences, I think it’s safe to say that Link has the better numbers, and that in itself could be a problem, as some are getting tired of the purported repetitiveness of the Zelda games, citing a desire for some spark of innovation to truly set a new title apart from the rest. Phantom Hourglass doesn’t do this, nor is it really meant to, and time will tell if the first pure Wii Zelda will do that, either (no, it’s not announced, but we all know it’s coming eventually).
Meanwhile, a light sense of repetition seems to be what a lot of Mario fans embrace, and a lighter twist on the common gameplay that runs through so many of his titles seems to be what more people would like, but Nintendo isn’t willing to give. It leads one to wonder if they don’t have their priorities mixed up, just a tad. Would anyone really mind terribly if Nintendo were to bring us a new game with more worlds in the same vein as Super Mario 64 or Galaxy? “Lost Levels” in a sense of the word (similar gameplay, some twists, but leave the insane difficulty at home)? New Super Mario Bros. was a back-to-basics title, and people seemed to like that quite well, and compared to Sunshine, Galaxy was that and more.
What I’m saying here, I should hope to be obvious: I think Nintendo ought to slow down the Zelda releases just a tad, and maybe see if they can’t release a little more Mario of comparable quality. Galaxy was awesome, but I’ve finished most of it, including the story, already. And I hate to think it could be five or more years before I see anything else follow up on it. Zelda, meanwhile, seems to follow a grander scope that I think might benefit from a little more time between releases.
- Nintendo of America’s headquarters has a nice display of old Nintendo memorabilia. I’d love to see it in person someday.
- Racketboy’s Retro Gaming takes a look at the best modern 2D games on the Xbox. That’s right, not the 360, but the original big black behemoth. As a result, if you’re lacking the original piece of equipment and something here interests you, best double-check to make sure the backwards-compatibility has you covered.
- An editorial over at AMN asks the question of why people seem to talk about games more than they play them.
In my case, I blame the need to know and cover gaming news as a chief catalyst, but I imagine the press might not be the focus of such an article.
- Reggie has spoken out to MSNBC about the Wii’s supply issues, and that they aren’t a marketing strategy. I’m sort of getting the feeling they aren’t really doing these shortages deliberately.
- Square Enix’s el presidente has spoken to C|Net Japan about the future of the industry, and how he seems to find the notion of the company relying too much on Final Fantasy and Dragon Quest to be absurd.
As an addendum of sorts, it seems that the translation left out some details.
- Following on the whole GameSpot fiasco, Newsweek’s N’Gai Croal has written a piece that discusses the “parasitic relationship between publishers and the enthusiast press.”
- GameDaily dredges up some of the cheesiest video game ads ever known to man.
Dear Sony: Try cheesy instead of “WTF.” Cheesy is at least somewhat endearing.
Seriously, that Pole Position ad alone beats half the stuff we see today.
On the other hand, the Super Mario Sunshine one is pretty bad, but the Japanese PS2 and Metroid II ads make up for it, nevermind the sheer win of the Zelda: A Link To The Past Japanese ad (the Macarena was never this cool).
I think it’s a key thing to bear in mind with video game ads. They’re more likable if they’re as fun to watch as the games are fun to play. Just a matter of equating fun with fun.
- Games Radar has put together a look back at the year in video game-related crimes; not anything like “impersonating Grand Theft Auto,” but stories more akin to the recent police ploy to trick criminals into turning themselves in at the lure of a free Xbox 360, or attacks and crimes commited over games. So cue the Dragnet theme and check out these stories of swords, vandals, and beatdowns.
- In America, Rayman: Raving Rabbids 2 is sold through hilarious commercials. In Japan, however, they apparently need something more…
- Stuff like this makes me glad I don’t watch Fox News. Not that I really watch any news, as most of it is far too depressing for me, but if I did, it wouldn’t be them.
- This Thwomp papercraft is nothing short of awesome. I should make one.
- GamerHelp has assembled eighteen of the greatest video game intros of all time.
- Game|Life pays a visit to Nintendo’s brand-spankin’ new “San Francisco” office.
- I’d love to know where PoisonMushroom.Org ranks for blog readability.
- Yahtzee has a new review this week, wherein he sorta likes Assassin’s Creed.
- And today, part 2 of 1up.com’s Final Fantasy flashback commences.
–LBD “Nytetrayn”