by brandobrawl
So, I got the DSi a while back, because I had broken my DS Lite. After playing around with it a bit, two thoughts went through my mind at the same time. One: OMGWTFBBQ THIS THING IS SO COOL. And, two: ......so.....what's new? I examined it a bit, looked at the creepy looking camera in the front, and the tiny camera on the inside, the little redesigned power button, the volume buttons, the SD card slot and the whole thing overall. Hm....it looks cool, I thought, but lets see what new features it has that made Nintendo think they needed to make a new console out of it.
I turned it on, heard the familiar tingly tone, and a new tiny tone when the "i" appeared over the "DS" letters. The first thing that was appealing, was the new little menu. It remined me very much of the iPhone and the iPod touch, and I played around with the scrolling physics a bit. My uncle had already downloaded some programs and a game from the DSi shop, which I will review later.
After that, I just played around with the actual "fun" included programs, the Photo one and the Sound one. Playing around with the photos was cool, but for the Sound program...well, even Audacity has more editing features than it. I know it's a computer program and whatever, and I shouldn't be comparing it to the DS, but the whole point of the DSi's existence was to be able to include lots of new features that the DS would never have been able to have. AND THEY TOOK OUT THE FREAKIN' GBA SLOT!
All in all, the console can be compared to Super Mario 64 DS (ironically the only game I own for the DSi right now). It's pretty much like a remake of the old thing, with new features and bonus things that are fun and interesting, and make it appealing enough to want to buy it again. But if you grab the banners, erase the "i" and the "WOW! NEW FEATURES! YOU MUST BUY IT NAO!", it's just a plain old Nintendo DS. Think you can hold your ground, PSP GO??
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by Superyoshi
Pictures: Nintendo.
Though Mario’s main genre is Jump ‘n’ Run, he also does good work in other genres, like RPGs.
In the times of the SNES, it wasn’t an odd thing to co-operate to make games. So Nintendo gave the license for a Mario game to Squaresoft (today Square Enix).
SEVEN STARS
The result was Super Mario RPG: Legend of the Seven Stars a RPG for the SNES starring Mario. It was very well received – but only in Japan and the USA. The game wasn’t released in Europe because the release of the N64 was near. 12 years later, Europeans could play SMRPG on their Wii by using the Virtual Console.
SEVEN SPIRITS
Then Nintendo let Intelligent Systems make the next Mario RPG, which resulted in Paper Mario for the N64. The game uses the fact everything in video games is paper and displays Mario and his world flat as Paper.
SEVEN CRYSTAL STARS
Intelligent Systems continued on Paper Mario, resulting in the Gamecube game Paper Mario: The Thousand Year Door. In this game, Mario actually used his thin-ness to fold himself like a plane and fly over gaps or even roll him into a tube to roll through small gaps.
EIGHT PURE HEARTS
4 years later, Super Paper Mario was released for the Wii. This game is more of a Jump ‘n’ Run than a RPG, though Mario can level up when reaching enough points and can use items and Pixls, fairy-like creatures.
MARIO & LUIGI
The Mario & Luigi RPGs were always on handheld consoles. Mario & Luigi Superstar Saga was released on the GBA, while M&L Partners in Time and M&L Bowser’s Inside Story were released for DS. These games are having a round-based battle system and action commands, just like the Paper Mario games.
WHAT’S COMING UP?
Nintendo hasn’t announced a new Mario RPG yet, and because of M&L: BIS released in 2009, the next one won’t come soon.
WHAT'S THE SECRET?
Why are the Mario RPGs so popular? We have 3 reasons for it.
1.: Mario
There’s almost no genre this plumber hasn’t tried. Also, his name represents quality games.
2.: Humor
References to old games, jokes and slapstick. You can’t play Mario RPGs without laughing.
3.: External Developers
Nintendo lets others develop, while they keep controlling. Less work, but good quality.
OVERVIEW
Super Mario RPG - SNES, 1996
Paper Mario - N64, 2000/2001
Paper Mario: The Thousand Year Door - GCN, 2004
Super Paper Mario - Wii, 2007
M&L: Superstar Saga - GBA, 2003
M&L: Partners in Time - DS, 2005-2006
M&L: Bowsers Inside Story - DS, 2009
First plumber in space! Mario flies once again through space. What will await him this time?
Super Mario Galaxy is one of the best video games in the world, according to the average rating of video game magazines, only a close second to Zelda: Ocarina of Time. Will Super Mario Galaxy 2 be a new number 1?
POWER UP!
The Trailer showed on the E3 showed us Mario jumping on a planet, coming over an egg. He jumps on it – remember the Dino Piranha from SMG’s Egg Planet? – but it doesn’t reveal a boss, just a little dinosaur – Yoshi! After jumping on him, Mario can use Yoshis tongue to eat enemies and swing around on special objects. More about him in the lower right box.
On a different planet, Mario stumbles upon a drill. When picking it up, he can drill through Planets to the other side or the inside! Also, the Bee Mushroom will make a comeback.
OLD, BUT STILL NEW
The Grinders, the rotating saws from Super Mario World are back, and can now even cut off parts of the planet. The Giant World from Super Mario Bros. 3 will surely be awesome in 3D.
LINKS
Super Mario Galaxy 2 Trailer:
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=iO10_IbDUBU
SUPER MARIO GALAXY 2 WILL BE RELEASED 2010.
YOSHI IS BACK!
Did you know that Yoshi is the third favorite videogame character in the world? In SMG2 the Star Cursor, your pointer, will turn into a Yoshi cursor. Aim at something and press a button, and Yoshi will shoot his tongue at it! You can also feed him berries to give him special abilities. If Yoshi eats a blue berry, he will become blue, inflate and you can fly by pressing the air out of Yoshi. Yoshi can run faster and even runs up steep slopes after eating an orange berry. What other colors will come?
So, Super Mario Galaxy 2 could make SMG better in every way. We are waiting.
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(sorry for the bad coloring in the pictures...my paint clone has more bugs than Big Rigs: Over the Road RacingYes, that's right. Yoshi Story might come to the Nintendo DS (or DSi, or DS xl, or whatever DS you have.) Yoshi Story was originally a Nintendo 64 title by Nintendo. It was a sequel to the SNES game, Super Mario World 2: Yoshi's Island. The game was released in 1997 and re-released in 2007 for the Wii Virtual Console. The game recieved mixed reviews, often comparing the smaller levels, and removed features from the original game. However, the game recieved fairly well sales and became the 16th best selling video game in 1998. Yoshi Story is one of the only "Mario" games that do not actually feature Mario.
Yoshi story is a platformer made in "2.5D" The game has 2d graphics of 3d resolution models. While is often reffered to as 2.5D, it is technically a 2D game. The game involved the player controlling several different color Yoshi's. Each color has a favorite fruit, and when eaten, it will restore all health. Yoshi's actions in the world involve flutter-kicking, swimming, extending his tounge ect. Yoshi must collect a number of fruit to proceed to the next level.
Now, lets skip forward a few years to a youtube video posted by Superdarkluigi4ever. The video featured many gameplay segments from Yoshi Story showed on an image of a Nintendo DSi. While the user claims the video is accurate, many of the comments on the video claim that the video is a fake. No known announcements have been made by Nintendo confirming the rumors about porting Yoshi Story DS. The footage from the trailer looks identical to the original SNES version. The video can be found at http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=cTNLyunfS0E
Picture Gallery (from the youtube video):
The select a player screen, where the player may select from several different colors of Yoshi
Yoshi in game...
Yoshi showing off his famous "flutter kick"
Notes from the creator (samgamereviews):
"I personally hope that this video shows accurate footage of a Yoshi Story port. While it may not have been the most revolutionary game, it proved to be a solid game in the Mario universe. I would rather have an announcement for Yoshi's Island 3, but i'd be happy with a port of Yoshi Story too! Thanks for reading my article for GaMag #1 (created by: brandobrawl)!
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I can honostly say that this generation of consoles is something we will never forget. It's brought us things we never thought video games could 20 years ago: 3D graphics, wireless controllers, wi-fi connection, and much MUCH more. Maybe Nintendo had something going through their mind, or maybe they just went crazy, and vuala! The Wii is born. And at first glance, you may think "WTF?". But the Wii is so much more than that.
The newest feature the Wii brings to gaming is motion-control, in which in most Wii games you are either required or allowed to use the controller (and nunchuk in such cases) to make a command in the game, rather than the traditional button-press. However, the Wii still has many buttons to allow it for classic play, such as SSBB. While this is a very fresh new experience for some, it can be tiresome; and while I have never found it an issue, I must point out the risks when playing games that require this. You must be very careful when using motion-control games; spread out from objects and other people, and if you have a small bedroom, just forget about it.
The Wii has plenty to do other than play your loaded up game disc. It's a feature called "channels" which are modes of entertainment. Take the photo channel for example. It allows you to upload photos through your SD card, and mess around with them (which I'm not too impressed about). You can download more channels through the wii shop channel, which you must have an internet connection to use. The content available for download is more channels (such as wii shop channel), as well as previous nintendo games (reffered to as "virtual console"), and also games excusively for the wii. While all that is great, I'd only be placing my bet on the free channels (e.g. nintendo channel), and the wiiware games, since I wouldn't spend another $5 to play something I've already played, and the internet channel just sucks. Okay, maybe "suck" is too strong a word, but come on! It's slower than a normal computer, it's takes too much time to type in something (and for me, I gotta stand up to do it), and you can play barely any games on it. I would just consider buying those wiiware games, as it offers something new.
Finally, lets talk about the games. First there's something I need to get out of the way. Graphics. Nintendo. Put them together, what do you get? Yeah, just wanted to clear that (Well, to be truthful, most Wii games COULD look a little better). Anyway, the Wii has had the most amount of gaming failures I've ever seen, and all of those failures were just trying to make use of the Wii's capabilities. But it's also had some of the greatest games EVER. A few examples? SSBB, SMG, Twilight Princess, heck, even Boom Blox. These games are some of the best console-sellers I've ever seen. Also, another thing that needs to be mentioned is Wi-fi. It sucks. I wish it would just be as simple as put the code in once, and that's it. But no. Games like SSBB require you to put in ANOTHER CODE. Why or how is that nessecery? There's a lot of lagging, as well.
Despite my negative reviews on the system, there's a reason I bought the wii. It has a charm to it no other console can live up to, despite graphics or power. When it all comes down to it, it's the games. That's why I bought thw wii. For it's library of great games. But it's not just me. There is a reason the Wii is the best-selling current-gen console. It's something I can't put my finger on, but I don't care. It's an awesome console, so buy it and a copy of SSBB, sit down, have fun and shut up, no questions asked.
Features: 9/10
Graphics: 6/10
Games: 9/10
Overall: 7/10
SUPER SMASH BROS 4?
by blablob
Lately there's been a lot of talk on a 4th SSB. But nobody has confirmed it, so we wait. Lucky number 3, people always say. Maybe they wanted to stop after the 3rd title, but is that what fans want? Is that what you want? NO! We can only hope a sequel is on the way, and seeing as how they have blown us away before, we would all love them to see them do it again.
So, if there was a SSB4, what do you think would be in it? A lot of people thinks its name should be Super Smash Bros. Revolution; others are thinking Super Smash Bros. Rumble, and more. But nonetheless, do you even care what the name is? Well, in some circumstances, yes. But in this case, I'm sure you're only curious to know its features.
The most important aspect of SSB is the fighting system. It is something very different from anything else, and without it it just wouldn't be SSB. It would just be Smash Bros., because there's nothing super about doing what's been done about a million times.
Also, what about the character roster? Everybody has there own hopes for characters to appear. Lets take a look back a Melee. There were many requests for Solid Snake to be in there, but the game was too far in completion. But they did the favor of bringing him to Brawl just because of the fans. Yeah, fans can hope for a lot of crazy stuff, from Toad, to Kratos, to Freakin' Mr. Incredible!
That's all I've got to say on the subject. There would be more if only it was real. It's as real as me finding a treasure chest in my closet. Now, if you'll excuse me, I need to go check my closet...
invading your consoles everywhereby Samgamereviews
That's right, you heard me. As more and more Blockbusters are falling under the new movie giant, Netflix, it seems like Sony, Nintendo, and Microsoft is seeing the huge potential in Netflix. For those who don't know what Netflix is, its pretty much renting movies. But here's the catch, you don't even have to leave your own home for Netflix. You send in an envolope and they send it in with a movie. Then when your done, you send the movie back and they send you another one. All of this is tracked online. You can "add" movies to your "queue" Netflix sends the next DVD that is on your queue. Its pretty much gamefly but with movies and an affordable price. Many movies can even be watched automaticly from your PC.
This is where your system comes on. Several months ago (I need confirmation on the exact date) Netflix streaming was available on the Microsoft Xbox 360. Very recently, I recieved the cd to allow streaming on my PS3. (Therefore, Netflix is now available to stream on PS3). Recently, an article on cnet confirmed that Netflix would soon be available on the Nintendo Wii. Pretty soon, all movies would be download or "mail" based. It seems like this is the future with gaming as well with download based and "mail" systems like: Playstation Network, Steam, and Gamefly. NOW IT"S TIME FOR THE REVIEW!!!:
(please note: this Netflix review is based on the PS3 version).
I recieved my cd to allow streaming on my PS3 one day after I ordered it. For those who are wondering, it does not affect any movies from your queue, and is not to be mailed back. Upon starting up the disk, I needed to go to netflix.com/ps3 to get my confirmation code thing. After that, movie boxes are shown on the screen, with categories to switch from at the top. You can instantly watch any movies that is on your instant queue, or select one from the many available topics. However, the lack of a search system is a minus.
I noticed that the pages loaded fairly quickly. Videos started up after about half a minute, and I never encountered any slowing or stopped to load of the video. The only way to really find what you want, is to add it to your instant queue online and then switch over to PS3.
OVERVIEW: Netflix on ps3 is good for those who want a bigger screen to watch, and don't want to wait a day or two for their movie to arrive. While getting the movie you want can be a bit of a hassle, the interface is easy to use and works well
9/10
