Making the Old School New

One of the most unique things that have happened during the current generation of consoles and handhelds for Nintendo is the resurgence of old school games. One of the earliest examples of this was the New Super Mario Bros. for the DS. I love how the first level starts out very similar to the original Super Mario Bros. and then you get a huge mushroom and it is nothing like the original. This trend only continued with the virtual console on the Wii. It gives you the opportunity to relive the classic games from seven different systems. This allows players to fall in fall in love again with games from their childhood or experience games that they missed out on the first time around. The DS has also seen a number of remakes: Final Fantasy III, Final Fantasy IV, and the recently announced Chrono Trigger highlight this trend. Finally, WiiWare will likely be host to a number of original versions of classic games. Mega Man 9 has already been announced for WiiWare and follows in the footsteps of the classic Mega Man games. WiiWare has also been used to rerelease Toki Tori, a GameBoy Color game.

These games reinforce Nintendo's philosophy that gameplay is more important than graphics. Hopefully these games will just be the beginning of more classic game designs being brought to old and new gamers alike.

Pokemon DS

I recently was able to talk Tammie into getting me a second DS. Nintendo just released a special edition Pokemon DS. The DS looks awesome and I couldn't pass up the opportunity to get this DS. I am especially excited to be able to play games with Tammie now. Maybe I can use this to get her more into gaming.

Edit: Tammie called me out so I need to come clean. It was Tammie that bought this DS for me. I came home from the store, barely resisting the urge to buy it myself. She then went to the store later and came back with this. I was working on the computer and Tammie had Carter bring me the awesome shirt that went with it. I did the dishes and gave her a back rub that night to try and make up for her awesomeness.

Olympics

Considering the track and field events of the olympics is starting up this week I thought I would highlight one of my favorite olympic related games: World Class Track Meet.
This track game included 100m dash, 110m hurdles, long jump, and triple-jump. I loved playing this game against people. As most people know the secret to success in this game is not running but merely vibrating your feet as fast as possible without your feet leaving the ground. By doing this you can easily get incredible times below 5 seconds.
But by far the best thing about this games was the commercial for it. Absolutely amazing. But as you can see the gids in this game haven't learned how to run yet.

Completionist’s Nightmare

My weekly rewing has been on a little hiatus because of work trips. I resume this feature with one of the largest games ever made. It takes a large amount of time and skill to fully complete this game.



Donkey Kong 64 was the first Nintendo 64 game that required the expansion pak. The game had good graphics for the 64 and also had interesting gameplay. In each of the eight worlds you have objectives that need to be met by each of the five playable characters. Often you need to use a particular character and their special ability to reach areas that would otherwise be inaccessible. One of the very best parts of the game was the opening cut scene which contained the D.K. Rap.



Hopefully, this game will make it to the Virtual Console. If you have hundreds of hours to waste this would be a great game to purchase.

Peripheral Overload

I am really looking forward to Guitar Hero World Tour's release in October. It should provide an enhanced Guitar Hero experience and not provide a gimped port like Rock Band. Plus the drum set for it is awesome.

However, the downside of the game is figuring out where I am going to keep the drum set, an extra guitar, and a microphone. My living room is already overflowing with peripherals as it is.

I already have to move the guitar and the balance board just to open the cabinet where my games our stored. Someday I imagine that I will have to have a separate closet for my games. Until then I will have to put up with Tammie's constant nagging to clean them up.