Wednesday, November 26, 2008

Shaymin


This ghostly image can be seen on Pokemon.com
It looks like a new Pokemon, Shaymin will be coming soon to the U.S. It will most likely coincide with the release of the 11th Pokemon movie: Giratina and the Sky Warrior. Although the release date has not been announced for this movie Pokemon.com says it will be coming to DVD soon.
This will bring the number of released Pokemon in the U.S. to 492, leaving just one unreleased Pokemon.

Tuesday, November 25, 2008

Intense Gameplay…

I am sure you can find yourself within one of these gamers…

Saturday, November 22, 2008

In anticipation of Black Friday

Black Friday is only a week away. To get you ready for the holliday shopping season Wii Bluelight presents its holliday shopping guide.

Wii:

Wii Points Card - A must buy so you can get some Wiiware games or a cool virtual console game to relive your childhood.


Speaking of WiiWare use your WiiPoints to get the amazing game World of Goo. I have been playing this a ton lately. The best thing about the game: it will appeal to anyone in the family.





Guitar Hero World Tour - If you want to start a band the only good option on the Wii.





Mario Kart Wii - In my opinion the best Mario Kart game ever. The Wii Wheel and online play provide countless hours of fun for everyone.

Shawn White Snowboarding and/or Skate It - Check out either one of these games to put your Wii Balance board to use.

Boom Blox - This innovative game was directed and produced by Steven Spielberg. Plus my sources say this game wil be on sale at Target for $20 on Black Friday.

Animal Crossing: City Folk - If you haven't played an Animal Crossing game, this is a must have. If you have played an Animal Crossing game before this is just like the others.





Tiger Woods PGA Tour '09: All-Play: A great golf game with excellent controls. Plus it has an excellent online component.


Nintendo DS -

Pokemon Ranger: Shadows of Almia - If you don't want the traditional Pokemon game try out this game where you save Pokemon. Plus it has downloadable missions to help you catch them all.


Guitar Hero On Tour Decades - A sequal to the DS game. I love the innovative guitar grip.






Chrono Trigger DS: Releasing on November 25th this game is essentially the Super NES classic brought to the DS the best game ever, now available with bonus content and in portable form.


Castlevania: Order of Ecclesia: The third Castlevania game on the DS features an all new Glyph attack system.


Personal Trainer: Cooking - The latest from Nintendo's Touch Generations is a cookbook that walks you through the cooking process for over 200 dishes and even has a grocery list function if you are missing some of the needed ingredients.

Friday, November 21, 2008

Software Vs. Hardware: Wii Failing Despite Great Sales…



*NOTE* I will be using VGChartz as my source of information. Although not 100% accurate and often times doesn't sit well with fans, I believe it is a fair comparison in the battle of the video game king.

For the past few months I have been following the sales of games in all regions on a weekly basis to see if the Wii is still the dominating console of the three. As it still stands, the Wii console continues the trend of selling out on a regular basis; this happens even considering the now two year old console. But does that mean it is winning the war? If you look at hardware sales and the profit that Nintendo is bringing in alone, then the answer is absolutely. But if you look at the software side of things, the winner could very well be the other team.

Granted the Wii has much better 3rd party support than Nintendo had with the Gamecube, but much like the PS2 many of those titles are shovelware and of little importance. What differs between the PS2 and the Wii though, is the quality and AAA titles that also appeared on the system. The PS2 was home to some the the best games of last gen and all time, and it also held its own against its competitors in the graphics department. It is no secret that the Wii and its competitors are much different in processing power and the consumer markets are in totally different places, so when I frequent video game boards and news sites I continually read how the Wii has abandoned the hardcore gamer completely.

Many Wii fans claim to want the next best game and to experience the "M"ature games that the 360 and PS3 fans enjoy, and yet each time a more mature game is released it falls off the map as quickly as it is released. Yes, there will be many who will point out the success of Resident Evil 4, which was ported from the Gamecube and shout praises for Suda51's most successful game ever, No More Heroes. However NMH would have sold more on the 360 or PS3 and RE4 is one game that already had proven its success and already has a place in Nintendo fans hearts.

Shooting Zombies apparently is the only mature thing that Wii fans dare to support because when it was confirmed that the Zombie feature was cut from the recent Call of Duty, only 61,000 of the 36 million Wii owners chose to buy it in the first week. Compare this to the 2.14 million who bought it on the HD consoles. COD is a fantastic game and something that Wii fans have been asking for and when it arrived it was quickly forgotten.

So when I say the Wii is failing despite its great sales, I am speaking about Nintendo losing some of the fanbase it became popular with in the first place. Don't get me wrong though, because it isn't Nintendo's fault completely; they continue to sell their 1st party games in great quantities. For the last few months the only games in the top ten that have been Wii related are WiiSports, WiiPlay, WiiFit, and Mario Kart Wii and the recent additions of WiiMusic and Guitar Hero: World Tour have come and gone.

If its not Nintendo fault, who's is it? The answer lies with you that may be reading this. If you are happy with only Nintendo related games then you don't apply, but if you are one of the fans that appreciate great games and want a more mature experience on the Wii I suggest you purchase the ones that are already available. You can make excuses all you want about 3rd party support lacking due to quick ports and cheap development, but when a company like Activision, develops COD for the Wii with loaded features you must buy it to see more like it.

The Conduit, a FPS made specifically for Nintendo's console, could very well be the Wii's last hope. More polish has been put into this game than any other game on the market and other developers are taking notice. They will be watching its success to determine the route to take in the future. I understand that WWII has been whored out till death and that many of you only enjoy blasting away zombies, but regardless of the "generic" theme of humans vs aliens, The Conduit is the 3rd party savior for the Nintendo Wii…

Wednesday, November 19, 2008

WiiWare

One of the most under appreciated aspects of the Wii has to be WiiWare. One of the difficulties that Nintendo faces in promoting WiiWare is that the Wii has found a large casual following. These fans are less likely then other gamers to connect their Wii to the internet. In fact, in Japan only about 40% of Wii owners have their Wii connected to the internet. As such, a large number of games have gone unnoticed by a large segment of Wii owners.

WiiWare should get more recognition from everyone because there are a number of games on WiiWare that are superior to many retail games. Not to mention they provide you great entertainment for a fraction of the price of many retail releases. In October alone two of the most critically acclaimed games for the Wii were on WiiWare: World of Goo and Tetris Party. World of Goo costs 1500 Wii Points ($15.00) while Tetris Party is 1200 Wii Points ($12.00). Even before October WiiWare was home to innovative releases such as LostWinds, the Art Style series, Mega Man 9, and the Strong Bad episodic content.



For more information on WiiWare check out Nintendo's Wiiware Page. This will provide you with information on game details, how to connect your Wii to the internet, and purchasing Nintendo Points. New WiiWare games are released every Monday at 10:00 a.m. Mountain time. Wii Bluelight always updates the new WiiWare and Virtual Console games on the sidebar every Monday.

Saturday, November 15, 2008

Drum Tuning

Today I got my USB-Midi cable from Activision so I could tune my drum set for Guitar Hero World Tour.

Some of the drums for GHWT were either too sensitive or not sensitive enough. My drum set fell into the latter category. My blue drum and orange cymbal would have to be hit harder than normal for them to register. So Activision provided a free computer program and a free USB-Midi cable (second day Fed-Ex even) to enable owners to set the sensitivity for each individual drum pad and cymbal. The details can be found here.


The program is easy to use and it works wonders. I am now an expert drummer. (OK, it hasn't made me an expert drummer, but I am better now and when I mess up I know it is me and not the drum kit). Now all the pads require the same amount of strength to successfully hit them. This is the second major problem that Activision and Red Octane have had (the first being no stereo sound on the Wii version of Guitar Hero III: Legends of Rock.) At least they have come forth and provided solutions to the problems.

Wednesday, November 12, 2008

Welcome Back GoNintendo


The last couple of days I have had no Nintendo news. GoNintendo.com, my favorite site for all things Nintendo had recently changed its layout. I hated the new version and wasn't going to the site anymore. I checked it again today to see if I could get an RSS feed without the crappy layout and to my surprise the old GoNintendo that I loved so much was back. Now I again have a place for the latest news.

Saturday, November 8, 2008

#100

On Saturday I purchased Puzzle Quest: Challenge of the Warlords. This game is the 100th video game that I own. Some interesting stats about my games.


41 Gamecube Games


33 Wii Games (including 25 retail releases, 3 WiiWare, and 5 Virtual Console Games)


23 DS Games


3 Gameboy Advance Games

Average IGN editors score: 8.3 (the highest at 9.8: Metroid Prime and Resident Evil 4; the lowest at 4.0: My Pokemon Ranch)

First Released Game: Luigi's Mansion, November 18, 2001


57 Games were published by Nintendo


16 Games with Mario in the title (he is also a character in Smash Bros Brawl and Melee)

Number of Games I have beat: 20



It took me almost four years to buy 100 games. That is almost a game every other week. No wonder Tammie thinks I am addicted to video games.

Dragonite Event

I just got a level 50 Dragonite from Toys 'r Us. Just wanted to live
blog the event. Here is me with my newest Pokémon. Sent from my iPhone.

Friday, November 7, 2008

Video Games Through Art History

Shirt.woot! recently ran a contest for people to design a shirt that represents video games through various art styles. The first place winner is below. The Mario Kart Blue Shell.




Check out other ideas that people came up with over at shirt.woot!

Tuesday, November 4, 2008

A Guitar Hero Commericial for Adibobea9

Since Adibobea9 wasn't a fan of the previous Guitar Hero World Tour commercial with the celebrity athletes, Guitar Hero has a commercial just for him.



I think this commercial alone will be enough to get him to buy the game.