Pokewalker

I thought the Pokewalker would be gimmicky, but it turns out that it is actually fun. I love catching Pokemon at work and church. I am very excited for the Yellow Forrest to be available for download on Thursday. Can't wait to get a Pikachu that knows Fly or Surf.

The Other-M

This trailer looks amazing. I am so excited for this game.

Endless Ocean 2

One of the games coming out this month that I am most excited for is Endless Ocean: Blue World. This is the sequel to Endless Ocean that Nintendo released back in January 2008. The gameplay of the original game was very relaxing. You swim around and explore various underwater locations and discover different species of fish. Underwater, the game looks amazing. The animations on land however are rather stiff.

The sequel looks like it will improve on the original in a number of areas. The most significant being the inclusion of WiiSpeak capabilities so you can communicate with your friends when you connect online to dive with them. The graphics look like they have received an update and there are a variety of different diving locations this time, from tropical reefs to artic waters.
The game comes out February 22.

Gotta Catch 'Em All

Last November, I completed what I consider to be one of the greatest video game achievements. I completed my Pokedex by obtaining the last two Pokemon that I needed: Lugia and Arceus.



I started to catch 'em all on April 22, 2009 when I purchased Pokemon Pearl. The first Pokemon I received was Turtwig from Prof. Rowan.

Here is a rough estimate of what it took to capture all 493.

Games Purchased: Pokemon Pearl, Pokemon Leaf Green, Pokemon Emerald, Pokemon Ranch, Pokemon Colosseum, Pokemon XD: Gale of Darkness, and Pokemon Platinum.

Total Play Time: Just a rough estimate, but about 490+ hours of play time between all of the games. This includes over 240 hours in Pokemon Pearl and beating Pokemon Leafgreen and Pokemon Emerald three times each.

Times I dragged my wife and kids to Toys 'R Us or GameStop so I could download an exclusive Pokemon: 8.

It looks like my achievement will be short lived however. This past Sunday, the fifth generation of Pokemon was announced. They showed off the silhouette of a new Pokemon. Once this game comes out I can renew my quest to catch them all.

Wii Bluelight Re-Boot

I have decided to attempt to restart this blog. With finishing law school, studying for the bar, figuring out how to practice law, and buying a new home this blog got lost behind other things. I barely had time to play games let alone read or write about them. But I missed being able to work on this blog and write about things I enjoy. So here going the attempt at a re-boot.

Warning: Wall of Text Approaching - Or Why the Wii is Not Crashing

Recently a large number of articles have come out critisizing Nintendo. Most of these were the result of the less than steller sales of both Grand Theft Auto: Chinatown Wars and MadWorld (the same two games highlighted by Adibobea9 just a few weeks ago). MadWorld sold about 66,000 last month and Chinatown Wars sold about 88,000 last month. This knee jerk reaction to the low sales is very misplaced.

To illustrate this I want to dissect one article that was published by Yahoo! UK and look at the strength of their arguments. The article can be found here; but I will quote their article in context as well (and put some facts that they cite into their proper context).

The articles main premise is that the Wii is starting to fall out of favor in Japan and therefore the system is destined to crash ("Most worrying for Nintendo is how sudden the interest has waned. The wave of videogame popularity usually rocks Japan first, then the US and finally across Europe and the rest of the world"). To support how much interest has wained in Japan they point out how the Wii barely outsold the xBox360 in Japan last week ("Last week Wii barely outsold the beleaguered Xbox 360 with 13,349 units versus 10,134 respectively.") What they fail to mention however is that the PS3 barely outsold the Wii last week as well (16,701 - 13,349). They also fail to mention that the Wii has sold roughly 8 million units in Japan while the PS3 has only managed to move a little over 3 million.

They also talk how the PS3 and PSP have begun to gain momentum in Japan. As evidence of this the article cites the fact that even new PS2 games top WiiFit on the sales chart ("PlayStation 3 and PSP are now pulling ahead and gaining momentum in Japan, which is still by far the most discerning market in the world for videogames. Even the latest PlayStation 2 games are outperforming Wii Fit in the Japanese Top 10"). While this is true (Suggoi! Arcana Heart 2 sold an estimated 11,000 and Jikkyou Powerful Pro Yakyuu 2009 sold an estimated 10,000 while WiiFit only sold an estimated 9,000) it also fails to consider that WiiFit has been out in Japan for 72 weeks. The PS3 game with the current longest reign in the top 20 is Biohazard 5 which has been on the chartz for 6 weeks but only managed to move around 7,000 units. It also fails to recognize that Nintendo has sold more units of WiiFit than Sony has sold PS3s. Yet clearly it is Nintendo that is failing.

The article doesn't stop at attacking Nintendo's performance in Japan. They also cite the Wii's inability in Europe to have any game in the top 10 besides WiiFit ("By now, and judging by the ongoing failure of anything other than Wii Fit to dominate the UK Top 10, it's fair to accuse Nintendo Wii of being a two trick pony. Folks are picking up Wii to play Wii Sports and Wii Fit and that's about it"). However, last week in the Europe/Others region there were four Wii games in the top 5 (Wii Sports, WiiFit, Mario Kart Wii, and Wii Play).

The article also cites problems in America as well. Wii sales in March 2009 were down 17% compared with March 2008. There are two important points to put this decline in context. First, the Wii still easily outsold both the xBox360 and the PS3 last month (610,000 > 330,000 > 218,000). Clearly no crash here. Also last years March Wii sales were higher than normal because of the boost received from the release of Super Smash Bros. Brawl on March 9th. Considering this, the Wii may even be selling better nominally than it was last year (especially considering the state of the economy).

Putting the cited statistics into their proper light I think it is absurd to think that the Wii is crashing. Are they less dominate than they once were? Yes. Is that innevitable after dominating all of the competition for nearly three years? Yes. Nintendo can still continue to build upon their success with even more innovative games in the coming years.

New Disc Golf Info

Some footage and demonstration of the disc golf mode in Tiger Woods 10. It looks like it responds realistically with the Wii Motion Plus add on.


Tiger Woods TGA 10 Disc Golf Video from Revogamersnet on Vimeo.

The most recent cover of the game also has a Pay & Play logo that hopefully indicates some downloadable courses in the future to take advantage of the SD storage solution. The box art also states that Wii Motion plus is included. It will be interesting to see what this bundle will be priced at and if the game comes unbundled as well. It looks like this game is becoming a must buy.


Edit: It looks like the bundle version will retail for $59.99 while the game only will cost $49.99. No Grand Slam Tennis bundle for the U.S. however. Bundle is the way to go since Wii Motion Plus retails for $19.99.

Help of Advertising

It is incredible what advertising can do for a new IP. This has been illustrated recently in the sudden increase in sales of Professor Layton and the Curious Village. I have been very high on this game since buying it the week it came out (over a year ago now). However, the sales of the game in the U.S. have been lackluster (sales in Europe have been amazing however). About a month ago Nintendo released two commercials featuring Lisa Kudrow being somewhat rude to another lady as they play Professor Layton.



Since the airing of these commercials on cable TV sales for Professor Layton have been increasing each week. Last week the game sold almost an estimated 52,000 copies. This is the largest weekly sales to date for the game (incredible since it has been on the market for 61 weeks). Commercials such as these really help bring new games into the conscience of the more casual audience.

Disc Golf

This info comes from the Tiger Woods 10 website:

All-New Disc Golf - Trade your clubs for discs in a fun, new game mode based on the family-fun sport of Disc Golf. Play from custom tee locations on all 27 courses in the game!

If the disc golf aspect uses the Wii Motion Plus to its full extent this would be a great addition to the series. A well done disc golf game would interest me more than a regular golf game. Hopefully they don't just tack this on at the end. I will be keeping my eye out for any new info or hands on impressions of this.

My Hardcore Gaming on Wii…

The Wii has been on the market now for about 2.5 years and like Nintendo consoles of the past, has been labeled as Kiddy. However this generation the battle has been more between Casual and Hardcore gaming. Nintendo has succeeded beyond expectations and I have enjoyed way too many games than I originally thought coming off the less than stellar performance of the Gamecube.

With all the games I have bought there has still been a lack of good Mature rated games. Most have been either cheap ports or lousy developed titles, minus the great No More Heroes. However last year I bought Call of Duty: World At War and the excitement continued to roll in when 2009 came around. MadWorld recently hit earlier this month and later the DS finally saw its first and long anticipated Grand Theft Auto. Lately I have been putting too many hours in to Chinatown Wars and it even overshadows many Nintendo 1st party games.

2009 will even get better when The Conduit hits in June, and Dead Space: Extraction later this fall. Having only time and money for one console and one handheld I am happy that 3rd parties are finally understanding the Nintendo systems and filling the void of games that the PS3 and 360 enjoy.

Guitar Hero Commercials

I am not buying Guitar Hero: Metallica anytime soon. But I love the commercials for the game. Not quite as good as this one but still very entertaining.

Storage Solution

Today at the GDC Nintendo announced and launched a storage solution for the Wii. The Wii's internal memory which stores save data, Wii channels, and downloadable games is only 512 MB. Needless to say, if you download many games, especially N64 games or larger WiiWare games this feels up quickly. For the last few months if I wanted to buy a new game I had to delete a number of games to make room. This was a large inconvenience.

The new storage solution allows games to be saved to an SD card (up to 32 GB in size) and played from the SD card with limited delay. Hopefully with this storage solution Nintendo will begin to release more N64 games (Majora's Mask and Excitebike 64 please) and increase the allowable size of WiiWare games. Check out the video below to see this system in action.



It is not the best possible solution,but I am more than happy with what Nintendo came up with. I am excited to see what are the other consequences of this update.

Confessions of a Pokemon Addict

Yesterday the latest iteration of the Pokemon series, Pokemon Platinum, was released. Even though I own Pokemon Pearl (Platinum is basically the same game as Pearl with a few minor (yet exciting) additions) I had to pick it up today. Ever since I bought Pokemon Pearl in April of 2007 I have become addicted to Pokemon. I have played Pokemon Pearl for over 220 hours and have put as many hours if not more playing the other Pokemon games I have (Platinum is my 9th Pokemon game).

Even though I love playing Pokemon games I am somewhat ashamed to admit it. I think it is safe to say that many people think that Pokemon games are for young children. Even my 11 year old nephew thinks he is too old for Pokemon games. Admittedly, on their face Pokemon are rather cute and childish looking. The games, unlike some other RPGs, are very simple to pick up and play.

Yet behind this simple and cute exterior lies a game that is very complex and difficult to master. My countless hours that I have spent playing the Pokemon games has gotten me very close to my initial goal of achieving the motto of Pokemon: Gotta Catch 'Em All. It has only been recently, as I neared what I initially envisioned would be the end of playing Pokemon, that I began to scratch the surface of a much deeper experience. I have begun to collect rare event Pokemon from other countries and raising Pokemon that can battle competitively. Understanding competitive battling requires and understanding of extremely complicated game mechanics that are largely hidden from view unless you seek them out. It also takes an extreme amount of patience and hard work to obtain a Pokemon with good stats and then to raise it the precise way to capitalize on those stats.

I think it is precisely this dichotomy of being easy to pick up and play while also be incredibly complicated if one chooses that makes Pokemon such a great game. Anyone from the casual player to the extremely competitive player can enjoy the same game. Pokemon is the quintessential Nintendo game for this very reason.

It's in the game

Recently EA announced their intentions to place a larger emphasis on developing games for the Wii from the ground up. To fulfill that promise EA has announced two games that will use Nintendo's Wii Motion Plus: Tiger Woods 10 and the new Grand Slam Tennis. With the details released this week about these games it seems that EA is taking this promise very seriously. Both of these games have jumped to the top of my wish list.

EA promises an all new realism that can be obtained only through Wii Motion Plus. They have obtained one-to-one motion control. Whatever you do in your living room, the on screen character will also do. Although the controls in Tiger Woods 09 were very good overall there were two main problems: first, the controller reading draws and fades was inconsistent; second, putting was unrealistic, you would choose a putter distance, for example a five foot putter, then you would have to swing full power for it to go five feet. Both of these issues have been remedied with the use of Wii Motion Plus (you can even push or pull putts now if you twist your wrists during the putts). Also added to the game this year is an actual crowd at tournaments; no longer will there be applause and jeers from an invisible audience. Also the weather conditions in the game will reflect the actual weather conditions at that location thanks to a link to the Wii Weather Channel.

EA has built also created a new franchise, Grand Slam Tennis, from the ground up for the Wii. It already has a lot of great things going for it besides Wii Motion Plus. It is the first tennis game to have Wimbledon in it. It also has many of the legendary players from days past such as Pete Sampras and John McEnroe. I also love the visual style of the game. Having more of a caricature style works much better with the Wii.

The early hands on with the game and Wii Motion Plus have been outstanding. Where the ball goes depends not only on the timing of the swing, but on the speed and position of the wiimote as well as the length of the backswing and follow through that you take.

I have expressed some concern before about Wii Motion Plus making games too realistic to the point that they are no longer fun to play. However, it seems that EA is walking this fine line. It seems like the games are still accesible. Hopefully these games will also provide a deep control experience that takes practice to fully master.

8-bit Hip-Hop

I really enjoyed this combination of two things I love. Check out the link below for some hip-hop tracks that have been remixed in the style of 8-bit games.

Hip-Hop 8-bit Remix

SSBB: One Year Later

Super Smash Bros. Brawl was probably Nintendo's biggest game release last year. The hype for the game was by far the biggest. From May 2007 until the games release on March 9, 2008 there were daily updates on the official website: Smash Bros. DOJO. The actual size of the game also makes it one of the largest ever released by Nintendo. There are 544 trophies, 700 stickers, 35 playable characters (including Sonic and Snake), 27 assist trophies, and 30 different Pokemon in Poke Balls. The game also includes probably the best soundtrack ever for a game. The number of game modes was also large; most notably, for the first time including a single player story mode: the Subspace Emissary. Brawl also added Wi-Fi play for the first time in the series.

All of this adds up to a tremendous game; the best iteration in the hugely successful franchise. However, one year later, looking back at the merits of the game, I think the game failed to be a great game. Despite being the largest game on the Wii, it doesn't have the replay value of other games. I play other games far more, and Brawl hasn't been turned on at my house for a long time.

The biggest problem for Brawl is the underwhelming online play. The quality of the online play was decent. I didn't have big problems with lag like others did. However, despite having robust options in the main game, the online aspect is limited to battles, home-run contests, and multi-man brawls. However, there is no stat tracking involved at all. If you beat up on your friends for hours the only record of it is in your memory. There are no online rankings, no stats, no replays. Mario Kart Wii, released one and a half months after Brawl features a much better online system with rankings, ghosts, and lag free play.

What Brawl really needs is an online ranking system. Tell me where I rank in the world, region, and against my friends. Tell me how many times I have beat my friend. Include rankings for the classic mode, home-run contest, Subspace Emissary. I spend hours racing around Luigi's Circuit in Mario Kart to try and beat my friends. Likewise rankings would make me replay the home-run derby and the classic mode over and over for bragging rights. Include online tournaments with different challenge objectives like Mario Kart and Tetris Party.

Brawl came half way to achieving this replayability with an awesome achievement system (one that I will likely never complete); but it would have been even better if I could compare my achievements with my friends. Unfortunately Wii Speak was also not implemented into the game. The lack of trash talking with friends also ruins the fun (Skype has served as a decent substitute though). Overall, Brawl is lacking a few characteristics that would have pushed the game over the top to be the game to play on the Wii.

Excitebots

Nintendo just announced a new game, Excitebots, that will be released in May. Excitebots is essentially a sequel to Excite Truck. It will provide racing like Excite Truck, but the trucks have been replaced with vehicles that look like insects and animals.
The official description reveals some wierd interesting gameplay mechanics:
"Get your friends together and grab your Wii Wheel (TM) accessories for action-packed raucous racing. ExciteBots: Trick Racing takes the big-air thrills and simple controls of Excite Truck (TM) and ramps up the fun with a non-stop barrage of funky challenges and mini-games performed at blinding speed. You won’t believe your eyes when you find yourself shooting goals, throwing pies and even playing poker in the middle of racing robotic animals and insects around off-road tracks."

Pies? Poker? I'm not too sure how those elements will be incorporated in the game. If it was anyone but Nintendo was making this game I would think this game was another piece of shovelware. No one would be excited about this game. Hopefully, it will be a great game.
I am most excited about a picture on the cover art for the game. A soccer ball is displayed. Hopefully this game will again have a take on the soccer game from Excitebike 64. Especially if the soccer game was online (the Wi-Fi logo is on the box, so some aspects of the game will be online). I could sink hundreds of hours into the soccer game alone. I think an online soccer game would make some of my friends buy a Wii.
This could be a very interesting release from Nintendo.

Metorid Prime 3

Today I finally finished Metroid Prime 3: Corruption. When I first got the game I played it a lot and got to the final boss but couldn't beat it on my first try. So I left the game alone for a long time. I have so many games that I progress to the final boss but never finish. I think there is a part of me that doesn't want to finish games because then they are over. (I still have not beat the first Metroid Prime, though I am at the last boss).

I have enjoyed the Metroid Prime series. However, I think Corruption took the series to the next level with the incredible controls of the Wii remote. I really enjoy first-person shooters with the Wii remote - nunchuck combination. (I am really excited for the Conduit to improve on these excellent controls with expanded customizability).

For those who have yet to experience the Metroid Prime series Nintendo is re-releasing the first two Metroid Prime games games on the Wii with Wii controls. This should make the games even better than they were.

Mario Kingdom Chronicles in Baroque

Shirt.Woot has brought another video game shirt to its site. This one features Mario and Yoshi in an epic battle against Bowser, all done in a Baroque style. It is currently sold out, but you will be able to pick it up tommorow for $15.00.

Pokemon News

Today is a big week for Pokemon. I moved one step closer to completing my Pokedex. I went to Toys 'R Us yesterday and downloaded Shaymin.

That leaves me just four Pokemon short of a complete Pokedex.

Nintendo also announced that a Giratina figuring will be given to those that pre-order Pokemon Platinum. This is way better than the stylus they gave for Pearl and Diamond.
Pokemon Platinum is being released on March 22nd.

The newest movie, Giratina and the Sky Warrior, will also be making its America debut on the Cartoon Network this weekend. It can be seen Friday the 13th and Sunday the 15th at 8:00 p.m. or Wednesday the 18th and 9:00 p.m. It will then be released on DVD on March 31st.
Luckily the movie isn't scheduled to air on Valentine's day. I'm sure my wife would have loved it if we had to watch that for Valentine's day.