Read-a-long with Nintendo Power #247 (November 2009)

By Joe Fourhman | October 9, 2009

It’s a big review issue, as NP prepares readers for the best Wii/DSi buys this holiday season. Being a magazine, plenty of the reviewed games are already old news, but we’ll hit the highlights regardless. There’s a lot of high-scoring games this month, so get out the Christmas wish list and read-a-long!

Issue #247, November 2009
featuring Shantae: Risky’s Revenge (DSiWare), Resident Evil: Darkside Chronicles (Wii), Pokemon Mystery Dungeon: Explorers of Sky (DS), C.O.P.: The Recruit (DS)

Let’s jump right to the reviews since there’s so many key titles to discuss. I’ll take it from the top.

First up is Kingdom Hearts 358/2 Days. NP gives it a 9.0 and suggests that it may be Square Enix’s finest achievement on the DS. Although the review reserves an entire page, it really doesn’t say much about the game other than it’s good. The DS game is very similar to the originals in gameplay, but is slow to start and recycles the PS2 soundtracks again.

Kingdom Hearts shares 9.0 top honors with Scribblenauts. The review points out the game’s critical flaws but is far more generous than I am. NP doesn’t bring up the awful controls, but they do point out the stupid snapback camera and the mysterious deaths brought about by confusing win/loss parameters. That doesn’t add up to a 9.0 game in my book.

Speaking of that, the top Wii game of the issue is Beatles: Rock Band with a 9.0. I continue to be mystified by how critics everywhere agreed to review this game in a vacuum where other similar games do not exist. Did the Rock Band 2 instruments on Wii not include auto-calibration? Because Nintendo Power spends fully one quarter of the review lauding the Beatles edition instruments for having that feature, as if that’s a huge selling point.

Coming in at 8.5 is A Boy and His Blob for Wii, which is described as beautiful, refreshing, challenging and sophisticated. And they don’t even mention the hug button!

Anybody anticipating Might & Magic: Clash of Heroes on DS? No? You may want to re-think that, as it also scored an 8.5. It’s a puzzle-RPG mash-up similar to cult hit Puzzle Quest.

There’s three games at 8.0: Guitar Hero 5 (”noticeably improved from Guitar Hero World Tour“), Dead Space Extraction (”pretty darn satisfying”), and the DS version of Mario & Sonic at the Winter Olympic Games (”many of the games are enjoyable.”)

Clicking down to 7.5 we find three Wii titles: Mini Ninjas, Spyborgs, and Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles Smash-Up. The latter “pales in comparison” to Super Smash Bros Brawl, by the way. Some games, apparently, we’re allowed to review based on how they compare to similar titles.

7.0 brings us the Wii edition of Mario & Sonic Winter Olympics, Hero’s Saga: Laevatein Tactics on DS, Naruto Shippuden: Ninja Destiny 2 (also DS), as well as Spore Hero and MySims Agents, both for Wii.

That’s sixteen well-reviewed Wii/DS games, and hopefully some fine recommendations for the Nintendo fan on your shopping list.

Shantae is back! Shantae has always been the very definition of cult classic for me. The original Game Boy Color game was released in June 2002, which was, you know, a full year after the Game Boy Advance came out. Naturally, even the best reviews couldn’t push a GBC game and it flamed out… but not before developing a rabid fanbase. Creator Matt Bozon notes that Nintendo Power rated it 9.0, the same month they gave a 9.0 to Super Mario Sunshine.

Developer WayForward kept up their love for the character with an unfinished GBA sequel, not to mention Shantae tech demos on just about every system from the GameCube to the PSP. And now WayForward is proud to reveal that the belly-dancing nymph is officially returning in a trilogy of episodic DSiWare games.

Shantae is cute as hell. The first installment, Shantae: Risky’s Revenge, is on the docket for a late 2009 release. The line will follow in the footsteps of classic 2D platformers, but Bozon promises that it will avoid the frustrating design pitfalls of the genre… like, for example, pitfalls.

Last issue, we were introduced to Tower of Shadow, now meet NightSky. Is there some kind of secret Let’s Make Dark Wii Games cabal?

Headed to WiiWare, NightSky asks you to help a ball roll across the level by manipulating the environment. Sounds like a LocoRoco riff, but these screens underline the difference.

The game uses shadow silhouettes over a twilit background to great effect. Looks like another experimental title to keep an eye on!

What is up with the stock photo of the Resident Evil zombie head t-shirt?

You’ve seen this a dozen times by now.

I get that the Capcom press corps probably didn’t want to release an image of a guy lifting his zombie shirt to reveal his doughy gamer’s belly, but isn’t that faked-up image a little weird?

You can expose your own untanned stomach in one of these cool shirts by pre-ordering Resident Evil: Darkside Chronicles through GameStop.

I have codified the difference between Japanese and American game developers. When you read interviews with Japanese game developers (like this issue’s turn with Level-5’s Akihiro Hino), do you find yourself struck with how humble they tend to sound? Almost every Nintendo Power interview with a Japanese dev can be trusted to end with a “please enjoy my game!” Meanwhile, whenever the press talks with David Jaffe, you’re lucky to get anything useful aside from f-bombs and complaints about upper management. Here’s how I see it:

And that’s the difference between Eastern and Western game developers.

Download Staff Picks: NyxQuest: Kindred Spirits (WiiWare), Revene of Shinobi (Sega Genesis), Super Star Wars (Super NES), Art Style: Precipice (DSiWare)

Teenage Mutant Ninja Errata – Last issue, NP said Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles: Arcade Attack was a Wii game. It’s actually a DS release.

We’ve never played a real one – Shin Megami Tensei: Strange Journey is on its way to DS, and Atlus is dubbing it the first “true” Shin Megami Tensei game in quite some time. Devil Survivor and the Persona series are just spin-offs!

You didn’t expect this when you bashed the DSi! – Guitar simulator sequel Jam Sessions 2 will use the DSi camera as a wah-wah pedal. No explanation is offered.

That’s one big DS cart – The largest Nintendo DS game yet produced will be Ninokuni: The Another World, a joing venture between Level-5 and Studio Ghibli. The 4-gigibit size seems to be mainly used for the game’s soundtrack.

Nothing is safe from the the modern reinventionists! – Coming soon to WiiWare: Bonk: Brink of Extinction. You know, I lived through the 16-bit era, and I can’t summon up one worthy memory of Bonk.

The all-audiences GTA – C.O.P.: The Recruit is trying to take the 3D world of a PSP GTA game and marry it to the DS-specifics of the DS GTA game. And with a T rating, it may gain some ground as a gateway title for kids on their way to the bigger boys.

Super Mario Postman! – Reader CPL1701 wrote in to laugh about a supposed secret “MARIO” word on his address label… but he figured out that he was just misreading the “MAR10″ that indicates his subscription expires in March of next year.

Next month in Nintendo Power… It’s here, Nintendo’s biggest title of the season (and probably the year): New Super Mario Bros Wii.