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read-a-long
Read-a-long with Nintendo Power #234 (November 2008)
By Joe Fourhman | September 23, 2008
Issue #234 introduces an unexpected subscriber benefit: alternate covers that strip away all that obnoxious article hype text. That makes this GTA: Chinatown Wars issue the first Nintendo Power cover in years to not include a giant plus sign! So grab your new collector-friendly edition and read-a-long!
Issue #234, November 2008
featuring Grand Theft Auto: Chinatown Wars, Sonic Unleashed, Guitar Hero: World Tour, Avalon Code
GTA: Chinatown Wars. Nintendo Power delivers with an eight page article, including three solid pages devoted to an interview with Rockstar co-founder Dan Houser. There’s plenty of screens showcasing the isometric viewpoint, cel-shaded graphics, minigames, and what looks to be comic book-styled cutscenes. Let’s begin with some phrases we don’t want the media to hear about this upcoming M-rated DS game:
- “…will have the option to sell and trade drugs around Liberty City.”
- “…the objective is to disable the police cars any way you can…”
- “By far the most outrageous and fun of the missions we played, [you must] exterminate the Jamaican gang members around the city.”
This is going to be the worst thing to hit the DS since PictoChat!
Read-a-long with Nintendo Power #233 (October 2008)
By Joe Fourhman | August 23, 2008
The first first-party cover feature in six months heralds an excellent issue, full of some great details, reveals and surprises. Read-a-long!
Issue #233, October 2008
featured games: Wario Land: Shake It!, Time Hollow, House of the Dead: Overkill, Kirby Super Star Ultra
The main article this month is the promised E3 coverage, “The Big 15.” Nine upcoming Wii games, one WiiWare game (guess!) and five DS games are highlighted, to varying degrees of depth. In order - presumably a meaningful order - the Big 15 are Facebreaker KO Party, Sonic Chronicles: the Dark Brotherhood, Wii Music, Castlevania Judgment, Major Minor’s Majestic March, GTA: Chinatown Wars, Wii Sports Report, Wario Land: Shake It!, Chrono Trigger, Rhythm Heaven, Animal Crossing: City Folk, Mega Man 9, Castlevania: Order of Ecclesia, The Conduit, and MadWorld.
Um, where’s Fatal Frame 4? A no-show at E3, missing from the Big 15, still no US release date (and it’s getting veeeery close to October and Halloween)… and it’s been out in Japan for a month. If I were the worrying sort, well, I’d start to worry.
We’ve already covered the surprises on the Animal Crossing front (short version: can carry over DS character, city area is Friend only, can save photos to SD card, and Wii Speak microphone will not be bundled in), so let’s find some other interesting news about the Big 15.
Read-a-long with Nintendo Power #232 (September 2008)
By Joe Fourhman | August 4, 2008
Last issue’s sword-based tease wasn’t Kingdom Hearts, Zelda or even Fire Emblem… it was Sonic? NP broke the news: another Wii-exclusive Sonic game is coming, a second installment in the suddenly-a-sub-franchise Sonic Storybook series. Which might as well be termed Sonic and the Gimmicky Control Schemes. The game is Sonic and the Black Knight and features the hedgehog’s take on the King Arthur legend. Early vids on Sonic Unleashed have the blue blur back on an upswing (lycanthropy notwithstanding)… will Black Knight keep the momentum? Read-a-long!
Issue #232, September 2008
featured games: Sonic and the Black Knight, Dead Rising: Chop Till You Drop, Ghostbusters (Wii/DS), Little King’s Story, Mario Super Sluggers, Mushroom Men (Wii/DS)
The Sonic and the Black Knight article runs a razor’s edge between lauding and insulting the game’s spiritual predecessor, Sonic and the Secret Rings. On one hand, Secret Rings was “pretty” and “well-reviewed,” and on the other hand the new game hopes to be “less arduous” and “resolve problems [found in Secret Rings].” And although Black Knight will retain much of Secret Rings’ RPG-esque skill-based system, game director Tetsu Katano anticipates the skill system will not “interfere with the game’s tempo this time.” About 200 skill-enhancing items are in the game… and if you can’t find precisely the one you want you can trade for them online.
For my money, the biggest announcement for Black Knight is that it will not use the NES remote style control. In Secret Rings, you had to steer Sonic like an Excite Truck and convulse wildly to get him to attack. Black Knight will utilize a more traditional control stick scheme. This frees up the Remote’s motion controls for swordplay, but you saw that coming, right?
Read-a-long Bonus Stage! The best Nintendo system for third party games is…
By Joe Fourhman | July 28, 2008
In the August 2008 “20th Anniversary” issue of Nintendo Power, the NP staff neatly ranked their Top 20 games for each Nintendo system. Using their lists and some high-end mathematical voodoo, I am going to come up with a number that illustrates the level of success that third party games enjoyed for each system. Let’s call that number the NITPICS… Number Indicating Third Party Interest and Critical Success.
Of course, this is only a critical assessment, using Nintendo Power’s admittedly temporal rankings; this does not factor in sales data and will not settle any longstanding arguments about why Nintendo didn’t buy TV ad time for Okami.
What the NITPICS tells us is which Nintendo systems have the most acclaimed third party games. To come up with the NITPICS, I assigned each slot on the Top 20 a number, curving it so the top games are worth more than the bottom games. After adding that up per system and comparing it to a nonexistent “perfect” score where all 20 games where third party, I turned the total into a percentage that allows us to quantify which system was the friendliest to third parties.
Read the rest of this entry »
Read-a-long with Nintendo Power #231 (August 2008)
By Joe Fourhman | July 6, 2008
Yep, that’s MadWorld on the cover… there must be huge debates about cover games every month. Dark-and-violent or Wii-Mom-friendly? Lately they’ve been choosing “hardcore” topics no doubt so they visually compete with all the bald space marine junk that graces the cover of every other surviving games mag these days. So let’s get Mad and read-a-long!
Issue #231, August 2008
featured games: MadWorld, Star Wars: The Clone Wars, Prince of Persia DS, Tomb Raider: Underworld, Castlevania: Judgment, Shaun White Snowboarding, WWE SmackDown vs. Raw, Sonic Unleashed.
So what about MadWorld? The six page article with creators Atsushi Inaba and Shigenori Nishikawa reveals that the M-rated gorefest will include boss fights, minigames (Man Darts!), Wii Remote motion controls, and sports-style color commentary. The duo admit to pulling inspiration from Frank Miller’s Sin City comic series. Inaba even cops to playing Manhunt 2, which probably makes him the only person in Japan to have done so.
Four “high profile” first party games are revealed as summer releases in Japan: Wario Land Shake (Wii), Fatal Frame: Mask of the Lunar Eclipse (Wii), Rhythm Tengoku Gold (DS) and a new DS remake of the first Fire Emblem game. Not to forget third parties, NP mentions Tenchu 4 (a Wii exclusive!) and Rune Factory Frontiers (bringing the Harvest Moon-does-fantasy DS game to Wii).
Seeing Fatal Frame listed as a major Nintendo first party release just has my imagination running. With Nintendo handling the publishing duties for the Tecmo/Grasshopper Manufacture game, could this mean Fatal Frame characters in the next Smash Bros? At least in the form of stickers or assist characters or collectible trophies? Check back with me around 2014, when we’ll know for sure.
Read-a-long with Nintendo Power #230 (July 2008)
By Joe Fourhman | June 9, 2008
Last month’s moon clue was apparently about Castlevania, who knew? Join Aeropause as we try to sift the golden nuggets from the brown ones… and read-a-long!
Issue #230, July 2008
featured games: Castlevania Order of Ecclesia, Dragon Quest IV through VI, Viva Pinata Pocket Paradise, Ninjatown, Rayman Raving Rabbids TV Party, and a whole bunch of EA Sports games.
The ten page feature on Castlevania includes four on the new DS game, and a retrospective of the franchise narrated by producer Koji Igarashi. I personally haven’t played a Castlevania since the Game Boy, so let’s see what jumps out at me to grab the attention of a non-player.
There’s a great quote right off the bat, as Igarashi jokes that Order of Ecclesia features a female main character because their designers “put a lot of effort into designing the skirt animation” for a female character in a previous Castlevania game. We’ll be expecting big things from your draping, Igarashi-san!
The classic Castlevania whip seems to be replaced with a nicely complicated-sounding Glyph weapon system, where you collect and combine magical symbols to create your weapon attacks. Other Glyphs will provide new ways to explore the environment, such as the ability to walk through walls. Those of you wondering how this game will abuse the DS featureset can rest easy… touch controls are only used for menu screens.
Details are a bit vague, but Order of Ecclesia will feature WiFi Connection play, including an online item-trading system.
Read-a-long with Nintendo Power (#229, June 2008)
By Joe Fourhman | May 5, 2008
That’s not Aerosmith: The Animated Series, that’s the latest Nintendo Power. Join Aeropause for this regular dissection of a twenty-year-old gaming staple… and read-a-long!
Issue #229, June 2008
featured games: Final Fantasy Tactics A2, Etrian Odyssey II, Wii Fit, Trauma Center: Under the Knife 2, FaceBreaker, Guitar Hero: On Tour, Guitar Hero: Aerosmith, Rock Band, Samba de Amigo
Take a look at that cover. Wow. Did anybody else think that the hypnotically awful Revolution X would get a sequel? What a surprise! Talk about mining the archives; Revolution X came out fourteen years ago! That’s longer than the wait between Super Metroid and Metroid Prime, and Nintendo is still trying to convince gamers that Metroid is worth buying. I’m a little rusty on my Revolution X plot, but apparently it involved you rescuing members of some hair band called Aerosmith. Since so much time has passed, I’m guessing this Guitar Hero Aerosmith band is comprised of the sons and daughters of the original Revolution X Aerosmith. Nintendo Power’s cover feature is unclear on this point.
What the article does cover is four upcoming Wii/DS music games, all without ever mentioning the complete lack of DLC songs. Hilariously, the Rock Band article says “some compromises had to be made to bring Rock Band to Wii. For instance, there’s no create-a-character mode.” WTF? First of all, the Wii already has a create-a-character mode that third party games are stupid to ignore: the Mii system. But more importantly, who cares about the gimpy create-a-character mode in Rock Band? You have, like, a million shirts and only four faces. Whoop-ti-doo.
No no, the compromise that Rock Band Wii makes is penetrating and obvious: no downloadable songs.
Read the rest of this entry »
Read-a-long with Nintendo Power (#228, May 2008)
By Joe Fourhman | April 19, 2008
Another month, another last gasp of print media. Join Aeropause for this regular dissection of this twenty-year-old gaming staple… and read-a-long!
Issue #228, May 2008
featured games: Final Fantasy IV DS, Pokemon Mystery Dungeon: Time/Darkness, Boom Blox, Super Smash Bros Brawl, Summon Night: Twin Age, LEGO Indiana Jones, Bangai-O Spirits
Let’s get the shocker out of the way: Nintendo Power gave the long-awaited Okami port a mere 7.5. Some choice lines from the review… “The controls didn’t make the jump to Wii as well as they should have.” “…the game [has a tough] time recognizing your brush strokes.” “…if you swing too fast you won’t be able to attack at all.”
And the kicker: “Okami is a work of genius, but you should play the original game instead of the Wii version if you can.” Nintendo Power just recommended a PS2 game.
Read-a-long with GameStop Guide (April 2008)
By Joe Fourhman | April 7, 2008
You walk by it all the time, a catalog of current and upcoming releases available every month like clockwork. Perhaps it’s the most honest gaming magazine of all; because it just wants you to buy stuff. This is the GameStop Guide, and for some, it just might be their entry point into our beloved obsession.
Is there anything to be learned within its dog-eared pages? Probably not, so let’s just make fun of it…
I’m just assuming this is the April release since it spotlights a lot of “COMING SOON” releases in April and May, like cover game Grand Theft Auto IV. I love the little RP, like there’s any question what GTAIV will be rated. I’m sure the ESRB is dithering between a T and an M as we speak.
The Guide kicks off with eight pages of DS product, because it probably just makes a ton of money-sense to frontload the DS right now. Of course, I’m immediately irritated because of this:
Mario Party DS was released in November 2007. New Super Mario Bros, May 2006. Mario Kart DS was November 2005. All three are still retailing for $35. Nintendo is just so incredibly stingy about letting their games slip in price (unless they shift a console game into the Players’ Choice category, which has no analogue on the DS). Throw us a frickin’ bone here, Nintendo!
Read-a-long with Nintendo Power (#227, April 2008)
By Joe Fourhman | March 25, 2008
Pejoratively referred to as the “Party Press,” Nintendo Power has long seemed stuck on the rocky road to respectability. Can recent editorial changes transform the magazine? Join Aeropause for this regular dissection of this twenty-year-old gaming staple… and read-a-long!
Issue #227, April 2008
featured games: Mario Kart Wii, Deadly Creatures, The World Ends With You, Okami, We Love Golf, Super Smash Bros Brawl
The cover feature this month is ten pages on Mario Kart Wii (is that really going to be the final title?), although those ten pages are padded with plenty of screenshots and large character clip art. The question is, what did they reveal?
