I want to play The Legend of Zelda: Skyward Sword

This has got to improve upon Twilight Princess....  At least you'd think it would.

It might not become the next best Zelda game, but it'll certainly match the standards set by previous Zeldas.  With development started and finished on the Wii, there'll have to be some stunning visuals and gameplay.

I want to play Metroid: Other M

This one may seem like a no-brainer, but I'm truly intrigued by what outside, third-party studios do with first-party Nintendo properties.

Metroid: Other M looks great because, while I love the Metroid gameplay, I've always wanted a more cinematic and guided Metroid game.  This is easily one of the biggest reasons to buy a Wii this fall.

I want to play Donkey Kong Country Returns

Donkey Kong Land (for the Game Boy) was another of the first games I owned and played (almost) religiously.  I loved it!  Donkey Kong Country Returns already has that going for it.

In addition, Retro Studios is doing the work, it looks like there's a ton of action on screen, and co-op play for Jenna and I.

Another key contributing factor to my desire to play Donkey Kong Country Returns?  NO MORE WATER LEVELS.

I want to play Kirby's Epic Yarn

I would be remiss if I didn't want to play Kirby's Epic Yarn later this fall.

When I first got my Game Boy back in 1993, Kirby's Dream Land was one of the two games I got with it (Yoshi was the second).  I'll always have a soft spot for Kirby, except for in Super Smash Bros.  I hate the little pink bastard in those games.

I want to play FlingSmash

FlingSmash was completely off my radar until today.  Today?  It looks like a fun game I could probably get several hours out of, several more in co-operative play with Jenna.

Wii want you back...

I sold my Wii.  So long!  I got 200 bucks for it.  Sold the console, a second controller and nunchuck and Super Mario Galaxy.  It broke my heart.  I had to format the drive, effectively wiping the purchasing account with it.  So long virtual console games and points!

Now I want a Wii again!  A black Wii at that.  How far away am I from getting the money together and taking the plunge... AGAIN?!

Apparently Nintendo held a fall preview in New York yesterday.  I wasn't there, but hearing about it from various sources has me viewing trailer after trailer on Youtube.  I'll be posting trailers of games that I would want to play (should I ever buy another Wii) all day today.  Check them out and tell me what you think!

Do I Miss Owning a Wii?

I honestly find myself asking that question once a month, though I doubt there's a Wii title I'd like to buy, or even play, releasing each month. I'd love to play Red Steel 2, mess around with some of the fun multiplayer experiences on the Wii, or ready myself for the next Zelda. But is it really necessary?

I guess there are times I feel like I'm missing out on something, Oops! Prank Party withstanding. There seem to be a handful of great games and experiences on the Wii that are obviously not on the Xbox 360. Being a single console owner certainly had a "grass is always greener" effect.

If I had the money, I'd buy a PS3 straight away. I already know of several game I really want to play on the platform, but the Wii is a bit of an enigma. Sure I'd love to play Super Mario Galaxy 2 or some of the Wii's few core games, but is there enough to justify buying a console I've already give up once?

How To Train Your Dragon: Post-Review Thoughts

I've finished my review of How To Train Your Dragon for the Xbox 360. In fact, I've nearly completed the entirety of the game. A diminuitive 45 achievement points lie before me and a full 1000/1000. Here's hoping DLC doesn't wretch the perfection from my hands!

I played most of the game over Spring Break the other week, and while I was out, I didn't post impressions, so I thought I'd write a few things after the fact. These thoughts aren't exactly on the gameplay itself, but more on what it's like to have to play a bad game.

You could excuse a lot of Dragon's flaws based on the fact that it's a movie licensed game. Of course that means an extremely tight development schedule, a lot of unnecessary hands in the development process, and a lack of personal involvement by the creative team. Still, movie games don't have to be bad. Licensed games don't have to be bad, so why excuse anything at all?

The real trouble is the fact that everyone knows the game is going to sell no matter what. How much it sells is largely based on the product it's based on. If the reviews and numbers for How To Train Your Dragon are any indication, I'm guess the game will sell well enough to recoup its costs and make the publisher, Activision, a little money.

Why bother reviewing the game if it doesn't matter anyways? Why go through the trouble of decry all of the games negative points if no one is going to listen or take heed? I wouldn't say I was very conscious of this before or during the review process. I tried to be excited about the game. Jenna and I saw the movie, which I actually liked, and Jenna's mom even got me a McDonald's Dragon toy on my half-sarcastic, half-very-real excitement of such a prospect.

In the end, when it came down to the game, it just wasn't there. It's a bad game. I'll be sure to give you reader of PLAY READ WRITE the lead over to GR when my review is published, but until then, why not share your movie game experience in the comments?

Oops!

For those of you who don't know, I'm currently interning at Game Revolution (www.gamerevolution.com). I post news, upload video, and review games for the site. It's repetitive work, but there are certainly some rewards.

Maybe, maybe, one of those rewards is picking up on news items I would otherwise completely bypass. The MLB 2K10 First Perfect Game contest might be one of those news items, although it was pretty well publiscized nearly everywhere. Probably the epitome of a news item I would never have looked at if not for my internship is the announcement of Oops! Prank Party for the Nintendo Wii.

Oops! Prank Party is published by Hudson Software. I couldn't be bothered to see who was developing. In fact, I'm surprised I read enough to see who was publishing Oops! Prank Party. The game's title did enough damage alone.

I cannot believe there exists a game, playable on a Nintendo console, titled "Oops! Prank Party."

Upon release, you'll be able to walk into a store, maybe Gamestop or Target, and purchase a game by the name of Oops! Prank Party. What has this world come to?

Honestly, that sounds like a horrible game. Having reviewed and played How To Train Your Dragon to a full 1000/1000 achievement points, I think I'm qualified to call a game terrible when I see it. Trouble is, I've yet to see Oops! Prank Party. I'm almost intrigued, but I don't know if I could pick up a control and play even one second of such a game.

Do you still think Nintendo cares about the core gamer? What does the Nintendo Seal of Quality mean now? Will you be buying Oops! Prank Party when it's released this fall?

What came on Saturday?

What came in this box? More later....

EDIT: It's now July and I have the answer for you all.  The Beatles Rock Band.

PlayStarion Move has me saying "Meh"

Concrete details are always nice aren't they? When Sony showed off it's own motion controller in the shape of a wand, there were some pretty bright possibilities. Obviously, with Nintendo's grip on the motion control market as firm as a wrist strap will hold it, some entering competition might just force them to up their software game right?

Honestly, nothing of the Move-supporting software has appeared appealing to me in any way. SOCOM 4 is the only core game that supports Move right now, and I would rather play it with a traditional controller. That title alone seems like the fig leaf Sony is handing to their primary audience at launch of the PlayStation Move.

Other titles look exactly like Wii Sports Resort, a light gun game, and the minigame collections that line the shelving at any old big box retailer. Motion Fighter might be the only exception, but without a proper preview of that title, I'm inclined to lump it in with the others and label the whole project a mess.

What the PlayStation Move has really got me thinking about is having "the option" to use motion controls, and having "the option" to use a standard controller. I don't have to buy every motion controlled game that comes down the pipeline, but in core games, if there's an extra incentive to use motion controls, or they add something to the overall experience, then I might buy in. That calls multiplayer balancing into question though because of the difference in controls, but that's another topic for another post.

Beyond the software, I have to admit that the Move controller looks interesting, especially thanks to its color-changing ball. There's been some confusion as to whether the ball changes to reflect on screen action or the colors the PS Eye sees, but it doesn't matter, it just looks cool. If it helps add to the overall accuracy of the device then that's awesome, it just looks neat.

The rest of the decice and the "movement" wand that it's paired with still look like PlayStation branded Wii Remotes. I can see how the overall input is different, and I can see what a developer might do with the Move is different, but I still think the overall interface will be the same.

Of course, that means a lot of the software will be the same too. Maybe I'm being an elitist asshole when I say that video games are meant to be experienced in one way, and while that way may diverge into many different ways of experiencing games, the core input device will remain a two handed controller.

There's still another motion control initiative to hear from, but I'll keep myself reserved. Ever since my fervor for the launch of the Wii, I've tried to temper my excitement with thoughts of how disappointed I was with console in the end. I hate selling my video games, and I hate selling consoles even more, but my Wii was just taking up space. How will the Move be different?

Too old for Mario or too bored of Mario?

Stephen Totilo wrote a sort of introspective look at why adults play Mario games and it got me thinking about the plumber and why I think I've sort of burned out on the Nintendo mascot over the past few years.

Of course, it seems like a Mario game is released every other month these days, whether it be a Mario sports game, a new platformer in 3D, a new platformer in 2D, a remake of an older Mario game, or even a Mario RPG. All those different ways of playing the venerable platforming hero is enough to give any seasoned gamer a sense of fatigue. Hasn't Nintendo realized they're saturating the market?

The accessibility of Mario to gamers both young and old is certainly a selling point for the Nintendo business, as noted by Totilo and company, but it all comes out to being a little much for me. Having a character that can be exploited so readily and regularly makes that character a bit like white noise. If there's always a Mario game coming out, why should I care about any one specific title?

It doesn't help that the basic formula hasn't varied very drastically over the years. Don't get me wrong, I applaud Mario for leading the way in 3D platforming (and, consequentially, open world gaming), but now what does he do?

Long has the Mario name been slapped on games that might not sell so well under normal circumstances. Think back to Super Mario Bros. 2 and the vast changes in gameplay. Anyone in the know will tell you that the original title of that NES cart was Doki Doki Panic in Japan. Big N knows when to put an original title out and when to spray a fine coat of unoriginality over games (Spoiler Alert: Never!). (Consequentially, they also know not to sully the Mario name with terrible games all the time either).

That's what really brought me to this point in my gaming life. Long have I been a single console gamer, sticking with the Nintendo platform of the time. I opened a Nintendo 64 on Christmas years ago and never owned a Playstation. The Dreamcast, Xbox, and Playstation 2 all enticed me, but I relied on friend for time on those other consoles. I bought my Gamecube in a bundle from Costco. In my first year of college I lined up for what I thought ws going to be the biggest "Revolution" gaming was going to see, and picked up the Wii on day 1. I was happy and entertained by my purchase, but frustrated with the immature online structure. I wanted to play with friends while we were off at college. I decided to become a dual console owner and purchased an Xbox 360.

Little time passed before I realized I wasn't playing the Wii and that it's quality title all consisted of a similar theme: Nintendo's first-party mascot line up.

I guess as I've grown, I still appreciate what Mario has done for me and for gaming, but my senses have been lightly dulled from the constant shaking of the Mario money tree.

At a CVS Pharmacy...

While visiting Jenna's parents in Ventura, we ran a couple of errands, including a stop at a CVS Pharmacy. Here in northern California, we don't have CVS but it's about the same as any old drug store you might walk in to.

Of course, we looked around a bit while waiting for a prescription. Doing so set us stumbling across these

Wii knock-off products. I would never have guessed that CVS was backed by the Chinese rip-off artists who surely spawned these products. There were plenty of units too, enough for any amount of customers that wanted to walk in and get the Wii experience for $39.99.

Of course, there isn't much other than the sports games that come with the unit, and who can say how well the "wands" work? Nevertheless, the knock-offs stretch for all the gimicks.

Next to the units on the shelf were the sports attachments for Wii-remotes. The packaging didn't say if they would also attach to the Zone 40.

What does the 40 refer to? Apparently the knock-off unit comes with 40 games built right in! I can't imagine those 40 games are anything more than extremely simple minigames.

Below the Zone 40 was the xtreme fit system. Notice the coloring on the box? Notice the yoga-posing? What about the tag-line? "Fitness made fun!" I bet.

How do these things happen? Nintendo is one of the hardest driving corporations when it comes to battling piracy, but these products were being sold for legal tender in a store in southern California! I admit, when we were in China Town in December, I looked around shops wondering where all the R4s were. How dare I submit to such stupid stereotypes! CVS are the real black-market importers. When will they start carrying the iPhone and PSP knockoffs to go with these atrocities.

Honestly, I just couldn't believe it. They're such terrible derivatives, and shameful too. Won't someone send a letter to Reggie so he can start kicking some asses, might as well throw Walgreens under the bus too while you're at it.