Tag: Wii

A Little Reason Goes A Long Way

sinkingTake a look at any video game news site and you will be sure to find a story about how the PS3 is in third place in the Console Wars and how Sony should just give up and go the way of Sega and make games and not consoles. Yeah, cause that worked out so well for Sega. But I digress. The Playstation brand has seen rough days but it would foolish to count Sony out just yet.

Now, I understand that costs are very high to make video games and that making games on the PS3 is very complex and probably more expensive. I also understand that 360 has a higher install base, but I have news for you: it’s not that much higher. The 360 has sold about 30 million worldwide compared to the 22 million sold for the PS3. Consider the fact that the PS3 launched a year later and around the same time as the Wii. Factor in the admittely high cost of the PS3 and an 8 million unit lead is nice, but not nearly as big as everyone makes it out to be. From the way people fanboys talk, you would think the 360 has a 112 million unit lead or something. Oh wait…112 million units is the amount that the PS2 outsold the original Xbox by. But you didn’t hear this kind of doomsday talk for the Xbox then, did you? I know I didn’t. And the PS3 has already sold as many units as the original Xbox, which is not a mark of success by any means, but it sure does make you stop and wonder where all this negativity is coming from.

Let’s face it: the PS3 has had a rough launch. The high price and lack of killer games really hurt for a long time. But that time is over. With LittleBigPlanet, Killzone 2, Infamous and God of War III all out or soon to be out, the future for the PS3 is looking very bright. This article is not meant to prop up the PS3 or bring down the Wii or 360. I am merely trying to point out some facts that seem to fall by the wayside in these debates. Sony is not going anywhere and neither is Microsoft or Nintendo. Sony thumped everyone in the last round of consoles, so losing this one isn’t going to be end of the world for them.

Besides, these consoles are just getting going. Nintendo has jumped out to a seemingly insurmountable lead, but Wii sales have already slowed down and while mining the casual market seems to have done them a great service, the loss of the hardcore market might mean that the Wii’s days of ruling the sales charts are over. The 360 and PS3 will only get stronger, so we have a long way to go before this battle in the Console War is over.

Just relax and enjoy the games and try to let the guys who get paid tons of money worry about the business side of things. You want to support your console? Buy new, not used games. Other than that, it’s out of our hands. Except for the controller, of course. Until the Natal comes out.

Top 3 Hottest New Releases For June

proto1All my complaining about a sparse summer season for games has fallen by the wayside, as now I simply am struggling to keep up with it all. We just had Infamous drop and now here comes a few more potential blockbusters to soak up the summer hours:
Continue reading Top 3 Hottest New Releases For June

Miyamoto Announces New Zelda for Wii

evolution-of-linkNintendo had a pretty good showing at E3, but one thing was missing that irked some people: a new Zelda for the Wii. Well, irk no more, because 1UP has revealed that during a roundtable discussion, Shigeru Miyamoto unveiled plans for a new Legend of Zelda game for the Wii, due out in 2010. The reason it was not shown at E3 is the team wanted to focus on defining the concept of the new Zelda game rather than waste time on a demo.

1UP also reports that

During the discussion, Miyamoto briefly showed an image from the game featuring a mature Link barely visible through a broken wall. Although the picture only showed Link from behind, a short girl in a long robe stood in full view at Link’s back. Wearing a crystal necklace and emanating a blue aura, she gave off an otherworldly look

Joystiq adds, in their own report, that it could possibly be a Motion Plus exclusive, but that the details are not finalized.

Excited? Dismayed? It sounds like they are trying to make Zelda fresh again, which would be welcome news, especially after seeing the footage of the new Metroid game.

Source: 1UP

Source: Joystiq

Nintendo E3 Presser Highlights

nintendoHere are the big points of the big N’s press event today:

  • Looks like those reports of a new Mario Wii game were right. However, they shocked everyone with a new Super Mario Bros. game – with 4 player co-op! Plays a lot like LittleBigPlanet from the looks of it. It will also be out by X-Mas!
  • Wii Fit Plus is out in late 2009. Oh joy.
  • Wii Sports Resort uses the new Wii Motion Plus for enhanced movement – isn’t this what the Wii was supposed to do to begin with? However, the sky diving looks cool, also there will be basketball and archery.
  • Tiger Woods PGA Tour 10 packaged with Wii Motion Plus. Neat.
  • Red Steel 2 also comes packaged with Motion Plus and can only be played with the peripheral. Gameplay looks pretty sweet, and love the new art style.
  • Square Enix announced Final Fantasy Crystal Bearers, a new open world RPG headed exclusively to the Wii. That’s what I’m talking about. The system sorely needs more RPG’s.
  • A new DS Mario and Luigi RPG called Bowser’s Inside Story is coming at the end of the year. Those games are fun, but they really need to change the formula.
  • Next, they teased everyone with a “legendary RPG announcement”. No, it’s not Zelda. Turns out it’s Golden Sun DS. Meh.
  • Cop, a new DS game from Ubisoft, looks like a rip-off of Chinatown Wars, only it might be even better.
  • Wario Ware DIY for the DS lets you design your own games. Could be cool, but due to Nintendo’s fear of the Internet, I can’t see this going anywhere.
  • Facebook is coming to the DSi. That’s two systems now. You can upload your pictures of yourself with a squished head!
  • Every presser is bound to have a wtf, and Nintendo unleashed one with the Wii Vitality Sensor. It’s a pulse reader that helps you relax? Seriously, they just showed a pic of Iwata in a recliner with his eyes closed and the thing on his finger. Wtf Nintendo. Games, please.
  • Super Mario Galaxy 2! This one’s got Yoshi in it apparently. I have to say, that’s a pretty cool announcement. Any new 3D mario game is a total bonus. No date given, though.
  • You know it’s bad when Reggie has to come out and say “I read the blogs, too”, and has to defend Nintendo’s hardcore-ism. After that, he showed off Sega’s Conduit, Dead Space: Extraction and Resident Evil: Darkside Chronicles. Nothing too exciting here.
  • Oh snap. A new Metroid game dubbed Other M is being made by Team Ninja, the Ninja Gaiden dudes. It’s a mature game with awesome third person action and platforming elements. Coming in 2010, and holy crap it actually looks cool. Maybe one of the best announcements at E3 to date.
  • Kind of weird that Miyamoto didn’t make an appearance. I’m guessing that means we won’t be seeing Zelda until next year.

I have to admit, while most of that was a snoozer, the Project M reveal at the end was incredible. Check back throughout the day and these bullets will be updated with links to videos and screenshots.

What’s the coolest news from the Nintendo event? Discuss!

GamerSushi Asks: What Would You Do If You Ran Sony/Nintendo/Microsoft?

consolewarWith E3 just around the corner, everyone seems to have an opinion about what’s going to happen or what should happen. So I got to thinking: what would I do if I were running any of the Big 3?

Honestly, for Nintendo, I would keep doing what they are doing, but also I would try to get more of the classic Nintendo franchises out there to lure the hardcore gamers. Wii sales are finally tapering off, so if you can lure in those older gamers with a solid library then I think they will really show their dominance. Also, more Virtual Console games. One game a week ain’t cutting it.

For Microsoft, I would give up any hope of competing with Nintendo using motion controllers and stick to what works: hardcore gamers and buying exclusives for the 360. Microsoft doesn’t have nearly the number of Triple A exclusives for this year that Sony does so if they can hold their lead they will likely reload for next year. Look for a new Gears game to be announced at next years E3. I would also dump Rare. Their time in the sun is gone and I think they will only cost Microsoft money now.

Sony, despite the constant negative press, is not as far behind as you might think. They are only 6.5 million consoles behind Microsoft and since they started a year later, that isn’t too big a lead. 2008 was not Sony’s year for exclusives, but 2009 is. Killzone 2 and Infamous have already landed and more are on the horizon, including Heavy Rain and what the hell Kojima has planned. I have heard rumors of a MEGATON announcement that Sony has planned at E3, but I have no idea what it is, if anything. Sony needs to keep adding to the PSN and getting franchises that people associate with Sony, like God of War, Gran Turismo and Final Fantasy. If it means shelling out the big bucks, then I would do it.

What would you guys do to crush the competition?

So Many Games It’s Like Being Strangled With My Own Hand

evil-dead-handHaving more money and less time on my hands than when I was younger has led to me a terrible dilemma: too many games, not enough time! I have games from two Christmases ago that I have yet to even play, let alone beat.

Thanks to my newly purchased Wii from Eddy, the unplayed games total just got bigger. It spans 4 different systems, 2 different generations and that doesn’t even include classics from the Virtual Console and PSN! Plus, I have a one game subscription to GameFly that usually gets played more than the games I own! I seriously am putting an end to any and all game purchases (except for PSN and Virtual Console…a guy’s gotta have something new to look forward to) until Christmas of this year. By then, I hope to have made a few dents in the Wall of Games I have sitting in my room, laughing at me. Quit laughing at me!

I know that I will not come close to getting all these done by Christmas, but I want to have some of them out of the way. Problem is, Killzone 2 and Call of Duty 4’s online multiplayer keep distracting me! Plus, I have movies and books that I want to enjoy…I am seriously stressed. So what I do when I get overwhelmed is I make a list and as I complete the items on the list, I get to cross them off. I am very OCD this way, but it feels really good.

So here is my list, broken down by system:

Playstation 3
Resident Evil 5
Killzone 2
Fallout 3
Call of Duty 4
Elder Scrolls III: Oblivion and Shivering Isles
Civilization Revolution
Hot Shots Golf: Out of Bounds

Wii
Mario Kart Wii
Super Smash Bros Brawl

DS
Dragon Quest IV
Dragon Quest V
Grand Theft Auto: Chinatown Wars
Castlevania: Order of Ecclesia
Contra 4
Final Fantasy III
Final Fantasy V
Chrono Trigger
Final Fantasy Tactics A2
Final Fantasy Crystal Chronicles: Ring of Fates

PS2
Final Fantasy X-2
Grand Theft Auto: Vice City Stories

PSN Games/PS1 Classics
Suikoden
Castlevania: Symphony of the Night
Syphon Filter
Calling All Cars
The Last Guy
Super Stardust HD
High Velocity Bowling
Pixeljunk Monsters
Age of Booty
Lumines Supernova

Virtual Console
Super Mario 64
Super Mario RPG
Secret of Mana
Super Punch Out
Final Fantasy Crystal Chronicles: My Life As A King
Contra III
Super Mario Bros: The Lost Levels
Castlevania III: Dracula’s Curse
Breath Of Fire II
Super Metroid
Super Castlevania IV

Current GameFly Game:
Super Mario Galaxy

If time is the fire in which we burn, as was once famously said, then my fire is fading fast! I have hours and hours of gaming ahead of me and it’s time to get organized and kick some ass! So I will be periodically updating you guys on my progress or lack of progress, hopefully the former. Soon as I finish Super Mario Galaxy (25 or so stars to go), I will try to play some Killzone 2…but the online is so addicting that it’s really hard to play the single-player mode!

Eddy also has a backlog as does every gamer these days. Here’s a look at his:

360
Fallout 3
Penny Arcade Episode 2
Dead Rising

PS3
Killzone 2
Valkyria Chronicles
LittleBigPlanet

PSN/PS1 Classics
Suikoden

DS
Final Fantasy IV
Final Fantasy VI
Chrono Trigger

PSP
Metal Gear Solid: Portable Ops
Final Fantasy VII: Crisis Core
Final Fantasy Tactics

Now, that is a very reasonable list. I envy him. Looks like Final Fantasy is on everyone’s list of games to get through. I think you really have to be in the mood for that. The problem we all have is that with games like Oblivion or Fallout 3, you can beat it, sure, but never really complete it. And so you keep coming back to it and let other games sit on the shelf. That’s why I stopped playing Madden. Never got around to my other games.

So that’s our sob stories, what does your gaming backlog look like and how do you go about thinning the herd?

Wii Fangirl Rant

(The opinions expressed in this article are solely those of a Wii fangirl that wii_gift_17Anthony made up for the purposes of humor and irony. They do not reflect the views of GamerSushi.com. In short: it’s a joke!)

You know, being on top isn’t easy. Having a Nintendo Wii is so rewarding, yet exhausting at the same time. In between my playing the most popular video game system in years, I constantly have to defend myself against attacks from the “hardcore” gamers. These mouth-breathers, so busy bathing in their bloody games full of filth and cursing, seem to think that the Wii is a lesser system than their giant boxes of boredom. I mean, the PS3 is so large and bulky that if a leopard came at me, I could kill it! And I’m an 11-year-old girl!

There are so many great things about the Wii that these hardcore gamers can’t see. By the way, I may be young, but I know “hardcore” is a type of adult entertainment found on the Internet a lot and for most of these people, it’s as close as they are ever getting to a person of the opposite sex. And plus, look at my amazing grammar! You don’t see such good spelling anywhere on those hardcore message boards, do you? See what I did there?

A lot of these people talk about how dumbed-down Wii games are. What a joke! “Super Smash Bros Brawl is so easy! Just hit ‘A’ to win!” Well, Smarty-Pants, try it. Hit “A” over and over and see what happens. Super Smash Bros Brawl is a game of intricate strategy. You have to do more than hit “A”. Often, I have to jump to get items, dodge attacks and mash ALL the buttons in order to win! And even that doesn’t always work. So if you are having problems winning at this game, maybe you aren’t as hardcore as you think you are, tee hee.

The other game they like to cry about is Mario Kart Wii. They use some term called, “Rubber-band AI”, which means the game actually tries to help the people losing. What’s so wrong about that? When I first played, I beat my big brother 3 times in a row! I made an amazing comeback by getting Blue Shells, Bullet Bill and a TON of Mushroom Turbo Boosts! I went from 12th place to 1st in half a lap! He was so mad and he said a lot of very bad words about Nintendo. So you see, that’s why I think rubber-band AI is so good because my big brother needs all the help he can get!

Another thing they don’t like are Friend Codes. But Friend Codes are made for pretty little girls like me! They protect me from all the evil guys I see on “To Catch A Predator” and that hang out at my bus stop offering me candy. So now, those guys can’t get to me online when I want to make Miis of myself and all my friends! Plus, even the non-creepy guys always want to talk to me and they like to curse when my brother plays Halo, so I am glad I don’t have to deal with them.  Nintendo seems to think that everyone online is a pervert, so who needs them?I have real friends in the real world, I don’t want friends online. That’s what WebKinz and Myspace are for!

So for all those hardcore gamers out there that seem to hate on the Wii and us younger gamers who have fallen in love with it, I would like to say one thing: get a life! Just because you have great graphics, diverse gameplay, accessible online gaming and lots of games who’s favorite color is brown, doesn’t mean that you have it all. I have the Wii and when Nintendo releases the Wii 2 in a year or so, with graphics that are slightly better and a touch screen you can stick over your TV screen and play DS games on, you will be even more jealous than you are now!

Kid Gets a Wii, Needs a Slap

Just a warning: watch this at your own risk. You thought the music in that WoW video was bad? Wait til you get a load of this ADHD freak’s screaming about his new Nintendo Wii. I’m not trying to be a grinch, I mean it’s cool that he’s excited. But still.

Major props to Nintendo for keeping the excitement for this going 2 years later. Seriously, I thought it would fade by last Christmas, but I was dead, dead wrong.

Are We Really Ready For Next Gen?

Over the years, I’ve owned a lot of consoles. At one point or another I’ve been the master of the NES, Atari, Sega Saturn, Sega Genesis, Sega Dreamcast, Sony Playstation (uno, dos, tres) the GBA, Nintendo DS, Nintendo 64, XBox, GameCube, XBox 360, PSP, the PC and Nintendo Wii. I like consoles, and the games that come with them. Each console represents a unique period of my life, in which I had a chance to become familiar with the system like a new friend, watching as they grew into their own.

The newest generation of consoles is starting to gather its steam, and so far things have been decent. However, as of late, more and more people are starting discussions about the next generation beyond the 360, the Wii and the PS3, speculating about development and wanting to know when the new systems will drop. My question is: is it time to be talking about this already? Have the big 3 earned an investment in a new console just yet?

Continue reading Are We Really Ready For Next Gen?

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The Revolutionary Controller?

A lot of debate has generated over the last few years about what makes the perfect gaming console controller. While many swear by dual analog sticks over something like say, the Wii-mote, it’s hard to ignore how overly complicated and cumbersome some controls have become.

On the flip side, the Wii needs a ridiculous amount of accessories and peripherals to even play all of the games you might want to buy. And not everyone likes waggling. So, what’s the perfect controller look like? The guys over at NintendoWiiFanboy have tried to put that together.

Continue reading The Revolutionary Controller?

WiiMote Mods are Mod-tastic

More mods, anyone?

After posting some pretty sweet Wii Case Mods, WiiFanboy has also followed up with a list of 5 Great Wiimote Mods. I have to admit, some of them are just ridiculously awesome. As I said before, I can’t even see 1) where people get the imagination to perform these kinds of modifications and 2) where people learn how to make these things into anything they want.

Personally, I prefer the Power Glove and the Gun models. Thoughts?

Source- WiiFanboy

Casualties of Gaming

All this talk about the Wii being the bastion of casual gamers is really starting to stick in my craw. And I didn’t even know I had a craw or that such a thing could get stuck in it, but whatever. What bothers me is that casual gaming has been around FOREVER and it has nothing to do with the Wii.

Continue reading Casualties of Gaming

Wii-markable Case Mods

While browsing the interwebz as I am wont to do, I stumbled across a particularly cool piece over at WiiFanboy that I just had to share. They’ve put a gallery together of 5 of the most ridiculously awesome case mods that they’ve seen for the Wii.

They’re actually incredible on so many levels, particularly the Mario Galaxies and the Zelda mods. Sometimes, I wish I had the artistic ability and technical know-how to pull off such a feat, and then I remember that I am worthless. Anywho, go check out the wii-markable mods.

Have you guys seen any particularly supreme PC or console mods? Link ’em!

PAX: Waggle Fight!

I was actually surprised by how much Nintendo had to show off in its section, including Animal Crossing, Super Mario Sluggers, Wii Music, Tales of Symphonia Wii and Clone Wars: Lightsaber Duels. Since we had a fun discussion about it on GamerSushi the other day, I figured I’d capture some dudes going at it, waggle style.

PAX Update!

Wow. Seen a lot of crazy stuff at PAX today, but haven’t had any time to update about it because it’s been so nuts. Tonight, I’m going to be uploading my videos and pictures, and they’ll be released over the night and during the day tomorrow. Among some of the coolest things we saw: Little Big Planet, Resistance, the new Halo 3 map, a bunch of Wii games and Fallout 3. More to come!

Rumor: Waggle Your Saber With More Accuracy

Everyone knows that one of the first things they geeked out about when they imagined playing the Nintendo Wii was some kind of super badass lightsaber dueling game. This fantasy may or may not have included a sarlacc pit and jedi robes.

Well, in addition to their other two lightsaber dueling games (The Clone Wars:Lightsaber Duels and The Force Unleashed), it seems that LucasArts might have a third one in the works—this one utilizing one-to-one motion with Wii’s new MotionPlus.

Continue reading Rumor: Waggle Your Saber With More Accuracy

Nintendo Throwing a Bone

Who says there are no hardcore games from Nintendo anymore? There are loads of them! At least, that’s Nintendo’s story, and they’re sticking to it, thank-you-very-much. In fact, they’ll have you know that their developers are up to their pointy ears in hardcore games, and will continue to be that way… for at least 2-3 years…

Continue reading Nintendo Throwing a Bone