Tales of Breseria was released in the U.S. this past week. Introducing new changes to Namco’s ‘Tales of’ franchise, Tales of Breseria is one of many games that no doubt make an impact this year.
Yeah, 2016 sucked. Lets not mince words about it. Many of our favorite celebrities died (including Harambe the Gorilla), the election ended in the worst possible manner, and Batman vs Superman wasn’t as successful as people wanted it to be. However, it wasn’t all bad. The Cubs won their first title in nearly a century, the Cavs bought Cleveland its first major sports title in over 52 years, Civil War, Dr. Strange, and Deadpool were all awesome, Netflix rolled right along with flicks like Stranger Things, the Get Down, and Luke Cage, and best of all, there were a boatload of awesome games that were released throughout the year. Doom and Mafia III were unexpectedly awesome, X-Com 2 and Civilization 6 both set new standards in the strategy genre, Final Fantasy XV made the rpg franchise relevant again, Titanfall 2 and Watch Dogs 2 surpassed their predecessors, Stardew Valley, Mother Russia Bleeds, Hyper Light Valley, and The Witness held it down for the indie scene, while Overwatch became this year’s big new IP and multiplayer sensation. 2016 also laid the foundation for 2017 and beyond. Check out after the jump to learn about 10 games hitting consoles, handhelds, and pc, most of which hitting before the summer, one of which is already in stores now. [Read the rest of this entry…]
Although Nintendo’s presentation was brief, one of the few games they showed off, Legend of Zelda: Breath of the Wild easily stole the show. Although details on the plot itself were scarce, it’s clear that there are a number of changes to the game, not the least of which is that the game takes place in an open world similar to western RPGS like Skyrim, Gothic, and Kingdoms of Amalur. According to Nintendo, the game’s world is at least 10 times bigger than that of Twilight Princess. Link can use a horse to get around, and will have to rely on food and clothing, so it appears there is a survival mechanic built into the game. Also for the first time in the series (not counting the CD-I entries), there is actual voice acting and dialogue! Sadly, the game won’t be out until next year on both the Wii U and the upcoming NX. In the meantime, check out Gamespot’s 25 reasons why Legend of Zelda: Breath of the Wild may be the coolest, craziest Zelda yet.
The gaming world lost one of it’s great innovators this past weekend. Satoru Iwata passed away due to complications from Bile Duct cancer. Following his graduation from Tokyo University, Iwata worked with frequent Nintendo developer HAL Laboratories, where he developed games such as Kirby, Balloon Fight, and Mother (a.k.a Earthbound). In the early 90s, he became president of the company, helping turn its fortunes around, and contributed to Pokemon Gold/Silver, the start of another classic Nintendo franchise. In 2002, he became the fourth president of Nintendo, and the first not to be related by either blood or marriage to the Yamauchi family. Taking over Nintendo, Satoru began an initiative to make gaming more appealing to all different audiences. To that end, Satoru was the catalyst behind the development of the Nintendo DS and Wii, along with their successors the Wii U and 3DS, all of whom provided Nintendo fans with unique styles of gaming that were unseen on either of their competitors’ consoles. He also improved communications with fans as well, creating the Nintendo Direct conferences, a series of online presentations aimed at introducing new software and hardware to the public outside of regular channels. In 2013, Iwata took over as head of Nintendo of America. Under his direction, the company nixed large E3 presentations in favor of the smaller Nintendo Directs, such as last month’s puppet show. Earlier this year, Iwata cut a deal with mobile developer DeNA to bring its properties to the mobile market.
Ever since it entered the console gaming market in the early 80s, Nintendo has been an innovator in the industry. It was thanks to the efforts of great men like Shigeru Miyamoto, The late Gunpei Yokoi, Reggie Fils-aime, and Takashi Tezuka that the company continues to be innovative. Satoru Iwata is another one of these innovators, and he helped pushed the company above and beyond what it was. The impact of his loss will no doubt be felt throughout the gaming industry.
Click here to see project releases for upcoming Wii U and 3DS titles.
Tuesday morning, Nintendo held its E3 digital presentation. Things were a bit underwhelming on the Wii U side (as they were likely preparing for the NX), but they went deeper into some of the newer things they were planning to release throughout the next several months. Square-Enix also had their press conference later that afternoon. While they showed more of what we had seen during the Sony and Microsoft conferences, they went deeper into what they have panned for gamers, and they also showed off a few new titles. [Read the rest of this entry…]
With the latest Nintendo Direct, a very interesting title was released Wii U eShop. Nintendo has gone all ROM hacker on us, and created a challenge game based on a dozen titles from the NES launch lineup. More than that, these challenges directly focus on the secrets within games, and show you how to beat more difficult stages or bosses. Sean and Vinnk share their impressions of NES Remix, whether they’re too awesome at video games to really like such a title, and worry just a tiny bit that Nintendo is (rightfully) horning in on Famicom Dojo’s retro-educational turf. You should download and play too… assuming the eShop is online long enough to download it. (Curse you, Pokey-Mans!)
Leave your own voicemail at 608-492-1923, or just share your thoughts in the show notes at FamicomDojo.TV: http://famicomdojo.tv/podcast/81
Even in the 8-bit days, the theme of time travel in video games was all around us. For some, it was a story excuse to visit historical landmarks and offer. Other explored idea of what it meant to manipulate tiem Usually, they were some poorly-designed movie tie-in. But each one offered an unmentioned promise that someday, somewhen, the ultimate time travel game would arise. Now, if only someone would invent actual time travel and send that game back to us in time for this episode! Vinnk and Sean discuss their favorite (and sometimes not-so-favorite) time travel games, what they did right, what they could have done better, and spend probably too much time gushing about Presto Studio’s The Journeyman Project and bolstering the merits of the 1996 Doctor Who movie on Fox starring Paul McGann. But, mostly, it’s about games. And we somehow forgot to mention Shadow of Destiny… (Don’t worry; we’ll try to cover that in the show notes.)
Leave your own voicemail at 608-492-1923, or just share your thoughts in the show notes at FamicomDojo.TV: http://famicomdojo.tv/podcast/72
by Sean "TheOrange" Corse, filed in Events, MAGFest on Feb.04, 2013
Sean visits the Fangamer booth at MAGFest XI and comes away with some cool stuff. But will he also win the super-secret gashapon prize when he puts the magic coin into the machine? Don’t skip to the end to find out!
by Sean "TheOrange" Corse, filed in Events, MAGFest on Jan.10, 2012
Sean stops by the Random Encounter Booth in the MAGFest X marketplace to talk to Careless about their “friendly” competition to beat the Descendants of Erdrick to 2000 Facebook likes, how much more awesome their music is, and why we shouldn’t like other bands spawned from evil creatures (even if their music is still pretty kickass).
Plus, a sweet MAGFest Marketplace Montage! (Oooh, alliteration!)
PS3
Famicom Dojo
KEEP PLAYING
KEEP PLAYING: Rewind
Powet Toys
Powetcast
Hitchhiker's Guide POWETcast
Sean stops by the Random Encounter Booth in the MAGFest X marketplace to talk to Careless about their “friendly” competition to beat the Descendants of Erdrick to 2000 Facebook likes, how much more awesome their music is, and why we shouldn’t like other bands spawned from evil creatures (even if their music is still pretty kickass).