From the 7th to the 15th to the 21st
Its only another week, but New Super Mario Brothers is something we’ve waited for very patiently and we can wait a little longer. Not like there isn’t a stack of unplayed and incomplete games here at the Shipley compound…

thx mike!

Edit: OMG, Nintendo has update their site and it says May 15 again.

After a friend of mine clued me in that he had written much of the the Wikipedia entry for Metroid Prime Hunters, it occured to me I still have yet to post my opinion on the game.
MPH is a lot less forgiving that the the Gamecube original. Lock-on is gone, ammo is required for all additional beams, and with the Hunters running around randomly from planet to planet, you could walk into a confrontation when you’re least prepared.
The title is kind of a misnomer too. I’m not 100% on the game yet but there has yet to be any reference to Metroid Prime, the final enemy and title character of the first gamecube game in the series.
Anyway, starting is a little easier than prior games because you’ve still got your boost ball, Varia, bombs, missles, etc. And you won’t lose them either. Progress is hindered rather by not having certain beams to open doors, and sometimes confusing number of teleporting pads.
Its unlikely any Metroid fan will be disappointed with this game, though the hardcore few who firmly beleive in the games time honored sequence breaking and massive exploration might be kinda let down its such a straight forward shooter. Its not quite as brilliant as Super Metroid or Metroid Prime, but from a technical standpoint I am amazed by how well the DS handles this game, as its very visually rich and often times VERY fast.
I’ll take time to sample the online aspect and multiplayer tomorrow, but I can reccomend this game purely based on its single-player, beleive me.

And to those who preferred Retro studio’s console games, theres always Metroid Prime 3

Since I was so enraged by both the Matrix video game and the delay of New Super Mario Brothers, only one thing could make up for it.

A shot-for-shot remake of a scene from Matrix Reloaded with Mario and Luigi.

Its a good thing this show is free.
[Read the rest of this entry…]

Seeing Will Wright in my mailbox this week made me think of the first game of his I ever played.

Already a huge hit on the PC, Nintendo snatched up the rights to Wright’s city planning game and gave it their own spin. Controls were simple enough, using the d-pad and face buttons of the SNES controller to perform the same functions as a mouse on basically the same interface. But earning a Mario Statue for a job well done and Bowser attacks on the city insured this was more than just a direct port.

I never actually owned the game, I borrowed it from my cousin. For something like 2 years. When I’d get a new city starting, I’d work on it for a couple hours then leave it running all night to collect nothing but tax money and pray the whole place didn’t burn down while I was literally asleep. Sure, there was a code to start out with like a billion dollars, but I liked the more risky way. And of course, I used the various color coded industrial zones and residential areas to spell out naughty words on the map, something I’m apparently not alone in doing…

Nintendo also fashioned an avatar for Will Wright as “Dr Wright” who would dole out advice on how to run the city and alert you in case of an emergency. While Maxis has gone on to become one of EA’s biggest developers, Nintendo still pays tribute to the visionary creator with the occasional cameo.

While I can hardly endorse trying to dig up one of these carts when newer better versions of Sim City are all over the internets for very cheap, this was a fun way for someone like myself to play a game well before I had a PC in my home, and it deserves a tribute. PC ports are met with all kinds of disgust over controls and lack of hi-res graphics these days, but back then all I knew was this game let me build a city, and then tax it into oblivion or build the best public transit ever or just screw around. It was really the first sandbox game I can think of, and the first game I ever played where I didn’t care about killing or collecting anything. Wow, I know a guy like Will Wright doesn’t exactly need someone to stand up and call him a genius, but its a testament to his design that he could distract my demented little pre-teen mind away from MTV long enough to build a utopia.

Kotaku’s surreal coverage of the DS Lite launch must be read to be beleived.  Frankly, if you’re going to have to get up that early and wait in line, it might as well be with some down-to-earth weirdos you can alternately converse with and examine with zoo-like fascination.

Only launch I ever attended was the US Dreamcast.  Only 2 of us there, but we still had a good time.