How will PS Vita vs 3DS go? And What has Nintendo Done to Us!?

Sony has a very powerful handheld in the PS Vita- that is not arguable at all. It has power rivaling the PS3, and its a handheld. Nintendo has a pretty powerful handheld too, more powerful than their Wii console, but really, it doesn’t come near to the PS Vita.

But the mistakes PS Vita makes are something the 3DS got right, and vice versa.

Just look at the 3DS- most people think its just a 3d DSi. And half of those who don’t aren’t going to buy it until a 3DS Lite comes- which has been confirmed to not be happening. Oh, and it doesn’t help with all the advertising its getting for the 3d aspect- Nintendo hasn’t shown that you can turn off the 3d, and people are worrying it can damage eyes. Also, not many people know about the parental control, and with the “turn off 3d for under 7″ warnings that are all over the boxes for 3ds games.. Nintendo’s sort of dug their own grave.

Meanwhile, Sony has a failing PSP system that most people have heard of, but don’t play, with a PS Vita that looks different and is marketed different, with emphasis on power rather than 3d. However, their flaw is a lack of games. The PS3 and PSP haven’t really been for casual gamers. Most of the people who are going to be buying a game system aren’t going to want to play Uncharted. And with many of people looking to buy a portable are 5 years old.. Even for hardcore gamers, there’s Uncharted, LBP, Stardust.. Aanndd that’s just about it.

Are parents going to buy their kids a game console that has 90% of its games M rated and with unrecognized franchises, or are they going to buy a game console filled with warnings that you shouldn’t play it for more than 30 minutes?

For hardcore gamers, it depends on who they have stuck with. Many will have both, some will like Nintendo better, some Sony better. People who have owned every nintendo console will buy a 3ds. Those who abandoned N64 for a PS1 will get the Vita. Hardcore gamers are really going to be the main audience here in this generation.

Just look at the 3ds already!
The best games on it are a fighting game, a remake of the highest rated game of all time that is 13 years old and a very hardcore game, another fighting game, a strategy game…
And on the horizon is a very hardcore Star Fox and a very hardcore Kid Icarus. Mario Kart and Mario would be good with casual gamers, even though they are more hardcore games. But, with the 3d warning and the thought that the 3ds is a 3d dsi, how many casual gamers are going to spend 250$ on the 3ds? The few that do research on what gaming console they want. And the rest are hardcore gamers.

And the Vita is going to attract hardcore audiences as well.

Who is going to be the casual system? Neither. So what are casual gamers going to do?

Sony’s always had this problem, but nintendo has never had problems with not getting a casual audience… And now they are having problems with hardcore gaming.
While the 3ds seems to be abandoing casual gamers, the Wii is abandoning hardcore gamers. I am realllyy mad that they won’t localize those 3 games (I support operation rainfall) and all we have to look forward to is Kirby and Zelda- and I really don’t want to play Zelda. No, I won’t play such a motion-focused game. I hurt my wrist when I played Twilight Princess. I got a repetitive motion injury and couldn’t move my wrist for a week after playing Metroid Prime 3 for a whole day. How is that hardcore gaming?

I don’t think Nintendo’s going to have the same fate as Sega, but this is really going to be hard to get out of.

If you want, share in the comments who you think will win the portable console wars. I’m predicting it to be too close to call, within 5 million sales of each other.

Bugaham

Not dead yet!

I’m trying to not let this blog die, but its a bit late here, so I’ll post some more stuff a bit later. Here’s some things on Wii U, the Wii successor, for now, and a bit more also on nintendo as of now.

No. This is sad. Really sad. You don’t announce a controller as the main part of your press conference- you announce GAMES. And since everyone was saying that the Wii U is for hardcore and casual, what do you think you need to validate that? A cheap gimmick (check) and some games (absent). So then now I’m hugely getting the impression that this is a system strictly for casual gamers. And I’m buying a PS3 and leaving the nintendo consoles because of this. Portable systems are fine, strangely not one single casual game has been shown for 3ds yet (technically no games were shown at all other than luigis mansion at this e3, but still..) and it is mostly a system for hardcore gamers. I’m cool with that, and would be fine with more casual games to please EVERYONE. Unlike what the Wii U is doing. But yeah, so I’ll have Vita, PSP, 3ds, PS3, and PS3 successor next gen hopefully.

More e3 stuff tommorow

Portal 2, Pilotwings, Sony, E3. Oh my! (No spoilers to Portal here.)

Ok, so I’ve been quite busy with a bunch of stuff during the last post to now- mostly beating portal 2 once and ALMOST twice (about 30 mins left in my run) and waiting for PSN to come back because of Sony’s awesome rewards. I’ll go in the order I listed in the title.

I won’t review Portal 2. It doesn’t need to be reviewed- you probably have it, if you are reading this, and if you don’t yet have it, you must. That’s just it. There are 3 reasons that would be good on their own to buy this game.
1. The awesome humor
2. The amazing fun game
3. The song at the end

So, if you don’t have portal 2..
Here’s some important information:
On steam, you can get portal 1 and portal 2 for 55$- saving you 50% on Portal 1. Get this. You need Portal 1 to understand a lot of the humor in Portal 2, and the story- its really a must if you want to enjoy numbers 1 and 3 on the list above.

Now for Pilotwings. I got sort-of addicted to it, until I finally beat it, so here’s my mini-review (mini because most people don’t have a 3ds and once Ocarina of Time comes out, that is the game to get.). I am not adding a seperate category for 3d, but I’ll talk about that in the graphics.

So, Pilotwings Resort is a 3ds launch title- its been a bit too long of a wait for the new Pilotwings, so its good that it is here- does it make up for all the time that it has been absent?

Graphics-
Graphically, I am amazed with Pilotwings. It surpasses both Wii Fit and Wii Sports Resort, WII GAMES, graphically, even though it is stylistically the same and takes place on the same island. The lighting looks much more realistic, and you can see beautiful, realistic sunlight that seemed absent from Fit and Sports Resort. And also, a lot of small details like water behavior are slightly better in Pilotwings than in Fit and Sports Resort. Its not really a big difference, but a bunch of small differences that make a big difference. This game is graphically the best on the 3ds, in my opinion. This is the first time I have actually looked at a game, and thought, “This is beautiful”. The sunsets are truly an amazing show of what technology can do- its like a WII GAME’s graphics (only better) in front of you, like 10 inches from your face! And with the 3d, it just looks even more beautiful! But after awhile, there are difficulties. I had terrible eye strain at first in Pilotwings but eventually “trained” myself and got used to it- but once you get used to it, you don’t really notice it. So, thats not that great.
10/10 graphics

Music
The sound is great, smooth, jazz music that is super catchy- its not as great as, say, an RPG battle theme but it is really good. However, there are just 3 songs- thats right, 3 songs. Each one plays in 1/3 of the level, one for each vehicle (plane, jetpack, hang glider). This was really dissapointing- I loved the music, but really, 3 SONGS? Thats a bit dissapointing.
7.5/10

Gameplay
I love this game. At first, it seems really shallow and boring- for about the first 4 hours of the game. But once you get really into it, you get REALLY into it. You pilot vehicles through rings and stuff, and its really exciting.There’s not much to say really, the game is actually simple-ish and very much “easy to play VERY hard to master”. This game is very challenging, and while it may seem like it is a casual game, I’d like to see a inexperienced gamer beat this game with less than 24 hours of time play on it- its not going to happen. The game also has unique levels that make up about 50%, levels where you have to put out fires, shoot targets, put on a flying squirrel suit (?) which is fun but random, etc. There are also a few unique vehicles that you can use, that are more difficult but more fun. A turbo jet goes a lot faster, The turbo jetpack goes a lot faster, and the petal glider requires you to pedal to go forward (yeah, it doesn’t go a lot faster like the others). The petal glider also has a stamina bar that does not allow you to spam pedals. The perfect balance of these uniqueness (as I said before, about 50%) makes the game constantly fresh and exciting, especially since most of the non-unique levels are near the beginning. And these aren’t really one-trick ponies- most of the basic principles are the same so that it still feels like you are playing one game. This is overall a very fun game. There isn’t anything really wrong with it in terms of gameplay, but it just isn’t perfect- something about it is a bit boring-ish at some points, but not really due to anything wrong. Maybe its due to lack of gameplay- there’s only the main mode, and the exploration type mode (explained more in Replay Value, because it belongs more in there.). Still, though, this is an amazingly fun 3ds game!
9/10

Replay
Pilotwings is somewhat short-ish, I guess. The main game takes about 12 hours to beat all the way (note that you have to get a score of at least around 5/6 on every mission to unlock the final set of missions and get at least 5/6 on those to really beat the main part of the game.) and has a little exploration island thing that takes about 3-4 hours to beat without a walkthrough. Basically, you have a set time limit to find hidden items all over the island. Using a walkthrough ruins most of the fun, though, so I don’t recommend doing that. The more items you get, the more time you have to explore the island and once you get certain amounts of items you unlock a 3d picture type thing. Its not really a picture, because its more like a… I don’t know, a 3d thing both 3d in the stereoscopicy and 3d as in N64. These aren’t really worth it at all. You can also unlock some easter eggs (not saying anymore there) that are really amazing in the exploration mode. But, overall, it’ll only last you 15 hours- I’m on my 2nd save file right now, but I know I won’t play the exploration again until I forget where the items are hidden. I’m almost done with file 2, about 20 hours into the game. I do expect to play a third file eventually, so I think all of that totals to about 25 hours in the long run. There is no multiplayer, no online high scores, no streetpass..Basically you have the 1 player, and once you get bored, that’s it. Its a fun game, and 25 hours for 40$ is worth it (by the way thats .625 hours per dollar), but there could’ve definitely been a bit more, especially with all the new wireless and multiplayer stuff like Spot Pass that the 3ds has added. And who knows, maybe nintendo will spot pass some extra missions? But no, no real use of the 3ds features either.
7.5/10

Overall….
9/10
I love this game. It is really fun, and a great show of what the 3ds can do. It is completely worth the 40$, as long as you don’t mind feeling like you got a beta release of what could’ve been a 10/10 game. You’ll get none of the 3ds’s features, other than 3d, but it doesn’t matter that much because of how amazing the whole world of Pilotwings is.

Now about sony.

So, Sony’s PSN has been down for less than a month, and they are giving their customers a free month of playstation plus and 2-4 games (depending on which systems of theirs you own, PSP, PS3, or both) which is really awesome. So this is just a huge thank you to sony!

And last but not least.. E3 Predictions! By the way, if one becomes true, you heard it here first (other than the project cafe stuff).

100% liklihood
Project Cafe Revealed (though not actually called that)
3ds E-Shop with a bunch of new eshop stuff announced (my own prediction)

90% Likelihood
Project Cafe has a touchscreen controller with 2 analogue sticks and some buttons

85% Likelihood
Mario 3ds Fully Unveiled (my own are from here on).

70% Likelihood
Release dates for all the amazing 3ds games we saw at E3 last year- Kid Icarus, Mario Kart, Paper Mario, etc.

60% Likelihood
Kirby Wii shown (the Kirby game that we know is in development, have screenshots of from nintendo’s reports, and has been in development since Gamecube days)

Pikmin comes to Project Cafe

50% Likelihood
Kirby Wii plays a Twilight Princess, being put on Project Cafe as well as Wii

40% Likelihood
Kirby Wii is 100% moved to project cafe
Kirby Wii stays on wii

30%
Valve announces 3ds game (hey, there are rumors that Valve has a dev kit)

20%
NINTENDO PHONE

10%
No controller at all console
That would be terrible!!

That was a lot.

Bugaham

Lots Of Stuff

Well, its been awhile since I posted. I’ve been a bit busy lately, I guess, but hopefully I should be able to post more often soon. Well, what’s happened since a month ago? Well, I picked up a 3ds with Street Fighter and Pilotwings! I haven’t played more than 6 hours on each, so I won’t review them just yet. But I will review the 3ds. And also, the 3ds hasn’t sold its 4 million yet… I will tell my take on WHY.

Firstly, the 3ds review, with a few Q&A at the beginning for all of you who aren’t sure about the 3ds yet.

What is 3ds? Why should I buy ANOTHER DS if I already have a DSi, DSiXL, DS Phat, and DSlite?
The 3ds is not a DS. It is not a DSi, it is not a DSiXL, a DS Phat, or a DSLite. Its not a “3d DS” as the name suggests; in fact, you can’t even play DS games in 3d. The 3ds plays 3ds and ds games, and is a bit more powerful than the Wii. Think in between a 360 and a Wii. The main new feature, to me at least, is that extra power. There’s also an analogue stick called the circle pad, a little bit bigger top screen, Street-Pass (when you walk by someone who has a 3ds and you have your 3ds with you, they do data exchange.), Spot-Pass (games can ‘Push’ content to you to update your games while your 3ds is in sleep mode), a 3d Camera, and the 3d.

3D?!? Are you talking about that 3d gaming system that the Sun told me is terrible? HOW COULD YOU!
Replace “3d” with “HD” and you realize how dumb that question sounds. 3D is like HD- it has no real effect on the game, but makes it look overall cooler and more realistic. The 3d can easily be changed to Off, On, or inbetween on the side, so if you are one of the 10% who cannot see 3d, you won’t miss out on anything.

There will eventually be games that require 3D, so I won’t get a 3ds.
That’s fine. That’s your poor choice. I’ll be playing Pokemon Generation 6, Mario 3ds, etc. and you’ll be saying “Why aren’t they releasing any DS games!!”. Nintendo understands you. Nintendo has ALWAYS been a consumer-friendly company with amazing customer service. Nintendo doesn’t want ANY of their customers missing out. There is a thing called a 3d slider that will allow you to turn 3d Off, On, or inbetween, as mentioned above. You will never be left out because of a depth perception problem, if you have a depth perception problem. You won’t be able to see the cool 3d effect, but you’ll be able to play the games.

Now for the review.

The 3ds is amazing. Thats the only way to put it, really. Its like carrying a Wii in your pocket. You have things on there that would have never been done on the DS. The wireless features are amazing, and I think just about everything about the 3ds is good. Its hard to explain the 3ds’s awesomeness: just get it. But its easy to exxplain the parts where the 3ds fails.

For one, it launched too early. E Shop isn’t ready yet, and I’m waiting, and waiting, and still, it isn’t out. I have to wait until the end of May. For two, the AR games are terrible! AR games are games that happen in your world. You place a card down, and you look at it through the 3ds camera, and a DDRAGON POPS OUT AND STARTS ATTACKING YOU!! Awesome, right? No. The idea is good, but the games lag like crazy. The only one I like, the only one that doesn’t lag, isn’t really a game, it just allows you to take clever pictures of game characters in poses- for example, there is one pose of Kirby where he is in the middle of drawing with a marker. I took a notepad, got a marker the same color as kirby’s, started a drawing, and then moved kirby so he would look like he was drawing. It was excellent. The only thing is, the cameras aren’t very good. And you can’t take video. And the Miis and Characters you take pictures of aren’t animated- just static, and can switch between 5 positions. Also, you move around a bunch in AR games, which makes the 3d effect not work- for the 3d effect to work, you have to sit still and position the 3ds between 8-20 inches STRAIGHT in front of your face. A twist to the side, and the 3d stops working. Thats a problem with another game that comes with the 3ds as well, Face Raiders. Its not really a bad game, but it just doesn’t work with the 3d. Some have complained about the system dying fast; I disagree. I haven’t really timed it, but I have never ran out of battery or even needed to charge while I was playing. Nintendo gives you a very useful charge cradle that makes charging the 3ds VERY easy. The only other problem I had with the 3ds is that the bottom screen is smaller than the top screen. There is a barrier for the bottom screen- not the top screen- that leaves 2 lines running down the top screen. You can only see them in ddirect sunlight, and they wipe off easily, its just annoying. I’d reccomend not pressing on your 3ds, but instead shutting it very verry gently.

Those are the only problems I have with the 3ds, and only 1 of them is a hardware problem, and is just an annoyance rather than something that ruins the experience. Now, you probably want to know about the 3d if you still are reading this because you haven’t bought a 3ds yet- the 3d is cool. However, different games use it different ways. Pilotwings uses it way too overwhelmingly, and I have to play with the 3d almost off- Street Fighter is the opposite. It barely uses 3d, so I turn it all the way up. The sweet spot gives you a wide DISTANCe to hold your 3ds in, but you can’t turn your 3ds or move it side to side without ruining the 3d effect. I have only had problems with the 3d in Pilotwings- after about 5 minutes of looking 3d full blast, I got really dizzy. That’s what the slider is for- I turned it to a lower setting, and have never had any problems. Also, at first I got a tiny bit of dizziness after playing for a while- however, I am completely used to it now. To avoid eye strain or headaches or dizziness, turn the 3d to a setting you can easily stand!
Overall, you need a 3ds if you are a nintendo fan. The DS is dying, and Ocarina Of Time, Star Fox, Paper Mario, Mario Kart, and Kid Icarus are all coming to the 3ds soon. Ocarina and Starfox are enhanced remakes with much better graphics and extra features- Paper Mario, Mario Kart, and Kid Icarus are brand new games. The 3ds is really great. And while it does have ONE hardware flaw, that flaw is extremely minor. I wish it would’ve came with more features, but there are updates- one update, nintendo gave me a free music video by OK Go in 3d (White Knuckles). I’m not really a fan of OK Go, but the song was somewhat good and the adorable puppies running around in 3d really showed what the future updates might be able to do, like 3d videorecording. The cameras are very weak, but overall the 3ds is a must-have. I give it a…
9.7/10

Now for what Nintendo’s doing wrong with marketing, and what it could be doing better.

1. “ITS IN 3D!! CAN YOU BELIEVE IT, 3D?!?!?!? OH, DID WE MENTION?? 3d!” Nintendo is going all out about this 3d. The 3d has no effect on the gameplay- all you are seeing are two extra images. In fact, I found myself judging distances just as well with 3d on as with 3d off. Maybe I just have a good imagination (thats what we use to make fake 3d games seem more 3d.), but I don’t think the 3d changes anything. Most people don’t even like 3d.

What Nintendo Could Do Better: “What’s more powerful than a wii, can be played on the go, and has many many features? The 3ds!” Nintendo needs to show the 3ds’s other features. The 3d is my least favorite feature- its by no means BAD, it just isn’t making the game any funner.

2. “We called it 3ds.” Because of this, thousands of people think nintendo has made another DS to go in the DS line, when the DS is really a brand new thing. They should never have used the letters “DS” in the name!

What Nintendo Could Do Better: Nothing. Its too late now. The BEST they could do would be to advertize specifically, “Its not a DS. Your DS cannot play 3ds Games, and your 3ds can. Your 3ds doesn’t even play DS games in 3d- just 3ds games.”

3. No must-have games. “Pilotwings, and Street Fighter! Thats all you need until JUNE!” Well, nintendo won’t sell anything until june. Ocarina Of Time and Mario 3ds needed to be launch titles. (Yes, I forgot to mention it above, but there is a mario 64-type mario in the works for 3ds.) Or at least launch window titles.

What Nintendo Could Do Better: “THE MAY UPDATE ON MAY 1 BRINGS THE ESHOP, WHICH HAS ALL THE NES AND SNES AND GB AND GBC LAUNCH GAMES IN 3D!” This is pretty unlikely. I can’t wait for the may update, but I really think It’ll happen May 31. Nintendo said May. That means May 31. But, That would give us some popular games to play with til way past June! Nintendo has also said that Japan gets a free Excitebike download. I hope the same is true for America. If so, and if the E Shop launches soon.. Then June won’t be as long of a wait.

Well. that’s all for now. Hopefully more will come later- maybe a Pilotwings review or a Pilotwings VS Street Fighter showdown thing.

Bugaham

5 Reasons Why 3DS Is Amazing

I have seen the future, at best buy. Actually, I saw it like a week ago, but just havent gotten around to posting this yet. Sooooo..

Here are my impressions on the 3ds in a list type thing

1. The 3d is awesome.
I tried to not let myself get caught up in a gimmick, but it is literally like looking into a world through a window. I did find the sweet spot to be really, really bad, though, but as long as you aren’t on a train or something, I don’t really see this as being an issue. Another complaint is that I feel that the depth slider is useless. Basically, when the 3d is turned on, there are two double images, like you are cross eyed. You have to turn the slider to the right depth to align them to see the 3d. I guess the 3d depth slider is to make it easier on developers if they do 3d a bit different? I’m not sure, its just that there was one “perfect point” that I saw and everything other than that “perfect point” was double images (except, of course, for 2d.) I guess I can see where the 3d helps with gameplay a bit? Yesterday, I was playing an awesome game (Snoopy Vs The Red Baron, sounds like it would be bad as its a liscenced game but it is surprisingly amazing) but was stuck on a boss fight where at one point, the boss was hurling boulders towards you (you were following the boss through a huge tunnel in your airplane), except the problem was, I couldn’t tell how far away they were. The 3d might help with that, but if you think of the science of WHY fake 3d works, I’m not too sure. You just get a 100% accuracy boost so you are twice as accurate as before… By like, 5 pixels. Now, having never really experiencing the system for more than 15 minutes, I’m not sure, but it seems like 3d won’t have that much effect on gameplay.. But hey, unlike the Wii, the 3DS’s gimmick won’t take away from gameplay because you can always turn it off!

2. The circle pad is awesome
I thought the analogue nub on PSP was great. Until I saw the circle pad. The circle pad looks like it wouldn’t be “grippy” at all, but I had absolutely no problem at all with keeping grip. And, since the material is so “grippy” one would think that it would be uncomfortable. This is not the case. Nintendo chose the best possible material, I think, for the circle pad. 360 degree movement is really nice.

3. Pilotwings seemed cool
I know in a demo you can’t capture what a game is, but the pilotwings demo really impressed me. The scope of the island was pretty good, and the 3d helped make it cooler. It was very fun to maneuver my airplane/jetpack (sorry, forgot to try hang glider) through this island. Except, my complaint is, I just went over there, picked up the game, and was immediately great at it. No practice, no nothing. It was simple. Too simple. I know they needed a quick, casual, “pick up and play” game for the demo, but that’s a bit too far. It makes me want to buy the game, but at the same time it makes me scared to buy it. With that in mind, I forsee this being a quick and easy game, and IGN has confirmed my suspicions. However, it did seem very cool and I was impressed by the game. I will still probably get it, though, because the first moment of power in flying your vehicle is sooooo cool. And that the 3ds launch is absolute crap, this is one of the better things.. So, unless anything BETTER comes out (Ocarina of Time doesn’t come til JUNE!!!) by the time I pick up a 3ds (April or May probably.), its this and street fighter for me.

4. Its build is a whole lot nicer than the build of my DS Lite.
The DS Lite is known for its awful, stupid, lame D-pad. The “squishy dpad” (a quick search for squishy dpad shows DS Lite mentioned in the first result.). Also, its shoulder buttons are a bit weird, but its a bit hard to describe. The GBA SP had shoulder buttons that were slightly raised a bit, and instead of going INSIDE the system when pressed, they TOUCHED the system when pressed. The 3DS buttons are pretty good. The D-pad is a bit less clicky than the SP, and about as raised up as the DS Lite. The shoulder buttons are exactly like the SP’s shoulder buttons. IT HAS A CIRCLE PAD. Even its buttons feel nicer. It also shines more, and I find the design much more better than the DS’s design.

5. IT HAS OCARINA OF TIMMMMMEEEEEE!!!!!!!

Also, many other games. Kid Icarus Uprising, Mario 3DS, Mario Kart 3ds, Paper Mario, an unnamed Pokemon game, and retro games over the E-Shop just to name a few.

Overall Opinion

Pros:
-Its a 3ds
-Its in 3d
-The design is cooler than the DS’s
-It has better buttons
-Its in aqua blue
-Its powerful
-It will play Ocarina Of TIMMEEE!!!!

Cons:
-Its battery life on lowest brightness and no 3d is equal to that of a max setting DS Lite.
-Not everyone will be able to see the 3d, which is why I’m frustrated nintendo is marketing it with “OOOH 3D” things.
-To me, the 3d is just a side dish, not the main course. Its a bit of a gimmick, and while it may help a BIT to do better, its not an absoute game changer
-It doesn’t play Ocarina Of TIMMEEEE!!!!!!! yet, because its launch lineup is laughable. Lets all point and laugh!

Unfortunately, I did not have enough time to override the menu and test the camera and AR games. Sorry!

Overall:
3DS is amazing, it has cool games, but hasn’t reached its potential yet, but is still amazing.

I will be getting a 3ds as soon as I can.

Pokemon Black and White Review

A few people asked for it, so here it is!

*WARNING SPOILER ALERT!!!*

Okay, so I used to have some really fancy and balanced scale here, but its just annoying to do that. And out of 10 makes more sense. So, here it is.

Pokemon Black and White are really awesome. All of the Pokemon games are. Combine JRPGs, strategy, and mathematics and you have a genius game that is one of the few video games that is played competitively over simulators. As you probably don’t know, I play this rather awesome game competitively over simulators. Still don’t believe me that Pokemon is really all that mathematical and strategical ish and stuff? Damage Formula = (((((((Level × 2 ÷ 5) + 2) × BasePower × [Sp]Atk ÷ 50) ÷ [Sp]Def) × Mod1) + 2) ×
CH × Mod2 × R ÷ 100) × STAB × Type1 × Type2 × Mod3) That’s a formula it uses. So there!!

So, since I play Pokemon competitively (though not over the game but on simulators), it made sense for me to import the game in September rather than wait 6-8 months. Which, since they looked so awesome, I didn’t want to do. So, I have the Japanese version and beat it abouuutttt- 5 months ago? So, really, I guess I’ve had 5 months to think about how I’m going to rate it.

Graphics
Okay, the graphics of this game are amazing. This is EXACTLY what Pokemon Diamond and Pearl should’ve been like, though, which is the sad thing- the DS was outdated 6 years ago when it came out. For all you people complaining about crappy graphics- is it REALLY the game’s fault? The only way to have good graphics is to use a fancy style, which would not fit pokemon at all. And I hear complaints of “The pokemon aren’t in 3d!!!!”. Have you ever looked at pokemon fanart on the internet? How many different pokemon personalities there are? Try imagining all of those in 3d. I personally cannot do that. I see one image- a personality-less pokemon. Which is good for things like Pokemon Stadium, but definitely not for a DS pokemon game where personality and cuteness/coolness in a pokemon really matter. 3d figures take away almost all of the personality. At least the sprites are animated, but they should’ve been exactly like that in Diamond and Pearl, which is yet again a sad thing. Also, I would have loved to see it where my Boiling Water attack does not come from my Purinu (the water octopus guy, YES I KNOW I SPELLED THE NAME WRONG.)’s forehead, but rather his mouth. And when a pokemon uses fly or something, they flap their wings. And when they use surf, you see them move with the wave. That’s kinda dissapointing, but you can’t complain too much about what’s not there when what is there isn’t too bad. It just seems like a game that comes out as a FINAL NINTENDO FRANCHISE DS GAME would have this dissapointing graphics. But, they are still pretty good. But, they are still dissapointing at the same time. I want a first person pokemon game. Remember Metroid Prime Hunters and how good of a tech-thing that was? WHY couldn’t Pokemon, released SIX YEARS LATER have that good of graphics! Really. So, overall, I will give graphics… 7.8/10

Sound/Music
The sound and music of pokemon games are always amazing in their own right, with Black and White being no exception. If you came here expecting the same amazing soundtrack Silver and Gold offered, you’ll be out of luck but it still is better than Diamond, Pearl, Ruby, and Sapphire (the last few pokemon games.). Seriously, for those of you who have the game, LISTEN TO THE TEAM PLASMA THEME! IT IS THE BESTEST. The main battle theme is a bit dissapointing, though. The wild pokemon battle is too. If these would’ve been good, than Pokemon Black and White’s soundtrack would’ve been the best in the series. But sadly, since you listen to them so much, Pokemon Black and White are harmed a bit by the poor wild pokemon and main battle themes. Every single pokemon game to date has had better wild pokemon and main battle themes. But, Pokemon Black and White BEAT every other pokemon game in soundtracks OTHER than that. The gym leader theme is absolutely amazing. As is the Team Plasma theme. And the low hp theme. And the last pokemon Gym Leader theme. You really need to hear these! I’d rank Black and White second to Gold and Silver when it comes to soundtrack, which earns them an 8.8/10! (that would be a 10/10 if the battle.. and wild.. pokemon.. themes.. were… actually… GOOD!)

Gameplay
The gameplay is the same as before. Without this, Pokemon is not Pokemon. People don’t realize that. “WELL I WANT TO ADD ANOTHER TYPE!” That would be admitadly cool but it would mess up the entire competitive type balance. Pokemon cannot be touched how it is- triple battles and rotation battles are new, but not really that cool. But, here’s the thing- Pokemon was NEVER broke. So, it NEVER needed fixing. And that’s the case now. “Fixing” pokemon would just break it. It does disapoint me that its the same “Trainer named ___ on their first journey in the region ____ trying to gather the 8 badges and fight evil team ___ and defeat the elite four and catch the legendary ____” as always, but that made the japanese game much easier to understand, so not many complaints there for me. The new pokemon are amazing. The starters are crap, but the rest are amazing. The water octopus is the best, and so is Sazandora (The pseudo-legendary dark dragon hydra.) and I love my Muurando (the dog.). If you’ve noticed, I am not calling them by their English names. Why is this? Because the English names are AWFUL! Oshawatt? REALLY? Revolver Oshawatt GO! And Tepig? Wow. Take “Tepid” and add a “g” and be clever, right? Sounds VERY intellegent. Pignite is the middle form, and the fan predicted name. I like Pignite. SNIVY is also an awful name. Smugleaf, the fan name, is cooler. Some of them aren’t bad, like Lillup, but YoTerrie (ther japanese name) is much cooler. I guess I’ll get used to it though. The game is really fun though. The region is pretty cool, and so is the entire new “world” they created. However, Red is not at the end. Instead, you have Cynthia and Morimoto who I swept with one wild pokemon that you catch at level 75, a bug fire moth, that knows Butterfly Dance (raises Sp. Attack, Sp. Def, and Speed all one stage) Heat Wave, and Bug Buzz. So, Cynthia and Morimoto are easy- they stupidly let you get 4 Butterfly dances and SWEEP. Yeah. There is also no 8 more gym leaders, but I guess I’m starting to get into the game’s replay value?? 9.5/10

Replay Value
There are 8 gyms. There is virtually nothing to do after you beat the game other than the battle subway. And the game is short. There aren’t cities in between gyms. There are only about 10 cities before the Elite Four, and the first two are, you guessed it, the cities before the first gym. And while the cities are some of the coolest cities yet (Hiun has a population over 600, more than the entire population of the region Kanto. It also has 360-type stuff impossible to describe unless you play the game.), the cities aren’t spaced out very well. There are 3 cities after the Elite Four, but what motive is there? You have to remember game design theory. It isn’t good to have no motivation or reward- ONE city has motivation- you can fight Cynthia there. But once you fight her, and cream her with your Buttterfly Moth Fire Bug thing, what else do you do? The last 3 cities are absolutely awful, like they were built in 10 seconds and just thrown in there. White Forest is pretty good, but really there isn’t much reward for building up your forest. Had these cities been fully fleshed out and made cool (like the city in Sapphire and Ruby where everone lived in trees that were connected with vine branches!!), that would’ve had a bit more motivation. Also, the cities are ridiculously small. The rest of Unova (Black and White’s region) is pretty big, with 2 cities being bigger than the biggest city in all the other regions. So, you have 3 small, ugly, villages for the player to “explore” after they beat the game. VERY EXCITING! What GENIUS game design, Game Freak! Here’s what they should’ve done- put a very experienced trainer with level 80′s and a reasonable strategy and great AI (sort of like Red but a bit less epic and a bit better at battling) in each of the 3 cities (Cynthia has 70′s, no reasonable strategy, and awful AI.) with side plots required to get them all and extra bonuses and a HUGE CITY TO EXPLORE TO GET THEM. I just wonder, Gold and Silver were done on little tiny, hardly any memory, GAMEBOY CARTRIDGES. They were GAMEBOY GAMES. That played on a piece of machinery FROM THE 80′s. They played on a 20 year old machine, and yet are twice as long as the more recent pokemon games? That bothers me. The only reason Gold and Silver weren’t any bigger was because they physically couldn’t be! Every single byte on that cartridge is filled up to the maximum. Nintendo also didn’t make cartridges with more space than that. So, if a DS cart can fit an entire nintendo 64 game (Mario 64) with BONUS content (The 3 added characters and multiplayer mode) couldn’t a DS cart fit, I don’t know, as much STUFF as Gold and Silver? I gaurentee you that the cartridge is not maxed out. They did not run out of space. They got LAZY. And its not like a second region would need to be as detailed as the first- Kanto added 10 hours to Gold and Silver with virtually every aspect of it removed. Kanto was NOTHING yet it added 10 hours of fun beating the gym leaders and beating Red. Soul Silver and Heart Gold did it, but Gold and Silver had already done the exact same thing before. And I know for a fact that the actual mapping of the game and creating of new trainers doesn’t take very long- I would have gladly waited an extra year for them to add another region, or even Hoenn or Sinnoh! At that point, they could also fix the poor graphics too with the 3ds! But, sadly, Pokemon Black and White aren’t what they could’ve been. I feel kinda silly complaining about a 40 hour quest, though, but it has nothing on Silver and Gold’s 80 hour quest. 7/10.

Overallllllll……

9/10. Pokemon Black and White are definitely not the games they should’ve been, but that doesn’t mean they aren’t good in their own respect. But, right now, which game do you think I’m on my 20-somethingth-replay of? Pokemon White? No, Pokemon Silver. Pokemon Black/White could’ve been much more, but they are pretty good.

And the dream world is awesome, I don’t really want to spoil the initial excitement for you guys.

And the C-Gear, same as above.

And when you reach the middle Island of Unova…

Basically, its still Pokemon, its just not the next step forwards for the series but rather an awkward step diagonal-sideways, if that makes sense.

Highly reccommended for anyone, and I think this is probably the 2nd best pokemon game to start with (1st = Silver. If you want to fork out the money for a working copy.)

Goodbye DS! I really loved your Swan Song, though it dissapointed me at the same time. Here’s a Haiku.

I got you day one
And I beat all of your games
But now you’re boring

And here’s another one to continue-

And you’re graphics are
More outdated than ever
And you’re games? Lazy.

And the last one-

Next? The 3ds.
Probably won’t fix problems.
BUT it will be good.

Hope you enjoyed this review!

Bug

Sorry guys! I’m back now.. And with some Nintendo 3ds Insight!

Ok, so I stopped blogging for a while for a multitude of reasons, but anyways, I’m back now! YAY!

And with some 3ds insight.

Okay, so the 3ds looks to be amazing. Not the 3d, I could really care less about that. A portable Ocarina of Time that is easy access (PSP hacking is semi-difficult, and I don’t have an Iphone 3gs or ipod touch 3rd gen) is amazing. Ocarina of Time at home is amazing, but Ocarina of Time on the go is amazing.

You can play it here and there, you can play it anywhere. In a box, with a fox, here and there, anywhere!

Anyywayyys, with the graphics power displayed on a small screen, the graphics look to be about as good as the average wii game’s graphics, which is always a plus.. And finally! What’s that? An analogue stick! Yes, analogue sticks are musts when all your games have motion in 3 dimensions. And 3d is a cool little feature that will be cool but not add anything to the fun. But its just cool.

Anyways, nintendo has recently met a new rival- Apple (cough cough the evil corporate busines cough cough). Wait! you say. Wait!. The ipod touch cannot compete with the DS! Only one is a true gaming device! No. Not true. My ipod allows me to play SNES, NES, and Gameboy. Which is pretty cool. And also, games like Doodle Jump and Cut The Rope are great for 3 minute airplane delays, better than your DS game.

But your DS is better for the airplane RIDE. You really get into it, its much more indepth and, no offense, better than doodle jump.
So, you have both. But the average casual consumers (who are nintendo and apple’s audiences) don’t really see this very well (because, technically, if they did, they would no longer be casual consumers!). They’ll play the ipod on the airplane, and play the DS in the 3 minute delay. This misunderstanding is starting to cause apple to win. Consumers are starting to treat ipods like they are a HARDCORE device, which is totally not true. The DS is a much better gaming experience than iphones and ipod touches. But, 1$ games attract the consumers and are winning them over…

Here’s how nintendo should do it, in my opinion.

Okay, so, who has always been nintendo’s biggest supporters?

THE HARDCORE GAMERS!

Most casual gamers buy on average one wii game per year, and hardcore gamers buy more. Which is a big difference. So, if nintendo could attract all their old Hardcore gamers who have left them because of frustration from the Wii and Gamecube, they’d be pretty good. And advertizing and a few casual games would be enough to attract as many casual gamers as they are going to get, as well as an app-store ripoff with dollar games.

So, looks like they may be doing this so far. But I hope they keep doing this. Here’s what I want a 3ds year to look like, this year would probably be 2012 or 2013. (these are all made up, of course. )

Super Mario World 4
Kirby 3DS
Pokemon Grey (Yeah, this is happening.)
A 3d Enhanced Port Of Pacman Championship DX
Pikmin 3DS
3DS Sports (or maybe this as a launch title?)
Final Fantasy SNES Collection 3D WE. WISH.
Final Fantasy PSX Collection 3D AGAIN, WE. WISH.

And the “3DS app store”.

Doodle Jump
Cut The Rope
Other Popular Iphone Games Ported Onto 3ds

Here’s how it works.
You have the obvious hardcore attractors, all of them (not 3ds sports). Because all of those are hardcore games save for 3ds sports.

Pacman and Pokemon and Mario will attract caual gamers, and Kirby a bit too.
3DS sports will GREATLY attract casual gamers, as will the 3ds app store.
Then you have the huge fan attractors, the Final Fantasys. Hardcore Sony fans that are FF fans will be attracted from that.

Okay, actually, I’m not a marketing expert so I’m not sure how well this would actually WORK, but it sounds good to me (maybe because I’d love to get my hands on a SMW4 or a FFSNESCollection)…

Anyways, I’m optomistic towards 3ds. Hopefully it won’t pull a wii! Now, I’ll look at what it will do SOON.

Mario Kart 3ds- Attract casual and hardcore gamers.
LOZOOT- HUGELY attract hardcore gamers.
Kid Icarus- Attract hardcore gamers
Street Fighter- Atract hardcore gamers
Star Fox 3d- Attract hardcore gamers and a bit of casual gamers.
Resident Evil- Hardcore gamers and a bit of casual gamers

So, so far it looks like it will mostly attract hardcore gamers and a bit of casual gamers. And, the VC will be amazing.. POKEMON RED AND BLUE ON A BACKLIT SCREEN (I lost my SP…), GAMES THAT DON’T LOSE THEIR SAVES…!!

So overall, 3ds=win.

LOZ: OOT Review

Legend Of Zelda: Ocarina of Time has been called a masterpeice. Wonderful. Perfect, even. However, I find it REALLY doesn’t live up to its hype. I’m going back to the original x/10 review for this one because I forgot to review it earlier, when it was x/10.

Graphics: Maybe its because I don’t have an expansion pak, but the graphics aren’t amazing. They aren’t terrible, but not amazing. Not very detailed, just sort of plain. This definitely was not what I was expecting out of nintendo. These graphics aren’t really very crisp, either, and pretty blurry. They also look even worse on a HD TV, which is sad. The lighting and other effects were AVERAGE but not really as good as they could of been. More like the work of a VERY EARLY n64 game, and even then it would be considered average. 6/10

Sound: This is just a REALLY inconsistent category. Sound effects are almost all good, but some are really annoying and dumb. (HEEEYYY! LLLIIIISSTTEEENN!!!) The music is good but sometimes there is no music and sometimes the tracks are really bad. You also have the option to play your own music with an ocarina and it effects the game, too. This feature is pretty cool, but it would be better if you could play more notes than just the few you can. Like I said earlier, the tracks are mostly good but a few are bad and only a few would be what I consider “epic.” Overall, I guess this is pretty good because even though there are some bad parts the good brings it back up. 7.8/10

Gameplay: Gameplay is just Meh. Nothing is really special about this; it is creative, but not the quality of the NES version. It starts out kind of slow, too. It gets a bit better but when you are not in a dungeon, its basically “WHAT DO YOU SUPPOISED TO DOES NEXT!?” and trying to figure out where to go by being annoyed by a HEEYYY LLLIIISSTEEEN. Some parts are cool, but they added a lot just to extend the length of the game. FAILURE! This is a decent game, though, in the parts where you do get to do stuff. Dungeons are cool but sometimes, you ahve to go around figuring out what to do. I’m not quite sure what is up with this theme.. 6/10

Replay: This game is REALLY long. Like REALLY. At least 20+ hours, but multiplayer would have been nice and at least 3 of those were finding out what to do. 8/10

Overall: 6.95/10. This game has some good ideas, but really needs to improve on them a lot.

Seriously.

That trying to figure out what to do was annoying.

And

HEYY

LLIISTTENN

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April Fools! You didn’t REALLY think a ZELDA game would get 7/10, did you? Really, this game is epic. More stuff coming soon.. I bet you readers fell for this. You fell for my last april fools joke.. Sadly.

5 Reasons I’m Looking Forward To Soul Silver

As you probably know, Nintendo is releasing their new RPGs, Heart Gold and Soul Silver (they are the same game, though.) and I am sort of unhappy at how its basically the same game as Silver and Gold- but it does have its pluses. Here are the top 5 reasons I’m looking forward to the newest addition in the not-so-epic tale of Pokemon.

5. That POKEWALKER thing- Training pokemon can be rather annoying sometimes- for those of you who haven’t played, it takes FOREVER to level up each pokemon to level 100. The POKEWALKER THING is a new addition. You transfer your pokemon to it, and like all pedometer things you shake it up and down to make it seem like you walked alot- only you gain experience for every step you take. This is going to be really good too when your DS is about to run out of battery- just turn on your pedometer thing and start training. And you can trick it, as I mentioned above.. Shaking it up and down will probably give you lots of experience… It also has several “courses” you can pick from to walk around in and battle other pokemon in a simplified LED version. Yes, its a gimmick, but in a sense its not because of all the replay this could possibly add along with DLC and hopefully a much faster and easier way to train.

4. Online Play- I’m not POSITIVE, but I’d be REALLY surprised if HGSS didn’t have online play. You can play against your friends, enemies, frenemies, and that guy you don’t know who lives in antarctica at a research center. You can also trade to get the best pokemon, or to get rid of a pokemon. This is nice when you aren’t 2.6 feet away from your friends, but you do need wifi. Also, if you get in an internet chat with someone about pokemon, its nice to challenge them- even if they do live a few thousand miles away from you. No more of that link cable from the same place, and no more asking your friends for a mew- you can ask just about anyone in the world (well, anyone who has the game and wifi.. Which would be anyone who’s anyone.)

3. More Replay- Play longer! With the addition of re-battling gym leaders, this adds AT LEAST 5 extra hours. Also, the pokewalker adds another 5. I expect more features than GS and a slightly longer game, as well. Side quests also add slightly, and the bug contests are probably improved a lot. Online play and convenient multiplayer also add lots more to what is already a 30-60+ hour quest. More pokemon to catch, more special events/dlc…. This game is going to last a LITTLE BIT longer than Gold and Silver.

2. Better Multiplayer- This mostly goes along with the replay and online play. There are extra mini games to play, hopefully online multiplayer, and trading in between HG,SS, D,P and P. This also is the first time you can trade between all four generations (gen 1 for LGFR, gen 2 HGSS, gen 3 RSE, gen 4 DPP) but it isn’t really trading as much as sending pokemon to DPP or HGSS. You also can battle each other MUCH more conveniently now that there is wireless. You can really “Catch em all” a lot easier.

1. IT DOESN’T HAVE MAJOR ISSUES! Hopefully, this shouldn’t be an issue in HGSS, but Silver has a nasty habit of freezing RIGHT BEFORE I SAVE… It can be really annoying. Also, MOST copies of silver and gold and crystal’s batteries have died. Playing HGSS will be a WHOLE lot easier…

Bug

A Quick Summary Of The Future

Here’s 5 things to expect in the future:
1. A guide to the principals of game design
2. A few reviews of game maker things
3. A huge rant about game maker 8 and the threat it has to our society
4. A review of ATARI GAMES
5. Diddy Kong Racing review

I want to try one of those 1-sentence-game-review things then, that some people do to be funny. I actually think they could be changed into a serious way to get quick info about a game, assuming the reader knows about the gameplay. Here’s some about arcade classics (note these are serious):

Donkey Kong
A great game, only there’s 4 levels, if someone told you there was 22 then a die screen, that person was a liar.

Pong
Genius, only do not forget to bring a friend because you need two people.

Pacman
The same with DK, there’s just a very small amount of levels; if someone told you there was 255, then someone must really hate you.

Ms. Pacman
Finally, they decide to put lots of variety in the levels and it pays off, making this quite possibly the best arcade game.

Space Invaders
This is an excellent game that is better than half the remakes they come out with today.

Galaga
This is a very, very addictive game that is really hard but fun with a lot of level variety.

Frogger
Frogger is a classic even though there isn’t very many level variations.

Now for a few NES games

Megaman 3
This game is really fun until you break your controller when it “accidentally” hits the wall…

Super Mario Bros.
If you’ve played Mario 3, it’s really hard to go back to this game because of its backwards engine.

Super Mario Bros. 3
This game is one of the best on the NES!

Maybe I’ll have more in the future..
Bug