Kid Icarus woes?

So Kid Icarus is now out and its caused a very much black and white split in impressions.  The problem with this game is the controls, people either get them or they find them highly awkward and frustrating.  But through my own experiences with this game I find the controls to be not perfect but usable.

Protip:

Just changed the Ratings style

Hey just a quick note about me changing the ratings style on this blog, from using the stars to thumbs up or down. Yeah from using the new style on youtube, I much prefer it than stars and it gives a much clearer image on whether people like something or not!

Yes I’m prepared to accept that this will get more thumbs down than up for this post, but trust me I’ve been preparing a couple of blog pieces but have just hit a writers block on them. I’m trying to improve my writing styles and whatnot.

Please if you are prepared to do it, go back and rate my previous blogs with thumbs up or down, I’ll probably replace the icons with my own custom ones soon.

Quick note, nothing major :p

Hey, its late, haven’t tried to sleep but I just wanted to say.

OMG tomorrow, Nintendo Media Briefing!
Metroid Other M summer release date
Super Mario Galaxy 2 End of summer release date
possibly Rogue Squadron Wii appearance
god knows what else

Dont forget to rate my posts, that way I will know what content you guys want from me!

3rdly (http://bit.ly/df5qXC) Modern Warfare 1, World at War and 2 XBL demos beat Bioshock 2 in online activity. Guess it was fun for those who bought it while it lasts, I think a few more months and numbers will die down fast.

A discussion about gaming, with mum :)

Well today, in a lengthy journey, my mum and I were discussing several elements of the games industry. This covered a broad spectrum of information that I’ve divulged using my own analytical style and other information that I’ve been so lucky to be made aware of by close contacts. But the part that struck me was our discussion about how Nintendo are the true leaders of the Games Industry.

Yes they may have not been successful each and every generation but the fact remains that Nintendo are the only Gaming centric and exclusive competitor. They aren’t as diversified as the other competitors so they have a single culture and identity. Now this next bit struck me as something that people would declare as a “fanboy” comment, but couldn’t be as my mum does not play video games. She said, “it seems to me like these other companies {Sony, Microsoft} take the best bits from all over the industry to try and be the best, and most of these ideas come from Nintendo”. The way she sees it that the industry takes it lead from Nintendo, and the rest follow, yes they may do their own bidding with other technology or power abilities. But they can only do this with influence by Nintendo, and this doesn’t ring any truer that this whole casual and motion push that is going on.

EDIT

I should add, that yeah she doesn’t play games these days but back when she played Mario AllStars on the Snes and Tomb Raider on the PS2

In Danger of ‘Over-hyping’ myself!

Well as the title says, I’m seriously in danger of over-hyping myself about the possible revelations coming this month from Nintendo. If you think back to E3 and last years conferences they stated very little about the coming year and their plans, they chose to concentrate on the rest of the current financial year. Well what does that leave after that? We can only but guess, but guessing leads to anticipation, anticipation leads to excitement, and that is a cruel circle until you are officially over-hyped…

My List of what to expect;
More 3rd party involvement
Metroid OtherM
Super Mario Galaxy 2
Discussion of Zelda Wii
DS successor hardware showcase + software
Vitality Sensor + Software

If some of these are not shown at the briefing, well expect them at GDC in March.
I would love to add “Retro’s secret project” to the list, but I don’t think we will hear about that until 2011.

This has to be included in all next-gen consoles!

Well to me its simple that this should be a basic feature in ALL next generation consoles. I actually contacted Larry ‘Major Nelson’ Hyrb to tell him about it, he found it interesting and passed it onto the “relevant” departments for consideration. But enough of that onto the idea…

Gamer profile/Online identities should be able to be brought with us. Now I don’t know the full situation on the PS3, but how many of us have had to sit through the damn Microsoft XBL retrieve gamertag? Like especially on a bad connection where you only want to play local multi but still want to register points. So, your identity should be (and this was inspired by the built in memory to the Wiimote for Mii transfer) transferable to friends homes by simply bringing your own controller with you. Before you leave home you transfer an up-to-date ‘image’ of your profile to your controller and when you arrive transfer it automatically to the friends console when syncing controller and it can do a simple quick verification if it wanted to through the connection if ones available. To me this is a necessity for the next gen, yeah everyone talks about how you play online these days, but local is still important to me! AND I want to be able to go online with one or more friends from the same console! MW2 would be a blast if I could go online with my friend right beside me!

GDC should be less of a “show”!

I do firmly believe that I must be the only ‘gamer’ out there who believes that the announcement and trying to one up each other by developers and manufacturers should leave this behaviour out of GDC.

The Game Developers Conference® (GDC) is the world’s largest professionals-only game industry event. Presented every spring in San Francisco, it is the essential forum for learning, inspiration, and networking for the creators of computer, console, handheld, mobile, and online games. link

The announcement of games/putting on a “show” should be left out and the presentations should be more about learning.

How should Nintendo Advertise Netflix?

Well taking a page out of NoE’s online capabilities advertisements, it should go as the following;

*camera pans in on family watching Netflix through the Wii*

Father figure speaks up: I was browsing my instant cue online then noticed on the Netflix an advertisement about the Wii.
I checked it out and discovered that I can now watch Netflix through my Wii, so I ordered the free activation disk.

*camera feed shows father inserting disk into Wii and activating the channel from the menu*

Father: After a quick 2 minute setup it was ready to start watching anything from my netflix subscription on my TV. What a better way to enjoy my shows on my home TV!

*camera feed shows family all laughing and enjoying family centred content from Netflix*

Screen goes white and starts the PSA from the soft voiced female refreshing the information on where to go and how to order.

Nintendo should pay for a 3rd party exclusive

Welcome to my first “Quick Note”.

I was just thinking that Nintendo should really pay for a 3rd party developer to create an exclusive game for their system. Maybe they will wait for a more horsepower grunt from the next console/handheld. But they should pay for an exclusive trying to not “nintendo-ise” the game too much and let the developer create it at such a depth and detail that competing console owners will wish it was on their system.