Messages

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General Gaming / RE: Interactive Fiction Competition 2007

« on: October 10, 2007, 11:43:56 AM »

Heh, something to think about...I've been campaigning (okay, a campaign of one) to Activision to develop DS games with their Infocom properties...

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General Gaming / Interactive Fiction Competition 2007

« on: October 09, 2007, 06:07:52 AM »

One of my (non-Nintendo) hobbies is interactive fiction, i.e., text-based adventure games. There's a pretty viable community of people creating awesome games in the form. Every year, an open competition is held for interactive fiction games, and the judging period has now begun! 29 games this year--each one is designed to be played in 2 hours or less, so they're good in short bursts. For more info to get started and judge (and what you need to play--everything is free), go to http://www.ifcomp.org.

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TalkBack / RE:REVIEWS: Metroid Prime 3: Corruption

« on: September 05, 2007, 05:40:32 AM »

Nothing wrong with philosophizing

...it's a really interesting question...especially in terms of Nintendo's future strategy and the debate over casual gamers vs. hardcore gamers--who, exactly, Nintendo is making games for now? I'm really curious to see how MP3 sells. I think that was what I was trying to say (very clumsily) in my post--that a significant minority--maybe even a small majority--of people buying MP3 aren't going to be Metroid fans, so whether it hits ALL the touchstones in the previous incarnations are going to matter less.

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TalkBack / RE: REVIEWS: Metroid Prime 3: Corruption

« on: September 04, 2007, 08:43:27 AM »

Quote
Corruption, because it has added its own deviations in addition to those inherited from the previous two Prime games, is particularly unrecognizable as a Metroid game.

This take came up for the review for Hunters too, and I really disagree with this, actually. By definition, if it has Metroid on the box and has a reasonable similarity in terms of genre to the predecessors (which would exclude, e.g., Pinball), it's a Metroid game. I dislike this idea that there has to be these hoops to jump through in order to make it a "real" Metroid game.

It's a suffocating way to look at game design.

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Nintendo Gaming / RE:Puzzle Quest

« on: August 13, 2007, 07:00:51 AM »

What I like most about the game so far is how the puzzle dynamic is used in a lot of different ways--the timed puzzles like you mentioned, as well as the captures and the spell research (which can be brutal), etc. etc. I haven't gotten to city sieges yet, but that looks fun.  

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Nintendo Gaming / RE: Puzzle Quest

« on: August 09, 2007, 05:35:27 AM »

Finally picked this up. Just a day into it and I can already tell this is going to be some high-grade crack. My wife seems to be addicted to it too.

Anyone who's played this knows how to get rid of the "helpful" blinking arrow that suggests a move during a battle?

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Nintendo Gaming / RE:Amazing Deals for DS & GBA

« on: April 04, 2007, 10:31:40 AM »

I didn't mean to come across as too harsh, seriously. But I did self-edit my own mistake--so I'd suggest giving people, like, 10 to 10.5 minutes to clean up their own messes.  

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Nintendo Gaming / RE: Amazing Deals for DS & GBA

« on: April 04, 2007, 08:14:54 AM »

Wow--easy, killer.

Is this all you do all day?

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Nintendo Gaming / RE:Amazing Deals for DS & GBA

« on: April 04, 2007, 08:09:18 AM »

Play-Asia is having a 20% off sale for items in stock.

Ordered Jump Ultimate Stars for $39. Nice. It ends today though!

EDIT: Aaaah, scrolled too fast. Sorry for the double post.

Uh, reminder: sale ends today!!!

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Nintendo Gaming / RE: My DS game series idea (Re: Trace Memory, Hotel Dusk)

« on: February 09, 2007, 08:23:24 AM »

FWIW, I remember waaaay back playing Michael Crichton's Amazon on the Commodore 64, which he wrote. Good stuff. There was a section where you had to shoot monkeys that were trying to steal your gear. Damned monkeys! Anyway, this was before Crichton turned psychotic. So, uh, I actually hope he doesn't make any DS games.

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Nintendo Gaming / RE:My DS game series idea (Re: Trace Memory, Hotel Dusk)

« on: February 09, 2007, 08:19:54 AM »

The interactive fiction (text-based adventure) community might be a better way to go--it's such a natural progression. IF is still going strong, with some really amazing games

Better yet, Activision bought out Infocom back in the day and still holds all the rights of those games...what better game would there be than a well-made Zork DS?

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TalkBack / RE:Lunar Knights Ships for DS

« on: February 07, 2007, 09:22:17 AM »

Thanks for the info! Lunar Knights looks really interesting and has been getting solid reviews it seems. FWIW, apparently if you put Boktai in the GBA slot while playing Lunar Knights, you get extra energy in your meter.

That avatar still cracks me up.

If you meant mine, thanks--I think I've seen the whole thing play through, like, once. (I forget where I picked it up)

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TalkBack / RE:Lunar Knights Ships for DS

« on: February 06, 2007, 08:35:53 AM »

Can someone explain to me how the sun sensor worked on the GBA?

NWR gave the first GBA game a 90, so not everyone seemed to hate it...

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TalkBack / RE:SPECIALS: Nintendo World Report's Greatest GameCube Games

« on: January 31, 2007, 07:47:57 AM »

Super Mario Sunshine> The camera was horrible.

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Nintendo Gaming / RE: So is Zelda:TP GC in short supply?

« on: December 13, 2006, 05:06:02 AM »

Picked up mine yesterday at Gamestop with a reeeeaaally old preorder receipt. I think they were only doing preorders.

BTW, has anyone seen any reviews of the GC version? I'm just curious to see how people are comparing it to the Wii one.  

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Nintendo Gaming / RE:Dragonquest IX on the DS = Strong Wii and Nintendo support?

« on: December 13, 2006, 05:04:10 AM »

"...fully supporting Nintendo as they are just following what is selling right now, which is the DS." This is just my opinion, but following what's selling is the definition of fully supporting a console, and it's never been any different. I don't know if there's any magical formula involved for what consoles are supported or not. There's no "Square Enix pixie dust" that they're hiding away in a secret bag, which they use to coronate certain consoles.

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Nintendo Gaming / RE: Sony Rep Says Wii more fun than PS3?

« on: December 05, 2006, 10:13:12 AM »

This clip pretty much explains it.

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TalkBack / RE: Garfield's Nightmare for DS is Coming to Europe

« on: November 21, 2006, 05:21:20 PM »

If I had a game about one of my nightmares, it would have Garfield in it.

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General Gaming / RE:Did Sony lie about PS3 availability at US retailers?

« on: November 20, 2006, 11:43:33 AM »

Yes.

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TalkBack / RE: Welcome to Nintendo World Report

« on: November 16, 2006, 10:28:00 AM »

First!

And, holy crap, nice redesign!!!

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Nintendo Gaming / Worst sentence in worst Wii "first look" ever.

« on: November 15, 2006, 07:23:12 AM »

(Okay, it's the first part of a sentence. Bear with me.)

Drumroll please...

"The Wii's graphics seem to be equal to, if not a shade better than, the PS2's..."

My head just blew up. It's amazing I'm still able to type...without a head! (And if you'd substituted "Wii" with "Gamecube" in the sentence, then my head still would have blown up, but after dozens of times of hearing that, perhaps I got numb?)

Thanks, Washington Post, with your millions of readers who will not know any better!  I'll be sure to send you the bill.

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Nintendo Gaming / RE: GCN Zelda not going to be sold at retail in the United States ?

« on: November 14, 2006, 01:31:11 PM »

(Nothing to do with Zelda) Just as an analogy with the "life" of the GameCube--think of how long the GBA has lasted. It had a monster Christmas last year even with few if any significant games coming out for it. The Cube isn't nearly as successful as the GBA of course, but I think it's going to do reasonably well this Christmas.  

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Nintendo Gaming / RE: Where the hell are the US Wii commercials?!

« on: November 13, 2006, 06:44:44 AM »

I work in advertising and I wanted to throw my 2 cents in. Not that this is the definitive post in that regard--just some observations. But the availability or non-availability of the TV spots is only part of the story. In fact a lot of advertising is shifting away from television. In order to see whether the Wii is getting saturation, you have to take into account WHO they're trying to reach...it all comes down to demographics.

1. Print is geared toward older people, general--you know, reading-type people--and so this could be flying under our (i.e., fanboy...that's me!) radar...
2. Out of home...billboards (interactive or otherwise), mass transit...saturation in public places.
3. Sponsorships and trade shows. The AARP trade show is a brilliant example of that.
4. Broaden what people think of "marketing." I think that South Park episode I saw last night with Cartman in the future and the Wii will prove to be a better "commercial" than any weird doll blowing up Rubik's Cubes, or whatever. It was essentially an infomercial for Nintendo. Did Nintendo pay for this? Probably not. But they were able to create advocacy for the Wii.

So what's going on in these other areas? What have people seen? Only then can you get the true picture. And since marketing is so targeted and niche these days, a lot of these attempts at reaching people might seem "invisible" if you're not in the target. The action and the marketing $ isn't in the 30-second commercial like it was even a couple of years ago.

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Nintendo Gaming / RE:Meteos: Disney Magic

« on: October 26, 2006, 08:34:38 AM »

I think whether it would be easier or harder would be entirely depend on the stages--the gravity of the pieces, block speed, etc. In other words, I think the developers will compensate for the horizontal combos.  

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Nintendo Gaming / Meteos: Disney Magic

« on: October 25, 2006, 07:45:38 AM »

Link here

The Disney licensing I could take or leave, but the gameplay tweaks look pretty hot: (1) the DS is held "Brain Age"-style, the screens side by side. Bigger screen = thumbs up. And there is also horizontal block moving.

I for one welcome our new Meteos overlords.