Keep in mind that today’s news is targeted specifically for the Japanese market and thus, most of the games discussed here are highly weird and have a snowball’s chance in Hell at ever seeing a U.S. release. Sadly, no new information is revealed about the Wii U which I suppose makes sense if you think about it. Y’know, what with it being a new Nintendo home console that will be hitting store shelves sometime in the next few months and we still don’t even know the official release date or retail price or what will be packed in with the system or even the damn launch day lineup or…oh. Sorry. Anyway, along with the announcement of a new, pink 3DS XL (for the ladies) in this update there’s also some potentially unfortunate news for all of you Professor Layton lovers out there as well as a bunch of other stuff in Japanese.
If you find yourself reading this site to begin with you’ve likely played a Super Mario game at some point during the past five years. Chances are this game was part of Nintendo’s “New” branding for their most popular platforming franchise of which there are individual entries on both the Wii and original DS. This particular take seemingly intended to throw Mario back to his roots after allowing longtime players to hand toss a polygonal Bowser into the stratosphere for the Nintendo 64 and eventually shoot their favorite plumber through Escher-esque Galaxies for the Wii. The “New” games represented a sort of back to basics approach that would hopefully appeal to both hardcore players that had grown up maxing out their save files on the more complicated 3D games and that treasured “casual” market that sorta kinda remembered enjoying the NES original. Well since numbers never lie, this formula worked like a charm as both games hover near the top of the all time sales charts for their respective systems. So now here we are with the inevitable New Super Mario Bros. 2. A title that in and of itself is something of an oxymoron and a gaming experience that while fun of course, is tragically derivative and borderline dated. I’ve finished burning through all of the stages in this new entry and am now in the process of answering Nintendo’s bullshit “Can you collect one million coins?” campaign question.
My answer? “Sure, yeah probably. But I don’t know that I WANT to.” READ MORE
“Thank you all. Please be seated. *Ahem*. Ladies and gentlemen, like many of you here today I came across Nintendo Power at a very young age. For me personally, it was the third grade and I was eight years old when I first heard whispers of a magazine that was all about Nintendo and filled with maps, special codes and strategies. These rumors spread like wild fire across the black top during recess but that’s all they amounted to at first: Rumors. Some kid knew a guy from another school who’s brother supposedly had described some book he’d seen as having the small clay Mario you see beside me plastered across the cover. More words were spoken of free pull-out posters and comic strips as well as contests that gave away prizes like t-shirts, toys and most importantly: Nintendo Games. It all sounded too good to be true of course and these second hand (third and fourth even) stories were all I had to tide me over before the truth of the matter would finally be revealed to me. It was a cold, overcast October afternoon when this kid I knew opened his backpack to reveal the beautiful image of a grown man in full body armor holding the decapitated head of Dracula by his hair.
As you can see, I’m currently in the process of transferring all data (via Pikmin of course) from the original system to my shiny new “Virtual Boy Red” XL. This thing is indeed beautiful and for those of you that are still on the fence about making the upgrade I have to say just go for it already. It really does make the original design feel like a prototype. I love the matte finish and the new select, start and home buttons feel fantastic. In related news, I downloaded New Super Mario Bros. 2 at the stroke of midnight and holy hell, that game is hard. My first impressions are that it really feels more like a glorified “mode” than a whole new game which is too bad. Still, I’m having a good time playing it. I’ll have more to report soon enough I’m sure, so stay tuned.
But there may still be hope for those of you that didn’t get a chance to hop on this offer while it lasted.
According to Nintendo:
“Due to popular demand, the damn Gold Nunchuk sold out quicker than anticipated! We’re hoping to make this golden gem available to you nerds again. Please check back soon for more details.”
Mine came in the mail yesterday and it is indeed a gold nunchuk. Obviously it looks very cool plugged into the Skyward Sword Wii-mote but If I had to complain about anything, it’s that the Z and C buttons should have been made white to match the B trigger. C’est La Vie. In case you can’t wait for these to potentially pop up on Club Nintendo sometime down the line, you could always try your hand at an ebay auction but fair warning: The prices are looking pretty ugly at the moment.
And this week’s temporary price drop goeeesss tooooo….Mario’s Picross!(?)
To be honest, this choice immediately struck me as kind of odd when I read that it’d been included in Nintendo’s month-long build up to New Super Mario Bros. 2. I wondered what the hell these guys were smoking placing a generic puzzler alongside some of Mario’s most celebrated platformers. Then I remembered that Matt wrote a glowing review of it a while back (which you can read by clicking right here) so there must be something to it. In any case, the game is now available for 2.99.
In other news, Nintendo is dipping their tiny yellow toes into the deep blue ocean of full retail downloads by releasing New Super Mario Bros. 2 ($39.99) this Sunday both on store shelves and within the digital walls of the eShop. Personally I’d planned on picking up an actual cart but apparently downloading instead will net Club Nintendo members double the amount of coins that a physical copy provides. I guess that makes my decision for me right there. The early word is that New SMB2 is a lot of fun if not slightly derivative of previous installments of the “New” series. As the past 2 games became minor obsessions, I’m not too worried as to whether or not I’ll enjoy this new entry. Maybe I’ll even be able to pull myself away from it long enough to write a proper review!
For some unfathomable reason Nintendo has recruited one of Tom Cruise’s ex girlfriends and her sister (rawr) to help promote the upcoming release of New Super Mario Bros. 2 for the European market.
And yes due to the fact that apparently a new home console (?) will be debuting sometime before the end of year, unfortunately some highly anticipated titles have been pushed back to 2013 to accommodate the launch. Basically what I’m saying is that we won’t be playing Luigi’s Mansion: Dark of the Moon in time for Halloween. That’s the bad news. The good news is that you can finally wrap your fists around a 3DS version of Imagine Babyz on October 23rd! I mean that’s exciting right? No? Christ, I can’t do this anymore.
Click the jump to get a look at what you can expect to see on store shelves in the coming months. READ MORE
Speaking of “limited time only” deals, Super Mario’s second portable adventure has been marked down to just $2.99 for a uh…well for a limited time. Super Mario Land 2: Six Golden Coins is certainly a highlight in Mario’s adventures across any console featuring some truly odd yet predictably fun level design that any fan of Nintendo’s famous fat fuck plumber owe it to themselves to take for a spin. Add to that the aforementioned awesome rabbit ears power-up (that allow the player a slight hover after jumps) making their first and only appearance and you’ve got yourself a series entry that really is quite like no other.
Fun Fact: This game marks the last time Mario would headline the Land franchise as that Wario dipshit took over with part 3 and ran with it in entries on both the Game Boy Advance and Virtual Boy. True Story.
As of right now and until supplies run out, you can finally snag one of these bad boys for yourself provided you’ve got 900 Club Nintendo coins lying around. Of course, Japan gets all the cool stuff first and had these available long ago: A fact that has kept my patience in a coma for far too long. However that country won’t be recovering from an earthquake, a tsunami, and radioactive emission from the nuclear station for who knows how long so I guess everything shook out in favor of North American Club members in the end. I jumped on ordering this thing right away since I can’t resist any offer that includes the words Limited quantity available and I love seeing shit like this in the mail box.
Who knows? Maybe this will even provide the motivation I need to get back into Skyward Sword? Yes? No? Maybe? Beuller?
I gave you guys a heads up back in June about some very cool prints that Blogspot user Jed Henry tossed together and guess what? Lucky for us, the guy isn’t done yet. Apparently these beauties are all part of a year long plan that he hopes will culminate in enough pieces to potentially fill an actual published book. Well, that’s the plan anyway. This site will be featuring each new print as he posts them because I really do love this project and want to support it in any way that doesn’t involve donating money.
Click the jump to see some more of this stuff! READ MORE
Well, what the hell. I feel like an idiot. This is the way a Goddamned idiot feels like. I’m home sick and totally drunk zoned out on I.P.A. medicine right now, so earlier I decided to catch up on my 3DS backlog. For whatever reason it occurred to me to try holding down “start” and “select” while booting up Kid Icarus: Of Shits and Giggles and lo and behold that’s me greeted by the beautiful sight of an original Game Boy border wrapped around my playscreen like a nice, warm pair of fuzzy cuffs. I honestly have no idea how this happened. How could something so completely awesome slip past me for this long? Now if that weren’t cool enough, check this out: When you’ve got your 3D slider cranked up, the screen slips a fraction of an inch “behind” the glass just like the original GB and you can even hold down the shoulder buttons and press Y simultaneously to enable the old school pea-green color palette. Glorious. Apparently rumors are swirling that Game Boy Color titles also have their own unique border replicating that system as well but since I haven’t downloaded any of those games yet, it’s far too soon for me to comment on the validity of such claims.
