Club Nintendo has had this sweet deal going for a while that allows members to use coins earned registering Nintendo product codes on actual video games rather than the type of paraphernalia more commonly found in Chinatown. For the most part selected titles have been restricted to stuff the majority of long time players wouldn’t bat an eyelash at but as you can tell from the headline and screenshot above, this isn’t the case at the moment. The N64 classic 1080 Snowboarding is up for grabs for a mere 150 coins as are three other selections each worth looking into. 1080 is a game that I spent a ridiculous amount of my un-prescribed medicinally medicated marijuana years playing as a teenager and it’s a lot of fun. Especially now since you can enjoy it in a higher resolution while your hands are wrapped around the asscheeksofthewomanyoulove GameCube controller. Also, if you burn some Nag Champa and listen to this track as you tear through the Golden Forest stage over and over again, shit gets really far ou-sorry? Oh right, what else is currently up for grabs: Let’s have a look.
Well Nintendo’s certainly feeling generous with this week’s top notch roundup of eShop downloads. The 3DS is now home to the full retail version of Adventure Time: Hey Ice King? Why’d You Steal Our Garbage? at $29.99 and the 8-bit Ninja Gaiden slashes its way onto the Virtual Console for five bucks. The former of course, is a game based on the popular children’s cartoon whose charms I am apparently immune to and the latter is a stone cold classic action platformer that I will never be good enough to complete but still love to death. The Ninja Gaiden games for the NES were some of my favorites to play as a kid despite their sadistic challenge level. The gorgeous graphics, revolutionary (at the time) cut-scenes and airtight controls made them incredibly fun and they still totally hold up. Still, I’ll probably pass because I really don’t want to be one of those guys who screams obscenities on public transportation. However if by some chance you’ve never had a go with this series before, I strongly recommend the experience.
I can live without universal health care but this awesome little guy is a much taller order. Apparently Nintendo is releasing the Wii Mini for $99 bucks exclusively in Canada in an attempt to get those hosers up off their chesterfield’s and swinging wildly at the old box. This really isn’t such a huge loss as most people already own a Wii and the Wii U has one basically built into it, but the design is kind of neat and it would make for a great Netflix player. Wait, what’s that? In addition to the lack of GameCube compatibility this thing doesn’t go online at all? That means that not only will you not be able to stream movies off of it, you won’t have access to the hundreds of retro games on the Virtual Console. So what the hell are you supposed to do with it? I think I’ll survive without a passport for a little while longer.
Wow. Looking back, November was the lightest month this site has ever had in terms of content despite the fact that a brand new Nintendo console hit store shelfs halfway through it. Part of that as some of you might be aware was due to the traumatic experience I suffered on the launch morning of the Wii U. If this isn’t ringing any bells, click here to check out the entire ordeal complete with moving pictures that will make you throw up probably. Needless to say that sort of took my head out of the game a bit, having to ship it off to be replaced while the shiny new box just sat in the corner of my room, empty like my soul. I just didn’t really have much motivation to write about Nintendo at all there for a minute even though there was plenty material to work with. Well, my U is back and plugged in and I’ve been playing it a lot the last couple of days and it’s time to start clogging up the internet with what I have to say about stuff. I guess this whole thing has been kind of like that episode of Growing Pains. You know…the one where Mike Seaver is shocked to learn that other students still have to go to high school whether he attends classes that day or not. I liked that show.
Six years, an extra hundred dollars and countless personal tragedies and triumphs later find me now on the eve of the Wii U’s launch: Stressed the hell out. I went from telling myself that I’d just snag one at some point before Christmas to deciding to head out launch day and if it’s meant to happen then it will (I didn’t pre-order) and landed right here: Organizing a plan of attack by sorting out a systematic checklist of stores that I will hit in order from most to least likely having consoles that outnumber the reservations that have been paid for already. Overall, I do have a good feeling that I’ll get my hands on one. It’s just going to be a very early morning and a lot of adrenaline fueled driving past speed limits with a sausage mcmuffin hanging out of my mouth.
And here at the List we all wish our beloved creator of Mario, Link, Pikmin and of course, Wii Music Shigeru Miyamoto a truly wonderful birthday. Just think: By the time the next presidential election rolls around the guy will actually turn 64!
Attention Wii owners: As of today you now have access to the damn “youtube” that all of these youngsters can’t seem to stop yapping about. By way of a free download, Nintendo has finally delivered on the promise it made several years ago by creating a system channel entirely devoted to hosting adorable cat videos:
Why thank you so much Nintendo for giving gamers two Halloween worthy downloads to choose from today! Unfortunately neither of them are very good but hey…we sure appreciate the gesture. First up is Castlevania: The Adventure which was originally released for the Game Boy way back in 1989. Simon Belmont’s Grandaddy Christopher leads the charge in this installment as the series takes its first (of many) dips into portable water. Too bad this one whiffs it pretty hard as the end result is horrifying for all the wrong reasons. Aside from an excellent soundtrack, Adventure doesn’t come close to matching the visual or control standards set by its home console cousins. As a curiosity, I’d say this game is worth tossing a couple of bucks at but really what you should be doing is downloading the Rebirth WiiWare remake from a couple of years back. Now THAT is some damn fine Castlevania gaming right there, buddy. READ MORE
Well that isn’t a very nice attitude to have now is it 8-Bit Vader? The truth is that me and my pals here at the List have been invited to help put the final nail in the coffin provide our old friends over at Nintendorks.net with our invaluable insight and expertise on all things Nintendo (and maybe even some other stuff) from now on. Now what does this mean for you my dear, faithful reader? Well…nothing really. We aren’t going anywhere and I’ll continue to update regularly until the police find my lifeless, nude corpse at my computer desk surrounded by empty bottles of discount I.P.A. You can look forward to the same high quality self indulgence that we’ve blessed the internet with these past few years only now under both the Shigeru’s List url and the legendary banner of Nintendorks. In fact, I’ll probably be cross posting all of the larger pieces such as news and reviews on both sites but keep the random little mini updates exclusive to my little baby here.
I know, I know. It all sounds too good to be true but please, try and contain yourself. You’re embarrassing us.
Super Ghouls ‘ Ghosts is a game that is so hard it will make sitting on your balls feel like a Summer breeze. Seriously. I don’t know what Capcom’s problem is with this series but every single entry has been inappropriately difficult to a degree that as a kid it felt like borderline child abuse. This SNES entry is a particularly sore spot for me because the graphics and sound are so beautiful that I’m regularly lured in to give it another shot. Always with the thought that maybe, juuust maybe this will be the time I make it if not close to the end (LOL) at least to the midway mark. Of course, this has never happened. So why am I bothering to post about this game at all if it’s such a frustrating experience?
I wonder how Splatterhouse 2 has managed to exist on the Virtual Console this long without me drunkenly throwing 800 points at it. Oh right, because the first one was such a massive piece of shit that no level of intoxication could convince me that typing in my credit card number with one eye shut again would be worth it. Well, that and the fact that I’d read somewhere that once the Splatterhouse series jumped ship from the Turbografx 16 to the Genesis, that the 3rd installment was by far and away the best of the bunch. So you see rather than be disappointed yet again by Part 2, it made a lot more sense to me to wait around until Part 3 appeared on the VC which as we all know now, was not to be. Still with me?
As far as my bedroom is concerned, we are now in full on Halloween time. I’ve got cobwebs spread out, a skeleton hanging on the door, red light bulbs plugged in, these really great gummy-like ghosts and bats stuck on my window/mirrors as well as an awesome jack ‘o lantern lamp thing right here next to me on my desk (2 for $10.00 at CVS!). You may have noticed that I even changed the background of the site to a super cool Ghost house theme from Super Mario World (thank you, google image search). I truly can’t get enough of this season, so with that in mind it’s time to start playing some creepy games whenever my television isn’t occupied with Tales From the Dark Side reruns. Of course I plan on posting any current news that I find interesting as it pops up, but aside from that the month of October (and I guess this last week of September) belong to write ups involving primarily two things: Nintendo and horror.
Beginning with today’s quick look at one of the most memorable stages I can uh…remember playing in a video game: READ MORE
Pretty much every review you’re going to read about Kirby’s 20th birthday compilation will begin with a direct comparison to Nintendo’s own anniversary treatment for their mustached mascot a couple of years ago. And for good reason: When the announcement was made that a special commemorative box would be released to coincide with the 25th birthday of the original Super Mario Bros., a lot of longtime fans (yours truly included) were understandably excited. But as the end result wound up being essentially an unchanged 20 year old rom (Super Mario All Stars from the SNES to be exact) slapped onto a disc and packed in with a flimsy at best scrapbook along with an anemic 13 track CD…well, pissed isn’t exactly the right word but you get the idea. Now with HAL laboratory celebrating the second decade mark for their little friend Kirby with such style, what once simply felt like a missed opportunity for Mario at this point feels like a legitimate insult.
Erase the memory of that Godawful flick where Charleton Heston plays a Mexican Jake Gyllenhaal plays a Persian from your mind right now. There was once a time (and not so long ago) when the Prince of Persia brand was synonymous with quality side-scrolling platform gaming. People would yap on and on about how cool it was to edit your own levels and that the “beautiful” character animation had to be seen to be believed. Actually, I think I’m just quoting the douchebag kid that lived next door to me who couldn’t be torn away from this thing. Personally, I was pretty underwhelmed when I had a crack at it. The theme wasn’t very compelling and I think he had some kind of computer version that required a keyboard to play. Yeah, exactly. Anyway, years later when I decided to wrap my hands around a GameCube controller, I became deeply hooked on Prince of Persia: The Sands of Time, but by then the series had already (brilliantly) made the leap into full 3D. Based on my deep affection for that game I was convinced that maybe I should go back and give the original stuff another shot but like so much in life, never got around to it. Well for any of you gamers out there that have a similar history with this franchise, as of today you can remedy your mild curiosity by downloading the SNES version for 800 Wii points. Of course you could also pick up Prince of Persia: The Forgotten Sands for the Wii that includes this full game as an unlockable starting at $0.01 used on Amazon instead. Yes, I know its none of my business what you do. Forgive me for mentioning it at all.
According to the fan that created this highly impressive piece:
“I used to play Super Hang-On at Chuck E. Cheese. It was so rad. I kinda want to make this into a t-shirt but I’m still on the fence about it. I’m not sure if anybody would buy a Super Hang-On inspired shirt.”
