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.
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.
Holy shit, is that Rogue from the X-Mans cartoon!? Yep. Wow, that’s pretty cool. In any case, I’d never heard the term “Nintenpendent” before I watched the special report above, but whatever that might entail certainly has me concerned.
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.
Well, it looks like the Virtual Console is refusing to stay down for the count as yet another new title was added to the service today. That’s right, this means that the VC has been updated in some form or another for five straight weeks now, some kind of record to be sure. Today’s retro game is Double Dribble 2: The Revenge for the NES, Acclaim’s action fueled 2-player sequel to Konami’s classic NBA game. This entry marks a truly odd departure for the series, finding what we can only assume are two former professional basketball players on a quest to rescue someone’s girlfriend. Apparently these two guys are also martial arts masters as players will quickly find themselves administering every flavor of pain known to the Earth upon anyone unfortunate enough to walk past them on the sidewalk. It’s pretty simple stuff but a lot of fun and if you’ve got a buddy to play alongside, easily worth the five dollar admission.
To find out what other new games are now available to download on participating Nintendo systems, click right here to check out Nintendolife.com’s report. Oh and be sure and tell them, “Large Marge sent ya.“
I was on vacation all last week so for once this site had a legitimate excuse for the lack of updates. But one thing I stumbled across online and haven’t gotten out of my head is this guy’s incredible 8-bit tribute to possibly Radiohead’s best album. Using only NES style sound tools, youtube user QuintonSung covers the entire Kid A record and the results are something that sound like…well, something Radiohead might release themselves.
The guys also gives OK Computer the 8-bit makeover but to be honest I haven’t been able to stop listening to this thing long enough to check that out yet.
The shot above that leaked this past week supposedly reveals Nintendo’s finalized design for their upcoming Wii U controller. There aren’t really any drastic changes or anything from what was originally displayed at last year’s E3 but some subtle alterations have been made here and there that will hopefully help some of you nerds out there stop pissing yourselves in your sleep. The most noticeable change is in the control sticks. No longer the same flat “nub” sliding pads that 3DS owners have become familiar with, the new analogue input more closely resembles the traditional sticks we’ve been using since the good old N64 days. Also, the start and select buttons have now been moved from under the screen to the right hand side and there’s a mysterious new square right under the cross pad that industry insiders are speculating houses a very important screw that will hold the entire gamepad together. If nothing in this opening paragraph has made you laugh, that’s because we’re talking serious business here. READ MORE
Want to play a fancy, 3D version of the original Kid Icarus on your 3DS? No? Well too bad because the 1986 cult favorite platfomer was just made available on the eShop today and you’re going to download it and you will like it (probably)! The 3D enhanced visuals are the obvious selling point for anyone who may already own a physical copy of the NES cart or have it downloaded from the Wii’s Virtual Console *raises hand on both counts.* But that isn’t the only visual flourish exclusive to this new port! Beautiful new backgrounds have been added to each stage creating a more detailed world than ever before: READ MORE
And you know why? Because this NES classic is one of my favorite games of all time and Nintendo didn’t have the goddamn decency to give it the 3D classics treatment. Let’s see, so far Excitebike, Twinbee, Xevious, Kirby’s Adventure and Urban Champion (!?) make up the entire list of games available with a fancy new coat of 3D paint. WHAT THE HELL KIND OF SHIT SELECTION IS THAT!? READ MORE
Two and a half years since it was first publicly playable at the San Diego Comic-Con, Abobo’s Big Adventure has today finally been unleashed on an unwitting populace. The latest Flash game created by I-Mockery.com site founder -RoG- and his usual partners in crime, Abobo’s Big Adventure is a love-letter to a disturbing number of NES games (in fact, it’s subtitle is “The Ultimate Tribute to the NES!”), and I’ve personally only played the first two levels as of this post. The game follows Abobo from Double Dragon as You The Player control him in his quest to rescue his son, Aboboy (a new creation for this game.) The first level sees him in familiar territory, playing out as a beat-em-up on a city street (with characters from all sorts of games making appearances,) but gameplay wildly shifts from then on: for example, the second level is underwater and largely cribs its style from the underwater levels of Super Mario Bros. Play control is tight and the game is visually impressive, remaining true to the NES style while not being arbitrarily constrained to the limitations of the NES, thus allowing for creative liberties in the number of sprites/colors/etc.
I came across this unbelievable fan made Legend of Zelda tribute while reading the most recent “Iwata Asks” today. It’s an extremely well thought out and cleverly designed stop motion project that references just about every major game in the series. The video above is unfortunately the highest quality on youtube I could find but you can click this link and scroll down a bit to see a much nicer version. It should play well with the awesome soundtrack John wrote about earlier today!
Today’s my 31st birthday. It officially marks 25 years since I violently tackled my sweet old Auntie Nors for buying me an NES action set because of all the hard work I put into turning six. The party went down at Chuck E. Cheese which back then was a pretty big deal. That joint was fucking expensive, what with the cost of the pizza and coins for the arcade/ball pit and whatever. Also, there’s the irreparable damage us kids administered to that poor, costumed freakshow’s nasty rat-tail. Chuck E. Cheese was the fucking Disneyland of the piece of shit town I grew up in and somehow my first grader little self managed to walk out of it with a Nintendo at the same time?
