Aggrogate

29Sep/110

Kirby Mass Attack: Massively Multi-Kirby

Kirby's the little guy among Nintendo's main, first-party characters (not counting Pit "Chuck Cunningham" Icarus). He's not as beloved as the plumber, the bounty hunter, or the elf, or even the furry space fighter pilot. Still, he's managed to consistently be in solid games ever since his first appearance. After years of sucking up enemies and spitting them back out, Kirby got a bit of a change in Kirby's Epic Yarn, where he became made of string and turned into different things. Now Nintendo's mixing up Kirby's style again, by exploding the poor pink guy into bits.

Kirby Mass Attack puts you in control of 10 Kirbys, all commanded entirely through the touchscreen. That's a two-gimmick gameplay concept, which sent up a lot of red flags. Amazingly, Kirby's Mass Attack (maybe Kirbys' Mass Attack) isn't just a passable game. It's a great game, as long as you can tolerate the monsoon of sugary bullshit you see in every Kirby game. It is, after all, Nintendo's "kids" game series.

28Jul/111

The State of Gaming: Nintendo

E3 went down a few weeks ago and while there were no real earth shattering announcements (thanks to the ever persistance subculture of everything getting leaked), all in all it was a pretty good show. The rest of the year is looking pretty good indeed, with some of the smaller titles like Child Of Eden, Catherine, and Shadows of the Damned (all of which you should buy, for the inevitable rarity if nothing else) coming now to avoid the epic cluster**** that is the fall launch lineup. But the future of gaming? That is an entirely different story altogether. Let's take a look at current state of gaming, focused on the three big console manufacturers.

First up: Nintendo.

1Jul/112

Nintendo Isn’t Just Ignoring Gamers; It’s Humiliating Us With Nostalgia

I'm a lifelong Nintendo fanboy. I grew up with the NES and SNES. During the first 3D console war in the mid-90's, I sided with the Nintendo 64 despite missing out on many, many great games until years later. I was optimistic for the Wii, and the DS completely won me over. That said, I've realized something about Nintendo that I think always floated around in the back of my mind, but that I didn't really accept until the WiiU was announced.

Nintendo doesn't care about wooing hardcore gamers. Yes, jaded gamers think this is self-evident, but it's actually worse than it seems. Nintendo doesn't care about wooing hardcore gamers because we'll come back to them anyway. That is the truly terrible thing about Nintendo's current strategy. It doesn't matter how disappointing their hardware is, how inept their handling of online services is, or how much they bother to build a platform that third party developers actually feel like using to make a decent game and not just a half-assed semi-port.

Let me be crude but concise. Nintendo is our cheating ex-girlfriend who, every six months or so, calls us up at 2:00 a.m. looking for action. And, because we are idiots and she does that one thing we like, we come over. Maybe it's a one-night stand, maybe it's a short rekindling of the relationship, but it always ends with her completely ignoring us and sleeping with our little brother.

11Apr/110

Radiant Historia: A Classically Trained RPG

Do you remember games like Chrono Trigger and Final Fantasy 6? Did you love the hell out of them? Have you been wondering for the last 15 years why RPGs went hardcore next-gen and have been unable to really capture the simple magic of sprite-based storytelling and turn-based combat? Then Radiant Historia is going to smack you in the face with nostalgia. It's a game that came out this year, it could have come out in 1995, and it manages to look great in either era.

Atlus has really sealed itself in as the king of JRPGs, after Square-Enix abdicated the throne a year or two ago. Radiant Historia on the DS is a great RPG filled with classic aesthetics and mechanics, that manage to stand the nostalgia test that all "retro" games must take and that few pass.

10Mar/111

Pokemon Black and White Review: Still Going Strong

Same game sequels take the series three steps forward. Some sequels take the series one step forward and two steps back. Pokemon is the only series that manages to take the series an inch forward and five steps sideways. Pokemon Black and White are out now, and you can probably predict how good it is. Still, read our review anyway, for some insight into the next evolution of Pokemon.

7Mar/110

Presidents and Pokemon at the Black and White Launch Event at Nintendo World

Nintendo held a big Pokemon Black and White launch event at the Nintendo World Store at Rockefeller Center on Saturday, and there was much nerding to be had. The Presidents of the United States were there to play a song about the new Pokemon in the game (and, thankfully, to play Peaches and Lump, too), there were big, inflated Pokemon, an opportunity to buy the game a day early, and tons and tons of Pokemon fans. Read on for a full account of the event and tons of photos, taken by both myself and Chris Gampat of The Phoblographer.

4Mar/110

15 Greatest New Pokemon in Pokemon Black and White

Pokemon Black and White come out this Sunday, and with it come yet another batch of 150 Pokemon. Pokemon ubersite Serebii.net already has a full list of the new Pokemon up, with sprites, stats, and flavor text, and we've sifted through them to find the 15 best ones in the bunch. From the cute to the crazy to the badass, Pokemon Black and White have some pretty awesome new "'em all" for you to catch.

19Dec/100

Kingdom Hearts: Re:coded trailers – Gameplay Montage and Story

KH13 (via Heartstation) has posted a couple of videos of the next title in American shores. Kingdom Hearts: RE:coded is a remake of previous Japan exclusive game Kingdom Hearts: coded. This title is the first title to move the timeline in the series forward since Kingdom Hearts II; PSP title Birth by Sleep takes place 10 years before the first game, and the DS title 358/2 days mainly takes place in the year gap between Kingdom Hearts and Kingdom Hearts II. The above trailer is a plot while a gameplay trailer is embedded after the break. Coded is thus far the only game in the series I've not played, not having a Japanese cell phone to play it on, so as the superfan we all know I am, this has me super excited. Kingdom Hearts: RE:coded comes out January 11, next year.

9Nov/100

Welcome To The Museum Of Mario!

Club Nintendo is Nintendo's big fan club/rewards program, giving dedicated gamers copious swag in return for video game registrations and surveys. The majority of said swag is in my apartment, and as part of the 25th anniversary of Super Mario Bros., we're going to take a look at it. Many of these items can be obtained through Club Nintendo if you rack up enough coins, but two of them are special "Elite Status" awards given out every year when you reach a high enough coin level. Take a tour through the Mario museum after the break.

7Oct/106

From the Game: Sonic Colors Preorder Sonic the Hedgehog Hat

Preorder bonuses tend to be pointless. You might get a code for a unique costume, or maybe an extra multiplayer map, or maybe a variant weapon. Sometimes, though, you can get something more. Something tangible. Something awesome in its sheer ridiculous. In the case of preordering Sonic Colors from Gamestop, you get just that.

This is a Sonic the Hedgehog hat. It's a head-sock covered in giant blue felt spikes. You can wear it on your head and look like a crazy person. It's freaking awesome.