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WII’s Next Big hit for Nintendo? Super Mario Brothers.

cobster — Sat, 17 Oct 2009 22:19:24 +0000

It’s retro right down to the box art.

(Credit: Nintendo) This holiday season, amid an economy that’s still in the tank, game companies are stingier with their first-party release schedule. In fact, each of the Big Three (Sony, Microsoft, Nintendo) are only targeting one or two games for their systems before Christmas. Nintendo has one single title that’s prominent for the Nintendo Wii, and that’s New Super Mario Bros. Wii.

We got a chance to play one or two of the side-scrolling title’s multiplayer modes awhile back, but we didn’t know whether Mario’s home console return to 2D platforming would also feature a single-player mode that had as much going for it as old-school favorites like Super Mario World.

After last night’s playthrough and a discussion with Mario creator Shigeru Miyamoto (translated via Nintendo of America’s Bill Trinen), the answer to that question is undoubtedly yes.

Mr. Miyamoto answered questions regarding his new game, in particular why it’s a 2D game when Super Mario Galaxy achieved such great success both critically and financially as a 3D Wii title.

According to Miyamoto, who participated in a reporter’s roundtable Thursday night in New York City, what makes a Mario game is being “simple to control and easy to understand.” The multiplayer modes of New Super Mario Bros. Wii include both four-player competitive Smash Bros.-inspired modes such as Coin Battle, as well as hop-in four-player co-op throughout the entire single-player story mode of the game.

“We wanted the game to appeal to and be accessible to as wide an audience as possible, and because we wanted to make it multiplayer, we felt that the original concept for Mario Bros. was the one best suited to multiplayer gameplay,” Miyamoto added. “Multiplayer platforming is much better suited to a 2-D environment versus a 3-D one.” He was referring specifically to same-room gaming as opposed to online gaming, raising a point that we’ve often thought about with the Wii–namely, other than Wii Sports, that there just aren’t a great number of multiplayer games for the console.

Miyamoto went on to explain how New Super Mario Bros. Wii and next year’s upcoming sequel to Super Mario Galaxy were simultaneously co-developed as two separate ways to look at the Mario experience on the Wii. One is a natural evolution of Mario’s recent 3D efforts, while New Super Mario Bros. is unabashedly retro, even down to its box design and cover art.

“The game stems from 8-bit Mario,” Miyamoto admitted, although he also claims the original Mario was always intended to be a two-player co-op experience. With the DS game New Super Mario Bros., Miyamoto said he “tried a balance of level difficulty that would still satisfy long time Mario fans,” but found the balance “hard to do.”

The new Mario game allows players to be as proactive or casual as they want, according to Miyamoto and Nintendo. They mean this quite literally: the game triggers a “Super Guide” option after the player dies eight times, which is a video showing exactly how to make it through the level. The player can jump in at any time, or even skip the level entirely. It’s a controversial idea to the hard-core, but Miyamoto stressed that it needn’t be used, and wouldn’t be a great idea in all games. “A lot of people buy strategy guides or go online–we incorporated it within the game itself,” Miyamoto explained, adding that the Super Guide “doesn’t show secret areas or how to get star coins.”

Amusing developer and tester-made “expert” videos were also shown that can also be unlocked by collecting hidden Star Coins, showing off how much extra can be applied to certain levels with a little extra hard-core effort.

It seems that Miyamoto’s greatest pride is in how this game enables a meeting between hard-core and casual players, and how same-room “living room” multiplayer, as opposed to online play, can be a source of old-fashioned fun. “The more advanced can carry novice gamers through levels,” Miyamoto said, and referred to his observations testing the game with focus groups. “What we noticed was when people played alone they had a very serious look on their face and they were working very hard trying to figure out their way through a level…but as soon as we had multiple people playing the game, their expressions changed dramatically, and all of a sudden they had smiles on their faces,” noting that “some of the people playing multiplayer can have a really good time without playing much of anything.”

While some might fault Nintendo for not making New Super Mario Bros. Wii into WiiWare DLC (for the record, Miyamoto claims he prefers things in boxes), the playtest afterwards confirmed that this game is exactly what an old-school Nintendo fan or a retro-obsessed Mario lover would want–it’s a full Mario game through and through. Strangely, it eschews many of the Wii’s prime features–it’s controlled exclusively using the nunchuck-less Wii-mote turned on its side, and doesn’t use Wii MotionPlus–but that could be an appeal for many Wii owners, not a hindrance. It doesn’t reinvent the wheel, but it adds enough tributes and new wrinkles (like an ice flower power-up) to make it worth the visit. Come to think of it, New Super Mario Bros. Wii might be the only Nintendo Wii game besides Wii Sports to successfully blend hardcore gaming, casual appeal, and multiplayer into one package. If Wii owners agree with that sentiment, then Nintendo’s destined to be printing money once again this holiday.

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WII’s Next Big hit for Nintendo? Super Mario Brothers.

Xbox360 project Natal

JoeDigital — Sat, 06 Jun 2009 15:13:41 +0000

This is absolutely amazing technology from Microsoft called xbox360 Natal. It is an interactive technology with you and the system, no controllers, no wires just you a camera and the tv screen. Big deal right? there has been interactive tv/video games for a while. Well thats not the only feature, xbox has almost created true artificial intelligence and interaction with a character called Milo, he can recognize you, your face, your emotion and even interact with you via the camera on the xbox (just by holding a picture or a drawing to the camera in a split second he can see it and identify whats on that paper). This is absolutely ground breaking and revolutionary technology that I have never seen before and it will change the gaming and AI industry forever. Check out the youtube video: Lionhead Peter Molyneux Milo Demo – Xbox 360 Natal

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Xbox360 project Natal

Fifa 2010

itzco — Fri, 05 Jun 2009 20:35:38 +0000

During the presentation of FIFA 2010 in Emirates Stadium of London, England, EA show a Demo and the advances of the game, now it is 45 % complete for the consoles Playstation 3 and Xbox 360. This game will have a lot of improvements with your defensive, because every player is going to be able to act independently and this mode is going to add more realism to the game. Graphically FIFA 2010 is going to be better than FIFA 2009, all the players are going to have more graphic details.

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Fifa 2010

Star Wars: The Old Republic Cool Cinematic Trailer

Ciel501 — Tue, 02 Jun 2009 19:37:28 +0000

Bioware unveiled the first cinematic trailer for their Star Wars: The Old Republic MMO. It is so cool, awesome and very cinematic. In this trailer, Sith baddies are invading a Jedi temple and a Sith night is performing a awesome sword dance. If you know a roman of lightsaber fights, watch this cool trailer.

Watch cool Trailer

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Star Wars: The Old Republic Cool Cinematic Trailer

Sony PSP GO release confirmed

JoeDigital — Sun, 31 May 2009 06:47:43 +0000

Sony PSP GO

Today at Sony’s E3 press conference Sony announced early that the long awaited release of the PSP GO would be possibly be sometime in fall of 2009. Whats so great about the PSP GO? well here are some of the sneak peak features:

Slide up screen
3.8 Inch high resolution screen
40% lighter then the PSP 3000
No UMD drive (yay)

Sony also says that the PSP GO is not a replacment product for the psp 3000 but the 2 will be sold in “Harmony” and have a place on retail shelves. No mention if the PSP Go will have a touch screen (and I hope they fixed that annoying hold button that existed on the PSP 3000)

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Sony PSP GO release confirmed

Gold Nintendo Wii for the Queen of England

itzco — Fri, 22 May 2009 22:49:23 +0000

THQ wants that the Queen of England enjoys the new game Big Family Games. This game is focus on the family entertainment. The Queen of England received a new version of Nintendo Wii, which is finished in gold with a copy of the game.
Danielle Robinson, manager of production, said “Big Family Games is a game of Wii which is going to get the attention of every family”.

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Gold Nintendo Wii for the Queen of England

New minigame for PlayStation “Four Barrels of Fury”

itzco — Wed, 20 May 2009 23:57:43 +0000

Sonny has announced, the next may 21 will be available the series of Resistance for PlayStation home in America virtual space. In this occasion we will be able to enjoy a mini game of a turret view in first person, and also it will have some rewards items, statistics of the world players’ position. This game will be named ">Four Barrels of Fury, one of the most interesting things is that the same day of the realized, creators and administrators of this game will be available to play versus all players

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New minigame for PlayStation “Four Barrels of Fury”

Need for Speed: Nitro for Nintendo Wii

itzco — Wed, 20 May 2009 23:07:25 +0000

Electronic Arts has realized the first official trailer of Need for Speed: Nitro, this is a version of the most popular races game of the company EA, and it will be just for the console Nintendo Wii. This game has been developed by EA Montreal, who has a big experience in games of Nintendo wii. This game will be controlled by the analog handle of Nunchuck, and to accelerate you just have to shake the Wilmote (without abuse, because your will spend your turbo) to watch the trailer ">click here

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Need for Speed: Nitro for Nintendo Wii

Wireless Guitar Hero controller for PS2 and PS3

itzco — Wed, 13 May 2009 21:14:46 +0000

For every fan of Guitar Hero, now Logitech is going to realize its lasts wireless Guitar Hero controller for PS2 and Ps3. With this controller you will feel like you are using a real guitar with the neck and body made from wood, a rose woof fingerboard and metal frets. It will cost $199.99, and it is available to pre-order from Amazon.

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Wireless Guitar Hero controller for PS2 and PS3

Startcraft 2 Is About To Be Unveiled

Ciel501 — Fri, 08 May 2009 18:14:29 +0000

Blizzard Entertainment started to gather Beta testers.

If you want to join the beta test, go to the battle net site and create account, then log in on your account. Then click ‘Beta Profile Setting’ at ‘Account Management’ and download a program to check your PC is suitable for playing Starcraft 2. After download, register ’system information’. That’s all. Blizzard will inform you after selection.

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Startcraft 2 Is About To Be Unveiled