NNR: 28 September 2010 (VERY LATE XD)

Hey there! It’s been a good while hasn’t it ? ^^; well, as you may know I had lots and lots of problems keeping me away from the reports and I’m really sorry for it, because I really wanted to cover a lot of stuff x.x unluckily I can’t handle all of the weeks I missed, so I’ll be covering this one week and half and the most important stuff happened in the last month, I hope it’s enough <:3 anyway, let’s start shall we ? I also got a very important review to show to you today: Metroid other M :3

VC RELEASES OF THE WEEK

USA
-Aero the Acro-bat 2 (SNES)

EU
-Mystic Quest Legend (SNES)

WIIWARE RELEASES OF THE WEEK

USA
-Thriple Throwing sports (Sport game)
-The very hungry caterpillar’s ABC (Educational game)

EU
-Robox (Platform game)

GAME RELEASES OF THE WEEK

USA
28th September:
-FIFA soccer 11 (WII)
-Samurai Warriors 3 (WII)
-MySims Skyheroes (WII/DS)
-Guitar Hero: Warriors of rock (WII)
-Sid Meier’s Pirates (WII) (hey Aqua, look! A pirates game! :3)

EU
1st October:
-Shaun White Skateboarding
-FIFA 11
-MySims Skyheroes (WII/DS)

NEWS

DS

SHINING LEGEND: New screens
http://www.nintendoeverything.com/50828/


SUPER ROBOT TAISEN L Announced! First Trailer and Series involved!
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=_qEcFB7egPk

-Mazinkaiser
-Mazinkaiser: Shitou! Ankoku Daishogun!
-Cho denji robot Combattler V
-Cho denji machine Voltes V
-Dancouga Nova
-Gaiking: Legend of Daiku Maryu
-Kotetsushin Jeeg
-Fight!! Iczer one!
-Shinkon Gattai Godannar
-Shinkon Gattai Godannar: Second Season
-Kidou senshi Gundam Seed
-Kidou senshi Gundam Seed: Destiny
-Shin kidou senshi Gundam Wing
-Macross Frontier
-Rebuild of Evangelion
-Linebarrel of Iron


ACE ATTORNEY INVESTIGATIONS 2 Announced! First details!

-Logic Chess used for interrogating characters who won’t crack
-Throw out a series or questions at your opponent
-Two options
-Chess part is for visual styling
-Logic Chess system won’t be too difficult according to Motohide Eshiro
-New characters announced:
Mikiko Hayami: a reporter
Taro Tanaka: a mysterious icecream seller
Outeikun: President of the Republic of Zheng Fa
Hakari Mikagami: A female judge
-Mikagami is Miles’ new rival
-Mikagami considered the “god of law”
-Mikagami’s design based off an older girl character designer Tatsuo Iwamoto who he looked up to during his school years.
-“She’s tough on the law, so she’s really tough on people who break the law”
-Releasing Spring 2011


ZACK AND OMBRA’S AMUSEMENT PARK OF ILLUSIONS: New trailer
http://www.nintendoeverything.com/50922/


KINGDOM HEARTS RE:CODED: New trailer, details, screens

-800 parts for your avatar
-If you equip an avatar with rare parts and take part in tag mode exchanges, the other players will get those parts as well
-Trophy system
-30 trophies
-Need at least 20 to see the secret movie
-The secret movie is a short single event, but has important conversations according to Tetsuya Nomura

Riku and King Mickey
-Riku has been infected by bugs
-Sora tries to clear the bugs from Riku
-King Mickey says “The friends who always fight alongside you are here” to Sora
Hollow Bastion
-Sora lost his Keyblade
-Can give commands to Goofy/Donald: “Destroy blocks,” “Attack enemies,” and “Follow Sora”
-Sora’s Deck Command palette changes to commands for Goofy and Donald in combat
-Commands you have at your disposal are based on the situation
Command Matrix
-Combine two commands for a more powerful command
-Choose commands from your Deck Command list on the Command Matrix screen
-New command made shown below in red
-Two base commands are lost for good, but the new command will always offer some type of bonus
-Limitations on what can be combined
-Commands get Command Points (CP) in combat
-CP like experience for the command
-CP gauge is next to the command’s name in the Command Matrix
-Full gauge will have a “!” mark
-This means you can combine it with another “!” command
-Examples: Rise Upper combined with Thunder for “Thunder Blade,” Slide Rush combined with Revolve Break for “Thunder Blast”
-Command Matrix system different than the Status Matrix system
-Use the Status Matrix system to upgrade Sora
-Put power up chips on a circuit board to upgrade
-Chips: “Level-Up,” “Guard+1,” and “Fire+1″
World Select
-Go to different worlds after you clear them
-“Free Quest,” “Episode Replay” and “Score Attack” options when returning to a world
-Episode Replay: replay the scenario
-Score Attack: Battle a boss in hopes of getting a top score
-Free Quest: New “System Area” dungeons/quests, can also speak to residents to earn items as a reward
-Progress is recorded
-Number of quests, system areas, rare prize blocks/SP rewards you’ve accessed are recorded
Tag Mode
-Exchange Avatars, Profiles, Floors
-Floors are single System Area dungeons
-Their creation is influenced by setting one of six “Floor Codes” in the Tag Mode settings
-Floor theme based on the code you use
-Floor might be one that is easy to get lost in, or has extreme height variations
-Can set a “Trial” challenge for the floor
-If the player completes the trial’s conditions, avatar parts can be earned
-“Avatar System Area” are made from a combination of Floors obtained in Tag Mode
-100 levels in height
-Boss Stage every 10 stages, who give much greater SP
-Dungeon difficulty increases as you continue
-Beat each floor in the Avatar System Area dungeon by defeating all bug enemies
-You can then select to advance to the next floor or leave
-If you clear a floor, you can replay it later
-SP obtained in this area can be used to get new items
-This includes Potions, High Potions, Aerial Slam, and Ether
-All SP is lost if you die in the dungeon
-Touch screen shows the avatar of other players during a Tag Mode exchange
-Touch the avatars to get a “Scratch Card”
-If you get the right scratch card, you can receive bonus commands and avatar parts
-Avatars have a “Happy Level” setting
-This setting goes up as your Tag Mode exchanges increase
-Avatar will be surrounded by stars, musical notes, and hearts when happy
-Sora’s luck will increase, so you have a greater chance at collecting items
-Avatar Menu may be infected with a virus
-Avatar will remain at Happy Level zero
-Need to finish one of the floors in the Avatar System Area to get rid of the virus
-Enemies are more powerful if you have a virus


SAGA: SHADOW OR LIGHT Announced! First trailer!
http://www.nintendoeverything.com/50984/


CAVE STORY Announced for DSIware! First screens!
http://www.nintendoeverything.com/51090/


POKEMON BLACK/WHITE: New footage:
http://www.nintendoeverything.com/51103/


OKAMIDEN: New footage, screens
http://www.nintendoeverything.com/51145/
http://www.nintendoeverything.com/51405/


RADIANT HISTORIA: new trailer
http://www.nintendoeverything.com/51160/


GOLDEN SUN: DARK DAWN: new footage
http://www.nintendoeverything.com/51239/


3DS

DEAD OR ALIVE: DIMENSIONS Announced! First screens!
http://www.nintendoeverything.com/50753/


SAMURAI WARRIORS CHRONICLES Announced! Logo unveiled!
http://www.nintendoeverything.com/50788/


WII

SONIC COLORS: New trailers
http://www.gametrailers.com/video/r.....-colors/702611
http://www.nintendoeverything.com/51192/


EPIC MICKEY: New trailer, footage
http://www.gametrailers.com/video/t.....-mickey/704622
http://www.gametrailers.com/video/e.....-mickey/705203
http://www.gametrailers.com/video/e.....-mickey/705205


DONKEY KONG COUNTRY RETURNS: New trailer, screens, details
http://www.gametrailers.com/video/r.....ey-kong/705044
http://www.nintendoeverything.com/51052/


GOLDENEYE 007: New trailers
http://www.gametrailers.com/video/r.....eye-007/703794
http://www.gametrailers.com/video/t.....eye-007/704794
http://www.gametrailers.com/video/e.....eye-007/705154


KIRBY’S EPIC YARN: New trailers, screens, details
http://www.gametrailers.com/video/t.....ys-epic/704510
http://www.gametrailers.com/video/j.....ys-epic/703939
http://www.nintendoeverything.com/51149/

-First world is Grass Land
-Much water in Grass Land, but not in the second world
-Second world is Hot Land
-In Hot Land, Kirby needs to go through the level which is filled with sand, lava, and dinosaurs
-Location-specific vehicles
-In the Pyramid Sands level, Kirby becomes an off-road vehicle
-Hold 1 to accelerate, 2 to jump
-Try to grab collectibles by jumping
-Collectibles include beeds and a speed boost power up
-Dune-buggy-esque baddies
-Can jump on the winners’ podium stage at the end of the off-roading sections to get beads


GUITAR HERO: WARRIORS OF ROCK: New trailer
http://www.nintendoeverything.com/50868/


EARTH SEEKER: New screens
http://www.nintendoeverything.com/50912/


LA-MULANA: New footage
http://www.nintendoeverything.com/50945/


WORMS: BATTLE ISLANDS: New screens, trailer
http://www.nintendoeverything.com/50947/
http://www.nintendoeverything.com/50955/


RAVING RABBIDS TRAVEL IN TIME: New trailer
http://www.nintendoeverything.com/51112/


SONIC THE HEDGEHOG 4: EPISODE 1: New trailer, screens
http://www.nintendoeverything.com/51120/
http://www.nintendoeverything.com/51121/


SAMURAI WARRIORS 3: New screens
http://www.nintendoeverything.com/51312/


FAST: RACING LEAGUE: First screens
http://www.nintendoeverything.com/51458/


RETRO CITY RAMPAGE: New trailer
http://www.nintendoeverything.com/51486/


GAME OF THE WEEK: Metroid Other M
Genre: Action
Developer: Team Ninja (Dead or Alive, Ninja Gaiden…)
Publisher: Nintendo
Time spent on the game: Around 13 hours



Metroid. One of the “Big Three” of Nintendo, along with Super Mario and The Legend of Zelda. It is widely known that everytime that a mainstream game of one of those series is announced the entire gaming world gets shaken. The particular thing about this game though is that Nintendo not only gave the development of the game to Team Ninja, a third party, but wanted to change the entire formula of the prime games and give Samus a personality, explain her past better and show the events between Super Metroid and Metroid Fusion especially about Adam’s case. Those are the main points of the game. How did it work out ? let’s find out! :3

Like I said, the game is set after Super Metroid. After an awesomely made CG video of Samus taking down the Mother Brain, during an aimless travel through space, Samus gets an SOS signal coming from a giant spaceship. There she will encounter a couple of familiar faces and in that very place a series of events will occur explaining a lot about samus, her past and the people around her.

From a technical standpoint the game is amazing. It’s one of the bestest things I have seen up to now on wii. The detail put on the 3d models is awesome, the movements smooth and the facial expressions of human characters are impressive. They managed to top FF: Crystal Bearers, wich in my opinion had the best facial animations on wii until now. The design of the monsters is great. It’s colourful, classy, kind of reminding of old comics that had alien monsters in it and I also really liked the creativity behind it. It’s a different style from the Prime monsters, but certainly not any worse. In a way, some of them are also creepier.

A special mention goes to Samus too. Never saw her suit looking so shiny, smooth and deadly, as well as her movements. While in the Prime series Samus felt slower, kind of like a big tank (not that I complain though, it felt like playing as a huge powerhouse containing a woman >:3 ), here there’s a different approach: Samus is fast, she runs, jumps, goes up wall to wall. She’s as deadly as just a space ninja could be! It’s like they ripped her sprites off super metroid and implanted them in a 3D model, it really shows how Team Ninja knows its stuff and also shows its skills at using the raw power of any system.

The environments of the game are pretty well-done too and, while the setting in a spaceship may seem to be getting repetitive, the developers will still be able to surprise the gamer with many beautiful scorches, especially in the “hologram rooms” in wich natural places, like deep jungles, the insides of a volcano or a sunny, red canyon. There seriously were some that made me go “wow” (and I’m not a graphic whore X3). Makes me wonder how some games would’ve turned out of they had THIS effort on the graphic side.

But let’s move on the gameplay now. The exploration side in this metroid game isn’t as marked as it was in the Prime games or Super Metroid. The game seems to follow more the Metroid Fusion philosophy, still having multiple paths and a lot of secret places where to find power-ups, but more linear than the usual. This may be a bad side for some, but if you loved Fusion I think you’ll be able to overcome this. It’s something that will heavily based on opinions. Anyway, the nes-like controls work really well. The d-pad didn’t feel stiff, even though by now we’re all used to analog controls. The developers made it so that moving Samus around wouldn’t be frustrating and I’m sure that even analog stick purists will take just a couple of minutes to get used to this setting.

Even though the game combat bases itself on just the d-pad, the jump botton and the shoot button, Team Ninja managed to sneak in quite a bit of their dynamic combat they’re widely known for. Take the battle gameplay of a 2D Metroid game and just put it in a 3D plan. Fighting in other M feels just like this, jumping, shooting and dodging. It doesn’t end here, as quite a few additions were made to make the battles more fast-paced and frenetic.

The first one being the dodging. While charging the beam, if you move Samus in any direction when an attack is going to hit you Samus will promptly dodge it in the direction you wanted to. This will also auto-charge the beam, giving you the chance of a deadly and devastating counterattack. The dodging doesn’t really have any limit, but it doesn’t really make the game easier, since it’ll be rare to be against just one enemy, most of the time you’ll have at least 4 enemies at the same time, trying to get you.

Beside the dodging there’s also a sort of “grabbing” move, that works by jumping on enemies once they’re weakened enough, wich results in Samus point-blank shooting them for a nice amount of damage. The move isn’t easy to pull off, but not frustrating, it simply gets some practice to pull off, since it’s also a quite useful move, especially one-on-one. If this isn’t enough Samus can also use a finisher on an enemy she knocked down. The bigger enemies, if damaged and blasted to a certain extension will fall to the ground for a few moments. All you have to do is run toward them while charging the beam and Samus will execute a cruel finisher that will send the monster back to its creator!

Another addition is the first-person-mode. By tilting the wii remote to aim at the screen, Samus will go in a sort of “sniper mode”. In this mode you won’t be able to move, but you’ll be able to look around (wich is very useful to go forward in certain parts of the games or see the room in detail and find a way to reach secret powerups), shoot and also dodge incoming enemy attacks as long as you move back to third person mode as soon as an attack comes to you. The first-person-mode is the only way to use missiles. By locking on enemies and on a certain structure sensitive to missiles you’ll be able to use the famous explosive weapons. This, at first-sight, may seem like an odd gameplay choice, but it does have its sense. Like I said I see the first-person mode as a sort of sniper mode, wich should be used wisely, maybe when one or more enemies are on the ground or blocked, so that they can be shot at safely, also since missiles are quite powerful weapons against most enemies. It’s actually quite pleasant to fight against a horde of enemies, smash some to the ground and then quickly aim at the screen to lock and shoot missiles at them X3 For whoever is afraid that the brief time between switching from third to first person could be fatal most of the times, rest assured. When you switch to first person mode the game action slows down for about a couple of seconds, giving you enough time to get accostumed to the change, aim and shoot (unless you’re being reckless of course XP).

The last addition is the fact that, unlike past metroid games, the enemies won’t drop items to regain missiles and health. This makes losing health quite more dangerous and pushes the player to actually think about what he’s doing instead of aimlessly shooting and recklessly running into enemies. There’s a way to regain both health and missiles without a save point though. There’s a concentration mode, that can be executed by staying still, then tilting the wiimote upwards and keeping A pressed. This may seem to make things too easy but there are a couple of big limits to this simple move. While the missiles take about two seconds to load back up, the health can be recharged just when you’re running out of it and about to die and if that wasn’t enough you need to stay still while you do it and the health charge, to work, needs around 5 seconds. Even a not-so-experienced gamer knows that 5 seconds in a normal fight or even a boss fight can be deadly.

Team Ninja managed to work on the combat system and adding new things to it, without moving away from the 2D formula too much. A special mention also goes to the boss fights. They’re varied, epic and cinematic. All of them are different and some of them will also be quite difficult even in normal mode (let’s not mention the hard mode…it’s Team Ninja…they’ll punish you for all of your sins in hard mode X3).

The only real flaw, or rather, the only thing that could’ve been better is the morphball gameplay…it doesn’t really have any flaws, there’s a noticeable lack of morphball sequences, even though a couple of them were quite fun to play out and one gave me quite a beautiful view of the outer space, you’ll see once you play it :3 so yeah, maybe in the next game they’ll give more importance to the morphball too.

Let’s move on the storyline. I heard many complaints by gamers about Samus being too whiny and melanconic about her past, about the story being horrible and about how “samus shouldn’t talk”. Let me say that I played this game thoroughly and I disagree with all of the above X3 Don’t expect a Metal Gear out of this game, but the plot is very good, it fits the metroid universe perfectly, it’s full of events, plot twists, emotional moments and details about who Samus really is and about her past (not mentioning anything before she joined the federation though. But they probably want to keep this for another time).

I honestly loved Samus as character even more after this game and all of you know how I usually don’t pick faves but…Now Samus is my fave female character from a videogame, she really is. I didn’t find her whiny, she simply was emotional about a very sad past. Try thinking about everything that’s happened to samus in her life and also in this game when you play it. I think even a bounty hunter is allowed to get emotional at least when talking about her past. Honestly I think a lot of gamers were disappointed because the Samus of this game, the Samus that her own author wanted, wasn’t what gamers made her out to be, given the lack of a deep storyline before this game. So my opinion is that this biased their views of things. But I’m rambling anyway, so le’ts move back to the review.

Overall the story was very good, with solid events and twists and it got me really emotional at least three times while playing it. It really is worth checking out, even just to know Samus more as character and get to meet the character of Adam, wich is really fascinating. The plot does have just a couple of things that could’ve done better. One is how the English translation (Italian translation was alright, maybe because it’s more similar to Japanese for some rules and dialogue stuff) sometimes make the dialogues hard to follow, though it isn’t impossible, just could take a couple of gamers off-guard. I’m not English though so I may not be able to be the best judge for that. The other one is the explaination behind power-ups. Samus does have most of the power-ups right from the beginning, but she can’t use all of them because Adam or the galactic federation have to give permission to use them. While for the most part the thing made sense, this gameplay/plot choice led to a bit of a hole in the game, with Samus running through two huge “volcano rooms” with her health slowly going down, while chased by a sort of magma alien/shark and having the permission to use th Varia suit just after she’s having a bad time in a later boss fight. While on the gameplay side this gave an interesting sequence to play out, in the plot this thing fell a bit out of place, but it’s the only thing I found just “left there”.

The soundtrack is really particular for a Metroid game. A couple of classic tunes are remastered perfectly and in an epic way. A lot of the time there won’t be music, but the game will surprise you with quite a few ambiental tunes and alien-like/creepy music in many of the fights, fitting the action quite well. Also, the piano song and the credits theme are AWESOME. Check them out if you can :3

To end the review, This new “experiment” for the metroid series gave to Samus a real personality, a deeper plot and a deeper universe to dwell in, also explaining quite a few of the things happening in Fusion (even how Ridley was in Fusion, but I won’t spoil it). Framerate runs smoothly and went down just a couple of times for a couple of seconds during my playthrough. The “loading doors” will also make an appearance at least two or three times during the game too, but they’ll last just a few moments too X3

Anyway…for metroid fans, this game is a must have, but I’d also recommend it to all people who are looking for a very good action game on wii. It’s highly recommended I’d say! And I hope that for Metroid 5 (Metroid Dread ? X3) Team Ninja, or Sakamoto or both will use the experience from this game to make an even greater one! Good job Nintendo. Good job Team ninja. Any objection, gamers ?

Screens:
http://www.gamekyo.com/Webmasters/I.....2016_0_big.jpg
http://www.gamekyo.com/Webmasters/I.....2016_1_big.jpg
http://www.gamekyo.com/Webmasters/I.....2016_2_big.jpg
http://www.gamekyo.com/Webmasters/I.....2017_4_big.jpg

videos:
http://www.gametrailers.com/video/a.....d-other/703693
http://www.gametrailers.com/video/j.....d-other/702334

that’s all for this week! Have a good Nintengaming time!

I So can't Wait for Sonic Colors and Pokemon black/white, Those are going to be Epic games