Review: Mario & Sonic at the Olympic Winter Games

Two years after fans of the first combination of the mustachioed Mario and the speedy Sonic, Sega has decided to work on the next of the Olympic Games, the Winter Olympics. Sega has sold millions upon millions of copies of the previous Beijing-Flavored Summer Olympic games, but Sega has upset the real fans of the two headliners of the 16-bit wars with some poorly used motion controls, lack of online gameplay and shallow options. The Winter Games seems that it can be a great conversion to a video game with some extreme sports like snowboarding and alpine skiing, but did Sega achieve this killer conversion?

After watching an intense CG cutscene that shows what the game should deliver, we are thrown into a menu that has all the Olympic events laid out with no unlocking. The Dream events, altered sport events that take place in Mario and Sonic’s own levels, mostly need unlocking with the exception of two. To play these events, you are given twenty Mario & Sonic characters with the addition to Miis to complete with. This roster is still pretty shallow given the series they’re working with and some staple characters, like Cream the Rabbit and Diddy Kong, are completely omitted from the roster while morons like Waluigi and Silver are playable.

The events themselves are not realistic as if you’re playing like the athletes that have yet to pound the powder in Vancouver. Instead, it has that carton flavor fans of these series are expected to see, like performing multiple tricks twenty feet in the air off a halfpipe. The Dream events will literally give the Mario Kart treatment with Mario Kart’s own question blocks and Mario Kart’s own weapons to attack or defend with. Sadly not all of these are given such treatment and while some events perform well, but some events are total duds.

The controls are sadly what you expect from a mini-game fest and that is a lot of motion that isn’t implemented in the correct ways. My personal biggest disappointment is hockey because this had so much potential; this should have been the main event in the game with some very in-depth controls. What we got was something extremely shallow with four-on-four teams on a small rink. On top of that, all the controls are either simple flicks for shooting and checking and passing with A and shooting with B. What I would have loved was if Next Level Games stepped in and reskinned Super Mario Strikers from the GameCube with hockey in mind. Mario hockey (as well as football) is something I would have loved to see when Nintendo was running amuck with sports games and it was something that could have suited the red plumber well. When I saw that hockey was in Mario & Sonic, I was cautiously excited. Luckily I did not give my hopes up since Sega sort of blew it with this bare bones version.

All the skiing and snowboarding events are easy to grasp for kids and are fully functional, but it’s not enough. It just feels too simple and the events could have been more fleshed out without making it too complex for more casual players. Parts such as tricks could have been intuitive rather than the “waggle in the air until you hit the ground (and hope you don’t crash)” that the game has given us. The uses of the balance board are pretty forgettable in this too and I rather recommend the plain ol’ Wii remote/nunchuk combo. This should have been easy for Sega since there were great winter sport games on Wii like Shaun White, SSX Blur or even use Nintendo’s own Wii Fit for ski/snowboard ideas and balance board controls.

Mario & Sonic takes skating and divides them into two events, figure skating and speed skating. The latter is a complete waggle mess where the game simply wants the player to wave the Wii remote back and forth in a rhythm and the game can’t even receive well. This is hands down the worst event in the game. Figure skating fairs better than its speedy cousin, but it isn’t as much of an achievement since the event is very simple. It has you flicking for flips, performing some balance tilting during long straight steps and spinning the controller in a lasso type fashion to do a finishing spin. While it can be fun to redo a few times for a better rank, it loses replay value more and more unless you’re watching characters like Eggman, Wario or the emo Shadow become the Swan Prince on the ice.

Curling is to Winter Olympics as bowling is to Wii Sports as it is the most well made game in the bunch. It does everything from adjusting the spin, the power and the distance via sweeping. The great part is that it’s all done fairly well with easy motions and accurate results. Sure, curling isn’t complicated as a sport, but if Sega took the time to fully develop the events in this game step-by-step like they did with curling, this game would have been an excellent package.

Finally, the bobsledding events are done well while you’re sledding. If you follow the instructions and place the Wii remote against your chest, it can feel very responsive and fun. My issues are with the beginning when you have to waggle as fast as you can for ten seconds in order to build up speed. It is tiring for gamers as much as it’s lazy for developers and should have totally been avoided.

In addition to performing at Vancouver, you can play in Mario and Sonic’s unique worlds as well. As a long time Mario and Sonic fan, I wish Nintendo and Sega would decide to ditch making official Olympic games and go all out on a (well developed) sports game in these worlds. These dream stages, like Seaside Hill from Sonic Heroes and Good Egg Galaxy from Mario Galaxy, have a lot more flavor, character and an overall fun factor since it adds purpose to Mario and Sonic’s collaboration versus being in Beijing and Vancouver for the Olympics that have no representatives from the countries whose flags are draped from the ceiling.

Outside the slopes and rinks, players can shop for various artwork for their sporting gear, listen to the in-game music, unlock new outfits for your Mii (who can be used in these events as well) and unlock useless info in the library. These items can be bought with coins that you gain from competing and winning events. Of course all of this is optional, but it’s always nice to play for something here and there. The biggest bust is the library where players unlock some info on the history of the sports that are in the game. Pretty boring in comparison to using such a resource for some real extensive Olympic, Mario and Sonic trivia those fans would love to have. On another note, instead of another menu to navigate from, Sega decided to allow the player to point to the building they want to go in. The pointing was so clumsy that I actually thought something was wrong with the remote itself. How Sega messed up something as simple as the Wii remote’s own IR pointer is beyond me, but it complements the half-assed theme that Sega was so talented to put throughout the entire game.

Online multiplayer must have been easy for Sega since they decided not to implement into the game. I still can’t believe after two years that we haven’t made this as standard on all multiplayer Wii games. Instead Sega decided to opt out and rehash the leaderboard ideas from the first Mario & Sonic at the Olympic Games. They did decide to recycle the Forecast Channel sync from NiGHTS: Journey of Dreams so whatever the weather it is in Vancouver will be the weather in-game. This was something I thoroughly enjoyed to see and hoped more games such as EA’s sports games used this nifty utility.

On top of this, Mario & Sonic is not a pretty game either. The character models are good, but are a far cry from the Mario and Sonic we’ve all seen in Smash Bros. Brawl. The Vancouver event stages are passable while the dream events are pretty good and capture the original stages they were meant to imitate. Some dream stages are imitated too much, and by that I mean parts of Radical Highway still look like a Dreamcast game from 2001. The most pitiful thing has to be the crowds of Toads, Chao, Shy Guys, Koopas and small animals all in their 2D, circa 1995 glory.

The audio is passable for the most part. During the Olympic events, the music is ignorable when you’re shaking your butt off during events with the exception of figure skating’s dependency to the free-to-use music like Chopin’s Fantasie Impromptu (a personal favorite). The main menu is very familiar to some tracks from Sega’s own Phantasy Star Universe and the Dream events use the music from the levels they were inspired from. Listening to songs from older games had me interrupt my play session of this game to pop in Sonic Adventure 2 for some killer nostalgia.

Nintendo should have been more cautious with allowing Sega to screw around with their main man because we’ve all seen what Sega has done to their’s. On the other hand, Sega should have dumped more money into this project since the original sold millions of copies and a more developed sequel could have been more successful. Shame on both of them for not allowing this killer collaboration to be one of the coolest winter sports games. Instead, we got another lackluster mini-game fest. While kids won’t know much of a difference (and that’s what Sega’s banking on), the real fans of seeing such an epic mashup of two gaming idols face-to-face will be left in the cold again.

Mario & Sonic @ the Olympic Winter Games for Wii: 5.9/10

Review: Flipnote Studio

Now that millions have gotten their mitts on the Nintendo DSi, Nintendo needed to deliver something that made this upgrade an actual upgrade. This promise of DSiWare being relevant has been for the most part unsuccessful with needless two dollar clock and calendar apps followed by incomplete portions of retail games like Brain Age. Now Nintendo has released a completely new app called Flipnote Studio: one of the coolest and feature-rich software that the Big N ever released. Plus it’s free, two dollars less than what Nintendo charges for clocks that the DSi already has.

Flipnote Studio (dubbed Moving Memo in Japan) is an animation app that uses most, if not all the DSi’s features. Drawing each frame is easy with the stylus, and adding a new frame is as simple as pressing right on the D-pad. Animators are blessed with options like copying frames for fluid animations, seeing the last frame with the lightbox, speed control of the animation and creating a negative of the frame. Pressing up brings up a menu for copy/pasting, changing colors/brush/eraser, general options and other little knickknacks.Sadly, these artists are limited in one big way and that is the four-color pallet: White (canvas), black, red and blue. Worst than that, users can only choose between two of the non-canvas colors to use, although the few brushes that are available can help users make an illusion of pink, light blue and gray.

In addition to scribbles, animations can be enriched with saved pictures made with the DSi’s camera as well as sounds using the built-in microphone. The DSi never had a great camera, but Flipnote Studio further deteriorates the quality of the photos by robbing them of their color but two. After the user thinks they finished their “Flipnote”, they use the microphone to add background music and up to three sound effects. It’s a great feature to have indeed, but the imported audio isn’t the greatest quality and can leave a bit of feedback. Even with the limitations, these features will further user individuality to a great degree.

After completing the animated masterpiece, one can save them and upload them online. The best part is that when the piece is uploaded, it is not limited to just fellow DSi owners. Nintendo teamed up with a Japanese blog site named Hatena to allow every Flipnote to be uploaded as a flash animation onto their website. The best part is that these Flipnotes can be embedded like other flash videos, so users can show off their work on social networking sites like Facebook or to show off on a personal blog like Never Unplaying.

Everyone can search videos on Hatena’s site and the Nintendo DSi itself. This could have been so much more user friendly, but without the ability to name or describe a Flipnote disallows the ability to manually search. Instead, you can just look at all the Flipnotes ever uploaded and view them based on what the middle frame looks like. In a Google and YouTube infested society, this is far below a mediocre attempt. However, DSi owners can comment these videos in the most unique of ways by using the touch screen to write or draw out an opinion.

Flipnote Studio is proof that the Nintendo DSi is a true upgrade from its Lite predecessors. Its free price tag hooked people to try it and its ease of use with the addition to embed will keep them entertained for months on end. Nintendo once again shows how software should be done on their platforms. Hopefully this could be a stepping stone for a whole new retail franchise or a way for Nintendo to start experiencing download content or software upgrades. If they can upgrade Flipnote Studio or create a sequel that takes out all their limits by adding like a color-rich pallet and newer options like free-form select, this can be a new phenomenon worthy of a DSi purchase alone. For now, what we have is a great first step in a whole new way of experiencing a video game platform.

Never Unplaying's score of Flipnote Studio: 8.8/10.0

Retail Unplaying- What Third-Parties Did Right On Wii & What They Need To Do In The Future

Nintendo’s little white box hit fifty million units fast and it is becoming the fastest selling console in history, so what games do we see on it? Answer’s not as simple because it’s completely different than the other systems in nearly every way. The Wii is not as built like the Xbox 360 and PS3: The system’s not nearly as powerful, there’s no high definition and uses a completely different controller. Obviously because of this, game developers use a completely different method to make games for it. Developers either port PS2 and GameCube games to it while some make simple mini-games, and some actually put some decent, original content on it.

Even though there are a ton of games on Wii, the real question is how they do sales-wise. The answer is so complicated that some publishers can not grasp the concept on how to make a game sell well on Wii. What’s funny is that is always something simple. Either it is a misstep in marketing the game, introducing a new franchise that hasn’t truly sold a lot of people or deciding on an art style that was not accepted by the public. A great example of all these points is Sega’s MadWorld with its black and white motif mixed with a questionable marketing campaign that doesn’t show its true, bloody self. Sega’s failure to introduce this new property correctly with some fun commercials and other intensive advertising doomed MadWorld to obscurity.

What can these third-party publishers do to guarantee success on this platform? The answer seems dumb, but it’s simple: Take advantage of the moment with something great. It sounds hard to grasp, but there’s meaning here. Believe it or not, games have sold well on Wii that was not made by Nintendo. These games either took advantage of the Wii’s control scheme or took advantage of the ideology of the platform and created some unforgettable moments on the system.



One great example of making success of Wii is the Guitar Hero franchise. Guitar Hero III and Guitar Hero World Tour are the best selling on Wii because it caters to the demographic for the platform. It is multiplayer-friendly, it is enjoyable to everyone at every age, and it is bundled with stuff. Games like Guitar Hero and Wii Fit are popular on that platform because the basis of the Wii is expansion: The idea of people playing games in a different light. Playing with not only the Wii Remote, but with many different inputs like a guitar or board or even a GameCube controller.

The Wii is probably the biggest console with bringing older games and restyling them with a new control scheme. Many publishers, including Nintendo, have done it and done it with mixed results. One game however took this idea and made a fantastic game even better with a control setup unrivaled by traditional controllers and that was Capcom’s Resident Evil 4: Wii Edition. In 2005, Resident Evil 4 was either Game of the Year material or the Game of the Year to most people and Capcom took what worked and redid it with the Wii’s controller in mind. What came out was a version that made the older versions obsolete with a brand new control setup. The Wii’s pointer function made the game faster and less frustrating and went on to be the most popular version, even two years after the original won awards. The success of Resident Evil 4: Wii Edition was so great that Capcom’s next Resident Evil game on Wii, dubbed The Umbrella Chronicles, went on to be another game to ship over a million copies. Due to the popularity of these games, Capcom is far from done and are releasing three more Resident Evil games to Wii.

When Nintendo lit a fire under the video game industry’s posteriors in 2006, publishers were too late to take advantage of the moment. They doubted and insulted the Wii and thus prevented their own gravy train from departing when Nintendo’s did. One publisher was the exception and took direct focus on the Wii’s launch and that was Ubisoft. Though they dumped about seven games on the Wii’s launch window, two are the most memorable: Rayman Raving Rabbids and Red Steel. Rayman was a platformer star that started on the Nintendo 64 and PlayStation, but failed to keep up a successful ongoing series soon after the GameCube launch. He was revived on Wii in a hilarious mini-game compilation that showed what the Wii can do. Rayman Raving Rabbids went on to sell over a million copies and spawned a franchise of its own with the little demented Rabbids. Red Steel was known as the first Wii game shown in action when it was revealed in a spring issue of Game Informer. This showed the hardcore gaming audience the Wii’s possibility with first-person shooters and excited them. The game launched when the Wii did and although it was not the best game out there, Ubisoft struck gold twice with a second launch game to sell over a million copies. This could have only happened during the Wii’s launch and most failed to take advantage of it.

Hopefully publishers will start to see what really works on Wii. Future games like Muramasa: The Demon Blade, Tatsunoko vs. Capcom, Dead Space: Extraction and Red Steel 2 seem extremely promising and deserve all the hype and marketing that their respective publishers can dish out. Hardcore gamers are sick of seeing awesome games like Okami, Zack & Wiki and House of the Dead Overkill suffer from crummy sales due to publisher and developer ignorance. The Wii has been out for nearly three years and gamers are getting restless, it’s really time for publishers and developers to open their eyes and step it up a notch.

Retail Unplaying: How Games Sell and Trade at Game Stores- PlayStation 3

The gaming industry is like the car industry, some people buy games with older gamers in conjunction with money. Whether or not the game companies like it, this is something that cannot be stopped. There is however, a guide of how successful a game can be and how often your game could get traded in. Obviously the retailers profit off the eventual used games that come in, so this complicates long term success of most games. Our next stop is Sony’s PlayStation 3.

The PlayStation 3 has what might be, the hardest library to discuss about. With a smaller install base and library, getting an accurate analysis on their customers was difficult. Secondly, the customers’ purchasing patterns are extremely hard to pinpoint as it was with the PlayStation 2. Obviously because of the factors, the PS3 article was the longest to analyze and compile.

Like the Xbox 360, Sony adapted the next generation standard price point: $59.99 with prices dropping after a few months after launch depending on the game. The PlayStation 3 library consists of games similar to the Xbox 360, mostly the sports and action types. Mostly the PS3 versions of games don’t sell as well as their Xbox 360 counterparts and the system has fewer exclusives, but PS3 customers rely on those games along with the great first party games like Resistance, Killzone 2 and LittleBig Planet.

PS3 customers aren’t revolved around game stores like GameCrazy or GameStop, they’re fans of Best Buy thanks to a non-stop marketing campaign for the system due to increase Blu-Ray movie sales. That’s common to see stores rally marketing towards their personal or potential money maker. GameStop always point to the 360 while it’s hard to even see into a Toys R Us gaming section without the blinding white from Wii product placement. Therefore, you don’t see gamers trading in games at the gaming retailers. Of course it’s not a stereotype, because few PS3 gamers do go to gaming retailers like 360 gamers go to Best Buy.

The busier GameStops have a lot of used product that doesn’t sell, so naturally that means PS3 games trade in for less, right? Not really because there’s another fact that keeps it equal to other versions: the lack of banged up defective disks. Blu-ray disks are lined with an anti-scratch coating on the bottom of the disk, making them scratch resistant. Because of it, customers and retailers won’t need to worry about a used PS3 game being defective. Oddly enough those PS3 gamers don’t buy used even though the games are rarely beat up, but that can be a lack of knowledge on the subject.

So after literally months of getting data on PS3 customers, the best conclusion is that PS3 games get bought and traded in as fast as any 360 gamer as long as the game sells. So when you walk into a game store, don’t be shocked if you see three copies of Killzone 2 used after two weeks next to new copies of Eternal Sonata and its six months of junk sales. However, laugh when you look down to see a new copy of Genji rotting away since its release on the PS3’s launch. When PS3 games don’t sell: they DON’T sell and that becomes a game you don’t find used often either. While you see dozens of copies of Resistance and Uncharted, don’t be shocked to not find Folklore or Valkyria Chronicles.


Now do PS3 games get traded in fast like 360 games? Yes they do surprisingly. In the PS2 era, it wasn’t common to see this buying habit due to people not knowing much of the concept of trading games or that they didn’t need to. With the rise of popularity of games and a worsening economy in this newer generation, people feel less enthusiastic about owning a library of games and feel more to just play then sell. For those with that habit, a recommendation to services like Gamefly is in order. A monthly fee costs less then what you lose on one game, so gamers should really stop doing this wasteful purchasing habit because these games are not cheap!

Nintendo DSi: Worth it or not?

The Nintendo DSi has finally got it release date and price. The thing is that the DS has been out for years and has sold tens of millions of units. So Never Unplaying has decided to outweigh the pros and cons, to outweigh if the $169.99 machine is worth your hard earned money when it releases the fifth of April. Let’s not beat around the bush, and get straight into the facts:

DSi Pros:

Bigger screens- The screens get a smidge upgrade in size so that words are read easier and visuals can be seen a bit better. The Lite did it too, so naturally the DSi should have an upgrade. It’s now 3.25 inches compared to the Lite’s 3 inches.

Cameras- The Nintendo DSi can take pictures through the two VGA cameras. They can be saved and used through a SD memory card. What’s neat about the pictures is that you can play with them. You can change the color, distort them or add things to the pics. There’s a LED light on the outer clam shell for people to know that you’re upskirting them. The camera has face tracker too, something I was shocked to see in a VGA camera for a gaming device.

Plays Music- In addition to pictures, the DSi can play music (AAC format) that are on the SD card. You can also play with the music by messing with the pitch and speed.

Audio Recorder- The things you can do with the music, you can do with anything you record in the DSi’s microphone too.

DSiWare- Exclusive to the DSi is the option to download games to the system like how the Wii uses WiiWare. This way you can carry many games on the hardware itself as well as get nice unique indie games that couldn’t get the cash for retail and marketing. World of Goo is known to be one of the Wii’s top games and it’s not even on a disk. Let’s hope we see killer software for DSiWare too. Good titles can warrant a purchase of this machine alone. Another point is that DSiWare does not limit to games. Tools can also be downloaded to it like a calculator, memo pad, or things like Personal Trailer Cooking: A cookbook. A (free) web browser will be one of the first DSiWare tools.

Don’t have to restart the system to do something else- This is awesome and one of the coolest features of the device. Every time you want to change the settings or quit the game, you always had to shut down the system and manually restart. Now you can soft reset into the main menu if you want to quit something. Same thing applies for the settings menu and DSiWare games.

Change the brightness anytime- Another fantastic feature that only a few will probably know about. Hold the Select Button and press Up and Down Volume buttons (Volume is not a slider anymore) and you can instantly adjust the screen brightness. So if you battery’s low you can instantly conserve it by changing. There are now five brightness settings on the system.

Better speakers- The DS Lite speakers are a bit weak because of the thinness of the upper shell. However with better technology, the DSi speakers have better quality in addition to output louder sound.

Possibility of the “Virtual Handheld”- If this picks up, we might be treated to Game Boy, Game Boy Color, Game Boy Advance, Game Gear, Neo Geo Pocket, and more games on DSiWare.

Firmware upgrades- Like every other current system, the DSi is upgradeable. So if any issues or if Nintendo wants to add stuff, a simple firmware upgrade can happen. This was something the DS needed from the beginning.



DSi Cons:

More expensive- The $169.99 price gave me sticker shock. Even with all these new features, in the end it means more money. In harder times, the last thing we expect is a drastic increase in price. The DS Lite is a nice sleek system with a great library of DS and GBA games to play on for $129.99. When the Lite replaced the old DS, it was at the same price with a cooler system. It was really a good value. Finally, for the $169.99 you can get a PSP.

Weaker battery life- It’s not by much, but the system’s battery life is a little bit weaker. It’ll also die faster with the new louder speakers, bigger screens, music player and camera. Better screen brightness management however can save time while in a critical moment.

Onboard memory is only 256MB- That is the size of one DS cartridge. If DSiWare games and tools are pretty big in size, this machine will fill up fast. Even IF you can use the SD card, it’s dumb that Nintendo still hasn’t learned their lesson about the small onboard memory issue that the Wii is struggling with.

Doesn’t seem to cater to the mass market like the Lite- My mom loves the DS Lite. She would hate it if the system was like the DSi though. She’s tech-illiterate, but it doesn’t take much to know how to use a DS Lite. Older or tech illiterate customers would feel ripped off over the music player, the camera and the idea of DSiWare. It’s intimidating to those people.

No plans of DSi exclusive games in retail- Yep, only the downloadable DSiWare games are exclusive to the platform (At this given time). Why buy a system where only the niche downloadable games are exclusive? It’s not that digital downloads itself are niche, but DSiWare games are. These are really only for the hardcore gamers in America. Those same hardcore gamers who already have DS Lites won’t feel like upgrading just for a few perks.

No MP3 support for the music player- The DSi plays music, but not in the most used format. It uses the AAC format. The format has a bit better quality, but not that popular outside certain players. Funny enough, the idea was probably based on the fact that iTunes and the iPod use that format. Ask yourself though: If I was using those things, why use the DSi?!

The cameras are only VGA’s (0.3 megapixels)- That means the pictures are 640 x 480. That can’t even be a good wallpaper image for you PC. When you import the pics to the Wii Photo Channel or the PC via the SD card, you’ll see some small pictures. It is more than fine for the DS screen though.

Power button placement- It’s on the left side next to the touch screen. It’s where a thumb could be. It feels like they’ll be a lot of accidental turnoffs or accidental resets to the menu.

The material used for the handheld- The DS Lite is glossy looking but the DSi is a matte black or blue. It looks a bit dull, but the worst thing is that every little scuff shows on the thing so if you use it often, it will look beat up real quick. People with the Crimson or Cobalt DS Lite know that the bottom half is matte black like the DSi will be. It feels like we’ll see some pretty banged up DSi’s. Won’t have to deal with fingerprints though.

No Game Boy Advance slot- Cut the current library by a half because the DSi will not be backwards compatible with the hundreds of Game Boy Advance games. Truthfully, I can understand that, but the GBA slot was not just for the GBA games. Now some DS games are incompatible with DSi, like Guitar Hero and Tony Hawk’s Motion. Plus, some games are also cut on their features, like the Pokemon Diamond/Pearl import feature or Mega Man Zero/ZX special bosses. Rumble Pak’s worthless too. Future games could have used the GBA slot in other unique ways also, but those concepts are now scrapped.

Pictochat is not enhanced with video or online- You’d think this would be obvious, but video chatting on Pictochat through the Nintendo Wi-Fi Connection would be great. Hopefully, this could be a DSiWare application though.

No accelerometer- After the iPhone success and that little thing called the Wii that made Nintendo a few bucks, an accelerometer should have been a easy choice for gameplay enhancement.

DSiWare is exclusive to DSi- Face it, we might not buy this because we already own Nintendo DS Lites along with over 75 million people. Most of that 75 million won’t upgrade because of the digital download service, camera and music player. It’s not reasonable. So already, 75 million people won’t have access to DSiWare. That worries me about the success of the service, which is exclusive to the DSi. Every Wii owner has access to WiiWare if they want to, so should DS owners. I’d like to see something for DS Lite owners to gain access to DSiWare, but it seems unlikely.

System reeks of piracy possibilities- I hate homebrewing myself. I think it’s dumb to jailbreak an iPhone or hack a Wii, so seeing the SD card slot and the onboard memory makes me upset about the ideas of the DSi homebrew community. Though I do think Nintendo put that there so ROM cart developers and cheat device makers go out of business. I doubt the firmware updates would do anything too.

Nintendo scrapped an idea of dual DS slots- Recently, Nintendo made a segment called “Iwata Asks.” Nintendo’s president, Satoru Iwata, interviews the masterminds of a latest piece of hardware or software and the latest one was about the DSi development. A funny part they actually said was that the original design had two slots for DS games. So that you can quit one game and start another without switching out games. I thought that would be a great concept if people can take two games within the handheld itself and with the option of booting back to the main menu, it’d be neat to switch to a new game without turning the system off.



As you can see, I’m not a huge fan of the DSi. It’s too pricy to upgrade and for what? Possibilities for good DSiWare games really. Sure the screens, sound and features are a nice touch, but with every enhancement comes an issue about it. The music player and the camera are cute, but outdated gimmicks and are not necessary. Maybe if this thing was a phone then yea, it’d be really cool to only carry this. The thing is if you own a phone, you have a better camera and a better MP3 player. So at the price of $169.99, I cannot suggest owning one unless you:

1) Don’t own a DS and want to pony up another 40 bucks,
2) Want to upgrade from the old fat DS and want to pony the extra 40 bucks or
3) Feel strongly with the option for DSiWare.

There is hope, if we complain enough and don’t support the platform; Nintendo would have no choice but to drop the price eventually. It’s Nintendo, so we know they’re making money with every DSi sold so there is room for a price drop. If that does happen, DSiWare wouldn’t get off the ground.

The thing is that a game system should not be bought unless adequate software warrants a purchase. Also for the DSi’s case to Lite owners, a game system shouldn’t be needlessly upgraded unless the system totally improves as a gaming machine over its predecessors. Take the Game Boy Advance SP with its backlit screen and rechargeable battery or the PSP 2000’s video output function. The DSi reminds me of the Xbox 360 Elite; only those who know they want it should get it. Those who don’t are only throwing money out the window with useless options.

Will I own one? Yes, because I have every Nintendo system, but like the Game Boy Micro, I probably won’t get it until I can get it cheap used long after its discontinuation. Of course that may not be true and I could get one soon if DSiWare becomes a force to be reckoned with. As an iPhone user myself, the DSi’s camera, music capabilities and web browser are a joke to me as well as a waste of my money. There might be a few who want this, but I’m not one of them.

Demo Impressions: Resident Evil 5

Resident Evil 4 came out for the Nintendo GameCube in January 2005 and became a must have for the platform. I remember getting that the day it came out and thought it was a great action game. Then in 2007, Capcom ported the hit to the Nintendo Wii as Resident Evil 4: Wii Edition. The Wii Edition became the most popular of the versions due to the faster paced, intuitive control scheme. Most who played it now think the GameCube and PlayStation 2 are now obsolete due to the slower pace it has compared to the motion controlled Wii version. The Wii Edition is now one of my favorite games of all time because it was the perfect platform with the perfect control scheme.

Now this article is about Resident Evil 5 for the Xbox 360 and PlayStation 3. Why was the introduction totally about Resident Evil 4? It’s because Resident Evil 5 is not on Wii and instead is on platforms whose controllers are more traditional. After seeing Resident Evil 5 four years later than the original RE4 and two years after Wii Edition, can the next-generation consoles beat out Wii Edition in controls and become the best in the series?

Like Devil May Cry 4 before it, Capcom makes the most with the demo by offering two parts of the campaign. One is in the African slums and the other was in the African slums. Each of them though has their different feels. The first one sticks you in a secluded area, where you kill and kill until your backup arrives, while the other is more based on the “let’s see why we added a partner” bit where your goals are based on teamwork.

For those who are new to the new-age Resident Evils, it has skewed away from being a normal survivor horror to being a third person action game with Resident Evil 4. You shoot, you slash, you try not to die. RE4 started revolving all other controls around a context sensitive button so when you needed to jump, instead of pressing a jump button, a button will designate all other non-action related moves. RE5 continues the same setup for the most part, with some better or worse tweaks. Stuff like right analog stick turning and map switch are added due to the extra options the newer controllers have versus the GameCube controller.

For those who played Resident Evil 4: Wii Edition, expect to be disappointed by the crawl-like pace the fifth Resident Evil feel with the standard controller. Not only is it slower than the lightning-fast Wii Edition, but it’s even slower than RE4 on GameCube. Seems like Chris Redfield ate one too many cheeseburgers than Leon, because it takes forever to turn, run and walk compared to the GameCube original. Deaths will happen if you cannot adapt, because the guy with a chainsaw won’t give you the chance to get a handle with the controls.

One thing Resident Evil 5 has added is a partner. It’s a nifty addition, but it adds something I never wanted. This partner can be controlled via the CPU, or through another player- online or off. It’s cool the newer consoles can produce so many infected enemies that two people can blast them away, but it’s too bad I have to share ammo, weapons and health items with someone that will just waste them (or force me to be conservative for once). One final gripe with the co-op in the demo: Why can’t we both have shotguns in the demo? Plus, will the full game allow two of the same weapon outside pistols?

In the end, I expected most of what I saw in Resident Evil 5. It plays a lot like Resident Evil 4 with a buddy. Sadly, one thing I didn’t expect was the torturous speed of the playable characters. Just one last plead to Capcom: Please make a Resident Evil 5: Wii Edition. I REALLY need this game with a faster pace. The Xbox 360 and PS3 versions feel so obsolete compared to the excellent Wii Edition control scheme.

Never Unplaying Game of the Year 2008

Never Unplaying isn’t made up of a pool of editor’s that take weeks to critique a year’s worth of games and make a ton of awards that span thousands of games. I’m one person and play what I like and rent what I think I might like. At the end of every year, I play everything I played throughout the year and decide my personal Game of the Year. I take it pretty seriously actually.

Past Game of the Years include both new games and traditional games. Last year, my Game of the Year was Picross DS, a simple puzzle game for the Nintendo DS. Why the nod for the award? I spent most of the year playing it, and I played it every night. It stimulated my brain before sleep and I dreamt a ton more. It was, in my opinion, a perfect puzzle game. Great interface, precise controls, thousands of puzzles, downloadable content, and user generated content. The cool part is that all of Picross DS’s features are nicely wrapped up in a $20 price tag.

The 2006 Game of the Year proved that something more traditional can win people over. The Legend of Zelda: Twilight Princess got the Game of the Year 2006 for many reasons. First and foremost, Zelda is one of my favorite series of all time. The series is so good that only two hated Zeldas come to mind: Zelda 2 for the NES and Phantom Hourglass on the DS. Twilight Princess did what fans wanted and gave us an Ocarina of Time clone, but with better art direction, story and a staggering 50 hour long adventure. It is still my favorite game in this generation so far.

With those two examples said, it’s time to announce the Game of the Year. It’s a game that very few would put on their list. It’s also not a high profile game like Grand Theft Auto 4, Metal Gear Solid 4, Fallout 3 or Super Smash Bros. Brawl. Nope, it’s Tales of Vesperia for the Xbox 360.



Tradition rules 2008 since Vesperia is the second Tales game to be my Game of the Year. The first was the 2004 GameCube hit, Tales of Symphonia. I was still a bit green in the Japanese RPG’s back then and only having Nintendo systems at the time limited access to them outside the first party Pokemon and Mario RPG’s. Then came Namco and its juggernaut RPG and all of a sudden, a whole new genre opened for me. Sadly no one has beaten Symphonia in my eyes since, but few have come close. Three come to mind: Dragon Quest VIII, Eternal Sonata and finally Tales of Vesperia.

Tales of Vesperia starts off with a man named Yuri Lowell, an ex-knight who lives in the slummier sections of the capitol city of Zaphias. He’s the Robin Hood of games; he beats on knight collecting taxes to protect the people around him. He gets thrown in the slammer after breaking into the house of a thief of a device that supplied the slums’ water. Yuri breaks out and saves a noble girl who is friends with Yuri’s best friend. They set off finding the friend named Flynn and triggers the huge seventy-plus hour adventure of Tales of Vesperia.

Tales of Vesperia refines all the great things of the “Tales” series, from the unique battle system to the anime-inspired visuals. The game outside of battle plays like any normal JRPG, explore a world map between detailed towns and monster-filled dungeons. Inside battle though, it’s unlike most RPG’s. Namco needlessly calls it the "Evolved Flex-Range Linear Motion Battle System" (EFR-LMBS for short), but its fancy name is only a name.
What it is though, is an exciting, fast-paced, and fluid battle system. The closest comparison would be that it feels like a fighting game mixed with special attacks and item usage.

Possibly the best part about the game is the cast. Most JRPG’s usually have a diverse cast to relate to, but Vesperia’s cast of characters are extremely memorable and a blast to play with. From the badass Yuri to the hot-headed Rita to the perverted Raven; the party consisted of triple-A personalities with better-than-expected voice acting. A great cast is supported by a great story, and while Vesperia’s story doesn’t break much new ground, it still satisfies thanks to the colorful characters. It’s hard to let go of the controller once a player gets knee deep into the game.


(Image from IGN.com)

Tales of Vesperia didn’t win because it was something I never saw before; it won because it took a successful formula and tweaked it for a new generation. The game looks stunning, plays well and is a blast to experience. Sadly, Vesperia is like all the games I liked in 2008; it was good, but nothing overly impressed me. Only thing I liked were games from existing franchises; from Super Smash Bros. Brawl, Gears of War 2, Fable 2 and the winner: Tales of Vesperia. Though these games are great, it was hard picking a winner due to nothing feeling fresh. So don’t think of last year as a year of innovation, because there was none. It was just a fair year full of easy expectations and the same old thing.

(It's like I planned on doing it the on Inauguration Day or something)


(Image from IGN.com)

Top 20 Countdown

1/2- Disgaea DS is the first to go!
1/3- Valkyria Chronicles is next!
1/4- Civilization Revolution is out!
1/5- Wario Land is outta here!
1/6- Final Fantasy Tactics A2 is gone!
1/7- Apollo has blasted off!
1/8- Another bad play on words arrives when the Prince cannot be king in this competition!
1/9- It pains me to take out Tales of Symphonia: Dawn of the New World. It's getting harder and harder now.
1/10- Professor Layton has dropped out!
1/11- Left 4 Dead was.... left for dead?
1/12- Okami is walking with her tail between her legs.
1/13- Persona 4 is Personout! (Wow I hate myself for that)
1/14- No More Heroes is no more!
1/15- Gears of War 2 is curbstomped!
1/16- Fable 2 is gone. Only a few more!
1/17- Chrono Trigger's time has run out
1/18- Snake? Snake! SNAAAAAAAAAAAAKE! MS4 and the last PS3 game is out!
1/19- The World Ends with You's run has ended. Two are left: Brawl versus Vesperia. Almost there!
1/20- Brawl is KO'ed!

2009 Predictions

We all know that 2009 will be a tough year. A struggling economy mixed with a questionable year for games will make all developers, journalists and gamers decide some very tough decisions. Only a few days in and this year already claimed a victim with Ziff Davis' Electronic Gaming Monthly and 1UP.com.

That's a reason why there are less predictions for this year. This is such a difficult year that anything can happen. The 2008 predictions were fairly easy and tons of good content was on its way. This year I wouldn't be surprised if Sony merged with Tomy and became Tony with some cartoon Italian guy for the logo. This year was harder to predict, the industry has really gone in weird directions. So anything's possible, and here's my version for anything:



1) Top selling game of 2009? Wii Play. Expect Wii Sports Resort up there too.

2) Highest rated game of 2009? Killzone 2? Resident Evil 5? The Conduit? Call of Duty Modern Warfare 2? Probably not, it’ll be something smaller. That goes double to my personal Game of the Year 2009.

3) I keep thinking the PS3 will do better and the Wii to do worse, and time after time I’m wrong. So I’ll predict it again. The Wii will still sell the most but not as much as the stellar 2008 sales (Two million in one month?! Really?). The PS3 didn’t fare so well this year but I predict it’ll sell better than it did ion 2008. The 360 will remain in the middle and keep a similar trend like it has before. 2008 it went Wii, DS, 360, PSP, PS3. However in 2009, it’ll go Wii, DS, 360, PS3, PSP.

4) I put PSP in last for a reason. Expect that downward trend continuing.

5) Sony will probably discontinue the 80GB and 160 GB models for some other models again. But expect a decent price drop too.

6) In America, DSi won’t be as popular as it is in Japan. If Nintendo continues the Lite model, expect that to sell more. It’s not as casual friendly and hardcore gamers either a) Already has a Lite or b) hate the fact it has no GBA slot or c) hate it because it does not enough DSi content to factor a purchase.

7) Lots of popular studios have gone down lately. Factor-5 (Star Wars GCN games, Lair), Black Box (Need for Speed) and Free Radical (Ex-Rare employees, Timesplitters, Haze) have all closed doors. Expect more studios to shut down in this fashion.

8) The PSP is selling decently, but not much is coming out for the platform. Other than the bigger games like Dissidia: Final Fantasy and Madden 2010, don’t expect much from it.

9) I just read the latest Nintendo Power and saw Ubisoft’s new TMNT article and got a little excited, but I predict the game will not be the best it could have been. Regardless that it’s developed by Game Arts (Grandia, Super Smash Bros Brawl) and former members of Team Ninja (Dead or Alive, Ninja Gaiden).

10) Microsoft is pretty mysterious for 2009, not much was announced for them outside Halo 3: ODST and Halo Wars. Expect the poorest first party lineup from Microsoft since the 360’s launch. Like Nintendo was in 2008. Makes you wonder if Alan Wake will be focused on and actually release.

11) Nintendo needs to prove themselves this year. Their top selling games are older games like Wii Play, New Super Mario Bros and Nintendogs. New stuff needs to come out to refresh gamers, both casual and hardcore. A new Zelda will finally be announced (not released) this year and will probably be the sole hardcore game while a sole casual hit (Wii Sports Resort most likely) will sell like crazy. Sin and Punishment 2 will probably do decent but will only sell to fans on the first. Casual-wise, expect more DS “Tools” like Personal Trainer: Cooking mixed with a new Brain game. Even with a Zelda announcement, don’t expect much from them once more.

12) Let’s focus on Square-Enix. Final Fantasy XIII won’t come out in 2009 in America but will in Japan at the end of the year. Dragon Quest IX will be released in both territories in 2009 and Dragon Quest X won’t touch 2009 in either territory. Outside Star Ocean 4, don’t expect a ton this year from Square-Enix.

13) EA has redeemed themselves to core gamers. Before, EA were nothing but sports and licensed games and their quality has been degrading year after year. However in 2008, we’ve seen hit after hit from them. Great new IP’s like Dead Space and Mirror’s Edge launched. Their established franchises like Burnout Paradise and Battlefield: Bad Company were impressive. EA Sports has done wonders with Madden NFL 2009, FIFA Soccer 2009, Tiger Woods 2009 All-Play and NHL 2009. EA has even been pushing Wii efforts like Boom Blox and Facebreaker KO Party. You would think they could do no wrong, but they have been tanking thanks to lack of earnings versus the spending to make these awesome games. They had to cut 10% of their workforce and close studios like Black Box. So what’s their 2009 lineup? A lot less. EA Sports will be the same as always, but not much in games like Dead Space will come out. Heck, other than Harry Potter, Lord of the Rings Conquest, Skate 2 and the 2010 Sports lineup, EA doesn’t have much of a lineup.

14) …Which sounds like it’ll happen to Sega and its Wii projects. Sega has scored publishing rights to the Conduit and Mad World while publishing The House of the Dead Overkill. These three Wii games are some of the most hardcore efforts to the Wii’s lineup. Sadly without a killer marketing strategy set up, these three games will not do well on shelves. Best case scenario would be 300,000 copies sold each. Though Sega’s fourth Wii game, Sonic and the Black Knight, will probably sell more then those three. On Sega’s 360/PS3 front: Sonic’s Ultimate Genesis Collection will do great while Alien: Colonial Marines will do mediocre, and not much else. No other Sonic game will be released on any platform this year.

15) Now my E3 prediction. It’s back to normal and I expect Nintendo will win it this year. In 2006, Nintendo adapted to the killer show and made an excellent showing for the Wii’s debut. The next two years were the reformatted E3, and Nintendo reformatted as well. Frankly, both sucked. Now with E3 back to normal, Nintendo should too. Though I doubt most they announce won’t hit this year. Sony has done pretty well with E3 but I see the least amount of content from them. Microsoft has dominated the last E3 but expect a lamer show from them this year.

16) Lastly, my bold prediction. If Microsoft wants to continue their positive trend for their scarce 2009, they need something big. It’s a big third party exclusive. Or one that Microsoft will take over as publisher.

...And that's Never Unplaying's predictions for 2009. Not as much as last year's, but its beefier. The extra detail makes it harder for the 100% true.