Dragon Quest X's logo draws near!

I don't care if this is a rumour! Let's bang some tables and shout from some rooftops! Here's a tiny bit of Dragon Quest X's logo for the Wii finally showing itself. We've been waiting quite some time for this and I'm really glad to see it! It's expected that more will be revealed in some conference that's coming up very soon. It's all very exciting!

999: Nine Hours, Nine Persons, Nine Doors

Just thought I'd talk about this visual novel adventure game for Nintendo DS that recently got a limited release in America. It's incredibly stupid the way it doesn't have an Irish/European release date as it's a well known fact that adventure games sell very well over here.

I haven't played the game yet but over in America reviewers are talking about the game positively enough and they're especially lauding the fact that the game is M rated and has swearing and violent situations.

Showing the IT Crowd to someone of a more mainstream persuasion

I had a chance to show the IT Crowd to someone who isn't really into computers to test its supposed broad appeal.

They looked at the DVD cover and saw all the pixellated characters on the box. "Oh no is this a cartoon?" "I'm not sure if this is my kind of thing" was what they said. Then I put the DVD on and the menus came up with the pixellated characters moving around like they would in a video game. "Don't worry" I said, "this isn't a cartoon". "Oh I thought it was" they said. Must've been judging from the menus and DVD cover.

I showed the very first episode anyway and they laughed a few times and could see one or two jokes coming before they came up. Afterwards they said "its good! It's definitely more for your age group anyway!"

So there we go. You know, I don't often show most people I know movies or other things I like because it makes me very nervous. I have very different tastes to other people I know.

More Paper Mario!

Not much happening! Just playing Paper Mario still. Got further than I ever have before. The 3DS one might be interesting. Later! Sorry busy holidays!

Playing through Paper Mario for the first time

Lately I've been working through the first Paper Mario game. It's nowhere near as good as the Mario and Luigi RPGs but its still quite decent. I've rescued three of those seven star sprite things. Hopefully I can stay focused this time as I did give up on it before.

Christmas themed Mario hacks

http://www.zophar.net/forums/showthread.php?t=14710

Happy Christmas everyone! Someone in the romhacking community has made a list of Christmas themed Mario hacks. You can see the list of screenshots and patches in the link above. Try 'em out and enjoy!

Developer of Mother 4 fangame gives sentimental message, reveals a song from the game.

Mother 4 is getting a huge amount of support from everyone in the video game community. It even got featured in NGamer magazine where they interviewed the development team. It is a genuinely inspiring and exciting project. In a recent blogpost one of the developers talked about how much the project meant to them. They also released a track for the game you can listen to there. Check it out: http://mother4.andonuts.net

Annual top 10 lists are starting to come out...

It's that time of year again. We're starting to see awards being given to games and everyone is coming out with their top 10 lists of games for the year. Top 10 lists can be a lot of fun. They can be extremely annoying too. Other people's lists can be so annoying in fact that I think I might even make my own top 10 list of games of the year. There's a few things to think about though. One thing is that it always annoys me when a great game is released at the end of the year and that straight away it goes to number 1, as if the rest of the year wasn't memorable enough to have an entry there. I'd like to try and avoid that if I can. Another thing is the only brand new games I played this year were Wii and DS ones( I think, I'll have to have a thorough check).

So I'll ponder over the candidates and post my top 10 list sometime over the holidays! Stay tuned!

Shigeru Miyamoto originally thought about having Mario collect fruit instead of coins

Another interesting bit of trivia flowing from all the interviews during this 25th Anniversary of Super Mario Bros.

What I want to say though is this: did you know fruit are one of the best collectables in games? If I were to think about why that is I would say it's for the same reason that fruit and veg are always in the first aisle in the supermarket. The way they look, the different shapes they come in, their colour... it just makes them very appealing to the eye and makes you want to keep shopping (and playing!).

Lots of games have fruit in them as collectables, especially old arcade games like Bubble Bobble, Pac-Man and countless others. Bangai-O Spirits is probably one of the best examples - that game makes you desire fruit like no other!

Dragon Quest VI is getting an official English language release!

In an earlier post I talked about the general feeling of anxiety fans had for the western release of Dragon Quest VI for the Nintendo DS.

Well, anxiety begone! The game is coming out in America in a couple of months on Valentines Day! This is fantastic news but I can only sing and dance so much because an Irish/European release date hasn't been finalised yet. I'll be sure to do an extremely enthusiastic encore of this news when a date is eventually confirmed.

I wonder if they'll keep the "VI" in the title for us?

I want Snatcher on Wii! (Part 2)

Look, Snatcher would be perfect on Wii. There are sections in the Mega CD version of the game where you use a light gun to do some shooting. Thanks to the Wii's pointer you're already sorted there! No need for buying an extra peripheral! No other console is as well suited for this as the Wii.

Well, there's the DS' touchscreen but Snatcher is a more cinematic kind of game and I feel it would be better playing it through a TV.

Also, I know you don't actually need a light gun but its not as fun moving a cursor around with a d-pad.

Retro Gamer Issue 84

Here's the Christmasey issue of Retro Gamer with some lovely looking artwork. It's really nice that we can still get a games magazine that does really nice cover work. I like the way the editor is looking in the window and the founders of RARE in a picture above the fireplace.
This is being put away for me for Christmas so I can't really comment on its contents. My apologies!

Irish/European edition of Super Mario All Stars for the Wii plays in 50Hz

I really don't like being negative when I talk about video games. The more I hear about this title though the less I think of it. Just today I heard that the PAL version of the game plays in 50Hz only, meaning we get the slower version of the game even though it's commonplace that we get 60Hz games now. It makes me unhappy and discouraged. Now it's not the worst retro compilation as there are an awful lot of rereleases by other companies that are really really terrible but Nintendo should not do stuff like this that make them seem like they're doing the same bad things other companies are doing.

The Nintendo I know is the one who put NES games in Animal Crossing, The Lost Levels as an unlockable in Super Mario Bros Deluxe on Game Boy Colour and the one who gave me Metroid 1 as a free gift (on at least 3 seperate occasions!). This compilation is unbecoming of them and time should be spent instead making better games than they've already made years ago.

But hey it's not like we'll even think of dwelling on this in a few years! If you really want to feel less bad about buying this then look at all the really bad games that are out there today. Really hard.

Forgot to mention the new Golden Sun game

Golden Sun Dark Dawn was released for Nintendo DS here last week. I remembered it alright but somehow I forgot to blog about it. I guess I had Cave Story's release on my mind non-stop! The truth is I never played the first two Golden Sun games (but I will someday). Shops locally are selling the game for approximately 35-40 Euro depending on where you go of course. It says on the box as well that a free map is included. That brings back fond memories of getting a map with Mystic Quest for the Game Boy! It may not be as special now though as DS RPGs  have no problems with showing the map ingame. Maybe this map has some intriguing tidbits of information like Mystic Quest's one did.

Mario Hacks

There's a lot of Mario hacks and tributes out there. The problem with them is that they're often torturously difficult and save state reliant making them absolutely no fun to play and they're often designed with dark gloomy backgrounds which takes all the joy out of them. Actually they're not all like that but it's hard to find a hack that would make a great Mario game.

Earth Bound Zero's Easy Patch

I just found out about this today, a month or so after beating the original localised version. Oh well! I did have a hard time with it but the game isn't too unforgiving (with the exception of Mt. Itoi that is). I wonder how much easier the patch makes the game? I'll try it the next time I play Earth Bound Zero.

I learned about this from gamespite's recent article. I also learned that the space between "Earth" and "Bound" is what makes the game's title differ from the SNES sequel's title. It's not enough though to make things any less confusing so I'll continue to call the game by its "Zero" fan addition to the title.

Listening to Graham Linehan's commentary on the I.T. Crowd

I listened to one of the commentaries the other night while watching the DVD and he revealed that he loved computer games and recommended Shadow of the Colossus! So yeah he's definitely a lover of the classics when it comes to games.

Finally got the I.T. Crowd DVDs

For those who don't know The I.T. Crowd it's a hilarious sitcom we have over here that's written by one of the writers of one of our favourite sitcoms, Father Ted.

The show is set up quite nicely and although it has some references to video games and I.T. centric stuff it's not it's main focus at all. This post though is to celebrate the wonderful video game tributes the DVD menus feature.

There's a lot of them! Some too good to spoil. I will say though that the episode selection screen shows a scene that's reminiscent of classic isometric platform games like Head Over Heels, Monster Max and Solstice. It features the show's characters wandering around the maze playing out a scenario that lasts quite a few minutes! There's some other nice tributes like old computer style loading screens just for fun and a subtitle track that's done entirely in l33t speak. It's a DVD made amazing to fans of things like that to be sure.

I was getting it myself just for Graham Linehan's commentary but everybody else can still see the whole series for free online on Channel 4's On Demand streaming service. Try it out, it's a solid good old fashioned sitcom!

Playing RPGs when you're sick

I often hear stories of people who play RPGs when they're sick. One famous example is Shigesato Itoi who played Dragon Quest when he wasn't well and it helped inspired the creation of the Earthbound/Mother series.

Just what is up with people playing RPGs when they're sick? Well when I was sick recently I was playing Mother 3. I'm not sure what it is but it is kind of therapeutic playing RPGs when you're feeling under the weather. There's something comfortable about playing them. Another thing I can imagine is that they're good distraction therapy.

I suppose most people know about it already though. People who've done this always felt a special bond with the game they played too, even if they never really want to play it again.

It's just a very interesting concept to me, RPGs being like chicken soup.

Different versions of Super Mario All Stars for Wii

There seems to be two different versions of Super Mario All Stars for Wii - one is the normal one you see in shops that has Mario in a Top Hat. The other seems to come in a wider pure red cardboard box that comes with the soundtrack CD. I saw this one in a glass display in an Xtra Vision in Clonmel.

Maybe I'm just slightly misinformed. A lot of people seem to be.

Cave Story finally available for WiiWare in Ireland and the rest of Europe!

I bought this as soon as I could! I've been waiting for it for so long... I'm really glad it's finally available here. I'm going to play loads of this!

Satirical Review of Super Mario Bros.

http://kotaku.com/5710531/a-disappointing-console-debut-for-nintendos-plumber

This one's very interesting. A review written nowadays may miss the point of the game entirely. This review of Super Mario Bros. pokes fun at this thing that happens a lot when you come across popular game review sites.

Shigesato Itoi appreciates fans of MOTHER/Earthbound series

http://earthboundcentral.com/2010/12/a-message-from-shigesato-itoi/

I really like the Earthbound/MOTHER fan community as well. I even made my own contribution to it one time and they were very appreciative of it. Someday I'll buy a t-shirt from them or something! This past while as you may have noticed I've been playing the series from start to finish. I played the first two games and loved them and now I'm playing the third. I'm also looking forward to the unofficial fangame, Mother 4. I think everyone is. NGamer Magazine even interviewed the developers behind it in this month's issue.

The way I'm playing Donkey Kong Country Returns

So I've been playing a good bit of this game and I'm enjoying it quite a lot. There's a lot of extra stuff to do like collect jigsaw pieces, banana coins, KONG letters, uncover bonus stages, buying things in Cranky Kong's shop... etc.

I find I'm doing very few of these things. I'm buying the key from each world from Cranky's shop alright to get the extra level. When I'm playing the levels themselves I find I'm rushing through them or that I'm trying to bulldoze my way as much as possible. I really like the game so how come I'm doing this?

It seems the levels are made with speedrunners in mind! That'll add a nice bonus to the game. Another thing is that this is reminiscent of all those times I played through DKC3 as fast as I could and putting in cheats to make the game harder and get a better endgame score. This is one of the nice things that has carried over to this new game even though its quite different in many ways!

Donkey Kong Country Returns has controls hacked for use with Classic Controller

I'm not sure I'd play this game with a classic controller... I mean, it feels different enough from the other DKC games that I wouldn't really miss not having the chance to... but I'm glad it's there I suppose. It's a voice that should be heard if people feel that way.

Iwata Asks About Donkey Kong Country Returns

I haven't read this feature yet but I did read one part where a Japanese person was talking about their experience about being in England and what it was like going to Rare in Twycross. I find this especially interesting because usually when it comes to video games you read all kinds of accounts where people from the west are going to Japan and talking about their experiences there. I don't usually see it the other way round!

Cave Story for WiiWare finally gets a release date for Ireland and the rest of Europe!!

FINALLY! We've been waiting for this for well over two and a half years! There had better be nothing wrong with it. So, this coming Friday the 10th of December 2010, Cave Story will arrive and it will cost 1000 points according to this screencap of Nintendo of Europe's site. I am really excited about this!

Donkey Kong Country Returns is out today!

At long last! I got it today and braved really icy conditions to the shops and back. Anyway, I must go play some more.

Just so you know as well, it makes you install the same firmware Metroid Other M did(4.3) and it also installs Everybody Votes Channel, Today and Tomorrow Channel and the Mii Contest Channel(I think).

Mission in Snowdriftland Returns!

This is great news! I loved this game back in Christmas 2006! There's a lot of information about it here for those who don't know about it:

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/UPIXO_In_Action:_Mission_in_Snowdriftland

Imagine that... A 2D Platforming advent calendar! What a brilliant way that was to advertise Nintendo games! Each day I got to play a new level and looked forward to completing it so I could get a wallpaper for great recent games at the time such as Zelda Twilight Princess or Super Princess Peach. The game itself was very nicely done and I remember it being quite challenging too.

Well, now it's back!

http://www.mission-in-snowdriftland.com/

Except this time the theme isn't first party Nintendo games but instead it seems to be about indie games available for WiiWare.

I say try it out! If you like it then look forward to playing it again everyday when a new level in the advent calendar opens. I can't decide which type of advent calender is better - this or the one with chocolates in the days!

Also, remember that the 2006 one vanished from the web shortly after Christmas that year so play as much as you can in case that happens again!

UK - Use a bunch of bananas to pay for Donkey Kong Country Returns!

Just heard about a promotion by GAME that if you're one of the first so many customers to bring in a bunch of bananas to the store that you can use that to pay for Donkey Kong Country Returns!

I have no idea if GAME stores in Ireland are doing this promotion too though...

But hey, what a fantastic and fun idea! Nintendo really promotes like no other. (more on that tomorrow by the way!)