Localise more Japanese 3DS titles? Try these

http://www.gonintendo.com/?mode=viewstory&id=195275

Give us Dragon Quest VII and Rocket Slime 3D please!

50Hz/60Hz and PAL/NTSC don't apply in the world of handheld games.

Thank goodness our handheld games don't perform worse than handheld games from other regions.

The 50Hz/60Hz thing applies to electricity. Handhelds are powered by batteries so that solves a big problem.

PAL/NTSC are different standards of televisions and would you believe PAL is supposed to be superior? Handhelds have their own screens.

Handhelds live by their own rules. Consoles live by the rules of others. An example of which are tv manufacturers and retailers. None of them give a damn about video games and we constantly have to adapt to their negligence. A modern day example is the input lag you get with these new tvs.

If only we could take what makes handhelds work so well and apply them to game consoles! I'd love a game console that had it's own output device like a projector or some super flexible screen you pull out like a curtain or something.

Got four royal stickers in Paper Mario Sticker Star!

I'm enjoying this game a lot! It's very well paced and very entertaining. It's making these cold miserable Winter days pass by nicely.

Don't be on the fence about it! Have a go. I've four worlds completed and 20 something hours played(if that's what you're interested in)

Miiverse footage of reactions to another 50 Hz Virtual Console

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=hWEJiQg5-9I

Very nice and also works as a compelling advertisement for Nintendo brand social networking. I especially like the grumpy looking Balloon Fight guy.

Haha I'm starting to sound like Miyamoto and co. when they were commenting on their favourite Mario and Zelda flipnotes. (They should totally do that again for stuff like this)

50 Hz/60 Hz Comparison video: Wii U's Balloon Fight

For those who don't know the difference this is one of the most important YouTube videos you'll ever see. It captures the whole situation perfectly.

There's also a link to the petition that's doing the rounds as found in the video description, or here if you like:

https://www.change.org/petitions/nintendo-of-japan-nintendo-europe-release-future-wii-u-virtual-console-games-in-europe-australia-in-60hz-2

Please sign it to at least register your interest in this issue. Tell them we want an option between 50 Hz and 60 Hz modes!

Paper Mario Sticker Star advert in Official Nintendo Magazine

I don't have an image handy but in the latest issue of this magazine you get a sheet of stickers like the ones you find in the game and you stick them on the actual advert page where there's a fun little recreation of a battle scenario that actually occurs in the game. It feels strange actually doing something I'm doing in a video game but it was pretty clever! Stickers are a lot of fun!

Balloon Fight in 60Hz on 3DS, 50Hz on Wii U VC

Yes I'm making another one of these posts. It's a big issue.

I played Balloon Fight today on my 3DS and it works at the proper speed. I made posts before praising the 3DS VC because of this very reason.

To think of being stuck with a 50Hz version of the game on the very latest in game console technology with no option to change is absolutely sickening.

If you think I'm making too big a deal of this and that it's fine as is, look up the history of 50Hz game issues and be informed.

Give us the a proper option to switch between 50Hz and 60Hz!

I actually prefer the 50Hz version of Super Mario Bros. on the NES, which is why I want OPTIONS to tweak with!

Balloon Fight, the first Wii U VC game in Ireland in the year two thousand and fucking thirteen is 50Hz only

Well that didn't take long for my closing question from yesterday to be answered.

With all the nice features that the new Virtual Console offers it still doesn't give us an option to play the game in its proper speed.

I should've blogged about this more. I think this 30 cent promotion is amazing but I really don't want to be denied the option to play the game in 60Hz. I want both options like I've had with every new Nintendo game since the GameCube days.

Somebody, whoever's in charge, please fix this.

Do we have to rebuy our Wii VC games if we want to only use the Wii U VC? (Part 2 and Conclusion: Yes, but at a discount)

The end of an investigative series.... Nintendo finally gave the answer today in a Nintendo Direct. I insist you watch it before reading any further.

Here it is, 7 minutes into the video:
http://youtu.be/fIyU8-XTTLc?t=7m

I started my investigation into this issue here:
http://irishnintendofan.blogspot.ie/2012/11/do-we-have-to-rebuy-our-virtual-console.html

Up until now I never made more than one post on this subject because there has been no extra information released since, leaving us fans in agony for months, worried about losing ownership of the games we bought.

The official answer to this question is "Yes, but at a discount on each game", where "at a discount" is only there to make the "Yes" part not seem so horrible.

In other words "No, but there's an upgrade charge on each game" where there's a higher charge on SNES games for some reason.
Opine of that what you will. I'm going to be asking more questions such as "Do the games play in 60Hz?".

Tomorrow 23 Jan 2013 at 2pm Irish time: Nintendo Direct for Wii U

It's that time again for the best way to get Nintendo news: Directly! Go watch tomorrow at 2pm on Nintendo of Europe's site.

It's going to be all about the Wii U. As usual I'm anxious to know if we will be able to use our Wii VC licences on the new and upcoming fully featured Wii U VC. Wishful thinking I know, but I'd like to know so I can decide how to end my current boycott/freeze of the Wii VC.

They'll surely talk about Pikmin 3 and Rayman Legends in any case. Hopefully they'll unveil some brand new games too.

Pandora's Tower is heading to America!

I'm very pleased for you guys! Out of the three Operation Rainfall games this is by far the best one.

I noticed that you have pretty much forgotten about this game and that you were most looking forward to The Last Story while you were campaigning, even though that's the least interesting of the three games. At least, that's what I've ascertained from the excitement you were causing.

I've said it before and I'll say it again: I haven't seen anyone else besides you guys that gets so passionate about video games and it's one of the things I admire most about you all.

So let's see this passion for Pandora's Tower! Even though it's usually associated with two RPGs, this isn't actually one. It's a bit like Zelda, a bit like Castlevania and is conceptually a much purer video game than Xenoblade or Last Story. It's heroic, it's gory and it's unpretentious.

Playing the Epic Mickey: Power of Illusion demo

I have no idea when this was made available on the eShop but I'm delighted to finally be able to play it!

So, on playing the demo(which only has 10 uses weirdly enough) I find that it's a fairly run of the mill platform game. It looks lovely and the voices are top notch Disney but I'm not fond of the music, which sounds like it's from a DVD menu that loops annoyingly in a store display.

It's decently playable but isn't terribly exciting. That's kind of ok because the old SEGA Castle of Illusion games were like that too and I would definitely recommend this if you liked those games. I have to say though that I don't like drawing or erasing things, especially not for the millionth time. Though that's just me, because doing anything on the touch screen beyond the odd tap makes me nervous about marking it. Seeing the after effect is a pleasure though and it makes the game addictive. I think I'd better not play anymore though because even though I'll become more addicted, I just won't be able to relax and enjoy. I much prefer the action of applying stickers in Paper Mario Sticker Star.

I like meeting the Disney characters and seeing them make up a hub where you can go back and prepare for later levels. Scrooge McDuck makes a shop for example. We also see The Beast, Rapunzel, Peter Pan, Wendy, Goofy etc. Jiminy Cricket then acts as your companion for the adventure. You can do little missions too like finding a frying pan and comb for Rapunzel and finding Uncle Scrooge's Lucky Dime.

So yeah, my first go at an Epic Mickey game and it's not bad! Maybe I'll try out the two Wii games we'll see.

Walking past HMV again

Every time I walk past the shop now I see a small group of people standing outside looking in sadly.

I keep hearing stuff about sit-in protests by staff as if they were heroes or something.
Meanwhile the customer — the party who actually suffered the biggest loss — is already thinking about buying their next DVD or video game and is eagerly seeking out a place to take their business. It seems that noone in management respects or even acknowledges this person(proof: the whole gift voucher thing. Where are the sit-in protests about those?).

The customer is the real hero. They deserve to have a folk song written about them. They'll become the stuff of legend, long since disappeared from the days of old when Cork used to have DVD and video game shops.

HMV Patrick Street Cork closes its doors

I was greeted by this sign on the closed door of the shop the other day as I passed by which explained the situation in an unpleasantly diplomatic tone all about going into administration and how gift vouchers cannot be redeemed.

I don't think they ever did sell that Nintendo MP3 Player for the Game Boy Advance. That's been sitting on the shelf for about six years I'd say.

But yeah I have some good memories and some not so good memories of HMV. Highlights over the past year included it being the only place that sold the special edition of Pandora's Tower and they had the best deal on the 3DS XL when NSMB2 came out. They also sold the Wii edition of Project Zero 2 for 23 Euro.

Things seem kind of bleak with another of these shops gone but then again maybe something good will come out of big chains going out of business without having a fire sale or telling their customers; I mean, the whole gift voucher thing just proves they didn't care for their customers at all.

Dragon Quest VII Japanese launch trailer. I want the game to come out in Ireland!

As seen here:
 http://www.gonintendo.com/?mode=viewstory&id=194322

Ugh it's so beautiful. Announce it for release over here already!

Browsing the new Post Console site

There are some things I like very much about Seán Malstrom's new site. I love the gigantic screenshots, embedded trailers and embedded BGM links especially because it smells of the exciting times when game reviews online could offer you something your game magazines couldn't: they were multimedia focussed, rather than today where they're advertising focussed.

I use my Wii Classic Controller Pro and arcade stick with a Mayflash adaptor as well so it's nice to have something like that to relate to.

Now Nintendo-Gamer's website is shutting down, online highlight

The website of this great magazine was being contributed to by like, one guy: Chris Scullion.

Now, I could wax lyrical about the Nintendo-Gamer legacy but instead I'll share my favourite highlight from their brief online exclusive presence...

Here's Chris demonstrating Pokémon Typing Adventure, one of my favourite games from last year:

Thrilling to the core!

Commendation where it's due; this was one of the few video demonstrations besides Nintendo Direct I could find online at the time when the game was coming out. This was mainly due to the fact that there was no word about this coming out in America and therefore no American style excitement online.

Of course this was something Nintendo-Gamer was always known for since they did import reviews and were often the first in the world to review new games.

Seán Malstrom has a new website: Post Console

http://postconsole.wordpress.com/
Haha yes I was right! It is about The Fifth Console! How much do I win?

What? Nothing?

Ah well, no matter. From now on everybody will win as long as they care about owning their legitimately downloaded games. The site linked above is for you!

I approve of this because of my own anxieties regarding the new Virtual Console that Nintendo will be establishing on the Wii U.

The first issue of Nintendo Force costs US$18, is it bi-monthly?

American Nintendo fans are continuing their passion for game magazines. People are freaking out about the price naturally.

Is there anything that justifies the price? Well I hear there aren't any ads. Also, I've been googling around to see if there's any chance the magazine is bi-monthly. Just think, if it came out every 2 months with 2 months worth of quality content then it would be like spending the exact same amount on two single-month issues(of course there'd be less filler and everything too.)

That's assuming of course that a regular game magazine in the U.S. costs US$9 a month, which is something I don't actually know.

Issue #1 is "January/February" so it may or may not be every two months, but it would be better value if it was.

3DS is not part of the VC Freeze

I'm still gonna buy 3DS VC games. All the NES games are in 60Hz and the SEGA Game Gear is better on it than it ever was. They did a fantastic job on the Game Gear application and thanks to that I'm slowly falling in love with it. I'm still going to buy those games on regular basis.

Wii VC games though, it's just too risky right now. We're in the dark and anxious about the future support of the games we have bought.

Game Grumps one per day, DKC3 talk

The Game Grumps have only been uploading one episode per day for a few days now and I'm like "aaah! I'm used to two!". I heard though that they got sick after some "Magfest" event (whatever that is) but I'm sure it'll be back to two per day when they're better.

On today's episode while they played Power Rangers, Jon was talking about playing DKC3 and how he'd love to do it and accurately describes how magical and underrated it is. That makes me very happy!

Come on lads do it! Play DKC3 and show the world how awesome it is, not to mention how much better it is than any of the others in the series! I expect the YouTube commenters to go from "tsk fukken kiddeh kong" to "wow this is better than I thought"

Virtual Console freeze

http://www.gonintendo.com/?mode=viewstory&id=193926

Take a look at this Gonintendo link. It shows that people don't want to pay for the same games all over again. Nintendo are actually making a Virtual Console especially for the Wii U and it'll allow us to play those games on the gamepad and its screen. At the moment we can't do that unless we're in Wii mode and Nintendo still haven't told us anything about our concern.

The only right thing to do is to declare a Virtual Console freeze. Don't buy any more VC games until then!

StreetPassed someone from Waterford!

Was there a 3DS sales explosion over Christmas 2012? I ask because I've been getting loads of StreetPasses since!

Also with that, loads of NSMB2 challenges, also with the annoying world 1-5 from the mushroom pack.

In any case it's great! I'm very glad I didn't have to travel to Waterford to StreetPass someone from there too!

Isn't it strange too how you can put 3DS cartridges in and out while on the system menu but you can't do it with SD Cards unless you turn it off? The 3DS must depend heavily on the SD Card.

Actually... come to think of it, it's not weird. It's quite sensible. The SD would have all kinds of configurations and data on it which the 3DS needs and the game cartridge only needs to have the information displayed if you're not using it. I guess I'm just used to be able to do this with disc based consoles. I never dared to mess with cartridge based systems - but then again, they usually didn't have firmware menus.

Nintendo Direct: Pokémon X/Y

This video came out today and fans have been looking forward to it so have a look here:

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=qUe45m9J_CM

Go watch it before some dickhead game journalist tells you lies about it being some kind of kiddie-casual alphabet counting minigame collection remake rehash!

So, Pikmin 3 will be more like the first game?

Miyamoto said recently that the new Pikmin will have a time limit like the way the first game does.

Pikmin 2 was widely celebrated by critics as not having the strict limit that the first game had.

So it's safe to assume they're not too happy about this.

I say it mightn't be a problem so I'll just approach it with an open mind. Just like I did with Paper Mario 3D and some other Nintendo games recently.

In fact, I'm finding that I'm having to do this more often... Oh well, those other times turned out well so why not.

Time for hacking!

I just learned how to get the annoying warning message off the Wii startup sequence! Time to get hacking!

Don't forget the 3DS XL free game download promotion!

I downloaded my free game which I was granted by registering my 3DS XL. It took a very long time to download... a couple of hours. Anyway it's nice to get something for free now and again.

If you haven't registered your 3DS XL and applied for the promotional deal, get to it now! It's going to be over soon!

MechaGamezilla Christmas special!

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=q91pblYpBoY

I just found out a few hours ago that this came out! Horray! If you haven't watched it yet, give it a go. It'll be like going to see a post-Christmas panto. You won't be able to shout "Oh no it isn't!" or that the big bad wolf is behind him but it's still good fun.

James and Mike play NES Golf

http://cinemassacre.com/2012/12/30/nes-golf/
I'm not a huge golf fan at all but this is worth watching. The two lads talk about memories of other family members playing the game and the way their imaginations came up with different creatures that each hole on the golf course looked like.

It reminds me of the way I used to boredly watch my family members play sports games and the way my imagination came up with stuff too.

I like this chilled out hangout type of video by the way. The early AVGN videos had an element of this in them too.... actually you still see it in the recent ones too so hm... In any case this is quality time spent playing and talking about games and I really like that.

I know they seem like they're doing the Game Grumps but I still like it a lot! :)

Sean Malstrom's new site

http://seanmalstrom.wordpress.com/2013/01/02/email-other-site/

Sean Malstrom is talking about starting a new site.

I could say "I bet I know what it's about!" in an annoying manner that would make you feel like arguing with me out of passive aggressive spite. Instead I'm going to wish it would be about what I think it's about.

I wish it would be about the fifth console. He blogs about it here:

http://seanmalstrom.wordpress.com/2012/08/20/the-fifth-console/

I wish the Virtual Console featured games that I would own forever after paying for them once but Nintendo's dancey-roundiness with the inevitable Wii U Virtual Console is making me less confident.

We can compare this to many aspects of life nowadays. For example, a lot of people don't have jobs so they have to answer to someone for all their needs. Nothing in their lives belongs to them any more so they're susceptible to all kinds of mistreatment.

Just as I like to have my life, so also do I like to have my games.

Happy New Year 2013!

Well this is it! This is going to be the year of Luigi's Mansion and Animal Crossing for the 3DS and hopefully Dragon Quest VII. It's also going to be full of hesitation towards buying a Wii U. We still don't have an answer to our Virtual Console question and I will continue to glare at Nintendo until they come up with a straight answer.

We're definitely going to have some big announcements at this year's E3 since there aren't any more announced 3DS and Wii U games to look forward to after they all get released this year. They'll have to announce something to keep us interested.

I forgot about Pikmin 3 yesterday by the way. Must not forget again!