The End

I like writing but I'd like to practise my skills to the point where they can become valuable, so I'm going to do this privately in my own time. Making daily updates to Irish Nintendo Fan has been a good exercise and it's certainly something I can transfer to a future project.

When I began this blog there was no Nintendo Direct and there was no Miiverse. These two forms of direct communication, as well as the Treehouse features at E3, make me feel that doing something like a blog is obsolete. I think it's time to embrace this.

Thank you for reading!

-Lucas

E3 2014: Watch Dogs

Yawn.

E3 2014: Bayonetta 2

We've been waiting for this one for a while. No one really cares about Bayonetta except for those attracted to her but as someone who's played God Hand, Okami and Wonderful 101 before, I can see gameplay bits in there among the noise that look interesting. Hopefully it's more like God Hand and W101 because Okami was really boring.

Final Fantasy Explorers, a game that wasn't shown at E3 2014

Meanwhile, in Japan, this appered in a games magazine. It might be fun, but there is some stupid looking bloom lighting in the screenshots.

There's also Fantasy Life, which also has multi-player action and was shown during the Treehouse sessions.

E3 2014: Miyamoto's workshop projects

Project Giant Robot and Project Guard are cute tech demos/mini-games but they don't seem particularly interesting.

There's also a new Star Fox game being officially declared as existing. I have no idea who'd be interested in Star Fox though.

E3 2014 — Code Name: S.T.E.A.M.

A new IP and it's about strategy and shit. Not really into strategy games so I'm not gonna be able to do this one justice due to lack of interest.

E3 2014: Xenoblade Chronicles X

God what a fucking stupid name. As if the word "Chronicles" wasn't bad enough. Anyway it's a good thing the Treehouse featured some lovely footage of the characters running across massive open plains because the trailer shown during the digital event was really horrible and didn't feature anything like that. Loved the running in the previous game and looking forward to more in this new one and checking out all the vantage points.

E3 2014: Kirby and the Rainbow Curse

Nice little surprise this was. Power Paintbrush was quite fun so it's nice to have something to carry on that legacy.

E3 2014: Yoshi's Wooly World

Very nice looking game and even better looking than it's spiritual predecessor Kirby's Epic Yarn. It's also looking like it'll be much better than the recently released Yoshi's New Island.

E3 2014: Captain Toad Treasure Tracker

Very nice to see this. Loved these segments in Mario 3D World and this will be perfect for those long Winter months. It's getting a packaged retail release too which is cool.

It'll definitely be better than the average 2D indie puzzle platformer, with which game download services are inundated. No, this is more about exploring 3D mazes.

E3 2014: Metal Gear Shaky-Cam 5

I had a look at this non-Nintendo trailer as well and it was full of horrible shaky-cam cinematography. I wish Hideo Kojima wouldn't allow this. So many look up to him re: game cinematics so I feel he should be a better influence.

Unfortunately, he in turn looks up to those in the movie industry who use obnoxious shaky cam. I wish he wouldn't! Those movies suck and this technique is hostile to the audience. Quantum of Solace for example was regarded as one of the worst Bond films ever and everyone who was unfortunate enough to watch Cloverfield got sick. Fans of The Dark Knight fast forward to the bits with Heath Ledger's Joker and don't bother with the rest.

Shaky cam isn't used for realism, it's used to make up for a weak movie budget. This doesn't apply to games though and so, putting shaky cam in there just to make it look like a bad movie is missing the point entirely.

GAMES ARE BETTER THAN MOVIES. The act of making them cinematically comparable to bad movies is DEGRADING.

E3 2014: Devil's Third

Like Splatoon, this game will feature a multiplayer third person mode which is a nice thing they have in common.

It's one of those violent action games that may very well have interesting stuff in them but for now we can only more or less see that which tries to make it look cool. It's hard to see anything past the tattoos but I'm curious as to what lurks in the depths.

E3 2014: Splatoon

Nintendo's big new IP and it's a third person multiplayer online shooter. This is according to all the information we know about it anyway. I have to say I'm not interested in this at all. Treehouse featured this several times on one bloody level and I was just bored to tears. I do like that big jump across the arena quite a lot though.

E3 2014: Hyrule Warriors looks great!

Now THIS is more like it! The graphics in this game look clean and sharp and colourful and the character designs have a genuinely cool bad-ass look. Princess Zelda herself has never looked this good and she gets to kick serious butt! All the characters look like they have been sculpted to perfection.

Contrast this with the new Zelda reveal where we can barely see anything with the blurriness.

E3 2014: New Zelda reveal from Aonuma looks really bad

Oh dear. I absolutely hate the way this looks. It appears that this is continuing the blurry, bloomy, blindingly bright look that made everyone hate Skyward Sword. Wind Waker HD suffered from this too and made the in-game text almost impossible to read in both games.

Compare this to how good Hyrule Warriors looks! If I was working for the "Zelda Team" I would be very nervous!

E3 2014: Smash Bros for Wii U and 3DS

Quite an event this was, between the tournament and, more interestingly, the reveal of Pac-Man as an addition to the roster.

I got bored of Smash Bros a long long time ago unfortunately so the tournament wasn't exciting to me at all. I doubt I'll be continuing a Smash Bros career when the new games come out for Wii U and 3DS.

I feel the exact same way about Mario Kart. Got bored of that too.

Posts will stop on 30/6/2014

Just a heads up! At the end of this month I'm going to stop publishing posts on this blog. On the run up to the end I'll talk about games that were shown at E3 2014 during Nintendo's Treehouse events.

Dr Kawashima invites himself onto my Wii U

Since I have the new speedier menu update installed I get this guy's game automatically downloading itself onto my console. Nice to get something for free I suppose.

E3 2014: Day 3 of Nintendo Treehouse

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=yGsXGy9ZvIs

Don't bother reading blogs today, just join the festivities with this livestream!

The Pac-Man reveal video from yesterday was quite nice :)

More Nintendo Treehouse stuff today at E3 2014

More fun streaming from Nintendo today so don't miss it!

Nintendo Digital Event E3 2014 today

I watched this on YouTube where the stream was decent enough. I would've used the Twitter feed but Twitter doesn't show the latest tweets first any more.

Lots of nice stuff were announced! New Zelda looks crap compared to Hyrule Warriors it must be said.

Shantae and the pirate's curse is coming to Wii U as well as 3DS

Wow some news of this game! It'll be out sometime this Summer they're saying and there's a nice new trailer and well... I hope it won't be ridiculously expensive.

I'd love to watch a Nintendo Direct in a cinema!

I've been hearing Nintendo World Store in New York is having a ticketed performance of the live digital event thingy that's gonna be shown as part of this year's E3.

I'd love to watch such a thing in a local cinema! It would be like the old newsreels of the early 20th century.

Tim Rogers streams Super Mario Bros. 3 for his birthday

Happy Birthday Tim!

Today he's streaming Mario 3 for his annual playthrough. Have a look at it here: http://www.twitch.tv/actionbutton

Luigi contest in MKTV

Nintendo of Europe just tweeted about their weekly MKTV contest and this week they're asking players to show off their Luigi video highlights. Great opportunity for Luigi death glare videos right? Way to strike while the iron's hot!

The Luigi Death Stare from Mario Kart 8 is wonderful!

This is so funny I love it! Several video clips are taken from Mario Kart 8 of Luigi one-upping someone and then giving them a death glare as he overtakes. It's then set to swear filled ghetto rap music. Have a look for it on YouTube!

New quick menu thing on Wii U is pretty nice

It's always nice to have measures to alleviate loading times or bypass loading screens altogether. Though of course, we didn't have to put up with sluggish firmware in the old days. *sigh*

"Do sales always equal quality?" email response from Seán Malstrom: Something to add

http://seanmalstrom.wordpress.com/2014/06/03/email-do-sales-always-equal-quality/

Something I'd like to add to the discussion linked above:

What if the number 1 game in the sales chart was shit? It's certainly possible, but what would it mean? Well, I guess it would mean every other game below would be even worse. Comparative quality of sales performance.

Wario Land 4 coming to Wii U VC in Ireland this week

Hey if you haven't played this already look forward to it! It's an excellent game, not quite as good as Wario Land 2 (my favourite and which is available on 3DS VC). A freakin' book has been written about this game!

I always found it to be an amazing aural experience so make sure you have good stereo speakers with which to listen while you play.

Sticks the Jungle Badger

New Sonic character announced for the Sonic Boom universe! She's a cute little thing and she reminds me of Marine the Raccoon from Sonic Rush Adventure, the not-so-good follow up to the better Sonic Rush.

There was a little preview in the form of a session featuring her voice actor and she has some zany funny lines! It's almost reminiscent of Lola Bunny from the Loony Tunes sitcom show though that could be premature of me to say. Looking forward to seeing more about Sonic Boom soon.

Official GC controller to Wii U adaptor announced

I love USB retro controller adaptors. It'll connect to the USB ports in front of the console and is primarily made for playing the new Smash Bros.

The pillowy shoulder buttons on the GC controller are SHIT. I've never liked them and always wondered why anyone would bother.

Mario Kart 8 out today... GoNintendo tournaments

It begins... the Mario Kart craze happens yet again. GoNintendo are also doing weekly tournaments so that's quite nice.

Pullblox World coming to Wii U

Not as exciting as the Chibi-Robo! news but nice nonetheless. Over here there's also a discount if you bought the previous Pullblox games on 3DS.

Chibi-Robo!: Let's Go, Photo! coming to Ireland!

Horray! When this game was announced for America on Nintendo Direct I felt sad because there was no mention of it on our region's broadcast. Now it's confirmed to come out here! Very happy about this because I'm a big fan of the original Chibi-Robo! on GameCube!

James and Mike play Nintendo Land

http://cinemassacre.com/2014/05/26/nintendo-land-james-mike-mondays/

So this time the lads play this. The game's a curiosity of history at this stage so it's fun to see it explored like this.

The Mysterious Murasame Castle debuts in Ireland on 3DS VC

Known in Japan as Nazo no Murasame Jo, it's one of Nintendo's other franchises that's usually known only in culturally celebratory articles. Hmm... I wonder if I should make a label for this?

Anyway the game is getting its first official release in Ireland on 3DS VC this week. I can only assume it's gonna be in 60 Hz.

Other cool stuff about Ace Attorney 5

Taka is the cutest bird of prey ever and Juniper Woods is a dote as well with her sunflowers. Her crush on Apollo makes the sunflower thing quite clever.

Playing Ace Attorney 5

Well I'm finally playing it. The language mistakes are pretty bad at times but it doesn't ruin the experience and it remains a pretty good read. I'm more accommodating toward the 3D effect too because of the game's static nature.

Watching Bit Block's Tomodachi Life videos in an attempt to understand more of it

Josh Thomas is doing a little vlog of sorts at the moment chronicling his time with Tomodachi Life. It's quite nice to watch and I'm really able to get a good impression of what the game is gonna be like as he plays.

Mario Kart 8's battle mode on normal tracks seems interesting

This was one thing that wasn't explained for a long time but it seems interesting. Not everybody is crazy about the idea of that change but I think it might be cool to go exploring and find hiding spots on normal tracks before surprising an opponent with shells. There are finally some videos around that show the concept off as well so have a dig around for those.

So, Dragon Quest XI won't be for smartphones? Yay!

Just heard that Yuji Horii said that he won't be making the next Dragon Quest for smartphones. Horray!

Hey! Please sell me more Dragon Quest games for my Nintendo systems!

"Look at Smoking World" is a stupid name for anything

Noticed this 3DS title and had a look at the trailer for same. It's about generic anime characters doing poses and er... heck I dunno.

Klonoa: Empire of Dreams coming to VC

Another GBA game from Namco is coming to VC, this time it's Klonoa. Never really bothered with this series but now's a nice time to give it a go.

Wii Sports Club getting a physical release in japan

Interesting. It'll have all the sports that the original game had, including the shitty boxing game. Of course the online multi-player will surely be there too.

Nintendo's E3 2014 thing is happening on 10th June

Their Digital Event is happening on this day so mark the ol' calendars.

Kirby Triple Deluxe out today in Ireland!

Horray! This game seems to be as good as the last Wii outing Kirby's Adventure Wii. It's finally out here now so it's there to enjoy! It'll probably be better than Yoshi's New Island too.

Homebrew solution for Nintendo Wi-Fi Connection? Bring it on!

As we know, this service will be halting soon. Someone is working on a homebrew solution though so that the games may continue online!

We've been hoping for this kind of thing for a while now! Hopefully it will catch on.

Mr Driller 2 coming to Wii U VC

Some third party games like this are gonna be showing up. This is the GBA version.

An attempt to understand Tomodachi Life by comparing it with Wonder Project J2 for N64

Wonder Project J2 is my unrequited love. I say that because I fell in love with it when I read about it in Nintendo magazines in 1996 and the game was never released in Ireland.

I'm watching an English fan-translated walkthrough by a nice German YouTuber named hasew to make up for all the times I've longed to play the game but couldn't for some dumb reason or other.

As I watch him play I begin to see similarities with the gameplay I've seen for the upcoming Tomodachi Life!

Of course they differ in many ways too; Wonder Project J2 features the darling Josette and a big storyline, whereas Tomodachi Life features the user-generated Miis having all these silly misadventures based on their individual statistics.

They're similar in the way that you spend time with characters from both games in their homes that affect how they'll behave in the outside portion of their little worlds. Then, when you go out and choose an area it'll play out a scene or event in which your characters take part and you'll see the result of what your interaction has contributed.

For the sake of their common concepts and as a tribute to Wonder Project J2, I'm rooting for Tomodachi Life's success in Ireland!

"Shard of Nightmare" eh?

The rumoured Zelda title for Wii U as we approach E3 2014! It sounds like something from the "good vs evil" theme that runs in the Kirby series or a frivolous Castlevania subtitle. It also stirs memories of Twilight Princess wherein the mirror shards were sought.

Diddy Kong Racing on Classic Game Room

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=gM7Er0HtwQM

Here Mark reviews Diddy Kong Racing. Great to see it featured because I love the game so much. He's wrong about it not being the best kart racer ever (though it's generally accepted that Mario Kart 64 has better multi-player) and he completely forgets to talk about the bosses, the silver coin challenge and doesn't see the appeal in the Adventure mode unfortunately.

Also, hold R when flying the plane and let go of the accelerator before getting a speed boost!

Classic Game Room returns to YouTube with N64 Week!

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ss0lrGQxRrs

Horray! This is great news on both counts because the N64 is amazing(and better than the Vectrex) and because Dailymotion isn't that great.

Another Moon Chronicles trailer

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=l9aA4x8uMIo

Here it is. It's kind of interesting and it looks like it has that N64 graphical feel to it.

Game Grumps discover the taunt in Mario Golf 64!

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ANizuqjTc-M

YES! In today's fourth episode of their Mario Golf 64 versus match Arin makes Plum go "Hurry up!". I've been waiting for this to happen!

Donkey Kong Land 3 is now on the Japanese VC

Unfortunately for them it's the rubbish colourised version that makes all the map screens static and garishly coloured.

But yeah, they have the whole GB trilogy now! I'd love to see them on our VC (except for this GBC remake of course)

Denpa Men 3 out this week

Nice little series of RPGs this is turning out to be. I'll be getting it because I like them even though I need to play them more.

James and Mike play NES Remix!

http://cinemassacre.com/2014/05/05/nes-remix-wii-u-james-mike-mondays/

Man, these guys are totally mah bros! I dunno what James sees in Dr. Mario though. I much prefer Wario's Woods.

Everyone seems to like Child of Light

It's an RPG made by Ubisoft and everyone seems to be glowing with praise for it. Someone even made a video that says "Child of Light Isn't Shite".

It's here: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ylzDevF_w8M

Well I dunno but it's the hot new RPG of the moment. Maybe we'll see an emerging sub-genre called FRPG!

That there Courier game sounds interesting

http://www.couriergame.com/

I like the concept behind this. The main character seems like he could be a supporting Zelda character, like the postman featured in Majora's Mask and Twilight Princess among others. In Twilight Princess for example you see him running toward you in the big dangerous Hyrule Field and for a moment you wonder what his adventures are like.

Here's this game then where you play as a courier.

I haven't really explored HTML5 with regards to playing games and stuff like this is making me curious as to what's out there and what can be done with Nintendo's Web Framework thingy.

It's Kirby Triple Deluxe month!

Horray! This isn't out here for another couple of weeks or so but they have it over in the U.S. now and they're enjoying it. Can't wait.

Hope the Puzzle Swap thingy comes soon too. I've just finished the Yoshi's New Island jigsaw.

Patent for Nintendo portable thingy with swappable d-pad and buttons!

Wowee look at this from GoNintendo:

http://www.gonintendo.com/s/227397-nintendo-files-portable-game-system-patent-featuring-swappable-d-circlepad-and-buttons

The subject of that kind of thing came up before but here we see it with all four of the d-pad/left analogue/buttons/right analogue components being 100% interchangeable!

It sounds like a crazy cool idea though I can picture those bits and pieces going missing by people who won't take care of their stuff before moving it on to a second-hand shop.

But wait... depending on what those things are like, maybe they could be 3D printed! That's just my imagination going a bit wild but... how futuristic would that be!

Mario Kart 8 Direct

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=flpfRzP2ONU

Have a look at this feature. Can't decide whether it's a parody of Top Gear or an NHK World programme! Maybe a cross between both. :)

Tons of info about Mario Kart 8 here as well as a tempting offer to buy this and get a download code for another Wii U game free.

I'm also quite fond of the minimalist Lakitu from the "Mario Kart Television" logo. There's no mistaking him with those glasses and the globe cloud underneath!

Mega 64's Robo Reggie promo thingy for E3 2014

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ghEhI4CJjAM

This is pretty funny and cool seeing the Reggie robot move around like the Terminator. Wonder if this "Play Nintendo" thing is gonna be a string of entertaining skits?

First post using the E3 2014 tag!

James and Mike Mondays: Super Monkey Ball 2

http://cinemassacre.com/2014/04/28/super-monkey-ball-2-gamecube-james-mike-mondays/

Yeah! One of my favourite SEGA franchises and some of my favourite Internet personalities! James talks about how they played Super Monkey Ball in college and man... that makes him mah bro. Super Monkey Ball is one of my most played GameCube games and I always played in short bursts during breaks from studying as well.

Nintendo World Championships on NES Remix 2!

Very nice addition! The games featured here are Mario 1, 3 and Dr. Mario. I assume the scoring scheme matches that of the Nintendo World Championships NES cartridges. It's a very nice tribute. You need to have both NES Remix 1 and 2 to have access to this.

Super Luigi Bros on NES Remix 2

This is pretty cool. Going from right to left is unusual and takes a bit to get used to and you have Lost Levels jumping physics to deal with as well. Well worth a try though.

NES Remix 2 has replay videos!

Just got this and it's got some really cool features.

One of them is the replay videos of other people's performance, just like what we've seen in Donkey Kong Country Tropical Freeze! I love this feature and I hope to see it in many future games too.

Playing some more NES Remix 1 before 2 comes out!

Just thought I'd do this! It's a nice thing that hooks you in and doesn't let go and all of a sudden you're groaning over the game pad needing a recharge again and again since you don't notice the hours flying by.

Some I have trouble with or just don't understand like Baseball and Golf. There are many others that agitate and delight in equal measure too.

New JonTron! Takeshi's Challenge

Horray! This game's been covered by some already but here's Jon's take on it. Haven't watched it yet but it's always a pleasure to see a new episode :)

NES Remix 2 out this week in Ireland

Horray! Looking forward to this with all the neat little stuff from other games in Nintendo's NES catalogue. That release of Yoshi's Island: Super Mario Advance 3 on Wii U VC makes me a bit grumpy though since the SNES version is yet to have a VC release.

Having a look at the Tomodachi Life hashtag

People seem to responding lively and positively to the Nintendo Direct special and announcement. Seeing Reggie with the Virtual Boy was pretty entertaining and so is the other stuff posted by some dudes who are playing the game a bit earlier for review.

McDonalds Mario toys: Super Mushroom

I collected a few of these. The Super Mushroom one makes a sound when you press a button — it's the sound of an item coming out of a block. Cute li'l thingy :)

Yoshi egg hunt on eShop for Easter

This is a really cute idea! I don't know if it's in our region. There's an Easter Yoshi egg hunt on eShop where Yoshi eggs will be hidden in various places.  Some cool seasonal thinking right there!

AVGN Star Wars outtakes

http://cinemassacre.com/2014/04/17/outtakes-avgn-star-wars/

This was much funnier than I expected! We finally get an insight on that moment where the buffalo defecates through the window as well as some cool stuff regarding the beer droid. Also, a cringe inducing part about the mess that happened... yeeesh!

Seeing some nice adverts for the US release of Mario 3 on VC

And why not? It is one of the greatest games ever after all :)

Nintendo are making a big deal out of it which is pretty cool. Not many VC games get that treatment and it's kind of fun seeing how excited Americans are getting over the fact that they can play 2-player through download play.

The rest of us already know about this and we'd like to see the same kind of multi-player thing for GB releases on VC.

Donkey Kong Land 2 for Japanese VC!

Trailer:
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=quX1mvugleI

Omg omg keep 'em coming. How about an Irish release of the Land trilogy too? They have to come here. They just gotta.

3D OutRun's Japanese site has some interesting details

http://archives.sega.jp/3d/outrun/

It's in Japanese but there are some things that stand out such the maps labelled OLD and NEW as well as the BGMs. Have a look and see if some stuff appeals.

Golden Sun coming to Wii U VC this week

Just heard this is coming this week. I never played this game so this would be a decent chance to get it.

Tropical Freeze - Stage Clear theme!

My favourite music in the game so far! Someone FINALLY uploaded it.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=nr8ZUS3V6Vo

This plays when you clear a stage and go to the results screen. It's such a good tune that I don't mind waiting for stuff to load! It's THAT powerful!

Danny's wonderful description of Transformers 2

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=8lUhwC-sCxs

In today's episode he said it was like a close up of a tin can being crushed for hours and man! I just clapped! I hate those Transformers movies! With the sickening shaky cam cinematography as well. Bleh! Good on ya Dan! That was perfect!

Game Grumps doing Super Mario Bros.

Wahey! This is a series you'd think "did they do this already?" but nope! They did 2 and 3 but not this. Still wonderfully entertaining. Over the years I've hung out with many cool people while Super Mario Bros. was being played and I'm glad I'm getting to do it now with the Grumps :)

Tomodachi Life Direct. It's coming to Ireland.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=5lQIoUK4SLI

Well they're bringing this over. It's Nintendo's own recent successful phenomenon from Japan and it looks like you have a bunch of Mii robots that do more stuff than Animal Crossing neighbour robots that live their own lives and dramas in sitcom skits for your amusement. This is my struggled explanation.

Wario's Woods is in NES Remix 2!

Yay! I'm quite happy about this because I love this game and more people will get to experience it as a result of this.

Super Smash Bros Direct 8-Apr-2014

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=PpT0gLC7-vU

It's all there baby. It was a good show and I'm pleasantly surprised at the new Smash Run mode. Have a look for yourself to see what it is. The video's page on YouTube has time markers so that makes it nice to pinpoint where each feature of the game is explained.

Kirby and the Amazing Mirror and Wario Ware coming to Wii U VC this week

They're both great games. Wario Ware's the better one and the Kirby game is my favourite Metroidvania.

Impressions on Sparkster from watching Game Grumps

I haven't played this game or any of the other games in the series in great depth but it does look good. The way you fly around bouncing off the walls seems a bit too stupid and loosey-goosey to be that much fun though.

Super Monkey Ball 3D on eShop

So this is on the eShop now and it was a launch title. Had its own instruction manual and everything. Anyway it's a good game and it was pretty much the only 3DS launch title that wasn't horrible.

At this stage you might be able to find a physical copy of the game at a decent price. Have a look.

Smash Bros Wii U/3DS and Mario Kart 8 insanity begins

A Nintendo Direct has been announced for the new Smash Bros. It'll be on this Tuesday night at 11pm Irish time.

Between this and all those Mario Kart 8 videos being released by bloggers recently it's going to get a bit crazy over the next few weeks/months.

Mario & Luigi: Superstar Saga is one of the greatest RPGs ever and it's on VC now

Just an excuse to say that it's one of the best RPGs ever and puts everything else to shame, INCLUDING THE LIKES OF CHRONO TRIGGER! It also has THREE sequels that are just as good and better. They're all different stories but every single one of them is amazing and should be purchased immediately.

It's on Virtual Console now and... oh it's just happy days all round :)

Donkey Kong Land is coming to 3DS Virtual Console!

YES! I love this Game Boy trilogy which was prominent in the mid to late 90s. They had some great atmosphere, especially on a Super Game Boy. Completely different games from their Country counterparts too.

Anyway, a trailer for the Japanese VC release of the first game has been released on YouTube.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=KVKlSfNiIR0

So it's obvious that it'll gonna come out here eventually.

Cat Grumps for April 1st

Arin and Ross' cats are featured today on the Game Grumps channel. They just have a bit of a play to music. It's cute. Have a look.

Haven't seen any other worthwhile April 1st stuff.

16x16 pixel tribute to Zelda1

http://labs.benpurdy.com/zelda/

Wow! I think I like this better than the real Zelda1! Don't have to do those stuffy dungeons.

This was done as an entry to a programming competition. Very nice effort I must say.

PARODIUS — MAY CAUSE BONERS

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=VrFP1TaLZr8

and there's the proof. It's such a stimulating game full of fun and craziness that Dan had an erection the whole way through. You don't see it obviously but we hear that he becomes genuinely concerned as it goes on. Enjoy Parodius sensibly folks.

We need more Japanese novel games (especially romance)

CIRCLE Entertainment Tweeted about looking for a translator to bring these kinds of games to the west.

I fully support this. In fact, I believe there ought to be so many available that they're a dime a dozen. For example, if you want romance then there should be something that caters to your need instead of buying a murder mystery in the vain hope that romance appears within because one of the female characters is a cute babe.

By the way, this is not hypothetical! Layton vs Ace Attorney just came out and it's another one of this genre! Where are the romance games!

I'm aware this is all subcultural, but the murder/mystery subculture is a lot better served than the romance subculture.

Sonic Lost World Zelda dlc - how to find all three extra heart containers

1st is on one of the pillars you have to shimmy up in Hyrule Field.
2nd one you have to use the black bomb wisp item to blow up a crack in the floor of the cave. Hold the GamePad flat or else it'll roll away!
3rd one is further along the path in the cave.

This dlc was a nice weird tribute to Zelda. It's not as good as the Yoshi stage but it's cool to experience. The best part for me was "filipping" the Deku nuts back at the Scrubs.

Follow up on Game Grumps Parodius

Heh it's a good game certainly but it's the next game in the series, Gokujou Parodius that's the best in my opinion.

GAME GRUMPS ARE DOING PARODIUS! YES!

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

They just uploaded it! I haven't watched yet but holy shit! Go watch it! It's one of the best games everrr! Can't wait to see them experiencing it and for potential new players to go "wow!" at it. Arin will be a pro of course since he's super good at Gradius 3. Oh boy oh boy!

GBA games appearing for Wii U VC from April 3rd

Advance Wars seems to be the first one to show up so far. I doubt there'll be multi-player but Advance Wars has the advantage of being turn based so you can just swap the controls when it's the other player's turn.

OutRun 3D is coming soon

Now we're talkin'!

If this game could be done in that nice 3D that Sonic 1 got and have an option to turn off its non-fun difficulty, then that would be lovely.

Kokopolo returns in 3D!

http://www.gonintendo.com/s/224695-circle-picks-up-go-go-kokopolo-3d

Wow! Where did this go? It was an interesting, colourful and very challenging DSiWare game and although there was talk of a follow-up, this is the first sign of it.

It also brings back memories of NGamer magazine, in which the original game was featured ages before it came out.

Interesting slide from IGA's presentation

http://www.gonintendo.com/s/224669-igarashi-says-legend-of-zelda-was-an-inspiration-for-castlevania-symphony-of-the-night

I like this slide. I was looking forward to IGA's GDC presentation and I hope I can check it out somewhere online. For now this is a nice teaser.

I keep forgetting about Professor Layton vs. Phoenix Wright

I saw some display boxes of this game today and I'm not really that pushed about this. I'm sure it'll be a fine game though.

I'm kind of scratching my head trying to think how many years fans have been waiting for this game. It was a very long time ago since it was announced. I remember someone saying it'll be the last game they'll buy on DS before 3DS comes in. Four years I suppose. I thought it was a bit longer than that though.

McDonalds Mario toys

There are some Mario themed toys in Happy Meals now. I'm gonna try and collect a few and see what they're like :)

Angry Video Game Nerd Episode 118: Big Rigs Over The Road Racing

http://cinemassacre.com/2014/03/19/avgn-big-rigs-over-the-road-racing/

I really enjoyed this episode! I'd definitely say it's a crowd pleaser, not just because Big Rigs is an almighty spectacle to behold, but because I found this episode to be utterly charming. The Nerd doesn't swear an awful lot in this episode, which is an interesting point but I don't know if that necessarily contributes to my high enjoyment of it.

I never experienced Big Rigs myself except for that old game review where the guy just breaks down and cries instead of saying anything. The Nerd's take is even better and I really enjoyed experiencing this game through him.

The hypothetical advert he imagines in the end is a nice refreshing surprise and it's pretty funny too!

I think PewDiePie's pretty cool actually!

Don't get me wrong, the screaming is still a bit much for me. The Cat Mario playthrough was the only one I had watched at that stage.

I've watched a couple of others now like Don't Shit Your Pants and Pom Gets Wi-Fi and they were pretty enjoyable! The games themselves are enjoyable but he was fun to watch as well.

He has a very cute face. I bet the girls are crazy about him.

Koji Igarashi leaves Konami

Wow. The days of classic Konami are well and truly over now. (Well, they have been over for a long time to be fair). Now the only thing Konami is good for is making us squeal occasionally when they make an obscure reference to their classic games. It doesn't have to be like this but that's the way it's going to be unfortunately.

Anyway, this news is emerging very close to Igarashi's GDC presentation, which is still scheduled for this Friday.

http://schedule.gdconf.com/session-id/828360

Todd Carey sings Nintendo

Don't know anything else about this American pop singer but I just heard his song featuring Nintendo nostalgia as one of its themes. The lyrics in this song aren't too bad and the tune is familiar to a lot of other pop songs. It's alright.

Bold assumption confirmed about Yoshi's New Island

I played a bit of this and yup. Nowhere near as good as the SNES game.

Get a load of the Senran Kagura Burst boxart that didn't make the final cut

http://www.gonintendo.com/s/224195-the-alternate-boxart-for-senran-kagura-burst-that-almost-was

The final European boxart came out much better than this. This game isn't about weird fashion!

Critical consensus seems to think Yoshi's New Island is just OK

Some reviews are out now and the scores aren't too bad (nothing in the nineties though).

I don't know if any of them commented on the lovely promotional artwork but I think that's what will be the biggest attraction about this game.

AVGN Rob the Robot with commentary

http://cinemassacre.com/2014/03/12/commentary-avgn-rob-the-robot/

I guess this is a little taste of what it's like to have the AVGN DVDs. Nice to have an insight on the production from James himself.

James & Mike play Super Mario's Wacky Worlds

http://cinemassacre.com/2014/03/10/super-marios-wacky-worlds-cd-i/

This is a really interesting type of game to play because it's unfamiliar to many, yet it's Mario which is normally familiar to everyone.

The lads cope with having to reset the console again and again by assigning a "reset bitch" and eventually they just end up using a long stick. It might be worth using a little stool or table near you upon which you can set the console. Consider the ergonomics of your session!

I would LOVE to play Super Mario Bros with 4 monitors

http://www.gonintendo.com/s/223861-random-time-super-mario-bros-played-with-4-monitors

Wow just look at this. I'd love to play platform games like this without any scrolling/camera movement whatsoever and have the video output just stretch around the room like in the bigger fancier cinemas.

I'd love to at least try it but right now I can only imagine how sublime the experience would be.

Super Grep Simulator - FANTASTIC Game Grumps fan animation

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ODrKQ8YpXrM

This is the funniest animation based on Game Grumps I've seen in a long time! What got me especially was the KIRBY'S FUCKING PISSED boxart. That one shook my very soul with laughter for about 10 minutes straight.

Everything else about it is just gorgeous and almost as funny. Watch it now!

Denpa Men 3 on the way!

This got an OLFC rating recently so horray! It's turning into quite a robust RPG series.

New LovePlus has a TwinBee game in it

Just saw this nice idea. You play as TwinBee while your LovePlus girlfriend plays as WinBee, taking advantage of the couple concept from that game's design whilst also serving as a nice tribute to Konami's classic arcade series.

If you've been grumpy with Konami in recent years, this will make you a tiny bit less grumpy.

Using Squaks to find jigsaw pieces in Tropical Freeze

I'm usually ok at finding these pieces myself but there was one part in level 1-B where I couldn't find the last piece for anything. After paying 10 banana coins to get Squaks he started squaking in a spot where I just had to stay still for a few seconds and the jigsaw revealed itself. I would never have thought about just staying still during the stage. I was about to look on Miiverse as well but there aren't any tags for the individual stages like in the NSMBU games.

Yoshi's New Island desktop wallpapers

http://www.nintendo.co.uk/Games/Nintendo-3DS/Yoshi-s-New-Island-766852.html

The microsite for the game has opened and I suppose the one thing I can recommend about the game is to gaze at the official artwork. It's gorgeous and looks a heck of a lot better than the game itself. Lots of character art and wallpapers to enjoy on this microsite, so have a look.

My wild assumption on Yoshi's New Island

It probably won't be as good as the SNES original. I'll keep an open mind though and I am interested in playing it.

Seeing Senran Kagura Burst on shop shelves

It's a lovely rush to pick this up and look at the cover! I've even seen it on shelves that are really close to the floor so it's pretty much on display in plain sight. That's an advantage of its subcultural nature I suppose. No fuss.

Captain Rainbow was NOT your first encounter with Little Mac from Punch-Out!!

A Japanese gamer allegedly said they first came across Little Mac in Captain Rainbow.

I call BULLSHIT on you, sir or madam!

I don't care if you're Japanese; if you've even heard of Captain Rainbow, you know about games and you know enough about games to know what Punch-Out!! is. Don't fucking pretend you don't!

Senran Kagura Burst ads - A little bit POW! and a little bit BOING!

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=TRqVXLlLQpc
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=KyyMKGBLa9c

On PQube's YouTube channel we have these two little adverts that can be described as "Confessions of a Video Gamer". They're a silly bit of fun and the line "It's a little bit..." sticks in your mind on the way to the game shop.

Senran Kagura Burst's Miiverse community sadly doesn't allow screenshot sharing

This is an awful pity. Miiverse is great for 3D screenshots and it's usually the only place where they can be found, apart from the .MPO images that Jools Watsham occasionally Tweets.

The images and trailer on eShop aren't in 3D either so we can't get any impression of what these busty girls are like in 3D.

It's interesting how only Europe has a Miiverse community for this game.

Official Nintendo Wi-Fi Connection for Wii and DS is ending soon

Well there we go. Haven't played many games from these systems online but we should take note of stuff like this in the future with our increasing reliance on Internet services.

YouTube, the web browser and the Shop Channel will still be available so that's a good thing. Home brew stuff as well.

Koji Igarashi will resurface to talk about Metroidvanias

http://schedule.gdconf.com/session-id/828360

It's a speech titled "There and Back Again: Koji Igarashi's Metroidvania Tale".

I am going to love this!

What's the "anarchy" and "democracy" all about on Twitch Plays Pokémon?

I can't make head nor tail of it.

Twitch Plays Pokémon is getting a good bit of attention

Some mainstream news sites are all abuzz about this thing, which they hail as some kind of social phenomenon. I suppose it is. I had a look at it and they spent ages trying to use CUT on a bush so I had to stop after a while. It's a cool thing that's happening certainly and it's getting loadsa views.

Someone upload the end of stage music of Tropical Freeze to YouTube please!

I can't find it anywhere and it's a lovely theme.

Time Attack is tough from the beginning in Tropical Freeze!

You get bronze, silver or gold medals depending on how quickly you get through the stage in this mode. It was tough to even get the very first gold medal! I wonder how much harder the game will become...

Tropical Freeze has some long load times

This is one of the things everyone has noticed straight away. Nintendo games are better known for fast loading but it's been a plague of longer loading times during this whole generation, including Wii U and 3DS.

The online stuff loads surprisingly quick in comparison. Not only best times but replay videos too, which download really quickly.

Cranky Kong in character on @NintendoAmerica's Twitter right now!

Man, Donkey Kong Country Tropical Freeze is out tomorrow and I'm itching to play it. Until then though we have Cranky Kong's character doing some Tweeting. Go there now and have a look.

Brian Blessed ad for Donkey Kong Country Tropical Freeze!

Horray! He did a splendid ad for Returns 3D last year and now there's this lovely one:

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=rKwdboz4TVw

Game Grumps encounter Aran Ryan, the Irish boxer from Punch-Out!!

I didn't know someone from Ireland was in this Wii game! He seems crazy too with his feisty movements and headbutts. He doesn't speak Irish though between rounds, just English. (The other contestants speak in their native language)

The Grumps should play Syobon Action/Cat Mario!

Right now Ross and Arin are playing Eryi's Action and it's one of those mean comedy platformers. It's more like Ross is playing and Arin is laughing. Syobon Action is the only one I've played and even though it's mean I can't stop laughing when I play it!

What to do with those who dare rate Tropical Freeze lower than 9/10?

If this happens then it's torch and pitchfork time.

Although if you don't have those then the delete option in your bookmarks to their site will do.

Romance in the air with Date Grumps and Single Train!

Arin and Suzy featured in a couple of videos for Valentine's Day. One was Suzy showing off her amazing skills in Lion King for SNES and the other was Puzzle Fighter, which is incomprehensible to me in the same way Puyo Puyo is.

Better still were Danny and Barry with My Boyfriend 2 on Single Train, a special edition of Steam Train with the single members of the Game Grumps troupe. We never saw just Danny and Barry so it was pretty cool and I'm glad that those of us fans who are single weren't forgotten either :)

They were all good fun and had different intros too, which were brilliant! Give 'em a look!

3DS eShop 62% sale on some LEVEL-5 published games

This deal is pretty insane. With that percentage you can save a ton by buying a bunch of these games together. Have a look.

NES Remix 2 announced in today's Nintendo Direct

This looks very good! I'm glad they're bringing this out so soon too. The inclusion of an entire remix of Super Mario Bros called Super Luigi Bros is pretty cool! In this you go from right to left and you have Luigi's Lost Levels style physics too. Really looking forward to this one!

Super Mario Bros. DX code coming soon...

The promised reward for linking Nintendo ID to devices is coming any day now! Looking forward to it :)

Dr Mario free if you've bought Dr Luigi

Nice offer here. This is the kind of thing everyone likes to see. Dr. Mario is coming out on the Wii U VC this week and if you buy Dr Luigi then you can get this for free. Also, this release of the game is in 60 Hz. Yay!

Nintendo Tweets some DKC TF image macros

Stay tuned to Nintendo's Tweets recently as they're Tweeting some humorous image macros with the kind of thing that Cranky would say. They're along the lines of "Back in my day....".

Wii Fit U uses a lot of gizmos

Before you just used a Wii Remote and Balance Board but now you use Wii Remote MotionPlus (2 for dancing games), the Balance Board, the Game Pad and the Wii U Fit Meter.

It's a lot of gizmos alright but it's easy enough to adjust and plan out which one needs to go next or isn't needed or whatever. Onscreen instructions are invaluable when you start out!

Gargoyle's Quest 2 coming to VC!

An OFLC rating popped up for this recently so yay! Gargoyle's Quest 2 is on its way! Dunno which VC but it better be in 60 Hz!

Mario Kart 8's box art looks pretty cool

It shows some of the background upside-down like the Mushroom Kingdom landmark Peach's Castle. It also has other drivers upside-down on the track behind all wanting a piece of Mario. Conveys the theme pretty well and it looks darn good I must say!

Sonic Boom animation and video game trailers revealed

Have a look for these new trailers that have been doing the rounds today.

We knew the characters from their silhouettes but now we have their final forms. Knuckles isn't as drastically changed as I had imagined but he is much more buff now. I guess they decided to make it look more obvious that he's really strong in case anyone was guessing.

Characters' eyes look slightly different and well that's the general change otherwise. It's mostly slight. Robotnik doesn't look different and the latest voices are still there (Roger Craig Smith et al).

Not really freaking out about anything as I'm cool with the changes.

First Moon Chronicles trailer

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=M2RhFkOzCiY

There we go. Some footage finally. Doesn't give any real indication of gameplay but it sets the mood. Might be worth me sticking around and watching this space.

DKC Tropical Freeze - Diddy, Dixie and Cranky's roles are similar to Kazooie's in BK

Remember in Banjo-Kazooie where Kazooie nearly did all the work when doing the moves? It seems to be the same way with Donkey Kong's friends in the new DKC game. Though they probably don't do as much as Kazooie had to do.

Btw, the official website for the game is up!

http://www.nintendo.co.uk/Games/Wii-U/Donkey-Kong-Country-Tropical-Freeze-765383.html

Classic Game Room on Dailymotion now

It's kind of sad that this stupid YouTube flagging thing is going on right now. Mark still does YouTube stuff but links to the even better stuff which is on Dailymotion.

Dailymotion isn't fantastic but at least it's not Blip, which has never ever been good.

Seán Malstrom is pleased with the account system plan

Seán has forever been talking about how there should be an account system in place. Now that Nintendo are actually seriously talking about it, things are starting to look very exciting. The last few updates on Wii U and 3DS seem to be small steps in the establishment of that infrastructure so perhaps it won't be too long before something like this can be fully realised!

Nintendo may yet thrive in post console times.

New Sonic game coming to Wii U and other consoles in 2015 (UPDATE: nope)

Just saw a picture of some Sonic news. Some of it is regarding the "revival" sounding Sonic Boom tv show that's coming out and some of it is about the game coming to Wii U in 2015.

I wonder if it's going to be a similar idea to the new Pac-Man tv show that's been doing the rounds in recent times.

UPDATE: It turns out this was all incorrect. Fucking hell SEGA, get it together.

Downloaded Wii Fit U in time!

Yup! It took half the day though but I finally did it. Haven't tried it out yet but I can at my leisure.

DS games coming to Wii U VC!

This is good news! Maybe this is the chance for games like the two Zeldas for the DS to get proper analogue stick controls!

NES Remix now has more control options

An update is available and now you have the option of using a Pro Controller, a Wii Remote or Classic Controller, which is nice.

Penguin Adventure MSX heading to Japanese Wii U VC *sigh*

I love this game. They probably won't release it on our VC though and even if they did, they'd probably hamper us with the 50 Hz version.

At least we have good MSX emulators.

(What we really need though is a remake or something)

Wii Fit U Trial coming to an end soon...

It's in the back of my mind that I ought to try this. Better decide soon before this free trial thing expires.

Moon Chronicles current control scheme (where's the legacy option?)

http://www.gonintendo.com/?mode=viewstory&id=221127

Here's what the controls are like for the game at the moment though thankfully it's not final. It seems limited to be honest and I have to ask— what about those of us who swear by legacy GoldenEye/Perfect Dark 64 controls?

In any case, I'm of the opinion that an FPS should have as many control schemes as possible.

3D Screenshots of Moon Chronicles

This was just announced. Jools Watsham also released some screenshots you can see in 3D by aiming your 3DS camera at the QR code linked below:

https://twitter.com/JoolsWatsham/status/426809798504366080/photo/1

Careful it doesn't make your eyes freak out...

Donkey Kong Country Tropical Freeze has NO blowing move!

YES! I hated this move in Returns. Thank goodness they got rid of it.

Yoshi's New Island for 3DS coming to Ireland on 14th March

Nintendo of Europe Tweeted this date a short while ago. Gotta say, the promo artwork looks lovely and the colours look so warm.

As for the game itself, we'll look forward to it. Not to forget that a new Donkey Kong Country is out in February for Wii U!

Loading time of Wii U settings :(

Urgh... I hate having to go into the Wii U settings to change some small thing because it takes ages. I use 16:9 for Wii U games and 4:3 for Wii and VC titles, so playing a bunch at a time is a pain and I have to arrange it so I don't have to be going in there constantly.

Why does this have to be? A settings menu should not have loading times. The settings menu on the Wii for instance comes up instantly when you click into it.

3DS is also guilty of this, though I don't have to change the aspect ratio.

Game Sack covers the Sharp X68000

Have I never talked about Game Sack?! Shame on me! This retro gaming show is incredible and I've been watching it for a very long time now. I nearly always learn something new from their videos and they're great fun too.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=TQPt69UCyIA

In this episode, they talk about the Sharp X68000 computer. There are some old and obscure computers out there that I've only heard about in stories but I've never heard anyone talk about the history of the Sharp X68000! Dave and Joe do a fantastic job here and almost every single thing was amazing.

I was particularly delighted to hear about an Akazukin Chacha shmup! Loved that anime.

I thought they'd mention Detana!! TwinBee but they didn't. Plenty of other Konami stuff though.

Are PewDiePie fans deaf?

Man that guy does a lot of screaming.

I just watched a playthrough he did of Cat Mario and it was a little too much for me. I prefer hanging out with the Game Grumps or HCBailly. They do their fair share but he does far too much for my liking.

Gaiabreaker: The Wii U shmup that pioneers the tate on the Game Pad

When the Wii U Game Pad was announced, many people had loads of cool ideas and surely one of them must have been the screen's handy ability to display vertical shmups in a 9:16 mode easily.

Now, the Wii U Game Pad already has a horizontal stand but how about coming up with a vertical stand? Controlling the game with the left analogue stick sounds like an interesting experiment but you could also use a Wii Remote scheme or Wii U Pro Controller to control.(I mean conceptually of course; I'm not sure about this particular game)

I like that a game is featuring this 9:16 display option, even though the game itself may or may not be that stellar. I'd like others to follow suit!

Kirby Triple Deluxe is selling well in Japan

Very nice thing to hear. It even made the top of the charts recently.

Something I might like for Nintendo TVii

I'm not sure if this will work but I'd like a handy tv guide for free-to-air channels I'd otherwise have to tune in to Sky Digital. Manually tuned channels don't have this and the only way I can check is to go online or buy Radio Times.

Germany, please don't ruin the Senran Kagura Burst boxart

This game is getting a physical release in Europe! This is pretty cool and the lovely boxart features one of the girls tucking something away in her cleavage.

If the USK rating infects it though, it'll cover the girl doing this. It would be an awful shame if we get stuck with that same cover. It'll go down as one of their biggest offences to aesthetics.

Jools Watsham celebrates Moon anniversary; I think about my experience with First Person Shooters on handhelds

Jools Watsham has been Tweeting stuff about Moon for the DS recently. I haven't played the game myself but I've heard a lot about it. It's a favourite of many. He's also got a new FPS going on in his top secret lab.

I shied away from the likes of Metroid Prime Hunters on the DS because it seemed like it would hurt your hands after playing for a while. With 3DS we have the solutions of gyroscopic aiming and the Circle Pad Pro(which I like very much), but I don't really know if we have an FPS culture on the 3DS like the one we had on the DS(there was also a number of FPS games on J2ME phones when you think about handhelds in general).

MY experiences with handheld FPS games were on the Game Boy Advance! The GBA had the likes of Doom 1 and 2 but I wanted to play original games so I went for the Ecks vs. Sever series mainly. I liked them a lot! The stages had mission checklists, which was one of my favourite things about Perfect Dark on the N64 and they had controls similar to Doom (could only aim left and right). You could also explore ventilation shafts and use zoom-in aiming weapons. My absolute favourite thing to do in these games was to press the delicious L and R buttons on the original model GBA for doing various things like strafing and crouching and crouch-strafing! Playing FPS games this way was novel certainly, but it felt good too.

How should an FPS on a handheld control? I think about this the odd time and I always find myself thinking that simplicity is the key to the best FPS games, just like it is for the best sandwiches.

Don't you start with the 50 Hz shit Konami! WE WANT 60 HZ GAMES

I just heard the European version of Legend of the Mystical Ninja for SNES will be on the VC this week :(

Konami! Don't dump 50 Hz only games on us! It is a HATEFUL thing to do to your European fans! You put the 60 Hz Contra 3 there the other week, so why not continue with that?!

Seriously Konami, don't make a habit of this. You're in charge of too many VC games for this to continue.

Wizard of Id pays tribute to King's Quest in yesterday's Sunday strip

http://www.gocomics.com/wizardofid/2014/01/12

Have a look!

It's a nice tribute, though I never played it myself. I loved the Apple Macintosh though which came out in 1984.

Kirby Triple Deluxe indeed has an unlockable sound test!

Horray! I just watched a YouTube video where the guy showed the screen and told us how to get to it. No need for a CD OST now but it'll still be a nice option :)

Kirby Triple Deluxe OST CD, mmm...

Just heard that the Japanese Club Nintendo are offering the Kirby Triple Deluxe OST CD.

Sounds very nice, even though I hardly use CDs any more.

As long as there's a sound test in the game I'll be happy :)

Kirby Triple Deluxe has Coo's theme!

I just watched some footage of this upcoming 3DS game and I noticed Coo's theme from Kirby's Dream Land 2! Love that song and it's featured in one of the stages of the fighting sub-game.

Mickey Mouse in "Get a Horse!" should be available for 3DS!

I watched this short cartoon in the cinema when I went to see Frozen (which is brilliant too) and it was absolutely stunning and beautiful and so well crafted.

Here's the thing though: I watched it in 2D because 3D cinema SUCKS due to the need of those fecking glasses. The dynamic of the cartoon where characters leap in and out of the picture make me want to see it on a 3DS' screen.

I'm more than willing to give it a go! The Shaun the Sheep 3D shorts for example are lovely.

While we're on the subject, Nintendo Video should feature the trailer for Gravity!

Misadventures of Link series on Nintendo Video

I've watched a few of these. The first one or two tried to be funny and it just had me wonder why they'd put out something like this. Afterwards they showed things like maybe you could see them as tips on your journey in Wind Waker's world and I liked that more. It's a fine advertorial for the recent releases in the Zelda series too.

CeX is open in Grand Parade, Cork.

This UK chain I've heard so much about has a store in Cork City now. It's a nice place to wander in and stare at video game and DVD covers if you've got some time to kill. No Nintendo games earlier than DS and Wii but there are PS2 games in case you've been feeling a bit lost since GameStop cleared their PS2 games away.

Greg Martin, the awesome 90s Sonic boxart guy passes away

I've been looking at some of the tributes to this guy online and they're showing sketches and hi-res scans of box art he worked on. He didn't just make Sonic but a ton of other stuff too.

There's some intense nostalgia for me in many of these gorgeous pictures he worked on... back then you couldn't afford all these beautiful looking games so all you could do was stare at them in the shop and be absorbed into those worlds. That's what gaming in the early '90s was like for many kids.

Now that I've played many of these games, they rarely live up to their box art! The legacy of his work is not to be forgotten in a hurry. You can still see some of this art when you look at the games being advertised on the eShop!

NES Remix is really good!

Puts a lot of fun spins on the dinosaurs of the NES era! Sometimes you have to save Luigi, sometimes you have to save Mario, there's one where you have to play upside-down and it makes you appreciate the little things in games like Pinball and Excitebike.

I suppose the Year of Luigi ends in July 2014

Since the arcade Mario Bros. game was released in the July of Luigi's first year, I suppose it technically goes on until then.

"X-Cnámh" — gas!

There's a YouTube channel I just came across in Irish and it calls the new XBox the "X-Cnámh"! Quite funny and admirable!

Mario Tennis the GBC RPG OMG

This just came out on the 3DS VC all by its ownsome this week and it's a fan favourite. You'd often see message boards talk it up and everything. Have a look for yourself if you want to see what the fuss is all about.

Year of Luigi, second wave

Happy New Year!

We got lots and lots of Luigi goodness in 2013 with some of the best games of the year. We're told though that it'll continue into 2014 with stuff like Dr. Luigi. I wonder what else we'll see?