I love the word "Metroidvania"

Another word that some people don't seem to like but I love to bits. Even the guy who came up with the term doesn't like it anymore! I'm not sure why but I've been listening to the podcast he's on for a few episodes now and if I were to hazard a guess I would say it's because he's fickle.

The last time I came across the term was surprisingly in an Irish newspaper that has a small weekly section for video games. I say surprisingly because game articles in newspapers are normally complete rubbish. I was surprised the author was even familiar with the term so they may be smarter with their "gaming PR" than I thought...

... or they could simply be misusing the term.

Anyway I love the word "Metroidvania". It describes a type of game I found hard to find more of after playing some Metroid games but since the term got more widely used I came across lists and recommendations for many other games of this type I never heard of before. Games such as "Within a Deep Forest" and "Seiklus".

My favourite Metroidvania is Kirby and the Amazing Mirror.

Nintendo Gamer magazine is dead :/

Wowee.

They just announced on their website that they won't be bringing out hard copies of their magazine anymore. I suppose from now on it's just a blog like gamesradar, kotaku or any of those.

I've been getting this magazine for years as you may know but I haven't blogged about individual issues for a long time now. I'll have to catch up.

Noone really talked about them much but when they did it was always with fondness and I admit it was fun seeing Americans get thrown off by their sense of humour (though they always cop on to the jokes afterwards). They were always great for import reviews of games, often times being the very first review to appear and be listed on the likes of metacritic etc. Sales numbers for the magazine were awful for a loooong time. I think it may have been the worst selling games magazine in recent years but I'm not 100% sure on that.

The AVGN's anger management relax tape

James Rolfe made a fun relax tape, you know the kind that you listen to when you're stressed? Yeah, check it out here!

http://cinemassacre.com/2012/08/29/nerds-anger-management/

I enjoyed this a lot. I loved all the video game music he played during it too, especially the Mario 64 tracks. It just so happens that when I found this I was really stressed from constantly losing on stage 70 of Wario's Woods so the timing was impeccable :)

The still image of him sitting cross legged in the Nerd room with his frown is fun too. I'd love do download this audio for my iPod!

I love the word "Shmup"

Some people don't like this word though which is a pity. I heard someone diss the term on a podcast recently and I have a feeling the reason why some people don't like this term is because someone at Treasure thought it was really weird when he heard it first.

I don't care what he thinks! I've been using the word for years and I'll continue to use it. For the sake of avoiding confusion with people who don't know the term I'll say other things too like "2D shooter" or "it's a bit like Space Invaders".

Tak Fujii asks all fans about Mystical Ninja Goemon on Twitter, I give my answer here :)

Ooo! Some stuff about Mystical Ninja! Count me in!

This KONAMI Producer's Twitter is here:
http://twitter.com/tak_fujii
and here's where I found out about this:
http://www.gonintendo.com/boards/viewtopic.php?t=91862

I'd like to give my own answer to both of his Twitter questions here, where I can give answers longer than 140 characters :P

Question1: Are you missing GOEMON ( Mystical Ninja ) ?

Me: I am! In fact I am missing all of Konami's classic characters and series like Twinbee, Parodius, Penguin Adventures, Road Fighter, Snatcher etc.

Question 2: OK, I hear your love... but I just wonder why. Why Goemon is so special for you, compare to other huge side scroll action franchises?

Goemon games are just like the best of the huge side scroll action franchises! They have rock solid gameplay mechanics and a colourful, appealing animated look. Goemon games are typically like a cross between Super Mario Bros 1 and The Legend of Zelda 1. What makes Goemon special is its theme and setting. Fans online love talking about how zany the humour is or anachronisms like giant robots or even just about how proud it is to be a Konami game for example having references to the Konami code or 573 or being able to go into a building in the game and play classic Konami arcade hits like Gradius. If you think you've seen it all when it comes to side scroll action games nothing prepares you for a Goemon game!

I wonder if KONAMI is thinking of bringing back Mystical Ninja/Ganbare Goemon? That would be so awesome!! :D It would also make me very happy if answers like mine help to make it happen. If you like Goemon, go and tweet Tak Fujii!

I never knew you could cancel a ground pound in NSMB Wii...

I saw a video recently where a guy was explaining little secrets in NSMB 2 and one of them was the cancellation of a ground pound mid-air. I never knew you could do that and it could come in very handy. You can do it in the Wii game as well so yeah that's pretty nice, I'm still learning new things about these games.

Snatcher reference in Gradius ReBirth!!

Following on from the previous post I made about Gradius ReBirth, there's also a reference to Snatcher in the game's intro!

You can clearly see a Metal Gear with a Nintendo Wii fitted, which is a reference to Snatcher where it was fitted with whatever hardware that version of the game came out on. I have to say, the Mega CD attached to Metal Gear looked very strange. The Wii looks very nice though!

Why couldn't Snatcher have appeared on Wii? Since the Wii revived adventure games it makes perfect sense. At least we got to see Metal Gear attached to a Nintendo Wii anyway, even though it was in a completely different game. (yet still a kick ass one)