Gaming opinions, reviews, news, and impressions. Plus thoughts on other cool stuff.
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I thought I'd do something a little different this for E3. I'll have some focused articles on various E3 games and announcements over the coming days and weeks, but I thought I'd also highlight some of my tweets with off-the-cuff reactions to the conferences.
You can follow along for the full discussion on my Twitter account, too, of course.
Any long-term gamer who was paying attention to the Wii's launch back in 2006 likely had one very specific feature call to them amid the hype surrounding motion control, blue ocean strategies, and a console promising a "revolution"—the Virtual Console.
And yet, as with so many of Nintendo's innovations, strange policies and limitations have, over time, turned this selling point into a pain point.
If you're reading this, you've probably guessed that I'm a gamer, but you might not know this is my first Father's Day. My wife, Lauren, and I welcomed our daughter, Lyra, on April 4 of this year. Being a new dad means many things: love, transformation, new identities, new roles, new responsibilities, and so much more. But what does it mean to be a dad and a gamer?
This week, I finally received one of the last rewards I'll ever get from Club Nintendo: a 3DS XL Pouch styled with The Legend of Zelda pixel art. In the past, I've received desk calendars, a Mario Hat, a Majora's Mask soundtrack CD, and free digital games from the now-defunct loyalty program.
Earlier this year, Nintendo announced its plans to retire Club Nintendo, and it's no longer possible to take their weird, little surveys and redeem those precious coins for all manner of strange, Nintendo-themed goodies. Even though they weren't always perfect, I'm going to miss this program, and I sincerely hope Nintendo has replacement in the works.
And, actually, I think it might be something they announce next week at E3.
A few days ago, the internet was swirling with rumors that Nintendo's next console, codenamed NX, would be running on an Google's Android OS. Today, Nintendo has denied these rumors outright. Whether or not they're not true, it's hard to argue that the hardware maker has yet to release a system with a truly spectacular OS, so it's a problem I'd like to seem them solve.
In a surprise move this week, Nintendo stealth-released Stretchmo, the third game in the Pushmo/Crashmo series on 3DS, without any advance notice and with a "free to start" purchasing model.
While it's great to see Nintendo continue to support a really inventive, newer series, I'm more interested in the way they released Stretchmo and what it means for Nintendo's future.
Polygon's Brian Crecente wrote an opinion piece today titled "The console needs to die and Nintendo should be the one to pull the trigger." It's an interesting proposition, but I'm not sure I buy into it—at least not yet.
Okay, I’ll admit it: I’m a slow gamer. I regularly have four or five games that I’m “actively” playing, and the result is I’m never getting through any of them as quickly as, perhaps, other players. Case in point: Luigi’s Mansion: Dark Moon was released on March 24, 2013, for the Nintendo 3DS. I finished it last night, March 13, 2015 (and, to be clear, I got it within a few days of release). That’s just shy of two years to complete a handheld game that isn’t an epic, 100-hour RPG. In fact, I spent under 20 total hours playing it.
Am I doing it wrong?
Well, here we are: the end of another year. 2014 is just about wrapped up, so I wanted to write one last post to reflect on the highs and lows of this year in gaming from my perspective.
Other sites have covered the biggest news stories, the best & worst games of the year, and every other kind of list imaginable. So, rather than retread tired ground, I'll just provide my take on what I played, what I liked, and what really captured my attention.
At Sony's recent PlayStation Experience conference in Las Vegas, one of the biggest, most anticipated announcements wasn't a game. It wasn't even a surprise, having been teased days earlier. It was instructions on how to purchase the PSOne-themed, 20th Anniversary, limited edition PlayStation 4 console—instructions that were followed by a near-immediate sellout of the consoles with resale listings on eBay going for as high as $15,000.
Was this really a good way for Sony to celebrate twenty years of PlayStation fandom?
Black Friday is approaching, and with it comes the promise of getting a shiny, new console at an unbelievably low price. I've already written a piece recently about Nintendo's Wii U (which, honestly, might have the best lineup of games for the holiday), but what if you want something with a little less Mario? Which console should you buy?
Two years ago today (November 18th, 2012), the Wii U launched in North America. People had been clamoring for an "HD Wii" for years, but the tablet-centric console ended up being a major source of confusion for early consumers. Was it a new console? A peripheral for the Wii? A portable tablet device? Would the games play on an original Wii? Fast forward to today, and the system has found some of its footing, but it's still in strange spot on its second birthday.
When the Wii U released in November 2012 (could it really be almost two years ago!?), one of the criticisms levied against the console was the GamePad's laughably short battery life, which clocked in at just about three hours. So, when Nintendo, in December 2013, released an extended battery for the Wii U GamePad, I was curious. Was Nintendo planning to sell this "premium" battery all along?
