Publisher: Nintendo

Genre: Platformer

Wii Points: 500

Rating: Fair

Well since I can’t afford to buy a new game sadly ::sniff::, I have decided to review something that was released a while ago on Virtual Console.  I’m going to talk about Kid Icarus, one of the hardest games ever made.  Kid Icarus is also one of the most ignored franchises from Nintendo.  There has been only one sequel to date, despite its cult following, and no one even remembers the forgotten sequel released on the Game Boy long ago.  This in a way makes sense, as Nintendo has been gravitating towards making easier games, and I suppose if there was new Kid Icarus, fans would want it to remain true to the insane difficulty that is the original.

Difficult is an understatement for this game.  The first level will take a couple of tries, but it’s not impossible.  Once you get past the initial part of the game where you go up until an exit is reached, the next level becomes insanely hard, mainly because of the evil eggplant wizards.  You reach this maze of sorts in the second level, and in some parts of the area are wizards that can turn you into an eggplant as soon as you get hit by their projectile.  Once Kid Icarus, or Pit as he is known, is an eggplant, he has to backtrack a long way to the recovery area, a daunting task considering there is no option other than to jump when being an eggplant.   It is completely frustrating.

Kid Icarus almost reminds me of Mega Man in a way, since Mega Man has been long reknowned for its own incredible difficulty.  But there is nothing in Mega Man that is as remotely frustrating as being turned into an eggplant.  Curse you eggplant wizards!

The graphics look okay for a Nintendo game.  This was released early in the cycle of the NES, so any shortcomings in how the game looks are somewhat forgivable.  You can tell where and what everything is, and even though the backgrounds are mostly a bland, simple color, what you see on the screen gets the job done well enough.  In fact, the plain black background in the first level almost gives the game a creepier feel, making it more enjoyable.

For the most part, the controls were okay, although there were times when Pit felt more slippery to manuever than I would have liked.  Timing your jumps in certain areas is extremely crucial in this game, and it’s frustrating to be off by the slightest of margins and have to start the level over again, but then again this was released in the 1980s, so maybe the controls can be forgiven for a title that is so old.

The music and sound effects sound like a typical early NES title as well, although some of the music is admittedly catchy.  The sound made when shooting an arrow at the enemy is satisfying enough.  Out of all that I have heard, the track to the first level is probably the best one.  In fact, now that I’m thinking of this, it has become stuck in my head.

This isn’t a perfect game by any means, but it’s worth a try if you are curious about Kid Icarus and have never tried it before.  Those who have played the game in the past and were overwhelmed by the difficult nature, Kid Icarus hasn’t gotten any easier.  But you could do worse for 500 points.

A portion of a Pocket-Lint review… The Balance Board support helps nudge this one right to must-have status for those with a Wii Fit gathering dust. A cracking control method rounds off a fantastic all round package that anyone with a penchant for fun will absolutely adore

Excerpt from:
Shaun White Snowboarding: Road Trip - review

While browsing through the internet looking for some cool news to tell you guys, I found some interesting artwork instead.  One of them shows what the original Super Mario Bros. would look like in 3D.  The other shows a scene Super Mario Bros. 3 using pushpins.  Now instead of making a still of Super Mario Bros. in 3D…I think he should go ahead and make a full game!

Link
Link 2

Crazy Nintendo Collection

They never mention exactly who owns all of this…but that is one heck of a collection.

The Wii continues to draw in people who we normally wouldn’t think of as gamers, including these senior citizen centers that instead of forming leagues for a traditional bowling alley, have instead formed leagues to play Wii Bowling.

http://www.benningtonbanner.com/local/ci_11086878

http://www.scntx.com/articles/2008/11/26/southlake_times/news/62.txt

Are people like that ultimately hurting the video game industry as a whole though?  Does the very chance that Nintendo can attract old people in their 80s who wouldn’t otherwise think of video games cause Nintendo to be lazy in making hardcore games like Mario and Zelda?  Think about it.  Nintendo could pay a small development team to create something like Wii Sports and it will sell the exact same amount as when they pay a lot more for a large development team to make Zelda.  This gives Nintendo less incentive to put effort in their older franchises, no matter how hard they say they are still working on them.

Also, I mean let’s face it, the most hardcore of gamers will buy almost anything that is new.  So if one day they decided to dumb down Zelda in order to attract a larger crowd, would we not still buy the new Zelda, just because of the name alone?

Defend Your Castle Screen Shot

Release Date: May 12, 2008

Developer: XGen Studios

Genre: Action

Wii Points: 500

Fair

Defend Your Castle is a recreation of the popular Flash game released by XGen Studios. The concept is very simple. You have a castle and all these stick figures come and try to break into that castle. The castle has to be defended from the stick figures. This seems like it works very well as a free Flash title on the PC, but the real question is whether it warrants a 500 points purchase on WiiWare.

Killing the stick figures is fun at first. It really is. It sounds awesome to pick one of those stick figures and torture it to no end. They can also be converted to your side once the pit of conversion is purchased. Once that happens, the converted stick figures are put to work in your castle. After about 30 minutes though, watching the attacking stick figures die just gets old, no matter how they are disposed of.

As with a lot of Wii games, multiplayer is the best way to play this game. People can easily enter a game that has already started. The one with the most points at the end of a round becomes a “general” of sorts, getting to pick which upgrades are bought. Getting four players together to work towards a common goal of defending the castle is great and has the potential for some epic moments of teamwork. Without a good storyline though, playing Defend You Castle alone is a lonely experience.

There is no music in this game either. Something that might have really helped is having climactic music play when the castle is about to be broken into. That would have made a more tense and anxious, but fun experience. But I suppose the transfer of this game from a free Flash download to something people have to pay for is not enough of a reason to give Defend Your Castle more than a couple of nifty sound effects.

I actually love the art style of this game. The style is bad, but it’s done that way on purpose, in the same fashion as Mega Man 9. XGen went for a certain look and for the most part nailed it. But as good as the style is, there is not enough variety. I am looking at essentially the same exact castle, the same exact hill background, and the same exact stick figures the whole time. Some trees might have helped to create more variety. There has to be something different they can put in the background.

This is the type of game that sounds perfect when one is sitting in the back of a classroom or lecture hall with nothing to do. But paying 500 points to play this game in the bedroom alone is a steep price to pay, especially when you consider that a lot more can be bought for 500 points in the NES section of the Virtual Console store. But if you know for certain that friends can be brought over to play this, then the price becomes acceptable by the slightest of margins.

Since the release of the Wii we have seen loads of pictures of $2,000 TV’s broken because of gone wild WiiRemotes. Even now with a better wrist strap and a WiiRemote protector Jacket your TV isn’t safe while playing games on your Nintendo Wii. What you need is TV Screen Protection from TV Armor. It’s made from 1/4″ thick crystal clear plastic and it protects your TV from objects flying around in your living room. It’s also an easy way to prevent your kids from making your precious HDTV all dirty with their little hands.

It won’t damage your TV, and it maintains your TV’s high definition picture. It’s easy to place one of these TV Screen Protectors on as well, you just need to strap it on your TV with easy to use velcroTM straps. The TV Armor is now available for 30-32″ screens for just $129 to screens from up to 50-52″ for just $169. There’s also an option to get a larger custom build.

Hudson has released some new details on its upcoming WiiWare-game Alien Crush Returns. The WiiRemote will be used to tilt the table, and if you shake it too much the table will freeze and TILT just like a real pinball machine. There’s different types of pinballs, every ball will have its own abilities. There will be extra downloadable content coming with more power-ups, tables and more. Alien Crush Returns is due to come out this August in Japan for 800 Wii Points.

Source: Wacka

In an interview with 1UP Kenichiro Yuji, game director at Square-Enix, said that they’re not planning to release more downloadable content for Final Fantasy Crystal Chronicles: My Life as a King. All downloadable content has been available since May 30th, and they don’t have any plans for more future content at the moment.

There have been a lot of rumors that LostWinds get a sequel, but now there’s even more hints to a sequel on the WiiWare-title LostWinds. In an interview with Frontier, Cubed3 asked a few questions about their future plans and it sure looks like they’re planning a sequel for LostWinds. Head over to the full interview to learn more about Frontier’s future plans.