Nintendo fans have been practicing parkour with their very own platforming princess since the 8-bit days. Now it seems another traceuse is stepping in on the territory Samus pioneered. On the surface, it doesn't seem as if Mirror's Edge has very much in common with the Metroid franchise. Yet,the respective series heroines' exploits can be experienced and enjoyed in either first person 3D or 2D sidescrolling viewpoints.
Mirror's Edge 2D is currently in the beta stages of development with its destined platforms still unannounced. It hasn't yet got any of the fascist oppressors seen in the 3D version, but they'd only get in the way of the acrobatics that are on impressive display here. Rarely do we get to control such fluid and graceful 2D animation, and it makes the treat all the more delectable when you get to do it with a Wii Remote.
GameSetWatch has been running an interesting two-part column on the success and failure of the Wii in its first two years on store shelves (2nd anniversary arriving soon, read our 1st anniversary theme week here!). The second part of the piece, which focuses on the negatives, has a couple of interesting tidbits worth pointing out.
The first thing the piece focuses on is waggle and how the early promises of a more immersed experience for the gamer have not been fulfilled. We're willing to concede that, because of how great the console has sold in such a small period of time and how many developers and publishers have proceeded to churn out shovelware and dirty ports just in an attempt to cash in. There are always exceptions to the rule, however, with not only Nintendo showing us the amazing and unique things that can be done with the control scheme, as well as some other third party developers and their titles (Zack & Wiki, Let's Tap, and No More Heroes, just to name a few).
We won't spoil the rest of the piece for you, but, to be honest, it's really good. It calls the Wii out for a lot of its shortcomings, and not in a totally biased tone. And, if bashing the Wii doesn't sound like an interesting topic for an article to you, read the first part, where it's nothing but Wii love.
Source - Two Years In - The Wii's Successes Source - Two Years In - How the Wii Has Failed
Zombies. It seems like you can't stroll through a secluded eastern European village, tour a bioengineering facility, or attend a Kenny G concert without coming into contact with their kind. "Brains" this and "moan" that is all you ever hear from them, but chances are you've smelled them long before they come into earshot. I, for one, am sick of 'em and if you feel as strongly as I do, I urge you to take up arms.
It's amusing to take them apart piece by piece, but as they shamble ever closer, you'll ultimately have to spread a little gray matter and put them to bed for a final dirt nap. At times like that, you'll need to know that you can rely on your sidearm to do the job. Zombie killin' is no turkey shoot, so a blunderbuss ain't gonna cut it. In this week's Revolutionary, we'll be testing out how straight a shooter the Wii Remote can be.
hertz (hûrts) n. pl. hertz Abbr. Hz A unit of frequency equal to 1 cycle per second.
Arcade kings like Sega and Namco packed some cutting edge hardware inside those cabinets to draw and redraw complex scenes up to sixty times a second. Some of the companies that designed that hardware also had military contracts and built the simulators used to train soldiers and pilots on vehicles and weaponry. Most of those simulations look like cuts from a Dire Straits video compared to the detailed characters and vistas in our video games, but one thing they had going for them was extremely high frame rates.
Arcade CRT monitors didn't have the ghosting and low response times of today's mainstream LCDs, so when they were refreshing graphics at 60fps, the rapidly flashing screens were enough to turn your head and keep your eyes affixed to whatever was running. In the home, there's no need for the games we already own to attract us, so 60fps rendering has got to have some other merits to make it a selling point worth advertising. In this week's Revolutionary, we'll examine why 60fps is so desirable.
"Let me tell you about the game I played when I was still young..." Growing up, I was familiar with the name Bionic Commando, although I'd never played it for myself. I've had lots of conversations with friends about old games, and they'd reminisced about some game with a guy that swung around on a grappling arm. Yet strangely enough, none of my friends could remember what the game was called. When it was announced that Bionic Commando was to receive a re-imagining, I finally was able to match that game my friends loved, with the title. With the hype for the new game, I caught my first glimpse of the old 8-bit classic in promotional videos, and I really felt like I'd missed out on something special. But my disappointment quickly turned to anticipation when it was later revealed that the game would also be remade in 2D for download on all the popular home consoles!
(raucous cheering)
But not the Wii!
(sound of crickets)
Long-time Nintendo fans love to remember the old times, but we don't hold dear the memories of being repeatedly snubbed out of multiplatform ports. With GlovePIE running and Wiimote in hand, I turned to the PC version of Bionic Commando: Rearmed.
The last 24 hours have been pretty amazing. We've gotten a dream sequel, a new Punch-Out!! and a new handheld to geek out to. There was a lot of news coming out of Nintendo's Japanese and American fall press conferences. As a recap, find all of the news from the show below, in case you missed something.
Game controllers have come a long way since we were holding a box with a protruding stick and tapping a single button. Now they're so packed full of cutting edge (yet inexpensive) tech, I'd half expect to see a Wii Remote and Nunchuk in the cockpit of the space shuttle* as a cost-cutting measure. As advanced as the Wiimote is, a lot of us have found a thing or two that could be revised about its design. I've gone to the most extreme reaches of my imagination, and come up with a design concept that I believe is about as radical a step beyond our current Wiimote, as that controller is beyond every console controller that came before it. And just like Nintendo's own design, my perfect controller would be based around technology that is already being used today in different applications.
*Warning: The Wii Remote and Nunchuk's accelerometers will not work in space. NASA engineers, be advised to wait for the MotionPlus.
When both Capcom USA and Capcom Japan released their (very different) "box designs" for the downloadable Mega Man 9, they each drew on their own histories of packaging for the series -- Capcom USA commissioning a ridiculously over-the-top image with Mega Man rendered as a low-rent space ranger, and Capcom Japan creating a dynamic, cartoony splash portrait of Mega Man surrounded by Robot Masters. Capcom Europe doesn't seem to have done anything in particular.
With Mega Man boxart nostalgia more relevant than ever, we thought we would collect Mega Man boxarts in a handy annotated gallery. But this gallery doesn't feature every Mega Man boxart. Since Mega Man happens to be the most prolific game series ever, we had to put some stringent restrictions on what we would include. These restrictions are reasonably effective hints about just how many games there are:
No spinoffs. Including games not starring the original Blue Bomber would have meant hundreds more images. This is about Mega Man anyway, not those other jokers.
No handheld games. Sorry, Game Boy Mega Man fans! This also means no Game Gear Mega Man, no GBA Mega Man & Bass, and no Rockman Battle & Fighters. The only exception, as pointed out by reader Antonio: the PSP Mega Man: Powered Up, which has really great boxes anyway, and which we forgot we weren't supposed to put in.
No awful PC remakes. Enough time has been spent on those games. Which is to say, any amount of time.
No guest appearances. Sure, SNK Vs. Capcom Card Fighters Clash has Mega Man in it, but it's not a Mega Man game. Same with Cannon Spike and a hundred other games.
Don't worry, there's still plenty left to look at!
How many times in your history as a gamer have you felt that your console's controller couldn't be any better? Every time I've gotten my hands on a new game controller, there's been something I wished could be different. The NES controller could have been rounder. The SNES controller could have used some more face buttons for Street Fighter. The N64 controller needed speedier room service.
The Wii controller is built with expansion, flexibility, and upgrades in mind, and with the addition of a third party accessory, I've been able to mate the Wiimote with the Classic Controller to form a Voltronic gestalt of a controller that should be capable of great things. But is it perfect?
In the year 1997, with Sylvester Stallone's Demolition Man still fairly fresh on our minds, developer Shiny took the opportunity to name one of their games after an abbreviated phrase that was mentioned several times in that film. Under the assumption that MDK stood for "Murder, Death, Kill" and the fact that you run around as a guy whose head is a sniper rifle, the Playstation generation couldn't wait to get their hands on it. As it turned out, the game was not the gruesome murder simulator many people expected, but a humorously quirky action title like most of the prior games Shiny was known for. In the sequel, the main character from the first game, Kurt Hectic, would share the duty of saving the earth with Doctor Fluke Hawkins and the four-armed, gun-toting, cigar-chomping robotic dog, Max, the other members of the game's titular trio. It's the crazy sort of stuff that keeps gaming fresh, and with its recently-announced comeback in the making, I can think of no better place for the franchise to make a killing than on the Wii.
With the Wii almost two years old, we thought we'd check in with our old pal, the GameCube, and present some of the wonderful things people have done with it. Hit the button below to check out five of our most favorite GameCube mods.
Wii Remotes eat batteries. It's a fact we've long granted as simple, stark truth -- but what to do about it? Wii owners have a lot of solutions at hand, from simply sucking it up to elaborate rituals with charge stations, rechargeables, and even voodoo rituals (or so we heard). Got a Balance Board? There's a whole new battery dilemma for you ... and with Wii MotionPlus on the horizon, and its battery-destroying potential, if you don't already have a plan in place for handling the coming battery power crisis, it might be time to consider some options.
Don't worry -- we're here to help. We've explored several solutions in the past, and now we're back with a look at an all new charging apparatus: Penguin United's 4X Quad Charge Station. PU is so proud of being able to charge four remotes at once that they boasted of the ability twice in its name!
Jokes aside, it's a solid option that comes at a price some might consider hefty. But hey! It charges four remotes at once.
For manyof today's youth, nothing is more thrilling than gathering a group of friends, going into the woods, and hunting each other down with every conceivable type of NERF gun available. Whether playing capture-the-flag, Dart Tag, or NERF Fort, kids love to bust foam caps using their NERF turrets, blasters, crossbows and what have you.
Okay, confession time: most of us here at Nintendo Wii Fanboy are in our 20s, and we can't get enough (e-NERF?) NERF, either. Many adults boast vast collections of NERF guns, claiming that they're all "for the kids" and that they only use them when they're joining young Billy and Bobby on a friendly neighborhood NERF hunt.
According to a thirty-something EA representative manning the NERF N-Strike booth at the EA Summer Showcase here, N-Strike is being marketed to kids between the ages of eight and 12. But the grin plastered onto his face as he hefted the hybrid NERF gun / Wii casing spoke louder than words; the appeal of NERF defies age demographics.
Gang wars and drive-bys are a thing of the past. In the modern world, anyone who's hip knows that disputes of all kinds are settled with dance-offs, grueling exhibitions designed to showcase swank clothing, swanker moves, and swankiest of all, the reward of shouting "You got served!" when you emerge victorious.
Yeah, dance-offs are awesome, but they're not always a vehicle with which to end long-running feuds. Sometimes, dance-offs can be used as friendly competition. If you're a pre-teen girl eager to groove with your girlfriends at the next big sleepover, EA's Boogie SuperStar should cure your craving to dance the night away.
Wii Remotes 
