Nintendo on TV

      " Like Donkey Kong?" a character asked on tonights Warehouse 13. " Ya, expect nobody plays Donk..." The first character stares at her and she doesn't finish the sentence. Yes, some people DO play Donkey Kong. Of course, the person saying that nobody does is an Xbox player. In the U.S., it can't be denied (as much as I wish I could) that Xbox is more popular than Nintendo. And Yet....I have noticed something very interesting lately....

    Three shows lately have mentioned Nintendo, not by name but by Nintendo brand names or by showing the games. Tonight Warehouse 13 showed Donkey Kong and awhile back, the TV show Resurrection showed the first Donkey Kong game. Not too long after that, Resurrection showed a kid and an adult playing the Wii U. Oh and just yesterday, the show Once Upon A Time had a kid want to go back to his room to get his Gameboy. Its very interesting to see different shows mentioning Nintendo a bit. Still, there is one thing that I don't like about the attention and thats the inaccuracy of some of the appearances.

   On Resurrection, when Donkey Kong is shown, its shown on a CELLPHONE. Let me repeat that: ON A CELLPHONE. Donkey Kong isn't available on a cellphone. Well, unless you have an Illegal Rom on a cellphone. The character that had the game on his cellphone was a Federal Agent, so I doubt he'd download an illegal rom. This appearance of Donkey Kong is NOT the first time the Kong has "appeared" on a system that in reality he doesn't belong on.

    Years ago, on the TV show Angel, the vampire Spike was playing an Xbox. You couldn't see what he was playing but you could clearly hear the sounds of the first Donkey Kong game. Yes, I realize the people who do this kind of thing are probably not gamers but there is such a thing as RESEARCH. Even tiny details for a show, like a video game appearance, should be researched. Not taking the time to make sure you know what you're talking about (when you do a TV show that reaches millions) is very lazy.

   Remember I mentioned the Gameboy earlier? The gameboy is no longer a system that is out. So having a kid want to go back to his room to get his GAMEBOY seems like a VERY dated reference. Why not his 3DS? Or even his DS? Why a gameboy? Either the people who write the show only know about the Gameboy and none of the other systems or they like Retro gaming and threw that in there. I think its very likely that the Once Upon A Time writers are not gamers and so went with the only portable gaming reference they knew. I love the show, but thats pretty lazy. Still, its very interesting to see Nintendo make a comeback to network television.

   Nintendo on a TV show is not a new thing. I was rewatching House recently and it was very cool to see him playing a Nintendo DS. He switches over to a PSP later on but yes, House M.D. starts out with Nintendo games (and we even see Metroid Prime Hunters in one episode). Also as I mentioned with Angel, using Nintendo wrong in a television show is nothing new too. It has been quite a while, for me at least, since I've seen Nintendo on a TV show. More often that not, we see Xbox mentioned on shows or the Playstation. Its nice to see Nintendo get some love (or not in Warehouse 13s case).

   Nintendo does need to get into the spotlight again with the general public. I hope we see them mentioned more on television shows (yes I WANT to see more Nintendo product placements). I also hope Nintendo decides to become more aggressive with their marketing like Sony & Microsoft is!

  Oh and lets see Nintendo back at E3. On stage! Please!

  Next time: I'll try to write a blog entry about what I hope to see at E3.

Tomodachi Life #3: Living A Mii Life

Note: the Following is based on what I know about Tomodachi Life and not what I've played of the game (cause I haven't play it yet. sigh). Sorry if I get anything wrong.


Tomodachi Life blog entry #3: Living A Mii Life

            What do Mii's do all day when we're not looking? That is basically the concept behind Tomodachi Life...well...expect we'll be watching!

           Do Mii's eat? Yes. Do they sleep? Yes and dream too. What would a Mii dream about? I know one dream had to do with being a snail. Yes, Mii's are very strange. They have strange dreams, hopes, and friendships. They can also get...MARRIED!

        Yes, you heard it here first folks (or in the Nintendo Direct first). The Mii's can get married, move in together, get divorced, and oh yeah, they can have a KID! The kid can grow up and move away from your game even (via streetpass) or move into a building where all your other Miis live.

       Thats right, all your Mii's live under one roof. A Mii apartment building where you can go room to room to check on all of them and see what they NEED. Cause these Mii's are very needy. Of course, you don't have to feed these needs, you can just let the Mii's suffer if you're a mean, soulless gamer who likes to laugh at the suffering of Miis. (I know you're out there!).  But...thats not all the Mii's do...

     The Mii's in Tomodachi can date, play mini-games with you (even go on an rpg adventure), sing, dance, visit with friends, roll around on the carpet, and...I'm sure tons of other things we haven't even seen! These characters lead very wacky lives. What do you expect though? This game was created by the WARIOWARE developers!

I wish I had more to write about here. I wish I could tell you even more about Tomodachi Life. I hope these three blog entries have helped explain the game a little. If they haven't, sorry. Check out the Direct, check out the screenshots and PLEASE check out this awesome game when it comes out on June 6th for Nintendo 3DS!

So, thats it (for now) for my Tomodachi Life coverage. If you want more, you can also check out my twitter feed @df2506, cause I retweet Tomodachi Life pics often. Till my next blog entry, take care!

   

Tomodachi Life #2: The Mii's Might Need A Shrink

 
Note: The following is based on what I know about Tomodachi Life and not based on actual experience with the game. I apologize in advance for any errors in these blog entries.

Tomodachi Life blog #2: The Mii's Might Need a Shrink

      In Tomodachi Life, each Mii that you bring to your island will have their own personality. Before you put those Miis in the game, you have to assign personality traits to each of them.

     There are five categories that help define the personality of a Mii: Energy, Speech, Facial Expressions, Mood, and Overall. Instead of a slide bar, this time you have little buttons that you push one way or another to help lean a Mii toward one trait within these categories or another. Let me get into specifics about each category as much as I can.

   Energy is defined by two traits: Slow on the left and Quick on the right. How fast does your Mii move? Is he a laid back kind of guy (slow) or is he a fitness nut (Quick) ? He can also be somewhere in the middle. Now if your Mii will actually run around a lot if you go with the quick option, I have no idea. It'll be interesting to see how much the energy trait effects the game!

   Speech does seem to have an effect on the game. The two traits here are Caring on the left and Direct on the right. I saw a video where a Mii was a little rude to the player, so I suppose that would be in the Direct category (my House Mii will so be a Direct character. lol). A caring Mii, I guess, might worry if the player is getting enough sleep? I have no idea. It'll be interesting to find out!

   Facial Expressions are a big mystery to Mii. heh. I wonder if the Mii's facial expressions will really change a lot depending on these two traits. The traits are flat on the left and varied on the right. I suppose a very flat Mii would only have one expression all the time depending on their other personality traits. And an ultra varied Mii would show you many of the Mii facial expressions. I wonder what would happen if you put those two Miis in a room...

   Mood should be a very interesting one. The two traits are serious on the left and Light on the right. Dr. House Mii, for example, wouldn't be all the way serious but he wouldn't be all the way light either. I suppose somewhere in the middle for him. I wonder if a light Mii, that is very quick, with varied expressions and a ultra caring personality would be crazy or not. I will have to find out!

   The last category is Overall. What does overall mean? Just going by the name doesn't tell you anything. The two traits don't shed too much light on the matter either though. The trait on the left is Unique and the one on the right is Normal. I know at least one of my characters is going to be extremely UNIQUE. lol. I wonder what normal means though. I'm definitely not normal....

   The customization Mii program in this game is amazing. I can't wait to give all my Miis unique personalities and let them run rampant around the island!

     Ok, thats all for this time. Next time, I'll talk about what happens when you put a bunch of Miis on the island. Lets just say...well...do Mii's dream of being real boys and girls? I'm sure we'll find out for sure when we play the game! See you soon!
 

Tomodachi Life #1: THEY TALK!

Note: the following is based on what I know about Tomodachi Life and NOT on actual experiance with the game. Anything I get wrong in these blog entries is my fault and I'm sorry in advance

Tomodachi Life blog entry #1: THEY TALK!

      We've seen Nintendo uses Mii's before in other games like Wii Sports for Wii and Wii Sports Club for Wii U. Also streetpass for 3DS uses them. That said, we have never, ever, seen Mii's TALK. Tomodachi Life promises to do just that when it comes out on June 6th.

    When you start up Tomodachi Life, you either add a Mii from Mii Maker (or a QR code) or create a new Mii to be your "look-a-like" in the game. After you have that Mii, you give the Mii a voice & a personality. You can also add up to 100 Miis in all and give each of them a voice/personality! They'll all to live on an island where they have a very crazy life (I'll cover that life in another entry).

For this first blog entry, I'll focus on the voice part of the customization.

    The Voice, I should note, is NOT a realistic voice. Instead, its more robotic in nature. You can go with a random voice, a preset voice or customize the voice completely. I really like the look of the Voice customization! You can adjust the pitch, speed, quality, tone, accent, and intonation through some slide bars! These features may vary in uniqueness depending on the region of the real world you live in. For example, depending on where you live in the world, the games accents will different.

    In the U.K. Nintendo Direct, there were very British accents on display; for the American Direct, there was American accents! The whole voice feature is pretty amazing. Oh and there's one other cool thing I should mention about the voices...
 
   The voices can SING and...you can actually change the lyrics to a song & the voice will sing that song! Yes, the voice technology of Tomodachi can read words that you write out in the game! Pretty amazing eh? You can give the Mii's catchphrases too and it looks like they'll read them aloud also.

   There are so many unique aspects of Tomodachi Life and I plan to cover as many as possible. I'm sure I forgot or don't know about some of the voice features. If I find out anything else, I'll update this blog entry.

Thats all for now. Next time I'll discuss how you can customize the personality of the Mii's. Until then, why not watch that wacky Direct again?!

Living A Tomodachi Life

      The last thing I expected on Thursday last week was the phrase " All Hail the Virtual Boy" from Nintendo. That was the very last thing. I also didn't expect the Nintendo Direct that the phrase was featured in!

      On Tuesday last week, we had a Nintendo Direct for Smash Bros. I liked it alot. I figured that was the last direct for a little while though. The next Direct would be a full one. I was wrong.

      I went on Twitter Thursday morning and heard people talking about a Direct for Tomodachi Life. I had vaguely heard of the game but it didn't look like anything I'd like. Still, I decided to check the Nintendo Direct out!

     What followed was the most insane, crazy bizarre, amazing, and HILARIOUS Nintendo Direct I had ever seen. I loved every second of it. From Bill Trinen Mii news anchor to gameplay footage showing off the Miis "life" to yes, even All Hail the Virtual Boy! Oh and of course the funny ending with Bill sleeping. There was SO many great moments in the Direct. It was my favorite Nintendo Direct EVER. There was no other direct, even the Animal Crossing direct, that was better. Also the Tomodachi Life direct sold me on the game.

     No, I wouldn't abandon Animal Crossing New Leaf for Tomodachi Life but I'm ready to add the game to my daily routine. I'm ready for a Tomodachi Life!

                                                 Is it June 6th yet?!

In my next blog entries, I will TRY to explain what is so unique about Tomodachi Life. I

think I'll start by telling you about the games Voice Feature. The blog entry will be up SOON!

Meanwhile if you haven't seen the AMAZING Tomodachi Life Nintendo Direct, here's a link to it: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=lcmx4kC0tiU