Missing In Action: Nintendo Direct

Back in July, Nintendo's President Satoru Iwata died and many people started to think that we would no longer see Nintendo Directs. Iwata had been such a huge fixture on the Directs. How could Nintendo possibly continue them?

Earlier this month, though, Nintendo confirmed that we would see more Nintendo Directs. But they wouldn't tell us who would be in the Directs or what the Directs might feature.

Since then, Star Fox Zero for Wii U has been delayed, so we will no longer see that game in November. In fact, there seems to be a giant hole in Nintendo's schedule now.

Which brings me to some speculation thats probably wrong. The truth is that its impossible to predict what Nintendo will do next; Nintendo is very unpredictable. They like to surprise their audience, so they never do what fans expect them to do. So just keep in mind that this is probably wrong.

Here's what I think:

Now that Star Fox Zero is no longer in November, I think Animal Crossing amiibo festival and Mario Tennis (both for Wii U) will replace it. Both games are supposed to be out this year but neither game has a release date yet. November seems like the perfect time for both, especially amiibo festival because many will want to buy the amiibo figures for Christmas (or sooner).

I think Nintendo might have a Direct next month to announce this. Though it does seem like short notice for two games to get release dates like that, Nintendo has been announcing a lot of things a month before lately.

Yes, Nintendo could announce the release dates via Press releases, but I think they will want to bring Nintendo Direct back before the end of the year. Well, I think and hope that they will!

What else could a Nintendo Direct feature, you ask?

Legend of Zelda: Tri Force Heroes comes out later next month. A Nintendo Direct would be the perfect time to show that game off more.

Fatal Frame for the Wii U is supposed to come out in October, so we should see that too. Also Xenoblade Chronicles X comes out in December. Yes, we've already seen a lot about it, but Nintendo definitely needs to promote it even more before it comes out.

More information on Project Treasure, such as a beta, might be revealed too.

And you should never count out surprises for this year or early next year. You may think that Nintendo has announced all their games for this year, but we still might see some surprise Nintendo eshop games or Virtual Console games. Plus I wouldn't put it past Nintendo to tease 3DS or Wii U games for next year.

Nintendo could put a lot into an October Nintendo Direct. I think we may see a Direct in October and in December. Though, I suppose, we may end up waiting till the end of the year to see the return of Nintendo Direct. I hope not. I really miss the Directs.

What do you all think? Let me know in the comments!

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The above image was taken from Google and is copyright Nintendo.

Animal Crossing: Happy Home Designer First Impressions

Yesterday, I picked up Animal Crossing: Happy Home Designer from Gamestop. I got the bundle with the NFC Reader/Writer. It came with one amiibo card, plus I got a pack of 6 cards in the mail.

Here are my first impressions of the game (after playing it a lot yesterday & some today):
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As you all know, I'm a huge fan of the Animal Crossing series. So saying that I love Happy Home Designer should come as no surprise. Let me be clear about a few things though: this game is NOT Animal Crossing New Leaf. It won't replace that game for me. In Happy Home Designer, you design rooms for animals and schools and such, but there's no actual town nor is there anything else that you'd expect in an Animal Crossing game. All the animals are in this game, it has funny dialogue, but its not your regular Animal Crossing (there's no clock even). I'm still going to play New Leaf. I'd recommend anyone who wants the regular AC experiance do the same.

But as a spinoff, Happy Home Designer is fantastic. Its so very addictive. The more animals you design homes for, the more things you unlock like furniture, clothes, etc. The game doesn't punish you for not designing a room right. There are certain things you HAVE to put in animals house usually but other than that, you can design the rooms however you like. Some people don't like that; some people want this game to be skill based or have the animals judge you. NOT ME! Thats just not how Animal Crossing works. All of the Animal Crossing games give you freedom to design things the way you want. If Happy Home Designer had been judgemental, it just wouldn't be an Animal Crossing game.



That said, if you really NEED to be judged, there is an Online Network where you can upload your rooms that you design and other people can rate the rooms! Plus Nintendo will be doing contests starting next month. So if you have to have Skill based or judgemental game, well, its there for those who need it. I may upload some stuff, but personally, I'm just having a lot of fun designing stuff.

I love how the amiibo cards let you invite animals to other animals houses. You can also put the characters in roles at stores or schools too. Its a lot of fun. It may not seem like much to some people, but I think the amiibo cards have the more use than the amiibo figures do so far. Its cool being able to make a certain animal the teacher and others the students. Plus those animals will actually stay in the school when you leave it and continue in those functions unless you change them.

The only nitpick I have with the amiibo cards (and Happy Home Designer at all) is that the NFC Reader/Writer is a bit touchy. You have to get your 3DS really close to it and even then, sometimes, it won't read the card or connect to the reader. Its not perfect, but I love the uses you can get out of the cards and will definitely use them more.
















In the end, I think the real fun of the game is just challenging yourself to come up with creative designs. And the game gives you a lot of tools to do it. Furniture, designs, play coin unlockables and more.

There's so much to do in Animal Crossing Happy Home Designer. You have more than 300 animals houses to create and you'll be able to go back later and change them if you want. And you design a school, hospital, and more. Plus there will be downloadable characters too!

If you're an Animal Crossing fan, you'll love this game. Especially if you're as addicted to the series as I am.

I don't think this game will convert any new fans. Though, I'm probably wrong. Maybe there were people who didn't like the real time aspect of the regular Animal Crossing games, but they'll love this game's 'play anytime you want' clock. Who knows!














I just know that I really love this game. I can't wait to play more!


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All of the above pictures were taken from my Animal Crossing: Happy Home Designer game. Yes, I created ALL of these rooms. What do you think?

The Legend of Legacy Demo Impressions

Yesterday, I download the demo for Legend of Legacy, an upcoming 3DS rpg to be released next month. Here are my impressions of the demo so far:
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Legend of Legacy is a turn-based rpg that reminds me of Final Fantasy, Chrono Trigger, and the Legend/Secret of Man series. Basically, Legend of Legacy seems like it could have been a game developed by Square Enix. It wasn't developed by them though. Thats not say that the demo is perfect, its not, but it is an interesting experience and the demo is worth playing for sure. I'm not convinced that the actual game will be worth buying though. Time to get into specifics.

In the demo, you can choose from several characters to play as. Each character has their own introduction scene, but after that, the gameplay experience is basically the same. You only have two Forest areas to explore and fight in, plus there's a town to wander around in. The graphics for this game are beautiful. I love its slightly cel-shaded look. I also like how the "dungeon" environments (the forests) pop up out of the ground as you get near them. Its a really nice effect. The game has a great turn-based battle system too. I like how you learn abilities as you go and get to use them right away in battle. The demo also lets you try out the games streetpass feature (its good), you can take pictures in-game, and you can transfer saved data (yes the demo saves) to the actual game. These are all very nice features for a demo. As I said before, though, the demo is not perfect.

The demo gives you two areas to explore/fight in, but both areas are pretty similar to each other. Also, the enemies that you run into are the same ones over and over and over. I wish that we had been given two different areas to explore with each area having different enemies. But since it didn't, I didn't get a good sense of how the actual game will be. Does the game repeat environments and enemies as much as the demo? That would get old if it did. I also felt like the demo wasn't too long. And playing as a different character nets you different introductions, but it would have been nice to see different dungeons too. There were also too many sword/pike wielders to choose from. I wish there was more weapon variety with the characters. Maybe I'm asking for too much out of a demo, but this slice of the game didn't give me confidence in the actual game.

Legend of Legacy seems like a neat game, but I'm not sure if its a game I'll want to buy. The demo's repetition of areas to explore and enemies doesn't give me much confidence in the actual game. Plus, will all of the different characters stories be this much alike in the game? There are so many questions that the demo raised. I was really excited for the game before the demo and now I'm not sure. The demo looks great, the battles are great and there are some cool side features, but I'm just not sure about everything else.

Did you play the Legend of Legacy demo? What did you think about it? Please let me know in the comments!

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The above picture is an in-game pic that I took in the demo.

I'll be back on Saturday with my First Impressions of Animal Crossing: Happy Home Designer

The Blog Schedule Will Be A Little Different Next Week

I just wanted to let you all know that next week's schedule for this blog will be a little different.

Legend of Legacy, an rpg for the 3DS, will have a demo out next on the eshop. It comes out Tuesday. I will download the demo and play it.

On Wednesday, I'll post my first impressions of the demo!

Also next week: Animal Crossing: Happy Home Designer comes out on Friday. So I'll be posting a blog entry with my first impressions of that game on Saturday.

After next week, the blog should go back to Monday/Friday, unless something comes up.

So anyway, I'll see you on Wednesday next week for my Legend of Legacy demo impressions!

Shovel Knight: Plague of Shadows First Impressions

Shovel Knight is one of the best Wii U Indie games released in the last few years. It taps into 2D retro nostalgia, while also offering up beautiful graphics and inventive/fun gameplay. Its a platformer you just shouldn't miss.

And now the developer, Yacht Club Games, has released the first of three extra campaigns for the game. FOR FREE. Shovel Knight just got even better.



Plague of Shadows is a major expansion to Shovel Knight. You get to play as an all-new character, Plague Knight, who controls a lot differently than the original character.

It took me a second to get use to these new controls. Plague Knight doesn't have a shovel, instead you use bombs to attack the enemy and hold down on the Y button to expand the characters jump via bombs. The bomb jump is very handy and lets the characters get up to higher places than Shovel Knight could. Though, this jump does have a side effect. At times, you have to jump to the next platform just right and if you're not careful with the bomb jump, you can get propelled fast the place you wanted to land. Basically the Plague Knight's controls are easy to learn, but hard to master.

As for the levels that Plague Knight will find himself in, so far they are remixed versions of Shovel Knight's levels. Some new challenges have been added here and there to take advantage of the character's bomb jump. Also you'll find new powerups and the town...well...I don't want to spoil that. If you haven't seen it, just wait. It was really surprising to me. Overall, the "new" levels are not very exciting so far but I'm not into the expansion too much yet, so maybe there will be more surprises.

What really makes Plague of Shadows worth playing is the new character, his movement, and how much more customizable he is than Shovel Knight. And because of how the character is, these levels seem familiar but so much harder. You'll feel like you really accomplished something when you beat each level.

Of course, if Plague of Shadows doesn't seem too much harder to you, then try the new Challenge Mode that come with the Plague of Shadows expansion. WOW. Those are really tough challenges.

And don't forget: we still have King Knight and Specter Knight expansions to look forward too. Plus Body Swap mode and Battle Mode. All of this will be FREE too. Yacht Club Games is amazing!

I love the Plague of Shadows expansion so far. Can't wait to play more of it!

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The above pictures are from Yacht Club Games twitter. You can download the Plague of Shadows expansion now if you have Shovel Knight. The game is available on all the cool systems (Wii U, 3DS, etc)

One heck of a Lunch Box

Some people called it the Lunch Box. It was small, square shaped, and had a handle on the back of it. Not too many people took the system seriously. Everybody was buying the Playstation 2 for the most part. I remember a Gamestop employee told me once that it was more powerful than the PS2 (a memory that still surprises me). And I believed them and still do. It was an underrated system that had more third party support than the Wii or Wii U.

I'm talking about the Gamecube.



I remember the first times(s) that I saw games running on the system. I was a big Playstation believer. I hadn't bought a Nintendo system since the Super NES. I can't remember if it was Metroid Prime I saw first or the Resident Evil Remake. I just remember that I saw Metroid Prime in a K-Mart store one day and I was blown away. THIS was Metroid?! What?! And I also saw the Resident Evil remake at a Babbage's (Gamestop took them over eventually) and couldn't believe my eyes. The first Resident Evil game looked better than ever.



These two games sold me on the Gamecube. From there, I played games like Animal Crossing, Legend of Zelda Wind Waker, Metal Gear Solid the Twin Snakes, Geist, Tales of Symphonia, Super Mario Sunshine, Resident Evil Zero, Resident Evil 4, and more. The Gamecube was a powerhouse. Its games looked better than any of the games on the Playstation 2. Which is saying a lot because the PS2 had some pretty great graphics. The Cube was a small system with even smaller discs and it turned out to be one heck of a lunch box. I'd like to spotlight a couple more of my favorite games from the Cube.



As I mentioned in my blog entry about the Playstation, I didn't like the first Metal Gear Solid that much. But when I played the Twin Snakes, I was blown away. That game had the wonderful camera view from Metal Gear Solid 2, the gameplay was closer to 2, and it had the first game's story.  And I absolutely loved that part with (pardon the spoiler) Psycho Mantis reading the Cube's memory card. He mentions Wind Waker if you have it on your card! And the vibrating controller bit. Its just so freaky and cool. What a great game. It really is the ultimate version of the first game.



And I have to mention Animal Crossing. I told the story of how I got into Animal Crossing here so I won't retread it. But Animal Crossing for the Gamecube got played a lot in our house and it really got my parents into gaming big time. Its become the favorite series of everyone in my household. Its all the Gamecube's fault!



I would be remiss if I didn't mention the Gamecube's controller. Maybe I should have mentioned it earlier. The Cube controller was just excellent. And the best version of it was the Wavebird. A wireless controller?! Nobody else was doing this at that moment. The Playstation 2 controller was wired. The Wavebird was innovative and changed gaming controllers. Now everyone expects a controller to be wireless. We're all spoiled. But back in the Cube days, this was something different. It worked really well (for the most part). It was great to sit anywhere in the room while you played a Gamecube game!



I could go on forever about the Gamecube. I won't do that though. If you never got the chance to play Cube games, then you should definitely look for an old Gamecube or the original Wii system. These games are well worth playing!

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All of the above pictures are from google

I'll be back on Friday with either a review or preview of a game!

20 Years of Playstation

Has it really been 20 years?

The Playstation One was the evolution of gaming. Sony was supposed to do a console with Nintendo, but that didn't work out and so they decided to do a system on their own. Nintendo held fast to cartridges, but Sony decided to go a different way.



We look at Playstation 1 games now and we see that the graphics haven't held up. For some reason, 3D games just don't hold up as well as 2D games. I suppose its because 3D gameplay and graphics just get better and better with new technology. But 2D gaming, on the other hand, stays classic and a lot of the same types of 2D gaming that were done then are still being done now.

Though, when I first saw Resident Evil 1 for the Playstation, I was blown away. At the time, there was nothing like this game. It had a cutscene with REAL ACTORS and the actual gameplay and graphics were state of the art for the time. The first Resident Evil was bold. It featured zombies, blood, and a mature storyline. Sure it was a bit corny (You were almost a Jill sandwich. come on) and its even cornier now probably, but at the time this was an amazing game.

It was probably the game that sold me on the Playstation One. Well, this and D.



D was a mysterious game. It was completely first person and it wasn't as action packed as Resident Evil, but the graphics were definitely better. I only got to play D once. I never did own the game. But the impact it had in selling the Playstation One to me can't be ignored.



But let's skip ahead. I've talked about the early days of Playstation plenty elsewhere. I want to talk about the Playstation One games that I'll never forget.

Final Fantasy 7 was the game that turned me into an rpg fan. I had played some rpgs on the SNES and hadn't cared for them. FF7 was different though. Right away, the graphics were stunning. This was the first truly cinematic Final Fantasy experience. And the way that Sqaure seamlessly took us from CGI cutscenes back into gameplay (without a load time) was brilliant. I just recently played the start of this game and marveled at the way the game quickly went from Cloud jumping, in gameplay, from a bridge to a train and standing on the train in a cutscene. Back in the day, it wasn't as noticeable as it is now. We've played so many games with cutscenes and CGI that we're trained to look for it now. Back then, we were too busy just watching this stuff unfold. Cloud, Aeries, Tifa, Barrett, etc were a great cast of characters too. This wasn't just a pretty game. The story, the characters, and especially the turn-based gameplay was brilliant. Sony and Square brought RPGs into their next life cycle with Final Fantasy 7. It changed the way we look at rpgs and video games as a whole.



Final Fantasy 8, though, took things up to another level completely. The characters were taller and more realistic. So were the backgrounds in which the story was set. I would argue that Final Fantasy 8 was the setup for Final Fantasy 10. FF9 took a step back to revisit the classic Final Fantasys and while I do love 9, it was really 8 that (for good or ill) changed Final Fantasy forever.

Eight took all the lessons that Square learned from Final Fantasy 7, like blending cgi and gameplay easily, and enhanced the graphics, the gameplay, and the story. While it is true that Final Fantasy 7's characters are more memorable overall, Final Fantasy 8 had a stronger and more mature story. And the gameplay introduced a unique system were you drew magic from the enemy. Its still an incredible game. Though, I guess not everyone see it that way. Oh well.



Lets get away from Final Fantasy though. Its time to talk about Chrono Cross.

Nobody ever thought we'd see a sequel to Chrono Trigger. And then Square came out with Chrono Cross. It wasn't the sequel everyone wanted. In fact, its still a very controversial sequel. But I loved it. I loved it so much that I still can't pick between Chrono Trigger and Chrono Cross. They are both great games.

Chrono Cross was totally different from the Final Fantasy games. Not just the gameplay, but the graphics were far more colorful than anything we'd seen out of the FF series (even Final Fantasy 9). The game was beautiful. Not only that but it had a great story and wonderful characters. It also had a ton of replay value because of the multiple endings.

While Chrono Cross definitely shows it age now, as do all Playstation 1 games, you can still tell what a wonderful game it is. I'm glad I still own it.



Ok, we have to talk about Metal Gear Solid. You were probably starting to wonder if I'd ever stop talking about rpgs. I could go on forever about rpgs. The Playstation 1 era was full of great ones. But no. Let's talk about Metal Gear.

I didn't like Metal Gear Solid on Playstation 1.

Thats it. Lets move on....

Joking! In fact, I really didn't like it. Yes, the graphics were very good at the time and the cinematics were great. I just didn't like the over the head view. Plus I sucked at sneaking around. I always wanted to run out and shoot people...

But I got to play this game again later on and I enjoyed it more. This was a real great setup for what Metal Gear would become. The storytelling is excellent, the characters, the stealth, everything is so good. I'm excited that a friend of mine is going to send this to me in the mail soon! I can't wait to play it again. I will definitely write about it here too!




I'm going to skip ahead to Metal Gear Solid 2. I bet you thought I'd only talk about Playstation 1 games. Well, I have to talk about this game (and then I have to stop myself because this blog entry is long).

Metal Gear Solid 2 is what got me into the Metal Gear series. It had fantastic graphics, amazing gameplay, and told a crazy and brilliant story. I loved every single second of this game. I laughed my head off later on when things got REALLY weird. If you've played the game, you know what I'm talking about.

Some people don't like this game, but I love it. Its still my favorite Metal Gear Solid game.

Anyway, this blog entry is really huge. I could write about so many more games I loved. Its been 20 Years of Playstation. I admit I'm more of a Nintendo fan right now. But I bought a Playstation 1 again recently and I'm reliving the glory days.

I may write about Playstation more in the future, but for now I want to leave with this thought:

Gaming owes a lot to Sony. Nintendo, Microsoft, everybody owes something to Sony. They came out and changed gaming. If it wasn't for Sony, we'd still be getting games on carts most likely. Well, maybe not, but who knows! But while Sony seems to play it safe now, believe me, they took a big risk here. They took a chance and went up against Nintendo. Nintendo was a powerhouse back then. And now Sony rules the gaming market.

We don't know what'll happen in the future. Perhaps Nintendo will become #1 again or Microsoft or Sony will stay #1. It doesn't really matter. What matters is this: video gaming has something for everyone. Pick your poison. There's plenty of room for everybody.

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All of the above pictures were taken from various places on google.

Sorry if this blog entry was a bit long. I seriously could have gone on longer! I'll see you soon.