Splatoon First Impressions

Look at me! Don't I look cool?

I'm a bit closer to level 11 since I took that picture, but I'm wearing the same outfit right now. The level of customization in Splatoon is inkredible! Sorry. Couldn't resist. It is really great though. Its amazing how many different hats, shirts, shoes, and weapons there are in the game. And I've heard that Nintendo is planning to bring us even more! They'll be bringing us more online modes too. And that is great but...

Man, I'm addicted to whats already in this game! The online is VERY addictive. You'll find yourself wanting to play one more battle. Just one more battle and I'll eat or go to sleep or watch tv. You won't want to stop. The objective of Splatoon online is cover as much ground with your team's paint color as possible. Of course, some people are trying to play Splatoon as just a plain old shooter. Its obvious when people are going after other people and not covering the ground like they should be. You don't get points for splatting people! You get points for covering the ground. Sheesh. (though it is sometimes necessary and fun to splat someone). This game is so awesome.

The single player is included in that statement. The goal of single player is to shoot things. So if you want a more traditional shooting experience, check out the single player. Its not too traditional, though, because you'll still splat the ground a lot and go up walls and such. Also, it looks like the single player can help unlock things for the online!

Other important things to note:

The gamepad is ESSENTIAL for online multiplayer. You'll need that map to keep track of where you're teammates are and how much ground they are covering. But thats not all. You can punch on your teammate's names and zoom right to them! This is very handy. It'll help you help your team win the day!

I do wish it was easier to meet up with friends in online multiplayer. Right now, you can't make a room for just you and your friends or you, a friend, and some randoms. Basically one of your friends has to be playing Splatoon online already and you join in on their next battle round (if the servers are not too busy). Hopefully future updates will give us the ability to make rooms.

Voice chat? Nope. Its not needed. Thanks to the gamepad, its very easy to help out your teammates. Voice chat would've just added random people cursing at you.

Splatoon is a must own for anybody who has a Wii U. Its fun, addictive, simple to learn/hard to master, and both the online and single player are excellent. I'll try to have a review up sooner or later for this game but don't wait for my review. Just go out and buy this game!



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The picture at the beginning of the article is a picture of my character from Splatoon! The final picture here is a picture of the Splatoon 3DS Theme (now available. Its awesome)

Final Splatoon Global Testfire Thoughts

The first two times I played Splatoon on the Global Testfire, there were no major issues with the server. I think I might have gotten kicked out at the end a game once. No big deal. The first two Splatoon Global Testfires were a complete success!

But...

The Splatoon Global Testfire on Saturday had a major bump. Also known as: we completely broke the Splatoon servers. A ton of people came on to play Splatoon at the same time and the servers couldn't take it. Some people were lucky enough to play one round before the server wouldn't them play again, while other people didn't get to play at all. I was one of the unlucky people who tried to play Splatoon, but failed. I found myself playing Squid Jump (the gamepad mini-game) a lot for that first hour. Then I decided that I'd go back into the tutorial mode and have some fun.



I painted this tree. Cause...why not?



I wanted to paint this entire place, but I didn't have the patience. Plus I kept wondering if the server was up yet.



I decided to launch myself out of the demo and see if the server was up yet.

It was almost time for the demo to be over. I thought I wouldn't get to play the Splatoon demo at all. But then, the server started working! And Nintendo decided to leave the server open for an EXTRA HOUR.

I got to play a bunch of Splatoon matches and had a ton of fun. I did get kicked out at the end of one match and never found out who won (I suspect my group) but, other than that, the demo worked great during the second hour.

Yes, I was annoyed during the first hour that the demo wasn't working, but I was super happy during the second hour. And as many people pointed out, its good that this happened NOW instead of on the first day of the full game. The Global Testfire, afterall, was a TEST of the online servers. So Nintendo found out the servers limit and now can work to make sure that doesn't happen again. I think thats great! In that way, the first hour of the Testfire was a success. I was so happy that Nintendo left the server open an extra hour. It was great to play the game again.

Now I'm ready for Friday. I have most of Splatoon downloaded onto my Wii U. I'm just trying to be patient till Friday. Its pretty tough. I'm sure I'll make it though. Splatoon is worth the wait.

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I want to tell you now that there will be no blog entry on Friday. I'll be too busy playing Splatoon. I'll try to write up my first impressions of Splatoon on Saturday or Sunday.

Various Nintendo/Indie Thoughts

Hi everyone, I'm running behind on this blog a bit today. I've had a very busy day. I thought today I'd just talk about some of the various Nintendo and Indie thoughts I have. Hope thats alright with everyone. I should have a blog entry on Monday about the final Splatoon Global Testfire (its tomorrow!! at 5-6pm central). Ok onto my various thoughts:

-Look at what I saw today at the theater.



Yep! I saw Splatoon advertised on the BIG SCREEN via a Nintendo First Look. And the game looked amazing on the big screen. It reminded me just how much I loved the Splatoon Global Testfire. I was also so happy to see Nintendo advertise one of their games like this. So great!

-Also. I getting Splatoon on May 29th. In fact, I have the game all downloaded onto my system! I pre-purchased Splatoon and downloaded it. So I'm ready for May 29th already. Wish I could borrow a Tardis.

-Shiny the Firefly Demo. I played a demo of an Indie game called Shiny the Firefly yesterday. I thought it was good! I had never heard of the game before I heard of the demo though. Its a neat little game where you control a firefly who has to go rescue baby fireflies. It uses the Wii U touchscreen some and has off-tv play. Strangely, the off-tv play doesn't seem to have music or sound effects on it. Maybe there's some setting for it. I'm not sure. Overall, I thought Shiny was a neat game but I'm not sure if I'd buy it or not. I'll have to play the demo some more.

-Animal Crossing forever. I'll be playing Animal Crossing as long as Nintendo makes the games (and I'm alive). I just love this series. I'm a HUGE Legend of Zelda fan...but if an Animal Crossing and a Legend of Zelda came out at the same time and I could only buy one of the games....I'd buy Animal Crossing. Seriously. I just love the series a ton. I never get tired of it. I still play Animal Crossing New Leaf every single day.

-Speaking of Animal Crossing. I'm excited for Animal Crossing: Happy Home Designer for the 3DS. BUT I  hope there's more to it than just using amiibo cards to decorate animal's houses and invite animals to look at it. I'm hoping the game is as good as New Leaf at least. Too much to hope for? Maybe. Lets hope Nintendo shows more of this game at E3!

-Not all Indie Games are created equal. As I continue to review games for Shigeru News, I'm struck by the various degrees of games on the Wii U and 3DS. Some games are good (or amazing even), while other games...well...other games are pure trash. Its amazing how many different developers come to the Wii U (and 3DS). Some Indie developers are really talented, while there's other developers that I wish would stop making games. I won't list any names or anything. But W-O-W. Ugh. shivers. Thank goodness for the good/great Indie developers though. Thank you guys for putting your games on the Wii U.

-I love Nintendo.

And thats it! I'll see you again on Monday!

Sneaking Around the Wii U

I remember the first time I played Metal Gear Solid on the PS1. I didn't like it. The overhead sneaking around thing didn't seem like my kind of thing. Then I played Metal Gear Gear Solid 2 and loved that. I eventually played Metal Gear Solid Twin Snakes (the remake of MGS on the Gamecube) and enjoyed that game.

Why am I talking about Metal Gear Solid? Well, whenever I think about sneaking games, Metal Gear Solid pops into my head. MGS was the king of sneaking games. Stealth was the order of the day.

Canvaleon is a 2D platfomer/sneaking game coming to the Wii U. Its main "gimmick" is that your character has camo that you use to sneak past enemies. Metal Gear Solid 3 had camo too but in my opinion, the camo in Canvaleon looks a lot cooler. Just like in MGS3, you have a camo percentage and depending on that, you have a better chance of sneaking past the enemies. Though, how you get camo in Canvaleon is definitely more unique than Snake Eater.

As you can see in the picture above, you can create camo for your character. You use the Wii U gamepad to actually color on your character with shades of paint. This looks like a lot of fun! I think its a great way for the developer to use the Wii U gamepad and I bet some players will have some pretty creative (and not so creative) camo. And hopefully they'll be able to show off their camo on Miiverse!

You can also buy camo from from the above store. To get both the paint or buy from the store, you have to find color butterflies in the levels. I think this store guy looks pretty cool.

As I said earlier, the actual gameplay of Canvaleon is platforming/sneaking. Its looks like a lot of fun (and possibly tricky in places). The game's graphics look very nice too. Here, look at more screenshots:

The game looks to have a good variety of levels and enemies. Canvaleon definitely looks like a game that was designed with a lot of love and attention to detail.

Canvaleon is coming to the Wii U on June 18th! Check out this trailer:

Looks like this will be a game worth keeping an eye on! What do you guys think?

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All of the above pictures are from the the developer, OXIAB Game Studio, official website! The trailer is from their youtube channel.

Resident Evil Revealed

Yesterday, Resident Evil Revelations for the Wii U was on sale. I had the money, so I bought and downloaded it. Here are my first impressions of the game
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Resident Evil Revelations feels like a Gamecube Resident Evil game. And thats a VERY good thing.

The Resident Evil remake on the Gamecube introduced better controls and better graphics to the series. Revelations controls seem very similar to the remake and the graphics are absolutely a lot like that remake. Expect better of course. The faces are not that realistic over all but the rest of the graphics are just stunning. This is a great looking game. The controls are a bit shaky and definitely not like RE4, which controlled perfectly. This is still a really fun game.

Revelations is super intense. You will find yourself in a room with a lot of bad guys and kind of panicking/wondering if you'll be able to escape. The game's story is also very good. I love that its divided up into episodes. It makes the game easy to play for a little bit, put down, and then come back to later. Especially since there's a previously on recap when you come back! The game is far from perfect though.

The partner A.I. in this game sucks. Most of the time, your partner will just stand around if you are not firing too. If you're in trouble, your partner will let you die. If you are just shooting, the A.I. will shoot. Most of the time. Sometimes he or she will shoot if you are not shooting but its a rare occassion. Why do you even have a partner in this game if they don't help you out?! Its just very sloppy. This game is also very unnecessarily gross too.

When the enemy is killed, it falls to the floor and turn into a gooey mess. This is pretty gross. And there's no real reason for it. You could still scan the enemy even if they weren't like that. Basically, the game is just being gross for gross sake. Its not scary. The creatures coming after you and you not seeing them = scary. There are moments like that in this game. Surrounded by those creatures = scary. That happens too. This grossness in the game? Its just gross. For no reason. I still like this game a lot though.

Resident Evil Revelations feels more like the Resident Evil I love than any of the previous Resident Evils I've played. Resident Evil 5 and 6 were too action packed. There were not any scary moments or creepiness and the stories were not very good. Revelations takes place, mostly, on a ship that feels like the mansion from the first game. You pick up keys, weapons, other things, you fight or you run from enemies. This is the best that Resident Evil has been in a while.

Note: I haven't played the online mode yet. So I have no idea how that plays. I'll write another post on that as soon as possible.

The single player though? I like it a lot! This game was definitely worth $15!
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The above photo was found on google and is copyright Capcom!

I'll be back on Monday with an Indie game preview!

Splatoon Global Testfire Thoughts

Previously, I talked about how I wasn't really into Splatoon, but was still looking forward to the demo. I was hoping that the demo would make me into a Splatoon believer.

Guess what?

I loved the demo.

The Splatoon Global Testfire was a very short experience. The demo was open, as shown above, for three times over the weekend. I played from 10-11 my time on the first day and from 2-3 on the second day. The first time available on Saturday was at 6 a.m. my time. I just didn't want to wake up that early. I probably should have. sigh.

My first experience with Splatoon was delightful. First of all, you were presented with a little bit of character customization. The actual game will let you equip your character with outfits and such but you couldn't do that in the demo. You could change skin tone and eye color. Pretty neat. After that, you were given a short offline tutorial to play in order to get use to the controls. Shooting worked great and turning into a squid was awesome. I loved the idea of shooting the ink on the walls and then traveling up the walls like that. I wasn't completely comfortable with the motion controls or the non-squid jumping but I'm sure I'll get use to them. Or I can just turn the motion controls off in the full game.

The best part of the demo, of course, was the Online multiplayer. It was a blast! There were four weapons you could choose from. The roller was the best of them in my opinion. I wasn't that good with the guns. I like the little mini-game you can play on the gamepad while you're waiting to get into matches. Very nice distraction. Once I got into the multiplayer, the goal was to cover as much ground or surfaces as possible with your team's ink. This was very easy to do with the roller but keeping that ground with your color was tricker. On the first day, people were still getting use to the controls and such, so there was competition, but it wasn't as harsh. On the second day, you could tell people had the hang of the controls and some of them were very fierce. Show no mercy!! That guy will be splatted. It was much tougher on the second day!

There were only two maps in the Testfire. Walleye and Salt Spray Rig. Walleye was a warehouse area and the rig was an oil rig/wharf type of environment. I definitely enjoyed the Rig more because it was more open but Walleye was cool too.

Another thing I should mention is that I didn't like the music in the demo. Well, ok, the main theme is kind of annoyingly catchy but overall, the music didn't appeal to me. Hopefully there's some way to turn the music off in the actual game (without getting rid of the sound effects, which were awesome).

Also, I'd like to note that this game does NOT need Voice Chat. A lot of people were going on about voice chat before the demo. There are still some people that are going on about it but not as many. Splatoon multiplayer works fine without voice chat. There's really no strategies to make up in Splatoon. You just have to cover as much area as possible. If you want to help a team mate, you can just zoom over to whenever they are via the gamepad (its so awesome) at any time. The only thing Voice Chat would add to Splatoon is Vile. People would miss use and abuse it. The actual gameplay works fine without it.

Overall, the Splatoon Testfire demo made me a Splatoon believer. And now I want this game!! I want it so much. sigh. I just know I won't be able to get it this month. I'm not even sure when I'll be able to get it. But the demo definitely changed my mind about this game. I went from "it looks ok" to "I love this game so much. I must own it."  This is the second time Nintendo has done this to me. Code Name STEAM sold me on that game too. Here's hoping Nintendo will keep doing demos. I'd love to see more online demos too!

So what did you all think of the Splatoon Testfire? Please let me know in the comments!
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The above picture was from the Nintendo of America twitter.

Splatoon Nintendo Direct Thoughts

Yesterday, Nintendo had a Splatoon Nintendo Direct. Here are my thoughts on the video:
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I'm still not sure about Splatoon. A lot of people have been really excited about Splatoon since it was first revealed but I haven't been. I think the game looks neat and interesting but it also seems more Nickelodeon than Nintendo. The game gives off a "its for kids only" vibe.

The Splatoon Nintendo Direct offered up some neat new details but didn't really change my opinion of the game. The clothes, weapons, & rpg aspects look good but the graphics still seem too Nickelodeon. The pop music aspect of the game is shiver inducing too.

I did enjoy how the Direct was presented as a scientist talking about a new species that found. It was a very humorous direct. Not as funny as the Tomodachi Direct but still a good one.

My favorite revelation of the Splatoon Direct is the Testfire demo. I thought Nintendo would do a Splatoon demo but I was surprised that it was an Online demo. Nintendo has never done a beta before. I hope this works out for them so they'll do more! I do wish they had picked better (and more) play times. And also included an off-line mode. Still I have to admit I'm interested in playing this demo. Despite my reservations, I wonder if I'll like Splatoon better when I play it. I'm hoping so. I love Nintendo and want to love their new game.

So I'll be playing the Splatoon demo tonight at 10pm. I hope everything goes ok & I'll get to play. IF I do, I'll have my Splatoon demo impressions for you on Monday.

Until then! Check out the Direct here if you haven't seen it:

High Strangeness (Wii U) Review

I grew up on 8-bit and 16-bit games. The first system I ever had was an NES and the next system was the SNES. They have always been two of my favorite systems. And now, during this time of fancy graphics and 2hr cut scenes, we see Indie developers bringing back 8-bit and 16-bit graphics for platformers and other genres. Some developers have made really cool retro style games, while others have made games that seem rushed and nearly unplayable.

High Strangeness does something that no other Indie game has done! It gives you a game with two graphics: 8-bit and 16-bit and lets you switch between them whenever you want. The graphical switch is used to help solve puzzles. This sounds like a unique gimmick right? But what about the game’s story, gameplay, and sound? Can a game with this unique a gimmick pull it off and make a good game to go with it?



I want to talk more about the graphics first. What developer Barnyard Intelligence Games did here is amazing. Its not just a gimmick. Basically, the developer created two games in one. Both of the graphics look very unique. Imagine how much work it must have taken to develop all the same enemies, environmental details, etc in two different graphical styles (plus add extra details in each style). And both of the graphical styles look fantastic. I especially love the 16-bit style, but the 8-bit looks incredible too. I even liked that this game wasn't in widescreen. The border around the gameplay makes the game seem even more retro. The game also has beautiful drawn still images at certain times to help the story along. The graphics in High Strangeness are a true achievement. Bravo Barnyard!



Though, what about the story? Well, High Strangeness' story is a mixed bag. It is a very bizarre and interesting story but it doesn't live up to its full potential. Just when you get really interested in the story, the game is over. This is a very short game. And the ending is unsatisfying. I do love those drawn story images though!



High Strangeness is an action rpg and you can upgrade your weapons and accessories. The combat is pretty simple: you use the A button to use one of your equipped items or the B button to use your handy attack flashlight. Enemies are pretty easy to defeat for the most part and you’ll only die if you get careless. Even the final boss isn't that bad. But just because the game is easy doesn't mean its not fun. I had a lot of fun exploring the different areas, defeating bad guys, and switching between the graphics. The graphical switching is especially fun. The puzzle solving with the graphic switching is very unique. Its always exciting to switch to the other graphics and discover a way to progress in the game. I thought the non-graphical switch puzzles were well done too.

Its too bad that High Strangeness doesn't have a map on the Wii U gamepad or use the gamepad for inventory (or both!). As it is, the game only has mirrored Off-TV mode. I love that this game has off-tv, but I wish the gamepad was used for other things too.  Though, its lack of Wii U features doesn't ruin the game. As I said before, the game is a lot of fun. Though, as I said earlier, the game is pretty short.



Now, I have to make mention of High Strangeness’s soundtrack. The retro tunes in every level are unique and mostly pleasing to the ear. I love the sound effects too. One of the most unique bits is the cat who meows as he talks!



Overall, High Strangeness is a very good game. The graphics and gameplay are top notch. I do wish the game was longer, had a better ending, and used more Wii U features, but I still think the game is well worth playing. Don’t miss out on this excellent (and strange) game! Buy it, play it, and tweet about it. I want to see a sequel!

My Score: 9/10

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All of the above pictures are from the official High Strangeness website.

Paper Mario 64 Arrives on the Wii U!!

Last week, Paper Mario 64 came to the Wii U. I had downloaded the game on the Wii Virtual Console and so I was able to buy the Wii U version for $2! Here are my thoughts on the Wii U version so far:



I love Paper Mario. This is such a great game. It takes two of the things that I really love: Mario games and RPGS and creates a delightfully fun game.

The graphics on Paper Mario still look good on the Wii U. Yes, the game looks darker and the lack of widescreen bugs me to no end, but the paper thin character models and diorama backgrounds are as charming as ever.



And the battle system! Man, I love Paper Mario's battle system. The menu system is perfect and the turn-based battles run at a very nice pace.

I'm not too far into the game yet, so I only have the Gomba friend thats pictured behind Mario so far. But I love the buddy system in this game. Mario has some really unique and cool partners in this game. Like:



and



What a great game! If you haven't played it before or even if you have, go to the Wii U eshop and get it now!

I love that Nintendo added Restore Points and Suspended Play to this game. Now you don't have to worry about getting to that next save. You can quite playing whenever you want too. As it should with all games (imo).

Ok, now I have to go play some Paper Mario 64. See you all again on Friday!

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All pictures above are from Google and are copyright Nintendo.

Puzzle and Dragons: Super Mario Edition Demo Thoughts

First of all, I just wanted to say I'm sorry for not having this blog entry up yesterday or earlier today. Its been a busy couple of days. I blame Ultron.

And now my impressions of Puzzle and Dragons: Super Mario Edition (demo):
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I thought I was going to love the Puzzle and Dragons: Super Mario Edition demo. I thought I'd be here raving about how awesome the game is. All of the videos I've seen of the game looked great.

Then I played the demo.

The demo that Nintendo released on Thursday was not good. Basically, all of the rpg elements of Puzzle and Dragons were stripped out of the demo, just leaving the puzzle elements. In the demo, you can't pick who you want on your team, you can't recruit new people for your party, and the world map isn't available. Instead, you have to choice one of the team (already formed) teams, you have one helper choice, and a straight line of enemies to defeat. You get a look at the puzzle solving but the part of the game that makes Puzzle and Dragons unique, the rpg element, is nowhere to be seen.

Someone said to me that its just a demo, just part of the game, and its not supposed to be the whole game. Sure, its not supposed to be the whole game. BUT a demo should give you an accurate look at the game. The Puzzle and Dragons demo makes this game look like just a simple puzzle game. Actually, a simple mobile puzzle game. The demo is very bare bones.

When Nintendo did the Code Name STEAM demo, they let you play several battles and actually showed off the battle selection menu. It was an accurate look at the game. Usually when Nintendo does do a demo, its a pretty good demo.

But the Puzzle and Dragons demo is not good. It would not sell anyone on this game. If I hadn't seen any videos of this game and just played the demo, I would think that Nintendo was putting together a really lame mobile game.

As it is, my confidence in Puzzle and Dragons Mario edition and Z is shaken. Yes, I know the actual game has a lot more to it but honestly, if I can't try some of that out for myself, how do I know it'll be any good? I don't have enough money to waste on a game I'm not sure about.

And before you suggest I play the cellphone version of Puzzle and Dragons, let me make this clear: I'm not a mobile fan. I don't think much of mobile games. Plus: I don't own a cellphone. So the cellphone version is not an option for me. This was my one chance to try the title and Nintendo blew it.

So I'm not sure where I stand with Puzzle and Dragons. The demo totally disappointed me. The only good thing about the demo is that it doesn't have a play limit. But honestly, why would you want to replay it much? There just isn't that much to see with the demo. I'm not sure if I'll ever play the full game....

Has anybody else played the demo? What did you think of it? Please let me know in the comments.
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I'll be back on Monday. Most likely with my impressions of Paper Mario 64 for the Wii U Virtual Console.