Building a Bridge to the Wii U

Just when we think we've seen everything the puzzle genre can provide us, some brilliant people come up with something a bit different.

The Bridge is an upcoming 2D logic based puzzle game coming to the Wii U. Not only is the gameplay very inventive, but the graphics are stunning.



The Bridge is purely in black and white and it gives the game a different look than anything else I've seen on the Wii U eshop so far! Its like drawings out of some classic novel come to life.



Of course, gameplay is at the forefront of the Bridge. The game will have you twisting and turning environments to continue forward. You'll have to use logic and your imagination to get further in these levels. The game is supposed to get harder as you go.









Doesn't this game look magical?

The Bridge is coming to the Wii U THIS MONTH. August 20th in fact.

Take a look at this trailer for the game:

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

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All of the above pictures were from Google here.

I'll be back on Friday with another Indie game preview!

Don't Drive While Looking At This Blog Entry

What?! I can't believe I haven't written about this game yet!

Fast Racing Neo is an upcoming racing game for the Wii U eshop.

One part F-Zero, two parts Kinetica from the Playstation 2, and all speed, Fast Racing Neo is one of the most exciting games coming the eshop this year!



Just look at those graphics! Yes, thats IN-GAME. Fast Racing Neo has the graphics of a big retail title. Its just a fantastic looking game.





But of course, there has to be more to a game than just great graphics. Fast Racing Neo also lives up to its title. ITS FAST. Very, very, very, VERY fast. It might even make F-Zero and Kinetica look SLOW. The game was shown off during Nintendo Treehouse at E3 and looked incredible. Take a look at this:

Fast Racing Neo has multiple courses, cars, and online multiplayer! IF you love fast racing games at all, you will NEED this game!



My jaw is on the floor for this game. Not just the graphics, but the pure speed and amount of crazy fun that this title will be. I wish more racing games would just go for speed and action over trying to be "realistic". This game will be a blast!

Check out the official website here: http://fast.shinen.com/neo/  and you can follow the game's developer here: https://twitter.com/ShinenGames for updates!

Currently, the game is aiming for a December release date! What a fantastic Christmas present!

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All of the above pictures were taken from the game's official website!

The Wii U Gamepad Is My Favorite Controller

I just got a Playstation 1 again recently. I enjoyed playing that system again but two things were missing: a screen on the controller and being able to sit where ever I wanted. I had to turn the TV on, take up the whole TV for an hour or two, and sit in front of the tv while playing the system. It was very uncomfortable. Its no wonder I don't play the Playstation much...

The Wii U, on the other hand, gets played constantly. I love being able to sit back in my chair and just turn that Wii U gamepad on whenever. We could be watching some show on TV and I think "man, what's on the internet" or "I'd like to play some game while I'm watching tv" and so I turn the gamepad on. Right in the palm of my hand is a large screen thats capable of playing games like Legend of Zelda: Wind Waker, Captain Toad, Darksiders, Smash Bros, Mario Kart, and more. There are plenty of Indie games that make use of the Wii U gamepad for Off-TV play too. And I fully admit that I'm addicted to the internet. I look at twitter a lot. Oh and I can't stop watching Animal Crossing Happy Home Designer videos. The Wii U gamepad is perfect for ALL OF THAT.

In fact, I'll just go ahead and say it: the Wii U gamepad is my favorite controller. I like it better than the Playstation, Gamecube, Wii, Wii U pro controller, and Xbox controllers. You may think " Hey, but its so bulky". Not to me. The Wii U gamepad fits well in my hands. I never want to let go of this controller. I doubt very much I'll ever get use to a controller without a screen again.

How do people play games only on their TV? Sure, all of the games look great and shiny on the big HD screens, but man, its so nice to being able to get sucked into a video game whenever I want to. The gamepad and the Wii U had so many great features. I love this system so much. I wish more people knew what a great system it is!

Ok, I'll done writing for today. I have to get back to my Wii U gamepad.

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The Wii U gamepad picture was taken from here.

I'll be back on Friday with an Indie game preview most likely.

More Thoughts About Animal Crossing Happy Home Designer

If you don't want to know anymore about Animal Crossing Happy Home Designer, you probably shouldn't read this post. I'll be talking about some of the recent Japanese version footage I've seen....



WOW! As you can see in the picture above, Happy Home Designer has a character creator! This is a first for the Animal Crossing franchise. I really hope that this carries over to the next full entry in the Animal Crossing series. The creator looks easy to use and has a lot of options. You can pick what eyes your character has, eye color, hair, hair color, and skin color! Gone are the days of looking up how to get what kind of character want!

I also love the furniture customization that I saw in a recent video that Jennifer Christensen did! Its pretty amazing. You don't need Cyrus anymore. You use play coins to learn how to customize furniture and then when you are decorating houses, you take items and change them!! Its very easy too, you just drag the items to a menu and then just scroll through the menu!! Looks so great.

Speaking of Jennifer, if you want to see a TON more of this game, you should watch her live streams here or here (archived). She is showing off a lot of footage of the game. Its all in Japanese, but she knows Japanese and translates a bit of the dialogue!

There are so many things I love about this new game. I like that you can put the houses anywhere and that you can (apparently) have as many animals as you want. There is no real town. So you are just putting the houses in areas and then you can warp back to visit the animals houses whenever you want. Also there is no real time aspect to this game, so you create one house per day, end the day, and then can go to the next day if you want. I will miss the real time aspect but its appropriate that this game doesn't have it. You'll be able to play the game at whatever pace you want. You can play as many "days" as you want or just play a little.

I think Happy Home Designer is going to be extremely addictive. I can't wait to start building houses and places like schools, hospitals, etc!

Is it September yet?!

Dragon Fantasy: The Volumes of Westeria (Wii U) Review

Final Fantasy has always been the most popular rpg series out there. But there was another series from Square that was pretty popular in Japan and somewhat popular here. I am, of course, talking about Dragon Quest. Originally, Square released Dragon Quest in the U.S. under the title Dragon Warrior. The first game appeared on the NES. I have to admit I wasn’t a fan of Dragon Warrior or any of the early Dragon Quest games. It wasn’t till later on when I played Dragon Quest 8 that I became a fan of the series. Dragon Quest 9, for DS, is my favorite of the series so far.

Why do I bring this up? I bring it up because of Dragon Fantasy: the Volumes of Westeria. This new game takes direct inspiration from Dragon Quest and some inspiration from Final Fantasy also. But the question is, how much inspiration and does the title stand on its own?

(note: this review is a review of the Wii U version of Dragon Fantasy. I did not get to play the 3DS one)



Dragon Fantasy: The Volumes of Westeria has four unique chapters that players can play at any time. You don’t have to play the story in order if you don’t want to. Of course, if you don’t play it in order, the story won’t make sense. Actually, the story won’t make complete sense even if you do play it in order. The first chapter seems very complete and satisfying but as you continue to play the game, the chapters become shorter and less satisfying. In the end, Dragon Fantasy’s story doesn’t feel complete at all. It feels like there is a chapter or two missing from the game. I was very unhappy with the final chapter’s “ending”. And despite each chapter saving after the credits, there doesn’t seem to be any New Game+ to any of the chapters. That said, I do like Dragon Fantasy’s characters, its humor, and I enjoyed the first chapter’s story a lot. I just wish that the other chapters were complete stories.



The best part of Dragon Fantasy is the gameplay. While you couldn’t call the gameplay completely original, it does have an addictive quality that I’ve been missing. The battle system harkens back to Dragon Quest and its all first person. You do not see your team fighting. The enemies are all very unique and interesting. I especially love how in the first chapter you can capture monsters and have them join your team. The final chapter has a capture option too but I never took advantage of it. Chapters two and three actually give you human partners that actually level up. I wish the monster partners in chapter one leveled up too, that would have been really cool. Dragon Fantasy’s gameplay is fun if you love classic role playing games. There are a lot of random battles but I love those (for the most part). Although, it was great how you actually saw the enemies roaming around in the dungeons and sometimes could avoid them. If you want a pure classic rpg experience, you can make the enemies invisible! It is a shame that not everything about Dragon Fantasy is perfect though.



Dragon Fantasy does have a few glitches. The main ones that I ran into were enemies or towns people getting stuck and in the final chapter, the shop sometimes got stuck but if you press the touch screen, you could get out of it. I also think that the quest log had some kind of glitch because sometimes it would say I had done something that I hadn’t really done yet. I did hear there would be an update for this game, so hopefully the game will get even better. I don’t think any of these glitches ruin Dragon Fantasy but you can‘t help wishing that the game was perfect from the start. Thankfully, the game‘s controls work good for the most part.



Dragon Fantasy can be controlled via analog/d-pad/buttons or the touch screen. I liked using the analog and buttons but the d-pad + buttons may be bit more precise. The analog controls did have a tendency to slow the character down at times. The touch screen isn’t great for walking around, but the battle system and menu navigation is pretty great with the touch screen. Despite the game‘s problems, I like Dragon Fantasy a lot.

Dragon Fantasy might not be the most original rpg, but for someone who has been wanting a new turn-based rpg to play, I had a lot of fun. If you love this genre, you’ll probably love this game too.



There are two types of graphics in Dragon Fantasy: an 8-bit retro style and a more modern 16-bitish style. Both graphics look extremely nice, although I definitely preferred playing the game in the more modern style. Its great how you can easily switch between the two graphics at any time.



The game’s music is really good. It actually has two types of music: 8-bit chip tunes and a more modern style music. I liked the chip tunes better because they didn’t loop as much as the modern style. That said, both are well done and you can switch between them at any time just like the graphics!



Dragon Fantasy is a fun turn-based rpg. While I was disappointed with the stories lack of completion, I had a lot of fun with the gameplay, the humor, and really loved the sound and graphics. This is not a perfect rpg but it is a very good one. Plus when you buy it, you get two copies of the game: one for the Wii U and one for the 3DS. I only got to play the Wii U version because cross-buy was unavailable for my review copy. I have to admit I am a bit tempted to buy the 3DS one but that’ll have to wait awhile. In the meantime, I may go back and play more Dragon Fantasy soon. I looked at the game’s Miiverse and noticed people posting about some things I missed in the game. Plus, I think that Miiverse’s new Play Journal function will suit this game well. Dragon Fantasy could be better, but I still think its one of the best rpgs on the Wii U right now.

My Score: 8/10

The publisher, Totally Choice, provided a copy of the game for this review!

All of the above pictures come from the Totally Choice website.

The One-Hit Kill Should Be Retired

I've been playing platformers since I was just a little boy. I won't tell you how long ago that was. Longer than I want to think about ok? But I've always loved platformers. I think Mario is still the best, but there are plenty of other cool platformers out there too. There is one thing that really bothers me about more recent platformers though. This is a problem that some of the early platformers had and some Indies (especially) feel like they have to bring this old chestnut back.

I'm taking about the One-Hit and you're dead of course. Yes the traditional Mario game had this to an extent but there were mushrooms and other power ups you could get that would keep you from dying right away. These more recent platformers are not giving you those power ups. Instead, these Indies are calling on you to be Skilled or to take on the challenge. Don't get me wrong: I don't mind some challenge. I'm not saying that platformers should easy. But to have one hit kills and have to repeat a level over and over and over and over is just tiring. Maybe some people like doing that. Personally I think its boring and frustrating. I don't want my platformers to be boring or frustrating. I'd like some challenge, yes, but I don't want to feel like throwing my controller across the room.

One of the biggest problems with the one-hit kill is that developers are not including checkpoints in their levels. So if you get pretty far in a level or if you get almost to the end and die and then you have to go ALL THE WAY BACK TO THE BEGINNING. If developers are going to include One-Hit kills, then they should include checkpoints too. Or an easier mode.

I believe that the One-Hit Kill should be retired. Its just not fun to get die from one little mistake. Heart systems, life bars or power ups should be added to these platformers. Maybe its easier to program the one-hit kill than it would be to program any of the things I mention? I have no idea. I'm not a programmer. I am a gamer though and I do not find one-hit kills fun. I want challenge, but above all, I want fun. Give me a FUN platformer over a challenging one any day. I play video games for fun first and foremost.

Thats why when I get my hands on Super Mario Maker I won't be creating extremely hard levels like a lot of people will be doing. I'll be trying to make extremely fun levels!

What do you guys think? Should be one-hit kills be retired? Oh and if you have any cool, fun platformer suggestions for me on Wii U or 3DS throw them at me!

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I should have a review up of Dragon Fantasy sometime this week. Might not be on a normal blog day. Not sure what else I have coming this week! See you soon though.

I Wouldn't Want to Walk For A Year In That Neighborhood!

Its very rare to see a horror game on the Wii U. There been a couple, most notably Lone Survivor: the Director's Cut. But its a genre that definitely has untapped potential on the Wii U. I have admit I'm not a huge horror game fan but its kind of cool to play these type of games once and awhile. Especially if they can freak me out and maybe give me a scare or two. I can do without the blood and guts horror games. A good creepy/freaky horror game once and while though? Yes please!

And so we get to the point: another creepy/freaky horror game is on its way to the Wii U. This game is called Year Walk. And man was I freaked out by the first trailer for this game. Its just so creepy! I'll include the trailer at the end of this post but first lets talk about the game a bit.



According to the official website, Year Walk takes place in the "dark woods of 19th century Sweden". The game is putting the player on a "vision quest to foresee the future" and the Wii U gamepad will be your tool in this quest. See that screenshot up above? Most likely its taken from the folklore encyclopedia that is included on the pad! And you'll be able to use the gamepad to "decipher hints and take notes" too. I love the idea of having a folklore encyclopedia at my figure tips. Never Alone, a game set in Alaska and based around a different folklore, had some cool videos about its folklore but you had to pause the game to access them. I wished that you could watch the videos (or at least listen to them) as you journeyed in the game. Hopefully you'll be to access this encyclopedia in Year Walk without pausing. I also like that the pad will be a tool to "decipher hints" and for note taking. Very nice uses of the gamepad!



But thats not all that the gamepad will be used for! You'll also be using the pad's motion controls to solve puzzles and the speaker on the gamepad will give audio clues in the game too! Wow. I'm just so excited by how Year Walk is using the Wii U gamepad. Not many games on the Wii U use the pad much. Its such a shame to because the Wii U offers an opportunity to create cool two screen experiences! Year Walk will definitely be a unique experience once it hits the Wii U this Fall!

Check out this first Wii U trailer for the game:

You can be sure I'll be keeping an eye on this game! If you want to keep an eye on it too, follow these twitter accounts: Simogo and Dakko Dakko

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All of the above pictures were taken from the official Year Walk website. The trailer is from there too!