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There’s been loads of great ‘by fan’ video’s based on video game franchises in the past few years…

Now welcome the latest one!

If you’re a YouTube fiend then I suggest subscribing to the guy.

Viva la Arcades!

Time Crisis, House of the Dead and Point Blank were pretty much THE kings of on rails arcade shooters for me.

If you miss that genre, I recommend both Resident Evil ‘chronicles’ games on Wii, as well as House of the Dead Overkill (Wii).

It’s been about a week now since E3 2010.

An event where Sony, Microsoft, and Nintendo all gave reasons as to why we should own and have money ready for their consoles over the next year.  Also an event packed with some cringe-worthy and time consuming presentations on motion controls or hardware that can only really be done promotion justice with actually hands-on playing of said devices (i.e. Microsoft’s Kinect, or Nintendo’s 3DS).

I wouldn’t say there was an outright winner of E3, although I do feel Microsoft were the weakest this year…

I say Microsoft’s was weakest mainly due to the fact they were a bit TOO extensive and cheesy with the Kinect demo’s, plus it’s hard to judge quite how well the device works from there presentations, obviously Microsoft will feed us the idea that it works amazing, and we all should buy it, but things of this nature are never quite as good as they lead us to believe.  Still, Kinect differs itself from the Wii and PS3′s take on motion controls, and the minority report style menu navigation is cool, so it has potential.

I did like the idea of the ESPN service shown, although I’m doubtful on if that will actually be released in Europe.

The new 360 slim looks nice for those who may want to update, with it’s (finally) in-built wi-fi support, 250gb Hard Drive, and better connectivity for Kinect (due it requiring extra leads on the older 360′s).

Although they showed off some good games, they spent the most time focusing on COD: Black Ops, Halo Reach, and Gears of War 3 in.  As promising as they all look, it was a bit crowded in terms of shooters if you ask me.

I also feel like they should have highlighted XBLA.  The MS presentation basically ignored XBLA (although it did have some showings on the show floor at least).  I do feel as though this years Summer of Arcade line up is a bit weaker than the previous years, however it still has a chance of being good, and I’m quite certain Xbox live arcade is a nice money maker for Microsoft.  I just think it would’ve been a nice refreshing thing to add in between the other game announcements for them to cover the success of XBLA in the past year, the upcoming Summer of Arcade, Game Room, and what else is on it’s way…

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Sony didn’t have a problem with game range.  Gran Turismo 5, Little Big Planet 2, Agent, Twisted Metal, Infamous 2, Killzone 3…to name a few, as well as a better Dead Space 2 bundle, and a surprise announcement of Portal 2 getting the better version and potentially some sort of Steam support on PS3.

PlayStation Move got it’s fair share of coverage, and although it is pretty much just PlayStation trying to get a piece of the Wii market, so the concept isn’t too exciting, although they do have the advantage of having a much more powerful system, so when it comes to games such as Tiger Woods 2011…then providing the controls are equally on par (no pun intended), Sony would especially win if a purchase decision should come down to a visual comparison.

Sony were also bold enough to admit the PSP hasn’t been as strong as they’d have liked, although they’re still fighting with it, announcing a lot of support was still incoming for the console, mainly a new PSP God of War.

Still, Sony didn’t seem to rely on Move to ‘wow’ people as much as Microsoft did with Kinect, so with Sony’s strong showing of games they had a good E3 presentation.

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Nintendo showed off there new Zelda, which looks very promising (although the live presentation was ruined due to the show lighting interfering with the Wii sensor bar).  Donkey Kong Country 4, and Kirby’s Epic Yarn look to be some amazing 2d style platformers.  A new Wii exclusive “Goldeneye” is an exciting prospect, although whether it amounts to be a worthy successor or just another name hogging mediocre-fest like Goldeneye: Rogue Agent we shall see.

The highlight of Nintendo’s show (as well as one of the highlights of E3 overall) had to be the unveiling of the new Nintendo 3DS though.  It’s always exciting when a company has a new console to show, and this was no different.

Some key 3DS features:

• The 3DS graphical capabilities look to be at least on par with Nintendo Gamecube, plus on a small screen it’d look great.
• Top screen is wide screen, and the 3D effects have a slider to control how great the 3D is.
• Analogue Control, as well as in-built motion sensors.
• Many big 3rd party companies are already at work on 3Ds games, a new Metal Gear Solid and a Resident Evil are just the start.
• Much better wi-fi support, seems to be hinting at Nintendo offering something as good as XBOX live connectivity between users.
• The ability to watch 3D movies, “glasses free”.
• Has 2 camera’s on the outside allowing people to take 3D pictures.  Those whom have used this function at E3 said it was a very cool feature, and who knows…if ‘glasses free’ 3D picture frames are made, the Nintendo DS could perhaps pioneer the 3D camera movement.
• Nintendo says it’s battery life should be the same as that found on the DSi.
• Cart’s are supposed to average at about 2gig in size (where as the regular DS only went upto 256mb I believe).

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That’s it for this round up.

Round 2 will consist of some of the cool games and announcements from the many game developers/ publishers out there.

Europe!  In less than 2 weeks, Super Mario Galaxy 2 will hit the shelves.

The surprise sequel to the Wii hit “Super Mario Galaxy” released in 2007.  I say ‘surprise’ sequel seeing as how it’s quite Rare for Nintendo to do a mario sequel during the same console generation.  Depending on if you count Super Mario World and Yoshi’s Island (as they were totally different games to be fair).  It was the NES with Super Mario Bros/ Lost Levels and Super Mario Bros 3 that were the last time we truly had Mario sequels within a generation.

From what I’ve seen and read though, Super Mario Galaxy 2 will be much much more than just the “Lost Levels” of Super Mario Galaxy.  It will be a much more ambitious, more deeper, and much sweeter game to get into.

For a brief time this week Super Mario Galaxy 2 did something very suprising and knocked Zelda: Ocarina of Time off the GameRankings #1 spot (a site that tallys all the reviews for games up to give them there overall average). It’s no suprise that it did that though after numerous sites have given it amazing scores.  I was personally surprised and ‘upped’ my level of hype when I saw that Super Mario Galaxy 2 scored a perfect 10 from IGN, they’re not the only ones either, I hear it scored a 10/10 from EDGE too, whom are a bit critically harsh at times.

GameTrailers gave it a 9.7 also…peep the review below if you want to see some game footage.  Doesn’t really spoil anything major from what I remember.

So I figured that whilst I waited for SMG2…I would go back to Super Mario Galaxy 1, to familiarise myself with how great that was, and also to beat “Super Luigi Galaxy”.  Luigi Galaxy is basically playing the whole game in it’s entirety again, but as Luigi, although playing as Luigi has his trademark slightly improved jump and slidey stopping distance when trying to stop running.

Although this looks daft, the referencing of Luigi meeting Luigi, and other such game story tweaks when playing as Luigi are quite cool.

Seeing as though it’s been like 2 years since I last properly played Super Mario Galaxy, re-playing from scratch again as Luigi has been a lot of fun, I’m currently about 35 stars in, and if I can continue to go for about 10 stars a day for the next 2 weeks I should finally get to see the secret bonus that is unlocked for completing the game with both characters .

I hear the reasons to replay Super Mario Galaxy 2 are much greater though, so I’m definitely looking forward to not only having perhaps the greatest 3D platformer in existence, but knowing that it will take a lot of hours for me to have fully experienced it all.

Just replaying Super Mario Galaxy again though just reminds me why I’ve never gone a single console generation since birth without having a Nintendo console…  That being that when Nintendo knuckle down in Japan with aspirations of making a great video game, you expect something special, and I’d say at least 95% of the time it’s not just a game worth owning…but a game worth hanging on to.

The level design and variety in Super Mario Galaxy is incredible.  It’s no wonder the 3D platformer competition has faded out over recent years because Nintendo keep raising up that quality bar.  Another series I’d love to see Nintendo work there platformer magic on would be Donkey Kong.  It seems ever since Nintendo parted ways with ‘Rare‘ they haven’t had any dev teams really wanting to make something of the Donkey Kong franchise (which let’s not forget is an older franchise than Super Mario).  Don’t get me wrong I really loved the Donkey Konga games and “DK Jungle Beat”, but that just seems like a passing phase for the Konga controller.  When Nintendo left Rare to take care of DK they really made something of DK.  Rare aren’t quite the same as they were in the N64 days though, as a lot of the people left Rare for “Free Radical Design” and other places.  However if Nintendo EAD got behind a DK platformer, whether it be a Donkey Kong Country 4, or a Donkey Kong 64 sequel…it would most certainly be great.

Back to Mario though.  Once I’m done with Super Mario Luigi Galaxy (and obviously it’s epic sequel) I ought to replay Super Mario Sunshine again, I only played through it once myself, and that was upto about 95% completion back in it’s GC days.  I kind of lost interest in Sunshine’s ‘blue coin challenges’ so I never fully 120′d it (although I did beat the final boss obviously).

I did enjoy Super Mario Sunshine though.  I thought it was a great game, not quite as legendary as 64 or Galaxy, but still a very decent platformer.  Then from there I should chase Sunshine with the original king of 3D platforming…Super Mario 64.  I 120′d (100% completed) back when I was 11, I didn’t stick with Super Mario 64 DS for as long as I’d of liked, and since re-purchasing Mario 64 from the Virtual Console on the Wii’s launch I think I’m only up to something like 30 stars, but I would gladly go for 120 again as that game still holds up great and is still a blast to play.  Don’t forget that through the Nintendo Wii you have the ability to play all of the current 3D Mario offerings.

So… I’m going to get back to jumping around the galaxies with Luigi.  Roll on June 11th!

Viva La 3D Mario Bros Adventures

This & That will basically be a feature that wraps up a few minor thoughts/ observations/ or smaller news stories into a tidy article.

Personally my gaming tastes are very broad.  I’ve pretty much got a games in every genre there is across the systems I own, and although they’re are some game genres that I don’t play much of nowadays, I still keep things fresh.  I think anyone whom has me on XBOX live can testify that I play a diverse range of games.  The point of this post though is to cover a growing trend I’ve noticed not just amongst my own friends, but of many people the world over.

The type of gamer I’m talking about is that friend we’ve known for ages, and spent many hours on the couch having a blast in multi-player games of all kinds, yet nowadays they seem to restrict themselves to nothing but the latest FIFA game, and the latest Call of Duty.  Substitute FIFA for Madden, or MLB The Show, or whichever sports game flourishes most in your country.

It’s kind of sad to see.  There are so many great games these people seem to be missing out on, and I feel like there console must be crying on the inside.  I won’t go as far to say I  look down on these types of gamers (except the ones whom criticise others for NOT playing the same stuff as they do), as it’s not like it affects me in anyway (other than perhaps having fewer people to co-op things with).

Comparing with one of those friends

The reason for some of my friends whom have dropped into those routines is the fact they’ve grown up, they have jobs, and although they still enjoy video games, they only pursue the games that have served them well in previous editions, and generally their are many others like them for them to play online with.  Plus it’s not like Fifa or Modern Warfare have low review scores, so it’s not as if they’re playing bad games, it’s just that they’re not exactly ordering anything different off the menu so to speak :\.

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Pokéwalker

Since the launch of the latest Pokémon RPG’s about 1 month ago on the Nintendo DS, I’ve sank not far from 100 hours into the game.  Really enjoying it so far, and the game seems to me to be longer than the usual Pokemon adventure would be.  I never played the Gold/ Silver/ Crystal generation on the GameBoy as I kind of left the RPG’s after Red/ Blue/ Yellow, and only got back into them on the Game Boy Advance.  So for me at least, playing Heart Gold is a whole new game.  Serving up great nostalgia, but doing a lot more to ensure that I “keep on truckin” with the game.

Perhaps the most substantial new addition to this game is the Pokéwalker accessory.  A small tamagotchi-esque device that allows you to transfer a Pokemon from your own game save to have in your pocket wherever you go.  The Pokéwalker has a built in pedometer inside it so all your steps you do in your day to day life get counted and translated into “Watts”.  These “Watts” can be used in 3 ways.

1. You can spend them on trying to catch Pokemon on your Pokewalker.
2. You can play a little guess which box has an item inside mini-game.
3. You can save them, as you can unlock different routes on your Pokewalker, different routes allow for different items and Pokemon to be obtained.

The more steps you do in a day, can potentially allow you to catch some fairly rare Pokémon which you would struggle to get otherwise, and in some cases there are special edition Pokemon (for instance a Pikachu that can learn to Fly) that you could only get this way.

It makes for a great little novelty to have in your pocket, and it adds nicely to the overall experience of the game.  It also kind of takes me back to the days of the Dreamcast and it’s VMU.  A cool idea that was a shame to of lived and died with the Dreamcast.  I really hope that future iterations of the Pokemon games continue to support and utilize the Pokéwalker accessory.

Pokéwalker, amongst a batch of wild VMU's

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Wii Memory

Pre-Release Virtual Console screenshot

Finally, I want to stir up a not-so-fond memory for those of us whom have stuck by the Nintendo Wii since launch or soon after.  Remember the excitement we all had for the Virtual Console? I know I was already eager to spend money on games I’ve already owned, still own, or never got round too.
Not soon after though, us download happy Wii users realised a problem.  The Wii’s internal memory was pretty weak, and with no sign of a solution in sight, plus the ever growing promise of what the Virtual Console would be offering (Arcade ports, WiiWare) it was beginning to be something of a worry as to what we’d have to do to “data manage” our downloaded treats.

Sure enough we could always delete the games from our Hard Drive and have them able to be re-downloaded if we pleased from the Wii Shop Channel, but let’s face it…if we’re planning on building a vast collection of downloadable games for a system, then naturally you would want them to be held on that system, we want them to just be a quick menu selection away from being played.  Having to constantly maintain what we want to keep on our system would be a major pain, it would take away from some impulse nostalgia trips, and it would somewhat lower the appeal to keep buying games if it’s such a chore to make room for them.

I’m still a big fan of the retro scene to this day, and the Virtual Console was definitely something of a huge impact on my NEED for one in the many long days building up to it’s release.  It was only a few months after release that I was starting to grow worried of space issues, and I was one of many, constantly keeping my eye out for new interviews with key Nintendo staff wanting the issue of Wii memory space addressed, yet Nintendo didn’t seem to be prioritizing it as a problem seeing as you could technically just delete games and re-download them.  Many solutions were speculated (mainly an external usb hard drive), and there was a brief bit of worry in my mind that Nintendo would simply release a version 2 Wii console with more in built memory (leaving the early adopter in need to trade-up).

SD Card menu

Then, somewhat out of the blue, last spring we got our fix.  Nintendo allowed the Wii to save Wii channels/ virtual console games to the SD card.  They also made it so the Wii could support upto 32GB SDHC cards, which I can vouch is definitely more than sufficient for users like me.  I think with the Wii having that much space available you’re more likely to run into the problem that you run out of “channel” slots on the Wii interface to put games in, I personally currently have 51 games downloaded to my Wii (that doesn’t include the optional Wii channels).  Although it’s not a worry to most people as with the Wii menu and SD card menu combined you have space for approximately 280 games (depending on how many optional channels you have on your menu).  So the only people that may still have a small gripe are perhaps the magazines, and media establishments that aim to download and review all the Wii shop channel releases.  Although if you’re playing games for work, then you are probably better off having more than 1 Wii across your office, imo >_>.

Blocks Remaining?...More than I'd need

Now if only Nintendo could get round to giving the Wii more online presence, a proper friends list with activity updates, letting us know who’s online etc.

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Other gaming articles of interest:

• 8 Rare and Expensive Video Games
• Smug Gamer Quotes
• Eurogamer interviews Shigeru Miyamoto
• Korean Pop Singer wants to be a pro gamer (translated reality show piece) [YouTube]
• 1 man’s struggle with addictions

Firstly, I’ve been playing video games since about 3 – 4 years old, my parents had a NES, and games like Donkey Kong, Super Mario Bros, Excitebike, and Duck Hunt were some of my first encounters with a hobby that has never died for me.

I’ve been a huge fan of video games all my life, and I’ve been lucky enough to of had quite a lot of the consoles from the generations of them that I’ve lived through.  So for instance… in the Nintendo vs Sega days I didn’t really have to take a side, I just let them compete whilst I reaped the benefits of having a sweet choice of games available to me  :D.  The same goes to this day, anyone saying they don’t want a specific console has got to be lying.  If you was given the console for free you know you’d take it, and you know you’d get all excited and have that “new toy fever” for it.  Understandably it’s fair to say some of us can’t justify owning certain consoles due to needing the money for more important things (like bills) or what not, but any true gamer won’t want to deny themselves of wider opportunities to game.

Getting back on track to the inspiration for this article though…

Achievements! and/ or Trophies!

Achievement Unlocked: Went Outside – 100g (T-shirt)

Due to a lack of money I missed out on the XBOX 360 at it’s launch, and when the Nintendo Wii emerged I decided to wait for that as I was very much interested in trying out motion control, playing new instalments of key Nintendo franchises, and getting my retro on with the Virtual Console.  I finally got an XBOX360 in 2008, and started my big catch up on the games I had wanted to play for that system.  At first it was just a great thrill to finally have a HD capable device hooked upto my HDTV, I’m not a graphics whore kind of guy, but I was definitely impressed with the visuals, although it wasn’t ultimately enough to pull me totally away from my Nintendo Wii.  The 360 had a lot else going for it when I got it too, online multi-player was a vast ocean of improvement over Wii’s shallow pool  of online gaming interactions (it’s got a bit better though since 2008 to be fair), and due to the fact I had waited over 2 and half years to own a 360, it meant I had a huge back catalogue of games I wanted to play which I could then pick up for fairly cheap and enjoy.

It was good times for sure.  However…things quietly changed.  2008 I believe from memory became a fairly slow year for Wii after Smash Bros Brawl, so with the 360 having more releases worth buying my ratio of XBOX to Wii became much heavier on the XBOX side.  It was from there on I picked up a bad habit…  Achievement chasing.

lolz

When I first got my 360, achievements were just a mere novelty to me, it was nice to have some public record of how much of a game I’d played, or how good I was at the game, but they weren’t something I really gave much attention too.  Plus there was the fact I was late to the 360 scene so in comparison to a lot of my friends I was somewhat of a n00b with my achievement score.  However, as time passed achievements grew on me.  As I was playing a wide range of the XBOX 360′s back catalogue I was getting to experience a good number of games, and thus I was unlocking various achievements within them, and with time my achievement score grew, and as it grew I got more fond of them…I wanted to keep it growing, I’d be going through old games I was done with just to see what extra achievements I could milk from them, I’d be checking out the achievements on new games I’d purchased before I actually played the game so I had a good outline of what things I should make sure I do during my play through of said game.

Sad Wii

This achievement hunting got to a point where I then felt unmotivated to play the Wii for a while.  It felt as though my accomplishments in most of my Wii games were trivial if I didn’t have some sort of public display of what I’ve played and how much of that game I’ve beat.  Thankfully things never grew to the point were I would specifically buy games I wouldn’t normally play simply for the achievements (as many achievement whore people have done).
Still though…looking back, I definitely consider that achievement chasing period as a problem, it corrupted me.  I had gone from being a unbiased fan of all good video games, to having an almost exclusive relationship with my XBOX when it came to games.

After a while my motivation for achievement hunting died down a little bit, thanks in part to some games that had achievements spaced well apart, and a few online multiplayer games that were played more for the old fashioned friendly competitiveness.  I then managed to pull myself away from the 360 to catch up on some of the Wii games I had missed out on during my XBOX love period, and then eventually…I bought a PS3.

...trophies

Sega Saturn

Now, you are possibly wandering if the cycle was to repeat itself, as the PS3 has it’s own take on in-game achievements, however thankfully I think it’s safe to say I’m free of that addiction.  Now that I have all 3 of this current generations consoles it becomes a much more challenging task to keep on top of all the great games coming out across all the platforms, and that’s the thing…I’m playing some GREAT games.  I realised earlier this year that I’m fixed.  I’m playing games simply because I enjoy them again.  I’m not siding to any console in specific and it’s great… I’m spoiled for choice, and I’m experiencing a much wider range of games again (in terms of genres).  Not too mention I’ve had a real craving for Retro recently, I’ve hung onto a couple of my retro consoles, and the ones I’ve parted with I’ve made sure I’ve stocked up on the great games I loved for them on the Wii’s virtual console, etc.  Plus the fact I want to get a Sega Saturn soon too (as I never owned one back in the day, but really want to play some of it’s gems).

One last thing I want to clarify though before I wrap this post up…
I personally think achievements and trophies are a nice addition to gaming.  One game I’ve really enjoyed in recent years has been Burnout Paradise, it took me ages to complete all the events in the game, and normally I probably would have left the game at that in terms of completion.  However, due to achievements I figured I’d tick off as much as I could in terms of what else there was left to do in the game, I found all the hidden billboards, super jumps, and smash gates, and I also played a lot of the online challenges too.
To the games credit these still would have been fun to do regardless seeing as how I really love the game, however with an achievement tagged onto these time consuming game stretching tasks, it provided a nice motivation, and anyone checking my achievement list out could clearly see Burnout Paradise was a game I must’ve enjoyed a lot to go those extra miles in (pardon the pun).  So when you have a game that stands out for you and you really enjoy, achievements can help give you that extra lastability out of a game, which also means better value for money on your purchase.

Not too mention some achievements have an element of respect to them, for instance some of the ones in Trials HD that not only show you have skills at Trials HD, but show that you have some serious patience.

DKC coin

Essentially a lot of games have had achievements in them since at least the 8bit era.  Games were unlock things in game by completing certain things.  Collecting 100 hidden packages in GTA to unlock special weapons and vehicles (which certainly led to more fun).  Collecting Skuluta’s in Zelda: Ocarina of Time, finding all the DK coins in the Donkey Kong Country platformers, collecting all the emeralds in Sonic for the better endings and to play as Super Sonic.  Sure enough these weren’t referred to as “achievements”, but they definitely lived up to the name, they extended the replay value and encouraged you to keep playing the game (if you loved it enough to want more).  The only difference is that now we have systems in place (except on Wii) to show people on our friends lists how much we’ve perhaps loved a game, or how good we are at a game.  So as long as they’re not the driving motivation for you to play the game, and you’re only collecting them because you enjoy the game and want too…then achievements/ trophies are a great thing.

Moral of this story…don’t get blinded, remember your gaming roots, and play games because you enjoy doing so.

Having heard via Twitter this weekend that Shigeru Miyamoto (who has collected a BAFTA award in the UK) has announced that work on Pikmin 3 is well under way.  That translated to me as the metaphorical equivalent of sealing the envelope, licking the stamp, and getting this [blog] posted, as reasons to be excited as a Wii owner have been steadily surfacing in recent times.

The Nintendo Wii has been an amazing success for Nintendo.  Evident by the currently estimated ’68.91m units sold’, and having a 49% market share of the current worldwide total home console sales percentage [360 - 27.5% / PS3 - 23.5%].

Figures come from VGChartz.

Although it is fair to say that even though the Wii has dominated in sales, when it comes down to the serious gamer it’s obvious more people put more hours total into the XBOX 360 and PS3.  Which is fair play considering they’re the HD generation consoles that focus more to the crowd of gamers whom just want to park there asses down with a controller in the traditional gaming fashion.

That being said though, not every game on Wii controls by a flamboyant interpretive dance of motion, the Wii offers plenty of traditional style games that are truly amazing to play (New Super Mario Bros Wii, Punch Out Wii, Smash Bros Brawl, Wario Land: The Shake Dimension, Tatsunoko vs Capcom, A Boy and his Blob, Little King’s Story), and you can not forget the epic ever growing back catalogue of Virtual Console games.

Then we’ve got games that use the Wiimote capabilities well, such as; Super Mario Galaxy, Metroid Prime Trilogy, Zelda Twilight Princess, Resident Evil: Umbrella/ Darkside Chronicles, Okami, Elebits, Zack and Wiki, Tiger Woods 2010, EA Grand Slam Tennis,  Resident Evil 4 Wii Edition, Silent Hill Shattered Memories, and not forgetting the Wii Sports games…
The point I’m getting at is that the Wii has a lot to offer the proper gamer
…as well as A LOT of lame shovelware to offer the casual n00b ¬_¬  (which you just need to overlook as a serious gamer).

Now, getting back on track.  To hear Miyamoto say that Pikmin 3 is well under way is a dream come true for many a Nintendo fan.  If you owned a GameCube (or even a Wii) you need to give Pikmin a shot.  The simplest description of what it is I can give you is that it’s a sort of real time strategy game, where you command a bunch of small alien plants to help you fix your spaceship that you crashed onto there planet.  Although I don’t believe a small description can really do much justice, it’s a game you really need to demo.

Here’s a GameSpot video review on Pikmin 2, that gives you some nice video of what the games are about etc
[> CLICK HERE <]

Pikmin

I owned Pikmin on the Gamecube and loved it, I missed out on number 2 (shame on me) but I bought the Pikmin 1 Wii-release last year and plan on getting the Pikmin 2 re-release once I’m finished with number 1.  It was also great to see Captain Olimar [from Pikmin] in Super Smash Bros Brawl.  All I can say is that Pikmin 3 should be awesome on Wii, it’s a great franchise and the Wii controls really aid the control of the game in my opinion, so to see a fresh new entry to the series after over 5 years will be a treat.

Moving away from Pikmin though.  Nintendo are REALLY delivering to there long time Nintendo fanboys this year.  In fact it’s sort of unbelievable just how big this year is in terms of big name Nintendo releases…

Super Mario Galaxy 2

First up is Super Mario Galaxy 2, which is the follow up to the absolutely amazing Super Mario Galaxy released in 2007.  Sure enough it won’t quite be as ground breaking and fresh as the original, but Nintendo always deliver some epic gameplay when it comes to Mario and platforming.  So with all the new additions to the game (new levels, new power ups, Yoshi!, and so on…) it will definitely be worth a purchase if you’re a Wii owner.  Also, considering Mario 64 and Mario Sunshine didn’t get follow ups on there respected consoles, this marks the first time since Super Mario World -> Super Mario World 2: Yoshi’s Story (on Snes) that Nintendo have done a Mario sequel within a console generation.
[Gametrailers.com Super Mario Galaxy 2 Videos]

Release Dates:

• North America – May 23, 2010
• Europe – June 11, 2010

Metroid: Other M

Next up this year we have Metroid: Other M.  Another key franchise for Nintendo.  Broke new ground back in it’s days on the NES, Gameboy, and SNES.  Only to go on and wow a whole new generation with the Metroid Prime series on Gamecube and Wii, as well as giving the Gamecube/ Wii one hell of an exclusive First Person Shooter/ Adventure franchise to boast about.
“Metroid: Other M” takes things back to it’s 2D side scroller roots though, but retains as action orientated and visually impressive as ever.  Nintendo teamed up with Team Ninja for this one (believed to be to help the game succeed better in Japan as the first person shooter prime series wasn’t as well received). [Check the Gametrailers video's for Metroid Other M]

Release Dates:

• North America – June 27, 2010
• Europe – 3rd Quarter, 2010

Last but not least of the big name drops Nintendo has for this year is Zelda.  I’d have to check the thesaurus for all the ways I could say “amazing” to start describing what Nintendo bring to the table with this series.  The big thing to remember about the new Zelda for Wii is the fact that it is the first Zelda game on Wii specifically made to take advantage of the Wii console (Twilight Princess was an excellent Gamecube game somewhat ported to Wii).  It has been said by various sources at Nintendo that the game will require Wii Motion Plus to play, which can only guarantee some very precise controls for certain things, plus it has been mentioned in several instances that this new Zelda game will apparently differ from the usual Zelda progression, which should please anyone who isn’t happy with how the Zelda series has continued to work.
Nintendo have stated that this game will drop this holiday season, although I remain a tad sceptical whether that will actually go ahead though.  Nintendo don’t rush there big name games, and will only release something if they’re happy with it.  They don’t care about delaying a game in the name of improvements. Miyamoto: “A delayed game is eventually good, a bad game is bad forever”. There is also the fact that this game doesn’t have a finalised title as of yet, nor have we seen any footage from the game.  It’s almost guaranteed to be the big show piece Nintendo will focus on at E3 this year, so all we can do is wait with anticipation till then .

Release Date:

• All Regions: TBA [Apparently before Christmas 2010]

Now, any gamer with a good knowledge of Nintendo should definitely recognise the 4 franchises above (or at least Mario, Zelda and Metroid).  It is literally some amazing fan service that Nintendo is rolling out a new Metroid and a new Mario for definite this year, with Zelda apparently coming before Christmas, and Pikmin being “well under way” too.  It’s perhaps safe to say all 4 of those games will be out within a span of 12 months from May 2010 at least.
…we’re not done yet though

Nintendo also has the sequel to the cult N64 shooter “Sin & Punishment” out this year too.  I played the original on an N64 emulator a while ago, and snapped it up day 1 when it got translated and released for the Wii’s Virtual Console and it’s a sweet game if you can appreciate those sorts of shooters (think Rez).

• Click >>here<< for video’s on the new Wii sequel.  NA Release – June 7, 2010.  Europe Release – May 7, 2010.

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Wii owners also have some great 3rd party stuff to get excited about too.
-Click the game titles for links to previews on the game

Red Steel 2

Red Steel 2

• Making use of Wii Motion Plus
• Not having to be rushed to meet a console launch date like the original
• New Cel Shaded art style.
• No Multiplayer unfortunately, but apparently packing a great single player experience.

Epic Mickey

• Original Mickey Mouse game exclusive for Wii
• It isn’t aimed at kids, this is meant to be a more gritty Mickey.
• Platformer with RPG Elements
• Game shapes around how you play
• Seems to have some similarities to the epic “Okami“

Monster Hunter Tri

• Highly popular Japanese RPG series by Capcom
• Massive game, as well as having online play.
• Uses Wii Speak and can be played with the classic controller if you prefer (bundles with accessories available).
• Japanese Gaming magazine Famitsu gave the game a perfect 40/40 score.

No More Heroes 2

No More Heroes 2

• Already out in North America, had some sweet reviews so far.
  e.g IGN’s 8.8
• Aimed at those whome like there gore and mature content.
• Wider range of things to do than the original
• Has some sweet 8 bit throwback mini-games in it within

Monado: A New Beginning (Xenoblade)

• Original RPG for Wii
• By Monolith (whom have at least a few cult games under there belt)

…and don’t not forget! It’s more than likely this summer’s E3 will bring a few suprise announcements from Nintendo and others about upcoming Wii games at E3 this year. So if you’re one of the people who only has a Nintendo Wii, or the Wii is your main console, then you’ve got a lot to be excited for. If like me you have all 3 consoles, then it’s time to sell a kidney on the black market to fund 2010′s video game releases.

Viva la Nintendo!!