Wii Woes:

So, Iwata says the Wii has stalled, huh? No kdding! Today, Nintendo, I want to teach you a little history lesson. And, amusingly enough, you will end up learning from yourself! Here we go:

If one reads the full history of Nintendo (a Gamespot article, and a great one at that), a philosophy of Nintendo becomes quite apparent: Gameplay first, graphics last. Nintendo has always developed high quality games for its systems, as well as getting well known third party developers to do the same. Reading the history of Nintendo shows that-again and again-Nintendo's system's areoutperformed graphically by other offerings, yet succeed in sales. Why is that? When the Sega 32X (We know it as the Genesis), a 32-bit system, was getting stomped on by the NintendoSNES, a 16-bit system, a puzzled press asked a Nintendo representativethe reason for the SNES success over its technically superior partner. His response? "Games make the system, not graphics".

Beautiful.Hit the nail on the head. While the SNES was getting Mario, Link, Mortal Combat, and other such gold titles, the Genesis was getting flops, rushed projects, and poorly done ports. Who cares how good a game looks if it sucks? As for me,graphics have always been second rate in myopinion. Honestly, I don't much care for amazing graphics. Sure, its nice, but gameplay and storyline mean so much more. As an exmaple, I enjoy Call of Duty on my Wii considerably more than I do on a PS3 or 360. Are the visiuals sub-par on the Wii? Yes. But the control scheme more than makes up for it in my book.

So, right now, some of you are thinking, "Whatever, Nintendo's under poweredsystems have sold well because of kids, thats all.Graphics are the real sale point of a system". Well, here is another tidbit to back up my opinion. The PS2, despite beingnine years old, is stelling selling respectably well. Why is that? Because of its amazing graphics? Compared to todays systems, its graphics aren't anything special, so no one should be buying it anymore, right? Wrong. The PS2 has a plethora of outstanding titles spanning every imaginable genre. RPGs, FPS, rythm games, and a laudable amount of highly unique games. Titles like Final Fantasy, Kingdom Hearts, Medal of Honor, Call of Duty, Shadow of the Colossus, Time Splitters, Okami, Parapa the Rapper, ICO, Guitar Hero, and much more made this system strong. There is a wealth of instant ****cs and must-not-miss games on the PS2. Heck, their still developing games for it today!

And why has the DS become the best selling game system of all time? Amazing titles. Sure, there is alot of junk to sift through to find the good titles, but some simply outstanding games have been, are being, and will be developed for the DS. Many games on it are a can't-miss experience, and the DS's sales reflect that.

So, back on track. Nintendo, why do you think your Wii sold strong, then flat-lined a fewyears later? Maybe, I dunno, its because of the complete lack of good games bieng developed? Yah, that might be it. Almost nothing but shovel-ware and senseless periphreals have graced Wii in the last two years. There certainly are good titles for the Wii, but a steady stream (or even anoccasional stream!) of quality titles are needed to sustain a system's worth.Nintendo systems are all I have everowned, but thisgame draught for the Wii has pushed me over theedge and into buying a PS3.

Nintendo, you single handedly brought the gaming industry back from the brink of collapse by creatinga system(the NES) with high quality titles,keeping down shovel-ware by instituting the "Nintendo Seal of Quality".In this way, you pulled theentire industry back into existence, even after poor quality games had turned the publicopinion to that of believing gaming was a "fad", and that it was "done and over". So, don't fell victim to something that, by conquering, made you great. No more junk, no morefoolishness, no more periphreals, no more gimmicks, no more Mario Galaxy 2 (seriously...); bacl basics. Remember who your realfans are: not the Wii Fit buying sixty year olds, but the teen to young adults who truly love your offerings.

Learn from your past to shape your future. That is all.

~This is more like a mini-blog post, just kinda popped into my head.

When, if ever, will we get a full pokemon adventure for the Wii?

I love Pokemon games, always have loved them. But recently here I have became a little restless. The formula is waxing a little old for me. I want something new, I want something fresh. Not just a rehash of old games, or a slight update with a couple new bells and whistles. No, I want something entirely new, I want what almost every Pokemon fan on Gamespot wants. A full 3D Pokemon Adventure on the Wii. Its funny, becuase it seems like such an obvious step for the Pokemon Company. Move on up tp the home console as abreak from the series. But it has never happened. Ever. And why not? Let me deviate here, just for a second.

I love Pokemon, and I love the people who make it, but it almost seems like, heaven forbid, they have become lazy.Besides lots of simple rehashes of late, they seem to be ok with producing an "just alright" game. I am not ok with that. When Pokemon Mystery Dungeonfirst came out, I was very excited, Pokemon had taken a side step! And it worked brilliantly. The gameplay was fresh and interesting, just what thePokemon series needed, a good shot in the arm! When the second one came out, it was alot of fun, but there weren't very many new features. Even still, it was fun. Now the third one is out, and after researching it to see whether I would purchase it or not, I come to find out it is essentially the same game! Same faces, just different places. This is fine for newcomers in the Mystery Dungeon series, but what does this say about the folks at Pokemon? More and more I am worried they are less concenred with quality gaming and more concerned with making a quick buck. Pokemon Battle revolution being another example. Looks beautiful, but could have easily been so, so, so much more.

So, back to the topic at hand. I, and countless others, want a full 3D pokemon adventure on the Wii.They could easily use the Pokemon Battle Revolution engine togenerate the battles (and of course bring over all the character models as well). Then the rest of the game could be formulated from there. When I say the rest of the game, I mean the world and everything in it. All the tonws, the gyms, the elitefour, and everything elsethat makes a Pokemon game what it is. Plus, if they want to go the extra mile (and I sure hope they start doing that soon), they could add in more side quests, more Team Rocket/Team Lava and Auqa/Team Galactic Events. Expand the game even more with side stories, extra missions, and all around more stuff to do. Of course the game would be wirelessly compatible with Ds versions like Battle Revolution was, and WiFi battles are a pre-requisite.

That would certainly be amazing, so why isn't the dream of everyPokemon fan being worked on? Why isn't the Pokemon Team striving to better there games rather than pump out sequels they know people will by no matter what? Because they are too busy making My Pokemon Ranch, Pokemon Trozei, and this:

http://www.serebii.net/pokepark/pics.shtml

That isPokepark: Pikachu's Great Adventure. It is currently in the works, ready for release on December 5th in Japan. This is a full game, not a Wiiware title. And hey, who knows? Maybe it will be good! But is this really what Pokemon fans want? No. But Nintendo knows they will buy it, and money makes themhappy. Sure, thats fine, I'm down with that. But don't forget to make your fans happy every once and a while too.

Here's to a bright future for Pokemon, and all of Pokemon's fans!

~ You kin Do it!

~Sorry about this blog being a little on the short side, but I don't have a lot of time available to write at the moment.

U63R 1337 )(aX0rs (Thats uber leet haxors, or very elite hackers).

Why that title? Well, cause I played with some Uber le- uh, very skilled hackers recently on Call of Duty: World at War. It was rather insane, so crazy I wish I could have it happen again. Alot of you have seen my youtube video of a glitched, unlimited ammo match: (For those who haven't, Linky provided bellow)

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=GPp995-bW-g

Ok, so imagine that match, but like times a bazzilion. When the match started I noticed a guy on the opposite team was named, "IM A CHEAT!". Immediately three of the enemies were kicked from the game, so it was me and my team against "IM A CHEAT!". I was looking through the scope of my sniper at him when he jumped straight up into the air, way above the level (nothing new, I have seen hackers do that before). But, when I pulled the trigger to shoot at him, my Springfeild fired at least 20 bullets. The sound was ungodly, and I had unlimited ammo to boot. Turns out everything fire ridiculously fast and never runs out of ammo, even grenades! So I ran around the level holding down the fire button and watching my double barrel shotty shoot as fast as a PPSH-41! It was insane, and very very fun. While I was running around, I happened to jump, which sent me flying into the air. Yup, low gravity. That was alot of fun, as the low gravity allowed me to jump almost halfway across the level, dropping grenades all the way (grenages were rapid fire as well, allowing me to drop (I am guessing) around fifty something in only a couple of seconds). The best of all was firing rifle grenades (nnob tubes). Holding down the fire bottom and spinning in a circle caused a ring of destruction to envelop the level. Amazing. That match was awesome, and I really wish I could do it again! Oh well, at least it was fun while it lasted (especially when I jumped around the level, completely covering in smoke grenades. XD )

So, now for some random little news tidbits. I went to a gamenight with a bunch of my friends and we played COD: WaW on the PS3. I was worried I would get destroyed because I wasn't very good with the analog control scheme (me being used to the Wii's superior FPS interface). But, the worrying was for naught. In the first match alone I got 3 sets of dogs, and the owner of the game stopped playing after a while. Ity was total pownage. Can't wait to get my PS3.

OH yah! My friend and I finally beat Shadow of the Colossus (OMG, the last two bosses were insanely hard!)! That game is amazing, astounding, breathtaking, blah blah blah. Basically what I am saying is that, if you have a PS2 (or first gen PS3 with PS2 backwards compatibility) you MUST get this game. It is one of the most unique games I have ever played (rivaling even Okami!) and is interesting throughout the entire adventure, practically reinventing itself with every new colossi. I planned to write a review of the game this weekend,, but time slipped away from me. Oh well, I will write it eventually. Now I plan to move on to ICO, a game made by the same people who made Shadow of the Colossus. Can't wait to play that one as well.

Now for the random, mini updates:

~ My next blog will probably be about the future of Sonic video games. I won't elaborate anymore than that, so you will just have to tune in when I wrote my next entry.

~ The youtube Channel MEGA64 has some new videos that are majorly funny. Check out, "Hope your Happy, Bungie", "Heroes over Europe", and "Punch Out" for starters. Great stuff. Ooh, also check out, "Elite Beat Agents", that ones great.

~M games list I am considering is begin to narrow down quite a bit. I will probably post a revised, fianl version farily soon.

~Don;t you hate that? It seems like I have something else to say...but I can't remember what it was. Oh well, guess it will come to me later.

I will leave you with this pardoy video of Shadow of the Colossus by Mega64:

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=jqd9GiaJUos

Until next time!

~Well shoot, I wrote an entire blog, and then deleted it by accident! Man, that just burns me up. Oh well, lets try this again.

My friend brought his PS2 over to my house for the weekend so we could play some more Shdaow of the Colossus, and that we did. Last you heard, we were on the third colossus. Now, after pulling a playing marathon from 4:00 in the afternoon till 1:00 on the morning, I am mildly proud to say we made it all the way to the twelth collossus! This game just keeps getting better and better. LIkewise, the difficulty has ramped up as well. Amusingly, at exactly the half way point, the game got much harder. The Colossi become very dificult to find, requiring quite a bit of searching. Luckily, the beautiful landscape and vibrant scenery make this hunting enjoyable. Besides, there is nothing like letting out a resounding, "Yes!" when you finally find the Colossus you have been searching for for fifteen minutes.

But finding the Colossus is the easy part, taking them down is another entirely, especially in the case of colossus number nine. This Colossi was extremely difficult, taking at least 30 minutes to beat. But boy was it gratfiying when that giant beast finally fell. And that really is alot of the attraction of this game. Searching high and low for a Colossus, spending for ever trying to figure out how to take him down,then delivering that final blow;it all adds up to an extremely gratfiying experience, leaving you cheering as the seemingly invincible Colossus breaths its last. There is no instant gratification here, but for those willing to do the work, this game is truly a masterpeice.

So anyways, here is a picture of Colossus number nine, although it does not do him justice-at all:

~Collossus numero 9

*SPOILER ALERT!!!

I would like to show some pictures of some of the more creative Colossi, but if you are planning on playing this game, and don't want to see the Colossi until you get to them (like me), then read no further! You have been warned.

This one, the first flying Colossus, was alot of fun! Though not very difficult, it was alot of fun:

~To defeat this one, you had to jump on its wing and hang on for dear life.

The next one I would like to mention was almost like a gecko. YOu faced it inside a coloseum and had to fight it as it climbed the walls and shot some sort of poison at you:

~Not very difficult, but very fun.

I am glad they threw on a smaller Colossus to mix things up, very neat. Collossus number 11 was not huge, but was fast, nimble, and could attack swiftly. It was tricky.

~This Colossus had multiple stages to defeat

Next up is the tenth Colossus. This one was a giant serpent that swam around under the sand. It was very tough, and took forever too defeat:

~Absolutely no justice done here, this thing is a beast

Collosus number seven was a challenge, but not terribly hard. It was a very creative battle though, perfect timing being the only thing keeping you from death:

~Getting dragged under water by this electric eel was intense

Colossus number four, although early on in the game, was rather difficult, and pretty darn cool:

~Harder than it looks, you had to climb its braids to get onto its head

And thats a wrap! Thanks for reading my blog, I truly appreciate it! I have two weeks left with the game, so hopefully I will beat it within that time. Expect a review when/if I do beat it.

Well, since I had so many pictures, I thought I would leave you with one more. I am not sure how many of you have heard of "O rly", but when I saw this picture, it made my LOLZ:

~Oh Really?

My friends birthday is coming up in a couple of weeks and he has finished all the games he currently owns. His only system is a PS2, so I decided to get him Shadow of the Collosus. I called around and found a local Gamestop that was selling a used copy for $18. When I got it home, I took it to a different friends house to test it out and make sure it worked properly...Ok, so I just wanted to play the game. But can you blame me? I gotta say, it is awesome. The graphics wereamazing for a PS2 game. Lighting effects, clothes and hair areaffected by movement, and (the best of all) an insane amount of motion blur that really added to the experience.

Me and my friend sat down and took on the first Collosus; a huge bipedal one that weilded a hammer. It took somewhere around five tries to get it, but we took him down. The fights are awesome. Visceral and fast paced, there is no room for error and quick reaction time is imperative. Suprisingly, there is quite a bit of strategy goes into the boss fight (and this strategy is ever changing as his weak points change). A stamina meter shows how much strength you have to hold on. This meter goes down as you perform actions and goes up when you are not exerting energy. It sound ssimple, but it adds alot to the gameplay and is quite ingenious. Despite my first inclinations, climbing is actually quite fun: requiring precision timing, charging, and careful thought planning your route.

To sum this up, this game is awesome. If they make this downloadable on the PS3, that will push me over the edge to get that system. Spectacular.

Me and my friend beat 2 of the 16 Colossi. We were on the third one, but just could not beat it. And so I will end this blog with a pic:

~This is the one we could not beat, numero three.