It Was Bound To Happen! Nintendo of America Remembered Metroid’s 25th Anniversary

Yeah folks, many Nintendo games have reached their 25th birthday. A post for Zelda's celebration can be seen here. Games like Mario and Zelda were celebrated with lots of gadgets and activities like symphony concerts around the world, soundtracks, a special gold Wiimote, a Flipnote Studio competition, and the release of five games – Skyward Sword, Ocarina of Time 3D, Four Swords DSiWare, Link’s Awakening DX on the eShop and the original Zelda for the NES portion of the 3DS Ambassador program.

Then again, Nintendo isn’t doing anything special for Metroid’s anniversary sadly. The only mention of said anniversary is Nintendo making a statement of it at Twitter (picture above). Even knowing that Metroid isn't as popular as Zelda or Mario, it shouldn't be left in the dark like now. Even the N64 skip the release of a Metroid game back then!

Have you ever play a Metroid game? What do you think about this?

Ready for the new Smash Brothers?

For those players that have been near the Super Smash Bros. history, here are some tidbits of information about the next iteration of the game for the Wii U and the Nintendo 3DS. The consideration of moving the tittle to a handheld is a difficult one since it is a whole new working ground full of challenges.

For now, Kid Icarus: Uprising, will be released before the end of this year. Once that’s finished, Masahiro Sakurai’s team will move on to the development of the new Smash Bros. Sakurai said on recent interviews that “you can base your expectations of the new Smash Bros. once you see how well-made Kid Icarus is.”

“I will think about this once Kid Icarus is complete. But as it is a game of a competitive nature, I do not think that any one person should have an advantage. …There are many things that can be improved upon even in Brawl. Also, I think you can base your expectations of the new Smash Bros. once you see how well-made Kid Icarus is. The director of each game is the same, but because I regularly change my team around after projects, we will be able to see how good the team is then.”

It’s much too soon to be talking about the character roster, but when he was asked which other characters can be included in Smash Bros., Sakurai said: “That is completely undecided, but it is true that Nintendo has not created many new characters lately.”

Anyone who have played Melee and Brawl knows the improvements and disasters the later brought. Some examples of improvements are the new adventure (Subspace Emissary) and the variety of the roster of 35 characters. On the other hand, many argue the lack of wavedashing, L-canceling, and other moves that made Melee a fast paced and fluid game. Not to mention some characters that are far over others in terms of tier lists, which makes it kinda monotonous at the times of tournaments.

Have you ever played Brawl or Melee or even Smash Bros. 64? If you did; Are you happy with the evolution or disappointed?

Norwegian Retailer Bans Violent Games Following Recent Attacks

We all know that violent games are the ones creating a new generation of blood thirsty serial murderers and sick maniacs; Right?  The results of the attack on Norway (you can read about it here) are of a nature in which retailers like Norway Coop has decided to ban 50 different video games and toys. Some of the video games in the list are:

Homefront
Counter Strike Source
World of Warcraft
Sniper Ghost Warrior
Call of Duty series

Add to the cake of overreacting retailers a cup of politicians looking for easy-pubic-image to look like the guys in shining armor that will stop violence forever in our society by banning anything they can't understand and some shady studies about how games generate criminals as the topping. As many people argue, it would be wise to ban action movies, horror films, styles of music and other things to restore our world back to the times of peace, like the Inquisition, Medieval Times and let the Samurais and Ninjas with Zombie Pirates come back too!

YOU AS A READER~ What is your position in all this? As a gamer, a family member, a parent.

3DS As a Dying Platform

At E3 2010 the the 3DS was the spotlight of the event. It had an awesome first quarter for the release, in which it sold over a million devices in Japan only. Then again, as time passes, the little handheld has been loosing it's limelight and becoming less and less attractive. All of this is happening for various reasons that only Nintendo can solve, if possible.Ranging from the lack of software to the unimpressive hardware, one can only ask the following question; How did this happen?

Breaking the two concepts let's take into consideration the fact that the hardware is just a small bump into the existing technology of a DSI, only with a back and front facing camera and a cool but not marvelous 3D feature. When people noticed the lack of powerful hardware, mixed with an unfriendly price tag, everyone and their dog started to slowly go away. This facts bring the next one, which is lack of software.

No one can expect 3rd party developers to create game for a handheld that isn't selling. For Nintendo there is a limit to how long they can sustain a large sales run with only two or three games like Zelda: Ocarina of Time remake (which has been remade like XXX,XXX times already). To this situation, only Nintendo ca try to do something to attract new people to buy and thus bringing new developers.

Let's hope the reduced price tag they made official (from $249.99 to $169.99) makes a difference or we will be watching the slow and painful death of a console/handheld of our recent times.

Game Developers Looking For Some Google+ Slice

Well, it has been a couple of days since I last came here. Moving stuff from one place to another is some big work and yet here am I to bring you a bit of interesting news for those who like social networks and games. It's no surprise that Google+ for all people in general is just a matter of weeks to come but; How about so game developers looking forward to make games for the newborn social network?

For now, many developers and publishers are looking for ways to adapt their games to the Google+ service to diversify themselves and look for other ways to take a slice of the cake. Taking into consideration the fact that Google+ service acquired 10 million user in just 16 days (compared to Facebook, which took 852 days to reach that) we can say it is a pretty big cake we are talking about and taping into such user base is just what any game industry would want.

A clear advantage Google holds is their Android platform for mobiles, which set a precedent  with gaming companies and indie developers that could potentially create games for the social networking monster that is on the rise. On the other hand we have Zynga, the biggest developer of games for Facebook, that could run into some legal troubles if it tries to port some games to other platforms. If that were to be true, we could see serious competition from a lot of developers on Google's social networking service.

If you are an avid social gamer from Facebook; What do you think about this?
If you are more of a hardcore gamer or none at all; Does this affect you in anyway?

Are Games Art?

Of course they are! This is the first time I have ever wanted to do a youtube video post, but this calls for it. As I was looking for art masterpieces around the web, I found this great "making of" artwork of The Legend of Zelda by the artist Ag+. Look at the video and tell me what you think of this greatness and if you don't like, comment about it too. Is good to always have debates from different stand points. If want the picture, here is the link.

If anyone of you have a gaming blog and want to do a review on this, do it! The works of people like this makes you think that there is still people out there that takes pride on the work and do this incredible works.

Gaming: Tales of Xillia for PS3 exclusive

From the creators of Tales of Symphonia (GC) and Tales of Vesperia (XBOX 360/PS3), comes a new tittle for the series. Tales of Xillia is the new flagship title of the company. It has been posed as a PS3 exclusive and is schedule to be available in Japan on Sept. 8 of this year.

The game will also be available in bundle form, aside from the stand alone disk, with a special edition PlayStation 3 console. For those that want the game out of Nippon and in English will have to wait a little longer, if they consider throw us a bone and bring it to the U.S.

Meanwhile you might want to feast your eyes on some trailers for now, just don't suffer that much... is only game [sobs]. Here is the link for the latest trailer and another one here.