General gaming

General gaming

Nintendo's DLC Strategy Appears to Put the Company on the Right Track

Posted: 30 Jan 2012 03:24 PM PST

Nintendo digital

Nintendo made headlines last week when it announced something many felt it should have had in place years ago: the Nintendo Network. The details remain sketchy at best and, like with details on the Wii U, it is likely we'll be waiting until E3 in June before we've given a better idea of how the Network will actually come together. What little president Satoru Iwata did have to share about it was encouraging, and the same could be said for a lot of what Nintendo at least claims to be doing as it works to put this current disastrous financial year behind it.

Following Friday's investors briefing, a Q&A session was conducted where Iwata and company provided many unspecific, but nonetheless promising answers about how the company plans to avoid suffering another money-losing year.

Rhythm Heaven Fever Fixes Its DS Predecessor's Missed Beats

Posted: 30 Jan 2012 02:30 PM PST

As I'm playing a cooperative game of Rhythm Heaven Fever with a Nintendo representative during a private demo last week, I can't help but get caught up in the beat of the music and the hilarity of our current objective. We each control a kung fu student in one of the modes titled "Endless Games" -- a set of rhythm challenges that continues infinitely until we exhaust our chances. Our pair of martial arts prodigies have to strike a training ball back and forth between them with punches and kicks; the goal is to keep it in the air until it breaks and needs a replacement. The core gameplay idea is simple, and reminds me of a similar (real life) game involving a basketball that I played as a kid -- minus all the light-hearted acrobatics and martial arts mastery. The ball travels back and forth between a flurry of punches, kicks, and other wacky moves -- one involving a volleyball-style spike that has a very small timing window -- as our pair of students alternate positions on four poles. The longest string of hits from the playthrough gets recorded, and trying to top it becomes your next goal.

Much like all the rhythm-based challenges in Rhythm Heaven, catchy music is the byproduct of your efforts, and similar to the past GBA (Japan-only) and DS installments, the light-hearted context makes each song entertaining and fun. On many levels, the playful tone connects with the most basic understanding of music -- requiring very little knowledge of actual instrumentation (like Rock Band), and emphasize keeping time with a beat instead. The basic controls almost always involve timed presses of the A button, or pushing both the A and B buttons of the Wii Remote together simultaneously. Specific audio cues or animations help sync your timing, and are covered up with other on-screen elements to see if you're really paying attention to the music.

Final Fantasy XIII-2 Video Review

Posted: 30 Jan 2012 01:03 PM PST

Chances are, you've arrived here in one of two ways. Either you read Jeremy's Final Fantasy XIII-2 text review and wanted to see him say those things out loud. Or, you're coming in fresh and want some opinions on the game in general.

Either way, leave that tarp on your ant farm because we've got you covered. Check out Jeremy and Marty picking the game apart above, and let us know what you think below!

Final Fantasy XIII-2 Review: A Series in the Throes of Awkward Adolescence

Posted: 28 Jan 2012 02:30 PM PST

Age 13 was a tough year for me. After making my way innocently through elementary school as a naive, good-natured, obedient, straight-A student, I found myself suddenly thrust into the world of junior high, where the traits that had helped me remain so admired among my family and teachers made me tragically uncool among my new peer group. Seeing old images of myself as I sorted through family photos not too long ago really drove home just how awkward I was at that age.

So I feel some sympathy for the Final Fantasy series. Age XIII was a tough time for it, too. With Final Fantasy XIII, it went from being the cool, cutting-edge RPG series that everyone in the world loved to a symbol of everything troubling the Japanese game development process in one fell swoop. No longer was it the bold, sweeping definition of refined console-based role-playing it had been in the 16-bit days. No longer was it the cutting-edge exercise in marrying technology and narrative that its 32-bit iterations represented. Even the quirky sense of self-reinvention that defined its PlayStation 2 entries was lost.

Posted by Shri Krishna

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