Friend Codes:
Pokémon Diamond- 1418 3252 7228
Mario Kart - 1418 0145 6707
Animal Crossing - 0129 5249 2621
Wii - 4977 0404 6270 4200
Mario Strikers Charged - 051647 088996
Pokémon Battle Revolution - 352291 870893
Battalion Wars II - 412433 602797
Super Smash Bros Brawl - 163339 271513
Mario Kart Wii - 150463 038233
Dr. Mario Rx - 518922 129782
Bomberman Blast - 275039 523413
Animal Crossing: City Folk - 446858 641814

• 8Dec 09

  Spirit Tracks Impressions

  Getting a game right on its release date is an extremely rare occurrence to me, but every once in a while fate smiles upon me and I manage to purchase a brand new Nintendo title right away. As a consequence, in order to celebrate this once-in-a-blue-moon moment and wait while my system's battery is recharged, I decided to write some of my thoughts on what I have already seen and played.

  Spirit Tracks doesn't pick up right after Phantom Hourglass left off, but during the course of the game the plot drops subtle hints that show how both games are connected in a way that newcomers to this particular story arc won't be confused, while players who are familiar with the plot will be able to carefully assemble the facts that led to the construction of this brand new Hyrule and identify it as the new land that Link and Tetra set sail for as Phantom Hourglass reached its conclusion.

  The game follows the very same structure as its prequel with the game's overworld divided into four parts and a major temple sitting at its center. The Tower of Spirits, just like the dreaded Temple of the Ocean King, needs to be accessed and explored so that players can unlock a new part of the land, scout it, beat a temple and head back to the Tower in order to explore it a little further. Thankfully the tower is fully connected by a central staircase, eliminating all the need for unnecessary annoying backtracking as players will be able to skip the floors they have already went through.

  

  Spirit Tracks has a very odd quality to it as the game manages to perfectly convey the feeling of a Zelda game, even though during most of the time it feels somehow different from other titles of the series. The reason behind this nearly unexplainable characteristic is probably the fact that Zelda accompanies Link during most of the adventure which sheds a new perspective on this particular princess since she manages not to be a damsel in distress while keeping all the characteristics and personality quirks you would expect from a Princess. The development of her character is easily one of the highlights of the game.

  So far I have only finished one temple, but I was already able to notice that Zelda's power to take control of Phantoms and team up with Link opens up a nice array of clever puzzles that are widely used, especially on the game's main dungeon. Another big quality the title has revealed are the very creative equipments Link handles during the adventure such as the Whirlwind that requires players to blow into the system's microphone to produce strong gusts of wind, and the Spirit Pipes which are bound to replace the ocarina as my favorite Zelda instrument given how intuitive and fun playing them is.

  The train is the other big new feature of the game and it is a lot of fun, maybe that is just my love for those machines speaking, but navigating through Hyrule on a train is much more fun than Phantom Hourglass' steamboat, even though it does still fall short when it comes to the awesomeness that is braving The Great Sea aboard The King of Red Lions.

  

  Spirit Tracks has been a lot of fun because even though it may at times feel like Phantom Hourglass all over again, it also manages to bring enough content to the table that it stands out from its prequel especially due to Zelda's strong presence in the game, a characteristic that may be compared to the fantastic results produced when Nintendo brought Bowser to the spotlight a few months ago on Bowser's Inside Story. I am obviously very far from finishing the game, but I can tell that the road ahead will be a lot of fun.

  • Posted Dec 8, 2009 7:19 am PT
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• 5Dec 09

  Treasure Hunting

  As this year slowly but surely nears the finish line, so is my yearly list of games to purchase. The Legend of Zelda: Spirit Tracks will be the very last game released this year that I will buy and so the curtain will close on the fantastic year that was 2009, a year that started in a cold hard-working Floridian evening and that will almost surely end on a hot tropical night. However, that doesn't mean Spirit Tracks will be the final game to enter my collection before the year comes to a close, or at least I hope so.

  As it happens with all gamers there is a time when we need to stop and look to our massive backlogs, while mine isn't that big I certainly have some pretty rare games to find in the weeks leading up to Christmas. I feel that my Nintendo 64 and Super Nintendo collections are more than complete as I have bought, played and enjoyed pretty much every single game that caught my eye on those systems, and believe me when I say there are a lot of those. Unfortunately the same can't be said about my Nintendo Gamecube.

  Halfway through that console's cycle I completely stopped playing games for nearly two years as High School paired up with my Computer Science Technician Course were completely dominating my day, as a consequence when things slowed down and I went back to gaming I was facing a huge list of games that I had to buy, a list that I have yet to complete. The reaming six games on that list are Prince of Persia: Warrior Within, Prince of Persia: The Two Thrones, Viewtiful Joe, Donkey Kong: Jungle Beat, The Legend of Zelda: Four Swords Adventure and Beyond Good and Evil.

  Some of those games are quite easy to find for a reasonable price, but others will demand a lot of searching, browsing and bargaining especially the cult masterpiece that is Beyond Good and Evil, a game whose Playstation 2 version is hard to locate and whose Gamecube's copy is said to exist somewhere in an unknown land locked inside an invisible chest that is guarded by a rather fearsome creature and a set of traps only MacGyver himself could get through. Still, I hold some hope of crossing at least two or three games out of that list by Christmas. Wish me luck.

  

  • Posted Dec 5, 2009 5:14 pm PT
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• 3Dec 09

  5 Things I Like About Nintendo

  About a month ago I wrote a post on five aspects that generally displease me about Nintendo and their philosophy when handling their business. This time around, instead of focusing on the bad characteristics of the company I will offer a more positive perspective on Nintendo by mentioning five of their main qualities and expanding on which one of those attributes.

  Franchises

  There is one big reason why so many gamers keep on buying Nintendo's systems generation after generation without even thinking about the pros and cons of their purchase, and that is the huge number of franchises that are exclusive to the company. It is only natural that after such a long time in the business Nintendo has managed to develop fantastic franchises, some of which have been around for more than two decades while keeping their stellar-quality status preserved.

  Picking up a Nintendo system is buying the rights to play the next installments of some of gaming's most brilliant historied such as: The Legend of Zelda, Mario, Star Fox, Metroid, F-Zero, Pikmin, Super Smash Bros. and etc. Nintendo's uncanny ability to constantly deliver extremely polished titles has turned games that once upon a time featured extremely simple concepts into modern masterpieces. And the timeless qualities of those franchises are a huge statement on the creative talents housed within the Japanese company.

  

  Secrecy

  Saying that Nintendo is currently working on major projects that are awesome enough to make the most stone-hearted gamers smile like a kid who has just come across a truck full of candy is ridiculously redundant. Everyone, from the specialized press to our grandparents who have no idea what a videogame is, knows that and yet nobody outside the walls of Nintendo's Entertainment Analysis Development studio knows what exactly they are working on.

  There are no leaks of information and no reveals before the proper time which naturally makes us assume that the company keeps their employees locked in cages when they are not working. We only get to know about Nintendo's projects when they feel like showing them and as a consequence their major announcements tend to produce a bigger bang than those of their rivals. A good example of that can be found on this year's E3, while gamers across the internet were discovering the entire script of Sony's presentation nobody had no idea that Metroid Other M and Super Mario Galaxy 2 were just around the corner.

  

  Perfectionism

  A very wise game developer once said that "A delayed game is eventually good, a bad game is bad forever". That developer was Shigeru Miyamoto and the company that he helped to reach major success follows the man's philosophy. There is no guarantee every single one of the ideas coming out of the minds at Nintendo will work as intended - Wii Music serving as the most recent example of that – but gamers can be absolutely certain that Nintendo's teams will make sure a product is as polished as possible before putting it in the market.

  Nintendo wants their games to be the best ones out there and they make some pretty huge efforts to make that become a reality, and as a result the Nintendo first-party label has become a synonym for quality for both avid gamers and those that only occasionally play. Even games like Wii Fit and Wii Sports Resort are usually in a level of their own when it comes to controls, graphics and details when compared to other expanded audience focused games. Nintendo's compulsive desire for perfection has made them what they are today, and Miyamoto's philosophy will hopefully be followed for many years to come. After all I would rather have a delayed work of art than a rushed game with a few rough edges.

  

  Fantasy

  Personally the main reason why I enjoy playing games is that they allow me to forget about my daily problems and to live in a different world for a few hours. Truth is that can be said about nearly every single game out there since most of them put us in the shoes of different characters that perform roles regular people don't get the chance to experience like being a secret agent, a spy or a mushroom-eating plumber that goes through some rather strange worlds to rescue a princess from a big menacing turtle with a crazy obsession.

  With that being said, I find Nintendo games to be the ones that achieve a better sense of transportation into a different place because all of them have no connection with the real world whatsoever. It is impossible to draw a parallel line between places like the Mushroom Kingdom, Hyrule, Zebes, Corneria or Mute City, and the real world. Nintendo is able to create a very compelling group of characters and settings that are as far from our reality as possible and that is one of the reasons their titles are such a blast to play.

  

  Family-Friendly Fun

  During this generation the term family-friendly has become some sort of a forbidden word to some "gamers" that believe it is possible for a company to betray its fans. However, family-friendly entertainment has always been a major quality of Nintendo and all of their products and franchises. Games like Mario, Star Fox and Zelda – yes, even Zelda – can be easily grasped by nearly anyone due to their extremely simple surface and concept.

  Ever since Nintendo released the NES they have always made a major effort into allowing gaming to become a social experience instead of being an activity exclusively practiced by friendless geeks, and it worked smoothly because of the nature of most of their software. Instead of being repulsed by a scene within the game, family members will usually be interested in the colorfulness and happy atmosphere of the games produced by Nintendo. And when it is all said and done there is nothing wrong about a game being full of colors and cheerful instead of gray and serious.

  

  • Posted Dec 3, 2009 4:26 pm PT
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