If a time-traveler from the 90s suddenly developed an incredible curiosity to see how the world looks like in the early days of June 2013, he would certainly be surprised by a whole lot of things. He would surely judge the way we dress to be outrageously ridiculous, and unless such adventurer had somewhat of an open mind, he would undoubtedly attribute the Internet and all of its features to some insane sort of witchcraft. However, if our traveler were to be an avid gamer, nothing in this world - as technological as it might be - would cause an impression on him as huge as reading headlines that say "Nintendo and Sega Joining Powers to Develop Sonic Titles". It's a piece of news that would go against everything he had ever learned about the gaming industry, and not only would he have to come into terms with the fact that Sega no longer produces systems of their own, he would also have to wrap his mind around the fact two historical bitter rivals are now working together.

In the eyes of the modern gamer, though, this new duo should not come as such a significant surprise. Both companies are products of the same gaming era, and everything they have gone through has somehow reflected on rather similar philosophies. Back when Nintendo and Sega were learning the quirks of the still young industry, hardware power was awfully limited, and - as it has so often happened in human history - difficulty and constraints are the perfect breeding grounds for creativity, which caused both companies to produce games that besides covering a huge amount of genres, presented the fantastic unreal element that had to be taken advantage of in an era where realism was out of the question. As time went by, and Sony and Microsoft arrived on the battlefield with an horde of franchises grounded on reality, Sega and Nintendo remained solidly faithful to their original core of games, which ended up developing into a more family-friendly branch of the industry.

The two companies that created franchises with somehow parallel spirits always had an angry river between them that stopped the construction of any possible bridges, but that river ended up settling down when Sega dropped out of the console race in order to focus on its game-making magic. Aside from the fact Sega no longer manufactures any kind of hardware, another huge difference separates the modern version of the two giants. Sonic and Mario battled over the gaming market for over a decade like two legendary heavy-weights fighting for the boxing crown during the course of many title matches, with the belt always alternating between one and another. However, on the transition to 3D, Mario was able to maintain his top-notch shape, while Sonic struggled to find direction and motivation, leaving Mario without an equal. This distinction, much like Sega's withdrawal from console production, served as the initial supports for the connection that would be built between Sega and Nintendo.

Sega's fumbling created gigantic opportunities for an approach, and - as of today - the approach is being performed. Though the recent Sonic Colors was an undeniable peak to the hedgehog on the aftermath of Sonic Adventure 2, it was still not even close to reaching the level of modern platforming masterpieces, which is a standard a character like Sonic should always aim for. If outside the gaming industry it is a good practice of the market for a company to seek the aid of third-parties whenever there is trouble in the deploying of some new technology, then there is no reason whatsoever why Sega should not try to use the same strategy to achieve the goal of finally giving Sonic the game he deserves. And this seems to be precisely the case with the partnership that has been revealed a few days ago.

Though the development of the recently announced Sonic Lost Worlds is accredited solely to the always polarizing Sega Team, it is not very hard to see that Nintendo might be more involved than it seems. The first evidence is visual; Sonic Lost Worlds looks like a faster version of Mario's two greatest games of his thirty-year career, the two Super Mario Galaxy titles. The second, is political; Sega has announced a set of three Sonic games that will be exclusively released exclusively for Nintendo platforms, and no company in the world would make such a decision without any sort of return, given that going multiplatform is always more profitable. As a consequence, it is not far-fetched to narrow it down to two possibilities: either Nintendo has given Sega a huge amount of cash, or there is some technical and creative support effort going on behind the curtains. Given how Nintendo has constantly stated that it refuses to make deals with third-parties based on handing out money, it is likely that the reason Sonic Lost World will be a Wii U exclusive for life is that people from Nintendo EAD are in direct contact with developers from the Sonic Team sharing expertize and creative input.

How can Nintendo aid Sega then? Well, in endless areas. For starters, the environments present on Super Mario Galaxy are mostly very complex, and they require an extensive amount of camera work to be playable. While Nintendo's automatic camera for Super Mario Galaxy was not flawless, it was still a major technical achievement, and given how much trouble Sonic Team has had with cameras on a multidimensional plain, the help is certainly welcome. Secondly, Nintendo seems to know quite well how to do storytelling on platformers without falling into a pit of juvenile and cringe-worthy situations, and that is a corner the Sonic games have always inadvertently walked into ever since it was wrongfully established they were in need of some extra layer of plot development. And finally, no company has as much knowledge on the Wii U's hardware than Nintendo itself, and that partnership could end up unlocking enough bits and processing power on the Wii U in order to turn Sonic Lost World into a graphical juggernaut that could compete and surpass Pikmin 3 on the graphical achievement scale.

More relevant than the initial benefits brought to the Sonic franchise, though, is what could be in store for the future of this joining of forces. At first, Sega and Nintendo's teamwork has a set deadline and limit of three Sonic games. However, it is impossible not to sit down and imagine what else we might end up getting if these three initial projects, out of which Sonic Lost World is bound to be the highlight, wind up being judged as productive by both Nintendo and Sega. It could open the door for the reworking of a large number of franchises and the creation of some gargantuan IPs born out of this merging of creative forces. And it could all start right here. The Wii U is off to a very slow start, and while this exclusivity could pump some oxygen into Nintendo's system, the partnership could also work in the benefit of both Sonic and Sega. We could be witnessing the birth of quite a monster.

Album: Desire
Artist: Bob Dylan
Released: January 5th, 1976
Highlights: Hurricane, One More Cup of Coffee, Joey, Sara

Though not as highly-regarded as much of his masterful 60s output, "Desire" is worthy of consideration for being up there amongst Dylan's five greatest works. He is a man that shines through his storytelling and playfulness with words, and although the latter quality is not very present on "Desire", the former is on full display on each and every song. Sometimes it's in the re-counting of a real life story, such as in the protest against an unfair arrest in "Hurricane", or in the polemic romanticizing of a gangster's life in "Joey". On others, Dylan is the architect of delightful fictions: the couple of outlaws running away through the Mexican desert in "Romance in Durango", a jolly summer vacation gone wrong in "Black Diamond Bay", the Arabic-sounding plea of a man fearful of the journey that's ahead of him in "One More Cup of Coffee", and many others.

"Desire" does not distinguish itself exclusively because of its many delightful characters; it is one of the most unique-sounding Dylan albums. The energetic and chaotic music comes from The Rolling Thunder Revue, a band put together by Dylan himself after watching a number of live gigs by other artists. The two most prominent items in the album, aside from Bob Dylan and Jacques Levy's shared compositions, are certainly the female backing vocals by Emmylou Harris, and Scarlet Rivera's beautiful violin. They are both constant during the course of the album, and they add such a level of novelty to "Desire" that it becomes a monster of its own. It's extremely different from everything Dylan produced before and after it, and it stands as a fantastic example of how Bob would sound were he the leader of a band.

Album: Mr. Tambourine Man
Artist: The Byrds
Released: June 21st, 1965
Highlights: I'll Feel a Whole Lot Better, Spanish Harlem Incident, Chimes of Freedom, We'll Meet Again

Sharply choreographed harmonic vocals, simple pop songs full of hooks, and little showcase of proficiency in the playing of the instruments. Those are characteristics that could easily be applied to The Beatles in the first half of their career, but in this case, it's The Byrds we are talking about. One key difference separated both bands, though: while the early version of Paul, John, George, and Ringo wrote their own music, which basically consisted of the expression of teenage feelings; McGuinn and his crew opted to focus on covers of rather poetic folk rock tunes. Often, they trumped the originals in their delivery - Bob Dylan's "Spanish Harlem Incident" sounds like a new and much better song - and, as a consequence, the band was massively responsible for making folk music popular.

"Mr. Tambourine Man" was the album that kicked off that journey, and it presents a certain divide between covers and original material. The Byrds' reworking of other composers' music was frequently stellar, and in spite of the fact that the band was flagrantly sloppy in its playing, the songs are invariably moving. Meanwhile, despite its quality, the original material penned by Gene Clark inevitably fails to reach the same level as tunes like "Chimes of Freedom" and "The Bells of Rhymney"; a difference that would grow ever thinner as The Byrds produced other records. Besides bringing folk to the masses, "Mr. Tambourine Man" is historically relevant for introducing McGuinn's jangly guitar-playing, something that would go on to influence an enormous horde of alternative rock bands, most notably R.E.M.'s Peter Buck. It's an album that, even with all its glaring irregularity, maintains an above-average quality through all of its thirty minutes.

Album: Five Live Yardbirds
Artist: The Yardbirds
Released: December 4th, 1964
Highlights: Smokestack Lightning, Good Morning Little Schoolgirl, Respectable, I'm a Man

The Yardbirds are usually, and understandably so, known as the band responsible for introducing three of the greatest guitar players ever to the world - Eric Clapton, Jeff Beck, and Jimmy Page - though they never shared the stage at the same time. Musically, however, The Yardbirds were responsible for doing something that is often accredited to Page's other band: Led Zeppelin. The Yardbirds were one of the the first bands to dress up traditional blues tunes and turn them into modern rock compositions. "Five Live Yardbirds" is one energetic display of that experiment, as the boys take the very same stage that The Rolling Stones used in their debut two years prior in order to showcase the sheer force of the still young group.

Starting things up with a song that did not claim for much re-structuring, Chuck Berry's iconic "Too Much Monkey Business", they move on to take "Smokestack Lightning" with a harmonica work that would be enough to make Howlin' Wolf himself be very impressed, and three numbers originally coined by Bo Diddley: "Pretty Girl", "I'm a Man", and "Here 'Tis". As a band that refuses to limit themselves to one trick, they even give it a shot at an R&B song, The Isley Brothers' "Respectable", and they pull it off in a quite remarkable fashion. What is most enchanting about "Five Live Yardbirds" is how clear it is to see, even through sound waves, how much of a blast the band was having while going through their set. It's raw, roughly-produced, and freely played music by a bunch of British boys with a strong passion for American music. And, as it turns out, that is precisely the kind of solid fertile ground great old-school rock used to flourish.

Having such a ridiculously long title that forced me to shorten this blog's title is not the only distinction of this game, it is also one of the most challenging and engaging racing titles I have played in recent years, even if that challenge brings a few problems along with it. I finished Lego City Undercover a few days ago, and now that I am up-to-date with the system's library I shall join fellows Wii U owners on the waiting game for Pikmin 3. Anyway, here is my review for Sonic Racing Transformed.

Warning! Huge review approaching!

It's not just a temporary replacement for Mario Kart, it is a very worthy competitor

In all of the gaming industry, there is no niche where there is a domination as huge as the one that exists on the kart racing one. All games and teams that venture into the realm know exactly what needs to be done, which is to produce a game that draws positive comparisons to Mario Kart. After all, not only was it Nintendo that created the often-copied formula, but Mario and his crew have been executing it masterfully for over two decades. During that period of time, only a very restricted number of titles out of which Diddy Kong Racing and Crash Team Racing stand out - were able to break the monopoly, each for their own reasons and pronenesses. Sonic Racing Transformed manages to enter that select group, and it does so by fixing the flaws of its predecessor, and offering a fantastic mix of challenge, content and outstanding track design.

The first noticeable feature that makes Sonic Racing Transformed stay away from being just another kart game is exposed right on its title. The game does not focus solely on wacky automobile competitions. Instead, the races take place on the water, in the sky and on the land. It would not have been such a refreshing concept but for one detail: tracks are not based on a single vehicle; each one of them presents segments that demand different racing approaches, forcing characters to magically go from one vehicle to the other on the fly. With the exception of a few rare instances when the vehicles behave oddly in the milliseconds following a transformation, the transitions are mostly smoothly done and add a lot of excitement to the race. Aside from the fantastic visual value of, for instance, going up a ramp with a boat and watching as it turns into an airplane in the midst of a battle for a position, the transformations also have strategic value, because as flying is considerably faster than the other two options of movement, the racing tracks will offer opportunities to transform into a plane earlier, rewarding those who find ramps and taking off spots.

Speaking of the tracks, they are yet another point that heavily benefits from the blending of vehicles, and are the clear highlights of the game. Courses take advantage of that opportunity in two distinct ways: they are either built so that three vehicles are used during the same lap, or they present environmental elements that alter the path in between laps. Therefore, even though the game contains sixteen original tracks, plus four extracted for its predecessor - all of which are kart-only it feels like much more, because as they mutate, tracks often become different to the point of not being recognizable. As if all that work was not enough, the game's tracks are also packed with alternative paths and shortcuts, which add a lot to both their already high replayability and to the element of surprise waiting within each race.

In a genre usually dominated by multiplayer-focused games, Sonic Racing Transformed brings forth a whole lot of single-player value. There are two main modes where the solo fun resides: Grand Prix and Career. The first one is nearly self-explanatory, players compete against nine other characters in four-race cups to see who ends up with the biggest amount of points. In total, there are ten cups, equally divided between regular and mirrored ones, and the difficulty of each can be chosen among four distinct options. Meanwhile, in the Career mode, through which most of the characters are unlocked, presents individual challenges that include regular races where players must finish in a certain position, time trials, boost challenges and racing duels against a series of characters. According to the difficulty chosen for each challenge, players will earn stars, which can then be used to unlock gates that are either protecting new characters or more challenges.

For a game as colorful and seemingly kid-friendly as this one, it packs an immensely surprising amount of challenge. While the high level of difficulty is extremely welcome, for it considerably boosts the time that can be spent playing solo, some of its implementation is questionable. Facing at least a portion of the game in the hard difficulty is key if players want to unlock certain characters, and open a few gates hiding some of the more advanced challenges. It is all fine and good if the player in question is experienced; youngsters, however, will most likely be overwhelmed by the many hours of practice one must go through if he wants to clear a good part of the game.

The core problem here is that practice is not the only thing required to go through the entirety of the game; patience is also extremely important. Like all games of its kind, Sonic Transformed presents an assortment of items that can be used during the race. Unlike Mario Kart, however, the items you get are not heavily dependent on the position you find yourself in. Meaning that while leaders are boosting their way through the tracks with powerful items, people in the middle of the pack might be struggling with simple powers. As a consequence, a big part of the game's result, especially on the hardest levels, relies on luck. Though those occurrences are annoying on Career mode, they can be even more frustrating during a Grand Prix, where three straight good races can be destroyed by a bad race where players - which always start at the back of the grid - are unable to reach the leaders because they are too busy being hit by an army of items. Regardless of how good a player is at speeding through the tracks, finishing 1st will usually demand many tries, and an eventual victory is most likely to come due to sheer luck of getting the right item at the right time.

In general, though, Sonic Racing Transformed is a very pleasant game to play. Not only is the game bursting with the personality extracted directly from fantastic Sega properties - including a vast selection of characters, each with very a very unique trio of vehicles - it is also a software that can be enjoyed with friends. The multiplayer gameplay is not restricted to especially designed modes. It is, instead, available in any mode of choice - with the exception of Time Trials - and, by taking advantage of the Wii U gamepad, the game allows for up to five players to battle each other on any of game's many Grand Prix tournaments, Career Mode challenges, or online matches. Whoever holds the Wii U gamepad - which on single-player works as a map display and a rear view mirror - will play on the controller's screen, which despite its average size produces very nice visuals, while those who hold the Wiimotes will share the TV. Though it is not used in any asymmetric and creative way, which is totally understandable given the nature of a racing title, it is nice to be able to avoid split-screen when playing in pairs.

While its predecessor suffered from constant frame rate problems, this is a game mostly free from that issue, and that is no small feat. The tracks are full of activity. Aside from ten racers throwing items and shoving each other, there are plenty of traps going around, scenario details to be processed at the game's relatively fast speed, and that all goes without mentioning how some of the courses suffer mutations in-between laps as a result of explosions, and other kinds of physical destruction. Throw into the bag the fact that the game looks really great, and holding it all together through the entirety of the race becomes quite a technical achievement. Besides being exciting by their fast and frantic nature, races are boosted by a nice soundtrack which is highlighted by some tunes that have been selected from games that present a very powerful soundtrack.

Often, when a good game of the kart racing genre hits a Nintendo platform early on, it tends to be labeled as a title that exists for the purpose of temporarily satisfying any racing needs that players might have until Mario Kart comes around. This time, though, the Nintendo Wii U has received a game that will not simply be thrown away once Nintendo unleashes a new installment on its longstanding racing series, but one that will be able to compete side-by-side with it regardless of how great the next Mario Kart will be. Sonic and All-Stars Racing Transformed has tons of content, which aside from simply racing include over 100 collectible stickers that serve as awards for the completion of achievements, a nice degree of vehicle customization, and a huge load of the undeniable charm of the Sega franchises. Put some good level of challenge in there, which is sometimes unfortunately done cheaply, and you have a lasting, fun and rewarding title.

A game that has, in theory, the capacity to maintain its value forever has always been some sort of holy grail of the gaming industry. This self-sustaining entity of gaming goodness, though, was not only located, but popularized by Will Wright's Sim City. The solution was simple; if you want a game that will never end, strip it of any goals or points that might mark the reaching of a finishing line. Written on a piece of paper, it sounds crazy, impossible even, but the reality is that those games exist and are quite popular. Nintendo, as a company that seemingly attempts to have franchises that cover each and every genre without major overlaps, has created their own unique version of the formula. Instead of a simulator of some mundane reality, which is the direction most great games of the genre tend to head towards, they have created a wacky animal village where raccoons monopolize business, a dog drops by to play guitar every once in a while, and ridiculously cheesy lines are bound to make you chuckle.

Twelve years into its history, Animal Crossing is about to reach its fourth installment, and while the in-game possibilities are many, most of the franchise's fans will converge to a single point when it comes to what it needs to do with New Leaf, which is to recover. The original Gamecube title was bursting with visual charm, and the simple joy and relaxation one got by walking around the village was more than enough to warrant a daily visit, whether it was to see what new items were on sale, to check if new fossils had popped up, or to discover what new fish the tides of a new season would bring. The online mode brought by the Nintendo DS' Wild World opened up horizons so effectively that it made the original look rather restricted, which should be the goal of every sequel; and the punctual additions and tweaks made here and there vastly improved gameplay. Whereas Wild World was a good leap, City Folk was a stumble in the attempt of a hop; the ideas pooled in-between games ended up not being enough to warrant a sequel, and the result was a pale game where the only supposedly big change was the arranging of all shops in the same location.

Arriving in the United States nearly five years after its predecessor, a time that is good enough for the gathering of many additional gameplay elements, New Leaf looks like a solid contender to replace Wild World as the definitive game in the series. Its handheld nature is very sensible, because a game like Animal Crossing heavily benefits from the possibility of being played anywhere at anytime, after all, it is centered around time-based events, and it is best enjoyed on short gameplay bursts. As any open-ended franchise, Animal Crossing holds an incredibly big array of possibilities to be explored, and while previous games of the series took more gentle steps towards opening things up, New Leaf seems to jump right into the fire by placing players as the mayor of the town. At least theoretically, it is a choice that will bring forward many new activities, tasks and responsibilities; giving players an extra reason to make daily visits to that world.

While often being brave in the concepts utilized in their games, constantly swimming against the current; Nintendo has been occasionally conservative in the development of a few of their franchises, and Animal Crossing undoubtedly suffered from that with City Folk, but New Leaf looks like a firm step in a correct and significant direction for the series.

I might not have a whole lot of experience when it comes to open-world gameplay, but I have played a good share of games of the sort, including a few Assassin's Creed titles, a decent number of MMORPGs, and a couple of Grand Theft Auto games. With that being said, I can put in the correct perspective the fact that no other world I have virtually visited has ever compelled me as much as Lego City. Maybe it is the light-hearted charm of a city decorated by objects made out of Lego, maybe it is the unreal wackiness of the inhabitants you get to know and places you get to visit, or maybe it is the impressive level of detail employed on the environments combined with the great size of the city; whatever the core reason might be, one thing is for sure: Lego City Undercover amazes.

Countless times, as you move from one place to another in order to do yet another mission of the main story, it is impossible not to feel invited to stop your car or motorcycle and venture into the game's scenario. Sometimes, it is the sight of one of the game's thousands of collectibles; in other occasions, it is a mission indicator or a spot where a Lego structure can be built; and every once in a while, it is simply the feeling that there is something out there waiting to be discovered. As a consequence, a trip through the city that would originally demand a few minutes winds up being a half-hour incursion into some unknown part of town. It's not just about size and unique buildings, there is actually a lot of substance behind the scenario; stopping your vehicle anywhere around Lego City and walking around the range of a few yards will invariably reveal something that you did not know was there.

The variety of the scenario is outstanding in its own. There are islands, a forest, a park, a Chinese neighborhood, an Italian area with locations inspired by Venice, bridges, an airport, a beach paradise, reproductions of San Francisco and New York, and much more, all seamlessly connected and with an uncanny draw distance. Of course, the sheer size of it all requires long load times, but not only are they nothing out of the ordinary - in spite of the complaints floating around, but they also happen very rarely; namely, when the city is loaded once players either start the game, or leave a separate location where portions of the game happen. The game's missions occur both indoors and outdoors; the first kind takes places in locations that are isolated from the city, allowing developers to create something more puzzle-focused and with tighter platforming; while the latter variation tends to include car chases, finding ways to get to the top of certain buildings, and investigations that smartly use the gamepad as a tool to scan your surroundings.

However, two big annoyances harm the game. All of the indoors isolated missions cannot be fully completed in one run. More often than not, a few optional collectible items within them will be locked away by doors or devices that require an ability Chase will only acquire much later into the game, hence forcing players looking for full completion to play the missions more than once. The second issue, and the most significant one because it works against the game's open-world nature - which is where it thrives, is the fact that many of the tucked away optional locations players will find in town are also inaccessible without certain abilities. Due to that, going out of your way to explore - which is something that happens naturally - will probably lead players to find doors or items they cannot reach; something that is awfully disappointing and will eventually make players leave the exploration to the end of the game, therefore taking away a big part of the open-world value.

Yet, those flaws do not come even close to stopping Lego City Undercover from being a fantastic game. The missions are a blast, the city looks absolutely gorgeous, and the game is packed with collectibles, easter eggs, and great funny cutscenes with goofy voice over. Besides, it is probably the first game to display a good portion of the Wii U's power.

While Nintendo Land is by no means as big as Assassin's Creed III, it was impossible to write a short review for it, because it packs quite a bit of content. Here is my review for it, so read it if you have the time and patience, look at the pretty pictures if you don't or simply share your thoughts on the game. I was out for the week because I had to travel to a far away state in Brazil in order to work, but now I am back and I have purchased Lego City Undercover, which sort of solves all of my debts with the Wii U's library, meaning now I can be miserable together with the rest of the system's audience while waiting for new games to come out. Luckily, though, June is around the corner, and ir brings Animal Crossing, and Game and Wario on its arms.

Warning! Huge review approaching!

More than a blueprint for what is to come, Nintendo Land is a full-fledged game packed with content

It is undeniable that Wii Sports is one of the most successful games of all time. That statement may sound outrageously exaggerated - especially when the fact that its sales were inflated by the fact the title came packed with the Nintendo Wii is considered - but it becomes rather reasonable when we look at it as the doorway the gaming world, and those outside it, used as their entry point to motion-controlled games. In fact, the whole introductory experiment went so well that Nintendo once again attempts to capture lightning in a bottle with Nintendo Land. There is no better way to put it: Nintendo Land is this generation's Wii Sports; the first note on a brand new control scheme, and a game that offers twelve experiments and blueprints which display the system's capabilities. However, it is a game that is far more neatly produced, offers much more in terms of content and value, and has the irresistibly charming quality of being centered around the Nintendo Universe.

In the midst of all the great manners on which the system's controller is used, one of Nintendo Land's key components, perhaps its most original one, is its art style. Set in a fictional Nintendo theme park, the game features a central hub surrounded by twelve extravagant gates that lead into the attractions. Taking advantage of this make-believe scenario, Nintendo made sure to design everything as it were part of a nicely put together attempt to recreate the "real" worlds within their games. On The Legend of Zelda's attraction, the whole world is made of plush; Donkey Kong's ride uses a chalkboard as its background; and the recreation of the world of Pikmin is done with Mushroom Kingdom blocks, and robots that recreate the game's insects. Absolutely everything is exploding either from Nintendo self-references, or bits of detail that tell players nothing is what it seems.

Nintendo Land was built by giving designers the power to act as mad scientists working with a new potion, and such is the case with any experiment in creativity and insanity, some results are far better than others, but the twelve-game package is so varied that every single gamer will, at least, find four attractions he will greatly enjoy. While a player's most liked attractions will be the cause for many hours of gameplay, the least beloved ones will also warrant a visit, because Nintendo Land is packed with collectibles and achievements that are more effectively unlocked when all attractions are played. Every attraction features a number of stamps that can be acquired through the clearing of certain goals, and each one of them will also grant players a star or master rank according to the level of completion achieved.

As if that was not enough, the more levels are cleared, attractions are played, and stamps are acquired, players will gain a few coins, which can be spent in an arcade-like mini-game to unlock gift boxes hiding items featuring Nintendo icons that will decorate the central hub. There is an overwhelmingly great satisfaction in watching as your personal version of the park is populated by statues of Kraid, Ganon, Koopas and others. The quality of the games, the sensational multiplayer value that some of them possess, and the daunting challenges and levels that nearly all of them have would already be a valuable enough incentive to play the game for countless hours, but Nintendo added plenty of extras to keep players going, which goes to show that Nintendo Land is not simply a pack-in, it is a full fledged game that could be worth the full price.

The game offers three attractions focused exclusively on multiplayer. All of which take advantage from the asymmetrical gameplay allowed by the fact the Wii U uses two completely different controllers. In Mario Chase, while one player flees through a small arena others go after him. The twist here is that the player who controls Mario can see the whole map through the gamepad's screen, while the chasers have to explore the place looking for him without many visual clues. Both Animal Crossing: Sweet Day and Luigi's Ghost Mansion are slight variations of that theme: in the first, one player gathers candy around the village while the other controls, through the gamepad, two guards that move independently according to the movement of both control sticks; in the latter, one player acts as a ghost, being invisible to those who look at the TV screen, while the others must use flashlights to capture him. The three experiences are nicely balanced, and the couple of different approaches with which each of them can be experienced doubles the value of the whole thing. Playing them will surely guarantee plenty of laughter, exciting close calls.

On the other end of the spectrum, there is a group of six games whose focus is solo play, four of which are probably the weakest of the bunch: Captain Falcon's Twister Race, Balloon Trip Breeze, Takamaru's Ninja Castle and Octopus Dance. On Twister Race o, players must tilt the gamepad to control the Blue Falcon through a course divided in 16 distinct segments, all of which are times. Balloon Trip has players drawing air currents on the screen to move the character across a sky that is plagued by tons of enemies. On Ninja Castle, players must slide their fingers across the gamepad's screen while aiming at the TV to launch stars against deadly enemies. And in Octopus Dance, both of the pad's control sticks must be used independently to move the arms of your character in order to replicate the dance moves of a robot. Although those games are a lot of fun, they become the game's weakest link because their content is thin, since their value comes from the fact their arcade-like structure will have players going back to the very beginning whenever they lose their lives.

The other two single-player attractions also feature the same sort of game over system, but they have a highly addictive nature that severely diminishes any frustration caused by having to restart from scratch. DK'S Crash Course offers a ten-section obstacle course inspired in the original arcade Donkey Kong title. During this attraction, players must carefully tilt the gamepad to move a little wheeled cart across many slopes, platforms and traps that are just waiting to crush your poor Mii. Meanwhile, on Yoshi's Fruit Cart players must draw a path for Yoshi to follow and eat all the fruits in a given stage. The twist, though, is that obstacles and fruit only appear on the TV, leaving players to utilize tiny visual cues to determine where exactly in the gamepad's screen are the objects located. Like every other attraction in the game, those two keep track of best scores achieved, which makes trying to outdo yourself a very compelling experience.

As a coincidence, or maybe not, the three greatest attractions found in the game are those that allow all three kinds of gameplay: competitive and cooperative multiplayer, and single-player. Metroid Blast, the finest one in the bunch, places up to five players in one arena (where one controls a ship through the gamepad and others play as Samus on the ground) to either blast each other to death or defeat hordes of different enemies in varied challenges. The Legend of Zelda: Battle Quest offers nine familiar scenarios with temples, forests and volcanoes where a group of Link-dressed Miis must down many challenging foes and bosses with swords, or with the arrow and bow. Finally, Pikmin Adventure has one player lead the way as Olimar, while the other four control large and very powerful Pikmin to aid Olimar and the regular sized ones.

What is most impressive about those titles, other than the fact that they are fun - a quality that is shared among all attractions of the game - is that they have a load of content. Aside from the regular levels that must be cleared either alone or cooperatively, they also feature extra and very challenging stages (some of which are nearly impossible to clear by yourself), and a whole bunch of different modes to be explored. Another positive point, which is equally spread across the entirety of Nintendo Land, is how well the controls work, especially the gamepad. Moving Samus' ship by working with the control sticks and tilting the controller as if it were a window with which you can better glimpse what is on TV is absolutely fantastic, and the same can be said for moving the cart in DK's Crash Course, using the bow in Zelda: Battle Quest, or getting a totally different perspective through the controller's screen in the chase-centered attractions.

The cherry on top of this glorious pile of content is the game's integration with Mii Verse. Aside from seamlessly allowing players to share comments in-between stages and matches, and showing what other people around the world are saying about the attractions, Nintendo Land will populate the central plaza of the park with hundreds of real Miis from other players. Aside from serving as a visual prop, it is possible to select any Mii that is walking around the place in order to check where that person is from, what attractions they have been playing, how many coins and prizes they have collected, and how is their level of completion in all of the attractions. It's something so naturally done, and it is executed with such an incredible charm, that spending time around the plaza looking at other people's comments and records is a very valid activity. Although the game does not feature any kind of online gameplay, which is a shame as some games could have benefited from it, there is still a whole lot of connectivity.

Nintendo Land, therefore, serves three core purposes. Firstly, it is an extremely well-produced game that packs a whole lot of value; secondly, it serves as a blueprint so that gamers can know what their newly acquired system is capable of, and developers can use its concepts as a source of inspiration; finally, it is a great display of how Nintendo's MiiVerse can be integrated into a game in very meaningful ways. More than a bonus that comes with the system, Nintendo Land is a game that offers plenty of challenge for lonely moments, and a huge quantity of fun when two or more friends are gathered.

Very large games usually lead to very large reviews, and this one seems to be the case; this thing is enormous. The final veredict is that it is not as good as Assassin's Creed II, because its main quest focuses too much on character development and not enough on exciting missions. Either enjoy the review, look at the pretty pictures or share your take on the game. My reviews for Nintendo Land and Sonic Racing Transformed have also been written, and they will be coming soo.

Warning! Huge review approaching!

Its focus on character development harms its gameplay, but one cannot deny the extent of the game's world and content

The Assassin's Creed franchise is known for its size and ambitions. In fact, the franchise is so remarkably big that it took Ubisoft two games to get all of its details down, and the result was one unforgeable masterpiece in Assassin's Creed II. Coming at the heels of a series of minor releases derived from the franchise's Italian endeavor, the third major installment of the franchise feels a little bit like a step back; not because it is humbler or plays it safer than its predecessors, but because - much like the original title - while it is a triumphant success in some areas, it feels awkward and dull in others, as if the team behind the game suddenly forgot some of the lessons so effectively learned from the first game's reception. For that, while being frequently greatly enjoyable and invariably impressive, Assassin's Creed III never succeeds in rising to the stellar level of its mesmerizing predecessor.

It all starts when Desmond and his crew locate the temple that holds the secret that will save mankind from destruction. Upon finding the door, though, they discover that they are missing not only the key to open it, but the power sources to activate it. The solution, as expected, involves having Desmond relive the life of one of his ancestors in order to discover the key's location. Connor, our brave new assassin, is the fruit of the quick relationship between a British templar sent on a mission in the United States and a native woman, and he grows up to be an assassin whose targets are deeply involved in the American Revolution. Therefore, players will explore key locations of that conflict, such as Boston, New York and the little towns in its outskirts; meet historic figures; and aid the rebels in their quest for freedom. As it has become a standard for the series, the story is wonderfully told through impressive cutscenes made very believable by the game's great visuals and the good actors employed in its voice acting.

Though undeniably interesting and very exciting, the game's plot is indirectly responsible for the two biggest issues found in the game. First of all, Assassin's Creed III features, by a good margin, the most ambitious story development the series has seen so far. The game is not satisfied with simply focusing on Connor's life as an assassin; instead, it chooses to start from a point way before it all began: Connor's father, a man named Kenway, departure from Britain. Through a sequence of small hops to advance through time, we see and play as Kenway meets Connor's mother; the boy is born and plays with his friends as a child; grows up to be a leader in his tribe; and, finally, decides to train to become an assassin after he goes through a life-changing incident. The fact is that nearly half of the game's missions are spent getting things started. Before Connor is truly free to roam the expanse of the game's world, five of the game's twelve sequences will be finished. In Assassin's Creed III, gameplay serves its story; and not the other way around. As a consequence, the first five sequences are often dull and extremely restricted.

The second issue comes from its setting. As compelling as it may be to watch the revolution be born and then be a part of it, the large scale war is not exactly a scenario that is favorable to the style of gameplay the series thrives on. Assassin's Creed II shined, among other reasons, for the design of its missions, which often involved sneaking around, finding different ways to hide, and managing to kill a target silently. While Assassin's Creed III does offer a few missions like that, there are too many where Connor must either simply lead a battalion, fight out in the open or warn troops of incoming attacks. The game ends up being more about a huge conflict, than back-alley tactics that would usually be performed by a silent assassin. The war-related missions are fun and thrilling, but they do not capture the series' essence as well as the stealth ones do. It is a change of philosophy that will please some, but make others wonder why exactly such a shift occurred.

It's a shame, because in its gameplay, Assassin's Creed III - as expected - offers a wide range of alternatives that can be employed to remain anonymous. If players choose to avoid combat, Connor can rip posts off of the walls, bribe street preachers to talk about something other than his recent exploits, pay the presses that are printing the posters to stop doing so, start riots against the British, hide amongst the crowd, or use his uncannily impressive skills for climbing. Examining enemy patterns and the environment surrounding them in order to find a way to perform silent kills has always been one of the most engaging actions in Assassin's Creed games, and here they remain a clear prowess of the titles, even if those skills are not as frequently used as they should have been.

When the alternative chosen to handle some of the missions is direct combat, or if Connor's stealth skills are not sharp enough to make him invisible; then players will be treated to a fine combat system. Connor can defend opponents' attacks, break their defense, and attack. The game offers a wide variety of weapons that can be equipped - even some fire weapons - and though enemy variety isn't exactly a highlight, the battles remain entertaining and challenging all the way through the whole game.

If the fifteen-hour main quest has not remained solid in its quality during the transition between installments, the sidequests that populate the title remain quite engaging, and it feels like they have grown in numbers too. In fact, there are so many of them that according to the game's counter for percentage of completion, only about 30% of it is done once the main quest is wrapped up. Many quests that appeared in previous games of the series make a return. Connor will have to deliver letters, free prisoners, find high viewpoints in order to clear areas of the map, collect page's of Benjamin's Franklin almanac, recruit other assassins, engage in combats, find treasure, and find and break into heavily guarded forts that are hidden throughout the game's enormous world map.

In the end, more than twenty hours can be pleasantly spent simply exploring the world and finding its secrets. What is most fascinating about this sort of experience, though, is that sometimes the secrets are neither collectibles nor anything that contributes to the game's completion percentage, but small nuggets of details that show how much care was put into this ridiculously big world, which is on a level that cannot be compared to any other game out there. Boston and New York hide the old buildings and locations that are now known worldwide, or at least in the United States; while the Frontier, a forest-covered area with many hidden small towns, hides nice little places, creeks, waterfalls, mountains and people that add many layers of content to a game that is already swimming in impressive depths. Though the distance between goals might often been long, it is punctuated by little encounters that give it a lot of meaning.

Out of the numerous side missions the game presents, three are brand new and clear highlights. First of all, there is Connor's homestead. A big peaceful piece of land amidst all the chaos where Connor decides to build a small community under his protection. At first, it is an abandoned location, but little by little Connor will come across people in need of a home, and by helping them out players will get them to move to the homestead, and aid in its development and quality of life, which makes it the game's most satisfying quest. Secondly, as a native, Connor has developed the ability to hunt, and there is no better place for that than the Frontier. There, Connor can locate and kill many kinds of prey, such as hares, bears, wolves, foxes, and others. The capture of each animal requires a different approach, either direct or using traps, and capturing animals either in large numbers or by using unique techniques will fill up huntsmen challenges, which are both numerous and entertaining to perform.

Lastly, halfway through the game, Connor acquires one mighty ship, allowing him to perform naval quests behind the wheel. Those missions usually vary from navigating troubled rocky waters without taking much damage, to fighting a number of British vessels either through fire and cannonballs, or by boarding them. The ship's controls are easy to learn, and the ability to upgrade many of the ship's parts in order to be able to tackle tougher challenges makes those quests a real test of skill. In addition, they also happen to be extremely thrilling and exciting, serving as a great break from the game's regular missions.

Overall, Assassin's Creed III has more content than the average gamer is able to handle. It has a good, but irregular, central quest which is supported by an even more time-consuming set of sidequests that give plenty of life to this impressive world. Any game can claim to having one ridiculously gigantic overworld, but it takes a lot of creativity and care to fill it up with enough detail and life to give it some purpose other than padding the game to boring lengths. In spite of its flaws and the fact that it does not live up to its predecessor, Assassin's Creed III is a rare display of a game that big for a reason other than a shallow showcase of megalomania. It is a game filled to the brim with well-done characters, cutscenes, missions and great visual design; and though its sheer scope is cause for a few technical issues here and there, it is a more-than-welcome feature, because no amount of hours is enough to explore all of its fascinating corners.

Album: The Boatman's Call
Artist: Nick Cave and the Bad Seeds
Released: March 3rd, 1997
Highlights: Into My Arms, People Ain't No Good, Are You The One That I've Been Waiting For?

In the midst of the chaos and quality that marks Nick Cave's discography, one sensible listener could have come to foretell that, one day, that man of dark, twisted and obsessive words would tire himself of the uncontrollable mess on which he thrived and would seek to abruptly slow down in order to cry out the confusion within. "The Boatman's Call" is the materialization of such prophecy, and it sounds exactly like its title indicates: as the last mutterings of a wise man that feels like life is not worth it anymore, and is more than prepared to accept what awaits him on the other side. An album that starts with the honest ballad "Into My Arms" soon breaks down into songs that reveal that the love displayed in the album's opening track is not exactly mutual; not anymore at least.

Through all of the album's other eleven slow-paced and piano-based songs, Nick Cave is either haunted by memories of his past - "Lime-Tree Arbour", "Brompton Oratory", "Black Hair" and "Green Eyes" - or is just so broken-hearted that he cannot see one positive drop in the world, as it is made clear by the album's centerpiece "People Ain't No Good". All of the album's characters reveal people that are completely torn apart by wasted love, and some results are musically pleasant and morally disturbing, such as in "Idiot Prayer" where a man who murdered his wife thinks about their destiny as he walks towards the electric chair. Few albums out there are so consistent and delightfully uncomfortable in theme as this one, and even few are able to paint such an accurate picture of the bitterness often created when relationships go wrong.

Album: Comedown Machine
Artist: The Strokes
Released: March 26th, 2013
Highlights: All the Time, One Way Trigger, Welcome to Japan, Chances

"Angles" was expected to be a return to The Strokes' original form of old-school rock built around dueling guitars and keyboard-like riffs; instead, aside from a few songs, it marked the point where the band started moving further away from their original path. If "Angles" just hinted at the use of synthesizers, and Casablancas' deep love with the 80s and its range of musical styles taking over the band; "Comedown Machine" is the full-blown confirmation of that suspicion. It is, by all means, a fantastic record that features no duds whatsoever, but it will come as a major disappointment to fans that simply cannot come to accept that The Strokes as we knew them on "Is This It?" and "Room on Fire" will never exist again.

What makes "Comedown Machine" click so nicely is the band's discovery of the fine point of balance between their long-gone nonchalant sound, Casablancas' uncanny ability to build solid pop songs and his wish to front a band that sounds a whole lot like thirty years ago. The synths dominate more than half of the album: in "Chances" they are used to build the atmosphere around the band's most beautiful ballad to date, and in "One Way Trigger" they push forward an energetic song fast-paced song that could fit extremely well in a videogame of the early nineties. Meanwhile, only three songs feature guitars in center stage: "50 50", "Partners in Time" and "All the Time", the last of which is the only song that somehow resembles The Strokes of the early part of the century. For those with an open mind and a slight love for the usage of synthesizers, "Comedown Machine" is a delicious blast from the past.

Album: Broken Boy Soldiers
Artist: The Raconteurs
Released: May 16th, 2006
Highlights: Steady as She Goes, Broken Boy Soldier, Together, Call it a Day

The story of the formation of The Raconteurs is that of a band that was quickly put together by Jack White and Brendan Benson soon after they composed one fantastic song, "Steady as She Goes", and wished they could do more of that. The result, "Broken Boy Soldiers", is not an unforgettable masterpiece, but it is quite a remarkable album not only for the general quality of the songs, but also - and mainly - because it sounds true to the way it was written: a quickly put together session where two great musicians found a way to let their creativity run wildly free, as both of them were away from the restrictions and expectations of the their original and main musical projects. As a consequence, the album has the feel of two separate halves that had their tunes randomly arranged in a not very cohesive order.

It is not a bad quality to have, because good albums do not have to necessarily present cohesion. In fact, it is in the musical differences of White and Benson that the album thrives. White is torn between traditional White Stripes tunes that gravitate around a vicious guitar riff - only this time backed up by a full band - and clever experiments that are a product of his "Get Behind me Satan" era. Meanwhile, Benson contrasts Jack's blues with mid-tempo ballads - "Yellow Sun", "Call it a Day" and "Together" that stand out very clearly in the midst of Jack's madness, hence benefiting from the band's blend of songwriting philosophies. While by no means as good as its successor, "Broken Boy Soldiers" is a great first step and an essential album for anyone that is curious to understand the roots of both composers.

Album: The Stone Roses
Artist: The Stone Roses
Released: April 1st, 1989
Highlights: She Bangs the Drums, Bye Bye Badman, (Song for My) Sugar Spun Sister, Made of Stone

Before Blur, Oasis, Supergrass, Radiohead and the whole Britpop movement appeared across the pond and set sail to conquer the grunge-dominated US music scene of the early 90s, The Stone Roses had to set the indie foundations that would allow those bands to soar. While the noisy dirty grunge was born out of the rage of the American underground scene of the 80s, Britpop got its more polished and pop sound out of The Stone Roses' success, which came in the heels of the acknowledgment of the force of dance music and its clever fusion with the clean straightforward and very harmonic rock played by a big number of British acts in the wake of Beatlemania. Released six years after the band's formation, The Stone Roses might be the only one of the band's two releases that is worth a listen, but it is deserving of its legendary status.

What is most impressive about the album is how Ian Brown and John Squire do not let a single song go by without pulling off at least one major melodic hook that sticks to the listeners' minds for a while. The Stone Roses, therefore, is one fine example of pop mastery, something that continuously served as a great goal for the britpop bands that would follow. In the midst of all the pop tricks being performed, the band has found plenty of time to experiment with more electronic sounds, such is the case of the ballad Waterfall and Don't Stop, which is basically Waterfall being played backwards with new vocals over it, something that would be very well received on the dance floor even nowadays. Much like the mid-period The Beatles's records, The Stone Roses is an album that is really easy to fall in love with, and the depth of its sound guarantees many surprises in multiple listens.

The news that Nintendo would be moving away from their big annual E3 presentation came as a huge shock to everyone. From this day forth, gone are the months where we wondered in what ridiculously epic fashion Miyamoto would arrive onto the stage, what punchlines Reggie would pull off to increase his legacy as the most badass executive ever, who would end up carrying the burden of presenting the conference's boring segment - the always-positive numbers, and - especially - what games would be announced. Now, the awkward air that followed Wind Waker's presentation; the stadium-like cheers that accompanied Twilight Princess; and the universal satisfaction and awe that came after Super Mario Galaxy are part of Nintendo's museum of great moments, and a new era is set to begin.

Though it came as a surprise to all, the announcement should not really have had such effect. On the contrary, an observant fan (certainly not me) could have looked at the evidence and foreseen what was to come. Firstly, Nintendo - for the past six years, at least - has been on a quest to differentiate itself from Sony and Microsoft, not treating them as competitors, but as technological peers that explore a different market; and secondly, in recent months, Nintendo has been making some rather big announcements through their Nintendo Direct videos, such as a couple of weeks ago, when the company unveiled a brand new Zelda and another sequel Yoshi's Island, two games that, a few years in the past, would sure have been saved for the shiny stage that is E3.

It is impossible to pinpoint exactly why the company chose to make that move, but one thing is for sure: E3 conferences had grown tiresome, frequently awkward and invariably disappointing to fans who spent months hyping them up to unimaginable levels. Nintendo certainly noticed the change in the trend, and - as it has been happening historically in the gaming world - took a seemingly insane leap long before its competition. It is hard to know whether that leap will come to an end over a pile of success and cash, or on a bunch of Mega Man one-hit-kill spikes, but this is what Nintendo does best: thinking different and taking actions that often seem foolish.

For fans, the news should come as a pleasant surprise. Sure, hyping up the conference was fun, yet always sour; but the truth is that with the Nintendo Direct videos, the company has found the precise tone with which it can communicate with its fanbase. It is a humorous, light-hearted and well-produced feel that could not possibly be reproduced on an E3 conference, where speakers are often nervous and not loose enough to joke around and be themselves. Besides, as a second sweet bonus for fans, instead of having major announcements all neatly packed in a couple of days, there is a chance we will get individual reveals that will happen when the company feels like the time is right to display a new product.

Living inside the shell of our beloved gaming world, it is easy to forget that the only people paying close attention to the conferences are fans, and those are the kind of people that will either watch Nintendo Direct as soon as it is available, or discover the announcements through a gaming website. As huge and expensive as E3 is, it is not that big of a deal to people who do not follow gaming closely, and so Nintendo does not lose the opportunity to reach anybody with the switch; on the contrary, it embraces a much more effective way to directly communicate with its fans.

And if it all works out, sooner or later Nintendo Directs will be highly anticipated and followed events by anyone who loves gaming or Nintendo. It will be our exclusive, more familiar and cozier version of E3.

After a huge gaming marathon over the week, which became possible due to the fact I was switching jobs, I was able to finish New Super Mario Bros. U and now I have moved my focus onto Assassin's Creed III (a game that starts awfully slowly). So, here is my first Wii U review. Reat it if you have the patience, just look at the pretty pictures if you want, and share your thoughts on the game.

Warning! Huge review approaching!

Gaming at one of its purest forms, but packed with a refreshing and valuable social component

After a lull of two generations, Nintendo has decided to go back to its roots and release, alongside a brand new system, a fresh Mario game. Differently from what other Mario games that kicked off a new Nintendo generation did, though, New Super Mario Bros. U is by no means a glorious display of what more powerful hardware can do. Instead, it safely bets on the gold mine that the sidescrolling franchise has become, and decides not to shake things up in any significant way or form. For most companies and studios, that would be a recipe for disaster, especially considering the fact that this is the fourth New Super Mario Bros. game to come out during the past few years. However, what surfaces from this new Mario adventure is a game that, through all its more than sixty stages, pulls of exciting and unexpected tricks using the same old mechanics. A game that is certainly worthy of being the opening note for a new console.

First, it is important to get the bad stuff out of the way: there is nothing incredibly mind-blowing or impressive about the bricks with which this game is built. The art has not received any tweaks, neither significant nor minor; the songs and sound effects remain as unchanged as they can be; the enemies and bosses are all incredibly familiar in their behavior, looks and weak spots; princess Peach is once again kidnapped by Bowser and his offspring; and even the themes used for the worlds are commonplace, not only in their nature, but also in their order, as Mario will start his adventure on some calm plains, move on to a desert, to a snow-covered land, and a few worlds later, wrap it all up among waves of magma. Nintendo is so aware of the repetition, that they do not even attempt to conceal it; they choose to thrive on it instead, and it is easily arguable that the mundane nature of pretty much everything about the game works in favor of the stage design, highlighting its sheer glorious brilliancy.

In its core, that is what New Super Mario Bros. U is all about: stage design. It is, once more, astounding what Nintendo is able to do with a limited set of power-ups, among which the return of the raccoon suit is the only real difference to its predecessor; and Mario's equally restricted array of moves. As usual, things start slowly and simple in the first world, but as the plumber moves on to the desert, New Super Mario Bros. U starts picking up speed, and - before you realize it - the game becomes a train of fun going downhill in full-speed with nothing in sight that can stop it. Within the same world, or even inside the boundaries of the entire game, Nintendo barely re-utilizes or recycles any tricks, making every single stage a different creature.

If there is a noteworthy change in the game's structure, that is its overworld. While not being a new concept, as it has been previously used in Super Mario World, the game features a single overworld map that presents the individual worlds in a fully connected manner; players can literally walk from stage one to Bowser's place continuously. Though equal to what Super Mario World brought to the table, it is plain to see that - in New Super Mario Bros. U - the map is far better designed. As players clear stages, especially the secret ones, the scenario will creatively shift its shape to open the way to stages and locations that are truly hidden, often opening up paths that will leave one world, go through a nearby one, only to end in some remote location in a third distinct place. It is even possible to argue that a big part of the joy of finding a secret stage is seeing how the world map will transform to accommodate it.

For those who have been rightfully complaining about the ever diminishing difficulty of Mario games, New Super Mario Bros. U is an oasis. Though simply finishing the stages isn't exactly painfully hard, going after the star coins will almost invariably lead to the need to perform complicated maneuvers that require both skill and timing. And, in a good sign that the game stays on the right side of the line separating frustration from difficulty, it does not matter how many times Mario falls to his death, players will always feel the urge to try once more. If looking for full completion, newcomers to the series will find one daunting task, and veterans will encounter a great deal of challenge, especially on the secret and special stages, which are worthy of their fame for being brutally tough.

New Super Mario Bros. U might not be an impressive technical display of the Wii U's capabilities, but it is a stellar showcase of how games can interact with Nintendo's Miiverse in an effective and game-improving way. Whenever players clear a stage while performing any significant achievement such as collecting all star coins, not taking any damage, or getting to the flag really fast, the game will automatically prompt players for comments on the stage so that they can be posted on the game's community on Miiverse so that the whole world can see them. The same will happen in frustrating situations, like when Mario loses way too many lives on a stage. In cases like this, though, the game will humorously ask players so send out warnings or angry letters to Bowser on how tough the stage is. Not only are those interruptions brief and seamless, therefore not disturbing the game's pace, but the manner with which comments are integrated into the game (either being shown in the overworld or while the stage loads in-between attempts) adds a lot to the experience.

And that ends up being New Super Mario Bros. U greatest victory. While the stages are astonishing, the graphics are smoother than ever, the multiplayer can range between cooperative (with two players) to maddeningly chaotic (with four players), and the game is packed to the brim with extras such as time trials, coin-collecting, and enemy-defeating challenges that extend the game's twenty-five hours of adventure into a package that can last for over forty hours of fun; all of those aspects are trumped by the novelty of the game's social factor. Sharing our achievements, failures and angry outbursts is a lot of fun, and the constant reminder that there are tons of people around the globe going through the same ordeals that you are experiencing somehow makes the whole game a lot more fun, and it will certainly motivate players to look into every corner of the game for every secret or achievement that is possible to find or accomplish.

At first glance, New Super Mario Bros. U does not seem to do justice to the past Mario games that debuted alongside a new Nintendo system, because it is devoid of any visual leaps or visible gameplay improvements, but in the end it is certainly worthy of carrying that legacy forward, as even though it is not completely built around Miiverse like Nintendo Land, it manages to integrate it very nicely to a genre where, initially, such connection would be hard to develop. As it is usual for a Mario sidescroller, New Super Mario Bros. U shows gaming at one of its purest and funnest forms, where everything exists for the sake of gameplay, but this time it comes packed with a delightfully fresh new component. It feels like a new generation has indeed started.

With about three days already dedicated to some Wii U gaming - I purposely bought my system on the eve of a four-day holiday here in Brazil - I am definitely impressed with the Nintendo Wii U: I have more games to play then I have the time to do so, five so far; the system's interface and the tablet controller are both nicely designed and very smart; and Nintendo seems to have finally come to an understanding of how online can be used to boost a traditional gaming experience. Below you will find my impressions on Miiverse and the games I have played so far.

Miiverse

Let's get this out of the way: Miiverse is absolutely brilliant. Nintendo has struck online gold with their own take on the social networking phenomenon, and Miiverse - in a major statement that indicates how incredible it is always is the very first thing I go check once I turn on my system, and I do believe I am not the only one. Stepping into Miiverse is walking into a virtual environment where people who love Nintendo talk about their experiences, complain about difficult levels in a game and share fantastic user-created art with the world. Miiverse does not simply serve as a nice little addition to the Wii U; it is a tool that enhances the value of any games that use it smartly, and make the system feel like a huge hub to a world filled with Nintendo content and entertainment.

New Super Mario Bros. U

Most of my playing time has been devoted to this game, as it is always nice to start up the life of a new console by going through a traditional Mario adventure. We can all, fairly, complain about the reused assets (can we get new songs, Nintendo?), the recent constant release of sidescrolling Mario titles, and the repetitive boss battles, but it would be a huge mistake to call New Super Mario Bros. U anything but yet another class in game design. The game never gets repetitive, and is constantly pulling off new tricks, even if a few of them are too familiar. The great distinctions that this new installment carries with it are clear: the impressive fully connected overworld, which is reminiscent of Super Mario World; and the game's stellar use of the Miiverse. Posting comments, and reading other user's take, on stages and star coins is amazing. If Nintendo Land serves as a blueprint to future experiments with the game pad, then New Super Mario Bros. Wii U is the route Nintendo designed to show other companies how to integrate Miiverse into their upcoming games.

Nintendo Land

As it is to be expected from a game whose intention is to be a laboratory of sorts to display a new technology, Nintendo Land both succeeds and fails. Most of the twelve games are amazing: Mario Chase, and Luigi's Ghost Mansion are very refreshing and exciting asymmetric multiplayer attractions; Metroid Blast and Zelda's Battle Quest carry an impressive amount of value, and their cooperative nature is astonishingly well-done; and Ninja Castle, DK's Crash Course, and Pikmin Adventure are very solid single-player affairs that are both addictive and challenging. Meanwhile, Captain Falcon's Twister Race, and Balloon Trip Breeze fall a little bit flat, even if they manage to be somehow entertaining for a while. However, Nintendo Land has so much variety and quality to offer that it is impossible not to find at least half a dozen attractions that will please you greatly, and its integration with Miiverse is also great.

Sonic & All-Stars Racing Transformed

Sonic and company achieve a very nice distinction with this installment of the hedgehog's racing series: it manages to, alongside Diddy Kong Racing and Crash Team Racing, climb its way to a quality level of kart racing gameplay that can be fairly compared to the Mario Kart titles. The game packs a whole lot of content and modes, but the highlight here have got to be its ridiculous over-the-top tracks where pretty much anything can happen. Not only are there thousands of branching paths, but tracks barely remain the same all throughout the race as they are often destroyed or transformed into a whole different beast, which allows Sonic and his crew to navigate one track by shifting from a car, to a hovercraft and to a plane. In addition, it is also worth noting that differently from Mario Kart and its set-in-stone level of difficulty, this is a game where difficulty can be adjusted on the fly, meaning that the single-player experience can last for a really long time for those who are looking to get three stars all throughout the game.

And finally, here it is:

I am still missing Lego City, because I have yet to find it, but I cannot complain much when I have four great shiny new games to play.

My Nintendo ID is EarthbounderBR. If you have a Wii U, leave your ID below and I will add you. Impressions about the games and the fantastic Miiverse will be coming soon.

Finally, nearly four months into the year of 2013, here is my very first review. With Dark Moon finished, I am planning on buying a Wii U relatively soon (maybe on this very month), as with Lego City being out I now have an excellent and compelling reason to own one. I am planning on picking up the Deluxe version along with four titles: Assassin's Creed III, New Super Mario Bros. U, Sonic & Sega All-Stars Racing, and Lego City Undercover. I could have bought the system earlier, but I decided to wait a few months for the price to drop, and now that it is being sold for around 550 dollars (that is an excellent prince over here) the system has finally reached a price level that I feel like it is reasonable. Anyway, enjoy the review, look at the pretty pictures and recommend it if you like it.

Warning! Huge review approaching!

A very well-designed mixture of darkness and humor

Differently from every single home console released by Nintendo up to that point, the Nintendo Gamecube did not feature a major Mario adventure among its starting lineup of games. Coincidentally, the system that usually stands as the black sheep of Nintendo's hardware collection - if you exclude the virtual boy - kicked things off with an often overlooked character: Luigi. Appreciation for Luigi's Mansion would steadily grow over the years, and for a game that originally appeared as an average launch title, the franchise ended up with a surprising and deserving amount of voices supporting an eventual return. More than a decade later, Dark Moon comes around to expand on the concept of the first game and give it a heavy infusion of the clumsy personality that Luigi has gained during the past few years on his RPG incursions. The result of it all is the very best game the Nintendo 3DS has to offer up to this point in its lifespan.

The game, seemingly eager to display its glorious blend of eerie environments and slapstick humor, shows its nature from the get go. Luigi sits at home watching TV when, suddenly, Professor E. Gadd interrupts the signal to summon Luigi to yet another creepy quest. The ghosts of Evershade Valley had been exhibiting a very peaceful behavior in recent years. Unfortunately, during one apparently normal night, the spirits begin to act up; destroying everything in their surroundings and haunting the abandoned locations of the valley. An awfully frightened Luigi tries to hilariously deny the invitation for an adventure, but the Professor promptly transports Nintendo's second plumber to the valley and - thankfully, for us - sends him ghost-hunting around the valley.

Instead of featuring one large mansion where the whole adventure takes place, Next Level Games cleverly decided to split the game in five distinct manors. The geographical separation of the houses allowed the developers to create one overall theme for each one of them, and that wider potential for creation was very well explored. While the first location is your average haunted house, the others go on to explore themes like ice, plants and clockwork; the last of which strays away from the regular assortment of Mario themes and ventures into a theme that is fantastically adequate for a haunted universe. The mansions are throughly impressive in both their visual and structural design and they never cease to amaze: every turn and corner hides the possibility of a surprise and the rooms are packed to the brim with objects and contraptions that Luigi can interact with, which often generate some truly funny results.

The amount of stuff that can be pushed, pulled, sucked, and moved is enough for the mansions to receive many accolades for stellar attention to detail, but while Next Level Games was clearly worried about the finer grains of the mansions' environments, they also took excellent care of how they were built. Set up in ways that tend to remember some Zelda dungeons, moving around the mansions becomes a puzzle in its self. Invariably, during the game's missions, the location that serves as Luigi's current destination will be neatly highlighted in the map. Getting there, though, is usually not as straightforward as the map will let on, as it will involve deep exploration of the surrounding rooms, puzzle solving, the finding of keys, ghost encounters and other events. Once they are cleared, the mansions will not seem like they are enormous, but the game is so densely filled up with mystery and riddles that at least three hours are required to clear each one of them.

In respect to the game's handheld nature, Next Level Games took a decision that certainly causes diverging effects. The game is completely structured around missions, usually featuring six for each house plus a boss battle and a mindless ghost hunt against the clock. The benefits of such an approach is that, besides making it possible to play the game in short bursts, the game gains a lot of replayability because players are awarded a rank for each missions based on money acquired, ghosts captured, time spent and health lost; and the mansions go through some significant changes between missions. However, as Luigi has to return to E. Gadd's lab every twenty minutes, the game loses a bit of its haunting immersion - slightly harming the company's environmental work - and occasionally does not allow players to go into certain areas of the mansion during the course of some missions, which goes against the natural urge players will get to explore the very well-done locations. Also negatively affecting the game's sense of isolation is the fact that E. Gadd is often calling up Luigi in order to give him details of where to go and what to do. While the interruptions do diminish as the game advances, they remain an issue through the adventure.

Those flaws, though noticeable, are ridiculously tiny compared to the game's flooring qualities. Everything in Dark Moon is nicely done. The controls are tightly done and make battling ghosts a huge thrill; a positive factor that is multiplied by the nice variety of ghosts that the game throws at Luigi. The simple controls and Luigi's limited set of instruments - he only packs his trustworthy glorified vacuum cleaner and a flashlight that either makes environments brighter or reveals hidden objects - are used to an incredible degree, and the quantity of different puzzles that the developers were able to come up with having only a few tools at the character's command is beyond remarkable. Luigi's Mansion: Dark Moon is one of those games that amaze every step of the way, and whatever issues individual players may encounter during the adventure will be easily overshadowed by everything else.

If on the creative front Dark Moon is spectacular, its technical departments shine equally bright and set new high standards for the system. The game's visuals are absolutely astounding. The fact that the game takes place in tiny rooms instead of open environments allowed Next Level Games to go all out with textures, effects and details without fear that the game's rendering performance would suffer. Few Nintendo games have ever offered such detailed scenes, and delicate precision with each lights and shadows have been implemented - a key factor for a generally dark game - is quite a sight. The music and sound design are also very well done. Taking advantage of low-key compositions and punctual sound effects, the game crafts one tense environment which has its darkness balanced by the cartoonish sounds emitted by ghosts, Luigi's always amusing voice tonality and the fact that he often likes to hum along with the tune that is playing on the background.

Where Luigi's Mansion is most impressive, though, is in its animation. Anyone who stops to pay attention to the way Luigi moves will certainly burst out laughing at how he walks, runs and looks around in ridiculous fright. The highlight comes around in the small custscenes that punctuate the exploration. The mansions are full of holes in the wall through which Luigi can check out what ghosts are doing when they think he is not looking. Those little peeks into their behavior tend to be accompanied by comical cutscenes of their wild interactions with each other and it is easy to lose a few minutes looking at what they are doing while taking in the cleverness of it all.

If an adventure that can stretch out for over fifteen hours - especially if players decide to go after the collectible gems and boos - is not enough to satisfy the needs created by more than one decade of waiting, then the game packs a very solid multiplayer mode. In it, four players explore mansions that can range from five floors to twenty-five in three different modes that share the same goal: finding a way to get to the top of the mansion by unlocking doors, capturing ghosts and enduring the many challenges of working as a team. The mansions in the multiplayer mode are randomly generated, which adds a good deal of value to the whole experience even if there is a limited set of rooms from which mansions are created. However, as the fun comes from working together with other Luigis, capturing ghosts and defeating a boss every five floors, the multiplayer remains a strong and alluring option either as a break from the main adventure or as a source of fresh fun after the game is done.

Two years into the 3DS' life, Luigi's Mansion is, by one considerable margin, the best and most complete game to show up on the system. If more than a decade ago the lack of a Mario game on the Gamecube's launch lineup was a reason to delay the purchase of the system, this time around Luigi trumps his brother and becomes the ultimate reason why owning a 3DS is worth it.

Album: Lust for Life
Artist: Iggy Pop
Released: August 29th, 1977
Highlights: Lust for Life, The Passenger, Neighborhood Threat

As The Stooges came to an end, the self-destructive Iggy Pop found himself nearly drown in drug-related problems and locked in a mental institution. However, when 1976 came around, the man was rescued by his longtime friend and collaborator - David Bowie - and taken to Berlin; an incredibly artistic city where Bowie would build a remarkable part of his career and Pop would find the force to start from scratch as a solo artist. The first product of that relationship, "The Idiot", was a great record, but one that did not display Iggy's full power, as it was too focused on electronic gimmicks and mid-tempo songs. "Lust for Life", the second one, was the unleashing of a force that was seemingly dead after The Stooges vanished into the annals of rock history.

It is true that, here, Pop never sounds as threatening as he did with The Stooges. However, in more than half of the album's tunes, he goes back to being one aggressive singer. Aside from "Sixteen", he does not reach the same level of attack that he commonly pulled off with his former band, but songs like "The Passenger" and its unforgettable riff, "Some Weird Sin" and its upbeat mood, and "Neighborhood Threat" show Iggy in a sustainable level of mad energy, one that still works as a great window to his personality and that provides the necessary changes all artists must go through. Much like "The Idiot", the album does offer a few songs that are a little bit too flashy for the likes of Iggy, but they are, by no means, bad or detrimental to this fantastic work.

Album: By the Way
Artist: Red Hot Chili Peppers
Released: July 9th, 2002
Highlights: Universally Speaking, Dosed, The Zephyr Song, Venice Queen

If "Californication" hinted that the Red Hot Chili Peppers had realized that their funk-oriented sound had run its course, and what a run that was, "By the Way" was the full acknowledgement of that concept. Out goes the funk, solely represented here by "Throw Away Your Television", "Can't Stop" and, to some degree, the title song; and in come a horde of fantastic melodic pop songs. It marks the point where John Frusciante exerts the biggest influence in the band's material, and the result is the strongest record the group has ever produced.

The more serious sound ends up sacrificing the band's knack for humor. Anthony Kiedis drops his youthful image for one hour, and transforms into a contemplative person. The record's direction turns out to be quite a challenge to him, someone often fairly criticized for the narrow limits of his spectrum of interpretations, and he does quite well. He is not the only one that surprises in a newfound versatility, though; the whole band does so. As a consequence, the album's central development is exactly that: a group pushing its limits to unimaginable places, and coming up with a set of songs that their less mature and more free-spirited version could not have done. If the idea of a serious Red Hot Chili Peppers sounds absurd, one listen to the six-minute masterpiece that is "Venice Queen" should be enough to change anyone's mind.

Album: Last Splash
Artist: The Breeders
Released: August 31st, 1993
Highlights: Cannonball, Flipside, Divine Hammer, Drivin' on 9

The Breeders were Kim Deal's opportunity to both entertain herself while the Pixies were taking a break between records, and a chance for her to showcase her solid songwriting skills. Though she wrote the Pixies' first hit - "Gigantic" - she never really had much creative space inside the band. By 1993, the Pixies were gone, and with full-time dedication The Breeders second album, "Last Splash" was born. If the alternative bands that walked the path between underground and mainstream already had a loose, simple sound; The Breeders had those two factors multiplied, as they came to be as a side project for a great composer to expose her talent with freedom.

Showing that Deal had a great influence on the Pixies' sound, it is possible to find some of the band's signature silent-and-loud song progression here. Some of the tunes could have easily fit into the Pixies' first two records. Kim, however, gives the album her own signature by employing melodies that are far more likely to break the mainstream wall than anything Francis could have written. If the album has any flaw, is that a couple of its songs - namely "Roi" and "Mad Lucas" - are experiments that do not go anywhere special and are a little bit too lengthy for a band that thrives on simple melodies sang by sweet female voices that contrast with a heavy sound. When The Breeders try to push past their limitations, they fall awkwardly to the floor; when they are happy within the confines of their genre, they excel. Fortunately, 90% of the album is composed of the latter.

Album: Warning
Artist: Green Day
Released: October 3rd, 2000
Highlights: Warning, Castaway, Waiting, Minority

Before they succumbed to delusions of grandeur, for the good and for the bad, Green Day produced "Warning". Back in the twilight of the millennium, the album's release was significant because it found the band topping the quality bar that was set by "Dookie". Nearly fifteen years later, it has become even more remarkable, as not only is it the only Green Day album without any added gimmicks to be released in the past thirteen years, but it is also the last record the band wrote before transforming into one of modern rock's biggest acts three years later with the ambitious and great "American Idiot"; a fact that, for the more radical fans, makes it the last honest and spontaneous record made by the band.

Historical implications aside, "Warning" is a lesson in song crafting. It is devoid of any surprising new tricks or anything of the sort, but the band has never sounded this focused in their ultimate purpose, which is to produce songs that naturally alternate between political statements and good-hearted, sometimes politically incorrect, humor. Armstrong's ability to be funny is a sensible gift, because it draws a younger audience, while letting older folks know - intentionally or unintentionally - that he does not take what he says too seriously. "Warning" is far looser than any of its predecessors; it is not worried about being punk enough, or extremely meaningful in any way. Its sense of carelessness goes very well along with the band's silly posture; something that highlights their always-present songwriting skills.

I mistakenly thought that, as usual, it would take me a week or so to get Luigi's Mansion: Dark Moon. After all, games only tend to show up around these parts ten to fifteen days after their American release. To my surprise, though, not only did a few stores have the game in stock right away for a reasonable price (75 dollars is a reasonable price for a 3DS game here), but they were also throwing events to celebrate its release. Needless to say, I quickly ran to one of those stores and bought the game. And, for the first time for as long as I can remember, I have a Nintendo game on launch day. Maybe Brazil is finally getting somewhere in terms of gaming.

Anyway, let's move into the most interesting part of this post: the game itself. Slightly over three hours into Luigi's manor explorations, I think it is safe to say that Dark Moon is probably the 3DS' biggest and most consistent game so far. If the original Luigi's Mansion was already gloomy and humorous, Dark Moon takes it to a whole new level. Seeing Luigi be scared to death either as E. Gadd explains his next mission to him, or as he walks into a dark room only to stumble into a ghost is absolutely hilarious. In addition, the mansions (or the one I have visited so far) are filled with traps and contraptions that cause poor Luigi to go through some amusing situations.

Speaking of the mansions, it is clear and easy to see that they have been very well designed. The first one has a very good size, and its layout is comparable to that of a Zelda dungeon. The game makes it pretty obvious which room Luigi needs to head to, but getting there is often not as linear as it seems to be. The place is simply packed with hidden passages, shortcuts and puzzles that need to dealt with if Luigi is to arrive at his destination. As if that wasn't enough, all rooms are filled with objects that react upon interaction, and if those interactions are done properly, Luigi will come across tons of cash which, while not mandatory, will give him poltergust updates and a better rank at the end of each segment.

The game is neatly divided into missions, I think there are eight for each mansion, and that goes nicely along the concept of a handheld game. However, at the same time, the game fails to feature a good amount of checkpoints, which works against its portable nature. Some missions can take over 20 minutes to clear, which is all good, but checkpoints are rare, which creates two problems: it makes it hard to play the game in short bursts, and if Luigi comes to pass out, a good portion of the mission will have to be replayed. Besides, at the beginning of each mission, Luigi is sent back to a point close to the start of the mansion, which forces players into a lot of backtracking. Fortunately, the mansions are constantly going through slight changes for each mission, which basically nullifies the negative effects of the backtracking.

And since we are on the topic, the game offers a lot of incentives for players to go back and explore the mansions some more after they are cleared. Their incredible and intriguing design obviously helps a lot in that regard, but the game multiplies that factor by awarding a rank to players for each mission (based on time of completion, ghosts caught and etc), placing a hidden Boo waiting to be captured in each of the mansion's eight levels, and hiding a dozen or so rare gems around the place, gems which require a whole lot of work to be found.

So far, Luigi's Mansion Dark Moon is looking absolutely fantastic and it seems like a strong candidate to be the best game of the system so far. While that award is not guaranteed, I can safely say it is certainly the best looking and most immersive one.

While most software companies only have a few franchises to take care of, Nintendo has developed an unparalleled quantity of easily recognizable titles. Once upon a time, there was only Mario struggling against the giant menace that was Donkey Kong. Eventually, the two characters went separate ways, and ever since those days, Nintendo's properties have grown in numbers. And while the pace - to the disappointment of some fans has not been exactly constant, the result of the combined creative outbursts through the course of over thirty years has put the company in the unique situation where it is faced with two options: either completely drop some of its most recognizable franchises, or hand them over to somebody else to take care of.

As a perfect reflection of the modern business era, Nintendo has adopted outsourcing as a major part of its strategy to keep providing players quality first-party franchises in a steady pace. And much like all responsible companies do, regardless of the business they are in, Nintendo keeps a close look on the teams handling its titles outside of the Big N's Kyoto walls. Other than increasing productivity, that strategy has a second, much more interesting, effect that is directly felt by gamers who have been following those franchises for a while; and that is the considerable benefit that is gained by having another company - with a very different philosophy, which is usually contained to a certain degree by Nintendo - experiment with a franchise with which many of their developers grew up with.

Historically, the results of outsourcing have been generally good, even though they do not always show a considerable change in the franchise's established structure. Such was the case of the twin Zelda titles released for the Game Boy Color: Oracle of Seasons and Oracle of Ages. Both are excellent games, but little to nothing about them shows a significant change implemented by the minds at Capcom. The split between an action-focused title (Seasons); and one with tougher puzzles (Ages), was a great move, but neither one of those factors was exactly new to the series. The other Capcom Zelda experiment followed the same path. Minish Cap was a visual delight, and it had a fantastic core concept, but there was no significant shift for the series.

Perhaps, the three finest examples of how much a game can gain by outsourcing lie in the Metroid franchise. Though it might be hard to make such a conclusion, it is possible to say that the Metroid Prime series would never come to exist had it been developed by Nintendo. Not only are first-person games a specialty of American developers, Nintendo had also no experience whatsoever with that genre. The wonderful discovery of the unknown Retro Studios was the best move the company has done in the past decade, and it paid off marvelously as they have, so far, proven to be able to give new fantastic life to franchises that were stuck in the 16-bit era by either completely overhauling it, in the case of Metroid; or by keeping its roots intact, in the case of Donkey Kong Country, which turns out to be itself a franchise originally created far away from Nintendo's headquarters, back in Rare's English home.

F-Zero is another case of a franchise that experienced a strong growth outside Nintendo. F-Zero GX came to be by the hands of Sega, and the result was, by far, the best game of the series and, possibly, the finest racing title to ever hit a Nintendo console. Once again, F-Zero GX benefited from something Nintendo would have probably not done, which is to turn their franchise into a gargantuan racing game with brutal difficulty, single-player focus and a story mode. Sega unleashed the true potential of F-Zero, something that inside Nintendo would have probably been kept restrained by the company's often conservative approach.

While the Metroid series houses the finest examples of the benefits of outsourcing, it contrasts that by owning the most polemic came that was a fruit of that approach: Metroid Other M. Needless to say, it is unthinkable that Nintendo would have treated the franchise as a cinematic action-packed tale with loads of voice acting and more than ninety minutes of cutscenes. The company noticed Samus' potential as a character with a lot of story to tell, something that was increased by the mystery factor that always surrounded her tragic and courageous life. In the knowing they did not have the expertise to handle such a direction, the game was promptly handed over by Team Ninja, which readily removed Metroid's explorative nature and backtracking, and turned Samus into a pit of sentiments. Other M is the most blatant case of how different minds and a different philosophy can affect a game, and, in this case, results were mixed at best.

Perhaps not as controversial, but with an equally questionable quality, Star Fox Adventures is shunned by many, but beloved by others. As beautiful and well-produced as the game was, the final product felt incomplete. Fox hopped out of his airwing, a sinful move to many fans, and - to make matters worse - he set out on an adventure that felt a whole lot like a Zelda game, but that never really got to the point of being as exciting, clever or impressive as Link's usual journeys. While it did have fantastic moments, the game felt a bit sour as the uniqueness of a traditional Star Fox game was lost and replaced by a generic Zelda-like game instead. Fox would try to recover three years later with Star Fox: Assault, but the game lacked the replay value of the first two Star Fox titles and some of the missions were lackluster. Namco never got a second shot at the franchise, which is a shame, because Assault showed promise. If they were given the opportunity to fix the little flaws and to listen to what fans had to say, they could have created a truly remarkable package within a few years.

More than simply adding something extra to a game, outsourcing also serves as a way for the company to internalize some of the knowledge acquired by its partnerships. In Nintendo's case, there is no better example than the Mario RPG series. What started as a joint experiment with the RPG masters of Square, has transformed into a franchise that is developed more closely to Nintendo, by Intelligent Systems, in the case of Paper Mario; and by AlphaDream, in the case of the Mario and Luigi series. The results have been fantastic, as Mario's RPG bids have produced a handful of games that are among the best ever, such is the case of Super Mario RPG, the first two Paper Mario titles, Mario and Luigi: Superstar Saga and the astonishing Bowser's Inside Story. For a company that had never tried its hand on an RPG, Nintendo and its subsidiaries have turned into efficient machines.

The most recent Paper Mario - Sticker Star - though, shows that sometimes some sort of relearning is necessary, and in situations like these it might be a good idea to shake things up a little bit by allowing other companies into the development process. An outsider's view might be very effective in pointing out what exactly are the necessary measures to put a franchise that has been struggling back on its track. It might not be the case of the Mario RPGs, which have one dud in many attempts, but other franchises would certainly fit the bill quite nicely.

Outsourcing can have a number of distinct results and benefits. One thing is for sure, though: it is rather intriguing and exciting to know that a big franchise is being turned over to another company, as the possibilities of changes and considerable developments rise. What franchises would you like to see outsourced? Who would you want to see handling them?

Just four days away from the release of Luigi's Mansion 2, there is a strong sense of confidence surrounding the game. Even though the original came out to meet average reviews, mostly due to its length, the second game of the series is highly anticipated by most 3DS owners, and a big portion of that audience is more than willing to bet that the game will fulfill the expectations. One could blame the high level of hype on the handheld's lack of great releases as of late, but a less pessimistic outlook would probably identify three reasons behind all the excitement: the fact that more than a decade has gone by ever since Luigi last stepped into a haunted mansion, the reappearance of a beloved character staring in a game once more and the trust that Nintendo fans have developed in regard to Next Level Games.

By taking a superficial look at the Canadians' track record, one would find little to no reasons to be that thrilled. The company has mostly built software related to popular licensed franchises, such as NHL, Spider-Man, Transformers, Tom Clancy, and Captain America. Unsurprisingly, the results those games had were far from spectacular. On the other end of the spectrum, though, the company has found an excellent stride in the use of Nintendo franchises. It all started with Super Mario Strikers, back on the Nintendo Gamecube, where the friendly nature of the Mario sports games was viciously swapped by grit and dashes of violence, which often humorously turned the soccer field into some sort of fighting arena while; leaving the soccer ball lonely in the middle of the landscape.

The original Strikers' most distinct feature was, at the same time, its glory and its downfall. The game's simplicity evened the competition between friends, but it provided a somehow shallow gameplay with a tiny learning curve. Their next attempt at a Nintendo game, the sequel to Strikers, gained tons of depth, showing that the company was very successful in tracking and eliminating the flaws of their previous product - a task that is more difficult than it sounds, and it winded up as a very robust product and one of the best Mario sports games. Nintendo, much like its audience, was apparently able to detect the company's proficiency, because their following challenge was the biggest one both in terms of responsibility and level of difficulty: translating a long-absent franchise, Punch-Out, into a modern game without letting go of the series' delightfully ridiculous degree of simplicity.

Punch-Out was glorious in its visuals, precise in its offensive stereotypes, extremely addictive in its classic gameplay, and fantastically surprising for veterans that thought they had seen the last of the franchise. Luigi's Mansion 2 might not be that big of a challenge: its structure is adequate for modern times, its gameplay offers plenty of room for expansion without disfiguring the franchise, and Luigi is more recognizable and marketable to the average audience than Little Mac and company. With Nintendo ever spreading its wings and coming up with new games, there is an increasing need to delegate the development of some of its franchises, and Next Level Games is in a clear ascending path in the hierarchy of Nintendo's juggernauts.

The success of Luigi's Mansion 2 might mean the beginning of the rebirth of another Nintendo franchise in Canadian lands. There are plenty of candidates.

Album: Zen Arcade
Artist: Husker Du
Released: July 1st, 1984
Highlights: Something I Learned Today, Chartered Trips, Pink Turns to Blue, Turn on the News

Arguably, Husker Du and R.E.M. were the two most vital bands for the transition between the post-punk movement and the birth of alternative rock. However, while the latter went on to achieve commercial success in 1988 when they signed a contract with a big label, the former - perhaps due to the fact that they stayed true to the roots of the not-very-accessible 80s hardcore - ended being the Velvet Underground of that era: vastly important to anyone that started making music at the time, but criminally overlooked by everybody else. "Zen Arcade" is very remarkable for two somehow connected reasons. First, it was here that Husker Du found their stride and solidified the characteristics that would make them stand out; and second, it is the album where hardcore stretched its tentacles into something more audacious, a rock opera of trash music, sort of a ragged younger brother to The Who's "Tommy".

As expected from any great album that features over twenty tracks, there is a lot of variety to find here. There are numbers that still present the authenticity of sheer teenage anger that was present in their debut LP which goes well with the album's story of a teenager who runs away from home, but there are also plenty of tracks that bring the fantastically odd combination of weirdly mixed fast-paced instruments with very melodic vocal performances, something that would go on to become a staple for the band. Where the album is most surprising, though, is how Husker Du, within the limitations of their two-minute songs and three-man lineup, could perform a few songs worthy of a rock opera, with constant changes of tempo and occasional melodic interludes, not to mention some wild experimentation. "Zen Arcade" might not paint a picture of the hardcore scene, but it does show how at least one band managed to take advantage of the characteristics of the style in order to create a signature sound to call its own.

Album: Them Crooked Vultures
Artist: Them Crooked Vultures
Released: November 16th, 2009
Highlights: Mind Eraser No Chaser, New Fang, Bandoliers, Gunman

Josh Homme, one of the greatest minds in modern music; Dave Grohl, the best drummer of a generation; and John Paul Jones, one of the finest studio musicians ever and the bass player of a little band named Led Zeppelin. Them Crooked Vultures are not simply a supergroup; they redefine what it is to be a supergroup. Though all of the album's songs are credited to the trio, it is pretty obvious who has taken charge of the monster, and that man is Josh Homme. There is a whole lot of Queens of the Stone Age in the album, and not just because of the person who sings the songs, but also due to Grohl's drumming - reminiscent of the band's "Songs for the Deaf" era - and the heavy sound accompanied by ballad-like melodies and one or two falsettos during the choruses, which lightly float midair when opposed to the aggressiveness of most verses.

Jones' bass-playing, and the unmistakable appearance of his keyboards (among many other instruments) adds layers of flavor to a signature hard rock and brings occasional memories of Led Zeppelin's "Trampled Underfoot", the band's funk masterpiece. If there is one key difference between Them Crooked Vultures and Queens of the Stone Age, it is thematic, as songs here are much less sexual - at least in their lyrics as they would tend to be on Queens' album. The result is a set of songs that is much stronger than "Era Vulgaris" - the 2007, and latest, album of Homme's group. As somebody that finds inspiration and motivation in working with different people, as evidenced by Queen's constant lineup changes, Homme seems to have found a whole new degree of excitement inside of him by going into a studio alongside Grohl and Jones.

Album: The Complete Recordings
Artist: Robert Johnson
Released: August 28th, 1990
Highlights: Sweet Home Chicago, Come on in My Kitchen, Me and the Devil Blues, Stop Breakin' Down Blues, Love in Vain

Robert Johnson was a ghost. Much like the ancient heroes of important mythologies, the path he followed was rebuilt by individual reports and tales that, as far as we know, could refer to many bluesmen wandering around the US back then. Tales that, when added up, gave birth to a legend of erratic behavior and free spirit. There is one thing, though, that undoubtedly lets us know that he, in fact, existed: his twenty-nine recorded songs during the mid-thirties; tunes that only went on to gain significance a few decades later when it influenced musicians around the globe. His twenty-nine compositions, along with a few alternate versions, were later joined to form the definitive and complete picture of his career: "The Complete Recordings".

Johnson showed unbelievable mastery of the guitar. Listening to one of his songs, one might be propelled to say how fantastic he and his band were, when in fact Johnson was a lonely itinerant artist. He made one guitar sound like many, and he sang the blues with a heart and soul that only a man of his background could achieve. He wasn't just a master in the art of playing and singing; he was genius in writing too, and nowhere is that clearer than in "Love in Vain", Johnson's heartbreaking ballad that thirty years later, without many changes, would be made onto a very successful song by The Rolling Stones. Besides being romantic, Johnson seamlessly mixes sweet melodies with lines deeply infused with sexual innuendo - a standard for blues - and also goes on to write some extremely bleak and haunting melodic arches. Robert Johnson's twenty-seven years of life are, here, neatly summed up in nearly two hours of fantastic blues, and it shall serve as an eternal mandatory source of inspiration and lessons to all great rock artist and fans.

The DS and the Wii gave Nintendo a level of simultaneous success on both the handheld and home console market that the company had never experienced before. In fact, their commercial achievements came so seamlessly that it made the whole ordeal seem like a piece of cake. Not even the most optimistic analysts would have dared to say Nintendo would repeat that kind of success; nonetheless, it comes as a surprise that, with their two new systems out, the company is definitely struggling to find solid footing on this brand new generation, even when the competition is still mostly warming up their engines to start the real race.

The 3DS, as widely expected, is confidently dominating the handheld market, although it is having some blatant problems in building a strong library of titles and leaving a noteworthy mark that sets it apart from its predecessor. Meanwhile, after selling very well during its first two months of life - almost equaling the Wii's launch numbers - the Wii U, before it could even celebrate its three-month anniversary, landed right on its face by moving only 57,000 units in January, therefore recording historically bad sales numbers.

While the sales do not mean Nintendo will suddenly go third-party, or shut down the company out of embarrassment and give away their IPs as spoils to other victorious companies, it does send a message of warning to their executives. What the numbers undoubtedly show is that, unlike the Wii, its successor has not been warmly embraced by the expanded crowd Nintendo reached out to with the Wiimote. The company set their bait on their money-making blue ocean, but the fish are not falling for it yet, they are either fully satisfied with what was previously offered to them, or simply trying to figure out what exactly is the nature of this new bait.

The story told by the sales is very straightforward: Nintendo fans who are early adopters are already aboard and set to sail, and those who aren't remain waiting either for a price drop or for the landing of a huge franchise; meanwhile, casual gamers are simply not buying it, both literally and figuratively. The inert fans will eventually come as long as Nintendo does what they always do, which is to release solid first-party games. The company's concern and focus, though, needs to be on the Wii's expanded audience and how they perceive the Nintendo Wii U.

With its new system, Nintendo tried to find a better balance between what their loyal fans and casual gamers love, and nowhere is that clearer than in the game that comes packed with the system: NintendoLand. Similarly to Smash Bros, it is a game that has "fan service" written all over it, and by pairing up the world of Nintendo with the simplicity inherited from Wii Sports the company hoped to strike both audiences at once, but while one was marveled, the other did not react, or simply did not even notice it. And to top it all off, in comes the Wii U GamePad; a controller that carries a lot of potential along with it, but that replaced the simplicity of the Wiimote with a huge tablet adorned with a scary amount of buttons.

The system's dubious nature is aggravated by its marketing. Besides not drawing casuals the way the Wii used to do, its odd branding - using a letter instead of a number, which would naturally convey the idea of a progression of versions - does not send a clear message, and - as a consequence - it is a known fact that a huge part of the audience cannot even identify the Wii U as a brand new system; it is the ripple effect of a questionable marketing direction that showed its claws as soon as E3 2011 - the console's first appearance - where, by the end of the show, not even a big part of the specialized media could tell exactly what had just happened.

There is still plenty of time to address this situation, and the remedy can come in a huge number of forms. For the general audience, Wii Fit U is currently being developed, a new version of Wii Sports could also cause a considerable commotion if it is ever announced, and the coming Mario Kart is sure to move tons of hardware. Meanwhile, 2013 looks like a very promising year for the system, with Lego City, Rayman Legends, Pikmin 3, Bayonetta 2, Monster Hunter 3 Ultimate, The Wonderful 101, and others promising to deliver a very solid stream of quality software, not to mention whatever the company has in store for this year's E3.

It is true that while Nintendo slips, the company is fast approaching, but its main concerns rest with an audience that Sony and Microsoft seemingly still do not care much about. So Nintendo is left alone to find against itself and its poor marketing moves.