Welcome to the MyMedia Around the Network feature! Some of you may remember this as the MyMedia Community Update, and it is essentially the same thing with an emphasis on type of content rather than each site.
This will be published each Monday afternoon/evening to keep you up to date with everything that has happened across MyMedia in the past 7 days. We'll also update you on what is planned for the week ahead.
Enjoy!
MyMedia Breaking!
The Rebirth of MyGames
A brand-new and upgraded MyGames has now gone live! MyGames has all of the latest XBOX 360, Playstation 3 and Wii news, as well as the latest reviews and blogs from across MyMedia.
So, if you're a regular on MyWii but want all of your XBOX 360 and Playstation 3 news and reviews, go to MyGames to stay up-to-date!
Reviews
The Conduit Review
We Say
The Conduit is a good game that wants to be something more without trying hard enough. The single player feature stunning visuals and almost perfect controls, yet the gameplay is bland and repetitive; it is also easily completed within a night. The online mode is great for the Wii and will have you playing online for months to come if you’re a Wii only gamer. Make no mistake, there’s nothing special about the online component if you’re a seasoned FPS gamer on another console this generation. However, High Voltage Software is targeting the Wii exclusive gamer, this one is for you guys!
Location
Read More at MyWii
Guitar Hero Greatest Hits Review
We Say
Guitar Hero Greatest Hits has a great track list, but there’s the feeling that it would have been better off merely as a downloadable expansion pack for its predecessors. The direction of the career mode can be applauded, as it’s worked well here as it did in GH: Metallica. It’s great to play some of the classics from the first few Guitar Hero games using the drums and microphone and the inclusion of Expert+ is a great one. There are a few problems with the note structures and overall the gameplay is too easy at times. Still, the title is a worthy of a purchase if you’re new to the franchise and need a quick introduction before Guitar Hero V hits shelves.
Location
Read More at MyPS3
Read More at MyWii
Read More at My360
Let's Tap Review
We Say
Overall, Let’s Tap is an intriguing collection of mini-games which takes advantage of an entirely unique method of playing the Wii, with no additional peripherals required – other than a tissue box! Unlike some other Wii control methods, the ‘tapping’ is surprisingly precise and is very well suited to most of the games, as well as the menu navigation. The five games included – Tap Runner, Rhythm Tap, Bubble Voyager, Silent Blocks and Visualiser offer some very different ways of utilizing tapping, but tend to decrease in appeal in that order, with the last two adding little value.
Location
Read More at MyWii
WiiWare Quick Review
This week we review
- Strong Bad's Cool Game for Attractive People - Episode 5: 8-Bit is Enough
- Gradius ReBirth
- Lonpos
Location
Read More at MyWii
Blogs
They Don't Care About Us
We Say
The journey of an Australian Wii Gamer has been a long and bumpy road, full of ridiculously late release dates (RE: Super Smash Bros Brawl) lack of “hardcore” titles, and things don’t seem to be shaping up to brighter horizons. Nintendo have just announced news regarding release dates for the highly anticipated Punch Out!!! and the new racing title Excitebots
Location
Read More at MyWii
Return of the Adventure?
We Say
Adventure games dominated the PC gaming scene in the early 1990’s. Their complex stories, memorable characters, uncanny ability to sit on the edge of clever dialogue and puzzling challenges seemed to be the formula for success. Companies such as Lucasarts and Sierra On-Line ran ahead of the pack releasing what are still today, some of the greatest adventure games of all time.
Location
Read More at MyFrag
Articles
Nintendo “Controlling” the Evolution
We Say
It doesn’t really matter if you’re a Nintendo, Sony or Microsoft fan you still have to sit back and appreciate all of the innovative ideas Nintendo have brought to the industry through their game controller design. From the cross shaped D-pad to motion sensing in the Wii remote Nintendo’s “outside of the box” thinking has helped shape the way we play videogames across all platforms; one could even say that Nintendo are the trend setters of gaming. Given Nintendo’s contribution to the industry it only seems fitting to take a look at all of the controllers that they have released and the influence they have had with other manufactures
Location
Read More at MyWii
Top 10 WiiWare Titles Worth Your Hard Earned Points
We Say
Over the past few months we have been checking out every WiiWare and DSiWare game available on the Australian market. We’ve caught up with most of the back catalogue (only about 5 or so WiiWare titles to go), and now it’s time to take a look at what games are really worth your hard earned cash.
Location
Read More at MyWii
Virtual Console/WiiWare/DSiWare Releases (17/July/09)
We Say
Welcome to this week's Nintendo Shopping Channel update, where we cover what games have been made available to download for both your Nintendo Wii and DSi.
Location
Read More at MyWii
MyDS
Medals
We have no new medals from the past 7 days across MyMedia Games. However, there are new badges!
Member Badges
Info
Introducing the new MyWii badges! These new badges will be awarded based on the length of your MyWii membership and the contributions you have made to the site. They will appear in every post under your avatar as the admin, news champ and PWNAGE badges do. There are very similar badges across My360, MyPS3 and MyDS.
Location
Check out the new badges at MyWii
MyPS3
My360
MyDS
Competitions
Events
MyFrag Games Night - Player of the Week
Welcome to the new segment - Player of the Week!
Here we can discuss who in the myfrag group you have played with over the past week, paying special attention to the myfrag games nights, and who you think deserves the POTW badge.
There will be a new one every week and will be announced on Sundays.
Location
MyFrag
Champs - Members of the Month
Reporter of the Month Badge
Info
Welcome MyMedia news contributors,
To recognise the most contributive news writer from our MyMedia communities we're offer a special new badge that only one person will have at a time!
How it works
The reporter of the month will get to wear this exclusive badge for the following month, and will also receive free PWNAGE for that month. Example: The best news writer for July will wear the badge during and receive free PWNAGE in August.
Location
Check out the reporter of the month at
MyWii
MyPS3
My360
MyDS
MyFrag
MyPSP
User Reviewer of the Month coming soon!
Podcast
The Voice
The ninth episode of The Voice is now here!
This week on The Voice Tano & Heller talk about PSN or Xbox Live, which is better. They discuss Nintendo's release schedule in Australia. They also review FUEL, Fight Night Round 4, Hannah Montana, Virtua Tennis and more!
For the next podcast, we will be giving you the opportunity to have your reviews read out and discussed on the show. All you have to do is submit a review to one of our sites. Five will be chosen from across MyMedia to be included.
Don't forget to email us your suggestions, opinions and topics you'd like to discuss to podcast@mymedia.net.au.
Subscribe to it via iTunes
Upcoming Next Week
Reviews
Tiger Woods PGA 10 Review on MyWii
Battlefield 1943 Review on My360 & MyPS3
Wii Sports Resort Review on MyWii
And much more, along with a more organised instalment in Around the MyMedia Network!
20/07/2009
Nintendo E3 2009 Wrap
Nintendo and Sony headlined the busiest day of E3 this year, with back to back keynotes that were sure to keep us entertained on E3 2009 Day 2.
Nintendo started proceedings with a bang. After a slight delay Cammie Dunaway kicked things off with a Mario montage, leading in to the announcement of New Super Mario Bros. Wii. The all new 4 player Super Mario title was demonstrated on stage and will certainly please Nintendo fans of old.
Unfortunately the excitement level dropped directly after as Cammie went on to announce the leaked Pre-E3 Wii Fit Plus - a game that is heading in a 'new direction' and would help people "create a specific workout program that's perfect" for them. Cammie showed off a range of new minigames, including skateboarding and barrel jumping, which finally puts the gamer in Mario's shoes.
Reggie then came on stage to start talking about 'innovation' and went into a promotion for Wii MotionPlus and Wii Sports Resort, two items that were announced at E3 last year. Nintendo's Bill Trinen showed us that Wii Sports Resort will begin with skydiving, and then gave us a look at the very interesting archery and basketball games. Reggie reminded us that third party developers are making use of Wii MotionPlus, including EA with Tiger Woods PGA Tour 10 & Grand Slam Tennis and Sega with Virtua Tennis 2009.
Reggie dropped an interesting statistic by claiming that more 3rd party games were sold on the Wii and DS than any other platforms. Wow! He used Square Enix as an example of upcoming RPGs by showing off a trailer for Final Fantasy Crystal Chronicles: The Crystal Bearer and Kingdom Hears 358/2 Days. Continuing the RPG trend Reggie discussed how Bowser sucks, and this time he literally means it. In Mario & Luigi RPG: Bowser's Inside Story the famous brothers have been shrunk and find themselves inside their nemesis!
The biggest under the radar announcement was that of Golden Sun DS. After a 6 year absence one of the best RPGs of the GBA era is back, and deserved way more excitement than it got.
Cammie replaced the Nintendo of America President on stage to announce Woman's Murder Club, an interactive book for the Nintendo DS. This is all about 'taking risks' and trying new things. It's definitely an interesting concept, and one we'll see more of if it turns out to be a success. Continuing with the DS content she announced COP: The Recruit. An open-world third-person urban crime game, Cop puts players behind the wheel, and on foot, as a street racer who's faced with the choice of returning to his criminal ways, or helping the police. The action packed trailer looked like GTA meets Driver mixed in with some Anime style cutscenes.
The DSi has some interesting unique features, including the ability to download content and 'applications' from an online store. In keeping with this theme Nintendo announced that it is developing a system for users to be able to share DSi pictures on the World Wide Web. Users will be able to take pictures with their DSi and then directly upload them to their Facebook page straight from their DSi console. WarioWare DIY is another DSi exclusive title and will allow players to create their own microgames, using features such as the DSi camera, then send them to their friends locally via Wi-Fi.
Nintendo President Satoru Iwata came on stage and confused everyone. He gave an extremely long, seemingly unnecessary speech, about Nintendo attempting to increase its audience. He said there are three active groups - those who actively play, those who never play and those who might. If gaming is to grow, it must come from the "maybe" group. There are 295 Million people in Japan, Europe and the US actively playing games. Then there's another 145 Million who say they might be involved in games. He continued to discuss non-gamers for quite a while and it seemed as if he didn't really have a point.
Eventually Iwata announced the Wii Vitality Sensor - a device the plugs into the bottom of your Wii Remote and receives information about your heart rate by being attached to your finger.
Super Mario Galaxy 2 was announced to the surprise of many since a new Mario title was announced at the start of the show. Check out the trailer to see Mario running around the spherical world, this time with the help of Yoshi. Super Mario Galaxy 2 is the first true sequel to a 3D Mario title, and the first time two 3D Mario adventures will appear on the same console.
Reggie reads the blogs. He knows we want more mature titles from third party developers. So, he decided to show us three games on the horizon that fit this description, and one of those games was Dead Space Extraction.
Nintendo started the show with a surprise, and ended it with a massive shock, by announcing that they were teaming up with Team Ninja to bring Metroid: Other M to the Nintendo Wii. It's Metroid like you've never seen it before, and as Reggie says, it takes a name you know well and turns it into something new. The game is due out next year and features a mix of 1st and 3rd person gameplay. With that Nintendo concluded their Keynote for E3 2009.
Later in the day, at their roundtable discussion, Shigeru Miyamoto confirmed that a new Wii Zelda title is in development. Don't expect it until 2010 at the very earliest and reports that we won't see it again until next E3 suggest it may be further away than that.
Sony E3 2009 Wrap
The morning continued with Sony's Conference starting at 4am local time. Jack Tretton started proceedings by thanking everyone for coming and stated that they won't be "out done" by anyone. He discussed the success of the PS2 and that Sony was the first company to have 3 successful consoles in the industry at the same time along side the PS3 and PSP. inFamous is just one of 35 titles to come exclusively to the PlayStation 3 in 2009 and looks set to further increase the 13 million PS3 that have already been sold worldwide.
Sony played montages of various upcoming games throughout the entire keynote. Out of all the videos the show early in the piece Heavy Rain received the biggest applause.
The PSP was a major player in the keynote as Sony officially announced "the worst kept secret of E3" the PSP Go. They also confirmed that the new iteration of the handheld wouldn't make the PSP-3000 or UMD obsolete and that they intended to continue to support both in the future, even after the PSP GO is released.
Sony did have a surprise or two in store for us, however, by bringing out Kojima to announce Metal Gear Solid: Peace Walker for PSP. It is set 10 years after the events of MGS3: Snake Eater and is said to be a true sequel to that title. The game is set in 1974, where a powerful group takes over Costa Rica.
Gran Turismo PSP kept the good news coming for PSP fans as it was announced along side the PSP Go and showcased with an impressive trailer. There will be over 800 cars, 35 tracks and 60 layouts of those tracks. The game will also run at 60 fps. It will be a launch title along side the PSP Go.
Finally Agent was announced exclusively for the PlayStation 3. "We have always enjoyed making action games, and with Agent we are making what we believe will be the ultimate action game," said Sam Houser, Founder of Rockstar Games. We didn't get any images or footage but nobody is going to complain about an exclusive game from Rockstar.
Sony dropped a bombshell during their E3 2009 keynote speech when they announced Final Fantasy XIV Online exclusively for the PS3 and PC. A small trailer was shown, although no gameplay was in the trailer. The response to the announcement was one of amazement, as the audience at the keynote didn't quite know how to react to it.
In keeping with the FF theme Sony revealed that Final Fantasy VII is going to be released on the PS Store for download.
The biggest shock of the morning came when Sony announced their new motion controller for the PS3. While the controller was still in the form of an early prototype it worked in a similar way to the Wii Remote. However, with the aid of a camera it appeared to detect movement better than the current Wii Remote. Dr. Richard Marx, creator of the EyeToy, demoed the controller on stage, showing off its real-time movement and how precise it is with the gamer’s swings. We'll post the video of the demonstration shortly.
Sony also announced Mod Nation Racers - a community and creative-focused title from developer United Front Games. The title will be a kart racing title, allowing you to generate your own characters and build your own karts.
Another PS3 exclusive, God of War III will be hitting shelves during March 2010. It just snuck in towards the end of the conference and we're glad it did with a trailer. The gameplay is just as we expect it to be - gory, violent and action-packed! The environments look stunning and the enemies just as massive and aggressive as we remember from the first two mind-blowing titles. And with that Sony Concluded their Keynote.
03/06/2009
MyWii 7.5
Introducing the MyWii 7.5 update. Like the move into MyMedia 7.0 this one is a lot bigger than your average update, so we thought we'd tell you all about it! Keep in mind that a lot of the new features are being trialled, and are still being worked on.
This is the biggest change that's currently in a 'trial' period. All of the latest (popular) news, featured reviews, articles, walkthroughs and blogs are now posted in the 'Latest Features' section on the homepage. Each of these still has its own specific page and will be receiving a toggle feature in the future so you can easily browse the latest of just one section, from the comfort of the homepage.
The forum page now contains more space between each topic and a small version of the last posters avatar. The forum has also seen the introduction of 'most discussed topics'.
A work in progress, the champs page will recognise members who have been great contributors to the community recently. This will be done on a weekly basis as over all 'champs' for that week selected by the admin. On top of that the champs of each section will be recognised automatically, such as most posts, most active members, mosts videos uploaded etc.
The public status box has received an update to include some automated information. Whenever you receive a medal, or upload content such as a video it'll be published automatically in the I am Doing box! It also supports active links and writing '@member' will link to their profile.
There's heaps more, including a featured WiiWare Reviews section and better Youtube and RSS support.
Feel free to have a look around and comment on any changes here.
What we have planned for E3 2009
E3 2009 is upon us, and MyMedia is all set to go E3 crazy! We'll have medals for those of you discussing the conferences live and heaps of discussions, live updates and news posts.
Please note that during E3 we ask that you do not submit any news yourself. This is not to stop users submitting news, but instead to keep a steady flow of quality news. Please write any news in your own words, and PM it to Gaetano, including the source, and you'll be given full credit as the author if it's published.
It all kicks off at 3:30am AEST tomorrow with Microsoft's conference, and the Official Discussion opens on My360 30 minutes beforehand.
Since Tano and myself have nothing better to do in the early hours of the morning we'll have back for the Nintendo Conference, starting at 2am AEST, and the Sony conference beginning at 4am on Wednesday morning. The official discussion threads for Nintendo and Sony will both be opened 30 minutes before the conferences start.
After the main three players complete their keynote we'll post it all in one neat blog, ready for your browsing pleasure when you arise at a socially acceptable hour the next morning.
Competitions
We've had an overload of competitions this last month. They've actually all concluded now, but we still have the winners to announce for
Terminator on Xbox 360, and Guitar Hero Metallica on both the
Xbox360 and the
PS3. We'll have more competitions soon!
iPhone compatible sites
Attention iPhone and iPod Touch users that like to pop into MyWii and My360 while on the go! I have some news that you have been waiting for. Let me introduce the iPhone friendly versions of MyWii.com.au and My360.com.au, just enter http://iphone.mywii.com.au/ or http://iphone.my360.com.au/into your Safari browser to enjoy a version of MyWii or My360 that has been specifically formatted for iPhone. Gone are those days of waiting around for pages to load, expanding and reducing the screen to get a better view, with this new iPhone friendly site it loads quick, scrolls smoothly and is easy to use. Accessing the latest news, reviews, games and forum discussions is only one click away. So if you have an iPhone or iPod Touch what are you waiting for, go check it out! HERE!
01/06/2009
Nintendo was disappointing at E3 last year to say the least. However, a year later Nintendo has promised bigger and better things at the number one gaming conference on the calendar. After ‘downsizing’ in the past two years, the real E3 is back this year. Back to being the specular event it should be, and more importantly what we all want it to be. But will it deliver on the announcement front?
Over the course of the week we’ll be looking at what Nintendo, Sony and Microsoft have in store for us this year. What we expect to see, what has been teased, predicted and what we’d like to see surprise us this year.
What’s Expected
"From Nintendo's perspective, we always go into E3 with a very high bar wanting to satisfy not only the core fans but also ourselves” said Nintendo of America President Reggie Fils-Aime. After a disappointing show last year, fans have a right to be skeptical. However, with the recent release of the DSi, and a lack of big name titles from Nintendo themselves on the Wii, this time around the Big N need to pull out something special. If they don’t I fear many loyal fans may begin to jump ship.
Kid Icarus Wii
Where is it? It should have been announced ages ago! Nintendo need to pull out their big guns this year, making E3 the perfect time to revive Kid Icarus.
We want Kid Icarus on Wii!Resident Evil Archives: Resident Evil & Resident Evil Darkside Chronicles
One is a remake and the other is an on-rails shooter, but one thing is for sure, Resident Evil sells well on Wii. It may not be Resident Evil 5, but if sales of past games are anything to go by Wii fans love the RE series. Both of these Capcom titles will be on show at E3 and can be penciled in to sell over a million copies to the mature Wii audience.
Tatsunoko Vs Capcom
Originally released only in Japan, a western release for Tatsunoko Vs Capcom was recently announced and the game has been confirmed to be on show at E3.
Red Steel 2
The first Red Steel had a great concept; the execution just didn’t match it. Red Steel 2 will be set in a desert-bound, high-tech metropolis. The title will also take full advantage of the Wii MotionPlus peripheral. We expect to see Red Steel 2 on show at E3 and hopefully, with the help of 1:1 motion, it’ll play as it should have the first time around.
Wii MotionPlus
MotionPlus will be released a few days after E3 wraps up. Expect Nintendo to give it one last pre-launch promotion at E3. Wii Sports Resort, Ninty’s first and currently only title to use the device, was announced last year and will launch worldwide in 6 weeks. Expect Nintendo to really push MotionPlus as it is essentially transforming the Wii into the motion controlled beast we all thought it would be 2 years ago. No doubt they’ll have a few big name games in development that make use of the device.
The Legend of Zelda: Spirit Tracks
Announced at GDC’09, Reggie hinted that we would get a confirmed release date at E3. In fact besides that the Nintendo of America President has been tight lipped regarding what we can expect from E3 (besides an improvement on last year).
Pokemon Heart Gold and Pokemon Soul Silver
It wouldn’t be Nintendo without Pokemon. The remakes of Pokemon Gold and Silver for the DS were recently announced, and we expect Nintendo to show off some more footage at E3.
Wii to DS Connectivity
The DSi has expanded Nintendo’s audience who own both the Wii and DS, making E3 the perfect time to start pushing DS to Wii Connectivity. Perhaps a new Wii Zelda could connect to Spirit Tracks or Mii’s could become transferable to the DSi menu.
Metroid Prime Trilogy
The three Metroid Prime games all on one disc with remastered Wii controls is something to get excited about. Seeing how the game itself has already been announced don’t expect it to be a big feature, but some more info would be nice.
What's been Teased
Two new games from High Voltage Software
The developer of The Conduit teased us by confirming they will announce two new Wii games at E3.The first will be a FPS which they hope to make technically stronger than the very impressive The Conduit. The second is “a different kind of a thing.”
Sadness
The survival horror title was one of the first announced for the Wii; however, we are yet to get a single in-game screenshot or trailer. Developer Nibris has teased that we may finally get a glimpse of the title running at E3.
Coloured Wiis/Wii Remotes
Rumours of coloured Wiis and Wii Remotes have been around since the console launched. There’s nothing more concrete this year to suggest that we’ll see them than in the past, besides the fact that the console has now been out for a few years, and that’s generally when Nintendo decide to get colourful.
Is it time for Nintendo to get colourful?Zelda & Mario Wii
Nintendo have hinted that these are in development, and now is the time to announce at least one of them. Zelda seems like the obvious choice seeing how Zelda: Twilight Princess was released back in 2006, and it was a GameCube port. In saying that, don’t be surprised if Nintendo go big and announce both of them to make up for the lack of software last year.
Capcom Mystery Title
We know that Capcom’s ‘mystery title’ is an action game and will be developed by Capcom Japan. What we don’t know is anything else. At this point in time we don't even know what console it'll be on.
Surprise us! The things we want to see
Pikmin 3
Where is Pikmin 3? I’ve been playing the New Play Control version of Pikmin 2 this week and it seems almost criminal that the Wii hasn’t had an instalment in the franchise. While we’re on the topic a DS version wouldn’t go astray either.
Pikmin and the Wii and/or DS go together so well. Where's Pikmin 3?Donkey Kong
I’d love to see a real Donkey Kong game for either the Wii or DS. We haven’t had one since DK64 (Jungle Beat and what not really don’t count). While it wasn’t the same as the Donkey Kong Country games I thought it was a solid transition from 2D masterpiece into the 3D arena.
Mario Tennis Wii
I wasn’t a fan of the controls in New Play Control Mario Power Tennis, but I’d like to see Nintendo give it another crack. Wii MotionPlus should help with the lack of accuracy which plagued the GCN remake.
GTA Wii
It’s not likely, but that’s what people said last year and seemingly out of nowhere GTA: Chinatown Wars for the DS was announced. It received critical acclaim from game publications and fans despite not selling as well as Rockstar may have liked. It’s really a matter of if they think the market is there on the Wii after what may have been a mature audience experiment on DS.
Super Smash Bros. DS
This almost definitely won’t happen, but we can dream. After doing so well on consoles it seems blatantly obvious to us that the franchise should go portable. Yet Nintendo, who must have their reasons, chose to keep it exclusive to their home console. Maybe one day, but we hope at this year's E3!
02/06/2009
By 90's Pokémon Master Ben Salter
The Pokémon videogame series first launched on the GameBoy back in 1996. 13 years later it has become one of the best selling games of all time, and one of Nintendo’s most famous handheld series. Nintendo stated that the Pokémon franchise had sold over 175 million copies as of April last year, and these figured have definitely improved since then.
I began playing Pokémon Platinum in preparation for the review a few days ago. After growing up with the originals on the Game Boy Pocket (or even original Game Boy if you wanted to be old school) I noticed a striking similarity between the two. 10 years on and the games have hardly changed. Pokémon Diamond & Pearl are essentially exactly the same in terms of single player gameplay as Pokémon Red & Blue. Sure there are some small gameplay enhancements, but surely Pokémon heads the list of ‘most games released with so little changes’. Each generation two flavours of the same game are released and then, around two years later, a remake of that game is made to complete the trio for the generation. We essentially have the same game released three times on one platform and yet it sells like hotcakes.
That’s just taking into account what I would consider to be the ‘main series’. Beyond that we have the
Mystery Dungeon &
Pokémon Ranger spin-offs along with popular console games such as
Pokémon Stadium and its sequels,
Pokémon Snap and the Pokémon Box/Ranger games. Remakes of
Pokémon Gold & Silver were recently
announced for the DS and already have fans going crazy. A 10-year-old game being remade is not uncommon, but technically it has already been remade, or was at least enhanced, with
Pokémon Crystal which completed the trilogy on the GameBoy Color.
What is it with Pokémon that makes gamers go crazy, despite the fact they are either playing a remake (or enhanced remake) or a sequel that is so similar to its predecessor that it may as well be considered a remake? The TV series played a role in kicking off the craze. Back in the late 90’s when the original games were released kids were going Pokécrazy with the show, videogames and trading card game. I remember school lunch time trading Pokémon cards on a daily basis or playing Pokémon Red if you dared to pull out the gameboy at recess and risk its confiscation. It’s fair to say the show is nowhere near as influential now (not to mention terrible without the original Pokemon or characters) nevertheless the series is as popular as ever with Platinum hitting the 1 million sales mark within 2 days of release in Japan.
Maybe Nintendo has perfected the formula; if it ain’t broke don’t fix it. I admit while visually I’m not impressed with Pokémon Platinum I’m enjoying the gameplay even though I spent 40 odd hours playing Pokémon Diamond two years ago. And I am not alone, while I find it hard to straight out recommend it to the owners of Diamond/Pearl I expect many of them to buy it. It won’t just be kids either; while it certainly appears to be a ‘kiddie game’ it’s one that gamers of all ages can appreciate. While I doubt many of you older gamers would admit it, if you have a DS you’d be a fool not to look into the Pokémon games. I’m certainly not the biggest fan of the role playing genre; however, I’m willing to spend countless hours on the Pokémon games. Raising the creatures into a fighting machine is rewarding and still fun even if you’ve done it many times before. Because the gameplay is so good you’re almost happy that it’s repetitive, you find yourself wanting to do it all again. I don’t understand why people bother importing their already trained Pokémon from past games, or use cheats that make them unbeatable. Choosing 6 new Pokemon and training them until the final gym battle is a rewarding experience. I understand that trading from Diamond & Pearl is one of the key features but to an extent I believe this is where the repetitive gameplay may come unstuck. Where’s the fun in starting a game that’s based on developing something when you begin with the finished product?
Another view could suggest that Nintendo don’t really care. They realise that anything with ‘Pokémon’ in the title will sell. I believe this is the case with games such as the rushed Pokémon Dash and some of recent Mystery Dungeon spin-offs. With so many ‘enhanced remakes’ and actual remakes, which began with the original two being reborn on the GBA as Pokémon Fire Red & Leaf Green, the same could be said for the RPG series. But with such great gameplay 13 years on I’m willing to give Nintendo the benefit of the doubt with their main Pokémon series and say it hasn’t been changed simply because it doesn’t need to be.
What are your memories of the Pokémon games? Even if you haven’t played one recently chances are you did back in the Game Boy or Nintendo 64 days. Why do you think they are still so successful? Leave your thoughts, maybe even dare to admit that you still enjoy the Pokémon games despite being in your late teens or adulthood.
Pokémon Platinum will be released in Australia this Thursday, May 14. Our featured review will be up on MyDS later this week.
11/05/2009
Introducing MyWii This Week, by Tails. MyWii member Tails has been hard at work in recent times producing a bunch of animations that portray the week that was at MyWii, and they are nothing short of hilarious!
Every MyWii member has loved them so far, demanding more, more, MORE! So Tails has gone ahead and turned it into a much loved series (currently 6 episodes). We like them so much, including MrWii, that we decided to share them with every MyMedia member.
I realise that as gif images they all start playing when you access the blog (unfortunately there as an issue with uploading them all to youtube in one neat package). However the link under each will take you directly to the episode and it will start from the beginning.
Make sure you leave Tails a comment!
This Week, by Tails - The Collection
Its finally here..
MyWii SSBB is NOW OPEN!
For all your brawling needs, this site was created by massive popular demand.
Enjoy
Rankings, Tournaments, Guides, Discussions and Loads More!
No longer are you limited to the Brawl General Discussion!
So What are you waiting for? Check it out here mywii.com.au/
Want to know more about Super Smash Bros? Check out the
Super Smash Bros - Series Guide to find out more about the history of the series here
mywii.com.au/
21/06/2008
Since day one the Wii has seen ports of the games from the previous generation remade for the Wii. Most noticeably games such as Resident Evil 4 and The Legend of Zelda:Twilight Princess have made the journey over to Nintendo’s motion sensing console to great effect, some have been disappointing and other where an improvement over an already good game. While they keep coming and many of them do sell deep down many Wii gamers are disappointed to see the same thing all over again.
Looking back to 2006 the Wii launched to huge success and all of a sudden found itself in an unpredicted high demand, which Nintendo to this day, well over a year later, are having trouble meeting. Third party developers who had thought little of the console in comparison to the power of the Xbox 360 and PS3 now wanted to jump aboard the Wii and quickly rushed out underdone titles so they could reap some of the benefits of the strong hardware sales. The easiest way to do this was to take an existing title and add in some motion controls, while these where less then impressive nobody can blame them for doing this, developers had to get some games out on the console that was sky-rocketing to the top of the sales charts.
In 2007 the Wiimakes continued to roll in, and this is where Wii gamers must have began to feel a little ripped off as the New Releases weren’t actually so new. One of the biggest criticisms of the Gamecube was that it lacked the strong third party support that the PS2 and Xbox had and Nintendo were relying far too much on their own titles. So far the Big N have attempted to rectify this but have hit a wall due to the Wii’s graphical capabilities. It can be costly for a developer to make a title for just one platform, millions of dollars go into making a game so it makes perfect sense that they want to capitalise on their investment the best way possible and that it to release it to as many people as they can. A game can be developed to be released on the PS3, Xbox 360 and PC, giving the developer access to three different markets while Wii gamers miss out due to technical limitations and a completely different control scheme. Despite this the Wii is pulling out some impressive sales figures, so how does a developer also capitalise on this? It’s simple take an existing game from the previous generation, add on some new controls and release it again. Resident Evil 4 did it successfully and is one of only two games not made by Nintendo to sell over 1 million copies on the Wii (the other being Guitar Hero III). Bully: Scholarship Edition and The Godfather made good use of the Wii controls with an already existing game with a few more missions and yet they are overlooked simply because they’ve been played before. Am I really going to fork out another $80 for a game that I’ve played before with some new controls and a few more levels? Quite frankly no. This is the biggest problem with the Wiimake, it’s not that some of them have been made quite poorly it’s the fact that I’ve been there and done that before with many of the games and was hoping for a completely new experience this generation.
Now well and truly into 2008 it looks as though we may finally be seeing more and more original titles form third party developers and less re-worked games. In fact currently out of the three current generation console the Wii has the most third party exclusive titles and it’s games like the recently revealed The Conduit that is grabbing the attention of more mature aged Wii gamers. It’s games such as No More Heroes that shows the innovation that can be implemented and games such as Zack and Wiki which shows that the top scoring Wii games need not only be titles developed exclusively by Nintendo.
As 2008 and 2009 role along expect to see more original titles on the Wii as developers get a better understanding of how to use the motion controls. Also remember that most quality titles have been in development for many years, Resident Evil 4 was the standout Wiimake released in 2007 but development started back in 1998. Will we ever see the death of the Wiimake? Most likely not due to the fact that games cannot be developed for release across the Xbox 360, PS3 and the Wii. This is not necessarily a bad thing if the game is remade well and with a PS2 gem such as Okami about to be redone perhaps the Wiimake is not that bad after all.
22/04/2008