Have you been one of the many that has put off the jump to HD? Are you curious how that brand new 360 is going to look on your current standard TV? Jason over at eToychest got his 360 in yesterday and took it for a spin on a few different sets ranging from a nice 55″ HD set all the way down to a 25″ SD set. While the article lacks pictures, Jason [url=http://www.etoychest.org/index.php?option=com_content&task=view&id=2783&Itemid=1]lets you know[/url] what you can expect from the product that many have coined as the “hot item” for this holiday season.
November 2005
360 with no HDTV?
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Layout Tweaks pt. 3
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I was doing some “soul searching” this week related to the site and it’s current traffic and decided I was really unhappy with the size of the audience we are reaching. I feel that we have the potential to be much larger than we currently are. Needless to say I got a fire lit under my butt to do something about it as is evident with my layout changes all week. Today I made a pretty major change that I am really happy with. Our front page news now features the same great “paging” feature that I setup for our reviews page. This should make it much easier to see news from the last couple of days if you can’t make it to the site everyday (shame on you).
If anyone has any type of feedback about our layout or anything related to the ease of use on the site I want to hear about it. I don’t care how critical it sounds. The bottom line is that this site is not online to toot my own horn and if it isn’t as easy to navigate as it should be I want to know about it.
Edit: Fixed to make it not sound like I didn’t appreciate our audience.
When it comes to plain and simple pinball, one would assume that there isn’t much innovation left to be uncovered. Don’t tell that to the development talent at Fuse Games Limited however, as they seem to have their minds continually geared towards reinventing this arcade parlor pastime. Founded in 2002 by the creators of the Pro Pinball series of games, Fuse has continually shown the gaming community their unique take on the pinball experience. In 2004 they released Mario Pinball Land for the Game Boy Advanced to mixed reviews, but despite misgivings players had about the game few could argue against its sense of style. Not to be daunted by the words of critics, Fuse has once again decided to let players experience their passion for pinball, this time through Nintendo’s timeless Metroid franchise. Developed for the DS platform, Metroid Prime Pinball is in every way a superior experience to what players were given care of Mario and company, and while it is still very much a pinball game, it is anything but simple or plain.
The concept behind Metroid Prime Pinball is relatively straightforward. Samus Aran, the bounty hunter heroine and star of the Metroid franchise, is capable of rolling herself into a ball via her power suit. In Metroid Prime and its sequel players were given the opportunity to experience new and interesting ways this ball could impact gameplay care of the games’ 3D environment. Fuse has taken the next step, and has engineered a pinball game based around this ability to roll about, lay bombs, and transform back into Samus’ regular form in order to gun down on-screen baddies. The end result, thanks to a number of little touches from the Metroid cannon, is extremely well-received.
What is perhaps most striking about Metroid Prime Pinball is how Fuse has managed to capture the ambiance of the Metroid Prime universe so well. Perhaps it is the expert usage of many of the series’ most recognizable tunes, or the game’s table designs that each draw from particular settings within the Metroid Prime titles. Whatever the case, playing Metroid Prime Pinball is engrossing, much more so than one might expect a pinball game to be. This is true even for someone who is not a fan of pinball games, but instead is simply someone who enjoys the source material.
However, for those players without a degree of skill at directing a ball amidst a barrage of obstacles and enemies, this particular pinball experience will no doubt result its share of frustration. Succeeding in Metroid Prime Pinball can prove to be exceedingly difficult, and those players who give up easily will most likely never see some of the more rewarding unlockable aspects this game has to offer. Players begin with a paltry two tables available to the played upon: Pirate Frigate and Tallon Overworld. New tables are unlocked by playing through the game’s Multi Mission Mode and it’s here where a player’s skill at keeping their ball in play will be viciously tested.
With just two initial balls in reserve, a player is tasked with completing a number of objectives in order to collect artifacts. While most of these objectives are fairly simple to complete, doing so while also trying to keep the Samus Ball out of the gutter can prove challenging, especially as the game continues and the enemies such as infamous Space Pirates and swarms of beetles begin to attack at a frenetic pace. However, practice does yield results, and the sense of accomplishment after unlocking a new table is considerable. New tables are then available in the game’s Single Mission Mode, wherein a player competes to attain the highest score possible.
The meat of the game, however, remains in the Multi Mission offering. Here not only are tables unlocked in the aforementioned manner, but power-ups such as missiles and power bombs are earned as well. Numerous mini-games also become available in this mode, such as a quick outing that has a player pressing the shoulder buttons in quick successions in order to bound up a wall in order to attain an extra ball. Boss fights also play a role in this mode, as favorites such as the giant rock beast from Metroid Prime‘s Phendrana Drifts have been recreated in this decidedly different take on the classic franchise.
The game’s controls are simple, but some aspects, such as the way the touch screen has been utilized, do take some getting used to. A pinball game just wouldn’t feel complete without some way to bump to table in order to affect the ball’s direction. Metroid Prime Pinball emulates this aspect of the classic game by allowing a player to touch and then drag the stylus or their finger across the screen. Here is where the game trips itself up a bit in terms of gameplay, as it’s simply not feasible to maintain the kind of agility this game demands while at the same time manipulating the stylus. Most players are likely to forget this aspect of the game altogether in favor of perfecting their skill at directing the ball at the various ramps and objects while keeping tabs on a table’s particular angles. A better solution, arguably, would have been to include a kind of gyroscope similar to what players experienced with WarioWare: Twisted!, but as this would have to have been somehow shoehorned into the DS Rumble Pack, it is understandable why this alternate approach was used.
Metroid Prime Pinball is a fun and additive game that proves that sometimes genres need not be mutually exclusive in order to succeed. The game’s pinball mechanics, save for the somewhat inept table-tilting feature, are expertly implemented, and the numerous flavors of Metroid have been liberally sprinkled throughout the experience the ensure fans of the franchise will come away both smiling and humming a familiar tune. Plus, it’s a terrific appetizer to whet players’ appetites as they wait for Metroid Prime Hunters.
I hate ripping on another writer for something they published, but I when I see advice as retarded as this it just sets me off. The NY Post has an [url=http://news.yahoo.com/s/pagesix/20051117/en_pagesix/don39tbuythexbox360]article online[/url] that is trying to convince you not to buy a 360 just yet. Nevermind the obvious fact that unless you had one preordered very early you couldn’t if you wanted to. The article mentions a few things that I have to disagree with.
The author starts off by picking on the price of the console. Sure $400 is a ton of money to throw at a gaming console. Even $300 for the core system is quite a bit of money to most people. I don’t recall seeing articles of this caliber when the iPod came out. The iPod is priced from $99 for a Shuffle all the way up to $399 for the big version yet nobody acts like it is a waste of money. I personally find a lot more value in a system like the Xbox 360 than I do in a portable music device.
System launches are also not typically meant for casual gamers. With gaming hitting the mainstream hardware launches that would have otherwise gone right under the radar of casual consumers are now in the limelight and facing the scrutiny of critics worldwide instead of just industry wide.
Next is the “lack of games” which I think is a given. Games available at launch are typically rushed, unpolished, or downright bad. The 200 Xbox titles that will work on the 360 should ease the pain of no next gen games unless of course you are in Japan where the launch titles outnumber the original Xbox games that your system will play.
Next the author says that a lack of competition is a good reason to avoid the 360 this year. Again, if cost is an issue for you then you probably don’t need to be buying this at launch.
Probably my favorite part of the article is the so called “hidden costs” of owning a 360. The author insinuates having a HDTV is mandatory and while I will agree it makes the experience complete I have yet to make the move to HD, but I would be that most launch customers probably have a way to view the HD content. He also mentions that the ability to play games online somehow makes the 360 cost nearly $600. How exactly does it cost $200 to get online? Aside from your Live account what cost is associated with getting online?
He closes with a point that I have been hammering in since the day the 360 was announced and that is that the current generation consoles are still alive and kicking. Picking up a PS2, GC, or Xbox right now is one heck of a deal and with huge libraries it makes a ton of sense, but I think the author needs to work on his math. Buying all 3 current systems and a “whole bunch of great games” is going to set you back more than the cost of that pretty little 360 that everyone is after.
Mario Kart‘s official foray into the area of online gaming has to be one to most anticipated videogame milestones of the year. The series that spearheaded the kart-racing phenomenon has with each sequel proven that it is still the benchmark against which all similar titles are measured. Now, Mario Kart DS continues this trend by building upon past success, and delivering an experience that includes the best of previous series entries, alongside new features – not the least of which is a terrific online component – that further elevate this classic franchise to near perfection. The essence of Mario Kart‘s simple and exhilarating gameplay remains intact and much the same as it has ever been. It’s a racing game that’s easy to pick up and near-impossible to put down, and is instantly accessible – and enjoyable – by anyone who fancies themselves as a gamer. Plus, the fact that it manages to bank on nostalgia and bundle together the best bits of past Mario Kart titles is only icing on this very delicious cake.
Few franchises could get away with so little innovation over such an extended period, yet somehow Nintendo makes it work. Mario Kart DS is much the same game that we have been playing since the original. Sure, some things have been tweaked, characters and items have been added and the tracks are now bumpier than they were in 1992, but the experience still boils down to wacky races, epic power slides and lots of fun. The game includes a solid group of Mushroom Kingdom inhabitants to race, as well as a healthy selection of tracks, both new and past favorites. Mario Kart DS is everything you have come to expect and enjoy about Nintendo’s racing opus.
Only now you can take the action online. This was something that was sorely missed in Double Dash!!, and has been salivated over ever since. While the Nintendo DS was originally seen by many as a gimmick with little lasting appeal, recent months have shown that the touchable platform is more than just a passing fancy. Nintendo has forgotten more about making handheld gaming viable than most companies will ever know, and the DS has in its first year gone from being a mere curiosity to becoming the portable to beat. The release of the DS also marked the first sign of Nintendo taking online gaming seriously, and while it took them a year before games would take advantage of the platform’s online capabilities, it has been worth the wait.
Getting online with Mario Kart DS is much less painful than many anticipated, and anyone with ready access to a hotspot or wireless router (provided that it’s supported) will be online with their DS in minutes. If you don’t have a supported router on hand, you can fork over the cash for Nintendo’s own Wi-Fi USB Connector as a means to get your race on. Searching for online matches can be restricted to your specific region, established friends or rivals, or simply worldwide. In our experience, finding match ups can take from just a few seconds to several minutes, but this could be more a case of the online community not coming into its own yet rather than a problem with the infrastructure itself. Time will tell. Another thing to keep in mind when playing online is that this mode uses up the DS battery much quicker than when playing solo, and nothing is quite as irritating for all parties involved as having a racer drop out in the middle of a contest due to running out of juice.
As good as the single-player racing is – and it is terrific – Mario Kart is, and always has been about racing against other players. Mario Kart DS is no different. There is just something special about the unpredictability that comes with taking on a group of other people, anonymous or otherwise. However, online matches are somewhat limited, supporting only four racers simultaneously and just a handful of the game’s tracks. In addition, some matches will end up being between only two or three players, and the game unfortunately does not fill in the missing ranks with AI racers. This isn’t a bad thing, necessarily, but it can make for some lonely laps. Then again, as before, once the online community takes off, this may not even be an issue. One thing that does feel lacking, however, is any sort of lobby or chat functionality. It would have been nice to be able to organize races beforehand, rather than leaving match ups up to pure and simple fate, and it just feels awkward not to be able to tell a player you just forced to eat your dust that it was, at then end of it all, a good game.
When you tire of racing online – which won’t happen but just for the sake of argument let’s pretend – there are also a bevy of offline and wireless modes to enjoy. Grand Prix is arguably the best of these, offering three different speed classes, four separate Cup challenges, and a total of thirty-two different tracks (sixteen new courses, and sixteen pulled from past Mario Kart titles). Battle Mode also returns, allowing you to hunt down up to seven friends or AI opponents in either Balloon Battle (the classic mode in which you use items to pop your opponents’ balloons) or Shine Runners (a new mode wherein you all collect as many shines as possible, and those with the fewest shines get booted out over time). Other modes include old staples, such as Time Trials, which allows you to compete against your best times, or even to download another player’s ghost wirelessly to test you mettle against their proven skill. The Vs mode is also interesting, in that it allows you to compete alone or as a team in a predetermined number of races. Lastly, there are the single-player missions, which amount to a series of progressively more difficult challenges across six separate levels. While not the meat and potatoes of this game by any means, these are a great way to pass the time alone, and can serve to unlock some of the game’s hidden goodies.
Mario Kart DS is reason alone to own the DS platform. All of the fun that has been intrinsic to the series is intact, and the much-anticipated online component simply seals the deal. This is best game in the series by far, and perhaps the best kart-style racing game ever to come along. Every second you spend playing the game is done so with a smile and an aching thumb – hallmarks of a true classic. So what are you waiting for? Design your decal, pick your racer and start your engines. I’ll see you at the finish line.
