Video: Twilight Princess E3 Trailer Unveiling

Here is a video from E3 a few years back when Nintendo first unveiled what would become "The Legend of Zelda: Twilight Princess."  Now it would not be released for years after this E3 but I love this video for many reasons.  The main reason being the pure excitement in the room once everyone realizes that it is Zelda.  Keep in mind that these people jumping up and down and cheering are all professional journalists there for business.  It shows how much the Legend of Zelda series has connected with gamers throughout its history that it can turn professionals into little kids in a matter of seconds.  It is truly a magical moment.

Godzilla's History in Video Games

By Aaron N

The first major Godzilla game to be released on consoles was "Godzilla: Monster of Monsters."  This game was released for the NES in 1988.  For some reason this game was subtitled "Monster of Monsters" instead of Godzilla's usual moniker of the "King of the Monsters."  This game was fun to play albeit repetitive.  The concept of the game was that in the year 20XX aliens invade Earth and have to be fought off by the monster duo of Godzilla and Mothra.  You move the heroic monsters across polygonal platforms as if it was a game of chess.  Godzilla can move two spaces while Mothra can move four spaces.  The enemy monsters would also move towards you on the game board.  After your turn is over you enter a sidescroller level depending on which space you land on.  These levels were typical short levels with spaceships and other enemies.  Your goal in each planet is to defeat all enemy monsters and make your way to the other side where you would move on to the next planet.  The amount of enemy monsters in each planet would increase as you progressed through the game.  Ghidorah, Mechagodzilla, and Hedorah are just a few of the monsters in this game and there were many other famous monsters from the Godzilla series in the game.  It is a somewhat primitive game but "Monster of Monsters" is a fun game to play.
Godzilla would also have another appearance on the NES but this time he would be in the role as the antagonist.  This was a reflection of the movie series where Godzilla was becoming the villain that mankind had to battle.  Your role in this game was as the military battling off Godzilla and other monsters.  It was somewhat an early Real-time strategy game.  You would choose what machines to move and where they would go, it was a turn based game.  The monsters are very hard to beat and the game is a bit boring but it has great music and it will be fun to play for a little bit of time.
Godzilla made the move to 16-bit with the apltly titled "Super Godzilla" for the Super Nintendo.  This game was once again about aliens visiting Earth and unleashing giant monsters on the planet and only Big G can stop them.  In this game you move your dot along a map toward the enemy of the level.  Once you reach the enemy you have a battle with it.  The battles consisted of punching the monster, or spaceship, and walking backwards until you could select an attack to use.  The attacks would be tailwhip, nuclear breath, or headbutt just to name a few.  Towards the end of the game you can start collecting certain items that will turn Godzilla into Super Godzilla in order to be able to fight the mammoth Bagan at the end of the game.  This is a monumental game as it had the appearance of Bagan who is sort of a cult monster, but that story is for a different blog.  Super Godzilla is a fun but simplistic game that features many classic monsters and it will be a fun play for any Zilla fan.
Godzilla's next release would be on the Gamecube and the Xbox and was entitled "Godzilla: Destroy all Monsters Melee."  The title is a mouthful but it is a fun fighting game.  I looked forward to this game because it was the first time you could really rumble with the monsters in the classic series.  It touted eleven monsters ranging from Godzilla and Anguirus to Destoroyah and the new and surprise Orga.  This game's storyline was the usual "aliens invade Earth" story that had been a Godzilla staple.  The game was fun and it was a Godzilla fan's dream to be able to reenact classic battles.
Godzilla would follow this up with two games that were basically just updated versions of "Destroy all Monsters Melee."  First came "Godzilla: Save the Earth" in 2004 for the Xbox and the Playstation 2.  This game isn't as memorable because it is basically a clone of "Melee", so not much new was brought to the table.  Next came "Godzilla: Unleashed" which was released for the Wii and PS2 in 2007.  This was once again an updated version of "Melee" but there a few things that make it stand out.  The story is different, focusing on crystals forming on Earth and you have to defeat them and Spacegodzilla.  Also this game introduced two new original monsters that were made by Atari specifically for the game.
There are a few Godzilla games that are not well known that I want to focus on.  The first one is "Godzilla" for the Game Boy.  This is a puzzle game that consisted of going through a puzzle and punching rocks out of the way in order to reach the end.  This game is not well known because, quite frankly, it is simply not a good game.  It doesn't feel like a Godzilla game and the gameplay is bad and boring.  Another unknown Godzilla game is "Godzilla Generations."  This game is unknown because it was never released in the United States.  It was released for the Sega Dreamcast.  "Generations" had a story to it and you could play as multiple monsters.  But for some reason it was never released in the States.  I remember reading about it when I was younger and I'm disappointed it was never released here.
The history of Godzilla in video games is very vasy and long.  And with the new American movie looming in
horizon, we will have to see if new games will be following it.  The franchise has never really entered mainstream video games, hopefully in the future it will finally be able to do that.

Video: IGN fake Zelda Trailer

Here is a video to keep you busy until the next column, which will be next week.  This video was made by IGN as an April fool's joke.  It was very well made and it made me really want a Zelda movie.  Enjoy!

Review: Kirby's Epic Yarn (2010)

By Aaron N

At E3 Nintendo announced a new Kirby title coming out for the Nintendo Wii.  This continued what seemed to be a new trend of old franchises being brought back to the current generation in a 2D environment.  But this Kirby game looked different than the past titles.  It was made entirely of strings of yarn.  Also because of this the gameplay would be vastly different as well from the classic Kirby formula.  This made skeptics of the fans of the Kirby series, but it would prove to be an interesting and fun gaming experience.

Graphics:
As mentioned before this game was made entirely of strings of yarn.  This is an interesting and different concept that really hasn't been seen before.  It's a dangerous move in a world where it seems like everyone is looking to make the most realistic looking game.  But this move was a beneficial move.  The graphics were fluid and the usage of yarn did not hinder any from the look of the game.  In fact it actually has beautiful graphics and that is something I never thought I would say about yarn.  You can tell the difference between each character and each character design has it's own personality.  Even the classic characters that are brought into the world made of yarn look differently than in previous games.  It is a unique concept and it puts this Kirby game in a different level all on its own.

Story:
The story begins with Kirby getting sucked into a magical sock by the sinister Yin-Yarn.  Now this magical sock is actually a gateway to Patch land which is made up entirely of yarn.  There Kirby befriends Prince Fluff who accompanies him on his journey to put the pieces of patch land back together.  You do this by defeating the bosses of each world who are made up of special yarn that piece the worlds back together.  But while this is all happening, Yin-Yarn is taking over Dreamland and turning it into yarn.  The story is told as if it's being read out of a book and it even has a narrator.  The narration is clearly written for a child and the narrator speaks in a smooth happy voice, it made me feel like I was watching Nick Jr.  But once you get past the childness you can get into the story as since it's written for a child, it's easy to follow and you can turn off your brain and just mindlessly play through the game.

Gameplay:
The gameplay in this game is naturally different than previous Kirby installments.  Gone are the days of sucking up enemies and copying abilities.  Instead you have a piece of yarn that you throw at enemies which grapples around them.  Then you untangle them or you roll them up in a ball to throw at your enemies.  Then you reach points in various levels where you turn into different things.  For example you can turn into a tank and shoot missles at enemies.  You use only the wiimote and you turn it sideways as if it's a classic Nintendo controller.  This really helped to make it feel like an old school nintendo game.  The levels do become repetitive though.  Since you really only have one attack move there isn't much variety in how you defeat enemies.  Also there is no way to lose in this game.  If you get hit you just lose some jewels that you collect, or if you fall off a cliff you get pulled back up to the part you fell or sometimes further in the level and you lose some jewels.  This makes the difficulty of the game almost minimal, but since it was obviously made for children you can understand why they did this.  But regardless of the absolute lack of difficulty the game is still really fun to play.

Music:
The music in this game fits in with the classic Kirby soundtrack.  The music is catchy and you will enjoy playing the levels because the music is simply enjoyable to listen to.  And when you get into some of the classic levels that are redone, you get different versions of the famous Kirby songs and they do not disappoint.  The music really adds to the game experience and you are able to listen to it afterwards when you unlock the songs as you play.

Overall:
This game was clearly made for a younger audience, and even though it is blatant at times, it does not make this game any less fun.  I would have liked for it to have been a bit harder but I still had a blast playing it.  This game had unique graphics and a unique style of play.  It is definitely very different than any other Kirby game that has been released, but sometimes different is a good thing.  If you want to just shut your mind off and if you can handle the uniqueness then this is definitely a game worth picking up.

Kirby's Epic Yarn gets an 8/10

Column: The Handheld Wars

By Aaron N

The handheld market began somewhat in 1980 with the release of the "Game & Watch" series.  But the market didn't truly skyrocket until Nintendo introduced the Game Boy in 1989.  The Game Boy was extremely popular and sold many copies.  The Game Boy had many popular titles but it was the classic game "Tetris" that helped it become as popular as it did.  This began the boom in the handheld market and it seemed that Nintendo had a stranglehold on the market.  It would only be natural that other game companies would see this new market that Nintendo had basically created and would try to capitalize on it and become a competitor.  Thus the first major handheld console wars was started.
Sega released their Sega Game Gear in America in 1991.  Sega was Nintendo's main competition in the home console market so it was only natural that they would be Nintendo's main adversary in the handheld market as well.  The Game Gear used the established "Sonic the Hedgehog" franchise to propel itself into the top of the industry, but it would still have a way to go in order to topple Nintendo.  The Game Gear touted that it had better graphics than the Game Boy.  This was true, for it had graphics very similar to the Sega Genesis albeit still a little inferior to what was on the Genesis.  The Game Boy on the other hand had graphics way under what the original Nintendo Enterainment System had.  The Game Gear also had another major advantage over the Game Boy which was that it was a color system.  This was a big thing for its time.  The Game Gear had crisp, bright colored graphics while the Game Boy had graphics that were dull and had a greenish tint to them.  So right off the bat just by looks the Game Gear was the superior system.  I remember when I was a kid my friend had a Game Gear and it was one of the coolest things I had ever seen at the time.  It looked cooler because of the buttons being on the side of the screen, and seeing the colors was something amazing.  It was like going from a black and white television to a color television, it was hard to look at black and white televisions the same afterward.  But if the Game Gear was so superior looking then why did Nintendo end up winning the war?  The Game Boy had a better selection of games and more games to choose from.  The Game Gear had the Sonic games but not really many other high quality franchises that could keep people buying them.  The Game Boy had Nintendo's vast library of popular franchises that helped keep the Game Boy ahead of everything in the market.  Also Nintendo would eventually release the Game Boy Color years after the fact. but it still took care of the dull green look that it had.
Nintendo would continue to be basically the only important player in the handheld market for about a decade.  They went on to release the aforementioned Game Boy Color, but also the Game Boy Pocket, Game Boy Advanced, Game Boy Advanced SP, and countless other different variations of the Game Boy.  Each improving on different aspects of the previous version.  This ability to revamp and improve the system allowed Nintendo to keep making games and selling systems.  Also with the release of the megahit "Pokemon" series to Game Boy systems, it would take a lot to one-up Nintendo.  But in 2005 Sony would release the PSP in America and try their hand at topping the handheld goliath.  The PSP, short for Playstation Portable, was the first major handheld system to introduce a joystick.  Also, the graphics for the PSP were remarkable and very similar to what was being seen at the time on the Playstation 2.  The PSP came out a few months after Nintendo released its newest portable system entitled the Nintendo DS.  It utilized a touchpad screen and had two screens to play on.  The system's graphics were similar to Nintendo 64's, so Nintendo was once again facing a system that had better graphics.  Thus the second handheld war was started, but this time it was Nintendo facing off against Sony.  The PSP started with a lot of momentum, it had better graphics plus it had the ability to show movies on the system.  This was a different variable added to the war.  Also, there were many who were not sold on the DS's dual screens and it was thought of as being too gimmicky.  But eventually sales of the PSP declined and Nintendo continued to ship out different versions of the Nintendo DS and while the PSP is still being sold, Nintendo has clearly won this war as well.
With Nintendo dominating the handheld market, where does the market have to go from here?  At E3 in 2010 Nintendo stated that their only competition was Apple.  This was an interesting comment but it makes sense.  There are plenty of games on the Iphone, Ipad and the Ipod.  Many people who normally would not play games are buying games for those devices.  This is who Nintendo needs to compete with now and it is a different competition than one would think of.  Also, Nintendo is about to release the 3DS in a few months.  This device is more powerful than the Wii and it is amazing to think of where the handheld market has gone since the days of the Game & Watch.  It is exciting to think that a third and different handheld war could be on the horizon, but the question remains, will it have the same outcome?  Or will Nintendo finally be beaten?  We will have to wait to find out, but we as consumers will benefit the most from this.

Retro Review: Bomberman Hero (N64 1998)

By Aaron N

For my first retro review I am going to go all the way back to 1998 and review a game that I recently picked up for the first time in over a decade.  Bomberman Hero plays more like an adventure game than its predecessors.  It was a different drection for the franchise and I feel like it paid off.  When this game first came out, I rented it and got all the way to almost the end when I had to reluctantly return it.  So when I bought it at a local used video games store I was able to finally beat it and complete a mission I started in middle school.  This review will not compare it to games of this generation but rather be a review as if it just came out.

Graphics:
The graphics for Bomberman Hero are standard for Nintendo 64 games.  There isn't much definition to the characters and they all have a blocky look to them, but that was the standard for 64-bit gaming.  It did seem though that the graphics did not look that much improved from the launch games for the N64.  This is slightly disappointing because while the graphics are great, I wish they could have progressed a little since Mario 64, which other games have shown the capability to do so.  With that being said, I was still able to be immersed in the world of Bomberman and the graphics were still great for its time.

Story:
The story for Bomberman Hero is not really that complex.  A robot from another planet comes to Bomberman's home planet after his princess is taken from him by an evil group of aliens.  So he enlists the help of our bomb-wielding hero to defeat the aliens and save the princess.  There is no spoken dialogue in the cutscenes but only text and random noises and music.  This makes the cutscenes somewhat boring and they do not do a good job of holding your attention.  This makes the story somewhat hard to follow.

Gameplay:
Bomberman Hero plays a lot like Mario 64.  Now I know that Mario 64 created the mold for three-dimensional platforming, but it is way too similar to use that excuse.  While he may not be able to long jump or do other jumps that Mario does, it still feels like they took the engine from Mario 64, replaced the levels and main character, and then were done with the game.  With all that said though it is still a fun game to play.  You play through a handful of planets, each consisting of three parts.  Each part has a different amount of levels but usually averaging about six levels per part.  The second section has a mini-boss, who is a recurring nemesis of Bomberman throughout the game.  The final section has a different boss for each planet.  Along the way there are different modes of Bomberman that you can utilize in its level.  For example there are levels that have you use a helicopter attachment, and some that have you play as an underwater submarine Bomberman.  These levels are fun and different and it adds flavor to the game.  Bomberman himself is very limited on what he can do.  Basically you can just jump, throw bombs short and long, and kick a bomb.  It is very limited but the levels are simple so you really don't need to do more.  One more thing I noticed about the levels was that it is possible to run through most levels without attacking many enemies.  This makes the game very easy.  It does even itself out because the boss levels are quite difficult, especially the final boss who takes a while to defeat.

Music:
Bomberman Hero has very simplistic music.  It does not consist of much besides the same rhythm being recycled during the song.  It also plays the same songs throughout many levels.  It feels like the game has only four or five different songs.  So the songs become annoying at times and you beg for something different to be played.  But the music is still catchy and they somehow fit for each level.  They fit the atmosphere of the levels and they add something to the gameplay.  The music, for the most part, is very laid-back and they let you relax and play the game.  This is important because gaming can be very frustrating at times and this takes away some of that stress.

Overall:
Bomberman Hero is a fun game to play and it is a different take on the franchise than it has had in the past.  I actually like this game better than Bomberman 64 and I found it easier to play.  The graphics could have been better but are still good.  The gameplay was somewhat generic and a clone of Mario 64 and they could have made the story less boring to follow.  But all in all it was a fun game and regardless of these shortcomings I would recommend it to anyone looking for a quick, fun game to play.  You are able to shut your mind off, sit back and enjoy the game.

Bomberman Hero gets a 7/10.

Video: Nintendo Training Video

This is a video made by Nintendo and sent to stores in 1991.  It is funny to see some of the stereotypes from that time, and also to see what problems they were faced with.  It's an entertaining watch and see if you can recognize the guy who has the problem with the Game Boy.