Teh Nintendo News

Hi Guys,

I thought I should do a Nintendo News letter every 2 weeks. So here it is!

TEH NINTENDO NEWS Issue 1

• Dr.Kawashima's Brain Training has stayed in the UKs Top Ten Charts for a year and a half breaking former charts record held by Tomb Raider (which lasted for 79 weeks).
• A Limited edition Pokemon DS Lite has come out in America! (as seen at the top ^^^^)

Release Dates.... In England!

Wii

Samba De Amigo 26/09

Brothers in Arms: Double Time 26/09

de Blob: 26/09

Wario Land: The Shake Dimension 26/09

Sim City Creator 26/09

Hell's Kitchen 26/09

FIFA '09 03/10

Lego Batman 10/10

Final Fantasy Fables: Chocobo Dungeon 24/10

More Game Party 31/10

DS

Sonic Chronicles: Dark Brotherhood 26/09

Drawn t0 Life: Spongebob Edition 26/09

Lock's Quest 26/09

Zubo 03/10

FIFA '09 03/09

Lego Batman 10/10

Jewel Quest: Cradle of Rome 10/10

So which ones of these should I get?

Well for the Wii side I would recommend Samba De Amigo if your a rhythm game fan, for all you platformer fans out there buy Wario Land and de Blob is meant to be quite good too.

And on the DS side just get Sonic Chronicles (a Sonic RPG by Bioware (The people who made Stars Wars: Knights of the Old Republic)). 

Well thats it for this issue!

Signing off, 

                     The Triforce Fighter

Pokemon DS Lite: http://www.nintendoreport.com/wp-content/uploads/2006/09/poke02s_01.jpg

A 360

Anyone who knows me know that I used to be anti anything other than Nintendo. Well today I just ordered myself an Xbox 360 (20 gb) along with Halo 3! So once I have got the game (and completed it) I will post up a review for it! To me this is a big leap seeing as I have always preferred 360s over PS3's (Mind you I still prefer the Wii = P ) so I thought it makes sense to make the 360 my secondary console!

Anyway if Halo 3 is as easy as 1 and 2 (in normal mode that is. I don't do anything crazy like Legendary mode X D) the review will be up in no time. 

Till then I shall leave you this picture of Halo 3 to look at X D

Signing out,

                      The Triforce Fighter aka Josh

picture from: http://www.futurelooks.com/wordpress/wp-content/uploads/2007/10/halo3_rules.jpg

Condemned Criminal Origins

Okay, so a few weeks ago I was looking around in a random game shop and I found Condemned, it was cheap so I decided to get it. I went back to my house and started playing it and heres what i think of it.

The game is a first person shoo- actually it doesn't deserve to be called a first person shooter seeing as there are hardly any guns in the game, you'l be lucky if you can find one decent gun with ammo in it in a level!

The storyline is very basic, you play as Ethan Thomas, a detective investigating another murder by one of the cities seriel killers "The Match Maker" with two other cops, you then realise the killer may still be in the building so you split up. You get a gun with one clip in it and fight the first enemy, then you trip over and get it stolen almost straight away >:( Anyway though the killer uses your gun to kill the other two officers and pushes you out of a 4 story apartment block window. Of course everyone thinks you've murdered the officers so you must try to prove your innocence, how? you may ask, by grabbing stuff from your environment and beating up drug dealers, freaks and crazy randomers.

You'l spend prettymuch 98% of the time with a melee weapon from the environment, from a 2x4 plank of wood to a fire axe. The enemies AI is okay even though the game claims to have brilliant AI. I mean if you hit one they run away, hide, then come out again. They just do it over and over. So the game gets very boring fast.

The levels are all very dark and some are harder than others. you'l find loads of health kits in the first few levels. Then they all seem to vanish. I haven't even finished the game as i'm stuck in one level. 

Closing Comments

Overall i like the style of the game and think it's okay for a kick off game (with the 360) but there are more better games for the 360 than condemned. The game tries to be scary by giving you flashbacks of the murders and stuff but it gets dull quite fast and loses the scariness. the bosses are a mixture, some are easy and some are hard. but very soon you'l probably be through the game as there are only 10 levels (I made it to level 7 then just gave up as it is very difficult even on easy mode)

Condemned 2 is currently out and I've heard it features more guns and more scares, heres hoping my review on that is better if i ever get it.

My Rating: C - I'd say there are a lot of better games on the 360 but it's okay

Screenshot from Reviewcnet.com

Super Smash Bros Brawl

Many people at work and in the school playground often argue who would win in a fight between Sonic and Mario. Well the answer to that question among many others will be answered in Super Smash Bros. Brawl the 3rd game in the Super Smash Bros. Series. 

Now if your not a die hard Nintendo fan you may be wondering what is Super Smash Bros. and is the hype surrounding it as good as it makes out? Well first Super Smash Bros. is a series of 3D fighter games where you play as different Nintendo stars (including a few guest appearances from Solid Snake from Metal Gear Solid and Sonic the Hedgehog) as they battle it out to see who is the best. With each version of the game more characters are added and by Brawl there are 23 characters to start with and another 15 to unlock! With the likes of Super Mario, Link, Samus, Pikachu,Fox Mcloud and many more recognizable names.

 So is it a 3D fighter game only hard core gamers will like? The simple answer is no because the controllers are so simple. You can pick up and play it for the first time and after a couple of battles you will have got a grips with most of the moves. That does not mean there is not any depth to the game because there is. Its just hidden. 

Brawl also introduces a new adventure mode written by the creator of Final Fantasy X and Kingdom Hearts which are both games well known for there deep story line. Okay Brawls story line isnt really deep but its deep enough and with beautiful CGI cut scenes strung together with platforming/Fighting/puzzle sections (which are all multiplayer) its all good if not slightly repetitive.

But lets not forget the many collectables you can find in the many game modes. There are trophies of characters from Nintendo's backlog of games. Stickers which you can use to level up your characters in the story mode and music which you can use to customize what songs are played on the many different levels on Brawl. Not only that but the game introduces something like the achievement system from the 360 to the game where by doing certain things you unlock stuff such as levels and stickers.

Now to answer question two. Yes this game is brilliant and worth all the hype it got and is still getting!

.

Second opinion

A great game that anybody new can play or people that have played the other two games in the series can enjoy. Features a lot of modes and unlockables and a storymode that will keep you entertained for hours. The game can also draw you into other ninendo games, like Star fox for me :P. A must have for the Wii. 

Closing Comments

Brawl is brilliant pick up and play 3D fighter with good strong online elements (providing you have a good broadband connection) The graphics are beautiful and really push the Wii and with so many controllers to choose from ( you can even use the Gamecube controller!) its a must buy for anyone who is interested in Nintendo even just slightly.

A*




pictures are from:
http://redcardgroup.com/granite/wp-content/uploads/2008/01/various25_080130a-l.jpg

http://www.nwiizone.com/wp-content/uploads/games/oct/Super-Smash-Bros-Brawl-New-Pork-City-Wii-05.jpg

http://thegamergene.com/wp-content/uploads/2007/10/ssbb_box_art.jpg

Gears of pwnage!

Hey readers!


For my first review i decided to do a 360 game almost all gamers have seen or heard of... Gears of war i also chose this game as it is hardcore and the sequel will be out soon (November)

This game has all the elements of a shooter, a range of weapons, a decent storyline, Beautiful envornments, good controls and online multiplayer =D





The game is set on the planet of Sera in either the present or future where humans live peacefully, until emergence day when a group of monsters, calling themselves the Locust attack from their underground tunnels, most humans are killed and very few survive, the surviving humans must fight these monsters that can attack almost anywhere at any time.


"You Play As Marcus Fenix and it's your job to kill, kill and kill some more!"


You play as one of the few COG soldier left, Marcus Fenix and you must get him through five acts alive- each with breathtaking environments, killing Locust in them all and a few bosses along the way.



The game has a "Control system" aswell that lets you command you men, however there are only 3 commands "Attack, Defend and Group up" so you don't get to retreat or anything XD

The game has a lot of violence and because of that has an 18 rating, but it's the only game you'l find where the gun has a chainsaw mounted on it, the sniper rifle can blow your head clean off or where you can rip people to shreads with one clean shotgun blast.




The online is awesome and has four modes, Warzone (two teams of 4 vs 4 duking it out), Execution (same as warzone but you can only kill by a close range execution, with a few exceptions *coughs* grenades) Assassination (each team has a leader and you must take them down and Annex (Gears' take on king of the hill) .There are also quite a lot of maps and several downloadable ones you can get for free from the marketplace.

The game features 3 difficulties, Casual, Hardcore and Insane. An Insane runthrough can be annoying and very time consuming but it's worth it when you can say "i beat gears on insane!"


The bosses are quite easy and once you've hurt them it becomes easy to take them down (exception of the final boss)


Closing Comments


Overall I'd say this is a must have for the 360 (if your over 18 that is) and is one of my favourite shooters ever. It utilises cover and has decent AI. Heres hoping Gears 2 is better in every way!

My Rating A*



Spartan 120 signing out!

Pictures

Raam-http://www.xboxfocus.com/features/17-gears-war-2-wishlist/index.html

Screenshot 1-http://www.progamingrevolution.com/page/Gears+of+War+-+Screenshot?t=anon

Screenshot 2- http://uk.gamespot.com/pages/forums/show_msgs.php?topic_id=25578786&page=1

Mark Joins the brawl!

Hey guys!
I'm Mark (Aka Spartan 120)
I'mma help write reviews- more of them are gonna be towards the xbox 360 side of games and i'll probably comment on some nintendo games aswell =P

Roller Coaster Tycoon 3

Roller Coaster Tycoon is a series of games where you make and create your own theme park and run it from many different angles. You mange it financially, where rides and shops are placed and even down to how much ice you get in the drinks.

Roller Coaster Tycoon 3 is the third game in the series and also takes a big leap from the later games graphically. The older games (1 and 2) both have isometric graphics but now Roller Coaster Tycoon goes 3D. Which is a bad thing. This is because many people (myself included) liked the graphics style of older games even if they looked a little dated. The older games had more character and felt more realistic then the new 3D cartoon look. 

But going 3D does have some advantages. Such as placing rides is so much easier and selecting visitors and your employees from out of the crowds. 

The most important thing however, like in any video game is the game play and if you like the previous games you will not be disappointed. That's because it has hardly changed! Sure you can do everything in more detail like decide if the burgers comes with cheese and how much chocolate sauce is put on the ice cream. Apart from that the game play is basically identical.

That does not mean some things have not changed though. For instance sometimes a celebrity will visit your park and to make them happy you got to do certain things such as put them on a ride which has a 7 in excitement. 

Or sometimes they can not stand the sight of rubbish meaning that you have to send you cleaners on a cleaning rampage like you do before your Grandma and Granddad come over.

They have also added a few new modes in too. Such as the sand box mode where you have unlimited amount of money to do what you want with. You might want to make a dream theme park or maybe you might make all the rides faulty to see how many guests you can injure! Its up to you with no goals you can let you imagination run riot! You can also make your own guests using a simple character creator. It isn't anything like the Sims but its a nice touch.

Closing Comments

Roller Coaster Tycoon 3 is a nice addition to series although the graphics are not up to much and the gameplay is exactly the same but if you like manager based games or the Roller Coaster Tycoon series you cant go far wrong!

Rating: B 

box art from http://content.answers.com/main/content/wp/en/thumb/9/9e/256px-RollerCoaster_Tycoon_3.jpg

First Post!

Hello!

This is my first post and I thought I should introduce myself. I'm The Triforce Fighter and this is my blog where I review games and talk about gaming news. There will be a simple rating system for games which is:

A* = Brilliant a must buy!

A = Very Good!

B = Good

C = An average game. Buy this if your a die hard fan!

D = Poor