E3 2010 Photos Part 3: Nintendo

I didn’t get to spend any time with Nintendo this year, but I managed to grab a few photos nonetheless! So without further ado, here they go!

E3 2009: Nintendo Press Conference

Here we are again to bring you all the breaking announcements from Nintendo’s Press Conference at this years E3! And here we go!

New Super Mario Bros. Wii announced. The game is done in a classic, 2D Mario style, but with 3D character sprites. It also features four player multi-player with Mario, Luigi, and two Toads. You can play the main storyline with other players co-op, jumping in and out at any time.

Lego Harry Potter: Years 1-4 Announced

Fresh from the E3 show floor is the news that Warner Bros and Travelers Tales are cooking up Lego Harry Potter: Years 1-4.

Outside of covering “the boy who lived’s” first four years at Hogwarts, not much else is known about the game. There is a snazzy trailer, however, which I’ve linked to below.

The game is set for release sometime next year.

Source – Kotaku

Madden: If It Sells… Don’t Fix It

I have been playing Madden football since ’92 in the Sega Genesis days. Madden has always been one of the best if not, the best place for gamers to ball on the gridiron. Yes, there have been some stumbling blocks along the way, but Madden has always recovered and gotten back to glory. That is until now. Since the jump to the now current gen systems, Madden has done just enough to get by. Riding the coat tails of its former greatness like Freddie Prinze Jr. does with his father, Madden has skated by on past glory and the deep pockets in which it helped create at EA. As many of you know, EA has the rights to all NFL properties, including player names, likeness and stadiums until at least 2013. With the lack of competition, Madden has become a shell of its former self only improving enough to silence casual critics with their smoke and mirrors.

The gameplay of Madden, while functional as of recent, is still half of what it used to be. The graphics are also substandard. It is a sad day when the biggest sport in America has arguably the worst graphics in sports gaming at this point in time. As a matter of fact, Madden 09 had the worst graphics of any game that came out last year that got a rating of 75 or higher in Metacritic excluding RPGs and downloadables, which would make Madden the ugliest non RPG, disc based game to be in the Metacritic green zone. Casuals have no idea or don’t care how the game has lost its former greatness and some hardcore fans have adjusted to its mediocrity. I fall in to the category of neither, and this is my reason why.

Ever since Madden and NCAA 98, you could transfer players leaving to the pros with your memory stick on the PS1. It has never been perfect, some players would be black in college and end up white in the pros and vice versa, but it was pretty much a working system. However, since the jump to the current gen, Madden has not been able to get it right. Since Madden on the new current systems has been out, graduating players have vanished into thin air, players have their speed ratings dropped 15 points, and worst of all, players are not editable in season mode. I understand not being able to modify every Florida Gator graduate to be unstoppable, but to not even let the user modify name and jersey numbers is ridiculous. Instead of playing with Michael Crabtree #80 for the San Francisco 49ers, I’m stuck with first name “BLANK,” last name “ WR #5,” wearing #5 instead of the normal numbers for wide receivers in the NFL. I know that this is a tiny part of a game, but it is a vital part to gamers like me and these are the attentions to detail that are missing from the game.

Madden sells like gangbusters for a reason. It has built a pedigree for many years and has overcome stiff competition from Sega Sport Football, Gameday, and the 2K series. Ever since EA’s monopoly over football, however, the quality has dipped significantly. It’s funny that EA in collaboration with the NFL has taken away what fans enjoy most about the sport; competition. Without a worthy competitor, Madden can overlook intricacies like player transfers, spotty online tournaments, frame rate issues, graphical progress, etc. Fans of virtual football are being repeatedly kicked in the shins by EA because their love and loyalty to the game of football. It’s like being a fan of 3rd person shooters and only having Army of Two to choose from. Decent game, but given the option I’d rather play Uncharted or Gears. EA and the NFL have left us no option, so gamers have Madden or nothing. I know that if the NFL had nothing but the Detroit Lions to offer, the league would not be such an entertaining way to spend a Sunday.  So I ask, why would EA and the NFL do the same from it’s virtual counterpart?

This Week in Game Releases…

Big Bang Mini for the DS

This is the third week of January, and as every January, releases on all fronts are slow. But, none the less, there are things to out look for. Follow below for more…

Itsa Me! Free Crap!

After being announced in October of this year, Club Nintendo of North America finally went live today, then went down, but then it was back up, then soon went back down, BUT at the time of this writing it is currently online. When buying First party Nintendo games, systems, or select third party games, gamers are given codes which will award them “coins” that can then be redeemed for merchandise from the N.A. specific catalog.

A feature long since seen in Japan and Europe, and earlier this year for Australia, us yank’s will finally get a taste of the free swag others have been enjoying for so long. As of right now, there are only a few prizes worth mentioning, including a Game and Watch Cartridge for the DS and some cool themed stylus packs. But, with the hopes of more games, soundtracks, and other cool items, this is definitly something to watch.

Chrono Trigger DS gets a European Release Date

Square-Enix finally lifted the veil on the European release date of Chrono Trigger: February 6.

Chrono Trigger DS is a faithful reproduction of the Super Nintendo classic, but features additional dungeons, the cutscenes from the Playstation remake, an alternate ending, not to mention the use of the DS’ two screens.

Chrono Trigger was the game that got me interested in RPGs way back in the day, and although I’d rather have a new entry to the Chrono series, I can never get enough of the original.