Tag: nintendo direct

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Resurrecting Nintendo

I just had this idea on how Nintendo can resuscitate the Wii U. First off number one don’t do a Nintendo direct for this. Do an actual press conference, someplace very public like Sony did in NYC to unveil the PS4. Nintendo should hype this idea up a lot. Launch a worldwide ad campaign all alluding to a mysterious new thing. Give the ad campaign a tone more accessible to an older audience. The final ads should read something like this, “This fall Nintendo brings the power back! Will you be ready?” then they show a release date. People across the globe freak out, speculating are they bringing back Nintendo Power magazine?!” Nintendo lets everyone simmer for a while.

 

After maybe six weeks or more of intolerable silence Nintendo holds “THE” press conference. Lots of build up, dark lit rooms, fuzzy images, news press EVERYWHERE. Then we get an extended video with high energy, maybe even with celebrity cameos all asking, “are you ready for Nintendo to bring the powerback?!” of course they all say yes! Then lights fade to black in the convention center. They start playing the theme from Terminator 2, duh duh duh duh……duh duh, duh duh duh duh…..duh duh! Everyone freaks out, partly just because everyone loves Terminator 2. A spotlight comes on the catwalk there is someone walking down it with a suitcase handcuffed to him. The music builds mixed with  the intro for “Blind” by KoRn. At the end of the catwalk there is a table and a second person pulls out a key for the suitcase and unlocks it. Their back is turned to the audience and cameras as they reach inside. At that moment the song breaks and the lyric “Are you ready?!!!” blasts across the PA system broadcasting into millions of homes around the world and the person turns around and reaches up with their hand held high. On their hand is the Powerglove! Words across the video read “for the return of the POWERGLOVE!!” But not just any Powerglove this is the Powerglove 2.0 completely redesigned and overhauled for the Wii U. Laser lights shine and the music changes to complement an energetic montage video of people having fun playing Nintendo games with the Powerglove 2.0.

 

Powerglove 2.0 has the screen like the Wii U tablet controller built directly on to it with touchscreen funtionality. All the expected features for motion gaming would come built in including actual 1:1 hand gestures just like the original Powerglove promised 25 years ago. Seeing how Nintendo banks so heavily on motion gaming this seems like a no brainer. Think of the possibilities available now with this kind of hardware. You can literally make a first person Iron Man game where you actually use your hand to shoot his blaster. How cool would it be to get messages and videos from in game characters on the screen on your arm. Better yet how great would it be to play online games and actually interact with your friends by talking to them on the forearm of your Powerglove? Combined with use of the regular Wii controller the applications are limitless. How cool would it be to actually summon a fireball with your hand in a game or dialing in codes and lock combinations you have found in the game using the touchscreen on the Powerglove 2.0?

 

For the horror fans imagine a game like Outlast about a reporter who hears strange sounds from a nearby abandoned insane asylum and decides to investigate only to discover, as many would have guessed, was a very bad idea. OK so now picture playing a game like this with some of your friends. All of you are sneaking around inside this asylum in different areas. Each of you can find objects and information to help each other escape. The catch is you have to physically tell them what you know. You have to send a message to your friend from your Powerglove monitor alerting them that you have important information to help them progress through the asylum. Maybe even make the glove vibrate whenever you get a message so as to add to the stealth element. Either way the alert lets you know that both of you need to get to a “safe” area so that you can relay the information. This could add so much to a horror experience. Think about guiding your character to an empty closet while your friend is hiding in a locker and the two of you are whispering details back and forth on the Powergloves monitor because speaking too loudly can alert enemies to your location. Maybe as you progress you can upgrade your abilities and do stuff like take in-game pictures and videos and send recorded messages to each other in the game using the Powerglove’s forearm monitor. You could even base the whole game around the Powerglove like in the game its some kind of tool given to you by your captors. They find the hunt more satisfying if their prey has a “fighting” chance. ( Powerglove aside this is a game I would like to play )

 

To be fair though videogame development is not cheap let alone hardware development and to expect such an elaborate game based on a piece of hardware you would have to have an install base considerably better than that of which the Wii U itself currently has. Research and development for a piece of hardware like the Powerglove 2.0 I just described would not be cheap for Nintendo. That being said though the reappearance of the Powerglove would be huge in the gaming community not just for Nintendo fans. There is a huge demographic of people who grew up when Nintendo ruled the world. Many of us still remember the “Nintendon’t what SEGA does!” days and no matter what console you played on everyone knew Nintendo and what the Powerglove was. Even though I am pretty sure only three games ever came out specifically for the Powerglove and the hardware was notoriously a functional disaster many people look back on the device with nostalgic fondness. Even though it didn’t work very well the glove still looked cool. The technology exists today to actually make the Powerglove everything it was supposed to be, and then some.

 

Ultimately the biggest consideration for a piece of hardware as elaborate as the Powerglove 2.0 is how to make such a piece of hardware affordable to consumers and have the hardware still be profitable. How much are you willing to spend for something like this? $100? $150? $200? If the controller was made well, functioned like I described, was sold at a reasonable price and was supported properly I think Nintendo could gain some serious ground against the upcoming PS4 and XBOX One. The nostalgia element alone would have lots of older gamers going and buying it. I would consider buying one just to have it and I don’t even have a Wii or a Wii U. If you could use the Powerglove 2.0 as a standalone game player for Wii, Wii U and Nintendo DS games and the glove is priced respectively to the console and DS markets it would considerably increase the value of owning the Powerglove 2.0. You could even play augmented reality games like laser tag with your friends. The applications already exist and the Powerglove 2.0 would be an ideal vessel for many of them.

 

In all likelihood under the current conditions of Nintendo and its newest console I would have to say the appearance of a new and improved Powerglove is not happening anytime soon. If done properly the Powerglove 2.0 could potentially be a huge hit for Nintendo. The cost of research and development for the Powerglove 2.0 definitely makes it a financial risk for Nintendo but if done right I think it could be one of the greatest gaming devices this generation. Overall something crazy like the resurgence of a new and improved Powerglove and targeting a slightly older audience are elements that could give Nintendo the spark it needs to excite console gamers again. In this era of the Oculus Rift where we are on the verge of having actual virtual reality in our homes something like the Powerglove 2.0 has the potential to give Nintendo a much needed relevance boost in the current console market.

 

-Z3R0TH3RT33N

Follow Sonic Mercury on Twitter @SonicMercury and like our Facebook page Sonic Mercury

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

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The Wonderful 101

Sorry for the delay on the follow up for the last Nintendo Direct but I had trouble tracking this one down. The latest Nintendo Direct highlights a new Wii U exclusive game called The Wonderful 101. A game about 100 unique superheros. I assume that the final “1” is either a hidden character or a way of saying the actual player is the final hero in the game. The art style is cartoonish in the vein of Viewtiful Joe if you have ever seen that series.

 

You start out with a handful of superheros and go throughout the game unlocking more superheros as you progress. Each hero brings an individual ability/personality to your group as well as makes your group stronger. During gameplay all of your unlocked superheros are present on screen and they move in a mob. New powers and abilities are unlocked and can be upgraded throughout the game like the ability to summon giant swords or hammers. The actual characters you control become the weapons you create to fight giant monsters. Your abilities are also used for solving puzzles for instance making giant ladders or bridges. The different abilities are activated when the player draws a simple specific design into the center of their gamepad.

 

The overall tone of the game is very over the top. The trailer for the game was kind of like a Dexter’s Laboratory crossover with the Powerpuff Girls with lots of references to current superhero movies. Dexter’s Laboratory kept popping up in my head because I am pretty sure Wonderful “Green” is voiced by the same actor as Dexter was. The pacing of the trailer was very similar to that of the Powerpuff Girls and the villains seemed very similar with one villain almost like a robotic female version of Mojo Jojo. In fact the whole game feels like it could have been a show on Cartoon Network during the same time as Dexter and the Girls.

 

While the game has an obvious cartoon presentation it is a little hard to figure out who this game is supposed to be marketed to. The Wonder Pink character comes off as a Russian dominatrix. She wears pink leather, carries a whip and during her superhero transformation she actually says “bad boy, time for a little punishment.” Wonder Pink also contributes a giant pink whip to the team that you can use to fight enemies and navigate levels. The overall gameplay of Wonderful 101 looks like a platformer with some puzzle solving and instead of controlling one character you control a mob of characters.

 

-Z3R0TH3RT33N

Follow Sonic Mercury on Twitter @SonicMercury and like our Facebook page Sonic Mercury

 

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Wii U News

You can now add Bethesda Softworks to the growing list of 3rd party developer/publishers who aren’t making games for the Wii U. Some of the games Bethesda has brought us over the years include The Elder Scrolls and Fallout 3. Bethesda’s parent company ZeniMax Media acquired legendary developer id software in 2009 thus all games created by id are now published by Bethesda this includes the highly anticipated Doom 4.

 

Bethesda’s reasoning for not developing new titles for the Wii U is different than other 3rd party developers who claim that there just isn’t a high enough home install base for the console. Pete Hines, Bethesda’s Vice President of marketing told Joystiq in a recent interview at Quake-con that “it’s largely a hardware thing.” Stating that Bethesda makes the games that they want to make on whatever hardware that will support those games.

 

Yesterday  8/7/13 Nintendo held another Nintendo Direct broadcast online. It started off with Sonic Lost World which has really bizarre level designs sort of like navigating cylinders through strange backgrounds  you can move 360 degrees to progress. I can’t help but think this game was originally intended to be a tech demo for Sonic. The game does support 3DS and Wii U cross play. It wasn’t clear if your progress from either platform would carry over to the other but you can share items between gaming devices. Only a handful of Wii U games were mentioned and for the most part were even glossed over like a recent Luigi U title. These games included Art Academy Sketch Pad, Pikimin 3, Pokemon Rumble, and Windwaker HD a Wii U an HD update of a twelve year old Zelda game and of course the previously mentioned Sonic Lost World.

 

The Nintendo 3DS got a lot more attention at the Direct event. Many retro classics are coming to 3DS including the likes of the original NES version of Donkey Kong, Tecmo Bowl and Super Mario Bros. 3. Professor Layton will be seeing two new titles coming to America in 2014 and one of those games will be an Ace Attorney Pheonix Wright crossover game. The Professor Layton games were the most impressive of any titles shown at the Nintendo Direct event and they look amazing. Zelda has another 3DS title coming out called A Link Between Worlds. Part of the concept of the game is that their is a dark mirror version of the Tri-force. It sounded like an interesting idea but it was further described like the game would have two worlds that were almost exactly the same “but slightly different” and Link can now become a living cave painting that can walk on walls.

 

There will be a new feature coming to Animal Crossing known as the Plaza. It is sort of a hub for users to socialize and learn about upcoming events in the Animal Crossing world and that feature is free to download. That is about all that was covered at yesterday’s Nintendo Direct Event and another Nintendo Direct event was announced for tomorrow 8/9/13 called the “Wonderful 101 Direct Event.” An update will be posted after the event so come back tomorrow to learn all about this upcoming Wii U superhero game.

 

Before I go I would like to have a quick Jerry Springer-esque moment like Jerry Does at the end of all his shows. To be brutally honest a lot of these games look painfully cutesy. With the exception of the new Professor Layton games for the 3DS, which look very promising, most of the games shown look like they are appealing to children under the age of 6. I know Nintendo prides itself on its whimsy and the children at heart but you can still make great looking games within those parameters. Here is the link to the Pokemon Rumble U trailer and here is the link to the Professor Layton and the Azran Legacy trailer. Pokemon is releasing on the Wii U home console and Professor Layton is coming out on the handheld 3DS. I get that they are entirely different style games with different demographics but if Professor Layton is possible on a handheld gaming console would it really be so much to ask to make the Pokemon game at least somewhat resemble the cartoon show it was based on? Its puzzling to see Nintendo allow a game involving a franchise with a huge fanbase like Pokemon to look this poor considering the potential of the games basic idea, especially when you are trying to sell consoles.

 

-Z3R0TH3RT33N

Follow Sonic Mercury on Twitter @SonicMercury and like our Facebook page Sonic Mercury