More Strider/Soulcalibur II jumps on the bandwagon

If you read my last post, you'll remember that I was complaining about 3rd party developers ignoring Nintendo. The new Strider was my prime example. Well, just a couple of days after I made that post, Double Helix, the developers of the new Strider, said that a Nintendo version would be done if the demand was there for it. Now don't get me wrong, I'm certainly not claiming any influence in that decision. But I'm very happy to hear about it. If you're a Nintendo fan like me and would like to see the new Strider on the Wii U, be sure to tweet @DoubleHelixGame and @Capcom_Unity. Use the hashtag #StrideronWiiU.

I know, Twitter campaigns don't work, blah blah blah. It doesn't take much time out of your day to send a couple of tweets, and these companies can't know what we want if we don't tell them.

In related news, Namco Bandai has announced an HD remake of Soulcalibur II, which was an awesome game. But, once again, it's not for Nintendo! This one is really mystifying to me. Here's a bit of backstory for those who don't know. Soulcalibur II was originally released back in 2003 for GameCube, PS2, and Xbox. Each version of the game got an exclusive character. The Xbox version got Spawn, Todd McFarlane's comic character. Very cool. The PS2 version got Tekken's Heihachi. Kind of an odd choice, putting a fighter who just uses his fists into a fighting game known for using weapons, but still decent. The GameCube version got Link. Now, the GameCube was not one of Nintendo's greatest successes. It was, in fact, the third place console in sales during gen 6. Despite that, it was the GC version of Soulcalibur II that sold the most. People loved being able to play as Link! I knew a lot of guys that had the game back then, and not a one of them had any other version. Even today, when you go to retro game stores, the GC version isn't exactly rare, but you see it far less than you do the PS2 or Xbox versions. People kept their GC Soulcalibur IIs!

So now it's getting redone in HD, and we won't be able to play as Link? Boo! Boo, Namco! This remake is coming out on Xbox 360 and PS3. I have read that Spawn and Heihachi will be appearing in both versions of the game. So, after reading that I did understand a bit more why Nintendo wasn't getting this. If it were on the Wii U, Nintendo would expect their version to have Link in it. But if that happened, Microsoft and Sony might complain about Nintendo getting an extra character. And of course, there's no way Nintendo would allow Link to appear in the 360 or PS3 versions. But still, platform-specific bonuses like this happen all the time. See Kratos appearing in Mortal Kombat on PS3. It happens. So why is Namco ignoring Nintendo?

It's not like they have a bad relationship. Namco is helping to co-develop the two new Super Smash Bros. games coming for Wii U and 3DS! If Nintendo trusts Namco enough to let them co-develop one of their biggest franchises, I'd guess they're pretty tight. So why would Namco not try to recreate the success of the GC version of Soulcalibur II by making this remake on Wii U with Link?

Okay, enough of this. My apologies for waving the Nintendo banner for a second post in a row. I promise next time I'll find something else to talk about. As always, thanks for reading! Please tell your friends about the blog, and follow me on Twitter @RevLink_GI.

Today's music: Listening to my Reds beat up on the Giants in a double header!

New Strider? Great! Not for Nintendo? Boo!

You may not have heard yet, but Capcom has announced a brand new Strider game! The trailer looks pretty fantastic. I love it any time a game comes out that is 2D and has an old school style, even if it's not based off of an old series. But here's the thing I have an issue with. This game is coming for Xbox One, PS4, Xbox 360, and PS3. No Wii U. Sorry Nintendo. Even though your NES was the first home system Strider appeared on, you don't get this game. Even though Capcom is bothering to make versions for the now-last-gen 360 and PS3, both of which aren't quite as powerful as your current system, they're still not bothering to make it for you.

Are Wii U sales really that bad? I know the month-to-month numbers are very low, but I was under the impression that the Wii U still has better lifetime sales than the Xbox 360 and PS3 did at this point in their lifetimes. Plus, it's July! This is always a slow time of year for the industry. We've only really had two blockbuster AAA releases all year, Bioshock Infinite and The Last of Us. Sales are slow all around. Or is it something more than that? Is there a grudge in place here? There are many third party publishers that used to work closely with Nintendo, companies like Capcom, Konami, Square-Enix, Tecmo-Koei, and EA, who now are not. Or in some cases they'll put out a couple lazy ports then complain it's Nintendo's fault when they don't sell well. Is this all because of the way Nintendo used to treat the third parties back in the NES/SNES days? I can't imagine these publishers, companies whose main goal is to make money, would lose out on profit just to spite Nintendo. It can't be denied, however, that Nintendo used to be pretty heavy handed with the third parties. But hey, newer third parties, that weren't around or weren't as big back in those days, do this too.

Could it be, as so many people around the internet say, that third parties don't like to put stuff on Nintendo's systems because their games are always outsold by Nintendo's own games? Nintendo's first party games do tend to sell more than anything else on their systems. Let's look at one example in particular. When the Wii U launched, EA made a Special Edition version of Mass Effect 3 for the system. The Mass Effect series was very popular in gen 7, selling huge numbers on both Xbox 360 and PS3. It was very cool to see it appearing now on a Nintendo console. How did is sell? Abysmally, by all accounts. Why was this? Was the draw of New Super Mario Bros. U just too strong? Well, that might have been part of it for some people. Let me tell you my opinion on the matter. I love the Mass Effect games. I very much enjoyed the multiplayer on ME3. I had plans to buy it on Wii U so I could continue playing the online for free (my original copy is for 360, and I don't currently have Gold). It was listed at $60, which I thought was a bit high for a year old port, but I loved the game so much I was considering it. Then some information came out. The Mass Effect Trilogy, a bundle of all three games, was announced as coming out at the same time as the Wii U version, but only for Xbox 360 and PS3. It was to sell for the same price as ME3 on the Wii U. On top of that, EA also said that there was no plans to bring the ME3 DLC to Wii U at all. Upon hearing all this I abandoned my plans to buy ME3 Special Edition. I may still pick it up eventually, if I find a cheap, used copy.

How could EA expect Mass Effect fans to be happy with a $60 year old port with no DLC support, when the entire series was being re-released, with DLC support, for the same price on older consoles? And then they had the nerve to complain that it didn't sell well and blame Nintendo for that! The tinfoil-hat-wearing part of me thinks it was all a conspiracy. They wanted sales of ME3 to be low so they could use it as an excuse to stop making games for Nintendo.

Okay, I'm going to stop myself here, before I get into fanboy territory deeper than I already have. Bear with me, folks, please. Yes, I do accept the fact that I can be a fanboy at times. But, that said, I do own all the systems, and always find great games to play on each. I love me some Halo, Fable, and Gears of War. I love Uncharted, Infamous, Jak and Daxter, and plenty of other Sony games as well. To this day the only controller I feel comfortable playing a Tony Hawk game with is a DualShock. So why should I care what games show up on which system if I have them all? Nintendo just happens to be my favorite. Even before the NES days, Donkey Kong was one of my favorite games on my parents' old Atari 400. Nintendo is always going to be my favorite company. They've given me so many happy memories. I just hate seeing them brushed to the side of the current game industry. Many out there might say they're doing it to themselves. I say Nintendo is still making the exact same kind of quality, fun games that they have been for more than 30 years. So it bugs me to see an old school series like Strider coming back as a modern 2D game, but not on Nintendo systems. Especially since the 360 and PS3 are getting a version.

That's it for my little rant. If you're a big Sony or Microsoft guy, don't let it scare you off! I like those systems too, I promise! Before I finish, let me also say that if you're a fan of horror movies, get yourself to the theater and see The Conjuring! I just got back from a screening before I started typing this out. It was one of the best horror movies I've seen in years! Great atmosphere, lots of good scares without relying too heavily on jump scares or so-called "cheap" scare tactics. Some really nice practical effects, and most importantly it didn't fall victim to dumb-ending syndrome. So many otherwise-good horror movies have been ruined by the writer not knowing how to end them properly. This was a very well written movie based off of a supposedly true story. Go see it with a bunch of friends!

As always, thanks for reading! Be sure to follow me on Twitter @RevLink_GI!

Odds and ends

I don't have any one topic I want to talk about today, so I'll just cover a few things briefly.

I saw Man of Steel a couple of nights ago. I pretty much hated it. I know it's been getting mixed reactions, some people love it, some hate it. I just can't understand how anyone liked it. The characters in this movie were all boring and unlikeable, with the possible exceptions of Jonathan Kent and Jor-El. I'm not going to go into specifics since I don't want to spoil anything for those of you that still want to give it a try, but I will say a few things. The acting was bad. Or maybe just the direction, as the people in the movie are all competent actors. But Superman was so wooden! He never seemed to care about anything. He made Christian Bale's Batman seem cheery! And the movie never seemed to give me any reason to care much about any of the characters, especially Superman, and even more especially Clark Kent. Some of the Kryptonian lore was very off from the comics, too. I just couldn't find much at all to like about this movie, and I couldn't really recommend it to anyone.

Next I'd like to talk to you a bit about Nintendo and their practice of region locking their systems. This means if you have, say, a US 3DS, you can't play any import games on it. Nintendo are the only hardware maker that still do this. The PS4 and Xbox One (and I believe the PS Vita) are completely region free. Any import games you buy for those systems will work just fine. You might not be able to understand the language, but the game will play. I don't know why Nintendo is holding to region locking so strongly. They've given some excuse about conforming to each countries rating systems for games, but that seems flimsy. It hasn't stopped Sony or Microsoft. So, if you care at all about importing games, please let Nintendo know! Send tweets to @Nintendo and @NintendoAmerica with the hashtags #NintendoRegionFree and #EndRegionLocking. If you have a Wii U, be sure to post on Miiverse about it as well. I believe there are a couple of online petitions floating around also, you could look for some of those.

Sorry for the short post. Hopefully next time I'll have more in-depth things to talk about! But, as always, thank you for reading. Be sure to follow me on Twitter @RevLink_GI!

Game & Wario

Sorry I haven't updated lately. I've been having problems with my wisdom teeth, and it's had me in no mood to do much of anything. I'll try to do better.

I'd like to talk a bit about Game & Wario. In the past I've written reviews for games, or at least what I called reviews. I'm not going to do that anymore. I've never really liked reviews. Everyone has different tastes. Who am I to say what is good or what is bad? All I can really do is say what I like and what I don't. So I'm going to do that now with this game.

I've seen some reviews from around the web for this, and most of them haven't been spectacular, but I've really been enjoying the game. If you've played any of the numerous WarioWare games you'll know what to expect with this one, but at the same time you won't. It's a bit different. That might be why they didn't actually call this a WarioWare game. Instead of numerous crazy microgames, you're given a series of minigames to play. About a dozen are single player, and a handful more for multiplayer. Each game is much more involved than the microgames we used to see in Wario games, and they feature multiple difficulty levels. Playing through and beating all the games on all the difficulties will take you some time.

Nintendo tried to incorporate the Wii U Gamepad into the games, clearly, with many featuring touch and tilt controls, but there's not much groundbreaking here. The real gem is the minigame called Gamer. This is the one minigame that really shows what dual screen gaming can be. You play as the kid 9-Volt. You're supposed to be in bed, but you're playing a handheld game. On the Gamepad screen is the game. These are the traditional WarioWare-style microgames. They all use just the d-pad and A button. On the TV you see 9-Volt's bedroom. You have to pay attention for clues that your mother is about to come in and check on you. If she catches you up, it's game over. And she can come from all over. At times she even comes out of the TV like the little girl in The Ring! If she comes in, you need to hold ZL and ZR to pretend you're asleep. If you do this too long, though, you'll actually fall asleep and it's game over. The entire time this is going on you need to also concentrate on the microgames on the Gamepad. Fail too many times and it's game over! So you really need to split your attention between the Gamepad and your TV. It's a very cool game that gets really tough, and it shows what kind of stuff the Wii U is capable of brilliantly. It's just a shame this is the only minigame that does. All of the others are fun, but they're not anything we haven't seen before on the DS systems.

When all is said and done, I would recommend the game to those who are a fan of the WarioWare series, or those looking for something fun to waste time with on the Wii U. And you can spend a lot of time on it. There are 240 collectibles to get, each requiring a token to spend in a virtual vending machine. You only get the tokens from playing the minigames, so you'll be playing a lot if you want to unlock everything. Considering how much time you can put into it, I'd say the game is a pretty good value at $40.

Have you played it? Let me know what you think in the comments below. As always, thanks for reading. Tell your friends if you enjoy the blog, and follow me on Twitter @RevLink_GI!

My history: Video games

Since I'm just getting started with this, I thought I'd share with you all a bit about my history with the various subjects I plan to blog about. My pedigree, if you will.

I've been gaming virtually all my life. When I was born, my parents owned an Atari 400, which was basically an Atari home computer with a 5200 built into it, though it used different sized cartridges (Atari's slick way of making you spend more money on games). We only had a small handful of games, but we had the ones that counted. Pac-Man, Donkey Kong, Centipede, Asteroids, Missile Command, and more. There was also an old Odyssey 400 Pong-clone machine, though that mostly stayed packed away in the closet.

I cut my teeth on these games, from around age 4 to age 10 (my parents wouldn't let me play any younger than that, and it's still my theory to this day that the reason for this was so they could have more time to play themselves). On my 10th birthday I received the gift I had been clamoring for all year, my NES. Super Mario Bros. showed me a whole new world of gaming that I didn't think was possible before that. I was instantly hooked on Nintendo. But the big bomb dropped a month later, on Christmas morning. There was one game all the kids at school were talking about nonstop. They had been talking about it since before I even got my NES. I didn't know much about it at the time, but I knew I needed it. When Christmas morning came, I woke up and ran to the tree and saw that little rectangular box that I knew must be a game, and I opened it up. I was immediately struck by the fact that it was shiny and gold. I could tell because the box had a little window in it so you could see the cartridge inside! The Legend of Zelda was in my hands! This was truly a defining moment in my life. I never looked back from there.

As the years went on I did what I could to grab more games. We didn't have much money growing up, so I mostly borrowed games from friends, or rented. But I managed to get a game or two at Christmas or birthdays, and managed to get a couple dozen by the time I convinced my parents to get me a Genesis. I really wanted a Super NES, as Nintendo made my favorite games, but it was too expensive. So Genesis it was. Other than Sonic, though, I didn't find much that thrilled me on Genesis, so it wound up sitting on my shelf while I spent a summer mowing lawns and washing cars to save money for a Super NES.

My gaming cooled down a bit at this point. I was getting older, and had many siblings now, and therefore got less at Christmas and my birthday. I had to work for what few SNES games I managed to pick up for myself. I managed to pick up a Game Boy when Link's Awakening was released, and later talked my dad into getting me an N64 for Christmas when that came out, but the games were coming fewer and farther between for me. After I graduated and got a crappy job, I saved up and bought a PlayStation so I could play Final Fantasy VII, and a Game Boy Color for Link's Awakening DX. Things were still pretty slow moving though, until 2001.

A couple of my friends, while away at college, got to play the Dreamcast and loved it. Since Dreamcast was pretty much a dying system at this point, you could get a new one for around $50, so they bought one. All of my friends who played it loved it too, so we all wound up buying one. This started some kind of chain reaction in me. After buying the Dreamcast I felt the need to go back and get the other Sega systems I missed growing up, and I quickly snapped up a Master System, Sega CD, 32X, and Saturn. Then I turned to other systems, like the Turbo Grafx 16 and Neo Geo systems. I basically started buying up anything I could. I also started buying games like they were supplies for an end-of-the-world bunker. NES, Super NES, Genesis, any cheap old games I could find, even if I wasn't particularly interested in playing them.

The collecting bug had bit me. Hard. Before I bought my Dreamcast I took a quick count and saw that I owned around 70 games for around a half-dozen systems. I currently own 1,830 games for almost 40 systems. If I had the room to properly display them all, I would love to provide you all with some pictures. I guess that'll have to wait, though.

By the way, for anyone that is interested, I use Collectorz.com's Game Collector software to keep track of my collection. I may go a bit more in depth on that in a later post. It's good software.