Wrapping Up Nintendo Special Edition: The Crazy Announcement Week

Welcome to a very special edition of Wrapping Up Nintendo.  This time, it's not a Nintendo Direct I'm wrapping up, but actually a serious tsunami of Nintendo goodness.  I'll give you all my thoughts on ALL the crazy news.

First, is the most ridiculous bit of news: A 3DS without the 3D slider at all (and without the flimsy hinge) that is called Nintendo 2DS. I can already see confusion amongst parents, BUT if Nintendo markets it right, it will become a surprise hit.  I figured Nintendo would do something like this sometime, but to put it out for $129 on the same day as Pokemon X and Pokemon Y was actually a stroke of genius.  The design's really cool (almost like a 7-inch Nintendo tablet of sorts), and I love the fact there is not a flimsy hinge that'd break the first time you looked at it funny.  I even like the specially made case, except I think that's sort of stupid of Nintendo not to include it with the device itself.  But hey, an extra $13 or so isn't THAT bad.  It could be worse, Nintendo could've seen fit to charge $30 for it.

Second is the long-awaited Wii U price cut!!   $300 for the Wii U Deluxe as of September 20th, plus a Wind Waker HD bundle!!  Should've been that way all along, with no basic version to speak of.  I know certain folks would've wanted the white one but I don't think they should have paid the same price for the Wii U Basic as the Wii U Deluxe will be priced at come September 20th.

Third, and last for today, is all the crazy release news bits.

First, first party Wii U game releases that were dated this week:

• Zelda: The Wind Waker HD will be available digitally September 20th (same day as the Zelda Wind Waker HD bundle), and physically on October 4th with a Ganondorf figure only at GameStop, all priced at $50.
• Wii U Party drops October 25th with a Wii Remote Plus bundled in for $50.  Good going, Nintendo.
• Super Mario 3D World drops November 22nd for $60, which is a red letter day for all Nintendo fans' wallets apparently.
• Donkey Kong Country: Tropical Freeze drops December 6th for $50.  (FYI, it's St. Nicholas Day for those who celebrate it, whether in Germany or elsewhere.)

Next, first party Wii U games that were NOT dated this week but are still slated for this holiday:

• Wii Fit U is still slated for a holiday launch.  Here's hoping it comes soon because I have gone ahead and asked for a Wii U for Christmas.  Yeah yeah I know it's too early to think about Christmas, but I mean come on, it's not like we haven't all thought about that.
• Mario and Sonic at the Sochi 2014 Olympic Winter Games is also slated to launch this holiday but they have not given a specific date yet.  I won't watch the Olympics this time I don't think, I'll be happier playing this video game instead. :)

And finally, the 2 3DS/2DS game releases that were dated this week:

• The Legend of Zelda: A Link Between Worlds - Comes out November 22nd for $40.
• Mario Party: Island Tour comes out November 22nd as well for $40.

I'm so glad to get this out of the way.  I'm so glad that this happened, even without a Direct, and now we'll probably get another Direct closer to the release of Pokemon X & Y detailing more stuff.  I can't wait!

As The Steam/GOG Turns #9: "Kimberly, come in, are you okay?" (plus The Chaos Engine and much more)

Welcome back to As The Steam/GOG Turns, the continuing story of two competing digital distribution services that compete for everyone's attention.

This week's releases are ... interesting to say the very least.  Some older games being rereleased, some newer games that made it onto GOG a little bit later, and more!

So, let's start with Steam-only releases.  Of course they always tend to release a ton of stuff onto Steam, except when there's a Steam sale, but this week I want to highlight a few releases.

First I want to highlight the game which I've quoted in the title, which is now on Steam: Space Ace, the Don Bluth / Gary Goldman laserdisc game in the same vein as Dragon's Lair is now available on Steam.  I don't know if this has the nasty blue flashing from more recent ports of the game, so I would steer clear of it for now until it's certified to be reasonably arcade-accurate.

Next is an Early Access title, but I think I'm going to at least have a reasonable amount of interest in this because it's basically based on The Incredible Machine, and that is called Contraption Maker.  I've definitely got some interest in this one so keep an eye out for this one.

Next is Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles Out of the Shadows, the first TMNT game released by Activision (who now has the TMNT license... it is SO weird for me to write that, since Konami has been synonymous with the Turtles for a long time...).  Some people are saying this one's bad so I would  steer clear of it for now, at least until TotalBiscuit or someone does a first impressions-type video that should help with the buying decision.

The final game I want to feature that is Steam-only this week is the full release of Game Dev Tycoon, which I mentioned last week as a pre-purchase.  I can't wait to give it a play, I don't know about you guys.

Next is GOG's GOG-only releases, which are a touch sparse once again this week.  

First up is Wing Commander Academy, another Wing Commander game!  Hooray!

Second is a rerelease because I guess the rights worked out and they've returned Dark Fall 1 & 2 to the GOG store.  If you like horror games, go for it, but since I do not...

Last in the GOG-only releases this week is a 2-for-1.  If you've kept up with this column, you know about the fact that Tales From Space Mutant Blobs Attack and Guacamelee! Gold Edition were released on Steam awhile back, and now they are both on GOG.  Nice going, guys!  Glad that this worked out as well as it did.

And finally we have the dual releases on both Steam and GOG.  There are three this week, so proceed accordingly depending on which one you support.

First is Shelter, an animal life simulator game that puts you in the paws of a mother badger.  This one's interesting enough that I might pick it up on sale.

Second is the pre-purchase of the new Shadow Warrior.  GOG's selling the new one alongside the classic one but since I already have the classic one, the point is moot and I'll wait a tad till it goes on major sale.

Last, but by no means least, is the remake / rerelease of the Bitmap Brothers classic The Chaos Engine.  There are a few tweaks BUT you can play the original Amiga version.  So, if you loved The Chaos Engine back in the day on your Amiga, or were always curious about The Chaos Engine, this is the perfect release for you.

So, that does it for this week.  And until next time, the Steam/GOG conflict ever turns...

Night Dive's New Tease: Is The LucasArts Catalog Returning?

Night Dive Studios, the ones who brought System Shock 2 back from the brink, are now teasing a brand new announcement for Tuesday, September 3rd, 2013.  My guess is this is going to be yet another date that shall live in infamy for all of us who love classic games, just like February 14th, 2013 was (which was the day on which System Shock 2 was rereleased).

Now what do I think is going to happen?  I know it's more than likely NOT their original game that they're making, they wouldn't be teasing something like this unless it was a classic property, or even a classic library, that they were putting out releases of.

I also know there are about 5 possibilities of what it might be.  So, here is my speculation and my top 5 most likely candidates for rerelease:

5) System Shock 1: I put this at #5 because while System Shock 1 is a classic in and of itself, they've rereleased what many consider to be the better game in System Shock 2 already, so the likelihood of this one being the case is practically nil.

4) I Have No Mouth And I Must Scream: This is a particularly thorny one because you have to appease one of the... more colorful authors in science fiction, plus you have to get all the licenses involved here, and... well... that just drops the likelihood to nearly nil.

Now, before I get to my top 3, the following three entries are more than likely all really good possibilities, so I'm just putting them in order of what I'd most like to see.

3) The classic Blizzard titles.  Especially since Blizzard seems to LOVE their DRM and their janky online activations with Battle.net, I think Night Dive are the ones who can not only take these games and rerelease them sans DRM, I think they are the only ones who can take these games and treat them properly.  I don't even trust Blizzard to do right by their old IPs anymore and that saddens me greatly.

2) No One Lives Forever.  Yeah, this one's pretty obvious, but I think this game (and series) deserves to be played by gamers who enjoy classic PC games like myself.  Yeah I can go on eBay and get this one, but I'd rather go onto GOG and get it.

1) The LucasArts catalog seeing a rerelease in full, and finally getting onto GOG in the process.  I know, I am pretty much like a broken record on this one at this point, but Disney doesn't exactly have the world's best track record about actually USING the intellectual property that they own, and my guess is because they shuttered LucasArts without a care in the world, they by extension do not care about the LucasArts game catalog, with its vast variety of game genres and even its vast variety of Star Wars games.  So, if Night Dive got in there and wrestled the catalog and got Disney to finally do the right thing for once, I'd be super duper happy about that.

---

However, I think that the top 5 above is pretty much moot because it's pretty obvious it's either NOLF or the LucasArts catalog.  And the LucasArts catalog is very very likely because they've been doing a lot of teasing as of recently about, of all things, robots.  And one of the ones they mentioned was HK-47 from the Knights of the Old Republic games.  So, by extension, I think the LucasArts catalog is going to return.  So, because we'll know what exactly they're announcing next week, IF they announce that LucasArts's entire catalog is finally going to be available to the public digitally, then all next week I am going to do a LucasArts Week of posts about LucasArts games that people overlooked that they need to check out.

My Distaste For The Mid-To-Late-90s Output of DiC Entertainment

Unfortunately, I kinda stuck my foot in my mouth a couple of months ago about the really, really, really popular anime Sailor Moon.  I made some statements that I more than likely should not have, and for that I am terribly sorry.

However, I want to use this platform to clarify just why I made such uncouth off-the-cuff remarks, and why I admittedly hate Sailor Moon... at least the butcher job that happened to it in America, and why I will no longer watch dubbed anime.

First, I have to explain why I hate DiC Entertainment in the mid-1990s with an explanation of epic proportions:

Before the time of Sailor Moon's total hackjob, DIC was known for actual halfway entertaining cartoons!  They did a fabulous job adapting the Ludwig Bemelmens Madeline children's books (a staple of my childhood I am proud to say) for TV, specifically HBO.  (This was long before they decided to screw up that goodwill totally and turn it into a full-fledged series about the time they fell out of favor with me, BTW).

They put out Inspector Gadget (still one of the most catchy theme songs from my childhood), and they made the Mario cartoons (rather decently if I dare say so myself).

So, where did all this start to go epically, horribly wrong?  Before I detail just how quickly they fell out of favor with me as a company, I need to speak about the director Tex Avery.  He is quite possibly one of the best animation directors who ever walked this earth.  He is on a whole higher level than Chuck Jones, Bob Clampett, Friz Freleng, and many others.  So, cut to the late 1990s.  I'm watching a Saturday morning cartoon called The Wacky World of Tex Avery (gag, even writing THAT title is making me want to retch violently) and I was telling some friends and they were going, "you mean The Tex Avery Show [a show on Cartoon Network at that time... prior to them going totally off the deep end and refusing to show actual CARTOONS on Cartoon Network, much less classic cartoons like they did in those days]?"

So, I took this friend's advice, and watched The Tex Avery Show, and my mind was BLOWN.  So much so that DiC very quickly fell out of favor with me because they pretty much sullied the legacy of the greatest animation director who ever lived with a show that not only didn't pay proper tribute to the man's legacy, but did it so unbelievably distastefully that they couldn't even get away from there without making distasteful fart jokes.

So, after all of this malarkey, I finally got to see this show called "Sailor Moon" on Toonami because my father had just gotten DirecTV or something like this.  Anyway, Sailor Moon was... to put it mildly... not my particular cup of tea.  The main character was totally screechy, her friends didn't seem particularly bright either, and the guy was interesting, but not interesting enough.  I had no idea DiC was behind this hackjob until the very end of the episode, and DiC had fallen so far out of favor with me at this point that I finally couldn't take Sailor Moon anymore.

This led to what initially got me in deep trouble and frankly, I may very well have been wrong about my initial extreme distaste for it.  However, if I do see any episodes of Sailor Moon, I am not getting bootlegs (was already burned by that with Muppet Babies...), nor am I getting extremely expensive DVD boxsets that are either imports or extremely out of print.  I will also not be supporting DiC's horrific hackjob of Sailor Moon, nor will I ever watch dubbed anime ever again.

I know, I know, dubbing anime is a big-money job for many Hollywood voice actors and actresses, but the problems involved with getting people who have NO idea what the anime is that they're watching come up when you watch an anime like Sengoku Basara.  I was lucky enough to be able to see a fansubbed version of the first two or three episodes of Sengoku Basara at an anime club at the time because I went to their meetings.  I got the first episode off iTunes and at the exact time I expected to hear "Put yer guns on!", I heard "Let's gun it!"... which made me absolutely incensed.  Incensed enough to make absurdly sure that I *never* watched or bought any anime without a language option for Japanese with English subtitles ever again.  So, there is hope for this budding otaku yet.

Just a Monday Morning Post of Potpourri

Yeah, I have a severe case of The Mondays today.  Also, I think people think I do this blogging thing every day.  No, no I don't.  I do it every WEEKDAY, not every day.

So, today's post is going to be more of a potpourri post because I feel like discussing different things in the world of tech, videogames, and even a bit of TV talk with my opinions, of course.

First up is I got to see the briefest of glimpses of the new Sean Hayes-fronted sitcom, "Sean Saves The World", coming this fall to NBC.  TVLine has the trailer and I actually think, unlike certain sitcoms on CBS on Monday nights, that this show is actually FUNNY.  And Linda Lavin (of "Alice" fame) is Sean's mom and hoo boy that is going to be fun.  Can't wait!  Also, people think that well-known second bananas can't pull off a show of their own, but I think that if ANYONE can buck this trend, it's the multitalented Sean Hayes.  Heck, I might even forgive him for being in that abominable Three Stooges movie from the Ferrelly brothers.

Next, this weekend I have been going crazy looking at Mohu's antennas.  From the unassuming-looking Mohu Leaf to the Mohu Leaf Ultimate (with included amplifier) and the Mohu Sky, this line of antennas is quite possibly one of the most interesting in the tech industry.  Their antennas are known for pulling off miracles, but from a guy like myself who lives in the beautiful Blue Ridge Mountains, I will have to get either a Leaf Ultimate or a Sky.  Probably think I'll get a Sky just because I want to make sure I can get ABC because of another new fall show called Marvel's Agents of S.H.I.E.L.D. that I can't wait for.

Next, moving on to the world of videogames, apparently the new female fighter for the new Killer Instinct for Xbox One that Double Helix has been teasing is a new character to the universe named Sadira.  I guess this is a good idea but I will, of course, reserve judgement till I get to see it in action. But, until then, I will just think of her as a Mileena clone.

And finally today, I wanted to discuss something that has been noted in the last few days that I didn't feel like discussing till now: Steve Ballmer's long-awaited (by me anyways) exit from Microsoft.  People think Steve Jobs had an ego?  Ballmer had an ego cranked up to 11 and exponentially multiplied by 11.  He was a terrifying presence in the tech industry and I am, to be frank, glad to see him go.  Don't let the door hit you on your way out, Ballmer.  And I for one will be thrilled to not see Steve Ballmer doing something horribly embarrassing on-stage at some Microsoft press event.

As The Steam / GOG Turns #8: Somewhat of a Slow Week

Welcome back to As The Steam/GOG Turns, the continuing story of two competing digital distribution services that compete for everyone's attention.

This week, I want to talk a lot more about games, game releases and such.  There is really like no overlap between Steam and GOG this week, so let's get on with the show!

First I want to discuss something cool that GOG did this week before I get into releases.

Steam Greenlight has been... shall I say... controversial within the indie games community, where both fans and developers have absolutely no love lost for the Steam Greenlight service.  So, GOG takes a look at this and starts singing "Anything you can do, I can do better" (from the Broadway musical Annie Get Your Gun) and they revealed GOG.com/indie for any and all indie developers to submit their work and (hopefully) get onto GOG.  But they are being remarkably upfront about their criteria for submission so maybe it'll work better than Greenlight, who knows.

Now I want to discuss the releases for GOG:

First up this week is Shadowgrounds Survivor, a top-down shooter game.  I love these kinds of games, especially if they're not "bullet hell" type shooters so I will definitely consider giving this one a go.  Next is Hammerwatch which is a retro style hack-&-slash game.  That looks interesting, so I might give that a go at some point, probably when it is on sale for less than $7-$8.  And finally on the GOG releases this week: Thunderscape, a 1990s dungeon crawler game.  $6 isn't too bad for a game of its vintage so if you like dungeon crawlers I say get it.

And finally this week here are the Steam releases of note:

First up is The Bureau: XCOM Declassified, and this one's getting universally trashed.  And why wouldn't it?  It is $50, and it's yet another attempt for the people who own XCOM to try and shove a strategy game series into an FPS game.  This game seemed interesting to me so I might get it at some future point when it goes on a serious 75% off sale and play through it.

Next is a game that went through the arduous Steam Greenlight process mentioned above and is now available for realsies: Divekick, which is a 2-button fighting game created by Adam Heart, aka keits from Shoryuken.com, and Iron Galaxy Studios, known for its ports of various fighting games like 3rd Strike that've come out as of recently.

Next is a game that, if you've already prepurchased it, or you paid $30+ during Lab Zero's IndieGoGo campaign, you already own but the rest of you can now pick up the full retail copy of Skullgirls and give it a play.  Go on, you know you want to.

Finally, we have a couple of prepurchases on Steam: Game Dev Tycoon, the game infamous for basically releasing its own pirated version of the game and then having you lose the game because too many people are pirating your games (which was a brilliant stroke BTW), the Angry Video Game Nerd game, and Might & Magic X: Legacy.  Have fun, you guys!

So, that does it for this week.  And until next time, the Steam/GOG conflict ever turns...

Coming To Terms With My App Addiction (a.k.a. The Great App Purge of 2013)

What does it take for you to get to admit you have an app addiction?  Does your phone or tablet have to be horribly unresponsive for a certain length of time because it's bogged down with apps to get to a point where you finally crack and say you can't take it anymore?  Do you anticipate the release day for your mobile platform of choice because you get more apps to download?  Or is it just a sign of the times?

For me, it's none of the above.  I'm anticipating the glorious day when I get my new iPhone in a month or two and I want to clean it out so that I can figure out what I really use, what I just keep on there "just in case", and what I could do better on another device (or at the very least NOT on my iPhone).  It's going to be a long process of self-discovery and it's going to prove quite difficult, to say the very least.

However, it is becoming increasingly apparent that I will need to do this now because The Great App Purge of 2013 has already freed up 3+ GB of space I didn't have previously.  That's a big deal for me, even with a 32GB iPhone 4S.  Now, please excuse me as I go right back to it.