The Super Nintendo Entertainment System represented the pinnacle of video games in the early 90s. Seeing as we didn’t get a PlayStation until late in the decade, and I didn’t get my own PS1 (or PS2) for that matter until much later, the SNES was the console I spent the most time on growing up as a child.
And man, was it a great one. (more…)
What was meant to be the Wii U’s swan song (which it still kind of is, I guess) also happens to be the Nintendo Switch’s biggest reason to abandon the Wii U entirely and dive right in the the newest console. That’s just what I did when I secured my Switch last week, and I’ve been playing Breath of the Wild almost nonstop since. There are plenty of stellar reviews out there, and I read something like over 80% of Switch users also bought BotW, which is an astounding attachment rate, but is the hype behind the latest Zelda game warranted? (more…)
With the release of the Nintendo Switch, the video game world is abuzz with all things Nintendo. A new console means plenty of new games, and with Nintendo, each new console brings back memories of years and consoles past. What better way to celebrate the release of the Switch than by looking back on the consoles that shaped my childhood. In part one of this personal retrospective, we’ll be looking back at the very first Nintendo console, the legendary Nintendo Entertainment System, and how personally impacted my video gaming life. (more…)
Nintendo has been cranking out Fire Emblem games fairly consistently over the past couple years, with last year seeing two games in the form of Fire Emblem Fates: Birthright and Conquest, and this year seeing Fire Emblem Echoes: Shadows of Valentia releasing in April. Beyond that we’re looking at a crossover Hyrule Warriors style with Koei Tecmo on the upcoming Nintendo Switch titled Fire Emblem Warriors, as well as a yet-unnamed console version coming on the Switch as well. Until those (hopefully) excellent games all release, we are given Fire Emblem: Heroes to toy around with on our mobile devices. Stripping away most of the expected content that makes a Fire Emblem game a Fire Emblem game, Heroes still manages to capture the essence of the series and bring it (for free, mind you) to the masses of iPhone and Android users. For those of you just starting the game, or for you FE mainstays looking to get an edge, here are some pro tips to make your teams successful on the battlefield! (more…)
Pokemon Go is nothing short of a phenomenon. It has broken download records for iTunes, caused countless news stations to cover it during primetime hours, and even has folks *gasp* getting up and moving around to play it! If you’re one of the millions who have been playing the game, then you know the frustrations that come with it, not the least of which being poor server connections causing you to not even be able to play the game. But Niantic, the company behind the game, must be doing something right, because despite all this countless players, myself included, still connect to the game every day to see which little pocket monsters are showing up in the real world now. But just like any video game, especially one in the mobile marketplace, the drop off for players can occur instantly unless we’re given consistent, new content to keep us motivated. So what does the future of Pokemon Go even look like? Let’s speculate! (more…)
After 2014’s Kirby: Triple Deluxe I was impressed with the little pink puffball. Kirby had always been a generally childish game, with simple gameplay, bright visuals, and an easy to follow storyline. For his second 3DS outing, much has stayed the same. Normally I’d call foul, but it’s what I’ve come to expect from a Kirby game. It’s very much like the Super Mario series: new games come out with slight alterations to the base formula, and we all seem to love them regardless. Planet Robobot is no exception. (more…)
The annual event gamers look forward too more than Christmas has come and gone, and in it’s wake a ton of new content to salivate over for the coming months years. While this year’s show didn’t feel quite as epic as last year’s, there were still plenty of great moments and announcements to get excited about. Here are my top ten moments, announcements, and surprises from this year’s show! (more…)
The new consoles have been out for years, the NX is on the horizon, and a good amount of games announced or shown at last year’s E3 aren’t even out yet. Over the years the Electronic Entertainment Expo has been steadily waning in popularity, with this year being interesting in that Nintendo won’t really have much of a presence. Despite this, there are still plenty of reasons to get hyped for the upcoming weeks in gaming. What better way to get the community in a frenzy than with the following announcements! If all goes well even just a few of these will turn out true. Hey, I’ve been correct in the past. Here are this year’s E3 predictions! (more…)
Created as a weird sequel/prequel/remake for the Nintendo 64 classic Star Fox 64, this new adventure with the Star Fox team is familiar is a lot of ways. It’s the same crew, same premise, and largely the same type of gameplay. But then again it’s none of those things, with different characters, an altered plot, and such a variety of gameplay resembling anything but a Star Fox game. While I still had fun with the game, it certainly wasn’t the next space dogfight simulator I was expecting from Nintendo.
Something I’ve touched on surprisingly only a small bit are Nintendo’s NFC amiibo figures. To put into perspective how I feel about amiibo, let’s just say I have had friends shop around for me to get the more expensive ones back when amiibo were the hottest toys this side of Furby and Tickle Me Elmo. Out of all the toys-to-life options out there, I feel like Nintendo’s offerings are the coolest, if only because I (like many others) grew up with a lot of these characters. Also, while I love me some Skylanders, I think amiibo have a wider function in games, making them more of an investment than essentially an extra life or character in Skylanders and Disney Infinity. That being said, and in typical Nintendo fashion, there are more than a handful of series’ deserving of the amiibo treatment that haven’t seen the light of day. Though most of these will never happen, we can dream, and I can wish for some of these games to come out sooner rather than later! (more…)