Nintendo DS and GameBoy

Wii, DSi Firmware Updates Squash Homebrew Support

Published on: 9th September, 2010

You may have noticed your Wii’s disc slot glowing eerily in the night this week, signaling that Nintendo just released firmware updates for both its motion-controlled console and the DSi. The company cites “behind-the-scenes improvements to system performance” as the reason for the patches, but the updates also reportedly remove support for a number of flash cards, mods, and other solutions for running pirated and homebrew software. Users on the GBA Temp forums ( via Gamasutra) were among the first to discover the quiet disabling of unauthorized software on Nintendo’s platforms. While a handful of homebrew devices apparently still work on the DSi, this week’s Wii firmware update seems to have once again eliminated all current workarounds for running unapproved programs — potentially even disabling some modified systems altogether. The Wii’s update prompt reads, “If your Wii console includes unauthorized modifications this update may detect and remove unauthorized content causing immediate or delayed inoperability of your console.”

Japan Review Check: Pokemon Black/White, Front Mission

Published on: 8th September, 2010

“Catching monsters and building up a catalog of them is exactly like collecting baseball or trading cards,” wrote Famitsu magazine. “Both raising and collecting them is fun, and the way different monsters are more likely to appear in the different-colored cartridges satisfies the collector’s itch all the more. I wish there was more story to enjoy, though.” Was Famitsu writing about the new Pokemon up there? No! It’s actually a clip from their review of the original Pokemon Red/Green , released on the black-and-white Game Boy and reviewed in a February 1996 issue of Japan’s leading game magazine. The score that first set of games received? One 8 and three 7′s for a total of 29 points, not enough to earn it an editor’s reward. Oh, how times change! There’s no denying that Famitsu’s rating scores have inched upwards over the years — something that’s generated some controversy in Japan, especially considering how the president of the mag’s publisher showed up in ads recently for a game that later received a perfect score. That scoring trend seems to be continuing, because Pokemon Black/White became the fifteenth game in Famitsu’s history this week (and the sixth since the start of 2009) to earn four 10′s from the review crew.

Miles Edgeworth Rides Again

Published on: 8th September, 2010

Capcom announced in this week’s issue of Famitsu magazine that a sequel to Ace Attorney Investigations: Miles Edgeworth , the Nintendo DS adventure released here last February, is in the works. The new game, called Gyakuten Kenji 2 in Japanese, lacks a release date for the time being, but a playable demo will be available at Capcom’s booth in the Tokyo Game Show next week. (In Japanese, of course. Sorry.) As before, the adventure will star brilliant, grumpy prosecutor Miles Edgeworth (the main villain in the very first Ace Attorney game — man, does time fly) as he collects evidence, questions witnesses, and attempts to find the culprit in a series of cases. There’ll be some new gameplay gimmicks — there always are with Ace Attorney sequels — and Capcom’s revealed that one of the cases will make a return visit to Gourd Lake, the location in the first Ace Attorney where Edgeworth was involved in a weird murder plot that very nearly landed him in the slammer. More info as it comes.

Mario Games We Demand Be Included in Super Mario All-Stars

Published on: 8th September, 2010

Feature window.fbAsyncInit = function() { FB.init({appId: ’112522758785466′, status: true, cookie: true, xfbml: true}); }; (function() { var e = document.createElement(‘script’); e.async = true; e.src = document.location.protocol + ‘//connect.facebook.net/en_US/all.js’; document.getElementById(‘fb-root’).appendChild(e); }()); tweetmeme_style = ‘compact’; (function() { var s = document.createElement(‘SCRIPT’), s1 = document.getElementsByTagName(‘SCRIPT’)[0]; s.type = ‘text/javascript’; s.src = ‘http://widgets.digg.com/buttons.js’; s1.parentNode.insertBefore(s, s1); })(); Mario Games We Demand Be Included in Super Mario All-Stars What should Nintendo add to Mario All-Stars to warrant our purchase? By Chris Plante Mario is weird. Really think about that the poster boy for our favorite medium is a plucky heavyset Italian-bred , Japan-born, American-raised plumber with an affliction for Aryan girls in pink frocks . Weird . The original Super Mario All-Stars then was Nintendo’s compendium of weird, a SNES compilation that included all three Super Mario Bros. titles along with the until then unreleased Japanese version of Super Mario Bros. 2 , titled for the Unties States Super Mario Bros.: The Lost Levels.

Game Night with Batman: Brave and the Bold

Published on: 7th September, 2010

Live video by Ustream Time : Tuesday, September 7th, 2010 at 5:00 PM Location : Watch the embedded video player above. Can 1UP save Gotham City from having its citizens be turned into cats? Who gets to play Batman while the other person is stuck as Robin? How useful is Booster Gold when you call on him during battle? What’s it like to have a tiny little fanboy from the Fifth Dimension come by and drop health and anvils all over the place? These questions, and more, will be addressed (and possibly answered) in our quick sessions with Batman: The Brave And The Bold for Game Night.

Square Enix Confirms Final Fantasy Legend III Remake

Published on: 1st September, 2010

It’s safe to say that the game announcement rush before the Tokyo Game Show kicks off September 16 is well underway. Square Enix’s contribution today: The first word on a Nintendo DS remake of Final Fantasy Legend III , a classic RPG released for the black-and-white Game Boy in 1993. Titled SaGa 3: Shadow or Light in Japanese, the DS remake follows in the footsteps of the Final Fantasy Legend II remake Square Enix released in Japan last year — a remake that’s sadly yet to see an English release. The original 2D RPG is getting a full 3D remake, replete with new cutscenes and the like, but the basic plot is the same: you guide a rabble of four youths as they skip across time to stop a divine water spirit from engulfing the world.

Nintendo Drops Prices on DSi, DSi XL

Published on: 30th August, 2010

Thinking about picking up a brand new DS? You may want to hold off for a bit longer, as Nintendo just announced plans to drop the suggested retail price on both the DSi and DSi XL beginning September 12. In just under two weeks you’ll be able to snag a DSi for $149.99 (instead of $169.99). Its beefier cousin, the DSi XL, will also be dropping from $189.99 to $169.99. Oddly enough, the DS Lite’s MSRP is to remain unchanged at $129.99. It’s nice to see Nintendo’s handhelds becoming slightly more affordable, but how many of you are actually going to bite when the 3DS is just over the horizon?

Golden Sun: Dark Dawn Set for Release on November 29

Published on: 30th August, 2010

After more than a seven year wait since the release of the last Golden Sun game, Nintendo has announced that Golden Sun: Dark Dawn will be released on November 29 in North America. Set 30 years after the conclusion of the first two games, Dark Dawn puts you in the shoes of the children of the GBA games’ characters as they attempt to save the world. It’s nothing especially surprising, which can also be said for the gameplay, as our E3 preview asserts . Dark Dawn is most definitely a Golden Sun game, as recently noted by the Takahashi brothers, who are the game’s director and scriptwriter. “We came up with the idea for Psynergy,” Shugo Takahashi explained, “as an answer to the inherent contradiction where you have enough power and magic to blow up the planet during battle, yet can’t break a locked door open in a dungeon.”

Kingdom Hearts Re:coded Features Active Time Battles

Published on: 25th August, 2010

If there’s anything that can make a Kingdom Hearts game seem less twee, it’s almost certainly Cloud Strife. His return to the Square-Disney crossover-fest doesn’t just involve his smug one-winged self, either — he’s also carting along his battle system, so to speak. When you reach the Olympic Colosseum section of upcoming DS release Kingdom Hearts Re:coded , you’ll have a chance to work alongside Hercules and find a way to deal with all the “bug blocks” bouncing around the world. Cloud is paying a visit to the Colosseum himself, trying to settle things once and for all with a certain rival, and Hades is once again taking advantage of lust for revenge. As a result of his presence (?), battles in the Colosseum use a classic, Final Fantasy -ish Active Time Battle system, with Sora and gang on the right and a gaggle of enemies on the left. Hercules and Cloud (who eventually joins you, of course) each have a set of special moves, and there’s also an action component to it, with quick button presses required in order to block enemy attacks.

Super Robot Taisen L Debuts on DS

Published on: 25th August, 2010

Namco Bandai took the veils off Super Robot Taisen L in Japan today, marking the latest installment in their long-running series of robo-strategy RPGs. The new game is due out November 25 over there and is slated to cost 6090 yen. SRTL will feature robots from a total of 17 anime properties, first and foremost no doubt being Evangelion Unit 01 from the new series of Eva flicks. Other new names making their SRT debut here include Macross F , Linebarrels of Iron , Dancouga Nova , and old-school tentacle OVA Fight!! Iczer One . You can expect few gameplay changes with this latest SRT, though — it’s still a mixture of turn-based simulation and conversation sequences between the story’s main players.

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