Nintendophiles 10.12.06
Posted by Theo Fraser on 10.12.2006
The debut you've all been waiting for! Yes...all three of you.
Welcome, one and all, to the debut edition of Nintendophiles!
Nintendophile:
Nin-ten-do-phi-le [nin-ten-doh-fahyl] Adj.
1. A person who craves Nintendo gaming as much as oxygen.
Synonyms- Miyamoto
Antonyms- Sony fanboys, Bill Gates
Origin- circa 2006, dark computer room which hasn't seen daylight in 10 years.
Ladies and Gentlemen, my name is Theo Fraser. I am a Nintendophile. And this is where we come to celebrate all things Nintendo. The weather may be atrocious, the world may be coming to an end…but there is always a place in our life for a little bit of Nintendo. And once a week, that place will be right here at 411Games! *Cheap pop*
Allow me to kick things off with a section I like to call…
One Nintendo Game You Must Play Today:
In this section, each week I'll take a look at a classic game from the annals of Nintendo history, and discuss how it set the world on fire (or didn't, as in this week's case), how it influenced future games of the same genre, and why it should be mandatory gaming. Let's begin the feature this week by taking a glance at a criminally over-looked action-adventure, Beyond Good and Evil (GC).
And yes, this isn't just on a Nintendo console. If by any slight chance any of you readers are PS2 or Xbox owners, I urge you, go out and buy this game! Hell, you must be on a PC if you're reading this…get the PC version! This game truly is a modern day classic, and as much as I don't want to take away from Jordan Williams' Underrated/Overrated column from a few weeks ago, I must heavily promote this as one of the most underrated games of the past 5 years. And from a completely selfish point of view, I want everyone to buy this game purely to encourage Michael Ancel to make the sequel!
Oh, and you have absolutely no excuse not to buy it, as it can be found for a budget price at pretty much any online store or high-street shop. I found my copy tucked away at the bottom of a bargain bin for £9. Whilst that was a terrific find for me, it really is a disgrace considering it was mere months after its initial release. This was no doubt due to the criminally low sales of this fantastic game. So BG&E makes its way into a bargain bin, whilst FIFA Street stood atop the charts… I guess there's no accounting for taste. In fact, sales of the game were so bad that ideas for a trilogy were nixed, and fans of the game spend many a night crying themselves to sleep in the knowledge that this modern day classic will likely never get a sequel; even more aggravating due to the slight cliff-hanger ending gamers are shown once the end credits have rolled (hence my plea for you to buy the game and show Ancel that his hard work was appreciated).
Some class this game as a "futuristic Zelda," and it's easy to see why. Carrying the same basic controls as Ocarina of Time and the latter Zelda games, the control scheme is extremely solid. The heroine, Jade, whilst not being the next Solid Snake is an intriguing character that you genuinely become attached to as the game progresses. The plot holds many twists and turns, and new playable characters are introduced at regular intervals to prevent the game from becoming monotonous. There are also various set pieces that serve the same purpose, such as rooftop escapes, hovercraft chases, air hockey games and many more. I seriously urge you to go and pick this one up if you find it, on any platform. I feel confident in guaranteeing that you will not be disappointed!
Viable Candidates for the Virtual Console
In this section of the column, I'd like to look at a game or two that I feel would be perfect candidates for the Wii's Virtual Console. Thanks to the recent Nintendo press conference in Japan and the USA, we now know that Virtual Console games will be available for around $5-$10. That's tremendous news, and Nintendophiles across the globe can rejoice at the fact that they can pick up a slice of Nintendo history for the price of a loaf of bread (albeit a pretty expensive loaf of bread, but you get my point). So, with that in mind, let's get down to business, and pick out a game that many UK gamers would appreciate should the opportunity to download it on the Virtual Console arise.
Super Mario RPG
Yes, let's take a moment to feel sorry for us poor UK gamers….*sobs*. Delayed releases, crappy boxart, meagre advertisements…the bane of a European gamer. But the biggest travesty that came about because we live this side of the Atlantic was the decision by someone at Nintendo NOT to release Super Mario RPG in the United Kingdom. Oh, the tears I shed. The sleepless nights. The angry letters that I wrote (well, in my head anyway). But it seems as though all that misery has finally paid off, as Super Mario RPG could very well be on its way to a home near you, only 10 years late!
So for those of you who don't know what all the fuss is about, why don't we take a look at why Super Mario RPG on the Virtual Console would be a big deal? Of course, from my part, I haven't played the game (No. Not at all. I definitely didn't play it on an emulator. *cough*. Nope, not me!) but I distinctly remember why I personally was so hyped about the game. It may seem like not such a big deal now, but SMRPG presented gamers with an interesting situation, where Mario's arch nemesis, Bowser, was forced to team up with the portly plumber. I'm not entirely sure my Mario history is 100% accurate here, but if I'm not mistaken, this was also the first Mario title that didn't revolve around Bowser kidnapping Princess Peach (save for the tiny kidnapping of Peach in the intro…but you'll have to see that for yourself). A Mario game, breaking from tradition? Unheard of!
But the clincher for many was that the game was developed by (drum roll please)…Squaresoft! Yes, the pre-Final Fantasy VII days. Go on, admit it. You want to play it now, don't you? This marked the first time Nintendo handed its top franchise across to another developer. One could argue that had it not been for Super Mario RPG, we may never have seen Link in Namco's Soul Calibur II. We may never have seen Mazza skiing down the slopes of SSX On Tour. And we may never have seen the Starfox team handed across…oh wait, all of those games sucked. Forget about that one… but the fact of the matter remains; SMRPG opened the doors to Nintendo's major franchises being developed outside of Kyoto, Tokyo.
Much like the recent iterations of Paper Mario and the GBA/DS Mario & Luigi games, that tiny Super Mario RPG cartridge contained nigh on every single character from the Mario universe, and was the first Mario game to involve intertwined storylines. This is ground-breaking Mario gaming here!
Put simply, we need this game to be available on the Virtual Console. SNES games have been confirmed to cost "800 points," which translates to about $8/£5; a fair fee for such a rare piece of classic gaming. So get your notebooks out and add it to your Wii Wish list. I know I will.
Alright, well I think we've had our dose of nostalgia for this week, so let's switch gears and talk about that little pocket-sized box of delights known as the Nintendo DS.
Untapped Potential
We all know by now that the DS is a pretty innovative piece of kit. When the likes of Pac-man and Pong were gracing our screens all those years ago, who would have thought we'd be controlling those little pixels by touch? The DS is here, revolutionising the way we play games, and yet it seems that developers are only just beginning to embrace Nintendo's slogan of finding "new ways to play." Just a quick glance at the release schedule shows us a stack of original concepts developers are busily readying for the DS. Take a look at developer Cing's upcoming adventure/ thriller/ interactive novel, Hotel Dusk, as proof. Coming from the makers of Trace Memory (known as "Another Code" here in the UK), you can be sure that Cing will utilise every bit of hardware the DS has to offer. For a start, the game requires you to hold the DS sideways like a book…ingenious! THAT is innovation, people! It's simple, and yet it's never been done before. Unless you were one of THOSE people who turned their TV on its side to play Ikaruga. Madness, I tell you!
So what's my point, I hear you ask? The point is, as evidenced by Cing's latest effort, it's not just Nintendo utilising the DS in innovative ways. Third party support has been unprecedented so far, which bodes extremely well for the Wii. So as more and more developers jump onboard, what else could be in store for us? How else could the DS, and equally the Wii, be used? We've seen cooking, fishing, watering, and riding to name but a few actions used in in-game situations. Wario Ware alone showed off the DS' interactive capabilities with various mini-games that required us to use the stylus and microphone in hundreds of ways; rubbing, blowing, thrusting...(is it just me, or does that sound a tad provocative? *Light bulb!* Kama Sutra DS! I'm trade-marking that biatch right this instant! And then I'll try and get some daylight once in a while…) Schoolboy fantasies aside, my point is that we've encountered most of the unique features of the DS already; it's just that they've yet to be implemented into a full game.
Personally, I feel the Nintendo DS could be the new natural home to real-time strategies. It just seems perfect to me. Previously, the RTS has always played a prevalent part in any PC gamer's collection, but the touch screen would suit the point-and-click nature of the genre far more than a mouse and keyboard. Obviously, the PC has the advantage of keyboard shortcuts to make life easy, but having the stylus negates the need for shortcuts. Dragging the mouse to create a box over a particular unit of troops seems needlessly complicated when compared with the option of merely drawing a ring round them. What we need is a developer who is suitably comfortable with the DS hardware to sit down and think about how the RTS genre could best be translated to the touch screen. Majesco tried something different with Age of Empires: Age of Kings, making combat a turn-based affair. Whilst I applaud them for trying something new, DS owners are still left without a true RTS. If some developer can crack how the touch screen could be usefully implemented into the standard proceedings of a real-time strategy, we could have a winner on our hands.
Whilst we're on the subject of the touch screen, I also think there's scope to have more games utilise the feature of ‘drawing stuff'. The concept worked brilliantly in Castlevania: Dawn of Sorrow, where players were asked to draw various shapes and patterns to beat the bosses. This seems like a perfect fit for RPGs, especially of the turn-based kind, where players would draw different symbols for different commands. For instance, you could draw a bottle to use a potion, a simple flame icon to deliver a fire-based attack, or a thunder bolt to take down enemies with the power of lightning. Obviously, it would have to be kept simple, so you'd be unlikely to find it implemented in your Final Fantasies, where 'Quake3' and 'Ultima' attacks are part of your arsenal. However, this could work very well in a game such as Magical Vacation, where everything is controlled via the touch screen and battles are relatively straightforward affairs.
I've only briefly touched upon ideas for how the DS could be used in future, and I'd love to hear your views on the situation. Does anyone else have any ideas that would set the world on fire? Next week I'll delve into the possible Wii-mote attachments to make Wii-ing an even more enjoyable experience! Oh come on, I had to get at least one Wii joke in here!
Nintendophile of the Week/Month/However Long I Can Milk It For
You knew it had to come into play somewhere. Yes, it's reader feedback time. Well, it will be once this gets published. This is the section where I invite all you self-professed Nintendophiles to come and share with everyone the reason why you think YOU are worthy of the prestigious title of "Nintendophile of the Week." And yes, I did just say prestigious. Who knows, I might put my glorious Microsoft Paint skills to use and create a pictorial award for you.
This week, being the debut edition, the award for Nintendophile of the Week goes to…ME!
You gotta admit, that was a bit of a shocker! But yes, I am your Nintendophile of the Week. And whilst I could pretend it's because I have an extensive knowledge of all things Nintendo and am thus a Ninten-God, it's not. No, ladies and gentlemen, it is because I am the proud owner of another prestigious title...that of "Pokemaniac of the Month." Do you want to know the sad thing about it? I'm completely serious. I was once featured in the UK's Nintendo Official Magazine as the goddamn Pokemaniac of the Month. And this was at the time Pokemon was starting to decline a little. Not exactly the coolest thing to show your friends, is it? And I'm not talking about a little statement on the backpage. Nope, I'm talking a full-sized colour photograph with a toy Squirtle cradled in my arms like the baby Jesus. And a Charmander stuffed down my collar. Oh, and surrounded by just about every single piece of Pokemon merchandise I owned at the time. Seriously, I have never been so embarrassed in my life…and that includes the time my Dad was there when my friends hired me a stripper.
Right, well I'm off to burn that copy of Nintendo Official Magazine…
I wanted to get this column up reasonably quickly, so I just produced the main format so you can see how this column will look in the future. Next week, I'll tell you a little bit more about myself. Seeing as I missed the first Top 5, where the other 411 Games writers listed their Top 5 favourite games of all time, I figured I'd give mine, so you get to know my personal tastes a bit better. You know…if it interests anyone at all…
As for topics next week, I'm going to be delving a little further into what we can expect from the Wii, and properly analyse all that juicy info to come out of the Japan, USA and UK Nintendo press conferences about the imminent Wii launch. Start salivating now, Nintendophiles!
Wanted: Witty title. Must be original and willing to pimp other 411 Games writers.
Just 7 more days to go until your next dose of Nintendophile medication. In the mean time, why not do a bit of window shopping here at 411 Games and check out these other great columns. These guys rule, so you owe it to yourself!
Joshua Richey expresses his heartfelt love for Gamefly in Pressing Buttons.
[Subliminal message] Shawn Struck is cool [\Subliminal message]. Check out his Exclusive Interview with Trauma Center: Second Opinion's Project Lead, Tomm Hulett.
Sean McCabe probably needs a change of pants after going through the history of the Resident Evil series in The Retrospective.
In this week's Gaming Trends, Vincent Chiucchi informs us that war has been declared in our living rooms as he investigates the storied history between Nintendo, Sony, and Microsoft.
Damian Sarcuni has some choice words for Sony as Angry Gaming takes a look at the run-up to the launch for the PS3.
Will Scott continues his series of columns exploring the history of the different genres of gaming, this week moving on to a genre that will no doubt prove to be indispensable for the Wii; First Person Shooters. Unlockable Content should be required reading for all.
And finally, Jordan Williams spends a second week looking at games that have great potential to be made into Hollywood movies in Working Title. Uh…let's just hope Uwe Boll doesn't get a hold of his ideas!
