This post is in response to the wonderful post over on Engadget about the latest release of NPD numbers concerning portable gaming.

http://www.engadget.com/2011/11/10/timber-ios-and-android-take-60-percent-cut-of-mobile-gaming-dol/

Saw an interesting story fly across the wire on Google Plus. Apparently, nearly 60% of all portable game software sold is on Android or iOS. This shouldn’t really come as a surprise, most of the world’s high-tech industries are seeing major changes as mobile platforms become the dominate form of computing, business, and entertainment. Gaming is just one of many industries being completely changed from the ground up.

In the classic system, becoming a game developer on a console or handheld system is extremely difficult and expensive. First, you must contact Sony, Microsoft, or Nintendo to obtain a very expensive development kit for your particular system. This is a hard enough barrier to entry. If you have the creative ability and development skill to put a game together, but don’t have the funds for the development kit, too bad. You don’t get to create a game. Even worse than this though is the fact that game companies can deny you the sale of the developer kit for just about any reason, especially if you are just one guy who wants to make a game. Its happened before and it will happen again. The next thing you need to worry about is licensing fees. Can your game make enough money to pay the console manufacturers off so they will sign off on your game and allow people to play it on their console? Hopefully. This is why games today have publishers and game publishing has become an industry of its own. Just like artists used to need record labels before the internet music scene changed everything. Video game developers need someone to pay the bills for all the big fees and purchases. As an indie developer who wants to put out a boxed copy of your game, the barriers to entry make it almost an impossible reality.

Game companies have been attempting to help the small guys out with online stores such as Xbox Live Arcare and Xbox Live Indie Games, the PlayStation Store, and DSiWare and WiiWare. These stores have helped a great deal, but it doesn’t help capture the one thing that will make an indie game endlessly profitable: Market. Yes, all of these stores have huge numbers of users, but for the most part, people are tied to a device that are tied to a wall. In the case of the PSP or DS, indie developers run into many of the same licensing and dev kit cost issues that console developers do. The price of entry is too damn high.

Enter: The Smartphone. With the meteoric rise of smartphones and powerful always-connected mobile devices, it was only a matter of time before games on these devices took over the industry. Recent NPD numbers indicate that iOS and Android mobile game sales account for 58% of the total revenue of U.S. Portable Game Software. 58% of the industry’s revenue is because of iOS and Android games. Even the once-proud king Nintendo is down to 36%. Nintendo has always had a very cocky attitude towards competition in the mobile space after they launched the original Game Boy in 1989, always quashing the competition without so much as a second glance. Even the PSP, their biggest competition yet, stood no chance against the DS’ onslaught of sales. Nintendo has always battled against other gaming companies, but they’ve never battled against a different business model entirely, and they’re losing the game. For the first time since 1989, Nintendo isn’t winning the mobile games race.

One point to consider: These numbers signify revenue, not sales numbers or profits, but actual money brought in from sales. Some may claim that the statistics are unfair to Nintendo and Sony, its two companies versus the entire world of developers, but that’s exactly the point: Smartphone developers have no barriers to entry (aside from the $100 or $25 developer fees depending on platform) to get into the market and sell their game to the world of smartphone users. People who want to develop for the DS or PSP need to jump through rings of fire to do so. The old theory from the IBM and Microsoft days stands true, if you make it easy for developers, that’s where the programs will go, that’s where the people will go, and that’s where the money will go. And that’s exactly what’s happening in today’s smartphone-powered world. Great games can be created with small teams and put out for sale in the public market for the cost of a developer account and the time it took you to make your game, nothing more. No publishers, no additional licensing fees, no hoops. Just you, your game, and your potential customers. At this point, the developer doesn’t need to worry about making enough money to cover fees (if you make a game for $1 on either platform, 30% is taken from that, not up front like most manufacturers require), they don’t need to worry about playing politics with exclusivity, they don’t need to find a publisher for their game, they only need to worry about one thing: Reviewers. Just like its always been, the great games rise to the top. The thing developers need to concern themselves with making a great game and making sure bugs are fixed. If that happens, if the game is good enough, it can make an incredible amount of money, with almost no overhead costs, and end up fueling their bank account for the next several months.

One of the reasons that people are buying games on smartphones instead of handhelds is that the smartphone markets offer better choices for consumers, a better buying experience, and a better way of treating your customers. When I buy a Virtual Console game on the Wii, I can’t play it on my 3DS. It doesn’t work that way, Nintendo wants me to buy it twice. No thank you. If I buy Fruit Ninja, however, all I need to do is download it onto my tablet, and I’m gaming in no time. Its that easy. I buy it once and I have it forever. I upgraded my phone to the Nexus S and all of my games re-installed, it was so simple. When I bought my 3DS and the e-store opened, I couldn’t have been more disappointed. Even though I had bought games on the Wii, I thought a few would allow me to re-download them and play without being tethered to my Wii all the time, but no. They wanted me to re-buy them. The e-store on the 3DS is slow, buggy, crashes, sometimes downloads don’t complete successfully. All in all, its a bad buying experience. Because the e-store is so slow, I never open it, I check for new games every two months, if that. The e-store is simply awful to use. Now, with Android, I can read a game review of Angry Birds Rio, go to the Android Market website, and have it download without ever having to touch my phone. I get up from my computer and the app is right there on my phone. Seamless, easy, simple, helpful. These are the things I, as the consumer, should think of when I use an online store.

On Google Plus, Darnell Clayton shared this link with me and said, “Apple and Google are killing the gaming industry.” This got me thinking, are Apple and Google killing the gaming industry. Yes, but only this chapter of the industry. Here’s my response (which was a comment on the original post):

Actually Apple and Google are becoming the gaming industry. The gaming industry itself is just fine, alive and well, its just trading out cards, just like what happened with the fall of Atari. The big companies aren’t Atari and Commodore, and it isn’t going to be Microsoft and Nintendo anymore, with platforms that support open development without the need for hugely expensive SDKs and hardware, just about anyone can make a game in a few weeks that could become the hottest thing ever (see Angry Birds). Sony is in an interesting position because they aren’t only accepting this change, they are embracing it. With the release of the Xperia Play and their official PlayStation app, they wholly admit that the best gaming device is the one you have on you (like the best camera is the one you have on you), and they are making moves to thrive in that market.

If existing gaming companies don’t get a handle on the changing market, they’re dead. They will be killed by companies like Gamevil, Glu Mobile, and Halfbrick Studios. These tiny dev houses haven’t just survived the harsh gaming industry, they’ve thrived in it. Even EA Games, classically one of the more stubborn and un-inventive publishers, has made moves to exist in emerging markets like social network games (Facebook and Google+) and smartphone games. The games industry is like any other industry, when your industry is undergoing rapid change, you either evolve with it or die.

The next few years will be interesting. With Nintendo claiming that they’ll never embrace the future, clinging to their rotary phones and cassette tapes, and Sony jumping headfirst into the mobile phone space, things are going to get very interesting very quickly.

Disclaimer: I’m a total Nintendo fanboy.
Another, more embarrassing disclaimer: I own Nintendo stock.

Nintendo just doesn’t get it, and it may be too late. People don’t like static contact anymore. Having a mostly-static library of downloadable games, virtually no online presence, a convoluted friending system, and very poor social integration, Nintendo doesn’t just ‘not get’ online, they utterly fail at competing in the modern era.
Take a look at any competent online marketplace (Xbox Live, PSN, Steam, Android Market, App Store), what is the most common thing between all of these? Micropurchases. One dollar games, 5 dollar games, brand new games at $30 flat, instant download. Sure, there are more expensive games out there, but any gamer can tell you that Steam Sales and Xbox Live weekend deals are the wallet-destroyers of this day and age. Nintendo wants you to drive to a store, plunk down $40 on a new 3DS game, then appear satisfied. Aside from the fact that most 3DS games are complete shit (buyer’s remorse talking, here), its way too much to charge for a handheld game, even a damn good handheld game. I’m of the thinking that Ocarina of Time 3DS should have been $30. Its bad enough that Nintendo essentially admitted that the first hardware iteration of the 3DS was complete shit, but who didn’t see that coming after the release of 3 different Game Boy Advances and 4 different variations of the original DS.
Star Fox 64 3DS released without many of the promised (and most exciting) multiplayer features. The 3DS launched 7 months ago and has 5 good games.

I may be a little bit biased, just a little bit prejudiced… a little…

Here’s where Steam and Smartphones come in. Over the weekend, I informed my friends about a great Steam sale Rockstar was putting on for the GTA V announcement, they were selling the entire GTA collection for about $20. Incredible. Needless to say, I bought one and gifted it, then 4 more of my friends bought theirs. $20 bucks for what amounts to 7 games?!? Yes, please. But Nintendo me to pay $7-$8 for an emulated Game Boy Color game on my 3DS? Excuse me? No. I’ll tell you what, Nintendo, I’ll start paying for your virtual console games (which costs you nothing, by the way) when you can sell me the “Zelda Collection” of all NES, SNES, GB/C, GBA, and DS games for $50. That’s a good deal, that’s worth it in my opinion. And you know what would make me buy it outright without a second thought? The ability to play the virtual console games on my Wii too. Early on, I paid for the emulated Virtual Console games, but was later taken aback when I realized Nintendo wasn’t going to let those purchases transfer to any other system. With systems like OnLive and Steam in place, Nintendo needs to change their old-school thinking and fast, if they don’t, they’ll die. Simple as that.

I bought Minecraft yesterday on my Motorola Xoom tablet. It was $7 and still in development. I then wanted to play it on my Nexus S. Did I have to re-purchase it? Hell no. I just went to the market and re-downloaded it. Its really sad when I think about the fact that I just paid $7 for one of the most fun gameplay experiences I’ve ever had, but I also paid $40 for Pilotwings, for what amounted to little more than a tech demo.

Next topic: Online play with Nintendo consoles. Or, as I like to call it: Nintendo thinks you have no friends. Is the 3DS better at online? Sure. Was Brawl online? Yes, but it sucked. When you look at Steam, PSN, or Xbox Live, you realize how engrossing an online-rich social world can be. Oh look! My buddy is playing Team Fortress 2! Right click, Join Game. “Hey, dude! Yes, I just shot you in the dick. My bad.” That’s just cool. Its easy, everyone can do it. Everyone except Nintendo. I’m convinced that Nintendo is still forwarding paper memos written on typewriters. Nintendo is one of the most innovative, but least technologically advanced game companies in the world. Its really sad to see them do their best fish-out-of-water act every time someone brings up the idea of a Nintendo console playing games over this newfangled internet. Need more proof Nintendo doesn’t get it? Two words: Friend Codes. Who the fuck decided it was a good idea to go against convention and not have handles/usernames? Whoever that was should be publicly flogged. Hell, entire websites exist solely dedicated to the purpose of tying that long-ass number to a username and community.

Been on Nintendo’s website in a while? No. Don’t worry, the functionality is pretty much the same as it was in 2001. Nothing to see here. Move along. Real video game companies have websites where you are able to log into your account, pay for the downloadable game/theme/widget, and by the time you get home, the game has been auto-downloaded to your system, ready and waiting for you.
Nintendo doesn’t understand gaming anymore and it breaks my heart. I love Nintendo. Hell, even after all they’ve put me through, I’m going to buy the new Mario 3DS game, I’ll even be at the Skyward Sword launch, you know… I may even buy a Wii U. But I’m not gonna be happy about it. There will be a day when I tell everyone that I called it, Nintendo has become Sega. The once-upon-a-time king of the video game industry, dead now because they’ve refused for far-too-long to grow up and start living in this decade.
The bottom line is this: Nintendo doesn’t care. And that will ultimately be their undoing.

The first was simply put as the Iron Man fighting game tournament. I was in a group of 6 people and I had to face each of them in each of the following games- Jojo’s Bizarre Adventure, Capcom vs SNK 2, Street Fighter Alpha 2, Breakers Revenge, and last but not least Vampire Savior which is the 1997 version of the Darkstalkers series. To be honest I was completely outmatched by damn near everyone that I had to go up against. Each game you played two out of three out of five rounds and I learned a few things right off the bat.

1: No matter how good I think I am or how decent I may be at a game someone will and can kick my ass no matter what I do.

2: Breakers Revenge is full of broken shit that allows me to do nothing all the while the people I go up against keep coming at me with an onslaught of terror.

3: Apparently I am a lot better at Vampire Savior than I ever would have thought (Felicia FTW!).

Yea shes a cat, whatever she kicks so much ass.

4: That my combo of Cammy, Ryu, and Sagat are hard to beat if in Capcom vs SNK 2 if I just remember how the hell to use sagat as a spam/distance fighter.

5: Jojo’s Bizarre Adventure might be up there for the best fighting game I have ever played even though I cannot imagine what the hell the people were on when they made the comic and the two fighting games based off of it.

Regardless of all of that I went 5 out of 25 and did not advance to the next round. It was a huge learning experience and one of the many I had throughout the day. The best part was I started to realize that all these guys were like a community of friends and when they watched each other they wanted to give tips on what they could have done to do better. Even without knowing any of them I was quickly accepted and was involved in a lot of discussions with the overall group of people. Jesse also participated in this tourney but did not do as well…although I cannot recall his record.

Ok time for tourney two of the day and of corse as luck would have, it turned out to be a “Mystery Game” tournament. Essentially I was forced to play some of the worst titles I can ever imagine.You played two out of three rounds…if it was a fighting game and if you lose twice you are out of the tournament.

The first game I played was entitled: Joy Mech Fight. This game was a fighting game made back in 1993 for the famicom. We played it on a top loader and I have to be honest, if you look at this game for a second you will say “Wow this game has to be one of the shittiest games I have ever seen.” Honestly I loved it, they had a lot of diverse fighters for a game that was released on Nintendo. I also just found out that it had a 38 player roster, which if you can your math most games in 1993 had roughly 15 so that is astounding. I won my fight using a character that was named Tiger and did it using his diving kick attack.

To me he is a cross between Sagat from Street Fighter, and Rax from Eternal Champions. Oh in other news the attack is called the eagle kick, and was my weapon of mass destruction.

The next game was DX Hird…which I would love to provide you with a good review or picture but it has been so long the only thing i remember is that it played like Battle Arena Toshiden 3 and was terrible looking. It is so obscure that I spent 10 minutes on google looking up and down for it and I have nothing but one man talking about how bad it is in a forum…I was unaware that a game could suck that bad that no physical evidence exists.

Next up was Masked rider Agigo, which is a game based off of the Japanese television series Kamen Rider. This game was one of the prettiest games that I can remember from the tourney and the actual movement from the characters looked great. This game was not responsive at all and even if you wanted to use one of your strong attacks it would take about 4 seconds to load the damn thing up before you could go and use it. None the less I won this game as well. Once again I cannot get a picture of the game I am referencing so deal with it.

After that came Heaven’s Gate which is a game so bad that wikipedia does not have an existing article about it. I remember it being for the PS1 and kinda reminding me of Virtua Fighter except way way worse. All I know is that I won this game as well but honestly I cannot remember anything about it upon seeing pictures other than what I just told you.

THIS GAME IS BAD! I also realize Jin looks like Hanzo from World Heroes.

The next game was Sailor Moon S, which as you could guess was a Sailor Moon fighting game. The control and response to this game are some of the saddest I have experienced. I mean they could actually be worse but holy god, I really think they just liked to rush fighting titles based on random cartoons in Japan because they know people would buy it. Think about it Sailor Moon was/might still be that popular over there so this makes sense. Once again this game was another win for the Martyr.

This game is a lot worse than it looks.

The only game I played that was not a fighting game was a heated match of Frogs and Flies. You are a frog who jumps in the air and tries to eat the dots they call flies that are on the screen. Two people go at the same time and it starts off as day and after every 30 seconds or so it gets darker and darker until it goes black and a winner is determined. This was the closest game I actually played during the entire Mystery Game match-up. It was also a great game to shout expletives as my frog would jump like a huge pussy or just jump way too hard off his lily pad due to the great controls of the Atari that we played it on. Chalk up another win.

This game is actually more fun because the controls suck so bad. I have never cussed more at a game in a short amount of time then I did at this one.

The final game I would win at was Natsuke Crisis Battle and it was for the Super Famicom. After getting my ass kicked the first round I had the misfortune of picking the female version of Zangief and somehow pulled off some of the biggest bullshit moves once I figured out she was just like him. I do not mean in the spamming lariat sense, but the 360 degree rotation while jumping to throw my opponent into the ground type of character.

Very obscure never heard of game of good god damn reasons.

Finally I was able to play a arcade game for the tourney and it was Karate Champ. This game has one of the least responsive controls I have ever seen in a fighting game. You play until you get two full points or the time runs out. Points are given based on the attack you use and where you inflict the attack. You use two joysticks, one moves you and the other helps attack. Depending on the two directions you move the joysticks, you can do front flips, jump kicks, and other crazy karate shit. Biggest problem with this game is that the hit detection has to be really perfect. If you are off by 1/18th of a second or if you are kinda too close to them the move will not be  completed. None the less I had a hell of a fight but still lost by a half a point.

There is not a better feeling than executing the jump kick for the full point. TO THE FACE.

The last game I was able to play for this was the very creatively named FIST. This by far was the worst thing that I played the entire day. I really wish I could get a picture of it just to show you how bad it is. The controls were terrible, the game play was worse. It was on the PS1 but I swear it looked and felt like a blind man made a game using random code that sounded good to him in his mind and he turned it into FIST. 

Yep this is all I could find. Thank you Ebay.

After my two losses I had to get ready for the final tournament of the night and I am not sure where I finished exactly I just know that I did really damn good and came pretty close to actually getting to the final. I then had to prepare myself to be entered into the King of Iron Fist Tournament, or at least the sixth edition of Tekken anyway. As fate would have it I had to go up against my buddy Jesse in the first part of a round robin event. Each match was 3 out of 5 rounds and 2 out of three fights. The first match I decided to use Bruce and after Jesse dominated the shit out of me I looked him in the eyes told him I was sorry and picked Eddy Gordo. I do feel bad that I had to use one of the cheapest characters against a guy that never really plays Tekken too much but I needed to get that first (and only win of the day) so I chose him and beat Jesse’s ass. I decided that after the fight Jesse and I had that I had to pick a character I was good with that was not someone people knew how to defend well. I thought about Eddy again, but he is a beginner character so I knew I stood no chance with him…after several minutes of debate I said “Fuck It” and I picked Jack 6. Jack is slow as all hell but is very powerful and has great reach and the ability to put the opponent into the air to juggle…slight problem is that I am not good enough with him to know how to consistently keep the person in the air. Overall I faced about 10 different people and lost to all of them. Most of my matches were very close and I met a few people that will be at the Power Up event at the end of the month that I plan on attending.

While playing against all these great players I was told a few different things from some of the participants.

1: The fact that I chose Jack when almost no one really is comfortable with him, threw most of my enemies off because they did not know what to expect.

2: I am very good at blocking and anticipating low attacks which is key to keeping a match as close as it can be given most juggle attacks start from a low to high position.

3: That for it being my first tournament that apparently I was skilled a lot higher than anyone thought I would have been when I told people it was my first tournament.

4: That the word Perfect, is described as “The seven golden letters” and you better not let that shit happen to you.

Like I said before this was one of the best things I had ever done and I learned a lot from it. Met a lot of awesome people who seem to want me to go back, and I earned the respect of people I have never met because I had the balls to pick a character that no one plays with while trying to compete with people much better than my sorry ass. If you ever have the chance to go to Arcade Legacy you need to. It is 10 bucks to play all night, and all the games are free and set up so all you have to do is hit the start button to enjoy some classics such as Killer Instinct, MVC2, Point Blank and many others. For further understanding check their website.

http://arcadelegacy.wordpress.com/

There’s a challenge in which you have to a follow a Mii that runs ahead of you… then a dog. You would think you wouldn’t have to ACTUALLY run, but it helps to run considering the momentum required. Besides, you’re defeating the purpose of the game if you’re trying to take a shortcut.

Next up, the Hula Hoop challenge. I like this one because I get to watch her swivel her pelvis… Thus, giving me more reason to watch her ass. Having seen the Wii Fit Girl on Tosh.0 recently, a grin is brought to my face having a Wii Fit Girl of my own who is much hotter. So far, I’m a fan of this game when I’m not the one playing.

Her next choice: YOGA! I don’t think I need to go into detail as to why I think I’ll enjoy spectating on this. The first couple of moves are pretty basic Yoga tactics. I have no way of knowing because I’m horribly out of shape and probably wouldn’t resort to Yoga if I was.

Now I’m being informed she’s changing into pants because she “doesn’t want to flash us” her ass. I attempted to vocalize my disagreement with this idea, to which she replied “I don’t care.” That was fun while it lasted.

She comes back up with pants and a baggy t-shirt. HOW AM I SUPPOSED TO PROPERLY OGGLE THAT? I’ll make it work, the pants are tight enough and my imagination is strong.

Now she knows that I’m writing this, which may have a promise of comedy. Maybe I should focus more on the game… Nah, I’m good being a perv. Especially now that she has her ass up in the air with those tight pants.

K: “Are you checking out my ass?”
RS: “Ye-… no. But keep doing that.”

Back to the Mii Race. The environmental graphics are nothing special, but I don’t think that’s what they were concentrating on.

Now she’s giving some Advanced Step a chance… It’s not going well. Still entertaining to watch, however. I doubt I would do any better on this thing. You have to step on the board with the foot it dictates, and step off with the foot it dictates. All of this is to music, obviously, which gets faster as you progress. You eventually have to incorporate claps, which she has given up on completely.

K: “I just want to play DDR!”

As she almost falls off, she seems to be getting the hang of it right before the challenge ends. It’s safe to say I would be horrible at this game. The fact that she plays it often is a testament to her tenacity.

Now… we Kung Fu! This requires the Nunchuk. As she stands on the board, the Mii characters behind her demonstrate the move(s) you have to pull off in rhythm to the music. This one actually looks kind of fun, meaning I might be able to do it without breaking myself. If you fuck up, some sort of pot is dropped on your Mii’s head.

After completing challenges, a counter pops up to show you a rough estimation of how many calories you are burning. This is an interesting system because of the obvious reasons of importance.

If you want a little bit of extra fun while watching somebody play, make them laugh during a challenge. Just keep that mental note in your thought box.

“High score! I beat myself! THAT’S WHAT SHE SAID!” Do I really need to go into why this girl is great?

Back to Yoga! This time, the Dance position. The instructor bitch doesn’t move her mouth when she talks. I suppose that might have broken the bank for Nintendo. She’s the whitest chick ever… seriously, she has paper white skin. That, and I think she has a bit of camel toe going on… Not that I was looking…
While holding a position, you’re required to keep the red dot within the yellow circle. Easier said than done. Not only is it difficult from a physical standpoint, but you’ve also got the instructor criticizing you. She tries to make it sound constructive, but I know she’s being a bitch. It’s not hard to tell, even if she is a robot.

The board is better at calculating movement than I expected, almost to an absurd degree. After challenges, you’re reviewed on your movement within the circle overall. Which, if done poorly, will look like a Pollack painting.

There are a lot of things to be said concerning Wii Fit. I would recommend watching a highly attractive female play if one is available. Hell, give it a try if you’re looking to get off of your ass.Chances are if you’re reading this, you’re not a huge fan of that. But, hey, who am I to judge? I’m not too sure I’d use it if somebody gave it to me.

Gimmicks are what tend to characterize each installment of Zelda, as you can probably tell by the names of almost every single game.  Each one has a new tools that will be pinnacle to gameplay from ocarinas to boats to staffs that control the seasons.  However the gimmick found in Phantom Hourglass was not exactly…good.  Increasing the length of time one has to go through the most annoying dungeon in the world is not a needed addition to the game, and Hourglass became excruciating around the mid-point.  Luckily, Spirit Tracks forgoes that nuisance for much more interesting gameplay elements: the Spirit Flute and Princess Zelda, herself.

The story is a fairly straightforward one, princess captured/save world.  But now it’s only the princess’s body that’s been held hostage which leaves her soul free to help out Link on her quest to rescue her.  Like Wind Waker and Hourglass the overworld is all about moving from point A to point B on a vehicle, this time though it’s a train.  Denying his usual warrior-hero look, Link starts in an adorable engineer’s uniform with a single desire to be a conductor.  Instead of being knighted, he is christened an engineer Zelda is essentially killed and turned into a ghost, where the two heroes have to go on an adventure to stop a demon king’s resurrection across the rails and return the princess to her body.

On the rails you’ll come across the same stock villages and races you’ve come to know and love, and there’s the familiar hub dungeon from the last game, but this time without constant retreading or timers.  You’ll also collect a variety of new and interesting tools to compliment your list of standard LoZ gadgets, like a snake whip and whirlwind (a fan that you use by blowing into the mic).  Probably the most unique of these items is the ocarina replacement for the game called the Spirit Flute that uses the DS’ controls surprisingly well.  You both blow into the mic while move from note to note with the stylus, and it is astonishingly fluid.

The other major addition to the game is Princess Zelda, who’s companionship makes for really interesting puzzle solving in the hub dungeon.  She will take control of a number of different phantoms (big armored baddies) and can be used to break through obstacles, carry Link across lava, and other interesting uses.  There are a few bad moments with her where she’ll get caught on something when you try and call her back to you and during fights with multiple powerful enemies where you’re fumbling between both characters, but thanks to being able to manually control her easily these are never deal breakers, and the hub dungeon levels end up as the most entertaining parts of the game.  I was always looking forward to returning the tower so Link could be joined by his companion for tag-team puzzle solving fun.

The train aspect of the game is charming but flawed.  The linear travel across an open world has never felt so linear or long and boring.  There are no straight paths to take from point A to B like in Phantom Hourglass, it’s always long and winding railroad tracks which eventually get really old.  On the other hand the scenery is lovely and I never got bored of tugging the rope signaling the horn or shooting the cannon at every rock along the way.  Those last two complements might sound really boring, but they were the only entertainment aside from annoying enemy attackers, so they were really the greatest saving graces I could find for the travel system.  Like I said: charming but flawed.

Aside from saying that the stylus controls are an improvement upon Phantom Hourglass there’s not much else to the gameplay.  It’s a Zelda game, they tend to be self-explanatory, but frequently a lot of fun.  For anyone that loves solid action adventure games, and especially those that love Zelda should go out and get a copy if they already haven’t.  It’s one of the best games I’ve played in the series and one of the best games I’ve played this year.

Electroplankton is a fairly old (by video game standards) music game for the NDS, and more importantly it was one of the first “art” over “game” kind of games that would be released for the system.  Which is why it is so surprising and strange that back in 2005 it was Nintendo, the evil corporate

The lack of the above linearity and feeling of progression is probably one of the reasons why Electroplankton could be grouped into the casual market.  A reason we may have never seen a sequel is because the game is annoyingly short, and you can probably see everything there is to see within the first thirty minutes of play.  However, if you are the type that loves to create all kinds of interesting sounds and music than you are probably the person that this was made for.  There are a variety of levels in the game (each one open from the beginning) for you to experiment with different kinds of sounds and create your own music with.  There’s no way to collect and save the music to show off or listen to later, but that could be a slight boon for the game.  It’s not a CD player; it’s not there for you to listen to.  You’re the conductor and and each time you play you’re creating something new.

That’s not to say that the game gives the player complete freedom.  You’re limited to the certain type of translucent sea creatures that are in each level.  Some of them aren’t very diverse, and some of the levels are hard or frustrating to figure out just what you should be doing.  But for every one of those there are two levels of original, experimental play, like the fish that repeat musical patterns to how far and how quickly you move the stylus across the screen, and the Mario theme music level that takes a basic song from the older games and allows you to insert classic gameplay sounds into it to make a unique Mario beat – similar to Mario Paint’s music player, but maybe not as sophisticated (which is probably not a compliment).

Like I said, the game is incredibly short, and you might not get as much out of it as a game with linearity and goals.  But it is original and by far the only game truly like itself.  The gameplay doesn’t stack up to anything worth the big bucks, so if you can find it than try to find it cheap (if possible).  It’s a great addition to a gamer’s library, though it may have functioned better as a cheap iPhone app.  It’s not the easiest game to find so it might not come cheap, but it’s a worthwhile experience, though not the always the deepest.

Batman: Arkham Asylum

“But, Tom!”, you ask, “Good Batman games have been made in the past! Remember this gem? ” Very true, but one thing is for damn certain. This was a high budget title. A game that was looked forward to. A Batman game. But more importantly, a superhero game. And now we’ve all seen it with our own eyes. Yes, dear readers, we not only have a good superhero game, we have a great superhero game. Not only does Arkham Asylum fit into the source material so well, but it satisfies Batman comic nerds, gamers, casuals, and the ever-growing category of Achievement Whores. This is a game that should be played by, truly, everyone, regardless of gaming style or Batman know-how.

Ghostbusters: The Video Game

Remember this? If that wasn’t painful enough… remember these? Well have you played this? The new Ghostbusters game that came out this summer is… good. Don’t get me wrong, this is not a great game. It has technical limitations and other problems that could have been fixed by more time in the dev-oven, but the point remains: This is not a bad game by any means. Saying that it is the best Ghostbusters game ever isn’t saying much, but reporting that this game is fun, is. This game contains fun, sticks wonderfully to the source material, is a huge compliment to Ghostbusters nerds, and most importantly, fun. Did I mention that playing this game was actually fun? I had real, non-diluted, 100%  not-from-concentrate enjoyment while playing this game. Yet another sign of the coming meteor strike that will wipe earth from this very galaxy.

The only thing left to happen (since Sonic and Mario have starred in a game together..) is for there to be an absolutely mind-blowing Superman game. Which we all know won’t ever happen. For now, Earth will continue on, but if you want a reason to plan ahead, here’s a list of why the end of the world won’t happen for some time:

• Nintendo is still making retarded changes to their handheld lineup.
• Nintendo is still making fucking weird Wii hardware.
• A Spyro film is coming out, and no one cares.
• Video game movies still suck.
• Bunjie is still making Halo games
• and fanboys are still buying these overly-hyped mediocre shooters.

Go ahead and make your own informed decision about the rest of your life, but don’t say I didn’t warn you.

We’ve just gotten word on a game that looks like pure-100%-not-from-concentrate-over-the-top fun. This game is Last Flight, a WiiWare title being developed right now with Marcin Kawa at the helm. Last Flight is an action-adventure game with similarities to early slashers such as Golden Axe. But don’t write it off just yet, this isn’t just another brawler game, there’s a bloody, over-the-top, fun story to be had here.

You play as Larry Adelman, an overweight culinary critic who find himself in the middle of a vampire apocalypse, thanks to a dead body on the plane turning out to be… well.. not-so-dead. Other passengers on the plane only serve as a human buffet for this creature of the night, giving Larry a plethora of problems to deal with.

Each weapon in game is handled with separate swings from the Nunchuk and Wiimote, which you can then link together to create combos.  The simple, yet effective control scheme keeps things easy for inexperienced players, while maintaining the technicality to satisfy seasoned veterans.

Its been a very long while since anything on the Wii has piqued my interest, but Last Flight looks to be pure, unapologetic fun. The over-the-top comical style has me intrigued, as well as the fact that it is one of the only games being released for the Wii for an age group that doesn’t consist entirely of twelve-year-olds. Could this be another one of those games based on…. what was the word again? Oh! Fun! Remember that? Back when games were designed to just be fun? I do, and that’s why I’m looking forward to Last Flight.

Last Flight is being released for the Wii (WiiWare) in four downloadable, budget-priced episodes. Release date unconfirmed as of yet, but this is one to keep your eye on, especially if your Wii is anything like mine: Unused, sitting in a corner, without so much as a simple waggle now and then.

For updates, including when the game will come out and the set price, keep an eye on Kawa’s Twitter page.

A flurry of screenshots after the jump.

Seventy Two Pin Connector Podcast – Episode 042 – The Rise and Fall of Atari

Its that time again!! Tonight we’ll be discussing the not-so-futuristic trend of selling your games in new and different ways. From floppy disk rewriters to satalite download services to the current generations of Steam, Xbox Live, PSN, and the Nintendo Wifi Connection. This technology is much older than you think, and tonight, we’re taking a history trip.

As usual: Tonight at 9PM EST.

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