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Posts with tag nms08

Nintendo reaches out to alternative retailers

The Game Factory's Damien Sarrazin is spilling the beans on Nintendo. Apparently, Nintendo is looking to reach out to alternative retailers, as the company has pretty much done all it can with the traditional video game retail space, says Sarrazin.

"There is nothing more you can do in the usual places where you would expect to find videogame hardware and software." says Sarrazin. He goes on further to say "So, the only way they can expand their presence is to access alternative retailers - and in order to do that, they need to come up with the right offering." And Sarrazin's company believes they have the right offering in Zenses, a line-up of DS puzzle games targeted at female gamers.

Nintendo met The Game Factory recently at their media summit to see if Zenses was a title they'd be interested in. "We've created a game so that you can take a break from your daily routine and sort of take a mental vacation," he says. No word on if Nintendo was interested in the title, though.

NMS08: Sonic Chronicles video interview


Back at the Nintendo Media Summit, Kirby Fong, producer on the Sonic Chronicles: The Dark Brotherhood project, talked about the game and the decision to go with Bioware. The game is entirely stylus-driven and has received a lot of attention due to Bioware's promise to make us love something we can't see ourselves ever loving and not create another crappy Sonic game. What we didn't know is that the game already came out back in 2007. Oh, you don't believe us? Skip to the end of the video where Kirby says it himself!

Mistakes in video interviews aside, it's a good watch. Kirby talks about Power Moves and how you'll be able to do team attacks with other party members. He even lets us know some about the mysterious targeting rings we spotted.

Gallery: Sonic Chronicles: The Dark Brotherhood


[Thanks, Torin!]

NMS08: Sonic Chronicles likes to talk

Most seasoned gamers will be familiar with the practice of wearing out their A button as they skip through mountains of dialog in a game. It's a harsh truth that the majority of titles don't do dialog well to start with, and when there's enough wordage to fill a few phone books, playing can feel more and more like a chore.

Hopefully, Sonic Chronicles will prove the exception to the rule. Patrick Klepek of the MTV Multiplayer blog went hands-on with the title at the recent Nintendo Media Summit, and reported that the game -- as well as being "surprisingly dark" -- was packed with words: more than 50,000 of the buggers, in fact.

That's almost double the number of words you'd find in George Orwell's allegorical classic Animal Farm (30,210), and while we'd normally approach such a wordy game with caution (see: first paragraph), it's worth remembering that Sonic Chronicles is being crafted by BioWare, a studio that's fashioned some of the finest scripts in the business. Not only that, but Klepek assures us there'll be plenty of the branching dialog trees that are a BioWare staple. If it's engaging enough, maybe we will love Big the Cat! Now there's a sentence we never expected to write.

Gallery: Sonic Chronicles: The Dark Brotherhood

NMS08: Joystiq impressions roundup


Nintendo offered press a look at upcoming Nintendo (and third-party) titles at last week's Nintendo Media Summit, and Joystiq's Zack Stern was all up ons. He got a look at two of the most highly anticipated third-party DS games, and one surprise that we didn't realize Nintendo would put their marketing muscle behind.

Zenses: Ocean is a casual puzzle collection from publisher The Game Factory designed to be relaxing. It features an ocean theme (a second game will be rainforest-themed) and a mellow soundtrack (even including headphones in the package). The games described include block-matching and a "connect the dots" game that is basically Puchi Puchi Virus. Zack was perhaps a little too relaxed by Zenses, in that he didn't find it particularly fun.

New information about Guitar Hero: On Tour was revealed in a presentation. For example, as expected (but not previously confirmed) it can be played right- or left-handed. Star Power is activated by humiliating yourself yelling.

Faithful readers will already know plenty about Space Invaders Extreme, but by all means check out the post, because it's stuff about Space Invaders Extreme.

Gallery: Zenses: Ocean





Read: Impressions of Guitar Hero: On Tour
Read: Hands-on with Zenses: Ocean
Read: Hands-on with Space Invaders Extreme

NMS08: Crosswords DS impressions

One surprising gem of the Nintendo Media Summit was Crosswords DS, Nintendo's most recent puzzle game. Not letting itself get overshadowed by all the other stuff at the convention, Crosswords DS managed to rack up favorable impressions from many a gaming site.

IGN found the title to be "awesome," and was very impressed by the diversity in the game. Even though it's called Crosswords DS, there's more to it than crossword puzzles. The game also includes word searches and anagrams. According to the site, the controls are very intuitive, and even easier to understand because of the great interface.

Game|Life also enjoyed the software, finding the anagram mode to be even more addictive than the crosswords themselves. From what we can tell by Game|Life's comments, the anagram puzzles look almost identical to those in the online game Text Twist, which this blogger can confirm to be the computer equivalent of crack cocaine.

GoNintendo describes this title as a "must-have" if you like crosswords. RMC reported that the puzzles are challenging (although the ones shown in the gallery must be from the "easy" setting), so don't worry about a dumbed-down experience.

Also, don't be put off by the game's lame box art -- it seems like this title is definitely something to look forward to!

Gallery: Crosswords DS



Read: IGN's impressions
Read: Game|Life's impressions
Read: GoNintendo's impressions

My Weight Loss Coach boxart: Lazy or fitting?



We loaded up My Weight Loss Coach's product page on Amazon earlier today and received two surprises:
  1. $39.99. We're used to seeing that sort of markup only on Square-Enix titles and almost never on casual titles, but we suppose that bundled pedometer comes at a price. That price being ten additional dollars.
  2. Its stark, untraditional packaging art.
At first, the cover seemed like an apathetic production, reminiscent of the Konami's Best box design, but perhaps this simple, almost Apple-esque approach will draw in weight-concerned adult casuals, Ubisoft's target audience. If they really want to bring in the big bucks, they'll shoot a commercial of someone pulling the case out of a manila envelope while Yael Naim sings the lyrics to "New Soul."

If you're one of those strange people who like to judge a title by its actual content and not its cover, jump into our gallery below to see new screenshots of the get-in-shape software.


[Via NeoGAF]

NMS08: Square Enix talks Space Invaders Extreme


Gamespot got a chance to talk with Square Enix PR guy Klee Kuo about Space Invaders Extreme back at the Nintendo Media Summit, taking care to film the whole thing so that we may all watch. Included in the interview (if people talking isn't your sort of thing) is footage from both the DS and PSP versions of the game. We don't have to tell you all which one looks superior, of course.

There's also a few other trailers up of just gameplay, which we've gone ahead and embedded past the break.

Continue reading NMS08: Square Enix talks Space Invaders Extreme

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