Category Archives: General Articles

I Stand On My Soapbox: It Wasn’t Team Ninja’s Fault

I Stand On My Soapbox is a series of editorials that cover more specific topics in the games industry and community. These articles are a little more extreme than normal editorials published here, and could just degenerate to outright ranting. Have fun and enjoy the show!

Okay, I’m not going to beat around the bush here. This is about Metroid: Other M, the one game many consider the only bad game in the Metroid canon. When it was released, it set the entire Nintendo, and gaming, world on fire, and for all the wrong reasons. Many did not like the submissive portrayal of Nintendo’s intergalactic bounty hunter, Samus Aran, in this this game. From the trailers and gamplay footage preceding the release, this looked to be Nintendo biggest game yet, and they would be teaming up with Tecmo’s Team Ninja (from Dead or Alive and Ninja Gaiden fame) to make this happen. A lot of gamers were anticipating this game. But once it was released, the flame wars ensued. You had people defending the game, berating it, wanting Team Ninja and Tecmo to burn in hell, etc. Much of the derision came from how poorly written the story of the game was and how much of a black eye it gave the Metroid franchise. Gamers had their reasons to dislike the story, and I’m not here to defend Metroid Other M. However if there’s one thing that was wrong with the story, it’s that this was, in no way, Team Ninja’s fault.

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Top 10 Hard Rockin’ Nintendo Songs

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Back when videogame music was still bleeps and bloops, it was hard to really make a song that sounded, well, like a familiar genre. Some managed to attempt certain genres (like what we’ll cover today), but overall many just focused on making memorable melodies with the tools they had available. Then as the generations progress and improved, so too did the sound capabilities. Familiar genres could be heard as early as the SNES (and some NES). With Nintendo themselves, they stuck with what they did best: memorable melodies and happy tunes. Of course, they would venture off into some Space Opera-like themes with Star Fox. But a majority of the music made by Nintendo consisted of Jazz arrangements (PilotWings), easy listening (Sim City), or pop-y (most Mario games). With this light-hearted reputation, it’s sometimes a surprise to hear Nintendo come out of nowhere with a rock song in a game, and it freakin’ awesome every time. So sit back and get ready to bang your head, it’s Top 10 Hard Rockin’ Nintendo Themes.

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I Stand On My Soapbox: What Nintendo Kept After Rare Left

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I Stand On My Soapbox is a series of editorials that cover more specific topics in the games industry and community. These articles are a little more extreme than normal editorials published here, and could just degenerate to outright ranting. Have fun and enjoy the show!

Time to stand on this box again, I got another rant coming up. If you’ve been living under rock for the past life time, don’t worry you still have another life time ahead of you. But many-a-gamer remembers the rather public exchange of hands between Nintendo, Microsoft, and the company Rare. Rare started off as third party, became a second party company under Nintendo during the 90s, and then in 2002 became a first party company for Microsoft. Today they make Avatars for the Xbox 360 and Kinect Games. Back on Nintendo’s side, the company recently had Retro Studios revive Donkey Kong Country, a game originally made by Rare. However the game, Donkey Kong Country Returns, would be done without the Kremlings. Despite Retro stating that the omission of the Kremlings was simply a matter of choice, gamers went ahead and assumed otherwise.

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Destructoid Fires Editor Over A Single Tweet [Update]

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DToid’s Tweet in response to Perez’s comments

I’m probably burning this bridge before stepping on it, and it would be unlike me to report on another sire’s beef, but this just boggles the mind to unfathomable, Jeff Gerstmann levels. Ryan Perez, then-Editor at Destructoid, made a Tweet where he questioned how much gaming personality Felicia Day has contributed. The tweet after the break.

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The Captains Speaketh: Nintendo Losing Their Touch

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Editor’s Note: We collaborated on this latest Speaketh before Nintendo did their Nintendo Direct not too long ago. However our arguments still stand.

So E3 has come and gone, and there are a few things that surprised us, some things that lulled us, and some that made us go “What?” But one thing that seems to have drawn the most confusion is Nintendo’s Wii U and 3DS Conferences. Nintendo, like the others played it safe — very safe — during their conferences. However, in their aim to cater to the hardcore audience that they seemed to have lost, they let two games slip by that seemed to cater to just that audience.

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I Stand On My Soapbox: “Where’s The New Zelda?”

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I Stand On My Soapbox is a series of editorials that cover more specific topics in the games industry and community. These articles are a little more extreme than normal editorials published here, and could just degenerate to outright ranting. Have fun and enjoy the show!

Of all the questions people asked about the Wii U and Nintendo this past E3, this is one question that outright irked me the most. You can see it everywhere you looked that had editors and gamers talking about what was missing at Nintendo’s E3. I too wondered some things. But a new Zelda was not in my mind, nor did it ever enter my train of though when I thought about what Nintendo was lacking. And yet, there are people that wanted a new Zelda game for the Wii U. For those people, I have this to say:

You just had one!

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With The Wii U On The Way, Why Not Bring Back Silent Scope?

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Ever since the reveal of the Wii U last year (and further info this year), I was thinking of what kinds of games would be a good fit for the Wii U and the Tablet Controller (called the Gamepad). After seeing what some of those games were doing with the tablet, I recalled one of those demos doing something akin to showing a bigger picture on the TV and showing a zoomed-in shot on the Gamepad’s screen. Then it hit me: Why not make a make a new Silent Scope game?

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Night-Time Listenings Is Moving To Tumblr. Oh Yeah, We Have A Tumblr Too!

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At first I thought it would be cool to bring back the ol’ series to TWF, and to have it posted in the place that started it all: Facebook. However, I faced a harsh reality. It wasn’t guaranteed that I’d be there to post the music on Facebook. Either I was busy making an article, watching something, or even sleeping. There would be days were there would be no music and I’d have to make it up, as evidenced by my complaining on the wrap-up articles. With Tumblr, I can schedule posts to go up their own, much like I can do here on the WordPress platform. This is the one thing I wish Facebook had, but doesn’t. So starting on Monday, all Night-Time Listening posts will be on our Tumblr page, with weekend wrap-ups continuing here.

Speaking of which, welcome our new Tumblr page. Since we at The Wired Fish want to spread out to as many social platforms as possible, we’ll be starting our trek on Tumblr. It will function similarly to our main site with most articles auto-posting there. But, like Night-Time Listening, we might put up extra stuff that you’ll only see there. So if you have a Tumblr, be sure to follow us there and spread the word!

Watch Dancing Mad Played On A Real Grand Pipe Organ

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A couple of years ago, I was wondering if anyone ever bothered trying to do videogame music on a pipe organ. It took a while, but I managed to find one person that did just that. Posted back in 2009, someone by the username of DrRolde covered some song with his churches Grand Organ. Of course, since Dancing Mad was done with the SNES pipe organ sound, it was only a matter of time before he covered it.

I’ll just shut up now. Have a listen. It’s amazing. (and yes, he forgot the notes at one point and played the Fugue. Pretty hilarious.)

Final Fantasy VI – Dancing Mad – on Grand Organ [Youtube]

No Night-Time Listenings Wrap-Up Or Retro Weekends Today

Weekend columns Night-Time Listenings Wrap-Up and Retro Weekends will not be published this weekend and next weekend due to preparations and potential chaos around E3.

Playstation All-Stars Battle Royale – A Little Competition Didn’t Hurt Anyone

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There sure are a lot of crossovers going on. And I do love me some crossovers. A crossover between all of Sony’s characters was something I’ve been waiting for for the longest. After the success of Marvel vs. Capcom and Super Smash Bros., I’ve been waiting for something like this to happen. Back then though, there wasn’t a lot of characters to go around in the Sony department. But now, that roster has grown and a game like this is now possible. From the outset you can see that this game is heavily, heavily inspired by the Smash Bros. series, right down to the color and arrangement of the HUD (except for the timer, which is at the bottom). Even the physics seem to resemble that of Smash Bros. Brawl. But Sony seems to be doing a few things differently to make it stand out a bit.

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Say Goodbye To Computer Science In The University of Florida

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Being a college graduate from New York City’s CUNY network of colleges (Lehman College specifically), I’ve seen some f’ed up shit happen behind the textbooks. But nothing compares to the downright stupidity that is happening in the University of Florida. In an age where tuition rates are ever rising and demand for people versed in technology is at an all-time high, UF goes ahead and removes the Computer Science division. Stranger still is the fact that the athletics department at the school saw its budget increase by $2 Million, bringing it’s annual budget to $97 Million (though Forbes stresses in a postscript that the Athletics budget is separate from the other depts. thanks to the UAA). According to Forbes, the big culprits here are “…the Florida state legislators, who have cut the budget for their flagship university by 30% over the past 6 years.”

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What Could Super Mario 4 Possibly Be?

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Before I begin the speculation, let me bring everyone up to speed. Not too long ago, gamers discovered that Nintendo had registered supermario4.com. When you go there, it redirects you to Nintendo’s country selector. Now normally when you enter some bonkers domain name, either you’ll go to a “domain not found” page, or a page from a domain squatter. But here, you can see that Super Mario 4 is most certainly Nintendo’s. Then in an interview with Korean site Betanews, Miyamoto confirmed that his team was in fact making Super Mario 4 for the Wii U. However, he didn’t specify what exactly this new Mario game would be: a 3D or 2D platformer. Here’s where we start guessing what this could be.

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I Stand On My Soapbox – Gamefly

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I Stand On My Soapbox is a series of editorials that cover more specific topics in the games industry and community. These articles are a little more extreme than normal editorials published here, and could just degenerate to outright ranting. Have fun and enjoy the show!

After two months into having Gamefly in the house (thanks sis!), I’ve been able to play games that, in my currently broke-ass situation, wouldn’t have been able to play. So far I’ve played Sonic Generations, Solatorobo, Digital Devil Saga, and Kirby’s Return to Dreamland. So all the games that some within my circle have talked about I’ve finally played and understand where they’re coming from. Now don’t get me wrong. Gamefly is a good service, especially in a place like the South Bronx. However, there are some things that Gamefly seriously needs to fix, especially if they’re serving a place like New York City (meaning all of the boroughs).

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