Tag Archives: nintendo

Nintendo Wii Could Help Cancer Patients With Fatigue

Doctor Mii at your service!

Amy Hoffman, a nursing researcher at Michigan University’s College Of Nursing, is getting a grant of $379,741.00 and a Nintendo Wii console to help lower the risk of fatigue her lung cancer patience suffer from, especially after surgery. NSCLC (Non-Small Cell Lung Cancer) is the most common lung cancer by about 85% and icauses life threatening risks alone, but even the treatments can also cause high risks. So Hoffman’s been looking for a solution as she mentioned “Nearly half of all Americans live with at least one chronic illness, and nearly a quarter of Americans having multiple chronic illnesses. The needs of the chronically ill are not being met, and a common challenge noted by patients with cancer is self-management of symptoms.”

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The Wired Fish Podcast Season 3 – Episode 1 (2 Parts)

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Ahoy one and all to the new season of The Wired Fish Podcast! Last Summer we started up a podcast show for TWF. And now we’re back this Summer filming what what will hopefully be a fuller season than Season 2. To commemorate this new season, it’s extra long as we had a lot to talk about. First up, we covered the situation revolving around Tropes vs. Women in Videogames. Next we talked a bit about EA’s money troubles. And finally, we discussed Nintendo’s E3 conference (and Microsoft’s a little bit).

As you already know, the timeline breakdown is after the jump. Since this is two parts, Part 2 is down there as well.

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XSEED Confirms August 14th As The Last Story’s Release Date

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Those wanting to try out the aptly named The Last Story will be pleased to hear that XSEED has announced August 14 as the game’s official release date. Before, the game was suspected to release on June 19th according to retails like Gamestop and Amazon. Then retailers announced that the game would release on a later date. While many called this a delay, XSEED didn’t see it as one since they themselves never announced a release date and that the June 19th date was speculation from retailers. But here the legit, 100%, straight from the horse’s mouth date. Tuesday, August 14th, is the day to get The Last Story.

XSEED has also announced that those who preorder get a special soundtrack CD. Though they don’t say it on the Tweet, you also get an artbook if you buy it in the first print run (regardless if you pre-order or not). They haven’t clarified if you’ll get the bonuses regardless of store.

So now that you know the date, have you finished Xenoblade yet?

XSEED Tweet [via Kotaku]

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

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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!

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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Wii U and 3DS eShop Accounts Fuse Into One

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If you get why I put this picture with the article, you get a point.

“A unified account system will be implemented later this year with the launch of the Wii U,” stated David Marshall, a Customer Service rep at Nintendo. “Eventually this same account system will be made compatible with Nintendo 3DS systems. At this time we have no additional details to offer and nothing to indicate how or if this will work outside the United States and Canada.” This was cited by Nintendo World Report from an email by Marshall. The big N’s decided to drop their old ways of having separate eShop accounts and just having one main account spanning across the 3DS and WiiU (Similar to PSN and XBL).

Interestingly, Marshall states that the it would be harder to implement a system like this in territories outside the U.S. and Canada. But why? Is there a different way that Nintendo does its eShop in other countries? Other than that, thoughts come up on what can this new system open up in the future for the big N and its consumers. Could we get multiple platform Virtual Console games? Or could this open up more connectivity between the Wii U and 3DS in terms of in game gaming like how Makahiro Sakurai is doing with his next game in the Super Smash Bros. series. Do you guys think it can open up something interesting in the future? Comment below.

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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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Satoru Iwata Give Hints To The Wii U Power

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Something tells me he has a plan.

Nintendo’s president Satoru Iwata released some insight on the Wii U’s capabilities. When asked about the comparison between the Wii U power and the other next gen consoles from a Q & A in Japan between him and the company’s investors, Iwata has had this to say:

” We cannot promise that the Wii U will never be excluded from multiplatform software for eternity, but we can at least assure you that the Wii U will not have such a big difference as the Wii had in comparison to how, on other platforms, developers could expect very different graphic capabilities of generating HD-applicable high-resolution graphics.

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XSEED May Not Localize Akiba’s Trip, But Might Senran Kagura

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In an interview with Siliconera, Executive VP of XSEED, Ken Berry, said that they were not going to consider localizing PSP vampire pantsing game Akiba’s Trip. However when questioned about Senran Kagura on the 3DS, he stated that they’ll “have to see. It’s not a flat out no…” Japan has had the bouncy 3D-beat-’em-up for a year now with, and they’ll be getting the sequel, Senran Kagura: Crimson Girls, this year. The cart will also come with the first game as well. However Berry chimed in “…but it’s a title that would be hard to bring over as a packaged title.” Not sure if he meant the first game or the second game since the second one is already a package. He did mention that the company does get requests from fans to localize the game. I’m guessing those voices might be a little louder since the 3DS is region locked.

As we learned when they cancelled localization of Grand Knights History, XSEED does not any programmers in the team. So they depend on the original developer to input their translations (rather than do it all in-house). So feasibility of script translation and input must be considered. Since this is a beat-’em-up, I’m assuming the script isn’t too extensive. Even though I’ve yet to get a 3DS, I’d like to see this game come out. How ’bout you?

Xseed Won’t Localize Akiba’s Trip, “We’ll See” For Senran Kagura [Siliconera]

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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Mighty Switch Force Coming To Wii U

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Oh WayForward how I love thee! Nintendo Power has revealed that 3DS download game Mighty Switch Force will be headed to the Wii U under the title Mighty Switch Force HD. Like its predecessor, it will be released as an eShop download on the system. And when they say HD, they mean it as the sprites will redrawn to look a lot cleaner. And boy, what they’ve shown is beautifully clean. Like, Earthworm Jim clean.

Let me fill you in quick on what the game is. Mighty Switch Force is a Puzzle Platformer where you’re a future cop trying to capture prisoners that have escaped. The cop lady has the ability to make platforms solidify and de-solidify to create platforms to jump on or knock enemies off the stage. I don’t had a 3DS, but I tried it out for a bit on James’, and I came this close to getting one on that game alone (and this was when the 3DS was still $250).

Mighty Switch Force HD is slated to launch on the Wii U eShop at the same time as the system.

Mighty Switch Force HD Headed To Wii U With Redesigned Sprites [Siliconera]

Namco Bandai Releases Teaser Site

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Sometimes all you need is a logo

Over the weekend, Namco Bandai released a teaser site that has “All Star Battle” across the screen. From what can be gathered, it’s covered with real life photos and has a countdown for this Thursday. You can see it in the link below.

Namco Bandai

As I previously reported, Namco Bandai is working with Nintendo on the new Super Smash Bros game. Can this possibly be a hint to that? It’s a little too early since they not long ago started production on the game. Maybe they’re releasing a character for Sony’s own all star game? If that’s true, it’ll be a little excessive just to say this such and such character is coming to Sony All-Star Battle Royale. Or maybe they working on their own all star game? Whatever stayed tuned for this Thursday for its big reveal and return to this page to make sure you get to the site without any confusion.

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Night-Time Listenings Wrap-Up: Week of 6/25/12

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This Week on Night-Time Listening, we went oldschool, like we always do. But we went handheld oldschool as this week, it was all about the Game Boy. First up we listened to the sounds of Final Fantasy Legend III. Then we went back to kill Dracula with Castlevania Legends. We traded cards with Pokemon Trading Card game. We saved Pauline in Donkey Kong ’94. And finally, we traveled to Goldenrod City in Pokemon G/S/C.

If you want to see the music as it goes up (and not wait every Saturday for these wrap-ups), remember to go to our new Tumblr page and follow it. Music for Night-Time Listenings goes up every weekday at 10PM

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This Week In Confirmed News

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Let’s see what’s confirmed

As the title suggests, this article summarizes what has been confirmed this week. Hit the jump to see what’s confirmed.

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Project X Zone To Have Over 200 Characters

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Wowza that’s a lot of characters! However this is only considering allies and enemies and not actually the main characters you’ll be controlling in the game. According to the Project X Zone blog (translated by Andriasang), “This figure includes allies and enemies. It does not include characters who appear exclusively in event scenes.” The blog also states that these aren’t no generic, wire-frame multi-mook melee fodder, but instead characters from many franchises of each of the three companies. Who could those characters be? We already know that Q-Bee is in as an enemy, but will she change sides?

Since Namco’s handling Smash Bros. development (along with Sakurai’s Project Sora), maybe they might want to share the crossover love and, you know, localize it for the West! Remember, there’s a fan campaign to get this game out in the West. So hop to it!

もっとも未知なる交差領域で [PXZ Blog, translated by AndriaSang, via Joystiq]

Smash Brothers Gets Some Extra Hands

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The main protagonist of Tales of Symphonia, one of only two Tales games released for Nintendo systems in North America. Will we see him join the fight?

We all know Nintendo’s Super Smash Brothers is in development for its next installment. The lead developer guiding this project is Masahiro Sakurai of Hal Laboratory using Project Sora (the creators of Kid Icarus Uprising) as his development team. It seems now that Nintendo thinks they need some extra hands on this project by introducing Namco Bandai as a co-developer.

Yoshito Higuchi, known for producing Tales of Vesperia, has been chosen to direct the game but still working alongside Masahiro Sakurai. Yoshito Higuchi is not coming alone though as he’s coming along side with Tetsuya Akatsuka (who is the art and sound director of the SoulCalibur series) and the development team of the Tekken series.

This is interesting news indeed. Could we possibly get any guest characters from the Namco Bandai side? Can we get a Tekken or SoulCalibur character? Or maybe the rarity of seeing a Tales of Symphonia character? Whatever happens we are on the trail of this giant as it continues its development.

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