Super Smash Bros 4. (if you haven’t noticed the sly pun) was finally revealed during Nintendo’s E3 Direct presentation this year. Along with some returning favorites, we were acquainted with a few new faces. Since the initial E3 trailers, we’ve had a steady stream of info coming in from both the Miiverse SSB Community and the official SSB4 website, and with them some more veterans. So, who’s been revealed so far? Hit the jump and let’s review.
In this episode of the podcast, we discuss if another Videogame Crash is imminent and is it can help out the videogame industry. Then we talk about the games we’re playing at the moment.
Before I get to the subject here, I should probably explain what a Metro is. Metro in this context is short for metrosexual, a term that describes a straight guy who is more keen fashion, makeup, y’know… very girly, “unmanly” stuff. Er, think Kanji Tatsumi from Persona 4 (minus the “might be gay” part, more “might not be manly” part). Now that that’s out of the way, what is in these games that yells at my inner metro to come out in fabulous style? It’s the armor, and the fact that the characters actually wear the armor you equip to them. You probably encountered this yourself.
The new year is year and we’re still alive. While we’re at it, it’s time to look back at the games we view as our Games of the Year. On top of that, we also talk about our disappointing games of the year.
As you know it, time table of contents after the break.
Well then, Christmas came and went this past Tuesday. Hopefully you got the gifts you wanted. And hopefully this article goes up in the supposed apocalypse. For 12 Days, we listened to music that was played on snow levels. Some of the games featured are Donkey Kong Country, Mega Man Legends 2, Xenoblade, Odin Sphere, Final Fantasy X, and more! So curl up next to your favorite gift! It’s time to look back at the 12 Days of Christmas Music!
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 Tumblr page and follow it. Music for Night-Time Listenings goes up every weekday at 10PM.
This week we took a stroll into the calm side of videogame music. We chatted with friends in Final Fantasy XI. Went to work at the refugee camp in Xenoblade. We soaked up the sun in Final Fantasy X. We took some photos in Beyond Good & Evil. And finally we woke up to a fine morning in Arni Village in Chrono Cross.
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 Tumblr page and follow it. Music for Night-Time Listenings goes up every weekday at 10PM.
Continuing Composers’ Month, we dived into the music of Yoko Shimomura. We fought Ken in Street Fighter II. We talked to townsfolk in Super Mario RPG. We looked toward the Mana Tree in Legend of Mana. We fought some Heartless in Kingdom Hearts. And finally we fought on the plains of Bionis in Xenoblade Chronicles.
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 Tumblr page and follow it. Music for Night-Time Listenings goes up every weekday at 10PM
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This week in Night-Time Listening, we chilled. We really chilled. So chilled you’d freeze. We started out with music from Viewpoint. Then we hit up the smooth sounds of OutRun 2006. We flew on our Rocketbelt with Pilotwings. We were at the ocaenside with Chrono Cross. And we camped in an icy mountain in Xenoblade.
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 Tumblr page and follow it. Music for Night-Time Listenings goes up every weekday at 10PM
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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.
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.
Well it’s already been a month since Xenoblade went on sale in the U.S. So far I’ve been thoroughly impressed with this game with each gaming session unintentionally becoming a marathon session. But how has Xenoblade done in terms of sales? According to VGChartz* the game has sold a total of 220,503 copies in the U.S. Compare that to Japan’s totals sales of 159,000 copies sold, and Europe’s 176,000 copies sold, and you’ll see that the U.S. was the biggest contributor to the total sales of the game. Keep in mind, Nintendo did next to no advertising for the game, producing one trailer (that they sent to publications twice for some odd reason), making a crappy internet banner ad, and made the game a retailer exclusive. A whole lot of super-safe steps were made by NoA to make sure next to no money was spent in advertising this game. It was up to the fans to spread the word. Operational Rainfall was the primary hub for this, with others joining in to help out in spreading the word (myself included). Not only that, it was up against Mass Effect 3, The Witcher 2, and Nintendo’s own Mario Party 9 (which sells freakishly high numbers). And look, the game sold better than anyone expected considering the circumstances. All territories combined, Xenoblade has sold a grand total of 623,000 copies. Good job people!
Now if only there was a cake to celebrate this occasion.
This week in Night-Time Listenings, we listened to music from Rival Schools, SEGA Saturn classic Burning Rangers, obscure arcade game Ollie King, and Xenoblade Chronicles. Again, there’s only four here to due an event I had to attend. Remember to like our Facebook Page to listen to the music as it’s posted.
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I want to cry. So… so much. While Nintendo of Europe has shown how awesome they are by being the bigger man by localizing the three games and giving them awesome collectors editions, they went one step further and created this. Exclusive to HMV, the box came with an artbook depicting concept art for all three games and left extra room to store your three games, Xenoblade, The Last Story, and Pandora’s Tower. Note that the box does not come with the actual games themselves, nor is this the Limited Edition box for Pandora’s Tower (it has its own LE).
You got this if you pre-ordered any version of Pandora’s Tower. Prota tipped me on this during a Spring Break hangout at the ol’ campus. I couldn’t believe it. Then he showed me it on Facebook. My jaw dropped into the pits of Tartarus. For a while, both links lead to missing pages on HMV. But the Limited Edition on has since returned (though whether or not you get the box with the game is still a mystery). While I thought that image you see up there was fake, this video proves that it does exists and that NoE are the kings of trolling the hell out of us American gamers. But hey, if you got the disposable income to get the box somehow, you can still put your NTSC games in there. I probably would.
Again, thanks to Prota for the tip.
If you have a Wii and are planning to get Xenoblade, I would just like to warn you that Xenoblade is printed on a Dual-Layered Disc. If you remember, Super Smash Bros. Brawl and Metroid Other M were also dual-layered discs as well (indicated by their gold-colored reading surface), and we all remember the news about people who had trouble with their Wii reading Smash Bros. Brawl. Well, it seems to be happening again with the much anticipated Xenoblade Chronicles. I looked around to see if anyone was having this problem and it seems like this issue is popping up in some places as well, including Gamespot and IGN. At first it may seem like a problem with the disc. It you get an error, check the disc and clean off any scuff that might be on it and put it back in. If the Wii still can’t read it, than it’s the Wii’s lens that is the problem.
When this happened last time with Smash Bros, Nintendo said that it was a problem with the Wii’s lens being dirty and that they would take in the Wii to be repaired (i.e. cleaned). About a year later Nintendo released a cleaning solution to the public to buy. Amazon has the kit for $30, but you can get it from ShopNintendo for $10. Youtuber Kermit1986 shows how this cleaning kit works since he had trouble getting his Wii to read Smash Bros. Brawl. Personally, what I did was I turned my (launch) Wii off and blew on the disc slot (like Kermit did) and put Xenoblade in. I got an error message. So took the game out, turned off the Wii and readied two other games: Smash Bros. Brawl and Super Mario Galaxy 2, a Dual-Layered and Single-Layered Disc respectively. So I inserted Smash Bros. first and it loaded fine. Then I inserted Galaxy 2 and it loaded fine as well. Then the moment of truth. I inserted Xenoblade and it too loaded fine. But just to be sure I started the game up to see if it would go through all the way (since all it did last time upon loading was kick me back to the Wii Menu). But, it loaded fine and I resumed playing. I’ll update if this happens to me again.
[UPDATE] OpRainfall has caught wind of this and has posted a link to Nintendo’s support page regarding Xenoblade and Wiis not reading the game.
I wondered about this since the beginning of March if people would be able to buy Xenoblade without having to Preorder. I already preordered the game, but I’m just curious since since Nintendo’s lack of faith in the game selling made it seem like one of those preorder exclusive deals. Thankfully GoNintendo had the answer, and the official word from Nintendo is that they “…can confirm the Xenoblade Chronicles will be available exclusively for purchase through U.S. Gamestop retail locations…Nintendo never stated that it will only be available to those who preorder it.” So going by their word, you don’t necessarily need to preorder to score a copy of the game. But then again, it’s best to preorder anyways to make the numbers look good ahead of time.
Now The Last Story, that’s a different… err story. While you can probably get away with not pre-ordering Xenoblade and pick up on-the-spot, XSEED will be practicing the Niche Publisher Limited Run scheme that has been successful so far for publishers like NIS America, Atlus, and XSEED themselves. In other words, The Last Story will have a limited run in the U.S. and XSEED will print copies close to the number of pre-orders that they get. So if you want to score yourself a copy of The Last Story, you’re better off preordering. Thankfully the game will be stocked “at any retailer that wishes to stock it.” So if you hate Gamestop, you can get it at another store, like Game Champ!
No worries, Xenoblade Chronicles available for those that don’t preorder [GoNintendo]
The Last Story will probably get a limited run in NA [GameZone]
The Wired Fish Network 