PS4 v.s. Xbox One: Revealing Bloodbath?

Posted by rangerdave23 on May 22, 2013

So the cards are down. Both Sony and Microsoft have revealed what their next console will be and what their respective focus will be. Following the Xbox One reveal, Sony shares sky-rocketed (http://www.nowgamer.com/news/1934607/sonys_share_price_rises_after_xbox_one_announcement.html); gamers near to unanimously slated the new console, siding with the PS4 (see map below) and hilarious technical difficulties annoyed core xbox 360 users (http://www.polygon.com/2013/5/21/4353010/kinect-trouble-xbox-one-reveal). So what happened?

The truth is that I’m not entirely sure. I was left near to entirely bored by the PS4 reveal and was expecting much the same from the Xbox One. Following the Xbox One reveal, I excitedly jumped onto facebook to share my excitement for the new console. I was perplexed when I saw that I appeared to the only person on the planet that had felt that the Xbox One had blown the PS4 out of the water, rather than the other way round. I eventually found 2 friends that agreed with me and were equally baffled, but this had me thinking: what happened? I realise that the rest of the post will be highly subjective, but I wanted to do a comparison of the two new consoles from my perspective and try to explain why I think that everyone else is wrong.

Playstation 4

Sony have done with the PS4 that which they always seem to try and do with any technology they produce. Win by brute force. The Sony principle has always been to produce the best hardware possible and through this mantra have done rather well. It may not be obvious from this post but I’ve always been a major Sony fan in all the technology I own, but I have finally abandoned them on the gaming front. The reason I don’t like the PS4 is because it’s the best console. No I’ve not gone insane and started typing gibberish. It is the best games console. It will do what the PS3 did and sit like a king on a pile of super high definition corpses, smugly satisfied with its own display of raw power. I used to think that this is the best approach, consequently I bought a PS3 years before I bought an Xbox 360. I believe that this is why the PS4 did so much better in the reveal as well. It is a console for gamers. There was heavy emphasis on how Sony cared about hardcore gamers and that they could help each other, create a stronger community and even share their videos in livestream (impressive stuff). This is why I think there’s been so much buzz, as it is gamers that will spread the word and if we’re honest, teenagers are far more likely to care enough to vote on “the best console” than young adults. So, as a gamer, why do I think the Xbox One was so much better?

Xbox One

The Xbox One is a console for the future. The reason it wasn’t a games heavy presentation is because Microsoft have realised that the fickle teenage generation isn’t the most valuable market anymore. I read a comment today saying that the Xbox One is aimed soley at 20-something males who own their own home. This is probably quite true. The appeal of the console is the ability to streamline your living room. When gaming is not all you do, being able to swap between a game and tv seemlessly is definitely beneficial. It was only a week ago that I was watching a long show and had my 360 on at the same time. My intention was to play Minecraft during the adverts or when things got a bit boring. This was a pain to do and I eventually just sat on facebook due to the inconvenience of constantly swapping between tv inputs. Being able to “snap” screens would have made my evening infinitely better. Even on the pure gaming front this is beneficial with skype being fully supported during gameplay.

There is of course the trivial yet highly important (this actually made me happier than anything) factor that your Xbox Live profile transfers to the new console. This is yet another key difference, even if it’s not obvious. The Xbox One is combining all of the features of your living room into one place (tv, music, gaming, films) whereas the PS4 is combining all of your online / social life into one place with facebook and ustream being linked to your playstation network profile; morphing your online persona and real self into one being. This is another argument for why the Xbox One is aimed at “adults” (I don’t like seeing myself as a fully certified adult), despite combining everything in your life together for the sake of convenience (adults don’t have much spare time), gaming life is kept separate. This is because gaming is escapism. I don’t want Stefan Woodhouse (yes that’s my real name) to be online, Ranger_Dave_23 is a persona I adopt in order to escape my normal life, it’s an escape from a job (I’m ID definitely doesn’t have my gamertag) and responsibilities

I realise that in writing that I have potentially alienated many a reader. I’m aware that blogs are read by the very demographic I have said that I no longer associate myself with. So I want to emphasise that I’m not criticising the younger generation. Without it the enthusiasm of the gaming community would die out, and that is something we do not need. What I want to say though, is that there is a place for both consoles. I just hope that the public as a whole sees it this way because I want to play Halo 5 whilst swearing at my friends over Skype because I’ve been stuck in a lab all day, unable to practice.

P.s. Sir Mime will be providing a post-E3 assessment of the consoles. As he is a real gamer, expect a very different article.

Fire Emblem Awakening – Tips for success

Posted by sirmime on May 20, 2013

The brand new Fire Emblem finally launched in the EU just over a week ago and has received a host of stellar reviews across the board. For many this will probably be the first time they’ve tried a game in the franchise and although there are easy modes to aid beginners I would like to offer some helpful tips and tricks I’ve found throughout my time playing.

A real life saver

Fire Emblem is well known for its perma death mechanics in that once a character dies, they are gone for good. You won’t want any of your characters to die (because of the stories and abilities they’ll gain later on), but sometimes you might make a mistake judging an enemy’s movements or they might get a lucky critical hit on you. The easiest way to combat this is to save before you start every chapter/encounter. With a constant back-up of your progress even if a beloved comrade croaks you can just hit the ‘HOME’ button on the 3DS and reload the game to try the chapter again. It can be annoying if you have spent an hour playing through a battle only to reload, but at least you can hang onto every character this way.

Yes Sir Mime, hitting the HOME button can help save your characters.

A life changing experience

This Fire Emblem brings back the world map system from Sacred Stones (on the GBA, fantastic game if you get chance to play it). On the world map screen you’ll see enemies (Risen) appearing on areas you’ve already finished chapters on. Engaging these enemies is a great source of experience for characters, relationships and weapon skills. There is also an item you can buy from stores (you can visit completed chapters to go to shops and buy items) that forces Risen to appear on the current location you are standing on. This means you can start off ‘farming’ earlier levels for the weakest members of your army and then work your way up the chapters to fight increasingly stronger foes. Personally I found chapter 11 to be a particularly helpful area to strengthen my forces. There’s a good number of enemies that appear each time, they’re not too powerful and you can easily place your desired unit(s) on defence increasing forts to help them battle the monsters.

Relationships:

Getting characters to fight partnered up or next to each other in battle increases their relationship statuses. The higher the relationship status the better the chance that the units will protect each other in battle as well as help each other attack enemies. Getting a selected male and female character to marry each other offers the best stat boosts when they work together and also opens up (when you get to a certain point in the game) side missions to gain even more recruits.

When characters get closer they will marry and form strong combat boosting bonds

Stick with ‘em:

Certain characters may appear to be very weak when you first encounter them. You can choose to ignore them, but every unit has the potential for greatness. Using the Risen encounter farming method you can raise all your character to level 20 quite easily. Then you can ‘class change’ them using a master seal to get the most out of their stats.

Shop till you drop:

Shops are very useful in Fire Emblem as they let you keep your army in weapons etc. Once a weapon/spell book breaks it is gone so you need to keep an eye on all your character’s equipment. Every level in the game has a different shop you can visit after completion of the chapter. It is a good idea to travel around the map and look for which place has the wares you need. A character you are training up will often require bronze equipment (or any rank E goods). Once they’ve increased their skills with their selected items you’ll be able to buy and equip them with higher ranked gear that will greatly increase the damage they can do to enemies.

Shops are also crucial for purchasing enough master seals to get all of your characters to their higher classes as well as second seals for changing them to a completely different type of class. Also if you have the spotpass data activated and lots of goods you don’t need you can sell items to earn enough money to buy the characters that appear via spotpass. Although they can’t interact with any of the main game characters they are all classic Fire Emblem characters which fans of the series will want in their army.

Hopefully these tips should help you on your way to defeating your foes and restoring peace to the lands. Hope you are all enjoying the game as much as I am…. If that’s possible haha.

Well Tharjia I’m not that devoted to Fire Emblem, only a little off though.

Batman Arkham Origins new trailer and pre-order DLC

Posted by sirmime on May 20, 2013

The latest edition (prequel) to the Arkham franchise has had its fair share of coverage today with the reveal of a full trailer. A teaser was released just over a week ago showing the dark knight tangle with the one man army that is Deathstroke. After seeing the forty seconds of logos flying across the screen and then about one second of fighting fans wanted to see more and so now there’s a good four minutes worth of visual cocaine available for those of us who’ve enjoyed/loved/obsessed over the previous games in the series.

There’s nothing really to go on gameplay wise, although everyone has been assured the game will follow the same lines as Rocksteady’s previous sprawling thug bashers. In terms of plot line (as I mentioned earlier) the game is set before the previous titles and sees a much younger Bruce taking on a whole host of contract killers hired by Black Mask. I love the fact he’s now made his way up to the big cheese for this installment as he’s never actually appeared in the stories of the other games (ok, you can smack him around in the Robin DLC for Arkham City). Hopefully we’ll get to see another class of criminals (see what I did there?) in this title as opposed to the regular super villains in the other games, although I would love Scarecrow to come back to send Bruce on another magical trip through the realms of insanity.

deathstroke

Also revealed for the game is the special and ever so tempting pre-order DLC. From what I can gather it is the same situation as the Robin DLC in that you can use Deathstroke in challenge mode and get some extra maps. I’m really looking forward to seeing some gameplay footage of him especially after playing through Injustice: Gods among us. Hopefully my hunger will be filled in the next few weeks (possibly during E3).

Batman Arkham Origins is set to release the 25th of October on PC, PS3, Xbox360 and WiiU along with the 2.5D side scroller Arkham Origins Blackgate on the 3DS and Vita.

The Marvelous Misadventures of Prophet and Hatty Hattington

Posted by rangerdave23 on May 16, 2013

I recently invested in two relatively new games: Crysis 3 and Battleblock Theater. Crysis 3 was a purchase out of necessity; having recently gotten back into Halo 4 multiplayer the trouncing I received reminded me that I had not played first person shooters in too long. What better game to rekindle my love for the genre than Crysis 3? It functions much the same as any decent FPS: guns make the right noise, things you shoot go splat and it rewards a good aim. The thing that sets it apart is of course the “nano suit” which allows you to stealth or smash your way through the game. With the addition of the predator bow, choosing a stealthy approach has become rather entertaining and hunting AIs hasn’t been this cathartic since Metal Gear Solid. Oh, and it is shiny as hell. This shouldn’t really be a factor when buying a game, but when a game looks this good you simply have to give it credit. Otherwise you feel that it has tarted itself up to look ravishing in your adoring eyes, and you just look past that in order to receive the services it provides, indifferent to its seductive efforts. Prostitution metaphors aside, Crysis 3 is a decent game and you should definitely give it a shot if you fancy spending top dollar for a few nights of fun (couldn’t leave the metaphor alone).

Now, Battleblock Theater. I can best summarise this game with a series of words, rather than actual prose: whimsical, witty, hilarious, crude, simple and FUN. A fun 2D platformer?! Surely I’ve lost the last little scraps of sanity I’d kept locked away for so long! Nope. This game is the most fun I’ve had playing a game since the early days of Halo 2 multiplayer in my lounge with friends. This isn’t just due to the hilarious multiplayer game types (yes, 4 player local multiplayer exists in this day and age) but even the single player is a fantastic mix of challenging puzzles, clever/simple level design and the funniest writing I’ve ever heard in a game. I all honesty, it’s actually quite difficult to describe what makes this game so fun, or what it even really is…. so I’m not going to bother. I shall simply say this: if you find a game in which a man with a constant screaming expression and a cat clawing his head, can play a game of capture the flag (with cubist horses instead of flags) with an explosive paper aeroplane as his weapon whilst also being able to perform a “suicide fart” – I’d say that there’s some serious intellectual property rights being infringed. Anyway, just watch the trailer below and see for yourself:

The PC Gaming Master Race Rises Again

Posted by rangerdave23 on April 22, 2013

I’m a console gamer. I have been a console gamer since the Sega Megadrive. I played “The Lion King” at a friends house for hours at a time, getting increasingly frustrated by the fact that I couldn’t make a jump on the very first level. I realise now that my stubbornness ruined platform games for me as I could never accept that I was doing things the wrong way and simply tried again and again to make a jump that’s physically impossible (I do the same now but have friend that points out my stupidity rather than reveling in it).

As I grew up, my gaming taste diversified; Goldeneye on the N64 was the equivalent of crack cocaine for 8 year old me. I also was the proud owner of a Playstation with more pirated chinese imports than you could shake a stick at (as well as my fair share of legitimate purchases). Hogs of War, Dino Crisis, Resident Evil, Bomberman, Army Men, Crash Bandikoot and many many more took up countless hours of my childhood. This was also the time that computer-based gaming reared its ugly head in my life. No longer content with seeing his son playing unheard of games such as Freddie’s Folly on an Acorn computer (look it up), my dad bought a PC with Windows ’95 installed and a copy of C&C: Red Alert. This was the beginning of a PC gaming era for me. Nothing could tear me away from RTS games for the next few years and I became a complete social recluse existing solely to exert my dominance over whatever universe I happened to be inhabiting at the time. It’s truly amazing how pale and skinny you get when all of your free time is spent in a cellar with a few 2 L bottles of coke for sustenance.

The Playstation 2 slowly reversed this trend by bringing graphical prowess as well as diverse genres to the table. Although RTS would remain my favourite genre of game for many years to come (http://sirmime.com/2011/12/15/the-downfall-of-rts/) it was taking hits in terms of play time as it simply does not translate to console and PC-gaming was on the way out.

After rediscovering my console roots with the epic franchises of GTA and Burnout, the launches of the Xbox 360 and PS3 were the final 2 nails in the coffin of PC-gaming for me. It had nothing to offer. RTS had stagnated as a genre (with the possible exception of StarCraft) and in order to play games on PC which had the same visual stopping power of the current console games you had to spend a fortune updating your computer. Even if I had done this, I had gone off to university, and there was no way I was going to be known as the guy with a high-end gaming PC in his room (I had enough problems with girls having a PS3 in my room).

So that was it. PC-gaming was dead and buried for me and if I’m honest, I really don’t miss it much even now. This console generation has been good to me, providing an unfathomable number of hours of entertainment at the minor cost of my social skills. Even once I grew up (properly this time), the fact that console gaming was easy to jump in and out of meant that I could have a great social and work life, whilst always finding a little time in my week to sit down and have a game of Halo.

So what is the point in all this? Was this all just a nostalgia trip to be embarked on for my own sake to remember better times? Actually, partly yes, but that’s not the intended point. The point I was actually going to make was that I believe that this golden era of console gaming is going to come to an end soon, and if it doesn’t, it won’t be the same.

The thing that always set console gaming apart for me was accessibility. You didn’t need a state of the art machine in order to enjoy games at their absolute best, the specifications are always going to be as required. This is in contrast to PC-gaming which requires substantial investment and therefore brings along a certain level of snobbishness over us “console-tards”. There has been a change in the wind though and the next generation of consoles has been announced, and I am not particularly excited, if anything I’m dreading it. The news that the new Xbox is “always online” was a shock to me and countless other gamers. I don’t need to ramble on about the reasons why I think this is a bad idea, IGN has done this far more eloquently than I ever could (http://uk.ign.com/articles/2013/04/18/the-pros-and-cons-of-an-always-online-xbox-720), but I can summarise by saying that if your internet drops off, you can’t play your games. End of story. The game you paid money for is not entirely in your control anymore. I personally find this horrendous, not only because the internet is still a fickle mistress but it also represents a loss of control over what should really be yours to use when / if you please. The PS4 is not looking any much better either with zero backwards compatibility, meaning that older games have to be repurchased (http://www.pocket-lint.com/news/120396-xbox-720-no-backwards-compatibility). You only need to look at how the Wii-U has done to know that the console industry is in trouble and I personally don’t see the new releases from Microsoft and Sony bucking this trend. If you don’t believe me, even Goldman Sachs see this as an inevitable downward spiral (http://bgr.com/2013/02/21/sony-playstation-4-analysis-downward-spiral-339662/).

Why then does this mean that the PC master race will rise again? Well it doesn’t. But I do do feel that the world of PC-gaming is a lot healthier in terms of both future prospects and gaming ethics. Although I myself have not gone back to the realms of PC-gaming, opting to instead cling to the rickety vessel of the Xbox 360 as it threatens to sink below the sea of extinct entertainment, I do look over to the fantastical world of Steam and can’t help but marvel at how it has managed to bring glory back to the PC.

Regardless of your standpoint on all of this, I think we should all be grateful for what we have in the current gaming era, and that we’re not mac users of course.

Head in the Clouds: How Bioshock Infinite took me to Columbia, the most Beautiful Hell on Earth

Posted by rangerdave23 on April 18, 2013

It’s been a long time again since I wrote something here. During my period of absence Bioshock: Infinite descended from the heavens and woo’d game reviewers worldwide. I’ll make no secret of my Bioshock fanboydom, it should have been pretty obvious by now anyway with previous posts about art in games and even Bioshock-specific drooling, but I do still feel some small measure of guilt in wanting to contribute to the already obscene amounts of praise for the game. I’m also under no illusion as to how valuable my opinion is in comparison to 99.99% of the games writing community (yes I do consider myself superior to 0.01% and they can suck it). I do however want to share my thoughts on the game that hit me harder than any other piece of entertainment / art in a long time. I should probably say at this stage that there are spoilers here if some of you haven’t yet played the game, so you have been warned.

I’ll admit that I entered the world of Bioshock Infinite with some skepticism, having fallen in love with Rapture it felt like a betrayal going to another city. I also had the issue that I actually found the ideas put forward by Andrew Ryan interesting (although not technically “his”) whereas Comstock didn’t sit too well with me as an idealist. So climbing the steps of that lighthouse with some trepidation I prepared myself to be launched into Columbia. The “Hallelujah” that sounded when I broke the clouds and caught my first glimpse of the city summed up my emotions rather well.

columbia-bioshock-infinite-2k-games-rapture

Aesthetically, Columbia is glorious despite the stark contrast to the art deco wet dream (no pun intended) that is Rapture. Colonial style architecture mixed neo classical columns and of course the incredibly symbolic and egotistical statues that adorn the main squares: these make for a stunning city to look at. Even the flying death fortress of Comstock House had me swooning.

Once you move on from simply gawping at every stunning vista you begin to see the city for what it really is, the most beautiful hell there is, and it all starts off by winning a raffle. Now, I’ve heard a lot of opinions regarding what is indisputably one of the defining characteristics of the game (the other being the many universe theory), but I haven’t seen mine out there yet. Racism in combination with religion has to be one of the most difficult subjects touched by a game in a long time, and with it has come a lot of ire. There have been complaints that it’s anti-white propaganda (http://w ww.stormfront.org/forum/t956372/) , that it’s deeply blasphemous (http://kotaku.com/some-dont-like-bioshocks-forced-baptism-enough-to-as-473178476) , that it’s offensive to the non-religious of us (see previous link) and even that it’s anti-American (http://www.theblaze.com/stories/2013/03/29/bioshock-infinite-the-video-game-that-lets-you-sh oot-robo-george-washington-should-you-be-worried/). I found these points rather interesting; as a white, non-relgious, non-American, I’m not the most likely to be offended by such themes. Although everyone is free to voice their opinions, freedom of expression is what created the games industry after all, there is a level of irony that these complaints were made about Bioshock Infinite, and this is also what makes the game so great.

My argument in all of this is that I found it an insightful look into not only what is wrong with America, but also what it does well. It seems to be forgotten in all discussions about the game that the reason Columbia seceded from the U.S. is because the extremist leader disagreed with its liberal policies. The aspects of Columbia that offend are generally the ones that are seen as a breakaway from traditional American values, the aspects that appeal are the ones that are the righteously upheld values that most respect about the country. I must admit that religion gets bashed a little in all of this, and I know better than to step into that minefield of discussion, but it is still approached in an interesting way with a fundamental question posed by the game being: does baptism truly absolve you of sin? Whether you love or hate the approach by which they held a mirror to modern society, you cannot dispute that it was effective (you know it was by observing the extremes of praise and hate). If you truly believe that this was anti-American, observe the manner in which the Vox Populi (the distinct reversal of traditional American values) are potrayed: they are brutal, crude and have no moral compass to speak of. The potrayal of communists in this game could not be more negative. This is something we’ve seen before though; no matter how critical Bioshock was of Ayn Rand’s ideals, sympathy was still created Andrew Ryan, as opposed the solely negative reflection of the strong socialist ideals of the antagonist Sofia Lamb.

I’m sorry that this turned rather serious rather quickly but this game made me believe again in the power of interactive story telling to put across a message and I felt as my first post in a long time I should write about something meaningful. I promise that I’ll get back to humour and moderately witty insights in my next post.

D2D8EBBC281E465499F881AFC60A4DA2

Nintendo Direct – Straight to my Heart

Posted by sirmime on April 18, 2013

Over the last few Months I’ve been enjoying the spectacle of Nintendo Direct broadcasts. These (roughly) half an hour presentations have been showing off Nintendo’s wares to the World. Most of the time you can start watching one with a good idea of what they’ll be talking about. This is partly due to the fact that most of the presentations are themed usually on the WiiU or 3DS, but sometimes they slip in announcements for the other systems anyway.

Yesterday’s broadcast was quite an interesting one to say the least (understatement of the year). I started watching it thinking ‘the last broadcast (in the EU) was all about the 3DS, what else could they possibly announce now?’. Looking back on such thoughts I feel quite the fool now as Nintendo seemed to pull out some pretty big surprises for all their fans.

Yoshi is about to unleash the giant egg throw

The first big surprise came from the showing of a brand new Yoshi’s Island game. A short video shows off the little green dino carrying baby Mario around a lush world of greenery, fluffy clouds and bright red Shyguys. Yoshi was shown to perform all his usual tricks such as the flutter jump, ground pound and egg throw. There seemed to be mention of new abilities to keep the gaming mechanic fresh and during this point of the video Yoshi is seen to throw a screen sized egg that seemingly destroys most of the obstacles on the level in front of him. I’m not really sure that increasing the size of the egg thrown really counts towards new game mechanics, but the game certainly looks a fun return to the Island setting. I think the main reason I was so surprised by this announcement though was the previously revealed Yoshi’s epic yarn on the WiiU a few months back. They certainly look different enough games to stand out from each other and can you really ever have enough Yoshi fun?

Mario Party seemed to leap out from a well-timed visual gag (involving an on screen Luigi throwing dice and it then swapping over to Mario Party game footage of said dice landing). The game looks like the familiar party setting although the boards shown did look very diverse. One board housed giant Bullet Bills that would shoot across the board if a player rolled the character during their dice roll. The risk-reward strategy really comes into play as you decide whether to push forward and remain in the open/in danger or cut your movement down to hide in safety. Other boards offered their own unique challenges and gimmicks making this new Mario Party seem quite a diverse package. The only problem I have with it is that I feel it would work better as a WiiU title as opposed to the 3DS release it is getting. Unless there’s online play settings available for it (and you don’t know anyone nearby with the game and/or system) you are only going to be playing with computer opponents. The whole fun of a party game is sitting around with people you know and trying you best to hinder them all in the guise of good fun.

More news and release dates were announced for previously revealed titles such as Mario & Luigi: Dream team brothers, Mario Golf: World tour and interestingly Pikmin 3. Strangely the release date for Pikmin 3 wasn’t stated during the Nintendo Direct broadcast, but various sites seemed to confirm it will be hitting stores (in North America at least) in August (hopefully we won’t have to wait too much longer afterwards). What was excited about Pikmin 3’s time slot in the broadcast was the official confirmation/reveal of the brand new Pikmin type, the winged Pikmin. These pink minions can fly and even carry items off the ground. When I saw them in action I was so thankful there was finally another Pikmin type that could travel over water. I can only assume they have some horrible weakness as every scene of the video showed them in quite an over powered light. They were carrying items to the same weight ratio as other Pikmin types even across water. They also seemed to take on some of more annoying flying enemies will relative ease. Normally scrapes with such creatures would involve having to find the right angle to throw your ‘Min at them and hope for the best, but these winged Pikmin just seemed to circle the thing and destroy it. There probably will be another video released shortly showing how easily hundreds of these Pikmin can die now that I’ve said this and the weight of their deaths will be on my conscious forever more.

The new Winged Pikmin carrying goods across the water

Grim Pikmin murder aside, let us move onto some WiiU system update news. The promised (and much needed) WiiU system update will be hitting consoles next Wednesday (24/4/13) and will provide a number of improvements. For starters exiting a game and heading back to the main menu will happen in a fraction of the time (see the comparison video). Updates for games can now be downloaded without needing to start up the game first and whilst the console is turned off. Also installation of downloaded games/updates can now take place in the background and while the console is turned off meaning you will never need to sit through an install bar again, unless that’s your thing. The day after the system update (25/4/13) the Virtual Console range will be launched meaning that you can purchase and play a number of classic games without having to wait each month for the current ’30 days for 30 pence’ promotion. The line-up of VC titles shown wasn’t particularly large and around half of them are titles that will appear on the ’30 for 30’ promotion. Hopefully there are some of the promised GBA titles included in the initial line-up as well to spice things up a bit. Speaking of Spicing up the Virtual Console EarthBound (Mother 2) is finally coming to EU shores! This was a Titanic surprise yesterday as Japan had already received it as part of their ’30 for 30’ promotion. Luckily a large number of fans (myself included) took to Miiverse and showed their interest in bringing out over here. Nintendo listened and now we’re finally going to be able to play a game released on the SNES for the first time ever in the EU. There was no mention of a release date or price, but hopefully there will be more news soon.

When the broadcast moved over to the EU specific section there was recap reminders about Fire Emblem Awakening including the discounted price of DLC pack 1 for the first month (from Friday 19/4/13). Then (something I actually guessed beforehand) the reveal of the Animal Crossing special edition 3DSXL for EU. The system decals look wonderful and as I’m eagerly waiting to get Animal Crossing anyway I may purchase this bundle for RevealBEARY so I can look at it every day. Other Animal Crossing news showed the feature to visit other player’s towns without disrupting any of their hard work and then, being able to use designs from these towns in your own for anything you

I was so excited when this was confirmed for EU release

want. There were some beautiful designs in the town (from the Direct footage) that I really hope I can ‘borrow’ at some point.

Other great news for the EU market included confirmation of Bravely Default Flying Fairy and Shin Megami Tensei 4 are coming to Western markets later on in the year. Both look absolutely amazing RPGs and I can’t wait to add them to already insanely good 3DS collection. Now you’d mistaken for thinking how could Nintendo top all these announcements? They always do save the best surprise till the end of the broadcast and yesterday’s was no exception.

Link using his new 2D ability to cross walls and get through the bars

Just as things are wrapping up the familiar tune from the Legend of Zelda series silences everyone watching. Without warning images of a new game set in the ‘A Link to the past’ game world fill our screens and (as I suspect) everyone agrees there’s a new must have title for the 3DS on its way for the end of the year. This new title (a sequel to A Link to the past) plays in the familiar classic LoZ top down style and with the 3DS’s magic gives warrant to a whole host of scenes of Link seemingly jumping out of the screen. The new game specific power for Link in this game seems to be the ability to turn into a 2D wall drawing. This in turn gives him the power to move along walls for a short period of time (I think the bar at the bottom left of the screen is the duration time). Being able to do this allows Link to bypass barred windows and move to platforms that would otherwise be inaccessible. There is a 3D video available now on the 3DS eshop and I thoroughly advice you watch it if only to get the full effect of the display. Hopefully we’ll be treated to move news and screenshots soon enough. With this, the HD remake of Wind Waker and countless other games releasing and still to be announced I sense it will be a very good year for Nintendo gamers everywhere. I just hope the next Nintendo Direct leaves me as excited as a five year on a sugar rush wearing a jet-pack made out of fizzy drinks like this one did. Have you watched the broadcast yet? What was the most exciting announcement for you?