GAME BOYS: The Animated Series DVD Announcement August 10, 2013
Posted by Maniac in Game News.add a comment
Brad Jones, better known to the internet as The Cinema Snob, has posted the final episode of GAME BOYS: The Animated Series this weekend. Great to see Virtual Boyd is back!
Brad Jones has confirmed that a DVD of the entire series will be put up for sale on his website soon. He has also promised that it will only cost $10 US and feature every episode of the series he has posted online, and one new episode made specifically for the DVD. That is on top of the other special features he has already promised including:
- Bianca Queen’s original voice over work for the third episode.
- Exclusive Cinema Snob review for each episode.
- Live-Action version of the pilot episode.
- And more!
A second season of GAME BOYS: The Animated Series may be coming, but it will depend on sales of the DVD. Brad promises that the DVD will be out before his next film is completed.
Don’t forget, you can watch all the episodes of GAME BOYS: The Animated Series and the original movie it was based on here!
Quinni-Con 2014 Announced August 8, 2013
Posted by Maniac in Game News.2 comments
Let’s face it, gamers don’t have a lot of opportunities to get together to meet each other face to face, and that is why I’m so excited when conventions started to happen in my neck of the woods! Quinni-Con is a small multi-genre convention named after Quinnipiac University, which hosts the event. I have attended both Quinni-Cons and enjoyed both tremendously. In the years past it offered fun panels, celebrity guests, a gaming room, a screening room for anime fans, and lots of cosplayers!
I’m happy to announce that pre-registration is underway for Quinni-Con 2014! The event will take place March 1st and 2nd, 2014 at the Quinnipiac University York Hill Campus. Pre-registration is currently open. Please visit the Quinni-Con 2014 Official Website to get all the latest news on the convention and to pre-register for the event!
Nintendo 3DS Nintendo Zone StreetPass Update Live August 8, 2013
Posted by Maniac in Game News.add a comment
StreetPass is a fun feature of the 3DS. It allows 3DS owners who come into proximity with each other to use the Miis of their new companions to help them in a wide array of exclusive games. However, it is hard to find other 3DS players during a normal day, and without them, you will need to use more difficult methods to complete Nintendo’s StreetPass Plaza games. Now, 3DS owners who have not been able to find other 3DS owners in their local area can let out a cheer as Nintendo has launched their major update for Nintendo Zone, and that is the expansion of the 3DS’s exclusive StreetPass feature.
Previously, the only way to make use of StreetPass was to come into close proximity of another Nintendo 3DS owner while both systems were in Standby Mode, and both system’s WiFi antennae were enabled. While you will still be able to do that, Nintendo has added a new way to connect with other players via StreetPass. By visiting a Nintendo Zone hotspot, a 3DS owner will be sent the Mii of the last user who used the hotspot via StreetPass, even if the user was no longer using it. Then, your Mii will be sent to the next 3DS owner who uses the hotspot.
Nintendo Zone hotspots are actually quite common in my area. They can be found in most locations which have an AT&T Hotspot, such as AT&T stores, Starbucks, Barnes & Noble, or McDonald’s. Nintendo has also partnered with Best Buy and various airport hotspots to carry Nintendo Zone features as well. In short, they’re everywhere, and they offer 3DS owners the ability to access the internet away from home easily and for free. You won’t need to set up a WiFi network manually to access a Nintendo Zone hotspot, as long as your WiFi is enabled, your 3DS will connect to Nintendo Zone immediately when you are in range of it.
You will need to update your 3DS to its latest firmware to take full advantage of the Nintendo Zone StreetPass functionality. If you would like to know more about Nintendo Zone, check out our article on the subject.
The Video Game Handheld War Part 1 August 5, 2013
Posted by Maniac in Histories, Video Game Handheld War.add a comment
That’s right, we’re bringing back the GameXcess.net History section, and what better way to bring it back than to talk about the other component of the gaming console wars, handheld game systems. Previously, anachronos and I had talked about the various console wars from all the generations that we were around for, but that was all we had discussed, home consoles. Well, home consoles are not the only front for the gaming wars, and today we’re going to talk about the battle behind handheld game systems.
Mobile or handheld gaming devices go back a very long time, but they have only been electronic for the past forty or so years. They’re basically just an extension for the human desire for recreation during boring activities like travel. For as long as human beings have been mobile, we have desired to take games with us on our journey. A person cannot go for days either working hard or doing nothing, we crave mental stimulation and relaxation in order to maintain mental focus. Games have provided us with both stimulation and relaxation, and there’s probably a reason why there are so many stories about cowboys or western settlers playing card games.
Of course as our technology started to improve, circuits got smaller and cheaper to make, and a deck of cards became replaced by a small board of microprocessors and LCD screen. By the late 70s, bored businessmen in Japan took to playing with their pocket calculators for entertainment. Gunpai Yokoi, who worked for Nintendo, thought there was a better way to entertain people on the go. Nintendo’s motto has always been “Creating Something Unique”, and he set out to do exactly that. Nintendo themselves started off as a toy and playing card company before they started developing video games. As technology progressed, Nintendo started with their first portable devices, the Game & Watch from creator Gunpai Yokoi.
All of a sudden, video games could go mobile, but there were limitations. You would have to buy a new handheld device for each individual game. Other companies across the world tried their hand at mobile gaming devices of their own to capitalize on the market of technically savvy young people, but it wasn’t until the late 80s when multiple companies decided to enter uncharted territory and release portable game consoles. Unlike the mobile games of the past, these new handheld systems would be game consoles of their own, and could play a wide array of game cartridges the player purchased separately.
Very quickly, these companies knew they would be competing with each other to get their handheld into the hands of gamers, and several tried to do this by boasting improved system specifications or other gimmicks, because they thought that in reality, a handheld console war would be decided as much by the system as it would by the games. For this first part of the Video Game Handheld War, we’re going to talk about the first handheld war that I was a part of, and that was the battle between the Nintendo Game Boy and Sega Game Gear.
It was the late 80s and Nintendo’s NES was enjoying a near total market share in people’s homes and Nintendo wanted to bring a portable gaming device to the market. Calling it the Game Boy, it was designed to be a complementary device to Nintendo’s NES which could bring many of Nintendo’s classic franchises mobile. The Game Boy had a monochrome screen, stereo sound, and a very similar button configuration to the NES controller, It was equipped with a D-pad, A and B buttons, and Start and Select Buttons. Nintendo was banking on brand recognition and awesome first party launch titles to sell the system. Launching at the height of the summer, the Game Boy was expected to be a hot item. Now gamers would finally have the chance to play games like Super Mario Land and Tetris on the go, and games could even support two-players through a unique link cable.
Game Boy launched with a monochrome screen and one of the best pack-in titles a handheld ever had, the Game Boy version of Tetris, which featured a great multiplayer mode which took full advantage of the Game Boy’s included Link Cable, and cameo appearances by Nintendo heroes Mario and Luigi. By including a Link Cable and and bundling a 2-player game, it was clear that Nintendo wanted to showcase the 2-player functionality of the Game Boy to the early adopters. The Game Boy took 4-AA batteries, but they lasted longer than you would think. You could get several hours of gaming on just a single set of batteries, and there was an optional AC adapter for when you wanted to play games at home. I cannot tell you how happy I was the Christmas I received my Game Boy and copy of Super Mario Land. I spent many summer road trips helping Mario battle the minions of Tatanga. In fact, it was the first Mario game I had ever been able to complete.
Now, I would be neglectful to mention that there were two other portable gaming systems which launched around the same time as the Nintendo Game Boy, and they were the Atari Lynx and NEC TurboExpress. I’m not really going to talk about them very much, as they really had no baring on the handheld gaming market in general. Neither the Atari Lynx nor the NEC TurboExpress seemed to gain enough traction to be competitive against Nintendo’s Game Boy. In fact, I can’t remember a single person who actually had either of these devices, or even talked about them. All my discussions with friends growing up, if our conversation would turn to gaming, would be about our desire for a Game Boy, or raving about it if we were fortunate enough to have one.
The TurboExpress, while it had decent hardware, was far too expensive to be competitive. On top of that, it was prone to hardware issues, even on new units. The Atari Lynx, while it lasted in the market much longer, had a full color screen which to this day is still considered difficult to view, and was a problem that wasn’t fixed in the revised Lynx II. The Lynx survived into the era of the Atari Jaguar, but I never thought of it as a competitive product, especially given when the next gaming handheld entered the ring to try to take Nintendo’s crown.
As the 16-bit war fired up, Sega planned to complement their extremely successful Genesis console with a handheld of their own, the Sega Game Gear. By all intents and purposes, the Game Gear was an improvement on everything that the Game Boy was. It boasted a larger screen with full color display. Heck, the screen was so good, Sega planned to sell a TV tuner so people could watch broadcast TV channels with it while on the go.
As far as I can remember, the Sega Game Gear was the first handheld console that was seriously perched to take Nintendo’s crown. Not only did it have the better system specs over the Game Boy, it had the full first party backing of Sega, which had found a valuable mascot in Sonic the Hedgehog. In fact, Sega included a copy of the Game Gear version of Sonic the Hedgehog with each Game Gear to show front and center just what the Game Gear could do graphically. I have to admit, having seen the system in action myself back in the day, it was surely capable of producing the amazing graphics that I had seen Genesis games produce. However, the Sonic the Hedgehog game Sega included with the Game Gear was not a port of the original, and the biggest thing I remember from that game was how frustrating it was that I was unable beat the game’s first boss!
While the Game Gear had impressive features, looking back on it there was a lot that was wrong with the system. I can’t remember the Game Gear ever getting a library of games that was able to compete with Nintendo’s Game Boy. In fact, the only other game my sister purchased for the system back in its heyday was a port of NHL Hockey, which to this day remains the only sports game I was able to score a goal in. While by all intents and purposes, Sega had made a superior system over the Game Boy, better technology is not always what wins a console war, and while Sega had succeeded in making a more advanced portable system, they had neglected one of the major concerns about portable electronic devices, battery life.
I think many people can remember how bad it was in the early 90s when it came to power consumption. This was just as high drain devices like CD-players had started to hit the market, so many people were aware that a pack of AA-batteries wouldn’t last more than a couple of hours of regular use. However, for a portable game system like the Game Gear, being a high-drain device that was competing against a much more power efficient system like the Game Boy was a huge black mark. The whole idea for a portable device is that people intend to use them on the go, and if your device is unable to withstand the duration of a long road trip, gamers are going to grab something else to play that will.
In the end, Sega could not compete with Nintendo’s Game Boy, and the Game Boy took the first handheld gaming crown, with the Game Gear taking a far second. In fact, the Game Boy was so competitive in its market, Nintendo continued to support the device for years as other handhelds tried to take its crown, but that’s a story for another time.
Nintendo 3DS StreetPass Discussion August 4, 2013
Posted by Maniac in Mind of Maniac, Site Videos.1 comment so far
In this unscripted video, Maniac talks about his favorite feature of the Nintendo 3DS, StreetPass. StreetPass is an integrated 3DS-exclusive feature which is built into every version of the Nintendo handheld. It allows you to pick up the Miis of other 3DS owners and use them in some exclusive games.
In the latest Mind of Maniac video for GameXcess.net, Maniac is going to talk about the ways to get the best use out of StreetPass. He also talks about StreetPass’s strengths and limitations, and the new features Nintendo has promised for it,
Four Ways to Improve the Nintendo Virtual Console August 2, 2013
Posted by Maniac in Editorials.add a comment
Part of the reason I decided to purchase a Nintendo Wii during its heyday was not just because of its unique control system or retail game library, it was the Virtual Console service. Nintendo’s Virtual Console service gave Wii owners the chance to replay the games of our childhood, or play games we missed out on the first time around when they released on their original consoles. I had to give up my original NES and its games under duress years earlier, and I wasn’t fortunate enough to be able to pick up a Super Nintendo or Nintendo 64 back in the day, The Virtual Console gave me the best option to make up for all that lost time.
The Virtual Console service offers classic games from the NES, Super NES, N64, and Genesis consoles, as well as a few others. All you needed was internet access and a credit or prepaid card and you could download whatever game the service offered to keep on your console forever. The cost of the game depended on which platform the game was made for. I can tell you the first games I downloaded to my Wii after installing it included the NES games Super Mario Bros and Super Mario Bros 3, These were the staple classics I had to give away so many years earlier. Almost immediately I downloaded other NES games that had been recommended to me over the years which I had missed out on including The Legend of Zelda and Metroid. The first games I downloaded from a console I never owned were the two games I would always play when I was over my friend El Train’s house, Crusin’ USA and Starfox 64.
Now, Nintendo has included Virtual Console support with all their new console and handheld systems, bringing the classic games that people have been talking about for twenty years back so the newer generation (and the people of my generation that missed out the first time) can have the chance to play these classic games legitimately on Nintendo’s newest hardware. They also expanded greatly on the list of platforms that the new consoles could support. In fact, the Nintendo 3DS could offer Game Boy and Game Boy Color games for purchase. For the first time in twenty years, Game Boy games like Super Mario Land, Tetris and Metroid 2 were available to me. On top of that, Nintendo improved the features from the Wii’s Virtual Console. You could finally keep a save state of your game, allowing you to play through a game at your own leisure, or to go back without losing your progress if you failed a difficult section. I picked them up almost immediately, and I noticed they looked a hell of a lot better than they did on my original model Game Boy.
Recently, Nintendo has expanded Virtual Console support for the Wii U, and has offered many titles they originally offered on the Wii, as well as some exclusives, added the 3DS’s ability to keep a save state of your progress. and brought new features like the ability to play the entire game on the Wii U controller. Currently the Wii U’s Virtual Console only supports NES, Super NES and Game Boy Advance games, but that’s a good start. Anyone who purchased the game originally on their Wii can upgrade their game for the Wii U at a heavily discounted price, as long as they performed a system transfer of all their Wii content to the Wii U.
In the interim, Nintendo launched a dynamite Virtual Console promotion. To promote the Wii U’s Virtual Console, Nintendo launched the Famicom 30th Anniversary Sale, where a different game was released to the Virtual Console each month for only thirty cents US. This was a genius move, as it put these games to a competitive price point with mobile games, another kind of downloadable medium. They only put six specific games through the program, but the fact that they were released so cheap practically made it an obligation for me to buy them, even if I wasn’t normally interested in playing them.
More recently, Nintendo released what was likely its most requested game exclusively to the Wii U’s Virtual Console, EarthBound. I have no idea if the release of EarthBound actually made the Wii U sell systems, but I can say that the rerelease of the game made many players happy. People like Roo from Clan of the Gray Wolf and The Happy Video Game Nerd have been talking about this game for years, and Nintendo acted on the fan desire for the game with the hope it would sell the console.
Nintendo has hit a bit of a slump. The Wii U is not selling the amount of systems that it should be. The console itself is brilliant and has a very interesting, the problem is that almost a year after its release it doesn’t have a huge library of solid titles exclusive to the platform, and we won’t see many of the most anticipated ones until at least 2014. The fact that Nintendo was willing to finally release EarthBound after nearly twenty years of ignoring it shows that they are open to using the Virtual Console service to sell the Wii U. However, if they plan to expand on the Virtual Console to exploit it to its fullest potential, I have a few tips for them on how to improve the service to make it the best it can be.
First off, Nintendo should expand their Famicom 30th Anniversary 30 cent promotion. It was a fantastic promotion which many who have purchased Wii Us have taken advantage of, and it should be continued. I know Nintendo announced that only six games would be released over the course of six months which would be reduced in price for the promotion, but it would be phenomenal if Nintendo saw the fan support they were having with the thirty cent promotion and continued the promotion with a new set of games each month until at least the end of the year! In fact, the promotion is already being copied by Microsoft, who is offering free downloads of a new Xbox 360 game twice each month to Xbox Live Gold subscribers. The beauty part is that unlike Playstation Plus users who have access to free games on the PS3, anyone who downloads a Games With Gold promotional game for free or a reduced price Famicom 30th Anniversary game can keep it forever.
The second thing they need to do is release titles on a more frequent basis. There were hundreds of games released for the NES and Super Nintendo alone, and many of them have been considered some of the finest games ever made to this day. Currently, Nintendo is only releasing about one new game a week to the Wii U, and while they have a decent smattering of titles up right now, they have nowhere near the amount of titles they should to have a competitive market. Right now, the Wii U’s Virtual Console is nowhere near as much of a library as the Wii does, which kind of makes a player think twice about upgrading their console. One new title a week is not fast enough for the Virtual Console. It would take half a dozen titles a week in order for the Wii U to quickly fill up the Virtual Console library with a library of titles all the players can enjoy. Hopefully Nintendo can automate some way to convert their titles to the Wii U to speed up this process, and trust me if they can, it would be very welcome. Heck, right now The Legend of Zelda, Super Mario Bros and Super Mario Bros 3, three of the NES’s best titles, aren’t even up on the Wii U Virtual Console yet.
Also, we haven’t seen any Game Boy Advance (GBA) games yet for the service, even though GBA is supported by the Wii U, Officially, Nintendo hasn’t offered any platform for GBA Virtual Console games, even though some GBA titles were given to 3DS players during the Ambassador Program. The Wii U Controller’s screen and button placement would translate really well to GBA games. The fact that the Wii U Controller’s screen is backlit and can be seen in the dark is a huge improvement over the original model Game Boy Advance, which had no backlighting and was hard to see. I’ve been hoping they would use this feature to release Metroid Fusion and Metroid Zero Hour, and I’m sure there are some other GBA players who would like to see some of the Pokémon games or remakes which were released to the GBA get ported as well. It may be difficult for Nintendo to port over all of the GBA’s features like GameCube or multiplayer support, but it would be a worthwhile investment for players to get to play some great Game Boy Advance exclusive titles.
Finally, Nintendo really needs to find a way to make the service work for GameCube games, or at the very least update the Wii U with GameCube backwards compatibility. GameCube discs are no longer in print, and stores like GameStop have discontinued trading them. Decent unopened copies of new GameCube games, especially those from Nintendo’s staple properties are very expensive and hard to come by, but plenty of people still have GameCube discs on their shelves collecting dust. I don’t know if the best route to handle this is to bring GameCube compatibility with a patch or offer GameCube games for the Virtual Console, but I am open to either possibility. It would be great to be able to play GameCube games on the Wii U Controller. Even if they must remake every one of their GameCube games like they are doing with Legend of Zelda: The Wind Waker HD, perhaps a better way to release these ports would be through digital distribution over retail. The GameCube’s optical discs were much smaller than a typical DVD game of that era, and would be able to fit in a Wii U’s internal storage without needing extra memory. I can’t tell you how many people would love a shot to download GameCube classics like Luigi’s Mansion, Mario Kart Double Dash, Super Smash Bros Melee, Eternal Darkness: Sanity’s Requiem, and even Super Mario Sunshine!
When one opportunity closes its door, another one may open up a window. For Nintendo, it may be the Virtual Console service. If Nintendo expands their service and offers a wide enough range of classic downloadable titles from their thirty year back catalog of games they stand to make a killing, and expand their sales for the Wii U. As I said earlier, part of the reason why I picked up Nintendo’s consoles was the fact that they offered their customers the chance to revisit the classic games of their childhoods, and that was not something I could pass up. I know there are a lot of players online who wish to play many of the games they missed out on, and some that they remember fondly but can’t play any longer.
Where Will Luigi Fall Asleep? Part 1 August 1, 2013
Posted by Maniac in Game News.add a comment
I have to admit, one of my guilty pleasures is to watch some of Nintendo’s earlier advertising campaigns for some of their classic games, and it looks like Nintendo is stepping into that mindset once again to promote their newest Mario and Luigi game! In the first of a three part series Nintendo has produced to promote the release of Mario & Luigi Dream Team, Nintendo shows just what happens when the Mario Brothers get ready to go to bed while on vacation on an exotic tropical island. Pay really close attention, because the video includes details on how to enter into the latest official Nintendo contest for a brand-new Nintendo 3DS XL.
UPDATE: Here’s Part 2. Seriously, this video looks exactly like what happens when my father and uncle go on vacation.
Mario & Luigi Dream Team is coming August 11th, 2013 exclusive to the Nintendo 3DS.
inFAMOUS Second Son Developer Diary: Smoke and Mirrors August 1, 2013
Posted by Maniac in Game News.add a comment
The latest Developer Diary from Sucker Punch Studios has just been released. Their next title, inFAMOUS: Second Son, is the third game in the inFAMOUS series and the first game in the series to come out for the Playstation 4.
In this new dev diary, Sucker Punch talks about all the new capabilities they have by developing on the Playstation 4’s hardware. The game’s new hero starts off with the ability to manipulate smoke, but like Peter Petrelli, will be able to absorb the powers of other super-powered beings he comes in contact with. So basically, we’ll be controlling the most powerful human being EVER In this video game.
Take a look for yourselves at what the power of the PS4 can bring.
inFAMOUS: Second Son is coming Q1 2014 exclusive to the Playstation 4.
rain Developer Diary 1: The World of rain August 1, 2013
Posted by Maniac in Game News.add a comment
There is no single downloadable title coming out for any platform that has me interested more than rain for the Playstation 3. Developed by Sony Japan Studio, rain tells a story about a small boy searching out an invisible girl during a major downpour. As he seeks her out, he becomes invisible himself, and must contend against this new world he has found himself in.
Sony has just released the first developer diary for the game, where the game’s creators talk about the world they are trying to create for us. If you ask me, I think the game’s art style and music speak for themselves.
rain is coming Fall 2013 exclusive to the PS3.
Crackdown Now Free on Xbox Live August 1, 2013
Posted by Maniac in Game News.add a comment
Crackdown was a bit of an interesting beast. It was published by Microsoft and released shortly before Halo 3. The game was an open world simulator where you play as a physically augmented officer tasked with keeping the peace. It’s call to fame was that anyone who purchased the full priced game at retail would be allowed access to Halo 3’s exclusive multiplayer beta test, and get the chance to play Halo 3’s new multiplayer maps before anyone else did.
However, the reviewers and critics who did purchase the game for Halo 3’s beta found themselves with a bit of an additive game, which while flawed, still accumulated to a lot of wasted hours messing around in an open world environment, collecting secrets and
I never got the chance to play Crackdown when it came out at retail. I was able to get early beta access to Halo 3 through a promotion on Bungie’s website. Now it looks like I, and other Xbox Live Gold Members, will be able to get the chance to play Crackdown free of charge.
Starting today and ending on the 16th, current Xbox Live Gold members can download Crackdown for free through Microsoft’s Games With Gold promotion. Just click on the Games With Gold box from the Xbox 360’s dashboard after you log into your Live profile. The game is over six and a half gigabytes, so make sure you have the space freed up in your storage device. If you’re a gold subscriber, you have no reason to delay!
Starting on the 16th, a new game will be made free of charge. Microsoft has already teased that the downloadable version of Halo 3 will be made free this promotion, but have not listed when they will make it free yet.
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