The Last of Us Music Video January 1, 2014

There was no game score more distinctive this year than the score for Sony’s PS3 exclusive Game of the Year contender The Last of Us.  To celebrate the end of the year and possibly to promote the game’s upcoming single player expansion that was teased during the Playstation 4 launch event, Sony released a music video featuring the game’s distinctive main theme.

Whether you played the game or haven’t, here’s a little jingle to ring in the new year.

The Last of Us is out now exclusive to the Playstation 3.

Sleeping Dogs Free Through Games With Gold January 1, 2014

Happy New Year from GameXcess.net.  To kick off the month of January, Microsoft and Eidos Interactive have partnered up to make two of their classic games free this month.  Starting today, Sleeping Dogs, a highly well received open world action game, will be free thanks to the Games With Gold Promotion.

All Xbox Live Gold Members who have valid gold accounts between now and the 15th of this month will be able to download Sleeping Dogs for free through the Xbox Live Marketplace.  You should be able to find it easily enough through the Xbox 360 Dashboard, but if not you can just do a search for it.  Eidos has also discounted some of the game’s DLC by as much as 50% while this promotion is going on, but some of the game’s DLC is free so be sure to check that after downloading the game.

As always with Games With Gold, all games downloaded through the service remain tied to your Xbox Live account forever, even if your Xbox Live Gold account expires.  If you happen to delete the game for whatever reason, you will also have no issue redownloading it through the Xbox 360’s download history.  Just check your Xbox Live account details for more information.

Sleeping Dogs will only be free with Gold until the 15th of this month.  Starting on the 16th of January, Lara Croft and the Guardian of Light (for Xbox Live Arcade) will be free with the Games With Gold Promotion until the end of the month.  You must have a valid Xbox Live Gold account during the duration of the promotion to participate.

Nintendo eShop Back Online December 29, 2013

After four days of being completely non functional, Nintendo has restored the Nintendo eShop on all of their supported platforms, including the Wii U and 3DS.  You should be able to access the eShop from your console to purchase and download digital games, or redeem download codes for any of the store’s content, or stream supported videos.

After doing my own experimentation with the restored shop I noticed it isn’t perfect.  It did take a bit longer than usual to log into the shop from my Wii U, and the first time I tried to patch my new copy of The Wonderful 101 failed, but succeeded on my second attempt.  However, as the day has gone on, performance in the shop has improved and I have been able to successfully browse the store’s content and stream several videos without issue.

Pokemon Bank Launch Delayed December 26, 2013

Due to the issues we are currently having with the Nintendo eShop for the past two days, Nintendo has officially announced they are delaying the launch of the highly anticipated Pokémon Bank service until their network issues have been rectified.  Pokémon Bank was expected to launch on December 27th, 2013, tomorrow.  Since Nintendo’s eShop is not currently functional, anyone who would want to download it if it launched tomorrow would not be able to.

When launched, Pokémon Bank will allow users to transfer and store Pokémon obtained from the fifth and sixth generation Pokémon games to Nintendo’s cloud servers so they can be used in later games for a yearly fee.  You can read all the details about the service here.

No word was given when we can expect the Pokémon Bank to launch or when Nintendo Network will be back up to full capacity.  Nintendo has made it clear they are still working on the issue and hope to have the service back up and running as soon as they are able to.  We will keep you posted as this story develops.

Nintendo eShop is Down December 26, 2013

Since yesterday, I have been unable to log into the Nintendo eShop from either my 3DS or Wii U, and I have been reading reports coming in from all over the internet from tons of users who are having the same issue.  No, your brand new Nintendo Wii U and 3DS systems are not broken, the Nintendo eShop has been completely down since Christmas Day.

Normally having a digital marketplace down for a short period of time would not be much of an issue, except the way Nintendo has designed their consoles around this digital marketplace has made the issue all the more problematic.  Nintendo chose to bundle some of the games they are including with new hardware as digital download codes instead of physical copies.  Because the eShop is not functional, these downloadable game codes cannot be redeemed or downloaded until this issue is resolved, meaning many users may have nothing to play on their new systems for the time being.  Also some Nintendo 3DS games (like Mario Kart 7) have patched their retail versions (like the recent 1.2 patch for Pokémon X and Y), and these patches can only be obtained by downloading it through the eShop, they’re not installed automatically upon booting their games.  This wouldn’t normally be much of an issue, but some of these patches are required downloads for online play.  Anyone who hasn’t downloaded these patches before the eShop went down may not be able to access multiplayer in a game that would otherwise support it until the eShop comes back online.

Nintendo has released a statement that they are investigating the issue and for the time being they are pulling the Pokémon Bank app from the Japanese eShop.   I have also heard reports that Nintendo Network has been unable to allow new account creation for the time being, but I have not been able to confirm this independently.  Other Nintendo Network features such as Miiverse seem to be working fine on either supported platform for anyone able to log in.

We will keep you up to date on this story as it develops.

UPDATE (12/29/13):  After four days, Nintendo has reactivated the Nintendo eShop.

Mario Warfare Part 6 December 20, 2013

The sixth episode of Mario Warfare, the parody series from Beatdown Boogie which examines what would happen if the trials and tribulations of the Mushroom Kingdom was a bit more realistic, has been released.  In this latest episode, we take a look at just what some of Nintendo’s most popular characters do when placed in a realistic combat envroment.  Sound unbelievable?  Honestly, you have to take a look at it for yourselves.

Did I just see a Pikachu go on a killing spree in a warzone?

Chibi-Robo! Photo Finder Trailer December 18, 2013

I have to admit every once in a while I’m charmed by some of the odder games to come out of Japan and Chibi-Robo! Photo Finder certainly fits that bill.  In this game for the Nintendo 3DS you take control of a robot who needs to find specific items in the real world to add as displays for a new museum.  The only hint you’ll have is the vague outline of the object requested.

Chibi-Robo! Photo Finder is coming January 9th, 2014 exclusive to the Nintendo 3DS through the Nintendo eShop.

Bravely Default Demo Trailer December 18, 2013

A lot of classic RPG enthusiasts have been looking forward to the 3DS game Bravely Default to scratch the itch that the recent Final Fantasy games have not been able to subdue.  Now, Nintendo has announced in their recent Nintendo Direct that they plan to release a Bravely Default demo in advance of the release of the full version of the game.

The biggest reveal about this announcement is that the Bravely Default demo will NOT be an adaptation from a scene from the game, and instead be a separate side story not included with the full version of the game.  However, loot and other items you pick up during the demo can carry over to the full version of the game when it’s released.  Let’s take a look.

Bravely Default will release February 7th, 2014 exclusively to the Nintendo 3DS.  The demo will launch on the Nintendo eShop over a month earlier on January 2nd, 2014.

Mario Kart 8 Airport Trailer December 18, 2013

The latest trailer for Mario Kart 8 was released today with the latest Nintendo Direct.  Here’s a closer look at it.

The new airport race track looks amazing!  When I first saw it, it reminded me of the game Aeroporter for the 3DS.  But on top of showing this new track to race on, this trailer seems to confirm that Baby Peach, Baby Luigi, Baby Mario and Baby Daisy will be playable drivers on top of the already announced staple drivers of the series including Peach, Mario, Wario, Donkey Kong, Waluigi, and Luigi.

If you would like to check out our preview of the game from E3 2013, you can check it out here.

Mario Kart 8 is coming in 2014 exclusive to the Wii U.

Nintendo Direct 12/18/13 December 18, 2013

Just in time for the holiday season, Nintendo has released their latest promotional video directly to us.  In it, the head honchos at Nintendo provide a lot of information about some upcoming unannounced games for the Nintendo 3DS and Wii U, more information on games that have already been announced, and show some surprises that even I wasn’t expecting.  If you wanted to know what was next for Nintendo, you need to watch this video.

Expect more detailed analysis of a lot of this content throughout the day.  Until then, check this out.