Collector’s Operation Rainfall Wii RPG Coin Set Offered by Club Nintendo Europe. Register Xenoblade Chronicles, Pandora’s Tower and The Last Story

This amazing Coin Set can be yours for registering Pandora's Tower, The Last Story and Xenoblade Chronicles for Wii.

Club Nintendo Europe is offering a Limited Collector’s Wii RPG Coin Set featuring Xenoblade Chronicles, The Last Story and Pandora’s Tower for anyone who registers all three of the hit Operation Rainfall RPGs via Club Nintendo’s European website!

THOSE BASTARDS!

This Coin Set is the absolute cherry on top of the cake for Operation Rainfall members and Wii RPG fans who live overseas. Sadly it is unknown (and some would say very unlikely) that Nintendo of America will be offering this absolutely amazing coin set in the USA. That’s because Pandora’s Tower has not even been confirmed for American release yet! But one can hope… And pray. And write. And DEMAND! (see end of story below)

In order to qualify for this set, you must be a PAL region Club Nintendo member and you must have bought all three game’s new, you’ll then need to register them using the Club Nintendo code that is included with each new game. It doesn’t matter if you bought the standard or Limited Edition of the RPGs, either will work fine for registration. Once all three have been registered, you should get a message on the Club Nintendo site telling you of the new exclusive offer. The Coins in the set feature logos of all three titles along with emblems representing them, one on each side of the coin.

Keep in mind that this Three Wii RPG Coin Set is LIMITED and will only be in stock while supplies last, so ACT NOW!

Operation Rainfall is still going in America for Pandora's Tower. Demand Nintendo of America release this ---great Wii RPG!

In Pandora’s Tower you take on the role of Aeron, as he battles to save his beloved friend Elena from a mysterious curse that is gradually transforming her into a demonic creature. Only by battling through the towers of a nearby fortress can Aeron rescue Elena from her gruesome fate. Featuring multiple possible endings and a New Game+ mode, Pandora’s Tower contains hours of entertainment and great replay value.

While you explore thirteen challenging towers on a mission to save Elena, you will enjoy a powerful soundtrack consisting of some of the most popular classical music in the world, including composers such as Verdi and Tchaikovsky. Every decision you make will affect your ultimate success. The choice is yours.

Here is a trailer for Pandora’s Tower! Please be sure to call and write Nintendo of America to DEMAND that they release the game here! Especially do the demanding today, Friday the 13th, as today is an activist day where all Operation Rainfall members are being encouraged to contact Nintendo of America today, so that they get a huge influx of letters, calls, etc. all at the same time from people demanding that they release Pandora’s Tower in North America. DOOOO ITTTT CHUCKY DOOO ITTT (Rugrats reference… ahem)

And remember to keep staying plugged in to the Operation Rainfall Facebook and the Operation Rainfall website! This will help you stay informed and stay ontop of the latest news concerning videogames that deserve the attention and activism!

 

Skyrim For Real – Live Action Music Video Is Breathtaking! One Voice, One Violin – Lindsey Stirling, Peter Hollens

Absolutely Dropdead Gorgeous Girl. She kills with a violin!

One Voice, One Violin’s Skyrim music video (duo of Lindsey Stirling and Peter Hollens) is absolutely mind-blowing and will put a gigantic smile on the face of anyone who watches it, cold-hearted hater of fantasy or Skyrim RPG junkie with no life, all will bow to the incredible power of this unbelievable video. You can even purchase this awesome Skyrim Main Theme Lindsey Sterling & Peter Hollens Song on iTunes for only $1.30! BUY IT!

Both of the cast of characters in this video; the incredibly sweet, cute-as-a-button, violin-master Lindsey Stirling and the man’s man, loincloth-bearing, voice-of-a-giant, Dragon-speaking bastard that is Peter Hollens (envious of this guy… :P) put on a show of absolutely epic proportions, with music that is of angels; and have given the world an incredible remastering of the Skyrim themesong composed by Jeremy Soule, from the epic RPG videogame that has engulfed anyone who has touched it (available for PC, Xbox 360 or PS3 from Bethesda Game Studios).

Lindsey vs Peter, Sword vs Violin Bow! FIGHT!

Unbelievably, the bear-of-a-man explorer named Peter used over 120 overlayings of his vocal tracks to create the incredible voices you hear throughout this piece, and of course the incredible violin playing of Lindsey (who’s drop-dead sexy performance on a violin will make all men rush out and exclusively date violin players) will bring you to your knees in spellbound amazement. Topping off this cake of the Heaven’s is cinematography that would make The Lord of the Ring’s film director Peter Jackson stand up and cheer.

Add in first-person videogame viewpoints, INCREDIBLE special effects of Lindsey and Peter shooting spells at each other ripped right out of a videogame, and a Violin bowstring vs sword battle between Peter and Lindsey, and you can easily see why this amazing video has over two million and a half views!

Even after seeing it multiple times, it still gives me chills. Absolutely completely utterly BEAUTIFUL. Do yourself a favor and give this masterpiece video a watch!

Then subscribe to Lindsey Stirling’s LindseyStomp channel and Peter Hollen’s Channel! Devin Graham is the man behind the amazing cinematography, and Warialiasky’s provided the special effects.

 

Watch Me Play: Elite Beat Agents Let’s Play (DS)

Watch Me Play: Elite Beat Agents! (DS)

Watch Me Play Elite Beat Agents! In this new Let’s Play, I bust out the good ol’ DS rhythm action game from Nintendo and Inus, which was one of the biggest breakout music games for Nintendo’s last-gen powerhouse portable.

It’s easy to see why once you see the game in action, it’s challenging, easy to grasp (once you get the hang of it) and extremely, extremely challenging on later stages. It’s also really funny, well-written, unique and fast-paced with an outstanding soundtrack, cookey characters and an energy that sucks you into rhythm heaven (pun-intended). It is quite simply one of the straight-up funnest, funniest and highest rated games on the DS. If you haven’t played it yourself, you owe it to yourself to pick it up!

Table of Contents

• Part 0: My Highscores
• Part 1: Walkie Talkie Man: Love, Heartbreak, Boyfriends
• Part 2: Taxi, Painter, Movie Director

Part 0: My Highscores

 

Project X Zone Revealed As Joint Sega-Namco-Capcom Strategy RPG for 3DS

A look at the character you can expect in Namco+Capcom+Sega's 3DS Project X Zone strategy RPG

A while back, a joint-project rocked the videogame world, when it was revealed that Namco, Capcom and Sega were working on an exclusive 3DS title! As the line-up of developers is unlike any collaboration ever seen before, players were suitably excited.

However, there had previously been a somewhat similar game called Namco x Capcom (pronounced Namco Cross Capcom) which was a strategy RPG for the PlayStation 2 that mixed odd characters from the many popular series of both publishers. Sadly, that game was so obscure that it never recieved a Western localization (yet).

Now what many players feared has come to pass. It turns out that “Project X Zone” (final name apparently), the joint project between Sega, Capcom and Namco, is INDEED a spiritual sequel of sorts to the Japan-only “Namco x Capcom”. And like that game, this one too is a Strategy RPG ala Disgaea or Final Fantasy Tactics. Sadly, this means that we MAY never see Project X Zone released in the West. Although since it is a 3DS game, and Nintendo is trying its damndest to get as many 3DS titles released as possible, and given that this game comes in the wake of the localization of extremely Japanese titles like Tatsunoko vs Capcom and Pokemon Conquest, games never-before expected to come stateside, then one can hope that we’ll also get this new game regardless of how niche it is.

Project X Zone includes many obscure characters that American gamers are most-likely not familiar with, which is one of the problems with localizing a game like this. Although an argument can be made that Western gamers are more familiar with Japanese characters than ever before thanks to the popularity of Japanese anime and manga worldwide and the fans that live and breath it, and many who import or play online versions of Japanese games.

 

Way of the Samurai 4 Coming to America

Way of the Samurai 4 is coming to America for the PSN exclusively for PS3 thanks to Xseed Games!

Xseed Games has done fans a service and picked up Way of the Samurai 4 for PS3, which they will localize and publish in North America to give fans an English localization of the latest in the action adventure series.

Way of the Samurai 4 will be published by Xseed exclusively for the PlayStation Network, instead of as a standalone disc.

You gotta love the fact that digital services like the PSN make it possible for a company like Xseed to localize a game like Way of the Samurai 4, as it costs them much less to do so and then release the game digitally than to have to have the game discs pressed and shipped to stores physically. Hopefully this kind of trend will continue thanks to the digital storefronts for each system, allowing us to get many Japanese titles that wouldn’t otherwise be localized.

I’ve never played the Way of the Samurai series, although I do own the first game for PlayStation 2… I’ll play it one of these days.

Way of the Samurai 4 sees players taking on the role of a Samurai without a Master during the time when the Land of the Rising Sun (that’s Japan) first allowed foreign trade into the country.

Players will be able to customize their character and can join one of three different factions: Prajna (who are isolationists and want nothing to do with the outside world, the Ron Paul supporters of ancient Japan), the Shogunate and an all-new faction made up of supporters of the foreigners and the goods they bring to the nation.

Here is a gameplay video of Way of the Samurai 4 (the Japanese version) in action.

 

God of War 8bit Released For Free As Bit Of War Demake

The God of War 8bit logo for "Bit of War". A free fanmade demake!

“Bit Of War” is the name of an 8bit version of God of War! This labor of love was FIVE YEARS in the making and attempts to bring the famous violent action series into the world if 8bits!

This is not the first time that a popular videogame franchise has gotten the “Demake” treatment (the term coined for turning back the wheels of time on a series to make it out as a version created using inferior hardware like that of the 8 or 16bit systems of yesteryear) but certainly this is one of the largest projects that Demakers have ever produced.

The game was developed by Holmade Games and is a free title, unlike some of their other projects, which include games like PixelWhirled and Hurdle Turtle, which are available on platforms like Xbox 360 Marketplace Indie Games and on the App Store.

8bit God of War Screenshot of the free fanmade demake "Bit of War"

Those other games are relatively simple and don’t use an existing license (which is why this game is free), Bit of War is also a game in which they spent a much longer amount of time developing to ensure it was a fully-fledged project, much more than is typical for these types of Demakes (although they often do end up taking over a year to develop). And of course, Bit of War gives fans 8bit infused versions of the beloved tunes from Kratos’ console and handheld adventures, as well as all of the violent action and titanic bosses they crave, shrunken down to cute pixelated, huggable versions!

Here is what Bit of War looks like in action!

And here is a trailer for the God of War demake, “Bit of War”.

Be sure to download God of War 8bit for free and let me know what you think of Bit of War!

 

Kid Icarus: Uprising Wii U Possible? Wii Footage Shown From Prototype Video!

This is what Wii Kid Icarus: Uprising looked like from prototype footage on the PC and Wii before Sora got 3DS development kits!

Kid Icarus: Uprising began its 3DS development life on the PC and the Wii, according to all-new Kid Icarus: Uprising prototype footage of the title and as revealed by producer Masahiro Sakurai.

Be sure to check out my Through A Virgin’s Eyes Kid Icarus: Uprising Let’s Play series!

Sakurai, the creator of Kirby and producer of Super Smash Bros. Brawl, said that work began on Kid Icarus: Uprising before his development team at Sora even had a 3DS Development Kit. Because of that fact, they had to start development on a PC (where most games begin development, actually) and even on the Wii; before the development was moved to a 3DS Development Kit later on. So it was on the PC and Wii that they came up with the core mechanics of the Air Battle and Land Battle gameplay that would end up in the final 3DS version. Of course, using the Wii Remote pointer is somewhat similar to the stylus on the 3DS touchscreen, so this probably gave the team a useful simulation early on, and allowed them to further work on creating the game’s mechanics and design even before they could try it out on the 3DS itself.

As a result, this video shows as close to a Wii Kid Icarus game as we may ever get! Although, one would be shocked if the highly successful series (assuming sales of Kid Icarus: Uprising are steller, which they seem like they will be) didn’t eventually makes its way to the Wii U. Of course a Kid Icarus: Uprising Wii U entry is probably a ways off, as Sakurai’s next task, now that Kid Icarus: Uprising on 3DS is complete, it so move onto to developing Super Smash Bros. for Wii U and 3DS!

Here is what Kid Icarus: Uprising on the Wii looked like in this new video.

From this Air Battle video you can easily imagine playing the game with the Wii Pointer, although I am not sure if it would work better than the controls on the 3DS. In an Iwata Asks Kid Icarus: Uprising interview regarding Kid Icarus: Uprising, Sakurai discussed this by saying:

“At first we didn’t have the Nintendo 3DS development kit, so we started making it on a PC. Oh, and for a while we were using a Wii to make it!”

Here is what Land Battles looked like in Kid Icarus: Uprising Wii, in this prototype video.

Very, VERY interesting! It’ll be just as interesting to see what Nintendo does with the series now that Kid Icarus: Uprising seems to be such a critical and commercial success.

Did you buy the game?

 

The 3DS Celebrates 1-Year Of Existence. Happy bday 3DS!

Happy bday to the 3DS! The kids all love you once more!

It has been a whole year since the Nintendo 3DS first landed on store shelves, hitting on March 27th, 2012 in North America. It was released in Japan on =February 26, 2011, in Europe on March 25, 2011 and in Australia on March 31, 2011.

The system launched with a pretty lackluster series of launch titles, and then had a huge lack of popular titles following it. The 3DS came out with the following games released on day-1: Ridge Racer 3D, Bust-A-Move Universe, Rayman 3D, Asphalt 3D, Tom Clancy’s Ghost Recon: Shadow Wars, Super Street Fighter IV 3D Edition, Lego Star Wars III: The Clone Wars, Nintendogs + Cats, Super Monkey Ball 3D, Pilotwings Resort, Madden Football, Pro Evolution Soccer 2011 3D, The Sims 3 and Steel Diver. As you can see, that’s not exactly the greatest line-up ever, with most of the games being ports or having “3D” tagged onto the end of their title. Additionally, Nintendo-published games like Steel Diver, Pilotwings Resort and Nintendogs+Cats are a far cry from Metroid, Mario, Zelda or Donkey Kong; games fans expected to see from a Nintendo launch.

Due in very large part to these launch games, the state of the Nintendo 3DS has been quite tumultuous of the past year, especially during the first few months of the systems life, and at a time before the game had any real AAA big games, and before the eShop had yet to be released.

This was also a period where the 3DS was priced at what many considered to be a much-too-expensive pricepoint of $250. That price is what really made the 3DS stumble, and sales were lackluster enough to cause huge alarm at Nintendo and enough for people to speculate that the 3DS had bombed and whether it would die a quick death. This despite the fact that the 3DS had sold just under half a million units on launch day (making it the best launch ever for a Nintendo handheld) and another 440,000 within the first week. However, Nintendo had expected to sell over 4 million 3DS units by March of 2011 and it came in under that at around 3.61 million.

The 3DS blew-up in the wake of the $170 pricecut (from $250) and the release of Super Mario 3D Land, Zelda: Ocarina of Time 3D, Star Fox 64 3D & Mario Kart 7

Thankfully Nintendo came to their senses and within five months they announced a massive pricedrop for the system, slashing its price in half to a much-more-reasonable pricepoint of $170 worldwide.

To make amends, Nintendo then gave 20 free games to those who had bought the system at fullprice before the pricecut (they called these early adopters “Nintendo 3DS Ambassadors”) in the form of 10 NES titles (Super Mario Bros., Donkey Kong Jr., Balloon Fight, Ice Climber, The Legend of Zelda, Metroid, NES Open Tournament Golf, Wrecking Crew, Zelda II: The Adventure of Link, Yoshi) and 10 EXCLUSIVE Game Boy Advance games (F-Zero: Maximum Velocity, Super Mario Advance 3: Yoshi’s Island, The Legend of Zelda: The Minish Cap, Fire Emblem: The Sacred Stones, Kirby & The Amazing Mirror, Mario Kart: Super Circuit, Mario vs. Donkey Kong, Metroid Fusion, Wario Land 4, WarioWare, Inc.: Mega Microgames). Nintendo has since released a few of the NES titles (along with non-Ambassador games like Punch-Out!!) to the 3DS eShop for anyone to purchase (for $5) but swears that the GBA titles will remain exclusive to ambassadors. Hopefully Nintendo will re-release those and other GBA titles though, as many of them are beloved.

Resident Evil: Revelations exclusively for 3DS proved the system could hang with the big boys.

Following all of this ruckus, the 3DS came out swinging in the latter months of 2011 after half a year on the marketplace. The first big title hit around August, and from then on we saw a steady stream of great 3DS titles. These games included Resident Evil: The Mercenaries 3D, Star Fox 64 3D, The Legend of Zelda: Ocarina of Time 3D, Dead or Alive Dimensions, Cave Story 3D, Mario Kart 7, Super Mario 3D Land.

The game library for the Nintendo 3DS was further filled out by quality titles like: Tales of the Abyss, Skylanders, Shinobi, Sonic Generations, Shin Megami Tensei: Devil Survivor Overclocked, Pokémon Rumble Blast, LEGO Harry Potter: Years 5-7, Nano Assault, LEGO Pirates of the Caribbean: The Video Game, Harvest Moon: The Tale of Two Towns, BlazBlue: Continuum Shift II, Bit.Trip Saga, Ace Combat: Assault Horizon Legacy, and Pac-Man & Galaga Dimensions, among others.

In addition, the Nintendo eShop has added a number of great original titles that are wholly unique to the 3DS, like Pushmo, Mutant Mudds, VVVVVV, Pokedex 3D, Dillon’s Rolling Western and Mighty Switch Force, among other quality titles.

The shit gets real later this year when Pokemon and Dynasty Warriors collide in tactical RPG Pokemon x Nobunga's Ambition (x stands for "cross")

The Virtual Console for the 3DS further bolstered the amount of quality content in the 3DS library with a number of fantastic Game Boy, NES, and Game Gear games, including The Legend of Zelda: Link’s Awakening, Zelda: Four Swords Anniversary Edition, Metroid 2: Return of Samus, Super Mario Bros., Metroid NES, Kirby’s Dream Land, Super Mario Land, Qix, Game & Watch Gallery 1, Gargoyle’s Quest, Mega Man: Dr. Wiley’s Revenge, Super Mario Land 2: Six Golden Coins, Burger Time Deluxe, Double Dragon, Bionic Commando, Adventure Island, Tetris, Blaster Master: Enemy Below, Punch-Out, Shinobi Game Gear, Sonic the Hedgehog: Triple Trouble Game Gear, Dragon Crystal Game Gear and a number of great games remastered with stereoscopic 3D graphics for the 3D Classics line. These include: 3D Classics: Xevious, 3D Classics: Urban Champion, 3D Classics: Kirby’s Adventure, 3D Classics: Twinbee, 3D Classics: Excitebike, and 3D Classics: Kid Icarus (GameStop-exclusive, Kid Icarus: Uprising pre-order).

The 3DS continues to impress with games like Resident Evil Revelations (and it’s Circle Pad Pro accessory, which gives the system another control stick and more buttons), Kid Icarus: Uprising, Spirit Camera: The Cursed Memoir, Tekken 3D: Prime Edition, and Metal Gear Solid 3D: Snake Eater among others. Later this year we will see the release of long-awaited quality titles like Paper Mario, Professor Layton and the Mask of Miracle, Luigi’s Mansion 2, Monster Hunter Tri G, Kingdom Hearts 3D: Dream Drop Distance, Animal Crossing, Monster Hunter 4, Professor Layton VS Ace Attorney, TheaterRhythm: Final Fantasy, Pokémon + Nobunaga’s Ambition and a number of other bigname titles.

Additionally, the combination of the 3DS price-drop along with system sellers like Super Mario 3D Land and Mario Kart 7 caused the 3DS to reach the 15 million units sold mark, which is quite the feat! Here’s too many more long, happy years of the 3DS!

Have you been satisifed with your Nintendo 3DS?

 

Spirit Camera: The Cursed Memoir Haunting In San Francisco, California. Be there and BE SCARED!

You'll have to use the 16-page physical AR book in combination with the 3DS cameras to make it through this 3DS horror game!

Spirit Camera: The Cursed Memoir is a very unique survival horror game published by Nintendo and developed by Tecmo, from the same team that brought gamers the Fatal Frame series! You heard that right!

Similar but different from that series (it is in fact a Fatal Frame spin-off), Spirit Camera focuses instead on the AR (Augmented Reality) features of the Nintendo 3DS cameras by having players interact with a physical book that the game ships with in order to make it through the adventure. You’ll have to use the book at many spots to proceed, and will see ghostly figures and the like when you view the book through the 3DS cameras!

The event took place yesterday (I mistakingly was thinking it was today… whoops. Oh well) and as soon as I find some footage about how it went, I’ll post it here. The event took place at an “authentic haunted hotel” and was for those 18 and over only, taking place from 10pm until midnight. With “scares, food and beverages” for those who attended, along with the ability to play the game ahead of its official release date on April 13th, 2012.

Here’s a trailer for Spirit Camera, can’t wait to play this!

WHO:
Bay Area video game fans and ghost/paranormal enthusiasts (persons under 18 will not be admitted)

WHEN:
Friday, March 30
Media only: 6:30 – 8:30 p.m.
Open to the public: 9 p.m. – midnight

WHERE:
San Remo Hotel
2237 Mason Street (corner of Water Street)
San Francisco, CA 94133

VISUALS:
Consumers interacting with paranormal characters and spooky elements in a unique haunted hotel setting.
Consumers sampling Spirit Camera: The Cursed Memoir and witnessing eerie phenomena using the augmented-reality features of Nintendo 3DS.

 

Through A Virgin’s Eyes – Kid Icarus: Uprising Let’s Play

Through A Virgin's Eyes - Kid Icarus: Uprising

Let’s Play Kid Icarus: Uprising in the first installment of my “Through A Virgin’s Eyes” series! For my initial installment, Nintendo’s 3DS masterpiece, Kid Icarus: Uprising, is in the spotlight!

Kid Icarus: Uprising is Nintendo’s 2012 revival of a legendary 8bit masterpiece originally released in 1986 for the Nintendo Entertainment System; a game developed by Metroid-creator Gunpei Yokoi!

The game used many of the same elements as Metroid, but Kid Icarus was never nearly as popular as the first great female videogame character Samus Aran’s Metroid adventures. Regardless through Kid Icarus’ and it’s main character, the angel Pit, gained it’s own fan-following and the series got a sequel to the NES game for the Game Boy in 1991 with Kid Icarus: Of Myth and Monsters.

That game built on the original NES titles action, but fans were disappointed when Pit fell off the face of the earth, never to be seen again! He was finally revived by Nintendo with Super Smash Bros. Brawl for the Wii, a fighting game that pit (pun non intended) many of Nintendo’s most-popular characters against each other!

Table of Contents

• Part 1 – How-to Play
• Part 2 – Tutorials
• Part 3 – First Battle (Chapter 1)
• Part 4 – Magnus (Chapter 2)
• Part 5 – Dark Lord Gao (Chapter 3)
• Part 6 – Nice Bosses (Chapter 3)
• Part 7 – Hot Springs (Chapter 4)
• Part 8 – Deceit: Into the Ethereal (Chapter 5)

Through A Virgin’s Eyes – Kid Icarus Let’s Play Part 1 – How-to Play

 

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