Realm Media Networks - Nintendo DS

Nintendo announces Wario, Kirby as part of their fall 2008 lineup

Luke Wallace — Wed, 25 Jun 2008 06:05:22 -0700

Nintendo jumped the gun on the E3 announcements by releasing a little info on some upcoming titles for the Wii and DS. Instead of being lost in the shuffle of E3 2008, they are telling us about their new Wario and Kirby games, along with the previously announced Super Sluggers and a new Mystery Case Files game.

The full press release is available after the jump.

Review: Teenage Zombies: Invasion of the Alien Brain Thingys

Luke Wallace — Tue, 06 May 2008 14:45:52 -0700

Aliens and Zombies have been staple characters in video games almost since they first began. Space Invaders taught us to kill anything we saw that we didn't understand, and countless zombie games like House of the Dead taught us that as long as we didn't know the people before they were zombies, we had no problem shooting them in the face. Zombies and Aliens both appear in the new title Teenage Zombies: Attack of the Alien Brain Thingys (TZ:AotABT) for the Nintendo DS, but you play as a trio of zombies trying to destroy the evil brain... thingys.

Live Streaming April 22, 2008: Teenage Zombies

Luke Wallace — Tue, 22 Apr 2008 10:02:03 -0700

Tonight's live streaming will be an experiment in Nintendo DS videography. We've selected the new title Teenage Zombies: Attack of the Alien Brain Thingys that we recently received for review. We'll be streaming live tonight, Monday, April 14, 2008 from 7-9 PM Central time. We're using the Mogulus service, and an integrated chat room in the embedded player lets you interact with us at anytime while you're watching. The player is embedded below for your convenience.

Before and after the live stream, we'll be looping random Realm Media videos, including game trailers, and some old footage of a guitar hero tournament. Use the "On-Demand" menu to look through all our video offerings, and feel free to live chat with our staff during the broadcast!

And as always, Our live and archived streams will be available at anytime through our stream page.

Combo Review: Bomberman Land Wii vs. Bomberman Land Touch! 2

Luke Wallace — Wed, 27 Feb 2008 10:29:29 -0800

When a game publisher has a popular franchise, they will often coordinate the release of the next installment across multiple platforms. Such is the case with Bomberman Land, which recently saw the release of games for the Wii, DS, and PSP. The games are meant to follow similar story lines, but the controls and game mechanics can be very different. After spending time with both the Wii and DS versions of Bomberman Land, one clearly stood out as more fun, and less frustrating. Even though they both are a collection of mini-games, and both retail for $29.99, one of them is clearly the wiser investment. Want to know which one? Click the "read more" link below for the full review.

Review: DK Jungle Climber

Luke Wallace — Sun, 09 Sep 2007 18:54:19 -0700

The control scheme from DK: King of Swing returns in the sequel, DK Jungle Climber for the Nintendo DS, along with a few new surprises. Besides the obviously new dual-screen action, there are challenge modes, multiplayer minigames, and the addition of Diddy Kong as a sidekick for the entire adventure. Cranky Kong is back to guide you on your journey, and you'll meet friends and enemies along the way. How well does the story hold up, and can the controls provide the precision necessary to make the game fun instead of frustrating? Click "read more" below to read the full review.

Review: Brain Age 2: More Training in Minutes a Day

Luke Wallace — Tue, 04 Sep 2007 07:58:44 -0700

Last year's hit Nintendo DS title Brain Age: Train Your Brain in Minutes a Day received many favorable reviews, and was considered a huge success due to its wide acceptance and low cost to develop. Using the same formula of daily training and brain age checks, Brain Age 2: More Training in Minutes a Day continues the series with some new exercises, but will the changes be good your brain, or bad? Click the Read more link below for the full review.

Ultimate Mortal Kombat will use dual screens to 'compliment' the experience

Luke Wallace — Thu, 26 Jul 2007 12:45:41 -0700

Fans of the Mortal Kombat series are looking forward to the release of Ultimate Mortal Kombat on the Nintendo DS this November, and our network site TRMK has gotten an interview with Producer Hans Lo. In it, he discusses some of the upcoming features, how the game is being ported, and how their planning on using both screens of the ubiquitous Nintendo portable.

TRMK: Are there any plans for uses of the DS's unique features such as "dual screen", touch screen, and/or headset?

Hans Lo: It's about finding what works best and makes sense for the game. It's not our intention to change the way the games are played, but to compliment what is already there. So with that being said, we are looking at some things now that take advantage of the dual screens, and touch screen. We'll keep you guys in the loop as we move forward.

Unfortunately he doesn't mention specifics, but it sounds like the developers are trying to take their time to make the game enjoyable for everyone. It's exciting to read that 3 of the 4 original Mortal Kombat team members are working on this project, hopefully the game will live up to the uber-fan's expectations.

Ultimate Mortal Kombat Developer Interview with Hans Lo

E3 2007: Classic Contra gameplay returns with Contra 4

Luke Wallace — Thu, 19 Jul 2007 20:14:14 -0700

When you talk about classic video games, Contra invariably comes up as one of the original "run-n-gun" titles that everyone enjoyed. It had great controls, a good variety of levels, and required exact timing to complete. Konami recently announced that a new Contra was being released, but only for the Nintendo DS.

The Konami representative I talked to said the idea for a new Contra series came from last years successful release of New Super Mario Bros., in which the classic Mario gameplay was brought back with some updated graphics and a few new surprises. Contra 4 has these same goals, with the biggest change from games in the original series being the use of two screens for gameplay. The addition of a grappling hook to your standard arsenal gives you the ability to grab onto beams overhead to raise yourself to the upper screen. Also you now have the ability to hold two different weapons, so that uncomfortable decision of whether to pick up the Fire gun or hold onto your machine gun doesn't even have to be made.

The game is just fun to play. It feels like the old Contra series, with all the difficulty of numerous enemies, and of course the flying power-up barrels. Power-ups can fly by on either screen, with the ones that fly by on the top screen being a little difficult to hit. Since your standard gun bullets have a fairly low velocity, knocking the power-up from the sky requires firing into the air almost as soon as you see it.

One of the great features that kept people playing Contra was the multiplayer, and the DS will be keeping that tradition alive with a local ad-hoc multiplayer mode. Expectedly, each player will have to have a copy of the game, but there may be bonus features that allow multiple players to play together with one cartride. Including the original Contra as an extra feature would be nice, but again, details have not been finalized.

The Konami team is working hard to make the original side scrolling shooter relevant in gaming again, and with a little luck, I think they'll be quite successful.

E3 2007: Nintendo continues to broaden its horizon, revealing little along the way

Jeff Greeson — Wed, 11 Jul 2007 13:31:13 -0700

Nintendo's unique position as being the market widener and soon to eclipse the Xbox 360 as market leader was further defined at their E3 2007 press conference. Nintendo tried extremely hard to win back the hardcore gamer who has slipped away slowly from Nintendo's grasp. Nintendo even went so far to specifically explain their reasoning in creating games such as the Brain games and others which are not challenging to those hardcore gamers. While there were a few announcements that should satisfy hardcore gamers, the majority of games announced were focus on the casual audience Nintendo has been targeting recently.

Wii Zapper
The first major announcement was the existence of the Wii Zapper. A device that incorporates both the Wii remote and the Nunchuck, the Wii Zapper brings a two-handed light gun apparatus for the Wii. A new secret internal game is currently under development at Nintendo to utilize the zapper peripheral. Sega is bringing their popular arcade light gun game, Ghost Squad to the Wii along with Capcom's Resident Evil: The Umbrella Chronicles. Also utilizing the zapper is Medal of Honor, featuring 32 player online multiplayer. The Nintendo Wii Zapper (tentative name) will retail at $19.99 this year.

Big First Party Titles
On the Nintendo DS side, the biggest title everyone is waiting for is The Legend of Zelda: Phantom Hourglass. The entire control scheme is stylus based, using the pointer to guide Link around the environment along with attacks and interactive elements. The next big title is Brain Age 2, featuring more games and a release date of August 20th.

On the Wii side, Mario Kart speeds to online in the first quarter of 2008. "More racers means more fun. How many more? Stay tuned," quipped Reggie Fils-Amie. A custom Wii wheel will come packaged with Mario Kart Wii. The device is merely a holder for the Wii remote with access to the underside B button.

Next up Metroid Prime 3: Corruption was shown and it looked awesome. The game uses Z-targeting but also allows you to aim at anything on the screen while strafing around your target.

Super Smash Bros. Brawl was given a date of December 3rd. Not much else was revealed about the game at that time. Super Mario Galaxy rounded out the last of the big Wii announcements with Nintendo declaring it the true successor to Super Mario 64.

Nintendo Online
On the online front, Nintendo tried to answer their critics who question when Nintendo was going to get serious about online. While they didn't have a convincing answer, they responded with a new channel tentatively titled "Check Mii Out," which will be a place for epople to share and rate the Miis they've created with the rest of the world. Also announced was that Super Strikers Charged would be the first online Wii game in America at the end of this month. Joining Strikers will also be Pokemon Battle Revolution, Madden 08 and FIFA 08, Dragon Quest Monsters Joker Online from Square Enix, and Guitar Hero III: Legends of Rock.

Nintendo Big Focus: Casual Gamers
Finally, Nintendo pushed their casual segment very hard in this press conference. A mysterious fitness game dubbed Wii Fit includes a wireless Wii Balance Board that measures and tracks weight and position shifting. The game measures your Body Mass Index (BMI) and allows you to track your progress. At the demonstration, Nintendo showed off a few aerobics exercises including lunges, steps and stretches. While the crowd in attendance was quizzical and unsure of how effective this game would be, this could easily bring the Wii to a much larger audience, perhaps Oprah will be giving away a few of these fairly soon we wager.

Expand the Customer Base
Nintendo has clearly defined the segment of the industry they are targeting. They clearly are thinking outside the box in trying to appeal to a much larger audience and to their credit are succeeding very well. With Wii Sports being so simplistic and finding such a large mass appeal, Nintendo is trying to capitalize on their new audience and keep them coming back. With games like Wii Fit, Nintendo is hoping that the casual market is where their continued success is. Nintendo's intentions are clear when Reggie ended the conference with the best summation of Nintendo's goals. "We're happy, but we're not close to being satisfied. Nintendo is waiting for the time that video games are accepted as the preeminent form of leisure entertainment. Then Nintendo will be satisfied."

Review: SNK vs. Capcom Card Fighters DS

Luke Wallace — Tue, 29 May 2007 16:15:51 -0700

Trading card games have been around for years now, but never have their video game counterparts been as popular outside of Japan as racing games, shooters, platformers, sports games, flight simulators, or action adventures. An updated version of a classic title is entering the arena in SNK vs. Capcom Card Fighters DS, but can the game hold your attention for any more time than it already takes to read the title? Is it worth purchasing immediately, as the game contains a game-ending bug? No. But would it be worth purchasing when a corrected version of the game is released? Read more for the full review!