Why Nintendo Makes the Same Video Games Every Year and We Still Love Them

Without question I consider myself a Nintendo fan. Compared to any other developer, I spend most of my time playing and/or getting excited for what I will soon be playing on my Nintendo Wii U or 3DS. Some experiences can only be on PS4 and what not like last year’s Fallout 4, but with Nintendo I have always felt they’ve done something special with their games… they’ve remained fun! Throughout the years and even during the short time I’ve been on this blog I’ve seen a handful of Marios, Zeldas, Pokemons, and many other Nintendo greats come and go. They’ve consistently been what I expect and then some, but nothing has been wholly “new” (with the exception of last year’s Splatoon.). After seeing Thursday’s Nintendo Direct, I’m excited for what the future holds: more of the same great faces Nintendo has always offered. But is that enough? Should Nintendo be focusing on something new rather than giving the fans more of the same? Hmm…

 

Top Ten E3 2015 Moments

All the excitement and buildup to the year’s biggest video game show has come and gone, and left in its wake are dozens of new game announcements, trailers, demos, and press conferences. On the whole I felt this year’s E3 dwells in comparisons to last years (which may stem from my Nintendo fandom), but nonetheless there were plenty of great experiences to take away from this years show. Even if Capcom didn’t announce Power Stone 3 yet.

 

Top Ten Dream E3 2015 Predictions

It’s that time of year again. E3 is this week, and with it will come the best and most exciting video game announcements, trailers, demos, and releases for the upcoming year. Many companies benchmark their entire remainder of the year on this show, making or breaking 2015 before it even finishes. Rampant speculation fuels the show year in and year out, and this year is no exception: a few days out of the show and there have already been announcements and rumors flying. But if I could have things 100% my way, we’d be gearing up to hear the following ten announcements at E3 2015.

 

It’s Time to Spend Those Club Nintendo Points!

Nintendo announced a couple weeks back that the loyalty incentive program, Club Nintendo, would be closing down in Summer of 2015, to be followed by a yet-unannounced new program. The Big N also promised dozens of new rewards and games to spend your hard earned Club Nintendo Coins on before the program shuts its doors for good. The company came through on those promises on Monday, releasing a handful of new physical rewards to spend points on, as well as over 100 digital games across all of their current systems! These are the last items to be made available for the entire program, with nothing (assuming Nintendo sticks to what it has stated) being added until the discontinuation of the service in July.

So if you have Club Nintendo points, now is the time to use them!

Now that the rewards catalog has been fully updated, there are still two more important dates to remember:

3/31/2015: Last day to register products with Club Nintendo to earn coins
6/30/2015: Last day to spend Coins on Club Nintendo

Keep in mind these dates and the fact that what’s there now is what’s going to be there through June. Assuming some of those physical rewards don’t get swooped up first, since it is a first come first served basis. Speaking of those physical rewards, there are some cool ones!

Leading the charge is easily the 800-Coin The Legend of Zelda: Majora’s Mask Messenger Bag. Big enough to hold a standard or smaller sized laptop, the sweet bag comes stitched with the Majora’s Mask logo, the Club Nintendo Logo, and a cool rendering of the Skull Kid and the titular Mask. It’s pricey, coming in as the second most expensive item on the entire list, digital or otherwise (for some reason Nintendo thinks Wii Party U is worth 850 Coins. Great game, but really?)., but it’s also a cool item, and one that will surely have huge collector’s value in the future. Also, unique Zelda swag, especially officially licensed from Nintendo swag, is hard to come by that doesn’t also come with a Hot Topic price tag.

The only other new physical items added that I think are worthwhile are the 2016 desktop calendar, which sounds kind of lame but if it’s like the one they’re showing off from 2015 is actually pretty awesome, and the Majora’s Mask Fierce Deity puzzle. I’m not a huge puzzle fan, otherwise I’d fork over the Coins for that too. As far as other physical items go, Club Nintendo has had a nice string of those “Card Case 18” cases that can store your loose DS/3DS games, but this new one isn’t as neat as the others in my opinion.

If you’re like me though, you’ll really want to take a look at those digital games you can download. And man, take a look indeed, because there are over 100 games to download with your Coins. Virtual Console games, eShop games, and even full-blown retail games for the Wii U, 3DS, and the good ol’ Wii are included. Here’s a few highlights:

Nintendo 3DS:

Super Mario 3D Land – 600 Coins
Paper Mario: Sticker Star – 700 Coins
Star Fox 64 3D – 700 Coins
HarmoKnight – 300 Coins (By the creators of the Pokemon series)
The Legend of Zelda: Link’s Awakening DX – 200 Coins
Ketzal’s Corridors – 200 Coins (A fun puzzle game exclusive on the 3DS)
A few dozen other eShop exclusives and Virtual Console games

Wii U:

Golden Sun – 200 Coins
Super Metroid – 200 Coins
EarthBound – 250 Coins
NES Remix – 300 Coins
The Wonderful 101 – 600 Coins
Wii Party U – 850 Coins (Pricey, but if you have 4 friends to play with this is an absolute blast!)

Wii:

Doc Louis’s Punch-Out – 250 Coins (A huge collector’s item which will now plummet in price)
The Legend of Zelda: A Link to the Past – 250 Coins
Super Smash Bros. – 250 Coins (The Nintendo 64 original)
Excitebike: World Rally – 250 Coins (an eShop exclusive sequel to the Excitebike series)
The Legend of Zelda: Majora’s Mask – 250 Coins

Those are the games that caught my eye at first, but looking through the list again there are some other really great titles! You should have no problem spending your points between now and July, because there’s both quantity and quality included.

Nintendo really outdid themselves with this final lineup of Club Nintendo content. It makes me wish Club Nintendo was like this all the time: a few dozen games to choose from each month, instead of just six, which were starting to be repeats.

While I’m sad to see Club Nintendo leave (I actually kind of did enjoy doing those silly surveys), I am hoping for bigger and way better things with the next program Nintendo will roll out. I hope to hear some details about it soon since the old program is now terminal. I’m pulling for more physical rewards, but I bet Nintendo will go with a money-incentive based program, meaning if you spend so much/register so much, you’ll get kicked back some spending cash on the eShop. It wouldn’t be the worst thing in the world, but not my cup of tea.

So don’t forget to spend those points! Pick up something nice for yourself and wait for the next (hopefully) great thing to come out later this year!

Laters,
Jsick

 

A Hands on with PlayStation Now

While attending this year’s Consumer Electronics Show, I was able to stop by the Sony booth and get a hands-on demo with PlayStation Now, Sony’s online streaming service for the PlayStation line of products. Having just announced a new subscription service at the beginning of the show, the online streaming service is beginning to become more enticing for price of admission. Before I decide to plop down $20 a month for the service, I was able to demo the service’s capabilities at the show, as well as ask some questions to Jack Buser, the Senior Director of the PlayStation now brand.

 

Here’s Hoping Nintendo’s Amiibo Figures Are Worth the Wait

With the impending release of Super Smash Bros. for the Wii U, Nintendo is not only going to roll out the (hopeful) biggest game on the Wii U ever, but the Japanese company will also bring out the newest contender in the NFC toys-meet-games sub-category. Called Amiibo, each figure is being marketed as something very different from Activision’s Skylanders and Disney’s Infinity line of figures. Not simply used to unlock content in a specific game, each Amiibo figure will apparently act as a sidekick to the action, enhancing your gameplay experience, but not at all required to otherwise play and enjoy the game they are a part of. It’s bold, it’s different, and I think it just might work, and here’s how.

 

Top Ten Dream E3 2014 Predictions

In what might be the only tradition I have here at SlickGaming, we are one week away from the 2014 Electronics Entertainment Expo, which means it’s time for some dream predictions! I’ve come to realize that while these are mostly in good fun, they are all actually things I really would like to see come out of the show. Interestingly enough, some of these predictions have come true (more or less): Nintendo has actually made significant progress in the online gaming department, and the PS4 and, more recently, the Kinect-Free Xbox One do indeed retail for under $400! Two out of twenty isn’t that bad, right?

Without delay, here are my predictions for this year’s show!

 

Tomodachi Life Has Totally Won Me Over

Man, talk about selling a game!

Earlier today, Nintendo released a new Nintendo Direct focusing on the quirky 3DS game, Tomodachi Life. Previously released only in Japan, this Nintendo Direct didn’t just give Western gamers a solid release date for their own region, it also let us delve into the wonderfully self-gratifying world on the Nintendo elite.

Before this special Nintendo Direct, I had little interest in the game, thinking it more a novelty than something I’d really enjoy. But after seeing this crazy video, I have decided that Tomodachi Life needs to be a part of my life.

A little bit Animal Crossing, and a dash of The Sims seems to make this new 3DS game a weird, wacky, one-of-a-kind game only Nintendo can create.

 

The Recurring Bosscast: 034: A Red Future Where Everyone Has Pink Eye

Back from Vegas and feeling excited for all things tech, this episode of the Recurring Bosscast focuses on my recent trip to the Consumer Electronics Show! There’s a companion piece you can read about the topic I’ve written as well.

4K TVs, glasses free 3D, oh… and curved everything seems to be the future of how you’re going to waste spend your money.

I even got a hands-on demo of the Oculus Rift, as well as witnessing the awesomeness that could be PlayStation Now. Listen and enjoy!

If you like what you hear you should subscribe to us on iTunes! Even if you don’t like it you should subscribe!

The Recurring Bosscast is a bi-weekly podcast hosted on Splitkick.com.

Click the link below and enjoy!
The Recurring Bosscast Episode 034: A Red Future Where Everyone Has Pink Eye

Laters,
Jsick

 

Top Ten E3 2013 Announcements and Stories

E3 2013 has come and gone. By many standards it was what we’d come to expect from the expo: new game announcements, news on all kinds of projects, and some exclusive trailers, demos, and videos. But just about everyone can agree that this year’s E3 went above and beyond the expectations of most in attendance. It wasn’t just about the games this year: it was about the consoles and how they affect the gamers. It was about a change in the way we game and how our hobby will change moving forward. It was about publishers making games that gamers wanted to play. And above all, it was about glorifying our hobby and giving us an undeniable outlet to look at and say without wavering that we’re proud to be gamers. These ten announcements are just the tip of the events that made E3 2013 so memorable, and what you should be most excited for.