Super Nintendo Chalmers

Drawn To Life Template

2007-09-11T15:53:00.000-07:00

Are you super proud of one of your Drawn to Life creations? Download (right-click and Save Image As) and fill out this template in MS Paint, etc. and you can post your creations online to share with other people.

The Wait Is Finally Over

2006-11-20T11:21:00.000-08:00

So the Wii came out yesterday. To uproarious cheering from all (the Nintendo fanboys). I haven't posted in a while, because most of the Nintendo related news has been about lines. I don't much like waiting in lines, and furthermore do not want to read about them. I, having preordered a system like any real nerd, simply showed up at midnight to Gamestop to wait in a short line of people who had already paid for their systems and was on my way home by 12:15. I had a good portion of Sunday afternoon/evening playing some games. Mostly multiplayer with a friend of mine. Here is my ranking of Wii Sports from favorite to I didn't like it so much:

Bowling
Golf
Tennis
Baseball
Boxing

Bowling and Golf, to me, show the most promise because of the depth of control you have, and that seems to me what the Wii is about. At the same time they are turn based games which slows the action a little bit. This is where Tennis shines. It didn't take too long to get pretty comfortable with Tennis, the control is simple as its limited only to your swing. However, I think if you want a quick game to show people what the Wii is about this is probably the one to do it. Baseball suffers from a similar lack of control. You swing the Wii remote when batting, and to pitch you hold button combinations and make a throwing motion or simply flick your wrist. This is it. There is no base running or fielding, this is done by the computer based on the hit. Boxing was a different story. I felt like there were enough controls, just that they were rarely doing what I was trying to get them to do. My friend and I both suffered this frustration, so I'm pretty sure I'm not just crazy.

Super Monkey Ball was much like what I expected. I haven't played a lot of the single player mode yet, but it's very much like previous games except the control feels much more like you are tilting the ground, because you are. The 50 multiplayer games kept us busy for quite a while. Some of them had frustrating controls such as the first-person shooter minigame and ring toss. While others were a lot of fun, darts and a space shooter minigame come to mind.

Rayman is just funny. I get a chuckle out of just about every minigame and so far they have had really creative use of the controllers. I've spent the least time with this game, but I've been quite impressed.

Zelda, what can I say. I can't spoil anything for those who haven't played yet. I'm almost through the first dungeon. Wow. I'm really impressed with the graphics especially considering this is really (literally) a Gamecube game. The control is awesome, except the whole sword swinging, which is only okay. It works, but it's nothing special. I'll say more I'm sure later.

Live Near Redmond??

2006-11-14T18:56:00.000-08:00

UPDATED - You can now no longer pick them up from the store. The demand escalated too quickly for them, so if you don't already have one there waiting for you, it looks like it is too late.

UPDATED - You may need to call first. He said they took down his name so he would hold the cables for him at the counter. So keep trying to get through on the phone. Their hours are 9-6.

In reference to this GoNintendo article about ordering the component cables. One of my friends just got through on the line. They said he can go in and pick them up at the Nintendo Customer Service store at NOA in Redmond, WA. So if you live in the area and you have a hankering for some Wii component cables go pick 'em up here. I'm not sure when the hours are, so you better check ahead of time.

Testing the Wii on Non-Gamers

2006-11-13T10:38:00.000-08:00

So "the guy from GoNintendo," as I call him, took his newly acquired Wii to a family party to test out Nintendo's theory of being able to widen the audience that will play games. From his report it sounds like they were quite successful at what they were trying to do.

One More Wii-k

2006-11-11T11:52:00.000-08:00

A week from today, Nintendo fanboys, geeks, nerds, dorks, and dweebs everywhere will be (even more) giddy with anticipation. Midnight of Sunday the 19th (that's Saturday night for those of you who haven't completed grade school) marks the release of the Wii, Nintendo's new console. Expectations are high for this totally new gameplay experience. I'll see what I can do about posting stuff like pictures, review, impressions, etc. I'm pretty excited. I'll try to take some pictures from the Gamespot line to post, I should be opening a flickr account soon to post all my pictures. In the meantime you can get pumped for Zelda Twilight Princess, not by watching more spoilers, but by checking out this 5th (and final?) Zelda retrospective to see where the series has gone before.

New Interview

2006-11-07T11:41:00.000-08:00

It seems like these are all I post anymore. However I do find them quite interesting. Click here to read the latest Iwata interview.

My First Wii Impressions

2006-11-06T10:16:00.000-08:00

Well, I played the Wii at the mall yesterday. The only game was Excite Truck, but I did go through the Mii channel as well. Contrary to my friend's previous post everything was exactly as I expected. The controller and console were exactly the size I expected them to be. The controller had a good weight. The response of the "pointing" functionality is good, and it took less than 2 seconds to be comfortable with it. Also contrary to just about every post I've ever read about Excite Truck, it is not fun. I experimented with it for quite a bit. Yes I understand that you can turn and pitch the truck by tilting the controller and by landing right you get these awesome boosts. But that doesn't mean that the controls aren't still bad. From my first impressions it's, simply put, not a good game. The Mii channel however was fun. I think I could spend a good amount of time just making Mii's for all my friends (so I can DESTROY them at Wii Sports). So really no surprises here. The console and controller look, feel, and act exactly as I expected. And Excite Truck was just as bad as I had previously imagined.

Iwata Interviews Keep Coming

2006-11-03T14:39:00.000-08:00

So this continues the previous interview on Zelda. It's quite long, I read it over lunch and it was pretty interesting. Focuses on the end of the development cycle and how Miyamoto mixes everything up. Then it goes into the developers favorite aspects of the game. Not spoiler heavy.

New Smash Bros. Video

2006-11-03T10:35:00.000-08:00

UPDATED - Forget that link, here it is in HD!

Check it out. A new trailer for the Wii Smash Bros.

Zelda Videos

2006-11-02T10:25:00.000-08:00

UPDATED - Now there are even more videos with worse spoilers.

There were some new Zelda TP videos posted on the Nintendo website, which to some may consider to have spoilers, be warned.

Nintendo Stock

2006-10-31T13:45:00.000-08:00

Well this looks good for Nintendo, but if you want to invest you might be a little late. Even with the release of the console to come they have set pretty reasonable expectations for how it could do, and I don't imagine it going to much higher.

Yet another Iwata interview

2006-10-31T10:06:00.000-08:00

UPDATED - My favorite quote from the article:

Iwata: Miyagi-san, what do you think is the essence of a Zelda game?

Miyagi: ...(I) once asked this question to one of the most senior developers in the company who has years of experience with Zelda. You know what I got for an answer? "If the Zelda staff made it, it's Zelda!" (laughs)

This one is about Zelda. Although I haven't read it yet. I imagine as an official interview on Nintendo's page that it won't be full of spoilers.

Fusion Tour Experience Part I

2006-10-29T20:49:00.000-08:00

Here is a write up from my friend Ryan of his experience at the Fusion tour:

I attended the Nintendo Fusion Tour in Orlando with my friend Upkar on October 12th. The tour itself was poorly organized and only offered 4 games- Wii Sports (Tennis), WarioWare, Shooting Demo, and Excite Truck. I only metion this because, though I am a fanboy, I was actually quite upset that Metriod Prime 3 wasn't at the tour. Plus there were only 4 demo stations (one for each game) so the lines were very long. However even in this very unhappy state, it only took one game of Wii Sports to turn my mood around and convince me that Wii will be very special indeed.

Console
It was actually slightly larger then I had thought it would be. Of course it is the smallest console I have ever seen, just not what I would consider to be tiny. That said, I think the size is perfect. Pretty much everything is as expected.

-The glossy white exterior is beautiful.
-The flaps for the NGC ports and SD slot look solid and actually enhance the overall look.
-The bottom side (if horizontal) has 4 feet but no additional ports.
-The sexy blue light for the disc drive...wasn't illuminated on any of the systems. It turns off automatically from what I have read, so that makes sense. Unfortunately I couldn't get any of the people working the demo stations to turn the system off (and then back on). Oh well something to look forward too come November 19th.

Controller
Freak'n awesome!!! Though my hands are small, it was very comfortable. My friend Upkar has much larger hands then mine, but also said that the controller felt great.

-The weight feels really good.
-Rumble is great and actually feels better then the GC controllers. It might be because of the way you hold the controller but the shaking feels more solid then it did on the GC.
-'A' button is NOT as big as the pics and previews would have you believe. A little bigger then the 'B' button on the GC controller.
-Trigger felt great
-None of the previews I played used anything other then the A and B buttons.
-All of the buttons were much smaller then expected.

To be continued.....

Wii Sports (Tennis)

WarioWare

Shooting Demo (Duck Hunt on speed)

I'm excited to hear what he has to say about the games. Stay tuned...

It's not just about the Wii

2006-10-27T16:43:00.000-07:00

In case you're a huge geek like I am (doubtful), you've probably noticed most of the Nintendo slanted media has been focusing heavily on the Wii as the release approaches. I just wanted to make sure we haven't forgotten all the other AWESOME stuff that is on the way for us, some killer DS titles.

Children of Mana, how long have I waited for this game. - Nov. 1st

Yoshi's Island DS, Nintendo's going back to it's first love, the platformer. - Nov. 13th

Final Fantasy III, have you heard of these "Final Fantasy" games? - Nov. 14th

The Legend of Zelda: Phantom Hourglass, back to that overhead perspective we love so well. - Q1 2007

This still looks somewhat like speculation to me, but I would be really happy to see one of my NES favorites come back on the DS: A Boy and His Blob

Can't wait for Zelda

2006-10-27T09:31:00.000-07:00

UPDATED - This page has a Link to a video of some Zelda gameplay, and this page has another video of someone creating a Mii.

Here are a few new Zelda tidbits. Nintendo released two new little videos today. One of Link fighting on horseback, and one of Link just fighting. SPOILERS in the following links (pun well noted), beware. This article came up today, following an article yesterday with some info grabbed from and early copy of EDGE magazine.

Must play games continued

2006-10-26T15:44:00.000-07:00

So here is my follow up to the list of must play NES games.. Must play SNES games! I stuck to 15 and 15 again, it seemed to work out with the number of games I wanted to be on the list. So here it is, hopefully some of these displease you and someone will leave some comments. Moreover, hopefully most of these make it to the Wii Virtual Console.

Super Metroid - This game has never met its equal.
Chrono Trigger - Amazing RPG, strong character emotional attachment, amazing music
Legend Of Zelda: A Link To The Past - Dual-World goodness, was this a first?
Final Fantasy VI - This was a big game in every way
Super Mario World - Yoshi is born.. er.. hatched, this really continued what SMB 3 started
Secret Of Mana - Multiplayer co-op adventure RPG awesomeness
Final Fantasy IV - This Final Fantasy really pioneered how well developed a story could be
Super Mario Kart - First and best of the series, sorry if you have a different (wrong) opinion
Star Fox - Are those 3D polygons? The FX chip ushering in the slow decay of 2D games
Donkey Kong Country - This was the first game to have preorders, and I had one
Super Mario RPG: Legend Of The Seven Stars - This game achieved well beyond what you could gather from the title
ActRaiser - This game was great, the non-sidescrolling portion of the game was sorely missed in the sequel
Street Fighter II Turbo - Fighters really took off on the SNES, this was a prime example
Soul Blazer - An incredible adventure RPG, this game was overlooked by way too many people
Pilotwings - A collection of aeronautic mini-games that were really fun

Honorable Mention:

Super Mario World 2: Yoshi's Island - Could have made the top 15 if it weren't for whiny baby Mario
Super Castlevania IV - This made the transition from NES to SNES quite well
F-Zero - This almost created a new genre, super fast futuristic racers, quite good indeed
Super Mario All-Stars - All of Mario's NES triumphs on one cart, with cool updated graphics
Mortal Kombat II - My parents wouldn't let me play this, but I hear it was fun
NBA Jam - Big head code, what a great idea
EarthBound - Taking the medieval out of the console RPG, this game had a cult following
Mega Man X - This was pure Mega Man, this time with suit power-ups
Harvest Moon - Farming RPG, and oddly somehow it's brilliant
Tetris Attack - Most addictive puzzle game ever, just try it you'll like it
Earthworm Jim - An obvious choice for a main character
Breath Of Fire - This had a sweet day night cycle
Uniracers - Stunts and racing all in 2D, eat that Tony Hawk
Super Bomberman 2 - Best 4-player competitive game on the SNES
Mario Paint - More of a creativity game, who didn't like the fly swatting mini-game though

This is why you should read my blog

2006-10-26T13:55:00.000-07:00

So you can avoid reading stories like this. For any developer to say "We pushed the 360 to the limits" is clearly garbage targeted at the public. It's a stupid thing to say within a year of a console release and frankly ever. I have some experience inside the Unreal engine and there is no way it could ever push a console to the limits.. that is, unless they start again from scratch and even then I would set pretty low expectations.

2D Ocarina of Time back in business?

2006-10-26T09:40:00.000-07:00

Wha? Huh? Ooohhh Man! I totally thought Nintendo had shut these guys down. They have been working on this for at least 5 years. I can't believe how far along they are. It looks like they're more than 90% complete with their REMAKE OF ZELDA: OCARINA OF TIME IN 2D!!!

PS3 Not as Fun as Wii

2006-10-25T12:24:00.000-07:00

Nintendo has been putting out these little clips of people getting a first experience of Wii complete with huge smiles and outbursts of laughter. Compare that to this video of an in home session with the Playstation 3.

Emulators, can they keep up?

2006-10-20T10:59:00.000-07:00

Are emulators going to die off? I was just thinking about emulators this morning, and the trouble Microsoft is having getting XBox games to run on the 360. This is one of the most advanced companies in the world trying to emulate their own hardware, and having lots of trouble. The complexity of systems is getting greater and greater, especially with multiple cores, GPUs, and other dedicated hardware. The CPUs nowadays have quite a bit more than the ~52 instructions on the NES. Even with the last few generations (N64 and beyond) emulators haven't advanced anywhere near the NES, SNES era emulators have. What do you think?

Essential NES games

2006-10-16T17:49:00.000-07:00

UPDATED - This list was way too big, I was trying to make it encompass enough games that people wouldn't yell that their favorite was missing, but I've thinned it down so that it's now my list.

Here is my list of NES games that every gamer should have played with honorable mention for other not so crucial titles that contributed something significant to the NES generation of games.

The Legend of Zelda - The first sprawling adventure needing battery backup save
Super Mario Bros. 3 - Considered by many the best game of all time
Mega Man 2 - The quintessential Mega Man game
Mike Tyson's Punchout - Still one of my favorite games to play
Dragon Warrior - Defined the console RPG
Metroid - First hugely exploratory action game
Contra - How to make a short game last, make it hard
Castlevania - This game is just good that's all
Bionic Commando - How to make a platform game without jump
R.B.I. Baseball - Defined console baseball games
Kid Icarus - Ok, it's like Metroid, but the gameplay is more driven, less exploratory
Tecmo Bowl - Defined console football games
A Boy And His Blob: Trouble On Blobonia - Something completely different
Paperboy - Made a really simple game mechanic fun
Duck Hunt - Welcome hardware peripherals to the scene
Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles II: The Arcade Game - Leonardo was the best!

Honorable Mention:

Super Mario Bros. - The game that made the NES
Zelda II: The Adventure of Link - I'm sorry, this game was really fun
Dragon Warrior IV - Great characters and story, very rare (expensive) NES cart
Ninja Gaiden - Mmmm, cutscenes
Super Mario Bros. 2 - What happens when you throw Mario at a weird platformer
River City Ransom - Who knew pummeling streetfolk would become so popular
Battletoads - I can count the number of people who beat this game on one hand
Final Fantasy - This was hardly the final fantasy
Tetris - People actually like playing puzzle games?
Dr. Mario - Yes, especially when coupled with their favorite videogame icon
Batman - Enter the walljump
Bubble Bobble - A hundred levels? No problem
Crystalis - Zelda gameplay with a more linear story arc
Maniac Mansion - How to disguise a text adventure behind pretty graphics
Rygar - This game wins for biggest HUD on a platform game

First Post

2006-10-03T21:29:00.000-07:00

Obviously this is a boring post, but it should get us off and running. This is my blog for gaming, with an unapologetic slant toward Nintendo. I've been a happy semi-hardcore gamer since pre-NES days, and am now a programmer for a videogame company in the Seattle area. Hopefully you like reading what I have to say, and I hope eventually to post up-to-date links to all the latest news and stories to anything (interesting) that's Nintendo related.