Nintendo: How low is their self-esteem?

I feel like Nintendo has really lowered their standards to an almost disappointing level. Last year, Nintendo claimed that they didn’t wanted any indie games in their e-shop, and that they only wanted titles released by their company in the store. Well, when they realized the WiiU was making as much money as the Gamecube when it was released (which is not much), they panicked. Now, it seems that Nintendo is letting almost anyone sell their games in the WiiU e-shop.

Usually, I’d have no problem with this. It’s awesome for indie gamers to get their titles out on a system created by the greatest gaming company known to man, more power to them! The issue I have is that some of these games just aren’t worthy. For example, there’s a title called BLOK DROP U, which is a puzzle game where you have to remove grey blocks in order to get a red block to a platform. It’s a simpel concept for a simple game, and it’s an alright time waster.

I’ve seen tons of these games before on flash game sites and in app stores, and they’re usually a decent way to spend time if you’re bored, but here’s the thing. They’re usually free to play. These type of games don’t have enough depth or content to be able to put a price tag on them. For a game like BLOK DROP U, if I HAD to pay, I’d pay a quarter, if at all. If it actually had color and nice, smooth transitions, I’d pay a buck. The Nintendo e-shop is selling this game for $1.99. 2 bucks for a game that looks and feels like it was made by a couple of kids who got their hands on an app program.

BLOK DROP U isn’t the only game that’s over priced, there are other games that are a pretty penny for a not so pretty game. There are tons of games you’ll find in their indie section that look like you could play them on your iphone or ipad for free or a buck, and some of these games are going for $4,$5, even $10-$15 bucks.

So before you buy a game on the e-shop, read reviews. Watch the demo videos they put up (if they have any), and most of all, check to see if you can get a free version of a similar game on your phone or tablet first before you spend $15 bucks on the game just to play it on your WiiU.

 

3DS Nintendo E-Shop Game Review: Witch and Hero

One of my favorite things to do in the e-shop is looks for small indie games that cost less than a couple dollars. When I found Witch & Hero, I decided to make an impulse purchase and give it a go. 

Witch & Hero is about… well, a witch and a hero who go off and try to defeat the evil Medusa. Though they come close, the two fail, and before Medusa kicks them out of her castle, she turns the witch to stone. Your job is to level back up, max out your attack, speed and defend stats, and beat Medusa to break the curse on the witch. 

Levels play out like this: You play as the hero, bumping into enemies to damage them (you take a bit of damage yourself, but you don’t die. When you run out of HP on the hero, you spin out for a few seconds, making you unable to move or attack while you regain health. The only time you lose is if the witches HP is brought to zero by being hit by bad guys). The witch sits in the middle of the playing filed, completely frozen and unable to attack, so it’s your job as the hero to kill baddies before they get to the witch, simple as that.

When I find a cheap game that’s a decent game to play through, I feel like I’ve found a gem, and Witch & Hero is defiantly a gem worth buying. It’s simple, addicting, and gives you the satisfying feeling of grinding levels a fair amount and taking on nearly 100 baddies at once. It’s 3 bucks on the Nintendo e-shop, and I highly recommend that you check it out.

Giveaway time!

Do you want to win a free Gameboy Color, Gameboy/Gameboy Color game, and a Pikachu figure form the 1990’s?
OF COURSE YOU FLIPPIN’ DO.
We did it! We finally hit 1,000 views on systemshuffle.com! As a thank you to everyone for the constant support, I’m doing a giveaway!

On October 19th, 2013, I’ll be randomly drawing a winner who will receive these prizes: A turquoise Gameboy Color, A Pikachu figure from the 1990’s, and a mystery Gameboy/Gameboy Color game! 
Click here to learn how to enter!

 

Kids Reviewing Classics?!

That’s right! Believe  it or not, I’m not in town right now! I’m not even in my own state right now! I’m all the way in South Dakota, and because I didn’t have enough time to do a long game review for you guys, I decided to turn to my family for help. I have two younger cousins who love to game; Max and Lila. Lila is a 10 year old little girl who loves to play her DS, Harvest Moon, and Sonic Adventure 2: Battle! Max is a (soon to be) 13 year old boy with a love for Mine Craft, Call of duty, and Legend of Zelda. I asked these two tiny gamers if they would assist me in writing this weeks article for System Shuffle. “But Em, where did this suddenly come from?” Well, random reader, all of this sparked from a comment I made on Gamer Logic’s recent episode about how games are meant to be played, and I said:
“I agree with this 100%. I have games that I haven’t touched in a while, but that’s why I started System Shuffle in the first place; to play through and make memories with said game. I also have my little cousin , who loves classic games and games from his generation, who comes over and will just try random NES games on my shelf. I never object, because that’s exactly what they’re there for, and I’m happy that I can share some of my favorite games from when I was a kid with him.”
So I’ve invited the two over to help me with next week’s review.
So this weeks review is not played by me. I’m taking games that I’ve played/hated/loved when I was my cousins ages and having them review the games from a modern day kids point of view.  They’ll be playing games together that I personally loved at their age without me giving them any sort of answers on how to play or what to do. I interviewed the two after their gameplay and quoted the two as they played, and because I do travel a lot, this will be a repeated event, where I’ll invited them back to System Shuffle to play classic games. Lila and Max will be taking over for this weeks and the next up and coming review, where they both play Donkey Kong Country and Super Mario World. This week: Donkey Kong Country for SNES.

First up: Donkey Kong Country.
On November 21st, 1994, Rare released this game for the SNES. This was the first Donkey Kong game to not be directed or produced by Miyamoto. although he was still involved with the project, just in a smaller role. The game was actually directed and produced by Donkey Kongs original creator; Tim Stamper. For the time it was released, the game had some of the greatest graphics ever seen on a SNES, and made out to be the 2nd best-selling SNES game ever. It’s had plenty of sequels, and even had a recent released title for the Nintendo 3DS. I chose this game for Max and Lila because when I was even younger than them, the person I played this the most with was my aunt, AKA their MOM. I still have a photo of me in pajamas playing this with my aunt.

Quotes From The Gameplay:
“Rhino!!!”
“Max: Why did you die!?
Lila: YOU PRESSURED ME! You know I don’t do well under pressure.”
“Max: Do you not want me to let you out of the barrel?
Lila: Oh, you wanna play that game, huh!?
Me: This is a team game guys, remember?”
There was a lot of backseat gaming for the both of them.
“I pressed B, I swear.”
“This has way better graphics [than Super Mario World].”
“Max: -sarcastically- If you want better graphics, play Cod.
Me and Lila: ……..No.”

How difficult were the levels?
Lila: It was very difficult and confusing, like you had to go through caves that were built in and hard to see, and then there was, like, monsters everywhere. If you stood there, you got hit. If you jumped, you got hit. It was hard.

Max: It was medium with all the monsters, a little difficult to jump around and the weather chances in the levels were really distracting.

If you owned this game, would you sell it/trade it in?
Lila: Yes, because its just go confusing and there’s a lot of movement going on on the screen and its hard to focus on you.

Max: Yes, it’s not very fun. Don’t get me wrong, I love characters, I didn’t like the levels.

What was something you liked and something you hated about this game?
Lila: I love the characters cause they’re cute and they were drawn well. What I didn’t like is that it’s too hard to focus on yourself.

Max: I like the characters behavior and how you collect the bananas for points and lives. I didn’t like the difficulty of the levels and the amount of enemies.

How were the controls?
Lila: It was hard to use the controls, it was really confusing.

Max: They were pretty hard at first, but I got used to them.

Did you know this game or the characters before I showed you?
Lila: I knew the game and characters, I wanted to play it but now that I have it was just too hard and I wouldn’t buy it.

Max: I did know the characters before this game, but I didn’t know about this game. Not a soul told me about it.

If you saw a commercial for this game on TV, would you buy it?
Lila: Yes, it looks fun, energetic, and it looks more fun on TV but its a different game when played.

Max: No, because to me the game seems dull and boring, and I don’t think I would play it for very long even though I love the characters to pieces.

If you were told you couldn’t save your file on this game, would you play it?
Lila: No, because its hard and complicated, and if I finally got through a level I wouldn’t be able to save the work I just did.

Max: No, I would eject it, bring it to the street and wait for a car to run over it.

Did you like the story/plot/idea of this game?
Lila: I didn’t know the plot or story, but it was still appealing to the eye.

Max: No real story, all I know is [Donkey Kong] busted through a door and suddenly started jumping on bad guys. I don’t get it.

Thanks for reading guys, I’ll be back on the 7th of July, so I’ll see you guys then!

Got something to ask me? Wanna show me something? Want to send a  game request?
Shoot me an email at systemshuffle@hotmail.com
or check out our facebook page!

Animal Crossing

There have been 4 different Animal Crossing titles released throughout the years, the most recent being Animal Crossing: New Leaf that was just released on June 9th, 2013 for the 3DS. Go back a bit further and you’ll find Animal Crossing: City Folk for the Wii, Animal Crossing: Wild World for the DS, and the game that we’re reviewing today; Animal Crossing for Gamecube. The game was published and developed by Nintendo and released in 2001, around the same time as the Gamecube itself. In fact, did you know that Animal Crossing was originally released in Japan on the N64? By the time the game was translated to english, the Gamecube was released, and Nintendo decided to release Animal Crossing for Gamecube in America to show off the new game and system. The game also came with a new memory card with enough memory to make an Animal Crossing file for those who had the system but nothing to save their data on yet.

“So, what do I do in this game? How do I win?” Animal Crossing is an open-ended game, meaning that there’s really no way to beat it nor does it ever end. Think of it as a “second life outside your own” type of game, where the game runs on real time, making everyday a new day. Because the game is in real time, there are also holidays that give you special items or hold events and game for you to play. You move into town with no place to live, so the local general store owner (Tom Nook) offers to put you on a loan program and give you a house so you have someplace to live while paying it off as you play. “How do I pay off my loan?” Well, the currency in the game are called “bells”. You earn bells by selling furniture, fish, bugs, fossils, or doing favors for your animal neighbors. Your neighbors are all animals, while you’re the only human in the game. Favors include running house to house picking up items they may have borrowed from each other, or finding a certain bug or fish for the neighbor to enjoy. After you’ve collected enough bells to pay off your first loan (yes, first), you then have the option to increase the size of your house… for a cost. And so, the bells needed for each new size increase and get more and more expensive, but you can end up with a lot of space to make your own personalized home with hundreds of furniture to collect and choose from.

Let’s go a little more into neighbors. What kind of neighbors can you get? Are they all the same? Will I always have the same people in my town? You can have chickens, alligators, cows, dogs, cats, sheep, hawks, wolves, frogs, and other types of animals as your neighbors! Each neighbor has their own catchphrase, name, gender, and personality! There are the cranky, lazy, snooty, normal, and peppy types to meet and greet in Animal Crossing! Don’t like a certain neighbor? Don’t worry, if you visit a friends town or wait until some time has gone by, there’s a chance you can start the game and find a letter from said neighbor letting you know that they’ve moved away and won’t ever forget you. The sad part of this is that if there’s a neighbor you love, there’s a chance they can leave as well, and without any warning.

Here’s a little list of things you can do in game:

• Donate to the Museum! When you catch a bug, fish, find a fossil or a painting, bring it to Blathers, the owl who runs the museum! Bringing your creatures here won’t get you any bells, but all the museum asks for is one of each type of bug/fish/fossil/painting, so once they have it in their gallery you can sell duplicates from that point forward! I love donating, so when my friends come to my town, they can go through my gallery and see everything I’ve worked hard to collect.
• Design clothes! The Able Sisters run a little tailor in town that allows you to make your own patterns to use on your clothes, as wallpaper or flooring, wear as a hat or umbrella, and share with your town! Your friends and even neighbors can then use your pattern and wear it around for themselves!
• Look for campers! Time to time, there will be a stranger camping in your town in a tent (or igloo if it’s winter). You can then play games with these characters to get furniture or bells!
• Fish or catch bugs! Collect them for bells or donate them to the museum!
• Go shopping! Shop around Tom Nooks for furniture, paper, clothes, or tools!
• Write letters to your neighbors! The towns people LOVE letters, and will sometimes send you gifts if you write to them!
• Run errands for your neighbors to earn bells, paper, clothes, or furniture!

Overall, I grew up with this game. I adore every bit of it, and I have a lot of memories behind it as well, but if I had to choose between the classic Animal Crossing and the newer versions, I’d have to go with Animal Crossings newest release. Nintendo did a great job at listening to the fans about what they wanted added to the next Animal Crossing games, and in doing so they made every version of Animal Crossing an improvement of the last. If you compared the original Animal Crossing to its sequels, it would actually look like there’s not as much to do. Nonetheless, I would recommend this game to anybody. Any age, any gender, anyone who wants a joyful escape from reality for a little bit. The games have aged extremely well, and I still find myself going on my Gamecube to stop by and say hello to the neighbors I’ve grown up with and love oh so dearly. 

Got something to ask me? Wanna show me something? Want to send a  game request?
Shoot me an email at systemshuffle@hotmail.com
or check out our facebook page!

Short Review: Cooking Mama

I’m sorry for lack of photos, my phone (that I use for taking pictures) just had an update and now won’t take pictures. I’m trying to fix it.
Also, if you’re wondering why this weeks review is shorter, take a look here. 

Cooking Mama is a game developed by Office Create  and  published by Taito, 505 Games, and Majesco Entertainment. It was released worldwide for the DS in 2006, and became a very popular DS game title. Since its release, Cooking Mama has had many sequels for the DS, Wii, and soon to be 3DS, although her squeals have different themes such as babysitting, crafts, and so on.

There’s a very good reason I picked Cooking Mama as this weekend review. I have a beef with this game (no pun intended), because Mama seems all fine and friendly until you try and go for 100% completion. Before I get into that though, lets go over the gameplay. The game is pretty simple; you choose from a variety of recipes to use, you follow Mama’s directions through mini games that last no longer than 30-40 seconds, you get rated on each task, and once the recipe is complete Mama grades you with either a bronze, silver, or gold metal. You can only get gold if you complete every task perfectly. Usually, I’d have no problem with this! A little challenge has never hurt anybody! On recipes that are only 3-4 steps long, taking the time to practice a bit doesn’t take very long and allows you to get a perfect score in a matter of a few tries. On the other hand, there are some mini-game steps that has instructions so vague that you can’t possibly know what to to do without lots of  trial and error. There’s a practice mode for each recipe that allows you to go and practice the one step you’re stuck on, which also helps you with gaining a perfect score when you go to complete the full recipe. The frustrating part is when you get further into the game the recipes get longer (9-10 steps and even more when you combine recipes), so when your score is perfect until the very end and you mess up even a little bit, you have to do everything all over again or else you’ll be staring at a silver rating until you go for %100 again. It gets old really fast, and can lead to some large amounts of frustration.

Overall, this game can either be a relaxing game that you play in the car, while camping, or in your free time to just chill out for a bit or it could be the perfectionists absolute nightmare. Don’t let the cute art of the game fool you into thinking that you’re safe from rage. Fair warning though, this game is a lot like watching the food channel; Don’t play this game when hungry unless you have food available to you or you can actually cook or else you’ll be torturing yourself with the thought of food. I learned that the hard way.

Got something to ask me? Wanna show me something? Want to send a  game request?
Shoot me an email at systemshuffle@hotmail.com
or check out our facebook page! 

Sonic Adventure 3 Rumors: How & With Who?

So I was reading on IGN, GoNintendo and other forums when I stumbled across a recent rumor. Apparently, people are predicting a new Sonic Adventure game for the Wii, Wii U and/or 3DS by the end of the year. The first two Sonic Adventure games were successful but I just don’t see how they can come up with a new story line continuing off of Sonic Adventure 2: Battle, since they already kinda did so by making Shadow the Hedgehog and we all know how that went. Terribly. Then comes the question on what on earth they’re going to do with the Chao Garden since both Sonic Adventure games had them. What more could they add? I’d love to see new gardens, animals, evolution’s and such for the Chaos, but I hope they don’t go too  outside of how the Chaos already are I also read that they want to go back to what the first Sonic Adventure game did, by giving you different Sonic characters to play with their own story lines  I would adore this, but it seems like all the newer Sonic characters don’t have nearly enough depth to have their own stories, since they barley have stories in games they star in. It’d be nice for Sega to bring back older characters like Bean & Mighty since those characters have been so packed up and hidden away for so long most of you may have no idea who I’m talking about. Then it makes me wonder how they’d fit all of this on a 3DS without ruining the game itself. I mean, the first Sonic Adventure games were large with variety that they set a pretty high bar for the 3rd game. How could it compete on a smaller device when it should be a huge release? 

Then again, every site I’ve gone to about the rumors just leads me onto another site that heard of the rumors, and links me to where they found out about it. It’s just a giant circle of rumors that I can’t seem to find a stable answer to. I’d be so happy to see a a great new Sonic Adventure game out, but what do you guys think? What would you guys want in the new Sonic Adventure 3 if it’s released?