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.

 

Little Inferno

Recently for Christmas, I got my hands on a Wii U and fell in love with it. I’ve ordered Game & Wario, Sonic: Lost World, and even Just Dance (you know, for some exercise.) I was extremely pleased to find out that the Wii U also has a Nintendo e-shop to purchase games that you can immediately download to your system and play. A lot of the downloadable games are small indie games, or old retro arcade games that come at a cheap price, and one strange game caught my eye. Little Inferno.

For a while, I wasn’t sure if I wanted to spend $10 on a game that I didn’t know much about. I watched every trailer Nintendo handed to me, but all they showed me was that it’s a game about burning toys in a fireplace to keep warm in a world that seems to be slowly freezing over. Now don’t get me wrong, I like burning things with matches (safely) as much as the next guy, but I wouldn’t spend $10 to do it on my TV with fake fire. It wasn’t until I saw the YouTube channel Steam Train try it out themselves that I decided to actually watch some game play of Little Inferno.  They started the game, and as soon as they got a “letter” from one of the characters, I paused the video, got on my Wii U, and bought the game.

“Whoa, wait, what did the letter say that got you to get up and buy the game so quickly? Didn’t you want to know more about the game?” Well, yes. I did want to know more, hence why I bought it. In fact, I’ll even show you the part of the letter that got me off my computer and onto my Wii U. The letter started with the sender introducing herself as the creator of a new fireplace-like toy called “Little Inferno”, and that she hopes that you enjoy your new toy! (Mind you, Little Inferno isn’t a freaking toy. It’s just a fireplace.) The woman calls herself Miss Nancy, and explains that Little Inferno has no time limit, no points, no stress, just good ol’ fun where nothing can go wrong. All you have to do is simply buy toys from her catalog to burn and enjoy yourself. She then ends the letter with the page that sold me the game:

What. Was. That. What did that mean, there is something weird about this game, there is no way in hell I’m buying the whole “nothing can go wrong” idea, there is something strange that’s going to happen, and I’m going to find out what. You don’t add a crazy character into a game who sells fire to children and tell me that nothing can go wrong. Turns out, I was right. Little Inferno portrayed itself in both the beginning of the game AND in the Nintendo e-shop to be a silly game about setting toys on fire. Nowhere in the world would you ever get the idea that this game not only breaks your heart but also sends an amazing message to the players in the end. I was completely blind sided by this game, and it’s why I applauded it as soon as the credits started rolling. The message is about how you can escape depression and how you can be whatever you want to be, no matter how cold the world may seem, and that’s a message worth sharing in my opinion.

If you have a Wii U, go get your credit card or a $10 Nintendo e-shop card right now and get this game. It’s extremely re-playable, takes about 3-4 hours to beat, and while it really gets you invested in what’s going on in the world of Little Inferno, it’s also has really funny moments. I don’t regret buying this game in the slightest, and you know what, I’m going to go play it again right now.

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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.