In yesterday's Nintendo Direct stream, it was revealed that the upcoming 3DS Zelda game, The Legend of Zelda: A Link Between Worlds, will not force players to complete its dungeons in any particular order. Apparently this is called "sequence breaking," though I'm not sure if I'm cool enough to be throwing around big words like that.
One of my favorite things is happening tomorrow. I'm not sure what it is about Nintendo Direct streams, but they get me all restless and excited like few things in the gaming world can. Maybe it's the prospect of getting a truckload of news outside of E3 or a tradeshow. Though Directs sometimes come up empty, they've also been known to deliver completely unexpected information avalanches, be it new titles, executives holding bananas, or everything in between.
iOS 7 is cool I guess, but I am so feeling this Wii U system update right now. Nintendo's added a substantial amount of new stuff this time around, with features ranging from the quietly convenient to the wholly experience-altering.
When I first heard that the second and third chapters of The Raven - Legacy of a Master Thief would allow me to play as additional, important story characters aside from the lovable but not quite action-hero calibur Anton Jakob Zellner, I was pretty excited. “Maybe I’ll get to play as the brilliant Inspector Legrand,” I thought aloud. “Or even The Raven himself!” Two chapters later, with the finale completed and all three segments now gestating in my mind’s critical analysis chamber, I’m surprised to find that all said and done, I actually wish I had spent the whole thing with our man Zellner after all. I guess hindsight is twenty-twenty.
Keiji Inafune's Mighty No. 9 is chugging along nicely on Kickstarter (a massive understatement, really), and to keep things interesting and donations flowing, the team has put out the first part of a documentary about the game's creations.
According to a lengthy investigation conducted by Kotaku, the number of games stuck in purgatory and eventually cancelled at LucasArts in its final years is quite a bit more than we all expected.
At what point does comparison cease to be a valuable and revealing undertaking, and instead take a nasty turn for the destructive? Though many might argue that endless analogizing of videogames (or any variety of art for that matter) can often result in needless bickering or altercation, I would venture to say that the near-exact opposite is true. The insight that results from direct comparison -- be it a Disqus flame-war or an intelligent discourse amongst peers -- is not needless, but essential. It's how we judge art, it's how we decipher what's good, bad, ugly, or beautiful, and most importantly, it's how a medium moves forward. If someone were raised in a cave and then asked to play and critique Dragon's Crown, where would they begin? It would be impossible to assess its quality.
Sony is notorious for the 1o-year life cycles of their consoles, but what about Microsoft? Apparently a new console each decade is the norm, as Microsoft's Corporate VP Phil Harrison has stated that with the launch of Xbox One, gamers will be embarking on a "more than 10-year journey."
And now, for today's how-is-that-possible segment. According to recent sales reports, Nintendo's 3DS handheld has sold more units in Japan, Nintendo's home turf, than the uber-popular and notoriously mainstream original Wii. What?! I'm still processing it myself.
When Nintendo announced the 2DS, gamers ‘round the globe froze like so many deer in headlights. Is this thing real? Is today April 1st? Has Nintendo finally gone full-on crazy? And as is usually the case with aberrant Nintendo news, the editorials started flooding in. “Out of touch! Leaving the console race!” And of course, the ever popular “Doomed!”
