Cowa-Sequential

Super Smash Brothers is back and now portable with Super Smash Bros. 4 3DS. Super Smash Bros. 3DS is the portable version of the Wii U console game that has just been released. Not having yet taken the plunge on Nintendo's newest console, I am left with the 3DS version. If what you wanted was Super Smash Bros. Brawl on the go, Mashiro Sakurai and Nintendo have delivered exactly what you have ordered. I can't help be impressed by the sheer amount of content that has been put into this game. The character  roster is expansive as is the stage count with special attention to the F-Zero Super Nintendo themed stage. In actual overall content, I would place it between Melee and Brawl. While the game is lacking Brawl's expansive adventure mode, Smash Run, Classic, and All-Star modes provide a quick but familiar burst of fun. The graphics are among the most fluid I've seen during my limited experience with the console and the 3D effect does provide some added depth. H...

T he Legend of Zelda is one of gaming's oldest and most esteemed franchises. Originally appearing on the NES in 1987, the series has appeared on every Nintendo console and portable machine with entries such as 1998's Ocarina of Time be lauded as one of the greatest games of all time. I have played the majority of the series and am a solid fan of franchise, however lately something seems amiss. My most recently completed Zelda games are The Minish Cap for the Game Boy Advance and Twilight Princess on the GameCube released in 2005 and 2006 respectively. The Phantom Hourglass and Spirit Tracks for the Nintendo DS remain unfinished as does Wii's motion controlled entry Skyward Sword. Is the Legend of Zelda series losing its spark or did I just lose the motivation to complete these titles? P hantom Hourglass is the touch screen controlled sequel to 2003's Wind Waker. Sailing remains a key element in this film however instead of controlling the ship directly, players c...

Following Nintendo's presentation at the E3 computer and video game exposition, select Best Buy electronic stores hosted Smashfest where fans had the chance to try out Super Smash Bros 4 .  Super Smash Bros is a party fighting game that brings together characters from several Nintendo franchises. that debuted in 1999 on the Nintendo. Since then its sequels Super Smash Bros Melee and Super Smash Bros Brawl have garnered skilled and passionate followings on the GameCube & Wii respectively. I originally got into the franchise after seeing a commercial for the N64 which my ten year old self thought was out of this world. Super Smash Bros 4 is being released this year for both the 3DS and the Wii U making it both the first portable Smash Bros. game and the first HD version of the game. I went to my local Best Buy an hour early  expecting a minimal line however what I was met with was the oddest mix of bros high-schoolers, and parents with a few children mixed in t...

T he Nintendo 64 was a revolutionary console that not only brought the Legend of Zelda and Super Mario franchises into the 3rd  dimension and had titles along with Sony's Playstation that helped lay the groundwork for modern console gaming. Two of the innovations were the N64 controller's analog stick and its Z trigger that was located on the back of the controller. These changes allowed a greater degree control in 3-D games  than a simple directional pad could provide and remained an mainstay in game controllers ever since. Additionally, the C-buttons allowed for control of the game's camera which is key when playing through the levels of Banjo-Kazooie or Majora's Mask. I got a Nintendo 64 in the late 1990s and it served as my go- to system for several years until I traded it in to purchase a Nintendo GameCube. Between Nintendo's own titles and a few great licensed games there was a great variety of classic games that provided hours of entertainment. When ...

Nintendo was founded as a playing card making company in 1889, survived the Second World War and  reinvented itself as a video game console maker and developer during the digital age. However now in 2014, the Japanese company finds itself at a crossroads, its newest console Wii U has failed to capture the attention of the public and is struggling mightily at retail. There as been pressure from both investors and the gaming media for Nintendo to publish its games on either smartphones or Microsoft's Xbox and Sony's Playstation consoles. Nintendo has money from the 3DS and from last generation's successful Wii and DS systems but expenses from producing the Wii U have caused the company to take on losses. Right now there's been a significant amount of talk stating that Nintendo should pull a Sega and go third party. However I feel like that would be a bad move. In the last few years, third party video game publishers such as Square, EA, Capcom, and Konami have all had so...

In a continuation from the last Vs. article, I will talk about another 3rd party Wii game. No More Heroes is a 3rd party action that stars anime nerd Travis Touchdown that uses his beam katana and wrestling moves to on a quest to become the top  ranked assassin in the world. The game was developed by developer Suda51 which also developed Killer 7 among other titles. It is a over the top game filled with bad puns and cheesy & crude humor. While the graphics are nothing to write home about , the niche title managed to spawn a sequel NMH 2: Desperate Struggle. California based city of Santa Destroy serves as the open-world setting for the game which Travis can traverse on foot or by motorcycle. The game's mini games vary from doing menial motion controlled tasks to defeating a certain number of enemies. The game is mission based game where you have to do sidequests to earn enough money to buy into the next level/ assassin contract. In addition Travis can gain more health and imp...

Nintendo's Wii was the most successful console it ever released with over 100 million units sold dwarfing even the NES. However aside from Wii Sports, conventional wisdom stated that the Wii was all about waggle and had no games.  While the Wii was supported by Nintendo's first party franchises, its third party support lacked many key franchises that were on the Xbox 360 and PS3. The Gamecube also missed some titles but due to its similar capabilities to the other consoles of its generation, it had more cross platform titles due to easier portability. Given that the Wii was clearly the least graphically powerful console of its generation, this wasn't often the case. Games often skipped the console because a Wii version would most likely be an entirely different a new game. The Wii did receive a decent amount of third party support and two games that particularly held my interest were Ubisoft's Red Steel 2 and Suda51's No More Heroes. Many of theses games may have be...

I have been a Nintendo fan since the Nintendo 64 days and have fond memories playing Super Mario Bros. and Tecmo Bowl in the NES days.  The late 1990s and 2000s were filled with games such as Super Mario 64, GoldenEye, Super Smash Bros. and the Legend of Zelda: Wind Waker. I can't count the hours spent riding through the green fields of Hyrule, leaping into Mushroom Kingdom and finding the perfect Smash  with friends and family. From the Game Boy Pocket to the Nintendo DS. and from the NES to Wii, I've enjoyed them all (with exception to the SNES as I had a Genesis). One would expect that I would have purchased a 3DS or a Wii U however as of today I have neither. Did I stop loving the franchises that one enthralled me or am I losing interest in video games as a whole? Since its release in late 2012, the Wii U has struggled in the marketplace compared to its juggernaut predecessor. The original motion controlled Wii revolutionized the use of body movement in video games, tran...