Cowa-Sequential

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...

The Sonic the Hedgehog franchise has gone through many changes over its two decade existence. From its birth on the SEGA Genesis and transition to 3-D on the SEGA  Dreamcast to its struggles throughout the last decades, many wondered if Sonic would ever be good again. Since Sonic Adventure  2, I have played several newer Sonic games including Sonic Heroes and Sonic and the Secret Rings however theses titles were mediocre at best. A new game would be announced raising fan expectations and the final product would be a disappointing mess and this same cycle continued for years. Sonic Colors for the Wii and along with Sonic Generations for the Xbox 360 and PS3 helped change this perception. Sonic Colors' plot is fairly basic, Sonic and Tails visit Dr. Robotnik's interstellar amusement part and have to rescue the aliens that the doctor has captured there. The overall tone of the game is similar to those of Saturday morning cartoon shows with voice acting that fits. Unli...

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...

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...