Nintendo's Pay-to-Play Online, Bad News for Gamers

As mentioned during this years Game Developers Conference (GDC) Nintendo could very well start charging its customers to play games online. Not only that, but it will allow companies to start releasing downloadable content for games.

I personally think this news is awful. I can't stand the fact that companies hold onto content for a game, charge full price for it, and then release said content and charge you again. I would rather wait a year for the full-blown sequel while playing the original than pay $30-$40 to "upgrade" the same game and then pay for the sequel a year and a half later anyway. Make this downloadable content free (yeah right), and we'll talk.

A game like Animal Crossing on the Wii, which I am (was) quite excited for, now holds some serious potential to be a total wallet killer by forcing us to pay for every single piece of furniture. Disaster in the making? I sure hope so. This may be the first time I have ever hoped for something that Nintendo does to fail. So much for appealing to everyone huh Reggie.

As for paying to play online games, until Nintendo's online services prove not to suck compared to the competition, one of which is also free (see PS3), then they should hold off on this move. The announcement stated this change is for the Wii and the DS system, but DS users are already paying an extra $5 charge for every WiFi compatible title ($35 for a DS game rather than $30). Now Nintendo is going to charge an addition fee after the already increased $5 price? If Mario Kart Wii is the first game to demonstrate this move for Nintendo, then it could very well be the first Mario Kart game that I do not buy.

Am I alone on this one? Are there others out there that feel the same way I do or am I standing on top of a very small soap box?

Smash Bros Brawl Spectator Mode

Spectator Mode was announced today on the Smash Bros Brawl website today. There are multiple games out there that allow you to watch other people play the game over the interweb. Perhaps the person you are watching has a very fast race time or are an exceptional sniper shot and you want to see how they do it. Or maybe you don't have cable and they are just some random guy you would rather watch than static. The difference here is that Smash Bros will allow you to bet on who you think will win the match you are watching. So if you think that Bowser will win the match then bet 200 tokens on him and see if you win. With your winnings you can use them to purchase various unlockable goodies in the game. Not to mention you unlock stickers while viewing and betting on matches. Not a clue what you do with stickers, but hey, at least you get something.

This does a few things for the online experience other than allow you to watch some random people having fun playing the game that you could very easily be playing yourself, no, it gives you a slightly different online experience. Now you are never certain if someone is betting on you when you are playing an online game (unless you are a loser and set "Allow Spectators" to NO, who would do that). You could be sitting at home playing a game online and lose someone a million tokens. You could single handedly destroy the last remaining hopes for a small family of 4 with nothing but a few measly little tokens remaining in their bank accounts. How do you feel about yourself now Bowser...HOW DO YOU FEEL?!!!?!!

Smash Bros Brawl Online Detailed

Is a hardrive needed for replays?
Sakurai announced that you will be able to save and send up to three minute replays of battles or other modes. At first glance one would think this would require a very large amount of data to save that much footage of a game. However, depending on how they save the data, they could keep extremely small sized save files. When looking at a game like Halo 3 that allows a similar feature they manage to keep two minute save files down to an extremely small 100 Mb. Considering the large amount of HD textures and high number of polygons in Halo 3, that is quite a feat.

The way the Bungie developers accomplished such small replay files was by only tracking (and saving) game code of everything happening in the game. Rather than saving the footage as a video file this allows the new viewer (the person you sent the replay) to move the camera around and zoom in and out. If the Smash Bros team uses a similar strategy for a game with no HD and a small environment you could easily get a three minute replay in under 40Mb file size.

To add to this, Sakurai has noted that we can save created levels, screenshots, and replays directly to an SD card. If the above tactic doesn't work, you still really don't need a harddrive.

Will there be an Adventure Mode creation tool?
The president of Nintendo of America recently told a media outlet during an interview that he wishes LittleBigPlanet was on the Wii and not on the PS3. In this game people create single-player levels from scratch and allow others to play through the level. My question with this Smash Bros update is whether or not you will be able to create single-player levels as well as Brawl stages. One thing I found interesting was a screenshot on the site with a ladder as an object option.

I have never once seen a ladder used in the way Mario is using that ladder in a Smash Bros game. In the middle of a Smash Brawl I think it would be awfully weird to stop the action and start climbing a ladder. So what could this mean for the create-a-level option? Perhaps a single-player level editor is on the horizon. One can only hope.

There are a few other things I have worries or suspicions about in regards to Smash Bros online features but that will have to wait until a later date. Not to say I don't love all these online features, because I absolutely do, I'm just saying there's more to it than what we know right now.

Smash Bros Brawl is an Online Feature Beast

My oh my. Just when I thought Super Smash Bros Brawl couldn't get any cooler Sakurai, the games director, goes and announces this. It still may not be Halo 3 in the online department but the announcement today over at the Smash Bros Dojoshows that there is a level editor available in the game. Not only is there a level editor in the game but it is possible to save your creations to an SD card and bring them to a friends house to play. What, that's not really all that cool? Well then just send the level to them over Nintedo's WiFi Connection and play against them online. Still not cool enough? Well then mail the level to Nintendo and every single day they will feature a new created level for random online matches. So if you are fighting online and set the level to random, millions of people a day could be playing on your creation. Love it while you got it though because it only lasts for a day.

So as of right now there are a multitude of online options for this game. You can setup various character statues in different poses and send snapshots to friends. You can battle it out in every level and mode against friends or stangers. You can record up to three minutes of replay footage and send it to a buddy. And now, you can create your own level, music and all, and send it to friends or Nintendo for multiplayer madness. Is this the end of the online mode announcements or does Sakurai have some more tricks up his sleeve?

Metroid Prime 3 to Use Wii Codes for WiiConnect24 Features

I found this over at the Nintendo Forums and I got pretty excited. Apparently Metroid Prime 3 will draw from your Wii Address List and not require separate Friend Codes for the exchange of tokens. Basically the tokens are a way to allow your friends to know how much you have accomplished in Metroid Prime 3 and to what degree. For example, if you kill 50 small enemies in a room you may be rewarded with a red token (small reward) but if you kill the final boss in under 2 minutes on the hardest difficulty you could receive a gold token (high reward). This is sort of an "achievement" system similar to the Xbox 360. The best part, however, is the fact that you don't have to insert more 12 digit numbers for the WiiConnect24 features to work.

If you watch the Gametrailers preview at 4:45 seconds it shows the page for exchanging tokens, after that it shows your friend roster and says "Friends in black currently have a save file for MP3" so does that mean it's looking in your Wii adress book and at your friends data to see if they have saves? I hope so! I don't wanna keep using different FC's for every game." Click here to see the video.

Super Mario Strikers Wii Final Impressions [Update 1]

My Super Mario Strikers battles continue and the further I get along with the game the more little issues I have found with the game. One's not really an issue so much as a personal preference, the other though, is most certainly an issue.

The first issue is the fact that I was in 6th place in the nation with my online ranking at the end of last week and now the season is over. I went online last night and discovered I was now ranked in 594th place with no wins or losses and no record of the previous week. This little fault, to me at least, seems a little dissapointing. So you can play a ton of games one week to gain some ground in the rankings, but you can't play the game slowly and gradually garner rankings. Maybe there is a constant comparison with your friends (no one has accepted my friend code requests yet) but as of right now it appears everything is erased at the end of each seven day season. Bummer.

The other issue is in regards to the single player experience. I will sum this up in as quick a way as possible: the Mega Strike has no effect in later levels of the cups. Even if you get a charged Mega Strike with six shots and a perfect orange finish and he will block all six shots. Sometimes though, you will get a three shot Mega Strike with a grey charge and you will score all three. There is no consistency or reward for obtaining the far more difficult orange Mega Strikes. It would be one thing to make them harder to get by increasing the difficulty of the AI but making them entirely obsolete is just wrong.

All in all though, this game is very addictive and a ton of fun, especially if you play through the online and cups with a friend. Enjoy Nintendo sports games? Then buy this game. Not sure if you like Nintendo sports games? This could be the one that hooks you; try it.

[Update:] I forgot to inform you guys what my Mario Strikers Friend Code is. Just post a comment with your Friend Code if you want to exchange.

141840 088198

See you on the field... suckas!!!