All Your Base Are Belong to Us

I'm not sure if any of you out there actually know the back story to the infamous "All your base are belong to us" saying so I thought I would give you a nice little "video" demonstrating its beauty. In the actual game itself there is also some sound that goes along with the cutscene but nothing that really takes away from the meat of the story. Basically what happened to this game, Zero Wing, was rather than paying some translators to translate the text, they simply used a translation device and used it word for word. So obviously there are some serious grammatical errros in this cutscene. Enjoy.

NES No Longer Repairable Through Nintendo

This may come as a surprise to some of you but Nintendo is officially closing down their repair service program for the Famicom game system (NES in America). What's that, you're more suprised they were even still supplying repair parts and doing maintenance on a system that is over 20 years old? Yeah, me too. According to IT Media at the start of next month though, things will be back to the way they were, thirty seconds ago, before you even knew this existed.

To be perfectly honest, I was more suprised to hear they were still even thinking about these systems in this day in age. It makes me wonder though, can I still find parts to fix a broken SNES. Well the answer is no, you can't. Nintendo is also ending repairs and maintenance to the Super Famicom (SNES), Nintendo 64, Gameboy, and Gameboy Pocket. Apparently the Wii's Virtual Console is enough to give those wanting their fix of old games what they need.

Game Gym Almost Ended Today [UPDATED]

Well today was the day that almost marked the official end of the Game Gym blog. In other words, I almost died. The company that I work for isn't but a few miles away from a small market airport. All day everyday we see planes flying nice and low heading towards and away from the airport. Well today a plane was running low on gas as they came in for a landing. The plane successfully pointed towards our window and cut the engine. It's a good thing they did cut the engine though because if they would have crashed another 1/4 mile West it would have hit me...and I would have certainly died. Check out the article or just see the images below.

UPDATE: Here is another picture that one of my co-workers took with his nice high-res camera phone. And yes, that's me in the picture pointing out the plane crash. You know, in case you didn't see it.

Gamecube Controller Possibilties

Some awesome news was discovered by Gizmodo today regarding a prototype controller for the Gamecube back in 2001. A company called Gyration, which Nintendo has invested in, created a sort of hybrid controller with similarities to the PS2 Dual Shock and the Wiimote. If you can imagine a PS2 controller with a detachable right half where the right half then becomes the Wiimote for motion sensing you would have the idea. I just hope they would have made the thing more appealing to look at had they actually released the thing.

I wonder how last generation would have been different had Nintendo went this direction for the Gamecube. Would it have been as successful as the Wii is today? Would both the PS3 and Xbox 360 have motion controls more similar to the Wiimote now? I do know one thing is for certain, without the IR Sensor that the Wiimote has, this GyroPad would not have been as successful. Thoughts?

Metroid Prime 3 is Getting Noticed, Why Didn't Hunters

There are a few things I have noticed recently while reading up on gaming news prior to the release of the new Metroid game. And the major thing, along with the fact that the game should be awesome, is that other developers are actually taking notice of the way Metroid plays rather than ignoring it like they did with Metroid Prime Hunters. Now let me give you a little bit of history on this subject. Metroid Prime Hunters came out for the DS in March of 2006 with the best FPS controls that any handheld has ever seen. Not only does the game control like a dream but the game had some really well implemented online features too. There was voice chat, a rivals system, and multiple games modes to choose from. Since Hunters came out and sold just over a million copies I figured other developers would start pumping out FPS games on the DS with similar features and controls. But I was wrong. Since that games released there have been zero FPS games released for the DS and only one game with voice chat over WiFi Connection (Pokemon Diamond and Pearl).

Recently there have been a few interviews with various game developers that are currently making FPS games for the Wii. There is EA Canada making Medal of Honor Heroes 2 (with 32-player online multiplayer) and there is Demiurge doing the bulk of the development for Brothers in Arms for the Wii. In both interviews they have been asked about Metroid Prime 3 and they have both agreed that the game is influencing the way they control their new games.

IGN: Have you been following Metroid Prime 3? Because people have been saying it really nails FPS controls on the Wii.

Reed: We have absolutely been following it. Every time the tiniest bit of press about Metroid would come out we'd grab it and we'd ask Gearbox and Ubisoft to talk to Nintendo and see what information we could get about what they were doing.

This can only be good news for us gamers, considering Metroid controls wonderfully, but it makes me wonder why this hasn't happened with the DS Metroid. The next DS FPS is Call of Duty 4, one of my more anticipated games for the holiday, and it looks great. But why did it take over a year for this to happen?

Nintendo: Past, Present, Future

For anyone interested in reading a well written article about Nintendo, market share, and the future of gaming then click this link and head over to Business Week. The article makes mention of how Nintendo has always been about making profit and making people smile. They also make mention of the very frugal R&D costs Nintendo uses that makes their occassional failures (Virtual Boy, e-Reader, etc.) not cost them much money. And how they sell all their products for a profit so those same failures still manage to make some money in return. They risk, and innovate, often but do so in a very intelligent way. Enjoy the read.