Nintendo Power’s 250th issue (Jan. 2010) is packed with some awesome features looking back at great moments in Nintendo’s history. I’m also pumped that I have three Community section contributions featured in this landmark issue. There’s a piece on an impressive Super Mario Bros. 3 push-pin mural created by computer science students at the University of Fraser Valley, a piece on a couple of jazzy dude who will come into your living room and play old NES music in real-time while you play the games (for a price), and a feature on a cool papercraft piece crafted by Philipp Stollenmayer of an invisible Boo that will give you a double-take. Definitely check out that issue of you’re able to, as it also has some great work by fellow freelance game journo comrade and regular NP contributor Andrew Hayward. Also, keep your eyes peeled for the Feb 2010 issue, as I have a ton of stuff going in as part of the annual Year in Preview feature. Thanks!
Nintendo Power Jan. 2010 Contributions
December 25, 2009 by nmeunierFeature: Top Downloadable Games for December
December 23, 2009 by nmeunier
“The holiday season is a time for cheer and happiness for many, but it’s also a crazy time to be venturing out into the wintry bustle of last-minute shopping madness. Thankfully, there are a lot of affordable, excellent downloadable games to be had without ever leaving the warmth of your roaring hearth fire and the company of your loved ones. Grab a steaming cup of hot cocoa and settle in for this month’s download picks. We’ve got a great mix for you: musical black holes, intrepid subterranean explorers, a bookish worm, and restless alien monsters – a little something for everybody.”
Check out the full article here at What They Play.
Guitar Hero: Van Halen Review
December 23, 2009 by nmeunier
“What’s most disappointing about Guitar Hero: Van Halen is that you play as the older, present-day version of the band members for most of the game. Rather than reveling in the big hair, tight neon spandex, and over-the-top guitar showmanship of the band in their prime, the game forces you to play as the aging rock dinosaurs of today. It isn’t until the last tier of songs that you finally get to play as the band in their full cheesy old school glory and beating the game does unlock the classic version but that’s a feature that should have been available from the start.”
Check out the full review here at GamePro.
Cheap Thrills: The Devil’s Tuning Fork
December 19, 2009 by nmeunier
“It’s odd how a creepy first-person adventure game about children in comas can teach us a hell of a lot about dolphins. Created by a team of students from DePaul University for the 2010 Independent Games Festival, The Devil’s Tuning Fork is just the right mixture of smart and trippy. Though it has absolutely nothing to do with friendly, chirping marine mammals, the game’s entire concept hinges on their purported ability to “see” sound waves. In essence, it’s kind of like playing Doom in a pitch black room – except you’re armed with a tab of acid and a tuning fork instead of a rocket launcher.”
Check out the full column here at IGN.
Feature: 10 Geeky Gifts We Love
December 19, 2009 by nmeunier
“Finding the perfect holiday gift for that special someone one can be an agonizing process, particularly if their tastes shy away from cushy mainstream gift-giving fare and lean toward the quirky end of the spectrum. And while video games and assorted high-tech gadgetry are almost always a secure bet, sometimes you need to switch the geekiness to full-auto to get the job done.”
Set your phasers on “super geeky” and check out my first feature story for MSN’s Game On right here.
Worldshift Review
December 18, 2009 by nmeunier
“There’s a lot of cool stuff found in WorldShift’s sci-fi fantasy world. Magic and tribalism is married with high-tech warfare in a real-time strategy conquest that should be somewhat satisfying based on its premise alone. But, for everything that truly works about the game, you’ll find something that’ll get under your skin.”
Check out the full review here at Cheat Code Central.
IGN’s 2009 Best Free-To-Play: Time Fcuk
December 16, 2009 by nmeunier
“This quirky platform puzzler messes around with time and space as much as it fiddles with your mind. When your future self “suggests” you get in the box, you best damn well get in the box. Doing so thrusts you into a strange world of warping dimensional spaces, freaky messages from the past and future, and abnormal sentient growths.”
I contributed to a portion of the Free-To-Play section for IGN’s Best of 2009 awards. Check it out here at IGN.
Hands-On Preview: No More Heroes 2: Desperate Struggle
December 15, 2009 by nmeunier
“Few things deflate one’s sense of manhood like having your lightsaber run out of juice right when you’re about to cut some dude in half. Even worse: The process of “recharging” the wounded fellow is uncomfortably familiar. You just sort of grab it and shake it around until it’s ready for another go. Right. The super over-the-top absurdity and sexy gore-fest that made No More Heroes such a bizarre and crazy hit on Wii is clearly back in good form. Our hilarious, blood-soaked play session with No More Heroes 2: Desperate Struggle had us carving up goons, inadvertently pureeing scantily clad ladies, and making quasi-obscene gestures with the Wii Remote. And we’d expect nothing less.”
Check out the full preview here at GamesRadar.
Review: King Arthur: The Role-Playing Wargame
December 12, 2009 by nmeunier
“Neocore Games didn’t beat around the bush in coming up with an accurately descriptive title for King Arthur: The Role-Playing Wargame. The game beautifully blends some familiar and engaging war strategy genres into a powerful concoction that’s heavily steeped in Arthurian legend. The King Arthur mythos is ripe with fantastic subject matter and story elements to pluck from, and it’s seamlessly woven throughout the adventure in interesting ways. This epic and challenging quest to unite Britain by sword doesn’t disappoint, but you’re going to need some great fortitude to persevere in your righteous conquest.”
Check out the full review here at Cheat Code Central.
Hands-On Preview: Crime Scene
December 11, 2009 by nmeunier
“Blood and bodies are hell of a way to start the morning. It was an apparent murder-suicide. Their cold, lifeless corpses were slumped in pools of blood at opposite ends of the otherwise cozy apartment. He was a good cop. Maybe it was the stress that made him snap. Maybe it was something else that made him put a bullet in his wife and then turn the gun around on himself. Either way, something just didn’t jive. It was time to roll up our sleeves, grab the stylus, and dig into to the evidence in Crime Scene.”
Check out the full preview here at GamesRadar.
