Review: Nintendo 3DS Online eStore w/ Downloaded Games

   During E3 Nintendo finally opened up the Nintendo 3DS online store, the 3DS E-Store. Not reading to much into the original announcement, after the DSi store gave me a little disappointment, I still wanted to check it out.

Donkey Kong is playing hide-n-seek, badly.

   After an update, the E-Store's icon appears on the 3DS selection menu, along with the web browser that I only tested for a moment before heading into the store. Once in the store, I was happily surprised to see not only the entire DSi shop menu available, but also a 3D exclusive shop that has downloadable Nintendo Gameboy games. Right away, I purchased $10 in Nintendo money & bought Mario Land and Legend of Zelda: Link's Awakening DX. Both great games that I remember from by early years and also nicely priced at $2.99 & $5.99 respectively.
   An almost perfect port of each game, Nintendo also includes a "State Saver." Something that has been used in numerous emulation programs, a "State Saver" allows you to save the game at anytime in the game. This can be used to save where you are despite what you're doing, and move onto another game. You can also save a state before a boss battle or after a difficult level, allowing you to return even if you die. The system only allows you save one state at a time, but that's enough to help me though Mario Land after 10 years.

Mario Land is awesome until you realize how short it is.

  Another pleasant surprise was the 3DS game trailers, showing off all of the titles shown at E3. Watching some of them really got me excited to the coming 3DS line-up. Later on, they did upload a 3D trailers for the luke-warm Green Lantern movie to prove that they can do full 3D movies via Netflix at a late date. Nintendo even gave 3DS users a 3D version of the classic Excitebike free until July, as well as a 3D Pokedex covering the new Pokemon from the Black/White series. I do hope we'll be seeing more game & movie trailers soon. The only thing Nintendo needs to do now is to make demos available and they will rival the PSN with content that I care about.
   With updates coming weekly, there are high-hopes for the Estore. I see now that Donkey Kong (Gameboy) is available, so as soon as I can I'll be getting that as well! A lot of great classic games to look forward too.

Pictures That Will Possibly Make You Laugh! 6/29/11

Yeah, Pig boobs. Thanks Gannon.

The eternal battle between user and pc.

I'm not sure if the guys a pedo or a zombie.

XD

Review: Tron Evolution for PS3

   While biding my time to receive InFamous 2 (Review pending), GameFly.com happily sent me another game to tide me over. Tron: Evolution is a game set before Tron: Legacy during the time when Kevin Flyyn discovered the ISOs that where introduced in Legacy. The game fills in a little more back story for the movie, explaining the **SPOILER IF YOU HAVEN'T WATCHED EVOLUTION AHEAD** destruction of the ISOs, Cluu's betrayal, and the disappearance of Tron. **SPOILERS OVER**

I wish I could of been a female security program.

STORY:
   You start as a security program created by Kevin Flyyn to protect the in-game-in-computer world of the Grid. As you are the blue guy, the red guys are naturally your enemies. You'll also meet the yellow guys, who are a part of a computer virus known as Abraxas. Along the way you'll meet movie characters along the way, some voiced by the actors that are in the movie. It's a good note here to say that Kevin/Cluu's voice isn't done by Jeff Bridges, but it's a pretty damn good sound-alike. I'd get more into the story if it was worth really talking about. The story could of been easily for been accepted as an animated movie released before Legacy was out, Ala all these super hero movies being accompanied by an straight to dvd/bluray animated movie. 1/5

This is my "Hrm" face.

GRAPHICS:
   Slandered looks to the PS3. Nothing to amazing, but nothing to make fun of either. The constant black on blue gave me a bit of a dizzy spell. The characters facial reactions are pretty nice, with the acceptation of a few character's faces looking a bit off during cut scenes. PS3 version prompts you to play this game in 3D, but I lack the 3D TV for such a thing.  4/5

SOUND:
   Other then a few tracks from Legacy, the soundtrack was pretty non-existent. Maybe there was music other then in a few cutscenes and during the opening menu, but it must of been pretty dull compaired to the movie. I don't remember crap about it. 1/5

GAMEPLAY:
   The game is a basic jump, attack, and dodge game. The game play feels kind of like the newer Prince of Persia games, with alot of Tron elements. As predicted, you use your disc for everything. For the first few chapters, the gameplay is fun and addicting but grows stale by chapter 4. The fighting system is a little muddled, where you never know when you're going to eat disc to the face until it's to late. Having to constantly watch your energy meter can be a pain, but it also adds a challenge to the game. Of course the bike racing & tank driving levels are here. The bike levels tend to be trail & error, where you'll never know if you're going to suddenly ram yourself into a wall. The tank on other hand is like moving a giant target that can only shoot one powerful blast. If you can hide your tank from the enemy until you take their numbers down, you shouldn't have an issue. All three aspects of the game start out as fun, but grow tedious by mid-game prompting me to return it shortly after my 2nd fight with Abraxus. I never git a change to try multiplayer, due to my friends being more interested in Mario Sports Mix. 3/5.

"I AM THE YELLOW GUY, WELCOME TO DIE!"

END OF LINE:
   The biggest draw to this game is Legacy. If you've recently watched it, you'll love the game despite it's quirks. You'll love the fact the trophy/achievement system has names based on quotes from the movie, (I giggled at the "It's all in the wrists" trophy.) and the more detail into the story can be nice. I wish I could of spent a little more time with the game, but another game called me into it's arms. 2.25/5

Armpit attacks are the number 1 cause of motocycle accidents.

Cleaning out my Closet. Literally.

   One of my primary goals over my week away from work was to clean my room. I decided, sense I really had a few days with nothing to do, that I need to deep clean my room. Started by pulling everything out of my closest; Including old games, about 4 Sega Genesis (or would it be 4 Sega Genesi? English is tough some days.), the Japanese Evangelion Manga 1-6, and clothing I'd never wear again. After about 1 & 1/2 ful 30 gal trash bags later, I had it all cleaned out.
   Packed up 2.5 years worth of Shonen Jump & placed them in my closet & took all of my electronics out of my dresser and filled it with clothing that was previously in a basket near my bed. That's right, the dresser is now full of clothing. Took down everything off my walls, and wiped the dust off my wall scrolls & figure collections I have on the walls. Scrubbed the walls, the baseboards, vacuumed 3 times. Despite the fact I was getting tired, I kept energetic with the soundtracks of Labyrinth, Little Shop of Horrors, & Tron Legacy.
   Finally, I did something I never thought I'd do.. I packed away 80% of my video game collection. Before that, I took some pictures of the most horrifying disappointment in my entire collection. The one thing, that to this day, I weep whenever I think about it.
  

There are no games here, only Zool.

   Really? Did Atari need to release this birth defect of a gaming system onto the masses? Why do the cartridges look like a copy of Sonic & Knuckles that melted in the sun? Why does the controller look like a rejected cell phone from AT&T? Then there is Zool, the sole game in my Atari Jaguar collection.

"Let's be different" they said.

   Zool was a decent platformer game from the SNES-platformaga Era in video games, and was originally created for the Amiga in 1992 to be a rival for Sonic the Hedgehog. Zool almost beat Sonic 2 in sales, making it the best selling game in 1993 for the Amiga. The game then was ported to all current generation systems at the time, despite the fact that Zool's Wikipedia page doesn't mention that it came out for the Jaguar. The Jaguar port itself was a decent port of the game, but that big bitch issue goes back to the controller.

Same basic shape as a Dreamcast controller;

   This thing makes the first Xbox controller comfortable. The A,B, & C buttons are reversed from what we're used to, possibly confusing a lot of gamers.  I'm not sure if they were planning on using the phone-like keys for something decent, but this controller is probably the ugliest thing I have in my gaming collection. I even own Shaq Fu for the Genesis, and I find it less revolting then the controller for the Jaguar. I'll give it a little credit in one area: It doesn't look as bad as Vegeta's moustache.

E3 2011

   As much as I don't want to see to much about E3 this year, due to the fact that I cannot afford to go to a certain anime convention that takes place at the same convention center less then a month later. So, I haven't been all over E3 news as much as I usually can. ; ;
   So a quick rundown:

   Nintendo Announced Wii U, a Wii console that lives up to PS3 & 360 standards. As awesome as this sounds, this my be to late in the game. Unless this system can match pricing with the Sony's & Microsoft's systems, there will not be much hope here. If it is better then current consoles? Awesome, way to get your foot in the door early on Nintendo. Nintendo did give us a lot of 1st & 3rd party games, including some very exciting 3DS games. As for games, all the main players come back: Mario, Link, Kirby, and many others will be returning with new games. Plenty of exciting new titles that we should see by years end. Also, for you DSi users, you can now download Zelda Four Swords for free from your DSi stores.

   Sony has apologized for it's outage, announced that the NGP will be renamed Vita & sold as two different units; both concerning themselves with that sort of internet they can use. Sony then apologized again for it's outage, and one more time. Sky 4 was announced, making me want to try the first three games sense they have been released for the Ps3. Also there was more talk about 3D support.

   Microsoft... was big money even at E3? Something about more support for the Kinect. I did see that Halo was being remade for HD, but I think that was announced before E3. 

Actually this comic explains everything.

   In all honestly, I'm not impressed by the big 3. Nintendo should of had the Wii U out last year, Xbox could of been doing a little better in the R&D department, and Sony.. well, they were very sorry. Not sorry enough to give me games I don't already own, but sorry none the less.

Quickies

First and formost:
   Sorry for not being around the last few weeks. I've have quite an adventurous last few weeks, and I'll be sure to fill in some detail tomorrow;

For now, I'm tired and I am going to play FFXI.

I'm going to rest dreaming of clown college.