Chances are you have never heard of Mr. Gimmick, an NES game released back in 1992. It never found its way to American shores and its nearly impossible to find a copy that remains in existence, but I have the next best thing: an expertly done and well-crafted historical examination of the game complete with annotations.
From the creator:
This is the first of a four-part gameplay video of Gimmick!, a platform game released by SunSoft for the Japanese NES in 1992. A worldwide release of this game (as “Mr. Gimmick”) was planned but ultimately canceled, leaving only the original Japanese version and a small release in Scandinavia. Gimmick! was a major accomplishment and a beautiful game, and it’s a shame that the game never had its chance to shine.
Be sure you keep annotations on! I spent a long time explaining the history and cultural significance of this game, I hope you learn something.
Castlevania The Adventure Rebirth is the third and perhaps most impressive entry so far in Konami’s arcade-style WiiWare titles (the first two being Gradius Rebirth and Contra Rebirth). The title, available for download exclusively on WiiWare for 1,000 Wii Points ($10), retells the first adventure of vampire hunter Christopher Belmont in what is essentially an entirely new game.
Unlike the recent Castlevania titles for the Nintendo DS, Castlevania Rebirth ditches the Metroidvania style of gameplay where you unlock portions of Dracula’s castle and level up in a non-linear, RPG/Metroid-like format, and instead harkens back to the straightforward NES days where you progressed from one level to the next in a linear fashion armed with only your whip, your subweapons and nerves of steel.
Monster Games has pretty much taken up the mantle now as developer of all things Excite-related. After creating the excellent launch-title arcade racer, Excitetruck – the first game to branch the Excite series out of bikes – and following up with the goofy but fairly good Excitebots, the developer has returned to the roots of the series with a pseudo-3D update to the original NES title.
Excitebike World Rally for the WiiWare (1,000 Wii Points) is essentially an expansion of the Excite 3D mode from 2000’s Excitebike 64. If anyone recalls, the Nintendo 64 title (developed by Left Field) featured a perfectly emulated version of the NES title as well as a special one-track sampling of the NES racer redone in full 3D graphics, but with an optional ¾ view ala Super Mario RPG or Sonic 3D Blast. The short-but-sweet “remake,” if you will, was a great deal of fun and the first instance of Excitebike being remade without altering the core 4-lane straightaway racetrack design.
The developer seems to have taken some inspiration from the Excite 3D mode because its recent WiiWare title plays essentially the same – although with much more content and more refined controls.
Well this one sure came out of left field (no pun intended). Nintendo has just announced via its Nintendo Channel show, Nintendo Week, that a new iteration of the classic NES game Excitebike will be hitting WiiWare on November 9.
Excitebike: World Rally will feature a graphically updated engine that looks suspiciously similar to the 3D classic Excitebike mode included in 2000’s Excitebike 64. So while the game play is based upon the classic 2D NES game, the game will be presented in 3D graphics much like the Nintendo 64 version.
Returning features include the classic Excitebike theme, the track editor and standard NES-style controls. However, new features will include motion controls and Wi-Fi support for online play.
We’ll have a review available shortly after its release.
In a surprising move, it seems that Nintendo has begun to push Wii Internet use with a few initiatives meant to get the little white console online.
The Wii’s Opera-powered Internet browser is now available once again for free to download. If you weren’t able to download the Internet Channel during its free initial release (between December 2, 2006 and July 30, 2007), then you had to pay 500 Wii Points for the software, up until today.
Being the Wii enthusiast that I am, I had naturally downloaded the Opera browser as soon at it debuted, saving myself a hefty 500 Wii Points. But this also meant that I was unable to verify today’s announcement lest I wipe my Wii’s internal memory clean. So instead I called up a fellow Wii owner who picked up his system after July 30, 2007, and sure enough, he confirmed that the Internet Channel is now free to download.
But that’s not all. It seems that if you previously downloaded the browser for the 500 Wii-point fee, Nintendo wants to make it up to you by offering a free NES game via the Virtual Console in October. This is great news in addition to the fact that the Opera browser has now been upgraded to support Adobe Flash.
But, as with their black Wii which has yet to debut in the U.S., Japanese customers seem to be getting the best deal due to their exclusive promotion that rewards them with a special “Help Master” title and access to the full NES, SNES and N64 library. I could sure go for that program.
History repeats itself time and time again. But repetition is by no means limited to the same medium.
As we progress deeper into the first full year since the backlash over Nintendo’s E3 2008 showing, and the continuing trend of terms such as “hardcore” and “casual” ripple through gaming journalism, I can’t help but remember some history from a little rock band called Van Halen. (Maybe you’ve heard of them?)
And the more I think about it, the more I realize that the Big N has a lot in common with what some consider the progenitor of 80s hair bands.
Both Van Halen and Nintendo got their start in their current industries (music and video games, respectively) in approximately the mid-to-late 1970s. Both became famous around the mid-1980s and each group had its easily recognizable trademarks. For Van Halen it was wild finger-tapping guitar style of Eddie Van Halen as well as the onstage anctics of frontman David Lee Roth. For Nintendo it was the addicting and enjoyable creations of Shigeru Miyamoto as well as the lesser-known strategic business planning of former NOA president Minoru Arakawa.
But more importantly, both groups suffered from a severe backlash by the self-described “hardcore” crowd upon a sudden change in creative direction that expanded their markets. read more…
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