Nintendo Hardcore – For Nintendo News

Using the Netflix App on Wii

If you were ever interested in knowing how Netflix works with the Wii I think you should take a look at this article I found on the net. It’s very useful and informative.

Using Netflix on the Wii

Does the 3ds allow you to Send Messages to your Friends?

One of the biggest areas of interest on any new Nintendo hardware is what kind of online system and/or communication will it feature. There was a time when I was convinced that Nintendo would never support features like universal friends lists and the ability to send messages to friends who are on that friends list. Much to my delight Nintendo has proven me wrong in this regard. It had already been confirmed by Reggie that the 3ds will feature a universal friends list and recently we found out a bit more about the system’s rumored friends list.

Website Siliconera has outlined the system’s messaging capabilities.

“You’ll be able to send messages back and forth to your friends as well. When your 3DS receives a message in sleep mode, the Notification LED lights up in green. Additionally, the Notifications icon in the Home menu will change when you’ve received a new message.”

So there you have you will be able to send message to your friends via the 3ds. Now all we need is Gears of War 3ds!

Can you Transfer Downloads from one 3DS to another 3DS?

One question that has been asked a 1000 times already is will you be able to transfer games and downloads from one 3ds system to a new system you buy in the future? This is very important because Nintendo tends to release new iterations of their handhelds every two year and there’s no reason to believe this will be different with the 3ds. Well to those asking that question thankfully the answer is YES!

Nintendo confirmed during its third quarter financial results briefing today that you will indeed be able to transfer one one 3ds to new one. But you can only do this a limited number of times. I suppose this is to protect against transferring it to your friend so they can play the game for free.

Nintendo also confirmed today that the eShop, web browser, and ability to transfer DSi games to your 3ds will only be made available in late May when they release a worldwide system update. Yikes! That’s going to be a long time to wait. It will be a pain waiting for these features but it won’t be a deal breaker for me and it won’t as some suggest divide the marketplace. Early adopters know how to use the internet and will certainly be keen enough to download this update when it becomes available.

First look at a new Wii Kirby Game

The next adventure you will take with your friendly pink friend Kirby has been officially unveiled by Nintendo and we’ve got the video evidence below.

A Nintendo Fanboy on the PSP2 (codenamed NGP)

Like many of you I stayed up very very late to watch Sony’s press conference last night/this morning. I just couldn’t go to bed with a video game unveiling of this magnitude going on. There’s something about being fed the news in bite-size pieces on Engadget while refreshing my web browser every 10 seconds for a period of 2 hours. It’s so exciting when that refresh delivers fresh news. Anyways, I’m going to assume that you have already seen the specs so I won’t get into that too much I just want to talk about how the announcement effects me as a Nintendo Fanboy.

Firstly, I must confess that I am not the type of Koopaling who only buys Nintendo products. I also own a 360 and am somewhat open to Sony products but I do give priority to top Nintendo games before I make time to play anything else. So my initial impression of the PSP2 were that it seems pretty cool. It doesn’t in any way make me like the 3ds less or wish that Nintendo was doing what Sony is doing. I think they’re both shaping up to be pretty cool products. My worry if I’m Sony is that the PSP2 will end up stealing sales from the PS3. I myself might fall into this category. I’m not overly interested in adding a PS3 to my living room with a Wii, Blu-Ray player, and 360 taking up space already, but I do want to gain some sort of access to Sony’s first party lineup. The PSP2 seems like a nice way to achieve that.

Here are some of the main caveats I have about the system. I’ll get into what’s great about it after. I think that it’s going to be expensive to produce quality games for it, it’s going to be expensive to buy games, and it’s going to be expensive to buy the system itself. My guess is that the system will be $349.99 at launch and games will be $59.99. While the two analog sticks will be great when you’re playing it might cause problems when you’re sticking the machine into your pocket. The 3ds will slide in smooth since it folds shut hiding the analog stick but the PSP2 has actual analog sticks sticking out from the device which will making pocketing the device counter-intuitive. For me this is no problem since I buy handhelds for home use. However, the large audience that these devices target value the portability. I also feel that it won’t receive many 3rd party games that actually push the hardware the way Resident Evil Revelations pushes the 3ds hardware. I believe that there will be a stark difference between the original first party Sony games and 3rd party games. And even though games like Killzone and Uncharted will look great they are likely to be much shorter then their console counterparts and still cost about the same price. The vast majority of original games on this system will be low budget downloadable games like Cut the Rope and Angry Birds. I have no idea right now how well this system will sell since it doesn’t really differentiate itself from consoles or from the Iphone. The 3ds is unique and will be success as a result.

Now onto the good. The graphics are great, it supports PSN, it supports 3g, it has a large gorgeous OLED screen, dual analog controls, and there are several key first party games in development. Everything about the hardware itself is wonderful. It remains to be seen at this point what kind of 3rd party support it will receive. So far 3rd parties are just experimenting with the system. But no doubt Solid Snake will make an appearance on the system at some point.

They say that the graphical leap between the psp2 and the 3ds is the same as the leap from psp to ds. This may be true but I don’t believe that this will matter. The fact is that you’re still going to be restricted to handheld game budgets. At the end of the day you’re probably going to end up with a more fully fleshed out game on the 3ds because of the lower development costs. On the PSP2 games that push the hardware will end up being more visual but smaller in scope and depth. The question is would you rather have a game like Final Fantasy 10 in 3D which was absolutely epic and deep or a shallow but visual experience like Final Fantasy 13?

Zelda, Mario, Kid Icarus to Miss 3ds Launch Window

I have found memories of playing the classic Super Nintendo game Mario is Missing back in the 90′s. But it appears that in 2011 Nintendo finds themselves having a blast with Zelda, Kid Icarus, and Mario are missing. Why? Because Nintendo’s North American president better known as “The Regginator” announced today that none of these three franchises will be making an appearance in the 3ds launch window. Now before y’all say a collective “WTF?” I think we should take a hard look at why Nintendo might be making such a “stupid” move.

First of all, Nintendo isn’t stupid. Stubborn YES stupid NO. They have their reasons and I bet it has a lot to do with dealing with one of the major complaints people have pretty much always thrown at them. And that’s the lack of 3rd party support. The reason 3rd party games often skip Nintendo’s consoles is that the games flat out don’t sell as well on Nintendo consoles as they do on their competitors’ machines. One of the biggest reasons for this conundrum is that Nintendo has historically lead with their own products. Who in their right mind would make a quality launch title for a Nintendo system if they had to compete against Zelda and Mario for sales? That would be like launching an FPS on the same day as the new Call of Duty game. Nintendo for the first time in a long long time has a boat load of quality 3rd party support on the 3ds and doesn’t want to miss this opportunity by blanketing the market with their own games. No, it appears that Nintendo will be content to sit back and use their own products to fill the gaps between quality third party releases. And in the long run this strategy could be huge for Nintendo. They could actually start winning back the hardcore gamers that they’ve lost over the years and if they can do that then you can expect that they’ll be able to release more hardcore Nintendo games in the future.

So if you’re one of those Nintendo fans who is reconsidering your 3ds pre-order. Just do what I’m going to do. Get the system on launch day and pick one or two of the great 3rd party titles which will be available. Street Fighter IV 3d is a lock for me right now but after that I’m having a hard time deciding which game to get next. I really love RTS games so Ghost Recon: Shadow Wars is high up there but so it Resident Evil: Mercenaries, DOA, Dynasty Warriors 3d, and Madden 3d. So I’m going to have trouble choosing as is. I’m giving Nintendo a pass on this one and I hope you guys will do the same.

The Legend of Zelda: Ocarina of Time 3D Impressions

Here we are just 2 months before the launch of the 3ds in North America and we still don’t know exactly when we’ll be able to get our hands on Ocarina of Time 3d. One would have thought that this game would be made available on day one the way Mario 64 was available as a launch title on the original DS. My thinking is that this is mostly due to the fact that Nintendo has much stronger 3rd party support now then they had for the original DS when it launched. But I still feel slighted by not being able to pick this bad boy up on day one.

There are a few things that we do know about the 3d remake of Ocarina of Time. This goes without saying but they are improving the graphics and adding stereoscopic 3d to try and breathe new life into one of the greatest video games ever made.  But that’s not all I’m looking forward to with this title. It will be sweet to play it on a handheld where you can simply open up the 3ds and begin exactly where you left off the last time. No loading or selecting save files, just instant 3d Zelda action. Color me excited. They’ve also improved the game experience by not forcing you to move into a save menu to view your map or swap hotkeys as you can now do this at any time by viewing the bottom touch screen.

The only question that remains other than how much it will cost and when it will be released is what other improvements or additions have they made to the core game. Will they add new dungeons and bosses or will it basically be a carbon copy of the N64 original? I don’t know about you but I just can’t wait for find out.

Michael Pachter is all over the map

Michael Pachter is probably the world’s most famous video game sales analyst. He’s just probably not the best one. He’s become famous because due to his penchant for making bold statements just to make headlines. But there’s really very little consistency to the predictions he makes. I would say that 7 out of 10 times his predictions are sound but other times they are real head scratcher.

Case and point. Recently Pachter has taken a relatively positive approach to the Nintendo 3ds stating that due to the fact that it offers something fresh and new versus the PSP2 it will outsell the PSP2. And he has also stated that the $249.99 price tag on the 3ds in America is downright consumer friendly. It’s a very competitive price and that Nintendo should have sold it at a higher price. Personally, I think that Nintendo put at the correct spot in the states but are charging too much in the UK.

But he’s also had an ongoing thing where he criticizes Nintendo for not putting out an incremental update for the Wii sooner. But I really don’t think that Nintendo will be doing this at all. And that’s where he gets misguided. I think he’s mostly embarrassed just because he keeps on predicting that Nintendo will do this and he keeps being wrong. Nintendo is not going to release an update to the Wii that is basically just the WiiHD. It’s not going to happen. So for him to be making predictions right now on how well the Wii 2 will do is incredibly premature. Wii2 will have a surprise element which will seek and new audience or approach the current audience from a different angle. And since Pachter doesn’t know what this surprise element is going to be it’s unwise for him to make predictions on how well Wii 2 will do.

He also states that Nintendo will likely have a new system out this year however I highly doubt that. The new system will be out in 2012 at the earliest. Nintendo is simply waiting until they have a new system that can be different and move games forward and i don’t think they’d launch two systems in the same calendar year with the 3ds due out in March of this year.

My thoughts on Wii2 is that it will include another level of interactivity. Perhaps having a camera which has been designed to read your mood and then incorporating this into games and something that monitor’s your heart rate. The best way to achieve this would be to build sensors into the controller.

What do you guys want in the next Nintendo Console?

Zelda Wii 2 coming sooner than we thought

When Nintendo unveiled The Legend of Zelda: Skyward Sword for Wii this summer at E3 they left the impression that we wouldn’t be getting our “link” on until late 2010. However, in the latest issues of Nintendo Power magazine the games’ director indicated that they are now aiming for early 2011. REJOICE!

An early 2011 release for the game is interesting, especially when you take into consideration the launch of the Nintendo 3ds handheld system. There are a couple of big “if’s” here but “if” Ocarina of Time 3ds is going to be a launch window game and “if” the new Wii Zelda game is dropping early next year, then I think it’s logical to expect that the 3ds will be coming before the end of this year. I just can’t imagine Nintendo releasing two Zelda games early next year. Nintendo always likes to spread out their release dates.  The truth is out there and when it reveals itself we’ll be sure to provide complete coverage and reaction.

That’s all for now kids!

Dragon Quest 9 Video Reviews

Well Dragon Quest 9 the game that all hardcore Nintendo fans have been waiting for has finally arrived in North American Store shelves. And to help you make up your mind on whether this game is worth picking up we have compiled a number of credible Dragon Quest 9 Video Reviews in one convenient location.

If you’re ready to get your slime on Amazon.com always has the best prices on ds games and this one ships for free.