The Official WiiU Re-Boxing Ceremony
Nelson Schneider - wrote on 04/21/13 at 06:22 PM CT
It has been almost exactly 5 months since the MeltedJoystick crew went through the elaborate, Iwata-inspired ritual for unboxing my shiny, new WiiU (dead pixel and all). Since November, the MeltedJoystick crew enjoyed co-op playthroughs of “New Super Mario Bros U,” “Sonic & All-Stars Racing Transformed,” and “Nintendo Land” (maybe ‘enjoyed’ is too strong a word for that last one).
Our enjoyment of the WiiU lasted until the end of January… and it only lasted that long because we only gathered to play those games as a group once a week. Had those three games been single-player experiences, I think I would have blown through them alone by the middle of December.
While my first impressions of the WiiU were somewhat mixed, thanks in large part to the half-baked system software, slow load times, and the fact that the entire console seemed confused about whether it was a new console or a giant DS, my current impressions of the WiiU are much less flattering. It has …
Ouya! Oh No?
Chris Kavan - wrote on 04/17/13 at 02:40 PM CT
For those who have been keeping up with the blogs here on MeltedJoystick (and we thank those intrepid souls who have), you may remember that back in July of 2012, fellow blogger Nelson wrote about the recently-announced Ouya - an ambitious Android-based console. Well, flash forward to today and we know a lot more about the Ouya and things are off to a shaky start.
As reported by such sites as CNET, theverge and techradar everything from controller design to game selection has been questioned. Of course the Ouya team fired back quickly essentially saying this earlier copy was not supposed to be for review and that all issues would be addressed before the official June 06, 2012 debut.
But one has to wonder at even $99 whether the Ouya will be able to grab a piece of the market. More recently is was revealed the console is a bit slow when compared to modern Android devices ranging from cell phones to tablets. If your Android device is already better than Ouya, what's the point of …
PS3 Problem - Won't Play Blu-ray Movies
Nick - wrote on 04/15/13 at 08:37 PM CT
I first got my PS3 slim a few years ago through a packaged Sony deal including a LCD TV, a free movie and game. I thought the PS3 was the perfect solution for a blu-ray player. It could even access a media server on my network, as well as something that could play games. An all-win scenario for a low cost packaged price.
But as of late, the one thing I used my PS3 the most for started failing, playing blu-ray movies. At first it was just one or two blu-ray movies I had issues with, so I blamed it on the publisher for not following standards or putting too much copyright protection garbage on the disc. Even though that probably had some truth in it (as it makes those discs harder to read), I started having more issues. I got to the point where very few blu-ray movies would be recognized by the PS3 at all. But... the PS3 never had an issue with any game discs, not even once.
I started searching Google for hours on end trying to figure out what the problem was. Most …
One to Rule Them All: How Consolidation is Harming the Videogame Industry
Nelson Schneider - wrote on 04/12/13 at 03:48 PM CT
Gazing out upon the game publishing landscape, where once there existed a scenic vista dotted with dozens of small developer/publishers that stood along the skyline like a forest of exotic alien trees, there now stand instead a few hulking, farraginous monoliths, spewing toxicity and death into the air. On the Western horizon of this landscape stand behemoths like EA, Activision, Atari (delenda est), Disney, Hasbro, and Warner Bros. (the latter three aren’t even primarily game makers), while on the Easter horizon stand Square-Enix, Namco-Bandai, Sega-Sammy, Tecmo-Koei, Takara-Tomy, and Konami. While most Eastern companies have the decency to memorialize the victims of their cannibalism via hyphenated naming, in the West the many consumed to fuel the growth of the few are forgotten by all but dedicated historians.
Surely the growth of a few companies must be a good thing, at least to capitalist thinking? These dominant companies must be doing everything right while the …
A Fond Farewell to LucasArts
Chris Kavan - wrote on 04/09/13 at 08:54 PM CT
When Disney acquired Star Wars - I knew there were going to be some changes coming. But are all these changes good? Scrapping plans for 3D re-releases to focus on the new films? Good! Scrapping the Star Wars: Clone Wars Series? Bad (I'm still holding out hope it will return on one of the Disney Networks). But nothing is as big as the latest announcement to come out of camp Disney.
In no uncertain terms, LucasArts is dead. But I'm a realist here - LucasArts has been a shadow of its former glory for many years. I mean, this is the studio that gave us Maniac Mansion, Monkey Island and plenty of awesome Tie Fighter/X-Wing games. Super Star Wars was a great platformer and Shadows of the Empire is still one of my favorite N64 games. But lately things have been a bit... tepid. You can only crank out so many Rogue Squadron and LEGO games - and aside from Knights of the Old Republic, there has been a bit of a drought. Oh sure, The Force Unleashed tried - but even a new story couldn't save …
Capcom Becomes the Undisputed Master of Necrotic Equine Pugilism
Nelson Schneider - wrote on 04/04/13 at 12:11 PM CT
Capcom has always been a company that was willing to take an idea and ride it into the ground. Six ‘Mega Man’ games on the NES? “Street Fighter 2,” “Street Fighter 2: Turbo,” AND “Super Street Fighter 2” all hitting the SNES? Yeah, Capcom has been playing this game for a while and has really developed the skills.
But just when you thought their mastery of lumber-on-horseflesh couldn’t go any further, Capcom has announced that they will be releasing a remake of the NES-era platformer, “DuckTales,” next month. Seriously. “DuckTales.” This is a remake of a 24-year-old licensed Disney game that was originally based on a TV show that hasn’t been on the air in 23 years. As far as I know, Disney has no intention of rebooting the show, nor is it currently being run in syndication on any popular channels. The most recent tie-in Capcom could possibly be milking here is a failed six-issue “DuckTales” comic that flopped in 2011. A FAILED comic, not a successful …
April Fools Day 2013 Video Game Roundup
Chris Kavan - wrote on 04/01/13 at 09:01 PM CT
Ah, the Internet was made for April Fools Day - whether it is the eminent death of YouTube or Google Nose - it's always a good day to check around. But what about video games? No worries - there is plenty of fun to go around to everyone - including gamers. Here is a rundown of some of the best that April Fools 2013 had to offer:
Capcom Announces "Super Duper" Street Fighter IV - This joke is super effective!
Reddit Buys Team Fortress 2 I think: "Our new system helps us allocate logistical synergy-based resources in over fifteen inter-dependent base clusters, creating a vortex of statistical momentum and creativity augmentation." - sums things quite nicely.
Blizzard Kidzz Where in Sanctuary is Deckard Cain? Zergling Teaches Typing? The Westfall Trail? Now those are the type of edutainment games we really do need.
Guild Wars 2 Goes Retro This is cool because it's actually going to be live - at least for the month of April - so it's not so much a joke as a throwback - extra …
The Nintendo - EA Feud: Will It Doom the Ailing WiiU?
Chris Kavan - wrote on 04/01/13 at 07:26 PM CT
As Nelson was so nice to point out in his previous blog - the WiiU has no games coming out this April. The launch was pretty weak already - an extended tech demo, a Mario game and zombies are a potent combination - but not potent enough to spurn that much interest. But for those hoping that the future will be bright for the WiiU - it's looking more and more like things are going to get worse before they get better.
First, third party support for the system is already looking pretty weak for the rest of the year. No Bioshock Infinite (as of this blog, the best-reviewed game of 2013), no Crysis 3, no GTA V, no Tomb Raider - and the list goes on. Sure, it will have some exclusives: Pikmin 3, Rayman Legends and (at some point) a Zelda and most likely Metroid - but these games keep getting pushed back.
Now comes the news that the WiiU that it won't be able to run the Unreal 4 Engine nor EA's Frostbite 3 Engine that will run on the next iteration of the Mass Effect, Dragon Age and …
Backlog: The Embiggening - April, 2013
Nelson Schneider - wrote on 03/31/13 at 01:44 PM CT
Welcome to another look into the near future. April is for fools, and it looks like they will have plenty of new games to buy for full price this month!
The initial Spring bloom of licensed drek is still trickling on this month, though at a significantly diminished rate. While site member Jonzor left a comment expressing his disappointment about the oversight of “LEGO City: Undercover” releasing for WiiU last month, this month we’re making it up to him and announcing the immanent release of the 3DS tie-in-for-the-tie-in game, “LEGO City: Undercover – The Chase Begins.” With all these tie-ins-for-tie-ins, spinoffs, and excessively-appellated game titles, the Fat Cats at the top of Big Gaming aren’t really doing a whole lot to prove they still make products worth caring about. Outside of LEGO Land, the other big licensed April releases are both multi-platform and rated T for Teen. The rebooted “Star Trek” movie franchise is getting a rebooted “Star Trek” …
Vaguely Related Review: The Aimon Elite
Nelson Schneider - wrote on 03/24/13 at 02:34 PM CT
Back before I decided that a good motion controller was the solution for the ailment of PC game interfaces designed around archaic keyboard and mouse controls, I experimented in taking the advice given by the “Glorious” PC Gaming Master Race: Instead of trying to screw around with a controller, what I needed was to find a good mouse.
But I just couldn’t take the Master Race’s advice to its natural conclusion. I was itching to play a new Indie game I had purchased, “Legend of Grimrock,” but was unable to find a happy solution. My Gyration Airmouse and wireless keyboard failed to provide a positive gaming experience, as the Airmouse didn’t provide the required precision whilst wielded in the air, and the keyboard was too big (despite being a mini-keyboard) and kept falling off my lap. I had yet to discover the joys of Xpadder, and the game in question didn’t support an Xbox 360 controller natively. The solution to my dilemma, I figured, was to find a gaming-specific …
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