My brother and I are saving up for it. I'm not a fan of Aerosmith (but I must admit, "Love In An Elevator" is catchy and "Amazing" is well... amazing) but I'm a fan of Guitar Hero. So we are planning on trading in a few games, mostly crappy GameCube titles like The Simpsons Road Rage and Tonka Rescue Patrol (don't ask), but I'm planning on selling Sonic and The Secret Rings for the Wii (an average game, better than most 3D Sonic games but not even close to the original 2D games and other games like Sonic Rush which I'm keeping), Animal Crossing: Wild World (I have another copy, don't worry) and Children of Mana (worse than S&TSR).
Hopefully I'll get a bit of money, but I'll never reach my goal of $99.99 even with the possible 30% trade-in bonus from GameStop (20% from a promotion towards a certain game like GH:A and I have an EDGE Card). Yeah, even though I have Guitar Hero III, my brother and I are getting the full bundle with the extra guitar and Aerosmith faceplate, stickers, etc. because of the guitar, seeing as it's a much better deal than getting just the game and a crappy third-party guitar for $50. Though my brother will definitely need some practicing.
So, who plans on getting this game and what platform? I'm just hoping it has online multiplayer on the Wii like GH3, "Amazing" (I already know it has "Love In An Elevator") and maybe linking to guitarhero.com, but I can live without that feature (but it's always nice to track my stats, even if they do suck).
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Does anyone have any idea how a track pack disc for the PS2 and Wii versions of Rock Band could work? It can't copy the songs over to anything, seeing as the two consoles have very little storage space (the fat PS2 had a HDD and the Wii has 512MB of storage) and that was the reason why Harmonix is releasing these $30 discs.
You'll obviously be switching discs, but how will the game know you have a track pack disc?
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Mario & Luigi: Superstar Saga for the Game Boy Advance has been lost for ages, and I've only recently found it (along with my first copy of Wild World, how happy I am that I now have two copes of the same, though great, game). Despite the fact that it's been lost for ages, I've been playing it non-stop. I was once stuck on Mom Piranha, but I'm way past that, past the Teehee Valley (I hate you Peach!), past Mario's stupid sickness and I've finally been properly introduced to Bowletta. Now I just have to listen to the stupid he-she Bowser-Cackletta thing and collect the pieces of some stupid Beanstar. Back to Teehee Valley for me (and I can't wait to get back there, not).
It's too bad Mario and Luigi are horrible in my save file. Their levels probably aren't high enough, but I've some how managed to survive, but how frustrated I am when Mario dies and Luigi has to pick up his near-dead brother and try to jump, use a hammer to block attacks and damage a huge enemy. But what you do if you were attacked by a huge, evil tree? It's an important life lesson from Nintendo. Remember! When you are your brother are being attacked by a huge tree and one you gets knocked out, please remember to pick him up and try to kill the tree that KO'd your brother... and then laugh at his face later.
Speaking of huge enemies, the boss before entering Little Fungitown (a town full of drug, I mean mushroom addicts) wasn't that hard. I tried like once or twice before finally beating him. My secret to success for those who haven't gotten past it (on second thought, I'm probably the only one who hasn't beaten this game) is to just use those pepper things, and to increase your POW. It was easy to beat the boss when I could damage it by 43 HP every time I used one of Luigi's Bro. Attacks. Also, remember to try and raise your Stache level. It will give you discounts in stores and increases the resale value for your items - very helpful in making more money and using it to buy more helpful items for your hilarious adventure through the Beanbean Kingdom.
I have to admit, the GBA is probably Nintendo's greatest handheld. The only other handheld that matches it's incredible awesomeness is the DS. Why? Because it plays GBA games! And like other great handhelds before it, there are many other great games available. Here are some of my favorites:
1. Mario & Luigi: Superstar Saga (of course)
2. WarioWare: Twisted!
3. The Legend of Zelda: The Minish Cap
4. Super Mario Bros. 3: Super Mario Advance 4
5. Mario Vs. Donkey Kong
6. The billion versions of Pokemon (and I've pretty much owned all of them)
7. All those other titles I've forgotten (yeah, I don't easily memorize entire game libraries)
Overall, if I had to choose between Superstar Saga for the GBA or Partners In Time for the DS, I'd choose SS. But I do plan on returning to Partners In Time after I beat Superstar Saga. Both are great games and both are needed in every GBA/DS game collection.
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Playing Mario & Luigi: Superstar Saga, I was informed that I had recieved a package in the mail. I was expecting a book I had ordered (I ordered two and I have already received one, I'm waiting for the one I bought from someone, and not the book store) but I opened it up and guess what? It was the free Guitar Hero III faceplate I've been hearing about, that people who got the disc replacement would (eventually) get. I was surprised at how fast it took them to ship it, it took alot longer for me to recieve the disc mailer! But it's all good now, because I have my surround sound-enabled Guitar Hero III and an awesome new faceplate. I'll post a picture of it on my guitar later, but for now, here's the official picture from RedOctane's store.
And if that wasn't enough, I finally beat Mom Piranha that you can find in the middle of the runaway of Beanbean International Airport (in M&L, remember?). Now I just need to take Peach through Teehee Valley. That's just great. I've tried before, and I failed.
And here's the picture of my guitar I promised (crappy quality I know):
Trust me, it looks a million times better in person.
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First of all, I know that Guitar Hero III: Legends of Rock for the Wii doesn't have DLC either (but it should and it's completely possible, Activision or someone just has to release some sort of add-on through WiiWare, if a full 3D game like My Life As a King can fit on the Wii's memory, so can a likely small add-on) but that's not the point.
Why doesn't the Wii version of Rock Band have online or DLC? Online is possible, as it is demonstrated on Guitar Hero III. This is just a dumb decision. Basically, for a console that has alot of online potential, why must we still get a PS2 port without the online features of the Xbox 360 and PS3 versions? I'd like to know who came up with the excuse "Because the Wii's online capabilities and potential have yet to be fully realized, we wanted to wait before we explored online functionality for Rock Band to ensure that players get the high-quality of online performance they've come to expect."
That's one of the dumbest things I've ever heard of. You want to wait to include online for a future Wii Rock Band game? How are going to get it right if you're not trying? It's a good thing that Guitar Hero III is better than that - I can play online with random people! Besides the whole surround sound issue, Guitar Hero III is a great game and I can't wait to get the free faceplate.
People who say that the Wii can't hold downloadable songs and/or isn't powerful to handle all four instruments required (if you want) for Rock Band annoy me. For one, the PS2, the weakest console of the last generation can handle four instruments, how can people assume the Wii cannot? It's simple math people! If the GameCube (in terms of power) > PS2 and Wii > GameCube, how can someone be confused by Wii > PS2?
I need some help with this one - I'd like someone to figure out how big a downloaded song is for Guitar Hero III or better yet, Rock Band. I already know it fits on the Wii's internal memory, because WiiWare games can, and if some reason a song is bigger than a WiiWare game, is it that hard to use SD Cards? No. But I'd just like prove to everybody who says the Wii can't hold a song for Rock Band or Guitar Hero III, that the Wii can indeed hold downloaded songs.
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San Francisco (CA) - Square Enix said it has been receiving comments from people surprised at its initiative on Nintendo's new WiiWare platform. As a company so used to enormous-scale projects, a bite-sized Final Fantasy game at this day in age was actually a rocky challenge. We have details on the game, including some you won't find anywhere else.
Square Enix's Fumiaki Shiraishi was at this week's Game Developers Conference at spoke at length about the studio's upcoming game Final Fantasy Crystal Chronicles: My Life as a King.
My Life as a King was practically the first title confirmed for WiiWare, a new online service for the Nintendo Wii that will allow developers to publish smaller games in a download-to-own format.
WiiWare was officially announced at last year's Electronic Entertainment Expo, but rumors began circulating around the industry around a year earlier. That is actually when Square Enix first started the ball rolling on the new FFCC title. "You don't always have time to wait for things to get 'official'," said Shiraishi.
Shiraishi noted that one of the reasons Square Enix was so eager to work on the new platform was that he personally was looking to get involved with a more low-scale project. As an interesting aside, his original proposal was not a Final Fantasy title.
It was more difficult than it sounded, though. "There's a lot that went wrong," recalled Shiraishi. "We were not sure what the WiiWare audience would look like ... As a result, the game design suffered." In fact, multiple battle systems were ultimately scrapped, nearly finalized art was never used, and an entire overworld map was cut due to size constraints.
Toshiro Tsuchida, the battle designer for Square's Final Fantasy team, was also at GDC and commented that the company "could not use high quality CG" visuals and could not apply their current development strategy for the WiiWare title.
The estimated schedule was originally seven months with just eight people on the project. Square Enix wanted to have it finalized by the time Nintendo officially announced WiiWare. That obviously didn't work out. In fact, it ended up taking about 17 months and 18 people. Shiraishi commented that, "We spent six months on fine-tuning the first hour of the game."
It basically boiled down to the fact that Square was too cavalier with its design concept, and continually had to scale back to fit to a small enough size that it would comfortably fit on the Wii's internal hard drive. The Wii only comes with 512 MB of memory.
The end result is a game that is actually less Final Fantasy and more Sim City. In My Life as a King, players will take the role of the king of a small town, and must oversee the creation of buildings while avoiding monster attacks from outside. But unlike most Final Fantasy titles, there isn't a big world to explore. In fact, players will rarely leave the gates of the confined city, and there will be no way to expand it. It will really be a completely different Final Fantasy experience.
Shiraishi told us that the "estimated" size of My Life as a King was 32 - 40 MB, but added, "I'm supposed to say that's subject to change." Additionally, he said the goal was to reach a price point of 500 to 1000 Wii Points ($5 - $10). The WiiWare service will launch on May 12, and it is expected that Square Enix's title will follow shortly thereafter.
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Even with the recent downfall of the HD-DVD format, buying an HD movie player is still not as easy as people would hope. There are many players to choose from, ranging in price and features. After years of being on the market, it's incredibly easy to buy a DVD player - just head over to your local electronics store and pick any random player - sure, some have extra media playback features like VCD support or MP3 CD playback (probably available on any DVD player though, seeing as everything these days plays CDs) or have an HDMI port and have the ability to upscale your DVDs (like my main DVD player), but it's still very easy. Blu-ray players are a bit more advanced than that.
Blu-ray players have support for a feature called BD-J or Blu-ray Disc Java, allowing Blu-ray discs to have advanced options like picture-in-picture, and access to networks (like the Internet) and local storage (like internal flash memory or a HDD). There are also such a thing as "profiles". Think of it as software updates for a Blu-ray player (though if you read on, it's not that easy).
Profile 1 doesn't allow for PIP, no Internet access or local storage support. Profile 1.1 makes it mandatory for players to have PIP, a secondary audio decoder and a virtual file system, but still no Internet connection support (all but Internet support were only optional on Profile 1). Profile 1.1 also gives players 256MB of local storage. Profile 2 will make it mandatory for players to allow Internet access (for say, extra downloadable content), along with all previously mentioned features, but 256MB of storage has been upgraded to 1GB.
The PS3 was Profile 1 to begin with, but on December 17, 2007, through a software update it became Profile 1.1 compliant. Most players cannot be upgraded (probably because of the lack of storage in most players, the PS3 has GBs of storage available) so the PS3 will probably soon be Profile 2 compliant.
The cheapest Blu-ray players on the market are Profile 1, so you'll probably want to do your research before buying a Blu-ray player, and if you like to spend money, you'll probably be safest with the PS3, not to mention that it (obviously) plays games (with a name like PlayStation, you never know, </sarcasm>).
If you'd rather not upgrade just yet, you can't go wrong with DVDs. You probably own a player, and there's still plenty of movies coming out, seeing as there are more DVD player owners than there are Blu-ray player owners. The DVD format will likely still be alive for years to come.
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