I'm a little upset about Sony's handling of the digital edition of Ni No Kuni in the PAL territories. Incase you're unaware, the problem is that it absolutely doesn't work. No one with a digital copy can play the game. Quite a serious problem. To compound frustration Sony has been typically reticent and nobody knows why this has happened and more importantly when it will be fixed.

Alternative blog post titles;

I can't make.believe this shit
It only pisses me off
Ni No *unts



Addendum; they fixed it. Sharpish.

Which means you’ve already seen the first one.

Sean and I return to our Wonderful Life. In part 2 we plant our first crop, eat a psychedelic mushroom and show flowers to a homeless man.

This time we act even more childish and do bad swearing like naughty boys. Sorry about that. Mum.



See you in part 3, maybe.

Say it in a Liquid Snake Voice.

My brother and I take a trip down memory lane and do something we haven't done in a long time. We play a game together.

Today we'll be playing Harvest Moon A Wonderful Life on the Gamecube. In this video we arrive at the farm and get to meet some of the locals. Lets a go.



Obviously Harvest Moon is a long term commitment that we will definitely not get bored with and probably keep playing forever. My plan is to find little Amadeus a wife. That is pretty much the end game for me, farming be damned.

See you in part 2.

A few days ago I bought my first downloadable game on the Wii U. I was almost certain that first game was going to be Trine 2. Then I caught a look at the trailer for Little Inferno and bought that instead.

Spoiler warning straight away, I have finished Little Inferno and I’m about to talk about it, all of it. Please do not read ahead if you’d like to experience Little Inferno first hand, which is something I would recommend.

Little Inferno comes from the creators of World of Goo. I have never played World of Goo but I know it by reputation. I only mention that because it is something I knew going in. I get the feeling that Little Inferno is a game trying to tell me something that I have yet to understand. I can’t explain it but I can at least try to recall my thoughts.

“There are no points, there is no score, you are not being timed, just make a nice fire and stay warm in the glow of your high definition entertainment product”

As anyone still reading should already know, Little Inferno is more of a toy than a game. There is a fireplace. You put items in the fireplace and burn them. Burned items drop coins. You use the coins to buy more items.

My first thought about Little Inferno was; maybe this is a response to the kind of free to play ‘social games’ you can get on smart phones or Facebook. The items that you burn have to be ordered from a catalogue and they take time to arrive. You can bypass the delivery time by spending stamps. Sounds familiar. I’ve played, sorry “played”, games like Kingdoms of Camelot and Dragon vale on the iPhone. Stamps are the premium currency of Little Inferno. The only real difference is that stamps are unlocked by playing the game, not by spending money.

Thinking about it a little more, social games are usually about building something. A town, a restaurant, a hotel for puppies. In Little Inferno you build nothing. Everything you buy, you burn. What is this game trying to tell me? That social games are a waste? That social games are empty, all they do is take and take and never really give anything back? Like a virtual fire, no heat. Seems like a fairly dull point. I don’t think that’s it.

“You don’t know me but I thought I would tell you, it’s cooold outside”

You could make a case for Little Inferno being a role playing game. In fact I would go as far as to say that Little Inferno is a role playing game.

The world of Little Inferno is cold. It has been snowing for a long time and nobody knows why. The children in this world sit in front of their Little Inferno Entertainment Fireplaces and burn all their toys to stay warm.

There is no question that when you play this game you are one of those children.

You don’t have a choice but the game will tell you, don’t turn around, keep looking into the fire, keep buying, keep burning. Which is exactly what the child does, it’s what you do. What is the game trying to tell me? Is it asking me to think about why I do anything? Buy toys, burn them, it will keep you warm. Keep doing it, don’t look away, don’t question it.

Little Inferno is quite a sinister game. I don’t mean that the people behind it are sinister. I mean that I get the feeling, as I play, that Little Inferno is trying to tell me that something is wrong with the world, with my world.

“Everyone I know has one and everyone I don’t know has one too!”

In the world of Little Inferno you are alone. There is the fireplace and you in front of it playing the role of the child. Other people do exist in the world, you don’t see them but they send you letters.

One of your correspondents is a little girl called Sugar Plumps. She is your neighbour, which she demonstrates by banging on the wall. Sugar Plumps plays an important role. She is in the same situation as you, but unlike you she has a voice.

Sugar Plumps seems to enjoy her Little Inferno Entertainment Fireplace. At one point she relays her excitement at the thought of a free update being released. She also seems to know more than she is letting on. She teases knowledge of a strange object that lurks at the back of the fireplace. It looks like a face but apparently it’s not. Yet it can see me?

What is the game trying to tell me? Is Little inferno really all about social games? They don’t have faces but they do see everything that you do. A lot of things are like that now. Google, Facebook, Twitter. But we already know that.

“You can go as far as you want, but you can never go back”

Clearly I’m stumbling blind into some kind of rabbit hole here. Maybe the game isn’t trying to tell me anything. Though it certainly has made me think.

The ending sequence in particular is filled with little details which may or may not be important.

Is the sun rising or is it setting? I’m being asked a question directly.

What does it mean?

Last year was the Legend of Zelda's 25th anniversary. (Which makes me older than the Legend of Zelda.) To celebrate the occasion I did a little bit of fan art, which I have just now finished.

Even though it is now technically the 26th anniversary, i'm still going to call this 25th anniversary fan art, you might say it's a link to the past. :(




You can also download a high res version of the pic from my Deviant Art page at the following link (to the past).

http://www.m-smee.deviantart.com/#/d5n7qxe

This is it, the final video of Nintendo WiiK, wherein I take a little look at the Wii U. Good times.



I hope the Wii U succeeds, I really do. It better had, I just sunk four hundred quid into it. Strangely Nintendo doesn't seem to be advertising the Wii U at all, on buses, on TV, online, nothing.

I've thought of a good advert for the Wii U.

Imagine the scene. It's a leafy suburb, the sun is shining, it's a beautiful day. A motorcycle rolls into frame. On the back of the bike is a young man. He's being dropped off at his house by his girlfriend. She drives away and the man waves.

I imagine the man is wearing a black leather jacket, blue jeans and sunglasses. Also he is chewing gum to make him look more cool.

He walks inside the house and sees his little brother who is sat on the floor playing Nintendo. The little brother has headphones on even though he is watching the TV. He sat on a skateboard and wearing a baseball cap backwards.

The little brother drops the controller and and sighs in an exaggerated manner, he says.
"This blows. I can't beat that guy." Which is none specific enough.

The older brother says.
"What 'cha playin? Nintendo? C'mon man, that stuff is for babies."

The little brother looks up indignantly. He says, thrusting the Wii U gamepad.
"Your such a hot shot, you play it, I DARE YOU!!"

The older brother sits down to play the game. Immediately rock music starts playing. The camera does a close up on the older brother's face and his hair is blowing back like it was windy. His jaw opens in disbelief and the gum falls out.

Next we see footage of actual Wii U games. A level being completed on New Super Mario Bros U.

Cut back to the brothers who high five each other.

Now we see footage of ZombiU. A zombie pops up in front of the screen.

Cut back to the brothers who look directly at each other and do a scream for about four seconds.

Now we cut to the Wii U logo and a voice booms out "WII U!!"

Cut back to the brothers who are now standing back to back in their living room. Both are now wearing sunglasses also the floor is covered in smoke from a smoke machine and there are coloured spotlights in the background.

They thrust the Wii U gamepad straight into the camera and shout "Wii DARE U"

The end.



By the way, having just got a Wii U, I don't have any friends yet. It would be super cool to hook up with some people from the Dtoid community. My nintendo ID is

RadChozo

Holler!