Cool Chat. Help Kids. Warm Feelings.

Nintendo World Report is holding a live chat for the sake of Child's Play charity on Saturday.

I can't imagine any of our readers aren't familiar with NWR, but maybe some aren't hyper aware of this charity effort.

Check the link, there are several ways to help out and it's for a very cool cause.

Nintendo World Report - RFN: Doin' It Live... for the Kids!
link

Who else will be there??

This Wednesday's Chat

Now that T-Giving has passed, we'll resume the usual Chats at 8PM EST on Wednesdays.

This week we have a specific goal to plan the next Tournie. We have a few options on the table between TvC and the PKMN Bug Tournie. So check the discussions in the forums and try to come with some ideas, mmk?!

Rock on.

Happy (almost) Thanksgiving!

Just a heads up, gang, I'm out of town visiting the in-laws for Thanksgiving.

I'll be back on Sunday. You kids play nice while I'm gone.

By the way, brother-in-law brought GoldenEye to the festivities. Can't wait to get my hands on it after Christmas!

We'll be spending the later evening with some 4-player NSMBWii ^_^ Good times.

Enjoy your turkey tomorrow!

RECOM: Sonic Colors by Rocket

Sonic Colors
by Rocket (Contributing Author) | Edited by Mop_it_up (Site Editor)

There's a nice trend on the Wii lately where we're seeing releases of brand new 2D platformers on discs. Sonic Colours fits quite well into this style of gameplay, and although there have been a few Sonic games released on the Wii already, this game proves that SEGA are getting really good at making them.

First things first, the load times are practically nonexistent. You're thrown into the first level straight away when you start a new game from the title screen, which is a wonderful, wonderful thing.

Tails provides tutorials in the game, but before you start you get a prompt with the option to turn him off if you don't want him. He's the only one of Sonic's friends that's here too. You may have noticed those little alien things on the cover of the game's packaging? They're basically powerups with eyes, which is the same as with Mario's powerups. They never interrupt the game's flow.

The gameplay consists of pure running and platforming like the daytime stages of Sonic Unleashed, but finely tuned so that there are much fewer cheap deaths. They put some really good thought into them too - for example, there are a few water levels, but they're less sluggish than usual, and you can carry out mid-air jumps an unlimited number of times while underwater.

The only motion control in this game is giving a quick shake to activate the powerups. Once activated, you're back to using the buttons to carry out what they do. They're lots of fun to use and are handy for finding hidden alternate paths toward the goal.

There are 45 stages in the game. On top of that, there's an arcade simulator mode with a hefty amount of its own levels. They feature red and blue Sonic robots and have the same gameplay as the main levels, and can be played by 1-2 players. This mode is single-screen only, so you can either play cooperatively or the second player can support the first without having anything to lose (like the way Tails could in the old Mega Drive games). They even have 8-bit NES style remixes of the music from the main game's levels, which is a really nice touch.

The cutscenes can be skipped, and the dialogue is noticeably lighter and wittier than it normally is in a Sonic game. The characters have new voices for you to check out and see if you like them.

There's even a challenge mode where you can play all the levels from start to finish without a map screen or a cutscene interrupting you.

Sonic Colours is one of the most focused and non-intrusive Sonic games yet. It's proof that SEGA are ever closer to perfecting that formula of what makes a good Sonic game. They are listening to your complaints!

Calling it Now

As you may know, my wife and I are currently working through the Green Stars in Galaxy 2. It's been very fun and challenging finding and reaching those little green devils.

So I was thinking about Mario and the franchise and I'm just going to call this prediction now: Mario Galaxy 3 will mark the triumphant return of the beloved Raccoon suit as a power-up! They'll probably do a whole thing with debuting the suit in the 3rd original game so why not bring it back in the 3rd new game.

Yes, I know there aren't usually even sequels in the franchise anymore, let alone a third installment. But I just think the Galaxy series is going so well and has such limitless potential that I wouldn't be surprised with a third installment.

When will it happen? Obviously I haven't a shred of a clue. But I'm thinking it would be a launch title for the next Nintendo platform several years from now. Just my hunch.

Thoughts?

Congrats, Mop_it_up!

Congratulations to Mop_it_up for out-dueling the mighty Arkia to win our second Conduit tournie!!

Tak rounded out the top three (and had by far the best kill/death ratio!).

HonorBadges and full results are available in the Tournies section.

Thanks for a great time to all who participated and all who just hung around the Chat to gab with us. I had fun being a moving target during our many battles! ^_^

Tournie Reminder: Conduit II

Just a reminder that the next scheduled Tournie will take place in 6 days (Wed, Nov. 17th). Meet in the site chat around 7pm and we'll go from there.

Post your friend code in the forums if you want to join in!

PS - Thanks for the correction, Mop!

High Demolition #002 - Snoop Told DirecTV G4 Was Hot

Ok, I don't plan to churn these out this frequently in the future, but issue #002 is now available in the "Extras" section. (And of course, via the convenient thumbnail below.)

I'd like to join the rest of the online Nintendo fanbase and take this opportunity to kick G4 while it's down. It's just karma, G4, perhaps you'll learn from this whole mess!

Enjoy!

The Motion control battle

Well today the last of the motion control options have come out in Microsoft Kinect. Sony Move came out about a month ago. I have been reading impressions of Kinect in reviews and from people who tried it out and it has lots of specific requirements for it. From what I have read it doesn't work to well. I don't know if it is just game companies not really getting a grasp of the system or if it just doesn't work too well.

As for Sony Move, I think it has the best chance of it working decently.
I read that it works well for some people and for others it doesn't so I'll look into that more.

As for the Wii and Motion + I think it works well. Until one of the other two show me that it works well then Nintendo is atop at this point.

Does anybody plan on picking up Move or Kinect or are you sticking with Wii?

Site Chat Tonight!

Wednesday night is Site Chat night. (8PM EST)

Miss it and you'll kick yourself. Hard.