Happy 5th Birthday DS!

Sorry It's a bit late, but HAPPY 5TH BIRTHDAY NINTENDO DS!

Last week marked the DS' 5th year in the UK and the release of the new DSi XL. Unfortunately, I haven't picked one up because 1) I'm already happy with my regular DSi and 2) I don't really have the money anyway. Anywho, coming from the people who own Nintendo's latest incarnation of it's dual screened handheld say the DSi XL is awesome. You really can't tell how big the system actually is until you see it with your own eyes. Many games also appear better on the bigger screens than they did on previous handhelds. The people's conclusion? Very positive indeed! If you don't own a DSi, then by all means pick an XL up. If you're like me and own a regular DSi, then maybe not.

FEATURE: Nintendo Media Summit 2010 Round-Up

A new Mario Galaxy 2 trailer and release date, a new Sin and Punishment: Star Successor/Successor of the Skies trailer and release date, a new batch of Metroid: Other M screens, 2 new Pokemon: HG/SS trailers, a Warioware: DIY release date and more WiiWare and DSiWare? If you don't think this year's Nintendo Media Summit was crammed full of new stuff then you sir are completely insane. Today I'll be talking about my opinions on last Thursday's event. Forgive me if it's a bit rushed, but I wanted to post this as soon as possible! Let's start with the big ones.

The Big One: Super Mario Galaxy 2

As I mentioned before, the summit has brought us a new Mario Galaxy 2 trailer and it has me highly anticipated for the game. As well as a cool new logo, the trailer shows off some new galaxies. The level design in these levels is extremely innovative and it really makes you think how Nintendo comes up with this crazy stuff. There's more snow themed galaxies and even a galaxy where everything is HUGE! Goombas 50 times bigger than Mario? WIN. Comparing the media summit trailer to the one we saw back at E3 last year, the game looks a lot better visually. I'm not sure if that's just the quality of the video, mind! Starry skies can be seen above around Mario and you can see much better effects on Mario, Yoshi and the enemies. Nintendo say they are really going all out with Super Galaxy 2; they seem to have packed much more into the sequel than the previous game and I'll definitely be keeping my eye on it. The release date for the UK is the 11th of june so hold tight till then!

Game of the Show: Metroid: Other M

For me, Metroid: Other M was the highlight of the show. Sure, we didn't get a new trailer but we've been shown lots of new screenshots and ONM say the game is AMAZING to play. We didn't get an exact release date but Nintendo has confirmed it will be out sometime in the third quarter of the year.

The game looks incredible. Nintendo and Team Ninja have said before that you will see a more emotional side to Samus Aran. The fact they've given her a voice really helps with that. The lass has also had a bit of a make-over too, she really looks like a completely different person! Whether you like Samus's new look or not, that doesn't change the fact that Metroid: Other M is going to be incredible.

If you look at the screens and compare them to the game's first trailer, you can see that the health bars and everything have a new design. The gameplay will hopefully be top notch too. I'm not sure if Other M will beat the brilliant Metroid Prime 3 which I just picked up. Let's hope that the game will end up as revolutionary as the leap from the original series to Prime was...

Hardcore Pleaser of the Show: Sin and Punishment: Successor to the Skies

Sin and Punishment 2 was another highlight for this years summit. Now under the subtitle Successor of the Skies, this action packed on rails shooter is still looking awesome. The game's been out in Japan for a little while now, and it's good that a UK release has been confirmed. About the name change, I'm not surprised they didn't end up calling this game Sin and Punishment 2, the original N64 game never saw the light of day here anyway! Thank god for Virtual Console I suppose. At the event we were shown the first batch of UK screens and a new trailer showing off our version of the game. It certainly doesn't look disappointing in any way. The only worry I have is that the game might be too short. Let's hope not!

The Hidden Gem of the Show: Warioware DIY

I'm very surprised that nobody has payed any attention to this game since Nintendo announced it would be coming to the UK. It looks amazing! If you haven't heard of Warioware, the basic idea of it is you play through a set of microgames, small challanges that can last anything up to six seconds. Past WW games have had loads of microgames stuffed into them, but the latest addition to the series only has 100. Why? Because you can make your own! The idea of making your own six second games is bold, since not everyone knows how to do programming. Fortunately, you don't need to know how to do that in DIY; all you do is draw parts of your game, compose the music (you can even hum into the DS mic and it'll turn the noise into notes) and write the instructions. It's kind of like Flipnote Studio, if you can draw, you can do whatever you want. Unlike FNS, if you don't know how to draw there are some ready made parts you can use in your games. These include retro Mario and Zelda sprites too! Now you can make the Mario/Link crossover you've always wanted to see! Warioware DIY doesn't come out for a while, but until it does I have my hopes up. The game also arrives in conjuction with a Wiiware channel where you can play your created microgames on the Wii, let's hope that's free.

That's all for now guys! Until next time, bye-bye!

UPDATE: My Birthday, Request a Review and Upcoming Features!

Heyhey all. For my second Update post I'll be talking about some new Features, my Birthday and the upcoming Request a Review system! let's get started.

Happy Birthday Me! and the Request a Review System!
Hooray! I finally have a Wii! And do you know what that means? More reviews! Last thursday I finally got a Wii bundled With Wii Sports, Wii Sports Resort and Super Smash Bros Brawl. I also got some birthday money which I spent on Super Mario Galaxy and Metroid Prime 3: Corruption! Anyway, I've been playing my games over the last few days and just this morning I had a thought. What about a Request a Review thingy for my blog? Here's the way it'll work: I create a page titled Request a Review and List all the games I'm willing to review that I own. A comment box will be placed at the bottom of the page and my followers can request me to review a game on the list! You have control over what I'll review next and If you don't own the game you'll get my verdict on it! Cool, huh? Feel free to use this idea for yourself, but mention me if you can!

2 New Features!
Two new features are incoming and currently in progress. These features will be my opinions on This Year's Nintendo Media Summit (which is pretty self explanatory, everyone's already done it) and a post on the new Gorillaz album: Plastic Beach! If you know me well, you'd understand I am a MASSIVE Gorillaz fan. They've been my favourite band for ages and I own all the main albums, B-sides albums and DVD's! If you're unaware of Gorillaz (then you suck), they are an animated band created by Jamie Hewlett and Damon Albarn (of Blur fame). Their first album which released back in 2001 sold a huge amount of copies and their second album, Demon Days also gained high popularity. Damon Albarn does the vocals and Jamie does all the illustrations. Anyway, Gorillaz' new album, Plastic Beach is coming out on the 8th of march and I've decided to do a massive feature on it. Expect a reviews of the 2 new singles, some back story and what I think of the songs! Also expect a review of Stylo, the music video for Plastic Beach's lead single which premiers on youtube on the 2nd of March. Anyway, expect both these features sometime this week. That's all for now!

In other news...
Apologies for not doing an Army Defender review last week, I was too busy playing on the Wii to use the internet! Also, I haven't started typing up the Soul Calibur 2 review yet, but I've written a few things down.

UPDATE: My Opinion On This Year's Nintendo Media Summit and 2 Upcoming Reviews!

Hey guys, this is my first Update post. In these posts I'll be talking about my opinion on new gaming related news, upcoming reviews and features and some random stuff too! Now, let's get started...

Nintendo Media Summit 2010
Last year Nintendo set up an event where they showed off some new games and stuff. It was at this event that Zelda: Spirit Tracks was announced and this year Nintendo have something more exciting planned. The event takes place next week (the 24th to be precise) and I have a few ideas for some of the things the big N will be showing off. First of all is (hopefully) some new Zelda Wii news, maybe even some gameplay. It's time we found out what this new adventure will be called and what it looks like. Maybe they'll tell us more about the mysterious Wii vitality sensor? Hopefully we'll be getting some more info on Mario Galaxy 2 too. Still, Nintendo usually only reveal their biggest news at E3, so don't be upset if a Wii2 isn't announced. Edit: Forget I said any of that and watch this video. The Media Summit stuff's near the end.

Coming Up: Army Defender [DSiWare] and Soul Calibur 2 [GC] Reviews!
2 new reviews are coming up, for Army Defender on DSiWare and Soul Calibur 2 on GameCube. Both very awesome games. Army Defender will be my very first DSiWare review, and since it's a small 200 point game don't expect 1000 words or anything. Soul Calibur 2 will be a full review, focusing on the GC version of the game. I'll also mention a bit on the PS2 version which I own as well. I've halfway finished my Army Defender review and I haven't started SC2 yet, so expect AD to be out before the 27th. For now I'll just say get Army Defender, it's the best 200 point app. If you have a GameCube pick up that version of Soul Calibur 2, as it's the best.