You Know, I -am- Gonna Buy Bomberman Hero on Virtual Console

When we first heard about Bomberman Hero being rated through the ESRB for the Virtual Console, I was both happy and sad; happy to see another N64 title hit the service, sad that I had bought the N64 original not that long ago.

I've played enough to have nearly beaten it, enough to know that I don't like it as much as Bomberman 64, and would prefer that Bomberman 64: Second Attack be released since I haven't played it yet. Just this Monday (March 7th), the game was released for 1000 points, like all N64 titles on the VC. If you notice the receipt, the physical copy of the game actually cost more than that after tax (and Nintendo Points are tax free in my area). So what's my motivation for buying it again? Well, it's the best way to show Hudson (or maybe it's Konami at this point) that I want more N64 Bomberman. Plus it would be a great way to see those visual differences that are supposed to come with N64 games on the VC, and my N64 controller has a loose analog stick. Its re-release on VC is actually a great opportunity to talk about it 

I imagine this post comes off as a bit indulgent, but I think it's appropriate cause Bomberman is a cool guy. His owners get absorbed by Konami and don't afraid of anything.

Nyko Already has a $20 "Solution" to the 3DS's Battery Life

Nyko has announced a replacement battery that they state offers "double the battery life" of the battery that Nintendo ships with the DS. It is understandably bigger. Since the 3DS is designed with a back/battery-cover that is the size of the back of the 3DS, it would stand to reason that one could be made that wasn't that much bigger and would have a style to seamlessly matches the color of your 3DS. Unfortunately, this doesn't seem to be that replacement battery just yet. But it's $20 for "double the battery life" which doesn't seem like a bad deal at all. It doesn't seem to be induction based so it won't work with the cradle, but you can still charge it via your AC adapter. Speaking of, I wonder how long it might take to charge this thing..... Nintendo's original press releases stated a charge time of about 3 hours for the 3DS with the battery it ships with. This is something I haven't heard discussed yet from people that have grabbed the Japanese 3DS, so I'm not sure if it does take that long, but (based on admittedly little knowledge of batteries) it would stand to reason that a bigger battery simply takes longer to charge off of the same charging cable.

Nyko seems to have emerged over the last few years as a well-meaning third-party accessories manufacturer. They've had a few missteps like a device that's supposed to help cool off your 360, but instead could burn the console, but it isn't nearly on the level of how I remember Mad Catz where every single product was just......worthless. I've only bought one non-first-party-endorsed third-party accessories since the horrible stuff I bought from Mad Catz for the GameCube, and that was this lovely metal stylus. I wouldn't necessarily say Mad Catz has been the reason all these years, but mostly I don't often see the point in most accessories.....or, I didn't. Both my DS and DS lite have some serious elements about them that just no longer work, and maybe that could have been solved if I had used a protective case...maybe not. I'm very interested in buying one for my 3DS since I want to carry it often, and it's as pricey as a home console. Anyway, went a bit sideways with that.

UPDATE: Hm, came across a picture of this thing on the black 3DS (now at the top). Doesn't look as out of place as I thought. I see now that the taper of the battery really complements the very edges of the back of the 3DS. If they made one that complemented the blue 3DS I'm getting better, then I'd be all over it if the battery life of the packed in battery starts to bother me.

Anyone think this will be a necessary accessory for their use of the 3DS? Let me know in the comments.

Source

Podcast Synopsis - Tell 'em Steve Dave Ep. 52 - Fibber McChen (you could get your music played on the show)

I've come to a decision, the "Review" part of posting up most of these podcasts is redundant. I post them because I like them. For something like the launch of the 3DS, I might search out more podcasts that I haven't heard before, and those will include a recommendation or non-recommendation, but otherwise the recommendation is implied.


Oh, and I thought I might put this right upfront; they've added a new portion to the show where they will play music created by the listeners to help get them out there. It seems like the response was really strong and they have a lot of submissions already, but they want more so don't not submit your own stuff!!

Hear the podcast here
(right-click to save)

GDC - New Legend of Zelda: Skyward Sword Trailer, Detailed Breakdown by IGN

It seems like there's a big focus on showing off the various ways you'll be using the Motion Plus. The trailer shows a new character to the series, perhaps a friend, perhaps a foe for this legend. There is some kind of boss shown off, either a full fledged one or a mid-dungeon "mini" boss. I'm really not happy to see the huge HUD elements still around; frankly they are stupidly distracting. For me they ruin any visual beauty that might be present during non-cutscene gameplay; and if you're not playing on a wide-screen set? I just hope you can adjust the opacity for once.

Also, since I'm so behind with posting this, IGN has a Rewind Theater out for the trailer. In their Rewind Theaters they take the time to pause and talk about various pieces of the trailer with as much insight as they can, and often rewind to replay certain portions.



I enjoyed learning the tid-bit about a possible connection to Minish Cap, since I haven't played that one (maybe if it comes to the 3DS's Virtual Console, Nintendo...?).

What do you guys think about Skyward Sword so far? Do you think motion controls will be an interesting addition to the gameplay of the series, or maybe you feel it will get in the way? Let me hear it in the comments.

Direct link to the YouTube video

Nintendo at GDC - eShop at the End of May, 3D Video Service, Game Gear and TurboGrafx 16 Added to 3DS VC, and More

At GDC, Nintendo announced that their eShop would arrive at the end of May, bringing with it access to DSiWare, the 3DS's Internet Browser, Virtual Console titles from older systems such as the Game Boy, Game Boy Color, Game Gear, and TurboGrafx 16, remastered classic games with added stereoscopic 3D effects (I assume from a wider variety of systems), the solution for transferring your DSiWare titles from your DSi or DSi XL to your 3DS, and a 3D Video Service from Nintendo featuring movie trailers, game trailers. game screen shots, and other content such as comedy shorts and music videos. All of these sound great, though I wish at least DSiWare access was available sooner. It sounds like Nintendo might hand-pick the content (outside games and movies), which might mean the comedy is all fairly tame, among other things than may pertain to types of content not mentioned.

Netflix Coming to 3DS

Pretty short and sweet; Netflix's streaming video service is coming to 3DS, but it's only been described as coming in the summer.

I personally love Netflix's streaming service, and have a subscription that I don't have any plans of discontinuing. I don't see myself opting to use Netflix on a 3DS over using something I can watch through a television when I'm at home, but it's neat to have this free portable option. It doesn't have the versatility of an iPhone since it's locked to Wi-Fi, but 3G Netflix isn't so hot as it is.

There isn't currently any 3D content on Netflix, but if they add it, 3DS has a pretty good chance of getting it. Theoretically, it would need to stream twice as much data, but if the 3DS has a good bandwidth on it's Wi-Fi chip, then it shouldn't be a problem for the 3DS at its resolution.

Source

Well This Is Odd - PSP Go Gets a Price-Drop, But It's Taken Off of Sony's Website

Hmm.....Just yesterday some sites reported a quiet price-drop of the PSP Go, and I followed some links to get back to Sony's own website where it did indeed have a special update proclaiming the new low price of the PSP Go. And as I said in the post just below, I wanted to write up a piece just about the PSP, and this price drop would have been the basis of a point for a significant portion of the piece.

Potentially the update just went up earlier than they meant it to, maybe someone hacked the site to push out the update or completely falsified it, but either way, if the word is out about a price-drop that's bound to come then it likely isn't much farther off because of this. I'm not sure I remember hearing of anybody that wasn't willing to wait on an announced price-drop, so I'm sure they realize that this will be detrimental to sales until the price-drop actually happens.

I'm so curious about this that I'm going to run up to my local Best Buy to see if stores are following through with the price-drop. Be back with an update soon.

UPDATE - Well, Best Buy for one isn't displaying a price of $149.99 as of today. But I couldn't help but giggle with delight when I noticed that the shelf space for the newly priced PSP 3000 was completely empty devoid of the PSPs at that Best Buy. I wonder how well this particular price drop will do, since Sony has matched the price of the DS lite with a product that is a better technological value.

Source (since you might not believe me)