Issue 30: The Best of Nintendojo 2010

You might have noticed we had a big redesign earlier this year, just before E3 in June. Thanks to the efforts of Developer Extraordinaire Drew Strickland and the phenomenal writers and creative minds on our staff, the redesign and relaunch of Nintendojo.com has proven a great success. Our new content tool that Drew set up has enabled us to get more creative than ever before, and our new content focus has resulted in a lot of great stories and moments. Since we’re (mostly) taking this week off for the holidays, and since you may be one of our many new readers, we wanted to share our favorite pieces of content since our redesign. If you’re a long time reader you may remember some of these, and if you’re new to the community, you may enjoy seeing some of our best work from the last seven months.

On the new content front, we won’t have any news roundups unless something unexpected develops, but we will have a new podcast on Wednesday. And if all this mothballed content makes you stress a little, don’t fret: we’ll be off vacation and back in action next week with our Best Games of 2010 issue, where you’ll get to vote for your favorite games as well as find out our own.

Until then, enjoy these new-classic stories and all those great games we hope you got as gifts for the holiday.

Until next year,
Noah

Issue 30: The Best of Nintendojo 2010

Best of ND 2010: Cerebral Gamer: Quitting the Hunt by Joshua Johnston
Monster Hunter Tri was the closest thing Wii had to an MMO. That’s why I had to get rid of it.

Best of ND 2010: The Nester Who WILL Be King by Nester64x
Nester reveals his plans for his inevitable term as Nintendo CEO.

Best of ND 2010: Samus Aran: The Woman Within by Adam Sorice
Samus may represent a step forward for women in gaming, or she may be nothing more than a male fantasy.

Best of ND 2010: Everything’s Better Angry by Aaron Roberts & M. Noah Ward
See how much better box arts are when their characters are angry.

Best of ND 2010: Eternally Waiting… by Andy Hoover
Deep into that darkness peering
Long I stood there
Wonder where the hell the sequel is!

Best of ND 2010: Presenting the Tosterown by M. Noah Ward
You want a Wii that’s got the graphics of a PS3 or 360? With edgy mature games? And “b@d%$$” marketing? Here it is.

Best of ND 2010: Super Smash Sisters by Francisco Naranjo
A look at the girls who duke it out in Super Smash Bros.!

Best of ND 2010: In Memoriam by Kevin Knezevic
Honoring a few of the brave soldiers who fell in the never-ending war against Mario.

Best of ND 2010: Fashion-Forward: JRPGs by Adam Sorice
Cutting edge design is a key factor in nearly all JRPGs. And remember, every dungeon crawl’s a runway!

Best of ND 2010: Versus! Sci-Fi versus Realisitc Shooters by Nester64x and HowardNTR
Nester64x and his old rival HowardNTR take up sides in the debate.

Best of ND 2010: Lost in Music by Andrew Hsieh
This is a story about a boy and his piano. And also his Internet-equipped computer. Anyway, the piano is more important.

Best of ND 2010: Super Mario Rehab by Adam Sorice
Gather around children, for I have a cautionary tale to share with you. Woohoo!

Best of ND 2010: Flowchart: Who in the Metroid Universe Are You? by M. Noah Ward
You may want to break into this bounty hunting business, but that might not be what you’re cut out for.

Best of ND 2010: Video Versus! Hardcore Style Battle: Master Chief vs. Tingle
It’s like my dad could beat up your dad, only much cooler and much nerdier. Now with video!

Best of ND 2010: PopCap: Casual Success by Carter Fagan
What PopCap Games has done right in their ten years of existence where the Big N falters.

Best of ND 2010: Slow on the Draw by Andy Hoover
A bad start might have foiled Wii’s chance of redefining shooters.

Best of ND 2010: My Forty-Two Minutes with Super Mario Bros. 3 by Adam Sorice
One of the young’ns on Nintendojo’s staff tries to roll like the old folks did. Owned.

Best of ND 2010: Music to Hunt By by Andrew Hsieh
Until Metroid Prime, one of the features of Metroid‘s soundtrack was that players often forgot there was music at all. Nintendojo examines these lost sounds in more detail.

Best of ND 2010: Cerebral Gamer: Hail to the Critics by Joshua Johnston
Game reviewing may be a flawed science, but it’s still a necessary one.

Best of ND 2010: Logical Evolution: 35 Great Puzzle Games of the Next Generation by M. Noah Ward
Here’s an epic-sized look on how the puzzle genre is evolving, including 35 recommendations of the best in each subgenre.

Best of ND 2010: Excuuuuse Me, Nintendo! How to Make a Good Zelda Cartoon by Andy Hoover
The Legend of Zelda franchise is ripe for a cartoon adaptation– just not the one from 1989. Here’s where that one went wrong, and how to make something better.

Best of ND 2010: For the Love of Pokemon by Evan Campbell
Evan goes to the 2010 Pokémon National Championships.

Best of ND 2010: Healthy Kongpetition by Andrew Hsieh
I never had much success with rhythm games, until Donkey Konga– though for completely different reasons.

Additional features in this issue…

Wednesday

• Dojo-Show-Go! Episode 124 by M. Noah Ward

Coming Up Next Week…

Issue 31: The Best of Games of 2010
A year wouldn’t be complete without naming its best games.