ShareThis
Fancy buying a video game or two this week? There’s a lot out there– and that’s where Nintendojo’s Now Playing column comes in. Check out the list, and lean back as we figure out just what these games are all about.
Wii
September 27, 2011
FIFA 12 (EA)
Cabela’s Big Game Hunter 2012 (Activision)
Family Feud 2012 (Ubisoft)
The Price is Right Decades (Ubisoft)
WiiWare
September 27, 2011
escapeVektor: Chapter 1 (Nnooo)
3DS
September 29, 2011
FIFA 12 (EA)
September 30, 2011
Angler’s Club: Ultimate Bass Fishing 3D (D3Publisher)
Nintendo eShop
September 28, 2011
The Legend of Zelda: Four Swords Anniversary Edition (Nintendo)
September 29, 2011
Super Mario Land 2: Six Golden Coins (Nintendo)
Nintendo Video
September 29, 2011
Blue Man Group Sports
DS
September 30, 2011
BEN 10 Triple Pack (D3Publisher)
DSiWare
September 29, 2011
Crystal Caverns of Amon-Ra (Selectsoft)
Bugs’N’Balls (EnjoyUp Games)
That’s right– The Legend of Zelda: Four Swords Anniversary is out. I guess that’s ’nuff said for this week’s Now Playing!
Just kidding. This week is sports central, it looks like, with FIFA 12, Cabela’s Big Game Hunter 2012 and Angler’s Club: Ultimate Bass Fishing 3D. Which begs the question– how in the world have there been twelve FIFA games since the year 2000? Then again, in the year 2000, Nintendo GameCube wasn’t even out yet, and Majora’s Mask would have just barely been released. I guess in that sense we can certainly believe that there have been twelve FIFA games since then.
But yes, considering that even the weekly Nintendo Video release is sports-related– another Blue Man Group piece, super creepy– there’s definitely a theme going on here. Maybe developers think that if Nintendo distracts people enough with The Legend of Zelda: Four Swords Anniversary, they won’t notice that they’re just releasing sequel after sequel after triple pack. (Those BEN 10 games are actually not so bad, by the way.) That is, of course, totally ignoring the WiiWare and DSiWare games, which are actually not sequels and rather original IPs.
Actually, let’s talk about that for a moment, because a lot of us happen to complain about IPs a whole lot without realizing that there have been quite a few out already on Nintendo’s digital platforms. (Lost Winds, anyone?) Games like Crystal Caverns of Amon-Ra or Bugs’N’Balls are, admittedly, not particularly original in terms of gameplay or art design, but they’re certainly more interesting than movie tie-ins on more levels than one. Maybe the quality of these games aren’t fantastic, but they’re also developed by the same small-time developers that Nintendo apparently tried to court a little bit in the first place with DSiWare. Whether Nintendo’s succeeded in doing this (it hasn’t) is a discussion for another time (play Steam games for your indie dosage), but it’s just interesting to think about.
That said, Nnooo, the developer of DSi AR game Spirit Hunters and iOS/WiiWare hit Pop, has just released escapeVektor: Chapter 1 for WiiWare, which is definitely a stylistic action/puzzle arcade game to look out for. It’s gotten pretty good reviews, too, which shouldn’t be surprising with a company that’s daring enough to have name like “Nnooo.” If anything, its very retro graphics are both attractive and appropriate to the game, and for 500 Nintendo Points– that’s the price of an NES game!– the price looks pretty good, too.
It’s too bad, though, that we’ll probably spend too much time playing the free The Legend of Zelda: Four Swords Anniversary Edition. It’s just that it’s free. And it may be LAN-only, but it’s Zelda. (So much for new IPs. Just the right place at the wrong time, guys.)
Thinking of picking up a game or two this week? Gonna play some Zelda? Let us know in the comments!
