IGN has a great article up about the things Nintendo has said throughout the years, showing their stupidity about certain things then, things that still haven't been fixed. Either that's because Nintendo is completely blind to what's happening in the industry or they're just too damned stubborn to admit that they were wrong. I've bolded the most interesting comments.

Quote:The Changing Face of Nintendo

A history of big words from the leaders who have shaped the way the company is today.

October 13, 2004 - Five years ago Nintendo was fresh from a hard fought war with Sony for the leadership position in the videogame industry. The rival's PlayStation console had entered the market before Nintendo 64 and taken an early lead that Nintendo could never quite catch. As work began on Project Dolphin, the codename for the successor to N64, Nintendo's leadership vowed to create a console that bettered many of the drawbacks of the cartridge-based system before it.

In the feature below, IGN takes a look at some of the boldest words from the men who have shaped Nintendo as it is today.

June, 2000
Q: What concerns you most about the Dolphin system?

Shigeru Miyamoto: That if it becomes too popular, we just cannot produce enough consoles [laughs].

June 2000; former Nintendo president Hiroshi Yamauchi

[The Dolphin] will have a function to access the Internet. We are entering the market as a latecomer so the console will have to outperform Sony Corp.'s PlayStation 2. We are planning to introduce an Internet business next March or April. The first step will be online sales of a brand new type of Pokemon cards.

If we release software for the console similar to what Sony has for PlayStation 2, that would be a failure. More details will be announced on August 24, when we will also disclose details for the Game Boy Advance.
[Game Boy Advance's] performance will be similar to that of the Dreamcast.

August, 2000

Q: Nintendo always says that it doesn't care about what other companies do. Between the N64 and the GC, you only had four years. Does this mean that you already consider the PlayStation 2 a threat to your business?

Shigeru Miyamoto: Well, I don't feel the slightest threat from the PlayStation 2, and very frankly speaking, I am not too concerned about the existence of the PS2 at all, because we have created the GameCube hardware and will create the software that will become the requisite for everyone even though they already have the PS2. That is why I'm not too concerned about the PlayStation 2. The reason for the big announcement yesterday is because when we finished designing the N64, we already understood that we still needed to do something more, to make a new machine in the future. Now we have that new machine and we now realize that the functions of the GameCube are too good to not show people, and that is the reason that we made the announcement.

November 2000; Hiroshi Yamauchi



There are a lot of people who really do not know about games in the industry. Especially one big company in the USA thinks that it can use a lot of money to surround itself with software companies and accomplish what Nintendo has done. We don't think it will go that easily. It seems that they will be bringing their system out next year, and the results of how well they actually do will be known to us in the beginning of the following year.
November 2000

Q: What about Internet games?

Hiroshi Yamauchi: There are people who are in fact enjoying Internet games, and I'm sure they are enjoying them, but in the end, this is a fad thing. We don't think that this will turn into a multiplying game genre. There are reports that only a portion of the many Net games are actually selling, and that this is only a phase. We wouldn't bet our company's luck on such games.

February 2001; Hiroshi Yamauchi

The more amazing graphics and sound you put into a game, the longer it takes to finish. Not just a year, but now, more like a year and a half or two years. So then your development costs balloon, and when you finally put it out you have zero guarantee of it selling. That's what the game industry is today.

Because of that, I've been saying since last year that this industry will undergo a major shakeout between now and next year. The general public doesn't realize it yet, but most people in the industry know it's happening. I've just been saying that pretty soon, even the public will be forced to recognize what's going on.

June, 2001

Q: How would you say Nintendo's philosophy is different from Microsoft's?

Satoru Iwata: We have been in the entertainment business for a long time and we've learned a lot about when and how to invest our money. With Microsoft, they just haven't been in the entertainment business that long so they're not as familiar with and don't have the experience that we do.
What really showed me that they don't have the experience in the entertainment industry is that they started off by announcing the $500 million marketing amount. So that's what they're going to go with and that's a big number and of course it's great because it got them in the news. But our philosophy is that you don't start off with a number of what you're going to market something with. Rather, you look at the product, you look at the entertainment and what you're trying to package and what you want it to be. Then you think about the best way to convey that to the consumer. That's what entertainment is about and that's why we don't go in for those types of tactics. If you come up with a product that people don't want, it doesn't matter how much money you spend ? they're still not going to want it.

February 2002

Q: What are the keys, besides the obvious of making good games, for Nintendo to survive against Sony and Microsoft? And would Nintendo ever consider selling its games to one of these companies?

Satoru Iwata: Making good games is obviously important, but not enough to really win out in competition. I think really it is all about how different you can be from your competition and how you can set yourself apart. Because if you have really large companies that are well financed and competing on the same merits, what it really comes down to is that whoever has the most money will win. The most important thing for Nintendo is to make good games, but also to do what we want and define the difference that makes Nintendo what it is. This is something that we have been focusing on since last year and that's the direction that I think we will continue to go in
I think the media will often to refer to Sony and Microsoft as game industry giants and it's true in the sense of the sizes of the companies that they really are giants. But to me the question is, among the software makers and who is really selling software, who is the giant?

March 2002; Satoru Iwata



The thing about online is that people are talking about it and bringing it up as this kind of direction for gaming. But the fact of the matter is that many aren't really paying attention to a lot of the hurdles that have to be jumped before online becomes viable. One of the biggest ones, I think is, what's really going to be the penetration for broadband connections around the world? Where is that going to be in a few years? So people are talking about this and seem to focus only on online, but they fail to answer many of the questions surrounding it.

We have a lot of experience in online as I'm sure you're aware. We think very positively about the possibilities. We've done a lot of online experiments in the past. But until these hurdles are met and these problems are solved, I don't think that we should just jump into online because people think there's strength there right now. So we're certainly not in a position where we can say 'there will be an online Mario Kart in 2003.'

We're not negative toward the idea of going online. We're just practical.

February 2004; Hiroshi Yamauchi

Only people who do not know the videogame business would advocate the release of next-generation machines when people are not interested in cutting-edge technologies.

I have been saying this for some time, but customers are not interested in grand games with higher-quality graphics and sound and epic stories. Cutting-edge technologies and multiple functions do not necessarily lead to more fun. The excessively hardware-oriented way of thinking is totally wrong, but manufacturers are just throwing money at developing higher-performance hardware.

If we are unsuccessful with the Nintendo DS, we may not go bankrupt, but we will be crushed. The next two years will be a really crucial time for Nintendo.

October 2004; Nintendo of America's VP of sales and marketing Reginald Fils-Aime

Our focus is this: we will bring Revolution to the marketplace roughly at the same time as the competition. Certainly, our sight is on the number one player in the console space. We are driving our timetables based on what we believe Sony will do. We are driving our software lineup to maximize all the capabilities of Revolution. That's what we're looking to do. Not that I want to ignore the Xbox, but certainly we believe that a rush to a new system is a mistake. And frankly, there are a lot of examples as you look at the history of gameplay, that a rush to a new generation is not a good thing.

First FPS I've bought since Return to Castle Wolfenstein, but after playing it some in a 'play unreleased games' thing that visited campus I wanted this one... and got it at Best Buy yesterday when I saw that it was $40 (on sale, as they often do for new games -- it's $50 everywhere else). Very good so far. I got it primarially for the single player of course (I'm sure by now all of you know my opinion on multiplayer FPSes), and it's quite good... oh, and jetpacks are really cool. I loved them in games like OutWars (an otherwise mediocre Microsoft game from '98 or '99 that was made cool with the jetpack), and it's no different here...

And darnit, I like Sierra. I know they don't exist anymore, but I see that logo in the game and... (I think that it's great that their name is still appearing on great games)

Source: http://star-techcentral.com/tech/story.a...technology

Quote:Sony, Wal-Mart sued over game linked to shootings

KNOXVILLE (Tennessee): A US$246mil (RM934mil) lawsuit was filed against the designer, marketer and a retailer of the videogame series Grand Theft Auto by the families of two people shot by teenagers apparently inspired by the game.

The suit claims marketer Sony Computer Entertainment America Inc, designers Take-Two Interactive Software and Rockstar Games, and Wal-Mart, are liable for US$46mil (RM174mil) in compensatory damages and US$200mil (RM760mil) in punitive damages.

Aaron Hamel, 45, a registered nurse, was killed and Kimberly Bede, 19, of Moneta, Virginia, was seriously wounded when their cars were hit June 25 by .22-caliber bullets as they passed through the Great Smoky Mountains.

Stepbrothers William Buckner, 16, and Joshua Buckner, 14, of Newport, were sentenced in August to an indefinite term in state custody after pleading guilty in juvenile court to reckless homicide, endangerment and assault.

The boys told investigators they got the rifles from a locked room in their home and decided to randomly shoot at tractor-trailer rigs, just like in the videogame Grand Theft Auto III.

In a suit filed last Monday in Cocke County Circuit Court on behalf of the victims, Miami lawyer Jack Thompson and local lawyer Richard Talley alleged the game "inspires and trains players to shoot at vehicles and persons.”

"These kids simply decided to take the thrill of that game out to Interstate 40 and started pointing at cars,” Thompson said in a telephone interview on Tuesday.

Thompson, who said he sent letters to Sony and Wal-Mart to drop the game before the shootings, said, "It's not like this is coming out of the blue, they chose to ignore this danger.”

Thompson said that since filing the suit he has been contacted by other victims of violent crimes interested in taking legal action over the game.

"We want to tell the videogame industry that if they're going to continue to market adult-rated games to children with these horrific consequences, then we're going to take their blood money," Thompson said in a statement.

"In the past few days I have been contacted by dozens of other people, and there may be hundreds more cases. This will send a message that they have to stop this practise, or there will be other suits on behalf of other people killed by these games."

San Mateo, California-based Sony and Bentonville, Arkansas-based Wal-Mart did not return calls for comment Tuesday. The lawsuit alleges the retail giant sold the game to the Buckners about a year before the shootings.

Douglas Lowenstein, president of the industry Entertainment Software Association, called the shootings "an unspeakable tragedy” but said blaming a game played by millions for the boys' actions was "misguided and counterproductive.”

"There is no credible evidence that violent games lead to violent behaviour,” he said. "While videogames may provide a simple excuse for the teenagers involved in this incident, responsibility for violent acts belongs to those who commit them.”

Thompson has made similar claims in the past and lost, notably a US$33mil (RM125mil) lawsuit against videogame makers stemming from the 1997 school shooting near Paducah, Kentucky, by a 14-year-old boy.

The 6th US Circuit Court of Appeals ruled in the case last year that it was "simply to far a leap from shooting characters on a video screen to shooting people in a classroom.” – AP/dpa

Paper Mario: The Thousand-Year Door came out today and I just got back from playing a bit of it. Now I have the urge to go on eBay and find a copy of the N64 Paper Mario.

Anyone else get Paper Mario 2 today? Discuss and whatnot.

<a href="http://www.homestarrunner.com/">Homestar Runner</a> is freaking awesome. If you don't agree, then you will recieve... the double deuce! Well, maybe a single deuce, the other one will be busy like, taking your stuff. You know, like your DVD player, or maybe your VCR if you don't have one of those... And then a toaster, and that TV guide from 3 months ago on the table there... Seriously, what's up with that? Ya think it's going to help you out there pal? Got a time machine and you are prepairing, for your fabulous 3 months trip? Yeah, way to shoot for the moon there. Yeesh, what a pack rat... Yeah I know, you just didn't "clean it off" or something, but really, there's like a whole box of twinkies there, and it's open, and it's totally not looking good. I know it's halloween but I really don't think they made any freakin' green colored twinkies man.

So anyway, to that, I say, thank you again for your stupid peoples, and I'm gonna take your stuff while hitting you, maybe spit on you, or like, trick you into thinking I'm going to use the one deuce, but then I use the other, you know that thing, or the one where I wind up a deuce but then I kick you in the knee, that's a good one. Also, the one from the stooges where I do the eye poke, but you block it with your hands, but then I... I kick you again. See? I'm always ahead of you, so clever.

The paper, take us out.

Dad's Home

http://news.yahoo.com/news?tmpl=story&u=...t_reeve_16

Quote:MOUNT KISCO, N.Y. - "Superman" actor Christopher Reeve, who turned personal tragedy into a public crusade and from his wheelchair became the nation's most recognizable spokesman for spinal cord research, has died. He was 52.

Reeve died Sunday of complications from an infection caused by a bedsore. He went into cardiac arrest Saturday, while at his Pound Ridge home, then fell into a coma and died Sunday at a hospital surrounded by his family, his publicist said.

His advocacy for stem cell research helped it emerge as a major campaign issue between President Bush (news - web sites) and Sen. John Kerry (news - web sites). His name was even mentioned by Kerry during the second presidential debate on Friday.

In the last week Reeve had developed a serious systemic infection, a common problem for people living with paralysis who develop bedsores and depend on tubes and other medical devices needed for their care. He entered the hospital Saturday.

Dana Reeve thanked her husband's personal staff of nurses and aides, "as well as the millions of fans from around the world."

"He put up with a lot," his mother, Barbara Johnson, told the syndicated television show "The Insider." "I'm glad that he is free of all those tubes."

Before the 1995 horse-riding accident that caused his paralysis, Reeve's athletic, 6-foot-4-inch frame and love of adventure made him a natural choice for the title role in the first "Superman" movie in 1978. He insisted on performing his own stunts.

"Look, I've flown, I've become evil, loved, stopped and turned the world backward, I've faced my peers, I've befriended children and small animals and I've rescued cats from trees," Reeve told the Los Angeles Times in 1983, just before the release of the third "Superman" movie. "What else is there left for Superman to do that hasn't been done?"

Though he owed his fame to it, Reeve made a concerted effort to, as he often put it, "escape the cape." He played an embittered, crippled Vietnam veteran in the 1980 Broadway play "Fifth of July," a lovestruck time-traveler in the 1980 movie "Somewhere in Time," and an aspiring playwright in the 1982 suspense thriller "Deathtrap."

More recent films included John Carpenter's "Village of the Damned," and the HBO movies "Above Suspicion" and "In the Gloaming," which he directed. Among his other film credits are "The Remains of the Day," "The Aviator," and "Morning Glory."

Reeve's life changed completely after he broke his neck in May 1995 when he was thrown from his horse during an equestrian competition in Culpeper, Va.

Enduring months of therapy to allow him to breathe for longer and longer periods without a respirator, Reeve emerged to lobby Congress for better insurance protection against catastrophic injury. He moved an Academy Award audience to tears with a call for more films about social issues.

"Hollywood needs to do more," he said in the 1996 Oscar awards appearance. "Let's continue to take risks. Let's tackle the issues. In many ways our film community can do it better than anyone else."

He returned to directing, and even returned to acting in a 1998 production of "Rear Window," a modern update of the Hitchcock thriller about a man in a wheelchair who is convinced a neighbor has been murdered. Reeve won a Screen Actors Guild (news - web sites) award for best actor in a TV movie or miniseries.

"I was worried that only acting with my voice and my face, I might not be able to communicate effectively enough to tell the story," Reeve said. "But I was surprised to find that if I really concentrated, and just let the thoughts happen, that they would read on my face."

Reeve also made several guest appearances on the WB series "Smallville" as Dr. Swann, a scientist who gave the teenage Clark Kent insight into his future as Superman.

In 2000, Reeve was able to move his index finger, and a specialized workout regimen made his legs and arms stronger. With rigorous therapy, involving repeated electrical stimulation of the muscles, he also regained sensation in other parts of his body. He vowed to walk again.

"I refuse to allow a disability to determine how I live my life. I don't mean to be reckless, but setting a goal that seems a bit daunting actually is very helpful toward recovery," Reeve said.

Kerry, campaigning in Santa Fe, N.M., said Reeve made great strides toward curing conditions like his.

"Chris was an inspiration to all of us," Kerry said. "His tireless efforts will always be remembered and honored and, in part because of his work, millions will one day walk again."

Dr. John McDonald treated Reeve as director of the Spinal Cord Injury Program at Washington University in St. Louis. He called Reeve "one of the most intense individuals I've ever met in my life."

"Before him there was really no hope," McDonald said. "If you had a spinal cord injury like his there was not much that could be done, but he's changed all that. He's demonstrated that there is hope and that there are things that can be done."

Dr. Raymond Onders, who implanted electrodes in Reeve's diaphragm in a groundbreaking surgery to help him breathe, said the sore that led to the infection was not Reeve's only recent health problem.

"Many different problems develop after nine years of being dependent on a ventilator, not being able to move yourself, having intestinal problems. ... It just slowly builds up over the years," Onders told ABC's "Good Morning America."

Reeve was born Sept. 25, 1952, in New York City, son of a novelist and a newspaper reporter. About age 10, he made his first stage appearance — in Gilbert and Sullivan's "The Yeoman of the Guard" at a theater in Princeton, N.J.

After graduating from Cornell University in 1974, he landed a part as coldhearted bigamist Ben Harper (news) on the soap opera "Love of Life." He also performed frequently on stage, winning his first Broadway role as the grandson of Katharine Hepburn (news)'s character in "A Matter of Gravity."

Reeve's first movie role was a minor one in the submarine disaster movie "Gray Lady Down," released in 1978. "Superman" soon followed. Reeve was selected for the role from among about 200 aspirants.

While filming "Superman" in London, Reeve met modeling agency co-founder Gae Exton, and the two began a relationship that lasted several years. They had a son and a daughter, but never wed.

Reeve later married Dana Morosini; they had one son, Will, 12. Reeve also is survived by his mother, Barbara Johnson; his father, Franklin Reeve; his brother, Benjamin Reeve; and the children from his relationship with Exton, Matthew, 25, and Alexandra, 21.

Funeral plans were not immediately announced.

In his 1998 book, "Still Me," he recalled that after the accident, when he contemplating giving up, his wife told him: "I want you to know that I'll be with you for the long haul, no matter what. You're still you. And I love you."

His children helped, too, he told interviewer Barbara Walters.

"I could see how much they needed me and wanted me ... and how lucky we all are and that my brain is on straight."

All from Gamespot here (Nintendo Gamer's Summit)

http://www.gamespot.com/gba/action/thele...index.html

Quote:The Legend of Zelda: The Minish Cap Hands-On


SEATTLE--At its Gamer's Summit today, Nintendo had a new and seemingly almost complete version of The Legend of Zelda: The Minish Cap, the new Game Boy Advance Zelda adventure from Capcom's internal Flagship studio. Flagship has had plenty of experience with 2D Zelda games before, what with its Game Boy Color games Oracle of Season and Oracle of Ages, not to mention the GBA port of A Link to the Past. So it wasn't much surprise to us to see that this newest Zelda seems to be fully upholding the spirit of the venerable series.

Here's one of the most amusing things we noticed about The Minish Cap: Link starts the game with no hat. If you've read our previous coverage of the game, you know that Link will wear what is essentially a sentient hat in this newest adventure, but at the beginning of the game, you won't have any head covering to speak of. We saw how Link happens upon his future cap under attack by octoroks and subsequently has to save the hat from harm. A Nintendo representative said that we could basically look at The Minish Cap as the story of how Link got his famous hat. The game's namesake is a real wisecracker, and it'll raise up off of Link's head and offer some quip or piece of advice at various times in the game, as the situation warrants.

Apparently, The Minish Cap will have some minor gameplay connections to the most recently released Zelda game, Four Swords on the GameCube. That game had four different Links working in conjunction to solve various puzzles, and The Minish Cap will use a similar mechanic in some places. You won't have any other players helping out, however; rather, special pads on the floor will occasionally cause Link to split into four identical selves so that you'll have some extra muscle if you have some overwhelming task to complete. In the example we saw, Link had to spawn his clones while facing the proper direction so he could move them all as a group and push a massive block out of the way. We imagine this four-Link mechanic will figure prominently in some of the game's more devious puzzle designs.

We also got a better feel for the way the kinstones will work in the game. As reported previously, you'll collect kinstone fragments as you progress through the game, and you can match up your fragments with those of various other characters to effect changes in the game world. In the new build, we got to see how you'll be able to access a menu screen where you can manage the kinstone fragments you've collected, which ought to be handy since the kinstones are categorized by the designs on their faces (and also because there's something like 100 of them). More importantly, after you make a kinstone match, the overworld map will show you an icon when you zoom in that indicates where (and what) the effect of your latest pairing is. Sometimes a match will cause a new character to appear, or open up access to a new area, and so on.

The Minish Cap seems like it might be a bit more story-driven than previous Zelda games, since we ran around in a town that was chock-full of characters we could interact with. There seem to be a fair number of noninteractive dialogue scenes as well, from what we played, so there may be a bit more plot to this game than your average Zelda. In any event, we'll be curious to see how The Minish Cap has shaped up when it hits stores in January. Stay tuned for more info before then.

Quote:Feel The Magic: XY/XX Hands-On


SEATTLE--Feel the Magic is the US moniker for Sega's Sonic Team-developed DS game that goes by the equally eccentric title of Kimi no Tame Nara Shineru, or, I Would Die for You (when translated into English). The unique game plops you into the role of an average joe eager to gain the favor of what is likely to be an unattainable hottie. While we got a hint of the wackiness that was to come last month at the Tokyo Game Show, where Sega had a provocative looping video of the game, at today's Nintendo Gamer's Summit we got our hands on a demo version of the game. The demo only offered a handful of the minigame-style scenarios from the game, and was devoid of the bulk of the story that will tie the disparate bits of insanity together. But it still gave a decidedly memorable impression.

The few story bits that were in the demo offered some insight into the odd story courtesy of stylish in-game cinematics that played out with the iPod-style characters interacting in a brightly lit world. The gist of the game is simple: One day you're walking down the street and see a gorgeous beauty who you apparently decide is worth your devotion. To make that pipe dream a reality, you join the Rub Rabbits, a troupe of performers who go around in bunny ears.

This in turn causes you to go through a series of the aforementioned scenarios that find you doing all manner of craziness that will somehow impress your oblivious sweetie. The demo we played let us try six of the scenarios that did a fine job of showing off the DS' touch screen functionality as well as Sonic Team's loopiness. The first scenario revolved around coaxing goldfish to swim up a man's esophagus and jump out of his mouth. Such a task proves surprisingly easy to do, as you simply have to rub in an upward direction on a silhouette of the man's stomach until said fish scurry up his esophagus and escape. Once you complete the goldfish scenario, the demo lets you pick your next task.

We opted for the simply titled "candle" scenario, which requires you to blow out a descending candle in one of two ways. As the candle descends from the top screen to the bottom of the touch screen, you'll see a group of fellows looking up at it. You can cause them to blow puffs of air at it to extinguish its flame by literally blowing into the DS' microphone or using the stylus and rubbing in an upward motion over each of them individually to cause them to blow air at it. Doing this too quickly will cause the gang to get dizzy and be unable to move for several precious seconds, which will result in the candle getting to the bottom of the screen and burning everyone. Nice.

Seeker was the next game we tried, and requires you to rub the touch screen, which is made to look like a sandy beach, in search of whatever appears in your lady love's thought bubble. There are two significant catches to the whole shebang: the segment is timed, which requires some fast rubbing on your part, and some items look merely similar to your honey's desires, and may cause her irritation when you offer them to her.

The next episode, wash her, found us trying to keep our sweet girl clean by rubbing a variety of grime off of her. No further comment.

After that, an episode called bull proved to be a fast paced affair that sends you up against a horde of rampaging bulls that threaten to squash your sweetie who's apparently tripped and fallen in Pamplona, Spain during the running of the bulls. You'll have to tap each of the incoming bulls with your stylus to ward them off. After you've warded off enough of the four-legged terrors, you'll have to deal with el mero jefe, a massive bull with 100 hit points that you'll whittle away by tapping like a madman on it as it advances on you.

The last demo we tried was similar in spirit to wash her, only rather than sweep off dirt, you're responsible for knocking off hordes of scorpions that have found their way onto your lady. As we all know, this is a real drag when it happens.

The graphics in the game are stylish collection of flat color imagery that animates smoothly and features some artistic touches. It's difficult to assess what, if any, taxation Feel the Magic is causing the DS hardware as the game is hardly graphics intensive and the stylish look is simple. However, such concerns don't really matter as the game's style goes a long way towards establishing its own unique reality. The action is fast and the visuals are inventive, which helps make the game a true original.

The audio in the game is an equally unusual collection of tunes and soundbytes that frame the action well. We'll admit to hoping for an even more-over-the top approach in the voice and music, but what's on hand gets the job done.

Based on what we played, Feel the Magic is best described as "crazy". However, we'd like to stress that this is the good, "must sweep scorpions off woman of my dreams who probably doesn't even know I exist," kind of crazy that recalls some of Sega's eccentric gems such as Space Channel 5 and Samba de Amigo. Needless to say we were left wanting more, and are especially curious to see how the final story will tie scorpions, bulls, goldfish, beach trawling, and candle blowing into one cohesive package.

At any rate, Feel the Magic is looking like a slick launch title for the DS that does exactly what Nintendo has said it hopes games for the system will do: push the envelope and offer a new experience that is unlike anything seen before, by taking advantage of the hardware's unique functionality.

For more updates on the Nintendo DS and other impressions and media, check out GameSpot's coverage of Nintendo's Gamer's Summit.

Quote:Yoshi's Touch & Go Hands-On


SEATTLE--The first game we tried on the Nintendo DS at today's Gamer's Summit improbably ended up being our favorite, and it wasn't one we even knew the first thing about before we sat down with it. Yoshi's Touch & Go is a new 2D action game that's stylistically almost identical to the classic Yoshi's Island but that you play entirely with the stylus and touch screen. The innovative gameplay and charming style of the game had us running through the brief demo several times before the end of the day.

At the beginning of the demo, Baby Mario began falling through the sky, suspended by a cluster of balloons. This was a treacherous sky, full of bad guys (but also full of coins), and it was up to us to direct Mario's descent to earth by drawing lines of cloud with the DS' stylus that would gently guide him along. The tricky part is that Mario was seen only on the top screen, while the bottom screen (being the touch-sensitive one) was naturally the only one we could draw on. So we constantly had to resist the urge to watch Mario himself and see where he was going, because we already had to be preparing the next section of the sky for his arrival. Basically, to get through this part, we had to stop looking at Mario at all to get to the ground without disaster.

We found straight diagonal lines to be useful for making Mario move along a line of coins, enhancing our score, and we also found out that most enemies could be encircled in a ring of cloud, which would then transmute them into a harmless bubble containing a tasty coin. Again, this is all played with no aid from the d-pad or buttons--Mario's fall is automatic, and you can only affect it by establishing guide-clouds for him to fall against.

Once he reached the ground, Mario landed right on Yoshi's back and the side-scrolling portion of the demo began. This part was almost identical to Yoshi's Island, with Yoshi trailing a line of eggs that could be launched at enemies or collectible items along a chosen trajectory. The big difference here is that Yoshi ran forward at all times without any input from us, so we had to think fast to make sure he and Mario got where they were going safely.

In this part, tapping Yoshi with the stylus made him jump, while tapping him again in the air made him perform that little hover move he's so good at. Like in the previous section, we were able to draw lines of cloud in the air here, which came in handy when we encountered pitfalls that were too wide for Yoshi to jump across safely. In this section, the second screen depicted the sky up above filled with coin configurations, so when we had a second to spare, we managed to launch the occasional egg skyward to snag a few extra points. Once we reached the end of this short level, the demo sadly ended.

To us, Yoshi's Touch & Go is a great example of the kind of games that could potentially make wary gamers understand the unique features of the Nintendo DS. Whether or not the concept will extend to an entire game--and, more importantly, whether or not consumers will embrace such a game--remains to be seen, but for now, we're very intrigued (and we'd like to play that demo a few more times, please). We'll bring you more on the game as soon as we know about it.

For more updates on the Nintendo DS and other impressions and media, check out GameSpot's coverage of Nintendo's Gamer's Summit.

Quote:WarioWare DS Hands-On


SEATTLE-It was pretty much a foregone conclusion that Nintendo would be bringing a WarioWare game to the Nintendo DS following the appearance of tech demo that starred Mario's surly twin at this year's E3. As a result it was no surprise to see a DS version of the awesome series that has spawned GBA and GC incarnations appear in playable form at Nintendo's Gamer's Summit. As fans of the series with painfully short attention spans we were understandably stoked to try out the latest game in the series at Nintendo's Gamer's Summit.

Nintendo's development team has wisely kept things simple with WarioWare's DS debut and maintained the format of the previous games. The DS game on display uses the elevator motif see in the GameCube version and flings the minigames at you with all the subtley of fully automatic Uzi. The minigames we played were a mix of familiar games we've seen before given a stylus centric twist on the DS. In a few cases we found ourselves timing a stylus tap on the A or B button on an image of an original GBA with one of the original minigames playing on it. In addition to old classics there are quite a few new games on hand that simply require you to swipe your stylus on the touchscreen to cut rope and fruit or push buttons among other fast paced tasks.

The graphic style of the game is on par with the GameCube game and features an eclectic mix of cartoony and photorealistic imagery that comes at a hurricane's pace. There's nothing to tax the DS hardware here but plenty to give the game it's own quirky style. The game's performance actually seems a little faster than the previous versions which certainly kept us on our toes. The audio in the game follows suit with the visuals and serves up a bizarre collection of sound effects and tunes that somehow manages to offer perfect accompaniment to the insanity.

WarioWare DS is shaping up to be an excellent entry in the slightly mad series from Nintendo. The fast paced gameplay, loopy visuals and crazy audio all add up to what will surely be a must have game for the DS. For more updates on the Nintendo DS and other impressions and media, check out GameSpot's coverage of Nintendo's Gamer's Summit.

It's been a while since we've had a good old-fashioned TendoCity countdown. So, let's count down to the release date of the DS!

Bojacksome!

42 Days!

Years ago, when RotJ was on VHS, and I was obsessed with Star Wars and I had a lot of time, I noticed that when the trap is sprung on Endor, and Han, Leia and the strike team are being escorted out of the shield room, you'll see outside a legion of stormtroopers and a few AT-STs. If you look more careful, you'll see four or five more Rebel commandos, with their hands on their heads outside, surrendering. BUT if you look even more carefully, next to the commandos, you'll see a man in stormtrooper armor, without his helmet on, and his hands in the surrendering position.

That's all. Just wanted to point that out.

I wonder if it was a scrapped plot idea; he might've been an undercover Rebel or something.

--Barry.