Review: Knytt Underground-Wii U

The other day, I finally finished Knytt Underground. This game was one of the most pleasant surprises that I’ve experienced through my time as a gamer. When I approached this game, I was only looking at it from the standpoint of someone who had played it’s predecessor

 

Knytt Underground is an exploration based, re-traversal adventure game, a genre that typically goes by the moniker of ‘Metroidvania’. It takes the rare opportunity to weave a narrative that is filled with subjects that most video games shy away from such as, faith vs. reason, family based tension and shaming, and homosexuality. The game offers a satisfying and engaging, albeit disjointed, story.

Early Impressions: Knytt Underground

This week, I began playing a game called Knytt Underground on the Wii U. I initially became interested in the game due to playing the PC freeware game Knytt Stories. In the PC game, in the scenario that I played, you play as a mother Knytt looking for her baby. The series utilizes exploration, platforming, and re-traversal to make for an entertaining experience.

 

One of the first things that I noticed, before I even bought the game, which is available on the Wii U e-Shop for $12.99, was the fact that it held the ESRB rating M-for Mature. Puzzled as to why this was, knowing what I knew about other games in the series, and watching the trailer and looking at the screen shots, this seriously puzzled me. I knew that there was no graphic violence. There’s not even any combat in the series. It’s literally just exploration and platforming. I took a second to look at the rating descriptors, and learned that the rating was given for ‘Strong language’, and ‘Sexual themes’.

Old Games, New Horizons

I’m a gamer. I know, big surprise, right? All you have to do to know this is take a cursory look around this site. I’m kind of a Nintendo fangirl, too. You knew that, too? Am I really so easily read?

 

It’s no secret that I love Nintendo. I’ve been playing Nintendo games for 26 years. That’s kind of a long time. I collect Nintendo systems and games, classic and contemporary. I own at least one of every system that the company has released, including rarities(and depending on who you ask, stinkers) like the Virtual Boy. I’ve got some rare and valuable stuff, too.

 

That being said, I’m pretty much into a lot of mainstream games. I typically play the Nintendo produced/published titles like, Super Mario, Legend of Zelda, Metroid, Kirby, and Pokemon. I can tell you just about everything that you’d care to know about most of these series.

Nintendo Financial 2012, Plus New NOA CEO

Nintendo has just released their financial data for 2012. After a particularly hard year, the company has returned to profit. After operating at a deficit of $530 million in 2011, Nintendo has posted a profit of a comparatively meager $71 million.

Part of their financial data also included life-to-date sales of all of their current market platforms. See the sales data after the break.

Pizza Time!

What kind of improvements can current generation game systems make? Tighter controls? Better graphics? More games? Better online interactions? Being able to order a pizza?

 

Wait, what? What’s pizza got to do with video games? Well, it’s absolutely a popular food selection for gamers. This is more or less true, especially with gamers who spend a lot of time playing. Ordering a pizza is easy, right? You used to have to just give them a call. You can now do it from your PC using your web browser, or your smart phone using apps. Well now, you can also use the inline app on your Xbox 360…

The Hazards of Next Generation Game Development

Sony has just recently announced the PlayStation4. Counting Nintendo’s Wii U, it will be the second eighth generation game console. Sony is following the same business structure that they have since they entered the market. They’re using the idea that sharper graphics, prettier pictures, and bigger games make the system.

Game Boy Value

Have you ever noticed how old Game Boy games tend to hold their value? If you play classic games, like I do and you go to flea markets, and used game stores and shop for used games, you see these games, Game Boy, Game Boy Color, and Game Boy Advance games that tend to hold their value. Even a 20 year old Game Boy game, often can’t be found inexpensively. It’s still going to cost about $20 to buy a Game Boy game. Part of that, I believe is that Nintendo has only recently, over the past couple of years, begun to do a Virtual Console to play classic Game Boy games on the Nintendo 3DS, and they also recently announced that they intend to bring them to Wii U.

Review: Bit.Trip Presents Runner 2: Future Legend of Rhythm Alien

I just finished playing Bit.Trip Presents: Runner 2: Future Legend Of Rhythm Alien. Say that five times fast. I was very very pleased with the game. If you’re not familiar with the Bit.Trip series, they are a series of games created by Gaijin games. They are rhythm games with various types of game play. The one that really got my attention at first was the original Bit.Trip: Runner. Runner is a side-scrolling platform game, where your character runs forward automatically, and you have to jump, duck, dodge and attack, based on the rhythm of the music. I found this to be very innovative.

Replayability

One of the things that is attractive about video games is their playability Video games have, in my opinion, replayability The first kind is inherent replayability This is where you have a game where you will play it, or a segment of it, simply because it’s fun and engaging, and you want to experience it again. The second kind is artificial replayability This is all of the crap that gets piled into games, especially modern ones, where the playtime is artificially increased. Side quests, fetch quests, treasure hunts, and sometimes re-traversal elements; things of this nature serve to artificially inflate the playability re playability

Return of the Horror, Pre-Review: Metroid Other M

Can you guess what this is? It’s a hole in my wall. Those are my knuckle marks. In a fit of rage, I punched the wall hard enough to put this here. Do you want to know why? It was because of a game.