The Brawl to end them all!

Nintendo of Canada will be holding Super Smash Bros Brawl tournaments nationwide at select EB Games locations. The last man standing tournament offers a grand prize of a trip for two to the Nintendo World Store in New York City. Sign up begins March 9th. CAN YOU DIG IT?

Professor Layton: Playing through

Professor Layton and the Curious Village was released on February 10th.

I didn't follow my own advice: I didn't pre-order. Fortunately though I did manage to snag a copy on Sunday fresh from the box. Unfortunately, I found I had paid $5 too much and returned it. Come on, five bucks is five bucks. I'd rather the game and a pizza instead of just the game. Am I right? I bought it the next day at another store. My point here is that it was a circuitous route that I took to get my game but get it I did.

Was it worth it? Yes, but the game isn't without a couple of flaws.

The game is perfect from an artistic viewpoint: the 2D cell-shaded figures are eye candy and hurdy-gurdy music creates the perfect atmosphere. The presentation is very cinematic and you'll feel like you're watching an anime during the cutscenes. And the localization team did a remarkable job. Almost too good; no engrish here. Charming describes this title perfectly. Beautiful looking game from top to bottom.

The meat of the game is the puzzles. How are those?

Most of the puzzles I've found are very interesting and really got me thinking. I love digging up new ones. A couple of the puzzles I've encountered so far have some problems. For example, a matchstick puzzle that I found fairly straightforward would not accept my correct answer because the matchsticks were not placed exactly where the computer was expecting them. At that point I have to spend hint coins trying to figure out how I can better place the matchsticks so I can salvage some Picarats. Some of the puzzles I've found too easy and some are near impossible without a math degree. The game does allow you to use the touchscreen as a scratch pad on most (but not all) puzzles. And the background art on the bottom screen makes it hard to see what you're writing. An option for a blank slate would have been welcome for some of the puzzles where I need to use a little algebra.

The problems though are small and I found myself overlooking them.

What we have is very original game that looks great, plays great, and has one or two minor flaws.I stand by the strong buy rating on this game. Grab a copy now if you haven't already so you'll know what the rest of us are talking about. Buy.

Professor Layton and the Perpetual Torment?

Pretty funny Professor Layton comic featured on Penny Arcade. I lolled. (NSFW language.)

Problems With Time Travel In Animal Crossing Wild World

For all you Nibblets who like to cheat in the game Animal Crossing Wild World by way of time travel. A friend of mine online has provided me with the dangers of doing such an idiotic maneuver. Reminds me of sonyfanboys.

Problem #1 All turnips will rot.
Problem #2 The following Sunday Joan won't sell ya any red turnip seeds.
Problem #3 Playstation 3 and XBox suck.
Problem #4 Some of the tasks in the game will never be able to be completed. For example if there's a lost kitten in your town and you time travel, the kitten will be lost for good (vanish). The town where the mom cat is, is where mom will remain. Looking for her baby for all of eternity.Crying, praying for the safe return of her kitten to no avail. All that crying, what a racket.
Problem #5 Tom Nook won't give you more than 99 bells a day for turnips.

So be forewarned by your friendly neighbourhood Assassin. Keep me in mind if you're thinking about cheating. Your ying and yang or whatever won't balance out. Everything bad gets punished somehow.

Peace
V.A.

Nutjob reviews Super Smash Bros for N64

I'm sure the guy who wrote this is kicking himself right now.

read more | digg story

Time for Frank to lose some weight.

In a news release, Ubisoft announces My Weight Loss Coach for the DS. Dropping this summer, My Weight Loss Coach will include a pedometer that uploads data to the DS. Check out what DS Fanboy has to say on this story. They've also got some intriguing screens.

After School Boy screens entice

Pray to the Nintengods that we'll see Konami's After School Boy hit our shores this year. This Japan-only title has me itching to play it based on nothing but these images. The good news is that we may get our wish because there is considerable buzz building around this card. Looks a little like Dynamix's The Adventures of Willy Beamish but with much improved art.

Best Theme Tune of all Time

Hey, hey Nintendo Nation.
Vanilla here again. I still have my cold so pardon my spelling mistakes and all that junk. This cold is totally giving me nightmares. Just last night i dreamt that i was forced to play Xbox 360. I woke up in a cold sweat.
Anyway, today i wanna talk to y'all about a component within one of the best games ever made.
Most people don't quite appreciate music in a game. F-zero for the Super Famicom is definately in my top three games of all time. My favourite board or level in a game would be Red Canyon which is found in F-zero and it's theme tune is my favourite tune of all time. Red Canyon is a fast paced, crazy curvy board with kickass jumps and a funky little beat.
I have all but fond memories of this board and tune. Check it out.

Super Nintendo, Best Console ever? NAH!

There are those who say that the Super Nintendo was the best console ever made. I disagree. In general I say who gives a damn about graphics when pure fun eminates from a game. Yes Super Nint had the fun factor goin on and it also had the graphics part which was a bonus. SO since Snes had the fun factor and the graphics i have to start factoring in the aesthetics. This is where the Snes bombed. The console looked boring. Blue and grey? or was it blue and white? Or was it of a purple hue? All i know is it was boring looking. This is where my choice for best console beats the SNES.

Back before gamers had no idea what a snes was i imported a console by the name of Super Famicom. The Japanese older, better looking twin brother of the SNES.
What an elegant clown on "e" is to a depressed goth poet is what the Famicom was to the Super Nintendo.

Grey, white, yellow, red, blue, green. The famicom had colours coming out of it's AC jack.

The carts weren't a boring old rectangle shape but rather a sleek, slightly curved rectangle. I guess it wouldn't be a rectangle anymore.

The one problem i had with the Fami was that the cord on the controller was only like a couple of feet long. So you didn't have much room to yank at the cord when something bit Mario's ass.

The box which the sytem came in was also aesthetically better looking than the Snes box. Simple yet colourful.

At this moment i'm writing with a terrible cold. My head feels like it's going to explode, so i have no idea how to conclude this article. I guess i'll just say that my pick for best console ever is the Nintendo Famicom.

Peace

Scientists Glue Wii Remote Parts to Flying Lemurs

A Royal Veterinary College researcher investigating how the flying lemur "flies" has come up with a novel source of accelerometers: Nintendo Wii Remotes. Andrew Spence designed a tiny colugo-sized backback for his animals to wear that helped him determine what sorts of forces were in play when a flying lemur glided from tree to tree. I'd love to have the research proposal that Spence submitted to his professors: "I intend to glue Nintendo game controllers to small squirrels and then toss them from tall buildings."