Nintendo putting the pressure on fansite to close

The Japanese gaming giant is putting the screws to Nintendo fansite "friendcodes.com" for infringing on its IP. The last thing I'd want in my inbox is "several e-mails" from NOA requesting that I cease and desist publishing my Nintendo fan page. Can't we all just get along? Link may not work if Nintendo is successful in shuttin' her down.

Act Raiser (Super Nintendo)

It's great see see one of my all time fave games released on the Virtual Console, Act Raiser.
This game is comprised of two aspects. Action and a sort of city simulation.

Your Character is a god. While in a long sleep your servant angel wakes you up and makes known that your civilization is in ruin. First of all, never wake a god from his sleep and secondly when he's climbing out of bed, real cranky-like, don't tell him that his civilization is in ruin.
Being a pissed off god you head down to your ruined civilization, posses an old statue and then go on the hunt killing monsters with your sword.
Once the action sequence is finished you get to build your civilization. Tell people where to build roads and farms..etc.

The graphics are great for it's time and the music is totally hot. Sounds symphonic (if that's a legit word). You know what I mean.

Act raiser has an old Contra Alien Wars mixed with Castlevania mixed with Civilizations feel to it.

Like i said earlier, this is one of my all time fave games. It's a definite buy from your Virtual console. it's probably one of the better games on there. You won't be disappointed. But that's just my opinion.

Commentary On Guitar Hero --By Vanilla Assassin

Hey hey folks.
Yeah, i know the following commentary is not going to be quite popular with all the readers and i'm probably going to get an inbox full of hate mail again. But hey, i love reading that stuff.

So what's the deal with Guitar Hero? Why the monster craze? The basic concept for those of you living under a pebble...the screen consists of a guitar with colored highlights. In your hand you hold a fake guitar and finger the colors you see on the tv with the matching colors on the guitar. If you do this properly you end up playing along with the tune blaring from your speakers.

Answer me this, do fans of this game actually think they're playing a real guitar, properly? I don't know. I think this game is a glorified "Simon" game, for those of you who remember that. A game where you sit around a little gadget with four sides with your friends. Each side lights up with it's own color in a different sequence each time you play. When the colors light up you hit that color. If you do that properly the game speads up. If Simon had blaring background music, you could have named it Guitar Hero.

Now the Hero is coming to the portable DS. There's a link below this article posted by Von Kaiser, which shows what the game will look like. This is basically a small gadget which slips into the DS snuggly and you finger the colours. At least this is what it looks like to me. Correct me if i'm wrong. A portable Simon. Not having played this game on the DS, i don't want to bash it too much, but with this version, you really don't feel like you're strumming a real guitar.

Having said this. I probably will purchase this game. Just because i want the add-on gadget.

Internals

Why so few posts month of March? Turns out that Von Kaiser's 'net connection fell apart for over a week. Also, we've been putting a lot of effort into podcasts Episode 1 and 2 (Episode 2 will be dropping next week.) But that's all behind us now. Keep an eye on the site or our feed for all your Nintendo news and reviews.

Curling DS coming to our shores?

I remember browsing Play-Asia last summer and spotting a game I really wanted to import. It was a curling game that I thought would meld very well with the DS's touchscreen. Eventually I decided against importing it because I thought the Japanese menus might present a problem. In retrospect, and after importing titles like M-06, I realize I was probably wrong in my assessment. The good news seems to be that the game is now coming to North America. Browsing through the ESRB's new rating lists you can find an entry for Curling DS by Ubisoft. I thought it was strange that a curling game would start its life in the Land of the Rising Sun anyway.

Guitar Hero DS: On Tour website launched

Guess I wasn't the only one confused about how the Guitar Hero DS: On Tour peripheral was supposed to be held and played. As expressed in our Podcast Episode 1, the pictures didn't fully explain how you were supposed to manage the mini fretboard that plugged into Slot 2 of the DS. Vicarious Visions came up with a brilliant website that features a 360 look at the setup that makes everything clear. The add on even features a holder for a guitar pick that's used on the touchscreen. This game is going to be a monster!

Wii Will Rock You!

Mark June 22nd on your calendars. That's the day Harmonix is set to drop Rock Band for the Wii. It won't feature downloadable songs or online play. But if you're anything like me you couldn't care less. I wasn't particularly interested in paying for new songs anyway. The white drum kit is bonus enough.

Why shovelware for the Wii is a good thing?

Another story from Wired. Wired discusses why shelves full of shovelware may actually be good for the Wii. I'd tend to agree personally.

Wired takes Wii Ware out for a spin

Nintendo recently launched Wii Ware which is a channel of original, downloadable content for the Wii. Some great looking titles are available through Wii Ware and Wired takes them for a spin.

Nintendo's rating cut from "Buy" to "Hold"

Had to post this one since we use the stock rating system in our reviews. Looks like some investors feel Nintendo has reached the saturation point and have downgraded Nintendo's stock from a "Buy" to a "Hold." I recall a similar concern a few months back but Wiis still keep selling out. Anyway, we'll see.