Review: Slender: The Arrival (Wii U)

Posted on October 29, 2015 by geelw

Platform: Wii U
Developer: Blue Isle/Parsec Productions
Publisher: Reverb Triple XP
# of Players: 1
ESRB Rating: T (Teen)
Official Site
Score: B- (75%)

Nowhere is safe in Slender: The Arrival, a somewhat polarizing first-person horror game that’s made the rounds on PC, PS3/PS4, Xbox 360 and Xbox One and has finally arrived on the Wii U in time for Halloween. As someone who’s avoided the game in its previous incarnations thanks to not being into the whole Slenderman myth (that some take way too seriously), I have to say I was pleasantly surprised that the game is actually more than a little frightening.

Or should I say unpleasantly surprised that I found myself backing out to the HOME screen on my Wii U after a few particularly well-placed random jump scares. At the right time (after midnight) and under the right conditions (big headphones on in a dark room, rainy and miserable outside), I found myself unable to push on during one part where that damn skinny suit-wearing freak kept popping up and making me squeal like a trapped piglet. Squeee! Squeeeee! Yipes. That’s the game doing its job quite well despite some flaws in the ointment. Continue reading →

Fatal Frame: Maiden of Black Water- “Free to Start” Is The Frightful Part

Posted on October 24, 2015 by geelw

So, Fatal Frame: Maiden of Black Water has been out for a little while and I’ve yet to play it. Not because I don’t want to, mind you. It’s just that Nintendo of America with Tecmo/Koei have made getting the actual game a bit of a chore unless you have a zippy fast broadband connection and about 10GB of hard drive space on your Wii U or a USB drive attached to the console. The game has a “Free to Start” demo that consists of the prologue and first two chapters and if you like what you’ve played, you then pony up $49.99 to download the rest of the game. That’s fine and dandy for those who can access that, but once again, gamers who want a legal physical release have to settle for nothing unless they can speak Japanese, own an import Wii U and buy a physical copy from one of the many import shops online.

Boo to that, I say. Continue reading →

Adventure Time: Finn & Jake Investigations – Mysterious Goings-On, Old School Style

Posted on October 21, 2015 by geelw

“What time is it?” Um, 6:48pm as I type these words!. Hmm, that joke fell flat didn’t it? Fortunately, Little Orbit’s latest, Adventure Time: Finn & Jake Investigations has far better writing than I can muster up and looks as it’ll be a total blast to play through. Available NOW on PlayStation 4, Xbox One, Nintendo Wii U, Xbox 360, PlayStation 3 and Nintendo 3DS, the game takes the popular show and characters into a less sprite-ly space (the game is made up of POLYGONS! *Gasp!*) and pace as it emulates some of the older-school adventure games us well-aged gamers grew up playing.

Not to say there’s no action and occasional stuff being broken for no good reason other than it’s amusing, mind you. Don’t believe me? Well, take a looky at these GAME FEATURES:

Sleuth your way through five cases set in the Land of Ooo, each of which plays out a separate chapter (like your own personal episode of the show).

See the Adventure Time characters and familiar locations for the first time in 3D.

Tackle puzzles by creatively using inventory objects and Jake’s shape-shifting abilities.

Combat evildoers as Finn using a variety of unique swords and Jake’s awesome attack forms.

I stole that info above from the press release, so maybe that’s a SIXTH adventure that needs to be solved? Uh, wait. I just gave myself away as the culprit. Oops. Well, Jake and Finn don’t know and you won’t tell them at all, so I’ll be camped out in front of my TV waiting for them to slap the cuffs on. Or slap me around the room. I think I’m insured. I think.

So, yeah – get this game. Well, you don’t HAVE to buy EVERY version in that photo above. But if enough of you did exactly that, I sure bet Little Orbit and developer Vicious Cycle would be very thankful indeed. Perhaps a bit baffled… but thankful nonetheless.

Slender: The Arrival Wii U Bound 10/22

Posted on October 14, 2015 by geelw

As modern horror myths people fall too easily for, the Slender Man craze isn’t exactly my cup of hemlock tea. However, I do like a decent horror game and other than a handful of notable titles, the Wii U is somewhat lacking in those. Fortunately, developer Blue Isle Studios and publisher Reverb are planning to get Slender: The Arrival onto the Wii U very soon via eShop digital download. As in this month. As in October 22. As in you’re only spending $9.99 to maybe pee your pants a little if (and when) you get that frightened.

Nine more screenshots below (hey, you ducked under a table watching that trailer, so you’re already looking down!):

For those of you who happen to have a Wii Remote handy (smart Wii U owners who’ve owned a Wii know that keeping one around has come in quite handy), you can use that controller as the game’s flashlight/pointer. You’re not getting any weapons here at all and that light will be your only ally against that tall, nattily dressed faceless killer who tends to pop up when he’s least expected. Previous versions on PC, PS3/PS4, Xbox 360and Xbox one didn’t use this functionality, so Wii U owners will be getting what may be the most fun version of this game to play in terms of how one interacts with the game world.

And, yep. Those screenshots are slightly unsettling. Particularly the one with the teddy bear and beach gear. With his more than pale complexion and that black suit I didn’t think Slender Man hung out in the sunshine at all. Eeek. Now I have sand in my shorts thinking about this. Hmmm… that’s not sand. Ewww. Back in a bit – I need to play this game at some point as I’ve avoided the other versions specifically to hold out hope that the Wii U would get this at some point.

Pocky & Rocky With Becky On Virtual Console: Bust Up Cute Baddies, Not Your Wallet

Posted on October 10, 2015 by geelw

Given that complete used copies of the low production run Game Boy Advance title Pocky & Rocky With Becky can fetch over $200 and new/sealed ones over $300, Natsume finally getting the game out on the Wii U Virtual Console is a great thing for those who missed out on the game and don’t have hundreds to drop on a copy these days.

For a fraction off those ridiculous auction prices (and yes, the Japanese versions of that cart run a lot more) you can get all the deceptive cuteness the game delivers along with harder than you may have thought gameplay. Well, the game isn’t really that difficult. It’s just that one hit from any enemy will knock Pocky, Rocky or Becky out of action and if you lose all your lives, you’re restarting from the beginning of one of the seven stages. Anyway, that’s your heads up for this one. Natsume has been on a nice roll of getting a few GBA titles onto the eShop such as this one, Harvest Moon: Friends of Mineral Town and the great, under appreciated RPG, Car Battler Joe (which also comes highly recommended).

Other Natsume GBA games headed to the eShop are Harvest Moon: More Friends of Mineral Town along with the two Medabots games, Medabots Rokushu and Metabots Metabee. All three should be popping up in the eShop in North America later this year. Alrighty then, let me let you get yours. Off and away with you now – you’ve got some cool (and now cheaper) games to buy and play.

Gallery: Adventure Time: Finn and Jake Investigations

Gallery

Posted on September 16, 2015 by geelw

This gallery contains 16 photos.

All I know is there had BETTER be a line in Little Orbit’s upcoming Adventure Time: Finn and Jake Investigations where someone says to Jake (and that someone should be Finn) “Forget it Jake, it’s Chinatown…”. Okay, I’ll still … Continue reading →

30 Years of Mario: Take A Bowser, Pal. You Certainly Deserve It

Posted on September 12, 2015 by geelw

Yep, it’s been THAT long since Super Mario Bros. was introduced to console gamers in Japan and shortly thereafter, most of the rest of the world. No one know how many millions of games of SMB have been played, but Nintendo has managed to make Mario not only one of the most memorable and recognizable game characters ever, they continue to rake in plenty of money from both new and old games featuring the character and his equally well-known cast of friends and foes. As today just so happens to also be Video Games Day (well, here in the US where we love making and celebrating made up holidays), you may be wanting to do a little celebrating yourself. If you’re lucky enough to own a Wii U, you can (and should) snap up a copy of Super Mario Maker and whip up a few celebratory levels for today’s festivities.

“Festivities? What festivities?” you ask? Yeah, at some point today, there will be a knock at your door and when you open it, a barrel will roll in and burst open. It’ll be full of bananas and a very pissed of Donkey Kong will storm in, grab you and that busted barrel and hoof it to your roof. Soon afterwards, you’ll be visited by a certain plumber and get a little game history lesson as you’re getting rescued. After that ape goes down swinging, you’ll end up going through a LOT of surprisingly clean sewer pipes, you may crack your head on a brick and see stars, and don’t forget to wear comfortable shows because you’ll be jumping more than you’ve ever jumped before. Don’t worry, Mario has been doing this stuff for a while, so it’ll take maybe ten minutes tops before you’re back on the couch and wondering what the hell just happened.

Fast Racing NEO: Shin’en Gets 60fps Looking Fine On The Wii U

Posted on September 1, 2015 by geelw

München, Germany-based Shin’en Multimedia has been something of an under-appreciated developer since 1999, producing close to 30 games primarily for Nintendo platforms using proprietary engines. The upcoming Wii U exclusive Fast Racing NEO is not only their best-looking game to date, it’s going to be one that just may make Shin’en a household name if the game plays as great as it looks.

While it’s not a “realistic” racer by any means, the game certainly shows that the Wii U can do fast-paced visually intensive arcade racing under the right hands. The game certainly gets some decent mileage from the F-Zero/WipeOut inspired visuals and great sense of speed on display, both of which may help silence the Wii U naysayers out there. Well, for about the time the video runs. Of course, those haters more than likely missed out on Fast Racing League, to date one of the more incredible programming jobs on the Wii. Fast Racing NEO just shows Shin’en doing what it does best and doing it really well.

Still, gorgeous visuals and all, it’s hard to say how well the game will do as an exclusive on a console with not as large a dedicated user base as others. On the other hand, given that Shin’en’s Nano Assault NEO eventually made it to the PS4, it would be cool to see this new game pop up on both the PS4 and Vita just so those who don’t own a Wii U can see what all the fuss is about. As usual, we shall see.

3D Gunstar Heroes Out Now on Nintendo 3DS: “Blast Processing,” Indeed

Posted on August 22, 2015 by geelw

For those of you who’ve never played it, Gunstar Heroes is quite simply one of the best 16-bit games ever made, period. Japanese developer Treasure made itself a household name among gamers with this 1993 Sega Mega Drive/Genesis release that seemed to use every bit of processing power the console had and then some.

While the game has popped up in a few newer console ports over time, it seems that the 3DS just may have the “definitive” version thanks to Sega’s remaster team, M2. Here’s a fun extra credit read from the Sega Blog on how tricky it was to get the game up and running on the handheld in stereoscopic 3D. The plot is nuts if you try to make total sense of it, but you won’t be playing this for the story. It’s a total run ‘n gun with killer boss fights, a “board game” level that’s worth an entire game in itself under the right developer, and a great soundtrack that drives the action from beginning to end.

Anyway, if you have a 3DS, BUY THIS GAME. If you’re thinking about getting a 3DS, see that last sentence. Hopefully Sega has plans to get this on the Wii U as well as an HD version at some point as it’s a total no-brainer that this is a game that really benefits from a larger screen. We’ll see if that ever happens (it would be nice, Sega), but for now, this one’s a must-buy that still packs quite a few wallops.

Chronicles of Teddy: Harmony of Exidus: Somebody Bring Me a Bear!

Posted on August 21, 2015 by geelw

I’ll have to admit that the title Chronicles of Teddy: Harmony of Exidus confused me for a bit because I thought it was the name of the playable hero and that character art above certainly doesn’t scream “Teddy” to me at all. In fact, that’s a girl named Tarrant and Teddy is actually her loyal plush bear.

Adding to the confusion was once I poked around the internet I found out that this game is the sequel to developer LookAtMyGame’s gorgeous-looking Finding Teddy, a PC and mobile point and click adventure where the title tells you what that game is actually about. In that game, a little girl’s stuffed toy is “kidnapped” into a strange fantasy world and she goes after it, facing off against assorted hazards along the way.

The sequel (which, amusingly enough is called Finding Teddy 2 on Steam) has Tarrant in a more action/RPG style of game with an entirely different (and still lovely) pixel art style and more familiar gameplay action/platform fans should love. Aksys Games will be publishing the game in North America for the PS4 and Wii U this fall as a digital-only release and if that trailer and all those positive Steam reviews are any indication, this one will be a must-play keeper.

At the very least, it’ll certainly make me forget all about paying full price for Magus back when it was released last year. Anyway, keep an eye on this one, folks.