Wednesday, November 26, 2008

Heh.

Lot's of long, long article and opinon posts latley, I thought I'd give you a quick one right now.

Actualy, this is mainly ebcause I'm taknig a moment off designing the new site, (12th December, folks! TWELTH OF DECEMBER!) and decided to check on a nubmer of Blogs. So: Here's my update on the KN Blog. The site's coming along nicley. And it's also Coming 12/12/08. Look out. It'll be MASSIVE.

Tuesday, November 25, 2008

Character War: The Survivors Speak Out! (Part Two)

Yes, we said it'd be tommorow, but who cares? A characters gonig otu soon, and we have no clue who it'll be, so we'd better get through 'em fast. Ish. Well, he's the responses from the remaining characters. ANYWAY. 20 Charcters remain. 32 have gone. 5 have given their opinons on the war. 5 more are about to. Well, here we go...

Professor Layton



"I'm not sure why Luke's still following me in here. But my word, haven't I done well? This puzzle just keeps on ticking, as a new challenge begins every day. There's not too much logic in this, but it engages my interlectual curiosity. I'm attempting to figure out what the story behind these events is. This is a puzzle..."

We almost understood what he was on about.

Captain Falcon



"I'll Just FAAAAACCCCCAAAAWWWWWNNNN PAAAAWWWWWNNNNCCCCHHHH my way through it all! Come on! Show me ya moves! This is too easy! Yes!"

Well there you go. Everyone's favourite Smash Bro.'s verdict.

Solid Snake



"Kept you waiting, huh? Well, I'm not going. Mainly because you won't be able to find me. I'll be standing realy still just over your shoulder. Inside a box. Wearing camo gear. Having stolen Harry Potter's invisibity cloak. Actualy, I won't of stole it- We're genuinly close friends."

Whatever you say, Snake. Whatever you say...

Sho Minamoto



"Ha! You zetta sons of digits! You realy think you can erase me from this pointless game? Hollow-sculled hectopascals! You're all garbage! CRUNCH! I'll add you to the heap! This is MY game now, and I only allow two things: Flawless Calculations... And Beauty! 3.14159265358979323846264338327950288419716939937 510582097494459230781640628620899862803482534211 706798214808651328230664709384460955058223172535940812848111!"

*Runs*

Fox McCloud



"Come in... This is Fox. Mission should be accomplished within 19 days. Over and out."

Dream on, Foxy boy.

Well.. That was part two. The current nominations to go out are Marth of Fire Emblem fame and Ammeritsufrom Okami. Funnily enough, both of them are due to be in Part Four. Which goes out after the end of the voting. Erm... Well, enjoy murdeorising characters!

Character War: The Survivors Speak Out (Part One)

So then, with only 20 Characters remaining in KN's first-ever Character War, 34 have been evicted. We've gone and asked the remaining 20 to give us the low-down on what's happened in the war so far, and what they hope you happen...

Mario


"Well, it'sa mea! I always win-a these thingsa! I can't go out! If I do-a? Mamma Mia! What-a-disast-a! But I won't-a! Wahoo!"

Erm, well there you go.

Link



"It's been tough, and it's somehow taught me how to talk. Having won many a 'Best Character' contest, I'm sure I'll make it to the final at least. If I ever need to duke it out, I'm easily the strongest of everyone in the remaining roster. And, funnily enough, the only remaining villian is my nemesis. So I should enjoy watching him preish under my almighty power. FOR HYRULE!"

Yup.

Neku Sakuraba



"I'm not much of a Gaming Superstar, and that makes me feel uneasy, and afterall- I'm just a normal 15 year old boy, afterall, no matter how strong I am with a bunch of Pins. So what? I'm a player. But, all the same, I've taken down almost every single Reaper within The Game, and I should be able to make my way out of this alive. Or dead. Whatever."

Well, we love you, Neku. Kinda.

Ness



"PK Victory! I'll be abl;e to win this. Afterall, did you see how awsome I was in that cutscene in Brawl? Yeah, I'm awsome."

Gorrila says "Yeah!" Rest of us? "Meh."

Samus Aran



"..."

Looks like she realy can't speak.

Come Back For The Next Part- Even if a character or two are gone...

Friday, November 21, 2008

Ocarina of Time: 10 Years On


If you're a gamer, there's no way you could of possibly escaped the word "Zelda" for more than a month within picknig up the pad. And if you havn't heard of that word, you've got no right to read this. Infact, use that handy, yet often useless, search bar tab in the top-right corner of Firefox to look it up. Enter the three key words "Ocarina", "Of" and "Time" as well, and most the results will carry a further three words: "Best", "Game" and "Ever".

The Zelda series is among the world's greatest franchises, be it games or TV, film or books. Besides Mario, the adventures of Link is Nintendo's flagship series, and when it comes to "Hardcore" gaming: There's nothing better than Zelda.

Future Zelda titles like Majora's Mask and Twilight Princess have tried to challenge Ocarina's crown, but have failed. Both where amazing games, but have a long way to go if they want to muster the magic of Ocarina of Time. Many will claim they where "The best Zelda ever" or "The new Ocarina of Time" at launch, but we all know that it -Quite frankly- isn't. Perhaps this is why Nintendo tryed to change the visual style straight after the second N64 3D Zelda: They couldn't top it, and they knew it wasn't worth trying. The Wind Waker and Phantom Hourglass are both amazing titles, and some of the best games ever, and not directly competing with the gaming might that is Ocarina of Time helps majorly when it comes to this sort of thing.

Infact, only a handful of titles do own the right to eb able to look Ocarina in the eyes. Okami on PS2 and Wii may have flopped when it comes to sales, but it's the closest challenger to the title that doesn't come from Nintendo it's self. Twilight Princess, Majora, Wind Waker and Link To The Past are all amazing games, and among the best Nintendo, heck, any developer have ever made. Yet Ocarina just floats above them.

The scale of Ocarina is also a major selling point. Back then, no other game was nearly as big as Ocarina. Maybe the same thing could be said of the likes of Grand Theft Auto IV nowadays, but we've seen big open worlds before. And in Zelda everything was pulled along by the story, and you never saw the lead characters commiting crimes. Link's a good guy, y' see?

Actualy, GTAIV just -To be honest- wasn't worth the hype. Ocarina of Time was known as the most anticipated game of that decade. And it surpased pretty much all expectations. Zelda's the best game ever now, and it still was even better back then.

"Hold it!" screams Phoenix Wright, the defense in the case against the other Zelda titles. "This is a ten year old title we're talking about here!". Well, yes it is. Sure, the screenshot from this year's Super Smash Bros. Brawl of Link in his Twilight Princess "Gear" may be nice on the eyes, (Even if he is firing an arrow right into it) but A). Twilight Princess was almost identical to Ocarina of Time, but with the abilty to play as a Wolf and the whole Twilight twist. Plus, B). Ocarina of time's eccence is yet to eb captured. And it's one so pure that even the Three Goddesses Of Hyrule have yet to discover how Nintendo managed to trap it in a bottle and then ram inside a Game Cart so sucessfully. And we dobut anybody will ever discover the true reason why Miyamoto's masterpiece is such a brilliant game. It just is.

IGN, Edge, RPGamer, EGM, NGamer, Famitsu... All these and far more have seen Ocarina Of Time top their "Top Games Of All Time" lists, and both Metacritic and GamesRankings have it at the top of their rankings. (For those who don't know what I'm on about, both of those sites basicly add up Review Scores and find the average review score. Ocarina is the only game at the moment to have 97%. Super Mario Galaxy and GTAIV have breifly taken over, but Ocarina has got it back before long.) This just goes to show: Ocarina of Time is the Best Game Ever, and it rightfully deserves it. No matter how much longer Nintendo go on making games, it pretty much definatly won't be topped. Actualy, we can probaly safley say that no matter how long the games industry go on, Ocarina of Time will still stand as at the top spot.

See you for our 100th Aniversary Celebration in 2098.

Saturday, November 8, 2008

Opinon: Heroes Fallen


Kid Icarus, F-Zero, Starfox... All fo these featured in our E3 countdown way back in July, when we hoped for a new game in the series. Kirby, Zelda, Pikmin, Mario and Punch Out!! have all recieved a new sequal, and Nintendo have even revived Sin & Punishment- The ultra-hardcore cult classic realised on the N64 in Japan when the console was nearing the end of it's life. It may never of reached the west on it's original cartidge form, -Infact, an original S&P cart is worth upwards of £100 these days- but when it eventualy reached the Wii's Virtual Console last year, it got the popularity it deserved, promting Nintendo to make a sequal. But the best selling VC N64 game -Besides Zelda and Marios, and S&P- is F-Zero X. So how come Nintendo hasn't made a Wii version then? Surely if something hardcore that could still be enjoyed by the 'Mainstream' or 'Casual' audience due to any motion controls Nintendo may stick in there wouldn't go down badly?

But then again, no Nintendo system has got through it's lifepsan without a F-Zero title since it was created back in 1992 on the Super Nintendo Entertainment System, and the same goes for StarFox. Ok, there was Command on DS, but besides that we've seen nothing from Fox, Falco and Slippy The Berk on Wii outside Smash Bros., inwhich they even made them far weaker that in the GameCube version, despite the far incressed foxy love poured into the game.

OK, maybe Smash isn't the be-all-and-end-all as some fans (Even though our 'Other Ed' Grancko belives) but it is the only way Nintendo are keeping some franchises alive these days. There's 5 Mario characters, 5 Zelda characters, 4 Pokémon Characters (or, depending on who you ask, 6) and then many from other Nintendo franchises. Mainly covering the big ones, it's still a suprise to see that Nintendo's posterchild of Hardcore Gaming (Besides Zelda), Metroid, only recives one character and an alternate version of that one if you hold L & R o the Character Select menu or use their Final Smash. And yet, there's already been a Metroid game on Wii AND DS: Something only Mario and Zelda have accomplised besides Ol' Massive Shoulderpads.

But! Let's not complain too much. There's a new Kirby out on DS next month, even if it's a rehash of an old one, and then we've got Animal Crossing: Another member of Samus, Mario & Link's "Wii and DS!!" club. Not forgetting Sin & Punishment: A series we thought long-dead. Another Code, Punch Out!! and Pikmin are all also set to do the whole "Rwise From Your Gwavez" thing next year two. And now that the Fall Confrence has shown that the Old Nintendo are still in there, we wouldn't be suprised to see F-Zero or Kid Icarus announced during next year's E3.

Oh yeah, and Nintendo, please get to work and realise a new trailer of that new Wii Zelda game. K TNX BY.