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Mario & Luigi: Bowser’s Inside Story review

Mario & Luigi have offered a little diversity (very little, by some accounts) to the never ending Mario based platform games. Mario & Luigi: Bowser’s Inside Story is the third time Mario and his green dressed bro Luigi play as a team on the DS, this time, the story is weirder than ever, as the arch nemesis Bowser swallows the mushroom kingdom, including Mario, Luigi and all their buddies. Actually, the story is a bit more complicated, but we won’t ruin it for you here.

The gameplay is very similar to the last Mario & Luigi DS game, where you basically control both characters at the same time, with one button for Mario and another for Luigi. This time however, you control Bowser as well, and actually, you’ll spend more time in the game playing as Bowser than Mario & Luigi, which might seem odd at first, but it feel quite natural. Yes, quite natural, controlling the antagonist. More »

Scribblenauts review

Scribblenauts for the Nintendo DS is a kind of adventure game that you don’t see often — actually, there hasn’t ever been a game like Scribblenauts; an adventure game where your character progresses through the levels by you typing the name of an object, pretty much any object you can think of, from dinosaurs to cars, to monkey to trees, as long as it isn’t vulgar or trademarked, it’s probably in Scribblenauts. The core concept of the game is highly original and extremely entertaining, and if it wasn’t for a few issues, it would’ve been the ultimate must-have game for any DS owner.

The gameplay is simple and follows the standard 2D side scrolling fashion, but to solve puzzles in Scribblenauts, you need to use an object that might fit and help you move forwards. You “scribble” the object (say, a “meteor”) and poof! it appears on the screen. The goal of each level is to secure a Starlite at the end, and accumulate them. On top of that, you have dedicated puzzle levels, which don’t feature as much action but pack plenty of challenge for your imagination. Once you’ve settled in the gameplay and figured out how advance through the levels (maybe you need a club or a crowbar to break something, maybe you need a walking robot), you’ll be troubled by the rather frustrating controls the game has to offer. You control your hero (named Maxwell) via the stylus, where you point to an area on the screen, and he’ll run to it. But it’s far too easy to point a few pixels too far, and see yourself walk into certain death. More »

Nintendo DSi XL coming Q1 2010

Earlier today Nintendo officially announced the DSi XL, a Nintendo DSi with 4″ screens as opposed to the pervious 3.25″ screens. However, at the time we had no idea when we could expect the device to hit store shelves in the United States.

Now, a Nintendo spokesperson has come forth to let us know that the DSi XL will in fact be made available in the States in Q1 of 2010. Unfortunately, we still don’t know how much it will cost but as soon as we know we will let you know.

via joystiq

Blue Dragon: Awakened SHadow on DS in Spring of 2010

When Blue Dragon first made its way onto the Xbox 360 it was met with generally good reception but hand held consoles in the States have yet to get the same love. Luckily, D3Publisher has announced today that they will be bringing Blue Dragon: Awakened Shadow to the US for the Nintendo DS sometime in Spring of next year.

According to Joystiq, this game will be set 2 years after the Xbox 360 game and feature similar game play.

Nintendo announces DSi XL

Nintendo has gone ahead and confirmed various rumors of a new DSi with larger screens, by officially revealing the DSi XL, which the console will be called in Europe. The new console will have 4″ screens instead of the regular 3.25″, and the whole system will be substantially larger (as you can see above) and will even include a full sized stylus. So far the console has only been announced for Japan (as the DSi LL) and Europe (as the DSi XL), but we expect a North American announcement to come shortly.

Nyko launches DSi camera accessory

Nyko, the master accessory maker — well, not really, but they do make a ton of accessories for games of all kinds — have released a lens attachment to the Nintendo DSi camera, which offers 8X zoom to the rather weak 0.3 Megapixel camera. But at least it works, as you can see on the image above. Won’t win you a Pulitzer in photojournalism, but at least it won’t burn your pocket; $25 is all it set your back.

Konami bringing Monster Finder to the US?

In early September we were notified that Alpha Unit’s Monster Finder was to be the first ever Nintendo DSi exclusive title on the market. However, there was no word on when, if ever, the game would be hitting North American Shelves.

However, a recent listing on GameFly’s website has let us know that Konami will be publishing the game in January 2010. Is this to be believed? Well, GameFly is a pretty credible source but until Konami, or anyone involved, says something there

Need for Speed Nitro pushed ahead, coming early next month

Back in July we let you know that Need for Speed Nitro would be hitting store shelves for the Wii and Nintendo DS on November 16th. Today, EA has announced that the game’s development has gone smoother than expected and the game now has a release date of November 3rd.

If you’re a fan of the Need for Speed series and are looking for a hardcore racer, this most likely isn’t the game for you. However, if you’re a casual player looking for a fun racing game to play then you should definitely check out Need for Speed Nitro. I mean, it is for the Nintendo DS and Wii, after all.

via joystiq

Super Mario voice actor confirms new Mario game

Charles Martinet, the legendary voice actor behind the voice of Super Mario, spilled the beans on a new Mario game, saying his latest gig involved voice acting for a new Mario game that is not New Super Mario Bros. Wii or Super Mario Galaxy 2 — both of which are announced and will ship this year and next year, respectively. He wrote on his Twitter page, “Mama Mia!!!! I’m going to Seattle this week to record a new Mario game! Woo Hooo!!!!! I can hardly wait!!!!1″, followed by another tweet saying, “Awesome new Mario Game! And it’s not NSMB Wii, and it’s not Galaxy 2, but it’s going to be crazy fun!”. As usual Nintendo doesn’t comment on rumors, but you can always guess.

Amazon holding buy 2 get 1 free game deal

Amazon.com has today announced that they will be holding a buy 2 games get 1 free deal through Saturday, October 17th. In such an economy, this is a perfect time for gamers to rejoice and hop on this deal as fast as they can.

What’s better is games such as Madden NFL 10, Need for Speed: Shift, NHL 10 and Call of Duty: World at War all make the cut, among other titles.

Check out the full list of qualifying titles for the various consoles here.

Nvidia Tegra to be used in next Nintendo DS

Nvidia’s Tegra chip, which includes CPU and graphics in the same, lower powered chip, is rumored to be featured in Nintendo’s next DS update. The Tegra chip can already be found in Microsoft’s Zune HD, which can, among other things, play 3D games and stream HD video. The basic Tegra chip configuration runs at 600 MHz, while the two chips found in the DS run at a meager 67 MHz and 33 Mhz. The rumors suggest that the new DS might wait and get the next generation of Tegra chips, which are due in about a year from now.

Nintendo doesn’t think there will be hardware shortages this holiday season

Pretty much ever since the Wii and Nintendo DS hit store shelves retailers had trouble keeping the consoles in stock. In fact, trying to get one of the two around the holidays was close to impossible unless you got extremely lucky. However, according to Nintendo of America president Reggie Fils-Aime, this year should be different.

Below he comments:

We have a tremendous amount of product in inventory. We’ve been flowing product into retail. We do not expect to have shortages on our products. Now, if we do experience them, I’d love to have that problem, but we’re not seeing that happening this year.

So, if one of your loved ones was wishing for a piece of Nintendo hardware under the tree, their wishes may now be able to come true.

Read (MSNBC) via kotaku

Walmart biggest Nintendo customer

In an interview with CNBC, Nintendo’s Reggie Fils-Aime revealed that most of the Nintendo systems have been sold through mega-retailer Walmart, which is quite surprising, as Walmart would have to beat Gamestop and Best Buy — who are usually at the top when game sales are in question. However, considering that Nintendo targets a more casual audience than its competitors, it’s reasonable to understand how Walmart is their best customer in the retail space. Reggie also revealed that the newly released Nintendo DSi had already sold 2.2 million units in North America.

DSiWare purchases tied to the DSi that downloaded them

Usually, when you purchase digital content it is assumed that if you migrate hardware you will be able to bring the software with you. However, with the DSi and DSiWare purchases, that doesn’t seem the be the case.

Nintendolife questioned Nintendo of Australia if users who were to purchase one of the new colored DSi’s would be able to transfer their DSiWare purchases over to which they replied no, you won’t be able to.

If however, your DSi is rendered unplayable and you purchase a new one, you can send both of the consoles into Nintendo to get your DSiWare purchases transferred. But honestly, who wants to do that?

New Pokemon sells close to 1.5 million in its first week

Yesterday we let you know that Pokemon HeartGold and SoulSilver have hit Japanese shelves but I bet you didn’t think it would be this successful of a launch. Then again, it is Pokemon, and it is Japan.

Anyways, it was recently made known that the two latest versions of Pokemon have collectively sold 1,480,980 copies in their first week on the Japanese market. However, since the game was released on a Saturday it only had 2 days of the week to show numbers for which means it sold all of those copies in just 2 days.

Now all we have to do is wait until Spring of 2010 to see if Pokemon HeartGold/SoulSilver will make the same impact in North America.

via rpgsite