Posted by Oculin in Featured Articles, Originals, Reviews | 0 comments

DPrime Retroview: Sonic the Hedgehog

With Sonic the Hedgehog 4 on the horizon, now is a better time then ever to look back at the classics which it is building off of. The general idea of early Sonic games is that their all speed trips all the way to the end. Despite laying the blue prints of the series, the original Sonic the Hedgehog actually has a much larger focus on platforming rather then speed. If you are coming back to the original title to escape the stop start action of recent entries like Sonic and the Black Knight or the werehog sections of Sonic Unleashed, you will be severely disappointed.

Posted by Oculin in Featured Articles, Originals, Previews, Wii | 0 comments

DPrime Preview: Monster Hunter Tri

Online games don’t fare well on the Wii. Friend codes and a lack of a real online community really hurt the system’s online potential. But Capcom plans on giving Wii owners a title with a real online component with Monster Hunter Tri, a hack and slash title. While you may not have heard of the Monster Hunter series, it has been very successful in Japan. Most of the titles have made it to Europe and North America, but the sales of the series has been less than stellar in these regions. Monster Hunter Tri, the third major installment in the series, will be hitting North America and Europe next month. The demo is available now at Gamestop for free, but many locations are requiring a pre-order to get the demo. Of course, if they are giving you a hard time, you can always just pre-order it and then come back at a later date and cancel it.

Posted by Oculin in Featured Articles, Nintendo, Originals, Reviews, Wii | 1 comment

DPrime Review: New Super Mario Bros. Wii

When Mario moved into the third dimension with Super Mario 64 it seemed like there was no looking back for console Mario titles, and for almost fifteen years that remained true. Now Mario has finally returned to the second dimension on home consoles with New Super Mario Bros. Wii, but it comes with a bit of a twist adding simultaneous multiplayer which is a first for the series. New Super Mario Bros Wii is also the debut of Nintendo’s Super Guide to help more casual players pull through the game. The additions of these features may give you the impression that New Super Mario Bros Wii is a side scrolling Mario title aimed at casuals, but fortunately that is far from the case.

Posted by Oculin in PS3, Wii, Xbox 360 | 0 comments

Third half of Mega Man 10 artwork revealed

As you saw yesterday a new section of the Mega Man 10 artwork was revealed showing off a new portion of the artwork. Now the third and final portion has been shown and you can see the whole thing combined above. If it only it could get bigger, but Capcom’s clue yesterday suggests this will be the third and final piece of art. The art itself looks complete though, so I think it is pretty safe to assume that’s it. Either way it is still a massive epic masterpiece

Posted by Oculin in Microsoft, Xbox 360 | 0 comments

Final Fantasy XIII to hit Xbox 360 with 3 discs

According to Gamefly Final Fantasy XIII will be hitting the Xbox 360 with not one, not two, but three DVDs. That’s two more discs then its PlayStation 3 counter part which is on a single Blu-Ray disc. As of right now only the PlayStation 3 version of Final Fantasy XIII has been released in Japan, so at the moment we can’t have any side by side comparasions of the game on different systems. But we do know that the PlayStation 3 version will let you play through the entire game without moving once. Where as the Xbox 360 version is going to require you to stand up twice to swap the discs.

Also if you haven’t seen the real box art for Final Fantasy XIII yet, be sure to check it out.

Posted by Oculin in Gaming in General | 0 comments

SEGA: Shenmue III can still happen; wants console manufacturers to cough up the dough

Shenmue isn’t exactly the franchise power house, and SEGA knows that. Almost 10 years down the road and we still don’t have the sequel to Shenmue II. Despite being almost a decade, SEGA says Shenmue III may still have a chance.

In a recent interview with Famitsu 360, SEGA said that they still often think about creating Shenmue III. Unfortunately their market research continues to show that it is unlikely that the third title would succeed in today’s market. SEGA assured fans if the opportunity arises they would hop right on it. SEGA also mentioned a second way the title could pull through saying one of the big three console manufactures could possibly fund the project in exchange for exclusivity of the title.

Who knows if, or when, Shenmue III will actually see a release, but in the mean time Shenmue fans should  check out the Yakuza games which are quite similar to the Shenmue series.

Posted by Oculin in Featured Articles, Originals, PS2, Retro, Reviews | 0 comments

DPrime Retroview: Space Channel 5

Before rhythm and music games required large plastic accessories many games, like Parappa the Rapper, Vib-Ribbon, and Frequency, just used the normal controllers. Space Channel 5 is much like these titles as it also uses the standard controller. Released on the Dreamcast in 2000, Space Channel 5 was one of the titles SEGA released to try to broaden the audience of the Dreamcast. Their attempt brought to life a simple rhythmic dancing game with a futuristic style that is as unique as it is wacky. While the title is one of the many unique titles SEGA created for the Dreamcast, the question is should you be looking to add this title to your collection or not.

Posted by Oculin in Featured Articles, Originals, Reviews | 2 comments

Dprime Review: Phantasy Star Zero

     Phantasy Star Online was one of the very first console massively multiplayer online role playing games. While the Dreamcast’s life span was short lived, Phantasy Star Online’s life was far from short as it moved to almost every other home console last generation. While Phantasy Star Universe is the first real sequel to Phantasy Star Online, many changes were made that pushed many fans to go back to the original Phantasy Star Online. Now that the fan base is split between Phantasy Star Universe and Phantasy Star Online, SEGA has created a title that goes back towards the original Phantasy Star Online with Phantasy Star Zero for the Nintendo DS. While it sounds all fine on paper, the question is if SEGA can really duplicate the success of the original Phantasy Star Online with this new entry and bring the full experience onto the DS.

Posted by Oculin in Featured Articles, Nintendo, Originals, PC, Reviews, Wii | 0 comments

DPrime Review: Tales of Monkey Island: Chapter 4 The Trial and Execution of Guybrush Threepwood

The season finale for Tales of Monkey Island is already available on PC, but those who play it via WiiWare just received the fourth entry in the episodic series, The Trial and Execution of Guybrush Threepwood. While the last chapter was a excellent game, some of the puzzles in it were a bit unforgiving. On the bright side, the third chapter on WiiWare was excellent from a technical stand point and featured little to no slow down which the series had been struggling with on the Wii. Can the fourth chapter keep the same smooth gameplay as the third despite being in a more open environment? Or will the massive slow downs from the first chapter make a return?

Posted by Oculin in Wii | 0 comments

Ace Attorney Series heading to WiiWare

Those who didn’t pick up the Ace Attorney games on DS the first time around may want to turn their eyes to WiiWare. The first three titles featuring Phoenix Wright will be making their way to WiiWare for 1,000 points a piece. Phoenix Wright Ace Attorney will be the first of the bunch and will be released in January. Following that Phoenix Wright Ace Attorney Justice for All will be available in March and Phoenix Wright Ace Attorney Trials and Tribulations will be available in May. The games look to be straight ports, but what is a Wii title without waggle? Now you can swing your Wii Remote present evidence. If this doesn’t suit your fancy though you can always use the minus button. You can check out some art and screens after the jump.