Written By Stephen Heller

Platformers dominated the early days on the Nintendo Entertainment System (NES), and it’s easy to see why when we look back at the catalogue of classic titles to come out of the era. One that is often overlooked is A Boy and His Blob, created by the mind behind the Pitfall series David Crane. The game provided a relationship between a boy and a bouncing, jiggling blob that needed the boy’s help to save his home planet. The boy was happy to help, but often needed the help of tools that the blob was able to change into. It was this mechanic that made the original stand out as a thinking gamers platformer.

Twenty years on WayForward Technologies bring us a re-imagining of the classic, featuring all new levels and gameplay features, topped off with some fantastic presentation that makes this stand out as a gorgeous game. A Boy and His Blob for the Wii is a smart, fun platforming adventure that very rarely falls short.

Keeping true to the titles roots, the story is weaker than diet cordial. The blob crash-lands on our little planet and meets the boy, they team up and embark on an adventure across our planet and beyond to defeat the emperor who has taken control of Blobolonia. That’s about as detailed as the story gets, and while it works in this situation, it still would have been nice to have it fleshed out a little more.

The presentation of A Boy and his Blob is what really makes the game stand out. Boy and Blob travel through unique worlds which range from the lush green wilderness, which looks stunning under the moonlit sky, the bright and outlandish planet of Blobolonia and the dark, brooding mechanical citadel. Each world feels unmistakably different, each with it’s own feeling which keeps the game interesting and fresh. 2D platforming has never looked so good.

What makes A Boy and his Blob look so darn good is the fact that every facet of the game has been hand drawn and animated to perfection. The characters all feature an amazing amount of detail that draw the player in, enemies splatter in a way that brings a smile to your face, and the backgrounds and scenery are some of the best artwork on the Wii today. The art design takes a minimalistic approach at times, but it works rather well. The real-time lighting brings a warm and fuzzy quality, lighting up the scenery and the boy and his blob too. Running a smooth and consistent frame rate, this is one gorgeous game for the Nintendo Wii.

The adventure is spread our across four worlds featuring ten levels each and they will manage to keep you busy for a number of hours. Completionists on the other hand will find themselves replaying each level to collect all three treasure chests hidden in each level. If you collect all three, bonus levels are unlocked (40 of them) which can be beaten to unlock concept art, videos and more. This is an adventure that is lengthy and has plenty of re-playability for those of you who want to unlock everything.

While the charm of the characters manage to draw you into the game, the immersion is severely hampered by a series of loading times, which manage to destroy the momentum created by the game. There are stage loads that are fine, but the mid-level loading times manage to destroy the illusion that the world is not a seamless stage, but merely a conglomerate of conjoined areas. While this isn’t a deal breaker to the games appeal of functionality, it certainly does make the pacing feel broken and slow.

Many gamers will just write Blob off as another 2D platformer, but upon spending some time with it, you will find yourself relying on brainpower rather than the run and jump formula that is found in most platforming games. You take control of the boy, using the nunchuck to move around, using the A button to perform a jump. The boy’s jumping abilities aren’t that great, so more often than not you will rely on your blob to transform into something to allow you to navigate the hostile world. Using the Z button you open up a wheel with different coloured jelly beans, each with a special power that will cause your jiggly blob friend to transform into useful tools. Some of these include ladders for climbing, trampoline to jump over hazards or up rather high, a hole to make your enemies fall to their doom, and even a spaceship when you need to fly somewhere.

Blob’s control scheme is okay once you get used to it, but more often than not it feels boated and sluggish. What should be a quick and simple task of transforming your blob into the tool you desire is slowed down by a number of steps. First you need to hit the Z button to bring up the jelly bean menu, you then need to use the analogue stick to navigate to the desired jelly bean, which changes every level as each level has it’s own designated powers, then you need to press the B-trigger and use the analogue stick to choose your trajectory to throw the said jelly bean. After all this you sill need to hit the C button to call the blob over to you and make him eat the jelly bean. The AI of the blob can be rather cumbersome, more often than not you’ll find yourself waiting for him to catch up. It’s not a deal breaker, but some alternative control methods would have been nice.

THE FINAL VERDICT
A Boy and His Blob is a fantastic homage to the titles roots on the NES, featuring 2D platforming at it’s best. A gorgeous game to look at, the only downfalls are in the bloated control system and staggering load times that really break immersion. If you want a platformer that has more than just running and jumping, A Boy and His Blob will keep you entertained for hours.

GAMEPLAY: 7.8/10 – A unique blend of puzzle and platforming. Great characters and fantastic level designs. Unfortunately is let down by a bloated and sluggish control system.

GRAPHICS: 8.5/10 – Hand drawn and animated characters with stunning backdrops and real-time lighting effects. Rarely do 2D platformers looks this good!

AUDIO: 6.5/10 – The soundtrack is atmospheric but often feels bare. The Blob is humorous but the boy calling out to the boy will get on your nerves rather quickly.

VALUE: 7.2/10 – 40 story levels that will keep you busy for quite some time, and with 40 bonus missions, concept art other unlockables on offer this will keep you busy for a while, but the bonus levels are rather short lived.

OVERALL: 7.5/10

And another update on my geek collection (in English, not sure how I wrote the last one..).

Well, my inlaws stopped by the other day with a box full of old Nintendo stuff. Amongst which, a brand-spankin’-new NES! Yes it was in plastic and all. So who cares if it were the Spanish edition I had a good time unwrapping it and setting it up. After some startup-issues, most likely related to the games I tried which had been sitting in a box for about 2 decades, it seems to be in great working order now. Here’s a photo report of my personal unpack-party:

In the box, I also found:

• 3 Game Genies, 2 sealed
• 4-player Gameboy Adapter (heaven knows why)
• NES Advantage Controller
• Extender cables for NES controllers
• A bunch of 3rd-party NES controllers
• Gameboy-snap-on light
• Action Replay
• Gameboy amplifier
• Car adapters for the Gameboy

.. all in all, it’s kinda amazing to think how much money I spent ‘back then’ on buying that stuff..

You’ve probably (hopefully) heard 8-bit music, or chiptunes, even you aren’t aware of what it’s called.

From Wikipedia:

“8-bit refers to a style of electronic music inspired (and performed) by the sound of old computer consoles from the 8 bit era of video games. This music will often reflect sounds from technology that is seen as primitive or “outdated” such as the Game Boy and home made synthesizers.”

I recently read an interview on createdigitalmusic.com from the band Anamanaguchi.  Anamanaguchi makes ridiculously awesome chiptune music from a hacked NES.

From Createdigitalmusic.com:

“Vijith: How do you do write these sequences?

Pete: It’s a [DOS] program called Nerdtracker 2 that apparently writes music in the language that the NES can understand. It’s a really home-brewed program. It was made in 1998 by a bunch of Swedish dudes, and it never got out of beta, and it’s prone to crashing, and it has all these terrible bugs in it, half the features don’t work.

And the decision to mix it with guitars?

Pete: I started messing around with it and sending songs back and forth with a friend of mine, and in the beginning, the music I wrote kind of sounded “videogamey,” but as I continued writing, my actual musical influence kind of started to get in there. And at that point, it made a lot of sense to put it as an instrument in a full live band setting, with guitars and drums and that sort of thing. Right before going to NYU, literally NYU move-in day, I released the Power Supply EP through 8bitpeoples, which I had recorded totally by myself at my house except for one track which we recorded with James. All I had was a shitty mic and a shitty guitar and a shitty amp and just recorded what I knew, without any kind of formal training.

Do you write using a guitar or a Nintendo?

Pete: It’s a mixture of both. Certain songs, I’ll get the idea as a melody in my head. The music is pretty melodic, so it’s pretty transferable from instrument to instrument. Anything I write on guitar I can put on the Nintendo, and anything I write on the Nintendo I can usually play on guitar – unless it’s way too fast, which it usually is.

Recently, I’ve been getting more into making sounds on the Nintendo that can’t be reproduced by instruments, doing stuff that only the sound chip can do. But more or less I like to create a skeleton of the song on the NES. Ary, on the Game Boy, makes some absolutely ridiculous stuff that’s really fucking weird, like, really just straight-up the weirdest music I’ve ever heard. And the way he does it is not so much thinking musically, but technically. When I came into the 8-bit world, I was definitely the opposite. Any time there’s electronic music, you have people who are thinking technically, and usually that’s music that I’m not very interested in, because it’s kind of cold, usually. I came into the 8 bit world with a very musical background, being in bands growing up and stuff, as opposed to a programming background. But recently I’ve been getting really into making strange sounds on the Nintendo that, like, “Whoa, I didn’t know you could do that with that sound chip.” At the same time, I’m mixing that with that simple pop sensibility.

What I usually like to do is to harmonize everything. Why not? You have two square channels. What else are they going to do but harmonize each other?”

Another interview with Anamanaguchi from Geektro:

http://www.myspace.com/anamanaguchi

http://www.anamanaguchi.com/

If you’re like me, you like classic games like Sonic, Mario, Zelda etc. Unfortunately, I can not get my hands on all these consoles and games. That’s where emulators and ROMs come in. They save me time and money, but slightly take away from the experience. Why? You may ask. Lack of proper controller. I don’t like using the keyboard. However, If you have iPhone or iPod touch, and wifi, you are in luck! With a quick visit to the app store and WiFi PAD’s Website , you can use your device as a wireless controller for your emulators. I first tested this App with Sonic 3 in the Sega emulator “Gens”. I was very pleased. It was very responsive and very little lag, barely noticible. I would certainly reccomend this app.

I give WiFi PAD 4.8/5

This is what it will look like on your device.

This is very cool.  If you are a modder you might be interested.  Click here.

Personnellement, je n’ai jamais réussi à construire un truc potable avec des Lego. Que ce soit un véhicule, une base pour mes personnages ou des créations abstraites, tout ce que mes mains parvenaient à assembler ressemblait vaguement à un tas difforme.

Alors quand je vois cette plaque Link et Zelda (époque NES) réalisée par Naneto avec les petites briques de couleur de notre enfance, forcément, je pleure. Parce que c’est beau, et parce que je me dis que j’étais vraiment bidon quand j’étais jeune. D’autant plus quand je tombe la minute suivante sur la casquette New Era réalisée par Jean-Charles de Castelbajac, que je trouve tout simplement dingue. C’est décidé, à Noël je rachète une boîte de briques.

Via

Pour voir d’autres images de Zelda sur NES et de la casquette New Era x JCDC en Lego, vous pouvez cliquer pour

No, not the TV show.  Do you remember the DuckTales video game released on the original Nintendo Entertainment System (NES)?  In the second of my series on retro games, I’m going to take you on a treasure-collecting journey with Scrooge McDuck around the world (and beyond).  So grab your cane and top hat and hit the link below!

DuckTales, like Adventures in the Magic Kingdom, was produced by Capcom.  It was released in North America in 1989 (with a version on the Game Boy coming in the following year).  The game features many of the characters from the cartoon series, including Scrooge McDuck (the character you control), his nephews Huey, Dewey, and Louie, Launchpad McQuack, Magica De Spell, the Beagle Boys, and more. 

Scrooge is on a mission to collect treasure to become the richest duck in the world, a mission that will take him to the Amazon, Transylvania, the African Mines, the Himalayas, and the moon.  Scrooge is equipped with his cane that also functions as a weapon and a pogo stick, allowing you to kill enemies by jumping on them pogo-style.

While you are able to choose what order you would like to play the levels, you may need to find objects in one level to gain access to areas in another level.  For example, you can’t play the African Mines without finding a key in Transylvania (shown in the screenshot above).  Also, don’t be afraid to do some searching for hidden treasures.  You are trying to become the world’s richest duck, after all (and you’ll get a small reward for doing so)!  Keep your eyes peeled for a golden ring and a golden mirror.

I said before that Scrooge’s cane has more uses than serving as a walking stick.  You can swing it to hit and move objects, and use it as a weapon.  To swing your cane, press the B button when up against an object.  To use it as a pogo stick and bounce on enemies (shown above), you have to jump (A button), then press down and the B button.  Sounds complicated, but you get used to it pretty quickly.  You can continuously bounce also, which can help you make a series of jumps or get out of an area crowded with enemies.

If you get hit by enemies, though, be on the lookout for powerups scattered throughout the levels.  Ice cream cones replenish one point in the stamina meter, cake completely refills your stamina, Magic Coins make Scrooge temporarily invincible, Stamina Extenders (these look like stars) give you more stamina, and Scrooge dolls give you an extra life.  You’ll also get a plethora of diamonds, so collect these to increase your dollar value.

When you get to the end of each level, you’ll face a boss that is guarding that level’s treasure (the screenshot above shows you the boss in the Amazon).  You can go back to a level after beating it to find other treasures in that level, adding to the game’s non-linear gameplay.  Once you beat all five bosses, you’ll have one final boss to face in Transylvania.  Beat the final boss and you beat the game, plus you’ll see how much money you’ve accrued on the way.

DuckTales was a decently successful game.  It definitely benefitted from the popularity of the TV show, which made the characters more recognizable to the public.  From the Wikipedia entry on the game:

DuckTales was released to generally good reviews, praised for its gameplay and soundtrack, which was composed by veteran Capcom composer Yoshihiro Sakaguchi (a.k.a. Yuukichan’s Papa). Of particular importance is the "Moon" stage theme, which has since become one of the iconic tunes of the late 8bit era. The graphics were considered above average for the time. The characters were part of a popular Disney franchise and were easily recognizable. The game is considered a classic among many NES enthusiasts.

Also, for some wonderful inside information, head on over to this site featuring quotes from Darlene Waddington, a producer of the game.  These quotes were compiled over a small interview and from Waddington’s posts on a web discussion board.  There are some very interesting tidbits here.

DuckTales was one of my favorite games.  It was one of those that I never tired of.  I’ve gone back and played it since (most recently for this article), and I think it still holds value today.  The gameplay still feels good, it’s still pretty challenging, and I have fun playing it.

I said in the Adventures in the Magic Kingdom post that this series will be like a wish list of games I would like to see appear in Nintendo’s Virtual Console for the Wii.  With Epic Mickey creating publicity and with Capcom already a big presence in the Virtual Console scene, there’s no reason we shouldn’t see DuckTales on the Virtual Console.  So, I’ll say this to Nintendo, Capcom, and Disney: get on it!

If you’re a Gen X geek like me, you’ll fondly recall the glory days of the Commodore 64, the NES, and the Sega Mega Drive. Street Fighter II was king and Mario was just beginning his never ending barrage of titles.

If you want to relive those days, then this new screen saver is for you (and thanks to Geek Chic Daily for the heads up).

The UberNES website not only has box art from all those games but also a Windows screen saver that can be customised to play one or many of 100 demo videos from an assortment of old school games. Check it out and download it here.

It looks like a fun game and it has great reviews.  Click here to read more about this classic that many of us know so well.

Título: SD Hero Soukessen Taose! Aku no Gundan
Sistema: Nes
by Banpresto

Nas locadoras da época, este título era conhecido pelos pivetes por “Jogo do Jaspion”.

Estava procurando evitar jogos do SD Gundam, porque não representam nenhum universo dos heróis em si, mas abri uma exceção para este simplesmente pela presença de uma porrada de personagens, alguns deles com uma grande notoriedade no Brasil, tais como:

Sim, caro leitor! O policial Jiban, Metalder, Kamen Riders(sim, mais de um), Ultraman, o robô Gundam, dentre outros num só game, num estilo que lembra os jogos de Megaman, incluindo opção de por qual das 8 fases você deve iniciar. Poderia ser mais épico se não fossem certos problemas:

Metalder, cabeça amassada!

Pra começar, os gráficos dos SD Metal Heros, assim como dos inimigos, ficam um tanto confusos, ajudados também pela fraca palheta de cores. Certo que o Nes não é nenhum grande exemplo em cores, mas é nítido, se compararmos com vários títulos do console, que poderiam fazer um trabalho melhor. Acreditem, tive trabalho na hora de por screenshots aqui, pois em muitas delas o gráfico era tão escroto que ficava difícil entender o que era o personagem na tela. Pra completar, durante os pulos os heróis ficam falando porcarias que só deixam a tela mais tosca.

Jiban encara um chefe

Isso seria um Gundam

A jogabilidade também não ajuda muito, principalmente em momentos onde é necessário ter reações rápidas. Os inimigos por muitas vezes acabam te atingindo por serem necessários muitos golpes pra derrubá-los, e alguns deles, por nenhum bom motivos, parecem imortais, como um certo inimigo voador que fiquei um tempão golpeando até ele acabar com meu boneco. Felizmente o HP é grande e se acontecer de um inimigo não quiser morrer, passe direto que é o melhor a se fazer.

O que poderia ser o maior atrativo do jogo acaba em alguns momentos também sendo frustrante: A escolha dos personagens. Você não tem controle sobre quem controla. Na seleção de fases mostra com quem você vai jogar num determinado estágio, mas há bem mais heróis dos que aparecem naquela tela. Você terá de trocar de personagem pegando itens durante a fase, e o item nem pergunta para qual personagem queres trocar, e pior ainda, as vezes não dá nem pra perceber com quando este item aparece, geralmente deixado por inimigos. Numa só fase, eu comecei jogando com um herói que não conhecia, troquei pro Jiban, 10 segundos depois já estava com o Metalder, e em mais10 segundos já tinha voltado a o herói inicial. Cara que coisa chata, porque essa porcaria não coloca uma tela de seleção pra gente ao invés dessa escolha aleatória ridícula.

Kamen Rider seja lá qual for

Game Over com incentivo a Hentai

E se acham que acabou, enganam-se, porque o soundtrack é repetitivo pra CARAHO, o que acaba fazendo com que este título não seja nada além de uns caça-níqueis do passado, e sirva de curiosidade nos dias de hoje.

Let’s compare Batman games from 1989 to 2009.  I just beat Batman Arkham Asylum for Xbox 360 a few days ago, around the same time I beat Batman for the NES.  I’ve only had Batman Arkham Asylum for a few months.  Batman NES, on the other hand, I’ve had since I was in grade school.  Game developers in the late 1980’s had no mercy.

This game is a very loose adaptation of the 1989 Batman film, and I stress loose.  I am guessing the game developers hadn’t seen the movie, because the game takes quite a few liberties with the story. Instead of 1930’s mobsters, Batman has to fight robots and goons on jet packs.  As the final boss, Joker now can summon lighting from the sky! They even messed up the likenesses of the actors.  Check out Down’s syndrome Joker, or as the game puts it, “the city’s evil leader” (so Joker is now leading the city?).

The game play is a typical side scroller, where you work your way from the left to  the right of the screen.  I love how the game labels punching as “Batman,” so you can just “Batman” everyone into a bloody pulp.  However, when it comes to jumping, the game is insanely tough.  Batman can do this ninja-like wall stick jump, and the game requires you to master this in order to pass only the second level! You will find yourself surrounded by acid, electricity, and machine guns, and have to wall jump your way through it without getting hit. Good luck. 

Batman is a rare breed of game, one that is so tough you want to throw your controller at the screen, but so fun that you’ll pick it right back up.  It can be found, on average, for about 5$, and is worth picking up if you own an NES and need a break from Mario.

BUY IT

Il cavaliere in mutande…

Lo abbiamo giocato sull’Amiga 500, sul NES, sul Super Nintendo, in sala giochi e in molte altre console…chi non si ricorda del povero Arthur, che combatteva in boxer i suoi nemici!

Ma partiamo dagli antipodi. Per chi non lo sapesse, Ghost ‘n Goblin, sviluppato dalla allor giovanissima Capcom, usci nelle sale giochi nel 1985 e, dato l’enorme successo, usci l’anno seguente su Commodore 64.

Il gioco era un platform 2d, a scorrimento orizzontale, dove impersonavate appunto il povero Arthur, costretto a farsi larogo a piedi in mezzo a zombie e demoni di vario genere. Non aveva una barra di energia, bensì al primo colpo accusato rimaneva in mutande, mentre al secondo moriva, diventando un mucchietto di ossa. Il gioco consisteva nel superare ben 7 livelli (all’epoca erano proprio tanti!) per arrivare a sconfiggere il Demone finale e salvare la sua amata principessa. Durante il percorso, Arthur era in grado di ottenere nuove armi (pugnali da lancio, torcia infuocate, lancia, crocifisso ed ascia). Poteva anche acquisire l’armatura d’oro, prendendo l’oggetto armatura (che ricovera uno stato di energia) quando già la possedeva.

Negli anni futuri, il nostro Arthur uscirà in tre versioni restyling precisamente:

1. Ghouls ‘n Ghosts (1988)
2. Super Ghouls ‘n Ghosts  (1991)
3. Ultimate Ghouls ‘n Ghosts  (2006)

In 1997 sau 1998 pe langa pungile cu dulciuri, de Craciun si-a facut aparitia si o consola de joc. Nu o am la indemana acum sa vad exact ce e, dar jocurile pe care le-am jucat par a fi facute pentru NES (Nintendo Entertainment System). Nu stiu daca sunt eu de vina sau industria jocurilor, insa jocurile din ziua de azi nu ma pasioneaza la fel de mult. Nu prea e buna comparatia de jocuri de consola cu cele de pc, dar si cele vechi de pc ma pasionau mai mult decat astea actuale.

Incep, normal, cu inceputul adica cu ce aveam pe caseta inclusa in pachet. Primul pe care l-am bagat a fost Super Mario Bros. Asta cred ca e destul de cunoscut. Eram in special fascinat de zonele in care bulburuceam pe sub apa si de coloana sonora din zona 4 a fiecarui nivel:

Daca tot sunt la capitolul Mario, pe aceasi caseta exista si Dr. Mario. Asta facea cat 1000 de tetrisuri. Am bagat la greu si singur si contra altcuiva. Jocul asta a adus multa ura in familie , coborari de sfinti, pule-n maturi, etc. etc. Am fost innebunit dupa el.

Un alt joc care se preta a fi jucat in doi a fost Mario Bros. Asta mi s-a parut greu, in special cand ajungeam la nivelurile alea cu gheata. De fapt venea un sloi de gheata care ingheta treburile pe-acolo.

In final mai adaug doua jocuri, jocuri in care impuscam, Duck Hunt si Wild Gunman. La Duck Hunt imi aduc aminte ca uram cainele ala. Mereu radea de mine muistu’ cand nu nimeream ratele. Mi-ar fi placut sa-i fut niste alice in numele tatalui, ca in clipul urmator. Mori, javra!

Duck Hunt mai avea o versiune in care trebuia sa impusc farfurii de alea zburatoare. Nu m-am omorat dupa ea.

In Wild Gunman impuscam cacanari din vestul salbatic. Ii rupeam pe fraieri. Trebuie remarcata muzica de suspans

Cam atat de pe caseta asta. Dupa ce am cam terminat jocurile, nu toate, a trebuit sa mai iau si alte casete. De pe piata de la rusi. Dar despre ele intr-un post viitor.

Olá pessoal , semana de provas, sempre é dificil postar alguma coisa, mas quero destacar que agora também tenho uma coluna num grandes blog, o Nintendo Blast – http://www.nintendoblast.com.br/

Minha matéria de estréia fala sobre Castlevania 1, vejam como ficou:

http://www.nintendoblast.com.br/2009/11/blast-from-past-castlevania-nes.html

Das ist doch mal eine Innovation: weg von High-End-Grafik, Spieltiefe und Gameplay – hin zur guten alten Zeit!

Hier seht ihr den Ego-Shooter “Left4Dead” in einer coolen 8-Bit-Retro-Konvertierung fürs NES

So I’m out of town for this weekend and i have not posted a Video/Trailer in a long time so in honor of me not being here I get to post a new video and trailer of the week
So the Video of the week is Super Mario Bros Stop Motion IRL And Trailer of the week is 3D Dot Heroes Debut Trailer

[David Cranor] has managed to fit a fully working Uzebox system into an old NES controller. Uzebox, an open source gaming platform based on the ATmega 644 and an AD725 NTSC encoder, is one of a couple systems that are becoming more and more widespread and accessible. There are a number of ready-to-go Uzebox kits available, but for the more hands-on types, [David] has been very generous with his schematics and step by step instructions. These schematics can all be readily reshaped, and would easily fit into controllers with less fun applications and sentimental value.

Si les gusto el post previo recordando a Mario, que les parece ahora “Half-LifeVania” un reamke de  Castlevania del  NES gracias al juego Half-Life 2. El canal de Machinima se lleva los honores.