MANCHESTER UNITED ARE OFFICIALLY THE BEST IN THE WORLD!!

Today is a very proud day indeed for me and for the legions of Man Utd fans around the world: Manchester United have been crowned WORLD CHAMPIONS after winning the Club World Cup! 

This secures all three prestigious awards:

- May: Champions of England;

- May: Champions of Europe;

- December: Champions of the world!

Those Merseyside scousers are fucking dead. Enjoy your time in the top spot punks. It won't last. Just ask Rooney (Player of the Tournament AND FIFA Player of the Match!)!

Roo

New blog dedicated just for my gaming rants etc - Roo's Gaming Goodness

LINK HERE. 

Sorry for that but I won't keep posting all my gaming sh!t here. I've started a new blog just for that. It's better for GoNintendo readers as well as all the other. Hope you enjoy!

Roo

What Wii can look forward to in 2009!

Well 2008 is practially over so what do Wii [see what I did there?! Twice too! =)] have to look forward to next year? Plenty actually and I'm going to list the very best right here followed by video footage. After a disappointing 2008, 2009 is looking magnificent.

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1. MadWorld

Developer: Platinum Games

Publisher: Sega

What makes it so special? 

The visuals. What you think a Wii game can't look good? This looks magnificent! The style is out of this world plus the gameplay looks like tons of fun. Just watch for yourself. 

2. Sin & Punishment 2

Developer: Treasure

Publisher: Nintendo

What makes it so special?

This one is truly a surprise and a present so-to-speak from Nintendo. The first one was released on the N64 in Japan only and just recently released worldwide on the Wii's Virtual Console. It's an on-rails shoot with over the top combat and impossibly large boss battles. Utilising the Wii's pointer for the obvious this is sure to be a big hit.

3. Monster Hunter 3

Developer: Capcom

Publisher: Capcom

What makes it so special?

A montser hunting [duh!] RPG that has proved time and time again that it's a system seller in Japan. The rest of the world has since been left out but fans of the series as well as R

PG lovers are begging Capcom to release it WW. Hope we see it here in Europe as well.

4. Another Code 2 (Trace Memory R)

Developer: Cing Inc.

Publisher: Nintendo

What makes it so special?
This one is more of a fan favourite and a personal favourite of mine. The original Another Code was a first generation release on the Nintendo DS. AC was point-and-click adventure which rejuvinated the dead genre. The new one looks better than ever and I'm psyched for the sequel. I couldn't find a trailer for this game so sorry for that. I have a lovely pic for you though!

5. Fragile

Developer: tri-Crescendo

Publisher: BandaiNamco

What makes it so special?

Another JRPG for Wii owners worldwide. This one promises to thread on the survival-horror genre as well. Here's a direct quote from it's Wiki page:

Fragile is set in a post-apocalyptic near future world that has lost its light and is covered in a dense fog. Almost all the world's population has vanished, and the cities have been left abandoned. The game places the player in the shoes of Seto, a young boy.

Seto wanders the world, searching for survivors and the answers behind the disappearance of everyone else. Seto also searches for a mysterious girl named "Ren." In his quest he must deal with ghosts and demons that lurk within the ruins of the abandoned cities. Despite this, the producer of the game insists that Fragile is not a survival horror in the same vein as Silent Hill, rather it will focus on "human drama".

The world of Fragile will be filled with objects, sketches and short stories for the player to examine. Each artifact holds the memories of its former owner, and offers back story and hints to the player. A competition will be held where readers of gaming magazines can send in their own sketches and short stories to be included in the game.

6. The Conduit

Developer: High Voltage Software

Publisher: Sega

What makes it so special?

Personally this is the game I'm most looking forward to in 2009. It's a FPS-(Wii owner)-fan's wet dream. Promising to be the best looking game on Wii (and from trailers I have to agree), supporting 16-player online matches, WiiSpeak and WiiMotion+. I love it so much that I'm going to post two trailers for it!

7. Wii Sports: Resort

Developer: Nintendo

Publisher: Nintendo

What makes it so special?

Wii Sports came packaged with the Wii and although it was fun for a while I doubt anyone is still playing it solo. The sequel promises to be much better plus it will be packaged with the WiiMotion+. The WM+ is a tiny "chip" that plugs in the WiiRemote to give it true 1:1 motion. Honestly, the WiiRemote should have come packaged with this from the very beginning. Anyway better late than never.

8. Sonic & The Black Knight

Developer: Sega

Publisher: Sega

What makes it so special?

Sequel to the warmly received Sonic & the Secret Rings, S&TBK promises to eclipse it's predecessor in everything. Gorgeous settings, interesting gameplay and an intriguing story this Sonic outing will be a blast!

9. No More Heroes: Desperate Struggle

Developer: Grasshopper

Publisher: Ubisoft

What makes it so special?
Another favourite of mine NMH:DS is a sequel to one of Wii's best games to date, No More Heroes. Travis Touchdown is back to his badass self ready to kill whatever comes in his path. DS will have better stylised visual than it's predecessor plus Sude51 promised a darker, more mature storyline. I just HOPE Travis doesn't loose his over-the-top humour in DS.

10. Fatal Frame 4

Developer(s): Temco/Grasshopper/Nintendo

Publisher: Nintendo

What makes it so special?
Just look at the developer(s)! This game gets an automatic AAA-status. The forth enty in the popular horror series Fatal Frame will surly benefit from the Wii's motion controls (WiiRemote+Nunchuck combo). Plus it's being released here in Europe before America!!

11. Punch-Out!! (Wii)

Developer: Next Level Games

Publisher: Nintendo

What makes it so special?

This is pure fan-service from Nintendo. The original Punch-Out!! was released on the NES in 1987 and fans of the series (a lot) have been crying for a sequel ever since. Well, Nintendo's delivering and it definitely looks interesting! 

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Honourable Mentions:

Click on each title for it's trailer and/or screenshot. Thanks to Devil_Rising from GoNintendo for the list that follows!

1. Little King's Story:

A fun-looking strategy game - a mesh of Pikmin and World of Warcraft if you will!

2. Kizuna

I have no idea how I missed it. A beautiful epic adventure in the style of the PS2's Shadow of the Colossus - my personal favourite PS2 game ever. Definitely a must see. But will it come to Europe or even America?

3. The House of the Dead: Overkill

A mature on rails shooter promising some very good visuals. Plus this is a prequel to the first game in the sequel for fans of the series.  And guess what? This is Sega's third game on the list. They are seriously publishing/developing some of Wii's best of 2009!

4. Muramasa: The Demon Blade

A 2D action-RPG from the makers of Odin Sphere. What more could you want? Plus look at the visuals. Quite beautiful if you ask me!

5. Arc Rise Fantasia

Another traditional JRPG will be hitting the Wii next year developed by Imageepoch. I am a fan of traditional RPGs so the more the merrier!

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RPG fanatics may notice that Square Enix are missing from the list. Not that they don't have any games in development but I just don't think any of them will be released in 2009. Final Fantasy Crystal Chronicles: The Crystal Bearers hopefully will see the light of day in 2009. The newly announced Dragon Quest X won't for sure be released in 2009 because Dragon Quest IX still has to be released for the DS!! 

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Bring on 2009 (and beyond!).

Roo

In a mood for a [MASSIVE] rant!

Music:

First I want to get one thing clear: if you have an iPod and even have the slightest liking of rock music you should instantly get Nickelback's Dark Horse. It is by far the Canadian rockers' best yet and that's saying something because All The Right Reasons was phenomenal. I have to say that Nickelback are the most dynamic rock band I have ever heard. They are so inconsistent with their style of music. Silver Side Up, which made them famous through How Do You Remind Me, was the perfect example of progressive rock. Catchy riffs, melodic vocals and so on; never threading on non-progressive territory. The Long Road, which to me was mediocre compared to their previous compilation, went from strictly progressive to mainly monotonous crap; except maybe Someday. All The Right Reasons stuck all the right chords. All of the songs were singles-worthy and Nickelback knew this because they released six singles from the album! In this one they opened up their boundaries to more solid, heavier rock. Just listen to the intro to the first song and you wouldn't believe you're hearing from the creators of How You Remind Me.  Now after the astronomical success of ATRR Nickelback weren't afraid to change their sound again. They are oozing confidence and it shows because Dark Hose couldn't have been better. Their new sound has become darker and I am sure that through this Nickelback can catch heavy metal fan as well as the progressive modern rocker that has been following them since their beginning. Buy it NOW. No don't download it, buy it. It's well worth the price. Unlike Chinese Democracy... but that's for another rant.

Games (full of F-bombs):

Why are the so called 'hardcore' gamers so anti-Wii? Seriously. In every Wii-related article there will be comments from 360/PS3 owners claiming that their Wii is gathering dust somewhere. No. You're lying. You don't have a Wii and all you seem to like to do in your pathetic miserable and outright boring life is to bash your console's competitors to justify your purchase. Oh and one more thing: the Wii has more that just "Zelda, MP3, Super Mario Galaxy, Brawl and Kart" for the hardcore. Believe it or not there is a thing called third-party support! Yeah dude. So grab a Wii remote, buy de Blob/Okami/Boom Blox/Tauma Centre etc. and treat yourself to something other than a fucking shooter. 

Yeah I agree the Wii does have an overwhelming ammount of completely horrible minigame compilations. But I'll say just one thing: who the fuck cares. Simple: DON'T BUY THEM YOU FUCKING DUMBASS.  If you have a Wii it doesn't mean that you have to buy and play this shit. This year was the year of sleeper hits: we got Fire Emblem, de Blob, Okami and Boom Blox. Plus so much awesomeness from the WiiWare titles World of Goo, Lost Winds and the rest of top quality software available only on the Wii's downloadable service. 

This goes for the other consoles as well. The awesome Playstation 3 does not only have Metal Gear Solid 4 and Resistance. Those who only own those two only are failures in life. The Xbox 360 doesn't only have "Gears and Gaylo". Stop the god damn hate and be true gamers.

For a gamer there is only games. I am mainly a Nintendo gamer. Their games speak to me like no other but that doesn't mean that I don't like or play games on other systems. Nintonysoft FTW!

Other random shit:

A new mall just opened, The Duke, and I've noticed two very peculiar things:

- No Nike seller to be found. Just addidas with a huge Steven Gerrard poster and a Liverpool FC shirt on display. Fail. Epic Fail. 

- There is a Toshiba shop; mostly HDTVs. And how do you advertise an HDTV? By plugging a Wii in the set of course! To add insult to injury it was plugged through an RGB cable not component plus is was only showing the system menu. Why bother putting the Mario Kart disk in and letting the game loop the opening cinematic just for looks? Here's a little tip: plug the PS3 that's tanding next to the Wii. It can show 1080p. Or at least for fuck's sake put in Mario Kart and let the game loop.  Some people are just plain stupid.

Important Reminder:

Today - @ 2:30pm -  Man Utd vs Man City at the City of Manchester Stadium.

Roo 

Androo's Random Rant: I'm sick, bored and helpless - play time then!!

Yes I am sick. So sick in fact that I had to make a mature decision - I decided to stay at home instead of going to lectures and such at University today to get better. I like making mature decisions; so much so that I'll probably make one again tomorrow!

Anyway since I am stuck here I thought it would be a good idea to pop out The Legend Of Zelda Twilight Princess [GameCube version] again since I haven't completed it once. I completed the Wii version twice but not the GC version. I honestly cannot believe how much this game is standing the test of time. It still plays, looks and feels so epic that I felt as if I was transported back in time, to Christmas '06, when I first fired it up and just stood there amazed at this fantastic piece of software.

I am currently at the beginning of the water temple - my least favourite of the nine temples in the game. I actually cannot wait to complete it; what follows is truly spectacular and worth watching. I'll link a video of the cutscene after the 4th temple [the turning point in the game] for those who care.

So many things have been done right in this game that I cannot phantom how Nintendo will improve upon the Zelda series. There are a few things I would like to see in the next LoZ game though:

- Voice overs [except Link];

- New items;

- Different level design: as in, change the normal mini-boss > new item > boss > kill boss with new item > cutscene etc etc;

- A deeper, darker storyline: TP has probably the best story of all Zeldas yet I'd love to see Nintendo go more into the RPG realm story-wise with the next one;

- Of course better visuals: push the Wii to the limit. If Galaxy is any indication the Wii can do so much that I'm dying to see how the next Zelda looks!

The series can benefit a lot if the story is deeper and the visuals are better. TP was a big step for the LoZ series. The [proper] Wii iteration, which supposedly has been in development since 2006, will blow our brains out I'm sure of that just like TP did in 2004 [look below - unbelievable].

 

Well, I'm waiting.

Roo

MISSION ACCOMPLISHED: HBC successfully installed!

After exactly 17 attemps I have been able to install the Hombrew Channel via the Twlight Hack. I absolutely couldn't install it. Whatever I did, what ever I tried the Wii usually froze right before the "Install" screen appeared. Ultimately I found out that the SD card was the problem. Message to Ascer: YOU FUCKING SUCK! 

How to install and a demonstration of the HBC:

Anyway now that I have the HBC here is a little list of what I can actually do with the device:

- Homebrew apps/games;

- Play DVDs/DIVX/AVI/MPEG/JPG/WMV files;

- Play mp3/wma/ogg files;

- Play PS1/SNES/NES/N64 (as well as many others) ROMs completely free - goodbye Virtual Console;

- Manage files directly from my computer to my Wii;

- Without any hardware modifications I can actually play backups;

- many many many more applications that I cannot bother list.

Roo

Santa needs a big sack for me this year!

Here's the tiny list of the things I will be opening on the 25th of the coming month:

- LG 22" LCD TV;

- Mario Kart Wii;

- Guitar Hero World Tour [Wii];

- Super VGA cable;

- Component cable for Wii;

- USB Keyboard*;

- Call Of Duty World at War (Wii)**;

- de Blob (Wii)/Tales of Symphonia Dawn of New World (Wii)***;

- Loads of clothes for my wearing pleasure!!

I can add two other things there but that would be unfair because they will be downloaded not opened: WiiWare titles - World of Goo and T_t__s P_r_y. The last one I will be buying and downloading specifically to play with my girlfriend! Hence my desire to not reveal the name.

~ If you're a curious cat CLICK ON THE ITEMS you'd like to know more about!! Some of them pictures/videos/info linked to them. 

Roo

*     Already opened.

**   I'm hopeful...

*** Hopefully one or the other.