What do I mean by Winter? Well, I'm not talking about the actual season. More so, I am talking about a game that IGN just showed today that, apparantly, is on hold.

http://wii.ign.com/articles/946/946492p1.html

The game was developed by N-Space, the people behind Geist and the Call of Duty games for DS. The game is a survival horror game, more in the vein of Silent Hill rather than games like Resident Evil. The game was first shown at GDC in 2007 and had some positive feedback based on what it presented. So, it's been almost two years, and why is it on hold?

Well, get a load of this: Publishers, thought that putting a "mature" game on what they perceived as a "kids" console was a risk not worth taking, not to mention publishers don't wanna have new IPs.

What the f***? Did Red Steel not come to their minds? What about RE4 or Unbrella Chronicles, not to mention No More Heroes (while wasn't a million seller) was very decent in sales. There ARE people who own a wii and support these kinds of games.

Look at the Conduit. That came from devs who thought the system was in need of a game for the core audience. They started doing it without a publisher, news caught on, the entire community supported it, and Sega noticed the potential and they've secured the publishing rights. Sega, while a sub-par developer now, looks to be delivering a trio of great core games, including the Conduit, House of the Dead Overkill, and Madworld.

Just seeing this game from N-Space get refused by ignorant publishers can only make you think how many other games for the core were canned as well. That's a pretty sad thought, if you ask me.

Now, this game, Winter, is catching onto the community as well. Plus, within the first hour of the article being posted, a petition has been started, and I say it's very damn well worth a shot.

http://www.petitiononline.com/mod_perl/signed.cgi?wiinter

There's over 300 signatures already in the first day, THAT'S how much of a deal this means.

*update: as of this edit, over 2000 signatures have already accumulated*

If you care, please, sign the petition. It may come a long way, and these kind of games need to find a place on the system.

/blog

Because of this.

These, along with millions of other flip book animations that have made a parnership between Nintendo and Hatena a success in Japan in such little time.

What am I talking about? The Moving Memo Pad, one of the first of soon to come DSWare apps, and this one has really gotten alot of praise.

The story behind this was that Nintendo made a partnership with a japanese website known as Hatena (have no actual idea what they are), where a special upload service is set up for DSi owners to share their Moving Memo Pad creations.

And look at how successful it was! http://ugomemo.hatena.ne.jp/

Some of them are duplicates, yes, but you have to be impressed with stuff people came up with.

Not only do I want a DSi now just to try out my art skills on this thing (and try doing an actual animation in my life), but also there may be a possibility that Nintendo will do the same for other regions, making partnerships with outside sources or groups to provide content. It's working well in Japan, and it could happen in the states, or everywhere else.

I'm almost getting impatient for this thing to get released worldwide. I personally don't care so much nowadays for the GBA slot, since I don't play GBA games anymore, and this app along with others in the future seems to warrant enough an instant purchase for me.

/blog

I still haven't stopped playing these games, just because of how fun they still are, even after a decade.

As of this post, I just finished the expert championship race in Wave Race 64. I swear, those waves almost went from fun to frustrating, not to mention that Glacier Coast is now my least favorite course out of the entire game (f***ing ice ). I'm not even gonna bother with reverse championship right now, and just gonna spend time in the stunt mode, as well as keep trying to make the best time on Southern Island (that is my absolute favorite course on the game. Best for last).

*EDIT: I have now beaten the reverse championship. I was surprised at how easy it felt, even though I was hesitant about going around the track backwards. The difficulty wasn't any higher, but I got by with only two retires, and still got first. Also surprisingly, Glacier Coast was much easier to traverse the opposite way than the normal way*

1080, surprisingly, I've had a much easier time beating, even though the game's learning curve is unforgiving. I guess going up against one other person on a mountain is more bearable than 3 other jet skis on a set of uncontrolable waves. I have 100% stuff unlocked. All courses, all three secret boarders, and the one secret snowboard. Yeah, there really isn't alot content, but it's still enough. BTW, I am unstoppable with the Gold Boarder and Penguin Board. Expert match races are like a cake walk for me.

So, I got nothing else to work for in 1080, and the only things left to do in Wave Race is just complete the mirror races and unlock the ability to ride a dolphin in the warm up mode.

These are still my ultimate favorites out of their respective series, but I'm now wanting to get my hands on their gamecube sequels. It's weird, though, since I was initially turned off by what the game did, though I'm willing to give it a second go. Blue Storm, I didn't have so much of a problem.

Please, just pray to God that if NST is working on another set of sequels to these games, then they had better be sure to surpass its predecessors.

Until then, just gonna keep replaying these classics. I'm gonna have to find the time to invite people over to play these with them as well (atleast I'll have an advantage, because I'll have played both games more)

/blog