NGamer Issue 11

Apologies if anybody was expecting this. Been a bit busy lately and haven't actually been on the Wii for a while.

JULY 2007

This month's cover sees ol' Big Evil himself giving some, well, big evils. Either that or Paul Bearer (may he REST. IN. PEACE.) dropped some dirty air biscuits in the photoshoot.

A strong month with two key Mario titles to tide Wii owners over the summer holidays. I have Strikers but it felt too powerup-heavy, as someone who plays a lot of football games and Super Paper Mario is good from what I remember but not something I'm clamouring to play again.
I'm not sure how Mortal Kombat would have played and I wasn't that keen on the PS2-era MK games like Deadly Alliance so I'm not particularly interested in that.

Any interest in this lot?

*REVIEWS*

Bingo! (85%+):

Good (70-84%):

Not so bad (50-69%):

"Biceps the size of big cows" is a stone cold NGamer classic. I'll dig this one out on my day off tomorrow.

On the Wii front (what happened to the DS?)

Super Paper Mario, This now would interest me a lot and one I may pick up on my new Wii

Eledees, No idea what it is buy always hear good things and like above might be picked up

Mortal Kombat Armageddon, I did buy this on Wii as it had a extra character and something else, can only really playing it with my cousin

Mario Strikers Charged Football, Bought when it came out and would have done all the cups then got bored and trade it in but I do remember we brought it back for a bit and had a online league going.

Both the big Wii releases from Nintendo in this issue were slightly disappointing to this user. I feel like I talked about Super Paper Mario quite recently but just in case: never really fulfilled the potential of its big ideas, despite an excellent story and some great levels. Mario Strikers Charged Football was one of the most frustrating games on the Wii for me: an insane difficulty curve sucked the fun out of it wholesale. I enjoyed our online league, though - the AI wasn't such a douchebag then.

It's disappointing that these last few issues don't seem to be up for download on Out of Print Archive or anywhere like that, as I'd be quite keen to look back on the 20 Nintendo Moments Life Was Made For.

I've got a sense of déjà vu here though. Have we not already spoken about Super Paper Mario, Cooking Mama and Mario Strikers Charged in the last couple of threads? Without the magazine to hand for a butchers, all I can add here is that Spider-Man 3 was utter keech. It looked and played much worse than the GameCube prequels.

The Cappuccino Kid wrote:

It's disappointing that these last few issues don't seem to be up for download on Out of Print Archive or anywhere like that, as I'd be quite keen to look back on the 20 Nintendo Moments Life Was Made For.

I've got a sense of déjà vu here though. Have we not already spoken about Super Paper Mario, Cooking Mama and Mario Strikers Charged in the last couple of threads? Without the magazine to hand for a butchers, all I can add here is that Spider-Man 3 was utter keech. It looked and played much worse than the GameCube prequels.

That's the problem with some of these mags - they often review the Japanese, and then the American and then the UK version. I stuck to juts UK reviews for this one and ignored DS as the main purpose of these is to revisit early Wii games.

Unfortunately, I've discovered Rocket League and have been addicted to that. If I can pull myself away from it and turn the Wii on (SSX Blur is in there but not yet played it) then I'll get a bit more into (and out of) these. Pretty sure Resident Evil 4 Wii is in the next month or two's issue and I haven't played that for at least a year - definitely up for that.

gjones wrote:

The Cappuccino Kid wrote:

It's disappointing that these last few issues don't seem to be up for download on Out of Print Archive or anywhere like that, as I'd be quite keen to look back on the 20 Nintendo Moments Life Was Made For.

I've got a sense of déjà vu here though. Have we not already spoken about Super Paper Mario, Cooking Mama and Mario Strikers Charged in the last couple of threads? Without the magazine to hand for a butchers, all I can add here is that Spider-Man 3 was utter keech. It looked and played much worse than the GameCube prequels.

That's the problem with some of these mags - they often review the Japanese, and then the American and then the UK version. I stuck to juts UK reviews for this one and ignored DS as the main purpose of these is to revisit early Wii games.

Aye, and the early days of the console exacerbates this. When the shovelware rolls in, we'll dream of reading about Contact for the 6th time.

I've just started this issue, and look forward to some NGamer nonsense!

Uh-oh - do-po

The first "I miss NGamer":

Chrissy (on Final Fantasy Crystal Chronicles Ring of Fates) wrote:

"This is good."
"Is this good?"
"I have fixed this good for you."
"Thank you for fixing! It is good!"
Then something about blood, death and a slow train service between the centre of Tokyo and Haneda airport.

So I may not be fluent in Japanese yet...

Chrissy (don't remember her second name) wrote some quality stuff as I recall. I thought that she had a distinctive style, which I found to be very thoughtful and entertaining. Everybody on NGamer seemed to know what their audience wanted, at least at the start. It wasn't a massive surprise to see that most of them pissed off to 'better' careers, they were so talented at writing about games.

This issue really reminded me why I miss NGamer so much. Lots of features -- the magical moments, the youtube weirdness, Final Fantasy merch -- plus the regular world of Nintendo. Then there was all the focus on obscure Japanese imports, like the famous score of "EH?", the big Japanese game reviews and previews, the optimism . . .

Super Paper Mario and Mario Strikers Charged were both absolutely killer games, by the way, even if they're not top-tier Mario stuff. Spider-Man 3 is up there as one of my biggest disappointments though

ALSO that fake Excite Truck 2 was heartbreaking to see. I'm still waiting for that exact game.

The Cappuccino Kid wrote:

Chrissy (don't remember her second name) wrote some quality stuff as I recall. I thought that she had a distinctive style, which I found to be very thoughtful and entertaining. Everybody on NGamer seemed to know what their audience wanted, at least at the start. It wasn't a massive surprise to see that most of them pissed off to 'better' careers, they were so talented at writing about games.

I want to say 'Williams'? I remember her fate in particular because she ended up working for CGP, who produce revision guides. They're the best ones on the market but, like me, they think they're funny. So super serious A Level Maths revision guides have a page about different types of cows, to 'break up' the 'monotony'. Anyway, as good as Chrissy was, I did prefer Charlotte Martyn... but it's like choosing your favourite Super Mario Galaxy game; they're both brilliant.

And, yes, the early days were something of the glory days for NGamer.

Aye it was Williams as I still follow her on the twitters, she's a poet and her first full collection of poems came out in May this year.

I've kept up with her, as I'm pretty into poetry and the fact her first book was called Bear was a major selling point!

Yeah, this is the Williams month, with the afore-mentioned Eh?, and the The Dog Island review. Actually, looking at the games reviewed this issue, I've only really played Super Paper Mario, but I think The Dog Island* is the one I'd currently have most interest in.
But it's good to know that not all Wii/DS shovelware was European. Tamiya Box Art. That Rubik''s cube thing. Brrrr...

*Actually probably FFIII

Oh no - a double double-post. this man

Finished Ish 11 - I'll get onto 12 once I've finished a backlog, and hopefully before the Jonester sets up #13!

Two things from the latter bits... did anyone:

a) ever play I Don't Feel Like Dancing on the Ocarina? It's a really good fit note-wise (I expect the person who wrote this knew that). A quick Google suggests: no

b) make their own arcade stick from the innards of a classic controller? This is one of those things which I suspect sounds good in a magazine, but surely was too much of a faff for anyone who didn't already have the desire/ability to do so. The irony is that, now I have two unusable unbranded knock-off classic controllers, it might be worth trying to re-wire one. But a quick Google suggests: no

I'm horribly cack-handed when it comes to anything musical or fiddly, so they were both no-nos for me. I'm more of your "lifts heavy things and hits stuff with hammers" handyman than your "does the wiring" handyman.

I'd never thought about modding controllers until now; DIY-type stuff is definitely not my bag. I've promised Jo I'll finish putting up a blind tonight whilst she's at work and I'm pretty apprehensive about the whole thing, despite the fact that I've successfully put up three sets of blinds in the house already.