Uber Awesome NES Screensaver

Coolest screensaver ever! That is really all that needs to be said. But I fill the urge to brag on it some more. Basically it is a NES emulator. You tell it where your ROMs folder is (legally acquired of course). Then you can download gameplay sessions made by other players for it. Or create your own using the UberNES Emulator. Then it shows a wall of the games in action. The number of games it can show at once is only limited by the size of your monitor. It supports multiple displays, and has tons of options to customize it to your liking. It can play either the videos of the games in action, or the attract mode that most NES games have.

But wait there’s more (sorry, had to say it)! It also lets you take control of any of the games at any time. And start playing from the exact point that the game was showing. So far I have not found any game that does not work with it. You can download it here… http://www.ubernes.com/nesscreensaver.html

Video Not Made By Me

If you have any interest in playing NES games I also highly recommend their UberNES Emulator. It does way more than the typical Emu. It has online leader boards plus numerous other online community features. And it also organizes and gives you easy access to your ROMs collection. UberNES Download Page

New Super Mario Bros. Wii Argument

Over the past few weeks, ign.com has really been giving Nintendo a mostly well deserved hard time. I mostly agree with there articles, such as “Nintendo is Lazy and You Don't Care”. But they do all have one thing in common, that I very much disagree with. Which is that New Super Mario Bros. Wii was cheap and lazy. And now they post the article “Blinded by Mario”.

They are certainly entitled to there opinion. But that article is pretty much just saying the same thing that reviews and forums have been saying since it’s release. That it is nothing more than a moderately amusing, but otherwise cheap rehash of past Mario games .

Well I protest! I completely agree that Nintendo has become a sad shadow of there former selves. But I also think that New Super Mario Bros Wii. (hence forth referred to as NSMBW) is awesome.

In that article, the main point that he was trying to make, was that Splosion Man is a better purchase than NSMBW. Splosion Man while not a bad game, in my opinion is nowhere near NSMBWs level.

As so many people point at the graphics in NSMBW as being bad, I will start there. Yes it looks just like the DS version but it doesn't matter. This kind of game is not about graphics. Why compare it to modern console games. That is not what it is about at all. It is suppose to be an awesome tribute to past Nintendo greatness. Like Super Mario Bros. 3 & Super Mario World. I see nothing but praise for games like Mega Man 9. And yet graphically it is nearly indistinguishable from its NES predecessors. Yes Splosion Man was more High-tech and in HD. But when compared to the bright and beautifully designed levels of NSMBW does it really look better? Sure Splosion Man himself looks pretty good in 3D. But the levels, for the most part are fairly plain and not that interesting to look at. While NSMBW has some of the most visually appealing levels I have seen in a 2D platformer in a long time.

 

Which brings me to the next big point. It has been said, NSMBW should be priced more like Splosion Mans $10. Rather than the full retail $50 that it is. But Splosion Man, despite it’s 3D Graphics is still a simpler game. It feels like large portions of the game are built reusing a lot of the same set pieces. Not to say that the levels aren't cleverly designed in Splosion Man because they are. But NSMBW has much more complex and varied levels. Each one perfectly crafted with that Nintendo magic that I wasn't sure we would ever see again. To me that is worth the extra cash.

As for the common complaint that I see so often online. That this is a big step backwards from more recent Mario games like Super Mario Galaxy. THIS IS NOT SUPPOSE TO BE A SUPER MARIO GALAXY SEQUEL. NSMBW is not trying to be the next big game in the Mario franchise. It is a small awesome old school platformer. That was purposely kept simple. So that it would have a shorter development period, to appease the fans while we wait for Super Mario Galaxy 2. And it achieved it’s goal beautifully.

As great as NSMBW is. There is one point that is crazy. Where the heck is online play? Why did Nintendo go to such lengths to create such a good multiplayer experience, only to gimp it? Sadly that is the Nintendo of today in a nutshell. They still have some of the best game designers in the world. But they completely ignore crucial parts of the modern gaming industry, for reasons that are anyone's guess. An old fashioned 2D Mario platformer, is still some of the best fun you can find on a console. But it would be so much better online.

And yes I said the multiplayer is great! Certainly the games is more difficult with more players, but I love that. I am always hearing complaints that modern games are to easy. But when a really challenging game comes out everybody still complains. I love the frustration and chaos of the co-op experience. Screaming at other players when they got the hole team killed for the 4th time in row is great fun. There was almost never a quiet moment in this game. And that is how multiplayer games should be.

The Return of Nintoad

Once upon a time in the year 2007 for no apparent reason at all I decided I wanted to be a blogger, so I started Nintentoad.com. However Due to the fact that I live in the exact center of the middle of nowhere, I was at the time still on a 56k Dialup connection.

Turns out keeping a blog about Nintendo and general geekiness on a Dialup connection was a very slow and tedious process. Often times taking 3 to 4 hours just to get up a single post. But due to my abundance of free time I slowly (very slowly) kept at it.

My post over time becoming fewer and farer between finally came to a dead stop in March 2009. The reasons I stopped were many but I am explaining them any way so shut up and read.

The main reason for my quitting besides the dialup was primarily Nintendo. Put simply they went from being the meaning of life to having an extreme suckieness factor in a very short time. And that made it kind of difficult to be enthusiastic about writing a blog mostly all about them. Don’t get me wrong I am still looking forward to games like the next Zelda or Super Mario Galaxy 2, but as a 22 year gamer I am just not among there target audience anymore.

Another reason I quit was because for domain hosting Yahoo is bottomless pit of uncool. It seems like almost every other day my site was down, due to my domain name once again jumping down that pit and taking the rest of my blog with it. Until finally one day it would not even let me sign in to my Yahoo account no warning or anything. They apparently raised their prices and needed some sort of conformation before renewing the domain name, but I did not find this out until it was to late. And to add to it there new asking price for renewal was ridiculous compared to other host. I was never able to get this resolved so Nintentoad.com is gone however it can still be found Here.

Since then a few things have changed. The main thing being that I am no longer on dialup. Much to my dismay I am still way outside of DSLs reach I have however switched to a satellite broadband connection. Although it is still slow when compared to other broadband connections like DSL or cable I can at least watch a game trailer or browse the net without waiting hours for it to load. Unfortunately because of the excessive lag caused by its signal going to outer space and back, online gaming is still devastatingly out of the question.

The other thing that has changed is I have finally removed my +10 UBER Nintendo fanboy goggles of do no wrongyness that were blinding me to there recent (read as day the Wii was born) fall from grace.

Upon the removal of those goggles I built a decent gaming PC and even a few weeks ago purchased a PS3. And so with a broader scope of gaming experience a new domain/Host, a acceptable internet connection, and still a ton of free time, I hope to have a less frustrating blogging experience this time.

My main goals for this blog are to post about gaming, tech, TV and any other geek related topic that I think of. I also spend a lot of time playing older games especially now that I am playing catch-up with the PS3’s game library. And I play a lot of obscure and less known games on the PC so my intent is to review some of these games and compare how well they stand the test of time.