Hoop dreams

Despite its only competitor in the basketball sim arena being dormant for the past few years, the NBA 2K series has continued to march forward year after year enjoying fan and critical acclaim thanks to its constant improvement with each franchise iteration. The series finally makes the bounce pass to a Nintendo console, and hoops fans in the house of Mario will absolutely eat it up.

Immediately upon starting the game you’re ushered into My Player mode, which has you create your own baller with dozens upon dozens of customization options. While tweaking their appearance isn’t as robust as an experience in other games, your avatar isn’t hitting the court in order to be a model, they’re going out there to play. Instead of giving you sliders for eyebrows and cheekbones, the game allows you to choose an animation for just about everything your player is going to be doing on the court, from fadeaway jumpers to dunks to crossover dribbles.

Read the rest at Nintendo Life

Don’t fear the reaper

Whenever a new piece of Nintendo hardware is released one of the first things fans ask is “when is a Zelda game coming out?” In the case of the Wii U, the answer is simple: it’s already out, it’s just called Darksiders II.

Like the original Darksiders, this sequel wears its inspiration on its sleeve. You’ll ride a horse across wide open plains. You’ll traverse lots of dark dungeons solving puzzles in order to open locked doors and defeat giant bosses. Heck, a chime even plays whenever a puzzle is completed. Darksiders II is more than a mere copycat, though, and carves out a very distinctive personality for itself. In all honesty, there’s a lot on offer here that the Zelda dev team could be paying attention to.

Read the rest at Nintendo Life

Meh! Meh! Meh!

Every so often a video game comes along with a concept so amazing that copies should come with a roll of duct tape to keep consumers from having their faces rocked off. Tanks with crazy weapons fighting giant robot monsters in expansive, destructible cities seems like a concept that you’d have to work pretty hard to screw up. Apparently someone at Namco Bandai was really burning the midnight oil, because Tank! Tank! Tank! somehow manages to drop the ball.

Tank! Tank! Tank! has a simple premise: hop into your tank and blow up some monsters. It’s deceptively simple, as the controls only employ the analog stick and one button. Any vertical aiming is all done automatically – all you need to do is point your tank and what you want to blow up and push the button. Power-ups – which are scattered throughout the stages and are dropped by enemies – will override your default attack, so no weapon management is necessary. There are some pretty unique and fun weapons to find, including the awesomely-named “colossus missile” that’s essentially a nuclear bomb capable of devastating the landscape.

Read the rest at Nintendo Life

Bloody hell

It’s been a long time since master ninja Ryu Hayabusa infiltrated a Nintendo home console, with 1995’s Ninja Gaiden Trilogy for the SNES marking his last appearance. Tecmo Koei decided the time was finally right for Ryu to make his return with Ninja Gaiden 3: Razor’s Edge, a souped-up, improved version of Ninja Gaiden 3, which launched on the 360 and PS3 earlier this year. We’d roll out the red carpet, but Ryu’s already done a good job staining the ground that colour himself.

While in the context of the story Ryu is presented as a calm, serene man dedicated to his duty, in practice he is the ultimate “flip out and kill people” kind of ninja. Combat in Razor’s Edge centers on fighting large groups of enemies at a time and killing them in delightfully brutal ways. Ryu has several weapons in his arsenal, from his trusty Dragon Sword to metal claws on his hands and feet to a giant staff, as well as many others. Each introduces a unique play style that will compliment different situations; for example, dual katanas are much faster and allow for flashy combos, while the giant scythe is much slower but deals massive damage.

Read the rest at Nintendo Life

Arresting development

When Mighty Switch Force was released for the 3DS eShop it was quickly heralded as not only one of the service’s best games but also one of the best games on the stereoscopic handheld period. Faultless controls, addictive puzzle platforming and a healthy dose of WayForward’s trademark charm made it shine, and now with the release of the Wii U there’s a chance it’ll win over an entirely new audience with Mighty Switch Force: Hyper Drive Edition.

The game is basically the same as the portable version: you play as robocop Patricia Wagon and have to track down the Hooligan Sisters as fast as you can through a variety of stages. The only moves in Patricia’s repertoire are jumping, shooting, and switching blocks, which forms the core of the puzzle-themed adventure. With a flash of her helmet-mounted siren, Patricia swaps blocks between the foreground and background, allowing her access to different parts of the levels.

Read the rest at Nintendo Life

Tag, you’re it

For as well known a household name as Tekken is, it’s strange to realize that it’s never made its way to a Nintendo home console at any point. There have been handheld offerings on the Game Boy Advance and 3DS, but portable fighters are rarely more than appetizers compared to their beefy console counterparts. Namco Bandai finally decided that the time was right and brought the biggest Tekken game to date as a launch title for Wii U, with Tekken Tag Tournament 2: Wii U Edition.

Try to follow us here: Tekken Tag Tournament 2, despite being released after Tekken 6, is technically the sequel to the PlayStation 2 launch title Tekken Tag Tournament. Rather than adhering to the series chronology, it pulls in a bucket-load of characters from all corners of the Tekken world and pits them against each other in furious bouts of 2-on-2 fisticuffs. Having a partner allows the Iron Fist Tournament participants to perform some pretty impressive moves, like tag throws and extended juggle combos.

Read the rest at Nintendo Life

Fear Factor

ZombiU definitely has a lot to prove. After Red Steel - Ubisoft’s hardcore offering at the Wii’s launch – failed to win over the masses by making large promises it failed to deliver on, public response to ZombiU has typically been laced with skepticism. Now that the game has been unleashed and is happily infecting shiny new Wii U consoles, fears of a repeat offense can be put to rest, while whole new fears grow in their place.

At first glance, ZombiU could easily be written off as another first-person shooter where the player runs and guns their way through hordes of the undead, using an endless stream of bullets to turn them into disgusting Swiss cheese, but the reality of the game is about as far from that as you can possibly get. ZombiU is unequivocally a survival horror game, and not a “survival horror game by 2012 standards.” ZombiU takes players back to the genesis of the genre by providing a constant fear of the unknown and the tension that comes from being only just prepared enough to handle what’s coming next. It’s a breath of fresh air and quite a pleasant surprise seeing as the old powerhouses of the genre -Resident Evil and Silent Hill - have all but abandoned their traditions of turning your fears into a plaything and have instead morphed into straight action games.

Read the rest at Nintendo Life

Dreams become reality

With the Pokémon series still a ways off from making its proper debut on Nintendo 3DS, fans who had purchased the stereoscopic handheld were in need of something to tide them over. Less a proper game and more a companion “app” to Pokémon Black and White 2, Pokémon Dream Radar uses the 3DS’s AR capabilities to bring the delightful monsters into your living room.

If you’ve played Face Raiders you’ll immediately know your way around Dream Radar. You move around, using your 3DS as a viewfinder for your surroundings and shooting at targets. Rather than humorous depictions of your friends and family, though, you’re blasting Dream Clouds, Dream Orbs and Pokémon themselves in an attempt to capture them.

Read the rest at Nintendo Life

Pokémon used Sequel! It’s super effective!

It’s fitting that the franchise typically relied upon to sell Nintendo handhelds is also the swansong that bids farewell to the mighty Nintendo DS. The enormously popularPokémon series graces the highest-selling handheld console of all time for one last hurrah and the result is nothing short of excellence.

Pokémon Black and White 2 are the first direct sequels in the monster catching series. Traditionally after the primary paired versions have been out a while, an enhanced third version is released that adds some useful things but does little to chart new ground. This time around, however, the new additions are paired with a story that has you seeing and dealing with the repercussions of the storyline that unfolded in the original Black and White versions.

Read the rest at Nintendo Life

You spoony bard!

This is how you celebrate the 25th anniversary of a beloved game franchise.

Theatrhythm Final Fantasy, a rhythm game celebrating a quarter-century of some of the most iconic music in video games, is a fantastic title. Every facet radiates care and polish, with the accessible and addictive rhythm mechanics framed by a gorgeous presentation that celebrates the first 13 instalments of the Final Fantasy series.

Read the rest at Nintendo Life