How Well Do You Know The Nintendo DS?

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Treon's Game of the Week - X-Type (XTYPE+)

Twin stick shooters have always been a blast to play with their engaging spin on old school space shooters like Space Invaders. They have even experienced quite a rebirth during the recent indie gaming boom with developers exploring the finer aspects of gameplay offered by this classic shooter genre. Robotron 2084 was one of the earliest games to popularize the sub genre of the space shooter but it took indie hits such as Geometry Wars and The Binding of Isaac to really give twin stick shooters a new lease on life. Indie friendly consoles such as the Ouya and Wii U have even experienced some twin stick gems such as Meltdown, Nano Assault Neo and XTYPE+.

X-Type is a simple yet addictive shooter that places it's focus on style and tight controls to craft a great game that channels the spirit of Geometry Wars. The game is essentially a string of randomly generated boss battles where top scores and leaderboards are the driving force. When the player surrenders themselves to the tight controls, you experience an almost zen like level of immersion. The game started as an HTML 5 browser based experience built in the versatile Impact game engine but was expanded when the developer worked with Nintendo to make the Impact engine a part of the Wii U development environment (it should be noted that X-Type and the Impact engine are from the same indie developer). The results are an incredibly fluid game showcasing the versatility of HTML 5 as a game engine. The enhanced XTYPE+ is available on the Wii U eShop for a mere $2.99 and comes highly recommended but the developer also offers the original version of X-Type on the Impact site as a fully playable free game. X-Type is a must play for twin stick shooter fans on either system so be sure to give it a try. Enjoy!

Play X-Type Now!

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Incredible Star Fox Easter Egg In Bayonetta 2! (Spoiler Alert!)

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Two Tribes Bringing RIVE To Wii U

Two Tribes has been responsible for some real gems on the Wii U eShop despite having to go through a recent restructuring of the company. Their many hits includes greats such as the Toki Tori series, Edge and Rush. The company has a firm handle on Nintendo hardware which shines through in their excellent work on the Wii U.  Happily, Two Tribes has recently revealed that their latest game known as RIVE will be coming to the Wii U in 2015.

RIVE is a futuristic side-scrolling action platformer which looks similar to classics such as the Contra series. The game is running on a modified version of the Toki Tori 2+ engine which bodes well for the game considering how well the engine was optimized for Nintendo's HD console. Interestingly, RIVE is being developed internally by Two Tribes for the Wii U alongside the PC version while the PS4 & XBOne versions are being farmed out to other developers. This is interesting considering that the traditional third parties normally do the opposite and shows that indie developers really do respect the Nintendo fans by taking their work seriously. Enjoy!

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Hyrule Warriors Launch Trailer!

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Fan Animated Zelda Series Retells "A Link To The Past"

Nintendo has wisely avoided expanding the Zelda franchise into other media outside of the questionable animated series from the late 80's. Despite fans crying for a movie or animation, its safer for Nintendo not to stray from the subjective video game experience since fans have set in their mind what the voices and characters should and should not be. This was clearly proven by Metroid: Other M which attempted to provide both a voice to bounty hunter Samus Aran and also give fans a truly cinematic Metroid experience which many fans claimed to want. Sadly, despite trying something new, the last Metroid game received a harsh and arguably undeserved bashing from the gaming community ensuring that Link and Princess Zelda would not follow in Samus' footsteps.

On the flipside, fan works are given much more latitude and rightly so considering their work comes from passion and not profit motive. This brings us to the beautiful Zeldamotion animated series by YouTube channel Aeipathy Industries which has set out to bring fans an animated retelling of the SNES classic, The Legend of Zelda: A Link To The Past. The group released a stunning trailer back in 2012 which showed a lot of promise but was watched with cautious optimism considering the fate of previous Zelda fan works. Fortunately Episode 1 was released in mid September and the response has been quite positive. The first episode gives a wonderful taste of what's to come and is sure to delight any fan with its depiction of Link's early adventure in this legendary story. Enjoy!

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Happy Birthday Big N! (Nintendo Turns 125)

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How Well Do You Know Rayman?

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Mother 4 Is Coming Care Of The Fans

The Mother (EarthBound) series is among the most beloved RPG series of all time with its quirky sense of humor and unique modern day setting. Despite having only 3 games over the last 25 years (with only 1 game getting released in North America), the hardcore fanbase have been begging for another entry even though series creator Shigesato Itoi believes this is "impossible". It turns out that Mother fans don't know the meaning of the word impossible and have taken up the challenge to craft Mother 4. The game is scheduled for a Winter 2014 release on PC, Mac & Linux which means that anyone with a computer will have access to the new RPG. Best of all, the game will be 100% FREE!

While most fan projects stand on shaky ground with the potential of being shut down by the copyright holder, Mother 4 stands a good chance of dodging this fate due to the game being all new (cast, setting & story) outside of of the Mother name. Nintendo has been quite hands off when it comes to the Mother series allowing fans to translate past games and even produce lavish soundtracks and amazing handbooks so it is likely that they will allow Mother 4 to happen. EarthBound and RPG fans should head over to the games website and dig into this epic fan driven project. Enjoy!

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Skylanders Trap Team "Inside The Trap" Trailer

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Survival Horror Hit "Lone Survivor" Set To Haunt The Wii U This Fall!

Curve Studios is set to bring creepy survival horror adventure game Lone Survivor to the Wii U. The game, developed by Jasper Byrne, takes inspiration from the classic Silent Hill series with its sense of horrific isolation and stunning sound design. Played from a side scrolling perspective with retro pixel art, the game manages to offer gameplay and atmosphere beyond that of many big budget horror games by relying on deep storytelling and a true sense of horror. Lone survivor has been a major hit with reviewers and should do a great job of scratching the horror itch left by former greats like Resident Evil and Silent Hill. Enjoy!

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Bayonetta 2 Nintendo Cosplay Trailer

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Renegade Kid Can Now Create Dementium Sequels!

The Dementium series is an excellent indie first person survival horror series for Nintendo DS and the series creators have just regained the rights to make sequels. Renegade Kid crafted Dementium: The Ward for the Nintendo DS back in 2007 and the game was both a technical marvel and excellent horror title for Nintendo's EXTREMELY popular handheld. Described as "Doom 3 meets Silent Hill", the game was a short by terrifying escape from one freaky ass hospital. The games sequel released in 2010 continued what made the first great while refining the already impressive visuals and performance on the Nintendo DS. Unfortunately the series was lost to publisher SouthPeak Games forcing Renegade Kid to move to other games such as Cult County which was born from this loss of rights (a similar situation to Renegade Kid's impressive Moon Chronicles series which also recently returned to the company). Fortunately, Jools Watsham has just announced via Twitter that the sequel rights have returned to the company meaning that survival horror hounds will see the Dementium series continue with the creators at the helm. Renegade Kid's excellent history with Nintendo also means that this will likely be Nintendo console exclusive. Enjoy!

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How Well Do You Know Mass Effect?

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Over 80 Unity Based Indie Games Coming To Wii U!

Nintendo recently attended Unite 2014 and showcased how the Wii U is an excellent (and lucrative) console for indie developers. In addition to courting the many indies with their developer friendly console, Nintendo revealed that they have over 80 Unity based games coming to machine which is quite impressive for a console which the lamestream video game media dubs as a dead console. Nintendo was quite open in providing stats for their HD machine and the numbers paint a much different picture than what third party developers and the media have presented to gamers. It's a very enlightening set of stats for Nintendo fans tired of being lied to by clickbait "Journalists".

Wii U Online Statistics

• Over 90% of Wii U consoles are online
• Over 70% of connected users have visited the eShop

Wii U eShop User Gender

• Female - 7%
• Male - 93%

Wii U eShop Demographics

• 0-12 - 1%
• 13-17 - 5%
• 18-24 - 33%
• 25-34 - 46%
• 35+ - 14%

This is an interesting set of statistics that largely debunks much of the bullshit statements made by big 3rd party publishers and the mainstream gaming media. First off, despite the claims of Nintendo being a "kiddie" console, the bulk of Wii U users (over 90%) are in fact adult males over the age of 18. Secondly, while the female audience is on Wii U, it is much smaller than assumed by many once again debunking the "mom who just buys a Wii U for their kid" argument. Lastly, the Wii U has an amazing number of consoles actively online (over 6 million) meaning that the third party's who gimped their online for Wii U rightfully lost out on sales. Ultimately, this means that the audience for mature adult games are playing the Wii U but have been burned by third party's for so long (over 15 years) that they will no longer invest in the table scraps shoved at them by lazy backstabbing companies. Interestingly this also means that the indie developers are reaping the benefits by creating quality Wii U games (that aren't gimped) for an eager audience who are happy to support their hard work. It seems that Nintendo is quite successfully turning their underrated HD console into the perfect machine for gamers who want stellar first party software and innovative indie titles. Enjoy!

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New Fatal Frame Wii U Trailer Is Hauntingly Gorgeous!

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Super Smash Bros. 3DS Demo Coming September 19th!

The new Super Smash Bros. for 3DS and Wii U which launch this fall are easily two of the biggest games launching this year. While the Wii U game will be the definitive version for hardcore competitive gamer's, the 3DS version will offer quite a bit for player's on the go. To celebrate the games launch this October, Nintendo will be offering a downloadable demo on September 19th which will give eager Smash players a taste of the titles portable gameplay. Enjoy and be sure to grab your demo next week!

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Teslagrad Wii U Review

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Source: Nintendo Enthusiast

Mega Man 7 Now Available On Wii U eShop!

Nintendo is currently running a Nintendo Treehouse Live which is showcasing the biggest games coming to the Wii U this fall. In a surprise move during their playthrough of Mega Man 7 on Wii U, it was revealed that the game is up for download right now on the eShop Virtual Console. This is very exciting news as it means that much like the recently released Wii U version of Mega Man X3, fans now have access to the best versions of the classic and underrated gems on the Wii U. For those who don't know, previous releases of these games on consoles such as the PlayStation were modified ports not based on the definitive SNES versions and suffered as a result. Enjoy!

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Mario Vs Minecraft!

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Club Nintendo September Rewards Update

Nintendo has updated their downloadable Club Nintendo rewards for September and for the remainder of the month they are offering 8 titles across 3 systems (Wii games can be played on Wii U). The expiration date for this offer is now October 12 and the price is between 150-250 coins for each title. Be sure to check back October 13 for the next reward update.

Mario Bros. - Wii U eShop
200 Coins (Available Until October 12)

Kirby Super Star - Wii U eShop
200 Coins (Available Until October 12)

Super Punch-Out!! - Wii Virtual Console
250 Coins (Available Until October 12)

NES Play Action Football - Wii Virtual Console
200 Coins (Available Until October 12)

Super Mario Bros. - 3DS eShop
200 Coins (Available Until October 12)

The Legend of Zelda - 3DS eShop
200 Coins (Available Until October 12)

Touch Solitaire - 3DS eShop
150 Coins (Available Until October 12)

Art Style: PiCTOBiTS - 3DS eShop
200 Coins (Available Until October 12)

Click here to see rewards

The Gaming Drought: A Rageaholic Rant

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Tecmo Super Bowl 2015 Is Available Now (For FREE!)

Nintendo fans may have been sidelined by the Madden franchise but fortunately they have the excellent new update to the NES classic, Tecmo Super Bowl 2015, to look forward to. Not content to simply update rosters, the dedicated team of fans at tecmobowl.org have improved upon the excellent original game with updated graphics, schedules and play books for all 32 NFL squads plus the introduction of 4-3 defenses. Everything in the game is up to date as of 9/2/2014 making it ready to go for even the most hardened NFL fan. Best of all the updated game (now in its 8th year) is 100% Free and available to play on a variety of emulators. If you own the underrated OUYA console, you will even be able to play this on the big screen with your friends. Enjoy and be sure to...

DOWNLOAD TECMO SUPER BOWL 2015 NOW!

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What If Christopher Nolan Directed "THE INCREDIBLES"?

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Bayonetta 2 Scores A Fox McCloud Costume, Release Date And New Trailer!

Nintendo just aired a Bayonetta 2 Nintendo Direct which gave a deeper look at the games story, characters and expansive combat system (as well as a great new trailer). One of the coolest pieces of info for Nintendo fans is that Bayonetta 2 will feature all of the new Nintendo themed costumes featured in the Wii U version of the original Bayonetta (Link, Samus, Peach & Daisy). The newest costume addition is a Bayonetta version of the Fox McCloud outfit complete with the headset, fox ears and Arwing themed guns for fighting enemies. This is even more interesting since it shows that Nintendo has heard the fans cry out for more Star Fox which is also getting a new game on Wii U next year. Bayonetta 2 has also been given a firm date of October 24, 2014 which makes the game a nice Halloween title which gets you two excellent games for the price of one! If you are an action fan who owns a Wii U, there is literally no reason not to get one of the best action games this generation. Enjoy!

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