Two more episodes, and Paul is no longer a regular podcast host. On a side note, there will be no podcast next week due to scheduling conflicts.
This week’s news:
All this and Listener Feedback.
This is the third attempt in as many weeks at making an episode.
There’s no real news items this Thanksgiving as the podcast is giving away free Swimsanity codes and talk about the games they’ve been playing that month.
Let us know what you think and win a Swimsanity code.
In 1986 SNK released Ikari Warriors, it had all the makings of a classic title. Cool weapons, time strategies, two player action and a great challenge. We’re now seeing folks reproduce some of the essence of classic games by creating platformers like Little Big Planet and Mega Man 9, where is the love for the top-down scrollers?
Ikari Wariors was one of the first game titles to use a rotary joystick along with a directional system. Looking at the current generation Xbox 360 and PlayStation 3 it’s plain to see the joystick is equipped with this design. We’ve seen Geometry Wars utilize the analog stick to create a 360 directional attack, so it’s possible to utilize this behavior for Ikari Warriors.
Given SNK is still alive under the name SNK Playmore the intellectual property must still exist to breath fresh life into an Ikari Warrior remake, with about six to eight months development time a classy title could be re-developed using old concepts brought to the current generation hardware.
Blast grenades, RPG’s, smart bombs, air strikes the options are limitless and the concept has been proven to work. Given the gamer demographic of 18-34 it’s plain to see old gamers of the Arcade and NES would recall and rebuild their love for the title while attracting younger audiences whom have never seen an Ikari Warriors title; if it worked in 1986 are we so adverse to it working again?
Games do not have to implement full 3D perspective graphics to be cool, we’ve seen proof in that with the Wii and the demand for titles like Little Big Planet. We neeed another Ikari Warriors.
The Nintendo 3DS has struggled since its launch, and Nintendo has announced a severe price cut of $80 to $169.99, down from $249.99. The price cut will be implemented on August 12, 2011.
If you bought your 3DS before August 12, the 3DS Ambassador Program will offer 3DS owners 20 free digital titles.
According to the press release:
“These free games are available to anyone who owns a Nintendo 3DS system and uses a wireless broadband Internet signal to connect to the Nintendo eShop at least once before 11:59 p.m. Eastern time on Aug. 11. These users will automatically be registered in the Nintendo 3DS Ambassador program.”
The free downloadable titles will be released in two stages:
Let us know if the cut to $170 will influence you to pick up a 3DS, or if it’s just too much – or if the games you’re waiting for have yet to be released.
[UPDATE: “Never in Nintendo’s history have we lowered prices to such an extent, less than half a year since the product launch,” [Nintendo CEO Saturo] Iwata said. “But we have judged that unless we move decisively now, there is a high possibility that we will not see many of our customers enjoying a Nintendo 3DS.” ]
