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Want to help with the new AG site?
I have been working on this off and on as of late.
I've never been happy with the main web site. It always lacked content.
I am going to be re-launching the site soon. It will still include all the latest happenings with the forum and projects, however I would also like to cover Nintendo related things. Preferably classic, but I have no problem covering the latest stuff as well since that would be more content.
[EDIT]Read Below[/Edit]
After this is complete the project sites should be receiving an overhaul as well.
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Re: Want to help with the new AG site?
Would this include the Quest Database?
Even if it doesn't, I would love to see an update to the main site.
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Re: Want to help with the new AG site?
can we have the old forum theme? so far all of the ones available suck, no offense intended tho... id use the Nintendo one but (refer to edit) just ain't user friendly... and the other themes are just freaky.
edit: i don't like white surrounding the gray middle... it just hurts my eyes... maybe make it a gray or something?
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Re: Want to help with the new AG site?
I'm interested in helping out with whatever. *sends PM*
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Re: Want to help with the new AG site?
Quote:
Originally Posted by
franpa
can we have the old forum theme? so far all of the ones available suck, no offense intended tho... id use the Nintendo one but (refer to edit) just ain't user friendly... and the other themes are just freaky.
edit: i don't like white surrounding the gray middle... it just hurts my eyes... maybe make it a gray or something?
It still baffles me the claims of a lighter theme hurting eyes, however I already stated in another thread that I will be offering a darker version of the nintendo theme soon.
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Re: Want to help with the new AG site?
having brightness surround darkness puts focus on the darkness more and causes my eyes to strain... if a darker theme is coming then thats all good.
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Re: Want to help with the new AG site?
The gray of the old one was actually really good. It reduces eye strain without going to the whole "dark spectrum"
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Re: Want to help with the new AG site?
oooo... it looks like you darkened the white slightly... much better now :) (unless my eyes are deceiving me)
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Re: Want to help with the new AG site?
How much/often do you want a review writer to write about. Do you want reviews of classic games strictly, remakes of classic games, or what? I'm interested, but I'd like to know more. I've been thinking about writing reviews of classic games lately, but I need to know the level of involvement I'll have to put forth, seeing as I'm on the edge of two major field problems and a deployment where I won't have much along the lines of internet access or time until after I get to Iraq. I really would like to contribute...seeing as I haven't had much hand in anything around here since I joined.
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Re: Want to help with the new AG site?
I'm going to focus on the Nintendo systems only for now.
Mainly the older stuff.
NES, SNES, and 64.
Although wii and cube are there.
I may go SNES and NES initially just to keep it simple., until we amass a good amount of content for them.
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Re: Want to help with the new AG site?
Is there a formal application process for this, or do people basically just say "I'm in!" and we hope for the best?
I was all for the AGN news team idea a few months back, but of course nobody was interested in actually taking charge or heaven forbid, letting someone who actually wanted to take charge, take charge. But since you're backing it publicly, I'm willing to throw my name into the hat.
Do you have any suggestions as to what sort of columns you'd like to see? After all, simply letting us loose on the entire body of the NES and SNES library is dangerously vague. Such a lack of direction is a sure alibi for apathy and procrastination.
Not only that, but isn't it difficult to review games for old systems without the use and endorsement of roms? It doesn't bother me personally, but it's always seemed to me that AGN has had something of an anti-rom policy. If you're okay with it, and the only uncrossable line is actually linking to files, disregard this paragraph.
I have some doubts, I'll admit, though they're mostly based on the failed attempts of the past. As I said before, if you're backing it this time, I'm willing to put a little faith into the project. Count me in.
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Re: Want to help with the new AG site?
Quote:
Originally Posted by
{DSG}DarkRaven
Not only that, but isn't it difficult to review games for old systems without the use and endorsement of roms? It doesn't bother me personally, but it's always seemed to me that AGN has had something of an anti-rom policy. If you're okay with it, and the only uncrossable line is actually linking to files, disregard this paragraph.
AGN never have and never will give or share ROMs nor will they allow there members to use AGN services to do so... but getting ROMs yourself with no direction from AGN is done at your own risk.
or something like that...
why would AGN have to endorse the use of ROMs?
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Re: Want to help with the new AG site?
Quote:
Originally Posted by franpa
why would AGN have to endorse the use of ROMs?
How else would we go about reviewing anything but the most popular NES games, which are most likely the ones (if any) that people will still have on hand? Reviewing games requires playing them. Playing them requires owning them or having access to the rom.
For instance, I could review Crystalis, a curious action RPG for the NES, but unless I scour e-bay at the right time and pay a ridiculous price, I'm stuck playing the rom. And pretty much nobody is going to pay $50+ for some old NES cart that may or may not be good in order to review it for AGN.
It was just a minor concern, anyway.
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Re: Want to help with the new AG site?
Quote:
Originally Posted by
{DSG}DarkRaven
How else would we go about reviewing anything but the most popular NES games, which are most likely the ones (if any) that people will still have on hand? Reviewing games requires playing them. Playing them requires owning them or having access to the rom.
For instance, I could review Crystalis, a curious action RPG for the NES, but unless I scour e-bay at the right time and pay a ridiculous price, I'm stuck playing the rom. And pretty much nobody is going to pay $50+ for some old NES cart that may or may not be good in order to review it for AGN.
It was just a minor concern, anyway.
I own Crystalis. Got it back when it was brand new for NES.
I always understood that linking and asking for ROMs was the only thing against the rules. It seems like playing games on emulators has always been talked about, maybe not endorsed but, not against the rules. I may be wrong but, I don't see anything wrong with doing reviews using ROMs, even if we don't endorse them. Its done all the time at other websites without any legal reprocussions, even on more obscure games that aren't really available to buy.
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Re: Want to help with the new AG site?
A few questions and ideas to add to the table, if I may?
Q: How will this review process work? Will there be separate forums to post in which will be automatically transferred News-Style to the frontpage?
Q: Will it work randomly, or will there be a set series of games that need to be reviewed? I take it it's far from random, as the systems are already old as .. well, the NES eras. :p Because otherwise there's not much actual motivation to post a review about them unless you had just played it and were either very excited about it or very disappointed about it.
S(uggestion): In order to get more reviews, rather than assigning certain people to be on the review team, why not allow the whole forum to be able to write a review? There would certainly be more of them, due to the increased variety of people playing old games and being able to post a review. Thing is, you may want to put a "Moderators Preview" on it so you don't get any funky reviews (Or Spambots. O.o ) on it. :p
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Re: Want to help with the new AG site?
I know by now I am gonna sound like an old broken machine for bringing this up again but nobody seems to care that the Zelda Classic questdatabase is already almost a year out of order , in that time a few real good custom quests are released and you can't even get them here on the world main ZC board , maybe thats more interesting for the people here then reviews on old Nes snes and whatever games .
First fix whats broken before you come up with all the other stuff :uhoh:
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Re: Want to help with the new AG site?
On the contrary I do care, and have a few things in the works to take care of the issue.
Appreciate the concern though.
Quote:
Q: How will this review process work? Will there be separate forums to post in which will be automatically transferred News-Style to the frontpage?
Q: Will it work randomly, or will there be a set series of games that need to be reviewed? I take it it's far from random, as the systems are already old as .. well, the NES eras. :p Because otherwise there's not much actual motivation to post a review about them unless you had just played it and were either very excited about it or very disappointed about it.
S(uggestion): In order to get more reviews, rather than assigning certain people to be on the review team, why not allow the whole forum to be able to write a review? There would certainly be more of them, due to the increased variety of people playing old games and being able to post a review. Thing is, you may want to put a "Moderators Preview" on it so you don't get any funky reviews (Or Spambots. O.o ) on it. :p
I like the idea of allowing anyone to submit, but make them be reviewed, and I believe that is the way I'm going to go.
Disregard sending me PMs.
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Re: Want to help with the new AG site?
Okay. Anyone can write, all submissions are reviewed. Sounds fine. I wrote up a review this morning. Who do I submit it to?
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Re: Want to help with the new AG site?
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Originally Posted by War Lord
I like the idea of allowing anyone to submit, but make them be reviewed, and I believe that is the way I'm going to go.
Disregard sending me PMs.
This sounds pretty cool. If you are looking for people to review submissions I would be interested in helping out with that. I'd like to give a little back to this site somehow.
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Re: Want to help with the new AG site?
Are we restricted to game reviews? I mean, I could(and would like to) write a column/articles on other topics.
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Re: Want to help with the new AG site?
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Originally Posted by
erm2003
This sounds pretty cool. If you are looking for people to review submissions I would be interested in helping out with that. I'd like to give a little back to this site somehow.
Yeah, me too. :) I've always got a free hour before classes to do whatever, and I usually spend it on AGN anyway.
... That is, unless you're accepting applications via PM, which can get bothersome as It may be expected.
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Originally Posted by Amaster
Are we restricted to game reviews? I mean, I could(and would like to) write a column/articles on other topics.
That's an interesting idea, actually, just to see on the table for discussion. Hey, the more content, the better, I'd suppose. :shrug:
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Re: Want to help with the new AG site?
Hoping this has not already been posted...if you guys want to review the NES games, I have a good ebay listing for you.
http://cgi.ebay.com/NES-Nintendo-EVE...QQcmdZViewItem
Anybody got a quarter of a million dollars?
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Re: Want to help with the new AG site?
Quote:
Originally Posted by ctrl-alt-delete
Anybody got a quarter of a million dollars?
Me, but I'm saving up for one of those cars that turns into a speedboat. Another 50k and you nerds will never see me again!
Until I run out of gas and sink, that is.
I like the idea of writing other articles too, and it might be a good idea to either have the specific forum moderators be the proofreaders or to select specific people to moderate topics for specific forums. A General Entertainment review reviewer, for example, would proofread movie/TV reviews, etc.
The question is still on the table about where the articles will be stored and/or how they will be posted. The idea of a separate forum came to mind, but since the idea is to generate discussion (I gather), this would only serve to deaden other forums.
Specifically separating the suggested game reviews from the rest of General Gaming might be a good idea, though whether or not a subforum would serve this purpose best is not up to me. On the one hand, we have a lot of different forum groups, and suggesting more would probably deter casual forumgoers (overwhelming?). On the other hand, placing them in a subforum might be akin to burying them, and they might go completely unnoticed.
I still have that review I wrote sitting on my desktop, waiting to be posted, by the way...
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Re: Want to help with the new AG site?
I suggest other article ideas only because of two reasons, mainly being...
1.) I am a much better article writer than review writer
and the one that applies to the whole site
2.) There are a MILLION sites out there with game reviews. We need some uniuqe content.
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Re: Want to help with the new AG site?
um, what IS the main site for armageddon games? doesnt www.armageddon.net take us to the forums?
is it one of the following sites?
www.zeldaclassic.com
www.shatteredearth.com
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Re: Want to help with the new AG site?
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Originally Posted by
franpa
Well first it's www.armageddongames.net. :) Go there. Watch carefully. There is a redirect. The direct address for the forums now is www.armageddongames.net/forums. So if I had to take a guess, it will be accessed via the main site link.
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Re: Want to help with the new AG site?
ah k, so a site is being added... thus making it no longer just a forum?
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Re: Want to help with the new AG site?
We've always had a site, back in the day there was a lot of crap on it, but I think after a host switch or we got hacked or something (I can't remember) the main page was gone and never really came back.
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Re: Want to help with the new AG site?
(Sweet, Amaster, your avatar is Edanna from Myst 3. ;))
I'm enjoying all these suggestions. What really needs done, perhaps a little later down the road, is a revamping of ZC.com. I'm not sure if this is what was meant when War Lord said "After this is complete the project sites should be receiving an overhaul as well."
It isn't more important than the revamping of the AGN site, but it truly needs to be tended to, as Rocksfan said. Put some new, fresh people in it, get it going, you know.
And also, perhaps the forum's ranking system's stars should be fixed. :shrug:
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Re: Want to help with the new AG site?
Quote:
One of my major precedents that I am aiming for as a staff member is getting everyone involved. Every single person has something that they are good at...something they can bring to the table...something that can help improve AGN. There are only so many staff members, and I personally do not have time or money to submit a review on every piece of media that hits the shelf. Every single person can contribute in one way or another, and I want that to be the mindset, which is why I am implementing different ideas where everyone can be involved. With that being said...
Have you played a videogame recently that you would like to review? Whether it was Pacman on an arcade 20 years ago, or World of Warcraft on a PC today, AGN and the rest of the world would like to hear what you think! One of the significant problems with reviews today is that they are all the opinions of the same people...and they are all controlled by money. For example, an editor of a big online game company that loves war games is probably not going to give a great score to a game like Super Princess Peach, not to mention the fact that a lot of his funding comes from the game companies. Therefore, he is almost obligated to give good scores to games that he may not even like. Do you really think you will ever see an editor of Nintendo Power say that a Nintendo game was really bad?
By allowing a vast community with very different opinions to review games, this problem can be solved. So, if you would like to review a game, follow this simple template and pm me with your review. All points will be on a 1-10 scale. After the scale is brought together, I will average it out according to its level of importance, and an overall score will be given. Remember, do your best to avoid comparing it to other games, unless it is a sequel or prequel. For example, do not write that the graphics were bad in Super Mario Brothers because they did not look like Halo 2.
Plot-How was the storyline of the game? Did the setting accurately portray the game itself? Was the character development satisfactory to you? What was the level of replay value that you associate with the game? Did the opening draw you in, and the ending give you a sense of closure? On a scale of 1-10, how would you rate the plot?
Graphics-Did the graphic style fit with the game well? Did the images of the characters match their personalities? On a scale of 1-10, how would you rate the graphics?
Sound-What did you particularly enjoy about the music in the game? Did the sound effects match up with the action that created them? On a scale of 1-10, how would you rate the sound?
Once a review has been submitted, I reserve the right to edit the piece to fix any errors. The review will then become intellectual property of Armageddon Games, and will not be allowed to be used in any way without Warlord's permission. If a review has already been submitted for a game and you disagree, please submit a follow-up review and it will be posted as well. We would like to get as many opinions as possible, so that none of the reviews are partial. If I enjoy your submission, I may ask you to join a team of people to generate news and reviews permanently.
Once we get this off of the ground, we will decide where the best location of the review itself will be--either on the main site, or contained within the forums. If you have any questions, comments, or concerns, please pm me and I would be happy to help.
I posted that as an announcement, but never received any reviews. I think that people missed it. You can use that as a guideline if you wish, Warlord.
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Re: Want to help with the new AG site?
Quote:
Originally Posted by
Dechipher
We've always had a site, back in the day there was a lot of crap on it, but I think after a host switch or we got hacked or something (I can't remember) the main page was gone and never really came back.
i came here in 05-01-2005... so if the main site was already gone by then then you can understand why i never knew that there was one.
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Re: Want to help with the new AG site?
No, there was a site later than that at armageddongames.com for a while.
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Re: Want to help with the new AG site?
I myself grow tired of numbered scores. Its all arbitrary. Scores can range all over the place and values differ on different sites and magazines. All I need to know as a consumer is whether I should buy a game, whether I am going to enjoy a game. What details that are going to sway me one way or the other. A score doesn't tell me that. I want information. Including a scoring system gives too much value to certain aspects of the games that may not be important to the consumer.
I would love to create a system where we take games and allow AGN'ers to give a "thumbs up, thumbs down" mentality to each individual game. Yes, I think including written reviews are important, but I do not like the emphasis that professional reviewers place on categories. In some games plot doesn't matter. In some, graphics aren't as important. I believe using categories to establish a final rating or score of a game to be an obsolete system. I have no problem with reviewers giving us categories and describing details of certain aspects of games. A nostalgia rating would be great. Or a multiplayer one. But I am sick of reviewers penalizing games because they lack an online mode or lauding games because the interface is user-friendly. I just don't believe that a game should have an overall score.
I just wanted to drop the idea out that we can create a review system here that fully supports the true gamer. I think we all can be creative and build something really unique here.
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Re: Want to help with the new AG site?
Well, we could have different categories, like Enjoyability, Depth, Intuitiveness, etc. I agree with what you said, but I think games should have both numerical ratings (with nonstandard categories), and, as you suggested, :thumbsup: or :thumbsdn: tallies. And maybe even a neutral rating if one can't decide if they indefinately liked it or not.
EDIT: Also, why not bring back the AGN Awards? I was reading through some of the 2004 ones, and it seems like a good idea to bring back some diminishing activity in AGN. I mean, most likely to be in jail? That's some good stuff.
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Re: Want to help with the new AG site?
Quote:
Originally Posted by
mattwdr
I would love to create a system where we take games and allow AGN'ers to give a "thumbs up, thumbs down" mentality to each individual game. Yes, I think including written reviews are important, but I do not like the emphasis that professional reviewers place on categories. In some games plot doesn't matter. In some, graphics aren't as important. I believe using categories to establish a final rating or score of a game to be an obsolete system. I have no problem with reviewers giving us categories and describing details of certain aspects of games. A nostalgia rating would be great. Or a multiplayer one. But I am sick of reviewers penalizing games because they lack an online mode or lauding games because the interface is user-friendly. I just don't believe that a game should have an overall score.
I totally agree with that!! Honnestly I'm sick of games gaining score and graphics when the rest totally sucks. A game should have a base score for it's fun factor and then be slightly modified by things like user-interface, graphics, etc.
IMO, a good game with so-so user interface and graphics should still score higher than a bad game that gets every categorized score correct.
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Re: Want to help with the new AG site?
Okay, so, I finally noticed the reviews section was created, and submitted my review. It says to contact staff about images, but who am I supposed to contact?
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Re: Want to help with the new AG site?
I've just been manually searching out the images when I approve the reviews.
Your review is up and images added.
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Re: Want to help with the new AG site?
As a reviews moderator, I'll gladly search for images for reviews as well. If a point in a review mentions a certain graphical moment, I'll try to find an image of that.
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Re: Want to help with the new AG site?
When writing a review, what do I fill out the "Related Link" and "URL Title" fields with? Also, I already have images for my review. Can I just post them with the review and somebody will load them to the AGN server?
So I just left the two fields blank and posted the images. I got permission from the owner of ZeldaPower to use them. Feel free to edit as you want if I did something wrong or unwanted, or have me add more info.
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Re: Want to help with the new AG site?
As a former newspaper editor-in-chief and someone who's run a VG news/reviews site in the past, here are some suggestions.
First of all, standardize the physical format of the reviews (I'm talking internally) and format them up lightly. Right now, they're plain text, and the images show up as links rather than inline images. What I mean by physical format is to standardize the use of a title, subtitle, byline and make the rating system standard if you are using one at all. Yes, video game reviews can use titles other than the game title itself. See my review below.
Next thing, and this really depends on what you intend this to be, is to standardize the content. Everybody has a different writing style, and that's fine, but I mean standardizing the depth of the reviews and what's generally covered (some people do the old survey-each-category while some only cover story/gameplay). It's a bit disconcerting at times to see someone write up a marvelously detailed review while the next one is a scant 2 paragraph deal.
Lastly, images need captions. Explaining why you chose a certain image (and not stating the obvious) is an important thing to do and shows that the images weren't randomly chosen.
Again, I don't know if you are intending this to be a more formal presentation where you actually take it seriously to cover games in a journalistic manner or whether this is more open user commenting. If the latter is the case, then nothing I say matters, but I got the drift that you wanted to make a "news/reviews site."
I'd lend some of my reviews (I've written about 25 or so game reviews like the one attached), but they are IGN/Gamespot-like in depth, presentation and coverage, so they are in fact, rather long compared to what I've seen here, so I don't know if that's what you're after.
I've attached one of them here. This was actually written the same week that the game came out, so it was more interesting at the time than writing something about a game that's been out for years. Unfortunately, the images are not available, but I've left in the captions in italics.
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Mario Kart ushers in a new era of online play for the Nintendo DS
Nintendo’s highly anticipated title crosses the finish line in style
By Eliwood
November 16, 2005 – Mario Kart is one of the most beloved game series in existence, and it’s earned that right for good reason. It’s simply one of the few games that anybody can pick up and play on a whim, and it continues make a ubiquitous appearance at parties. The previous handheld installment, Mario Kart Super Circuit was Nintendo’s valiant attempt at recreating the console experience on the GBA and while it had its merits, the GBA wasn’t powerful enough to make the game fully replicate the magic of the console versions. Mario Kart DS is Nintendo’s second attempt at achieving this goal, and it does exactly that in flying colors. The addition of a wireless multiplayer mode elevates the series to new heights, making this title the most compelling addition to the series since the SNES version. It’s also one of the best DS games to date.
Features
- 32 Tracks + 6 Battle Arenas
- 12 characters total (8 default + 4 unlockable)
- GP, Time Trial, Battle, and Mission modes (54 missions total)
- Single Pak, Multi Pak, and Online enabled
[IMAGE]
This course should look familiar to you.
Like every other game in the series, Mario Kart DS is founded upon the same premise as all the others. Players each choose different characters and race on a track in order to be the first to complete 3 laps. Along the way are items that have a variety of effects; some are helpful to the player who picks them up while others cause harm to his/her opponents. In this respect, MKDS hasn’t changed on bit. It even adopts a nearly identical control scheme to Mario Kart 64 except that the analog stick has been replaced by the D-pad, which emulates the stick well enough.
More Variety
In terms of gameplay mechanics, MKDS has changed in subtler ways. Instead of having characters determine their driving attributes, karts now determine these properties. For each character in the game, you can choose between a normal kart and a special themed kart. Each kart is graded in several categories: (Top) Speed, Acceleration, Weight, Handling, Drift, and a more intriguing category called “Items.” This category determines how frequently a certain kart will receive particular items. All in all, Nintendo has done a good job at providing more variety in this area while preserving the delicate balance that holds the game all together.
Mario Kart DS also offers new tricks to perform during a race. Besides the standard jumping and turbo start, players can slide around corners and perform mini-turbo boosts as well as grab items and use them to their advantage. The game features all sorts of wacky items running the gamut from the perpetual homing shells to the new and highly unusual Bullet Bill item which automatically propels you at high speeds towards the head of the pack, knocking anyone else who gets in your way. It’s like the Blue Koopa shell except that you are taken along for the ride.
[IMAGE]
Track variety and design have improved quite a bit, even for the easier ones like Luigi's Mansion.
Track design is quite good this time around and features greater variety. The Waluigi Pinball course stands out as one of the most innovative tracks both in theme and in execution. It starts with a long launch (representing the launch of the pinball) followed by a few turns and then a large section where try to avoid flying pinballs (think boulders), bumpers and flippers. You end up back in the gutter the repeat the course again. Nintendo didn’t merely just slap simple themes like “Jungle” and “Sea” like they’ve done in the past. They took the time to take each theme and to integrate it cleanly with the gameplay. Even the less sophisticated tracks from the SNES and GBA versions have gotten facelifts and have been modernized to fit in better with the rest.
[IMAGE]
An old favorite gets updated and a recent addition is replicated fully.
Improved AI
The AI in this game is markedly improved over that in every other Mario Kart game so far. The amazing part about the AI is that it’s hard (in later cups), but it’s the good kind of hard rather than the annoying kind of hard. For example, in previous Mario Kart games, CPU karts had a penchant for magically “creeping up” behind you and catching up no matter how far behind they were. That still happens from time to time but not nearly as much now. Instead of playing catch-up, the CPU uses every fair weapon and trick at its disposal to beat you to the finish line.
New Modes
In addition to the standard Grand Prix and Time Trial mode, MKDS now features a battle mode similar to the one on the consoles and a brand new mission mode. In mission mode, players are assigned a particular character/kart and are given a specific mission. These simple missions include driving through gates, collecting coins on the track, or even taking out enemies in a battle arena. The end goal is to complete these tasks as quickly as possible. Achieving new records unlocks brand new karts. While the concept isn’t anything new, mission mode is well thought out and presents an unexpected but nice addition to the game.
Battle Mode offers two choices. The first is a Balloon Battle, in which players attempt to pop each other's balloons while avoiding getting theirs popped. In a good but interesting twist, the player now has additional balloons that can be blown up using the microphone. Although the select button can be used as well (which might help if you don’t want to give away your intent), using the microphone is much faster.The other Battle option, Shine Battle, makes players compete over a set amount of shines that are scattered across the map. This is nearly identical to what players would do in the multiplayer mode for Super Mario 64 DS. The twist is that every so often the players with the lowest amount of shines are eliminated until there is only one player left. During the match, players can use the various items to steal their shines.
Revolutionary Multiplayer
Despite all of the changes mentioned above, the huge feature that everybody’s been waiting for is online play. I’ll briefly go over how the Nintendo Wi-Fi Connection works before continuing on with the review.
[IMAGE]
Nintendo's USB WI-FI Adapter
In order for your DS to access the Nintendo Wi-Fi Connection, you need one of two things, either a compatible wireless router or Nintendo’s USB adapter ($35), which can be purchased exclusively from Nintendo’s online store. After you plug in this adapter, it will create an access point through which your DS can connect to the Internet. You must have a broadband connection for all of this to work.
Once you are connected, a screen pops up on the DS and on your computer and after a few simple clicks, you are ready to play! Now that you’re connected, how do you face off against somebody? Nintendo offers you several enticing choices. Perhaps the mode that you’ll use most is the “Friends/Buddy List.” You add people you know (or know you want to face) to this list and once everybody agrees on their characters and a course, the match begins. Other modes include facing off against people in your area, people of the same “skill level” or even just random people from around the planet.
My first experience with online play truly shows that Nintendo really knows how to setup an easy to use infrastructure. There was no setup required and the game was lag free, not to mention loads of fun. We’ll evaluate online play more fully in a special feature slated to be published soon.[IMAGE]
This game looks as good as it plays.
Graphics & Sound
Graphically, Mario Kart DS is impressive. Each of the tracks consists of several twists, turns, jumps, and other truly impressive environments with Waluigi's Pinball and Rainbow Road standing out as particularly amazing tracks. Not once did the game ever slow down, keeping a constant 60 frames per second even with eight racers and environmental effects on screen.
Music-wise, Mario Kart DS is typical Nintendo fare. Tracks have the usual Mario remixed themes to support it. Nothing strikes out as truly amazing. Sound effects are quite the opposite. Each player has his or her own taunts, cheers, and expressions, all of which stand out discernibly (and not in an annoying way either!). Karts have some impressive sound effects too with screeching and revving up that add to the overall ambience.
Conclusion
If it isn’t clear by now, Mario Kart DS is a must-have game for the DS and is probably the most compelling reason to get a DS at this point. There’s hardly any reason NOT to get this game unless you hate Mario Kart. While MKDS barely makes any use of the touch screen (save for the decal mode), it has no need to. It’s a fine game as is. While it’s taken Nintendo almost a year to deliver on its original promise delivering an online-enabled game, now that this game is out, the DS is truly ready for primetime. This game is a must buy. You will not regret your decision.
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THE VERDICT
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Presentation – 9.5
Nintendo has taken its sweet time on this game, and it shows. The user interface is very polished, and everything in the game is well thought out. Attention is paid to even the smallest details. The decal editor is a nice touch!
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Graphics – 8.5
From a visual standpoint, the game is on par with Mario Kart 64 with the added use of great looking low polygon models for the characters as opposed to pre-rendered sprites. The big plus is in its silky smooth 60 FPS frame rate.
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Sound – 8.0
Sound hasn’t always been a strong feature of Mario Kart, but Nintendo has pulled off a decent soundtrack on the DS that contains a multitude of remixes of songs from all over the map. The sound effects are rendered crisply, and the aural experience as a whole rivals that of the console versions.
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Gameplay – 9.0
Nintendo has taken the original Mario Kart experience and has enhanced it in every way possible. With the addition of online play, this is Mario Kart at its finest. Mission mode adds variety to single player, and the CPU AI is at its best for those times when you can’t face off with another player.
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Value – 9.0
This game will last you a very, very long time and is bound to become yet another classic at parties. Everything is completely customizable! This game would have received a perfect 10 if Nintendo didn’t strip down the online mode (to only include 20 out of the 32 tracks due to lag issues).
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Overall – 9.0
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