Retro Game Shopping in Japan!

Retro Game Shopping in Japan!

During my trip to Japan I visited two main places for some retro game shopping, Akihabara, famous for being the Otaku centre of the world, the home of all things geeky! Including Anime, Manga, Figures, Games, Technology, (so much cheaper than over here!!) and everything else you could possible want! I also visited Den Den Town in Osaka (basically a smaller version of Akihabara!) As well as a few other shops in Tokyo. This post will show you all the best game shops I found along the way!
Anyone looking to buy some retro games from Japan, I hope this post helps you out!


First of all, a word of warning! Although Akihabara may be known as the place to find pretty much any game you could ever want, don't go too crazy as the prices are inflated massively to catch out tourists with more money than sense... unfortunately, I fell for their trap on the first day and regretted it later when I visited some of the lesser known (but equally amazing) shops outside of Tokyo. Imagine my surprise when I found out I could have literally bought about 10 games for the price of one!

Also, while you're in Akihabara, don't forget to check out the many amazing arcades! Full to the brim with every arcade game imaginable and plenty of claw machine and other prize games too (With prizes actually woth winning!) They are an amazing experience and really fun too! Be sure to check out one of the Taito Station arcades as well as Sega's huge arcade! All about 7 floors high! There are also some smaller ones with a great selection of Shoot'em'ups, Fighting and Puzzle games for the more hardcore audience!

A quick hint before I start going through the list of shops. Don't just go in shops along the main street, most of the good shops, (for games and figures) are hidden in the smaller streets or up several flights of stairs! There was one really cool one which happened to be in a small room on the 6th floor of a building, no idea how I managed to find it but im glad I did! (SFC and Gameboy games for 50 Yen each!! Sadly no photos or name of the place so good luck finiding it...) Look for signs outside or on the walls with pictures of games on!

And don't forget to relax in a Maid Cafe after a long day of Retro Shopping! :D

Tokyo

Akihabara

Super Potato!
Japan has several Super Potato stores, the biggest of which is right in the centre of Akihabara and has three floors including an arcade room in the top floor. They sell everything you could hope to find for a range of retro systems, although their prices can be a little crazy, its definitely worth a visit just to marvel at its selection of hard to find games and collectables! I also love the homely feel these shops have, with gaming merchasndise all over the place and very friendly staff that will do their best to help even if they cant understand what you're trying to ask them!

The arcade room is decorated in cammo and guarded by a full size Solid Snake statue!

Uhhh.. I think one of those signs means "Action game"

A giant Mario statue greets you as you enter!

????.
Sadly I don't know the name of this place, just look for a long thin shop at the end of the main street before a curry house (we walked past it a few times! Listen out for NES music playing from a CRT in the window!) Once you do manage to find it, you wont be disappointed! The shop really crammed a lot into such a small space, the walls were bursting with great condition boxed Super Famicom games and a huge selection of loose GameBoy games lining the wall on the other side of the shop, and many other systems towards the back. At the back of the shop you can find a great selection of loose PC Engine games! (wish I had known I was going to buy one later in my trip else I would have spent some more time looking!!) They were also selling portable snes consoles which I went back to get later on!

So overwhelming when you first walk in! take some time to take it all in first!

Wish i'd bought some of these now! REGRETS!!

Trader.

This shop was not so much focused on Retro as the others, but it still had a great selection, especially worth noting was its good selection of boxed GBA and Gamecube games. I picked up two of the GBA Starfy games and Kururin Squash for the Gamecube. I was also temped to buy a Famicom Gameboy micro, I decided to leave it and come back later, a decision I later regretted... several times.. I did however, go back here on the last day and decided to go all out and buy the Miku edition PS Vita and both Project Diva games!  (Sorry wallet!)  I also watched someone infront of me in the queue but BOTH the famicom gameboy micros!

Mandarake.
Not entirely dedicated to games. This one was a bit harder to find, thankfully I had looked it up before going, and good job I did because this was easily the best place I'd been so far! Row upon row of boxed SFC games, all graded for condition of box, manual and cart, and quite reasonable prices. The store also had a huge selection of Saturn and PS1 games and some really amazingly rare games in the cabinet at the back.. including one of the very few gold Rockman 4 Famicom carts! And a Famicom Gameboy Micro, which, i once again decided not to get, and proceded to watch a person buy it right infront of me for the second time...

All graded by condition and alphabetised. Pretty much all the games were in mint condition!

The extremely rare (Only 8 in the world!) Rockman 4 cart!



After this amazing tour of the shops of Akihabara, I was lucky enough to meet up with a friend from a retro gaming community on Google+ (Thanks, +Charlie Maib! :D ) to visit some shops further out of Tokyo, including one shop I had been dying to visit for years... It's definitely worth considering taking a train a bit further out of tokyo to find some cheaper games!

Hard Off.

Full of retro games and hundreds of consoles all stashed away in plastic boxes filling the shelves, this place was a dream come true. A fantastic selection once again of SFC games, all at much cheaper prices than in the touristy areas. Consoles for the equivalent price of a meal here in the UK. (Managed to get a loose PC Engine Duo for roughly £30!) as well as a handful of games to play on it!

Hard Off 2.

We went to a second hard off store a little further away, this one had just as amazing selection as the first, with some extremely cheap SFC games and even more consoles for incredibly cheap prices! Such a shame I was running out of suitcase spece by now else I could have easily bought a few more systems! Oh well, theres always next time! We also found a new shop that had recently opened which had a good selection of SFC games! Sadly no photos though.

Osaka

The view from the hotel window! I think I see a game shop in the distance..

For the second week of our trip, we travelled via the bullet train to a little place called Osaka (not little at all!! :O). Here I was surprised to find it had its own version of Akihabara, called Den Den Town, not quite the spectacle that Akihabara was but still full of great places to visit (once we managed to find them!) including THREE Super potato stores, although I think one of them might have closed down... And a few independent retro stores as well. I was on a mission to find some wires for my PC Engine and luckly, Den Den Town, after much trying to get the shopkeepers to understand what I was asking for, did not disappoint!

Super Potato 1.

This store was a smaller super potato, with only two floors. What I enjoyed most about this one was the good selection of Megadrive games on the top floor! (An uncommon system in Japan it seems) Here I picked up Monster World IV, a game that I have been after for a long time after really enjoying the translated release on the Wii Virtual Console a few years ago! This store also had a great selection of Wonderswan games along the wall upstairs (ad what awesome stairs they were!), I managed to pick up Klonoa Moonlight Museum! Downstairs was mostly new games which was a bit surprising for a Super Potato.



Super Potato 2.
This one was where I finally managed to find the wires I so desperately needed for the PC Engine, as well as selling all sorts of wires and controllers, this store also had a great selection of GBA games and even had one of several Famicom Gameboy Micro's I was looking out for! (Silly me for not buying one in the end, I regret it now!) This store also had another gold Rockman 4 cart... Just look at the price! :O

Book Off.

I was surprised that even a non assuming book store had a huge selection of retro games,(a surprising number of PC engine games) and several Taiko drum master games hidden away in a corner! Sadly I didn't have enough space to pick up the Taiko drum games. (Except the DS one!) Unfortunately the shop was closing soon after we arrived so I didn't get too long to look around although I did end up purchasing a few HU card games, including NEC's quite polished answer to Zelda, Neutopia.

The final game shop I visited before the long journey home was a small independent shop, hidden away down a street in Osaka...

 ???? RetroShockedManWithScarfShop!

Sadly I have no idea what this place is called either! It was a small shop but with a good selection, especially for Wonderswan and Saturn, It also stocked many hard to find soundtracks and strategy guides, I didn't buy any games here but I did get the "We are Rockmen" album which I had been after for a long while! They also had a Famicom Gameboy micro but here it was way more expensive than the others, due to the fact that it was the extremely rare "Player 2" design of the console.

I hope this post was useful if you are planning a trip to Japan! Or if you were just curious as to what to expect when you go! The best thing to do is just go on Google Maps or Foursquare and search for nearby game shops and get some directions! It's also worth picking up a map of the area or printing one off before you leave the hotel in case there is no wifi! (Or get a cheap phone and Sim card for 3 or 4G Internet! This will help with looking up the games too and if you download a translation app you can just point the phone camera at the Japanese writing to see what it says... It doesn't always make much sense though...)

Hopefully next time I can find some even more amazing shops and surprises!

Here's some useful links for shopping in Japan!

http://www.japan-guide.com/e/e3003.html

http://e-akihabara.jp/en/index.htm

http://famicomblog.blogspot.co.uk/2013/08/kansai-retro-game-shops-2-den-den-town.html

http://famicomblog.blogspot.co.uk/2013/08/kansai-retro-game-shops-3-super-potato.html

http://famifind.com/

And if you cant afford to visit Japan to buy the games, +Charlie Maib has just  launched his own website, Superfamimart! so check it out if you want to buy some cool japanese exclusives!

http://www.superfamimart.com/

 

And before you go, heres some videos of my trip!

Thanks for reading and watching!

10 Games That Will Stay With Me Forever!

The idea for this post came from a Facebook post a friend tagged me in.  The idea is to name ten games that will stay with you, I take that as meaning the ones that have had a big impact on me or ones that have meant a lot over the years, so lets get started..

10: Starfox Adventures (Gamecube)
Back when this game was first announced, under the name, "Dinosaur Planet" I was already super excited for what Rare had in the works! several years passed and news was hard to come by, everyone was wondering what had happened to rare's N64 swansong. Turns out it was no longer an original title, Nintendo had requested they change the character to Fox McCloud and turn it into a Starfox spin off! I got it at christmas in 2002 along with a Wavebird controller and I have many good memories of playing it and then going to school to discuss how amazing it was! Things such as "OMG Thorntail Hollow is MASSIVE!! it will take ages to get from one side to another!" (Actually it only took a few minutes and wasn't all that big really.. and "OMG The graphics are amaaaazing Xbox or PS2 will never be able to do anything line this NINTENDO FTW!!" (This bit is still true) :P

9: Megaman Battle Network 3 (GBA)
More great school memores, Playing this game at break with my friend, we would spend hours talking about the game, all the secret cards and battle techniques, how amazing the areas and music were. What a fun game, a deep battle system, fun story and awesome graphics make for the most memorable Megaman RPG ever. I have since tried playing the other games in the battle network series but none live up to the excitement and fun I had playing number 3! Starforce comes close but i'm not a huge fan of the simplified battles.

 

8: Eternal Sonata (Xbox 360)
A beautiful RPG for the 360 and PS3 with enchanting music and a fantastic dual layered story, both in the real world, where the main character is on his death bed, and the dream world inside the main characters final thoughts. The game is quite light hearted despite the darker tones it has. The graphics are magical and definitely help to set the tone. I really had a lot of fun playing through this, the music was so good sometimes i'd try to make the battles last longer just to listen to the amazing soundtrack, composed by the legendary Motoi Sakuraba and original compositions by the main man himself, Frederic Chopan. It also had one of those magical endings that you keep thinking about long after the game is over. Just don't give up on the giant rat boss!

7: Mario Kart Double Dash (Gamecube)
Easily the most fun you can have with a mario kart game! Tight controls, loads of characters, two players in one car, more items including unique ones for each character, great new tracks and music and fantastic 60fps graphics make for the most exciting multiplayer racing game ever! I had so much fun with friends playing this after school And one horrible rumour that I believed in for many years.. Complete the Allstar Cup (a GP race through every track in the game) with every combination of characters to unlock the entire N64 game with Double Dash!! graphics. of course this was a lie but it certainly extended the games replay value for me! even if it was all in vain!

6: Sonic Adventure 2 (Gamecube / Dreamcast)
My all time favourite sonic game, possible because it was the only GameCube game I got at launch and possible because its just so much fun! amazing fast gameplay (with sonic and shadow) Fun shooting stages with lots of hidden secrets (Tails and Eggman) and big open levels to explore (with Knuckles and Rouge) a great sotry that is told from both the good and dark perspective which opens up a final story chapter when you complete both sides! It had awesome memorable cut scenes and music and who could forget the adorable Chao creatures! i'm sure everyone spend as much time, if not more, just feeding and raising these little creates! add in loads of replay value with hundreds of challenges to complete and a whole racing mini game included and you have the best sonic game ever! It's just EPIC!!

5: To the moon (PC)
Wow, only played this a few years ago, but what a story this game told. While it starts slow, give it about half an hour and you'll be sucked straight intot he most absorbing story i've ever experienced within a game! The gameplay is nothing fancy, being make in RPG maker, but the story is where it hits, I was glued to the screen the entire way through, sat there getting more and more absorbed into the lives of the characters, it brought me to tears more than a few times. This game had such an impact I spent the last year of my university course trying to recreate those feelings in my own RPG maker game as part of a project involving emotions and characters in games. This game will be a big motivation to me in the future with my own projects and is simply a masterpiece. Kudos to Ken Gao, the genius behind it!

4: Megaman 4 (NES)
One of the first games I ever played, Back when I was so young I didnt even know how to plug the NES into the TV or anything. But I was hooked on megaman! I would spend hours trying to clear one stage! I wasn't very good but the game had such a unique atmosphere with its colourful graphics and catchy music that I probably didnt care that I just died for the thousandth time! Of course these days I can complete it no problem but it still stands out to me as a great childhood game and one I will always think of as the best of the megaman games, not just from nostalgia, but because its a damn good game as well!

3: Banjo Kazooie (N64)
Where to start with this gem of a game?! Created by the endlessly tallented team at Rare (...RIP...) This was for me, the pinnacle of 3D platformers! Perfectly crafted levels and an imaginative hub world full of surprises, mix in hundreds of collectables that actually feel fun to find, some very memorable and crazy characters and a good sense of humour and you have a classic game! The controlls were very unique with loads of hidden moves and the use of your friend Kazooie to reach new locations and even fly! The levels were all different and fun, complete with their own themes and challenges, it makes for a really magical game that any platformer fan should experience! and the final area before the final battle is just genius!

2: Twilight Princess (Gamecube / Wii)
The game many people wanted Wind Waker to be after the initial Zelda demo at Spaceworld 2000, When Twilight Princess was shown off four years later, the audience, and me, were completely blown away! From that moment on, I hunted down any piece of information I could find about the game, from magazines, DVD's, the (dial up) internet, rumours at school, everything. I was completely obsessed with the idea of the game, talking about nothing else at school, reading into every little thing that was announced about the game. Enduring the many, many delays. When it finally came out, as a launch title for the Wii, prehaps it didnt quite live up to my crazy high expectations, but even so I was totally engrossed in the game from start to finish. Looking back, it's not perfect but for me it will always have a special place in my heart just for the crazy ammount of hype I had before release. And don't think that i'm being negative about he final product, its still a fantasticly polished game that I thoroughly enjoyed and although Skyward Sword may have been a more streamlined and imaginitive game, I still believe Twilight Princess to be my absolute favourite in the series, where it will most likely remain for years to come.

1: Kirby's Fun Pak (SNES)
Probably my most played game ever. I remember getting it for my 5th birthday! There is just something about this game that gives it a timeless quality, the big sprites and colourful graphics? The fact that it has eight games in one? The endless replay value? The fact that the game keeps erasing my save so I have to play it all again?? Whatever the reason, this game will definitely stay with me, and continue to be played forever! No kirby game since has got close to matching the same feeling this game has. Metaknights Revenge, Great Cave Offensive, Milky Way Wishes. Dynablade. These are just some of the fantastic games within Kirby's Fun Pak, or Super Star, if you know it by the american name. I wrote a post for the DS remake, Super Star Ultra way back in 2009 so feel free to read that for some fanboy ranting if you feel the need. http://nicktendowiiu.blogspot.co.uk/2011/04/kirbys-super-star-ultra.html

 

Thanks for reading, what are some of your most memorable games that will stay with you? let me know, im always up for some game discussions!

My thoughts on Nintendo at E3 2014!

E3 was a blast this year! I think all three companies had some great announcements and all the conferences were fun to watch! Overall, this year was a huge improvement over last year and one of the best shown in a while! Nintendo especially has a very strong show which continued for all three days thanks to their Nintendo Treehouse Live stream, which showed in depth looks at all the new games for the whole three days, it was great fun to watch and you could really see the enthusiasm from the developers and presenters!

Lets start off this post by looking at one of the most exciting games coming out later in the year...

Super Smash Bros. for WiiU and 3DS!

So once again, Nintendo did not have a proper press conference, instead hosting their own Digital Event. But what an event it was! Starting out with the most amazing opening of Reggie and Iwata fighting it out, before introducing Mii's as a new character in smash. Not quite the announcement of Reggie as a playable character but at least you can make your own Reggie and make him fight! Later on at E3 it was also announced that Palutena and Pacman were also going to be new playable characters! Smash for WiiU and 3DS are shaping up to be brilliant entries in the franchise and I can't wait!

Hooray for Palutena!

Nintendo also hosted a Smash Bros WiiU tournament in their old conference hall, the Nokia Theatre. The event was fantastic, it was so exciting to watch as the Smash experts battled it out on stage, with Geoff Keighley as the host and appearances from Reggie and Sakurai as well as hundreds of excitable fans it was one of the most exciting things about E3 this year.

Lots of love for Megaman at the Smash Bros. event!

Splatoon!

Nintendo actually had a lot of new games to announce, first off is the brand new title, Splatoon. While I wasn't completely sold on the idea at first, it has grown on me. The character design is fun and the gameplay looks like it can have some great moments. I hope there will be different weapons that spray different amounts of paint. But from what we've been shown so far, it seems like a great fun little title. I love the idea of being able to move faster by transforming into a squid and swimming through the paint!

Miyamoto Projects - StarFox, Project Guard and Project Giant Robot!

Miyamoto was at the show to demo three of his new projects, well only two were actually shown, although his third, a new Starfox game was shown to press but not to the public. The other two games were just small tech demo's. The first being a kind of tower defence game in which you have to place security cameras inside a base to defend against robots that look like R.O.B. This game looks interesting but would have to have much more polish and a better overall goal if it was to become a full game, although some people have noticed that the cameras have Starfox logos on them, so maybe this will become a part of the new Starfox game!

A screenshot from Project Guard

The second game demo was a robot fighting game. In this demo the player was able to create their own giant robot to fight against another one in a basic cityscape. The game had a unique control system which has you holding the WiiU gamepad out in front of you and leaning forward and backwards to control the way the robot moves, and using the two analogue sticks to punch. The controls looked very hard to get used to and most of the demo's just showed people falling over. I hope this game gets drastic improved or incorporated into a bigger game as, at the moment it doesn't show much promise! sorry Miyamoto-san!

Miyamoto showing off one of his new projects, Giant Robot!

The starfox game was only shown behind the scenes, so there is not much information regarding it. However, some journalists were able to have a look at the new title, which is apparently VERY early in development with very simple graphics. The demo was comprised of three different sections. Reading on Nintendo Life i found the following information, to read more, follow this link.

"The first, called Arwing, is a classic Star Fox, and consists of an open-sky dogfight against many enemies; you can also land and transform into a tank. The second mode, Vs Wolf, is similar, but pits players against series rival Wolf O'Donnell, flying a similar ship to yours. The third, called City, put you in a helicopter flying over an urban landscape, with the GamePad screen showing a top-down view of what's below."

I think it sounds great and if it retains the series's movie like atmosphere then I'm sure it will end up great, but I loved Adventure and Assault and I know some people aren't too fond of those ones so we'll have to wait and see how the newest StarFox is received...

Mario Maker!

One of the games I am most excited about is Mario Maker, this is being developed by the man behind the amazing Mario Paint for the Snes, but instead of drawing, this game allows you to create your own Mario levels! The best feature is not just that you will finally be able to create all kinds of crazy Mario levels, but also be able to choose which kind of graphics style you want to play in, Classic or New Super Mario Bros. style! According to several interviews after the game was shown, they are also working on more graphic styles and some that aren't even from Mario games! Maybe we will see a Kirby or Donkey Kong style as well? They also hinted at other Mario paint features making a return including the much loved music maker! This is definitely one of the most exciting announcements of the show for me and I can't wait to make some levels and share them online!

Another brilliant feature shows the path you took while testing the level!

Bayonetta 1&2!

For the second year, Bayonetta 2 was shown, This time it was revealed that as well as Bayonetta 2, it will also come bundled with he first game so people who haven't played the first one will have the chance to play the full story leading up to the second game.  As the first game was never released on a Nintendo console I think this is a great idea! It's not just a simple port though as not Bayonetta herself can dress as several classic Nintendo characters including Link, Samus and Peach! Each costume will also give her certain new moves for example using Links sword to attack. The new game is also looking quite amazing, each time we get shown the game it seems more and more crazy, thankfully there's not long to wait now until this gets released! Lets just hope they got rid of the stupid QTE scenes this time!

Hyrule Warriors!

As well as the brand new WiiU Zelda game (Which I'm trying to avoid everything for so I don't spoil anything) there is also another Zelda game for WiiU which is coming out this year! Based on the Dynasty Warriors series, Hyrule Warriors is a lot more action focused than a typical Zelda game. At first I was unsure about this as I've never been a big fan of the Dynasty games, but from watching the amazing gameplay demo from Treehouse Live, I have completely changed my opinion on it, the gameplay looks fast and fun and the graphics are stunning! also YOU CAN PLAY AS MIDNA!!! Really excited for this, you can watch the full gameplay demo here. There was also another gameplay demo from day 3 if you want to find that for more.

Codename S.T.E.A.M!

A brand new IP from Intelligent Systems! Announced after Nintendo's direct at a conference that was not streamed to the public.  I had to resort to reading about the game from live tweets, picturing the game in my mind as details slowly emerged. Then screenshots began to surface and... Lets just say I much preferred the vision of the game I had in my mind. The game is a turn based strategy game in a 3D environment. Think Nintendo's version of Valkyria chronicles. The game takes inspiration from American comics, hence the very american art style, despite the game being set in London. I hope the game also improves as from what I saw at the Treehouse live gameplay demo, it was slow and underwhelming. I still have hopes that it will end up a good game as Intelligent Systems has a great track record making the Advance Wars and Fire Emblem games. 

Hope it plays better than it looks.

Captain Toad Treasure Trackers!

A lot of people loved the Captain Toad sections of Super Mario 3D World. I found them a fun distraction to the main game but it still comes as a shock that the captain himself will be getting a full game. It does look a lot better than the small areas he was confined to in 3D world. The slower pace of the game won't be for everyone, but from what's been shown so far it looks like a fun and intricate puzzle game, overall, a nice little surprise game.

Yoshi's Wooly World!

A game that was announced a long time ago as Yarn Yoshi. The game has had a major overhaul and looks a lot better for it, now, instead of having a flat world like Kirby's Epic Yarn which features just strands of yarn, the new Yoshi game features entirely knitted worlds and characters. The game its self looks like a typical Yoshi game which is no bad thing, this time it also includes multiplayer so I can't wait to play through the game with a friend! After the slight disappointment that was Yoshi's New Island lets hope this one is more fun. 

Colourful and fun!

Kirby and the Rainbow Curse!

A sequel to one of the most underrated gems of the DS! Yes Please! Rainbow Curse is a sequel to the amazing Power Paintbrush for the DS. The game has you drawing a rainbow on the touch screen in order to navigate Kirby, who is stuck in ball form, around complex levels collecting items and absorbing enemies powers as you go. The original for the DS was a very unique and fun game so I hope that this new WiiU version will also have some interesting levels and new ideas of its own. The graphics look lovely with a claymation style and from what I've seen so far the gameplay looks fast, fun and varied! Can't wait for this one! Got to finish Triple Deluxe first though! 

Xenoblade Chronicles X!

Words can't describe how excited I am for this game! The first Xenoblade game on the Wii quickly became one of my most favourite JRPG's of all time! I really hope that the sequel lives up to the amazing experience of the first game, although the studio have said it will only be based loosely on the events of the first game and it is not a direct sequel,hopefully it will have just as much of a deep and engaging storyline and some more epic music to go with it!  Check out the new trailer below. There was also a 40 minute gameplay demo on Treehouse if you want to see more of this amazing game. 

Sonic Boom!

Usually I'd be super excited for a new Sonic game, I really enjoyed Lost World on WiiU but I'm still not sold on Sonic Boom. I still think the characters look silly, the gameplay looks boring, the art style looks dull and lifeless, the voice acting is annoying, the speed sections look more like endless runner games than sonic games, the rest of the game looks like a slow and dull mess, bleh. Oh, and the 3DS version looks even worse. I hope that SEGA Japan has a better sonic game in the works as I know they are not having anything to do with this one, and I don't blame them!

The award for "Most Dull Sonic Level Ever" goes to.....

Devil's Third

I had not heard of this game before E3. Apparently it was originally coming out for 360 and PS3 but for whatever reason Nintendo decided to help out the developers and now it has become a WiiU exclusive. I think it actually looks quite fun, sort of like Red Steel as it mixes gunplay and sword combat along with ninja elements. It looks like it could be a fun game and is certainly a lot more serious than most of Nintendo's other games. The story also sounds quite interesting, overall quite surprised by this one, even if the multiplayer looks like a mess at the moment with a million different ideas going on. Watch this Treehouse video for more details, and try to ignore the awkwardness between the translator and the presenter! 

Mario Party 10!

This looks to play much like Mario Party 9, with all the characters being inside one car and sharing a space on the board. This worked well enough in 9, so unless they have changed anything drastically I expect this to be good multiplayer fun. The newest addition to this one however, is the inclusion of a fifth player who will control Bowser in special mini games which make use of the WiiU Gamepad. These look like a lot of fun, one person has to control bowser in a variety of different ways in order to kill the other players before time runs out. 

Very bright and colourful! 

Mario Vs Donkey Kong!

Nintendo showed off a new Mario Vs Donkey Kong. Not much to say about this one, if you've played one of the newer entries in the series this is exactly what you'd expect it to be. So just a picture will do here and moving onto...

Glad the level editor is returning!

Pokemon Omega Ruby and Alpha Sapphire!

After the horrible disappointment that was the announcement trailer, GameFreak finally released a proper video showcasing some new Mega Evolutions and most importantly, how Hoen looks in 3D! Which is pretty much the same as X / Y, but what did you expect really... I'm excited for this as Ruby / Sapphire were my favourite of all the Pokemon games, well Emerald is, but you know what I mean. I hope there is some new post game content and that the battle frontier and extras from Emerald are still in the game. 

That's about it for Nintendo's games at E3! Thanks for reading, I know there was a lot to go though. Please feel free to discuss anything about Nintendo at E3 in the comments but please, no Zelda U spoilers!
Visit e3.nintendo.com/ for more info on the games!

Quantum Shift Demo!

Hi, If you remember my last post, I have been working on a game called Quantum Shift.
The first demo is now available to download!

Click HERE to download it!

When you have played the game, I'd be very grateful if you could fill out this form with some feedback to make sure the next release is even better!

Feedback Form

Thanks for playing!
NicktendowiiU

Project: Quantum Shift

Quantum Shift is a story driven game about a young girl named Ashley and her family.

Ashley's father is a cold, unloving man, who lives only for his work. He stays in his lab for weeks without speaking to anyone, and when he does come back to the house, he argues with her mother, shouting something about trying to save someone.

He never speaks a word to Ashley...

Why is he like this? 
What is more important to him than his family? 
Who is he trying to save?

The game begins on Ashleys 20th birthday, she sneaks out at night, determined to find out the mystery's surrounding her father. She finds her way into her fathers secret lab. Hidden inside the lab is a time machine. She finds a way to activate it and the secrets of her fathers past begins to unravel...

An exciting plot with multiple endings! Making choices throughout the game will effect what happens in the future!

Below are some work in progress screenshots:

I hope you look forward to discovering the past along with Ashley.

All going well, a demo will be released by the end of the week!

Thanks for reading!

Game design and programming:

Nick Westwood

Character art:

Sarah Jones

Games I want to play on the Retron 5!

For those of you who don't know, the Retron 5 is the latest, soon to be released retro console by Hyperkin. They previously made the Retron 1, 2 and 3. They are skipping 4 and moving straight onto 5, which will play an impressive 10 consoles in 1 (or 12 if you count PAL and NTSC versions and Master System games using a power base converter to play them  through the Mega Drive port.)!

The main selling point for me is not that it plays all these consoles, I can already play the games on their original systems. What this does which they don't, is it has the ability to up-scale into 720p HD. This is a very important factor considering how blurry the old consoles look on new TV's. It also allows you to speed up games, so games made in 50Hz can be sped up to how they should be! As well as that you can also change the resolution from 4:3 to 16:9 and apply many different screen filters. It also allows users to install translated patches for games and run them using the actual cart which will help greatly with some games I plan on importing from Japan later in the year!

Here's my top pick of one game from each system that I am most looking forward to playing again on the Retron 5!

NES

Faxanadu

Thanks to the Retron 5's ability to use save states I might actually be able to complete this game! Recently purchased from Shogun, this looks to be a huge NES adventure, brilliant art work in the manual, but that's as much of the game as I have seen... Saving this one for the Retron!

Famicom

???

I don't currently own any Famicom games, but hopefully, when I visit Japan later in the year I can pick some up from one of the many amazing retro game shops! If anyone knows any around Tokyo or Osaka / Kyoto areas let me know! Hopefully I'll get lots of games and photos from there so I can make a blog post of my experience there!

SNES

Donkey Kong Country 2

Well, the whole series, but as I said only 1 game per system, DKC 2 would be my favourite of the three. After playing the new Tropical Freeze I feel like going back and playing the originals! By using the screen filters, hopefully the came could look a little less pixelated, which was never a problem using CRT screens, but I find playing this game on a flat screen really shows the pre-rendered characters and environments badly.

Super Famicom

Ys 3: Wanderers from Ys

Got this game from an Expo a while ago, and, although my SNES has been modded to accept Japanese games, there is still the problem of a language barrier, Finally, I will be able to play this in English thanks to the translations patches!

Mega Drive / Genesis

ThunderForce IV

Another game  recently bought, my MegaDrive is having some problems with the screen flickering and the sound being a bit messed up, so playing this on the Retron would eliminate those problems and i could enjoy the game without faults! Looking forward to playing this properly, ThunderForce III is one of my favourite shooters ever and apparently this one is even better! 

Master System

The NewZeland Story

This is a game that I've had lying around for a long time but never really sat down and played, should be a fun little arcade style game if Taito's other games of the time are anything to go by! 

GBA

SigmaStar Saga

A recent addition to my GBA collection, and quite a unique game, mixing RPG style exploration with space ship action sequences and on foot combat! I've been playing this on the SP and on Gameboy player, although Hyperkin have yet to show any GBA gameplay, I hope it will be clearer than on the Gamecube so I can continue to enjoy this fun RPG / Shooter on the big screen! 

GBC

Dragon Warrior Monsters 2

Too many times have I started playing this game, only to give up a few hours later, then try to start it up again a few months after, only to realise i have completely forgotten what I was doing! Hopefully having the Retron will give me the push i need to keep playing this game through to completion! The first Dragon Warrior Monsters game is one of my favourites on the original Gameboy so I have high hopes for the rest of this game!

GB

Megaman IV

After completing Megaman III (you can watch a lets play of the whole thing here ) I purchased Megaman IV on the Gameboy to play next, but have yet to get round to it. When the Retron finally arrives it will be the perfect time to play this entry in the Megaman series, maybe even record another Lets Play for Youtube!

Thanks for reading, if you want more info on the Retron 5 check out the official site here, or search Google to find many reviews / previews of the console!