Games Cheats and Reviews

New details and confirmed release date for Super Mario Galaxy 2, coming from Nintendo’s media summit.

Examiner: With Final Fantasy XIII’s release on the PlayStation 3 and Xbox 360 quite literally just around the corner (March 9th), it’s time to take a walk down nostalgia lane and revisit the franchise’s distinguished past.

It’s been more than two decades since Final Fantasy debuted in 1987 as director Hironobu Sakaguchi’s last ditch attempt to make video games, and since then the series has evolved greatly. One humongous merger, 12 single-player RPG epics, one Massively Multiplayer Online Role-Playing Game with millions of subscribers and countless spin-offs and remakes later, Square Enix has earned itself the reputation of being one of the most influential and prestigious gaming studios in the industry.

However, while gamers tend to remember Final Fantasy more for its halcyon days back on the Super Nintendo and PlayStation, the series has had its share of missteps as well.

With that said, here are some of the most defining, shining highlights in Final Fantasy history, and some of the moments best left forgotten.

CVG: Rumoured Twisted Metal update is "another dream project" says developer.

David Jaffe has teased fans with more details about his new project – saying it makes the player feel "like an old Super Nintendo game".

StickSkills.com writes, "Back in my pre-Xbox 360 days, my only real exposure to RPGs were the Kingdom Hearts series and the various Mario RPGs on the Super Nintendo and Game Boy Advance. To me, RPGs were anime-esque Japanese games that culture gaps didn’t allow me to enjoy. But the dominant RPG experience on the 360 has been the western RPG, like Fallout 3, Fable 2, and the original Mass Effect. The original remains my favorite game of all time, but my heightened expectations for Mass Effect 2 didn’t dampen the experience it all. Simply put, Mass Effect 2 is a worthy follow up to the original."

Nintendo’s David Young swung by the News10 studios and showed Game Guy Barry White a bit of the game in the interview that can be seen on the right side of your screen.

If you believe that the original Super Mario Kart is still the best, then you’re in luck. The classic racer will be available on Virtual Console next week, along with two other highly-requested games.

GameSpot is reporting that Super Mario Kart, Super Smash Bros. and Pilotwings are all on their way to the service, which should be welcome news for fans who have been waiting for the games since launch. They will all be available for 800 Wii Points ($8).

All three games are regarded as classics, with Mario Kart and Super Smash Bros. having kicked off two of Nintendo’s top franchises. Pilotwings, meanwhile, was a Super Nintendo launch title that served as a showpiece for the system’s Mode-7 graphics.

When was the last time you got nostalgic while playing a game? Did you grow up in the NES, Genesis, Super Nintendo, Gameboy, Gameboy Advance, Sega GameGear, Sega 32X, The Atari consoles, Gameboy Color and Nintendo 64 days? Fear not, GamesThirst has started an original series that will take you down memory lane and help you relive all those fun moments.

So sit back and enjoy the show.

Nintendo Dpad writes:

"Mario fans always love a good secret, and New Super Mario Bros. doesn’t look like it will disappoint in that department."

VGarabia.com: New Super Mario Bros is an upcoming side-scrolling platform video game being published and developed by Nintendo for the Wii video game console and is the sequel to New Super Mario Bros. for the Nintendo DS.

What you might not realise about The Code Monkeys is they’ve been around for over twenty years, having started out as conversion specialists back on the Spectrum and Commodore 64 before porting classic shooter Turrican to the Genesis, Super Nintendo and Turbografx16. Since then they’ve released scores of titles for PlayStation, iPhone, GameBoy Advance and DS, but Manic Monkey Mayhem is their first foray into WiiWare and DSiWare development, so Nintendo Life sat down with the guys to chat about how they wrassled those cheeky monkeys into their online multiplayer title.