Vita – A month on….

As you may have seen last month I purchased a PSVita and enjoyed scanning through all the little games/control methods and additions this hand-held has to offer. A month onwards, how do I feel?

The Vita has certainly eaten up many, many hours of playtime over the last few weeks with the likes of Uncharted: Golden Abyss and Unit 13 comfortably holding their place inside the card slot. I’ve been crazy buying up various titles (mostly out of curiousity) and I can’t say I’ve been disappointed with any of them. Wipeout 2048 certainly fills my lust for high speed racing that Nintendo for some reason don’t want to tackle with F-Zero. Dungeon Hunter Alliance thrust me back into an RPG addiction, although I must say I’m finding it a little punishing after the first couple of boss fights (to do alone) and Ultimate Marvel vs Capcom 3 let me relive one of my favorite beat’em’ups of last year all over again where-ever I please.

Possibly the only fault I can find with the Vita at the moment is the slight dry up of game releases since launch, although if I compared it to the 3DS I don’t think I could argue about quantity. I’m looking forward to a number of titles over the next few months including a Silent Hill game and of course the Resistance title. My only wish is that Nintendo’s amazing line of games come out soon as my poor 3DS isn’t getting any new game treatment (at the moment), leaving me playing Mario Kart 7 and Pokemon Black over and over (although that’s not a bad thing).

F-zer-Oh?

A topic that has been on my mind for the last few months and therefore plastered over any Nintendo fan gathering site/forum is whatever happened to the F-zero series?

For those of you who don’t know F-zero is Nintendo’s future set high space racer, although high speed doesn’t really do it justice most of the time. It is also the series of games where the Super Smash bros character Captain Falcon comes from. If you haven’t heard of it before I can’t really blame you since the last F-zero games released where the downloadable version of the N64’s F-zero X on the Wii and before that F-zero GX on the Gamecube.

Those of you who played the Gamecube version I hope feel the same as me in that you were treated to one of the most addictive fast paced racers ever made. With a huge number of unlockable courses and drivers/ships as well as some frantic split screen multiplayer action. It was certainly one of the gems of the Gamecube’s roster and upon transition over to the Nintendo Wii was still one of my favourite games to play when friends came over. So this brings me back to the question of why such a classic franchise has not seen the light of day since the Gamecube? Knowing that this week marks the five year anniversary of the Wii’s launch I’d estimate that F-Zero GX is at least eight years old by now.

Is it a question of popularity? My opinion on the matter may be bias, but from feedback I’ve had asking other Nintendo fans it seems I’m not alone in the thirst for more eye ball melting action. Looking back though Nintendo do seem to have generation gaps on some of their biggest name franchises such the Metroid series that completely missed the N64 and then led into a trilogy across the Gamecube and Wii. I’m hoping this isn’t the case as the 3DS is crying out for another great title on the horizon after the recent spell of releases to keep the owners happy and what better then some more handheld racing? Mario Kart 7 is a brilliant game with charm and fun, but that’s not to say there isn’t room for a faster paced racer where speed and skill always win the race.

Come on Nintendo what do you say?

The blue mists have faded

On a recap of my Mario Kart 7 progress I’ve just today finished unlocking the last couple of characters! Through quite a painful and steady run through the last couple of cups I’ve managed to beat both Rainbow roads in one lunchtime.

The strange thing is the last few cups of 150cc I’ve played haven’t been the blood boiling anger fests that I previously imagined. Staying near the middle of the pack for the first two laps and then pushing for first place on the final lap seem to work out pretty well ensuring you get some good items and most importantly you don’t get hit too many times with the dreaded blue shell. Also I would advise choosing a good character and kart combo you’re most comfortable using. I went for Shyguy in the barrel kart with big tyres as it seemed to have a good balance of speed and handling, but at the end of the day it’s how you like to play that’ll decide what combo is best for you.

Now I’ll try my hand at mirror mode and possibly some online play. Tonight I’ve got a friend coming over who actually has a 3DS, here’s hoping he has Mario Kart.

P.S. To anyone who wants to get the characters quickly jump straight into 150cc (after warming up and getting to know the courses), you unlock a character for coming in first place in each of the 150cc cups.

Arrrrgh! Blue Shells!

First I must apologize readers I’ve been quite ill the last couple of days and have not been able to do anything useful such as play,write or rant, but I’m feeling better now so fingers crossed next week won’t be such a ghost town on here.

As you’ve guessed by the title I’ve got hold of Mario Kart 7 for the 3DS and started ploughing through. There’s a really good selection of tracks from previous titles on there as is the case of the more recent Mario Karts. Not to forget the excellent new tracks introduced in this title.

I’ve not had much chance to get to grip with the new weapons as I’ve only started on 50cc and therefore have never fallen behind first place. This leads me to the title of this piece….. The cursed Blue shell.

I’ve already been hit by these things about three times a race so far (on this version) and they get really annoying when the computers fire them at you going over a large jump smashing you off the map leaving you helpless to the pull of Lakitu’s fishing rod. I’ve just don’t understand the point in this weapon and never have. What is the basis of punishing the player in first place all the time? The only players who get this item are generally near the back of the pack so why do they need to hit the guy in first place? Surely something that would hit everyone on the way through to first place would be more helpful to them?

In the old style four player multiplayer they worked fine due to the fewer racers to get through after using it, but now even multiplayer is eight player so it’s just the same as a last place computer player using it. Mind I can’t just complain about Mario Kart, I think every Kart game has a similar item. They seem to be there just so someone can hang at the back and annoy the players trying to win.

Meh enough of the rant, I’ll go enjoy the game and hopefully unlock Shyguy soon enough. On an unrelated not though I do have my fingers crossed that by some miracle Nintendo bring F-Zero back from the dead for the 3DS it’s been too long since I’ve blurred my vision to keep up with a really fast paced racer.