Bullet Heaven M-2 - Kokuga

ini. Mobile. Shmups.

In Episode M-2, we take a look at the G-Rev's 3DS eShop release, Kokuga, a tank-based vertical arena-style shmup from the mind that brought us the legendary Radiant Silvergun and Ikaruga! Worth the $15? Watch to find out!

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QCF: Donkey Kong Country Returns 3D

ack in the day, when they weren’t developing half-hearted motion titles or games with papier-mâché animals in them, Rare had a partnership where they developed games for Nintendo, and they got their big break reviving one of the Big N’s biggest icons; Donkey Kong.  While the reception toward the Donkey Kong Country franchise has always been wildly mixed (seriously, what’s up with these guys?) it’s definitely secured enough of a following for Retro Studios to live up to their name so to speak, and release a modern sequel on Wii…

Flash forward to 2013, Nintendo makes the call for Retro to port the monkeys over to the 3DS, and Retro being the forward-thinking bunch that they are, decided to work on all of the criticisms of its Wii cousin, it’s safe to say that they succeeded.

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QCF: Animal Crossing: New Leaf

This Review was Freelanced by Cody Winn; you can find his other work here.

f there's one thing that really impresses me as a gamer, it's when a developer gives me control of their game world; lent trust and the magical brush of creation, or even just modification, I become obsessed for months on end, singing the game's praises and praising the game's every pixelated inch. With a game like Animal Crossing: New Leaf, I control my destiny -- even if it comes at the price of being monetarily enslaved by a raccoon.

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QCF: Unchained Blades

In another story of a niche publisher taking on a heavy labor of love to localize a hit JRPG to the North American masses, Xseed Games brings us Unchained Blades from FuRyu. A collaborative effort of Japanese game development’s A-list talent, the game's creators include Takashi Hino of Grandia fame, and Toshio Akashi, known for his work on the Lunar series. Even Nobuo Uematsu himself contributed some hot licks for the soundtrack.

All things considered, Unchained Blades is still an assumptive write-off among other by-the-numbers JRPGs destined to be overlooked. But upon further inspection, Unchained Blades breaks most of those expectations and delivers some real hope that the genre has plenty of life left in it.

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E3 2012: Nintendo Keynote Live Blog

E3 2012: Nintendo Direct Presentation Summary and Thoughts

Once again, E3 predictions and pre-show streams are flying across the web. As a result, everyone and their nonspecific grandpa (we'll get to that) is freaking out about who's going to showcase what. But truth be told, this is likely to be a slow year for all the major "hardcore" players tied in with Sony and Microsoft. Nintendo, however, has other plans.

Satoru Iwata recently presented a stream via Nintendo Direct where he discussed some of the features for the upcoming Wii U, Nintendo's ultimate weapon (or so we assume) in the continual console wars.

Between awkwardly familiar looking remote controls, and even more awkwardly disturbing possibilities with the Wii U controller's camera, here are some highlights from the brief yet satisfying presentation.

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The 3DS Ambassador Survival Guide

September 1^st marks the start of the Nintendo 3DS Ambassador program. The program was set into place after Nintendo dropped the price of the 3DS forty percent and made their loyal fan-base look like a bunch of dopes, but it makes efforts to accommodate early adopters with twenty free games. It seems yet again, however, that Nintendo has dropped the ball, and the program has already started off to a shaky start.

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Quarter Circle Forward: Combat of Giants: Dinosaurs 3D

A logo shouting “DINOSAURS” caught my eye initially. The little kid inside me gave those puppy dog eyes and said, “BUY IT!” with a curled lip. Thirty seconds later forty bucks was deducted from my account and I was off with my first Nintendo 3DS game purchase.

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