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10 Years Ago This Week: Super Smash Bros

A vital addition to the Nintendo 64 catalog, Super Smash Bros (released April 27, 1999) was a phenomenal critical and commercial success. It helped cement the console’s legacy of innovative four-player game design, while at the same time creating a new flagship franchise for Nintendo and starting the game’s creators, Masahiro Sakurai and particularly Satoru Iwata, on a trajectory that would eventually see them leading the industry. As such, it’s one of 1999’s most historically important titles.

Posted Apr 21 2009, 09:00 AM by Joe Keiser with | with 1 comment(s)

Filed under: super smash bros, super smash bros brawl, satoru iwata, nintendo 64, joe keiser, 10 years ago, super smash bros melee, masahiro sakurai

The Legend of Zelda: Manifest Destiny

The assembled audience held their breath. Satoru Iwata had played them all. He said there would be no new Zelda announcement at the Game Developers Conference. He lied. The lights dimmed, and the trailer rolled.

Wind Waker’s Toon Link sits on bended knee. Text appears:

"Link, you have crossed a vast ocean and found a new Hyrule for us to settle!"

A golden railroad spike descends into a fire-red z in The Legend of Zelda: Manifest Destiny.

Cut to a monocled Link checking his pocket watch impatiently on a train platform. A moblin tries to sell him the day’s paper. Link chases him away with the new Dandy’s Cane item.

“Join Link as he brutally wipes out the indigenous people of Zelda's new kingdom!”

Posted Mar 25 2009, 08:00 PM by John Constantine with | with 2 comment(s)

Filed under: john constantine, nintendo ds, legend of zelda, link, satoru iwata, spirit tracks

GDC News: Final Fantasy to Hit Virtual Console

Fans of the old-school Final Fantasy games haven't exactly gotten the best treatment in recent years; while ports and remakes of the early games have been available in abundance, those looking for a faithful retro RPG experience have had to turn to expensive eBay copies (with possibly non-functioning batteries) or emulation to get their fix. After all, if Square can charge $30-$40 for revivals of their past hits, what incentive do they have to offer much cheaper version of these games on services like the Wii's Virtual Console?

Well, it looks like Square-Enix has had a change of heart--or they've just initiated the final stage in their "milking fans dry" plan--with Nintendo President Satoru Iwata's announcement that the famous franchise will indeed be hitting Nintendo's digital download service.

Posted Mar 25 2009, 01:40 PM by Bob Mackey with | with 2 comment(s)

Filed under: wii, final fantasy, retro, satoru iwata, bob mackey, virtual console, gdc 2009

GDC News: Wii Storage Solution Confirmed

If you're a fan of the Wii's Virtual Console and WiiWare digital download services, you've undoubtedly encountered one of the console's biggest setbacks: its meager amount of storage space. The company's had many glib answers for angry fans demanding a solution to the Wii's lack of a hard drive, but we've only heard rumors and Nintendo's whole "just move your games to an SD card" line since the grumbling began. And who can forget the infamous and disingenuous fridge analogy that was spouted by a Nintendo PR rep in the Fall of '07 and repeated millions of times throughout the Internet to this day? Yes, we clean out our fridge when food goes bad, but downloaded ROMs are in no danger of rotting--okay, maybe the Alex Kidd games.

However, with Nintendo President Satoru Iwata's 2009 GDC keynote speech comes exciting news that addresses the concerns of hardcore Nintendo nerds. Thanks to the liveblogging efforts of Joystiq, we now have confirmation of a new SD Card Channel for the Wii, which will let owners of Nintendo's popular console run games straight from their SD cards.

Posted Mar 25 2009, 01:10 PM by Bob Mackey with | with no comments

Filed under: nintendo, wii, satoru iwata, bob mackey, gdc 2009

The Band Joins the Plumber: Nintendo’s Strategy Finally Bears Its Sweetest Fruit

It’s pretty amazing how effective Satoru Iwata’s business plan for Nintendo has been since he took over as company president earlier this decade. I’m not even talking about the company’s focus on videogames for broader, specifically family, audiences. No, it’s how Nintendo has, under Iwata’s direction, created a line of games that don’t need annual sequels or iterations to be successful. Just one, quality, iconic game, that continues to sell to alongside your hardware. There won’t be another Wii Smash Bros. because Brawl is never going to stop selling and chances are there won’t be a New Super Mario Bros. 2, because the first one continues to do gangbusters at retail. It may not always make me the happiest person in the world — like everyone else who plays way too many games, I’m always hungry for the next new thing and, yes, the next sequel — but I have to admire it, and celebrate its positive effect on the business of videogames broadly.

I see Nintendo’s influence in Alex Rigupulos’s comments at this year’s CES conference. The Harmonix CEO let slip that there wouldn’t be yet another iteration of Rock Band in 2009. This is great news, for Rock Band fans and videogames broadly.

Posted Jan 09 2009, 06:30 PM by John Constantine with | with 2 comment(s)

Filed under: nintendo, ea, wii, super smash bros brawl, harmonix, satoru iwata, smash bros, rock band 2, new super mario bros 2, rock band 3, alex rigupulos

E3 Day Two: Spin, Malaise, Sony’s New Clothes, and Nintendo’s True Disruption

Despite their show-ending bombshell announcement, Microsoft’s E3 press conference was something of a non-event. The house of X showed off titles that had already been seen or leaked, announced a handful of downloadable titles that weren’t exactly setting folks’ brains on fire, and revealed an embarrassing attempt to cash-in on the Mii phenomenon with Xbox Live Avatars. It’s embarrassing enough that the Avatars look so similar to Nintendo’s Miis, but it’s even worse that they were designed by Rare, the less-than-profitable appendage Microsoft cut away from Nintendo in the first place.

It wouldn’t have been difficult for Sony and Nintendo to one-up Microsoft’s event, but neither of the console makers did, both of them focusing more on sales data and business strategies than on software.

Posted Jul 15 2008, 02:00 PM by John Constantine with | with 3 comment(s)

Filed under: john constantine, playstation 3, nintendo, nintendo ds, microsoft, rare, xbox 360, wii, sony, animal crossing, e3, mii, avatars, satoru iwata, wii music, wii sports, wii motionplus

about the blogger

John Constantine, our superhero, was raised by birds and then attended Penn State University. He is currently working on a novel about a fictional city that exists only in his mind. John has an astonishingly extensive knowledge of Scientology. Ultimately he would like to learn how to effectively use his brain. He continues to keep Wu-Tang's secret to himself.

Derrick Sanskrit is a self-professed geek in a variety of fields including typography, graphic design, comic books, music and cartoons. As a professional hipster graphic designer, his recent clients have included Nerve, Pitchfork and MoCCA, among others.

Amber Ahlborn - artist, writer, gamer and DigiPen survivor, she maintains a day job as a graphic artist. By night Amber moonlights as a professional Metroid Fanatic and keeps a metal suit in the closet just in case. Has lived in the state of Washington and insists that it really doesn't rain as much as everyone says it does.

Nadia Oxford is a housekeeping robot who was refurbished into a warrior when the world's need for justice was great. Now that the galaxy is at peace (give or take a conflict here or there), she works as a freelance writer for various sites and magazines. Based in Toronto, Nadia prizes the certificate from the Ministry of Health declaring her tick and rabies-free.

Bob Mackey is a grad student, writer, and cyborg, who uses the powerful girl-repelling nanomachines mad science grafted onto his body to allocate time towards interests of the nerd persuasion. He believes that complaining about things on the Internet is akin to the fine art of wine tasting, but with more spitting into buckets.

Joe Keiser has a programming degree from Johns Hopkins University, a tiny apartment in Brooklyn, and a fake toy guitar built in the hollowed-out shell of a real guitar. He writes about games and technology for a variety of outlets. One day he will stop doing this. The day after that, police will find his body under a collapsed pile of (formerly neatly alphabetized) collector's edition tchotchkes.

Cole Stryker is an American freelance writer living in York, England, where he resides with his archeologist wife. He writes for a travel company by day and argues about pop culture on the internet by night. Find him writing regularly here and here.

Peter Smith is like the lead character of Irwin Shaw's The 80-Yard Run, except less athletic. He considers himself very lucky to have this job. But it's a little premature to take "jack-off of all trades" off his resume. Besides writing, travelling, and painting houses, Pete plays guitar in a rock trio called The Aye-Ayes. He calls them a 'power pop' band, but they generally sound more like Motorhead on a drinking binge.