Donkey Kong 64

The game I’ve been playing the most lately is Donkey Kong 64. Another gem from the golden age of Rare as a second party developer for Nintendo. Taking the same basic mechanics of 3D platformers like Mario 64 and Banjo Kazooie it’s basically the same old thing. Personally I have nothing wrong with that as I find 3D platformers to be some of the most fun and lively romps through nearly cartoon worlds. Especially the ones from Rare, Nintendo, and Sega. And maybe not especially Ninjabread Man...With this game you’re continuing the story of Donkey Kong, Diddy Kong and Company from the brilliant masterpieces of 2D platforming, The Donkey Kong Country Trilogy. King K. Rool the master of the lizard race the Kremlings (Who would later be replaced by weird drums with eyes in DKCR) basically parks his house boat right in front of the island I’ve always assumed was called Donkey Kong Country, and obviously having major butthurt from the previous 3 times you’ve kicked his ass. Is planning on firing a giant laser right in the giant Donkey Kong Mountain’s face. So needless to say it’s up to Donkey Kong and the Four other playable monkeys to run around both the island and the k.rool ship through different themed levels. A lot of them taking design cues from the levels from the old SNES Donkey Kong Country Games like stages with Minecarts, Jungles, Crystal Caves, Ancient Ruins, etc. This game is a collectors paradise. Currently I’m playing through it the way I never had the patience to as a kid and going through every level with one of the five kongs at a time collecting the 75 bananas, 5 golden bananas, banana coins, laser blueprints, banana fairies, crystal coconuts, ammo, and watermelons needed to get a 101% in the game. Some of my favorite parts about the game are the challenge barrels that require you to play mini games like firing watermelons out of a cannon, or playing a slot machine and winning 3 times in a row within a certain time period. There are also some playable retro throwbacks in the form of the original Donkey Kong for Arcade and the old Jetpac game by rare that got remade into a DLC title for Xbox Live Arcade. If you have a Nintendo 64, like 3D platformers and still haven’t played this game. You definitely owe it to yourself to find a copy.

My Dream E3 Presentation

With E3 less than a week away, and all the major game news sites buzzing with anticipation over what new surprises wait in store. I decided it would be fun to write my idea of a perfect E3 keynote from my favorite major video game hardware company ever. Nintendo!

Nintendo's E3 Keynote presentation starts off with announcing new 3DS titles. Of course titles already mentioned will be talked about. Luigi's Mansion 2,Castlevania: Lords of Shadow, New Super Mario Bros. 2, etc. In addition to Pokemon Black 2 and White 2 the Re-make companion games for this generation of Pokemon games will be Pokemon Land Ruby and Ocean Sapphire exclusively for the 3DS. On-board Poke-walker functionality will be included thanks to the built-in pedometer and street-pass features on the 3DS. A teaser trailer for the new Legend of Zelda game in works is shown. Not much about game play or how far along they are in the development is mentioned. Just a small clip of Toon Link Barreling out of the 3DS screen with moblins chasing after him. Once talks about the already established 3DS going strong into it's second year of life and the new software that will be coming to it is over, Reggie Fils-Aime hands the Mic over to Satoru Iwata and Shigeru Miyamoto as they begin to talk about Nintendo's console for the future. Iwata talks about how last year he mentioned that with the Wii U they hoped to give an experience that is deeper and wider. And so to appeal to more fans they decided to add the color black as an option for the console from launch. A new surprise feature is shown in the form of a DS card slot right next to the SD card slot in the door on the front of the console is shown allowing you to play your hand-held titles on your TV just like you could with the Gameboy Player and Super Gameboy of yore. The robust library of classic games and download-able software available via the Nintendo E-Shop is shown, as well as details on the Nintendo Network including voice and video chatting with the new controller. Gabe Newell of Valve is brought on-stage to talk about Nintendo's partnering with Steam so even more titles especially enhanced ports of both Portal games will be available from day one. Finally the meat and potatoes of already announced launch titles as well as Pikmin 3, and a new F-Zero and Starfox game are announced to uproarious applause and cheers. Nintendo asserts itself as the forerunners of the 8^th generation of video games and Sony and Microsoft mutually pee themselves.

What would you like to see at E3? Post it in the Comments!