Review: Pushmo

Developer: Intelligent Systems
Publisher: Nintendo

There is a right way and a wrong way to make a downloadable game. The wrong way is Sakura Samurai's way: Cool concept, lackluster execution. The right way? Pushmo. Cool concept, great execution, and a whole lot to do.

Review: Sakura Samurai: Art of the Sword

Developer: Nintendo
Publisher: Nintendo

Nintendo is finally making downloadable games for the eShop. It's taken them long enough, but they're finally trying something new, and good for them. It's important to show the other guys how it's done. However, Sakura Samurai: Art of the Sword isn't a good way to do so.

Weekly Playlist (Sick Again Edition)

I wish I wouldn't have caught the stomach flu. I'm going to curl in a ball now kthxbye.

Civilization 4 (PC): I've cranked up the difficulty a notch and discovered, after six years of playing this game, that I've been doing combat all wrong. Gah.

Mega Man X (Wii): Still waiting on Mega Man X2, Capcom. I can wait as long as you can.

Zelda: Skyward Sword (Wii): I've been dabbling with this one a bit. My only complaint so far is that when I want to play a game, I don't always want to be waving my arms in the air like a lunatic. That's all.

Adventures With Digital Distribution

As of right now, there are only two digital distributors worth dealing with: Good Old Games and Steam. The interesting thing is that both of these distributors are based on one guiding principle: Trust.

Weekly Playlist (Very Late Edition)

I'm about a week and a half late with the latest Weekly Playlist. So sue me. It's been a busy week and a half, I'll tell you that much. Warrior needs nap... badly.

Civilization 4 (PC): I've had some misadventures recently with digital distribution that I'll share shortly, but suffice to say: I paid real money for Civilization 4 about two years ago, and I went back to install it. My product keys and activation methods don't work. I kid you not: I had to pirate Civ 4 in order to get it to work. Ridiculous.

Sakura Samurai (3DS): Some positive reviews encouraged me to get this, but I find it bland and uninteresting. Review will come probably early next week.

Downwards Compatible's End Of Year 2011 Game-Stravaganza

"The only End of Year Awards that wait until after the year is over."

This year was a disappointing one here at Down-C. Since we usually play in the Nintendo sandbox, there wasn't much going on. The 3DS started slowly. The Wii barely had any releases. The DS is on its last legs. Some of these games ended up as year-end greats only by default.

Nintendo's Bad Year

Nintendo released its financial results for the year. It doesn't look good. Some quick hits:

• They had a net loss of 600 million dollars.
• They had originally planned to sell 15 million 3DS units during this season. They sold 11 million.
• They expected to sell 10 million Wiis. They sold about 9 million.

The glass-half-empty people say this: This is their first loss in 30 years, and it happened after they released their crappiest handheld ever, then cut the price almost in half. The Wii is weak and no one wants to make games for it. It's time for Nintendo to go third-party.

The glass-half-full people say this: This is their first loss in 30 years, so they have a long time of being profitable behind them. The 3DS is rebounding after a sluggish start, and while the Wii has seen better days it's still sold 95 million units overall. Plus, they have a new console coming out in 2012, so Nintendo will be fine.

So what's the truth? It's a little closer to the latter than the former. Nintendo screwed up during the launch of the 3DS. No one denies this.

The Wii is also poised for an awful year. There are only two games of note that are coming out in NTSC territories: Rhythm Heaven Fever and Xenoblade Chronicles. People still buy the things, though, and new users have quite a few games to pick from.

Nintendo's outlook for fiscal year 2012 may be ugly, is what we're trying to say. Does that mean that Nintendo's screwed? Well, no. A loss is bad, but this is after the end of 30 years of profit. Nintendo's got money squirreled away in spades.

The knee-jerk reaction with news like this is always to jump to worst-case scenarios or rush to defend Nintendo. Look, Nintendo doesn't need your pity, scorn or any other emotion. They'll be fine. They've been around for about 100 years, doing their own thing. One bad year isn't going to bring the whole company down.