The Nintendo 3DS: Modern fun for the modern gamer.

The following article was written by @TheKingofRetro

Hello there! Today I thought it would be a good idea to break from the retro norm a bit and bring into the spotlight a piece of modern hardware that has brought me (and millions of others) so much joy over the past few years. This particular portable device has a vast library of games in its library, can surf the web, watch YouTube and Netflix, and utilize apps. You can put it in a case, take it with you, take pictures with it, shop on it, and even pay your bills (and no it isn’t a phone or tablet). It’s the Nintendo 3DS XL and it’s time I spoke my thoughts about the device and explain why this little handheld doohicky is so special to me.

   
 
If you know me personally than you know that I’ve always been a fan of Nintendo. My love for the company dates back to the mid to late 80’s when I developed my love for the NES and realized just how amazing of an experience playing video games truly was, which was something I didn’t totally understand when I had an Atari 2600 as a child even though I highly enjoyed it, I was just too young to fully embrace its greatness. When I played my NES as a kid I honestly felt as if I was picked up and placed inside of a world full of adventure and mystery and that is something I still feel to this day when playing video games and for that I have Nintendo to thank. I was a big fan of their mobile business when they broke through with the original Gameboy and absolutely fell head over heels in love with the Gameboy Advance circa 2001. So it should come as no surprise that I own a 3DS XL and absolutely adore it. My wife (then fiance) bought it for me sometime in 2013 and some 2 1/2 years later I feel like no more than a few days go by without me picking it up and playing something on it. Hell, when I first got the 3DS I was glued to the thing for hours every single day and couldn't wait for a day off to sit down and put some time into it. It all started with Super Mario 3D Land, a game so fun and so addicting I’ve beaten it a total of 3 times in under 3 years. Seriously, if anyone has anything to say about Super Mario 3D Land other than “the game is phenomenal” than they’re flat out wrong. There is no other way around it. This is the game that had me staying up late dreaming about owning a 3DS to begin with and it deserves every bit of positive praise it’s received from both gaming media and videogame fans around the world. It’s the kind of game that challenges you but yet allows you to have fun within its environment and always gives you something to do, even when the game is technically “over”. When you finish the core game you can go back in and unlock Luigi and a whole series of special levels with modified difficulty and different things to do, so the replay value is through the roof. Other games I’ve picked up and played on the 3DS include Luigi’s Mansion: Dark Moon, The Legend of Zelda: A Link Between Worlds, New Super Mario Bros 2, Mario Kart 7, and a few others that have supplied me with hours after hours of enjoyment. Every title I’ve sat down to play on the 3DS I’ve played through at least twice, and many I’ve spent hours with just exploring and enjoying my time within those worlds, it’s an incredible experience that only Nintendo can bring to the table. Third party titles like Bravely Default, Fire Emblem, Final Fantasy, Kingdom Hearts, the Lego games, and Monster Hunter all deliver powerful content to consumers, while first party Nintendo games starring Mario, Link, Kirby, Luigi, and more help to keep gaming fans occupied with Nintendo’s core characters giving everyone something they’ll likely enjoy.

   One thing I'll definitely admit is that I don’t really use the 3DS for anything other than gaming. Sure, you can surf the web on it, watch YouTube on it, download apps to it, stream movies and music on it, and so much more, but my high end Asus tablet can handle those tasks so much better and I’ve always liked my gaming systems to be gaming systems: nothing more, nothing less. But the ability is there if ever I had the need to utilize those tasks on Nintendo’s little handheld wonder. As far as the hardware goes Nintendo has really created a comfortable to hold and slick device that is large enough to give me the gaming experience I crave but small enough to hold and carry around with me wherever I go. And even though I own the XL version of the unit as opposed to the original 3DS which was smaller in size I don't feel bogged down by the bigger unit and feel Nintendo did a wonderful job with the overall construction of this device. But let me tell you if you didn't know already that this powerful little beast can truly deliver a gaming experience better than any other handheld machine on the market and that above all is the driving force behind my love for the 3DS. The gaming experience is way better than a tablet and way better than a smartphone; though we will eventually be seeing Nintendo games hit tablets and phones sometime in 2016/2017. Still, the experience of enjoying these kinds of games could never be rivaled by an all touch screen display and Nintendo will no doubt reign as the king of mobile gaming hardware for as long as mobile gaming exists and if the quality of the 3DS is any sign of the future than I’m truly pumped up for its successor sometime in 2017! Bring it on Nintendo, I’m up for the challenge! I’d estimate that the 3DS about as powerful as the Gamecube was, or somewhere between the N64 and the GameCube, and it offers 3D capabilities that (if you’re like me) you can turn off and ignore. Personally I hate the 3D option and always have the 3D setting switched off, I enjoy gaming on the 3DS much more that way but to each their own. I love that they’ve included a slot for SD cards for extra storage and the included stylus is nice too, although I hardly ever use it unless it’s for mini-games or is a game truly demands it. All in all the hardware for the 3DS is smooth, slick, and the buttons feel well traveled and perfect for long sessions of playing. But what I really love is the addition of the 360 movement disc for controlling your character. It’s smooth and precise and 10x better than the d-pad, though the d-pad is there too for other functionality. It's so much better than the weird movement apparatus Sony put on their PSP too.

   With all the amazing 3DS games I’ve had the pleasure of playing I’m excited that Nintendo still plans on supporting the unit for another 2-3 years and I’m sure we’ll be seeing another round of Mario or another adventure with Link down the road. In fact, they just announced Hyrule Warriors: Legends to come out on the system in 2015 and more RPG’s and indie stuff will be landing in the near future too, plus I still have 4-5 previously released games I’m itching to still try so I’ll be busy with Nintendo’s 3DS for some time to come. This device has a ton of great games on it and even after it's retail life has come to an end I'm sure I'll be discovering titles on it that I will continue to enjoy for years to come. This happened to a lot of people when the Gameboy Advance eventually fizzled out but yet people were still buying games for it during the life-cycle of the original DS, or when the Gameboy's long life came to an end and people were still buying games for it even after the Gameboy Advance hit stores. It's a story of too many games and not enough time, and to be honest I can't complain!

Do you love the 3DS? Do you own one today? Any fond memories you'd like to share? Questions? Comments? If so than feel free to post them in the comments section and I'll reply as soon as possible.

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Twitter - @TheKingofRetro

All content within this article is © & ™ by KOR Productions 2015

Looking back at fast food establishments from an 80's/90's perspective.

                                    The following article was written by @TheKingofRetro

I’m going to bring into the spotlight today something in which I absolutely loved as a child that was a big part of our culture back in the 1980’s and 1990’s but has been shunned by the masses and just about every parent group from one coast to the other. A topic that was once something special and meaningful and an event that helped to really make being a kid fun. In my household it wasn’t too often but in others it may have been a weekly tradition or in others it may have been avoided altogether. Today I’m going to discuss fast food and how when I was a kid there was (almost) nothing better.

When I was a kid I watched a lot of cartoons. When I say I watched a lot of cartoons I really mean it. I was so in love with watching cartoons that I would feel so lost and depressed if I missed an episode of one of my favorites and I would feel as if my day was ruined. Don’t get me wrong though, I had my fair share of time outdoor activities such as riding bikes with friends and playing hide n’ go seek and all that jazz, but I sincerely loved to watch cartoons. One of my absolute favorite things about watching cartoons was that I would get to see commercials centered around things I enjoyed as a kid whether it was toys, video games, or in this case…….fast food. McDonald’s in particular had the absolute best commercials back in the 80’s and early 90’s thanks to the famous clown known the world over as Ronald McDonald, and his colorful cast of friends, who starred in a majority of the advertisements that adorned my television set. I would always get a sense of excitement whenever a McDonald’s commercial would come on and I’d get even more excited during Halloween and Christmas when they’d air their special holiday themed spots. Man, there was nothing like it. Ronald McDonald interacting with the Chicken McNuggets in their Halloween costumes always gave me a warm feeling whenever I’d have the opportunity to see those commercials, and the Christmas ad where he was ice skating with the kids was always one of my all-time favorites, and every time I’d bare witness to those magical moments I’d be compelled to want to go eat at McDonald’s. Burger King also had some pretty cool commercials back in the day with the Burger King Kids Club spots that featured Kid Vid and his cool gang of friends who embodied the late 80’s look and vibe, and of course wearing the free crown inside of the restaurant was always something to look forward to, but they just couldn’t match the magic of McDonald’s no matter how hard they tried. Though I do admit that as an adult their form of burgers are like 10x better than anything McDonald’s can produce, but I’d take a real hamburger from a real restaurant any day of the week over what I can get at a fast food joint and that’s a huge reason as to why I haven’t had fast food in years. But when I was a kid a trip to either McDonald’s or Burger King was always an amazing experience and so much fun thanks to most of the places around me having a section of the restaurant set up for kids to play in thanks to the ball pits and slides and other such novelties that kids could lose themselves in. I’d probably be taken to McDonald’s or Burger King once a month or so (usually McDonald’s) and I’d usually get the Happy Meal, which consisted of a cheeseburger, fries, a soft drink, and a toy of some sort, none of this diced apples, chicken nugget, and milk bullshit they’re passing off to kids these days. Thanks to lazy parents who don’t want to put the effort into monitoring what their children eat they pressed upon the government to do it for them which has basically transformed fun places like McDonald’s from a place of wonder into a place of blunder where they have to offer healthy alternatives and ditch the kid friendly advertising. Hey parents, if you don’t want your kids eating at McDonald’s than don’t take them there, but to impress your bullshit onto the government and force a company to change is pathetic and ignorant and you need to do a better job parenting your own children and not worry about what other people (or companies) are doing.

Anyway. Now that I just put idiotic parents in check I’ll continue on with my entry. Back in the day fast food was marketed toward children quite a bit but it was also marketed toward adults as well with an ad campaign that featured a talking moon who played the piano to the tune of Mack The Knife who became known as “Mac-Tonight”. These advertising spots painted the picture that McDonald’s was not only a place for kids but a place where grown ups could go and enjoy dinner and conversation without lugging along the family, and there were even other commercials that spoofed the competition and took a stab at making going out to a fast food restaurant seem like it was the thing to do. But as much as McDonald’s and Burger King ruled the roost in those days as a place where kids could go and have fun and boasted a family friendly atmosphere it seemed as if Wendy’s was the one fast food restaurant that really catered to the adult crowd with little to no advertising geared toward children. Their mascots weren’t made up of clowns or moon men wearing sunglasses, instead they were a middle aged man and a photo of a young girl with red hair. When you entered a Wendy’s back in the day you didn’t enter into a place that housed a ball pit or a super slide, you saw no colorful characters on the walls, and there certainly were no gimmicky crowns to wear or toys to hand out. You had an establishment that had nicely tiled floors, wooden walls, and tables that had pictures of newspaper clippings and articles on them. It was very different than what you were used to seeing in those days, but man, their food was incredibly good. Probably better than even Burger King. I enjoyed going there as a kid just as much as I did McDonald’s or Burger King and even though it lacked the kid friendly atmosphere I highly enjoyed the quality of their food and felt that it had a “real restaurant” vibe to it that was a tad more relaxing than other options back then. The inside of Wendy’s has changed throughout the years and the same can be said for Burger King and McDonald’s. The later have (for the most part) ditched the colorful exteriors of their restaurants and have added in pictures of wildlife, nature, or cities instead of the colorful characters that adorned their walls back in the 80’s and 90’s, and some of them have even added fireplaces to attract the adult crowd all but forgetting that they once catered to children as well. Gone are the pictures of the McDonald-Land characters, the hamburger sitting stools, and the colorful buildings that once brought a gleam to our eyes as children, and in came the “cafe” atmosphere and a building that reminds me more of a Panera Bread than a joyful place of fun and wonder. It’s a damn shame too.

No matter what I’ll always remember the fun of visiting a fast food establishment when I was a child. It’s one of those fun little memories that pop up from time to time and I’m glad I had a chance to experience it back when there was something worth experiencing, it’s just a shame they had to change over time but I’ll always hold with me the memories of visiting those special places with my family and friends. Even as the 80's made way into the 90's McDonald's and Burger King kept their fun factor alive and kicking and I personally didn't start seeing changes in how the two presented themselves until the very late 90's. But I've read blogs and other such ramblings from those in other parts of the United States who have noticed these changes both sooner and after, so I guess it really all depends on where it is you live. While I don't regularly visit fast food establishments anymore I do have a soft spot for them in my heart because of the era I grew up in and I'm sure I'm not alone in this. As the world changes so do I, but I’ll never forget the retro sights, sounds, and smells of a good ol’ fast food restaurant from back in the 80’s and early 90’s. Who’s with me?

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Twitter - @TheKingofRetro

All content within this article is © & ™ by KOR Productions 2015

Retro Video Game Spotlight: E.T for the Atari 2600!

The following article was written by @TheKingofRetro

   Good day everybody, it’s The King of Retro here to bring you a review of a game that has been ridiculed and crapped on by almost every major video game publication known to man and hundreds of millions of gaming fans since its creation. This is a game that was part of a bigger picture that “crashed” the video game market back in the early 80’s and a game that carries with it a stigma that it will probably never shake off. That game, ladies and gentlemen, is E.T for the Atari 2600.

   E.T for the Atari came out right before Christmas time of 1982 and was poorly received by fans a critics who stated that “poor gameplay” and “terrible graphics” were some of the issues the game suffered thanks to being rushed into production to meet the holiday deadline. The story behind its creation and release is a popular one that you should know if you’re already a fan of old school gaming or the industry as a whole so I won’t spend too much time discussing its origin, but I’ve got to at least touch upon it for those reading this who may not know all the details. A Programmer by the name of Howard Scott Warshaw was one of the aces in the hole working on video games back in the golden days of Atari and had created a bulk of their highly successful games, many of which were million plus sellers. When the E.T film hit theaters Atari unloaded a truck full of cash to Steven Spielberg and bought the rights to produce a game based on the movie for the Atari 2600, the problem was that the Christmas season was looming and they needed someone to produce the game fast and they called upon Howard Scott Warshaw to deliver the goods. At the time the negotiations finalized Warshaw had only 5 ½ weeks to make the game and have it ready for store shelves, which is not a lot of time in this line of work when you’re starting from scratch and are working within a deadline. Howard pushed the game through and remarkably had it ready for Christmas of 1982 and the rest is history. One of the mistakes Atari made was that they put too much money into securing the rights to produce the game with the other mistake being that they demanded it be ready within such a short amount of time. Had Atari negotiated better and let Warshaw take his time to create a better game than maybe things would’ve turned out different. The final nail in the coffin was that Atari manufactured way too many copies of the game believing that the movie was so popular that people would purchase Atari 2600 consoles just to play the game and that left them with millions of unsold cartridges that they eventually buried in a New Mexico landfill along with other products and games Atari had stored in local warehouses. When the company learned that people were looting the burial site they sent in steamrollers to crush the product and poured cement over the remains.

   As for the game itself, I actually like it. Yes that’s right…..you read that correctly. I grew up with an Atari 2600 in the house and E.T was one of my favorite games for that console when I was a kid. I can’t tell you how many hours I put into that game back in the day and how many times I actually beat it. At this point you probably think I’m crazy but think about it for a second. Being a kid and not having your own money to buy video games causes you to play what you have in front of you and thus your experience with the game isn’t such a bad one because when you’re 4 or 5 you really don’t know what a bad game truly is. Things may have been different if I picked it up today for the first time and started playing it but my memories of E.T for the 2600 are from my childhood and therefore are memories of delight and joy and being my entry into video games. I guess in hindsight I’m looking at E.T with rose colored glasses but I do still enjoy the game to this day and usually revisit it once every few years and try to complete it before putting it away until the next time I stumble upon a fleeting fancy to play it. I don’t expect others to agree with my assessment of E.T but I do challenge those who claim it’s the worst game in history to go out there and fish around and you will be sure to find many games that are much worse. Hell, the Atari 2600 probably has some of the worst games I’ve ever played (along with some of the best) and I’d wager that probably the NES has some stinkers that are less playable and enjoyable than E.T is. In fact I can think of quite a new N64 and PS1 titles that are barely playable and have less meaning or enjoyment than E.T has, so the bad rap that E.T for the 2600 has is kind of unwarranted in many regards. But history is history and people flock to popular opinion quicker than rabbits reproduce so I guess at the end of the day it is what it is. But I’ll always love the game.

   Graphically speaking it’s no gem but it certainly is a lot better looking than a block on the screen that’s supposed to represent a man or a distorted mess of a spaceship that is shooting random balls while floating around. The problem with E.T lies within its gameplay and the fact that you’re constantly falling down holes in an attempt to find things to create a “phone” (as depicted in the film). If the controls were a little more refined than you wouldn’t constantly keep falling down the same hole you’re trying to get out of and really the only truly bad part of the game is that and that alone. The activities of finding the parts you need to call your mother-ship is actually quite fun and avoiding being captured by the government is kind of entertaining too, so all in all I wouldn’t say that the story and idea behind E.T for the 2600 is a bad one, it just wasn’t executed as well as many would have hoped, though the rumor is that Spielberg enjoyed the game when he got a chance to play it. The music in the game is standard Atari fare with simple bleeps and bloops coupled with the classic E.T theme and some other sounds that aren't very notable but by no means is it better or worse than most of the Atari library that was out at the time. The game as a whole is fine. Do I think the game would find its way into my personal top 10 of all time? No. But it certainly would hold a spot in the top 100 if I was writing out the list of games I’ve had the fondest memories playing or games that have impacted me and shaped me into the gamer I am today. E.T and the 2600 console both had a hand in making me the gamer I am today and my memories of sitting in the basement playing this game before and after school are very important and nostalgic to me. And I’ll always remember the classic E.T Christmas commercial where he’s dressed like Santa and opens the game up and begins playing it. It’s one of my all time favorite Christmas commercials and I remember to watch it on YouTube every year. Anyway, that is all I’ve got for you at this point in time check out the overall game rating below and let me know in the comment section if you agree or disagree with my review. Peace & chicken grease, peeps!

8.0/10

Do you remember this game? Did you have it as a kid? Any fond memories you'd like to share? Questions? Comments? If so than feel free to post them in the comments section and I'll reply as soon as possible.

Contact Information

Twitter - @TheKingofRetro

All content within this article is © & ™ by KOR Productions 2015