Toronto Thumbs

Nintendo To Release 25th Anniversary Edition NES

By Shaun Hatton - March 31st, 2008

The Nintendo Entertainment System is the console that revitalized home gaming in the 80s. Get ready to own it again.

As cool as the Virtual Console is, there’s no denying that for all its super emulation, component output, and steady flow of downloadable games, nothing can come close to the feel of the original systems. In particular, I’m talking about the NES.

But there’s good news if you’re among the many who’d love to own a mint condition NES again (or for the first time). For the system’s 25th anniversary (which is July 15, 2008), the Big N will be releasing a “Limited Collector’s Edition” replica of the Nintendo Entertainment System. The console will come with two controllers but as of yet there’s no word on which games will be included.

While part of the reason for the release of this 25th Anniversary console is to commemorate a giant in the gaming world, one can’t help but wonder if Nintendo’s hidden agenda is to help combat the rise in popularity of cheaply-made NES clones.

In its heyday, the Nintendo Entertainment System sold well over 61 million systems worldwide. Unfortunately due to inherent problems with the console’s design, not many of them could withstand repeated use of the front-loading, supposed “zero insertion force” cartridge mechanism. This resulted in undesired wear on the pin connectors: a problem that many tried to solve by blowing on the cartridge contacts.

Nintendo is addressing this problem in the Limited Collector’s Edition by eliminating the press-down part of the cartridge insertion. While this may deter some hardcore old-school gamers, Nintendo’s North American President Reggie Fils-Aime has his own spin on it:

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Posted in Famicom, Humour, News, Nintendo | 2 Comments »

KORG DS-10 Will Bring Synths to a New Level

By Shaun Hatton - March 25th, 2008

Sometimes math can be fun: DS + KORG = Awesome.

By taking the design concept of KORG’s famous MS-10 synth and marrying it with the DS’s compact form factor, touch control and wireless capabilities, KORG may very well be unleashing a monster. They aim to have the program be accessible to beginners but robust enough for professional synth players.

From the company’s official site:

In addition to the two analog synth simulators and drum module, a 6-track/16-step sequencer enables precise control and provides a wide range of musical possibilities. Several units can be connected and played together through a wireless link, and this and other features make the Nintendo DS and KORG DS-10 almost limitless in their application - they can take you places that no single synthesizer can.

There’s a whole bunch of additional technical jargon that’s enough to get me super excited about the release of this software. It could very well replace my dual-keyboard Thomas electric organ. Check out a sample of music from the KORG DS-10 or just visit their site for more information.

The KORG DS-10 synthesizer program for Nintendo’s mighty DS will be available in Japan this July, with a North American release hopefully following sometime shortly thereafter.

Posted in DS, Music, News, Nintendo | 5 Comments »

UNDERRATED: Game Boy Micro

By Shaun Hatton - March 22nd, 2008

With the Game Boy now ending its reign as the portable system champion, I find myself looking back on its career with a great fondness as a parent would recall a child’s academic success. The Game Boy has been a part of my life for just about 19 years now and to be honest it freaks me out a little that it has already been that long.

My first Game Boy was the original grey brick with the yellow-green screen and I loved that thing like it was part of my family. I took it with me on family trips, to friend’s houses, and on days when I was feeling more adventurous, to school.

The monochromatic graphics never bothered me. How else could I play Tetris? I didn’t have an NES and even if I did, taking it to play in the car wouldn’t have been realistic. I also had the Nuby Game Boy light so I could game in the dark, which made the Game Boy trump my then-loved Sega Master System as my favourite gaming device.

Today my original Game Boy sits housed in a Rubbermaid container underneath my living room sofa with all its games and its sleeker cousin, the Game Boy Color (which I bought in 1999 when my obsession with Pokémon caused me to go through AA batteries too quickly for my budget). It still works.

I skipped over the Game Boy Advance entirely and instead picked up its successor, the Game Boy Advance SP and enjoyed many hours with it. The first game I bought for it was the excellent Phantasy Star Collection and I was immediately blown away by the idea that a system as tiny as the SP could basically take the power of the Sega Genesis and Super Nintendo and put it into my hands.

But little did I know it would get even smaller.

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Posted in Editorial, Game Boy, Nintendo | 7 Comments »

Professor Layton Deleted Scene Found!

By Toronto Thumbs Staff - March 20th, 2008

There are over 20 deleted scenes from Professor Layton and the Curious Village hidden somewhere on Toronto Thumbs.

One of the deleted scenes from Professor Layton and the Curious Village has been found! It’s an outtake of one of the conversations Layton and Luke have about a cat playing with a mouse. Check it out!

Local legend has it that there are over 20 such deleted scenes hidden throughout Toronto Thumbs. They’re hidden so well that even we do not know where they are anymore. How did we get ahold of these? No one knows for certain. But in all likelihood, some mischievous staff members might have been bored and decided to make them up. What better way to pay homage to one of the best DS games ever?

Don’t forget to check out our Resident Evil 4/Professor Layton wallpaper and our Layton review, too.

Posted in DS, Humour, Nintendo | No Comments »

A Great Flea Market Find

By Syd Bolton - March 5th, 2008

Many years ago (I am thinking around 1997 or 1998) I decided to make a trek to London, Ontario to visit the Gibraltar Weekend Market on Dundas Street. I really wasn’t sure what I was looking for, but video games are always on the radar so I thought I might find something cheap. I’m always looking for that hidden gem in the pile of junk in the corner and my hopes were on that for this visit.

After going through the usual ‘treasure piles’ (some would say junk piles) I made my way back to a vendor that looked like a video store. It had all kinds of movies (mostly VHS at this point, of course). I often find that these are the places that have video games too if they had anything to do with a rental business.

Interestingly enough, just a week or two prior I had printed out a Nintendo NES game list (complete with rarities) and had gone through my collection and ticked off every game I owned. I paid particular attention to the rare ones and knew enough to keep an eye out for the ones marked “ER” (extremely rare).

When I walked around one corner, something that looked like a cartoon character out of a video game caught my eye. I walked up to find Linus Spacehead. It looked like a video game, but I didn’t know what an ‘Aladdin’ was.

Something clicked as I looked closer at the box and realized that I was looking at the Aladdin Deck Enhancer (for the NES) version of the game. Something told me it was extremely rare, so I consulted my game list. Sure enough, ER+!

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Posted in Blast From the Past, Flea Market Finds, Nintendo, Odd Prods | 1 Comment »

What We Think of Wii

By Toronto Thumbs Staff - February 26th, 2008

Although Wii has been a great success for Nintendo, it still has its ups and downs.

An article we posted back in November highlighted that Wii has great games despite common online opinion. In our first Toronto Thumbscast, we discussed whether or not the Wii was for people like us (that is, people who have been playing video games their whole lives). Adam Russell and Michael Pugliese stated that Wii is not necessarily the “casual” system that many perceive it to be, but rather a “mass market” console. And they’re absolutely right.

The Wii has revolutionized gaming, but not in the way we all thought it would. We thought Wii would change the way we played video games forever. But what it has really done is increase the gaming market to include more people. Although there are more people gaming now, Wii hasn’t really changed the fundamental way games are played. For as amazing and fun as Wii Sports is, there’s an unfortunate number of games that don’t make very good use of the Wii’s biggest strength: its controls.

Prior to the system’s release, we were all looking forward to accurate motion controls. We wanted sword fighting. We wanted realistic sports titles. But where are those games today? The Legend of Zelda: Twilight Princess does feature a fair bit of swordplay, but all the moves are done with predetermined gestures replacing key combinations. As gamers, we had become used to button sequences to pull off moves. While the Wii Remote has the potential to be much more intuitive than that, holding down a button and swinging downwards is still a key combination and still something that needs to be remembered. And for people who had been gaming all along and were comfortable with key combinations, they had to learn a new control scheme altogether. How, exactly, is that intuitive?

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Posted in Editorial, Nintendo, Wii | 5 Comments »

REVIEW: Professor Layton and the Curious Village

By Shaun Hatton - February 24th, 2008

Developed by Level-5 and published by Nintendo for DS

When the wealthy Baron Reinhold passes away and leaves a puzzle as his last will, the famous Professor Layton and his young assistant Luke are on the scene to help figure things out. But when the pair make it to the village of St. Mystere, home of the late Baron, they find that things may not be as simple as they’d like them to be.

Rather than unravelling just the mystery they were called there for, they realize that something else is afoot. Indeed, something much bigger than the two of them could have imagined is somehow connected to their case.

Baron Reinhold’s will stated that whomever should find the family heirloom known as The Golden Apple would be the one to inherit all of his estate. Turns out, however, that Reinhold owned just about the whole town. So it comes as no surprise that everyone tried to find this Golden Apple. Unfortunately, no one was able to find it, and that’s where you come in.

As Layton and Luke, you must solve the mystery of St. Mystere, one puzzle at a time, so that the story plays out to its end. In fact, remove the story elements and the game is indeed nothing more than timeless and contemporary mind-bending puzzles.

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Posted in DS, Nintendo, Reviews | No Comments »