Casual ‘Pokemon Go’ trainers now have a fighting chance
Pokémon Go players know if their pocket monster is a catch and even have one of them scurry behind your avatar. The latest update is aimed at balancing the in-game battles, giving the Pidgeottos and Mr. Mimes of the world a (slightly) better chance against the constant armies of Dragonites and Snorlaxes resident in most Pokémon gyms. Not only will trainers be be able to bring six Pokémon to the fight, the CP (Combat Points) of rival Pokémon will be nerfed to match your own team’s battle level. However, Niantic Labs says that the CP ranking “may” be lowered, suggesting it may not always be the case.
A catch bonus will also come into effect: the more of a certain type you catch, the easier it’ll be to snag more of them. (This is key to getting the more advanced, evolved versions — you need to capture a lot of Pikachus to evolve one into Raichu.) The developer has also decreased the evolution animation time — which often took longer than catching the Pokémon in the first place.
Now, if the game could kindly direct me towards the nearest Charizard, I’d be very grateful.
Source: Pokemon Go
‘Pokémon Go’ will add catch bonuses to make the grind worthwhile
As Niantic Labs keeps tweaking things to hold onto its Pokémon Go player base, it has revealed another new feature coming to the augmented reality game. Currently, player activities like catching Pokémon can level them up towards earning medals that toss off points, but not much else. Soon, there will be a catch bonus for earned medals that level up based on the type of Pokémon caught.
It seems like a way to make low-level grinding (perhaps with that $35 Pokémon Go Plus dongle) pay off visibly and as the post title puts it, increase the odds of catching rare Pokémon. The only problem? At least judging by the responses, players are really looking for ways to improve other parts of the game, like tracking monsters, or battling and training in gyms. Niantic previously said it would “rebalance” training battles, but that is apparently also still in the works.
Source: Pokémon Go
Nintendo’s Famicom Mini is Japan’s NES Classic
Nintendo fans in its home country are getting their own teensy retro console, as well. Today, Mario’s creator has revealed the mini Famicom, a shrunken version of the original NES the company released in Japan. Just like the mini NES for the west, the Famicom mini fits in the palm of your hand and plugs into your TV via HDMI. It comes with two wired controllers instead of one, but the bad news is that it follows in the footsteps of the New 3DS — it doesn’t have a bundled AC adapter. You’ll have to buy that one separately.
It will also be preloaded with 30 games, some of which like Final Fantasy III aren’t on the mini NES. They are, however, in Japanese, so you may want to brush up on your Nihongo before grabbing the console. It also looks like you can have four saves per game, which is a huge plus if you live with another Nintendo fan. The mini Famicom will be available on November 10th, a day before the mini NES comes out in west, for $59. You’ll have to shell out an extra $10 more for the AC adapter, though, not to mention the shipping fee if you’re importing it from another country.
Here’s the tiny console’s full game list (we updated to reflect that it has two Downtown games):
- Donkey Kong
- Pac-Man
- Excitebike
- Balloon Fight
- Ice Climber
- Galaga
- Yie Ar Kung-Fu
- Super Mario Bros
- The Legend of Zelda
- Atlantis no Nazo
- Gradius
- Makai Village
- Solomon’s Key
- Metroid
- Castlevania
- Adventure of Link
- Bumping Sumo
- Super Mario Bros. 3
- Ninja Gaiden
- Mega Man 2
- River City Ransom
- Double Dragon Ⅱ The Revenge
- Super Tamashito Luo
- Final Fantasy Ⅲ
- Dr. Mario
- Downtown Nekketsu Monogatari
- Downtown Soreyuke Daiundoukai
- Mario Open Golf
- Super Mario USA
- Kirby’s Adventure
Via: IGN
Source: Nintendo (1), (2)
Pink, fluffy dining at the ‘Kirby’ cafe
If you didn’t know, Kirby is a squidgy pink ball. With minimal facial features. That’s about it. Which is why he’s adorable (and popular) enough to warrant a whole bunch of merchandise, as well as temporary pop-up cafes across Tokyo, Nagoya and Osaka. Japan isn’t lacking for gaming culture — in fact, we’ve already toured a few in our guide to Tokyo. It’s just a shame that this one is a temporary arrangement. If you’re a fan of all things pink and circular, get to Japan while you can: The Kirby Cafe closes at the end of October, and you need a ticket to merely get inside. Even if you’re able to get in, though, can you stomach a Kirby pancake?
Created by Masahiro Sakurai (of Smash Bros. fame), Kirby’s simple design was intended as a placeholder midway through game development. However, Sakurai decided to keep it as the final character design. In fact, at one point during development of the first game, Nintendo legend Shigeru Miyamoto wanted to change the character from pink to yellow, which sounds outrageous now. Not that it mattered much back then: The game launched on the monochrome Gameboy.
The character’s Tokyo pop-up site has been hugely popular. To get into either the cafe or the shop you have to receive a ticket, given out early each day. I got there before 9am, and my shop slot was midday (for a shop!) and 1pm for the cafe itself. The food looked great and fortunately tasted pretty good, especially for what might otherwise have turned out to be a gimmicky theme eatery.
The place is a branded takeover of a relatively decent (if not all that notable) Italian brasserie, which ensured most of the dishes and desserts were made from fresh ingredients, cooked in-house. Fear not, though: There are still plenty of stars, power-up strawberries and rainbows.
I tried as much of it as I could. “Waddle-Dee Hayashi rice” is thinly-sliced beef cooked slowly in red wine, added to a well-seasoned demi-glaze sauce. The rice came with grilled vegetables on the side, with star-shaped pickles scattered around it. (It’s a Japanese thing.) This all comes together on the plate looking like the face of a Waddle-Dee. (The Kirby universe’s version of a Super Mario’s goomba.) I didn’t feel short changed by the quantity of food, and it was pretty delicious for Hayashi rice. Meanwhile, I sipped a “Dream Fountain Sparkling Cocktail” (pink grapefruit juice, Blue Curacao), which was far more unremarkable. The star-topped muddler was the best part. But the menu states in print that I wasn’t allowed to steal keep it.
The Kirby pancakes were the highlight of my visit. A substantial layer of cream, flavored and colored with raspberry puree, laid on top of two thick, fluffy pancakes, decorated with raspberry sauce and berries. It felt like a shame to ruin the presentation by actually eating it. The first cut was the deepest. And then I vacuumed it all up in seconds, Kirby-style. I wrapped up my visit with arguably the laziest menu option: a cappuccino decorated with a Kirby stencil, cocoa powder and a splash of fruit syrup. (The coffee itself was fine.)
After all that food, I paid a second visit to the store. Kirby’s popularity meant that some bags, soft toys and tees had already sold out, but my blood sugar-level was high: I left with a fridge magnet and Japanese-style hand cloth.
The food isn’t cheap, but it tastes good and is surprisingly faithful to the character’s design — which is why I’m paying so much for pancakes and rice. I also wanted to test out Whispy Woods salad and focaccia. Here’s the whole menu: It looks the part. Tokyo’s Kirby Cafe trades in cute and pink foodstuffs until October 30th.
Source: Kirby Cafe (Japanese)
‘Super Mario Maker’ for the 3DS only plays in 2D
If you were hoping that the handheld version of Super Mario Maker played in three dimensions, take a seat. Polygon has stumbled across the GameStop listing for the 3DS edition, the box for which comes with a prominent caveat that it only plays in two dimensions. It’s not that much of a surprise, given how few 3DS titles really harness stereoscopy in a meaningful way — even Pokémon X and Y mostly saved it for battles. Not to mention, of course, that Super Mario Maker is the most two-dimensional of games, and certainly won’t need any extra depth. If you can’t wait to try your hand at becoming the next Miyamoto (spoiler: it’s hard), then it’ll set you back $39.99 on December 2nd.
Via: Polygon
Source: GameStop
Pokémon Bank update gives you a multi-game Pokedex
We’ve known since the game was announced that players would eventually be able to transfer Pokémon from older titles to the upcoming Sun and Moon, which will be released on November 18th. The only way to do so is through the cloud-based Pokémon Bank 3DS app, which will get an update in January 2017 allowing you to port your old monsters into the new game. To sweeten the deal and better connect the franchise, they’re including something else when you connect to the app: An index that tracks all the Pokémon you’ve caught across every 3DS game in the series.
Sadly, that means the other games, even the Virtual Console re-releases of the classic trio on the handheld system, will be left out of the index. There’s plenty of time between Sun and Moon’s launch in two months and the update in January, so get catching. Come the beginning of 2017, challenging players to fill the index’s comprehensive list may breathe new life into the old games.
If you’re not savvy on the bank’s transfer rules, here’s a graphic rundown. Note that the black-and-white “Poké Transporter” option is a one-way ticket, so think carefully before you send your old friends to Sun and Moon:
Via: Polygon
Source: Nintendo
Pokémon chief says Nintendo’s NX is both handheld and console
The head of The Pokémon Company has let slip that his outfit is working on a pocketable monster title for Nintendo’s NX. Given that TPC is part-owned by the Japanese gaming giant, he’s probably seen the new handheld/console/tablet hybrid up close and personal. The Wall Street Journal quotes Tsunekazu Ishihara as saying that “the NX is trying to change the concept of what it means to be a home console device or a hand-held device.”
Like the fable of the blind men holding an elephant, there’s been a lot of conflicting reports about what the NX will be. At this point, it looks like the device will be some sort of handheld device that has a TV component, or the other way around. Given that Nintendo has already developed a tablet-based console which, you know, didn’t do so well, it’s enough to be concerned about history repeating.
Our own Sean Buckley has gone deep into what Nintendo’s NX could look like, and how it would work up close and personal. His feeling is that the device will operate like Razer’s old Edge tablet, with hardware controls (and a TV link) at home, detaching to offer a lesser experience while out and about.
Ishihara, the naughty tease, declined to mention anything about the Nintendo NX, or when Pokémon NX would land. He did mention, however, that the obscure, niche mobile title Pokémon Go, has sent sales of related titles and merchandise through the roof. In addition, plans are underway to bring Go to China and South Korea, where mapping still needs to be enhanced.
Source: WSJ
The Pokémon Go Plus bracelet is great for grinding
My Pokémon Go survival kit keeps growing. It started simply enough, with just my iPhone 6 Plus happily running Pokémon Go, but it quickly became apparent that I would need backup battery power in order to comfortably catch digital monsters for extended periods of time. After all, this is a game that takes players away from their outlets and into the great wilds of the real world, so I shoved a portable power pack and cable into my purse. I happen to live in Arizona, so I soon added an icy water bottle to the mix. Now, with the launch of Pokémon Go Plus, my kit also includes a lanyard bracelet, a plastic vibrating teardrop painted like a Poké Ball and a tiny screwdriver.
I’m starting to suspect Ash Ketchum was hiding more than hair under his iconic hat.
Pokémon Go Plus is a $35 accessory that connects to iOS or Android versions of Pokémon Go via Bluetooth. The main gadget is a teardrop-shaped hunk of plastic with an opaque button in the center that glows different colors depending on the feedback it receives from the actual game. The whole device vibrates and lights up when Pokémon or PokéStops are nearby.
The teardrop comes with a clip on the back so you can wear it on a belt, collar or backpack strap, or you can pop it into the included lanyard bracelet. It’s more complicated than just shoving it into the plastic holder, though (as anyone who watched my live unboxing video can attest). You have to unscrew the back of the teardrop with a teensy screwdriver, removing the clip and exposing the battery, and then re-screw it into the bracelet case. The bracelet screw is found under a length of lanyard running under the back of the plastic holder, so you have to move the bracelet itself out of the way before tightening the teardrop into position. It’s not necessarily difficult, but it is delicate work.
With the tools and screws involved in moving the Plus from bracelet to clip, I imagine folks will pick one way of wearing the device and stick with it. Both options are viable, though I personally prefer the bracelet option. However, I’m not wearing a watch today; if I decide to put one on, it’s possible the clip option will be more attractive. Apple did just unveil Pokémon Go support for the Apple Watch, after all. In daily life, it may simply depend on whether I can find my tiny screwdriver.
The bracelet option is my favorite because it’s the most convenient. The teardrop vibrates powerfully enough to feel even if the lanyard isn’t digging into your skin and it’s natural to flick up your wrist to check the notification colors. The button pulses green when you’re near a Pokémon you’ve previously caught, it flashes yellow for new Pokémon and it glows blue for PokéStops.
This is where Pokémon Go Plus is most useful: PokéStops. Once the teardrop flashes blue and vibrates, press the button and viola, a bounty of Poké Balls, potions and miscellany are added to your inventory. That is, unless your inventory is full or you leave the PokéStop’s range before collecting the goodies. The bracelet lets you know if you’re successful by flashing in a rainbow of colors; if it doesn’t work, the device flashes red.
The same goes for catching Pokémon, though there are a few caveats here. The teardrop vibrates and lights up when a Pokémon is near, but there’s no way to tell what kind or what level that Pokémon is. Nor is there a way to change which type of Poké Ball you throw — if you want to use an Ultra Ball or raspberries, you’ll have to pull out your phone. With Pokémon Go Plus, you could unwittingly walk by a 2000 CP Charizard and attempt to catch it with a single standard Poké Ball, which is highly unlikely to work.
It’s crucial to note that with Pokémon Go Plus, you get just one chance to catch each creature; they always run away if you’re not successful on the first throw.
I walked around my neighborhood, which is thankfully littered with PokéStops, and tried the Pokémon Go Plus on my wrist and clipped onto the top of my jeans. Both options worked well, though I happened to be wearing high-waisted jeans and whenever the device activated there, it felt like a fat worm attempting to wriggle across my stomach. Its vibrations are definitely powerful enough get your attention — and maybe the attention of anyone nearby. I entered my building’s elevator with four other people and felt just a little ridiculous as the Plus vibrated and lit up at the top of my jeans. At least on my wrist I can fool strangers into thinking it’s a new kind of fitness tracker, rather than an accessory for a mobile game about trapping exotic fictional monsters in palm-sized prison balls.
Pokémon Go Plus is not a replacement for the game on your phone, but it’s good for the simple stuff, like hitting PokéStops and catching stray Rattatas, Pidgeys and Spearows. It’s a grinding machine. And, in a game where grinding is crucial for anyone who wants to dominate a gym or two, that’s not a terrible thing. Just be prepared to pack a few more items in your Pokémon Go survival bag.
Introducing the world’s smallest way to play ‘Donkey Kong’
Once upon a time, video games like Pac-Man and Donkey Kong were the absolute height of entertainment technology, imperfect pixels packed into six-foot-tall cabinets in arcades and pizza shops around the world. Now, those same games run on a machine that fits inside a teacup. Adafruit tinkerer Phillip Burgess created the world’s smallest Multiple Arcade Machine Emulator cabinet using a Raspberry Pi Zero computer, 0.96 inch RGB OLED displays and an audio amplifier. It’s fully playable and totally adorable.
The tiny MAME cabinet was a spontaneous weekend project and it’s not as polished as Adafruit’s serious endeavors, nor is it a complete kit that the company sells. However, Burgess published a fairly detailed guide that includes the hardware and software tricks he used to create the teacup cabinet. The project’s final dimensions are 67.2 mm tall, 33.6 mm wide and 35.8mm deep.
“Could it go smaller? Undoubtedly!” Burgess writes. “Other than clipping the corner off the audio amp board, these are all stock parts and no extreme measures were taken to further reduce their volume, Ben Heck-style.”
Burgess says that actually playing Pac-Man, Donkey Kong or Xevious on the teensy machine is wildly impractical. The screen’s resolution is extremely coarse and definitely not conducive to twitchy movements.
“I suspect a lot of the ‘playing’ is just muscle memory from past experience,” Burgess says. “Honestly the whole thing’s a bit gimmicky for the sake of smallness. Sharing it for a laugh.”
Source: Adafruit
The RetroUSB AVS just replaced my childhood Nintendo
When I was a child, I fought with my brothers. A lot. It was part of being the youngest, and part of being a family. Most of our sibling rivalry died with our youth, but one single, never-ending quarrel outlived our childhood: the Nintendo Entertainment System. My oldest brother and I have been bickering over our original NES for decades. Who really owns it? Me, the guy who scoured garage sales to build our collection of classic games, or him, the firstborn who — by sibling law — is right by default? To this day, we still argue about whose house our childhood console should live in. Today, that war finally ends. I don’t need our old Nintendo anymore. I have the RetroUSB AVS.
Think of the AVS as an unofficial hardware refresh for the original Nintendo Entertainment System. It plays the same games and even uses the original controllers, but everything else is brand-new. Instead of pushing a fuzzy, ugly picture through ancient composite cables, it pipes a crisp, high-definition signal over HDMI. In lieu of a cumbersome AC adapter, the AVS uses a humble USB cable — and can be powered solely by the media port on your HDTV. And, unlike the RetroN 5 or Analogue NT, the AVS is all new hardware: a custom FPGA board programmed to replicate the NES’ original processor. No emulators. No repurposed hardware.
OK, that might sound like splitting hairs. After all, don’t all three of these consoles pipe HD NES games to modern televisions via HDMI? Well, yes — but how they do it varies wildly. The RetroN 5, for instance, is actually a $160 Android device that runs cartridges through an emulator. It’s also widely derided in the gaming community for allegedly stealing code. The Analogue NT is completely legit, and actually uses repurposed Famicom chips to run the games on a mix of old and new hardware — but it’s also a premium device, costing a steep $500. The AVS is something of a happy medium: It’s not made from original parts, but it authentically replicates their functionality without legal ambiguity. At $185, the RetroUSB AVS is comparatively affordable too.
Nostalgia by design
The RetroUSB AVS’ trapezoidal chassis is nothing short of a love letter to the NES’ iconic design. Obviously, the monochromatic color scheme is a nod to the black and gray tones of the original’s case, but it’s the little things that make this homage truly delightful. This includes the shape of the lid that covers the console’s cartridge slot, and “power” and “reset” buttons that look and feel identical to their 1980s inspiration — but the most wonderful (and pointless) details can be seen only when you turn the console over.
Here you can see three trenches leading up to an empty recessed square that represents the original NES’ unused expansion slot, vent placement that mirrors the layout of the original console, and foot pads that look identical to the rubber nubs on my childhood console. All of these design nods are completely unnecessary, and on a part of the device most users will never even bother to look at. Clearly, the designers love the original Nintendo. It shows.
As much as I love how weirdly accurate the AVS’ retro design is, it might be nostalgic to a fault. That cover over the console’s cartridge slot does look exactly like the old NES chamber lid, but it’s a lot longer too. It feels like a compromise, designed to ensure that users can more easily insert and remove games — but opening and closing it feels awkward. I’m constantly worried it’ll bend too far and snap off. With front-loading US region games, it at least feels secure when the lid is closed, but Japanese region Famicom titles use a separate top-loading cartridge slot that forces the door to stay open. It looks weird, and it makes me nervous.
Speaking of games, loading them can be a bit tricky. US titles slide in horizontally, just like on the original, but I never managed to seat a cartridge into the connector on the first try. Wiggling them back and forth a little usually did the job. The connector also holds on to games tightly — removing them was just as much an exercise in wiggling as putting them in. It’s not a deal-breaker, but I do wish changing games were a little easier.
Finally, it’s worth noting that the AVS features four controller ports and a Famicom expansion slot — which enables compatibility for the rare four-player NES game (they do exist!) and for extra controllers compatible with the original Japanese Famicom.
Practically pixel perfect
Playing NES games on the RetroUSB’s console is like putting on prescription glasses for the first time: It brings a blurry, indistinguishable mess of light and color into focus. OK, the original NES isn’t that bad, but the difference between composite cables and 720p over HDMI is startling. Did you know that Mega Man’s sprite actually has white behind its eyes? I didn’t. It always blended in with the character’s pale skin tone. Backgrounds that were once a blurry haze of color now appear as distinct patterns; characters and stages are flush with “new” details and brighter colors. It’s a surreal experience: I’ve been playing these games for 30 years, but now it seems like I’ve never really “seen” them before.
I know what you’re thinking: Can’t I already play NES games in HD through the Nintendo Wii U’s Virtual Console? You can, but they’ll look worse. For some reason, the Wii U’s VC implementation presents classic games in dull, muted colors with a side of blur. I tested Punch-Out!!!, Dr. Mario and a couple of Mega Man games side by side, and the Wii U versions looked worse by every measure. The games are no less fun on the official hardware, but they lack pop and polish compared with how my old cartridges look on the RetroUSB AVS. Here, the AVS does better than even Hyperkin’s RetroN 5 — which looks much sharper than the Virtual Console but tends to have overblown, inaccurate colors.
Best of all, every classic game I own ran perfectly on the AVS — and that’s not something I can say about every NES clone console I’ve come across. Most of these products use NES-on-a-chip solutions that either gets audio wrong or simply won’t play certain games. Paperboy, for instance, isn’t playable on either the Retro Duo or the FC Twin, and both consoles play off-key audio in specific games. Not so with the RetroUSB AVS: Everything I played looked and sounded exactly as it was supposed to. It even got the glitches right, faithfully reproducing minor visual hiccups in Mega Man 3 and Super Mario Bros. 3 that were present on the original hardware.
Of all the devices that play NES games in my house, the RetroUSB AVS is the most accurate, hands down — but that doesn’t mean it’s perfect. When compared directly with my childhood NES, it’s clear that the AVS color palette is just a bit brighter. It’s not overblown or washed out like the colors on the RetroN 5, but it does come across as a bit richer than the original hardware. I noticed it most in Castlevania and Mega Man 3. On the AVS, the bricks of Dracula’s castle have more red in them, and Mega Man’s helmet appears to be a darker shade of blue.
When I asked RetroUSB’s Brian Parker about the difference, he chalked it up to differences in televisions. “NTSC,” he joked. “Never The Same Color.” I’m probably just seeing the difference between a clear digital signal and the fuzzy output of the old console’s composite cables. Even if the colors are wrong, Parker says it’s just part of the console’s NES/RGB lookup table. “Easily changed with a firmware update,” he says. The AVS also outputs only in 720p, but considering it still looks better than the RetroN 5 and Wii U at 1080p, it’s a flaw I’m happy to overlook.
Extra features
If you’re looking for a console to imbue your classic games with fancy graphics filters, instant-save-state features and other bells and whistles, look elsewhere: The AVS keeps things pretty simple. Beyond simply playing classic games in crisp, high definition, this console doesn’t do much. In terms of visual options, the AVS allows users to switch between NTSC and PAL modes, adjust the screen margins (to hide overscan garbage in specific games) and adjust scanline darkness. The console’s controller menu allows you to turn on some basic turbo features and see how many gamepads are connected, but that’s about it.
At the end of the day, there are only two special features that the AVS adds to the vanilla NES experience: built-in cheat codes and an integrated scoreboard. The first is self-explanatory: The AVS automatically recognizes the game in its slot and offers players a short list of the most popular Game Genie codes. The second takes a little more legwork; if the AVS is being powered by a PC or Mac’s USB port, users can download companion software that will keep track of their in-game score while they play and allow them to upload it to an online leaderboard.
Unfortunately, the AVS itself doesn’t make this process clear, presenting users with only a menu that fails to connect to an amorphous server. There are no setup instructions for the scoreboard in the console’s menu or the manuals that came in the box, or even on the product’s website — I had to ask Parker via email. Still, it’s a neat feature if you can get it up and running.
Finally, RetroUSB offers one special feature that no competitor can boast: new NES games. The company has kind of made a name for itself in manufacturing new cartridges for homebrew developers, and it’s neat to see that business cross over here to create a series of “launch titles” that work on both the AVS and the Nintendo’s original hardware. I tried Twelve Seconds, a simple jumping game that challenges you to race to the top of the screen as fast as possible. None of the $45 launch titles seem particularly complex, but there’s definitely a thrill to playing a new NES game after all these years.
Wrap-up
For me, the AVS is the ideal replacement for my original hardware — it plays my cartridge collection perfectly, with better visuals than the original — but it’s not for everybody. Gamers who need modern conveniences like save states and graphic filters will probably rather have a RetroN 5. Folks seeking a nostalgic experience, but who don’t already own a library of classic games will probably be happier with the 30 built-in games that come with Nintendo’s NES Classic. Even hardcore collectors who demand that their games run on original hardware have other options in the expensive Analogue NT Mini or a Hi-Def-NES mod.
If you have a classic game collection, however, and you don’t care for the prestige of original hardware or the allure of added bells and whistles, check out the RetroUSB AVS. It’s probably the best modernized NES experience you can get for under $200.
AIVAnet 