The natives are getting restless, clinging desperately to every scrap of rumor that even remotely suggests there might be a next generation of hardware around the corner. Among their hopes is that for this upcoming generation, Nintendo will improve their network offerings. The problems cited include insufficiencies of Friend Codes and, even when their rosters are suitably populated, the difficulty of setting up a game and lack of standards such as voice chat.


Microsoft's admirable Xbox Live is invariably brought up as an example of what Nintendo should have aspired to, and it definitely would make a good starting point for a next-generation online gaming network. But I think that now that we've crossed the 2010 line, it's simply not good enough to just ape Live—particularly as Nintendo has managed to draw in a whole new customer base that could benefit from online social gaming, but would likely balk at having to sign up for yet another service to do it... not to mention the missed opportunities from being signed into one company's service while your friends are on another.

The cool thing, though, is that the missing pieces needed for putting a next-generation network together that solves problem already exist.

I remember in the early days of the Nintendo DS, I spent quite a few dollars importing titles from Japan. Ouendan, Band Brothers, and even Electroplankton—the latter leaving me feeling particularly stupid since it actually did cross the Pacific... twice. But importing from Europe? There's something I'd only done once in the past; I half-regretted it.

I recently had the opportunity to do it again, for a good price (typically the exchange rate doesn't make this a grand idea, but right now, it works out pretty well.) The game in question is Pastagames' Maestro! Jump in Music—made by a French team who shares offices with my favorite French developer—and this one, I don't think I'll be regretting at all.

In case you haven't heard, this past Monday marked the availability of the Ace Attorney Investigations: Miles Edgeworth demo on the U.S. Nintendo Channel. I meant to write about it then, but life intervened.

I've become something of an Ace Attorney fan over the years, with particular love for Trials and Tribulations, the third game in the series. Investigations marks a slightly new direction for the series, but though it doesn't have courtroom battles, it's doesn't really feel much like a spinoff game thus far—more a continuation of the series with a different focus.

In the demo (which does appear identical to the Flash demo, minus the reported crashiness), which is a more tightly-edited version of the opening several minutes of the full game, a murder occurs in Miles Edgeworth's office, and you'll be introduced to the new Logic system, piecing together thoughts and considerations that arise in the investigation process to create new information. It's a pretty cool system from what little I've seen of it so far. I'm a touch concerned that the series' trademark "guess what far-out thing we're thinking, or get penalized" M.O. might shine through as it gets more complicated, but in the meantime, it looks like it's going to be fun.

We got the full game from Capcom for review yesterday, so look for that after the game officially releases on February 16.

Having enjoyed doing our first co-op review as much as we—that's Amber and Matt, for those not reading the byline—did, we immediately started looking through our collections and playlists for another title to review in the same fashion. A Boy and His Blob, the lovely hand-animated platformer from WayForward and Majesco, was picked for the treatment next.

This is another review that's a little behind the times, though not as much as The Munchables was. The lateness is primarily due to the fact that Matt wasn't able to get his hands on the game when it released and as such didn't play it until after he received it for Christmas. But now, we've both had our chances to play through this delightful title, and so we begin...

This afternoon we received an uncharacteristically creative Wii Sports Resort PR piece in our inboxes—one paying clear homage to the popular television drama LOST, whose final season premieres next week on ABC. Those who don't watch the show will obviously not get even one iota of these references, but as a huge LOST fan I really got a kick out of it, and wanted to share. I've taken the liberty of bolding pertinent parts of the release for you fellow 815ers.


If only Nintendo of America was this creative with their releases all the time, we might be more inclined to share them on the site! Someone at Nintendo is clearly a huge fan, and for once I actually enjoyed reading a press release.

People seem to be name-dropping Majora's Mask an awful lot when discussing The Legend of Zelda: Spirit Tracks, and I suppose it's apt in a sense. After all, what we have here is a rapidly developed sequel whose mechanics and interfaces are based heavily upon its predecessor. Where Majora's Mask introduced a radical change in overall structure, however, Spirit Tracks brings refinement. It's far more sophisticated than Phantom Hourglass, and almost seems developed to ease gamers into the kind of complexity expected from a "real" Zelda game.

To wit, the early hours of Spirit Tracks evoke a bit of Phantom Hourglass déjà vu, with dungeons that are both extremely short and extremely basic. As you progress, however, the game builds and builds upon itself until the quality is almost stupefying. Dungeons increase in size and complexity, with puzzles and items that truly rival the best the series has to offer. There's some out-of-the-box thinking going on here that, really, I haven't seen at all in previous titles.