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Issue 2

Skyward Sword Preview

Why we shouldnt worry about the Wii U ...yet

Also:

Top Five Zelda Games of all time

Magazine
Skyward Sword Preview
D e c e m b e r, 2 0 0 8 - I s s u e 2

Editorial

Preview
Kevin Klein Editor
Everyone experiences video games differently. But video games are about experiences, stepping into a unique world and taking a journey in an interactive way. Obviously, video games wouldnt work without the participation of the player, and throughout the past three decades, developers have introduced new methods for players to participate in their games. Nintendo has introduced a variety of new peripherals to enhance and bring players to a unique level of interaction for brand new experiences. With The Legend of Zelda: Skyward Sword, Nintendo introduces a new way to play a classic franchise. With the required use of Nintendo Wiis Motion Plus, Skyward Sword offers interactive experience that has never been possible. With the 1 to 1 motion that can be achieved with Motion Plus, players step into the role of Link and experience the world of Hyrule like never before. Skyward Sword is the definitive title for the Nintendo Wii. This game fulfills all those promises and dreams we had back in 2006. For the first time, players actually experience sword fighting, slingshots, bow and arrows and so much more because the players movements directly relate to Links movement. Imagine flying around Skyloft and locating an island with treasure, then skydive down to that Island only to be presented with a number of obstacles and enemies. At which point Link pulls out his sword and charges. Taking down enemies is no longer about button pressing, but requires finesse. Players need to watch and learn enemies weak points and act accordingly, using Links sword to strike enemies in precise unguarded areas. Every enemy is a little puzzle. While the controls of the game are incredible, the shear scope of this game is what keeps me up at night. Zelda games have always had the players traversing through different environments from temples, fields, mountains, lakes, forest, castles and so much more. While having a variety of locations is a plus, having nothing of substance in these areas is not. Twilight princess was an incredible game, but was stricken with empty and often boring locations. Skyward Sword seems to remedy this by packing locations with numerous collectibles, hidden areas, puzzles and so much more. This allows the players to return to locations and find something new that may have been skipped. The real gem of this game is variety and not only with locations but with in-game items. Every Zelda game has numerous weapons, shields and collectibles, but Skyward Sword takes it to a whole new level. Players can upgrade shields, fine-tune weapons and create new unique items from all the collectibles found throughout the journey.

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Local

Letter from the Editor

Welcome to the second issue of Pure Nintendo magazine, the Zelda issue. I honestly believed after laying out the framework with the first issue, the second issue would go a lot smoother. Sadly that is not the case. Being that the last issue was the first one ever, I was ok using the excuseahhh its our first issue, we will work it out later. Now that excuse is beginning to lose its excuse power. We are new at this whole magazinedeveloping thing. Some of us have taken a few design classes through our college career, I worked on a college newspaper, but that is the extent of our knowledge. We are learning as we go. The way we do things may be a little unconditional, but it works for us. If you knew me personally, I am very unconditional. I really hope everyone enjoyed our first issue and hopefully you will enjoy this one as well. Once again, I will ask for everyones feed back on the magazine. If you have questions, concerns, feel free to send them to us. You can also send in game related questions to be answered in our questions section. Also, do not forget our art section where we would like to show off some your Nintendo related artwork. You can send all questions and feedback to magazine@purenintendo.com We also have a few open (non-paid) positions for people who are interested in getting some magazine work under their belt. feel free to contact us if you are interested. I hope everyone enjoys this issue. -James Higginbotham

...continued from page 1

There is so much potential with this type of game. I cant wait to find my favorite style of shield and discover all the upgrades for weapons. Gamers may play the game a number of times and have different experiences depending on item upgrades, weapon choices and more. While Skyward Sword has a number of RPG elements, from items and gear upgrades to collecting medals, this is still a Zelda game and that is the most important thing. Zelda games have always been held in the highest honor by Nintendo fans. The epic journey is always of the highest qualities and leaves gamers wanting more. The locations, story, weapons, items and the incredible yet sometimes bizarre character designs help create a beautiful breathing world in Zelda games. Skyward Sword accomplishes all these things and then some. Never has a Zelda game introduced so many new elements while staying true to what makes Zelda games so unique and unforgettable. With any Zelda release, gamers get excited. Hype becomes incredibly high and expectations of players can never be met. No matter how incredible a game can be, someone will find something to gripe about and Zelda games seem to get the brunt of this. So undoubtedly some players will love Skyward Sword only to later hate it and vise versa. I hope gamers wont dismiss this game and instead embrace it as a love letter from Nintendo. Everything about this game is exciting. I cant wait to spend hours flying in the sky, searching for treasure, upgrading weapons, discovering locations, sword fighting, talking with characters, and just experience the world of Hyrule like never before. Nintendo has packed an incredible amount of content into Skyward Sword. Skyward Sword is the perfect game to end the Wii era. November 20 cant come soon enough.

Centipede: Infestation Preview

Centipede: Infestation is based off one of Ataris classic franchises. According to Atari, there was some worry about rebooting such a classic franchise for the modern age. Atari decided they wanted to make a game that felt 2012 but still had the nostalgia of the older Centipede. Atari asked people around the industry for different idea pitches for the reboot. After hearing many great ideas, Atari decided to go with the one Wayforwards studios brought to them. Story Ben Stitzer

Centipede: Infestation has a pretty in-depth story, probably a lot more then you would think. The story accrues after a nuclear holocaust where the world becomes a giant wasteland with survivors living in bunkers. The main character, Mat, decides he has bigger dreams than living in bunkers his whole life, so he ventures out into the wasteland to see what he can get into. On his adventure he meets Maisy, who has a skill of growing plants that was passed to her from her grandmother. She uses this skill to start a little farm growing business. Seeing the world is a wasteland, Maisys skill is something of a commodity. Maisy can produce air-producing plants that makes the area around it habitable. Mat is interested in Maisy and her skills and finds every excuse to stay and protect her and her farm from the world around them. Atari pointed out that there really is not a love story between Maisy and Mat. It is like a high school where Mat thinks Maisy is interesting and wants to get to know her more. The story is told by full animated voice over cut scenes that are in-between the levels. Gameplay Infestation comes out on the 3DS and Wii, which offers a little different way to play both games. On both platforms, the game keeps true to the original with its fast pace shooting style. The Wii version is controlled by using the nunchuck to move Mat around while aiming by pointing at the screen. The 3DS is controlled with the circle pad moving Mat around, and the X,Y,A,B buttons to aim. Adding a duel joystick feel. Atari wanted to offer players a huge selection of bugs and ways to squash them. There were too many weapons to even go over, Rocket launcher, Flame Thrower, Freeze Gun and a variety of Shotguns and different machineguns. There is also a plethora of bugs to use those weapons on, wasps, spiders that drop ammo, flies, different types of beetles and of course giant centipedes. Also, Maisys plants come into play when defending against bugs. Using Maisys plants gives the game a slight defend your castle feel. Different plants do different things. Some plants fire projectiles, or other things, at the bugs while others can be used as a barrier to help direct the bugs or keep Mat or Maisy safe. The game has three difficulty levels with waves that become harder as they go on. There is more than just the pure survive the level modes. The game also provides opportunities to protect Maisy as she unlocks doors for Mat or levels were you have to make your way to different areas to perform actions like turning on a switch. Both versions of the game have a co-op mode. The Wii offers local play co-op while the 3DS offers local connection coop. The only difference between the single and co-op play is the ability to compete for most points in the co-op play.

Head Editor

Head editor

-James Higginbotham

Pure Nintendo Magazine Staff

Owner Justin Sharp Head Editor James Higginbotham Designer Editor Benjamin Stitzer Copy Editor Eli Courey Content Manager James Higginbotham Art work Justin Sharp
Pure Nintendo Nov. 2011 2

Editor Kevin Klein

Questions

Questions to the Staff

What Is the Wii U? Is it just an expansion for the Wii? I understand the confusion about the Wii U. I myself found myself confused during the announcment at E3 2011. The Wii U is a totally new home system from Nintendo. The system is so much more than a tablet. The Wii U offers high end HD graphics. The argument is how powerful those graphics will be. The short answer, no one really knows. Are you excited for Skyward Sword? Yes, and more yes! I really did enjoy Twilight Princess but it may be my least favorite console Zelda game. Skyward Sword looks to be everything I wanted in the last Zelda game and more. It is very interesting to me the way Skyward Sword goes a little away from the traditional Zelda path. -James Higginbotham Head Editor Its hard to narrow down one thing Im excited for in the Legend of Zelda: Skyward Sword because Im honestly excited about the whole game. The swordplay and combat look to have an incredible amount of depth and the new item upgrade system has me very excited. Flying is definitely one of my favorite new features in Skyward Sword as it looks to give as much freedom as sailing in Wind Waker, while also providing access to the world below via skydiving. With a brand new origin storyline, a great graphical style, and enhanced swordplay, Skyward Sword looks like it could become of my favorite Zelda games ever. -Justin Sharp Owner

Upcoming Releases
Zumba Fitness 2 (Nov. 15) Super Mario Land 3D (Nov. 13) Fossil Fighter Champions (Nov. 14) Legend of Zelda: Skyward Sword (Nov. 20) Sonic Generations (Nov. 22) Mario Kart 7 (Dec. 4)

Send your questions to us If you ever have any questions you would like to ask the Pure Nintendo staff, being Nintendo related or us related, feel free to send them to magazine@purenintendo.com

Artwork

Justin Sharp Design

Have Your Artwork HERE

Want to see your artrwok on in the next issue of Pure Nintendo Magazine? Send us your artwork at magazine@purenintendo.com

Justin Sharp Design.

Justin Sharp Design

3 Pure Nintendo Nov. 2011

News

No Need To Worry About The Wii U Specs..yet

James Higginbotham
Head editor
Ever since the rumors started about the Wii Successor there has been a lot of talk about how powerful it will be. Many were hoping the talk would have died down with Nintendo announcing the Wii U at their E3 press conference. Sadly that is not the case. Nintendo decided to leave out any talk about the console itself and focus fully on the controller, which lead to even more speculation about the specs of the system. Over the past couple of days, I have heard different speculation about the Wii Us power; just as powerful as the PS3, less powerful than the PS3 or 50% more powerful than the PS3. Ok, right away lets throw out the idea that the Wii U is less powerful than the PS3. Nintendo aside, no company in the position that Nintendo is in would finally make the jump to HD graphics and fall short to the other consoles that have been around for almost 5 years. Every six months technology doubles and along with that prices drop dramatically. Nintendo could put in the same spec of parts as Sony did, but with half, or less, of the cost. Nintendo knows they have to appeal to the core gamer. Falling short on the PS3 specs would be detrimental to that cause. things are getting faster, but not at the same rate as it was 10 or even 5 years ago. Whenever the next Xbox or PlayStation system comes, we will not see as large of a jump as we did from the last generations. In my opinion, a 50% jump from this current generation is about what we can expect from technology over the next 2-3 years. With that said, Sony could make a system in the next 2-3 years that doubles the power of its last, but once again the cost will reach or supersede the price of the PS3 at launch. ($500 $600) I will restate a comment I have made a few times on Pure Nintendo; I honestly believe no one knows how powerful the Wii U will end up being, not even Nintendo. During their developers roundtable, Ubisoft stated that they keep getting different developer builds of the system. I believe Nintendo has finished developing the infrastructure of the new system and now they are sending it out to developers to see what works and what they need for it work. The different statements we have about the power could be true for that developer. The development kit, which the different developers currently have, could be as powerful as they are saying. The only thing they have in common, which is the most important part of a system, is the infrastructure of the system is the same throughout. Nintendo could be sending out different levels of their system to judge the market and test their infrastructure. What many people have to realize is that the system is still in development. All three of the major companies do the exact same thing. They build the infrastructure of their machine, send it out to developers to judge just how much power they need to make it work. Another factor has to do with the price of the parts. At this moment, Nintendo may not be able to afford to put that certain chip into the system they are really wanting. By them holding out, in six months, that chips price could drop low enough to make it into the final system. No one really knows what the final Wii U specs will be. All we know is that Nintendo has finally reached the next generation of systems. Only time will tell what Nintendo will put into it.

The rest of this conversation is where everything starts to get fuzzy. Could matching the PS3 power and banking on their controller to carry them satisfy Nintendo, or is Nintendo going to try to supersede the PS3s power? I can honestly see Nintendo going either way with this. If I had to choose a side, I would choose the side of surpassing the PS3 capabilities. I am not saying that because I am a fanboy, but because it would make the most sense. I saw a surprising reaction from gaming fans when the statement was released yesterday about the Wii U being 50% more powerful than the PS3/360. When reading the comments, many people were blasting Nintendo if this was true. Nintendo is behind again, when the PS4 comes out Nintendo will be the inferior systemagain. I have spent the last 3 years working in IT and the last 4ish years following gaming news. What I have noticed over the years is that technology is slowing down. I am not saying technology is not evolving, in fact, it is getting smaller and smaller (ie phones). Its that technology speed and power have slowed their progression. Yes,

Pure NIntendo Nov. 2011 4

News

Top news from the month of October

Did you miss some news from the month of October? Well here are some of the highlights from the month. Final format of the Wii U at E3 2012.
This doesnt necessarily mean that Nintendo will wait for E3 2012 to show off the final version of the Wii U. The only thing we can take out of this is Nintendo is not planning on making any changes to the Wii U after June. It is also a good sign for the Wii U to be out by the end of 2012.

Nintendo sells 6.68 million 3DS units worldwide

Nine months since the 3DS first launched in Japan (February) and it has sold a little less than 7 million units world wide. According to a Best Buy employee, the 3DS saw a rise in sales once the 3DS received a price drop, but has since lost that momentum.

3DS slider expansion to be released outside of Japan with Resident Evil: Revelations.
Capcom has announced they will be bringing their slider expansion outside of Japan when Resident Evil: Revelations launches in NA and Europe in February 2012.

Nintendo to release new DSIXL colors and bundles in NA.

Nintendo announced they will be releasing two new colors for their DSiXL, Metalic Rose and Midnight Blue. These two new colors will be bundled with Mario vs. Donkey Kong: Mini-Land Mayhem.

Nintendos November 3DS firmware update.

Nintendo release information about their November firmware update for the 3DS. -3D video recording, 10-min limit -New Spotpass games. -Mario Kart 7 channel -More information check HERE

Nintendo DS sells over 50 million in NA. Resident Evil: Revelations to have local player co-op.
According to the Japanese RE: Revelations website, the game will not only host the single-player story, but 2 player local and online play as well as some type of Streetpass functionality.

White Nintendo 3DS coming to Europe this Holiday

The Ice White 3DS will be released in Europe November 18th.

Sonic Generations release date announced

After months of speculation. SEGA finally announced the release date for Sonic Generations 3DS, Nov 22nd.

You can check all your Nintendo news at purenintendo.com

5 Pure Nintendo Nov. 2011

Reviews

DSiware: Antipole
James Higginbotham
Head editor
platformer title created for the now called Nintendo eShop channel. Antipole tells a story about Johnny Hurricane, (kind of looks like Carmen Sandiago) who was hired by Antipole is Saturnine Games newest 3 seconds at first, then you are thrust back down to normal barings while the Timing is key to surviving the ship. By using the R-button, you quickly switch makes platformers so fun. Something that took me a little while to figure out, which made the game a little easier, was using the anti-gravity against your enemies. Like other platformers, enemies seem to be where you land after jumping

the government to infiltrate a robot do when they infiltrate a robot

mothership and do what most people mothership, destroy it. The story

over a large pit of deathly lasers. switch the gravity to the ceil-

To combat this, you could quickly ing, lure the enemy away from

is really not that important to the

game. In fact, you really have to dig deep to get anything out of it. But interesting. the story is not what makes Antipole

the platform and once you find

yourself at a safe place, quickly

switch the gravity back to normal and watch the enemy fall into the realizing this earlier. lasers. I did feel al little dumb not

ward run jump and shoot plat-

Antipole is not your straightfor-

former. Anipole allows the player to

control gravity in a certain area around Johnny Hurricane. This ability takes everything on the ground, enemies,

meter recharges for another 3 seconds. The use of gravity takes Anipole

from anit-gravity to gravity, which

could cause, if your timing is right,

average platformer game that is made gravity. If you are a fan of platformer on the genre.

Once again, Anipole is an

heart pieces and bombs and flips them to the ceiling. This ability only lasts for a short amount of time, just about

from an average platform to something interesting. The gravity is used to find your way through the alien ship.

Johnny Hurricane to float by obstacles that are above and below him. Getting this timing down can be tough and frustrating at times, but that is what

interesting by the ability to manipulate games, Antipole is an interesting take

Pure Nintendo Nov. 2011 6

Top Five

Pure Nintendos Top Five Zelda games of all time

1: Legend of Zelda: Ocarina of Time - Ocarina of Time, like Super Mario 64, brought one of the most beloved franchises of all time into the third dimension (not the stereoscopic variety). The first time I played OoT I couldnt believe the scale and depth of the games world. The fact that the game also has some of the best boss battles and best dungeons of any Zelda game make this Zelda my number one. 2: Legend of Zelda: The Wind Waker - Although one of the more controversial Zelda games when it released, Wind Waker has easily made it into most Zelda fans top 5 Zelda games list. I recently finished playing Wind Wakers second quest and decided to get all the items, charts, hearts, and treasures. The games side quests are some of the most detailed and fun side quests of any game Ive played. Wind Wakers charm and graphical style stand out as some of the best in the series. 3: Legend of Zelda: A Link to the Past - A Link to the Past is my favorite of the 2D Zelda games mainly for its dungeons and overworld. The light/dark worlds were a ton of fun to explore and the boss battles are some of the most challenging of any Zelda game. I really think the 3D Zeldas have yet to reach the challenge of some of the 2D Zelda games. Skyward Sword may change that, but for right now, A Link to the Past is one of the best and most challenging in Zeldas history. 4: Legend of Zelda: Twilight Princess - Twilight Princess stands as one of my favorite Zeldas for a number of reasons. There are some very cool, unique items in Twilight Princess. I wont spoil them for those who havent played the game, but the items were great and implemented well for each boss battle. The graphics in Twilight Princess are also some of the best in the series both for the Gamecube and Wii versions. I also loved the wolf mechanic in the game and the storyline is one of the more well-developed in the series. 5: Legend of Zelda: Links Awakening - Its really hard to make a Top 5 Zelda game list because I honestly like all of them. Links Awakening is my favorite of the handheld Zelda games but Its also my favorite storyline of any Zelda game. The word that comes to mind with Links Awakening is unique. Its incredibly unique with its goombas, other Mario fare, and its crazy dialogue. The game also holds a tremendous amount of nostalgia for me since I played it a lot on the go growing up.

Could Skyward Sword make it onto this list? We will have to wait and see.

-Justin Sharp Owner

7 Pure Nintendo Nov. 2011