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Nintendo Power V257 is the August 2010 issue of Nintendo Power. Features this month include Dragon Quest IX: Sentinels of the Starry Skies (which was also reviewed), Driver San Francisco and Ōkamiden. There was also an article about ten overlooked games that the magazine felt deserved another spotlight.
Power Up[]
"A Flight of Fantasy": Final Fantasy: The 4 Heroes of Light does not seem to fit anywhere among the numbered games in the main series of the Final Fantasy Franchise. Still, it has plenty of elements from past titles that clearly show it belongs in the famed collection of games. Final Fantasy: The 4 Heroes of Light is not a remake, it's a brand new game with a fresh storyline. It is heavily inspired by retro Final Fantasy titles, though. There is a heavy emphasis on gathering clues from townspeople, as opposed to blunt announcements and cutscenes directing the players to their next destination. Players can also expect to explore dungeons without a map and to carry a small, inconvenient amount of items. One sort of new game mechanic is the Crown system. In the Crown system, characters can change their abilities by donning different hats. You can upgrade hats for a versatile character and you can even switch hats between battles if it suits you. An interview with Takashi Tokita, the game's director, followed this article.
Features[]
"Why Aren't You Playing This?"[]
Nintendo Power took a look at ten recently released Wii games that they felt deserved more attention:
- Muramasa: The Demon Blade
- Final Fantasy Crystal Chronicles: The Crystal Bearers
- Klonoa
- A Boy and His Blob
- Resident Evil: The Darkside Chronicles
- Silent Hill: Shattered Memories
- MadWorld
- Dead Space Extraction
- Tatsunoko vs. Capcom: Ultimate All-stars
- Little King's Story
Departments[]
- Pulse: Chris Slate commented on the risky releases of Sin and Punishment: Star Successor and Dragon Quest IX: Sentinels of the Starry Skies and praised the Wii and Nintendo DS for redefining what people would usually consider a game. He asked readers for their opinion on Nintendo's E# announcements. Meanwhile, readers considered new ideas for Yoshi fruit.
- Previews: The games previewed this month were Crafting Mama, Epic Mickey, Galactic Taz Ball, Guilty Party, Harvest Moon: Grand Bazaar, Lost in Shadow, Monster Tale, Scooby-Doo! and the Spooky Swamp, Sid Meier's Pirates!, Super Scribblenauts and Tom Clancy's H.A.W.X. 2
- Power Profiles #37: Interview with Warren Spector, a producer of numerous popular PC games like System Shock and Dues Ex. He currently heads Junction Point Studios and is in charge of the hotly anticipated Epic Mickey.
- Playback: A look back at Final Fantasy Adventure, an adventure game for the Game Boy, released in November 1991. In the sidebar, the magazine also covered Sword of Mana, an updated version of the Game Boy game.
- Community: Aaron Burke of the Minibosses, an NES cover band, spoke to Nintendo Power about a recent lively tenth anniversary show and explained the band's current status. Though they only play a few shows now and then (literally three in 2009), the band is intent on playing much more shows in the future. In other community stuff, Richard Clinton created a PC case mod in the size of Super Mushroom. He previously presented a computer case mod in the shape of the Black mage from Final Fantasy in Volume 240
- Next Month: Nintendo Power's next issue is a major game guide for notable games released in the Fall (as well as Winter and the next year).
Reviews[]
Five Wii games and three DS games were reviewed. The feature review was for Sin & Punishment: Star Successor, which also got the highest score this month with a 9.0. Dragon Quest IX: Sentinels of the Starry Skies, the cover story for this issue, also got reviewed by press time and got the same score as Sin & Punishment: Star Successor.
In the Review Archives section, which lists every review score from the past year, two games that did not get reviewed were discussed: 100 Classic Books (they didn't really know how to review it) and GTI Club Supermini Festa! (there is no apparent reason why it wasn't reviewed, though as an apparent late 90's arcade racing game throwback, it is seemingly "not quite old-school enough to be charming").
- Please use the symbols next to each heading to sort the games by "title", "score", "console", "reviewer" and "ESRB rating".
Title | Score | Console | Reviewer | ESRB Rating |
---|---|---|---|---|
Dragon Quest IX: Sentinels of the Starry Skies | 9.0 | DS | Casey L | |
LEGO Harry Potter: Years 1-4 | 7.5 | Wii | Justin C. | |
Puzzle Quest 2 | 7.5 | DS | Carolyn G. | |
Sin & Punishment: Star Successor | 9.0 | Wii | Steve T. | |
The Last Airbender | 7.5 | DS | Chris H. | |
The Last Airbender | 6.0 | Wii | Chris H. | |
Tournament of Legends | 7.0 | Wii | Randy N. | |
Toy Story 3: The Video Game | 7.5 | Wii | Justin C. |
Images[]
Staff (Fellowship of the Fygg)[]
- EDITOR IN CHIEF Chris Slate
- EXECUTIVE EDITOR Steve Thomason
- SENIOR EDITOR Chris Hoffman
- ASSOCIATE EDITOR Justin Cheng
- ART DIRECTOR John Seeger Gilman
- CONTRIBUTING DESIGNER Rebekah Lane
- CONTRIBUTING EDITORS Patrick Cunningham, Carolyn Gudmundson, Andrew Hayward, Casey Loe, Nathan Meunier, Randy Nelson, George Sinfield, David F. Smith, Phil Theobald
- COPY EDITOR Candace Cunningham
- LICENSING MANAGER Frances Wall Jha
See also[]
External links[]
- Volume 257 Table of Contents (PDF)
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