NGamer Issue 5

Issue 5 of NGamer is out now (10 years ago) and has Mark Green's review of Twilight Princess. He proclaims it the greatest Zelda game ever.

Unfortunately, this issue isn't yet archived digitally but I will get the Twilight Princess review typed up at some point.

Wii

The Legend of Zelda: Twilight Princess 97%
Wii Sports 82%
Gottlieb Pinball Classics 80%
Call of Duty 3 80%
Madden 07 80%
Tony Hawks: Downhill Jam 74%
Wii Play 70%
Rayman Raving Rabbids 70%
Barnyard 68%
Spongebob 60%
Cars 60%
Need for Speed Carbon 59%
Happy Feet 53%
Monster 4 x 4 51%
Rampage Total Destruction 32%
GT Pro Series 20%

There were also re-reviews of Red Steel & Monkey Ball for their PAL release.

Gamecube

Tombraider Legend 81%

DS

Yoshi's Island DS 85%
Winning Eleven 82%
Phoenix Wright 79%
Gunpey Reverse 78%
Elite Beat Agents 77%
Love Love Hamster 75%
Custom Robo Arena 62%
Kirby Squeak Squad 56%
Touch Detective 54%

Waddaya buying? (80%+ games)



Red Steel is a mindblowing 25p at CEX. I shall be returning to this soon (PS4 distracted me)
Super Monkey Ball Banana Blitz is £3 at both CEX and MusicMagpie. Going to grab this over Xmas.
Legend of Zelda: Twilight Princess can be had for a fiver at CEX. Still need to finish this myself.
Wii Sports - we all own this right?
Yoshi's Island DS - this goes for £8 at CEX and is the priciest game of the month. I recall this game getting a fair bit of stick yet it seemed to review well here.
It's safe to say none of us are importing Winning Eleven on the DS...
Tomb Raider Legend is about £4 but can be had cheaper on Other Formats. Anyone play this? I'm playing the 2013 reboot at the moment and don't think I really need to check this out.

Surprised at the scores for Elite Beat Agents (£6) and Phoenix Wright (£15), two much-loved titles that are talked about today (ain't nobody proclaiming their love for Gottlieb Pinball Classics). I no longer have a DS and will be picking up Wii titles mostly from these NGamer revisits, but would you guys say these are worthy purchases?

I've been dreading this. I haven't even cracked the digital spine of issue 3 yet...

ZeroJones wrote:

I've been dreading this. I haven't even cracked the digital spine of issue 3 yet...

Lol these aren't forceful threads. Each thread can be dipped in and out of as time goes by, it's just to get a nice nostalgia kick from these old magazines and pick up the odd Wii game (or DS!). Have a little discussion about the early days of Wii. I've not bought anything other than Red Steel and even that is a game I struggle to dedicate time to, especially with far better games on hand. I'm creating the threads 10 years after the magazine was on shelves just for consistency's sake.

I really want to be able to participate fully, though. In some sense most of us are here because of our enjoyment of NGamer magazine and its heritage - I want to celebrate it as often and thoroughly as I can. But work and games get in the way, to say nothing of the wedding I'm involved in planning! I will catch up on 3 and 4 before the end of the year. After that...

Right, I'm gonna set aside some time on my day off to just pull out all of my NGamer issues and have a nice read, then post in the appropriate threads. I know there's no obligation as such, but I really have wanted to join in with all of these!

I expect I'll get nostalgic and sad though, especially now we're into Christmas and everything as well. I got emotional watching Elf for the millionth time the other day . . .

The issues are now going to be 5 weeks apart. Everyone's gotta get-a-goin! I'll start reading my copy in the next couple of days. I should probably add something to the Issue 4 post...

Rayman I did buy on launch and did play that Tomb Raider.

But Now:
The Legend of Zelda: Twilight Princess, I own this on Cube, Wii and Wii U HD
Call of Duty 3, One of the worst CODs and I wouldn't go back to old one but will play IW over the 5 free days on PS4
Madden 07, Same as above but more so being a sports game and I do want to play a good new sports games be it NFL, Football or MLB as I hear the Show is brilliant but then I remember I have NBA 2k16 on PS4 thanks to plus.

What your saying about the prices in CEX and the like are great, sometimes I do think what if I didn't buy this new PS4 game but see what I can buy instead and end up doing a pick up video of it all. Knowing me, instead of buying likes of Red Steel at 25p, I'd just buy Fire Emblem and it be the worst pick up video ever with one game in it.

Hmmmmmm... said Siegward... I think it's about this time I started getting a bit... concerned. Don't get me wrong, I love the Wii's library - a quick check on my favourite games list shows that a load of modern masterpieces came out for it, and certainly reading the Twilight Princess review shows that. However, I was a little concerned about motion control being unsuitable and "un-fun" for proper games, and I do worry that, in this first real set of reviews, there are marks taken off for both "having motion controls tacked on" and "not making the most of the motion controls".

On the other hand, I do still have great memories of Zelda and Wii Sports - maybe not Red Steel - and I wish I'd picked up Wii Play, if only for the pool sim. And one of my favourite lines from this issue from the man Castle, which I paraphrase all the time, is his Bush Administration World Map:

Spoiler:

I still remember picking this issue up on the way back from work on my eighteenth birthday, a job which I'd coincidentally just been let go from that shift. I was raging about that, but this cheered me up a bit. I loved the competitions at the head of each page. Greener dressed as Santa was another highlight.

Jimbob wrote:

Hmmmmmm... said Siegward... I think it's about this time I started getting a bit... concerned. Don't get me wrong, I love the Wii's library - a quick check on my favourite games list shows that a load of modern masterpieces came out for it, and certainly reading the Twilight Princess review shows that. However, I was a little concerned about motion control being unsuitable and "un-fun" for proper games, and I do worry that, in this first real set of reviews, there are marks taken off for both "having motion controls tacked on" and "not making the most of the motion controls".

On the other hand, I do still have great memories of Zelda and Wii Sports - maybe not Red Steel - and I wish I'd picked up Wii Play, if only for the pool sim. And one of my favourite lines from this issue from the man Castle, which I paraphrase all the time, is his Bush Administration World Map:

Spoiler:

Yeah I agree and although Zelda is a hefty ol' game, it's a Gamecube game really. Can you imagine the Wii launch window without Twilight Princess? It would definitely be lacking that meaty game every launch needs. Playing Red Steel in 2016, it feels (and looks) like a PS2 game. I've been on the PS4 a lot lately but need to drag myself back to the Wii, particularly to Red Steel - I just find the sword fighting bits so tedious.

In previous years I've dug out all the Christmas issues during December- this year I'll grab issues 3-5 instead and read them when I finally get a day off

Drunkalilly wrote:

this year I'll grab issues 3-5 and read them

Okay so it might be 2017, by I finally sat down and read my copy of issue 5, reliving the Wii launch. What a time! A new Zelda, an innovative multiplayer curio, a Mario on the horizon . . . imagine achieving those heights again.

Greener's talk of Wii as an event, and something new, kicked off an issue that even a decade after the fact is buzzing with energy and excitement. Isn't it odd how reading that mag, it feels like the Wii's unprecedented success was guaranteed from the start. The power of positivity, people.