Nintendo Reality Technical Specifications
The Nintendo Reality is a rectangular white console with black trim and a black logo/design on top that incorporates a sort of circular pattern along with the new sleek Nintendo lettering. It's slightly larger than the Virtua, but also shorter, taking up a few square inches more real estate when placed on top of something. It has the same Blu-Ray discs and inputs as its competitors, though the design of the box itself is somewhat “cleaner”, with the ports and disc drive more discreet, and no cameras to speak of. The console is the first Nintendo legacy console since the SNES that doesn't have backward compatibility with its predecessors. Nintendo and Sony cite cost-cutting as a reason for not including backward compatibility, though many believe it's a ploy to encourage people to purchase digital games, which are included on the digital store from day one (and if you've purchased Sapphire/Wave/Ultra Nintendo/SNES/NES titles, you can download them immediately, you don't have to re-buy them). The console does play Blu-Ray and DVD movies, but not music CDs. It has a 1TB hard drive, the same as the Apple Virtua, in both the base and VR versions.
The Nintendo Reality is more powerful than the Apple Virtua by a decent margin, though practically, it's not that much more impressive in terms of graphics, except for specifically designed first-party exclusives. The Reality's custom CPU, codenamed “Integra”, is an octo-core setup with each core running at 2.3 GHz, and its GPU, a Radeon chip similar to OTL's PS4, runs at right around 1 Ghz. The Reality is capable of 2.75 teraflops of processing power, with a decent chunk of this used to power the system's VR suite (though this processing power can be shifted elsewhere if the VR isn't in use). This puts it almost halfway between OTL's PS4 and PS4 Pro, and the system is capable of taking advantage of that power with the 4K TVs coming into use around this time, though not to the same degree as OTL's PS4 Pro. The Reality utilizes a controller quite similar to the Sapphire before it, a controller not all that dissimilar from OTL's Switch Pro controller, complete with an enhanced rumble feature. However, the VR set includes a pair of motion controllers that are similar to OTL's PS Move controllers, though ITTL they do get compared to the iTwin controllers. These aren't intended to be used for non-VR games like the iTwin/Virtua controllers can be (though it is possible to use them since they share the same buttons). The Reality's controller lacks the L4/R4 functionality of the Virtua controller, but this does help save on costs, with the Reality controller priced at $59.99 MSRP.
The Nintendo Reality is a beast, a powerhouse of a console capable of running games that look better than those of any other console on the market. However, because of the compromises Nintendo made, the company is able to sell the base console at $100 less than the price of the base Virtua at launch. Buying the VR-included model does bring it up to $499, but you get quite a bit included, including a VR game/demo suite, the extra motion controllers, and the headset itself. Designed by Gunpei Yokoi, the headset functions similarly to OTL's PSVR headset, with slightly less graphical detail, but also more fluid motion. Intended to be used with simpler games, Yokoi had years to perfect the headset, and initial reviews are extremely favorable. The Reality VR is no Virtual Boy: it's the next step in immersive gaming, and an excellent demonstration of the console's capabilities.
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Launch Title Summaries-
(The Reality's North American launch line-up consists of 18 games, plus a few more small titles not worth mentioning here.)
F-Zero: FIRESTORM
(Authors' Note: The following game summary was given to us by the reader HeX! We made a few edits to the development/performance details to fit in with the narrative, but the gameplay and plot descriptions are entirely by him.)
F-Zero: FIRESTORM is a new entry in the F-Zero franchise, and entirely alien from any of its spiritual predecessors. Firestorm departs from the speedy, precise, and brutal racing that defined the series since its debut on the SNES in 1990, though the game is no less high-octane and intense. At its core, Firestorm is the happy marriage of an open-world adventure title, a 3D platformer, and a beat 'em up, taking the best elements of each and almost none of the bad. Players take control of the People's Champion himself, Captain Falcon, and have a deep combat system at their fingertips from the get-go, in a large part inspired by the characters moveset from the Super Smash Bros. series. Falcon comes equipped with all sorts of punches and kicks and built-in combos. A strong attack launches foes into the air, allowing Falcon to combo them up there, and giving him the ability to pull off the iconic "Knee of Justice". Some characters wielding blades or other blunt weapons may drop them upon death, giving Falcon a sword or bat to use for a short while; when fighting one such enemy, an input, if timed properly, will result in a brief-but-epic cutscene Captain grabbing the blade by its flat mid-swing and yanking it away from the foe for his personal use. To incentivize combat and the usage of these combos, the only way to regain health is by punching bad guys, which builds up a "Firestorm" meter. Once the meter is built up, it can be used in three ways: as a slow burn, boosting Falcon's attack power and engulfing him and his moves in flames; to regain health, based on how far the meter is filled; and as a finishing move, involving flashy flips and kicks and ending with a devastating Falcon Punch.
Just as integral to the gameplay as combat is platforming, using a system not dissimilar to the momentum-based physics seen in Sonic the Hedgehog, but to a far less pronounced degree. Falcon's top speed is difficult to achieve, but once it has, his jump, double-jump, and climbing skills are amplified by an ability to temporarily run up or along walls or to leap great distances in a single bound. Keep max speed for a few seconds, and the Raptor Boost is engaged; Captain Falcon becomes engulfed in flames and leaves behind trails of fire as he runs extremely fast. If he keeps his speed up he can travel great distances quickly and even run straight up walls, but if not he'll gradually slow down. The tradeoff for such immense speed is the loss of most control, and hairpin turns immediately end the boost mode.
During certain sections, Captain Falcon hops into his ship to race other characters on classic racing tracks in the F-Zero universe to prove himself or get something of theirs. These races are largely scripted, and rip their mechanics directly from F-Zero (2008).
Development on F-Zero: FIRESTORM was a quiet affair. What would eventually become the game was conceived of in late 2008, when Nintendo producer Kensuke Tanabe bought, played through, fell in love with, and completed Fallout: The Boneyard on his Sapphire. As someone who had spent a bit of time playing the old isometric RPG Fallouts here and there, Tanabe was blown away by the shocking transformation the franchise had taken to morph into a first-person action-adventure game with an enormous world just begging to be explored. As the seeds of inspiration were being planted in his brain, Nintendo found themselves at a junction point: what to do about F-Zero? Back in the '90s, a mildly successful side-scrolling beat 'em up starring Captain Falcon had appeared on the SNES, but ever since, the franchise had stuck to its racing roots. Now, no F-Zero game was ever bad, per say, but Nintendo's creative staff was beginning to grow tired of repeating the same thing over and over again. Shelving the entire franchise became a very real possibility by New Year's 2009, even with the outstanding success of the last game in the series at that point still fresh in their minds.
Enter Kensuke Tanabe.
Development on A Chef's Tale for the Sapphire was winding down, and, in need of a new project, he caught wind of the situation with Nintendo's premier racing series (after Mario Kart, of course). There was a blinding spark of inspiration, and Tanabe went straight to Katsuya Eguchi's office with his idea: an open world F-Zero game, one part racing game, one part old '90s beat 'em ups, and one part Super Smash Bros. His ideas were big, but they were just what F-Zero needed: a shot of originality sent straight to the vein. Work began immediately, but concepts for the game just kept on getting bigger and bigger, until it was deemed the Sapphire would be far too underpowered to hold everything they had planned. As luck would have it, Sony was tinkering away at the console that was next in line to the Nintendo throne. The Big N decided that F-Zero: Outworld (as it was then called) would be the perfect fit for a next-gen launch title, then. Nintendo's must-have launch title. The console called "Reality" would not launch with Mario or Link or Pikachu or Samus leading the way. While Apple clung to Sonic or Commander Keen with a deathgrip, Nintendo wanted to prove they were still top of the heap by headlining their biggest, most ambitious piece of hardware yet with a little-known IP and an untested new game style. No pop culture juggernauts or instantly recognizable titles.
Just a good game.
And a good game it was. When F-Zero: FIRESTORM hit shelves, it could barely stay on them long enough for people to realize it was there. The spinoff title would go on to sell more than ten million total copies, almost as much as every previous F-Zero game combined. Firestorm was met with outstanding critical acclaim across the board, becoming the best reviewed game of the Reality launch and one of the best titles of 2013, with reviews averaging in the mid 9s and plenty of perfect scores from a variety of sources. The biggest complaint by far was that the VR aspects of the game felt a bit "tacked on" ...which they were, Firestorm was not developed with VR in mind until well into the design process. As a result, the VR was a mixed bag, highly immersive but at some times unnatural. Motion sickness became a real concern if players used first-person VR mode for too long, due to the speed at which Captain Falcon moved. This was probably why Nintendo, though hyping up Firestorm quite lot in the months preceding the Reality's launch, refrained from making it the console's pack-in title. Virtual Reality was the focus, after all, and Firestorm wasn't Nintendo's best foot forward into that field.
Chapter One
Race to Win
The game begins in the heat of the final laps of an F-Zero Championship Race, with Captain Falcon once again competing for the title of "Speed Demon" and the coveted Champion's Belt. Though a serious competition the race is more good-natured and friendly than one might expect for a championship, given that most of the racers are all good friends. Captain Falcon volleys playful banter back at everyone, though he lingers in flirting with Lady LeChique, someone he's very clearly romantically interested in, while she's somewhat indifferent. Falcon easily wins the race, humiliating his on-again, off-again bumbling nemesis, Samurai Goroh by stealing victory from his grasp. After the victor's ceremony, Falcon throws a wild party at his Batcave-esque mansion and garage, and passes out on his couch. When he wakes up the next morning, a new holo-mail is queued on his helmet, which he watches, revealing a dark, cloaked figure. He calls himself the Hood, and claims to be a high-ranking underworld overlord in need of a bounty hunter. Falcon protests, saying he left that kind of life behind a long time ago, but the Hood threatens him with revealing the star racer's dark past to the F-Zero Racing Organization, which would result in the revoking of all of the Captain's awards and trophies and a permanent ban from racing. With no choice but to comply, Falcon is given a list of names, mostly his fellow racers, but mostly his fellow racers that were on the shady side. Captain Falcon is to incapacitate or, if necessary, kill, these targets in one week, or his past is to be revealed and his life is ruined.
Chapter Two
Shadows
Sector I: Port Town
Port Town is, as far as things go, the most straightforward and linear sector in the game, a pseudo-tutorial without any hand-holding. Captain Falcon's hideout is fully explorable, chock full of easter eggs from across the F-Zero series and other assorted Nintendo franchises. By far the most interesting part of his house are the Champion Difficulty and 100% completion bonuses, which are hidden away in the game room on the second floor of the building. For beating the game on Champion (no easy task), players are rewarded with a slightly slimmed-down version of the original F-Zero for SNES; for collecting every item and achievement and completing every side quest, a model F-Zero racer is unlocked that allows players to train for races on virtual, procedurally-generated tracks against ghost racers. The city of Port Town itself is decently big, dotted with towering skyscrapers and glass pyramids in a Blade Runner-meets-Ghost in the Shell aesthetic that carries on through the rest of the game, though the skyline itself is dominated by a massive R.O.B. construction robot and the space harbor that surrounds it. Blood Falcon, the Captain's much more dangerous evil nemesis, has taken over the usually peaceful city streets of Port Town, and has even commandeered the harbor and R.O.B. Captain Falcon must first clean up the ground level by taking down Blood Falcon's gang of crooks and hoodlums, then scale the R.O.B. to reach his foe's stolen ship. On the decks of the SS Eagleland, the two Falcons do battle. After defeating Blood, the way to Mute City opens.
Chapter Three
The Greatest City in the Universe
Sector II: Mute City
Mute City is massive. A metropolis the size of Hyrule City from The Legend of Zelda: Hero Eternal functions as the game's hub, though it's far more than that. The city is bursting with things to do, people to see, places to explore. Sidequests abound, many being simple fetchquests, but a few special ones stand out with the caliber of OTL Majora's Mask's Anju and Kafei quest. An entire subsection, Casino Royale Mute City is frequently cited as one of the best places in F-Zero: FIRESTORM to use the Reality's VR functions, not even to really play the game but to just walk around the immersive, carefully designed world. Upon entering Mute City for the first time, players are given a number of main story quests to accomplish: orders from Falcon's employer to take down the murderous Skull, who's been wreaking havoc across Mute City; to uncover more about the mysterious Shadow Million organization, which seems to have its grimy fingers in everything from Port Town to Mute City; and to collect bounties on smaller perps by going to police stations and looking them up on wanted posters. The last item on that list was specifically made with the goal of having players lose themselves in exploring Mute City and not simply skipping over huge (but otherwise completely optional) portions of the game.
Captain Falcon eventually tracks down the Skull in a seedy part of town, but he's accidentally spotted. The Skull hops into a nearby hovercar, and the Captain does as well, following him on a high-speed chase into the heart of Mute City, Silence Square. Totalling his vehicle, the Skull manages to slip into the Shard, the city's most iconic building, leading Falcon on a chase up the elevator shafts to the roof. The two fight, and Captain Falcon ends up hurling the Skull over the edge to his doom. Following this, Mute City is able to reopen its ports to other planets, allowing the player to choose from a triad of possible next locations to go to: Red Canyon, White Slopes, or Big Blue.
Chapter Four
Worlds to Explore
Sector III: Red Canyon
While the order of the three new planets can be selected in any order, according to official canon Red Canyon is the next step. Here, Falcon must traverse a fairly linear canyon to find Samurai Goroh, who is revealed to actually be far smarter than previously thought. His bumbling, idiot self was a facade, a ruse to throw off the scent while he built his own secret criminal organization, the yakuza-esque Dragon's Claw. Thugs from this group line Red Canyon, armed with swords and some even clad in traditional samurai armor. Along the way, the Captain is assaulted with falling rocks, a raging river, and the remnants of a long-forgotten ancient civilization with all of its booby traps still intact and deadly. The boss fight with Goroh is straight out of OTL's F-Zero GX's story mode in a two-lap race around the canyon.
Sector IV: White Slopes
This is the next world in canonical order of selection. The section explorable is a massive ski resort complex, with a Swiss alpine motif. In addition to plenty of ski resort staples, there is also an indoor water park (with working slides and a few minigames) and the most impressive portion, the halfpipe and slopes. The former is reminiscent of a Tony Hawk Pro Skater stage, where Falcon can pull off tricks and combos to get high scores. The latter is made up of four separate slopes, leveling up from "Easy" (and the quote-unquote "tutorial"), to "Medium," to "Hard," and finally to "Expert." In regards to the story, when Falcon arrives the resort is in shambles due to the actions of Zoda, a mutant-android hybrid whose programming has gone haywire. The Hood reveals that Zoda is his creation, a first attempt at creating a loyal hitman from scratch that went horribly awry. He needs the Captain to put it down, not because of the havoc its wreaking but the fact that the havoc might be traced back to him. Falcon is joined for a large part of this sector by Lady LeChique, with the two flirting nonstop from beginning to end.Eventually, after Falcon helps clean up the resort a little, LeChique challenges him to a race down the slopes.
Things soon go south, however, as about halfway down the mountain a distant explosion can be heard, followed by an avalanche that separates the two and sends Captain Falcon down a dangerous alternate path, snowboarding down the mountain ahead of the tumbling snow in a moment similar to OTL's Sonic Adventure. Soon enough, the Captain catches a glimpse of Zoda, who is skiing down the mountain and had set off the avalanche behind them both. This is where the boss fight begins, and the player must ram Zoda into obstacles on the mountain as they sled down. After doing so five times, Falcon tackles Zoda out of the way of the avalanche and captures him. He lies to the Hood about "terminating" the creature, having instead set it free in the woods a few miles from civilization.
Sector V: Big Blue
The same situation of stage chronology applies here. Big Blue, while usually a tranquil paradise, is marked with horror as the bounty hunter Beastman attempts to track down and murder Bio Rex, Falcon's next target, in cold blood, his mind having finally snapped under pressure. Their battles have left the 1950s retro-future themed city in tatters, with tourists and locals alike scattered and terrified. The Captain helps out many of these people, bringing the tropical Caribbean feelings back to Big Blue slowly but surely. This section has the only underwater portions of the game, where Octoman lends you his submarine to take down Bio Rex--but only after defeating Beastman atop the tallest ship in the city. While Beastman is a traditional hand-to-hand fight, Bio Rex must be hit five times with Octomissles to knock him out and take him in, all while dodging wreckage of a sunken spaceship all around them.
Chapter Five
Charbroiled
Sector VI: Firestorm
Regardless of the order Red Canyon, White Slopes, and Big Blue are selected before this point, this is where all three of the branches link up. This is supposedly the final level, with the player facing down the toughest platforming and combat segments in the game. Depending on how many side quests have been completed, Falcon is either sent here to get the villainous Black Shadow simply as his next bounty, or as the head of the Shadow Million organization. There are no NPCs here, making the area feel hollow and abandoned and turning every encounter into a jumpscare for the player. The Firestorm Facility was a place scientists were studying the effects of prolonged heat and sun exposure, and as such the facility is in actuality a space station orbiting frighteningly close to a nearby star. The facility seems to be collapsing in on itself around Falcon as he goes. Eventually, Black Shadow is taken on, first in a traditional hand-to-hand battle and then in a footrace to the entrance after Shadow triggers the self-destruction of the station (similar to classic Metroid) and the pair must get out before they die. Falcon wins, however, and returns to Mute City with Black Shadow in chains. But then, Falcon's mysterious employer reveals himself upon their arrival: Deathborn. It turns out that Deathborn blackmailed Falcon to not only get him to do his dirty work, but to also get the celebrity racer out of his house so he could steal the F-Zero Champion's Belt (an optional side quest investigates this matter). He combines it with his own Underworld Champion's Belt to turn himself into a demigod. He then busts out all of Falcon's captured bounties from over the course of the game (he wanted them all in one spot, that's why he hired Falcon in the first place) and injects them with superpowers, setting them out to wreak havoc on Mute City. Falcon must take them all down in hand-to-hand combat, absorbing their powers after doing so to power up enough and have a fighting chance to beat Deathborn. When the final boss is gone from Mute City, Falcon "Super Saiyans" into Golden Falcon (his outfit looks similar to OTL's Smash Bros. golden alternate costume), and heads off to fight his final foe in the most dangerous track in all of F-Zero: Outer Space.
Chapter Six
Endgame
Sector VII: Outer Space
This section of the game has two parts: the ending, and the true ending. Over the course of the game, there are six suit upgrades for Falcon to collect. If the player hasn't found them all, they will fight Deathborn hand-to-hand, and while they are able to escape, Deathborn is as well, and Falcon's return to Mute City and Port Town in the final cutscene is a bit more unfulfilled. However, if the player has found all six suit upgrades, there is a transition after the first fight into a deathrace on the Outer Space track. Falcon defeats Deathborn and hurls him out into space, supposedly killing him for good this time. Either way the player goes about it, there are very few differences in the end cutscene, where Falcon monologues for a bit, gets a date with Lady LeChique and a good time with his friends, and then hops into the Blue Falcon and speeds off through Port Town. But if the player got the true ending, they're treated to another scene of Deathborn floating out in space, motionless and covered in frost. The camera pans in slowly on his face, and just before the camera cuts to black, his blood-red eye snaps open.
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As stated above, F-Zero: FIRESTORM receives a flurry of critical acclaim. The company's boldness to go in such a strange direction with a mid-level property after the last game was so highly praised for sticking to what the series knew best was impressive. It also created a whole new generation of F-Zero fans. Suddenly, Metroid's most serious competition in the science-fiction market under Nintendo's vast umbrella was not Squad Four or Star Fox, but an unlikely entry in an unlikely franchise that was almost dead in the water. F-Zero: FIRESTORM would go on to become the highest-selling Reality game of the year, and would remain in the top ten for many more to come. Nintendo's focus on the franchise became serious. There were many sequels in store, not just to the traditional racers but also the Big N's newest, hottest open world video game.
"F-Zero: FIRESTORM was one of the biggest games of 2013 (considered to be one of the best years for gaming in history). It was the biggest game on the Reality until the release of Squad Four: Betrayal. And it was the first true step towards harnessing the power of VR any company took. Sure, the motion sickness was a problem, but if you look past all that, you can see for the first time a truly immersive, living, breathing world that you can loose yourself in for hours on end, playing poker in the Casino Royale or racing time-trial ghosts in virtual F-Zero tracks. Pretty impressive for a game that wasn't originally supposed to be on the Reality at all."
-MatPat, in the 2019 YouTube video Game Theory: Game of the Year? More like Best Games of the DECADE!
“The best game I've played in a long time, it combines open world action with fast-paced racing and is probably the most content-rich game of all time. It gets a perfect 5/5 from me, and it's the early favorite for my personal Game of the Year. What more is there to say?"
-Alex Stansfield, in the GamesOverMatter review of F-Zero: FIRESTORM
GameRankings Score: 95.01%
Pandora's Tower
An action-RPG developed by Ganbarion, this game has many similarities to the title released IOTL, but features significantly better graphics and a more fleshed out tower, as well as a more detailed story (due to the developers having more time to work on the game). The basic plot and gameplay are similar to OTL's title, with a protagonist named Atheron (name changed from OTL's Aeron due to it being too similar to the name of Sega's heroine Aerio) who seeks to rescue his lover Elena from a curse. In order to do so, he must ascend a tower full of puzzles and monsters in order to gather flesh for Elena to eat to free her from the curse. He wields a chain weapon that has a wide variety of uses, and is somewhat inspired by the whip from the Lash Out series, so its mechanics are somewhat altered from IOTL and it can be used in more versatile ways, which enables the tower itself to be more complex and larger. Like IOTL's game, the player is able to develop Atheron's relationship with Elena, which alters the ending and also the strength of the services that Elena can perform for the player, which include upgrading weapons and finding treasure. Pandora's Tower also draws inspiration from OTL's The Legend Of Zelda: Tower Of Sentinels, which was the major launch title for the Nintendo Connect. This means that every floor in the tower is in some way its own small dungeon, and players can even return to previous floors to gather treasure and open up new secrets. The game features multiple endings, which are affected both by the player's relationship with Elena and their performance in the tower's various trials and challenges, with seven total endings in all, ranging from a completely happy ending to a very tragic one, and everything in between TTL's Pandora's Tower is a much more fleshed-out and developed game than OTL's Wii title. Graphics, sound, gameplay, and storyline have all been improved across the board, with the developers encouraged to create a “Zelda-like experience” due to the fact that there's no Zelda title at launch for the Reality. The game even allows players to use the VR to search rooms and battle certain enemies. Overall, the game is considered one of the year's best action RPGs, and is another major star of the Reality launch. North American sales are merely decent, but the game is a major hit in Japan.
GameRankings Score: 86.90%
Wipeout Reality
Psygnosis developed this latest Wipeout game as their first next-gen foray in the series, intended to be a sort of tech demo game for VR racing. It's not nearly as content rich as recent games in the series, with only 12 total tracks and less cars than normal, but it's visually stunning and moves incredibly fast, and is considered absolutely breathtaking in VR. The game itself is fairly basic, with the standard grand prix and time trial modes, along with a few battle modes and of course online gameplay. There's no adventure or storyline mode to be had, but there are some character bios for the racers. Overall, Wipeout Reality is considered a good racer, if a bit bare bones, and scratches the itch that many people have for a full-fledged racer on the Reality, since F-Zero: FIRESTORM only has small racing segments and isn't a full racing experience. Sales are surprisingly strong, making it the second fastest selling Wipeout title ever, and Psygnosis begins work on a proper next-gen title that will be multiplatform and will include many more racers and tracks.
GameRankings Score: 81.21%
Lucky Once
A title by David Cage, about a man who is tasked with stopping a terrorist attack, and has a number of ways to go about doing so. It's more heavy on story than gameplay, as is typical for a David Cage game, but does have some action/shooting sequences at pivotal moments of the game, with the protagonist's storyline responses sometimes affecting their performance in the action sequences, and vice-versa. The protagonist is able to choose from a variety of violent/non-violent methods to stop the terrorist attack, but each has its own set of consequences, and there's no right way to go about it (but there are a few wrong ways). The game attempts to explore the idea of morality in the face of a horrible threat against human lives, and what it's worth to stop such violent acts, but the narrative is somewhat clunky, and even the voice acting, which is performed by a mix of minor celebrities and voiceover pros, gets some criticism. Graphically beautiful and highly ambitious, the game has serious flaws and was rushed to launch, and ultimately ends up being a major disappointment that's overshadowed by the other launch titles on the system. Its initial sales at launch are actually fairly good, but the game can't shake the poor reviews and bad word of mouth.
GameRankings Score: 59.54%
Locked And Loaded
A somewhat simplistic third person shooter with an arcade-style feel that's somewhat light on story but features strong action gameplay (in sort of an inverse of Lucky Once). It's intended to be a sort of Duality-inspired game and while it doesn't quite reach those heights, it's a nice little showcase for the Reality's capabilities, with some of the best VR of any of the launch games. Sales are fairly low but the game would remain a popular budget title throughout its lifespan.
GameRankings Score: 79.10%
Cyberwar 4
Cyberwar 4 comes to the Reality at launch (and would be released on Apple's Virtua console on the same day). It includes some of the game's single-player and multiplayer DLC, though the biggest upgrade would be the graphics. The game has smoother graphics than the Nexus and Virtua versions, though it's not a huge difference. Cyberwar 4 doesn't include any support for VR at launch, but would get support via a major update in 2014 (Psygnosis didn't want the game to have crappy, rushed VR). Overall, this is the second best selling title of the Reality launch in North America, and is the best reviewed version critically as well.
GameRankings Score: 94.71%
MLB 13
The popular baseball franchise comes to the Reality, appearing as a launch title (IOTL, the franchise called MLB isn't a Sony franchise, but an Acclaim one, and is a multiplatform game). It's an improved and polished version of the one released for the last-gen consoles and Nexus earlier in the year, and though it's a bit late for baseball season, it achieves good reviews and sales. It's not Ken Griffey: Hall Of Fame, but it's good enough for the Reality.
GameRankings Score: 83.90%
Assassin's Creed III
The same game as the Nexus and Virtua versions, with slightly better graphics. Ubisoft cheaped out on DLC inclusion, not giving Reality owners any extra incentive to buy the game: this is the base title. That knocks the review score down a bit, though this is still the best version of the game.
GameRankings Score: 87.71%
Call Of Duty: Coalition
This one does get a bit of included DLC, mostly bonuses for multiplayer. It's an average Call Of Duty game and looks great on the Reality, though, like other launch titles, it doesn't support VR at first.
GameRankings Score: 84.22%
Prince Of Persia: Parallel Legends
Developed by Activision, this game is the latest in the rebooted Prince Of Persia series that began back in the 2000s, and is the first developed with eighth-generation consoles in mind. It not only sees the return of the Prince, but also features his queen Shana as a co-equal playable character. The two not only explore their own separate dungeons, but also team up to explore certain dungeons together, each with their own set of unique abilities. While the game is positioned as another sort of “Zelda-like” game in the absence of a real Legend Of Zelda at launch for the Reality (while also releasing on the Nexus and Virtua), it's a bit of a failure for a number of reasons. Though the graphics are great, they're not revolutionary, and other Reality titles, including games like Pandora's Tower, actually exceed it in most aspects in this regard. The game also suffers from “Donkey Kong 64 syndrome”, in that players are forced to go back with Shana to collect things that the Prince already collected, creating a lot of repetitive segments. The plot is also somewhat basic, involving a generic threat to the kingdom in the form of yet another evil ancient king seeking revenge, and though Shana gets some decent character development, the plot's progression is slow and predictable. This game is another disappointment, and is seen as a step down for the series in general.
GameRankings Score: 67.03%
Duke Nukem In Vegas
This game launches on the Nexus initially, and then the Reality at launch a few weeks later. It's an FPS featuring Duke Nukem stopping an invasion of pigs who have interrupted his Las Vegas vacation, and features the typical Duke Nukem gameplay: ultraviolent and sexy FPS with lots of one-liners from Duke. There's the ability to gamble and hook up with hookers throughout the game, as Duke lives it up in Sin City while blasting aliens into next week. The game spoofs all of the famous Las Vegas attractions, and Penn Jillette even took time out from his job as a senator to appear as a parody of himself in the game, which generates some controversy in the news considering the game's violent and sexual content and the reprehensible (but hilarious) actions of his character. This is a sophomoric, generic, and predictable FPS title, but that's just what Duke Nukem fans have come to expect, and the game manages to get decent reviews.
GameRankings Score: 70.50%
Remember Me
Developed by the same team as OTL's cult classic, but published by Ubisoft instead of Capcom (which enables it to remain a multiplatform game ITTL), Remember Me is an adventure title about a protagonist named Nilin seeking to recover her lost memories while manipulating the memories of others. The combat and puzzle gameplay from OTL are largely intact in this game, along with the game's primary gimmick of stealing and replaying the memories of others to advance in the story and enhance Nilin's abilities. The game features more RPG elements and a more narrative-heavy story, and delves even deeper into the characters of Nilin and her mother Scylla to make the player empathize more with both of them. It also introduces a few new characters into the narrative, including a young hacker named Russ and an assassin named Asuka. The combat is also improved from OTL's title, giving the players more components to use with which to generate combo moves, and also improving enemy AI to force the player to vary up their attacks. This, along with the improved graphics from being an eighth-generation game instead of a seventh generation one, make Remember Me a better received game than IOTL, and it does quite well commercially, selling around half a million copies in its first week of release (with around 80,000 of those on the Reality, 150,000 on the Virtua, and 250,000 on the Nexus). It's also much better received critically than IOTL, assuring the continuation of the series.
GameRankings Score: 82.11%
Batman: Dark Legend
Quite similar to the Virtua version of the game. It does include VR in certain segments, but not the entire game.
GameRankings Score: 83.82%
Shadowrun: Archaica
The Reality version, with its greatly improved graphics, is considered the definitive console version of the game.
GameRankings Score: 81.14%
Grapple: Settle It In The Ring
Not much to say about this port. The Reality version gets some extra DLC, which is nice.
GameRankings Score: 80.50%
Guacamelee!
Nintendo actually pushes this one fairly heavily on the digital store, and it sells decently in the first week of release.
GameRankings Score: 89.00%
Nightmare Of Ammut-Ra
Identical to the Virtua version, and not a big seller on the Reality, with no included VR to speak of.
GameRankings Score: 77.54%
Child Of Light
Actually looks a bit better and smoother on the Reality, but other than that, nothing's changed here.
GameRankings Score: 86.71%
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June 10, 2013
The Nintendo Reality is launched worldwide, at an MSRP of $399.99 for the base console and $499.99 for the VR package. It doesn't come with any pack-in games, though the VR package has a disc with a few VR demos to help players acclimate to the VR capabilities of the console. The VR package is also sold separately for $149.99 so that players can upgrade to VR if they wish. The release is preceded by a wide advertising campaign, but not one as ubiquitous as the Virtua's. Nintendo and Sony reason that Nintendo fans will know all about the Reality launch thanks to extensive coverage online, and that they'll let their friends and family who may not be aware of the launch know. The Reality receives very good reviews from the gaming media, who are impressed with both the quality of the launch titles (particularly F-Zero: FIRESTORM, Pandora's Tower, and Wipeout: Reality, along with the Cyberwar 4 port) and the system's technical might, both in and out of VR mode. The console's $100 lower price also serves as an attractive sales point for the console, with gamers who just want to play and aren't yet interested in taking the VR leap impressed with the quality of the games outside of the VR functionality. The VR itself receives mostly positive reviews, though it's a bit of a mixed bag from game to game. It does help to further hype and push the console amongst intrigued casual players, some of whom are convinced to buy the system.
The Reality has an extremely successful launch in North America, pushing nearly two million consoles there in its first week of sales, along with around 500,000 in Japan and around 250,000 in Europe, for a total of 2.5 million units sold in its first week of worldwide release. About a third of those are the VR unit, while two-thirds of purchasers buy the cheaper base unit. While Nintendo is slightly dismayed that their first week of launch in Japan wasn't as successful as the Virtua's, the huge North American sales make up for it, and the Reality enjoys one of the best first weeks of sales for a game console of all time.
Here are the launch week sales figures for the 18 launch titles, based on North American sales (on a total of 1,705,886 first week units sold in North America):
F-Zero: FIRESTORM: 890,115
Cyberwar 4: 481,970
Call Of Duty: Coalition: 204,614
Assassin's Creed III: 166,302
Wipeout Reality: 145,412
MLB 13: 117,734
Lucky Once: 100,216
Remember Me: 81,515
Pandora's Tower: 68,816
Batman: Dark Legend: 68,240
Duke Nukem In Vegas: 50,216
Prince Of Persia: Parallel Legends: 39,547
Locked And Loaded: 32,496
Nightmare Of Ammut-Ra: 24,316
Grapple: Settle It In The Ring: 22,861
Shadowrun: Archaica: 20,885
Child Of Light: 17,350
Guacamelee!: 13,054
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June 10, 2013
Nintendo's top brass were gathered at E3, preparing to watch as the company's keynote speech was delivered. The mood was a jubilant one: the Reality had launched successfully around the world, and Nintendo's E3 keynote would not just be a series of upcoming game announcements, but a victory lap in which the Reality's success would be touted to a waiting crowd. This success, hoped Nintendo president Satoru Iwata, would be a self-fulfilling prophecy for the console that would lead to more hardware units pushed and more software sales.
The Nintendo executives were joined by someone who was no longer officially with the company, but who had returned to help work on the VR technology at the heart of the Nintendo Reality, while also working on one final game that would provide the perfect showcase for the Reality's tech and would hopefully provide millions of players around the world with hours upon hours of entertainment. Gunpei Yokoi's new game wasn't quite ready to show at this year's E3 (he estimated it would probably be finished sometime in 2015), but he was there to spend time with his friends, particularly Iwata, and perhaps he could even be persuaded to make an appearance on stage.
“Thank you again for coming, my friend,” said Iwata, bowing slightly to Yokoi.
“Thank you for inviting me,” replied Yokoi, who bowed lower to Iwata, a show of respect for the man who had gone from being a hard working game designer to being the head of Nintendo, and a show of continued friendship for the man who allowed him to return to provide one final gift to the company and to the video gaming world. “I'm glad the launch of the Reality has been a successful one.”
“It wouldn't have been, without your help,” said Iwata. Yokoi gracefully shook his head.
“No, I contributed very slightly, the Reality is an amazing console. It has a bit more technology than I would have preferred it to have, but the games are still fun, so I suppose I can live with all of those expensive parts inside the machine.”
Iwata laughed, remembering Yokoi's love of simplicity. He too was as surprised as anyone that Nintendo was still pushing cutting-edge graphical power in its games, but 25 years of working with Sony had changed Nintendo's philosophy somewhat. Nintendo still considered itself an innovator in fun, but working with Sony, and Ken Kutaragi in particular, had shown many at Nintendo that amazing fun could be paired with cutting-edge technology. While it made for more expensive hardware, it allowed Nintendo to provide as much fun as possible with absolutely no compromises, and even Iwata had trouble imagining a world in which Nintendo and Sony weren't partners in the industry.
And just as Iwata's mind dwelled on Ken Kutaragi, the man himself walked up to the two Nintendo legends, bowing and shaking both of their hands with an exuberant look on his face.
“This is just incredible, isn't it? E3 once again! I can't wait to show off some of these games, I think they're going to really impress everyone, right?”
“You're not the one making the games,” said Yokoi, with a more subdued expression.
“Ah, but he did make many of them possible,” said Iwata. “Remember, he is the one who came up with the SNES sound chip. He's the one who made it possible for us to partner with Sony.”
“I suppose so,” Yokoi replied. “So, Kutaragi-san, do you have any suggestions for the virtual reality goggles?”
“I'd like people to be able to watch movies on them,” said Kutaragi. “There are devices that can do that already, but it'd be a nice feature for our goggles to have.”
“Kutaragi-san imagines one day that people will be able to look around a movie like they're really there, but they would have to shoot movies differently to make that possible,” said Iwata.
“It would be very expensive to add that capability to the goggles,” said Yokoi. “It would have made the console cost hundreds of dollars more.”
“They can do it cheaply on a phone,” said Kutaragi, “though I guess that's not quite the same.”
As the three men continued to discuss the Reality and Nintendo's future, they were approached by Nintendo of America's president Shawn Layden, who was getting ready to present the company's keynote speech. Iwata, Yokoi, and Kutaragi all greeted him and wished him well, and he took some time to go over one last time with Iwata some of the points of his address.
“I'm planning just to give a really excited speech, thanking those in attendance who have already bought the Reality,” said Layden.
“Be sure to thank everyone, even if they haven't played a Nintendo game since the Famicom,” Iwata reminded him. “We're trying to sell the Reality to everyone, not people who've already bought it.”
“Of course, of course. I'll start by talking about the launch games, invite you on stage, you'll talk for a bit, then after a few minutes of launch hype, we go right into the new Star Fox.”
“It's going to be fun out there,” said Iwata, smiling. “It always is.”
“I'm jealous!” said Kutaragi with a laugh.
As Layden headed toward the stage to deliver Nintendo's keynote, Iwata thanked Yokoi one more time.
“Are you sure you don't want to join me on the stage?” asked Iwata. Yokoi humbly shook his head.
“I'm fine with being the man behind the curtain,” said Yokoi. “Besides, most of the people out there don't even know who I am.”
“Those who do really appreciate your work,” said Iwata. “As do I.”
“Thank you, my old friend.”
The two men exchanged one more handshake, then parted, as Iwata made his way to the backstage area to listen to the start of Layden's speech and prepare for his entrance.
“Good morning,” began Layden, as the crowd cheered wildly. “Welcome to Nintendo at E3 2013, and welcome to the beginning of the Reality era!”
The crowd cheered again as a brief hype video for the Reality launch played on the screen. When it concluded, Layden continued.
“Just a few hours ago, the Nintendo Reality launched worldwide, and reports indicate that it was one of the most successful game console launches of all time. And that's all thanks to you, the Nintendo fans, who have made this amazing success possible over the last 30 years. Even if you haven't bought the Reality yet, and hopefully by the end of this presentation we'll convince you that you should, those of you who have supported us from the original NES all the way to the Nintendo Sapphire, thank you from the bottom of all our hearts.”
Iwata listened and nodded in approval. It was another successful console launch for Nintendo. He didn't know it yet, but it would be the last one he'd get to enjoy.