61 Frames Per Second

September 2008 - Posts

• The Monkey's Paw of Pre-Order Bonuses?

  Posted by Bob Mackey

  And now, a conversation between me and the Internet: Internet: Hey, Bob; Chrono Trigger is coming out for the DS! Bob: That's good. Internet: But it's just a port with no major additions that will cost 40 dollars. Bob: That's bad. Internet: But you reserve it at GameStop, you get a free CD soundtrack! Bob: That's good. Internet: The bonus CD only has two songs. Bob: Can I go now? Read More... + DIGG + DEL.ICIO.US + REDDIT Posted Sep 30 2008, 08:00 PM with 5 comment(s) Filed under: pre-order bonuses, soundtrack, chrono trigger ds

• Darkwing Duck: Capcom's Secret Mega Man

  Posted by Bob Mackey

  Since we've all got Mega Man 9 on the brain--and because XBox 360 owners won't even get to play the game until tomorrow--there's never been a more appropriate time to talk about Capcom's 2D legacy.  Tragically, a good chunk of Capcom's 8-bit output will never be seen or played again outside of illegal methods or flea market acquirements; the rights to various Disney franchises, once held by the company, are now elsewhere, leaving us with quite a few orphaned and homeless games dating from the late 80s to the early 90s.  It doesn't look like Capcom or Disney is interested in bringing these titles back to life--and Disney especially seems to be fond of completely ignoring most of their older television animation--so all we're only left with memories, and the magic of emulation. Surprisingly, playing Mega Man 9 over the past week has caused memories of Capcom's Darkwing Duck to start leaking from my brain, so I went back to the game to find out why. The shocking truth? Darkwing is shamelessly similar to Mega Man--he even makes that same little cricket-y noise when he lands on his feet. But Darkwing (the game) lacks many of the accoutrements that can lower the blood pressure of the frustrated Mega Man player; there're no boss weaknesses, energy tanks, or robotic dogs to help shield you from certain death.  Darkwing does have a few more moves than Mega Man, but being able to shield yourself from projectiles and hang from certain objects only facilitates more scenarios where you will die.  Repeatedly. Read More... + DIGG + DEL.ICIO.US + REDDIT Posted Sep 30 2008, 06:30 PM with 3 comment(s) Filed under: capcom, nes, disney, mega man 9, retro, bob mackey, darkwing duck

• I'm 28 Years Old And I Think Nintendo Wall Decals Are Awesome

  Posted by Nadia Oxford

  Time to grind up Michelangelo's "David" and line a few kitty litter pans: art has a new standard to live up to. Parents are so quick to decorate their kids' bedroom walls with clowns and bunnies and other terrifying shit, but heaven forfend they even consider slapping up some Nintendo characters. Well, thanks to Blik, I'm going to make sure my kids know their roots, right down to the littlest babe. The choices for the decal sets ($75 each) include Donkey Kong, Super Mario Bros and New Super Mario Bros. Personally, I'd love to see more of a choice from Blik (and chances are that I will, someday), because I've never been fond of New Super Mario Bros' art style. Read More... + DIGG + DEL.ICIO.US + REDDIT Posted Sep 30 2008, 03:23 PM with 3 comment(s) Filed under: art, parenting, nadia oxford, koopas, game art, decals, blik

• Alternate Soundtrack: Castlevania III vs Bush

  Posted by Derrick Sanskrit

  So there's this election around the corner, right? All about choosing a new President for the United States or whatever, and I keep hearing people complain about how after this election they won't be able to rant about how much they hate Bush anymore. Personally I don't understand where they're coming from. I, for one, love Bush. Those guys rocked so hard throughout the 1990's and early 00's and anyone who hates on them just can't be my friend anymore. I've always been particularly smitten with their 1996 sophomore record Razorblade Suitcase, an emotionally dense powerhouse of crunched guitars, squealing feedback and ominous negative space. This album cries out for monsters, as demonstrated in the music videos for singles "Greedy Fly" and "Mouth", and monsters it shall receive in the form of Konami's 1990 classic Castlevania III: Dracula's Curse for the Nintendo Entertainment System. Read More... + DIGG + DEL.ICIO.US + REDDIT Posted Sep 30 2008, 11:30 AM with 2 comment(s) Filed under: alternate soundtrack, derrick sanskrit, nes, konami, castlevania, castlevania iii, bush

• What's in my MP3 Player: Castlevania II "Castle of Tears"

  Posted by Amber Ahlborn

  One of the things the Castlevania series is known for is its music. In fact, much like the Zelda series, there are some iconic tunes that tend to pop up again and again, songs like “Bloody Tears” which is the source of today's featured remix.  “Castle of Tears” by remixer DigiE is a fast paced in-your-face electronica mix, ready to be downloaded for your listening pleasure. Castlevania II was the first Castlevania game I ever played. I rented it and never finished it. I wandered around, collecting Dracula's body parts until I got to that point in the game where everybody got stuck. Earn yourself some Game Geek Cred and be the first person in comments to guess what point in the game stonewalled me. Damn those townsfolk and their crappy hints (and outright lies). Read More... + DIGG + DEL.ICIO.US + REDDIT Posted Sep 30 2008, 10:00 AM with no comments Filed under: castlevania, amber ahlborn, game music, what's in my mp3 player

• Facepalm: Gamer Grub Supports Your Cognitive Functions

  Posted by Cole Stryker

  Man, do I feel bad for the copywriter at Biosilo Foods. I've written ad copy for the worst of them, but can you imagine writing this whopper: Biosilo Foods is a young, progressive company that is set out to transform the food and beverage industry. With revolutionary innovation as the prime directive, Biosilo Foods is building a portfolio of new food and beverage categories. Ugh. How soul crushing must that brand management meeting have been. So, Biosilo has a new product offering called Gamer Grub. It's a snack for h4rdc0re gamers, ergonomically designed so you don't spill Cheeto dust all over your man-boobs (Gamer Joke!). I'm grubbin' it!      Action Pizza! Racing Wasabi! Strategy Chocolate! Sports PB&J! What, no Survival Horror Strawberry? No Cool Ranch Dating Sim? Read More... + DIGG + DEL.ICIO.US + REDDIT Posted Sep 30 2008, 12:00 AM with no comments Filed under: cole stryker, gamers, facepalm, gamer grub, biosilo

• Trailer Review: Retro Game Master

  Posted by John Constantine

  You know, not to be glib, but this is some meta shit right here. Follow me down the rabbit hole of abstraction, won’t you? Game Center CX is a show about a comedian pretending to be Japanese middle-manager who plays NES games in marathon sessions, with typically hilarious results. The show’s Americanized name is Retro Game Master, though the show currently has no distribution in the United States. XSEED games, a fairly new US game publisher that specializes in Japanese quirk, is publishing Retro Game Challenge, an English localization of GameCenter CX: Arino no Chōsenjō, a videogame made up of pretend NES games based on a show about a pretend man who plays real NES games. It boggles the mind! Read More... + DIGG + DEL.ICIO.US + REDDIT Posted Sep 29 2008, 07:00 PM with 2 comment(s) Filed under: john constantine, trailer review, game center cx, xseed, Retro game challenge

• Whatcha Playing: Weight of the Stone

  Posted by John Constantine

  Videogames are rich with memorable moments. Born of both play and story, there are those images, those brief passages of achievement, that are emblazoned in your memory: the first time you clear 100,000 points in Tetris, the dogs bursting through the window in Resident Evil, the booming march that begins to play after the baby metroid’s sacrifice during Super Metroid’s climactic battle with Mother Brain. We are tied to these events thanks not only to those games’ mechanical and artistic design but because of our agency in them. We facilitate these conclusions and, since the game is well-made, we feel them. Another classic: Solid Snake’s first fight with the cyborg ninja, Grey Fox. Like so much of the Metal Gear Solid series, this sequence is ludicrous: simplistic to play, overdramatic, over-everything. But when Grey Fox begins screaming, “Make me feel!” and your controller begins to shake in time with his uncontrollable gesticulations, the scene becomes something else. In 1998, rumble technology was still relatively new in home gaming, so having this drama reflected in the physical world made that much more of an impression. Every time Snake was kicked in the gut or when you landed a hit amidst this half-man’s yowling was tangible. I feel a lot like Grey Fox when I play videogames these days, particularly action fare. I want an action game to make me feel. Not necessarily a profound emotional reaction – though that’s always a plus – so much as a physical one. Read More... + DIGG + DEL.ICIO.US + REDDIT Posted Sep 29 2008, 05:00 PM with no comments Filed under: john constantine, whatcha playing, metroid, star wars, resident evil, metal gear solid, sega, lucasarts, tetris, yakuza, die hard arcade

• Play Bejeweled Inside World of Warcraft

  Posted by Cole Stryker

  The world's most addicting game just got addictinger. So you're waiting for your fellow clansmen to meet up at a waypoint before a raid and you've minimized the window to play a little Bejeweled. But when you pull up the WoW window, you find that some h4x0r pwned your n00b ass while you were goofing around. Well, this unfortunate situation will never happen again because now you can play Bejeweled, the game most likely to have been downloaded by your mom, inside WoW.  From Yahoo: An amateur game maker and World of Warcraft junkie, the San Jose State undergrad decided to break more than a few laws by creating an unauthorized clone of the great puzzle game Bejeweled (called, laughingly, Besharded) that could be played in the middle of a Warcraft session. While such insolence normally leads to a barrage of cease and desist letters, Bejeweled publisher PopCap Games opted for a much different strategy. They decided to go ahead and allow players to play Bejeweled inside Wow, kind of like how you can now play officially branded Scrabble instead of Scrabulous inside Facebook. The game can be easily pulled up and closed. Of course, all this does is give me more ammo for hating on MMORPG's. If the game isn't interesting enough to hold your attention, why not just go play Bejeweled to begin with?  Related Links:  Kotaku Endorses Products Unaware Terrorists Using WoW to Plan Attacks? Shawn "Napster" Fanning: Wow Nerd Success Story + DIGG + DEL.ICIO.US + REDDIT Posted Sep 29 2008, 04:40 PM with 1 comment(s) Filed under: world of warcraft, cole stryker, bejeweled

• Where Are All Of Videoland's Nice Jewish Boys?

  Posted by Nadia Oxford

  Sundown tonight marks the start of 5769 according to the Jewish lunar calender (endorsed by werewolves everywhere). Become an honourary Jew and take the day off work to eat apples and honey. Everyone around me is doing it. Hell, any day is a good day to eff off and eat apples and honey. And by "apples and honey" I mean "wine" and by "eat" I mean "drink." In August 2005, I got to attend Otakon in Baltimore and schmoose with Rabbi Wolfwood. Rabbi Wolfwood is a widely popular cosplayer who dresses as Wolfwood, the travelling priest from the Trigun anime--but he makes a few necessary alterations to his costume, of course. Good Jewish boys don't carry Cross Punishers; they carry Star Of David...Punishers. The Rebbe and I talked briefly about a missing presence in games: Jewish characters. Though they tend to appear in big-name games developed in the West (Bioshock had its delightfully batshit Sander Cohen), Japan's roster of Jewish characters hovers somewhere around -0.1%. Read More... + DIGG + DEL.ICIO.US + REDDIT Posted Sep 29 2008, 03:08 PM with 4 comment(s) Filed under: bioshock, metal gear solid, religion, nadia oxford, culture, fiddler on the roof, religion and games

• Master Chief Asks: Have You Seen This Girl?

  Posted by Nadia Oxford

  Maybe it's one of those pesky US/Canadian differences, but growing up, I didn't water my Lucky Charms with containers of milk sponsored by lost children. No one asked, "HAVE YOU SEEN ME?" in a silent scream, so I guess I missed out on one of those childhood experiences that are good for chilling your bones and not much else. Well, now I have an opportunity to tick off that empty square on my Childhood Checklist. Halo 3 is the new proverbial milk carton, though it's hardly the way Bungie wanted things. In what Gamepro describes as "an unfortunate cross-cultural coincidence," the new trailer for the upcoming Halo 3 expansion pack stands to remind some British folk about the abduction of Madeleine McCann. Madeleine made headlines worldwide when she disappeared from a Portuguese resort while on holidays with her parents. For several days in May 2007, headlines asked, "Where's Maddie?" Read More... + DIGG + DEL.ICIO.US + REDDIT Posted Sep 29 2008, 02:08 PM with no comments Filed under: halo 3, halo, master chief, nadia oxford, maddie, where's maddie, expansion pack, madeleine mccann

• RPGs Make Me OCD

  Posted by Bob Mackey

  Playing Dragon Quest IV: Chapters of the Chosen has unleashed my inner demons--but luckily for me, these demons are neat, orderly, and keep everything in nice little piles. Now, I'm normally just a neat freak, and I try to keep my OCD tendencies to a minimum; but there's just something about RPGs that turns me into a hand-washing, tile-counting, light-switch-flicking freak, and I'm not sure if I can help it. On the brighter side of things, this behavior of mine makes certain games last, much, much longer than they should. For the darker side of things, please see my last point. When playing console RPGs, there are certain things I just have to do no matter what--and whether or not I need to be on prescription medication should be decided by you, dear reader. What follows is a list of my RPG compulsions: - Talking to everyone in town, then talking to everyone again once an event changes their dialogue. - Checking every desk/drawer/lamp/treasure nook in every possible location. - Not being able to leave or move on from an area until I have the best possible weapons/armor available from said area. - Making sure my status-ailment curing items are always in totals divisible by 5 (this worries me) - Never, ever using my uber-powerful items, even when I need them. You want elixirs? I've got 'em. Read More... + DIGG + DEL.ICIO.US + REDDIT Posted Sep 29 2008, 02:00 PM with 2 comment(s) Filed under: rpg, ds, final fantasy xii, dragon quest iv, ocd

• Are We Ready for a New DS?

  Posted by Bob Mackey

  Get ready for trade-in values to drop; a shocking weekend news post from Wired's Game|Life revealed that Nintendo may be in the mood for another renovation to their popular platform. Game|Life head honcho Chris Kohler breaks it down for all of us who are unfortunate enough to lack fluency in Japanese: Nikkei Net, the online arm of Japan's foremost economic newspaper, reports that the new model will launch this year in Japan and include a camera and music playback. Nikkei's take on the new machine is that Nintendo is moving outside the boundaries of the "game industry" and attempting to create a device that will compete with more general electronics like cell phones. Nikkei does point out that the camera function of DS could be integrated with gameplay, by allowing games to use the photos taken with the hardware. There's no doubt that the DS' 2006 remodel was a much-needed change; it made the system smaller, brighter, and look remarkably less like a toy. I'm one of many who handed down their fat DS to a loved one or stranger for the benefit of a much sleeker handheld--and the DS Lite has been so awesome that I feel no resentment for Nintendo. The changes to this supposed new model aren't quite as drastic as what would be in the DS2 (or whatever Nintendo decides to call it), though they're pretty big nonetheless. But will Americans really fall for a third model of the same product? Read More... + DIGG + DEL.ICIO.US + REDDIT Posted Sep 29 2008, 11:00 AM with 2 comment(s) Filed under: nintendo, ds, game boy advance, hardware

• WTFriday: Frawless Victory

  Posted by Bob Mackey

  Note to readers: WTFriday is a weekly feature where I find something stupid about video games and get you to laugh until it goes away. Please try to forget this is what I normally do every day of the week. God bless YouTube; if it didn't exist, we'd have to rely on mere text and still images whenever we wanted to feel deep shame over the past.  And since we're on the topic of shame, there's perhaps no better place to look than the early-90s promotional video, a popular product in the field of regret. Today's example, a Street Fighter II promo produced by Capcom USA, is a delightful mix of racism, baditude, and inexplicable motivations. For what better way is there to understand Street Fighter than to let the characters explain it to you themselves (Note: rhetorical question)? Because I have more of a job to do than just link to videos and wait for the mad paychecks to start rolling in, I'll offer up some commentary on each character featured above. Read More... + DIGG + DEL.ICIO.US + REDDIT Posted Sep 26 2008, 09:00 PM with 1 comment(s) Filed under: youtube, bob mackey, wtfriday, street fighter 2

• Create Unholy Life With the LittleBigPlanet Sackboy Generator

  Posted by Nadia Oxford

  If you look to your right, you'll see a picture of the lovely little girl I produced with a gentleman who called himself "Lou Sipher." He was an interesting man, full of ambitions but a little cold in bed. Lou and I don't talk very much these days. He's a busy guy. Those Christian rock bands aren't going to trick themselves into playing evil secular music. If you'd like to create your own twisted variation on Sackboy, check out the LittleBigPlanet site. You can't get too elaborate or anything, but you might pass away a few moments. I'm just going to sit back and watch the Internet implode as everyone dives for the chance to design the first Sackboy Hitler. ...Wow, my daughter's pretty terrifying. I can't wait until she starts kindergarten! That's a knife in her hand, by the way. Read More... + DIGG + DEL.ICIO.US + REDDIT Posted Sep 26 2008, 08:18 PM with 1 comment(s) Filed under: playstation 3, psn, sackboy, nadia oxford, littlebigplanet

• Chiptune Friday: Bed ‘N Breakfast

  Posted by John Constantine

  It’s been raining today here in New York, a cold harbinger of October keeping us city dwellers indoors, putting on sweaters, and craving hot cocoa. Personally, I’m trying to gear myself up for tonight’s Presidential debate, but I’d be lying to you if I said that I wasn’t truly desperate for a nap, one preferably under a thick comforter and near my DS for some more Dragon Quest IV. It’s in that spirit that we present this week’s Chiptune Friday, not a single track, but a compilation of soothing tones to ease one’s weary soul and refill their hit points. Read More... + DIGG + DEL.ICIO.US + REDDIT Posted Sep 26 2008, 06:30 PM with 1 comment(s) Filed under: john constantine, chiptune friday, animal crossing, dragon quest, xenogears

• Street Fighter IV’s Fighting Spirit, In Painstaking Detail

  Posted by John Constantine

  In the year since Street Fighter IV was first announced, producer Yoshi Ono has been spreading the good news, making sure that every gamer, and not just fighting enthusiasts, knew about Street Fighter’s glorious return to the world stage. It’s rare that even a few weeks have gone by, especially following EGM’s exclusive cover story on SFIV last December, without Ono sitting down with journalists across the world to discuss the game’s ongoing development and refinement on the road to its release this past summer. But excitement for Street Fighter IV, at least in the United States where only a scant few imported arcade cabinets are available to players, is at a perilous stage, somewhere between tense excitement and frustrated impatience. We’re ready to fight, and even though the fall gaming season is just swinging into gear, it’s hard to ignore Street Fighter IV’s absence from the landscape. To tide over the faithful, Brandon Sheffield’s interview with ubiquitous Ono running on Gamasutra today has some of the deepest insights into SFIV’s structure yet to be published. The familiar territory of how SFIV has been built to bring casual players back into the fold is covered well here, but filtered through the perspective of the fighting genre’s most technical aspects. Ono also provides some fascinating perspective on the series’ history, particularly fighter’s-fighter Street Fighter III and why it’s taken some twelve years for that title to gain the respect and audience it has always deserved: Read More... + DIGG + DEL.ICIO.US + REDDIT Posted Sep 26 2008, 05:00 PM with no comments Filed under: john constantine, gamasutra, street fighter, capcom, yoshi ono

• Growl, Snarl, Bark: Screw Attack's Top 10 Genesis Games

  Posted by Nadia Oxford

  Nothing instigates Holy Forum Wars like Top Ten Lists. I've seen them all; I've smelled the blood as it flowed across the text. Top Ten Toothpicks. Top Ten Clothes Pin Brands. Top Ten Dog Breeds (From one to ten: German Shepherd, Newfoundland, Chesapeake Bay Retriever, Pharaoh Hound, Corgi, American bulldog, Redbone Coon Hound, Cavalier King Charles Spaniel, Scottish Terrier, thine Mother, Ha ha ha). Video game-related Top Tens generate the most fun through flaming bitchslaps and the subsequent weeping. Screw Attack, a site that normally never seeks cheap attention through tits and swears has put together a video collection of the Top Ten Genesis Games with the aid of tits and swears. Read More... + DIGG + DEL.ICIO.US + REDDIT Posted Sep 26 2008, 04:30 PM with 1 comment(s) Filed under: screw attack, genesis, game music, strider, game trailers, nadia oxford, top ten genesis games, sonic 3, sonic 2, top ten lists

• The Contrarion: The Future Brings Hi-Res Emotion

  Posted by Cole Stryker

  In a recent interview with the Wall Street Journal, Activision President and CEO Robert Kotick dishes about the future of the games industry. It's an interesting read, but what struck me as way off was tucked away at the end.  We struggle with the emotional connection between the audience and the character and the ability to deliver a story. Part of the limitation is that facial animation and mouth movement is not realistic. It's very hard to deliver a line that you would find compelling or somehow to be able to engage with. I think that with next generation hardware you are going to start to see facial animation and mouth movement that looks like it is real. That's going to open up whole new opportunities for advances in the medium and introducing that story element and character dimension that has not existed yet. Read More... + DIGG + DEL.ICIO.US + REDDIT Posted Sep 26 2008, 04:00 PM with 1 comment(s) Filed under: uncanny valley, cole stryker, earthbound, the contrarion

• Movie to Game to Movie: Goldeneye

  Posted by Bob Mackey

  Like everyone else who was alive in the late 90s, I played a hell of a lot of Goldeneye for the N64; as primitive as it may seem today, Rare's take on the Bond franchise was the first console shooter to make waves in a pre-Halo world. But despite the hours and hours I'd virtually murder my friends with the world's sexiest Englishman (not my definition), the source material never really interested me. At the time, I had never seen a James Bond movie, so I wasn't exactly worried if Goldeneye was a faithful movie-to-game translation. The N64 adaptation could have included a Kart racing level, and I wouldn't have known any better. All these years later, it's safe to say that I have Rare's version of Jimmy Bond's adventure inscribed in my brain where so much useful knowledge could be, so I thought it would be a surreal experiment to finally sit down and watch the movie I had already had a great amount of exposure to, albeit in a different form. It was weird. Read More... + DIGG + DEL.ICIO.US + REDDIT Posted Sep 26 2008, 12:00 PM with no comments Filed under: rare, goldeneye, fps, movies, n64, bob mackey

• Continuing the Old-School Conversation

  Posted by Bob Mackey

  Boy, we here at 61FPS sure are thinking with a hive mind today--and it's all due to a lovable, fast-talking British fellow who's already popped up a few times on our blog in the past 24 hours. Needless to say, the reactions of our own bloggers have been intriguing, so I thought I'd continue the old-school conversation with my own post. First of all, retro is undoubtedly back in style--if that isn't contradictory enough for you. I was going to begin this post by going through a list of the most recent retro remakes/revivals, but there's just too damn many. Right now, I'm completely stuck in the past with Mega Man 9 and the DS remake of Dragon Quest IV, and I couldn't be happier. As much as I try to resist the crippling powers of nostalgia, it does get to me; and, in some ways, I realize the tragedy of buying my childhood back, one game at a time. It's safe to say that I'm on the same page as John and Nadia when it comes to Bionic Commando: Rearmed--but there are certain retro quirks that irk me when they appear in a modern-day game. Take the concept of "lives," for instance; it's something that I've wanted to write an in-depth article about for a long time (and I just may do that!). I'm completely against punishing a player with tedium (i.e., replaying long stretches of a game) for screwing up; but if Mega Man 9 didn't have a lives system, it would feel very, very wrong. Despite it kicking my ass up and down the block for a week, there are certain old-school ideas that work best in certain contexts. Read More... + DIGG + DEL.ICIO.US + REDDIT Posted Sep 25 2008, 07:00 PM with 2 comment(s) Filed under: yahtzee, zero punctuation, retro, nostalgia, bionic commando rearmed, difficulty, castle crashers

• Faux-Nostalgia: The Old Glory of Matt Hazard

  Posted by John Constantine

  Viral marketing is insidious and horrible. Anything that openly names itself after a malicious foreign body that invades organic matter, twisting it to its own torrid ends cannot be trusted. To make matters worse, it’s almost always more cloying than regular, old, huckster-with-a-smile advertising (let us never forget the late, not-great Sony “All I Want For Christmas is a PSP” campaign.) That said, I have to hand it to publisher D3. Their viral campaign behind upcoming (but still-unseen) title Eat Lead: The Return of Matt Hazard, is absolutely hilarious and brilliant in its execution. They’ve created two websites, a fan page and news blog, devoted to an imaginary classic gaming series surrounding a convincingly vintage character by the name of Matt Hazard. Starting with a 1983 arcade game named The Adventures of Matt in Hazard Land, D3’s constructed a full history of a non-existant franchise that hits on all of gaming’s milestones from the past thirty years. While the 8 and 16-bit parodies are well-trodden, sprite-based fare, the fake cover art and screenshots for Matt Hazard’s late-90s and early-aughts adventures are hilariously spot-on. Take a look at this obviously Nintendo 64-inspired packaging for 1995’s You Only Live 1,317 Times. Read More... + DIGG + DEL.ICIO.US + REDDIT Posted Sep 25 2008, 05:00 PM with 1 comment(s) Filed under: john constantine, nintendo, psp, d3, matt hazard, advertising is evil

• Miyamoto Says, "It Would Be Great If Music Education Started With Wii Music."

  Posted by Nadia Oxford

  As if I didn't already have to listen to my father go on about "these goddamn kids today who don't want to learn real guitar 'cause of Guitar Hero," now we have Shigeru Miyamoto himself talking about how awesome the world would be if music education started with Wii Music. Iwata and Miyamoto discussed Wii Music on "Creator's Voice," a developer session hosted on Nintendo's web site. Iwata: Well, there, with Wii Music, there's a strong possibility of raising people's basic level of music education. Miyamoto: Yes. Thus, from now, I've even thought it would it would be great if kindergartens or elementary schools got Wii Music and began kid's music education with that... My first school-related music experience involved garbage bags stretched over tin cans and held in place with rubber bands. How can we even think of replacing real instruments with such false, plastic alternatives? Read More... + DIGG + DEL.ICIO.US + REDDIT Posted Sep 25 2008, 03:56 PM with 1 comment(s) Filed under: wii fit, super mario bros, shigeru miyamoto, wii music, nadia oxford, education

• The Mathematical Guide to Mega Man

  Posted by Bob Mackey

  If you've even thought about getting all of Mega Man 9's in-game achievements, then you're either a robot, or just plain crazy; and I commend you, you magnificent bastard. Unfortunately, I lack the fortitude to push myself through these optional challenges--and the time it would take me to train for them could be better spent learning another language or painting tiny things on grains of rice. Since the achievements of Mega Man 9 are practically built for being filmed and upoloaded to the Internet, I'm anticipating the hundreds of speed/challenge runs that will inevitably end up on YouTube (if they're not already there).  And if you're interested in shaving hundredths of a second off of your final time, then boy have I got a website for you.  TASvideos, a tool-assisted speedrun page, has a special section on the NES Mega Man games that provides more information than you'd ever want to know.  Here's an example:  In many platform games, you don’t need to be exactly positioned to grab a ladder. You can stand about 10 pixels beside the ladder and when you press up (or down), you’ll immediately grab the ladder. In Mega Man games, this means that by walking or jumping past a ladder you can grab the ladder for 1 frame and immediately release it in order to gain extra movement very quickly. Walking across the ladder would take about 12 frames, but by grabbing it from distance and releasing it you can shorten it to about 8 frames. I'm not sure how much of this material is compatible with Mega Man 9, but some brave soul out there has to have the free time and social disorder necessary to find out. Let's wait and watch. Read More... + DIGG + DEL.ICIO.US + REDDIT Posted Sep 25 2008, 03:30 PM with 2 comment(s) Filed under: mega man, speedrun, wiiware, mega man 9, autism, bob mackey

• Yahtzee Presents A New Angle On Nostalgia (Sort Of)

  Posted by Nadia Oxford

  While Mr Constantine gets over his case of the vapours, I'd like to offer my own perspective on Yahtzee's scorn towards Mrs Rad Spencer. One bit in particular caught my interest. (::Pipe puff::) Most of North America had the honour of growing up alongside the Nintendo Entertainment System. A great deal of Europe, if my video game lore is up to snuff, did not. I remember my older brother coming home from a visit to Ireland and telling me about how everyone there still played Atari 2600. I was all like, "No waaaaay!" Then the UK's ultra-sweet take on Smarties rebelled against my stomach and I vomited everywhere. In his latest rant against Bionic Commando and all things fun, Yahtzee briefly mentions that his household was a Commodore 64 household--in other words, he didn't grow up with Bionic Commando or a lot of our favourite 8-bit treasures. Read More... + DIGG + DEL.ICIO.US + REDDIT Posted Sep 25 2008, 03:05 PM with 3 comment(s) Filed under: yahtzee, bionic commando, 8-bit, retro, nostalgia, bionic commando rearmed, nadia oxford

• Nobody Puts Bionic Commando in A Corner

  Posted by John Constantine

  Late last night, I was sitting in my library, enjoying a nice cup of earl grey tea, a pipe, and the day's copy of The Times. It was the first night of autumn cool enough for a fire and I’d brought one to a crackling burn in my home’s blackened hearth. The evening was a picture of utter tranquility, the sort of convalescence one scoffs at in youth and longs for later in life when a day’s labors start to take their toll. But it was around 10pm when this harmony was shattered! My lover, Bionic Commando, burst into the room wailing, tears streaming from its eyes, its heavenly façade twisted and mangled by anguish! “My love, what ever is the matter?” I asked, alarmed. “It’s that awful man from the Sunburnt Country! He called me such terrible things!” “I’m afraid I don’t understand, dearest. Who is this rogue who dared question your honor?” “You know. Benjamin Croshaw. Yahtzee. The videogame critic from the island of convicts who walks about in a Justin Timberlake hat. He makes his trade nattering on about obese fellows being silly for liking terrible entertainments. Like me! Oh!” Bionic Commando swooned, its clawed hand against its forehead. Read More... + DIGG + DEL.ICIO.US + REDDIT Posted Sep 25 2008, 02:00 PM with 4 comment(s) Filed under: john constantine, yahtzee, zero punctuation, bionic commando, the escapist, soul caliber, I am slowly going out of my mind, star tropics, best of 2008

• Me VS. Blue Hedgehog

  Posted by Amber Ahlborn

  Just yesterday Bob Mackey posted about his experiences with Sonic the Hedgehog. Naturally, this put me in mind of my own rather odd relationship with Sega's troubled mascot. Back in the days of the 16 bit wars I was deep in the Nintendo trenches, so anything that came from Sega was of the devil. Sonic was an enemy general to be assaulted on any playground where gamers collided in verbal combat. Okay, enough with the war analogies. After growing up and leaving my blind brand loyalties behind, I decided to try and like the guy. After all, with such a large fan following, Sonic games had to be pretty good right? Read More... + DIGG + DEL.ICIO.US + REDDIT Posted Sep 25 2008, 10:00 AM with 3 comment(s) Filed under: wii, gamecube, amber ahlborn, ds, sonic the hedgehog, sonic unleashed, sonic and the secret rings, gba, sonic chronicles

• Facepalm: Gaming While Driving

  Posted by Cole Stryker

  Two Facepalms in two days? Madness! A bus driver has been supsended for playing a PSP while driving. HONOLULU -- Less than a day after KITV broke the story of a city bus driver playing a video game while driving a bus, the driver is on unpaid leave and being investigated Wednesday. The president of The Bus apologized for the incident and said he's "embarrassed" by it less than a month after another bus driver was arrested for drunk driving while operating a city bus. Read More... + DIGG + DEL.ICIO.US + REDDIT Posted Sep 25 2008, 10:00 AM with no comments Filed under: psp, cole stryker, addiction, facepalm

• The Street Fighter IV Boxart: A Warning of Things to Come

  Posted by Bob Mackey

  Capcom recently released the box art for their upcoming home version of Street Fighter IV, so here it is--in case you missed it: Overall, not too bad; when it comes to the Street Fighter series, Capcom has done much worse.  What's troubling, though, is the emphasis on Chun-Li.  It's not that I have anything against Chinese women with gigantic legs; I just don't like to be reminded that another Street Fighter movie will soon exist.  That's right, if you've been trying to forget about it like me, I really hate to bring you back to reality--but Street Fighter: Chun-Li Girl Detective Mysteries (title embellished for mockery) is something that well-meaning people are making on purpose.  And nothing will stop them. Read More... + DIGG + DEL.ICIO.US + REDDIT Posted Sep 24 2008, 08:30 PM with 2 comment(s) Filed under: street fighter, capcom, street fighter 4, bob mackey, box art, street fighter the movie

• Five Games That Will Be Awesome to Remake in LittleBigPlanet

  Posted by John Constantine

  Ever since its announcement, excited gamers across the internet land have been discussing their level-making plans for LittleBigPlanet. Puzzle levels, hardcore platforming levels, insane art landscapes, and, most importantly, Level 1-1 from Super Mario Bros. Yes, LittleBigPlanet may be all about getting your creative juices flowing but there was never a doubt in anyone’s mind that players were going to throw down all sorts of lovely, copyright-infringing devotionals to gaming’s beloved creations of old. Team Sportsmanship, a group of art students participating in Parsons New School of Design’s Game Jam event, didn’t explicitly recreate a level from Fumito Ueda’s epic, but as PS3 Fanboy put it, their level can only be named Shadow of the LittleBigColossus. It’s a work of art, a lovingly crafted riff on Shadow of the Colossus’ grand encounters made terribly adorable by LBP’s style and Sackboy mascot. Of course, this got me thinking: what games are perfectly fit for the LittleBigPlanet treatment? Here’s what came to mind. Castlevania III Besides being a classic platformer overflowing with badass levels primed for reimagining, Castlevania III is also uniquely suited to LBP’s four-player challenges. You’ve got a vampire, a pirate, a witch lady, and a dude with a whip. What do they do together? They scale clock towers and kick the crap out of less-than-friendly vampires. Perfect. Read More... + DIGG + DEL.ICIO.US + REDDIT Posted Sep 24 2008, 08:00 PM with no comments Filed under: john constantine, little big planet, top ten, silent hill, castlevania, shadow of the colossus, leisure suit larry, silhouette mirage, top five, joe & mac