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• Reminder: Those Mother 3 Handbooks Are Still Coming

  Remember the Mother 3 translation, released late last October? We at 61FPS couldn't stop talking about it--until that court order limited our Earthbound/Mother posts to only a mere dozen a week. Thankfully, sites like Earthbound Central (a must-visit) exist to fill the needs of the most psychotic Mother fans out there, but that doesn't mean there isn't franchise-related news worth reporting about here. Consider the Mother 3 Handbook produced by the devoted folks at FanGamer, for instance; we were all excited about it last Fall, but as its release date slipped into March, most of us have probably forgotten that we dropped 20 bucks on the guide many moons ago. So, as we reach the final days of March, where exactly is the Mother 3 Handbook? For all those concerned, a blog post on FanGamer's front page this week has confirmed that all of the books weren't lost in some freak postal accident. Read More... Posted Mar 20 2009, 03:00 PM by Bob Mackey with | with 2 comment(s) Filed under: fan project, earthbound, mother 3, bob mackey, mother, fan translations, fan art

• Projects that Need to Survive: Link's Awakening 3D

  Over the years, we've seen many interesting fan projects come and go--though they seem to do more of the latter. The Chrono Trigger 3D remake? Killed by Square-Enix. That 2D Ocarina of Time thingy? The dude behind it either bought the farm or faked his own death to escape responsibility--it's never been clear what actually happened there. Now, we can add yet another ambitious projects to the list of "neat things that will befall some sort of tragic fate" with MithosK-Games' 3D reimagining of the Game Boy classic, Link's Awakening. Hey, I'm not being negative. I'm being realistic. Read More... Posted Mar 19 2009, 03:30 PM by Bob Mackey with | with 1 comment(s) Filed under: fan project, the legend of zelda, fan projects, remakes, bob mackey, link's awakening

• WTFriday: The Splash Woman Rap

  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. "Sometimes it's hard to be Splash Woman..." - Tammy Wynette, "Stand By Your Mega Man" Thanks to the kind folks at Game Music 4 All, I've become obsessed with some of the more creative video game remixes out there, like the Mother mashup I posted about yesterday. The weekly WTFriday falls on something just as awesome, but far more bizarre: an original Mega Man 9 music video featuring a completely-original rap set to Splash Woman's stage music. The lyrics to said rap shine a little more light on the obvious sexual tension between Mega Man and Splash Woman, and also give us a disturbing look into an alternate universe where Sonic Team somehow became responsible for creating Mega Man's music. But rest assured that Knuckles' rapping abilities fall short when compared to this fan-made project. Video after the cut. Read More... Posted Jan 23 2009, 02:00 PM by Bob Mackey with | with 1 comment(s) Filed under: fan project, ost, music, mega man, mega man 9, bob mackey, wtfriday, sountrack

• A Silver Lining to The Dark Knight

  While Batman may have grappled his way back into the hearts of movie-goers with 2005's Batman Begins and last year's The Dark Knight, he hasn't really had a notable video game in quite some time--and no, Lego Batman doesn't really count. At some point in time, a Dark Knight game was actually in the works, but after becoming a complete development disaster, what should have been a sure thing was taken behind the barn and shot in the back of the head. Like any Batman fan, I was a bit disappointed by the death of The Dark Knight; after all, I grew up in a time when good Batman games actually existed. Sure, there've been quite a few stinkers with the Batman name attached, but when developers like Sunsoft and Konami had the license, they made games worth playing--especially The Adventures of Batman and Robin for the SNES, which was a damn-near perfect interpretation of the mid-90s cartoon. It seems that YouTube user elmacbee shares the same sentiment towards the Batman games of old; he's produced a pretty convincing mockup video of what could be an NES version of The Dark Knight if we somehow existed in a universe where technology is about two decades behind. I'd love to see this fictional game in action, but for now, the introductory video has me salivating for what could have been. Read More... Posted Jan 19 2009, 09:00 PM by Bob Mackey with | with no comments Filed under: fan project, konami, the dark knight, bob mackey, fan art, fan games, sunsoft, batman

• WTFriday: Bob's Game Is a Big Ol' Slice of Psycho

  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. If you do something for long enough--no matter how trivial it is--you start to develop an unhealthy sense of entitlement and the inability to see the flaws in your labor of love. And if this "something" happens to be creating an entire game single-handedly over the course of five years, you can add syphilis-grade insanity to the list of unfortunate side effects.  This information serves as a fitting introduction to Bob's Game, a Japanese style RPG named after its creator, who isn't exactly on speaking terms with Nintendo.  You see, Bob (no relation) needs to be recognized as a Nintendo developer in order to publish his game on a Nintendo platform--never mind the fact that there are several other ways for indie developers to sell their games to the public.  Nintendo has been awfully uncooperative--quite possibly because the guy is a total loon--so Bob has decided to lock himself in his room for 100 days of protest that will probably end with him dying of a blood clot. Surely, his game must be amazing to cause so much drama, right? Okay, it's not awful, but it doesn't look much different than something made with RPG Maker back in 1998. Read More... Posted Jan 02 2009, 02:00 PM by Bob Mackey with | with 8 comment(s) Filed under: nintendo, fan project, reggie fils aime, jrpg, development

• Sonic the Hedgehog Fans Really Exist

  Sonic the Hedgehog is a joke. That is his only function. Whenever I'm writing an article/blog post/grocery list, some burn on Sonic the Hedgehog will inevitably appear on the page. I can't help it; the series is such an easy target that jokes about about cross-species love and stretchy-armed werehogs are starting to come into being of their own accord. But even though Sonic may be have the least dignity of any video game character next to Duke Nukem, he still has his fans.  Fans that feel so strongly of their love that they're willing to show you the results of their devotion while wearing a t-shirt made 16 years ago.  I will show you such a fan.  Thank god YouTube allows us into the bedrooms of sick individuals, where previously only social workers were allowed to tread. I still have to wonder just where these people come from. Read More... Posted Dec 22 2008, 02:00 PM by Bob Mackey with | with 2 comment(s) Filed under: fan project, sonic the hedgehog, fandom, bob mackey

• Let Dotter Dotter Take You to the Third Dimension

  In yet another addition to the "I wish I could read Japanese so I could find out more about things that are completely awesome" file (admittedly, the file has a big name and I'm currently looking for a way to shorten it), comes a little Japanese blog by the name of Dotter Dotter--at least, that's what I think it's called.  Listen, those are basically the only english words on the page, so I'm going to assume I'm right.  Anyway, names aren't important here; what is important is the fact that this dude (or lady-type person) has created some really great images based on old-school Nintendo sprite art.  Like the following: As you can see, language is irrelevant when it comes to something this awesome.  But having some basic understanding of Japanese would at least let me know if there are some wallpaper-sized versions of these images available on Dotter Dotter.  Without a doubt, that would be much more awesomer. Read More... Posted Dec 15 2008, 01:00 PM by Bob Mackey with | with 2 comment(s) Filed under: nintendo, fan project, 8-bit, retro, bob mackey, fan art

• The Mother GBA Translation: Tomato is a Crazy Mofo

  No, not that Mother translation.  I'm talking about the first Mother: released in Japan in 1989, translated by Nintendo of America, abandoned, discovered, and re-released by the ROM hacking community in 1998 as Earthbound Zero.  Mother was also ported to the Game Boy Advance along with its sequel (AKA Earthbound) in 2003; unfortunately, this game fell victim to Nintendo's policy of Earthbound fans not having nice things.  Fortunately we have dudes like Tomato, whose amazing hacking/translating skills will one day give us the privilege of playing the first Mother on the go.  Here's a video of his progress so far: Of course, this isn't quite as monumental as the Mother 3 translation--after all, an English script for this game already exists--but Tomato plans on making quite a few interesting changes this time around. Read More... Posted Dec 08 2008, 11:00 AM by Bob Mackey with | with 1 comment(s) Filed under: fan project, mother 3, translation, mother 2, bob mackey, mother, rom hacks

• Devildom String Orchestra: Music, Masks, and Madness

  The hardcore American video game fan has been known embark on some pretty wild and awesome projects, even if some of them do happen to be complete fakes.  But there's just something about the industriousness of the Japanese hardcore that puts all of us to shame; just take a look at any Japanese-created levels of LittleBigPlanet, and you'll realize their devotion eclipses ours by a pretty large margin.  So what, exactly, am I getting at here?  Well, in researching Friday's post about the music of Mother, I stumbled upon a collection of YouTube videos that were too cool to keep to myself. The Devildom String Orchestra (at least, that's what I think the entire group calls itself) is a collection of Japanese musicians that arrange video game and anime music into real, live instrumentations. And they do all of this while wearing extremely creepy masks.  The most disturbing thing about this group, though, is that their videos really aren't getting the attention that they should.  You can access all of them by going to Tuengxx's YouTube page, but I've highlighted a few of the better ones below for your convenience. A very nice Chrono Trigger medley. More tunes after the cut. Read More... Posted Nov 24 2008, 11:00 AM by Bob Mackey with | with 3 comment(s) Filed under: fan project, music, chrono trigger, fan projects, bob mackey, final fantasy v, fan art, dragon quest iv

• For Love of the Game: Sonic 2 HD

  As I've said a number of annoying times, I've never cared much for ol' Sonic the Hedgehog, even in his beloved classic form. It's a design thing — I can tell you about any number of specific places in Mario, Zelda, Metroid and Mega Man levels, but Sonic levels seem to blur into a procession of the same compositional elements over and over. If you've seen one loop-the-loop, you've seen 'em all, especially when all it takes to get through them is holding right on the d-pad. One column in which Sonic cannot be faulted, however, is presentation. Graphics and music have always been the little blue shinbiter's strong suit. Read More... Posted Oct 24 2008, 12:30 PM by Peter Smith with | with no comments Filed under: peter smith, metroid, remake, for love of the game, fan project, mario, mega man, zelda, sonic the hedgehog, sonic, sonic 2

• For Love of the Game: Quest for Glory II

  Lori and Corey Cole's Quest for Glory was always one of my favorite franchises. It set unusually logical puzzle-solving (by adventure-game standards — no “THROW BRIDLE AT SNAKE” here) in culturally distinct worlds that went beyond the usual D&D boilerplate. Even in Quest for Glory I, which eased players into the series with a traditional medieval setting, the sense of place was richer than usual. (My favorite detail: a frost giant from north of the Germanic game-world speaks in the alliterative verse of Beowulf.) But Quest for Glory II must've blindsided fans of the first game. Expanding the small-scale campaign of QfGI into a world-saving epic, it also transported the hero from a sleepy European valley to the full-sized Arabian city of Shapeir. In all the hype about GTAIV earlier this year, I couldn't help thinking that QfGII had done the same thing decades before — not at the same scale, but with as much attention to detail. Read More... Posted Sep 11 2008, 10:00 AM by Peter Smith with | with 1 comment(s) Filed under: peter smith, remake, for love of the game, fan project, quest for glory, sierra, lori cole, corey cole, adventure game, agd interactive, quest for glory ii, best of 2008

• Underpowered Cave Story "Ports"

  I've already done some mouthing off about how much I love Cave Story, the one-man miracle game that looks great, sounds great and plays better. Not surprisingly, Cave Story has a significant fandom. In fact, a member  at the Way of the Pixel forums recently posted a relevant challenge: whip up "screenshots" of what Cave Story might look like if it were ported to less-powerful systems. The results are amusing, especially the Spectrum ZX mock-up. I'd like to see something done in the style of the Apple ][ or better yet, the Commodore 64. Read More... Posted Jul 11 2008, 09:21 PM by Nadia Oxford with | with 3 comment(s) Filed under: fan project, nes, commodore 64, adventure games, cave story, master system, fans, mock-up, spectrum zx

• For Love of the Game: Metroid II Remakes

  The original Metroid is one of my all-time favorite games, so my feelings about Metroid: Zero Mission, Nintendo's 2004 remake, are predictably mixed. Zero Mission repairs some of the archaic aspects of the original, like wonky controls, an annoying password system and the obligation to refill your energy every time you return to the game. On the other hand, it diffuses the sprawling, almost Lovecraftian eeriness of the original with its aggressive handholding — a trademark fault of late-period Nintendo games. It also unforgivably bungles one of the greatest climaxes in videogame history — the slaughter, by the player, of a shrieking brain in a jar, followed by a slippery-thumbed ascent up an exploding escape shaft — by tacking on a painfully out-of-place stealth section. In any case, Nintendo's obvious follow-up was a remake of Metroid II: Return of Samus, a game that arguably needed revamping more than the original. Read More... Posted May 12 2008, 01:00 PM by Peter Smith with | with 2 comment(s) Filed under: peter smith, metroid, remake, nintendo, for love of the game, sr388, fan project, kotaku, metroid ii return of samus, metroid zero mission, another metroid 2 remake, super metroid, metroid fusion, metroid sr388, hp lovecraft, game boy