Archive for August 10th, 2006
Sony Online Entertainment-Denver Studios Announced
Holy Crap, Sony Online Entertainment-Denver lives!
Sony Online Entertainment just announced that they’ve bought out Denver online trading card game company Worlds Apart Productions.
Employees from Worlds Apart Productions will form the core of the new Sony Online Entertainment-Denver studio. The plan, I’m told, is to one day use Worlds Apart Productions’ online trading card technology in Sony’s massively multiplayer games, like Everquest II and Star Wars: Galaxies. Sounds very cool. More importantly, I now have two big local largish game developer studios I can harass in person.
Remote Controlled Robo-Mario
Gizmodo sends word of a cool new Nintentoy: The Super Mario Robot. The little action figure walks around with the help of a wired remote in the shape of a NES controller. Despite the A and B buttons, mini-Mario can’t jump or butt-slide. Hit the jump for some video of robot-Mario taking on robot-Toad.
Super Mario Robot Remote Controlled by Japanese NES Joypad [Gizmodo]
Genesis MMORPG Allows You To Impregnate Your Own Children
A lot of people over at Digg are getting excited about Genesis, “the world’s first dynamic MMORPG”… whatever the hell that means.
Why so excited? This MMORPG, put together by a sole programmer, will supposedly feature:
• The ability to reproduce. Great, just what cybersex needed — +2 prophylactics and the risk of getting that fairy broad knocked up.
• Permanent death. Flush all invested time down the toilet through the vagaries of chance!
• Dynamically created storylines and quests. This appears to just mean that fellow users will script your standard array of go-fetch-em quests instead of the designer.
And a lot more. The FAQ is longer than Anna Karenina, but features a lot more information. It’s really just a gameless engine right now, though.
As the kind of gamer who thinks “open ended” is pretty much synonymous with “boring gameplay” and who gets a big rubbery one accompanied by a glassy look in his eye anytime anyone talks about Second Life, I’m not terribly impressed. Of course, the FAQ doesn’t explain whether or not I can impregnate my own offspring. That feature could turn my contemptuous yawn into a sale, right there.
Genesis [Official Site]
Japanese TV Mario Skit Explained in My Unfunny Voice
Ever wonder what is going on in those zany Japanese comedy shows? This clip from the mid-1980’s features comedic legend Shimura Ken in a Super Mario Bros. parody. I just watched it, and there are a few good jokes in there. It’s far from Shimura’s best, though. Here’s my English explanation of what exactly is going on:
It’s the Famicom boom. A troupe of girls come in, talk about what games they have and decide to start playing Super Mario Bros. Shimura Ken enters, asks what they are doing and says he wants to play. They tell him that only people who brought games can play. He says can’t afford games, because he is poor. The girls play paper rock scissors to figure out who should go first. Shimura Ken goes over to play and they give him dirty looks, causing him to back into the corner. So one of the girls invites him over, saying “You can play, but only paper rock scissors.” One of the girls wins. She plays through Mario, and Shimura Ken says he’s going to play by himself. Cut to Shimura dressed as Mario, hitting his head and hurting himself, jumping over goombas. Finally, he plunges into a pipe filled with water. The other girls appear and say, “You’re so stupid!” Shimura Ken squirts water at the girls.
Translating jokes sucks. I’m sure you could probably figure the clip out with my Cliffs Notes, but here they are in case you couldn’t. Often people write Japanese comedy off as simply being “stupid” or “strange,” but it’s pretty close to a lot of American or Western humor. The comedic beats and punch line set-ups are exactly the same.
More Here [Aeropause]
This Day in Gaming, August 10th
1999: EA releases Sled Storm for PS in the US. It’s a racing game on snowmobiles in which you need to win money to upgrade your tech. Just add a carrot nose and a stovetop hat and you’ve got one pimp ride.
2001: Capcom releases Devil May Cry for PS2 in the US. Originally the game was meant to be Resident Evil 4, but it played too differently (something about unlimited ammo doesn’t scream survival horror). Does the devil ever actually cry? “Are you…crying over there?” “Who, me? Or him?” “You.” “You as in me?” “Yes you, evil incarnate.” “Well, the other guy’s a mime who sells Avon products.” “Ok, you got me there.”
2004: Sony announces plans to use PS2 chips in their flat-panel televisions. The upgrade should allow for faster overall navigation through increased graphics horsepower. Anyone out there know what models actually are using the chip, if any?
Have gaming history, trivia, or famous birthdays you’d like to see in TDIG? Drop us a line at tdig@kotaku.com
Battlestar Galactica Summary Coming to 360
Reader Matt sends us a note that the Sci-Fi Channel announced today that a one-hour summary of the Battlestar Galactica series is coming to the Xbox 360 next month. Battlestar Galatica: The Story So Far will hit right before the premiere of season 3. The special is also goin gto be hitting iTunes… strangely, I don’t see any mention of it coming to the PSP.
Encyclopedia Brown Hates New Super Mario Bros.
And while I’m railing against beloved Nintendo DS games, I really don’t like New Super Mario Bros. very much either, a game recommended to me not only by Kotaku-staffers of questionable taste like Ashcraft and Crecente, but proclaimed a “solid 7″ by none other than 1UP’s Luke “I Hate Everything” Smith. Diametrically inflated according to the withered circumference of Smith’s own black, ichorous heart, that’s like a solid 11 by any other measure.
As I complained to him on IM today:
Florian Eckhardt: New Super Mario Brothers. Solid 7 my ASS.
luke at 1up: 5?
Florian Eckhardt: It’s no SMB3.
luke at 1up: what fucking mystery will you solve next Encyclopedia Brown?
BURNED. I admit it. But New Super Mario Bros. is just the same Mario formula, programmed and designed with mathematical cynicism. It’s phoned in. It is completely devoid of charm or personality: it’s the Mario formula taken to the point of grating cliche. The funny thing to me is how much more personality the game would have with Paper Mario (or Mario & Luigi) style art direction. Because, outside of the 3D polygon stuff, what does this game do that Super Mario Bros. 3 didn’t do better 10 years ago?
New, Horrible DS Lite Crack
We’ve seen the cracks. No sweat, they don’t interfere with game play so suck it up, right? And if you’re really worried, Nintendo has acknowledged the problem and offered free repairs. Granted, the crackage sucks, I never though it was a huge problem. Until now.
Kotaku reader Marty dropped us a line, recounting what happened to his Lite:
My DS Lite didn’t have a scratch, crack, dead pixel, anything, until I was playing it this afternoon and the corner broke off. Now the only thing holding the top screen to the bottom is the wire. I’m still a fan of the DSL. I take great care of it, but I’m not fanatical. I justed wanted to let my fellow fans of the DSL know that the system is not perfect, and if you get one that seems perfectly fine be prepared for something like this.
Eek! That’s like the super crack. This is the first I’ve heard of this kind of damage. From today, I shall commence handling my Lite wearing velvet gloves, not in direct sunlight and only under room temperature. Another not-for-the-faint-of-heart pic after the jump.
Bully Attacks Bully on Attack of the Show
Jack Thompson, everyone’s video game bully, is going to be on Attack of the Show tonight to froth about how evil a game is he’s never seen. Jack will be on in the first 15 minutes so either avoid the beginning or tune in then depending on your preferences and blood pressure. In unrelated news, yesterday Thompson emailed my editors at the Rocky Mountain News to accuse me of “censoring” my article on Bully because I didn’t include him.
Apparently, a story doesn’t exist unless Jack is part of it.
Tetris DS: Just Like A Stroke
It’s probably testament to what a comforting game Tetris is to play that even the crappiest interpretations can cause me to play until the point of digital paralysis.
The crappy port? Tetris DS. Oh, yes, it’s very professional looking, but as a challenging puzzle game, it’s just fundamentally broken.
Consider this: if you are good enough to break 200 lines in Tetris DS, the only thing that stops you from playing infinitely is the laws of mathematics and your own muscular atrophy.
Tetris DS has two features that make it possible to play forever, once you reach a certain skill level: first of all, you can infinitely spin your pieces. They don’t lock down until you stop spinning. So if you keep on hammering the A button, they’ll never lock, allowing you all the time in the world to position them where you want, or even just leisurely scope out your preview pieces. Furthermore, any screw-ups can be corrected by exchanging your hold piece.
So while it’s true that Tetris pieces fall instantly to the bottom of the playing field past level 20, what this means is that even mediocre players can exploit the game to rack up huge points. The only strategy you need in Tetris DS to attain huge points is to keep the playing field as level as possible, so you can spin your pieces left and right into their proper positions. The only skill is your ability to madly jab the rotate button.
I’m no great shakes at Tetrtis DS, but five or six games allowed me to easily beat the Marathon mode, which unlocked endless. Yesterday night, I gave it a shot, and easily scored over a million points.
In fact, I’m convinced I could have continued until the caloric expenditure of my jabbing thumb desiccated me into a shriveled, gasping mummy, if not for the fact that, at around 1,100,000 points, my entire right hand stopped functioning. It simply dropped numbly to my side like someone had sucked the bones out, spilling my DS Lite to the floor. By the time I’d picked it up with my left hand, the Tetriminos had already piled up to the top.
And that was when the agony hit, as my right arm filled with molten blood and I felt a thousand invisible rusty hypodermics plunged into each and every one of my arm’s pain receptors. My hand had contorted into a ghastly claw. For me to even use it again, I had to soak my arm in the tub for half an hour.
In its current iteration, playing Tetris DS has the same physical symptoms of a frontal lobe stroke. Hey, Henk Rogers! You can tweak a good game too far.
Midway’s Secret PS3 Title… Still a Secret
IGN’s PS3 arm is getting a little obsessive about Midway’s secret PS3 title. The site points out that while a previous interview and job posting let out that Midway’s Surreal Software is working on a brand new PS2 title, little else was known about it.
But a new employment ad says that the game is “one of Midway’s biggest titles under development” and that it features “a concept which will blow you away.”
So there you have it, now we know next to nothing, as opposed to nothing.
Original PS3 IP from Surreal [IGN]
PlayStation 3? No Dummy, It’s PLAYSTATION 3
File this under why-didn’t-we-realize-it-earlier. First there was the PlayStation[R], then the PlayStation[R] 2, next the PlayStation[R] Portable and now, the PLAYSTATION[R] 3. Yep, that’s the official spelling, because, the biggest Sony console gets the biggest spelling. The reason? Apparently, Sony is constantly irked with people writing “Playstation” and not “PlayStation.” So, everyone take note: the correct spelling is PLAYSTATION 3. Sony’s all about the screaming and the serial killer caps.
Rumor also has it that the company’s also trademarked PS3[R], which would be a first for them. PSX for PlayStation and PS2 for PlayStation 2 are actually unauthorized trademarks. The company has used PS2 as a logo, but not written. PS3, apparently, is authorized and will appear in the console’s upcoming instruction manual in written form.
PLAYSTATION 3 [OFFICIAL SITE]
Brain Age Explodes Notion of What a Game Is
It’s official, Brain Age: Train Your Brain in Minutes a Day is a hit… but mostly in Japan.
The non-game sold more than 4 million copies world wide, but 3 million of that was in Japan. That really says something about the cultural difference of gamers in different countries, even when you factor in the head start Japan got on sales.
It also shows that the world’s gamers, and some non-gamers, are open to the concept of games that aren’t just about traditional forms of play. Let’s hope some of the other big companies take notice of that.
Metal Wolf Chaos: Serious Contender for Best Game Plot Of All Time
Hello Mr. President! Are you a bad enough dude to suit up in an ass-kicking battlemech suit and kick the crap out of those pansy liberals?
It is the trailer for Metal Wolf Chaos, a game I’ve never heard of but Ashcraft better send me from Japan if he knows what’s good for him. It starts with the president jumping out of an exploding White House. It just gets better from there. Now this is a president I would vote for.
Genesis Collection Coming to PSP, PS2
Sega, never one to neglect their history, is republishing a slate of their greatest hits in what say will be the most comprehensive gathering of classic Sega games ever. In English, that means about 30 games.
The Sega Genesis Collection, which is hitting the PSP and PS2 exclusively this fall, will include such classics as Altered Beast, Sonic the Hedgehog, Shinobi III, Phatasy Star and Golden Axe. Wow, I actually think I’m excited about this, especially for the PSP. I’d love to have a bunch of retro classics like Altered Beasts to play on the go.
The game’s are all ports, but Sega says they have been reproduced accurately and the collection will include a bunch of interviews with the games’ original developers, as well as a bunch of Sega facts.
Here’s the best part, the PSP version will let you play some of these games wirelessly, though no word on whether it will be local or internet.
Crazy Taxi Cruises the Streets of London
Sega’s classic Crazy Taxi provided gamers with tastefully realistic in-game advertising and locales. The rest of it was complete b.s. Kotakuite Kevin spotted the actual Crazy Taxi. He explains:
Happened to see this about a month ago coming towards the west side of the M25 near London. Basically it’s actually a Crazy Taxi, with the Crazy Taxi 3 logos on the side doors and the boot.
And it looks like that taxi driver has even picked up four passengers. Bonus points!
Anti-Bullying Group Calls for Bully Ban
Bullying Online, one of the UK’s lead anti-bullying charities, has renewed their opposition to Rockstar’s game Bully.
The group says they had hoped their initial protests would have killed the game.
“We’d hoped that Rockstar had ditched this game following our complaints about it a year ago,” said Bullying Online director Liz Carnell. “We don’t think this game is likely to leave players with a warm and fuzzy feeling.”
“Bullying is not fun and it’s not a suitable topic for a game. This charity is contacted by thousands of parents and children a year for whom school bullying makes their lives a total misery. Up to four of the children who contact us every day are suicidal.”
Carnell likens her fears for the game’s effects on children to the effect some say television has on children.
“Youngsters copy what they see on TV and in games, when wrestling was popular on TV we had numerous complaints about young children hurting others by copying the behaviour they had seen on the
screen,” she said. “We’re very concerned that even if this game were to get an adult rating in the UK there would be nothing to stop younger members of the family playing it.”
It sounds like Carnell’s real concerns are with her country’s rating system and the enforcement of it there. Maybe she should lay off Rockstar and start working with groups to make sure the ratings are followed.
Lego Star Wars II: The Original Trilogy
Character passwords from the demo!
Lego Star Wars II: The Original Trilogy
Character passwords from the OPM demo!
Could The Wii Fail?
I have a hard time believing the Wii will fail. I don’t doubt that early games will clumsily utilize the Wiimote, or that the graphics will pale in comparison compared to the 360 or the PS3, until developers realize that style and design is more important to aesthetic beauty than shaders and shimmers. Despite that, the price and the sheer enthusiasm the Wii has generated makes me confident that we are looking at a DS style success here.
Still, I suppose it could fail, and Gaming Nexus has an extremely well-thought out list of Nintendo’s potential fubars in the upcoming console war:
Dumb mistakes. Nintendo’s made plenty of them in the past. From cringe-worthy advertising to burning bridges with developers, the gaming veteran has hit most of the metaphorical potholes. Does disaster loom? Well, that all depends on the new Nintendo, the Satoru Iwata Nintendo, and if the risks he’s taking are right. Iwata has done a good job to cleanse Hiroshi Yamauchi’s imperialistic Nintendo image, making amends with scorned developers and paying some honest-to-god attention to the American market (Reggie, anyone?)
These improvements considered, the Wii is still Nintendo’s biggest risk since the NES. A massive philosophy change is sweeping the company, and here I’ll examine how disastrous it could be if the overhaul isn’t handled with the utmost care. Let’s look at some key elements of this new movement.
One high probability disaster they cite is Nintendo’s WiFi Connection strategy, which looks clunky and unwieldy compared to the 360’s Gamer Tag system. They also seem to think that the Wii is not getting the marketing blitz it deserves… a questionable conclusion, since Word of Mouth alone on this one has put the name of Nintendo’s next console even in non-gamer’s mouths.
Could the Wii Fail? [Gaming Nexus]
