Archive for December 2nd, 2006
Wii Get — A Side Story
I did it, I ended up with a Wii on launch day here in Tokyo! Even though I’d been planning to line up at the main Bic Camera store in Ikebukuro for a while now, catching a cold 2 days ago took care of that plan. But I didn’t give up, and decided I’d still try my luck by going there early Saturday morning. So I woke up early (5:30), hopped on my bike, and headed to the store. Unfortunately (and as I sort of expected), it was too late — and I wasn’t alone, as many people with dejected looks on their face were walking away from the store as I arrived. But all was not lost, as one of the smaller Bic Camera stores (there are 5 Bics in Ikebukuro) was having a draw for 100 units (and thank you, Patrick, for the tip). You had to go between 9 and 10, when they would take the number of your Bic Camera point card, and then go back at 11 to see if your number had been selected. Guess who was shown some Wii love! See the entire adventure, in glorious images, after the jump.
The main Bic Camera store a bit after 5:30, as they prepare to start selling the consoles and accessories. You can’t see the lineup, since they did the same thing as with the PS3 launch, and organized a queue in back of the store, inside a park.
So I headed to one of the smaller Bics (on the east side of the station), and decided I’d try my luck with the draw they were having.
Staff were standing in front of the unopened store, writing down everyone’s Bic Camera point card number.
I wasn’t alone. I got there at 9 exactly, and it remained crowded throughout the entire hour (I stopped back later), and they were pretty quick at taking down the numbers.
There were 2 queues set up, as people who didn’t have a Bic Camera point card had the option of getting one made, so that they could enter the draw.
Once they wrote down your number, they gave you a piece of paper with instructions.
This is the paper, which basically says that the winners would be announced at 11, and that you had until until 20:45 to pick up your Wii if you had been selected.
A girl, pondering if this is going to be her lucky Wii day.
I went and walked around Ikebukuro a bit, and came back later to see the exact same amount of people in front of the store, entering the draw. Don’t know how many people entered, but it must have been a rather large number.
And in the end, Wii get! When I went to the store to check numbers, I actually thought I had lost at first, as the numbers listed didn’t correspond to the amount of digits on my card, and I was just checking from the start. Before leaving, I decided to check with one of the staff, who told me that you had to check the last 7 digits of your number. I swear my heart skipped a beat when I found my number. I ended up also picking up Hajimete no Wii (Wii Play) and Wii Sports (you first picked up the console at the table they had set up outside, and then could go to the regular game floor to buy games and accessories — this was good, because I used points from my Wii purchase on the games). Later in the day I went back to the main store to pick up another game (I got Super Monkey Ball), and can tell you that pretty much every single accessory was sold out, including the Hajimete no Wii pack (with comes with Wii Play and an extra controller).
Arcade Flyer Art Saturday: The Adventures Of Robbie Roto
The Adventures of Robby Roto:
This is a bizarre little game put out by Bally Midway in 1981. A sort of bastard child of Pac-Man and Dig Dug, Robby Roto had players assay the role of a little yellow disc who digs around in tunnels looking for his little disc friends. Unlike Dig-Dug, however, you can’t choose where you want to dig, you must travel through a pre-determined maze with some parts visible and other that are hidden. As you find your friends, they follow you, creating a long line of little discs that make it much easier for you to get nailed by the enemy. Each level has enemies that chase you around, increasing in speed the higher up in levels you go. According to the flyer, the enemies include sinister spiders, jawbones, a wicked troll and a dragon called “The Evil Voltar”.
While the game sounds pretty run of the mill, the flyer is something different entirely. It looks like something off of my old Dungeon’s and Dragons Monster Manual. It’s also very evocative of the old Golden Key Comics and those ads for plastic models you used to find in the backs of them. I’m intrigued in particular with the wicked troll. Knowing the awesomeness of 8-Bit graphics, I can only imagine that it looks exactly like the goggle eyed freak that they have pictured.
Futuristic U.K. Wii Kiosks Beam Down
This has got to be, by far, the best Wii kiosk we’ve seen. It looks like something out of a sci-fi film or maybe a leftover prop from A Clockwork Orange. I’m especially fond of the Barbarella-esque floating egg thing with the Wii suspended inside. This is quite departure from the U.S. and Japanese kiosks that are really rather boring in comparison. Big thanks to Kotakuite peanutismint for sending this picture by carrier pigeon all the way from Cardiff, Wales.
Michigan Will Have To Pay For Failed Gaming Law
Earlier in the year Judge George Caram Steeh, threw out a Michigan bill that made the selling of violent video games to minors illegal, calling it unconstitutional. Well, now it looks like the great state of Michigan is going to have to pony up to the game industry for the legal fees to the tune of 180k, which is small in comparison to what some of the other states who have had to pay similar fees lately have shelled out. Washington state, St. Louis, Indianapolis and Illinois have been charged as much as 510k for their overturned laws.
So, I guess the E.S.A. does actually do something besides threatening poor bloggers for copyright infringement.
Michigan to Cough Up for Legal Fees [Next Generation]
David Jaffe REALLY Wants To Make God of War 3
Gametrailers got a chance to corner outspoken (and potty mouthed) God of War creator, David Jaffe at the recent GameTrailers Party at the Playboy Mansion. Along for the ride is a Sony Marketing guy who chimes in with some typical marketing B.S. between witty quips about naked women.
Jaffe insists that God of War III is still just an idea and not in development as of yet. He states that no one from Sony brass has stepped in and given the word go yet, but he’d really like to do it. Really. He really, really wants to do it. Finally, the interview ends with Jaffe desperately telling us all how absolutely uncool he really is ..and how drunk.
This Day in Gaming, December 2nd
1999: Activision releases Quake 3 Arena. Unreal Tournament is way better. UT 4 LIFE! Ummm…and….[fill in random fact]. [fill in lame joke about random fact, hoping no one will notice that it's lame and will instead applaud the wit in the comments].
2004: Nintendo releases WarioWare: Touched! for DS in Japan. Games like these work really well for a portable platform. I wish that the PSP had more quick play titles…even though I realize that such games weren’t the platform’s original intention.
Have gaming history, trivia, or famous birthdays you’d like to see in TDIG? Drop us a line at tdig@kotaku.com
Wii Virtual Console Update For Monday
Retro gamers, check back with your Wii this Monday at 9 AM PST/12 PM EST for another semi-exciting Virtual Console update. This week you can re-buy Donkey Kong Jr. for the NES, Victory Run for the TurboGrafx 16, and Ristar and Columns for the Sega Genesis.
Hmm. The press release says Donkey Kong Jr. is for the Super NES, but I’m going to assume that’s a misprint, unless there was some re-release I’m unaware of. Anyone gonna pick any of these up?
Corporate messaging follows after the jump.
Nintendo News: Four New Classic Games Announced for Wii Shop Channel
Every Monday starting Dec. 4, Nintendo will add classic games to the popular new Wii™ video game console’s Wii Shop Channel. Four games will be added at 9 a.m. Pacific time on Dec. 4. Wii owners with a high-speed Internet connection can redeem Wii Points to download the games. Wii Points can be purchased in the Wii Shop Channel or at retail outlets. This week’s new games are:
Donkey Kong Jr.™ (Super NES®, 1-2 players, 500 Wii Points): Based on the popular arcade game, Donkey Kong Jr. is the sequel to the immensely successful Donkey Kong®. Players play as Donkey Kong’s son, Junior, and rescue his dad, who has been kidnapped and imprisoned in a cage by Mario™. Players use their jumping and climbing abilities to clamber up vines and chains, gather vital fruit and keys, and open the cage to free their father. Make sure to avoid the pesky birds, nasty electric sparks and creepy chompers. Four different worlds filled with numerous climbing and jumping puzzles await in this timeless classic.
Victory Run™ (TurboGrafx16, 1 player, 600 Wii Points): Victory Run is a rally racing game, made up of eight different stages set in different countries from Paris to Dakar. Players can race across highways, deserts, savannahs and coastlines. In order to advance to the next stage, players must dodge traffic and cross the finish line within the time limit. Players can upgrade their race car with such parts as tires, gears, engines, suspensions and brakes. Driving on rough courses and hitting obstacles will cause damage to individual parts, so making repairs is critical. Choosing the right setup of parts may be the difference between winning and not finishing the race at all. So go out there and prove to the world that you have what it takes to take raise the gold cup in Victory Run!
Columns™ (Sega Genesis, 1-2 players, 800 Wii Points): Players test their hand at the ancient Phoenician game of Columns. Multicolored gems drop from the top of the screen into a pit. It is up to players to quickly arrange the order of the jewels into lines of three or more as they fall. If gems pile up and reach the top, the game is over.
Ristar™ (Sega Genesis, 1 player, 800 Wii Points): Greedy, an evil space pirate, has corrupted the kings of the Valdi System’s seven planets and enslaved the people who live there. The plea for a hero is answered by Ristar, who uses his amazing extendable arms and courage to save Valdi from Greedy.
ZOMG 133t $P34k On Teh Newz LOLZ
It always tickles me when mainstream media tries to cover something “hip and new” that the kids are up to. It even better when it’s a local news program. Channel 10 out of Central Ohio has done an “in depth” investigation into the sordid underworld of leet speak and it effects on our kids …won’t somebody please think of the children?
Necro-Nesia Trailer Bores Me To Tears
I’m a big survival horror fan, so when I heard that one with the intriguing title of Necro-Nesia was coming out for the Wii, my interest was piqued Much to my disappointment, what I had hoped would be something involving bloody, horrible dead bodies turned out to be a game where you fight big insects. And not gigantic, mutated armored space insects, but just plain old run of the mill overly large insects. I don’t think I’ve ever been quite so bored watching a trailer for something that’s supposed to be scary. Except, perhaps, for anything by Uwe Boll.
City of Heroes/Villains Issue 8 Now Live
NC Soft has announced that the latest free expansion for City of Heroes/Villains, Issue 8: To Protect and Serve, is now live. New features include: Safeguard Missions (Heroes Only), Police Band (Heroes Only), Pocket D Arenas (Heroes and Villains) and Faultline Reborn (Heroes Only). Additionally, both Heroes and Villains can enjoy a retroactive Veteran Rewards Program that rewards long time players with special costumes, powers and badges.
In related news, About.com named City of Villains the #1 science fiction MMO followed swiftly by City of Heroes at #3.
Kotaku Originals: From Japanese Wii Launch to Dust Collecting PS3s
It’s been a wacky week what with Ashcraft’s tireless coverage of the Wii launch in Japan, Kutaragi getting kicked to the curb and Crecente professing his undying love for Wii Madden. Here’s our list of this week’s original content.
- Wii JPN Launch: Last Minute Info
- JPN Wii Launch: And So, It Starts
- JPN Wii Launch: “We Only Have a Few Hundred”
- JPN Wii Launch: Not Homeless Winos, But Elderly Gamers
- JPN Wii Launch: People Come, Sun Sets
- JPN Wii Launch: Check Those Aisles
- JPN Wii Launch: Upstairs We Go
- JPN Wii Launch: Where The Old Dudes Meet
- JPN Wii Launch: Waiting In A Parking Garage
- JPN Wii Launch: Leaving And Returning
- JPN Wii Launch: Almost Home
- JPN Wii Launch: The GETs And The GET-Nots
- Kutaragi Being Groomed to Head Sony?
- SpongeBob Wii Impressions
- Raving Rabbids Impressions
- Clips: Reggie Bowls
- Wii Classic Controller Impressions
- Dungeon Siege PSP Impressions
- I <3 Wii Madden
- PS3s Still Scarce In Japan, Used Ones Reasonable
- PS3’s Kicks Ass At Collecting Dust
- Kotaku’s Playstation 3 Winner
Keeping track of virtual world history
Filed under: Culture
MMOG players are well aware of the virtual lands they play in because there is typically a rich history established, but after that there is no record of how the players influence the world once the “game” started. Gamers are naturally, due to programming, always at the mercy of plot lines created by developers; however, even when a major plot line is fulfilled, there is no history that it ever happened. Narratively it’s like the government being in control of the press and you only hear what they want you to hear. A TerraNova writer poses the possibility of a student asking to write a history of events in Ultima Online, he says, “The textual sources are going to be extremely difficult to recover in a thorough way because there are both too many and too few; a lot of the rest will only be knowable through oral historical work, or through questioning people through email.”
Players in World of Warcraft over the last year dealt with opening the Gates of Ahn’Qiraj and a new Scourge Invasion, but players have no place in-game to find out what happened during these times. There is no newspaper, no town crier , nobody who publicly tracked in-game what guilds and players helped the war effort. For new players or those wanting to look back there is no history in the World of Warcraft after players entered and the game started. It would be nice to see embedded journalists in the game like there is in Second Life, tracking the history of various servers with access to Blizzard’s statistical information. These journalists would be able to report and help create a history to online worlds. Of course, it wouldn’t be a free press because the company would manage what data could be released, but at least there would be narrative of what players have accomplished.
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GamePro Family attempts ESRB v2.0
Filed under: Culture, Business
GamePro Family birthed on the interwebs recently and is GamePro’s second attempt at getting parents informed about the types of games their kids play or want them to buy. GamePro launched a magazine in the early ’90s for parents called PlayRight — it failed. A PlayRight column survived in GamePro magazine until 2004. GamePro Family seems to be another incarnation of PlayRight, with GamePro management, once again, trying to do the right thing and teach parents about gaming.
The problem is that the ESRB is already there to do “the right thing.” Would the GamePro management please wake-up and put some money and effort into their flagship publication? Maybe management thinks this is some kind of PR/marketing effort and if parents go to GamePro Family, instead of the ESRB’s website which has a full blown ad campaign backing it, that parents will want to subscribe to GamePro for their children? That idea sounds utterly convoluted, but why else do this PR based website in the era of the ESRB?
[Via GameSetWatch]
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TiVo promo goes “behind the scenes” of Wii ad
Filed under: Culture, Nintendo Wii, Business
If you’ve watched TV at all over the past few weeks, you’ve probably already been bombarded with the Wii’s first American TV ad campaign. What you might not have seen yet is the Nintendo-produced companion piece that is now showing up on TiVo boxes around the country.
The “meet the people” clip is part of an offer to “Experience Wii … the season’s hottest gift” that shows up at the bottom of the main TiVo menu in a random cycle with other TiVo-sponsored ads. In the clip, the silent “average joe” characters featured in the Wii TV spots finally speak about their experience with the creepy Japanese guys. Unsurprisingly, each participant harps on how easy-to-use the Wii is and how much unexpected fun they had playing it.
The performances are in general pretty stilted, but we have to admit we loved the Latino grandmother who kept calling the system “the why thing.” See for yourself below (apologies for the bad video and audio quality).
Continue reading TiVo promo goes “behind the scenes” of Wii ad
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