Blog5 Games

Why isn’t Curious George curious about that frilly Mogwai attacking Crash Bandicoot? Check out the highlights for today:

Joystiquery
Japanese hardware sales, Mar. 19 - Mar. 25: olympic pairing edition
Pre-April Fools warning: Trust no one
The Political Game: Throwing free speech under the bus
Today’s franchise face-offiest game video: Bauer versus Riker

News
Free T-Mobile WiFi with latest PSP firmware update
Eidos holding out for better PS3 install base
Lego Batman developer hints at even more Lego titles
Seventeen Brits complain about Wii ad violence
Halo 2 maps available April 17th for $4, Xbox 360 not required
Take Two shareholders oust CEO
Bonk takes Revenge on the Dragon’s Curse, and 3 more coming to VC
Obama goes for the shut-in vote in Second Life
Activist lawyer drops RICO charges against Take Two, others
Europe gets Punch Out, other virtual console classics first
Forget the field, watch the soccer match on your PSP
NiGHTS Wii screens, interview found in Portuguese game mag
Component to HDMI cables already exist, already pointless
Crackdown update adds more gang drivers, multiplayer fixes
Itagaki demonstrates Ninja Gaiden: Dragon Sword for DS
Toys ‘R’ Us will have Wii in stock Sunday
Retcon-Alert: New Mortal Kombat film to reboot franchise

Culture & Community
Upright Citizen mocks gamers through showtune
NEWS FLASH: Old people like games!
Mobile controller concept fits like a … sleeve?
Wii robot bowls 300, feels no emotion with victory

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Filed under: Nintendo DS, Nintendo GameCube, Sony PlayStation 2, Sony PlayStation 3, Sony PSP, Nintendo Wii, Microsoft Xbox 360, Business

“What if?” It’s a question, albeit a lazily constructed one, that we here at Joystiq often enjoy asking. What if the PlayStation 3 was cheaper? What if the DS Lite was a miserable failure? What if human beings had balloon whisks for arms and flashlights for eyes and were forced to lead an existence composed entirely of unblinking and brightly lit baking? All important questions, though none as important as the one recently posed by the Olympic union of Mario and Sonic, two of gaming’s most famous guys who jump on other guys to kill them.

What if Mario chose someone else to go to the Olympics?

- DS Lite: 130,549 9,078 (7.47%)
- Wii: 75,571 8,501 (12.67%)
- PSP: 41,546 2,223 (5.08%)
- PS3: 20,459 1,176 (5.44%)
- PS2: 16,961 3,640 (27.33%)
- Xbox 360: 3,492 582 (20.00%)
- Game Boy Micro: 765 38 (5.23%)
- GBA SP: 607 50 (8.98%)
- Gamecube: 270 97 (26.43%)
- DS Phat: 135 24 (15.09%)
- GBA: 22 13 (144.44%)

[Source: Media Create]

See also: Previous Japanese hardware sales charts

After the break — the games that could have been.

Continue reading Japanese hardware sales, Mar. 19 - Mar. 25: olympic pairing edition

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Filed under: Culture, Hacks

As you wander unsuspecting into your weekend, don’t forget that the craziest game news day outside of E3 (well, maybe not anymore) is coming up. That’s right, Sunday is April Fools Day, the one day a year where newsmakers and gamemakers everywhere stop making unintentional jokes and try to intentionally make up the most ludicrously believable fake stories that they can.

From BurgerCraft to real 1up mushrooms to cheat site shutdowns, no topic is safe. Heck, in the case of magazines, the actual joke can come in early March. Here are few tips to keep your coming weekend fool free.

• If it seems too good to be true, it probably is: We’d all love for Nintendo to suddenly give everyone who clicks a link a free Wii, but face it, it doesn’t seem too likely.
• Sourcing is important: If a blockbuster April 1 story comes from unnamed sources or a mysteriously dead web site, remain skeptical. The least they could do is forge some documentation for their joke; make them work for it.
• It’s Sunday: Big gaming news never comes out on Sunday. Then again, don’t be surprised if some sites wait till Monday to spring their foolishness this year.
• Sega is not re-entering the hardware business. Nintendo is not leaving it: Actually, this is good advice to remember year round.
• Your favorite classic Sega franchise from yesteryear is not going to suddenly reappear as a Wii-exclusive title: Oh, wait….
• When in doubt, don’t believe it: If the story pops up again in a week, you’re probably in the clear.

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Filed under: Fighting, Business

Either Midway realized they went too far the moment Liu Kang was turned into a zombie, or they just want to cash-in on a current cinema trend. Regardless, the Mortal Kombat series could stand a serious reboot. Especially after the previous game, Armageddon, featured a dead Johnny Cage split-punching every known kombatant ever in the crotch.

Should the new film ever make it to theaters, director Christopher Mink says it will be a retelling of the Mortal Kombat universe, a la Batman Begins. This would also fall in line with MK co-creator Ed Boon’s vision of a completely redone fighting game for the eighth sequel in the series. With scripts being thrown in and out of Threshold, Midway and another, unknown studio, progress is still being made albeit slowly.

In other Oscar worthy news, Mink told IMDB readers that he has met with former Mortal Kombat stars Robin Shou and Christopher Lambert. For Raiden, we expect no less, for there can be… only one!

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Filed under: Culture, Nintendo Wii, Business

If you’re looking for the Wii, and we know a lot of you out there still are, you’ll be happy to know this Sunday Toys “R” Us will have them in stock. Get there early, the announcement will be in this Sunday’s flyers and you’ll want to beat the rush of moms to the store after they drop their coffee, shove the bagel in their mouth and bolt out the door.

Wherever people fall on the Wii shortage being intentional or unintentional, not to mention the controversy among Wii owners about the gaming drought, that little console made from two duct taped Gamecubes is selling like sellin’ is going out of style. It still looks like Nintendo won’t back up these amazing sales figures with some real, original Wii titles for quite some time. We’ll just have to enjoy this constant string of Gamecube ports and mini-game based Wii titles apparently.

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Filed under: Nintendo DS, Action

Revealed earlier this week, Team Ninja’s Head Developer Corey Hart Tomonobu Itagaki took the stage today in Tokyo to demonstrate Ninja Gaiden: Dragon Sword for the Nintendo DS. With the controls consisting almost entirely within the touch screen, a live demonstration of this ambitious action title is exactly what we needed after the initial scans left us somewhat baffled.

IGN, who was on-hand for the event, walked away fairly impressed with Hayabusa’s moves as they say he “dart[ed] about the screen just like his Xbox and PS3 counterpart, performing all the expected moves, right down to leaping between walls to get to higher ground.” A bold statement considering the pedigree the series has built on nigh perfect controlling action.

With single taps for movements, double taps for jumps and slashes of the stylus for attacks, we’re still somewhat skeptical of just how well this will work out, but if anyone can pull it of it’s Itagaki and company.

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Look! It’s a Bungie announcement not involving Halo 3! On April 17th, two new multiplayer maps for Halo 2 will be made available on both the original Xbox and the 360. These aren’t just any maps mind you, but remakes of two of the most popular battlefields from the original Halo, Hang ‘Em High and Dereclict. The maps have been overhauled, rebalanced, packed with new features and rechristened Tombstone and Desolation.

Nice and shiny, while still being familiar enough to veteran players as to make sure I haven’t a chance in hell in living more that 5 seconds on average from the moment I spawn.

Since the maps are technically for an original Xbox game, you’ll need a credit card with a balance of $4 available to purchase the new maps, as the big black box doesn’t know from Microsoft points. Hit the jump for more info! Michael Fahey

HALO 2 MULTIPLAYER MAPS REVEALED

Microsoft Game Studios and Bungie Studios today confirmed the upcoming release of two new, eagerly awaited downloadable maps for “Halo® 2.” The maps will be available as premium downloadable content for Xbox® and Xbox 360™ on April 17.

Fans of the original “Halo” have long requested the addition of some of their favorite maps to the critically acclaimed multiplayer experience of “Halo 2.” These re-creations, developed by Bungie and Certain Affinity Inc., are a perfect way to thank fans for their support as they surpass 800 million hours of “Halo 2″ gaming on Xbox LIVE®.

The two maps will bring new life to ancient battlefields and legendary skirmishes, as both are new, improved and redesigned remakes of fan favorites from the original “Halo: Combat Evolved.” For the price of $4 for the pair, these maps bring a fresh burst of action to the seminal “Halo 2″ online multiplayer experience. Both of the maps will be available through the “Halo 2″ in-game content downloader for both Xbox and Xbox 360.*

The king of “Halo” maps has returned at last. Hang ‘Em High, arguably the most popular multiplayer map for the original title, has been reimagined for “Halo 2″ as Tombstone, with all-new graphics, features and a few hidden surprises. Now fans will enjoy the dangerous catwalks and trenches that made this the most requested “Halo” multiplayer map ever, with a modernized “Halo 2″ flavor.

The second map, Desolation, is a symmetrical, Deathmatch-oriented map and a beautiful remake of the original Derelict. With new graphics and effects and a massive gameplay overhaul, the old favorite is now faster-paced and more balanced than ever — perfect for intense “Halo 2″ combat.

Filed under: Microsoft Xbox 360, Action

Those of you giving Crackdown the first spin in a few days will notice an automatic update for the game, if, of course, you’re connected to Xbox Live. Here’s what it is not:

1.The magical switch to activate the Halo 3 beta.
2. The remaining 100 Achievement Points.
3. The new multiplayer modes, ‘gang reset’ option or planes.

Here — according to Xbox Live Director of Programming Major Nelson — is what the update does do:

1. Makes some small technical fixes to “ensure a smoother online gameplay experience.”
2. Increases the number of gang-controlled vehicles. (”Repo Man” Achievement hunters rejoice!)

Sure, you could view this as a disappointment if you were hoping for some of the above Crackdown updates. But we eternal optimists choose to look at is as just more things we still have to look forward to! Huzzah!

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1999: Activision releases Civilization: Call to Power for PC in the US. I wish the entire world ran on turn-based simplicity. Because then I could just do everything really, really slowly to spite my enemies. Really slowly. Taking a long time. When I shouldn’t take so long. Stretching it. So it takes longer. Temporally speaking. Not physically. Sorry if there was any confusion. I meant long as in minutes turned to hours and hours turned to days. I didn’t mean long as inches turned into feet. But I could definitely understand the room for confusion. That’s why I’m taking the time to clarify myself now. At this point in time. Though granted, when I started the post it was much earlier than this point in time. Really, one can never talk about this point in time since the time has already passed. Actually, maybe just the “this” part works. Oh, was it my turn all this time? I had no idea or I wouldn’t have taken so long. Long as in time, not distance.

2000: Blockbuster begins renting Dreamcast systems. The idea of renting a console seems so foreign, especially since if there is ever a game you want to play, a friend usually has the means to play it. Or at least someone you pretend to be friends with. Mark Wilson

Have gaming history, trivia, or famous birthdays you’d like to see in TDIG? Drop us a line at tdig@kotaku.com

Filed under: Culture, Hacks, Nintendo Wii, Sports

The Lego hackers at BattleBricks have created a robot that throws Wii Bowling strikes every frame, dominating any human that dares face off against this plastic giant. The robot looks like a spastic uneven bars runner-up, but it does the trick; its controls move the bowler off-center, hold B for the swing, and release it at the perfect time. It even resets itself — and its Mii — after each frame.

And yes, of course the robot is supported on each side by Linux and C++ guides — it just doesn’t get any more perfectly geeky. See a video of the robot in action after the break.

[Via Engadget]

Continue reading Wii robot bowls 300, feels no emotion with victory

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Coming out on June 29th is the Wii’s G1 Jockey, Nintendo’s answer to simulating the lives of tiny, anorexic men.

… The game allows players to utilize the Wii-remote as a whip to thrust your noble steed around the track, while the nunchuck will be used to guide the animal.

That sounds pretty hawt! Apparently this game is already out on PS2, but it’s nothing without the rope and leather. Kim Phu

Wii feels the need, the need for Steed [Computer and Video Games]

SEGA has announced Medieval II: Total War Kingdoms, the expansion pack for what I consider to be one of the best RTS games of all time. Rather than drone on at great length about the features coming in the massive expansion, I shall take the coward’s route and let the following video speak for me.

After C&C 3 failed to grab my interest I was afraid I might be suffering from a malfunctioning RTS gland, but the tingle I feel after watching that means it’s working! In case the video wasn’t enough, there’s a whole press release lurking around being all informative, after the jump. Michael Fahey

Medieval II: Total War Expands Its Kingdom

The Total War experience reaches further in to the New World…

LONDON & SAN FRANCISCO (March 30th, 2007) - SEGA® Europe Ltd. and SEGA® of America, Inc. today announced Medieval II: Total War™ Kingdoms, the expansion pack for one of 2006’s biggest PC strategy games, Medieval II: Total Warä. Due for release on PC in Autumn 2007, Kingdoms will offer an unprecedented amount of new content that gives gamers over 75 hours of epic new gameplay.

Medieval II: Total War™ Kingdoms will feature 4 brand new campaigns, including an opportunity to more fully explore The New World that was unlocked toward the end of Medieval II. In the Americas campaign, players will be able to retrace the steps of Hernán Cortés in 1519, as he seeks to explore and conquer The New World. Players can earn the support of Spain and explore the mystery and riches of the New World, or take control of the Aztec or Native American factions and call on the Gods and the bravery of vast armies to see off this new threat.

Three other campaigns will offer more detailed “magnifying glass” campaigns within Great Britain, Northern Europe and the Holy Land, with many more regions than were originally shown in Medieval II. Featuring 13 new playable factions and over 150 new units, Kingdoms will allow players to control thousands of men on a single battlefield and lead them into conflict with new hero characters such as Richard The Lionheart and Saladin, each armed with new, powerful battlefield abilities. In addition, players will use moated forts to garrison vast armies or seize control of key strategic points and explore new technology trees, governed by religion and prestige.

Players can experience a bloody clash between pagans and Christians in the Northern European Teutonic Wars, or take control of one of 5 factions in the Britannia campaign when England faces war on 4 fronts as once conquered lands rise up against them. Kingdoms will also include a new expanded Crusades campaign, where players renew their fight for control of the Holy Lands, with new factions, devastating new units (such as the terrifying Greek Flame Thrower), legendary heroes and powerful holy relics.

“With Medieval II: Total War we offered unrivalled scope of warfare, both on and off the field of battle, as you conquered the known world” commented George Fidler, Studio Director, The Creative Assembly Australia, “Now with ‘Kingdoms’ we’re looking to offer unrivalled richness and detail with four completely new campaigns, each offering its own unique features, challenges and flavour of Total War.”

Kingdoms will also include six new multiplayer scenarios, and 20 new Custom Battle battle maps. Each of the campaigns is also fully compatible with a brand new Hotseat multiplayer mode, making this an essential addition to any Total War fans’ collection.

Medieval II: Total War™ Kingdoms will be released for PC in autumn 2007.

###

Filed under: Culture, Microsoft Xbox 360, Peripherals, Business

Our BFF, Engadget, got a tip about an upcoming component to HDMI cable for the non-elite 360, and we’re left shrugging our shoulders. Such adapters already exist at a steep cost; you plug component and audio cables in one end, and a single HDMI cable feeds out the other.

That’s cool if you’re down with OCD, but for the rest of us, why bother? One feature of HDMI is to run a digital signal for audio and video over a single cable. Connecting each audio and component feed into an analog-to-digital converter negates that one-cable, digital-only benefit.

Another “feature” of HDMI is its support for HDCP, and these adapters can’t handle that copy-protected signal. What that means is someday, when a studio executive pushes a red button to turn on an Image Constraint Token for new movies, an HD-DVD enabled 360 will down-scale HD movies to DVD-quality; full quality in that future scenario will require a direct HDCP connection between a device and a TV. And some of our fancy HDTVs don’t even support HDCP. Thank you, piracy panic.

Maybe Microsoft is preparing an HDMI cable to interface with the original 360’s video-output port. Even then, the interface change won’t impact games; it’s only a convenience and movie issue.

Note that pictured adapter includes component to VGA cable.

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Long day. Very tired. But lots of you are just waking up. Here’s what you missed.

Day 1 was as expected. It was conference-only (the big showroom floor part kicks off tomorrow), so just lots of sitting around and chatting/listening, but since when has chatting and/or listening to industry types like Miz, Suda and Rod Fergusson not been a little bit interesting? I’ll tell you. Since never.

The future of gaming is THE SPONGE.

Rod Fergusson is a lovely man. And no, he’s not my dad.

Rod talks Gears for a while.

Suda gives the punkest conference address I’ve ever seen. And has fantastic boots.

What’s in store for tomorrow? Oh, loads ‘a stuff. I love my tea and biscuits, and am planning on sharing them with Kojima and Suda while we have a little chat. The expo opens, so there’ll be lots of stuff to play and ogle, and I think the big cosplay tourney is tomorrow as well. Can’t wait for that one. Shame it’s not a cake contest instead, but hey, it’s not my show. Luke Plunkett

This is proof that no matter how many times some one explains the concept of Second Life, no one really understands it. I know that most medias want to capitalize on it, but why use Second Life in a commercial and try to use it as leverage in the Netherlands? People have a real, um, “natural” hunger for snack foods here. Kim Phu

Get a (Third) Life [Adverblog]

Sad panda press members unable to procure invites is only one of the effects of the new, downsized E3. Another profound area of impact was this year’s GDC, which saw a 30 percent increase in attendance over last year, according to Jamil Moledina, boss of GDC and all-around nice guy.

Moledina said several factors contributed to the event’s growth, confirming, “We certainly did see a boost in interest following the E3 announcement - I couldn’t keep my voicemail clear that whole week.

Moledina also attributed the San Francisco location and some amazing keynote speakers as key factors in the show’s growth.

Depending on how this year’s E3 pans out, GDC could be even bigger next year, which is fine with me as long as they maintain a fair balance between walking all over San Francisco and stuffing yourself with free food and drink. Michael Fahey

GDC picked up E3 constituents, says Moledina [GamesIndustry.biz]

Filed under: Nintendo Wii

French gaming site Jeux France has what it claims is the first images of the new NiGHTS title for Wii, from magazine scans of Portuguese magazine Maxi Consola. (We’re so multicultural.) So far, NiGHTS has been an extremely persistent rumor; this is the either the first concrete evidence of the title’s existence or the cleverest Photoshop effort to date.

The magazine scans feature an interview with Takashi Iizuka (here written Takeshi), a Sega developer who’s had a hand or two in every Sonic game since 1994 as well as the original NiGHTS Into Dreams. Our Portuguese is a bit pathetic, but Play Nintendo has translated the interview. The game is purported to have a two player mode and some online capabilities. Jeux France purports that Sega will make an announcement early April.

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Not only can Will’s Mindstorms robot play Wii Bowling, it can kick your ass at it. Perfect robotic score FTW! I’ve already begged Will to write up a howto on his site.

Watch it and weep, puny humans. Next up, robot playing Call of Duty 3 on the Wii, then robots take over the world. Brian Crecente

Wiigobot [Battle Bricks]

Filed under: Sony PSP, Wireless, Sports, Mobile

Back in my day, everyone brought their fancy new transistor radios to the ball game to listen to the play-by-play. And the players people didn’t wear their ball caps backwards, like you young’ns today! And Cracker Jack cost only a nickel! And certain folk weren’t allowed on the field, dagnabbit!

Well, the times are a-changin’, because soon people attending London Arsenal soccer matches will be able to get streaming stats and replays on their PSPs via a program called S.PORT (Back in my day, dots went at the end of sentences, consarnit). The program even allows live streaming of the game, for when you have to go to use the facilities (Back in my day, they weren’t called the “facilities.” It was called an outhouse, and it smelled awful. But did we complain? Noooooo.)

At this rate, soon you won’t even have to go to your local sports stadium to see the game. With all the technology and such these days, I bet someone’ll come up with a way to beam images of the game directly into your home, so you can watch from the comfort of your couch. Boy, won’t that be something.

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This time last year, before E3 happened, I was still working at an ad agency who had one of the three big consoles as an account and everyone thought that Nintendo had lost their minds. “They called it what?!” It was in no way a contender for the console wars. I, however, had been reading Kotaku and was super hyped about it. I even showed my boyfriend (who also worked at the agency) a clip of people playing with it (chopping salad, air sword-fighting), who said to me, “You know, Kim, that’s a commercial every creative wants to do, but the fact of the matter is, the video games don’t work like that in real life”.

Huh? What?

I tried to explain to him that it did, but at the time it was really difficult for people to understand the concept of the Wii. So instead, I bought the stock (NTODY), and this week my stock has DOUBLED.

Yesterday (my first day in Kotaku training) some of you commenters schooled me in knowledge and, seriously, you can turn that knowledge into cash. Take a look at some of your favorite game developers. Many of you know better than they do about the future of their company. Kim Phu