Gaming News… Weirder Than Usual (And Other Assorted Bits & Pieces)
- First off is an item that perhaps everyone’s heard by now; a woman died last Friday while trying to win a Wii in a radio contest. The truly bizarre part is the cause of death: water intoxication, which basically means she drank too much water.
The contest was called the “Hold You Wee for a Wii” and had contesting seeing how much water they could drink without going to the bathroom. For a more technical explanation of what water intoxication is, here’s one resource. But yeah, I had no idea such a thing could happen. Of course, too much of anything can be dangerous, yet… its just water!
Not surprisingly, people at the radio station have been fired, and there’s a lawsuit pending I think. Still, its such a freak accident…
- Next is also something that’s been making headlines everywhere: the story of a 41 year old man Michael Devlin, who kidnapped a 13 year old boy, Ben Ownby, and when authorities tracked him down, they discovered another boy, Shawn Hornbeck, who was kidnapped by Devlin 4 years ago, and is now 15.
Now here’s where it gets interesting, the video game part of the story which everyone seems to be overlooking: according to this article, the 41 year old man was a Xbox Live player and apparently allowed the boy whom he had captured to use his tag and play online. In fact, even though the name “DevilDevlin” obviously refers to Michael, the gamer pic was actually that of Hornbeck, which appears to have been taken outside of his captor’s apartment.
And according to this CNN report, at one point Hornbeck’s parents created a website to help gather info towards finding their missing child. Its so weird to think that on one end you have a website created by parents desperate to find their son, then on the other end of the vast internet webscape, you have that much sought after playing video games. Sounds like the plot of a movie, eh?
Furthermore are reports that many of Deviln’s neighbors have seen Hornbeck out and about, playing video games for some time, which has made many wonder why the kid didn’t just run away or try to call for help online.
- Of all places, Ain’t It Cool News was the first to break the story: there’s apparently a new Ghostbusters game on the way? They even have videos of the supposed return, which to me look kinda fake-ish, but according to Joystiq, its real… kinda. Apparently, the folks behind the game are still negotiating with the owners of the IP, but hey, anything’s possible (especially with something like Extreme Ghostbuster in existence).
- Another old item, but I guess still worth commenting on: Sony is saying no to porn on Blue-ray, so the industry is forced to go with HD-DVD as their next generation format. And anyone who knows why VHS was able to triumph over the clearly superior Betamax is well aware that it was due almost entirely to one thing: porn. And given that Beta was Sony’s baby as well, it seems that history may indeed repeat twice.
- Sad news for all Sega fans: they’ve decided to pull the plug on GD-ROM production next month. That’s the media that all Dreamcast games, as well as NAOMI games (the DC’s arcade counterpart) runs off, which means the official nail in the coffin for the system. Meaning that Karous will indeed be the very last Dreamcast game ever. Wow. Oh well… at the least the ride last long after anyone expected.
- Sticking with Sega for a bit, IGN has some of the first ever screen shots from Sega Rally Revo for the PS3. Looks decent I guess… though to be honest, any Sega Rally without Tetsuya Mizuguchi is not Sega Rally in mind, but I’m definitely still interested. Hell, I’m still interested in picking up Sega Rally 2006, if only because the soundtrack is so phenomenal.
- A couple of items courtesy of Insert Credit. First here’s info on a wiki for rom hacks, along with info on a few noteworthy titles, including one called The Muppets Take It All which sounds pretty… interesting.
Second is a special version of Super Mario Bros that I had no idea existed (and I’m pretty sure no one else knows of as well). It was created for a NEC PC in Japan back in the day and is totally bonkers, such as how instead of scrolling, you can only move one screen at a time. Here’s just a taste, noteworthy for the fact that the 1UP “trick” that most people pull off near the end of 3-1 is done here early on in 1-1 via a glitch.
- Along with the rumor of Guitar Hero: 80′s Edition, EGM claimed that part 3 would be produced by Neversoft, the folks behind the Tony Hawk series. Well, once again, a rumor of theirs has been proven correct! Which… kinda sucks (the news that is).
Last I heard, MTV bought the Guitar Hero license from Activision, but now I’m hearing that they actually acquired Harmonix/Red Octane, which makes sense since that would leave a whole to be filled, and Neversoft is Activison’s sequel pumping machine. Hmmm.
- Speaking of MTV, had lunch earlier today with Steve, and upon hearing about me venturing into the land of television, he alerted me to a new sitcom from Australia that deals with gamers (you can check out more info via good ol’ GameSetWatch). Interesting…
BTW, what do two video game journalists talk about during lunch? Pro wrestling of course.
Various Message Board Related Stuff
- Spotted over at Select Button: so there’s a game called Gadget Trial that apparently mixes Advance Wars with animu girls. I know… At least its a bit more original than all the idol simulators that’s glutting the doujin market. Anyway, here’s the trailer, which has been described by one person over at Select Button as “surprisingly dark”, whatever that means. Mind you, these are the same folks who recently described Super Mario Bros as a “lonely” joke…
Anyway, for those that are interested by such a premise, an English patch was recently released. And here’s a piece of art from the game…
- And SuperWes, an all around super nice guy, has been messing around with Fighter Maker (think RPG Maker, but with fighter, obviously), and put together a vid featuring some of the more sexually fueled moves that he’s created (slightly NSFW, extremely immature).
- Meanwhile, the helpful NeoGAF thread of the week goes to one that’s keeping track of all the upcoming releases for the PS2 here in America (proving that there’s more than enough life left in the system). Even though Pocky & Rocky hasn’t been officially announced for stateside, though one can certainly wish! At least we’ve got Red Star (finally), Raiden 3, and Disaster Report 2 (renamed Raw Danger?).
Another good one along the same lines is this one featuring DS screenshots.
- Elsewhere at the GAF, and something that I’ve seen all over the place, but I chose this one because of all the helpful pictures: instructions on how to make your Guitar Hero guitar quiet.
- Also, here’s a thread chock full of Samus fan-art, much of which is quite good! Plus there’s a few stinkers, but at least the Samus/My Little Pony one is interesting. Anyway some of my faves include…
- May as well squeeze this one in; two more shit-tastic boxarts from the fine folks at Phoenix games at the UK. First, Street Warrior!
And what racing fan wouldn’t froth with anticipation after seeing this?
- Want to see a budget game done right? Check out these fucking insane shots from Earth Defense Force X…
Toys! Toys! Toys!
- Those who enjoy Wii sports but wishes the Wiimote was a bit closer to the action might want to check out these nifty extensions…
- And check out this amazing Commodore PDA…
You can find out all that you need behind this sexy beast right here. Now I REALLY have no desire for a MacBook! I also love how the PSone LCD screen is now officially used more with homebrew hacks then the actual system it designed for.
- Stepping away from video games and just plain geeky shit in general comes something that some Star Wars folks may already know about (sorry to pass along old news, but been so busy that I’ve been out of the loop with friends). An R2 D2 projector! Unfortunately, even if I had the money, I would probably pass since its not to scale. Then there’s the R2 DS webcam (that’s pretty neat!) and the lightsabre Skype phone (ummm….).
YouTube Time: Let’s Shmup!
- Time to gander at some YouTube vids, with a focus on shmups. First,
- Here’s the last boss from Dodonpachi Dai-ou-jou (which I have yet to pick… better fix that soon). The very first piece of music in the vid is actually something I listen on a regular basis; its up there with the final boss encounter music from Thunder Force 4 in terms of awesomeness.
To see what a “typical” level is like, here’s a bit from level 5.
- And this clip of Soukyugurentai seriously pisses me off since I had the chance to pick it up for so long (it used to be at the old Game Express for literally years, just collecting dust) but didn’t since I had no idea till this summer when I finally saw it action at Otakon and finally discovered how amazing the fucking thing is.
- Finally a look at two other bullet-hells (and also via the Select Button forums, like the previous three videos): here’s Psyvariar 2 and Imperishable Night. Even if you can’t tell what the hell is going on, at the very least, you gotta admit that its very pretty.
YouTube Time: What Else Is Playing
Okay, enough game related crap. Time to go through a bunch of other vids that I’ve found along the way, as well as stuff passed along my friends, including…
- A pretty nifty (and very Michel Gondry-esque) Coke ad. Sorry if everyone’s seen this billion times already, but once again, I really don’t watch television much these days.
- Something on-top of the “holy shit that’s amazing!” pile: some German dude (of course) made a machine that produces small LEGO cars, and the device itself is also made out of LEGOs as well.
- Courtesy of Katie: a pair of miniskirt ads from Japan circa 1969. Super HAWT.
- And from more recent times, a J-pop vid whose first comment pretty much says it all: “What was that? Commie Care Bears and Clowns?”
- Sticking with girls: a flight attendant doing a little striptease. Sorry, but I have a thing for girls in uniform.
- Also from Japaon, this one’s from Dick (who’s officially become my MySpace “best buddy”): a nice little clip that just goes to show how amazing, and under-appreciated, the music is from old Japanese rubber monster flicks.
- Another one from Dick: I’m assuming that it was pretty popular this past Xmas, but I guess I missed it, plus its still funny today. Full Metal Jacket + one of those old Rankin-Bass stop motion holiday specials. Rudolph? I forget.
- Yet another from Dick (like I said, we’re MySpace buddies), this one stars the Beatles as killer robots from Japan.
- Robin passed this one along: an old Super8 film created by a bunch of 12 year olds called Shark, which was obviously inspired by Jaws, and which was a big hit at the time. And I’m sorry, once again: anything on Super8, and film in general, blows the fuck away all that DV-shit of today, period.
- I also caught a pretty neat-o cartoon produced for Nickelodeon by Pendleton Ward on Google Video the other day, but Robin sent me a link to the YouTube version, and here it is (because we all know that YouTube is so much cooler than Google Video).
- Here’s something from John: a Tranformers the Movie meets Lord of the Rings.
- And finally, almost three minutes of a midget laughing non-stop (and in black & white). Its from Even Dwarfs Starte Smalld, an early Werner Herzog classic.
Pingback: Art history » Fort90 Journal » Tank Girl: Japan Style -OR- The End Is Finally Nigh For The Dreamcast