In this post:
1. Time once again for a super colossal mega rundown of game related “stuff”.
Well it’s been almost a month since my latest video game news & nonsense link & image dump and a LOT has been going on. I don’t even know where to start really…
- The major headline right now is Modern Warfare 2, which I’ve been told is the biggest release of the year. Guess that makes sense; there’s a special edition Modern Warfare 2 Xbox 360 coming out for one thing, after all. Deal is, I could care less about the game. Sorry! Just not my cup of tea, considering it’s a FPS plus the material it utilizes, which is modern warfare (duh).
Though I do find GameStop’s decision to break the street date on purpose (select markets across the country, include a few stores in NYC, began selling it over the weekend despite the fact that the game officially comes out tomorrow/tonight at midnight) to a rather intriguing story. The reason is quite simple: assorted small, independent outlets across the country have been selling it ahead of time, and I guess GameStop felt that their thunder was being stolen, hence the preemptive strike.
First off, I can’t believe that many places were breaking the street date to freak a large chain such as GameStop out like that. Unless we’re talking like WalMart or Best Buy, but I can’t see them daring to test their luck with Activision like that. Speaking of, it’ll be interesting to see how they react to GameStop, which is the biggest retail front when it comes to gaming, as well all know. Though I’m betting that it won’t be anything but a slap on the wrist, as they instead go after the smaller guys with ruthless aggression. As for GS stating that Activision saying it was okay to drop the game early, and the latter completely denying any such agreement, what can one say? Both parties have more than demonstrated in the past what bullsh*t artists they are, so there’s no point trying to figure out whose stating the truth.
Hey, I managed to get like three paragraphs out of this! Neat. EDIT: Here’s what a few others had to say about this situation.
- I’m sure everyone’s heard by now that there’s a brand new, bigger/uglier version of the DSi coming out. I’m pretty much the biggest Nintendo fanboy one is going to meet (I have Shigeru Miyamoto’s business card when I met him years back, for a Nick Mag interview, framed for God’s sake), and even I think it’s completely retarded. I mean look at it…
… Where to begin? The new colors are an eye sore, but they’re designed to appeal to an older audience, hence the wine red shade you see here, along with dark brown (seriously, the same color as a Zune?) and natural white (how different is it from the current white?). Speaking of older people, that’s where the larger screen comes in, since the elderly have a hard time seeing. But the resolution will be the same, so expect games to look somewhat worse. Oh, and goofy new touch pen, that’s just gigantic. But there’s also a second stylus, one that’s closer to the regular one we’re used to, but still kinda bigger. Point being, there’s now two potential things to lose! The shape of the system itself has been slightly altered, and not for the best… plus the battery life is better than the DSi, but still not as good as the DS Lite. Wonderful.
- It’s actually been somewhat of a rough time for Nintendo. As most have also probably heard, the head honcho of Nintendo has flat out admitted that things could be going better for the Wii, which has finally begun running out of steam in Japan. But if one stops to think about it, and considering all the stiff competition they’ve had to face, the system did pretty damn well for itself. Plus, I’m definitely more optimistic for and interested in New Super Mario Bros Wii than Sankaku Complex, but given how much I appreciate their candor when it comes to video game news reporting, I’m certainly not going to hold it against them.
But like I said over at Heavy, when supposed Wii 2 specs were leaked, I wouldn’t be surprised if all the major guns were being prepared for that end, since all seems unusually quiet on the Wii 1 front.
- Sticking with Sankaku Complex for a bit, I could pass along the headline of Bayonetta getting a perfect score from Famitsu (for the Xbox 360 version at least) from pretty much any news outlet, but where else would it feature such saucy fan art? It’s also nice that they pointed out that Uncharted 2 didn’t score as high, even though it maybe should have.
I know folks are really jazzed for this game, and so should I… but I’m not, The demo was okay, but certainly didn’t knock my socks off. Was never a Devil May Cry nut to begin with and doesn’t help I’d imagine. But hey, the girl gets constantly naked while fighting baddies, which more or less means I have to pick it up!
- Then there’s news of how the PS3 port of Ninja Gaiden is not so much better than the 360 version after-all apparently, plus pretty much everyone knows by this point that the PS3 port of Tekken 6 is a slow as hell when compared to the 360 version. Many also believe that the graphics are better on the MS machine, which is funny since the arcade game was based upon Sony hardware. Again, I can’t really tell because of my SD set! Plus, as annoying as the load time as…. more like revolting actually… the 360′s pad is far worse, so I’ve been playing the PS3 version almost exclusively at this point.
- On the flip side, I love how SC really loves to rub salt wound into those who played Tales of Vesperia for the Xbox 360.
- They’ve also been all over the PSP Go, primarily its debut in assorted regions. Which in Europe and Australia, was not very good. Though regarding it’s horrible first showing in Japan, SC somewhat jumped the gun; day one sales were dismal, to be sure, but first week sales were respectable enough to get a decent portion of that sales pie that they show at Kotaku each week. As for how it’s done in America… to honest, haven’t heard anyone quote any figures, which is actually pretty bad. I personally don’t know anyone whose the least bit interested, but it almost doesn’t matter; so long as it fares will in Japan, the system will survive. After all, remember when for the longest time, NOTHING was coming out here in and the system itself was just collecting dust on store shelves? The reason why it stuck around was because of Monster Hunter back home, plain and simple.
- Get this: the youth of Japan are becoming increasingly disinterested in cars, and guess what the culprit is? You guess it: video games. At least according to Toyota! Nice to know that car companies aren’t just headed up by morons in America!
- I know it’s a eroge title, which is definitely not most people’s cup of teas, but it is sorta mine, plus there’s a really cool looking mech…
… I’m speaking of Deus Machina Demonbane, and one can find additional images here, but careful, cuz they’re definitely NSFW.
- Related: for those who want something similar, but from the past, i.e. animu girls circa the 80s and 90s getting molested/getting it on should definitely take a gander at the PC-98 eroge classics gallery. Again, NSFW.
- Time from something from “Japan” that’s actually from Rockstar: for those who haven’t seen it by now, here’s a parody anime that’s contained within the new GTA DLC, The Ballad of Gay Tony, called Princess Robot Bubblegum.
Now, I’m usually a BIG fan of all the pop culture parodies in GTA; despite thinking part 4 is a piece of crap, I still like to watch television in Niko’s apartment or simply drive around while listening to the radio (granted, I’d enjoy myself far more if I wasn’t stuck in Brooklyn the entire time), but this one simply falls flat for me. Granted, some of the points are spot on… too bad they’ve been made like ten years ago to death. Overall, not very creative.
- Back to Bayonetta real quick: the creator is a officially a cool dude in my book cuz he wants another Afterburner!
- Remember when the creator of Katamari stepped away from designing games to design playgrounds? At long last, one of them is finally happening!
- As previously noted, I’m currently digging into Forza 3, though even almost a month into things and I’ve barely scratched the surface. Like it’s mind-blowing custom editor…
… Meanwhile, in Japan…
- I also mentioned last time how the Blip Fest 2009 is looking for donations. Guess what, they met their goal of five grand! Awesome. So things are definitely a go, and for those who haven’t had a chance, the official website is life with the guest list thus far.
Oh, and in addition to the fine folks who opened up their wallets, Gaijin Games, the creator of the Bit.Trip series is also sponsoring the event! Also, I think I’m officially more excited for Void than the WiiWare version of Cave Story at this point, as crazy as it might sound. Here’s a nice long look at the title, which was just released in Japan, for those who are interested.
- Good news for those who haven’t heard yet: Muscle March is coming to America! Too bad it apparently sucks, but I’ll download it anyway.
- At least Tomena Sanner is coming out as well, which looks to be far superior. It looks like Canabalt, but with dancing!
- Then you have XSEED’s decision to bring out KORG DS-10+ in America! Guess the original did well enough.
- It’s been reposted to death, by I don’t care, because Kojima and his crew are such f’n bad-asses….
- Oh God, I want these classic Sega consoles as Zippos in the worst way…
… But considering my financial situation at the moment, along with how I don’t smoke, I honestly can’t justify the purchase, especially at $156 a pop. Perhaps I’m not big of a Mega Drive/Genesis fan after-all?
- Needless to say, I’m not as into the Namco ones. Alight, that’s a lie; the Xevious is sexy as all hell…
- But what I really, really, REALLY want is an English version of French gaming mag Amusement! Or simply a copy of the latest issue!
… I find the N97 being shot through the wall funny on SO many different levels that only other cell phone geeks will understand. Or simply Josh.
- As folks already know, I’m somewhat involved in iPhone development as a game designer. Which for me involves drawing plenty of little fake screenshots. Hence why I might need one of theses…
… I realize the DS and PSP ones are far more useful, and the iPhone one is a bit pointless, but still…
- Time for a stop at… you know where. Your favorite place and mine, Tiny Cartridge! First up, a few anecdotes from those men and women who are otherwise known as Nintendo gameplay counselors. Fun-fact: I only called them once as a kid, and that was to figure out how to beat Dr. Wily’s final form in Mega Man 2. My pal Brian and I tried every trick in the book… along with every fallen robot master’s weapon… we could think of, but nothing. Except for one of course!
Though the real highlight was, later on in the evening (this was a sleep over btw), when the TV went on the fritz and the image went blank, I was still able to continue playing the first level of Gradius, based on sound alone! Much like the blind person playing Zelda, as noted in the link. Oh, and discovering that Brian’s father was a sleepwalker and he almost crushed my face with his foot. But anyway…
- Remember me mentioning some game called Ghost Trick a while back, and how I said it was one of the few stand outs of TGS, but which no one gave a rat’s ass about? Except for the TC crew of course. Well, here’s a better look. Fingers crossed that it’ll make it out here in America!
- Hey Katie, this video of a fat family with a DS harassing an equally plum chick (or perhaps a dude dressed as a chick) in a hot pink dress on a subway is just for you.
- Speaking of mass transit, I absolutely LOVE this piece…
… Be sure to check out my rambling on and on about subway gaming in the comments!
- The King of Pop may be dead, but lives on as a cartoon cat in your iPhone!
- I must agree: the TMNT game, no matter how true to its roots Ubi Soft claims it to be, looks like complete ass. I love how its so crystal clear that the dude never played the original arcade titles, otherwise how could he describe such “improvements” like the camera zooming in so you can get a better look at the enemy as to attack more precisely instead of just hitting the attack buttons mindlessly with a straight face? Also, the idea of cut scenes molded after the original b&w comic style would work FAR better if they didn’t animate so ridiculously.
- Check out this dude playing Contra 4 upside down.
- So for Halloween, TC posted a bunch of videos featuring these Japanese girls playing Nanashi no Game, and they were fairly hilarious. This one is perhaps my favorite, though I guess the game is ultimately not that scary, since the system was never dropped due to extreme fright or anything like that.
- It wouldn’t be a Tiny Cartridge link dump without a YMCK mention, right? Though this song is far nicer, IMHO. Too bad there’s no video!
Though I’ve said it before and I’ll say it again; the YMCK track from Katamari Forever is actually one of the weakest songs from the entire soundtrack, which is really saying something! Though it’s not annoying like that one song that plays at the level that I’m currently stuck at. Yes, I’m actually stuck in a Katamari game.
- I also love how much they love Little Red Riding Hood?s Zombie BBQ so much, mostly because it’s one of my fave DS games as well! Definitely the thing I ever found in Circuit City’s $5 bin. Anyhow, in addition to posting some semi-NSFW concept images, here’s also another look at the spiritual sequel, Zombie Panic In Wonderland…
… Good God, Snow White for the win.
- I’m also ashamed to admit that I too have played Umihara Kawase DS and it was also on a flash cart. But I also now know what the problem is, hence why my actual copy is on the way! Though I was always going to get it… simply downloaded a copy because I just couldn’t wait!
- Regarding Cave Story for the Wii one more time, it’s still being worked on. That’s good to hear. Not that I’m losing my patience of anything, I just want to know what the hold up is! Then again, so long as it comes out totally perfect, everything’s cool, and besides, it’s not like I already don’t have seven thousand games to keep me occupied for the time being!
- So the art in Reflection is getting a (minor) upgrade? THANK GOD.
- Hey! The first episode of the Inazuma Eleven anime, and subtitled no less! Sweet.
- I had no idea that they made an official Elevator Action/Dexter’s Laboratory hybrid for the Game Boy Color!
- It’s cosplay time! Check out this chick as Princess Zelda…
… Sorry to be negative, but I’ve always been quietly turned off by pictures of people dressed as their fave characters when they’re professionally taken. Don’t know why. I guess I just believe it’s far more charming when the person has that look in their face of “hey, someone recognizes me!!!” from most importou pics taken at the floor of some convention.
- Speaking of, as most folks know, I love scouring the web for whatever batsh*t insane imagery I can toss over at the random pics thread at the forum. One of my many sources are about a dozen or so Tumblrs, and last night I discovered that one of my shots, taken from this past summer’s Otakaon, has been making the rounds! I’m talking about this one…
- Going back to all hallow’s eve, here’s yet another better late than never: screw that guy with the big polygonal head (you all know what I’m talking about); by far the best game related costume this year was this…
- I’ve tried to make it loud and clear that I am not an Earthbound/Mother fan, but I know plenty of folks who are, so in case they didn’t know, their source for all their Earthbound/Mother related goods has some new junk to buy!
Though I am happy to see them branch out a bit, into the realm of Super Mario RPG.
- And how about some Silent Hill coplay?
… Though truth be told, the nurses featured here are far more authentic. Though the real star is this…
- Semi-related: some guy went temporarily insane and thought he was playing a game of Silent Hill when he cut the power at some hospital. The dude thought he could acquire a toothbrush by pulling various levers and switches, which controlled the building’s electricity. Crazy! Also, which game is that particular puzzle from, does anyone know?
- Since we’re here already, may as well stick around GameSetWatch for a bit! For starers, a Tetris birthday card! The Pac Man one is sorta neat as well.
- Yes, I actually bothered to download a copy of .detuned when it came out the other week. It was fun for like three minutes.
- And yes, I took have played Small Words. Definitely lives up the incredible hype it’s been getting across the board!
- if you’ve got a kid whose a gamer, but is also totally spoiled brat, a book filled with quotes from rock stars, skateboarders, mixed martial artists, cartoonists, and ninjas should set him straight.
- While we wait for the Asteroids flick to finally come out, here’s a cute little video featuring ships from the game, in love.
- Katie, here’s yet another reason why you might want to get an iPhone: Jeff Minter is working on a game for it!
- Are kidding me, there’s yet ANOTHER Dreamcast game coming out?!
- GSW is always dependable when it comes to featuring videos that highlight the glory days of trade events, circa the 90s. First there was the Star Fox laser light show, and now here’s the Killer Instinct dancing girls!
- An OutRun arcade cab turned into a real driving machine?
- And Segata Sanshiro on the Conan O’Brien show?
- A couple of items I originally tipped GSW on (see, I’m not just a taker, I’m also a giver!): here we have the creator of PaRappa the Rapper and Vib Ribbon singing a futuristic version of Nat King Cole’s Unforgettable!
- Plus have you heard that Hideo Kojima (along with the character designer from Evangelion) are going to be judges for a Twilight art contest over at Pixiv?
- On a semi-related, and equally random note: for just one day, out of the blue, Gainax decided to post this fav Famicom related piece of art on their welcome page…
- Whereas George Harrison’s son recently went on record to state that the upcoming Rock Band 3, which he’s working on, will teach gamers how to play the guitar (umm… okay), here’s something that seems slightly more plausible: a DS title that goes over the basics of how to play the piano!
- Once again, the best regular column that GSW has going on at the moment is easily Sound Current, with it’s awesome in-depth look at the movers and shakers in the world of game music, especially in Japan. Been meaning to provide a review of my own, regarding the live DVD, but in the meantime, here’s a fantastic first hand account of one of the recent Persona live music concerts with plenty of observations and analysis. I just wish there was a higher res version of this pic…
- Then you have this equally amazing behind the scenes look at the Mega Man chiptunes tribute album that came out at TGS. Like I said before, I have the CD and it’s well worth hunting down, if only for the fab Snake Man cover.
- On a related note, over at 1UP, here’s a great write-up regarding the Street Fighter tribute album that came out some years ago. Though as awesome as Takenobu Mitsuyoshi and Yasunori Mitsuda’s remixes are, the clear star is Yoko Shimomura’s beautiful reworking of the Dhalsim stage music.
- Back to GSW, where else are you going to go for news on the hottest indie releases? As a big fan of N+, I’m most definitely jazzed for Office Yeti!
- Then there’s Igneous, which looks like either Marble Madness or the morph ball portions in Metroid Prime on steroids!
- Freeq is an interactive radio drama that’s coming soon to the iPhone (provided that they raise enough money of course), and considering how much I love FMV games on the system (I kid you not, the new Suicide Girls game is loads of fun), I’m all for any kind of wacky new genre! Anything besides tower defense, please!
- Also, Mon & Bot, Zeit≤, and Auditorium… with the later two looking suspiciously like entries in Something Awful’s list of most promising bullsh*it indie games for 2010! Just saying.
- So Chris Kohler went vintage/thrift game shopping this past weekend and guess what he picked up? An old SNES back-up device!
I personally never owned one, but I spent a lot of time messing around with my buddy Rod’s. Time for another history lesson as it relates to the New York City game scene: before J&L and Penguin Village/Initial D/whatever the hell it might have been called in the early 90s were legit businesses that sold legit copies of games, their entire business were based on such devices. To purchase a game, you’d basically leaf their a folder that had all these names of games, pick one, and then pay for a floppy disk that had whatever title contained. I forget how it all came crumbling down… someone blew the whistle on them by calling the FBI which raided every party involved. Some say it was one of the two engaging in some dirty trickery, which backfired on themselves as well, others state that it just some random pissed off customer, who can say at this point. But yeah, I’d rock Rod’s Game Doctor for hours on end, mostly to play Pop’N Twin Bee!
- And here we have Chris hanging out with of my fave, all-time game creators, that being Kenji Eno, with whom he ate curry with. Jealous? Damn straight I am. BTW… You, Me, and The Cube is AWESOME, everyone with a Wii needs to download the game ASAP. Also… I thought Kenji has been making games for a little while now, for the iPhone? Hmmm…
- This piece of Star Fox fan art is pretty damn hot, if only because it features the arwing as it originally looked in the first title, which we can all agree was far and away the best one, right?
- Not sure what the story is with this one, but via PixelStyle…
- Same here, all I know is that it’s simply beautiful…
- I initially thought this pixel heavy vid was about hot dogs and buns, by the looks of the preview screenshot, but it’s actually about… vibrators and vaginas! Kinda NSFW btw!
- The biggest problem with waiting a month to pass along cool links that’s been collected over that time is how, by the time you get around to talking, certain things are no longer there. Like the blog Mad Mario for example, which mysteriously disappeared the other week. At least we still have this…
- And I wonder if this person’s Trigger Heart Exelica figures are still available for sale?
- Thanks to The Drunken Samurai (I believe) for passing this along: the very best of the very worst of the crappy Tekken anime.
- BTW, special thanks to Ollie who runs Mecha Damashii for saving me some money. I told him I was gonna grab the set of VIdeo Game Robotics figures that I mentioned a whiles ago, but me explained to me how the overall quality was crap, especially the Border Break figure, which was what I had my eyes on the most! And that really bites. Though he mentioned Leyno and Valken ones are still pretty decent, so guess I’ll just have to track down those two individually.
At least there’s this…
- Though I’m still totally into gashapon, so next up for purchase is this hawt looking Phantasy Star Zero set featuring nothing but girls!
- And finally, for those who haven’t been exposed to its brilliance quite yet, check out part 2 of hiimdaisy’s Persona 4 comic!
… But wait, there’s more!!! I’ll have part two of my rundown either tomorrow or Wednesday, though before that will be Joe Salina’s report from that NYU game thing which went down last Thursday. Plus Katie’s got a review on tap, as do I! Stay tuned!
