Back when I was a kid, you couldn't get into the Guinness Book of World Records without having disgustingly long fingernails, but it's the future now, and with the world supply of fingernail clippers at an all-time high, the Guinness have to look elsewhere for record-breaking feats - like Metacritic, for instance. Having the highest average review score for a video game in the history of the medium I could see, but aren't they getting a bit too specific with ‘Most Critically Acclaimed Superhero Game Ever'? Sure, an average review score of 91.67 is nothing to scoff at, but does Batman: Arkham Asylum really need a custom-tailored world record? Guinness' Gaz Deaves seems to think so.

"We are so pleased to be awarding Batman: Arkham Asylum a Guinness World Record. It is a fantastic new game and due to the reaction of gaming experts we believe it has a well deserved place in the Guinness World Records book."

A well-deserved place in a book that is quickly losing all meaning and relevance, with awards that seem crafted to fit the feat, rather than the other way around, as it should be.

Pokémon: Arceus To The Conquering of Space-Time is the world record holder for the animated motion picture with the most advance ticket sales. Before it opened in Japan on July 18, the movie had already pre-sold 2,384,198 tickets.

This is the 12th animated feature since the first Pokémon movie, Mewtwo's Counterattack, hit Japanese theaters in July 1998.

中川翔子、『ポケモン』ギネス記録達成に「ギネ嬉シス!」と大興奮 | エンタテインメント | マイコミジャーナル [MyComJournal]

The record-breaking feat took place during the UK Download Festival in North West Leicestershire's Donington Park over the weekend. Kerrang FM's Christian Stevenson, 440 gamers gathered around the EA demo trailer, taking up imaginary axes in order to rock out to Motörhead's "Ace of Spades".

Said Steveneson:

‘That was one of the raddest jams I've ever been involved with. The crowd played their air guitars better than Eddie Van Halen! Then they destroyed 'em good and proper. Who cares, right? They can go to the air guitar shop and get another one. Sick to the infinity of sickness! I want a crowd like that at every gig I'm at. Awesometacular – air guitar world records rule!'

And that's just the sort of ridiculous, over-the-top enthusiasm that makes me proud to have not gotten a job straight out of broadcasting school.

A Guinness Book of World Records official was on hand to verify the record, which destroyed 2008's record of 318. Gaze upon the faces of the triumphant English youth and be awed. AWED.

Weighing in with 189 uses of the F-bomb is The House of the Dead: Overkill. That works out to more than one rhymes with duck per a minute, or three percent of all words spoken in the game.

"This record category pre-existed for movies, music and television, but The House of the Dead: OVERKILL is the first video game to be awarded the title in the Gamer's Edition," said Video Games Records Manager for Guinness World Records, Gaz Deaves. "It's a mark of the times."

Jonathan Burroughs, writer of The House of the Dead: OVERKILL, sounds proud.

"It is a dubious honour to receive such an accolade working in an industry where so often the fruits of your labours are derided and dismissed for being puerile or irresponsible, but in the case of The House of the Dead: OVERKILL a little puerility was the order of business," he said. "Parodying the profane excess of grindhouse cinema was Headstrong Games' objective and I am flattered that this record acknowledges that we not only rose to that challenge, but entirely exceeded it."

Not only has Ant Commando's spokesperson Chris Chike reclaimed the Guitar Hero III: Legends of Rock Guinness World Record taken from him back in June by a Texas teen, he managed to do it with his whole family looking on, including one small child who clearly needs to learn some important lessons about duct tape. The video is nice and all, but what I want to see is all the takes that ended with Chike screaming profanity while his family looked hopelessly at their watches.

Nice camera work at the end there, Mom. Way to accentuate the cleavage.

CHRIS CHIKE REGAINS HIS GUINNESS WORLD RECORD TITLE FOR GUITAR HERO

The Ant Commandos Spokesperson Retakes His Crown For Highest Score on a Single Song in Guitar Hero® III: Legends of Rock

Ontario, Calif-September 11, 2008 - Chris Chike, official spokesperson for The Ant Commandos (TAC) and record-setting Guitar Hero player has officially reclaimed his Guinness World Record Title for High Score on a single song in Guitar Hero III: Legends of Rock.

Chike (also known as iamChris4Life online), the first official Guinness Record holder for Guitar Hero was crowned as such in March of this year. In June, a teenager in Texas beat that score and temporarily held the record before Chike won it back this week.

With a new high score of 899,703 points with 97% accuracy and a 1,084 note streak, Chris officially overtook the score of 890,971 points that temporarily cost him his title. With this new high score Chike will go down in the Official Guinness Record Book of 2008 as THE 2008 Guitar Hero record holder on a single song.

When asked about his recent re-crowning, Chris Chike commented "I knew I would get my world record title back. I have already scored 100% on the song; millions of people have seen on Youtube, but it wasn't official for Guinness because I didn't have multiple witnesses in the room. Now it is official! I am THE Guitar Hero record holder for 2008!"

The Minnesota 17-year-old's first Guinness World Record was set earlier this year at the launch of the inaugural "Guinness World Records:
Gamer's Edition 2008" in March 2008. Chike earned the new Guinness World Record for the "Highest Score for a Single Song on Guitar Hero®
III: Legends of Rock" with 840,647 points (a 97% completion on Expert
Level) for the song.

"Chris is an amazing talent," said Raymond Yow, Chief Operating Officer of The Ant Commandos. "Not only has he been assisting The Ant Commandos with the design of our new TAC guitar controller which will be launched later this year, but he has also successfully regained his World Record Title-and all while he was on summer vacation."

For more information about Chris Chike and his accomplishments please
visit: www.theantcommandos.com.

“I’m fortunate to be able to do what I love and am grateful for all of the wonderful recognition I’ve received over the years,” said Sid Meier. “It is every kid’s dream to make it into the Guinness World Records and I’m thrilled to be a part of the prestigious book. I’m thankful to the many game critics who have enjoyed our games and hope they are as excited about our upcoming Civilization Revolution title as I am.”

And there, my friends, is why great men are great. They are never too proud to slip in a little marketing. Go read some more marketing in the official press release, while I apply some watercolor photoshop filter love to this great, great man.

Sid Meier Enters Guinness World Records Gamer’s Edition 2008

As Industry’s Most Award-Winning Developer

Sid Meier, creator of the Sid Meier’s Civilization® franchise and Director of Creative Development at 2K’s world-renowned Firaxis Games development studio, has officially won more game awards than any other video game creator according to the Guinness World Records Gamer’s Edition 2008.The Civilization series boasts some of Sid’s most impressive game awards, including Sid Meier’s Civilization IV™, which was selected as Strategy Game of the Year by the Academy of Interactive Arts and Sciences (AIAS) and 1UP.com. Next up from the award-winning developer is Sid Meier's Civilization® Revolution™, which promises to uphold the franchise’s gold standard.

Sid Meier’s awards for his game design genius are numerous. In 1999, Sid was the second person ever to be inducted into the Academy of Interactive Arts and Sciences’ Hall of Fame. He was inducted into the Computer Museum of America's Hall of Fame in 2002 and received a commemorative star on the Walk of Game in 2006. Meier was recently awarded a Lifetime Achievement Award at the 2008 Game Developers Choice Awards.

“I’m fortunate to be able to do what I love and am grateful for all of the wonderful recognition I’ve received over the years,” said Sid Meier. “It is every kid’s dream to make it into the Guinness World Records and I’m thrilled to be a part of the prestigious book. I’m thankful to the many game critics who have enjoyed our games and hope they are as excited about our upcoming Civilization Revolution title as I am.”

Built from the ground up solely for console and handheld gaming systems, Sid Meier’s Civilization Revolution features fast-paced, pick-up-and-play action involving strategic global domination and history's most intrepid leaders, as well as a highly competitive multi-player experience. Sid Meier’s Civilization Revolution brings the renowned Civilization franchise to current gen consoles and handhelds for the first time, delivering the vast re-playability and unmatched addictive gameplay that has become synonymous with the works of Sid Meier. New graphical designs and a streamlined interface will transport the Civilization franchise to a level that fans have never seen before.

Sid Meier’s Civilization Revolution is rated E10+ for everyone 10 and older and will be in stores beginning July 8, 2008 for Xbox 360® video game and entertainment system from Microsoft, PLAYSTATION®3 computer entertainment system and Nintendo DS™. For more Civilization Revolution information, visit www.civilizationrevolution.com.

But first, remember how we threw down the gauntlet on the the 80 Marios who showed up in London back in mid-March? Right, just wait for the next anime convention, that'll be blown apart. And that's what's gonna happen.

A-Kon, "the oldest continually running, anime-based convention in North America (at 19 years)," thinks they can pwn 80 wimp-ass Marios, easy, at their gathering, May 30 - June 1 in Dallas. And just to make sure there are no protests or challenges or "nuh-uh, nuh-uh!(s)" from their cosplay rivals, they've drawn up a list of rules for everyone to follow. They want this locked down tight.

Among the rules:

• Characters can be both video game and TV/movie, but must have appeared first in video games (Sonic the Hedgehog, yes. Batman, no.)
• Guinness can still determine who counts and who don't. So you can't just grab a bunch of bald guys in jacket and tie and say they're Agent 47.
• Each participant must sign his or her name "in front of two independent witnesses of high standing in the community." They shall be dressed as Princess Toadstool and Sheriff Bartlett from Red Dead Revolver.

There's a whole bunch of other serious-sounding stuff on the A-Kon page. I mean, really. Folks, did we come here to dress up like the Battletoads, or did we come here to f—- fuck around?

A-KON GOES FOR THE GUINNESS BOOK RECORD! [A-Kon, thanks to reader Matt Frager]

That certainly doesn't mean that the 30 kids sporting Mario outfits from Argyle Primary School, Kings Cross aren't adorable. We're just expecting the record to be smashed by the weekend. There's surely a con happening somewhere.

UK cosplayers set Guinness World Record [GameSpot]

It's been a long time since the Guinness Book of World records has recorded video game high scores in it's pages, twenty years in fact. But, with consoles and portables appearing in more an more homes every day, it only makes sense that the purveyors of the world's largest pizza and the tiniest body microbe would want to include game scores in the '07 version of their publication.

There's even a special section profiling Canadian Greg Sakundiak, the current world record holder for the number one high score in Dragon's Lair, Tag Team Wrestling, Twin Cobra and four other games. He also holds second and third place high scores in several other games. Interestingly, he's also a world champion arm wrestler. I guess all those years of joystick jockeying built him up some pretty big biceps.

So start working on your high scores, kids, and maybe next year, you'll end up in Guinness alongside that guy with the long curly fingernails. Flynn De Marco

Guinness Book Adds Video Game Scores [GamePolitics]

Round of applause, round of applause. Gamer Cody Miller's 3 and 1/2 hours Halo 2 speedrun on Legendary with no deaths made it into the 2007 Guinness Book. Says KPaul from Halo's Bungie Studios:

I bet that about 40 of you will say, "ZOMG I TOTALLY DID THAT TWO YEARS AGO IN HALF THE TIME." But you're lying. I know it, you know it and your mom knows it good and hard. So just don't.

When I was a kid, people had to do things like grow their fingernails really long, eat a lot of blueberry pies or be a genetic freak to get into the Guinness Book of World Records. Good to see they're accepting hardcore gamer nerds. Brian Ashcraft

More Here [Slashing Games]