Michael McWhertor

VVVVVV Scratches The Instant Death By Spike Itch

The creator of the haunting, stylish and far easier Don’t Look Back has released the fantastic, fun and frustrating VVVVVV. Should you play this wonderfully creative platformer? Absolutely. But should you buy it? That’s something you’ll have an easier time deciding after playing the VVVVVV demo and experiencing the clever gravity switching gameplay that demands…

Space Channel 5, Crazy Taxi Join Sonic & Sega All-Stars Racing

Two of the newest contenders in Sonic & Sega All-Stars Racing may not be as familiar to gamers who weren’t Sega fans during the glorious Dreamcast era, but Space Channel 5’s Ulala and Crazy Taxi’s B.D. Joe are welcome additions. The two newest racers join Sega all-stars like Sonic the Hedgehog, Ryo Hazuki from Shenmue,…

Reggie Dates Next Wii Zelda For “When It’s Perfect”

Nintendo of America president Reggie Fils-Aime is taking names and setting expectations in the latest edition of the Wii’s Nintendo Week program, saying that the next announced Legend of Zelda game for Wii will “come out when it’s perfect.” That’s not “before the end of 2010” as Nintendo president Satoru Iwata reportedly told Japanese newspaper…

Kotaku Off Topic: Mac Ready

Back from CES and time to get back to the daily grind. And back to Kotaku Off Topic, where things non-gaming are discussed. Like recent and future purchases, maybe? Now, I’m in the market for a new iMac, preferably something with a quad-core Intel chip and 27-inches of screen, something to replace my laptop as…

Just How “Wii-Like” Is LG’s Magic Motion TV Remote?

Two of the ten bazillion HDTVs on display at this year’s CES were the LE9500 and PK950, previously noted for manufacturer LG Electronics’ claims of a “Wii-like experience,” courtesy of its Magic Motion remote. Just how Wii-like was it? In terms of pointing a remote at a screen and things happening, it was dead on.…

Sonic Adventure Rumored To Be Next Dreamcast To XBLA Port

Xbox Live Arcade may be home to yet another Dreamcast port in the form of Sonic Adventure. The Dreamcast launch title has reportedly been spotted on Xbox Live Marketplace, presumably on the developers and press-only PartnerNet version of Live. After posting that report, Dutch Sega site SegaOnline.nl pulled mention of the Sonic Adventure XBLA port,…

Dante’s Inferno: The Official Novelization Of The Book

One title not highlighted by EA CEO John Riccitiello today was the release of Dante Alighieri’s Inferno, part of The Divine Comedy. Yes, that’s the book, soon to be republished bearing the Dante’s Inferno video game’s likeness. Random House and EA have buddied up to release of paperback edition of the epic poem upon which…

Leaked Aliens RPG Footage Offers Early Look At Canceled Game

Obsidian Entertainment’s Aliens role-playing game for Sega, known commonly as Aliens RPG and less commonly as Aliens: Crucible, is dead. But recently leaked footage of Aliens RPG means it is still not yet forgotten. Footage of the canceled Xbox 360, PlayStation 3 and PC game sneaked out this weekend, offering “an extremely early pre-production build”…

There May Be More Madworld In The Wii’s Future

Platinum Games debut Wii game, the bloody beat ’em up Madworld, may not have been a blockbuster success, but that doesn’t rule out the possibility of a sequel. It’s actually sounding more like a distinct possibility. Despite regularly being listed among the original M-rated games that just don’t perform well on the Wii, for whatever…

EA Expects Worse Fiscal 2010, New “Innovative” Madden 11

Electronic Arts announced today that it’s going to have another tough fiscal year, having a worse FY 2010 than previously planned. But CEO John Riccitiello was upbeat on the company’s 2011, which features “an innovative and new take on Madden.” EA has shed the more optimistic vision of its fiscal 2010 to $3.675 billion, down…

Toyota Unveils New Hybrid Car For “The 8-Bit Generation”

Car maker Toyota unveiled the FT-CH “dedicated hybrid concept” at the North American International Auto Show in Detroit, a car notable for its younger skewing design, cheaper price and, in Toyota’s own words, its “8-bit generation” inspired design. According to the official announcement, the Toyota Europe Design and Development (ED2) center in Nice designed the…

Serious Sam HD Encounters Xbox Live Arcade This Week

Xbox 360 owners get a chance to revisit the 2001 classic first-person shooter, now with much fancier graphics, with the release of Serious Sam HD: The First Encounter this week on Xbox Live Arcade. Take your thinking caps off and settle in with some mostly mindless thing-shooting action, all for the low price of 1200…

Toyota FT-CH

Hands-On With Unreal Engine On The iPhone, Nvidia Tegra

Epic Games VP Mark Rein brought with him the latest platforms on which the company’s Unreal Engine 3 officially runs, iPhone 3GS hardware and Nvidia’s Tegra 2 “system-on-a-chip” platform, giving us a chance to go hands-on with the tech demo. Our demo was the same shown back in December of last year, a small, tightly…

Microsoft: Natal Focus On “New Original Games,” Not Motion Control For Existing Ones

Microsoft says that it’s planning on bringing “entirely new original experiences to life” with the addition of Project Natal‘s controller free add-on later this year, not on reworking already existing games to make them Natal ready. When Microsoft first showed off the controller-free Project Natal tech at E3 2009, it did so with both new…

Uverse, Mediaroom On Xbox 360 Won’t Replace Your DVR

After a three year long wait, the Xbox 360 will get IPTV service in the United States, thanks to Mediaroom and AT&T Uverse. While a nice addition to the Xbox 360’s list of services, it has its limitations. The Xbox 360 won’t necessarily replace your existing set-top box. Consider the console as another “node,” as…

Playing Gears Of War 2 At CES… In 3D!!!

Of all the 3D content on display at CES 2010, it might have been the Gears of War 2 demonstration at Samsung’s booth that was most impressive. That was because it was the television doing all the work, not some specialized build of Gears of War 2 retrofitted to spit out 3D stereoscopic visuals. The…

The Most Gaming You’ll Get From A Single Chip In Vegas

A USB drive that features way too many games and exactly one good Vegas gimmick, as seen in the South Hall at CES 2010.

Touching The Mad Catz Eclipse Line With Our Lifestyle

Peripheral and controller maker Mad Catz is getting into the “lifestyle orientated mice and PC keyboards” game, launching the Eclipse line of high end PC accessories later this year. We went hands and lifestyle on with the line at CES. The wireless Eclipse litetouch Keyboard is the most impressive offering, a slick looking, minimal design…

Scrap Metal Hands-On: Calling All Twisted Metal Fans

Slick Entertainment‘s Scrap Metal adds some much needed vehicular carnage to Xbox Live Arcade, a top down combat racer that evokes warm feelings of Twisted Metal and Ironman Ivan Stewart’s Super Off Road. The developers of N+ for XBLA look to have in Scrap Metal something for the Twisted Metal fan who might have been…