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Nintendo Scrapped New Portable Hardware Over “Momentum” Concerns
Nintendo global president Satoru Iwata isn’t afraid to make hard decisions, having recently scuttled a new piece of Nintendo hardware that might never see the light of day, never to put smiles on faces. According to a report from CNBC, Iwata says that Nintendo had another handheld gaming system in the works as recently as…
By Michael McWhertor Published June 8, 2009 -
Mario Vs. Donkey Kong Mini-Marches To DSiWare
What new digital treasure await the Wii Point and DSi Point bearing Nintendo fan this week? Perhaps most noteworthy is arrival of Mario vs Donkey Kong: Minis March Again!, announced last week for the Nintendo DSi and available right now. This week’s new downloadable titles for WiiWare, DSiWare and the Wii Virtual Console has a…
By Michael McWhertor Published June 8, 2009 -
New Tekken 6 Campaign Mode Spawns E3 Screen Shot Of Show
Namco Bandai announced that Tekken 6 for the PlayStation 3 and Xbox 360 would one-up its arcade counterpart with the “Scenario Campaign” mode, a single and two player online co-op campaign that makes for great screen shots. You might be able to kick giant pandas in the face or battle women made of wood in…
By Michael McWhertor Published June 8, 2009 -
Grapple Buggy Hands-On: Swingin’ Through VALD-END 317
Nathan Fouts‘ Grapple Buggy immediately conjures up warm, fuzzy feelings of Bionic Commando, Super Metroid, Contra III: The Alien Wars and Blaster Master. Damn good retro company to be kept in. Fouts brought the work-in-progress Grapple Buggy to E3 2009, giving us a hands-on demo of the adventure platformer, showing us around the world of…
By Michael McWhertor Published June 8, 2009 -
New Aliens Vs. Predator Screens Feature Aliens, Predators
Sega’s first game to cash in on the Aliens license is Aliens Vs. Predator, which, if I can count correctly, is the ninth video game* to chronicle the epic battle between Aliens and Predators. It’s definitely the prettiest. It was one of the games at E3 2009 that I didn’t get to play, unfortunately, but…
By Michael McWhertor Published June 8, 2009 -
Gran Turismo For PSP Was Almost “Gran Turismo Spyder”
Polyphony Digital‘s “real driving simulator” Gran Turismo is finally coming to the PSP this October, some four years after it was announced as Gran Turismo 4 Mobile. But now it’s just simply Gran Turismo. Why is that? We sat down with Polyphony president Kazunori Yamauchi at E3 last week to find out more about the…
By Michael McWhertor Published June 8, 2009 -
Nintendo Lays Out DS, DSiWare Release Schedule At E3
We’ve already gotten a peek at Nintendo of America’s newly released, but still tentative, Wii release schedule, which shows 2010 will be very good year. But what about all those great Nintendo DS games? When are they coming out? Nintendo has penciled in a few of its releases for this year, but some, like Golden…
By Michael McWhertor Published June 8, 2009 -
New Tekken 6 E3 Screens Give Us Another Peek
Namco Bandai has capitalized on this year’s E3 with a batch of new screen shots for the Xbox 360 and PlayStation 3 versions of its 3D fighter Tekken 6. Cheeky high kicks abound. We count ten crotch-exposing high kicks from various Iron Fist Tournament contenders, including Lili, Nina, King and Jin. Even Christie takes an…
By Michael McWhertor Published June 8, 2009 -
Sin And Punishment 2 Hands-On: Up, Down, Up, Down, Shoot, Shoot, Shoot
Nintendo’s best evidence that its E3 2009 showing was all “about the games” were the four kiosks dedicated to Sin And Punishment 2. Treasure’s sequel to the Nintendo 64 shooter was given prominent attention at the front of Nintendo’s booth. A sequel to a Nintendo 64 game that wasn’t offered stateside until the Virtual Console…
By Michael McWhertor Published June 8, 2009 -
iPhone OS 3.0 Hits June 17th, Makes iPhone Gaming Even Better
Apple is launching iPhone OS version 3.0 next week, bringing with it a slew of new features, including cut and paste, undo, MMS support and more. But what about the gaming features? We already knew that Apple would allow for in-application purchases, ushering in the era of microtransactions via add-on game packs and other downloadable…
By Michael McWhertor Published June 8, 2009 -
Perfect Dark XBLA Looks Sharp, No Expansion Pak Required
Rare’s Nintendo 64 first-person shooter Perfect Dark is coming to Xbox Live Arcade later this year. Winter, says Microsoft. This is what it looks like. In a word, Perfect Dark looks sharper, thanks to its high-definition upgrades and “sporting a silkier framerate than ever before.” In hard numbers, that translates to 1080p resolution and 60…
By Michael McWhertor Published June 6, 2009 -
God Of War III Hands-On: Half-Goat, Half-Lion, Half-Snake
My hands-on demo with God of War III was a familiar journey, having seen the same stretch of the PlayStation 3 game played through three times by someone else. I knew exactly what to do. Kill some rank and file undead, ride harpy, kill scores more Chaos Blade fodder, fight the Centaur commander, kill the…
By Michael McWhertor Published June 5, 2009 -
Japanese Console Sales Jump On Kingdom Hearts Release
The release of Kingdom Hearts 358/2 Days and Gyakuten Kenji has done wonderful things for Nintendo DSi sales in Japan, almost doubling them week-to-week. In fact, improvements were almost across the board. Thanks to a batch of brand new releases, tepid hardware sales overseas saw a little kick in the pants. It was the DSi…
By Michael McWhertor Published June 5, 2009 -
Shadow Of The Colossus Cast Upon LittleBigPlanet Next Week
Media Molecule has big things planned for LittleBigPlanet, including a batch of new Shadow of the Colossus themed content coming next week. On June 11th, Team Ico fans will get their first taste of Wander and Colossus Sackboys and Shadow of the Colossus stickers in LittleBigPlanet. Expect something Ico related as well. But if Media…
By Michael McWhertor Published June 5, 2009 -
Kingdom Hearts Slips Japanese Sales Chart A Mickey
Japanese gamers snapped up a ton of new titles in Japan this past week as the new Kingdom Hearts game for the Nintendo DS topped charts. The top ten was full of new, including Gyakuten Kenji and… HAWX? While robust sales for Kingdom Hearts 358/2 Days likely won’t surprise purveyors of Japanese gaming tastes, a…
By Michael McWhertor Published June 5, 2009 -
Bayonetta Foreplay At E3: Megatons & Gigatons
PlatinumGames’ Bayonetta is packed with megatons. The action game from Devil May Cry creator Hideki Kamiya starring titular witch Bayonetta was playable at E3 this week and we got to unleash some of those megatons. We’re not talking about video game industry shaking announcements, message board dwellers. We’re talking about one of the many facets…
By Michael McWhertor Published June 5, 2009 -
What Are You Playing This Weekend?
After a week’s worth of pastry for breakfast, pizza for lunch and taquitos for dinner, not to mention all that delicious booze, that copy of EA Sports Active is going to get some needed attention. Sure, I may feel a bit whipped from all that intense E3 action, even though I placed second-to-last on the…
By Michael McWhertor Published June 5, 2009 -
Eyes On With Sony’s EyePet
Sony Computer Entertainment Europe’s EyePet is one of the increasing number of games that’s hard to go hands-on with. The augmented reality pet-simulation is played mostly by interacting with an adorable on-screen creature with little more than your hands. We sat in on a EyePet demo at E3 that showed off some of the game’s…
By Michael McWhertor Published June 4, 2009 -
Tim Schafer Responds To Activision’s Brutal Legend Lawsuit
Activision’s none too pleased about Double Fine Productions’ heavy metal epic Brütal Legend having gone to EA. So it’s suing the developer. What say you, Double Fine president Tim Schafer? “Hey, if Activision liked it, then they should have put a ring on it,” Schafer said. “Oh great, now Beyoncé is going to sue me…
By Michael McWhertor Published June 4, 2009 -
Glory Of Heracles Hands-On Handholding
Nintendo’s Glory of Heracles feels like the company’s attempt at RPG Training, a My First Role-Playing Game for the crowd fearful of stats-heavy, turn-based conventions. But then the Nintendo DS game quickly becomes that very thing. That may be due to the game actually being the fifth entry in the Hercules no Eiko series, which…
By Michael McWhertor Published June 4, 2009
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