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After 30 Years, Donkey Kong Gets a Proper Port to the Atari 2600
Drawn to the Atari Age forums this week by Princess Rescue—the port of Super Mario Bros. to the Atari VCS—I stumbled across something even better: Donkey Kong VCS, a proper, great-looking and, most importantly, fun port of Donkey Kong for the 2600, after all these years. The original was none of these. You’re at least…
By Owen Good -
Ultimate Marvel vs. Capcom 3 Could Use a Tune-Up, Says Producer [Update]
Ultimate Marvel vs. Capcom 3 was, on the whole, considered a better balanced edition than regular-old Marvel vs. Capcom 3. That’s not to say it couldn’t use some tuning, and Capcom’s top fighting game producer says a balancing patch could be coming. This despite rumors that the game no longer has a development team, and…
By Owen Good -
Dead Rising 3 Would Break the 360, That’s Why It Went to Xbox One
Properly conveying the size and behavior of a shambling horde of mindless, slobbering zombies takes up a lot of memory in video game development. That’s why the crowd at Cleveland Browns games is even more lifeless in Madden. And it’s why Dead Rising 3 decided to sit out the current generation for more power in…
By Owen Good -
EA Sports’ College Football Series Survives Another Three Years
When word passed the NCAA waspulling its name and logo off EA Sports’ 21-year-old NCAA Football series, many immediately assumed it was the death of the title. Once everyone realized another entity altogether handles the 120+ teams who appear in the game, it became clear this was largely an ass-covering technicality. That was made even…
By Owen Good -
Well, Thank God, Someone’s Finally Making the Sequel to Chess
Next time you complain about Half-Life 3 taking forever, consider this: the modern game of chess is believed to have originated in 1575, and only now is Chess 2: The Sequel coming out. And it’s an Ouya exclusive. The game is by Ludeme Games and David Sirlin, a designer and game theory author who has…
By Owen Good -
New DLC Will Bust a Cap in Borderlands 2
Borderlands 2 will increase its level cap by 11 to 72 and cheerful blind amputee T.K. Baha returns in two more DLC extensions this fall that Gearbox Software announced today at PAX Australia. The level cap raise will occur in the “Ultimate Vault Hunter Upgrade Pack 2: Digistruct Peak Challenge.” The challenge refers to a…
By Owen Good -
FIFA 14 to Add Nine Brazilian Clubs to Its Lineup
FIFA 14 has locked in agreements with 19 of Brazil’s top professional clubs, doubling that league’s representation in the world’s top selling football simulation. The deal also, interestingly, points to one of the vestiges of early licensed sports video games—ones that had permission to use players but not their teams. The following Brazilian sides will…
By Owen Good -
NCAA to Stop Licensing Games, but EA Sports’ College Title Isn’t Dead
The NCAA will not renew its licensing agreement with EA Sports for its 21-year-old NCAA Football series once the current deal expires in 2014, the NCAAsaid in a statement today. It does not mean the end of the series, only the end of a series with the NCAA’s name and logo on it. “The NCAA…
By Owen Good -
Real-Life Pitching Skill Helps College Kid Win $250,000 from MLB 2K13
A student at the University of Oregon claimed the $250,000 grand prize in MLB 2K13‘s Million Dollar Challenge yesterday, relying on his own knowledge as a high school and college pitcher to prevail in a 3-1 nailbiter for all the money. He says he’ll pay for law school with the winnings. Justin Chavarria, 21, pitched…
By Owen Good -
He Woulda Gotten Away With It If It Wasn’t for His Meddling Grandma
Crime is a constant feature of video games writing. Somewhere, someone is doing something illicit with them—sometimes comically stupid, sometimes tragic. Games and consoles are currency, objects of dispute, sometimes even weapons themselves. Kotaku‘s Police Blotter is here to round up the latest in games crime. Snitches Do Cross-Stitches MAYFIELD HEIGHTS, Ohio—Police thwarted the shoplifting…
By Owen Good -
Madden NFL 25 Pimps GMC’s Rides
After the Super Bowl, the MVP is usually presented with some car and if he’s a pitchman for another auto maker, it can be kind of awkwardly funny. But in Madden NFL 25, your quarterback will go up there and graciously accept that GMC truck, dammit. GMC is the official vehicle of the NFL, and…
By Owen Good -
The Basic Psychology Behind the Steam Summer Sale, Explained
It seems you can’t discuss the Steam Summer Sale without doing one of the following: Personifying your wallet and mourning some injury done to it; bemoaning all the unplayed games you have before piling another on it; commanding friends to buy a game, more for the price than the game and, of course, buying games.…
By Owen Good -
OZombie Shuttered as American McGee Pursues Alice Film Rights
OZombie—American McGee’s zombie take on the Oz stories—has been taken off of Kickstarter so its studio, Spicy Horse, can focus on securing the film rights to the Alice series McGee created. The two efforts had been paired in a $950,000 Kickstarter campaign that Spicy Horse was unable to then separate into two different campaigns. “The…
By Owen Good -
Spiked Bat Inspired by Dead Rising 2 Used in Gruesome Slaying
The heir to a €50 million fortune has confessed to killing his father with a spiked bat he said was inspired by the weapon in Dead Rising 2. Other ties to video gaming, to say nothing of the wealth involved, have helped in riveting Spain’s attention to the June 30 slaying of Andreu Bennasar Coll.…
By Owen Good -
It’s Official: The Ultimate Warrior is Gonna Tear Up WWE 2K14
Rumored last week when an ad appeared in WWE magazine, it’s now official: The Ultimate Warrior will be making his first-ever appearance in the 13-year run of what is now called WWE 2K14. The catch is he’s only being offered—for now one guesses—as a preorder incentive. 2K Sports invited Warrior (that is his legally changed…
By Owen Good -
Martian Manhunter and John Stewart Are Coming to Injustice
Long anticipated—practically since the game’s release—Martian Manhunter was at last confirmed for Injustice: Gods Among Us as a downloadable addition to the fighting game’s roster, along with a John Stewart Green Lantern skin. NetherRealm Studios announced the new fighters at EVO 2013 today. When Injustice polled fans for their preferences for additional fighters back in…
By Owen Good -
Custom Difficulty Gives an Honest Challenge—and Leaves Time to Rally
I move through the stages of difficulty in a sports video game like the stages of grief. Expert, Pro, Hard, Medium and Easy might as well be named Denial, Anger, Bargaining, Depression and Acceptance. In the past, I’ve started somewhere between anger and depression before moving on to acceptance. A couple weeks ago, Forza Horizon‘s…
By Owen Good -
Happy 30th Birthday to Video Gaming’s Most Famous Brother
Today, according to Nintendo, is Luigi’s 30th birthday. The company says Mario Bros.—which introduced Mario’s taller sibling—was released July 14, 1983—a day before the Famicom console launched in Japan. Strangely enough, I have a vivid memory of this game’s debut. My family was on vacation in August 1983, going up the Eastern Seaboard. I actually…
By Owen Good -
Valve Opens ‘Pipeline’ to High Schoolers Interested in Making Games
Valve, makers of 2007’s Half Life 2: Episode 2, is reaching out to teenagers interested in games development through “Pipeline,” a program being administered by the company’s own interns. “[W]e are frequently asked questions by teenagers about the videogame industry,” Valve wrote on the project’s Web site. “‘What is it like to work on videogames?…
By Owen Good
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