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Half Minute Hero Won’t Let Me Doom the World
Many role-playing games ask us if we want to save the world. Even the parody role-playing game Half Minute Hero, which I love, and which was ported to Xbox Live Arcade asks this question. Help the Time Goddess banish evil? “Yes” or “no”? As if “no” was an option… I started playing the XBLA version…
By Stephen Totilo Published June 29, 2011 -
Sonic’s New Genesis, Scalped at #50 and other New Comics Highlights
By popular demand—yes, because both of you demanded it—my weekly round-up of new comics recommendations is arriving before the sun sets on any corner of the United States. Do not go to a comics store without consulting these tips. Do no download new comics through the ComiXology app without studying these recommendations. It is a…
By Stephen Totilo Published June 29, 2011 -
Finally, a Corporation Worth Playing For
Async Corp is a silly, catchy game about work that requires the labor of both of your thumbs. You play it on the iPhone. Your pay is high scores. Your left thumb boxes and ships units on the left of an iPhone’s touchscreen; the right does that work on the right. Your thumbs must work…
By Stephen Totilo Published June 29, 2011 -
Edible Insects, You Go First
Edible (fake) insects. | Sent to me by people whose job it is to get me to write something about Earth Defense Force: Insect Armageddon (Photo by Stephen Totilo) The Best Kinect Game You Never Heard Of (and Maybe the Best of them All) I heard great things about Mother Nature last week at the…
By Stephen Totilo Published June 28, 2011 -
Activision Makes Transformers Video Games, So Does Its Biggest Rival
Our intern Joshua Rivera was as disappointed with Activision’s Xbox 360 Transformers: Dark of the Moon video game as I was with the original mold for Galvatron. The Activision game made him feel like a clumsy Autobot. Activision also published PS3, Wii, DS and 3DS games based on this weekend’s Transformers movie. We didn’t test…
By Stephen Totilo Published June 28, 2011 -
The Best Kinect Game You Never Heard Of (and Maybe the Best of them All)
I heard great things about Mother Nature last week at the Games For Change conference in New York City. I heard one of the conference’s experts suggest that it might be the best Kinect game he’s ever played. If you know what Kinect is, then you may know that there aren’t many (any?) great games…
By Stephen Totilo Published June 28, 2011 -
A $90 Gears of War Make-Over For Your Xbox 360
Is your Xbox 360 white? Black? Green? Does it have a “bleed-out” finish? Will it be able to light up when (if?) you’re Gears of War 3? Your Xbox 360 probably doesn’t have an “infected omen” on its side that lights up in four different ways. All that could change if you give case-making company…
By Stephen Totilo Published June 28, 2011 -
Better Farming and Villages Coming to Minecraft
Minecraft creator Notch says his game’s undated Adventure update will add “complex terrain features, at least one new mob, … new combat mechanics, a new lighting engine… experimental new gameplay… more interesting farming, bigger incentives to explore, and npc villages.”
By Stephen Totilo Published June 28, 2011 -
Violent Video Game Foe Rod Blagojevich Convicted of Trying to Sell Obama’s Senate Seat
The verdict is out in the second federal corruption trial of former Illinois Governor (and supporter of failed anti-violent video game legislation) Rod Blagojevich. The jury found him guilty on 17 of the 18 counts. [Gawker]
By Stephen Totilo Published June 27, 2011 -
Cave Story 3D Delayed, Now Going Up Against, Uh… Modern Warfare 3
The lovely-looking 3DS remake of side-scrolling action game Cave Story has been bumped from a summer release to November 8, the same day as Modern Warfare 3. Good luck, Cave Story! Its publisher attributed the delay to: “additional game improvements.”
By Stephen Totilo Published June 27, 2011 -
The Supreme Court’s Best Arguments For and Against Violent Video Games
Whether you agree with the Supreme Court’s ruling against a California law against violent video games, today, you should know that strong arguments were made on both sides. Video games are just like literature? America is okay with kids seeing violent entertainment? Video games are meaningfully more immersive than books? The Founding Fathers never intended…
By Stephen Totilo Published June 27, 2011 -
Minecraft Plans Slip a Little
Minecraft creator Notch said on his blog today that the game’s next 1.7 beta update will only add pistons to the world-building game. Planned “adventure” content arrives in update 1.8, which “might be a long wait.” The game’s official release has been bumped back to the week after November 11.
By Stephen Totilo Published June 27, 2011 -
First Amendment Trumps California in Supreme Court Battle Over Violent Video Games
The Supreme Court sided with the video game industry today, declaring a victor in the six-year legal match between the industry and the California lawmakers who wanted to make it a crime for anyone in the state to sell extremely violent games to kids. In a 7-2 ruling Justice Antonin Scalia said the law does…
By Stephen Totilo Published June 27, 2011 -
Monday’s Expected Supreme Court Decision Will Tell America How Much Free Speech Protection Video Games Deserve
Monday will be a day that could radically change the status of video games in the United States. We’re expecting the Supreme Court of the United States to finally issue a ruling, based on arguments they (and we) heard back in November, about whether the state of California can make it a crime to sell…
By Stephen Totilo Published June 24, 2011 -
Bungie Returns to Apple Platforms With Bungie Mobile
Once upon a time, Halo was supposed to be a Mac game, but, to make a long story too-short, Bungie Studio’s legendary first-person shooter wound up on Microsoft’s Xbox in 2001. A decade later, Bungie finally has made something for the Mac again… Bungie Mobile, a brand-new free app for iPhone and iPad that the…
By Stephen Totilo Published June 24, 2011 -
Does Breaking Bad Now Star Video Game’s Lost Hero?
This poster, recently slapped up on the walls of some of New York City’s subway stations, advertises the next season of AMC’s Breaking Bad. But gamers like me who look at it will probably see something else. Gordon Freeman, hero of Half-Life, is that you? This is Freeman as he appears on the box art…
By Stephen Totilo Published June 23, 2011 -
Spider-Man Dies, I Think, but, hey, Warren Spector’s Writing DuckTales and there’s a Phoenix Wright Manga
There are new comics in the comics shops every Wednesday, but some of those comics are not worth your money. As always, I have recommendations about which comics—physical ones and digital ones—you should consider buying. You’re welcome! Plus, I’ve got a list of all the new video-game-related comics out this week. Comics You Should Consider…
By Stephen Totilo Published June 22, 2011 -
Silent Hill: Downpour Doesn’t Need Pyramid Heads to be Scary
I liked what one of the developers of the next, creepy Silent Hill recently had to say about guns. His team’s new game will have guns, but not the way most games have guns. “We’re treating the gun like the gun in The Road by Cormac McCarthy,” Brian Gomez, Silent Hill: Downpour‘s design director said,…
By Stephen Totilo Published June 22, 2011 -
Anarchy Reigns Is an Attempt To Revive the Brawler… Good Luck!
Fighting games came back. Adventure games came back. Can brawlers come back? Sega’s early-2012 game Anarchy Reigns is a modern-day rarity, a game built for one or more players to punch and kick their way through. The Xbox 360 and PlayStation 3 title from Platinum Games is a brawler, which makes it a throwback to…
By Stephen Totilo Published June 22, 2011
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