• Uncategorized

  The Nintendo Download: Revenge Of The Belly Dancer

  It’s a banner week for the Nintendo Download, as the sequel to a belly dancing half-genie platformer for the Game Boy Color becomes the priciest DSiWare title yet. In 2002, WayForward Technologies released Shantae for the Game Boy Color. It was a strong platformer, following young half-genie Shantae on a quest to recover a prototype…

  By Mike Fahey Published October 4, 2010
• Uncategorized

  Talk Amongst Yourselves

  Another terrific reader-submitted TAY image starts the week right. After admiring it, please talk here about video games. This is your forum, game-loving people. Submit your best image riffs for Talk Amongst Yourselves over at #TAYpics. Great work, reader Sandorasbox, on today’s effort!

  By Stephen Totilo Published October 4, 2010
• Uncategorized

  Modern Games Struggle With Modern Warfare

  Last week Electronic Arts found out the hard way that video games’ latest four letter word is actually seven letters long. News that the publisher’s upcoming modern military first-person shooter was going to be set in the ongoing war in Afghanistan, based on real engagements that pitted U.S. soldiers against Taliban fighters, hit without raising…

  By Brian Crecente Published October 4, 2010
• Uncategorized

  Today Is….

  To: Crecente From: Ash It’s Monday! A new week! Who’s excited? What you missed last night The Game Could Have Smelled Like Blood Microsoft Japan Employee Arrested For Fondling A Schoolgirl This Year’s Oktoberfest Is Odd Katamari Creator Has A New Company, Still Making Games Is The PSPgo Too Small For Your Hands?

  By Brian Ashcraft Published October 4, 2010
• Uncategorized

  World of Warcraft: Cataclysm Hits In December

  Forget 2011. Blizzard said today that the next expansion to World of Warcraft will be released on December 7. That’s World of Warcraft: Cataclysm for PC and Mac, in an otherwise barren video game December. Cataclysm is the third expansion to World of Warcaft, following the blockbuster releases of World of Warcraft: Burning Crusade and…

  By Stephen Totilo Published October 4, 2010
• Uncategorized

  Helen Mirren Is Already Fit, Knows How To Party

  Nintendo has had its fair share of celebrity pitch ladies. There’s been Nicole Kidman, Liv Tyler and Beyonce. The United Kingdom is getting the The Queen. Not the real queen, but Dame Helen Mirren, who won an Oscar for her portrayal of Her Majesty in the 2006 film The Queen. Mirren will be shilling Wii…

  By Brian Ashcraft Published October 4, 2010
• 

  Uncategorized

  Bar Girl Game Gets Erotic Game Knock-Off

  Dream C Club is not an adult game. But, there are elements in Xbox 360 title that smack of an eroge (erotic game) Custom Maid 3D, on the other hand, is an adult game as far as we know. Like Dream C Club, it is set in a night club and features maid outfits and…

  By Brian Ashcraft Published October 4, 2010
• Uncategorized

  Gears Of War Devs Reckon Future PlayStation, Xbox Will Be Portable

  Epic Games, video game engine tycoons and the developers behind Gears of War, have a vision for the future. And that vision includes Xboxes and PlayStations that you can unplug from your TV and carry around with you. They don’t mean handhelds, like the 3DS or PSP. Think more along the lines of something like…

  By Luke Plunkett Published October 4, 2010
• 

  Uncategorized

  This Is Where DS Games Come From

  Contrary to popular belief, Nintendo DS games are not made when two Game Boy Advance games love each other very much. They’re made in factories. Like this one! Look at those machines go. Sorting, spinning, packing, spinning…fascinating. You really need to watch this 2-3 times, to let the action really wash over you. UPDATE –…

  By Luke Plunkett Published October 4, 2010
• Uncategorized

  These Boys Have Irked Idol Game Fans

  The upcoming entry in Namco Bandai’s idol simulator franchise features a boy band. Some fans of THE iDOLM@STER do not want a boy band in the game. They’re not happy. It’s not only that Namco Bandai has shoehorned a boy band into THE iDOLM@STER 2 — it removed four female characters from the game to…

  By Brian Ashcraft Published October 4, 2010
• 

  Uncategorized

  The Real Soldiers Who Lent A Hand On Medal Of Honor

  Here’s another reason EA may have ditched the “Taliban” from Medal of Honor’s multiplayer: if the publisher had lost US Army support for the game, they may never have been able to run this ad! It doesn’t do much for us as a game trailer, but for the average consumer watching it (it’s a TV…

  By Luke Plunkett Published October 4, 2010
• Uncategorized

  Is The PSPgo Too Small For Your Hands?

  Sony’s digital-only portable, the PSPgo, might be great for fitting in pockets, but it’s not so great for fitting in large hands. Here’s a solution. This add-on peripheral enables PSPgo owners to use their PS3 controller to play titles. It also makes the PSPgo into a much larger contraption, which somewhat (no, totally) defeats the…

  By Brian Ashcraft Published October 4, 2010
• Uncategorized

  Classic Adventure Games Get A Well-Deserved Coffee Table Book

  Before Lucasarts came along, the top adventure game minds in the world worked for a now-defunct publisher called Sierra. This coffee table book collects the art from those games, and I am now feeling very nostalgic. Called, strangely enough, “The Art Of Sierra“, it’s been a secret project of Sierra fans Brandon Klassen and Eriq…

  By Luke Plunkett Published October 4, 2010
• Uncategorized

  The Game Could Have Smelled Like Blood

  Hideo Kojima? Crazy guy. When the Metal Gear Solid creator was working on his cyber-punk title Snatcher, he wanted to bring realism to player’s computers with more than graphics or storytelling. He wanted the odor of blood. Snatcher was released in 1988 for the NEC PC-8801. In a recent tweet, Kojima reveals that he had…

  By Brian Ashcraft Published October 4, 2010
• 

  Uncategorized

  A Nintendo Console That Plays DVDs

  The Wii might not be able to play DVDs, but this crusty old Nintendo Entertainment System has no such dramas. OK, so the Wii can play DVDs if you know your way around the darker sides of console modification, but a Wii playing a DVD lacks the charm that popping open a NES to watch…

  By Luke Plunkett Published October 4, 2010
• Uncategorized

  The $360 Pac-Man Necklace

  This year marks the 30th anniversary of Pac-Man. Time for pricey, pointless Pac-man goods! A limited-edition Pac-Man pendent is being forged in 18 karat gold with three 0.015ct diamonds. Priced at ¥30,000 (US$360), only thirty of these made-in-Thailand necklaces will be offered. But how many of them will be sold?

  By Brian Ashcraft Published October 4, 2010
• Uncategorized

  Relax, He’s Joking

  No longer with Sonic Team, Yuji Naka can still dream. Though “Ivy The Kiwi? Success Spurs Dreamcast 2 Development” would be one hell of a headline to be writing come 2013. Via CVG

  By Luke Plunkett Published October 4, 2010
• Uncategorized

  Microsoft Japan Employee Arrested For Fondling A Schoolgirl

  A forty-year-old Microsoft employee has been arrested for groping a schoolgirl’s breasts on a JR Kobe line train bound for Osaka. The employee has been identified as Shingo Mihara, an employee of Microsoft Japan’s Kansai branch. He apparently put his hand in an opening of the 16-year-old schoolgirl’s blouse. The schoolgirl supposedly caught him red…

  By Brian Ashcraft Published October 4, 2010
• Uncategorized

  Katamari Creator Has A New Company, Still Making Games

  Keita Takahashi, the creator of Katamari Damacy who recently left Namco Bandai, has started a new company with his wife Asuka Sakai (who is a composer) called uvula. Takahashi says the new company is for freelance work, and that while their “center of works” include music (as well as playground design), they’ll also be working…

  By Luke Plunkett Published October 4, 2010
• Uncategorized

  This Year’s Oktoberfest Is Odd

  Spotted in Munich by reader Graham.

  By Brian Ashcraft Published October 4, 2010