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LIVE: The Independent Game Festival Awards *Explosion Sound*
Yes! The IGF Awards are happening right now at this year’s Game Developers Conference, a chance for indie developers to be handed awards under bright lights and for those indie developers to give short, awkward speeches. Let’s do this!!! While the show is focused on indie, often quirky games—ones that eventually work their way to…
By Michael McWhertor Published March 11, 2010 - Uncategorized
This Motorized Video Game Outruns All Comprehension
So, this guy gutted an Outrun arcade cabinet, jammed it on a go-kart and, in the name of university research, assembled a contraption that drives 15 mph in the real world while displaying it as an 8-bit virtual one. “In terms of getting a video game cabinet to roll down the street, I haven’t seen…
By Owen Good Published March 11, 2010 - Uncategorized
Oh Good, A Pokemon Game Is Selling Well In Japan
It’s been almost four months since a Pokemon game was the bestselling game on Japan’s software chart, but Nintendo’s newest Pokemon Ranger title for the Nintendo DS ends that dark period for the franchise. Whew! Pokemon Ranger: Hikari no Kiseki outsold everything else the Japnaese video game market had to offer this past week, according…
By Michael McWhertor Published March 11, 2010 - Uncategorized
Downhill Office Chair Racing Gets Extreme Motion
We saw a peek of Slider yesterday when he trailer was released, but today I got a chance to zip down a paved street on an office chair with the help of the PS3 Move controller first-hand. At first blush Slider looks an awful lot like the Playstation Network’s physics-heavy downloadable title Pain. But Sony…
By Brian Crecente Published March 11, 2010 -
UncategorizedMight & Magic: Clash Of Heroes Goes HD For XBLA, PSN
Just as it did with its colorful puzzle game Critter Crunch, Capybara Games’ Might & Magic: Clash Of Heroes is getting the high-definition once-over, making the jump from Nintendo DS to PlayStation Network and Xbox Live Arcade later this year. Ubisoft and Capy’s high-res port of 2009’s best puzzle-RPG looks to maintain the same solid…
By Michael McWhertor Published March 11, 2010 - Uncategorized
Bit.Trip Runner: Like Super Mario Bros, But Musical And Maybe Weirder
Here is Bit.Trip Runner, the first sidescrolling game in the Bit.Trip series of downloadable games for the Wii. Two videos of the game played by G4’s Patrick Klepek. Shot by me. Keep the guy running, synced to the music. Play these videos with sound, and hopefully you’ll be able to filter out noisy Game Developers…
By Stephen Totilo Published March 11, 2010 - Uncategorized
Why One Of Nintendo’s Smash Hits May Never Leave Japan
Yoshio Sakamoto is visiting San Francisco’s Game Developers Conference to talk up the latest, he says greatest, take on Metroid. But that’s not the game he’s carrying around with him to show off at dinner. Instead of talking up Metroid Other M, Sakamoto is showing off Tomodachi Korekushon, or Friend Collection, to his dinning companions.…
By Brian Crecente Published March 11, 2010 - Uncategorized
BioShock 2 is Entitled to February’s Top Spot for U.S. Sales
BioShock 2 ended New Super Mario Bros. Wii‘s two-month hold atop the U.S. console sales charts, edging the Nintendo platformer by 7,000 units to take February’s top honors. Both sold more than 500,000 copies – BioShock 2‘s 562,900 to New Super Mario Bros. Wii‘s 555,600. Call of Duty: Modern Warfare 2 came in third with…
By Owen Good Published March 11, 2010 - Uncategorized
Xbox 360 Notches Rare Triumph Over Wii in February
The Xbox 360 clocked in with a rare victory over the Wii among console sales in the United States for February, according to figures released today by the NPD Group. Microsoft’s console sold 422,000 units during the month, nearly 25,000 more than the Wii at 397,900. A quick check of previous reports shows the Xbox…
By Owen Good Published March 11, 2010 - Uncategorized
Fallen Earth Lands on the Mac
Somehow the Mac went from gaming afterthought to everyone’s favorite platform in the span of a week. Now the MMO Fallen Earth is Mac compatible, beginning with today’s Beta release of the game. Icarus Studios, the co-developers of Fallen Earth, have put together a Mac-compatible xScape platform, buit on the open source software Wine. A…
By Owen Good Published March 11, 2010 - Uncategorized
Gears of War Creators’ New Tech Sure To Inspire Sequel Guesswork
What could be in a new Gears of War? Clues are always included in the major Game Developers Conference demonstrations of the Unreal Engine. Epic Games’ evolving game-making tech is shopped to developers here at GDC in San Francisco, but it also teases the potential of what Epic will do in any of its games,…
By Stephen Totilo Published March 11, 2010 - Uncategorized
Last Chance to Win a Chance to Shop with Free Money
Just take the survey below, email the last question to [email protected], and you could be the big winner of a $150 Best Buy gift card. Your incomplete Criterion Collection Kurosawa collection (say that 3 times fast) is begging you to. [Rules.]
By Gawkercreative Published March 11, 2010 - Uncategorized
Nintendo Would “Happily” Make Kid Icarus Wii
Yoshio Sakamoto, one of the creators behind popular Nintendo platformer Kid Icarus, says Nintendo hasn’t ruled out bringing a new title in the series to the Wii, they just haven’t yet figured out how to. “I don’t know personally about any project underway regarding Kid Icarus, but if so many of those people are interested…
By Brian Crecente Published March 11, 2010 - Uncategorized
Will You Be Buying God Of War III At Midnight?
GameStop just dropped a list of stores opening at midnight to make sure 24-hour Walmart stores don’t steal all of their customers when the game launches. Will you be staying up late to kill the gods? That’s what GameStop midnight launches are all about, after all. I’m sure part of it is making sure the…
By Mike Fahey Published March 11, 2010 - Uncategorized
Metroid Co-creator’s Romantic (And Tragic) Samus Aran Fan Fiction
How does Metroid producer Yoshio Sakamoto explain his Nintendo DS megahit Tomodachi Collection—still a Japan-only release—to the non-Japanese GDC attendee? By putting high-level Nintendo execs in weird Tomodachi Collection situations, including Sakamoto’s own virtual crush on Samus Aran. Sakamoto showed a quick video during his Game Developers Conference session, which he felt was critical to…
By Michael McWhertor Published March 11, 2010 - Uncategorized
Rhode Island Bill Proposes Jail Time for Selling M-Rated Games to Kids
Well, here we go again. Rhode Island has a bill in its legislature that provides for up to $1,000 in fines and a year in jail for selling M- or AO-rated games to underage buyers. The bill may sound familiar to failed efforts in California and Utah, although I’m not sure any sought to put…
By Owen Good Published March 11, 2010 - Uncategorized
Cooking Mama Inevitably Turns To Crafting
A year after we discovered a trademark registration for it, Majesco is finally ready to make Crafting Mama official. The woman with the most free time in the world returns this fall with a whole new bag of domestic tricks. She’s taught you how to cook, helped you cultivate your garden, and now she’s going…
By Mike Fahey Published March 11, 2010 - Reviews
Transformers: G1 Awakening Review: One Shall Stand
Take Advance Wars, replace tanks with Transformers, then release it on the iPhone. Sounds like a dream, but that’s exactly what Glu Mobile has done with Transformers: G1 Awakening. In what is actually an iPhone port of a mobile game from a year or two back, Awakening is a turn-based strategy game that puts you…
By Luke Plunkett Published March 11, 2010 - Uncategorized
Metroid: Other M Might Have Been On-Rails, If Not For Team Ninja
Yoshio Sakamoto, the Metroid co-creator and WarioWare producer, says that his latest game, Metroid: Other M, was originally planned to be an on-rails adventure. If that sounds like Metroid sacrilege to you, thank co-developer Team Ninja for changing Sakamoto’s mind. Sakamoto said at his Game Developers Conference session “From Metroid to Tomodachi Collection to WarioWare:…
By Michael McWhertor Published March 11, 2010