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  British Sales Charts: Keep Calm, Carry On, Wii Fit

  The British charts are beginning to look a lot like Christmas. Rather than having toys in every store (or other prettiest sights to see), however, it’s just Nintendo games, wall-to-wall. Four of the top five games for the week ending April 18 were published by Nintendo. And really, Britain, we’re going to have to have…

  By Luke Plunkett Published April 20, 2009
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  Global Nuclear War Should Come To The DS

  Talented British developers Introversion have announced that, after a previous deal with a publisher fell through, they’re looking for somebody else to publish nuclear war “simulator” Defcon on the Nintendo DS. The grim, bare-bones PC hit is a perfect fit for the handheld, so the team are justifiably confident of finding somebody. But on the…

  By Luke Plunkett Published April 20, 2009
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  Study: 8.5 Percent Of Kids Gamers “Pathological Gamers”

  Research time! According to The Washington Post, researcher Douglas Gentile of Iowa State University discovered that at 8.5 percent of 8-18 year-old Americans are “pathological” gamers. Gentile used a modified version of the criteria for pathological gambling to formula questions to poll 1,178 children and teens. Those “pathological” gamers experienced spending more and more time…

  By Brian Ashcraft Published April 20, 2009
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  Exquisite Mother 3 Statues

  Since Americans can’t even get their hands on an official version of Mother 3 the game, there’s no hope of seeing much official Mother 3 merch. But unofficial merch? Knock yourselves out. These Mother 3 clay statues were crafted by Camille Young, the wife of Reid Young, of Starmen fame. They were made for use…

  By Luke Plunkett Published April 20, 2009
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  UK Undercover Operation Reveals Illegal Game Selling

  The UK’s Trading Standards cracked down on underage-game-selling last week when it targeted 16 game retailers in Dundee, Scotland. Using a 14-year-old volunteer, it was able to expose 12 shops who selling mature titles. This is one measure in a larger national effort to examine underage game sales of 18-years-old and up rated titles. Out…

  By Brian Ashcraft Published April 20, 2009
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  How Many Copies Does A WiiWare Game Need To Sell?

  Last week, Gamasutra heard whispers about Nintendo placing sales criteria on WiiWare games. If developers didn’t reach them, they wouldn’t get paid. Well, we now know just how many they need to sell. Courtesy of a developer “familiar” with the subject, these are the targets a WiiWare game has to meet before the creators start…

  By Luke Plunkett Published April 20, 2009
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  Unused Miyamoto Touch Screen RPG

  Back before the DS was released, Mario and Zelda creator Shigeru Miyamoto was conceptualizing a touch-screen role-playing-game. The game’s patent has recently popped up online, and the RPG is heavy with RPG cliches (monsters, random battles, etc.). Though, the game does offer a fresh take on the genre. During combat, the monsters move in patterns,…

  By Brian Ashcraft Published April 20, 2009
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  GPS For Your DS Lite

  If you’re ever packing your DS Lite and end up lost in the jungle/emerging from a crashed plane in the Andes, you’ll be thankful if you bothered to purchase the “Ranger”. This unofficial Chinese…dongle, I guess we’ll call it, brings a full suite of global positioning capabilities to the handheld, featuring Google Maps support in…

  By Luke Plunkett Published April 20, 2009
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  Final Fantasy Advent Children Complete Sells Over 100,000 On First Day

  Last week Final Fantasy VII: Advent Children Complete went on sale in Japan. The Blu-ray CG animated movie brought with it something eagerly anticipated by Japanese gamers: the Final Fantasy XIII demo. According to early software sales reports, the movie has been doing exceedingly well. It’s reported to have sold over 100,000 copies in its…

  By Brian Ashcraft Published April 20, 2009
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  Nintendo Shares: So, So Oversold

  According to financial experts Barron’s, shares in Nintendo are now “oversold”. Sounds bad! “Oversold” basically means that shares in a company have fallen too far, too fast. Like a knee-jerk reaction. Or, like what’s happened to Nintendo shares over the past few weeks, as falling sales data (particularly in Japan) has led many bandwagon jumpers…

  By Luke Plunkett Published April 20, 2009
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  John Woo: Stranglehold Movie Won’t Be Ready “For Years”

  Stranglehold, the Midway video game with John Woo‘s name slapped on it, is getting a movie version. He won’t be directing, but rather, producing. And don’t look for it shooting up theaters anytime soon! The game is a sequel of sorts to 1992 Hong Kong action flick Hard Boiled and starred the film’s lead Chow…

  By Brian Ashcraft Published April 20, 2009
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  Dead Space Figure: Aim For His Limbs!

  We caught a glimpse of this guy at the New York Toy Fair, but that was just a glimpse. Here’s a good, hard look at NECA’s Player Select take on the star of Dead Space. Yes, that’s Isaac Clarke, and he features “over 20 points of articulation”. He also comes in two variants: the one…

  By Luke Plunkett Published April 20, 2009
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  Release Date Announcement For Street Fighter IV PC Version Coming May 1

  Street Fighter IV has already been released in arcades and for the Xbox 360 and for the PS3. All that’s left is that promised PC release. Well, all that’s left of what we know about. Last fall, we reported that the computer version of SFIV would fall after the console version were released with Capcom…

  By Brian Ashcraft Published April 20, 2009
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  The Top Twenty Original Games of 2008 Were…

  Even though there were lots of big sequels released last year (like almost every year before it!), 2008 did see its share of original titles. Magazine Famitsu listed the top 2008 original games for April 1, 2008 to March 22, 2009 — the 2008 financial year. Here’s the data: 1. Wagamama Fashion Girls Mode (DS)…

  By Brian Ashcraft Published April 20, 2009
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  Expensive Resort

  To: Luke From: Owen Re: Spring Thunder Snow I know retailers like to make crazy stupid markups, just to offer an even crazier-stupider “discount” that’s still 15 percent above cost, but man, saving $230,541 on Wii Sports Resort? Who’s GameStop selling it to, the Pentagon? Thanks to reader Kai for the tip. I checked the…

  By Owen Good Published April 19, 2009
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  Week in Games: I Said Gundam, Gundam … the Pusher Man

  Mecha junkies get their fix this week with Dynasty Warriors: Gundam 2. Excitebots: Trick Racing for the Wii is the other noteworthy drop in a pretty small week. This week’s count, five for PC; three for Wii; four for DS; two for PS2; one for PS3 and 360, zero for Sega Master System. Also, my…

  By Owen Good Published April 19, 2009
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  Gassy Avatar Burps Up Some Tetris Tunes

  Negative Gamer’s Gavin Halfleft thinks he finally found a use for the Xbox Avatar’s belch feature. But I hear that Major Nelson’s can armpit fart the 1812 Overture. We Found a Use for Xbox Avatars [Negative Gamer]

  By Owen Good Published April 19, 2009
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  One Down, Four to Go for this List

  Last week, Pwn or Die made a list of “Five Bands That Don’t Need Their Own Guitar Hero Game.” Number five: Van Hagar Halen, outed by a ratings board listing the very next day. While it’s possible P or D didn’t know or overlooked the rumblings of just such a game, going back a year,…

  By Owen Good Published April 19, 2009
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  Claim: NFL Retirees Now Intend to Sue Madden, EA

  Fresh off a $28 million victory over their own union, a retired NFL player says his comrades are targeting John Madden and Electronic Arts for their roles in games using their likenesses without compensating them. CLARIFICATION: The earlier headline said “NFL Players.” While the entire story refers to retired NFL players, the unclear headline might…

  By Owen Good Published April 19, 2009
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  Next Killzone 2 Patch Gets More Hardcore

  Not six weeks after the first patch for Killzone 2 dropped, Guerrilla has another one coming out of the oven. Among a slew of fixes, It adds three additional ranks to the top-level “hardcore” ranks. In addition to the new ranks, exploits on the Radec Academy, Helghan Industries, Salamun Market and Tharsis Depot maps are…

  By Owen Good Published April 19, 2009