Articles by Asterick
I know I'm probably ill advised to be intrigued by this title, but Square-Enix's Nanashi no Game has a remote chance of getting a localization and I for one am rooting that it does. Square has always been really good at dumping almost every title they make on the international market, I don't see why this would be any different.
Nanashi no Game plays in two distinct worlds, a first person mode controlled entirely by the touch pen and a game that has you marked for a real-world death in seven days. It would appear that the game play switches from book layout (see: Hotel Dusk) and the standard upright clamshell, depending on the user mode.
I'll buy the Japanese release if I have to, I will own this game. I can't pass up any game that has an old-school Dragon Quest clone in it.
[via Siliconera]
There was some buzz last week that Rare is working on a sequel to a popular franchise, and like good little sleuths much of the internet decided that this was a new Viva Piñata game. Lo and behold, less than a week later, some "leaked" screenshots have hit the blogotubes, and there is no doubt that it is true.
Viva Piñata: Trouble in Paradise was uncovered, (along with a new Scene It! title) thanks to a mistake involving Microsoft's Gamers Day 2008 and the press site. I wonder who's head is going to roll for this one.
Personally, a new Viva Piñata is a mixed bag. I lost much of my life on the last title and starting over again just seems like I'm asking for more frustrated breeding and mutating sessions. Screw you Eaglair, quit killing my Buzzenges and become a resident already. Oh how I hate you.
Viva Piñata and Scene It? sequels are real! [Xbox 360 Fanboy]
One of the most disappointing facts about the TurboGrafx-16 would have to be the best PC Engine titles never made it to the US. Nintendo effectively castrated the system early on, using what would now be considered anti-competitive business practices. I digress, that's in the past and Nintendo has learn their lesson.
Thankfully, Hudson has been dumping a lot of the titles on to the Virtual Console, and making a killing doing so. I guess with the raging success, they are releasing collections for the Song PortstationPlaystation Portable. The first to installments will be released July 31 (Japan) for 2,940 yen ($28) a piece.
Tengai Makyou Collection contains:
- Far East of Eden Ziria
- Far East of Eden II: Manji Maru
- Tengai Makyou: Fuun Kabukiden
- Kabuki Itouryodan
Ginga Ojousama Densetsu Collection contains:
- Ginga Ojousama Densetsu Yuna
- Ginga Ojousama Densetsu Yuna 2
- Ginga Fukei Densetsu: Sapphire
Yes, I know these will never see a retail release in the US, but hey, that's what importers are for! The Ginga Ojousama Densetsu is worth it's weight in gold for me.
Hudson TurboGrafx collections head to the PSP [Siliconera]
The closest thing to enjoying "straight" gaming that I get is racing games. I love them. Not so much the simulation heavy titles (See: Gran Turismo) but the actiony ones with lots of explosions and the ability to smash up cars tickles my inner butch guy. As an odd twist of fate, I tried Burnout Paradise for the first time last night. I had placed it in my GameFly queue some time ago and the latest greatest releases kept pushing it down the list. Lo and behold, it appeared in my mail box and I gave it a go. It has been awhile since I've sat down and invested more than 2 hours in one sitting in a video game, let alone a racing title.
Those of you that have not played this game on the 360 or PS3 will have your chance to give it a go on the PC soon. No major details have been released about the port, but the developers urge you all to "tune into a live webcast at http://criteriongames.com at 8:00 AM PST on Friday".
Full press release after the jump.
As much as I would like to take credit for finding all the games I talk about, I cannot. Much of what I've played over the years I have been exposed to vicariously by recommendation or pure providence. During a period in college, I was living with two friends. One of these friends is what I would consider one of the biggest video gamers I've ever met. He wasn't interested in the more mainstream titles, and between the two of us, I think we have played just about every obscure and abstract game ever created. In celebration of gaming oddities, this week I will be discussing one of the first games he ever introduced me to, KID's Top Shop.
Why Top Shop was created is something of a mystery to me. KID (Kindle Imagine Develop) was a company that specialized in the bishōjo games. These games, while popular in Japan, rarely had much to do with mainstream game play. The general concept of a bishōjo title consists of a series of girls with which the protagonist pursues until they are able to perform sexual acts with their girl of choice. KID had a few successful series in this genre, covering various platforms. At some point, KID decided to create a board game. This is, as far as I can tell, the only game that they have created that doesn't involve the pursuit of women. Even more remarkable, A1 games and Agetec teamed up to bring this game to the US.
Top Shop is a simple game for the Sony PlayStation. The game is similar to Monopoly, wherein players are placed in an empty mall with an initially fixed purse. The malls come in various shapes and sizes, and players must compete for control over the retail promised land. Each turn consists of rolling the dice, moving their player through the mall, and buying stores to suck money from other characters. If a player lands on a store in which they do not own, they are required to buy an item from the store's stock. When a store does not have any more stock, players may buy out that store and expand their own retail chain.
Combined with buying properties and items, players are given the chance to earn points for buying items. These items can then be used to purchase cards or cause other events to happen. Events in the game consist of the ability to restock stores that you could not otherwise access directly or causing another player lose a turn. The game is over when someone amasses a fixed amount of money, or a bunch of other players go bankrupt. Top Shop was not a terribly complicated game.
Simplicity aside, the game is obscenely fun. Top Shop's simplicity lies in it needing only a limited amount of input to play and a minimal amount of strategy to win. As a result, the game was the focus of many nights of drunken gaming. The game's graphics are average, though probably even dated considering the game was created in 1999. The entire interface is created in 2d, and the only on screen animation is an occasional dice roll and cheery, perpetually smiling characters.
I eventually moved, relocating myself across the state, and my roommate was kind enough to leave his copy of Top Shop with me. I still occasionally crack out the video game, enjoying the simple pleasure of crushing the aspirations of a would be store mogul. Sadly, KID is now a defunct company, so it is unlikely that we will be seeing a sequel any time soon. To this day I have yet to see another copy of this title in the wild, which may cause you to question whether the game worth buying. The simple answer is yes, but only if it is found for cheap.
My interest in the impending release lineup for the PS3 has been as follows: Home, Little Big Planet and Wipeout HD. Sad as that may be, these games are selling me on buying a MGS4 80GB bundle with my tax rebate. Public betas of the the former two have been implied on and off over the last year or so, and I for one would love to "try before I buy".
PS3 Fanboy was able to sit down with the Little Big Planet producers and delve in a little deeper on the subject. When asked about an open beta, they were sadly informed that an open beta would not be happening.
Pete Smith (Producer) maintained that a public, open beta will sadly not be happening. The game will go through a beta phase, obviously, but this will be performed by an internal group at Sony.
I'm always wary of games that depend on a large open network model. Since the game is now going to be tested entirely on a controlled, internal network it is likely that we will see problems with on launch. Sony hasn't exactly had the best track record with network stability. We are just going to have to stay positive on this one.
I simply cannot stop laughing about this entire situation. The petition to stop Uwe Boll from producing any more films is not only funny, but snowballing into some internet meme powerhouse. Lets face it, he's never produced a video game movie that was really worth the $10 it costs to buy the ticket. I'd rather watch a video of someone playing the game.
Not only has the internet forsaken him, now Stride gum has jumped on the band wagon. Stride is offering a free pack of gum to all who sign the petition if one million signatures are reached by May 14th, 5PM EDT.
"Since gamers are one of our most supportive groups, we have been looking for ways to return the favor," said Gary Osifchin, Stride North American Marketing Director. "And what better way is there to get gamers' backs than by helping them rescue their cherished videogames from the clutches of Uwe Boll?"
Why are they behind us? Probably because it's cheap marketing, but cooperate backing is not only funny but a massive slap in the face to Mr. Boll. I applaud you Stride. Wish us all sweet, minty success.
That's right kids, the Nintendo Channel is officially online, so you should all be rushing to your Wii to download it. Included in this release is the ability to demo the following Nintendo DS titles:
- Brain Age 2
- Flash Focus
- Crosswords DS
- Jam Sessions
- Rayman Raving Rabbids 2
- Cooking Mama 2: Dinner with Friends
- Disney Friends
- Ninja Gaiden Dragon Sword
Be forewarned, the download is around 120 blocks. Hopefully you all have an SD card to backup all your Virtual Console downloads, because this thing is a doosie.
[Title image stolen from GoNintendo.com]
As I'm sure many of you know, anything that even hints at being retro usually has to fight me off with a stick. What can I say, I'm a bit of a style queen. Anyway, I love games that try to look like they were designed for dead or dying hardware, like La-Mulana or Cave Story. PixelJam does a fantastic job of doing just that.
In their Flash game, Pixeljam asks you to do something very simple, don't die. The entire game consists making a little yellow dino run, duck and jump. Where is the threat? The world is coming to and end and there is an enormous cloud of doom perpetually on your tail. Trees, logs, rocks, ponds, holes and more all make your rapidly shortening life that much more difficult. The game moves in stages, usually little more than a minute in length where you must try to consume as many eggs and animals before reaching your goal. Survive and you may spend points earned on upgrading your character.
The entire game is done in super blocky, flat shaded graphics, which honestly makes the game easier to deal with at high speeds. The environment changes from a happy greenish blue to apocalypse red as the cloud of doom slowly approaches from your back so there is always a good indicator if you should turn back for that little egg you missed.
The game is good for killing a few minutes, and since everyone and their dog can run flash games there is no reason not to play.
Dino Run [Jay is Games]
I can't say that my experiences with Xbox customer service has been stellar. When my console died (thank you Bioshock and your mega-intense graphics!) I was forced to shell out over a hundred dollars for a service fee. Cut to a month later and I've not received a coffin and they told me one was not coming. Thankfully Timsy was on the case and got me in contact with someone state-side that got me fixed and running in less than a week. Not everyone has those kinds of contacts.
Before you get too far into this, you should know I don't entirely agree with circumventing the system. A lot of people are actually helped by the (awful) initial help staff and unless you explicitly know they can't help you you're just putting undue load on the 'first-string draft picks' so to speak. Jason at Doombot came up with an interesting method of getting service taken care of efficiently, albeit shady.
1. Call 1-800-4-MY-XBOX.
2. Get a reference number for your problem as quickly as possible. You may need to say "I already did that" when they try to make you do the troubleshooting script, just to expedite the process.
3. Hang up and call the escalated support number, 866-506-3826.
4. Talk to someone who knows what they're doing.
It's nice to see short instructional lists. Again, don't do this if you have something simple like a RRoD, you can get that repaired from their service webpage.
How To: Quickly Contact Intelligent Life At XBOX Customer Service [The Consumerist]
[via Kotaku]
It has come to my attention that Microsoft has recently launched their new online project Popfly, and web-based game creator. Like many game creation systems, it sports a "no programming required" interface, a pile of stock graphics and all the tools to create a game. The system appears to be centered around single screen event driven games, so Klik & Play fans should feel right at home here, especially in terms of performance. It is a bit on the clunky side, and the interface feels a bit like playing with Megablocks. Don't expect to be doing much outside of some simple 2d game-play here folks. Popfly requires Silverlight, so mac and linux might be out of the question.
Microsoft Popfly homepage [Popfly]
[via Kotaku]
It would be rash for me to say anything other than Solitaire is a game that has stolen more office hours than any other casual video game created, ever. My own family has been blighted with this archaic piece of software on more than one occasion, and I doubt that any of us will get back the hours lost.
Turns out, it wasn't some faceless intern that created Solitaire, but Wes Cherry (don't expect you to recognize that name). B3TA managed to track down this elusive programmer, send him some questions and, lo and behold, 11 months later he responded.
Q:Exactly how much time and money has been wasted globally as a result of office workers playing Solitaire?
A: There was a global recession in 1991/1992, just after Solitaire was released. Thank you very much. Oh, and you can't have your time back.
Q: If you could choose someone who would be afflicted with only telling the truth for a day, who would you choose?
A: George Bush. Man, what an evil dude. I wish I had another Solitaire game up my sleeve. If so I'd unleash it upon the world, causing another deep economic recession, leading a summary one term pruning.
Q: You know you're going to be stuck on a desert island. What game do you take with you?
A: Robotron 2084 -- The pinnacle of video games.
That is just a sampling of some of the questions asked and answers received. It's worth a flip through, even if he rarely meets a question with a straight answer. It is funny though.
Interviews: Wes Cherry [B3TA]
[via Kotaku]
And girls who like girls who like rumble packs!
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