Posted by Michael Pinto on Apr 19, 2009 in Videogames
I’ve always associated Topps with their amazing baseball cards but I had no idea that they ever did anything this clever: In 1983 they had a series of “Video Arcade Gum” which came in individual boxes that were shaped like (you guessed it) video arcade games! I’m surprised that this product never took off because I don’t remember seeing it back in the day. The games they featured included Donkey Kong, Q*bert, Zaxxon, Frogger and Centipede. The quality of these package designs looks great: Read more…
American McGee is a legendary game designer whose now has an episode game running at GameTap called Grimm which is set in a twisted fairy tale universe. Normally I hate comic book adaptions of videogames, but what makes this book interesting is that they went the extra step and are having fun with a superheroes universe which is a clever twist. The artwork for this book is by Grant Bond and you can tell that he’s having a good time with the subject matter — this detail from the front cover is a good example: Read more…
Posted by Michael Pinto on Apr 9, 2009 in Videogames
To one of the most classic videogames of all time — I’ll drink to that! ThinkGeek is featuring a super cool Ice Invaders Icecube Tray which allows you to make a total of 24 alien ice cubes to chill your beverage. Read more…
Posted by Michael Pinto on Apr 6, 2009 in Videogames
It’s a good thing with the obesity epidemic that videogame companies here aren’t getting into co-branded snack foods! However in Japan that doesn’t seem to be a worry so far as game publisher From Software has made a deal to create a ninja themed snack to coincide with the release of their game Onore no Shinzuru Michi wo Tatashike. The game takes place in Edo-era Japan where ninja warriors have to solve puzzles to recuse a princess: Read more…
Posted by Michael Pinto on Mar 30, 2009 in Videogames
Prototype is an interesting looking game which is set in NYC (it’s due out for the holiday season on the Xbox 360, PS3 and PC) and what I’m seeing so far looks pretty amazing. The plot sort of reminds me of 28 Days Later with a slight bit of Men in Black: Read more…
Posted by Michael Pinto on Mar 25, 2009 in Videogames
To celebrate the 31st Anniversary of Space Invaders Taito is shipping this very cute replica of an original tabletop Space Invaders game. This cute collectable allows you play an actual game and its even is coin operated like the original — except for the fact that you’ll need Japanese coins to make it work.
Here’s the latest trailer for Suzumiya Haruhi no Chokuretsu (also known as The Series of Haruhi Suzumiya) which is being produced by Sega for the Nintendo DS and due for release on March 26, 2009. Here are some screenshots from the game: Read more…
Posted by Michael Pinto on Mar 3, 2009 in Videogames
This is the latest preview of Sega’s Ryu ga Gotoku 3 game for the Playstation 3: This series of games follows waring factions of Yakuza and this specific title is set in “the southern Okinawa Tokyo Kamuro town city that never sleeps”. What’s funny is that while the fighting action in the later part of the trailer looks average the footage of wandering around the shopping center of the city looks like much more fun: Read more…
Posted by Michael Pinto on Feb 19, 2009 in Tech, Videogames
The latest Apple commercial featuring 20 hot games on the iPod Touch brought a smile to my eye as it represents Apple getting back their pre-Macintosh roots of the Apple ][. The hidden secret to the success of any operating system is games. Now these don’t have to be games aimed at hardcore gamers, in fact what will sell a platform are casual games that you can drop in and out of easily. Read more…
Posted by Michael Pinto on Feb 8, 2009 in Videogames
That old Jesuit quote of “Give me a child until he is seven and I will give you the man” always comes back to haunt me when I see old commercials like this for Nestle Quick from 1983. Years later as a elder fanboy I find myself addicted to mocha flavored coffee drinks and still playing with computers day and night. By the way the bunny is playing with an Atari 2600 VCS: Read more…
Posted by Michael Pinto on Feb 4, 2009 in Videogames
When was the last time that retail employees wore a tie? The year is 1991 and this training video show retail employees how to dodge problem customers who want to return their Gameboy and NES Sports Sets. My favorite example in the video is the “nice customer” who is using the wrong port and is so grateful for the help that she offers to bring the store employee a pie. By the way notice how the customer is always at fault in this video as if Nintendo would never ship a defective product.
You’ll have to wait until January 22nd, but in the meantime here’s the trailer for the Suzumiya Haruhi no Gekidou (the DX Pack) dance game for the Wii. Anime fanboys and fangurls will be able to hop along with Haruhi Suzumiya — the official website is here (in Japanese) and you can purchase the game here. I can really see this game being a real hit with the cosplay crowd at anime conventions! Read more…
This is a cool looking documentary on the upcoming MMORPG game Star Wars: The Old Republic which is being developed by BioWare. There’s still no release date on this title, but it looks like it will be worth the wait when it comes out.
Posted by Michael Pinto on Dec 9, 2008 in Videogames
This is a really bad low budget spot from 1992 for Yoshi’s Cookie which was published by Nintendo for the NES and GameBoy. With current craze of kitchen oriented videogames this old school snack food title suddenly popped into my mind, here’s an example of the game play: Read more…
The trailer for this videogame looks like it’s very true to the 1984 film of the same name, but as a fanboy I’m asking if this is really a good thing? Yeah on a technical level I’m impressed that Bill Murray and Dan Aykroyd look exactly like Bill Murray and Dan Aykroyd, but does that mean it will make a good videogame? I think sometimes the best thing to do with a Hollywood based title is to have some fun with it (example: Batman Lego) but for a film that was a comedy this title seems a tad serious from this first glance.
Posted by Michael Pinto on Dec 4, 2008 in Videogames
This is the latest trailer for the The Lord of the Rings Conquest game from Electronic Arts which is due to come out in January 2009 for the Xbox 360, PS3, PC and Nintendo DS. This game looks like everything that a J.R.R. Tolkien fanboy would want from getting to do battle with everyone from Cave-trolls to Oliphaunts.
Posted by Michael Pinto on Dec 3, 2008 in Videogames
The good news is that psychiatrists are now claiming that videogamers aren’t addicts, but the bad news is that they’re seeing our fellow fanboys as a “social problem” and are using the age old cliché of laying the blame on society and parents: Read more…
The minute I came across these two cats I was impressed: There’s something ever so cool about outfitting two elegant felines in medieval attire and then giving them the most silly accessories that you can imagine. The two kitties in this case are from the Capcom title Monster Hunter, and in the game they do everything from mundane chores like cooking to the more exciting gigs like distracting giant creatures. On the left is Airou who carries an oversized paw on a stick, and on the right is Merarou who prefers a giant tooth on a stick.
Posted by Michael Pinto on Dec 1, 2008 in Videogames
Taiko no Tatsujin (太鼓の達人) is a drum machine arcade game — what’s cool about the PlayStation 2 and the Wii versions is that they have special controllers which look like a miniature taiko drum. Here’s what the original arcade game looks like:
I really love how taken the physical interface of the game and turned into a peripheral customized game controller — which makes a standard game machine become much more toy like in terms of playability.
It’s amazing what a bunch of Nintendo fanboys can do if they put their mind to it! I present to you the Pushpin Mario Shrine:
“This is the third revision of this project. From the first pin to the last took about two and a half semesters, though the final version was completed entirely within the first two months of Fall 2008. There are over 17,000 pins on the board, and the work was done entirely by students, mainly members of the CIS Student Association. The board is currently in the Student Computing Center at the University of the Fraser Valley.” Read more…
Posted by Michael Pinto on Nov 24, 2008 in Videogames
Space Fantasy Zone （スペースファンタジーゾーン）was the unreleased followup to the 1985 Sega arcade game Fantasy Zone (ファンタジーゾーン) which was later ported to a wide range of systems from the Nintendo Famicom to the Sharp X68000. The reason Space Fantasy Zone was never released was because NEC developed the game without getting permission from Sega who made it a point of not letting them put it out. The 1991 title was created for the NEC PC Engine Super CD-ROM2 platform which is known in the United States as the TurboGrafx-CD. Over the years a prototype of the game has been floating around (which is what this video is from) and rumor has it that an ISO of the SuperCD has been leaked in the past. Read more…
Posted by Michael Pinto on Nov 20, 2008 in Videogames
Samba de Amigo is due out on December 11th for the Wii — this music based game goes back to 1999 when it first appeared in arcades, and jumped to the doomed Dreamcast video game console in 2000. What makes the game unique is that unlike other music games Samba is focused around popular latin music songs and of course — samba music! What’s cool about the Wii version is that it will allow you to use your Wii Remote as a maraca — although the game includes faux maracas for the full samba experience.
