Posted by Bob Muir on Mar 18, 2015 in
Cinema,
Videogames 
It’s not like expectations were high for Pixels, a feature-length adaptation of a neat short. What sounded like a shaky concept for a film was soon torpedoed when it was announced to be an Adam Sandler vehicle. Even the presence of Peter Dinklage couldn’t boost interest that much. And so this trailer is pretty much a confirmation of that line of thinking. It gives you the plot justification you’re curious about and shows a bunch of gags, some of which are admittedly amusing, but which you could imagine would get very tiresome when stretched out over 90 minutes. Basically, the whole joke of this trailer boils down to “Man, isn’t it crazy that videogames, of all things, are killing us?” There, let’s all move on. Read more…
Tags: Donkey Kong, Pac-Man, Pixel Art, Space Invaders
Posted by Ben Huber on Sep 8, 2014 in
Videogames 
The world record high score for Donkey Kong has been heavily documented over the years, particularly via the 2008 documentary The King of Kong, which chronicled the battle between Steve Wiebe and Billy Mitchell. Then, in 2010, Hank Chien arrived on the scene and took top spot. Mitchell surpassed him, then Wiebe, and finally Chien retook first place, and proceeded to improve his score twice. Many assumed this was the peak of Donkey Kong play, but now newcomer Robbie Lakeman has beaten all previous records with 1,141,800 points, completed in nearly 4 hours. Best of all? The entire thing was recorded, and you can watch it online. Check it out below. Read more…
Tags: Donkey Kong
Posted by Bob Muir on Feb 13, 2014 in
Videogames 
One of the many reasons I love Nintendo games is their attention to detail. It’s not enough for Nintendo that things just work properly; they want to put little bonuses in there too. GameXplain created a YouTube video highlighting the idle animation for Donkey Kong Country: Tropical Freeze, the new Wii U game that is just about to come out. (Idle animations are what game characters do if you don’t move them for a while.) Not only do three of the four playable characters have two idle animations, not only do they have additional tweaks depending on which characters are paired up with DK, but Donkey Kong has an amazingly detailed idle animation. One of his animations involves him pulling out his 3DS and playing for five seconds. That would be cool enough, but if you listen closely, you can hear him playing one of four real 3DS games, including Donkey Kong Country Returns 3D, his previous game. That’s the kind of attention to detail that more developers need to implement. Read more…
Tags: 3DS, Donkey Kong, Nintendo, Wii U
Posted by Bob Muir on Dec 25, 2012 in
Videogames 
You normally wouldn’t associate construction girders, rolling barrels, and giant apes with Christmas festivity. But consider the gaming enthusiast who doesn’t have room for a tree in their apartment. What are they going to decorate with? It’s probably a bit late to print it up, but ignoring that, this restructuring of Donkey Kong’s iconic first level would do the trick. Carlos Leituga finds the inherent Christmas-y aspect of jumping over barrels in a construction site. Just remember to pick up that purse and umbrella, Mario (neé Jumpman), I’m sure they’d make excellent presents for Pauline. Read more…
Tags: Christmas, Donkey Kong, Nintendo
Posted by Bob Muir on Oct 2, 2012 in
Videogames 
What’s this, Nintendo is giving away a game if you buy some other games? The last time I got something from Nintendo in a deal like this was the Gamecube’s The Legend of Zelda: Collector’s Edition, back before Nintendo realized how much their old games were worth. While the game on offer isn’t anywhere near as awesome as Zelda, it is somewhat rarer, since it has never been released in America before. Read more…
Tags: 3DS, Donkey Kong, Nintendo
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…
Tags: 1983, Centipede, Donkey Kong, Frogger, Q*bert, Zaxxon
