Posted by Michael Pinto on Jul 17, 2009 in Videogames
And of course you know that Futo is the largest of the Mini Ninjas! But if you didn’t know that this Edios games looks might be worth keep track of — it’s due out in September and will be eventually be available on the PC, Xbox, Playstation3, Wii and Nintendo DS. In the game Join Hiro embarks on an epic quest to “restore harmony to a world on the brink of chaos”. To battle a magical army of evil Samurai you have to use all of your hard earned Ninja training skills. I just love the look of this game, you can tell that developer Io-Interactive had fun with the details as seen in these screen shots: Read more…
Here’s the latest trailer for the Wii game Fullmetal Alchemist: Prince of the Dawn. What I like about this trailer is that while he pre-rendered animation looks great (when doesn’t it?) the actual game play scenes look pretty good too. This impresses me because as much as I love the Wii as a gaming platform it leave’s something to be desired in the rendering department. Here’s another video preview from a bit ago which shows more of the gameplay, including cut scenes: Read more…
I’ve been getting excited about the Sega science fiction game Infinite Space for a while, but of course my main fear was that we’d never see this cool anime spaceship themed saga in English. Well be careful what you wish for because the above trailer shows the English dub is shown above, and the voice acting is kind of average to say the least. You’d think that Sega would have learned from the Anime industry in the United States, but that isn’t the case here. However on the flip side even if the voice acting is bad what counts is the game design which looks impressive from what I’ve been seeing so far…
Posted by Michael Pinto on Jul 2, 2009 in Videogames
There’s always something so rich about the games that LucasArts releases and Tales of Monkey Island for the Wii keeps to that tradition. Shown above is the official trailer and below is a sample scene which shows the “Launch of the Screaming Narwhal”. The developer of this game is Telltale Games which was founded by a team of former LucasArts employees who were working on the ill fated Sam & Max: Freelance Police project. I really love how they brought a cartoony feeling to a 3D world in what little I’ve seen of this game so far: Read more…
If you came of age in the era of Pokémon prepare to feel like an old timer: Every generation has their entry level show which introduces them to the world of anime and the current hot show with the elementary school set is Bakugan Battle Brawlers (爆丸バトルブローラーズ ). With Bakugan there have already been over 50 episodes of the anime series aired in both Japan and North America with and additional 55 millions toys sold last year. So it’s no surprise that a videogame had to come out of this: Shown above is the trailer for the upcoming Bakugan game which is due out later this year for the Wii and DS. Read more…
This is the Japanese promotional video for the PokéWalker — which is a virtual Pokémon pet of sorts. The PokéWalker is developed by Creatures Inc. which is a toy subsidiary of Nintendo. From what I can gather the toy also includes a pedometer for exercise oriented fanboys. By the way notice how the spokeslady is sporting a belt whose belt buckle mimics the industrial design of the PokéWalker: Read more…
In the great tradition of Marvel vs. Capcom comes Tatsunoko vs. Capcom: Ultimate All Stars! Old school anime fans will be very familiar with Tatsunoko as the animation studio behind Battle of the Planets, which was a watered down version of Science Ninja Team Gatchaman. Other Tatsunoko properties featured in this game are characters from beloved classics like Tekkaman and Yatterman and more recent titles like Karas. And of course on the Capcom side you can pick from characters from Street Fighter and Mega Man. This title has already come out in Japan, but I’m very pleased to see that they’ll be bringing it over to North America for the Wii. Read more…
Posted by John Martone on May 29, 2009 in Videogames
Times are hard, and this recessions effects us all. However, we cannot let this economic crisis beat us. People will tell you that “gaming” is just a habit that they can not continue to support, that they should just “grow up.” Well, that’s inaccurate, and those people are capitalism hating fascists. This isn’t to say you cannot get your digital jollies and save a few dollars. Today I’m here to help the destitute gamers amongst you find great entertaining games at a fraction of the cost. To this endeavor, I went to my local gamestop: Read more…
Posted by Michael Pinto on May 24, 2009 in Videogames
Lego Battles for the Nintendo DS is due out this June from Hellbent Games. Firstly I love the idea of anything associated with Lego (which is such a small scale toy) appearing on the ever so cute Nintendo DS platform, and secondly what makes this title interesting is that it will allow you to “build and battle” in terms of the gameplay. And the killer feature is that this title takes advantage of the networking capabilities of the DS so you can battle your friends block-by-block. Here are some images from the game: Read more…
This ultra-moe fan video from Japan combines footage from the anime series K-ON! with a soundtrack from an old Kirby video game. I hate to admit it, but once I started watching this loop I couldn’t stop (there’s something so addictive about videogame soundtracks). By the way for comparison here’s the original beats from Kirby’s Dreamland 3 for the SNES from 1997: Read more…
If you’re an anime fanboy (or fangurl) who loves spaceship battles it looks like Infinite Space from Sega for the Nintendo DS will be a role playing game well worth checking out. These just released promotional films from Sega look amazing given the limits of the screen size on of the DS, the game itself allows you to build, control and outfit over 150 different spaceships and features over 200 anime styled characters to interact with during the course of your game. Read more…
Posted by Michael Pinto on Apr 30, 2009 in Videogames
As an interface designer there’s very little in the world of hardware that looks more clunky than the original NES controller from the 80s (well except for Apple’s original iMac hockey puck mouse), but in a sense it’s that primitive charm that makes it such an iconic symbol for an bygone era of videogame innocence. Also in a sense the clunky factor adds to the fun of game play which brings one back to the good old days before ergonomics became a trendy. This Retro NES USB Controller is being distributed by ThinkGeek and features a modern USB connection and is perfect for MAME and NES emulators: Read more…
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 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.
From time-to-time techies go through certain fads where a certain idea just seems right, so we often yearn for a solution to which there is no problem. A good example of this occuired in the 90s when many smart folks realized that while a PC with Windows 95, Netscape and a dialup modem were great — what if you could push this concept one step further and have a consumer friendly all-in-one unit? The answer was WebTV and the device was a resounding failure.Read more…
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…
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…
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…
Long before the Nintendo DS there was the Game & Watch (ゲーム＆ウオッチ Gēmu ando Wotchi) which were handheld games produced between 1980 and 1991. What’s funny looking at these commercials is that the Japanese ad above seems to be much more honest about what the product is, while the American ad below (which is from 1983) uses rather elaborate animation and shows the product in action for just a few seconds. Also notice how the Japanese ad is more aimed at young adults while the American ad is just for kids. Read more…
Posted by Michael Pinto on Oct 27, 2008 in Videogames
My first reaction to these two spots was that “Nintendo is really pushing DSi as more of a lifestyle platform ala iLife apps on the Macintosh” but then I had to remind myself that in Japan Nintendo has already been doing this for a long time as you’ll find the DS being used for everything from education to wine guides. And of course the Wii has always had a wide audience in mind. What we’re starting to see is that game platforms are starting to become more PC like in terms of the content that they’re offering.
