Archive for the ‘Consoles & Handhelds’ Category

This is out this week for the Nintendo DS and the PSP:

  • 84 out of 100 at Metacritic.com
  • 1UP.com gives it a rating of A-
  • IGN’s Craig Harris gives it a 9 out of 10
  • Games Radar, Eric Bratcher rates it 8 out of 10 and provides the most colorful quote, “A classic brilliantly infused with technicolor, variety, and heaps of caffeine.”
  • Gamasutra: “Though Space Invaders has seen a rough recent history of mediocre rehashes and compilations, critics feel that Space Invaders Extreme is a bright spot in the long-running series”

Sources all over the internet [Gamasutra, Hexus, VideoGamer.com] are reporting that Nintendo has announced the date for its annual E3 press conference. There are rumors of a big reveal from Nintendo announcing new “Gamer titles” for the core gaming community. What this means is yet to be determined. The conference itself runs from July 15-17. On the 15th, Nintendo will make its announcement(s) from the Kodak Theatre in Hollywood, CA at 8:00 a.m. Last year games like Mario Kart and Wii Fit were announced–both very big sellers in the U.S. Any speculation as to what’s next?

Also expect big announcements from Microsoft and Sony. Sony is expected to announce more “A-list” titles to be added to it’s catalog and rumor has it Microsoft will lower the price point yet again on its Xbox 360.

Vest

Metal Gear Solid fan? Call of Duty fan? A Little BF2142 maybe? How would you like to feel it when someone shoots you with their AK47?

Mark Ombrellaro, a Bellevue vascular surgeon, has invented an game-accessory vest titled “3rd Space” that interactively prods and pokes you during gameplay. Yowch! I like First Person Shooters for the very reason that when you play them you don’t walk out of the woods with welts all over your torso. Certainly there will be people that will want one of these, but I myself will steer clear–thank you very much.

And if that isn’t enough for you hard core war gamers, this isn’t the only new “feel-a-round” accessory that is being developed.  Prepare to fully immerse yourself for a full body experience with the a shot to your head:

“Coming soon is a helmet in which players can feel head shots and a racing-game vest that simulates the g-forces felt by a Formula One driver.”

“Yet another model was created for military training. Ombrellaro said he’s close to a deal with the Canadian military for units with wireless connections and gas cylinders that can be turned up high enough to leave bruises when soldiers are “hit” during training exercises.”

I just don’t think I would enjoy explaining to anyone why I have bruises all over my upper body. I could claim that my wife beats me. That would be only slightly more embarrassing than admitting I bought something that hurts me during gameplay in a video game.

Reported in the Business & Technology section of the Seattle Times.

Neo Geo SNKThis is relatively old news but with Virgin Media’s recent announcement for the release of SNK’s Arcade Classics Volume One in the UK, I decided to see what I had missed over at Amazon. Turns out it’s been out in the U.S. since April! Why am I not informed better of these things?

Many of us may think SNK was only known for their Baseball Stars series and other sports games. However, if memory serves–they also had a history of releasing some pretty good platformers and top down scrollers–both in the arcade and on consoles. I think my association of SNK and baseball must stem from not being able to escape the 900 million copies I seem to stumble upon at every used gaming store across the U.S.

SNK Arcade Classics Volume 1 includes the following titles available on PlayStation 2, PSP and the Wii:

  1. Art of Fighting
  2. Baseball Stars 2
  3. Burning Fight
  4. Fatal Fury
  5. King of the Fighters ’94
  6. King of the Monsters
  7. Last Resort
  8. Magician Lord
  9. Metal Slug
  10. Samurai Showdown
  11. Neo Turf Masters
  12. Sengoku
  13. Shock Troopers
  14. Top Hunter
  15. Super Sidekicks 3
  16. World Heroes

I’m not sure you need a Wii to get the full glory of these games and so if you have an old PS2 (or a PS3 for that matter) you may want to pick up the cheaper option at Amazon:

Wii: $29.99
PSP: $26.99
PS2: $13.99

Roy Taylor of Nvidia gave an interview to Eurogamer. One of the things the interview touched on was PC gaming vs. console gaming.

The console is now a baseline. If you look at Gears of War or Assassin’s Creed, they came out on console and they were great experiences – but the PC versions had additional aspects to them that also made them attractive, whether you owned the console version or not. The PC version was better. That’s something that people need to get their heads around – the console is a baseline, the PC is going to be an improved version. That’s an exciting future, and that’s why I don’t see anything threatening about console at all.