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Weekend post 5.26.06

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Random thoughts to occupy you after Memorial Day weekend (none of you are reading this during the weekend, I can assure you).

– I’m finding it harder and harder to dispute that Street Fighter 3: Third Strike is not the greatest fighting game ever made. I’ll still give that to SF2 for now, but no matter how much I suck at Third Strike (and I do), I never load up the game without having fun, and I honestly feel like I play it smarter than most other fighters (prob. because it forces me too). I’m even starting to warm up to its poorer backgrounds. Who else wants to give this one some love?

– Jay has the staff working on a super secret project that, get this, no one is actually working on! →  The King of Articles 2002: Unlimited Match

Lucasarts alumni set to spray the Insecticide

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In a near-ZOMG moment, GameCock, the game-cocky indie publisher, has announced the new adventure game Insecticide for the PC and DS, which is being developed by the same people that brought you Grim Fandango, Curse of Monkey Island, Full Throttle, Day of the Tentacle, and Sam and Max Hit the Road. If that pedigree doesn’t get your panties all in a bunch, I don’t know what will.

Set in a future where insects have become the dominant race, “Insecticide’s gameplay puts players in the shoes of bug detectives charged with the task of investigating a mystery of epic proportions.” Color me ultra-tickled pink on that one.

I really am proud to see the once legendary gaming genre come back with such vigor these days. →  All the lonely gamers, where do they all belong?

Geometry Wars to break your wii-mote and DS this Fall

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Bizarre Creations, in a bizarre move indeed, has announced their plans to bring the amazingly difficult old-school XBLA shooter Geometry Wart to Nintendo’s Wii and DS systems. Handling the conversion will be Kuju Entertainment, which you might remember as the developer for Nintendo’s Battalion Wars.
I HATE those little green bastards.

Titled Geometry Wars: Galaxies, it will now include a single-player campaign, as well as a new multiplayer mode (which includes both co-op and competitive modes) and the original version that’s currently available on Xbox 360. It will also include the requisite online leaderboards, although it’s unclear if both the Wii and DS will have them. Rounding out the new additions will be Wii-DS connectivity that unlocks new content. It is scheduled to come out this Fall for both systems. →  Get lame or get out.

Finally, a reason to move

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I’m accustomed to a game having to win me over. It should convince me it’s fun, and if I see a way to cut a corner here or there, by all means I’ll take it. Sure I’m supposed to talk to those town folk to further immerse myself in this RPG, or I’m supposed to call out that word in this party game, but if I don’t explicitly have to, then I just won’t do it. If the designers were good enough, they’d force me to have fun.

This is at least how I felt before owning a Wii. I have become acutely aware of how my willingness to stand up and have fun affects how enjoyable many Wii titles are. →  The King of Articles 2002: Unlimited Match

Professional Gaming – Keep Reaching for that Rainbow!

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I’m pretty sure there are others like me who look at professional gaming and shake their heads. Not in a “lol golf is not a sport!” way, but in a “you kids have no idea how sports work, do you?” way. Looking at some of the drama behind the World Cyber Games and their woes with Command and Conquer 3, I still haven’t changed my opinion on the matter.

The article is long, but here’s the synopsis: The Cyber Games (or rather EA) are picking the best CnC players through invites to the highest ranked players. Some feel this is a problem because some of the players are ranked artificially high due to disconnecting from a bad match, and many of the most effective strategies won’t be usable in the Cyber Games when the new patch hits. →  Think outside the post.

You down with DLC (Yeah you kno’ me!)

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Some rumblings from Valve promising that they won’t charge for extra content in their future games. I’m still trying to figure out what this means, or rather, what importance this has. New maps were provided for Team Fortress Classic by Valve in the past, and Half Life Deathmatch was a gift as well. All this announcement does is confirm they’re the same thing as always.

Or is it? Many gamers have mocked the announcement as being a bunch of baloney, pointing out that Epic said the same thing about Gears of War before Microsoft twisted their arm to twist our arms. Maybe Valve is afraid the same will occur to them. I’m also skeptical about whether this will actually hold true simply because of Valve’s practices over the years. →  Read more, before it’s too late!

Virtual Console Previews/Reviews – Week of May 20th

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Wii Virtual Console:

Streets of Rage 2 (Genesis): One of my favorite games of all time. So simple, yet so amazingly fun … and a great soundtrack, too. I’m still amazed that they can get music that intricate from a console less powerful than my phone. Same-screen co-op makes this game even more fun with a friend. A no-brainer in my opinion, unless you have that Sega classics disc for the Dreamcast.
The Grand Uppercut … the henchman’s most feared foe.

DK Country 2: Diddy Kong’s Quest(SNES): I was never a big fan of the DK series (except for the original), so I’ve never really played more than a few minutes of either DK Country games. They looked great for the time, but the gameplay felt a little sloppy to me. →  I’m gonna take you for a read.

Would the Wii be as successful without Wii Sports?

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After hearing how successful the Wii has become in the last few months (which is unbelievable for a Nintendo fanboy such as myself), I’ve been trying to figure out why. I mean, it’s Nintendo we’re talking about. They’ve been in third place for some time now, but to see a such turn-around in that short amount of time is literally awe-inspiring.
Wii Sports: the most expensive game on the market.

But how? How has Nintendo gone from the little unknown guy to the one that has captured even your grandma’s heart? That question is easily answered with one thing: Wii Sports. This little piece of software is the main reason why the Wii is so successful, if at all. It’s a game where anyone can play without any inhibition. →  They’re reading her… and then they’re going to read me!

Gears of Warrghh

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I spent this past weekend post graduation at my friend’s house waiting for a Monday job interview. This of course means that Sunday night was a rare chance for me to play some 360, and this time there was only one choice as to what I was pulling off his his bookshelf; Gears of War.

What I played of the game was pretty fun – I think – but that’s not what I’m here to discuss. The thing on my mind is page one of the instruction manual. You probably don’t know what I’m talking about, even if you own the game (no one reads manuals but me right?), but it contains an introduction to the game by Cliffy B. He goes on about how it has great AI and physics and graphics, but mostly discusses what he did to create a truly “next-generation” game. →  Phoenix Write: Just Posts for All

An even more Smashingly little amount of information to Brawl about: Music

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Recently, the Smash Bros Dojo has opened its doors officially. Though much of the information is not new, updates are guaranteed to be coming every weekday from Masahiro Sakurai himself!
Unlikely to be the last surprise waiting for us inside a box.

Most of the information is stuff any fan of the games would know by now – such as how to play or information about the one stage that has been revealed.

However… if you look at “Music” there is a list of composers that is nothing short of formidable. Absolutely amazing.

The list itself gives examples of games the composers worked on, which is helpful for several names I didn’t recognize. Let’s take a look.

The usual suspects:

  • Koji Kondo
  • Masaaki Iwasaki
  • Minako Hamano
  • Shogo Sakai
  • Toru Minegishi
  • Yuka Tsujiyoko
  • Hajime Wakai

These are all composers who worked on several Nintendo games in the past or recently worked on big-name Nintendo games. →  Today I consider myself the luckiest reader on the face of the earth.