There’s a lot to look forward to in the next few months. Let’s get right to it:
The Summer of Scott Pilgrim
Back when I was first talking to Bryan Lee O’Malley about his upcoming “Scott Pilgrim” book series in 2004, neither of us ever imagined what a huge sensation it would become. International best-seller, lauded by critics and media outlets, a cultural touchstone for an entire generation of slacker hipsters. Even with all that’s come before, though, summer 2010 will be remembered as the summer of Scott Pilgrim. It all starts next week with the release of the sixth and final volume in the series, Scott Pilgrim’s Finest Hour, wherein all questions will be answered, all plot threads tied up, and we’ll all have to move on to something else. A mere three weeks later sees the release of Scott Pilgrim vs. the World: The Game on the Playstation Network. The 16-bit River City Ransom homage sports squeal-worthy art direction by acclaimed animator Paul Robertson and an original soundtrack by Brooklyn’s own chiptune power group Anamanaguchi. Fandom is sure to reach an all time high, though, with the August 13th release of the major motion picture adaptation Scott Pilgrim vs. the World, directed by Shaun of the Dead‘s Edgar Wright and starring a cavalcade of hip young actors from everything cool in the past decade.
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Nintendo are arguably the biggest name in videogame history. They practically invented the medium and are responsible for most of its defining moments. After two rough generation cycles that saw third party developers shy away from Nintendo’s outdated hardware, the gambles that were touch control on the portable DS and motion control in the home console Wii paid off in spades, becoming the best-selling units in Nintendo’s lifespan as well as the entire market. Even with all of that momentum, the past two E3s have been pretty lackluster for Nintendo, focusing on expanded audience titles like Wii Fit, Wii Music and Animal Crossing. Would this be the year that the house of Mario finally kicked gamers in their faces and reminded them that Nintendo IS videogames? Here are the good, the bad, and the WHAT from Nintendo’s press conference at E3 2010:
The day before the Electronics Entertainment Expo even opened its show floors, Microsoft held their annual press conference to show off their hot new software and hardware. Last year, the computer giant tore the house down with surprise guests like Paul McCartney, Ringo Starr, Steven Spielberg and Felicia Day. This year didn’t bring any big name stars, but it did bring a new, slimmer XBox 360 and a name and release date for their revolutionary motion-control camera Kinect (formerly Project Natal). How was their show? Let’s take a look at the good, the bad, and the WHAT?
The biggest week in gaming news is upon us. Every year we are treated to huge announcements, incredible demonstrations and breathtaking spectacles, all for the sake of selling new videogames. Even before the show begins, though, some studios are already pushing their hot new software into the minds of anxious gamers all over the ‘net by unveiling hot new trailers. The big announcements are yet to come (What big surprises do Nintendo have up their sleeves? Will we learn anything more about Metal Gear Solid: Rising? Are Criterion really working on the next Need For Speed?) but here are a few of the games already burning our retinas and causing our fingers to twitch:
Later this month, Nintendo will release Super Mario Galaxy 2, the first direct sequel to their flagship hero’s series of platform adventures since… well… 1986′s Japan-exclusive Super Mario Bros 2 (eventually released in the US as Super Mario Bros.: The Lost Levels). All other Super Mario games have been a whole new thing from their predecessors, introducing entirely new gameplay mechanics and concepts, even switching out the hero to Yoshi for Super Mario World 2. Apparently there was just way too much potential in the gravity-defying, planet-hopping adventures of Mario’s 2008 Wii-debut, though, so here we are with a whole new series of planets, challenges, and adorable power-up costumes to amass a whole ‘nother game of it. Yeah, and there’s also Yoshi.
Back in my day, videogames came on cartridges. They were sturdy bricks designed to be thrown in dufflebags for sleepovers. The internet barely existed and it certainly didn’t touch our videogames. There was no such thing as downloadable content, expansion packs, or bug patches, so the game on the cartridge was the entire game, take it or leave it. The finality of the experience created a greater bond between the player and the game than today. If you don’t like how Chun-Li dresses or think Dhalsim is too powerful in Street Fighter IV on your XBox 360, don’t worry, there’s a downloadable update coming soon to give you new costumes and difficulty tweaks. Is Bionic Commando on the NES too hard for you? Well too bad, man up and learn to play the game right, pansy-boy.
Innocent people are going to die unless you do something to stop it. The only problem is you can’t remember anything about who you are or how you got here. Oh yeah, you’re also dead. That might be a problem too. You don’t know how that happened either, in case you were wondering.
I wish this were a prank, I honestly do. It’s just so amazingly terrible. I still hope that news will break in a day or two that this is all a joke, but it’s been all over the ‘net since it was announced on Tuesday, March 30th.
Like all good hyper-literate, self-analyzing, hopeless romantic teenagers I went through a Shakespeare phase. You know exactly what I’m talking about: read as many plays as I could get my hands on along with all the sonnets (these were pre-Google days, so I had to hit the library for most of this stuff), frequented Shakespeare In The Park, started formulating my internal monologue in iambic pentameter (man, am I glad I stopped doing that). My favorite play was and still is Hamlet. I read the script countless times over the following decade, analyzing the emotional arcs of each and every character. I became somewhat of a Nazi regarding the screening of film adaptations*.
When Keita Takahashi’s Noby Noby Boy hit the Playstation3 last year, it immediately warmed my heart with just how much it encouraged the user to play, a word that most game developers seem to have forgotten. While most critics and gamers wrote it off as a failed experiment, I named Noby Noby Boy