Metroid's Hidden Message From Nintendo

This is a first, I think.  According to Go Nintendo, inside the hot, new Metroid Prime 3: Corruption for the Nintendo Wii is a message from Nintendo honcho, Mr. Iwata.  Steeped in darkly, heavenly blue light, you solve a simple puzzle and robotic things moan and crunch, light flashes blindingly, and you receive a radio message from the man himself.  The rumored translation to English?

“Hello, this is Iwata from Nintendo. You may not know from an outsider’s point of view, but being a director is really hard! When things are really busy and stressful we (us directors) may look tired and sick, then people may feel sorry for us! But in my case, it’s the opposite, I get fatter and fatter, so then people don’t think I’m stressed at all!”

Is that really Mr. Iwata making fun of himself?  If so, let’s all have a party, invite him and get drunk on Okinawa awamori. (Think sake, but stronger – with a snake inside.)

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=FTSLDsRE2Os&eurl=http%3A%2F%

http://gonintendo.com/?p=23898

More Bad News For Xbox 360 Fans

Late yesterday afternoon, Kotaku's Brian Crecente posted an item about increasingly long delays for those who have endured the Red Circle of Death and require repairs of their beloved Xbox 360s.  If it’s true, that’s horrible news.

Says Brian, “I've heard that the turnaround time for Xbox 360 repairs has skyrocketed to as long as six weeks and if you do the math, that could mean that some loyal 360 fans may be console-less when the Halo 3 launches. Talk about bad juju.”

Yeh, Halo 3.  But what about the tons of people who want to play the many casual games the Arcade offers?  It’s a pain in the butt for us, too.  Speed it up, Microsoft. It’s not our faults these things broke.

http://kotaku.com/gaming/rumor/xbox-360-repairs-slow-to-crawl-293499.php

Mobile Alert: The N-Gage Will Rock?

Sure, I know what you're thinking.  That taco-shaped N-Gage phone sucked so badly it put a damper on the whole mobile gaming industry.  But toward the end, the N-Gage actually had some terrific games (like Mile-High Pinball).  This fall, the N-Gage will be a platform for various Nokia Series 60 phones (none taco-shaped). 

And yesterday, I heard that both Capcom and Vivendi (with Crash Bandicoot) will be on board.  Now, if these companies can make games that are as in-depth as the last taco-shaped phone games were and if they can make some exclusively for the new platform, the N-Gage will indeed rise from the flames.  And the phone below looks terrific, doesn’t it?

Finally, Nokia is introducing some brand spankin’ new Web navigation services.  Called Ovi, which means ‘door’ in Finnish, it will be used games, music and maps. I guess/hope these will make working and playing with the new phones much easier.

http://www.next-gen.biz/index.php?option=com_content&task=view&id=6962&Itemid=2

http://money.cnn.com/news/newsfeeds/articles/prnewswire/UKTU00528082007-1.htm

http://www.nytimes.com/2007/08/27/technology/27nokia.html?_r=1&oref=slogin

Lich King: The New World Of Warcraft

Warcraft MMO fans must be trying SO HARD to level up in The Burning Crusade.  That's because Wrath of the Lich King (pronounced Licking?) is about to drop.  And you’ll have to work even harder to get to Level 80.

According to the September Games For Windows, the new expansion’s all about personalizing your character. Sean Molloy in the newest issue quotes Blizzard VP Chris Metzen, saying, “We want to add some layers of psychology that put in you strange moral situations of how you fight the good fight that mimic some of Arthas’s own experiences….By the time you stand toe to toe with this bastard, do you still have your pretty principles and high falutin’ morality…?”

It ain’t Shakespeare, says Metzen, but it does make you stop and think … before you hack and slash.  Plus, you just may learn what the wizards have been doing inside that purple domed fortress of solitude.

http://www.gamesforwindows.com/en-US/Magazine/Pages/Subscribe.aspx

http://www.worldofwarcraft.com/wrath/features.xml

Step Right Up? Carnival Games 4 Wii

Most critics didn't like it.  I’m talking about Carnival Games for the Wii which drops this week.  See, back in Seattle a couple of months ago, 2K and Global Star showed off the games that take you into an amusement park.  But most reviewer types yawned.

Me, I think Carnival Games is a decent extension of what people loved so much about Wii Sports; specifically, the use of the Wiimote turns into a virtual reality experience where you feel you have a ball in your hands for Skee-ball, for instance.  Overall, you’ve got 20 games, including a mysterious fortune teller, a shooting gallery and a dunk tank.  I confess: I’m a sucker for anything carnival-related. If you are, too, give the dang thing a try.

http://www.globalstarsoftware.com/carnivalgames/

Are Games Better In Japan?

Do you think the whole gaming experience is better in Japan than it is over here in the USA?  See, over at Gamespot, there’s an overview of the one panel I really wanted to see at the Penny Arcade Exhibition in Seattle, Japanese Gaming Culture 101.  The article sure makes it seem as though the gaming grass is greener in the land of the rising sun.

Says Tom Magrino, even stores are better over there.  “As opposed to the lifeless, stark retail experiences that many Western gamers are familiar with, Paine said that the retail experience in Japan is often as exciting as actually playing the games. The primary reason for this is the massive appeal of retro gaming in Japan. In Den Den Town--a world-renowned shopping district in Osaka, Japan--Paine said that retailers go to great lengths to procure and stock rare and classic games, such as Radiant Silvergun on the Sega Saturn, because it enhances their reputation and helps them in the highly competitive market.”

Go Japan! Sure sounds like going the extra mile to me when it comes to games.

http://www.gamespot.com/news/6177668.html?part=rss&tag=gs_news&subj=6177668&tag=nl.e513

Den Den Town

The Best Selling Japanese Games Of 2007

Since I'm in this yearning-for-Japan mode this morning, Seattle game import store Pink Godzilla posted the top Japanese games thus far this year.  The second Monster Hunter from Capcom (for PSP) has already sold 1.2 copies.  Also, note that there are no PS3 or Xbox 360 games on the list, and that these games are mostly closer to the casual experience than the hardcore experience.  I’ll try to find out what the Japanese games with Japanese names actually are for you.  But the names sure sound exotic, don’t they? For the rest of the Japanese Top 20, hit the link below.

1) Monster Hunter 2nd

2) Wii Sports

3) Pokemon Diamond/Pearl

4) Hajimete No Wii

5) Yoshi Island DS

6) New Super Mario Brothers

7) Dragon Quest Monsters: Joker

8) Motto Nou wo Kitaeru

9) Musou Orochi

10) Layton Kyoushu to Fushigi na Machi

http://www.pinkgodzillagames.com/pinkytsu_news/best_selling_games_of_2007_ann.php

Monster Hunter 2nd

This Week's Wii Console Games

Let me preface this post by saying, damn the Web buzz, I can't wait to see Rob Zombie's Halloween when it drops on Friday.  So I don’t really care that Super C (the follow up to Contra) and Breath of Fire II (cool shaman fusing and dragon transformations be damned).  I’ll be playing Ghouls ‘n Ghosts to get me in the mood for the beginning of Halloween horror season. 

The scary deal for the old school horror fest? “One full-moon night, three years after the battle with Astarorth, a ray of light shoots through Princess Prin Prin, and her soul is stolen.  To save his bride’s soul, Arthur the knight must battle all manner of evil undead creatures with a variety of weapons, powerful magic and new actions.”  Probably won’t see the blood that I’ll see on Friday in Zombie’s movie.  But there’ll be more monsters in GNG!

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Ghouls_'n_Ghosts

The Strangest Game Ever?

Over at Games Radar there's a picture of a game in which "Players have to hit spinning cans of Spam by throwing rubber frogs at the so-called Smart Screen, which in theory is like a big version of the DS touch screen. We don't know if rubber amphibians are the only projectile that can be used or if the game is officially licensed by Spam - and to be honest it was one conversation we weren't willing to attempt with the German bloke at the stand - but it didn't work anyway, no matter how hard we hurled the wobbly-legged missiles. A bizarre curiosity destined for Doomsville, unless the creator can lay off the peyote long enough to actually come up with technology that works and a game that doesn't include Spam.” 

Sounds like a bad idea with even worse execution.  Then again, I really want to throw rubber frogs at something: maybe at the Princess in The Frog Prince!

http://www.gamesradar.com/us/wii/game/news/article.jsp?articleId

Ouch! Pac-Man Shocks You

The BBC is reporting that scientists used a Pac-Man inspired game that shocks people to test how the “brain reacts to imminent danger.” Says the lauded Web site, “The team asked volunteers to play a computer game in which they had to move a blue triangle through a 2D maze while avoiding a red dot "predator". If the predator caught the triangle, the volunteer received an electric shock.”  Damn – Pac-Man turned evil!

But there was a reason for the electricity: “As the volunteers played the game, Dr Mobbs used an MRI scanner to monitor their brain activity… But when the computer game predator moved nearer, blood flow switched to the midbrain. The midbrain is a primitive area of the brain, and it controls gut-level reflexes such as the decision to fight or flee, said Dr Mobbs.” 

The upshot?  We’ll flee rather than fight in 2007 – to survive.  Tell that to anyone who’s played God of War or Halo and they’ll say War, baby, it's all good.   But old Pac-Man seems to be more real than the newer first person shooters – at least in judging whether a real-life human will run for cover or stay to fight.

http://news.bbc.co.uk/2/hi/science/nature/6962242.stm