Get a Nintendo history lesson this August

Posted on March 17, 2011 by John Scalzo

David Sheff’s 1993 book Game Over: How Nintendo Zapped an American Industry, Captured Your Dollars, and Enslaved Your Children is considered one of the great “behind-the-scenes” stories about the video game industry. It was updated once in 1999, but has since fallen behind the times, missing out on both the GameCube and Wii eras.

That’ll all change this Summer.

Penguin’s Portfolio imprint will publish Jeff Ryan’s Super Mario: How Nintendo Conquered America, a company history starting with the publisher’s early 80s entry into the American video game market all the way up to the Wii’s domination of this generation:

Nintendo has continually set the standard for video-game innovation in America, starting in 1981 with a plucky hero who jumped over barrels to save a girl from an ape.

The saga of Mario, the portly plumber who became the most successful franchise in the history of gaming, has plot twists worthy of a video game. Jeff Ryan shares the story of how this quintessentially Japanese company found success in the American market. Lawsuits, Hollywood, die-hard fans, and face-offs with Sony and Microsoft are all part of the drama.

Super Mario will be available as a hardcover, audiobook or eBook edition on August 4th.

Posted in Etcetera, News |

Riddler shows his face in Batman: Arkham City

Posted on March 17, 2011 by Mike Gutierrez

The Riddler served a challenging purpose in Batman: Arkham Asylum, hiding riddles all over the premises and daring Batman to try and solve them. All you heard of him, though, were tape recordings. It now looks like Riddler will be getting some face time in the sequel, Batman: Arkham City. Rocksteady released a couple screen shots portraying Edward Nigma, and you can see them after the break.

Press Start to Continue →

Posted in News, PC, PS3, Xbox 360 | Tagged

Tiger Woods wins Morning Drive Showdown

Posted on March 17, 2011 by John Scalzo

Tiger Woods appeared on The Golf Channel’s “Morning Drive” this morning to talk a little bit about Tiger Woods PGA Tour 12: The Masters and also to challenge co-host Gary Williams to a single hole showdown. After being embarassed by Jimmy Fallon in a similar showdown on Tiger Woods PGA Tour 10, golf’s greatest player was able to redeem himself by shooting a par-4 to Williams’ quadruple bogey on the 10th hole at (a virtual) Augusta National.

Playing online over the PlayStation Network (though not using the new PlayStation Move functionality), Tiger even managed to talk some trash after Williams repeatedly missed the hole. After Williams’ fourth putt, he commented, “I have been practicing for literally three days on this game.”

Woods’ response was a playful “I can see.”

You can view the whole interview/showdown at The Golf Channel’s website. Tiger Woods PGA Tour 12: The Masters will be released for the PS3, Wii and Xbox 360 on March 29.

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Daily Scoop: March 17, 2011 – It’s St. Patrick’s Day!

Posted on March 17, 2011 by Nicole Kline

Happy St. Patrick’s Day! To celebrate, I’m wearing one of my favorite green shirts, and I’ll be having Italian tonight for dinner. This will be followed by another marathon of PixelJunk Shooter 2. I know how to celebrate in style!

Today’s Amazon Deal of the Day in video games is Square Enix’s Tactics Ogre: Let Us Cling Together for the PSP. It’s $12.00 off, making it $27.99 from $39.99. Considering this game just came out and is reported to be amazing, I would hop all over this deal as quickly as you can. Mike Gutierrez will have his review up as soon as he surfaces from the game. Between that and PAX East, I’m not sure if he’s slept in days!

Nothing else interesting to report here. I will continue to count the minutes until I can get back into my ship and fight my way back to the planet’s surface…sigh.

Posted in Daily Scoop |

Only 5% of 2010 games rated Mature, but account for 36% of all bestselling titles

Posted on March 17, 2011 by John Scalzo

The ESRB’s annual Rating Category Breakdown has revealed that the Entertainment Software Rating Board handed out 1,638 certificates in 2010. As expceted, the general audience ratings of Everyone (55%) and Everyone 10+ (18%) accounted for the vast majority of games. Teen-rated titles accounted for 21% while the Mature rating was awarded to only 5% of all 2010 games.

Even though Mature-rated games only accounted for a tiny percentage of new releases, they made up the bulk of game sales. In a Gamasutra report of 2010’s bestselling games per platform, 18 of the 50 games listed were rated Mature. As you may have guessed, most of these games were concentrated on the PS3 (six out of ten) and Xbox 360 (a whopping eight out of ten). And of course, Call of Duty: Black Ops just became the bestselling game of all-time.

So while Mature-rated games only take up a small amount of shelf space at the store, they are much more popular (on a per-title basis) than their Everyone-rated little brothers.

Posted in News |

Crysis 2 on PS3 and 360 analyzed side by side

Posted on March 17, 2011 by Mike Gutierrez

Yesterday we reported on Crytek challenging anyone to find any meaningful difference between the PlayStation 3 and Xbox 360 versions of Crysis 2. Lens of Truth has answered that call, and used the multiplayer demos for both consoles in a head to head comparison. Interpretations have varied, but in general, it does indeed seem like the PS3 version has that general “washed out” look we’ve seen with many multiplatform games, with less detailed lighting and shadows.

We’ll have to wait until the game ships next week on March 22 for PC, 360, and PS3 to see how the two versions ultimately stack up. Until then, we’ll all probably be having fun playing the demo on our respective platforms.

Posted in News, PC, PS3, Xbox 360 | Tagged

Hitman 5 ARG sneaks up on us

Posted on March 17, 2011 by John Scalzo

Since late February, the Hitman Forum has been tracking a possible alternate reality game related to the unannounced (but very much in the works) Hitman 5.

The forumgoers have cataloged a series of images that all bear conspicuous barcodes ending in “47.” The initial image, found in a catalog at the Sundance Film Festival, included a “Hitman Series” box of donuts. These images lead to other images and IO Interactive’s Community Manager has been there every step of the way to (unofficially) provide support in the search.

Eidos Interactive executives and Agent 47’s voice actor have both inadvertantly confirmed that a fifth Hitman game (and the first since 2006’s Hitman: Blood Money) is in development at IO Interactive. The Hitman Forum users haven’t cracked the code yet, but I’m sure this means an announcement will sneak up on us very soon.

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How Super Mario Bros. would look as an indie movie

Posted on March 17, 2011 by John Scalzo

We’ve already seen what the Super Mario Bros. saga would look like reimagined as a gangland tale, but what about if Mario was trapped in an indie movie?

We got the answer at this year’s South by Southwest festival as “Mario” recasts the citizens of the Mushroom Kingdom in a movie of lost love (and a lot of drugs). It seems that Peach has run off with Bowser, the slick lizard who runs the local art gallery, while Mario is left to wallow in his own self-pity. But in the grand film tradition of hapless eccentrics who become heroes, Mario visualizes his future as a floating question box and proceeds to (literally) stomp on Bowser and his “Goombahs.”

Sadly, “Mario” was just made for fun by writer/director Joe Nicolosi, so it won’t ever become a real movie. But SXSW audiences (and gamers everywhere) have certainly embraced it.

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